Learning a New Life - 5. Chapter 5

Michael woke the next morning and rubbed his head. As he sat up in bed, he winced at the other soreness, and after a brief flashback, reached to the nightstand for his pendant. His hand came back empty.

It did not take Michael long to start to panic. He had no idea what to do in this situation. He was 18, he had a house, he had some money, but he knew no one and for the last few weeks had relied upon the crutch of having a jinni upon whom he could call. He thought back to the Glen, but he knew that he would be unable to find it should he try. He thought to his training but did not know any summoning spells other than for basic elements.

There was another option ... what was it that humans went to when they were in trouble? «Pol-- something,» he thought, wracking his brain, but then he realized it would do no good. He had been warned about seeking their help in some areas: Magic was not something they could assist in. A magic bag that only he could open would not be something he would like to figure out how to explain, and clouding the memories an entire police station was beyond his ability after the last enchantment he cast.

In times of desperation, with no sense of what one can do, one may find themselves returning to the last place they had been. It was on his way, unthinking, back to the club that Michael saw a building façade with a rainbow flag hanging in front and a sign in the window that simply read, "WE CAN HELP." Michael walked inside.

As the door opened and closed, a little bell rang that caused Michael to look up being unfamiliar with door chimes. When he looked back into the room, he saw a few desks, chairs, and a woman coming out from what must have been a back room.

"Hi, welcome, how may I hel--" the woman stopped where she was and looked at Michael, who was standing in the doorway, disheveled. The woman smiled briefly, and then looked concerned. "It's you!" she resumed walking quickly towards Michael, took his hand, and she gently brought him to the back room from where she had emerged. She sat him down on a comfortable sofa and took a seat next to him, though on a separate piece of furniture. Michael didn't notice that she flipped the sign in the door to, "WE'RE CLOSED" and had locked the door.

The woman looked at Michael for a few seconds before asking, "Can I get you something to calm you down? Coffee? Tea? Uhhh, I think we may have some hot cocoa?"

Michael looked up at her and said nothing.

She tried again. "My name's Susan."

"Michael."

"Okay, we're getting somewhere! Now, Michael, I know you're scared -- hell, you're radiating fear like a mouse in a field of cats -- but you came here for a reason. Tell me what I can do. Tell me what happened."

Michael looked up to the woman and, after a few moments, he realized that he recognized her. She was the person who had bumped into him last night at the club, nearly knocking him down. As that realization caused him to think back to the club and what had happened after, he started to shut down again.

Susan realized what was happening and tried again. "Michael, please. Please let me help you. Look, I can tell that something horrible happened, but keeping it all to yourself won't solve anything."

"You wouldn't understand."

Susan paused and looked at him thoughtfully. Then she decided. "Michael, if you can't tell me, but you want me to know, I can read it from you." Michael looked up at her and was suddenly even more fearful as the realization dawned on him. "No no no! I'm not going to hurt you! I don't have any active abilities anyway. Please, let me help you. I'm empathic. I can read it from you without you having to relive it. I promise I won't pry further, and you should be able to block anything you don't want me to know, anyway."

Michael stared at her wide-eyed and thought quickly. He knew he was strong enough to teleport himself back to his house with a quick and subtle gesture, but that would drain the little magical energy he had recovered since the enchantment several days before. He had no where near enough to take himself out of time long enough to escape, and his glamour wouldn't work against an empath. But then, maybe somehow, if he had actually found another witch, she could help him. And he could still escape if absolutely necessary.

In much less time than it took to read that, he decided, and he very curtly nodded his head.

Susan visibly relaxed and sat back in her chair. She closed her eyes and started to breathe more deeply. After a few seconds, Michael could see her eyes darting back and forth under their lids, but her mouth remained absolutely still, save for the slightest tremor at the corners. Michael was watching her closely, both out of interest and for an early warning. He was also trying very hard to maintain a mental block against everything except the events of the last night and that something very important to him had been taken.

After about a minute had passed, Susan's eyes darted open. "Michael, I think I can help, but not alone. My mother is stronger than I, and I think that, together, we can scry for your bag, though I don't quite understand why it's so important to you."

Michael was silent and thought. While contemplating his options, he felt the slightest poke at the edge of his consciousness and immediately glared at Susan and took a defensive posture. Susan's hands shot up in a "sorry" gesture and she apologized, "Sorry! I was just checking something. You are surprisingly powerful, you know ... more that I think any I've read before. Only a few have been able to sense such a peripheral prod."

"I'll go with you, but know this," Michael replied in a deep and flat tone. "Keep yourself out of my head or it will be the last one you try to enter."

* * * * *

Susan pulled into the driveway, parking the Volvo and turning it off. Michael stared around him as she got out, then she poked her head in and asked, "Coming?" Michael looked around and after a very brief realization, Susan reached into the car, across Michael, and pulled the door handle on his side. Michael stepped out and together they walked into the three-story house.

"Mom! I'm home! I brought someone and we need you!" Susan called out. Michael heard footsteps from the floor above him towards the left, over what appeared to be a room similar to where he had set up his table and chairs. The footsteps went towards the back of the house, around, and then down the stairs in front of him to reveal an older woman who looked to be in her 60s. She had greying hair that flowed behind her and piercing green eyes. What was odd was that to Michael she looked vaguely familiar, but he couldn't quite place her. It seemed as though he had seen her before - and recently - but he wasn't sure where. But he stayed still, by the door, with his hands behind his back should he need them.

"Susan, dear, who is our guest?" the woman asked in a very grandmotherly way.

"Mom, this is Michael. Michael, this is my mother, Joanna." Michael nodded curtly though the woman didn't seem to notice and held out her hand. Michael, not entirely sure of what to do, took it briefly, and that seemed to satisfy the woman.

Turning back to her daughter, she stated, "Shawn's out jogging in the park and I think Will is playing football with his friends. I told them both to be home by noon but you know they never listen to me. Do, um, I need to do anything 'special' about them?" as she looked towards Michael dubiously.

Susan looked between her mother and Michael briefly and then replied, "No, I don't think this will take very long. We need to be in the attic for this."

Joanna nodded at that and the two women started to walk up the stairs. Michael stayed at the foot, not quite sure what to do, until he took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and followed them several steps behind. As he rounded the corner to follow the women, he saw several furnished bedrooms. He was taking in everything he saw for he had never actually been inside a human residence, at least not any other than his own, and he had no idea just how much "stuff" these people had. It was so different from how he had grown up, and he was realizing that free, empty space didn't seem to be a driving concept.

He rounded the corner again and followed the women up the next set of steps and saw Joanna pause before a closed door, pass her hand over it, and then turn the knob and walk in. Susan looked back, gestured, and said, "Come on."

Once in the attic, Michael was again greeted by what - to him - was an inordinate amount of "stuff." He wondered if all houses looked like this. He didn't hear nor see the door close behind him.

"Alright young man, what can we do for you?"

Michael was caught from his passive prying and looked back towards the women who at that moment were standing together, framed by a circular stained glass window, the attic lit by several skylights. Michael was silent for a moment, and Susan jumped in. "Mom, he was robbed last night and something - a bag - that was very valuable to him was stolen."

"A bag?" the woman turned to her daughter. "You brought a stranger home to search for a bag? Have you lost it or are you ..." Her voice faded away as she looked at him suddenly and threw up her hands in a gesture Michael didn't recognize. Nothing happened. The expression on her face went to one of puzzlement as she did it again, and nothing happened again.

Michael, who had remained on his guard, had in the split second before the second gesture made his own, and he was now sporting an arc of glowing blue energy between his hands, and he was about to retaliate himself.

"Wait! Wait!" Susan went to stand between Michael and her mother with her hands stretched like a traffic officer, but Michael didn't and let loose the energy towards the women. Only it was deflected around them as though striking an invisible barrier just in front of Susan's outstretched palm.

"Listen to me!" Susan turned to her mother. "Mom, he's not evil, you know that now that your powers won't work on him. Michael," she continued, turning to face him, "please, this was just a misunderstanding! My MOTHER," as she turned briefly to glare at Joanna before turning back, "tends to overreact sometimes. Trust me, we can help you. We just need something related to the bag to scry for and this should be done in a jiffy."

Michael was slow to back down, and although he was surprised that his offensive ability was so easily blocked, he definitely did not want to let his guard down again and needed to have a transportation ready at less than a moment's notice.

"I apologize, Michael," Joanna said in a tone that reflected sincerity and regret. "We recently had some ... well, let's just say 'issues' and I needed to make sure. Especially after what happened a few -- never mind. Okay, describe this bag."

"Small, brown, drawstrings," Michael replied, warily.

"Anything in it?"

Michael paused. "Yes."

"What?"

"I'd rather not say."

This time it was Susan who replied. "Michael, we need to know as much about it as we can if we want to look for it. The less information, the more false positives and the longer it will take to hone in on yours. Is there anything else about it that would help identify it?"

Again, he paused. "It carries the Idiosyncratic enchantment."

Susan looked to her mother, who looked back to her daughter in confusion. The older woman spun around and went to a lectern with what looked like an old, brown leather-bound book. She held up her hands and the book opened and the pages started to flutter at a dizzying rate. Michael watched with little interest as he was used to books reading themselves in the elves' library. After a minute or two, the book snapped shut and Joanna looked up towards Michael. "Neither I nor my daughter have ever heard of that enchantment, nor has anyone in our knowledge. What is it, and where did you learn it?"

"It binds the bag to me so that only I can open it. And that's all I'm saying. I need it back and I need what's inside it, and you're going to have to help me with that information alone or I'm going to find it myself!"

Joanna glanced to Susan and then back at Michael. "A binding spell? Okay, that puts it in at least a category. If memory serves, those usually involve something - uh, how shall I put this? - 'personal' to be used, correct?"

"Yes."

"Then this should be much easier than I thought, assuming of course it was just a normal human who took it and there's no shielding." Joanna came back around from the stand and went over to a small table with a map of the city. She picked up a leather cord that was tied around a pointed, perfectly clear quartz crystal.

"Michael, come here. I'm surprised you came to my daughter at all - this is simple scrying. Didn't your parents teach you how to do this?"

Michael walked slowly over and debated how much information to give. When he reached the table, he took the cord and crystal and stated, "No, I was not raised by my parents."

"Oh ..." she said, while her daughter came up and added, "We're sorry, we didn't realize."

"Now Michael, what you do is hold the cord and let the crystal hang down. You need to hold your hand perfectly still and concentrate on the bag. The crystal will channel your power to finding it and it will locate it on the map. It may help if you close your eyes. And make sure that you don't move the crystal yourself. It may help if you rest your elbow on the table. There's something called the 'ideomotor effect' and without even thinking, your hand will twitch and may cause the crystal to move. When you actually have a lock on your bag's location, you will feel a real, physical pull on the crystal to that spot on the map. Susan and I are just going to go over here because you need to be free of distractions when doing this. Okay?"

The two women walked towards the other side of the room. When they were out of earshot and sure that Michael was concentrating, Joanna whispered, "Susan! What is going on here!? Where did you find this boy?"

"He found me! I saw him last night at one of the local gay clubs where I was handing out my card, and then he found me at the outreach center this morning."

"But Susan, who is he? I have never seen his kind of abilities before, and how on Earth could he know of enchantments that aren't in The Book? It's been passed down for over 2000 years and has every spell, incantation, enchantment, potion, and creature our family has ever come in contact with. I didn't think there was anything that wasn't in that book."

"Mom, I told you about all I know. I tried to do a very broad scan of him earlier and he picked me up right away. Whoever he is, he's powerful, though I sense he may not even know his potential. But I know he's one of us, and human."

"But where are his parents? How did he learn how to use his abilities and this 'idiosyncratic enchantment?'"

"I don't know! But you're not going to learn anything if you try to throw him against the wall again! I thought we could help him get this bag back and then maybe he'll want to actually interact with us and you can learn more then. We could trade spells or something. Maybe he could even hook up with Shawn."

"Susan! You can't go pimping out your own son just to anyone! And Shawn is not ... one of 'them.'"

"Mother ..." her tone got very harsh, and Joanna visibly backed down. "Shawn is gay. Whether you like it or not. There are all the obvious signs - and I should know them because I work with the community all the time. Trust me, he's gay. You need to accept that and be happy for him once he accepts it himself. I also know how he feels around cute guys -- he's fifteen for gods' sake. I have to take a potion when he goes to bed just to block him out. At least Will is thirteen and I don't have to worry about taking a double dose yet.

"And I may not know much about Michael, but the little I do know about him makes me think that he may put up a brave front and have a strong level of magic coursing through him, but underneath he's a scared boy who doesn't know what the hell he's doing." Susan's countenance became distant. "I sense so much potential from him ..." She snapped back and looked momentarily drained. She shook her head and continued, "We should nurture him and help him discover what he can do."

"I'm not sure ..."

"Mom, I asked you to come live with me and the boys because I thought it would be good for you -- for all of us. I know Shawn and Will don't like it, and I know you resent me for why, but this is my house and I want to help him."

"Susan --"

"Got it!" Michael shouted as he stood up so quickly he nearly knocked the table over. And from the briefest of hand gestures, he disappeared.

Susan and Joanna looked at each other and rushed to the table.