Everyone who knew Elder spells in the past was dead? How?

Elvie digested the answer without comment, but it didn’t feel quite right. At least two magicians were using Elder House magic here, and hadn’t she used it too, somehow, the day she travelled to 1933?

‘How is that possible? What about other countries, other schools of magic across the world?’

Alistar grimaced. ‘Well, I kind of exaggerated a smidge there. Of course, there are some Elder magicians spaced out across the world, but those numbers seem to be few and far between, and if I can understand anything, they’re becoming fewerer and farerer between.’

‘If there are other Elder magicians somewhere, can’t you find them – talk about magic, have a magical gathering and share any spells and knowledge?’

‘Well...’

‘Surely you’ve thought of that?’ she probed.

Alistar stared gloomily at the wall. ‘It’s complicated. We say that a lot, I know, but the problem is that I honestly don’t know. There are some incontrovertible facts that make everything difficult.’ He held up a finger dramatically. ‘One. At a point in the past, Elder magicians seemed to have vanished, disappeared, died out. They were just gone… From the size of this house, you can tell there used to be more of us. Now there aren’t. We assume it relates to the Cataclysm.’

‘What’s – ’

‘Uh-uh. It’s one story at a time – stay on point. Two,’ the second finger went up. ‘Elder magicians have met before, from what I can tell. And if they did, um, how do I phrase this for someone your age? Oh right, if they meet, then they seem to meet their end. There hasn’t been a gathering of any Elder House magicians outside of their own school for at least a hundred years.’

‘Is this like… what are those things where everyone is out to get you but you don’t know it?’

‘A conspiracy? Maybe, certainly seems that way. But I’ve left out number three. Nobody with Elder magic wants to meet for fear of the consequences. Instead, we stay in our communities and try to refine our knowledge the hard but dangerous way. Research and implementation. That, of course, carries with it some level of its own risk, but we keep searching nonetheless, to try and find the knowledge lost.’ He finished his speech with a shoulder slump and a sigh, his hand plodding on the table to emphasise his frustration.

Elvie watched Alistar for a time. Should she tell him the truth? Could she trust this man with her secret? He was eccentric but looked to have cultivated the image deliberately. No. For now, something didn’t feel quite right. The secret needed keeping a little longer, at least until she got to know this man. She was going to need help to get home, but Eldridge had encouraged her not to part with her secret easily.

Alistar made his wave to a stove above the fire in the kitchen and poured himself a cup of tea from the kettle. ‘I guess you were always bound to talk about the depressing stuff first. You just make sure that you pass this on to your friend. I certainly don’t feel like sending myself down a dreary road of misery whenever I have to tell someone. In fact, that’s a good point. I need to delegate responsibility so that I never have to tell anyone.’

‘Elder House is the one house that doesn’t fit in, isn’t it? Only three – now four – specialised mages, with no real idea of what area of magic they’re able to access. Sure, we all cast Ash House spells, or Oak – but not being able to cast your own… We’re the laughing stock of the magical community on Winters Island.’ His subdued words nearly broke Elvie’s heart. Clearly, large amounts of pain and humiliation had firmly attached to Elder House. ‘Anyway, I have my tea, so now I can teach. Would you like me to begin a lesson, teach a summoning spell which I find to be excellent when you drop your key?’

‘Please,’ Elvie smiled, delighted.

‘It’s not a difficult spell. The word you want is Yma.’

He took her through the hand motions – turning the thumb under the hand, flicking the wrist when it was in line with your hip, while at the same time twisting it so that the palm rotated upwards. The faster, the better Alistar said: ‘Elder House, from what we can tell, likes speed in the gestures. In short, the more speed and aggression, the easier the spell is to cast.’

‘So I focus on the item I want, use the hand gestures, say ‘yma’, and the spoon in your tea will appear in my hand?’

Alistar paused. ‘You could, but it wouldn’t be a very effective spell. You make it all sound so robotically boring. What is magic without any feeling, any passion?’

She paused, confused. That wasn’t what Eldridge had taught her or any of the other teachers.

‘Your focus? Tell me how you form it.’

‘I think what I want to happen over and over. Almost like I imagine it.’

He frowned. ‘That’s what they teach you now?’

Elvie scowled. She refused to believe Eldridge or her new teachers had taught spells incorrectly.

‘Hmmm, that’s not going to work. A focus probably isn’t the right word – you need the fuzzy feeling. To stop your subconscious from interfering in your spellwork, you need to summon a feeling which corresponds with what you want to achieve. It’s personal, you see, your feeling won’t match mine and vice versa. Yes, you probably could think the same thought over and over, and that might it work, but it would be rather weak. And what if you wanted to do something that had more degrees to it, like start a small fire, or start a bonfire, or start a raging inferno? Some spells scale in strength, but you can also scale them through focus. The greater the task, the stronger the focus must be, and the way to strengthen the focus is to imbed it with more feeling.’

‘That’s not exactly what the other teachers have taught me.’

‘Yes… but why would they? I told you, Elder House appears to respond to the passion or emotion of a situation. The stronger the emotion, the stronger the spell. Weak is the feeling that casts the weak spell, but passion! Ah – that could, of course, have devastating effects, so you need to moderate the idea somewhat. I’ll try and make it practical for you.’ He acknowledged her look of confusion. ‘Can you think of something you have lost, and desperately wanted to find?’

Her parents! She nodded.

‘And is there a longing or yearning in you? Yes? Good. Feel the longing, embrace it – want the separation to end.’

She closed her eyes and did as he said.

‘Now, start with…’

The movements came naturally once her focus was in place. She made the gesture rapidly – perfectly – and said: ‘Yma’.

The spoon was in his tea; then it was in Elvie’s hand. She smiled brightly.

‘Fantastic,’ Alistar cheered. ‘Now you know exactly half of what I can teach you about Elder House spell work! Soon you will have equalled the Master… and in only one day. Amazing!’

‘Callum showed me the other spell… Arosfa, wasn’t it?’

‘Yes, he told me as much. We’ll work on the motions if you would like?’

‘Callum said it was a ward?’

‘I’m not as certain. I told you earlier that word and action are merely shaped thoughts – I wonder if it is a ward because that’s exactly what Callum wants it to be.’

Elvie was confused.

‘The heart of all magic is your subconscious, as it creates and shapes a spell. Words and actions, to some extent your focus, they’re all just attempts to bind what you subconsciously want to do.’

‘You’ve lost me – how does your subconscious matter more than your conscious thoughts.’

‘Think of it this way. If you’re whole presence – your soul – tells you not to hit another person, but someone external source, like me, told you to do it. Would you?’

‘I doubt it. No.’

He sipped at his tea as he sat opposite her. ‘Spells are like that. Your subconscious is what motivates a spell. So if Callum subconsciously wants it to be a ward, it becomes one. If I want it to be something else, it’ll become something else.’

‘But what…’ Elvie scratched her head. ‘What do you want it to be?’

Alistar laughed freely. ‘That’s the problem; since he told me it’s a ward, that’s all I think it is. Now, you also think Arosfa will make his lovely magical mist too.’

Those were confusing ideas. ‘Doesn’t that mean you make your own magic? You could do any spell you wanted...’

‘Perhaps.’ He pulled at the corner of an eye. ‘In theory, at least. I’ve tried a few Ash House spells myself without any gestures or words, but they don’t work. So there has to be some connection between the words and the gestures. They must take the spell and make it concrete. That’s important, somehow.’

‘It doesn’t make sense to me, kind of like why we can’t cast fire magic.’ Elvie said. ‘Why do we have spells to cast fire-based magic if you can’t possibly cast it? Surely somebody has, or why do we have the spells?’

Alistar considered his reply. ‘We did have at one point, or so we assume. Just like Elder likely had spells to cast – great spells no doubt. But… well, long ago there were magicians with all sorts of different skills, more than the Great Houses existing today – who knows, there might have been other Great Houses. Somewhere, somehow, it all turned into a fiery mass of destruction – and we don’t know why. Many prominent magicians went grrrrk,’ he jerked his hand across his throat dramatically. ‘The greatest magicians exterminated, killed off, who knows, they could have died of disease. A few books remained to tell of their exploits, but magic appears to have mostly been taught by word of mouth. Afterwards, magicians rebuilt their society quietly, in isolated castles, or locked in their cellars... the usual magiciany places. Eventually, the remaining English magicians decided here was a lovely place to rebuild and set up the school. I think it matched their dreary personalities. In short, magical history divides into two clear categories; pre and post-Cataclysmic. The part where they originally knew lots of things, and the now part, where we know so little.’

‘So what’s the Cata-‘

‘Uh uh,’ he tsked, ‘not today’s lesson.’

Elvie processed the rest of the information. ‘So every house is still piecing back together all the knowledge they have lost.’

‘Elder House appears to have been hit the worst. That’s why we study so much – to find out all the interesting spells we should be able to do. Don’t you learn any of this in magical theory?’

‘I haven’t been here long enough to learn much,’ she replied.

‘I guess we’ll have to address that, won’t we? Then you can teach all the new students. What a fantastic idea…’