Alchemical Magic

1 The sun was shining through the narrow slit between the curtains. The days started early in the summer here in Ashford, so I didn't have to switch on the gas lamp whenever I woke in the early hours of dawn. Which is good, because the gas isn't always scrubbed properly by the alchemists, and sometimes releases a whiff of rotten eggs. A smell nasty enough to wake up Jack. I'm an early bird by habit; growing in Crow Hill, where days last for just four hours during winter makes you value sunlight. Which is why I woke up early today, leaving Jack asleep in my bedroom, covered by a thin blanket, as he rolled around the bed, looking for me. He protested when I slid out of his tight embrace, mumbling something incoherent. I caressed his itchy cheek and kissed his forehead, which calmed him down, and he hugged a pillow tightly. After washing up and dressing, I sat in the living room of the apartment grandpa assigned to me in his enormous mansion, facing the bay windows behind my desk and the park behind them, trying to get a bit of reading done for today's classes. I took a sip of the bitter, sweet tea I just made. While the apartment grandpa assigned to me didn't have a kitchen, I had an ethanol burner I used to boil some water. A breeze rustled the curtains. I had left the window open through the night, to get fresh air. It could get a bit too warm for my taste during the day; Ashford climate is given to extremes. I heard swearing from outside. It was Major Craen, shouting and swearing from the top of his lungs. The cat peed in his boots again. I smiled. The cat, a black rescue I brought from the dumpster, called Stinker, had the habit of peeing in the Major's shoes. Serves him right. My slippers were dry and smelled of the lavender I stuffed in my cupboard. The cat repellant Stinker didn't like was odorless. Sometimes Alchemy is a lot more useful than dark magic. Especially if you want to affect living beings. While I initially brought the cat to the house to annoy grandpa, that didn't work, because grandpa, being a powerful light mage, could get on with the cat. Despite the cat being black (not a single white hair; it took me an eternity to find one among all the cats in the dumpster), and thus, supposedly, according to legend, able to communicate with ghosts and spirits, Stinker didn't seem too keen on that. But she took as a personal mission to expel Major Craen from our home, as soon as it seemed he was staying. I approved of that. The Major was a dark mage, and he didn't know any spell less lethal than fire magic to get rid of a cat. And we made it quite clear that he had to use non-lethal and non-crippling ways to deal with Stinker. Or Mia, as Grandpa insisted on calling her, pointing out she was a female cat, after all. That was a meaningless detail, considering the fierce attitude of Stinker. She was a street cat, tough, used to fighting and scrounging for food. I liked her but wanted her to stay away from my slippers. She accepted the bribes in the form of mutton roast bits (it's one of the cheapest meats, since it stinks, but stinker doesn't mind). The Major, who specialized in battle magic, didn't know how to deal with a cat peacefully, so he engaged in shouting matches with her, throwing shoes at it, and generally behaving like the typical male dark arall. I wonder when he'll come at the obvious solution: bribery. I heard a loud thump noise. The Major threw his slipper at the cat. I don't think he'll ever learn. "Is he still fighting with the cat?" Jack's voice said from behind. He sneaked up on me, like he occasionally did, and gave me a back hug. I'd gotten used to this by now and didn't spill my tea. It seemed to me like Jack's objective was to make me get used to having him around. Despite dating for half a year by now, and our relationship being serious, I am still a dark arall. And having people so close to me physically, especially when they're out of sight, makes me twitchy. Although less so with Jack. "Yes," I said, taking another sip out of the cup and leaving it on the table, pushing it to the middle. Sometimes things got a bit too rowdy in the mornings Jack stayed, and the crockery suffered. "He is stubborn. I hoped he'd leave the house by now." Jack snorted. "The Major? Leave free lodging and delicious food because of a cat?" "It was supposed to be temporary," I complained. "He wasn't supposed to stay for so long." "Dana," Jack said, "don't be coy. The free food and board are good incentives, but the main reason he moved to Ashford from Ecton is you." He had a point. The Major came from Ecton, Kalmar's capital city, where his career was on the rise (as far as I understand, that is), to investigate the death of his friend, in which I'd been involved as a witness. He harassed me for a while because I was covering up the circumstances of his friends' death to hide my illegal Initiation. He also became my Master Mage, despite me already having a Master (grandpa). True, Grandpa is a light mage and I'm a dark one, and he can only teach me the most basic things, but it's not like I needed that many skills to get a mages' seal. I needed to be certified not dangerous to others to get the basic seal. And for the rest, I've got the university classes. That's right, I'm apprenticed to two Master Mages, one dark, one light, the light one being my grandpa. I successfully covered up my illegal Initiation by pretending I had my real magical Initiation a week earlier, and I only burned the alchemy lab because of a magical outburst (there was a bomb I had to get rid of, and I couldn't think of anything better than using magic I wasn't supposed to be able to use; I know, I know). But then I still had to face a Magical Tribunal. They examined whether I should have my magic blocked, a terrible fate for any magician (people just fade out without their magic). But if they knew that I went through a spontaneous, illegal Initiation, that would automatically mean my magic would be blocked. The Magical Tribunal decided, no doubt encouraged by Major Craen, that grandpa's insufficient knowledge on how to train a dark mage, with him being light and all that, caused my magical outburst. That's how I ended up with a second Master assigned, a highly unusual and bothersome situation. And I live with both of them. Grandpa invited the Major to stay for some time, and now the Major seems to have made a home out of our home. And having to study Practical and Applied Magic (that's the euphemism for dark magic they like to use nowadays), or PAAM, at university. That's in addition to the Alchemy degree I came to Ashford for. Having to double Major in those two subjects meant I had to study for an extra year (or cram all the extra credits into the time I had left), adding to the debt I had with the Floyd scholarship fund. I didn't want to since my passion has always been Alchemy, but the attackers who put a bomb in that Alchemy lab didn't leave me a choice. Thankfully, we caught all the important people in the sect. Or at least all the people in Ashford. From what I've heard, nobody outside Ashford has been arrested yet. The swearing outside intensified. I think Stinker may have scratched the Major. What does he expect, getting close to a street cat? Grandpa went out to convince the Major to stop shouting and come inside for breakfast. That must mean breakfast was ready. I shook off my stupor. "You're right," I told Jack. "But it doesn't make it any less annoying. I didn't ask him for this." "I know you didn't," Jack said. "But he thinks you should be eternally grateful to him. For taking you as his apprentice." "Yeah, I think if it were up to him, we would still have a medieval system of apprenticeship. Thankfully, we don't, and grandpa is on my side. The only time he gets to order me around is when he teaches. Which may be the reason he insists on teaching me so much. So he can t*****e me," I reflected glumly. The Major made me go through punishing training sessions and trained me in creating shield magic by throwing tiny sparkling rays towards me (and, let me tell you, they stung). I've moved quite a bit since the initial fireball generation, but there are still so many things I had to learn. And, hopefully, I would start today, at the introductory class of the summer semester. But first, I would have to eat breakfast. "Let's go," I told Jack. "Now that they've calmed down a bit, we need to make sure we go down before the Major eats everything and leaves us with all the veggies."