Chapter 48 - The Magic Number

I took the opportunity to avoid JJ and learn more magic for the rest of the day. Now that I could control the state of openness of my well, I could proceed to the next steps necessary for spellcasting.

Step three of the basics of magic was learning how to see auras. Though, as the manual said, 'seeing' wasn't the right word for it. I read the paragraph again.

[A witch's well can function like a third eye, opening a different kind of vision for her, one that uses all senses at once and more. It's overwhelming without a lot of practice in using it, but it's essential to learn how to see and interpret auras before one tries to channel them. It allows one to see things hidden from everyone else, and in many ways, is a much truer True Vision than witches' innate ability to see through illusions.]

I sat on my bed and followed the instructions written after. First, I opened my well as wide as I could. I felt it expanding in my body and over it, stretching as if I was taking a deep breath.

Just like that, I knew I could take the sensation a step further and MAKE this breath, and that what I will breathe in won't be air, but pure magic. This wasn't the first time I tried this out, but I didn't give in to this desire, just like I didn't give in earlier. Lines of the instructions and advice ran through my head.

[For your first attempts at reading auras, I recommend closing your eyes and finding a quiet place to concentrate fully on your sixth sense. The initial impact of the first time you look through your well can shock you and force you to close your well on reflex, but try to fight this impulse. Relax, embrace, and analyse what you feel. Don't expand your range of vision until you get used to your initial one.]

I concentrated on my well. It was a void, a metaphysical hole inside of me, but that meant that things could pass through. Even my conscience. It was as easy as reaching out with a hand to pass through…

And turn the world inside out.

This must be how drugs felt like. Suddenly, everything around me exploded in a cacophony of colours, smells, sounds, sensations, and emotions. It didn't matter that my eyes were closed. I could barely feel my body at the moment, and the only solid thing in the entire experience was my open wide well.

The impulse to close it and return to the calmness of normal vision was strong indeed, but I followed Alexandra's advice. I held my breath for several seconds, which helped me to control my well, before slowly letting it out. Then I continued to breathe as slowly as I could, bit by bit abstracting myself from the acid trip around me.

I could feel lightness around me, see several shades of blue and pure transparency at the same time. Together with it were a dozen of other things: fumes, something destroyed, something still, something moving…

Some things were more present, some less. They affected my different senses, and sometimes I could only feel the intent behind them like a pure emotion or even thought. I could only assume that this was the aura of the surrounding air, because it filled empty spots.

Then there was furniture. It had a very different feel to it from the air, much more solid overall, but just as jumbled as everything else. Weight, colours, softness, hardness, rest and relaxation, comfort and cosiness…

There were so many details to explore about everything in the room that it was the easiest thing ever to get lost in them. The cursed sketch attracted my attention especially. I could feel it pulsing with tangible power in the drawer I put it in, burning with fire and pain, but behind it were so many emotions that I didn't know where to start exploring them from.

I soon understood that I could orient much better in all this when I concentrate only on the general feel of a certain aura, as if looking at them from a distance or through half-closed eyes. It helped when things were different, like the air and the walls. With the floor and my furniture, I could hardly tell where one thing started and one stopped.

The more time I spent exploring the auras, the more I could concentrate on my own physical feelings and my own thoughts. One of them forced me to perk in alarm and hurriedly close my well.

The return to the bleak reality was like being wrapped in cotton, but it was a relaxing feeling. I didn't realise how exhausting looking at auras was until that moment. My concerns, though, stopped me from doing what I wanted and just lying in bed for a little while. Instead, I read two more paragraphs of the manual.

[Auras aren't uniform substances. They are made of many components that represent physical and metaphysical qualities of the item or person they are attached to. We call these components aspects. Not every witch can see them equally well. Like with the sharpness of normal vision, the sharpness of well's vision differs from witch to witch and depends on the size of their well. Witches with small wells see fewer aspects, as the smaller aspects will blend together or become unseen.]

[For example, I see seven aspects of this very journal in order of their prevalence: book, paper, leather, knowledge, inanimate, ink and love. Some other witch, though, can only be able to see first six or even five, since the ink and love aspects are present in small amounts.]

I took in a deep breath to calm myself a little and opened my well again. Carefully, I reached in and when the world turned inside out, focused on the book lying on my knees.

I couldn't see any of the aspects Alexandra listed. Instead, there were a few dozens of other stuffs. Just to know, I started to count. I had to start anew several times when I lost it, but eventually I had my number.

Forty-two.