Chapter eight

The Magic of the New Crew (Part Three) Sky, you're too much

Joe was in his room taking some down time until they got their new orders. He felt the difference in the amount of magic he was now holding. He could sense something else different somehow. It was like something growing within him. He could almost flex it like a new muscle. He knew it had to do with magic, but what? He had checked the depth of his magic well with no change since he checked it last. If not his well what else could she have given him? His eyes suddenly got really big, his heart started to race, and his hands started to shake. “Sky couldn’t have; she couldn’t have given me a new elemental affinity. He glanced over to a bottle of water, and it burst open. “That was much easier than before.” Then he realized, he used no spell any gesture, and not even a word of power. Joe made the water flow around into increasingly intricate designs, a lot like Sky did with her hair. At least until he looked closer, his designs were nowhere near as intricate as her hair, but he impressed himself just the same. He used the water for some of his plants and drank some himself. He went to one of his plants and took out a little dirt and placed it in the palm of his hand. He stared at it. He poked at it nothing happened. Not earth. He looked around and seen a piece of paper and blew on it while pinching it in the fingers of one hand. Nothing, probably not air either. That leaves the elemental fire alignment. He had the paper he just needed something to make a flame without magic. He tried to picture where he left his old fashioned lighter. In his memory, he remembered the pretty blue flame it made. It all happened so quickly he had the picture in his mind of the blue flame, and while turning his head to the bottom of his footlocker, his eyes passed the piece of paper. He snapped his fingers as if to I know where it is. It all came together in a blink of an eye. The sheet of paper was on fire. He watched it burn for a second and flames were getting close to his fingers, so he went to shake out the flames, and it just went out as if by magic. He now had three elemental affinity water, lightning and fire. He had learned to lighten but that taken a lot of studying and it was not strong enough for most castings. He was going to tell Fred about his discovery. He called to Conny, and she speared before him; she looked so much like Sky. He was about to ask what Fred was up to when Conny’s’ hair changed colours to pink then to silvery blonde.

“Sorry, priority message from Fred, you’re to go to the bridge and monitor for the alien ship. He thinks the magic might draw the alien ship to the magic that might be used”.

Joe thought, well we’re not going anywhere anytime soon. I can always tell him later. “Conny, tell him I’m on my way and that I’ve got something to tell him after his lessons to Sky. And Conny I like the hair, it helps keep you different from Sky”.

Sky was in the shower, just rinsing off the soap when Conny turned to her with her hair draping over her head with water rinsing out the shampoo. “You better hurry Fred wants you to join him in the practice room A.S.A.P. It looks like Fred doesn’t like the new visual interface. I might have to go to a previously stored reset point”.

Sky grabbed a towel to dry off; she was not happy, as she thought about the situation her anger disappeared. It wasn’t her place to change anything; she was the guest. “I’m sorry Conny it was fun; give it another try if he doesn’t like it I can change you back painlessly. After I do, I won’t do it again until Fred gives me the okay to do it. But I’m pretty sure he’ll come around maybe he doesn’t like your new looks?”

Sky and Conny walked quickly to get changed; Conny helped Sky with her new uniform and Conny just appeared in hers in steps as she put on hers. Sky was doing okey putting on the uniform under Conny’s’ instructions. Conny called out to Sky smiling and gave her a wink. Her hair suddenly turned pink as a ripple went through it. Conny then frowned a bit, and the colour changed to silvery blonde. “Fred didn’t like you and me to look so much alike, doesn’t like pink hair. He’s going to give it a try for now”. Conny stood in front of Sky. “You have to fix your collar and put your hair up again. Other than that, you look great in the ensign uniform everyone is going to be complimenting you on your looks. Now that you’re dressed you should head down to the practice room. Fred wants you to assume the lotus position and focus on your inner self. Look for the powers you hold but don’t touch them”.

Conny lead the way to the practice room which was not necessary because it was the last room down the corridor. Once inside the room Sky found it quite large for a ship its size. There were a couple of well-used punching bags that looked soft and fluffy. She walked over and felt one of them in curiosity and found it quite spongy to the touch. On one side, it said ‘heavy bag,’ Sky snorted at that, she could throw it across the room and against the wall easily with her pinky. Conny reminded Sky of the instructions to take the lotus position and start her meditation. Conny assumed the position and Sky sat opposite of her copying her every move perfectly mirrored.

When Fred arrived, he was surprised to see two of Sky’s meditating in the middle of the floor. “How are you doing Sky? Don’t get up if you find it comfortable enough to stay relaxed. Do you feel your magical energy?” Fred asked as he took a seat next to Conny across from Sky.

“Yes, Fred Sir I can feel and see it too, it’s like an ocean of colours. All twisting together but not mixing, I think its five different kinds, each looks like a different colour but they’re all like liquid. It’s hard to describe what I see; can I show you? It would be much easier than to describe it in any detail”. Sky opened her eyes to look at Fred tilting her head to the side.

Fred looked at her questioningly wondering if he was going to learn another impossible feat of magic. “How are you going to show me what’s in your head. I cannot go into your mind any easier than you can go into mine’”.

Sky looked at him with a smile and a wink. “Never thought of bringing you into my head, I’ll have to see if that’s possible later. I was going to show you as I did on the bridge. I just put the picture on the surface of what’s around me. I’ll put a bubble around us and put what I see on the inside, kind of like a vid screen all around you”. Sky looked so happy she could share with him some of her visions. “Are you ready to see what I’m trying to describe to you, Fred Sir?”

Fred looked to Sky and then to Conny, who just shrugged her shoulders “Okay, but if I tell you to stop, do it right away, no questions. Do you understand me Ensign Sky? I don’t want a repeat of this morning. I was a bit disoriented from the images and the spheres going into your pocket space.”

Sky was a little shocked by Fred’s admission to the fact her collecting her rocks bothered him. “I’m sorry about that; I’ll try hard not to do it again, Fred Sir. I was told to ask from now on before doing anything with magic that involves others. That’s why I asked before I showed you this”. Sky waved her hand as if making a circle around them, and a bubble formed about two metres (6 ft.) beyond their reach. Sky then closed her eyes and took a deep breath, and then exhaled slowly. She took another breath and exhaled even slower, and an image started to form around them. The image in Sky’s mind was spectacular; the sky was of a sunset or sunrise, in a rocky cove. The ocean was like nothing he could imagine. Sky was right; there were five colours all mixing but never combining into one. The waves lapping the shore were as close to blending as they got. Sky appeared to fade into view in front of him. He was glad she didn’t just pop into to sight suddenly “So this is my magic well, I’m sorry I don’t have one that looks like a well, the colours just didn’t fit together somehow in a well.” Sky looked to the right of Fred and smiled with a small wave as if to a friend. Fred followed her gaze and found Conny in the lotus position, but with her eyes open.

“I might have to rethink my method of training to access your magic. When you do something with your abilities, how do you power the spell with the magic?” Fred asked. Before he could say tell me in words, a huge wave rose out of the ocean towering over them and a funnel of the liquid magic came down to engulf them. Fred closed his eyes as he was engulfed, but nothing pounded into him. He could feel the magic though, kind of like a rush of energy he pictured a grand arch mage would hold before casting a powerful spell. He opened his eyes, and it was like looking through a soap bubble. Is this how you access your magic, you just pour it over yourself” He could see the magic rising out of the ocean and continuously bath them in raw power.

Sky looked around; this is how I do it now. I used to go into the deepest part and pour it into a stone until it stopped taking it. That was about three years ago, the stone now is gone now I have nowhere to put it all. Now I come here and try to send it to the other stone, but it’s always full it only takes a little of the magic waters. The whole time it just took only the three colours. But there were two colours it didn’t take, so I used those to push mostly, but a tiny bit comes out with the other colours. The white colour makes big sparks, and if I use for the balls of light it doesn’t take much at all”. Sky held out her hand, and it filled with the crackling white magic, with her other hand she dipped in a finger and shook off a few drops and held up the almost dry digit. “That should be not too much, watch.” Sky flicked the finger, and a large ball of blue light appeared along with a small wave of spent magic. “See that is a little more than I usually use; but this is the practice room, so that was, practice.“

Fred had to see if he could access her magic like he felt he could. He held out his hand, and two colours filled his hand a shimmering deep green and sparkling white. He dipped his finger into the white energy but didn’t wait for the drop to fall and flicked his finger a huge ball of light erupted from his finger. It was intensely bright Fred put up his hand to shield it from the intensity. Sky laughed, with her eyes closed she poked his light and it disappeared with a whoosh.

“That was a big one, I get in trouble for making those that big, but I won’t tell. I don’t know what all the colours do, but they do push good. The deep blue, the dark brown, and the silver are the colours I used the most when I copied Joe's magic circle thingy to heal the magic burn in my feet. I still used all the colours to make the best effect; the math just worked out better that way. I thought while adding the magic, make it better, make it all good, and repair all the things that are wrong to make the magic work”.

Fred never really heard what Sky had just said but was still fathoming using her magic. “How can I use your magical energy here in the real world?” Fred said as he looked around through the multi-coloured haze, seeing no far offshore. How was he going to put some order in the chaos of this beautiful mindscape? “When I look at my magic well it is two separate tanks containing only two different colours. Maybe you could envision five tanks and fill them with each of the different colours like I did?”

Sky looked at him and squinted her eyes trying to see if he was joking. “You want me to fit all of this into tanks like they use for water, and separate the colours? Do you know how big they would have to be?” Sky realized she was rude and that he was there to train her, for her benefit. “I’m sorry Fred Sir I’ll try and do as you ask, but it’s not going to be as pretty in here.” Sky closed her eyes, and the changes started to happen. The funnel of magic disappeared, and so did the beach around them. The ground became smooth, and five impossibly huge tanks rose out of the floor. The once ocean started to separate into different colours and began to fill the tanks as they rose out of the floor. Fred thought of his two tanks and felt significantly inadequate to this nine-year-old girl. The top of the tanks was out of sight, and yet they kept growing, they even started to grow in diameter again. Sky turned to Fred as the colossally huge tanks of magic surrounded them. “I think that is most of it, Fred Sir, sorry it doesn’t look very pretty any more. I could try to make it a little more colourful and brighten things up a bit”. This time she just waved her hand around her, and the tanks became transparent. You could see currents in magical energy flowing around in each tank.

Fred looked completely shocked at the sheer volume of magic this little girl held. He had guessed at the amount but was not able to picture it till now. He was momentarily speechless as he took in the magic surrounding them. How was she going to control all of this, he thought of his little valve system, it had to work the magic wells were just a visual manifestation of your mind it has no physical shape or property till you gave it one. It was after all a part of you and your personality that makes it what it is. Now all he had to do is show her how to make the valve system. With a glance, over to Conny, he came up with the Idea to use her to bring up the images to help him explain how it looked and worked. “Conny, could you show Sky an adjustable pressure valve and a simple quarter turn on and off valve”?

Conny brought up visual schematics the appropriate valves to show Sky. “Are these sufficient for your desired use of explanations”? Fred looked them over; Conny made them the right size for Sky to use.

“Yes, they will do for my explanation for regulating Sky’s magic.” Sky looked over the two valves and then waved a hand over each one in turn. “Do you see how they work Sky?”

“Yes, they’re very simple to make and operate. I take it you want me to attach one set to each tank of magic, Fred Sir?” Sky looked to Fred for confirmation. He nodded yes with a smile. About Sky’s waist height a valve set appeared on each tank. Each one was about sixteen metres (52 ½ ft.) away from them. It wasn’t practical for him to demonstrate how they were to work so far away from each other.

In frustration Fred turned once again to ask Conny for help, finding her increasingly helpful each time. “

Conny, could you design a piping system connecting all of the tanks to one location in front of Sky? She has to be able to adjust each one without moving around”.

Conny turned slowly looking at all the tanks in detail. “Would you prefer all of the valve sets here Sky?” Sky looked to Fred, who nodded it was okay with him.

“Yes, that would be okay with me too, for now, we’ll see how it will look.” Conny laid out the most efficient piping system which Sky copied exactly to what she saw. Fred was impressed with how she copied Conny’s valve system. After she looked it over, she added a few tweaks. He had no idea why she made the changes. The changes were not big and would not affect how the system worked. He didn’t feel the need to ask the question, why the changes? Sky looked to Conny, and she nodded in agreement unsaid. There were things about Sky she liked to keep to herself. She also had more of an idea how much magic was too much but didn’t know how to slow it down.

Fred clapped his hands together to get everyone’s attention “Thank you for showing me what your picturing in your mind. It makes it so much easier to know you understand me, not that I know how you do it, but it works. Sky, can you show me what colour do you use the most? We start with the spell you’re most comfortable with when you use your magic. We can adjust that valve set first as a base point.”

Sky walked up to the valves and did something he could never imagine in a million years; she split apart, now there were four Sky clones with a hand on a pressure regulating valve each looking back at Fred, whose mouth was open in udder surprise. Sky looked questioningly to Fred as if to ask what? “I use these the most; the red one is too dangerous to use by itself. I use that element to push mostly if I don’t use it, it tends to get annoying. “What should I do now Fred Sir?” Sky questioned him with the four voices at once.

Fred closed his eyes. She was just too much, too unpredictable, too random in her actions. He could not keep up to her twists of new things she could do. She could do so much and didn’t know it was impossible for anyone else to do so easily, or even dream of without years of preparation. Joe was right; she was going to reach legendary status even before her teens, only if she could control her magic. Before opening his eyes, he called out to them. “One Sky is enough, for now, please, this is for demonstration purposes only, I don’t need you to show off.” When he opened his eyes, she was at the white valve set, with her hand on each of the valves. “Okay, I want you to turn on this valve.” Pointing with his finger to the quarter turn valve. “All the way open.” Nothing happened, good so far. He then gestured to the second valve. “Now ever so slowly turn the pressure regulating valve till you just get a mist of magic since your magic seems to be quite potent.“ Sky slowly turned the valve till a tiny trickle came out. It was too much after seeing the first light spell she used in the mindscape. “Back it off and try again but even slower this time. We want something like a fog coming out. Sky did as he asked but turned the valve almost painfully slow, till a vapour came out. “Okay that’s it, that’s the amount we want to practice with. Very good Sky this is going to be a lot easier than I expected. If you can keep the magic level down it should be safe to use this much magic. So now we have your magic down to a manageable level. What type of magic do you want to learn?” Fred didn’t tell her, but this was a test to see what magic she was going to choose.

Without hesitation, Sky told him. “I want to learn the magic spell you or Joe used to fix all our stuff and my new clothes. That way I don’t have to ask you to fix any more of the mistakes I make. I could also help anyone else who may need it. I love to help out people, but until now I couldn’t do anything but break more stuff than I fixed, and fixing things took forever”. Sky looked happy she was going to learn a spell that would be super useful to everyone.

Fred didn’t know what to tell her. It was her spell that fixed herself and everything in the ship. “Sky I can’t tell you or show how to do that particular spell. But I can show you a great healing spell”. Fred brought up his wrist tablet and keyed in the spell he wanted. He made the spell circles with the sigils appear visually without casting the magic with it. Fred watched Sky study the spell circle with interest. “This is a simple healing spell that is good for most injuries that are fresh or done within a month or so." Fred keyed in another part to the healing spell. “For more serious injuries this one is overlaid on top of the first circle and its sigils making it a more powerful. Some spells are best done, or can only be done effectively with a certain affinity of magic. These are best done with the earth and water affinity. But anyone would work, just not as well as the earth or water or for some both. Do you see how it’s done? Can you copy the sigils as I made them without a M.A.D device?”

Sky’s eyes brightened up and looked to Fred. “That is the one Joe used to heal my magic burn; but a little different. It was more like this she waved her hand over Fred’s spell circles, and they changed so slightly he almost missed the difference. Fred was very impressed with her eye for detail. He just used the water affinity though and a lot of it. When I cast it at breakfast to heal my feet, I used them all but only a tiny bit of the red. It worked well too; my feet felt better right away”.

Fred had to ask Sky how much of each affinity did she use. “Sky when you cast the spell to heal your feet how much of each colour did you use?”

“I don’t know Fred Sir maybe ten drops of blue and brown, five drops of white and silver, with a flick of red. The red felt left out, so I used a bit to make it happy. When I sent out the magic, I put a feeling of intentions into it, to be well, to be made like it should be, be like it was before anything was wrong. I push those thoughts and good feelings out with my magic “.

Fred took a bit to grasp what she had done. Nobody said you could add anything like feelings or intentions with the magic. You need just the right magical energy to give you the best results, until now. Fred wished he was not healed so thoroughly so he could try her spell on a limited scale. “Sky this is important did you copy the magic circles and sigils exactly or did you tweak it a little like you seem to do everything?”

The sky was hoping he wasn’t going to get upset for any slight changes she had made; she had to when using all the colours. She did the math, and it’s just how it worked out. “Fred Sir after doing the math I had to change it a little or else it would have not been as effective and work as well as it did. It made me feel better instantly. Just whoosh and the pain was gone”.

Fred had his hand on his wrist tablet. “Sky could you show me the exact spell circles and sigils you used. It would be good to see just what kind of insight you have used your gifts. Just show me the spell circles, and I’ll copy them with my tablet”.

Sky nodded her head enthusiastically, eager to please another teacher, this time she won’t make them mad by asking if she could teach them something else. All her teachers didn’t like that she understood them and could do it better after she learned the concept of what they taught. After a while, she was just sent to the library for independent study and never told what to learn. She had sat there most of the time because she wasn’t allowed to touch the books. Her tablet was to slow, and she had to use her rubber sticks to interface with it at school and the library. After remembering about her past mistakes, she just showed Fred the spell circles she had used to heal herself. “These are the spell circles I used.” She waved her hand, and three circles appeared one over top of the other so Fred could get a picture of each as they came into view.

Fred was amazed at the intricate spells she weaved. There were a lot of differences than the ones she was shown. Fred knew some of the math involved in creating spell circles. He could see some of the different magic affinities that were required for each circle all but the red. “Sky you said you used the red where is it in the spell circles. I don’t see where it’s required in any part of them. It makes no sense to use fire in any of this healing spell?”

Sky looked to Fred and tilted her head to the side looking up in thoughtfully and frowned. “Red is fire; I guess that makes sense things got hot when I touched things when I held it. I think it was to burn away anything that was not supposed to be there kind of like lint on your shirt. It just burns away the lint, so it doesn’t have to be moved somewhere, it is simply gone. Fred Sir could you tell me what the colours mean? I think blue is water; brown is earth and leafy things, white is light, red I know there is fire, the silver colour I don’t know”.

Fred was surprised again how simple she made things work with math but got so many things wrong in simple terms. “Sky your right about the blue it represents the water affinity or element. Deep brown represents earth and all that is made from it, minerals, metals, chemicals, and anything of the earth. White is energy that is electrical in nature light, lightening, and actual electricity are white. Silver is air that flows all around, in and around just about everything. Red is fire or heat; it is friction between objects to various degrees. All of these things can be found in one form or other in the other elements but not to the degrees needed for an elemental affinity. I have two affinities earth and lightning. Lightning is the only one that can be taught, only if you have an elemental affinity to start with. Joe has two also he has water and lightning. You dear girl have all five elemental affinituies and in great quantities. No other person has held all five as natural elemental affinities”.

Sky thought about it as no big deal it was like having a toy no one else has you can share it, but you cannot give it away. “Fred Sir would you like another elemental affinity I could give you one for a while, and it would help me out? Wouldn’t you love to have the fire elemental affinity too? That’s a cool thing for a guy to have. I think I gave it to Joe, so it’s only fair to give it to you too. Do want it too, please it would mean so much to me”?

Fred was dumbfounded yet again, “you can’t just pass on elemental affinities without some kind of, of, um. It can’t be done. Out of curiosity, he asked her how. “How would you do the impossible yet again Sky? Tell me, and I’ll think about it”. Fred stood there crossing his arms.

Sky jump for joy. “That simple I link you to my fire well it’s the biggest because I don’t use it and it wants to be useful, but it’s so dangerous I try not to hold it for long. So, if you can use it that would make us both happy, then everyone’s happy.

Fred’s knees almost buckled the magic affinities, and the semi-sentient plants were the part of Sky’s being that’s what they became or may be entered. She was so much more than she appeared. Fred considered her pretty face and pleading eyes, was she using magic on him because he couldn’t refuse her. “Yes, I’ll do it for you; you can link me to your fire.” With a flash of inspiration. Only if you link me with your water too? That way my healing spells will be more powerful. That way if I make a mistake with the fire I can heal or fix it easier. Do we have a deal?” Fred said with a hopeful sound in his voice.

Sky didn’t answer him, she ran to him and hugged him, well a pseudo embrace. This time it felt different the feeling of joy but something more something growing and becoming part of him. When Sky released the hug, he could feel it, the magic wells that were now part of him. He knew others could have done it, but it was only stable if it was done freely. Nobody wanted to share their magic willingly. It was kept a secret or lost in obscurity. One thing he knew for sure he now held four elemental affinities.

Fred remembered Sky never had many hugs from another person other than her parents. Fred now thought Sky as one of his daughters. He used his new magical gifts to boost his strength and density as possible. He knelt and gave her a hug squeezing her for all he was worth, and he felt her skin give slightly to his embrace. Sky hesitantly returned the hug with one of her butterfly hugs and felt that Fred was soft and not squishy. As Fred released the hug Sky told she loved him. Fred was taken back by this young girls’ admission.

“I love you like another father, Fred Sir if that’s okay with you, I could always use another father? You’ve done so much for me and my magic, and we just started”.

Fred looked to Sky with tears in his eyes. “Yes Sky, I already think of you as one of my daughters. I will always care for you and help raise you to be the most carrying and loving magic user you can be. I want to help you to be able to touch and be touched, without harming the ones you care about. This is what I’m going to try to do for you, my lovely new daughter”. He reached up and ruffled her hair and after doing it a second time he now knew why her parents did it all the time. It felt like brushing against heaven.

Conny interrupted Fred and Sky, and their new father, daughter moment. “Fred Sir, you have a priority message from the imperial fleet commander Mark Douglaston. You are to report to your ready room with your entire crew for orders”.