Chapter 52 - Magic Sandwiches

Alexandra was a harsh taskmistress. She wasn't the one to raise her voice, but neither was she one to let me go until I did what she wanted me to. And it wasn't freezing all the water on the table—a trick that I succeeded in on my second try, when I remembered to stop channelling before I sucked in all the coldness.

No. Alexandra read me lectures. Which wouldn't have been so bad if she didn't repeat stuff that was already in the manual, with diagrams and illustrations.

"Matter follows magic. By changing aspects of an object's aura we change the object itself, like you froze the water by adding coldness to it. You must have noticed, Diana, that other aspects of the water changed as well when you did it, following the natural transformation, such as solidity. This was because, in fact, you didn't turn water into ice, but made it cold enough that it turned into ice by itself. Simple physics. You should remember that it applies to any spell you may cast and think twice about possible consequences of your magic."

I nodded, mentally wondering if I can go home without offending Alexandra too much.

"Never, never try to manipulate aspects of living people, including yourself. It's way too easy to cause harm if you don't know what are you doing. Even then, the human aura is one of the most complex ones. It's impossible to see all the minor aspects in it, and their accidental shifts can be disastrous."

I kept staring at Alexandra's face, but my mind was elsewhere as I opened my well and looked through it.

"This is also a reason to not use magic excessively. It's all too easy to consume minor, invisible to the mind's eye, aspects to one's body by accident. It's not something that will bring negative consequences immediately, but witches who cast magic left and right suffer many illnesses in their old age."

Most interestingly, even though I couldn't see Alexandra's aura behind her well, I could see mine. It was almost like rolling my eyes so far up that I could look at my brain. The mixture of aspects was absolutely fascinating to see, even if I didn't understand what the hell all that meant.

"I can't tell you to refrain from magic completely, as it goes against our natures as witches. I can only warn you, as well as remind you about the rule of secrecy. It's on you to decide how you will implement magic in everyday life. We in Orion Coven, though, like to gather several times a month to show interesting spells we came up with. Sometimes we also invite other covens to such meetings, or they invite us. It helps us to develop as witches."

I closed my well shut and focused on Alexandra again. This was new.

"Really? What sort of magic?" Then another thought hit me, and I added, "Can you, please, show me a more complicated spell, Alexandra? As a demonstration."

Nothing in her countenance showed she noticed I wasn't listening, or that she cared about it if she did. She simply nodded and a small, prideful settled on her face. "With pleasure, Diana. It will be also a demonstration of how one can shape and separate aspects."

I watched intently as Alexandra stood up, set the electric kettle to boil and began to gather items from the cupboards and the fridge. A plate, a package of sliced bread and a plastic-wrapped block of cheese. Was she going to make a sandwich? She didn't bring a knife to cut the cheese, though.

"Concentrate on the aspects, Diana, and watch carefully," Alexandra said as she sat back in her seat.

Confused, but curious, I did as she said. I read about shaping aspects, but it was more advance stuff, and I decided that having a real-life demonstration will help me understand how it's done.

Through my well I watched how Alexandra breathed in several aspects that, together, I assumed, meant the cheese's rectangular form. I noticed she grabbed several more unrelated, minor aspects together with it.

Most of my attention, though, was on the fact that before she entirely sucked out the form out of the cheese, she channelled it back in a dozen of separate streams. Bit by bit she changed the form of the cheese from a single rectangular into a dozen of smaller ones, though they still stayed close together.

When Alexandra stopped channelling, I closed my well to look at the result with my eyes. With a look of a magician about to pull a rabbit out of the hat, Alexandra took a seemingly whole block of cheese, opened the packaging and peeled the cheese into separate, but even and perfectly shaped rectangular slices.

I applauded. "Amazing!"

Alexandra nodded with regal pride and put the slices of cheese on the plate. "Now, would you like a sandwich and something to drink, Diana?"

⠀⠀ ⠀

I returned home late and tired, but it was a pleasant exhaustion of a person who did some splendid work with magic today. With Alexandra's examples it was easier for me to understand what some aspects did, though I still had to filter others because I knew they were unrelated, just as I knew Alexandra had been consuming them through her well without even noticing.

It bothered me that she didn't notice, and I wondered what I didn't notice when I picked up aspects. As it was, I always made sure that every aspect I sucked into the well went out later, never to fall into my aura.

I also did my best trying to channel magic quicker. It took me five minutes to do my first spell, but by the end of the day I could do the same one in two. Still, it didn't feel even close to enough.

Not when tomorrow promised me risk, while baiting with riches.. JJ's coffin… I hoped we will be able to sell it on the second try.