Beautiful Dreamer

Chapter 7

My mind had been racing all night even through my dreams. In the midst of all the crazy I had been dealing with I had finally found my clarity. I got up, dressed, and headed to the kitchen for some food. Zachariah was already sitting at the table. He had dark circles under his eyes and seemed extremely fatigued. I sat down next to him with a piece of fruit and a knife to cut it up. He watched me as I sliced it up, waiting for me to speak, but I did not.

“How did you sleep?” He asked.

“I slept well. I now know what I want to do. It does not look like you slept at all though.”

“Yeah, kind of hard to sleep when I know you might leave soon.”

“I will be leaving...just not right now. I have to get my plan together.”

He looked at me confused, “Plan?”

“I have to get my memories back. I cannot just run into the castle without one.”

“Well you cannot go back there at all. It is suicide!”

I really did not care if he thought that it was suicide. I needed my memory back and the only way I was going to get them back was to get them from King Cardwell. They belonged to me and I would fight to have them back. I lifted my hand up towards the slices of fruit. They floated in the air slowly heading to my mouth. Zachariah looked surprised.

“I figure I just need to work a little bit on the this magic you told me I have. Maybe you can explain all that I can do with it so I am better equipped to go.”

“I am just surprised at how fast you mastered control of it. With your memory of even magic being erased you should not be able to remember how to do even basic magic… however my maybe your body remembers it, muscle memory. If that is the case you should be able to retrain relatively quickly.”

Zachariah got up and went down the hall, and came back with a book in hand. 

“I grabbed this as we were leaving. It is actually the book you reading when we first met.”

He handed me the leather-bound book. On the front of it a title was inscribed The Intricacies of Magic. I opened the front page and a little note was written at the bottom. 

Zachariah Ruland,

I hope my copy of this book reaches you well. I am elated to have you here at the castle. I hope that we may become steadfast friends. I do not know many other magic users myself. I am truly excited to have someone to discuss and share these things with. 

Sincerely, 

Analise 

I looked up from the book at Zachariah his head down.

“So, I take it my invitation to be friends was rejected,” I said sourly.

“Yeah, I was stupid. I have a million of excuses but none of them are good. I just hope I can make it up to you. If you let me, I would like to help you train your abilities.”

“I suppose that is the least you can do.”

I really did not want to accept his help, but I was going to need it. I barely knew anything about magic. It would be foolish of me not to seek his help when it was readily available to me. I just had to make sure I was careful around Zachariah. He still could not be trusted even if he took me out of the castle, for all I knew I was happy there, and he was lying to me. I would just have to be cautious and use him to learn from for now. I got up from the table and took my book with me into my room. I had to start somewhere and this book seemed like a good way to start off. I opened the book to start reading.

The Intricacies of Magic

Epilogue: Welcome inquiring minds! You take your first steps towards your journey into the world of magic. Magic is a rare trait that some people are born with, the power to harness it is woven into our genetics like how certain people have different eye colors. The chance of someone being born with a magical ability are one in a thousand. If you are one of those select people then this book will help you tremendously in working out the basics. Everyone who has the ability to wield magic usually discovers levitation first. There are several subsections that each wielder may fall into, called domains. A domain is what the wielder is most proficient in like healing magic, attack magic, illusions, memory, creation, and dream magic. You may learn more than one domain but most wielders focus on one since learning one takes years of discipline. After mastering your levitation, you will be able figure out your domain. Chapter one will focus on helping with the mastery of levitation, simple tricks leading up to some of the more difficult.

Chapter 1 levitation: As a magic user your biggest tool to your trade will be levitation or as some others will refer to it as telekinesis. It is your ability to control objects around you without ever having to touch them. This ability most likely presented itself to you after having a strong reaction to something. Be able to control your emotions and focus that energy into an object/s will be the key in mastering this ability. It is good to exercise this ability by starting with a small object then working your way up to bigger things and then multiple objects. When you have fully mastered this ability, using it should be like second nature to you where you do not even have to think about it.

I put the book down. So, my first step is working on my levitation ability. I was already getting better at that but I had not really tested my ability to its full extent. I got up and headed to the front door. Zachariah saw me go to the door and he followed me as if to say that I was not going anywhere without him. It was fine, there was a chance that I would need his help anyways. This was all new to me and having someone who knew what they were doing could not hurt. We went out the door and I looked around the front of the cottage looking for things I could lift.  There was a large boulder sitting at the edge of the forest. I extended my hand out to it. It began to shake but would not lift up more than a couple inches. Zachariah looked at me anxiously awaiting me to give him permission to help.

“May I please help you?”

I nodded to Zachariah and he came over to me.

“When you are first starting out, getting into a solid stance helps.”

He put his hands on my legs widening my stance, and having me bend one of my knees ever so slightly. Zachariah put his hands around my waist to and stood very close to me, so much that I could feel his breath on me. 

“Your stance should be pretty sturdy, now take a deep breath in and out to find your center.”

I filled my lungs with a deep breath and let it out. I extended my hand out towards the boulder again, concentrating on controlling my emotions, turning my will upon it. The boulder began to rise and finally I got it two feet off the ground.

“Now hold it in place and do not drop it. Concentrate on it and do not let it fall. You have to work on being able to control it despite distractions.”

He stepped away and head back in the house. He came out with a pot and spoon and began banging on them. Walking all around trying to draw my attention the boulder lowered a few inches but I was then able to bring it back up.

“You seem to have very good control.”

“That or you are not very distracting,” I said challenging him.

“Oh really? Maybe I should make it a little harder than.”

He walked behind me, wrapping an arm around me, pressing me against him. He traced my neck with his fingertips giving me goosebumps. I struggled to keep the rock up finding it hard to focus him out.

“This difficult enough for you?” He whispered in my ear, “Or do I need to make it harder?”

“No, this is quite enough,” I said sternly.

I knew he was taking advantage of this situation to get close to me but it did honestly provide me with a better distraction. I had a hard time focusing him out with him right next to me, not knowing his next move. 

“Are you sure? I can think of so more things you might find distracting.”

He was really milking it but I maintained control on my hold of the rock. Zachariah took my silence as compliance. He started kissing up my neck and ran his hand over my breast. I could feel him harden against me.

“You need to stop right now!” I yelled. Still concentrating on the boulder.

“If you want me to stop, you will make me!”

I pushed him away and, in my rage, I flung the boulder at him. It raced towards him and before it could hit him it split in two and fell down on each side of him.

“Really? I feel like that was a bit of overreaction to me just trying to help you.”

“Seems more like you were trying to help yourself,” I said annoyed.

“I think it was just the motivation you needed. You were able to fling that boulder like it was nothing. That is how easy it needs to be all the time. Eventually you will be able to use your power as easy as moving your hand to pick something up. It is an extension of yourself.”

“I think you could have done all of that without kissing on my neck!”

“Maybe you are just mad because you actually liked it,” he laughed.

I shot him a death glare. He was so infuriating! Zachariah’s tactic did work though. I was able to get better control of my power. Maybe he was really trying to help, other distractions were definitely not working. I remembered the feel of his lips on my neck and my face started to flush, I turned away from him so he did not see. It did feel good but it should not. I did not to complicate things further.

“Alright, I think we should head in. I can make us some lunch and afterwards we can work on this some more.”

Zachariah headed into the house. I tried to regain my composure and I followed him in. I needed the break too.