A Chance Encounter

"Hi," said a cheery voice. "You're the new girl, aren't you?"

Julie Hendrix looked up to see a talking panther sitting on a tree-limb ahead. She gasped and startled back, but the beast didn't move. "Hi," it said again, more slowly, then drew itself up until it was a panther-shaped girl instead. 

"What--" Julie suddenly remembered her manners. "I'm sorry. You startled me."

The beast-girl nodded. "I've been practicing."

"To startle me?"

"No, to startle... people in general. Sorry. People around here tend to be pretty laid-back."

"Yes, well, I'm still getting used to the weirdness." Julie softened her tone. "Did you want something?"

The beast-girl nodded and dropped lightly to the ground. "So, some of us will be having a fire out here on Saturday night. I thought you might like to join us."

"Oh," said Julie, taken aback. "That's... very kind of you. I-- I'll think about it?"

"No pressure," said the girl immediately. "I just thought maybe you could use some more friends."

"...I probably could," Julie admitted. That was the mission, after all. "All right, I'll come join you. Where will it be?"

"Goblin will probably find you, but if they don't just... follow the smell of smoke. You'll see the firelight before too long. I'm Nightfox, by the way. "

"Pebbles," Julie replied.

Metamorphoses and Magic, Part Four

"What should I start with?" asked Abby. "Fire?"

Sophia shook her head. "Fire's unpredictable. Let's start with something simple and safe: air. I'm going to teach you a set of very simple words and gestures. Don't worry about what they mean -- not yet, anyway. The important part right now is for you to fill them with some of your own energy, and then release them into that space you sensed earlier." 

"Um," said Abby. "What's it do?" 

"Just a little puff of wind," Sophia told her. "Enough for me to feel it, though if you succeed we'll feel it in the magic itself."

"Okay," said Abby, relaxing slightly. "Okay, I can do that."

Sophia spoke the phrase and Abby did her best to echo it; it took several tries before she had it down. Then they went through the gestures, and  getting the timing to do them together. 

To Sophia's apparent surprise, a tiny gust of wind appeared on Abby's first try. She shook her head, grinning. "Lyceus was right. You're a prodigy. It takes most apprentice mages weeks to manage even that much -- to make that connection and push it out."

Abby felt herself grinning too. "It helps that I got to feel you and Lyceus doing it," she said. 

"It does," Sophia agreed.  "It helped me, too. But that kind of sensitivity... again, most apprentices will spend weeks -- if not months -- on basic workings like this before they even begin to develop some sensitivity to what they're doing."

"Huh," said Abby. "So my power isn't just changing me, it also makes me sensitive to magic."

"Changing you?" asked Sophia.

"Yeah." Abby looked away. "That's why I was in such a hurry to, um, be with your brother."

Sophia put a hand over her eyes. "I should not know this."

"While I'm still human, or human-looking, I mean. My power's changing me, transforming me into something else. It's slow, unless I get hurt. Then I heal fast, but instead of normal scars my flesh is different."

"Well, that's, um..." Sophia hesitated.

"Terrifying," Abby supplied. "I don't talk about it much. Cat knows, and I have a monthly checkup with Ms. Campbell, but... it would be really nice if it had an upside to it, like letting me do magic."

"Well," said Sophia, "I think we can safely say that it does that."

Challenge: Books from Social Media

Prompt: Books I Discovered On Social Media

So, so many books. I don't even know where to start on this one, and honestly I'm not sure how well I can distinguish the ones I heard about on Social Media from the ones I might have found through other channels. But I'd guess that easily half and probably as much as three-quarters of the books I buy are one I first heard about on social media.

Looking through recent purchases or pre-orders... Let's see...

The Never List, Jade Presley. The four princes of Lumathyst need a mate, and everyone wants a chance...except for her.

The Fealty of Monsters, Volume One, Ladz. Winter 1917. After years on the run from a dangerous cult, twenty-three-year-old Sasza and his father have established themselves among the Odonic Empire’s ruling class. But there’s a problem: Sasza is a vampire, and vampires aren’t supposed to get involved in human governance

Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism, Sarah Wynn-Williams. Sarah Wynn-Williams tells the wrenching but fun story of Facebook, mapping its rise from stumbling encounters with juntas to Mark Zuckerberg’s reaction when he learned of Facebook’s role in Trump’s election. She experiences the challenges and humiliations of working motherhood within a pressure cooker of a workplace, all while Sheryl Sandberg urges her and others to “lean in.”

Twice as Dead, Harry Turtledove. Rudolf Sebestyen is missing, and Marianne Smalls is involved in an illicit affair with the shady Jonas Schmitt. Both cases converge when Dora Urban, Rudolf’s beautiful and mysterious half-sister, and Lamont Smalls, Marianne’s suspicious husband, hire Jack Mitchell, a hard-drinking, chain-smoking private investigator. Dora wants Jack to uncover what happened to her brother, while Lamont seeks proof of his wife’s infidelity. But Dora is a vampire, in a city teeming with creatures of the night.

(This post is part of the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge. You can find links to other writers' answers over at Long and Short Reviews.)

 

StV: Metamorposes and Magic, part three

"All right," said Sophia, sitting down across from Abby on the floor of one of the training rooms/raquetball courts beneath the gym. "Let's start with some theory. There are three primary ways to approach sorcery, and all of them have their risks."

Abby nodded, her entire attention focused on Sophia. 

"The First Power is to draw on your own energies. For small things, this is the safest approach: all the energy comes from you, so the only consequences are personal. It's more dangerous if you try to approach more powerful effects this way: you can exhaust yourself, age yourself, maybe even kill yourself, if you put too much energy into a spell. This is generally considered the fundamental magic, though, because mastering this ability allows you to access the other approaches. And with time and practice, you'll find your personal energies increasing. Some sorcerers never move beyond this."

She paused, and Abby nodded again. "Magic drawn from your own energies."

Sophia smiled. "The Second Power is to draw on the ambient energies in the world around you. All magic comes back to this, and this is what you're so sensitive to: regardless of how we power them, the effects we create affect the ambient magic in the world around us. That's why you could sense my conjured flame, even though it was a minor effect that I created with the First Power. The Second Power allows you draw from a larger pool of energy while using only enough of your own to tap into it and shape it. It varies in strength depending on your location -- it will be stronger near a ley line, and much stronger at a nexus. Fortunately, this school isn't anywhere near any of those."

Abby frowned. "Fortunately?"

Sophia nodded. "It's best to learn where magic is scarce," she said. "If you only know how to tap into it when it's plentiful, you'll be all but powerless in a place like this. But if you learn here..."

"Ah," said Abby. "Okay, that makes sense. Learn it the hard way, and excel in easier climes." 

Sophia offered an approving smile. "Exactly. The Third Power..." She scowled. "The Third Power has you draw energy -- and maybe even new abilities -- from beings beyond this world. For some sorcerers, it's a supplement to the First and Second; for others, it's their entire path. I avoid it, and I'd advise you to do the same; it requires petitioning or bargaining with things vastly more powerful than we are, which have their own agendas, and may not be entirely trustworthy, and may demand that you pledge complete loyalty to them. I'm not saying it can't be done, but as far as I'm concerned... well, for people as sensitive as us, it isn't worth the risk."

Abby nodded sharply. "Yeah, a big nope-out to that."

"Good," said Sophia. "Enough theory. Let's see what you can do with the First Power."

StV: Metamorphoses and Magic, part two

Abby was sitting on the porch, idly picking at her bass guitar -- nothing too loud, since it wasn't plugged into an amplifier -- when she felt the gathering of forces behind her and rose from her chair to spin around. 

Sophia was standing a few feet behind her, with a tiny tongue of flame dancing above her fingertips. "Di immortales," she breathed. "Well, you're right -- you're really sensitive. Come on, let's walk and talk. I don't share this kind of thing with just anybody..."

"Why not?" asked Abby. 

"Two reasons," Sophia told her. "First, it's the only edge I have out here, so there's a bit of paranoia. But second... it's dangerous. Dangerous to learn especially, but also dangerous to use." 

Abby followed her down the steps and out onto the tree-lined driveway. "But you use it all the time, don't you? I mean, in that fight..."

Sophia nodded. "No, you're right. It's..." She hesitated. "It's dangerous to use in the same way that electricity is dangerous to use. Or maybe guns. If you know what you're doing and you treat it with respect, it's a reliable tool. But the moment you get sloppy, bad things happen. Which is why I have to ask..." They were well away from the porch and the other students now. Off to their left, an impromptu game of dodgeball was forming, and there was a small circle of students reading various roles in Equus aloud off to their right, but nobody was paying them any attention. "...What exactly did Lyceus do that made you realize you could sense these things?"

Abby felt her face heat. She tried to suppress it, but she couldn't. "It was... just a little spell."

Sophia stopped, staring at her. "He didn't. You didn't--"

"We, um, did," Abby admitted. 

Sophia tilted her head back to look up at the sky. "I'm going to murder him."

"Please don't," Abby said. "It was my idea. I asked Cat to introduce us. And he was..." Oh, God. Was she really going to say this to Lyceus' sister? "...it was good. It was exactly what I wanted, and then some."

Sophia hesitated, then said: "I thought you said the two of you weren't an item." 

"We aren't!" Abby protested, and started walking again before they could draw any attention. "It was just one night. And I'm not saying he didn't get anything out of it, but he was doing me a favor."

"Truly?" Sophia settled herself reluctantly. "He wasn't taking advantage of you?"

Abby shook her head. "I like your brother -- genuinely, truly like him. But it's just that. I'm sixteen years old, I'm not looking for a life partner, and I don't have any illusions about how Lyceus feels about me."

Sophia took a deep breath, then said: "I'm probably going to regret this, but... how do you think he feels about you?"

Abby hesitated, casting around for the right word, and finally settled on, "Solicitous. Your brother's a decent guy. I asked him to be my first time, and he did his best to make it good for me. He also made it clear that this couldn't be an ongoing thing, and shouldn't be more than a one-time thing. And he was right about that, I think. It's compelling, and it's easy to mistake that for real connection." She paused to draw a breath, then added, "...And when I felt him cast the spell, he immediately broke off to make a note to put me in touch with you."

"Damn it," muttered Sophia. "You're right, I'm going to have to let him live." 

"What about me?" Abby asked, before the opportunity slipped away. "Will you teach me?"

"I kind of think I have to," Sophia said. "You're so sensitive that you might start finding things on your own, now that you know what to sense for. The gods know what you might stumble into without proper training."

Abby sighed. "Thank you."

StV: Metamorphoses and Magic, part one

"Sophia?"

Abigail Johnson took some comfort in the fact that the sorceress was the same age as her, since she was on Team Dragon and Abby wasn't on any of the teams at all. The extent of their social interactions so far had been one awkward lunch and a double-date, which Sophia had attended with her teammate Wrecker and Abby had attended with Sophia's brother Lyceus. 

Wrecker -- Cedric Johnson, though as far as Abby could see no relation of hers -- was sitting beside Sophia. The rest of Team Dragon was elsewhere, or else Abby wouldn't have approached them. She didn't want to interrupt the team, she just wanted...

"Oh, hi!" Sophia -- Charm, if she was using her codename -- looked genuinely glad to see her. "Sit down, please." 

Abby circled the table, put her lunch tray down, and say. 

"How are things going with Lyceus?" asked Cedric, before she could get a word out. He didn't make it sound like a challenge or an accusation, though; if anything, he sounded... worried. 

How much does he know? She wondered, and then concluded: Not much. "You know we're not really an item, right?" she asked. 

Cedric blinked. "Oh," he said. "Okay."

She glanced at Sophia. "I'm not saying I don't like him, and I enjoyed the hell out of watching Casablanca with you all, but I don't think the two of us are really going anywhere, if that makes sense."

Sophia nodded, eyebrows slightly lowered and lips slightly pursed in a way that could be curious or worried or thoughtful or all three. It wasn't quite a frown, though.  "That's quite a movie choice for people who aren't romantically interested, though."

Abby made her shrug look casual. "I can enjoy the feeling of romance without automatically transferring it to the person I'm watching it with," she said, though honestly she did see some similarities between Rick from the movie and Lyceus here in reality.

"Oh," said Cedric. "Good." 

"Okay, but look," Abby said, trying to get back to the reason she'd sat down with them. "After the movie, Cedric did something. Something I could feel... and something that apparently most people can't." She focused on Sophia. "He said I should talk to you about it."

"Did he?" asked Sophia absently, and then her expression hardened for a bare moment before she smoothed it over. "He thinks you're sensitive to sorcery?"

Abby nodded. "It felt like a wind moving through the world around me, if that makes any sense."

Sophia hesitated for a long moment. Then she said, "It does." She glanced at Cedric. "I'm going to need you to sit this one out, big guy." He nodded happily. To Abby she said, "Let's get together  after classes tomorrow and take a walk up towards the gates."

"I'll be on the front porch," said Abby.

Dauntless: A Silent Return

It was almost exactly halfway between midnight and dawn when Whisper of Evening Wind slipped over the railing of the ship and dropped into its shadow. She studied the automaton on the poopdeck for a brief moment, but it was turned away from her. Three quick, silent strides and she dropped down into the upper hold, about half of which had been converted to rooms for crew and passengers. She paused a moment to listen, let her whiskers wait for movements in the air, and sensed nothing; what light there was spilled from beneath the cloth covering one of the glow-rods. 

She ghosted her way around the edges of the hold, checking doorways and glancing down halls. The Aarakocra barbarian was either still and silent in his bed, or -- more likely gone. She remembered the sound of his snoring. Kara was asleep in her room, and from the smaller, piping breath behind that door it seemed the Galbra might be as well. The other girls had decided to stick it out, it seemed. That might help. 

The other Aarakocra, the nimble one, was also asleep;  that was good. She meant to keep it that way. Likewise for the charming halfling; awake, she would be a danger. Better that she remained asleep. Whisper hadn't dared to check on the Captain; that one was prone to late nights, and his automaton might have reacted badly if it saw her. 

Most interesting of all was the fact that after these several weeks, the gnome was still with them. Had something gone wrong in the Capital? Did he still have the Amulet? How much had she missed, in making her inquiries here?

She padded further down the hall, to her old room. The door was locked, but it took only a little work to change that. She slipped inside and locked the door behind her, then set her pack in the drawer beneath the bunk and latched it shut. There, now. Nothing to give herself away. 

The bed was even still made. Galbra's work, most like, and it made her smile. She settled under the covers and waited for the ship to depart.