They had stopped for a break at the Delaware Memorial Bridge, the Knightmare was fast, but on the broken pavement that speed came with serious discomfort.
They sat around the outside Delaware House Travel Plaza, the overgrowth had mostly taken it back.
“I don’t want to hold the stone forever,” Eli said, “I do not like having this kind of power over people.”
Lilith stayed over by the carriage, eyes peeled, on the side of the road while the mages sat at the front tables.
“What should we do then?” Isla asked. “Aphrodite?”
“I don’t know,” Eli said, “I felt like she came on too strongly to me.”
Isla tilted her head annoyed at him. “I know that's her thing,” he shrugged. “It just scared me.”
She nodded.
“Whoever the Accuser is I think is probably not very creative,” she said, “the simplest explanation is that Mars will set off the Rapture.” she put her head back and her auburn hair fell out of its loose tie. “I just wish we could give Aphrodite back her passion.”
“I agree.” Eli said, “we will figure out how to do it without setting off the Rapture.”
“Very optimistic,” she laughed at him. “I don't want you holding that stone forever either.”
Emerald met turquoise
“Don’t you want to be Queen of Hell?” Eli asked.
“No more than you want to have the power of Lucifer,” she said, “but what choice do we have if Goat-Horn falls through? At this point I think the Stone would be safest with the Scapegoat.”
“That is precisely what the Whore would want you to think.” Eli said.
A moment later Lilith called out to them. They met beneath a tree in the parking lot. Sticks and branches scattered around them.
“Gallows instructed that we have a lesson.” Lilith said, direct. “Please procure your implements.”
Isla went to her waist and retrieved the silver athame. Eli waited.
“Where is your focus, boy?” Lilith asked.
“Do I need one?” he asked.
“No,” Isla said, “but it makes things a lot easier. Especially if you aren’t so familiar with physics.”
Lilith frowned.
“Is that why you can throw lightning so well?” Eli asked.
“That is sort of my point,” Isla noted, “you don’t throw lightning. It's more like a rubber band, you have to reach out and separate the charges first.” she said, “but once you let go you are just along for the ride with everyone else while it all balances out.”
“I don’t understand,” Eli said.
“In storms, when the clouds rub together,” Isla began, “the electrons end up moving together. That negative charge in the sky creates a mirror positive charge on the ground. Some of those positive charges will lift off the ground, but the majority of the power and light comes from the electrons descending from above.”
Isla took a deep breath and fiddled with her athame. “That power is the first conceptual leap you will have to make. The energy required to overcome the resistance in the air is unbelievably enormous. The superheated channel of plasma is like fire on uber-steroids in terms of energy cost” Her cadence picked up as she spoke. “It is so much that you will probably end up blowing a limb off—or worse— unless you figure out some way to conduct your power,” she said. That's why I use the silver athame, silver has the highest conductivity of any metal,”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Lilith chuckled, “what a crude explanation of your greatest weapons in the Dark.”
Isla’s face turned red and one of her shoulders came up, “did I say something wrong?” Her eyes darted to dart to Eli
“Not as such,” the ancient witch said and then faced Eli. “Lightning is fundamentally an expression of balance. The greatest expression of imbalance in this word is the storm,” she said. “Negative tension builds and builds until there is a sudden release. A swirl of angry water roars her apologies to the earth, through the air, with a bolt fire and a great beacon of light. Lilith raised her staff. “Though yes, you should find a conduit. And silver is an excellent choice, girl, as it is the earthly embodiment of the Moon–the Bright in the Dark.”
Isla stared blankly.
“I just feel using tools for my magic kinda feels like cheating,” Eli said. Isla glanced at Eli over her nose.
Lilith scoffed in disbelief, “The use of tools does not constitute ‘cheating’, boy. In fact, in this context, there is no such thing.” she pointed a finger at him, “The Dark will use every advantage to take you. You must do the same.” Her palm turned upward and relaxed. What do you gain by easing the Reaper's effortless harvest? Especially when he deems it proper to wield a scythe?”
Eli stared at the ground and his lip rolled into his mouth. Isla coughed.
“Don’t worry, you’ll get there,” Isla assured him.
“Your spellcraft needs serious work too, girl,” Lilith snapped.
“Excuse me?”
“Your incantations are almost entirely monosyllabic. Unrefined. You are disharmonious with Earth Mother and your chakras are less aligned than the Seven Sisters,” Lilith continued lecturing.
“I have no idea what you are talking about or what any of that means,” Isla shot back. Eli looked away but could not help let a grin pull at the side of his mouth as she continued, “My calculations clearly show that my workings are nearly as efficient as ideal under the circumstances.”
“Efficient?” Lilith scuffed, “You sound like an engine, not a mage. Magic is not purely mechanical, girl.”
“Actually, that’s exactly what it is. Thermody—”
“Yes, child, but The Universe is all that there is. You diminish yourself by claiming it is no more than law that governs the physical. Have your own sages not shown that even aspects as fundamental as time and space are relative? Your conceptualization is just as real as what nature dictates on her own.”
“Of course,” Isla agreed, breathing sharply, “magic is in some sense an extension of our minds. Symbolism offers us an easy shortcut to explain complicated ideas and therefore cast more powerful spells. But that abstraction is just a useful tool that must always give way to fact.”
“Abstraction is just a useful tool?” the ancient witch hissed, “Fool, it is what separates you from your animal nature. Do not insult it nor the craft of your ancestors,' girl. There is no such thing as ‘just a useful tool’.” she finished in a malignant pantomime.
"Tools are what has made you the dominant creature of this world.” she pointed a finger “Like spoken words, they are an extension of your will. Of your consciousness. Of your reality,” Lilith paused as she sat in the shade of the oak tree.
“Abstraction is not the tool. Magic is.” Lilith continued musing. “A tool, however crafted, is wielded uniquely by you and thus must be understood uniquely by you. Magic, like all tools, is the mediator in the dialogue between you and nature.”
Isla went still.
“I still don’t understand why it's not working” Eli said, “Am I not doing it right?”
“The language you speak is defined by the vocabulary and grammar that you use,” Lilith said, “An engine must be oiled, just as a rock must be sharpened. Perhaps, among the countless, you could find one with a sharp edge, formed from chance alone; however for the vast majority, mindless weathering will simply erode its utility down to little more than animal violence.”
“Both of you must eventually make your own tools,” she grabbed a large branch, a bit longer than Eli was tall, from the ground next to her and used it to stand.
“To truly reshape reality, you must commune with it. Intimately. Painfully.” she said. “You must miss and crush your fingers, you must make stupid mistakes that shatter your progress, again and again until you learn the skills needed for your magic.”
“But for now,” she clenched the branch tightly in her fist and then punched Eli in the chest with it, “back to basics, boy.”
He took the stick.
Can you truly have soft magic in the same universe as traditional hard magic? Can they communicate?
Can we transcend the hard-soft axis? Can you make a soft magic fight feel physical?
Am I an arrogant fool? Am I deranged??
Yes, but a wizard is as a drunkard. There is only one way to see if I can put my money where my mouth is.
To the Immortalization of Aforementioned Sin.
