Spells

Chapter 17: Spell of Power

Arul

Arul had slept only a couple hours in the night, but he felt full of energy. Curiosity was powering him. Curiosity that grew with each passing moment, not dwindling a bit even after he performed that first spell, which did nothing but cause extreme pain to him.

Arul yawned and continued browsing through the pages on his bed. The book he had found in the library, now referred to as the Book of Spells by him and Satya, lay sprawled open in front of him.

By his count, there were 307 pages, each with one or more spells, in the book. Out of those, 300 pages had the red handwritten translated notes on them. The rest didn't. One in the middle had been torn out. He had brushed through most of them, and shortlisted a couple based on how interesting or fun their name sounded. He then again filtered based on how easy it would be to find the ingredients, leaving him with only two - one that had something to do with fire and the other with power. He wasn't sure what these spells would actually do, the writing was a bit confusing and incomplete.

He decided to go with the power spell. The fire one was too uncertain; it could be dangerous. (Did it mean he now believed that the spell would work?) No, he didn’t. He was sure that he fainted that day because of some kind of poisonous gas emitted from burning all those ingredients. Maybe it was that weird root. He had half a mind to go to a doctor, but he had been feeling absolutely fine the next day. And more importantly, he didn’t want to tell anyone in the family what he was doing, it was embarrassing.

He turned his focus to the power spell. The red handwriting scribbled by side of words, just neat enough to be decipherable, listed some more names of plants he hadn't heard before. This spell required his own blood too, most of them in the book did. One peculiar ingredient was 'Ants bodies... LOTS'. He didn’t like the way the word 'Lots' was written so boldly. How much bodies are a lot?Though they will be easy to get, he just needed to go to a park and find an anthill.

The 'Power' spell required a small chunk of silver too. Luckily, he already had a silver medal he won last year in the 'Under-13' Jaipur chess tournament (Abhimanyu won the gold). He didn't want to damage it, but it was his only option. For the plants he guessed he would have to go to the nursery again. That jumbled mess of vines made him dread that task. Maybe he could ask Satya to collect the plants instead.

With the list of ingredients in his mind, Arul left for the park. He had taken a leave from school, citing a headache as the reason for Abhimanyu. It was nothing unusual, he used to take a lot of leaves in Jaipur too. Nobody in his family cared as long as his grades were good. And his were the best in his grade, even with the lowest attendance in school.

He would collect the ant bodies first, wait for the school to get over and then call and convince Satya to help him. He found an ant hill quickly (there were lots of them) and started with his setup. He put a couple of small sugar cubes in a bowl near the hill, waiting for sufficient ants to gather over it. They arrived quickly, the number increasing by the second. Once he was satisfied with the quantity, Arul used a stone to crush the ants in one go. He thought it would be smooth, but it felt...crunchy. His stomach turned and rose as he imagined the ants being squished.  He gulped down to stop himself from throwing up, taking deep breaths to calm himself while covering the bowl with plastic, not wanting to see the contents inside.

What the hell am I doing?

Killing ants had not been a big deal for him before, you saw one crawling on the dinner table or on your bed, and you kill it without a second thought. It was justified, it might get into your food while you are eating or in your ear while you are sleeping. But this seemed different. This seemed a lot meaner.

Arul took the bowl and went back home. He called Satya, requesting him to get the plants and suggesting they meet at the same place, behind the school park, as last time.

"No," Satya replied. "I just came from school, I don't wanna go back, it's too far from my house. I am already doing you a favor by collecting the plants, so the least you can do is come here. I know a perfect place near my house."

Arul thought for a moment, "Fine. I will come in the evening around five".

"Cool, I am going to the nursery then," Satya replied before hanging up.

The day turned cloudy and windy by the evening. Arul's loose blue t-shirt fluttered in the wind as he made way to Satya's home.

Satya was right, his house is pretty far from school. It's almost on the edge of the town.

He jogged to reach on time, finding Satya waiting outside his house.

"Got the plants?" Arul asked.

Satya nodded. "Let's go."

The roads got thinner and the weather got darker as they walked quietly.

"Where is this place?" Arul broke the silence.

"It's just a bit outside Kuldhara. But it is a great spot, clear space and no one comes around at all."

Arul nodded and pointed at a bunch of huts on the slant below them. "Do people live in those?"

"I don't think so. I have never seen any near them"

They walked a couple more steps before Arul's eyes fell on another hut. This one, much tinier than the others, looking alone and struggling to stand. Arul guessed it was close to collapsing.

"Did you have trouble finding the plants?"

" Not at all, I just asked Mr. Nal, the owner, and he brought them to me. He was a bit surprised with my choices of the plants though,"

Arul chuckled.

"That reminds me you owe me a hundred and twenty rupees for them."

"And you owe me ten thousand for the hours of fun my presence has provided you," Arul shot back cheekily.

Satya stared at Arul with a blank expression.

"Chill dude, I will pay you back tomorrow. I am not carrying any cash right now." Arul continued.

"You better. Here we are..." Satya replied before turning right to reveal their destination. The area was huge, at least compared to their school park. The ground was devoid of grass, most instead being covered by weeds and stones. A line of trees acted as a natural boundary for the place. In the middle stood a lone tree, dead and rotting, the space around it completely clear.

"See, isn't this place cool? Large, and always empty. It was called Swarg van, I heard it used to be a great spot for picnics, with a beautiful view and plenty of sunlight. Now nobody comes here though." Satya said shrugging.

"Gee, I wonder why. Maybe people are afraid of the dozens of snakes this place probably has."

"No, it doesn't. At least I think so."

Arul entered the area, "Fine, doesn't matter. We won't be here for long anyways."

"To be honest, I didn't think you would want to try another thing from that book. The last time went horrible, didn't it?" Satya commented as Arul took out the bowl and medal.

“Yeah I didn't think so either, but here we are. I am so unpredictable, right? Hand me the roots."

"So many ants..." Satya whispered gazing inside the bowl.

Arul said nothing, just took a quick glance at the countless bodies of ants, none of them moving now. He quickly dropped the roots inside the bowl, made a small cut on his hand to bleed in the bowl, and lit a match.

He flicked it towards the bowl, lighting the whole thing inside on fire.

Are ants that volatile?

Black, thick smoke arose from it slowly, not floating upwards but rather starting to envelope Arul's face. Fully understanding what he was supposed to do, Arul inhaled it all into him.