I lost consciousness.
***
“Now you can say you know what it’s like to go unconscious twice in the same day, eh?” shot back the familiar voice of my friend who was once called Lauren.
“Heh,” I barely managed to retort. The first and last time I’d ever been knocked unconscious was my doing, trying to be impressive but failing miserably, not too long after we’d both started high school. It was always one of her favorite things to tease me about.
“You doing all right?” she asked, brushing my hair to one side.
“Heh. Yeah. This is some crazy stuff, huh?” I said.
“Yeah. I haven’t quite gotten used to it either. But it’ll be all right. We can get through this. Together.” she said.
“Arcos” Kammeryn shot forth, causing my eyes to almost roll back into my head uncontrollably.
“Wha?” I stuttered out. After a pause, I regained my composure and started to get to my feet.
“That is to be your Shadow Name. Your advancing magical nature chose it for itself.”
“Hmmm… I kinda like it,” I said, brushing the dirt from my jeans and taking in my surroundings. Everyone except Kammeryn was now changed out of their ritual attire, Lauren now wearing what I first saw her in and everyone else dressed likewise casual. It certainly disjointed the former air of unity the black robes held, but did nothing to calm my nerves.
“How long was I out?”
“Awhile,” Vesti said.
Ricolette advanced toward the blinds and pulled them open. I winced, expecting the sunlight of mid-afternoon, only to find it had been dark outside.
“We’ll take the van back to your house, and drop you off. Not a word as to what has happened. Over the next few days, you shall be trained in the Art.”
Over the next week or so, I was given many interesting lessons on the nature of Magic as it related to society and culture in the last millennium or so that, despite being highly informative and very interesting, found their way to annoy the heck out of me. Not a single word of the Arcanan language was taught to me then, save my sign word. It was like being told you could have ice cream, then getting handed a bucket and shoved outside to go milk the cow. Except “ice cream” was “the raw essence of power codified into singular words.”
Lessons blur into each other, but this much really stuck in my memory:
***
Kammeryn directed my attention to the chalk board on one wall of the room.
“There are three words on your back that form the triangular pattern like so,” he said, drawing three circles with interconnecting lines, then writing words which he began to explain. “Sign, House, and Tag. ‘House’ refers to the magical tradition you were Gifted under, and is thus placed on top. ‘Tag’ refers to your Shadow name, the left of the circle, and ‘Sign’ refers to your magical forte, as it was chosen for your role in the cabal. So, in completing our theme, you were chosen as Lust.” He paused and then continued. “So, in your case, the markings are Kothrin, your house,” he said, drawing the archaic symbol that might as well have been in Chinese, “Arcos,” he said, filling in the left blank, “and desdiri, the Arcanan word for Lust,” he said, filling in the final blank.
“Hmmm…” I said. “So what would your three be?” I asked.
Kammeryn paused as if I’d insulted his mother. “As I am the one who Gifted you, I am likewise House Kothrin, and you already know my Shadow Name.” Cain and Ricolette were looking at me as if I’d made some sort of dire mistake.
This was the first of many indications I recieved that Kammeryn’s Sign Word was the elephant in the room, talk about it and I might suffer repercussions of the supernatural kind.
***
“So, how do I cast spells?” I said on the one-week anniversary of my Gifting. I’d decided to grin and bear it for about six days too long.
“You speak, the universe listens,” said Ricolette, out of nowhere. I’d made a habit of totally forgetting she was in the room.
Kammeryn jumped in. “Yes, to put it simply. Whenever you speak a word of Arcanan, you choose an energy to manipulate. Your thoughts then give shape to your will. The more focus, the more of your personal energy you devote, and the deeper your sympathetic connection to the energies you are manipulating, the stronger your spell. Let’s focus on the first two,” he said.
“Ignis!” he shouted, thrusting his hand upward. A blast of fire the likes of which could make jealous even elite pyrotechnicians shot forth from his outstretched hand. It was like watching one of those explosions in the movies, but close up. I thought the ceiling would have collapsed.
“Little focus, vast reserves of energy,” Kammeryn said, out of breath. “Now, watch this. Ignis,” he said. Fire came from his palm, this time in the form of a small orb that danced and flitted in his hand. It was like a large lightning bug had caught on fire and maintained composure long enough to dance, before dissipating into nothing.
“Careful focus, small amounts of energy. And practice, practice helps,” he said. “Same word, just different ideas. The caster speaks, the universe listens. Not just to the word, but to the will. That’s why focus is so important in casting. Now, we’re going to have a little exercise in mind reading,” he said, grabbing five cards from the only cabinet in the entire basement.
That’s when I learned some of the most important words I’d ever learn in my magical career.
“Scienti” was the word of knowledge and of thought. Using this, I could read minds and know things that would not be immediately apparent, so long as they were set in the present time. Luca explained that the future is almost entirely the dominion of the Seers.
“Desdiri” was my own sign word. It only really means “wanting”, and using it allowed me to manipulate desire.
“Arcna” was the word for Magic itself, often used in enchanting. Kammeryn said its applications were very limited otherwise.
“Oscura” was a weird one.
“It doesn’t really mean anything,” said Kammeryn.
“What?”
“Well, to put it better, nobody knows what it means. It’s a word without an English equivalent. This happens very often in foreign languages. We call it ‘Haze’ because it cloaks things, causes things to fade into insignificance. It also allows for the deletion of memories. It requires quite a bit of focus to tailor out only what you want gone, but it is helpful to avoid revealing your nature.”
He taught me a bit about memory tailoring, which took two whole hours from front to back.
“Also, note that two words can be combined. These are usually called ‘rote spells’ or ‘rotes’ for short. They are the simplest type of true spell. For example, to tailor out memories of the Arcanan language, all you have to do is combine it with Oscura.” he said. “This leaves mortals with no knowledge of any Arcanan words you may have spoken. They never remember you opening your mouth. It’s a useful cover when your spells are covert and you don’t want to explain away lost time used in a full memory wipe. So, just picture the words fading to gibberish or muting out. Your mouth closing where you once said something. And utter ‘oscura arcna.'”
“Hmmm…” I said, trying to figure out situations where that would be useful. Night was swiftly arriving and I hadn’t made much more progress before it came time to drive me back home.
—————–
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