Hush (ManxMan)

11: A Surprise Spell

She pulled out... a wand. It was black, with silver embellishments and a giant blue mineral of some sort on the top of it.

"You like?" Alisson asked playfully. She handled the wand carefully, like it was a baby.

I snorted, "Actually, it was pretty anticlimactic." Then I picked up another snack and ate it.

She chuckled, "The blue stone is cordierite and the staff is made up of three sections. Two are obsidian, and one is hematite." She waved it around in display. "And real silver too."

"Is there any rhyme or reason to that?" I asked since she wanted to talk about her wand so much.

"Cordierite just called out to me you know? It's a special stone that I work magic well with. Obsidian is great for blocking psychic attacks and negative energy. It's a very dark stone, made of lava, it's sharp and enhances wit. It's very important for me, being a witch and a witch with high standing at that. There will always be magical and psychic attacks on me." She gave me a small smile as she turned her wand over in her hand, "The hematite is good for blocking negative energy too, but more importantly increasing intuition. Intuition is what humans would call a gut feeling. Everyone is capable of becoming psychic and magical, and it all starts with trusting your intuition." She jabbed me with her wand.

I licked my lips and watched her curiously as she put her hand back in her bosom. "Uhm," I started, "How many things do you have in there exactly?" I asked chuckling nervously. I'd never been around a female who was comfortable touching her breast so much, let alone digging into them to retrieve artifacts.

She pulled out a brace of alternating black stones. Glossy pieces of obsidian and the metallic luster of hematite. "This is a hematite and obsidian bracelet I made for you Timoteo." She handed it over and I took it gently.

"Thanks." I whispered as I looked at it, running the stones between my fingers. "Why give me a gift though?" I asked.

She sighed and held her wand tightly as she leaned on the stone balcony, "Despite how my dear Franz treats me and my love, we are friends and we care about him. Seeing how much you mean to him, well, I'm pressed to make sure you stay alive and well. That bracelet will protect you with its natural qualities, but I've also put a protection spell on it as well." Alisson looked at me with concern in her eyes, "You were dragged into our lives by fate, not your friend. I know this because my heart tells me so."

"Your heart?" I asked doubtfully.

Alisson gave me a playful smirk, "My heart, as well as my wand, cards, and mirror. Most importantly too, my intuition. There is something profoundly special about you and I can't wait to find out what that is."

I let out a nervous laugh as I leaned on the balcony with her, staring out into the dark forest below. "I'm not that special. I'm just some guy who got caught up in-"

"The affairs of supernatural creatures rather than that of ordinary human mobs." She gave me a peculiar look, "Whether you like it or not, you're one of us now."

I swallowed thickly, not particularly liking how she said that. "I can't be."

"You can and you are." Allisson said as she picked up a cracker of caviar and cream cheese, "So far I think I may be the only one to suspect that there's something special about you, but there's nothing new about that." Then she ate the snack.

"What does that mean?"

She chuckled, "It means that women always know everything first. I can feel the air beginning to shift my sweet."

My eyebrows crinkled at her words. The more I talked to her, the more she seemed like a witch and not a normal human being. She seemed more like me when we first met, and now she seems like the rest of the creatures I've been surrounded by: cryptic, omnipresent and all-knowing.