Midnight Magic by Cameron Darrow

Author:Cameron Darrow
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2020-06-07T04:00:00+00:00

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With breakfast cleared away and Oliver off doing whatever it was a magical creature that couldn't die did all day, the question of where to even start with a problem of the scale they were facing needed tackling. Without being able to access magic, there weren't many avenues open to Vimika that could hope to bear fruit. Luckily, her years in school gave her an idea.

"This level of magic is too complicated to memorize. Your father had to have kept books on it, right? I don't need magic to read. I hope."

"Yes, of course. Some have been ensorcelled to keep me from opening them. You're welcome to try, though. Did… you like breakfast?" Aurelai's voice was light and thin, nothing like what she'd sounded like earlier.

Vimika held back from mentioning it. "Yes, thank you. And again for taming my hair. It's been a while since I'd done much more than enough to stuff it under my hat."

"I could tell. Oh! Oh, no, that.... you're welcome! Ah, we should probably get started," Aurelai said, slow to take her eyes off Vimika before leading them back to the laboratory.

After a night's sleep, some food and not being laid out on the slab that dominated it, the lab was much less intimidating than the first time Vimika saw it. Now (mostly) free from the fear of having the tools hanging on the wall used on her, she found herself drawn to them. They were spotless, and bore almost no sign of wear.

As a wizard's research and experimentation was mostly done with words and not hammers, it wasn't surprising. Then she thought of Oliver, and just what was holding up that outer artifice, and they took on a patina that was altogether less innocuous.

"I don't use them," Aurelai said with a look of sympathy. "Come."

At the touch of a nondescript point on the wall, a hidden door popped open, the edges jagged with teeth made of wood panels. Aurelai pulled it the rest of the way to reveal darkness beyond.

"You have a secret passage?" Vimika asked without bothering to hide her jealousy.

"Father never took any chances. I suppose I should be glad he even showed me that it existed," Aurelai said as she stared into a hole as dark as her eyes.

"Where does it go?"

"The library."

It was a short, cramped crawl, with Aurelai's magelight leading the way, to a space Vimika immediately knew was big by how much darkness it contained. The light was more than enough until it suddenly wasn't, and Aurelai had to add another to help.

The moment Vimika set eyes on the collection however, she knew she was in more trouble than she'd imagined. There were books, and then there were books. The kind that have a self-evident amount of import and weight that makes it impossible for them to be spoken or written about in any other way.

Then she started reading the titles.

"Time Can't Run Out if It's Standing Still? Levitation is Like Flying Only Easier? These must be original copies!"

There was a time when a wizard's greatest defense was a cracking sense of whimsy.

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