Sorry people – real life has been a bit hectic

By the time he finished reading the journal, he had much greater theoretical knowledge of what spells his grandmother had available and what they were used for without much practical information on how the spells were crafted, which was a bit frustrating. Over the next few months, he kept re-reading parts of the journal while trying to nut out how she did things. The key seemed to be collecting power which wasn’t really explained in detail, but from a couple of indirect references, he decided it involved absorbing sunshine.

One afternoon when his dad had gone fishing with a mate, his mother asked him how he was going with his grandmother’s stuff.

“Okay, I guess. She mentions quite a few of the things she could do but never explains how she did them.”

“Like what? His mother asked.

“Hang on. I’ve made a list.”

He ducked into his room and retrieved the list he’d made. He brought it back out to the living room where his mother was waiting.

“Right. Let’s see. Sleep, Stun, Shield, Push, Laugh, Hiccup, and Fireball. She also mentions something called bubbles and a spell to make her unnoticeable.”

“I never could work out what she meant by bubbles. I could sort of do the unnoticeable spell, but if I moved, it didn’t work very well. The other spells I learned were Sleep and Stun. Push I lacked the strength for, and she never taught me how to do a Fireball. There were two types of Shield spells. There is a mental Shield that blocks your mental projection and stops things like Sleep and a physical Shield that stops objects. I was okay at the mental Shield but lousy at the Physical one. You can sense people magically?”

“Yes. You are really bright.”

“Oh. Thanks. So close your eyes and watch me mentally.”

He did so, and her glow damped right down until it was about as bright as a dog.

“Wow! How did you do that?”

“I put up my mental shield. Think of a mirror, double-sided, surrounding your head. It keeps your thoughts in and stops others from getting through to you. Come outside.”

She led him onto the porch at the back of the house and had him sit on the deck crosslegged.

“Close your eyes and feel the sun on your skin. Feel the heat flowing into your blood and spreading around your body. Now imagine the double-sided mirror around your head.”

She closed her own eyes and could sense his shaky shield.

“That’s it?” he asked.

“Yes. Now let it go. Practice that every day. As you get stronger and more comfortable doing it, eventually, you will do it automatically. Now feel that power flowing through you again. That is how you power all the spells. Now let the power dissipate from your body into the air around you. Good. Holding too much power can be dangerous, apparently. I could never pull in enough power for that to be a problem.”