The Salvatore School was half-way through its morning classes, with students filling the classrooms. Some paid hard attention to the subjects taught by their professors, while others had their minds elsewhere, giving small importance for the lessons.
The corridors were empty, so were the halls. The only hearable sound throughout the school were the echoes coming from the classrooms and the occasional metallic sound coming from the dining hall's kitchen followed by an enriched aroma of a myriad of ingredients.
Across the entire school building, it would be impossible to find someone under the age of 18 outside the classrooms. The only exception would be in the library, where an individual of golden eyes and black hair was surrounded by mounts of books.
Thud!
Slowly, the young man took his eyes off the book he was reading, looking at the source of the tremor sent through the table he was sitting by–it was one more pile of books placed on the wooden surface.
"These are the last books of introduction to magic we have." Dorian said, meeting the young man's stare.
"Thanks, Mr. Williams." John offered a small nod in gratitude, his hand reaching out to the book placed on the top of the stack. "Hopefully, this will grant me some different insight." The boy glanced over the book's cover.
"No problem." Dorian said, casually and dismissively. "Anything else you need?"
Taking a look at the couple dozen books around him, John shook his head. "I think these will be enough to keep me occupied until lunch hour."
"I guess so." Dorian said, looking away from the young man to three books perfectly stacked one upon the other in the far end of the table. "Have you finished those?"
John took a look at the books Dorian referred to. "Yes, I did."
"Then, if you will excuse me." Dorian walked around the table, reached his arm out and picked up the few books. "I will put these back and return to work. Call me if you need anything."
"Thank you, Mr. Williams."
As he walked away, Dorian waved with his hand, telling the boy to not think much of it.
When he was alone once again, John retreated his eyes back to the book he was reading. Reading over the content of the two pages in front of him, the young man slightly narrowed his eyes.
I think I am starting to understand how this works. John thought, his fingers reaching underneath the page in his right, pushing it up to reveal the next page to his eyes.
Welcomed by new concepts, the young man's eyes swept through the hundreds of words printed in the paper. He read every single one of them, trying to comprehend the meaning they attempted to offer when put together. And when the boy was satisfied by it, he leafed the pages once again.
Flip.
Into the new pages, John frowned his forehead when his eyes grasped a phrase he didn't immediately comprehend. He mulled over it for sometime, a few seconds only, until he raised his eyebrows spontaneously when understanding the idea behind the delivered concept. Now I feel stupid. He thought, finishing up to read the remaining words over the two pages before proceeding to the next.
Once again, the young man was welcomed by new texts. And he–in a restrained eagerness, so he wouldn't lose any of the knowledge in these words–started to imprint every single word into his mind, so he would never forget about these ideas.
Flip…
Flip…
Flip…
When John ended one book, he wouldn't immediately proceed to the next one. Instead, he would grab a blank paper and a pen he asked from Dorian earlier and write his thoughts about the content he had read.
Much he wouldn't write, since his practical knowledge in the topics he was reading was still shallow. Nonetheless, the boy was satisfied when he resumed some ideas into fewer words or just added his thoughts over it.
As he leafed through the pages and changed the books he held in his hands, the passing of time went unnoticed by the boy. Slowly, his senses which encompassed the entirety of the room unconsciously shrinked to just a small area surrounding himself.
Hours passed and the young man's sight didn't perceive the change in the room's illumination, nor the rise of voices and noise not so far from him–much less where all this noise moved towards.
Right now, the young man couldn't care more about these things. All he gave importance to were the words in front of him. He didn't even notice when the books he had finished and placed by the side disappeared.
However, as he was deep within his studies, now comprehending a little about the history of the supernatural community in America, John felt a hand rest over his right shoulder. And almost immediately, his senses snapped back to normalcy, making him realize his surroundings.
"John? Are you hearing me?" The person holding his shoulder asked, making the boy turn his head to meet a pair of blue eyes.
"Hope…" John murmured, his eyes darting around quickly, his ears taking in the noises from afar. "Sorry, what did you say?"
Before replying, Hope cast a quick glance over the remaining books scattered over the table. She raised an eyebrow. "Were you here ever since earlier?"
"Yes…" John nodded, scratching the back of his head. "I was a little immersed."
"I can see that. I've been calling you for some time now." Hope softly said, grabbing one of the many books laid on the wooden surface. With it in hand, she briefly read the title carved on the cover. "'Magic: The Art of Impossible'…"
"Quite a grand name, isn't it?" John commented.
"I guess it is…" Hope replied, putting the book back down. "Have you been studying magic this entire time?"
"Basically." John nodded, a growing smile taking his face. "It's really intriguing, you know? How can people achieve certain results with only a few words and knowing how to manipulate this energy." There was a look of fascination in the boy's eyes. "Species, dimensions, immortality… Humans were able to acquire and achieve the creation of these things with nothing but their knowledge to manipulate their magic, isn't that incredible?" The young man's eyes glowed weakly, a reflection of his enthusiasm when speaking of such things that intrigued him.
The eagerness in the boy's tone and words were observed by Hope, who couldn't resist grinning a little in response. Weakly, she could also see the faint phantom of her younger self in him when she first came into contact with magic. Despite it being something way more intrinsic in her life, she still remembered the first time she truly realized what she could do.
"It seems you are really enthusiastic about it." Hope said, taking a step further near the table. The edges of the wooden surface pressed weakly against her thighs. "Have you tried any spell yet? I remember there are a few basic ones in this book." She tapped her finger on a specific book, drawing the boy's attention to it.
"Not yet." John shook his head. "I thought of trying to do it, but I decided against it since I wanted to read a little more before trying." The boy paused in his words, taking a somewhat deep breath. "Also… I wanted your help with it."
"My help?" Hope blinked at the question. As the words sank in, she instinctively nodded in agreement. And, even subtly, her lips curled up in a pleased, warm smile. "I would be more than happy to help you."
Immediately upon her agreement, John opened a big smile in response. "Thank you."
"No problem." There was a smile on Hope's lips as well. "But if you want to thank me, how about you join me for lunch?" She said, her eyes sweeping away the dozen or so books scattered over the surface of the table. "Or do you intend to spend the entire day here studying these books?"
"That was the idea." John said, but his actions were immediately contradictory to his words. Putting his hands on the table, he pushed himself away from it, slowly standing up at Hope's side. "But such a beautiful young woman is inviting me to lunch, what kind of man would I be if I refused?"
"Hmph." Hope snorted humorously at the boy's words, weakly swatting the boy's shoulder. "You like to say sweet things, don't you?"
"Just the obvious."
Once again, Hope snorted at the boy's response. But this time, she didn't say anything. Instead, she spun on her heels and started walking away from the library, her natural movements forcing the young man to look at her.
May God bless those curves. John thought, forcefully retracting his sight from her as he quickly collected all the loose papers over the table. "Mr. Williams, can you keep these books here when I return?" The boy asked in a slightly higher tone, not bothering to hold his voice too much since there was no one else here.
Dorian, standing a few meters away, just cast a casual glance towards the boy and nodded. "No problem. I won't be here during the break but probably no one will touch it too. Just let it there and go enjoy yourself."
"Thanks." John said in gratitude, walking towards Hope. The girl was waiting for him by the entrance of the library.
…
"So these are what you resumed from your studies?" Sitting by her usual table, Hope held a small stack of papers on her left hand. She read it while bringing the food from her lunch to her mouth with her right hand. "It's very… impressive that you understood all of it in just a few hours." She said to John, sitting opposite to her.
"I will accept the compliment." John said after chewing on his food. "But most of what I did was just rearrange what was available in the books. Sincerely, they appeared to be complicating certain things on purpose."
"Which doesn't take out your credit in doing this." Hope rebuked, looking at the boy in the eyes before retreating her gaze to the front paper. "This here, what you named as 'Trinity', certainly is something I have not seen anywhere before. It might be simple, but it's something that would greatly help others in understanding the basics of magic and how it works. It is really amazing."
Regarding the new compliment, John didn't resist a smile growing on his lips. "Thank you." The boy said.
Seeing the content in the boy's expression, Hope also lightly smiled while she retreated her gaze to the papers.
"If you understood all of this… I don't see why you didn't attempt your first spell yet. You could've done it by yourself." Hope commented, still reading the papers.
"Ah, you know… There is the fear of something going wrong. I prefer to attempt magic with a somewhat renowned witch as the Tribrid by my side." John said, giving off a good enough reason for his restrain in doing anything magical yet.
Hope, ignoring the 'renowned' part with a snort of amusement, weakly nodded her head. "A valid reason." She said.
"And…" Suddenly, the boy's words took a different tone. It wasn't casual anymore, more like he was a little embarrassed by what he was about to say. "Not to mention, I wanted to record it if possible."
"Record?" Hope took her eyes off the papers.
"Yes. I mean, it will be my first time doing magic. Despite knowing I will remember it for eternity, I still wanted something more tangible to hold onto and reminisce every time I look at it." John explained, staring at the girl in the eyes. "And since I do not have a phone with me, I thought: 'Why not ask my only and dear friend?'."
For a brief moment, Hope was in silence towards the boy's words. That was until her lips parted and her thoughts escaped. "That's cute."
This time, it was the boy's time to let out a snort of amusement. "Thanks, I guess. I will try to not let these words hurt my masculinity."
"Stop exaggerating." Hope said, stifling a laugh. "But still on it, do you have an idea on when you wish to attempt it? If you really want me there, then you will have to wait after classes are over. Or, if you want to rush things, we can still try during break."
"It can wait." John quickly responded, not having any hurry despite his fervor to try it.
Hope weakly nodded her head. "Okay." She said.
"Changing topics, I wanted to-" In the middle of his sentence, John found himself halting in his words as he noticed someone approaching his location.
Her steps were quiet, and whether purposefully or unconsciously, the girl carried herself in a slightly withdrawn manner as she walked closer to the table where both teenagers she found earlier were sitting down.
As Hope obviously noticed the boy going abruptly quiet and having his eyes diverted somewhere else, the girl followed his line of sight, quickly finding who he was staring at when she turned her head. And unconsciously, the small annoyance that could potentially sprout–depending who was approaching them–vanished when Hope saw Josie.
When close enough to both of them, Josie offered a small but warm smile. "Hey." She said, greeting them. "May I sit here?"
Under those soft, gentle eyes, a smile was brought to John's face. "I have no problem with it."
"You can sit down, Josie." Hope said, not having any problem with it.
"Thank you." Josie said, walking around Hope and sitting by her side.
Seeing the girl calmly sit down and join them for lunch, John quietly put the words he was about to say before her arrival and thought of something else. "How have you been, Josie? Still sleepy from earlier?"
"Nothing that a mug of coffee can't correct." Josie replied, taking hold of her cutlery. "As for the rest… meh." She said, shrugging. "Lizzie has been… somewhat grumpy since yesterday. One of the reasons I didn't have a good night of sleep in the first place." She let out a sigh of slight exasperation. "Things are not exactly as perfect as they should be, but nothing that I can't take at this moment of my life."
"Sounds tiring." John commented, taking a sip from his grape juice. "But is that because of your recent breakup?" The boy asked, bluntly.
What wasn't blunt were the girl's reactions to his words. Josie, for example, almost choked on the salad from her vegetarian meal. As for Hope, she almost kicked the young man's legs under the table.
"Cough! Kh-!" Josie coughed, tapping her chest slightly as she reached out for her orange juice, drinking a few sips from it as the drink went down her throat.
Noticing the girl's reaction to his words, John's expression shifted slightly. "Sorry about that… I didn't mean to say it so abruptly."
This time, Hope kicked the boy in his shin.
"Cough, it's okay." Josie said, taking a deep breath to feel if everything was okay. "I was just surprised. How do you know that?"
John pointed to his ear. "Enhanced hearing. Caught on some whispers here and there and ended up learning about it."
"Right…" Josie nodded in understanding. "Yeah, I was in a relationship until recently. Broke up when we came back from winter break." She said, her tone not so saddened when commenting about the break up.
"Who was the poor soul who lost such a lovely girl?" John asked, right immediately feeling an impact on the shin of his foot, probably because he was too meddlesome over such a topic with a girl he barely knew.
Josie, unaware of what was happening to the boy's feet, smiled happily under John's praise of calling her a lovely girl. Right after, she started to look around, her eyes darting across the many individuals in the hall before settling in at a specific table. "Can you see the devil there?" She pointed in a certain direction.
John spotted the girl with her back facing them, who he immediately catalogued as Penelope Parker, Josie's ex-girlfriend. However, as he observed her, he was most surprised when the girl suddenly turned around, her hazel brown eyes staring back at him.
This made the boy wide his eyes slightly. "Does she have eyes on her back? I am sure I heard no one telling her we were looking at her." John said, returning his gaze to Josie.
"That's why we never call her name or refer to her person. It gets her attention and gives her power." Josie said.
John crackled a laugh at Josie's comments. "Pft! Haha! Okay. But if you can't tell me her name, how am I gonna know who Who Shall Not Be Named is?" John asked, opening the way for him to be "introduced" to one more person he already knew about. But it's always good for people to know from where you learned something.
"Her name is Penelope Park." Hope chimed in in the conversation.
To this, John noticed Penelope turning her head towards Hope. She stared at the girl's back for a while before looking at John again, giving him a wink.
"Okay, that gave me some goosebumps." John said, really impressed by the witch. "But let's switch our attention to our witch here. Josie, how about you tell me more about you?" He said, turning his attention to Josie, who had a blank expression when faced with his words. "Sorry, but I am really flexing my social skills here." He said, trying to make something funny out of his straightforwardness.
And to make the boy happy, Josie did laugh at his words. "Well, considering you seem to have befriended Hope, I must say your socializing skills are quite good." Josie said, taking a peek at the Tribrid. "Let's see. Want the entire character sheet?"
"I would like it." John nodded.
"From the basics then." Josie paused, giving some thought at what she would answer. "My name is Josie Saltzman, I am 15, turning 16 on March 15th. I am a Siphoner, a special type of witch born only in my coven, the Gemini Coven. I have a fraternal twin sister called Lizzie and I am vegetarian." She said slowly, letting time go on so every detail would be clearly remembered. "Your turn."
"John Neo, I am 16, turning 17 in," Here, John almost said the day of his birthday from his former world. Due to the change of dates, John's birthday was different in this world. "-January 13th. I like to read and watch works of fiction, sci-fi and adventure. I just recently got really interested in magic and I plan to travel the world as soon as I end high school." He briefly introduced himself, giving away some information but almost nothing really important. "Want to introduce yourself too?" John asked Hope.
"Very funny." Hope said, rolling her eyes.
"Come on, at least your birthday." John insisted.
Hope let out a sigh. "May 2nd. Happy?"
"Very much so." John said, offering the girl a smile before turning his head to the gemini witch again. "I read a few things about the gemini coven earlier, but the word 'siphoner' is a first."
Before John could properly ask his question, Josie raised her hand. She finished chewing on her food and gulped it down. "Siphoners, contrary to normal witches, don't have power of their own. We need to absorb it, siphon it from places around us by touching something or someone. Thus the name." She explained briefly, wiping the corner of her mouth with a napkin.
To that explanation, John immediately had another question in his mind. "And what exactly do you mean by touching?" He asked. "I mean, isn't magic at all places? Can't you just try to absorb the magic in the air around you?" He further elaborated his question.
Josie shook her head. "It's not that easy. We need physical contact to siphon magic. The magic in the environment is too dispersed for us to absorb. It's almost like trying to catch small fishes with nets with big spaces in them." Josie explained, giving off an answer she had already given to other people who had asked her that.
Listening to that explanation, John slightly frowned his forehead in contemplation.
That makes sense… He thought, giving a quick look at his surroundings, seeing the operation of magic around him. However… A question surged in the boy's mind.
"Then, why don't you try to siphon it throughout your whole body?" John asked, getting the girl's attention. "You said you can't absorb much energy from the air because it's too dispersed, right? But if you increase the area of effect, won't that change? The size of the area trying to siphon the magic surrounding you should compensate for the not so dense magic in the air. Or is that your biology just permits you to siphon power through your touch?" John elaborated his thoughts on the few information provided by Josie and raised a few good questions.
Faced with these ideas, Josie was left in silence for some time, thinking over the ideas proposed by the boy.
"I… never heard or thought of something like that." Josie muttered, thoughtful. "I don't know if it's possible or impossible. I must take a look at the grimoires of my coven to know."
John nodded. "Give it a try. If you don't find anything, I can help if you want." John said. "I am here for anything. After all, I also absorb magic from the environment."
To those words, Hope looked up from her meal at the boy. "Does that work the same way as… the other energies?" Hope asked. Meanwhile, Josie was mute as she was surprised that the young man can also absorb magic from the environment.
"Yes." John nodded. "Though, in my case, it's a little similar to breathing – tracheal breathing, to be more specific. My body naturally absorbs the magic found in the environment through my skin. The absorbed magic is stored in a… metaphysical nervous system spread throughout my body with a source located in the middle of my chest?" John explained, his words more directed at Josie since he had already shared this knowledge with Hope. "So, every time I breathe, I absorb a portion of the magic in the environment and store it in this 'Energy System' of mine."
For a few moments, Josie digested the knowledge shared by the young man. "So… since you don't have your own magic, you never run out of it, since magic is present in all places." She said what she understood.
"Basically…" John replied, not correcting a few things in her words. More because he didn't fully explain how everything in him worked. "It seems we are similar in a few things."
"It seems so." Josie replied, smiling. "I am a little jealous. I wished I could never run out of magic." She said, piercing the salad on her plate with the fork.
"You say that, but you probably must have your advantages as well, right? I mean, you said you could siphon magic from others, correct?" John asked, receiving a nod from the girl. "Care to show me?" He asked, reaching his hand out.
Nodding, Josie reached out her hand as well and held John's, starting the process of siphoning the magic in him. However, the result was not the expected.
"I can't…" She murmured, Josie's gaze intensifying over the boy's hand. Unconsciously, her grip tightened. "Why can't I siphon you?"
John didn't immediately answer. Instead, he turned his eyes to his friend. "Hope, would you mind?" He asked, retracting his hand.
Shaking her head, Hope stretched out her hand towards Josie, the latter slowly reaching to hers. Instantly, the point of contact where their hands were connected started to glow weakly.
"Can you resist it?" John asked Hope, to which the young woman shook her head in denial as she retreated her hand.
"Add that to the list of things I learned this week." John said, his mind was running with thoughts.
Interesting… When Josie tried to siphon me, I felt a strange sensation spread through me, trying to reach out to my magic. And even more strangely, it seemed my body denied that. I wonder why… John thought, mulling over the recent chain of events. It must be something regarding my body instead of magic itself. After all, Hope has spent much more time than me manipulating and dealing with it. Then, what could it be…
"You have a look." Hope abruptly said, taking the young man out of his short retreat.
"I had what?"
"A look." Hope repeated. "The same one you had when you were in the library."
"I was thinking of a few things." John said, not elaborating much. "A few ideas…" He added, turning his gaze towards the gemini witch. "Josie, would you help me with something later?"
"About what?" The girl asked.
"A few doubts I have." John said, looking at the hands of the girl. "I want to understand better how your abilities work. If you are not against it, I would like your help."
Listening to these words, Josie was silent for a moment before nodding. "I don't see any problem."
"Thanks." John said, smiling over the girl's agreement. Immediately, he retreated to his mind again, thinking of how things were developing. Things seem to be going well. I am socializing, learning magic, learning about my abilities, I guess that's not a bad start in this journey of mine. The boy thought, his lips unconsciously curling up in satisfaction.
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