A Touch of Magic
14 Love
18 September 1974, Minneapolis
“HOW CAN SOMEONE be so powerful and so inept at the same time?” Lil moaned. Judith cut the young swordswoman’s shirt off her left side, exposing the jagged wound. “He used the knife like a broadsword. As though if he swung harder it would gouge deeper. Ow!” Judith bathed the cut with cool water.
“He was strange,” she said. “I recognized him, but he wasn’t all there. The Blade had much more finesse. He was splitting his attention between us and something else. Maybe two something elses. It was like he didn’t know where to focus. Then the music stopped and he just ran away. It was a complete fluke that he caught your arm.”
“That’s what I get for trying to use a broadsword against a dagger. Am I going to need stitches? It hurts like hell.”
“Just be patient,” Judith answered. “It will all be healed in a little bit. You aren’t losing a lot of blood as long as we keep pressure on it.”
“Judith, why didn’t anyone notice?” Lil asked. “He was definitely stalking Serepte’s boyfriend. We fought all the way down the hall and then you joined us on the stairs. I pulled a broadsword out of an exhibition to fight with. And no one notices? I need to know what this is.”
“If it weren’t for this cut, I’d say it was all our imagination,” Judith said. “Listen, I hear Serepte getting home.”
“We’ll have a picnic on the roof,” Serepte laughed. “No roller skaters.”
“Thank heaven for that,” Elizabeth said.
“You really like picnics, don’t you!” Paul added.
“Yes! Well, now I do. I have someone to carry the basket.”
“Serepte, we need you,” Judith called from the kitchen.
“Oh, my Goddess,” Lissa said when she walked through the doors. “What on earth happened?”
Serepte rushed into the room and saw Judith holding the cloth to Lil’s arm. She immediately reached out and cried in pain as it flowed from Lil to Serepte. Paul caught Serepte as she stumbled back. In seconds, Elizabeth had Serepte’s flute assembled and handed it to her. Serepte’s fingers trembled on the instrument as she lifted it to her lips. Paul spontaneously joined her with a soft vocal strain in words no one could fathom as the first notes of the flute broke the air.
The room stilled as the six people in it were caught in the plaintive and then joyous music that Paul and Serepte made together. When the music faded, Serepte relaxed into Paul’s arms and Elizabeth quickly snatched the flute from her hands before she dropped it. Paul sat in a kitchen chair cradling his girlfriend as he continued to softly sing to her.
“My own personal concert,” Lil said. “What just happened? Why is… My arm! Judith, what just happened?”
“Magic,” Judith said. “I said you wouldn’t need stitches.”
“You said she had a gift we were protecting. I thought you meant she was musically gifted. Is she…?”
“She is the gift,” Elizabeth said softly. “Perhaps the last gift to humanity.”
“If I had known, I would have killed him,” Lil stated soundly as she stroked the healed skin of her arm. “It hurt her to heal me. I could have gone to a hospital.”
“No,” Serepte sighed as she looked up first at Paul and then turned her head to meet Lil’s eyes. “Even if you had gone to a hospital, I would have found you and healed you.”
“Why did such a small wound cause you so much agony,” Lissa asked. “It looked like a simple cut.”
“Poison,” Serepte sighed.
“He uses a poisoned blade?” Lil yelled.
“It wasn’t exactly that kind of poison. It seemed more psychic. The wound yielded far more pain than the cut should have.”
“It burned like hell,” Lil agreed. “Much worse than when Judith cut my face.”
“But Serepte took it all from you, like I knew she would,” Judith said. She looked gratefully at the healer.
“You care so much,” Paul said. Serepte pushed herself up straighter in Paul’s lap and placed a soft loving kiss on his lips.
“No. I don’t care. I’m compelled. I can’t turn my back. I hate the gift because I can’t turn it off. I hide from people and spend hours in isolated practice rooms so I can’t see the pain and injuries around me, but when I see them, I can’t help but respond. The pain is drawn to me. Just once, I’d like to say I’m doing this because I care. But even when I care, the compulsion is what drives the action.”
“What happened?” Lissa asked, looking at Lil and Judith. “I never saw either of you at the recital. For that matter, I didn’t see Paul, either, until we left the museum.”
“He was there,” Judith said.
“I followed Paul when we went to the museum while Judith circled the atrium where you played. This man, or thing, started to stalk after Paul and I intervened. He had a knife,” Lil said.
“I’m happy you were there,” Paul said. “But also sorry I wasn’t any help. I was so sick I couldn’t see straight.”
“You were ill? You should have come straight to me,” Serepte scolded.
“It was the one thing I knew I couldn’t do. I had to stay away from you so you could perform and so I didn’t hurt you. It was the strangest experience. I don’t even know how I got outside. It was like a door opened amidst the sculptures and I was in another world. Dimension? I don’t know. Suddenly, I was looking down on you from the glass dome of the atrium and singing as you played.”
“The atrium dome is solid, not glass,” Elizabeth said.
“I felt it,” Serepte said. “I just knew that there was something above me, inspiring the music I played. I thought… I thought my father was watching.”
“The thing is, just being out there released all the pain I was feeling. I was no longer sick. I felt like…”
“Dancing,” Serepte finished for him. “As we played, I couldn’t stay seated. I had to get up and dance to the music.”
“It was quite a little performance,” Lissa said. “Even as hard as it hit you at first, though, Lil must not have been hurt badly. You are usually out of it for hours after you heal someone.”
Serepte smiled up at Paul and kissed him again.
“Someone was pouring strength into me.”
“Could you really feel it?” Paul whispered as he kissed Serepte’s neck. The two sat on a blanket on the roof with a plate of cheese and crackers next to them. As wonderful as the idea of a picnic sounded, as soon as the sun went down, the air chilled. Both were wearing heavy jackets so they could indulge in a few quiet moments alone. Elizabeth had sent the cheese and crackers with two glasses of sparkling wine for the couple.
“Yes. I didn’t know what it was. I was being lifted out of myself. I love my music, but it has never done that to me before.”
“It was so surreal. When I came to myself outside waiting for you by the pillar, I almost convinced myself I’d been dreaming,” he whispered. “Seeing Lil sitting there bleeding suddenly made it all real.” Serepte tilted her head to expose more of her neck to his questing lips. A little whimper escaped her lips as she welcomed his kisses.
“Paul, there is something else I felt… feel. I felt… love. I know we have only known each other a few days, but I…”
“A few days that feel like we’ve known each other all our lives. I love you, Serepte.”
“Oh, Paul.”
Their kiss heated with passion as the two struggled for more contact through the heavy clothes. They might have warmed the night without their jackets had Meaghan not appeared at the door to the roof.
“Elizabeth says to come to dinner,” Meaghan said. “After dinner, the rest of us are going to make ourselves scarce. It will be much more comfortable indoors.”
Serepte blushed at being caught making out. Paul, however, just laughed. “Serepte, my sweet, don’t be embarrassed by our love. I think even Meaghan understands.”
“Oh, I do. And I’m sooo jealous!” she giggled as she picked up the tray and empty wine glasses. Paul and Serepte folded the blanket and stored it in the alcove nearby.
“Where is Wayne?” Serepte asked as they sat at the table for dinner.
“In the shop,” Judith answered.
“I thought Manon was ready to load in on Saturday.”
“After we told him about our experience today, he got a faraway look on his face and said he had to go work on something. You know how he is when he gets like that. We might not see him for days,” Judith laughed.
“But the Showbox…” Paul began.
“Oh, don’t worry. He’ll be at your show. He’s never missed one,” Lissa said.
“Except that one in England, but there were extenuating circumstances,” Judith replied. Everyone seemed extremely light-hearted after the intensity of the day, but Paul thought perhaps that was simply the dynamic of the family.
“Paul, you and Lil still don’t know everything. Wayne is more than a props master and lighting technician. He has his own kind of magic. He’s a toolmaker,” Meaghan said.
“What does that mean?” Lil asked.
“That sword of mine you always admired?” Judith said. “Wayne made it.”
“He’s a sword maker?”
“And so much more. We each have tools we use in our craft. An Athamé, a cup, a wand, and pentacles.”
“And Wayne makes all of them?”
“He’s made some of them. But he’s made all of Serepte’s. He even made her panpipes,” Elizabeth said.
“He’s promised me a handmade shakuhachi for Solstice,” Serepte giggled. “I’m so excited!”
“I like him. If my show were big enough, I’d want to have him manage the tech side of my tour,” Paul said. “His lighting is kind of magic.”
“Don’t underestimate the power of what he creates,” Judith said. “We were struggling in the coven when he gave me the sword. I could feel it awaken in my hands the first time I touched it.”
After dinner and cleanup were finished, Serepte’s housemates all seemed to disappear. Meaghan had said they would be left alone, but Paul didn’t realize they would all go into hiding. When Serepte led him to the living room and sat on his lap on the sofa, he forgot all about the housemates as they kissed.
Even the softest brush of their lips electrified them, and the soft brushes soon inflamed their passion.
Neither Paul nor Serepte had much experience. Paul had found relationships to be undependable and often focused on his entertainment value. Serepte found it difficult to touch people outside her circle. There was an intimacy among the women and even with Wayne, but she did not feel either a sexual connection nor the love that she felt in Paul’s arms. That she was a virgin and allowing him to explore her mouth and her body filled her with both anticipation and trepidation.
But she found no hidden pains in Paul. His body was healthy and fit. His heart was filled with love and she surrendered to him enthusiastically.
“I love you, Serepte,” he whispered as his hand found the smooth soft surface of her breast. She moaned softly.
“My room… My bedroom is down that hall,” she replied. “Take me there.”
“Are you sure, love?”
“Never more sure of anything in my life.”
Paul stood with Serepte in his arms and carried her down the hall. She pointed to the end room and he pushed the door closed behind them. He set her feet on the floor, but she clung to his neck and kissed him again.
“I don’t know much about this… about what to do. Will you teach me, lover?” she whispered.
“We can discover it with each other,” he admitted. “I’m not much of an expert.”
“Then let’s just lie on the bed and discover what happens,” she giggled. “Maybe there is a magic spell that will weave its way around us and tell us what to do.”
“I’m already enchanted.” They moved to the bed and sat against the pillows piled against the headboard. There, Serepte returned to his arms and his kisses. Kisses turned to caresses. Clothing was first loosened and then opened. At last it was discarded.
Paul didn’t know why, but for some reason he felt compelled to sing to his lover as they continued the gentle explorations of each other’s bodies. Serepte’s sweet voice joined in harmony, sometimes taking the lead and sometimes the counterpoint. They sang together, raising a combined fantasy around them—a secret bower where they would have their wedding night—remote, alone, isolated from everything in this world.
As Serepte lay back on her bridal couch, Paul smoothly entered her. Their sex, their lips, their bodies crashed against each other, but still the music in the room continued as though it were a physical thing that could stand apart from them. Their lovemaking crescendoed to a dramatic climax then fell to rise again.
Outside Serepte’s room, Wayne met Judith. She stared at the door with tears running from their eyes. Wayne wrapped his arms around her and she surrendered to him.
“Do you see it?” she whispered. “It’s like you said it would be. When we raised power with sex, it was a by-product. An afterthought. It was a result of our love.”
“They are in love,” Wayne said. “And the power is so strong it must shine like a beacon.” Doors opened along the hall as Elizabeth, Meaghan, and Lissa emerged from their rooms to join their two companions. Wayne nodded and brought the other three into their hug. “Perhaps we can mute the glow without damping the fire,” he said. They fell into their soft chant and gradually, a curtain fell across the building, hiding the power from the night.
Outside a demon prowled, sniffing for the power that would feed it. He howled in frustration as it was snuffed out of the air. He wandered the night, far past the endurance of his human host, until at last the body could no longer endure and slumbered.
19 September 1974, Minneapolis
Paul awoke with a Goddess in his arms. The haunting strains of the flute music he had dreamt still echoed in his mind as he kissed the auburn-haired head that cuddled on his shoulder. The silky skin his hands caressed was a potent reminder of the loving embraces of the previous night. Serepte had given herself completely to him and he had lost himself in her depths.
“I dreamed of having a lover,” Serepte sighed.
“You have powerful dreams, my love.”
She kissed his shoulder and lifted her body enough that she could reach his lips. Her hair cascaded around their faces and they were locked together behind the veil.
“I am totally, irrevocably in love with you,” she said.
“All my desires and dreams of the future revolve around you,” he answered. They kissed longer and deeper, their hands exploring the new experience of a lover.
“Do you need to use the bathroom before we make love again?” she giggled as she pushed herself out of his embrace. “I’ll be right back.” She rushed into the en suite. Paul watched her until the door closed and pushed himself upright in the bed. He felt light and buoyant.
“I could almost levitate myself today,” he mused. He looked around the room for the first time. Last night he was far too busy with Serepte to notice the way her room was decorated. It wasn’t elaborate. The bed was plain with a decorative quilt they had pushed to the foot, warmed through the night by their body heat. There was a noticeable lack of what Paul thought of as teen girl things, based on his sisters’ rooms back in Maine. There were no posters or stuffed animals. No dolls and makeup mirrors. The chest-high bureau had a neat display of family photographs, backed by a painting that reminded Paul of a fantasy book he had once read. He couldn’t quite place the scene. Between the bureau and the closet door was a comfortable-looking chair. Near the tall window in the room was a music stand and table with an assortment of instruments, all woodwinds. Flute, piccolo, oboe, recorder, panpipes. The bedside tables included an alarm clock, lamps, a radio, flowers, and candles.
Paul absently picked up a round white candle from the side of the bed and began tossing it from hand to hand. His hands could flick an object so carefully and quickly that it appeared to float above them. He heard the shower in the bathroom and began to hum and then sing in the gibberish that he had known since birth. At least he knew how to make the sounds when his adopted father first pulled him from the sea. He wasn’t really sure what they meant. He simply saw things in his mind’s eye and they flowed out in the music.
He passed the candle over his shoulder and behind his back, dancing with it as it seemed to levitate. It gave him an idea for a new piece in his repertoire of juggling and dancing. The opening of the bathroom door went unnoticed as he continued to watch the candle and imagine it bursting into flame as it floated in the air. He would need to use flash powder to coat the wick and a sparker to light it.
“That’s a beautiful act,” Serepte said softly. Paul quickly caught the candle in the palm of his hand and set it back on the table before turning to take her in his arms.
“You taste fresh.”
“I laid a new toothbrush on the counter with a towel and washcloth. Go freshen up and meet me over there on that flat, soft surface called a bed. I’ll be waiting for you,” she laughed. She gave him a push toward the bathroom and Paul realized he had been standing in the center of the room practicing sleight-of-hand while completely naked. Serepte had a towel wrapped around her so he hurried into the bathroom.
“Serepte, we’ve got half an hour before our bus,” Meaghan called from outside Serepte’s door. Paul had just emerged from the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist. Serepte beckoned him to the bed where she lay only barely covered by the towel she wore.
“I’m not going to class today, Megs,” Serepte called back. Paul settled onto the bed beside her. “I have a lover and I don’t want to let him out of my sight.” She could hear Meaghan laughing outside her room.
“Okay, honey. You get a day to enjoy that. Don’t make a habit of it.”
“Mo-om,” Serepte laughed.
“Don’t Mom me. I’d have been five years old when you were born.”
“Yes, sister. I love you. Have a good day,” Serepte said as she pulled Paul to her and began peppering his face with kisses. Neither of them heard Meaghan leave.
“I’ve never… felt anything… quite like this,” Paul gasped as Serepte moved above him, controlling the depth and speed of their joining. She was flushed and the rose color darkened the nipples Paul touched and sometimes kissed.
“Oh, Paul. I wish I’d met you years ago. I never want to stop doing this.”
“If it had been years ago, I think it would have been illegal,” he panted as she pushed down, burying him deeply inside. She squeaked out an orgasm he could feel in his own response and held her as she collapsed on top of him. For a long time, they just held each other, petting and kissing those spots they could reach.
“I wish Mommy was near. I so want to tell her about the love I’ve found,” Serepte said.
“Where is she? Can we call?”
“Greece. She calls in about once a month. She’s in a pretty remote location.”
“Is she an archeologist like your father?” Paul asked. Serepte laughed at him.
“You missed a couple fine points in the story. Father was… is a musician. He was on the archeological expedition to interpret what appeared to be strange musical notations. Mother is a professor of sociology, actually chair of the department now.”
“So why is she in Greece?”
“That’s where my father was lost. She returns every summer for at least a while to try to locate the place where he disappeared. This year she’s on sabbatical, so when she went to Greece in August, she decided not to return until she found what she was looking for. It’s why I left home.”
“Because she was leaving?”
“No. To give her permission to leave. If I were home, she would never leave me. When I told her I wasn’t going back to the great circle for my eighteenth birthday, nor after until I’d fulfilled my own quest, she put things in order to leave. The circle was upset at first, from what Mother told me after Litha. But I still have the fifth circle with me, and it includes all the tools of the coven. They understand that we are remote, but still a part of the coven.”
“Serepte, how can I help? I know we have only known each other a week, but I am sure—deep in my heart, I know—that I am supposed to be with you. I love you beyond reason. We’ve been lovers for twelve hours and I feel I have known you all my life. I want to be here for you, to help you, to be with you in every way. How, my love? How can I help?”
“Oh, Paul! I love you! I’m eighteen years old and I feel like I have been waiting for this moment for a thousand years.” They moved together again, kissing deeply. Paul realized he had never softened completely and as he hardened again, he was already buried deeply within her. Serepte pulled at him and they rolled so he was on top. In that position, he gazed into her eyes as they moved together and became lost again in each other.
When their climax had passed, they collapsed next to each other. Their breathing slowed and they kissed longingly.
“Dare I ask the question again or will every answer be to make love again? If so, I need to wait a little while before I ask,” Paul said as he kissed Serepte’s ear.
“I don’t know the answer. I don’t know how I’m supposed to help open the veil behind which my father is trapped. I’ve crossed to talk to him on two occasions. I hear him whisper his love and support when I play. But I don’t know the key to releasing him. Mom says there was a prophecy, but she won’t tell me what it was because… It’s something about developing a preconceived notion about how a prophecy will be fulfilled that prevents it from being recognized when it’s there. She says it’s better if I don’t know.”
“That’s harsh,” Paul said.
“Still, it leaves me free to just stumble along as I feel moved to do things. Like moving to Minneapolis.” They kissed softly, each marveling in the taste of the other. “I’m sure I moved here just so I could meet you.” Paul’s stomach gurgled and Serepte’s responded with a loud growl. They laughed. “Look, it’s almost noon and we haven’t had anything to eat since dinner yesterday. I’m starving my lover. What a cruel person I am. Come on. Get dressed and we’ll go find something to eat.”
Comments
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