fandomhigh | Fun with Magic | Monday, 2nd period

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Fun with Magic | Monday, 2nd period

Class today had been handwavily asked to meet in the Danger Shop, where they were greeted by a beaming Bob. Bob loved the Danger Shop. He could touch things here. Sort of.

"Today, we paint," Bob said, grinning. He programmed up a bunch of sticks that looked like paintbrushes, but although the ends were colored, they had no actual paint in them. He picked one up and waved it through the air, leaving a trail of blue glowing behind it. Then he reached out with one hand and smudged it. "Like so. Enjoy!"

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"There, you see?" Bob said. "You can do it. Learn to control those currents more precisely and you've taken your first steps."

"First steps," Norman echoed, and nodded, tentatively. "First steps to magic. That's..."

He tried not to flail around, there.

"This is still so weird."

Not bad. Weird.

"A pleasant weird, I hope," Bob said. "Learning you're capable of more than you thought can be daunting, but it's always worth exploring."

He paused.

"Safely and ethically exploring."

Do as he said, not as he did, Norman.

"... Is there an unethical way to make lights from your fingers?"

Norman. Norman. You had literally rescued a bunch of zombies from eternal damnation.

"I can think of a few," Bob said. No, he wasn't going to elaborate. "But it's best to learn good habits from the start, regardless."

Norman tilted his head at Bob curiously. He didn't doubt the man, but now he was curious.

There was clearly a story somewhere in there.

"Well, then I guess I'm lucky I've got someone to tell me that."

"A good teacher is one of the best things a young wizard can have," Bob said modestly.

"... Wizard?"

Really, that part was probably kind of a given in the same way that Aggie had been a witch, but it was... weird... taking that word and appending it to himself, as though he somehow had some kind of potential beyond just seeing the dead and talking to them.

Aggie had.

None of this train of thought was making him look any less dazed, though.

"Would you prefer 'mage'?" Bob asked. "Or given your inclinations, likely 'necromancer', although that is by no means certain."

There was a long pause before Norman replied again. Little gears were ticking in his head as he picked apart the implications of all of those words. His father would be less likely to blow his top off if they settled on 'mage' instead of 'wizard,' if only because one sounded way more... crazy fantasy obsession... than the other. Then again, Bob wasn't wrong. His inclinations did lean far more strongly toward the dead.

But what Aggie had done to those people...

He chewed on his lip.

"What's the difference?"

Maybe there was something more to necromancy than eternal torment?

"The difference?" Bob asked. "The difference between a wizard and a mage is predominantly which world you come from and which word you're comfortable using. A necromancer is a more specialized form of wizard, one who works primarily with the forces of life and death."

He eyed Norman. "Given your abilities, necromancy would be a logical step, but I won't lie - it doesn't have the best of reputations everywhere." He shrugged. "Regardless, the basics of magic," he tapped at the light streams they'd made, "are the same to start, no matter where you intend to go with them."

"It isn't like my reputation has always been that great already," Norman noted, looking at his dragon, a pale green haze as the light that had been made to create it started to slowly drift apart. "I guess I'll learn more about either as I go...?"

He had a sneaking suspicion that he knew which one he was basically hard-wired for.

"You will," Bob confirmed. His own knight was drifting a little as well, though not nearly as much as Norman's. "Fortunately, I have been a teacher for centuries, and I began as a very good necromancer."

Well, that was interesting.

"Tell me about it?" He tried not to sound too eager, but there was somebody standing in front of him who had used magic that was entirely in tune with what he was born to see and experience. It was hard, after having only his crazy great uncle as an example of what he could do, to not leap at the possibility of finding out more. "What was it like?"

"Fascinating," Bob answered. "Gratifying. Rewarding. Right up until I went too far and wound up bound to my skull for eternity. Magic is boundless and wonderful, but also very dangerous."

Now Norman was chewing on his lip.

"If I ask you how far is too far...?"

Because he really had no intention of being bound to his skull for eternity, either.

"Raising the dead is generally frowned upon, at least in my world," Bob said. "Once a person is entirely dead, returning them fully to life, body and soul, is as close to sacrilegious as you can get, considering most wizards don't follow any one religion."

He gave Norman a serious look. "Whether it carries similar consequences in your world or not, it is certainly never something to be considered lightly."

Norman gave that information some consideration that was about as serious as the look that Bob was giving him. He pulled in a breath, and then exhaled.

"I don't think I've ever considered... that," he replied. "I've never even really wanted to. Maybe because even the dead aren't necessarily completely gone. Not from where I'm standing."

He blew out a little breath. The last of his dragon, or at least the last of the dragon that he'd created without the brush, faded away.

"I've seen souls trapped in ruined bodies before," he added, after a pause. "It's not something I think I could ever bring myself to do."

"That is a very good point of view," Bob said. "Remember that, and you'll be fine."

Norman nodded a little bit, turning his attention back to the lingering glow of the green paint from the brush.

"It's not something I'm likely to ever forget."

It really, really wasn't.

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Fun with Magic | Monday, 2nd period

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