“Protection rune,” he said. “Just in case.”
I breathed deep, in and out, and brought myself back to reality. “What do you mean, just in case? What do you think is going to happen?”
“Nothing, I hope. There is a very small chance it might explode.” He said as he coughed into his hand, avoiding my eyes. “But the odds are that you have nothing to worry about.”
Brann pulled a small knife from his pocket. “The wards are responsive to your blood, and to the land.”
“Well, okay,” I said, looking at the gleaming blade he held.
“The blood part is literal.”
“Of course... Meaning what?”
“We need your blood to properly re-seal the wards.”
“Woah there, partner. How much blood? I have a limited supply.”
“Just a small cut should do it.” Brann handed the knife to me. “Now, after you draw blood, you must invoke the power of protection.”
“And what does that mean?”
“It means...” Brann seriously considered the question for a moment. “Well... Uh... Surely you know how to invoke energy and aspects?”
“Surely you are fucking dreaming.”
“It’s similar to how I use my runes.”
“Oh, great. Then you do it.”
“I can’t... Look. Everyone controls their magic in a personal way. You do too. Something focuses your energy on whatever particular aspect of power needs to be called upon. Generally, magic will follow the path that’s been laid out for it.”
I arched an eyebrow and wrinkled my nose a bit. Cryptic bullshit, again. “That sounds a lot like you have no fucking clue.”
Brann huffed. “Please. Just fix the ward.”
“Got it. I’ve totally got this.” No biggie, I thought. A little shpritz of blood, some abracadabra, and boom, it’s fixed. I tried to fake sounding confident, but I totally did not have this. Everything that’s happened so far, I’ve chalked up as a fluke. I supposed there was no time like the present to see if I could get a handle on my own magic.
I sucked in a breath and dragged the knife across one palm, wincing, yet finding the pain wasn’t as terrible as I expected. I cut the other palm, then I slowly put my hands up to gaps I could see in the ward. Blood slowly trickled down into the cracks in the wall causing it to glow red. I felt the power surging through my hand into the ward, pulling each piece together, and merging it with the next one.
So far, so good. But that next step? How do I ‘invoke the power of protection’? I’m fucking clueless, and I think Brann is, too. Maybe one invokes protection by thinking of a lot of protective things? Thinking like that had kind of helped before. After digging around in my mind a bit (while my mind flame stared at me and refused to help), I began to mumble fragments of things I thought were protective. “Walls... mama bears... condoms… Fort Knox... uh?... Captain America’s shield?” I could feel an angry crease form on my forehead, as I continued to chant those words, over and over, like a mantra.
The strings and points began to bind together, as though being stitched by my magic. Soon, all the cracks dissolved away, leaving one solid, faintly glowing sheet. The once-broken ward was now a solid force field with a slight sparkle. I removed my hand from the wall and turned to Brann.
His eyes and mouth were frozen wide open, stunned to say the least. “I can’t believe that worked.”
I wiped the rest of the blood on my clothes and looked at my palm. Holy shit, the cuts were already sealed, with just a little pink line remaining.
“Did you doubt me?” I asked him.
“I didn’t expect calling upon ‘mama bears’ and ‘Captain America’s shield’ to have any real protective value,” Brann said.
“I mean, mama bears are great protectors, and Captain America’s shield is supposed to be unbreakable.”
“And the condom?”
“I don’t know. I thought it would be protect-y enough for a ward,” I said, glancing at the ward. “After all, those three are total dicks. Seriously though, if invoking an aspect or concept is as simple as focusing on things associated with it, why didn’t you just say so?”
“I didn’t think it was that simple,” Brann mumbled sheepishly. “But with you? Anything is possible.”
“Huh. That’s pretty cool, actually. It’s like mind over matter, but it actually does things.” I smiled at my handiwork.
“Let’s head back,” said Brann, as he took a few steps toward the house. Just then, Keegan’s SUV zoomed up next to us.
“You fixed the ward! It’s all sparkly!” Keegan smiled. “Fancy a ride, love?”
“Shotgun!” I yelled, hopping into the passenger seat, as Brann got in the back. Then, a bothersome thought struck me, and I asked, “How is it that the ward is fixed, but a magical being like Keegan can come through it?”
“The ward prevents anyone who has ill intentions from coming through. We have been here long enough that the land recognizes us as friends,” Brann said.
“Hmm. Interesting,” I said, under my breath. I had successfully called a little magic out of myself, under control and doing what it was supposed to, albeit not exactly invoked in a conventional way. With Katie pulling her own strings (worrisome but still helpful) and magic making more sense at last, the future felt bright for once. Not that everything was necessarily clear, but things were looking bright and navigable. I had a feeling I would be able to take the next hurdle that came my way, for once, fingers crossed that my good luck continued.
House of McDonough
- Keira -
I walked into the familiar office of Edward Finn. His secretary said he’d stepped out and would be back shortly. I took a seat at his black desk, to wait. It was nice to be out of the house, even if it was just for a few hours. It gave me a chance
