Oh Hex No

The dilapidated factory seemed a little less intimidating when there wasn’t a screeching monster bursting out of its windows, but it was still a creepy place. That didn’t stop Serena from strolling in as if it were a fancy tea room though. She wanted to know more about the strange creature they’d seen. She lit the tip of her wand and it cast a wide beam of rosy light through the dark building. She walked slowly, scanning her wand back and forth. She didn’t know exactly what she was looking for but figured if she saw something strange she’d recognize it.

Erik walked just behind her, his own wand in his hand. He seemed a little uneasy and she couldn't blame him. There was a sticky sort of feeling in here and the shadows were so dark even the brightness of her wand could only penetrate a couple feet ahead. This just made her more sure that whatever they’d seen hadn’t been a harmless prank. She glanced around at the rusty old factory equipment and then she noticed something strange on the floor in the corner.

“Over here,” she whispered. She expected her voice to echo slightly in the cavernous space but the shadows seemed to absorb and muffle the sound. Serena crept over to the spot in the corner, kneeling down to get a better look. It seemed like there had been something spilled here. Dust had begun to settle over the spot so she blew it away, sneezing a few times. Then she realized the mark probably wasn’t a spill at all, but something intentional.

“This looks like a ritual symbol,” she remarked. Erik crouched next to her to get a better idea of what she was talking about.

“There’s traces of runes here I think, but they’re smudged and partially wiped away so it’s hard to tell what they were,” she went on. She sat back on her heels, frowning slightly. The sticky substance on the floor gave her a bad feeling. She leaned closer again, noting some melted black candle wax stuck to the dirty floor.

“This place was creepy enough before,” Erik muttered.

“What did this factory used to be for?”

“Steel manufacturing. It was a place non-magical people in the city worked, before it closed down. There was a really bad accident. I don’t remember the exact details but some machinery broke and then there was a fire and a bunch of people were trapped in here. I think nearly a hundred people died.”

Serena glanced around and shivered a little. That explained some of the discomfort she felt in here. She glanced back at the smudged runes and candle wax. She squared her shoulders and traced a complex set of runes in the air with her wand, then touched it to the floor where the faded symbols were. There was an acrid smell and the room grew suddenly colder. Her wand hand got so cold it hurt and she winced, jerking her arm away from the symbols and waving away the runes she’d drawn.

“Are you all right?” Erik was looking at her with alarm and she realized the fingertips on her right hand were slightly blue. She blew on them to get feeling back.

“I’m fine,” she said. “But this, I’m almost certain, is where that creature was originally summoned. I’m not sure if it’s still tethered here though.”

“Maybe we should go before we find out,” he suggested and she nodded. She was still frowning thoughtfully and blowing on her hand as they left the factory and began walking back in the direction of Mondhaven.

“What was that spell you did?” Erik asked.

“Hmm? Oh. It’s an alteration on the backtrack spell. Instead of helping a person remember where they lost something, that combination of runes helps me sense the intention of a spell caster. And whoever did a casting here was not a nice person.”

“They teach you that in school?”

“Not that exactly,” she admitted. “The backtrack spell yes, but my alteration is…sort of a family recipe. My grandmother was Madelyn Dupont, maybe you’ve heard of her. She was a powerful Gray Witch. She dealt with curses and spirits, that was her specialty. She was incredibly gifted and became pretty famous for helping with exorcisms and solving murder cases and generally helping lay spirits to rest. I’m not as Gray as she was, but I know some of her tricks. I have a very mild Gray sensitivity. My mom had a sensitivity so strong she actually had to ask Mondhaven to suppress it.”

“She asked to have her magic blocked?” Erik asked, sounding a little incredulous.

“Not all of it. But it was too much. She had visions and visits from spirits so much that it was taking over her life. Most of the time she could hardly separate reality from visions. So they helped her suppress a lot of that power, before she went insane or it killed her. She still gets flashes of things, and she passed along a certain sensitivity to me. But she spends most of her time now tending to her birds.”

“Her birds?”

“She rescues them,” Serena explained. “She has a bunch of pet birds that were injured and she nursed them back to health. She also takes care of Granddad. He’d forget to eat if someone wasn’t there to drag him to the table.”

“You said your grandma’s name was Dupont,” Erik said slowly. “Is that like…Dupont Mechanical?”

“That’s Granddad’s company,” she said, nodding. “You know, he and my grandmother eloped when they were young. His family nearly disinherited him over it. She came from ‘new money’ and they didn’t think being a Gray Witch was dignified enough for the family name. But Granddad didn’t even bat an eye, and then he went and started his own very successful business. He makes mechanical and clockwork appliances that are infused with magic, but are constructed normally so that even people without magic can use and repair them. He even managed to do it with train engines and airships. He always says that magic and practicality can and should work together. The magic just helps the designs function even better than they would otherwise.”

“So your magic came from your mom’s side of the family?”

“My dad didn’t have magical ability. Not this kind, anyway.” Serena waved her wand around for emphasis, laughing lightly. “Christopher Bellwood was a poet. He was pretty much famous by fifteen. A few years later he met my mom. According to her, she was getting about half a dozen marriage proposals a week back then and it sounds like an exaggeration but it’s probably true. If you saw my mom you’d understand. But she’s a hopeless romantic so it was the poet she married at nineteen.”

She stopped as her dorm building came into view and turned to Erik.

“You really didn’t need to walk me all the way back, but thank you. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“You haven’t decided to give up on me yet?” he asked and Serena poked him in the side with her wand.

“You will find that Serena Bellwood is not prone to giving up on anything,” she said sternly. “You’d better get home and rest up because today I was going easy on you.”

“That’s your idea of easy? You slammed me into a wall. Twice.”

“It’ll look like a cakewalk compared to tomorrow,” she grinned.

“Way to sell it.”

“Don’t be late,” she called over her shoulder. True to her word, she did arrive at his apartment the next day, and this time she also had reading assignments.

“These books cover rune origins, magical medicine, and familiars,” she explained, by way of greeting. She pushed the books into his arms. “I have some of my older textbooks in there too. You can practice a lot of those spells on your own, when you have time. We’ll start work on potions soon too, I just need to get the ingredients.”

“You're giving me homework now?” Erik asked, looking for a place to set the stack of books.

“You’re a student, aren’t you?” Serena laughed. “In the interest of not pissing off your neighbors again, we’ll take some of this spell work outside.”

“That doesn’t give me a good feeling,” Erik muttered. Serena flounced ahead of him, out into an alley behind the building.

“We’re going to practice the blocking spell a couple more times,” she said, “and then I’m going to show you how to go on the offensive.”

“You want an untrained wizard hurling spells at you?” he said doubtfully.

“Well how do you think you get trained? By doing it.” She smoothed out her sweater and adjusted her ponytail.

“I’m going to blast you on the count of three,” she said. She only counted to one before she launched a glowing ball of energy from her wand. Erik fumbled a little but managed to block it at the last second. She didn’t warn him about the second attack and it knocked him back. After that he started getting the hang of it more, seeming to learn how to always be on alert because Serena was spontaneous with her attacks.

“Look at you,” she said. “You only fell during three of eight consecutive attacks.”

“Yeah, thanks,” he grumbled and she laughed.

“Those are great stats,” she said. “This is only your second time even trying the blocking spell. Now you try to attack me.”

“There’s no way I’ll successfully hit you.”

“Probably not,” she agreed. “That’s not the point. You just need to learn how to use an offensive attack. Now, this is how you do the spell I’ve been using.”

She showed him how to do it, yelping and then laughing again as he tried to sneak attack her with it. She blocked it before it could knock her to the ground but it was a good job on his part nonetheless.

“See, now that’s confidence,” she said and he looked like he was trying not to smile. Like he said, he didn’t manage to make a direct hit that she couldn’t block, but he was a fast learner and the spells that he launched at her were nearly perfect.

“The school board is pretty dumb for not letting you into classes,” she said. She paused and tapped her wand thoughtfully against her leg. “You want to learn something now that’s just for fun?”

“I guess.”

She waved him over and held out her hand, conjuring a tiny lightning storm in her palm. He cracked a smile.

“Okay, that’s pretty cool,” he said. “You didn’t use runes for that. How’d you do it?”

She spent a few minutes showing him; for now he could just manage a few wispy clouds.

“Don’t look so disappointed,” Serena said. “Just keep practicing. It’s an easy thing to practice pretty much anywhere, and soon you’ll be able to do this.”

Her lightning storm turned into a blizzard and then a swirling little tornado.

“The lightning storms are my favorite,” she explained, blowing the tornado off her hand and letting it spiral away. “You should feel good,” she added. “You said you tested among the top percent of kids with magical aptitude, and it’s clearly true. If they had let you properly enroll, I’d have to work harder for my top spot in class.”

His face flushed a little and he looked down at his feet.

“We can take a break for now. I’ll show you which spells in the books you should start practicing. We can start with a first aid one for bruises, from when you fell on your ass,” she teased.

“Wow, you’re supposed to be my teacher and you’re trash talking me?”

Serena just grinned and flipped her ponytail as she walked back inside.