Love and Magick, A Short Story Double Feature by Andrew Michael Schwarz Page A

tisk, I grow weary of such brazen
bravado. You speak out of school. So young, so pretty, and
so..."
    "Arcadian, please! Look, you know me. You've
seen what I can do, how far I've come. No one else could have done
that. That's proof enough that I'm ready."
    He stared at me, hawkish. I had no idea what
was going on inside his head. "Very well," he said at last. "Who am
I to doubt you? But what you reap, so shall ye sow. There will be a
price and you will not know what or how much until you've already
paid it. That much is certain."
    "Okay," I said. "Okay."
    He sighed. Looked up over his spectacles.
“Have you contacted your middle vision before?”
    “Yes, I—”
    He cut me off. “The middle eye, think of it.
Remember that spot right there! The old center of your being.” His
hand passed over the candle making the flame erupt and sparkle.
    Sage, in the air now, stung my nose. He’d
already begun the spell and taken me unawares. Something crunched
underfoot. I looked down.
    Salt.
    He’d cordoned off the kitchen table where we
were seated with a line of salt so adeptly I hadn’t noticed he was
casting the circle. Then into the flame he’d cast the sage to
purify the space. His arm moved and the flame waxed again, only
this time it roared and some other spice punched the room. Damn it
if he hadn't planned all the while berating me to cast this
enchantment.
    Dizziness grabbed hold of me, made me teeter
on my feet and he made me sit.
    “Concentrate on the middle eye!” he was
shouting. I could see he was shouting and yet his voice was so
distant. “The middle eye, Courtney! The center of your
vision…duality, one vision, dual intent…!” And something else I
couldn't understand.
    The room flipped. Tilter-whirled. My gut
belly-flopped and my head seemed to blow up like a helium
balloon.
    I stared down at the proceedings. Out of
body, trapped by the ceiling.
    I saw why only a wizard such as Feldspar
could originate the casting of this thing.
    “Duality...duality…”
    I watched my body slump forward. I could no
longer feel its heart-beat or pulse.
    “ Duality
    “ Create a self of separate fate
    “ And decree a love of mimicry
    “ Dispense the narcissistic tense
    “ With independent symmetry
    “ Blessed be and we're done!”
    A great swoosh of light and sound and I was
back, looking through my eyes again, Arcadian smiling eagerly.
“Welcome back.” He raised a finger. “On the next full moon, when
the moon is in Libra with the sun in—” An eyebrow quirked up.
    “Ah, Aries,” I blurted out, my lips not well
under my control yet.
    “Oh, so you do know your cycles?” He
chided.
    I nodded. Moon in Libra, sun in Aries. Would
make the best combination for admiration of self, seemed like a
no-brainer.
    Then he handed me a folded piece of
parchment.
    “Read this the night of and don’t deviate or
back down,” he said. “No matter how rough it gets, stay the course.
To do otherwise could be...well, deadly! For you and those you
love! But if you see it through, you will gain the prize at the
end. But it may not be the prize you expect!
    "Those are my instructions, Courtney, follow
them to the T."
    "Cast the rest in Libra and Aries. Read
this. Don't deviate. That all?"
    "That all? Don't underestimate any of that,
but one for the road: let the magick guide you."
    “What form do you think it will take?” I
asked sheepishly, to which he responded with a long rattle of dry
laughter that sounded like rustling leaves.
    “I have no idea at all.”
    He stood, walked to my chair and helped me
up. I shifted my weight onto my prosthetic limb. It had been
getting easier, and at certain moments one can almost forget that
it’s a fake leg. Almost.
    “Steady now,” he said. “You’ll be fine in a
few steps.”
    He walked me to the door and I hugged him.
He felt frail and weak under his cloak, but I knew the truth of it.
I limped out into the forest and clicked on my flashlight, happy
that I remembered to bring