Strange Addictions (The Memory Mage Book 1) by TJ Flaxman

Author:TJ Flaxman [Flaxman, TJ]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-06-10T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

“What’s with the Welsh?” Liv asked. “You use it for your spells right? I figured you would use Latin, like in…”

“The language is irrelevant”, I said, cutting her off. “It could be anything, French, German, nonsense words, whatever. Using a second language, one you don’t usually speak, is perfect for establishing mental connections for shaping spells. Often a spell isn’t just one action, but a combination of several working together. You bind whatever number of changes you want to make to a word or phrase. Then whenever you say that phrase again you are focused on it. Sort of like a mental shorthand.”

“Can you do it without saying a spell? What if you want to do something that you haven’t done before?”

“That works too but it’s less efficient. Fine for small things, but anything big you are likely to burn through your keepsakes quicker than you would otherwise.”

“Like the smoke dragon? I’m guessing you didn’t have a prepared spell for that?”

“No, I didn’t. Thankfully that keepsake”, I hesitated, the loss was still pretty raw. “Bing, was all confidence and showmanship. He was suited to something flashy and off the cuff like the dragon. For that sort of improvisation I didn’t need a verbal spell.”

“You still haven’t answered my question. Why did you pick Welsh?”

“Oh, well dad uses Latin. He was something of an elitist about it.”

“So you rebelled?”

“It was a phase”, I shrugged. “Are we done?” I said, glancing at my watch. Almost forty minutes had passed us by as I answered Liv’s seemingly endless string of questions.

“I have one more. You can’t write your own keepsakes right? But if your father is a Mage too, why don’t you just make them for each other I mean? Surely that’s an endless supply?”

“Ah, well that’s an interesting one. Keepsakes written by other mages do work, just not very well. There has to be genuine sentiment there.”

“He’s your dad?” she said, frowning.

“Right, of course, but he’s also a mage. If he writes a letter knowing I can use it to make a spell then there’s a conflict, an agenda, and the purity of the message is diluted.”

“Which what? Dilutes the magic?”

“Exactly. It’s pretty ineffective most of the time unless he’s feeling particularly sentimental. Doesn’t happen very often.” I paused, watching her. “You still have more questions?”

“Of course. You said it wasn’t hereditary? Does that mean you could grow up not knowing you are a mage at all?”

“It happens, but you soon figure it out. Usually you draw power from something by accident and that sets you on a path of experimentation which will inevitably manifest in all manner of colourful ways. Usually it hits in your teens, rarely later.”

“But how do they know to cleanse themselves?”

I shook my head. “They don’t. If they are lucky they don’t spiral too far before stumbling into another mage. We teach them what we know when we do. Show them how to get clean, teach them to manage the addiction. That’s how I met Claire. Her parents knew nothing of mages, they just thought she was a troubled teen going through a phase.

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