Michael's Journal Part 2

A character portrait generated with a ChatGPT while I figure out how to find artists who do them

Angela certainly seemed like an easy mark. While her sisters Helena and Alice were busy courting and partying, Angela was the quiet wallflower at every event. She often would bring a book to the events and read at their table. The rumor was She was the smart one in the family and her mother was very careful with who she interacted with, especially when it came to anyone who practiced magic. Lydia was strictly against the use of magic in public, which made the young ordinaries around here wildly curious about it. This was my bread and butter. As a mage school drop out with a talent for dark magic, I was the perfect wizard to rebel with.

My assignment was simple. Meet Angela at an event posing as a waiter, strike up a conversation about the book she was reading, insist the rumors about me weren't true, and ask her where and when we can see each other again. From there I was supposed to trick her into falling in love with me by being whatever she wanted so we could get access to her father's money and connections.

I should have known that night at the Mayor's ball something would go wrong. The amulet my father was using to ensure my obedience was working overtime and giving me a headache, but I had to power through.

When I saw her, she was reading a book by the old Professor Tolkien who was the first ordinary to find dragons and other magics, so I tried to strike up a conversation with her about it.

“You know, the professor had to strike a deal when he wrote that book. Originally it was going to be a textbook about Middle Earth's history from centuries ago, but the wizard who told him convinced him to publish it as fiction so the history wouldn't be lost but the ordinaries wouldn't suspect it was real.”

“Actually, yes I did know that” Angela said with a smirk, shutting her book. Her blonde hair was pinned in a perfect ballerina bun and she wore a glittery seafoam dress that surely cost more than our rent. Despite this, she was perturbed as if I was interrupting a late night at the library. “I'm writing a paper on it for my studies. The only reason the professor agreed was because the wizard said if it was published as fantasy he would give him the power to understand all the languages in the book. It's because of him the humans were able to stay safe during the Darini revolution because the linguists recognized their coded messages as black speech.”

I stared blankly at her, surprised an ordinary could know so much about our history.

She rolled her eyes “oh sorry was I supposed to play dumb and let you tell me? Like I said I'm writing a paper on the book and history in it, so if you could…” She made a motion for me to shoo away and I did, getting another plate of horderves to circulate with. About ten minutes later, I went back over to her.

“So what makes a no-mag like you so interested in magic history?” I asked. I felt the weight of the amulet around my neck as I struggled to think of ways to get her to talk to me.

“I find the overlap between magic and science fascinating.” She replied, not looking up from her book. She dogeared a page, took a pen out of her pocket and scribbled a note in the margin before turning to the next page. “Thankfully my tutor shares the sentiment.”

That was when I saw my opening. “I completely agree, that was something I wanted to study when I was in mage school before I had to drop out when we moved here.” I waited for what felt like hours but was probably seconds to see what she would do next as she processed my words.

She looked up at me. “Mage school?” Angela put a piece of paper, the ticket for this event, in the book to mark her page and got up to look at me. “Tell me everything.”

The amulet’s weight on my chest lessened. She had taken the bait. Now to reel her in. I pretended to look around nervously for my shift manager. “I could get in trouble if my boss sees me talking and not serving.”

“Let's talk on the balcony” She said, leading the way. I passed what was left on the tray out as we crossed the room to the balcony. She had so many questions about magic and my life in Crown city. I told her all about the courses and studies I had gone through just to take the qualifying exam to get into mage school, all the tarot readings, crystals, plants, sigils, and potions for the soft magics, or magics ordinaries could learn, I had to know in addition to the spells and incantations for trained wizards. I even told her about some of the dark magic my father had taught me like transfiguration and blood magic to make someone do your bidding.

“Dark magic angers the old masters though, so I don't practice it often.” Speaking of dark magic, it seemed to anger the amulet used to bind me to the freedom fighter's will because it grew hotter on my flesh as I spoke.

Angela pursued her lips, thinking. “It sounds like the soft magics are what can make an ordinary become a witch or warlock in a way if they chose to be.”

“A warlock is an oath breaker and uses exclusively dark magic and works alone,” I corrected. “A witch can be a male or a female who practices soft or hard magics, so I suppose you're right. But witches also study the elements and work in groups or covers. A wizard does the same and will add in science as well but tends to work alone.”

“Sounds lonely,” Angela remarked and looked down. “I know what it's like to have to study in solitude.”

A silence hung between us. The amulet weighed down on my chest again nearly burning a hole into me. I tried to get it off me, but it wouldn't move. I tugged and it got heavier and it hurt to breathe. The longer the silence went on, the heavier it got and the more it constricted my breathing. I started coughing and turned again to try to rip the amulet off my chest. It wouldn't move. It was like it was about to borrow deeper into my chest cavity. I was frantically unbuttoning my shirt to get a better grip on the amulet- gasping for air, hating my father for this wretched thing that was about to kill me for not winning this girl over to continue our horrible work.

Angela put her hand on my shoulder and asked if I was alright and when I turned she saw my shift half unbuttoned and the cursed thing choking me. I feared she would run away in disgust, or worse run and tell her family I was exposing myself to her, but she was transfixed by the amulet, mainly the crystal in the center of it. Most magic can be seen by a silver shimmer that gets brighter the stronger it is, but some special types have different colors. The crystal was emitting a dark red glow, the color of blood magic, and from her fingertips I saw something golden shimmer as she reached out to touch the crystal . At first I thought it was her champagne colored nail polish, but when she touched the crystal the red magic turned gold and the burning stopped. I was finally able to.fill my lungs and breathe normally. I nearly told her she saved my life, but she looked at me tenderly and asked if she could remove the amulet to get a better look. I nodded, even though I didn't think she would be able to do it. That cursed thing that bound me to obedience wasn't going to come off for anyone, or so I thought. But she lifted it from my chest and over my head like it was nothing to study it. I was dumbfounded.

“What?” She asked when she noticed I was staring at her.

I lied and said “Oh it's just most girls don't want to know about my mage studies, but I guess you aren't like other girls.”

I could tell she was trying not to smile. To my credit, it was true. Most of the girls I had met in this town did not care about magic one bit. It was odd that a town of so many half-magics were so bent on keeping them ignorant. But it was more than that, now that I was free from that blood magic, I could have walked away but I felt so drawn to her. Without the spell clouding my mind, I could see the glow around her. She was a vision in gold and only I could see it. It was an energy around her so pure I had only seen it in a few darini women who had joined the freedom fighters before their work had turned the gold into a dark silver. What did it mean? And why did it put me so at ease?

We heard footsteps coming toward the balcony and a shrill voice calling Angela's name.

Her face flushed as she looked at my exposed chest from the shirt I forgot to rebutton, “My mother!” her hand went slack and she dropped the amulet to the floor.

I took a step toward Angela. “I hope I can see you again soon?” I asked, kissing her hand and pressing it into my chest.

“Write me a note and send it to the office of Harborbrook Automobiles. It's my father's office.” She whispered, leaving the balcony to join her mother before she could see me. Alone on the patio, I saw the amulet had shattered where she dropped it. I crushed it with my shoe for good measure before leaving the ball and returning home.

I did just as she asked and waited anxiously for her response. Normally the second meeting was the easiest to coordinate, but Angela Garland was different. Her mother was wary of me to begin with and her father's security team made it difficult for us to ever find time alone. She was the first person who understood magic as a form of potential and not pure power. Angela was a distraction and it wasn't long before I had fallen for her.

We stayed in Lydia for so long, it started to feel like home. Crown city was so big we were constantly moving burroughs. At first I was terrified my father would notice the amulet was missing, but he didn't seem to question it as long as I was doing what he asked. My father seemed like he was even doing better, his coloring was back and he was even trying to get another professor job at the local university. Lydia was healing our family.

Angela and I were together for nearly a year before the freedom fighters questioned what was taking so long. I had been telling them I was playing the long game so she wouldn't suspect what we were up to, but then we noticed someone was watching us. I was sure it was an investigator from Ms. Garland, as Angela told me she had done something similar with her sister Alice.

To avoid the investigator, I convinced Angela to let me stay over so they could not track me to the freedom fighters hideout and I needed to avoid the fighters as well. I knew the game I was playing, staying out and spending nights with her, so I started feeding the freedom fighters bad intel to get them off my back. I knew I would have to leave town soon before they figured out I was lying to them.

I had been planning on telling Angela I had to leave just before our one year anniversary when she told me about the baby.