Hailey couldn’t fall asleep. That weird emotion that didn’t really exist was still bothering her mind. It made her think of Kait. Why? Whenever she tried to figure out what the emotion was, she felt like she was blockaded by a chunk of ice. Sure, technically, it could be called an emotion, but functionally it was just a gnawing sensation.

She stood up from her bed. She felt dizzy. Had Kait done something to her? Either way, she didn’t want to keep resting in bed just to feel like a sack of garbage(though if she were one, she would be right at home). She had to do something to distract herself from that ‘emotion’. She dressed in a heavy coat. If all else failed, throw some money at a fortune reader, right?

Stumbling outside, the blast of frosty air made her feel like throwing up. Something was definitely wrong. That emotion was trying to infiltrate her emotional defenses, melting away and leaking into her thoughts. Where was Kait? Could she fix this?

She tried her best to seem composed as she stumbled down the roads to find the strip mall. If she couldn’t find Kait, maybe another magic-user could help. She felt unsteady. Was there some sort of evil disease inside that void that latched onto her or something?

She made her way to the shop and entered, a small bell ringing as she did. The waiting room’s walls were covered in murals about the fortune reader’s ancestors, and chairs with colorful tapestries draped on them lined the front wall’s windows, waiting to be sat upon. On the other side of the room, curtains were set up for people to walk through. Another person sat in one of the three chairs, so Hailey sat to their left. She wondered if fortune reading was actually passed down or if the whole ‘ancestor’ thing was just meant to be cool. If it really was passed down, maybe she could learn it. Hailey verified the existence of a ten-dollar bill in her pocket. Hailey realized, then, that she had actually walked outside for herself for the second time in the last month. She wasn’t sure if that meant she was getting over what had happened, but at least she didn’t feel as trapped anymore...?

Someone stepped through the curtains and exited, then the person on the other chair stood up and walked through the curtains. The cost of fortune reading was low, so people would often stop by on a whim. After just a few minutes, that person exited, and Hailey entered. Behind, there were two doors, the one on the left painted to look like what Hailey thought was a galaxy. Hailey walked through the left door.

The room was fairly small, with nightstands stocked with various items related to fortune reading, an empty table draped with a purple table cloth, and three chairs surrounding the table. A woman in her early thirties sat in the chair farthest from Hailey, wearing purple and black clothing that was far baggier than it needed to be, with a little black bowtie on the collar. Hailey always had a sneaking suspicion that they were pajamas; they looked far too comfortable...

“Hey, aunt Taila...” She said hesitantly.

“Oh! Hailey, it’s nice to see you! How are you doing?!” Taila, the fortune reader, got on her feet and walked to Hailey, giving her a big hug. “I missed you. Are you doing better after...what happened?”

She instantly regretted coming. She hadn’t properly considered what it meant to see her aunt, plus she felt like leaning over and barfing already. Hailey’s voice gave out a little, “Uhh, feeling better, I guess.” She awkwardly patted her Aunt’s back, uncomfortable at seeing an old face after hiding away in her house for so long.

Taila backed off a little. “So why’d you come here? Do you need a reading, or did you come to see your dear aunt?”

“Yeah,” Hailey sat down at the chair opposite Taila’s, and Taila sat back down with her, “I don’t know why exactly I came here...uhh, I guess I’m feeling weird.”

“Are you sick?”

“No, I don’t think so...There’s like, some sort of emotion that isn’t really an emotion in my head, and It’s making me feel dizzy...”

Taila smiled insidiously. “Are youu in~”

“Shut up!” Hailey suddenly lashed out. She wrapped her arms around herself, feeling her skin to ease the feeling of sickly vulnerability, “It feels wrong! what the hell is going on in my head!?” Most of Hailey’s family was used to her getting angry for short periods when she was stressed, but she never felt good when she acted that way.

Taila leaned back in surprise, then leaned her chin on her warmly clothed hands and closed her eyes. A moment passed, then she smiled, “Well, give me a moment. I think I know just what to do~!” She stood up and walked out of the room. A minute later, she returned with a plastic box and placed it on the table. Opening it, she removed a thin slab of concrete and two wooden blocks. She arranged the slab’s ends to be held atop the blocks. “Give it a karate chop!” She motioned to Hailey with an excited chop of her own.

Hailey looked from the slab to Taila, affirming what she’d been asked to do, then smashed the slab with her hand. It broke surprisingly easily but hard enough to hurt her hand a tad. She shook off the pain with some hand-flailing. “Is that good?” she said timidly.

Taila gently removed the slab, split in two, from the blocks. She moved a monocle of sorts from her sleeve to her left eye and inspected the area where Hailey had broken it. “I figured you could channel your emotions into the slab to show how your emotion manifests into physical movement when I exercise my magic...” Taila scrunched her face up in confusion and shock, running her hand over the crack of one half of the slab, then on the other. The slab was broken into two perfect halves.

Taila ran her hand on the other slab, dumbfounded. “Wow...that’s not supposed to happen. Are these defective slabs? I’ve never seen someone break one of these so perfectly! Look!” She pushed one of the slab’s broken sides into Hailey’s face, showing a perfectly smooth face as if it were butter cut by a hot knife. “What is this!?”

Hailey pushed Taila’s hand from her face. “I don’t know. You’re the reader.”

Taila sat down and took a deep breath, regaining her composure. She placed the monocle back into her sleeve, then put her chin on her hands again. “Have you come into contact with any magic users lately?”

“Yes,” Hailey said innocuously.

She stood up and threw her hand onto the table, rattling the slabs. “REALLY!?”

“Yeah...”

“What sort of magic user are they! How skilled are they!” She slowly leaned in closer to Hailey as she spoke, “Did they cast magic on you? Where do they live? Can I talk to them!?”

“Too many questions, auntie!” Hailey placed her hands on Taila’s shoulders and guided her back into her seat, “Kait is a witch. She’s been living with Taylor, me, and mom for three weeks.”

“A witch?!” She shot up from her chair again, wide-eyed.

“Chill, Tai-Tai, or wait, that’s a reasonable reaction...” Witchcraft was thought to be a lost magic, one whose users were killed off four hundred years ago in a genocidal crusade of unparalleled tragedy. Anyone would be dumbfounded by the revelation witchcraft was rediscovered. “I don’t know the details, but she, like, used a spell to put herself in stasis for hundreds of years and reawoke two months ago.”

Taila stood still, then sat down and shriveled in her chair, sliding down it so far that her face was leaning against its backrest. “Don’t bother paying me. Get me to her after this, alright?!”

“Maybe...”

Taila stood up again, then took a violin bow from one of the nightstands, setting it in front of Hailey. “Pluck a string off it,” she said in impatient boredom. She sat back down and pushed in her chair. Hailey plucked a horsehair from the bow, then awkwardly held it in midair. “Now, let go.”

Hailey let go of the hair, and it floated, straightening in midair, then began moving like a wave. “cool.”

“Let’s see...it’s saying...I think it’s saying you’ll be in bed for a long time. Hmm...”

“Not sure how floating hair makes you say that, but I wouldn’t be surprised. That’s been most of my days for the past few weeks.”

“You sure you aren’t sick? It says you’ll be bedridden.”

“I may very well be. Can I leave now?”

“Not without me, you aren’t!”

“Excuse me?”

“You said you would show me to that witch. Kait, you said, right?”

“I don’t think I ever agreed to that. You can take the money if you want.” she held out the ten-dollar bill for Taila to grab.

“Well, you don’t have to. I’m going straight to your house, and I’m not taking no for an answer!”

“Don’t you have work?”

“No need for work when there’s a new spellcaster in town! A witch at that! Witchcraft is a first root to fortune reading, you know!”

“What does that even mean?”

Taila shut down the shop, ushering a waiting customer out with profound ‘sorrys’ and asking them to return the next day for a free reading. Then, once prepared, she set off with Hailey.

“I’m so excited!”

“Woah. That’s. So. Good. To. Hear.”

“Come on! It’s a new spellcaster! What sort of things can she do!?”

Hailey ignored the question. “I don’t get it? Don’t you have a life? It’s just a spellcaster. She’s got nothing to do with you, right?”

“Well, for one, I don’t want anyone stealing my business in the future, so I need to assert dominance!” She gave Hailey a wry smile. “But mainly, it’s rare I get the chance to collaborate with a new spellcaster.”

“I don’t get it.”

“I guess I have to give you the run-down,” Taila said, obviously wanting any excuse to explain. “Spellcasters can do a ton of unique things by combining their talents.”

“I kind of get it. What sort of things?”

“Well, for example, if a pyromancer and a cryomancer were to do a ‘collaboration’, they could make ice-flame.”

“Cryomancer is an ice mage, I assume?”

“Yes. Ice-flame is like fire, but it’s cold.”

“You don’t say.”

“Instead of burning things, it crystallizes them.”

“And now I don’t get it again, but it sounds cool.”

“....................It’s also banned by the Terrian convention for causing incredible collateral damage.”

“Ok, please at least comment on it.”

“Most collabs produce unique results that can’t be reproduced in any other way.”

“Please, put ice on the wound, not salt!”

“For example, a chronomancer and a kinemancer can stop time.”

“You’re so cold. So that’s how Kyndl and Kyle stop time?” Hailey said, referring to a famous celebrity duo.

“Yeah! Just imagine what sort of things I could do if I did my own collab with a witch! It would be the first time in recorded history!”

“That’s impressive, but there are thousands of magics. Surely there are plenty of other unique magic users to collab with in our town.”

“You don’t know, then?”

“Err, what?”

“Witchcraft is known as a versatile magic. Versatile magic can be used in a ton of different ways. It’s usually tough to learn, though. It also means it can find a bunch of new magics.”

“Sounds right, but what do you mean by new magics?”

“Gotta start with the basics then...A versatile magic can find specific magics, which can then find specialized magics.”

“So magic finds other magic?”

“They don’t teach you this stuff in schools?”

“You were homeschooled by a fortune reader. My school might not be good, but at least it doesn’t waste time talking about random magic facts.”

Taila folded her arms. “I feel a little offended.”

“Well, I doubt the school is apologizing.” they were almost home.

“Anyway, magics can be used to find new types of magics, so a whole host of undiscovered magics like fortune reading could be found with witchcraft. You got it?”

“Not sure how it works, but I think I get what you’re saying.”

“Oh? Is that her?!” Taila pointed to Kait, who was shuffling through the frozen grass on the lawn, a plastic bag by her side.

“Yeah, that’s her.”

Taila started running towards the house, waving at Kait, “Helllloooo!!”

Hailey muttered to herself once Taila had run far enough away, “Is she really that cool?” Then chuckled to herself in a pained timbre.

Now she wasn’t sure if the pain was from the painful emotion or the painful joke.