This choice: Go directly to the party • Go Back...Chapter #28A Study Session by: Seuzz   "Who said I was gonna be early?" you retort. "I got entertainment options until then. An' I'll see Gordon on Monday."
Keith has a resentful expression, but you've been playing Patterson so completely that he lapses naturally into Javits' typically cowed manner. You just grunt as he suggests he'll see you tomorrow at Blackwell's.
You slide into Patterson's economy compact and glare resentfully at your friend as he gets into his truck. Patterson's parents aren't terribly well-off--his dad is a supermarket store manager, and there are still outstanding debts from a medical crisis a few years back--so this shitty little thing is all that Patterson has been able to afford on his own. From a distant place you are amused at the seething covetousness that ripples through Patterson's head. You ought to have a truck like that. No, a bigger one. Or an SUV like the one Seth got to ride in when he was dating Cindy, and he'd get shuttled around by Cindy's older sister.
Your cock stirs. Oh yeah, Lucy. Too bad about her. She had no time for you when you were a freshman and she was a senior, and now it's too late. But Cindy's not a bad knockoff ... Ah, but there's no need for that. There are some totally hot cheerleaders at Eastman, and it's all fresh meat. ... You'll have to find out if there's a fuck room at Eastman, that's the one thing you'll miss at Westside. And Caleb is bound to score some hot girls at the university ...
Amused by these crowded thoughts, you drive home, landing briefly in your room before hitting the shower. You take lots of time, and lots of soap and hot water, and jerk off hard while you're in there, to get yourself acquainted with Patterson's equipment. Everything works real fine.
Afterward, you dress down in clean athletic shorts and a thin white t-shirt; you don't bother with socks or shoes. Despite what you told Keith, the party isn't until tomorrow night, so you curl up in the chair at the desk like a long-limbed spider and bend over the magic book.
You've already repaired the torn page--a simple matter, once you were able to interpret the page correctly. Last week, while working on the masks, you'd made up a mind strip and laid it against the book; it had briefly disappeared inside the Libra, and then you'd laid it against the torn page, which had instantly repaired itself, allowing you to turn it. The subsequent spell, however, looked tremendously difficult--the recipe was laid out as a sigil--and you'd laid it aside while concentrating on the new masks.
Now that you have more leisure time, you turn your attention to it. But though you have to fight your way through Patterson's native dullness, you gradually begin to perceive its outlines. It makes a new kind of band--like the mind-bands--but these appear to be of a different and more powerful kind. A phrase that seems to translate as "animating principle" recurs often within it. Only when a translation website turns up the word "anima" does something click inside your head. You take out your cell phone and call Blackwell's house. The magician answers, but it proves to be Caleb in disguise. "You gonna be around," you ask. "I need to pick up some books."
"I'll be here all evening," he replies. "You sound strange."
"I'm using Patterson's voice. Keith and I got him this afternoon. Oh, is he out there?" Caleb grunts a negative. "Good. I'm avoiding him."
"Why?"
"Eh, just don't feel like dealing with him. I told him I have a party tonight, but I lied about that. I'm trying to figure out the next spell."
"Commendable," he says. "But may I inquire as to why you decline to associate with our colleague?"
It takes you a moment to translate the question. "Because he's being needy. Wanted me to go with him and butter up Gordon so he could take him. Fuck that. He picked Eastman, he can get Gordon and Chelsea himself."
"Hmmm. Well, I'll be here."
"What do you mean by 'Hmmm'?"
"Just, 'hmmm.' But the library is at your disposal, of course."
* * * * *
He watche carefully as you pick through the stacks, and guides you as you ask about certain titles and subjects. The search yields a depressingly large pile of tomes, but after thumbing through a couple you are able to narrow it down to one. "Anima?" Caleb muses, scratching the beard of the man whose face he is wearing. "An advanced concept."
"It's an advanced spell," you retort. You settle at a desk with it and pour through it, occasionally cross-referencing it with the Libra. After an hour or so you close the books and lean back with your eyes closed. "I think I've got it," you murmur.
"We agreed not to open each spell outside the presence of the other two," he says in a warning tone.
"I'm not gonna open the next spell. I'm just gonna perform this one. You got an extra band laying around? Not a mind band, just a strip."
"I have several. You've not inquired as to my progress in acquiring a student position at the university, but I've prepared several mind bands to be placed upon promising prospects."
"Say it, don't spray it. Go get me one of the blankety-blank ones."
"You certainly have acquired a facility for imitating Patterson, haven't you," he says.
"Back at you," you mutter at his retreating form as he exits the library.
After he returns you bend over the metal strip and work the runes into its surface. It's exacting work, for the runes are subtle, and the lines have to intertwine in just such a way and no other. "What does it do?" Caleb asks when you stretch your arms at the completion of the job.
"Copies anima. Duh. You're smart enough to figure that out. At least, when you're looking like this." You gesture at him.
He smiles sourly. "I suspected as much, but was rather hopeful it did something else. To the extent that the duplication of anima merely recapitulates the work of an ordinary mind band, it seems redundant. To the extent that it goes beyond that--" He frowns.
You steeple your fingers and crack your knuckles. "Yeah, well, the sigil sure seems like it copies the entire anima."
"If so-- Well, if that is the case, then placing the band upon a certain person, and then placing the band upon yourself, you would acquire--"
"Everything that makes them into them. With most people that's not much. Not much beyond what the mind band would give you."
"But in the case of those with magical abilities," he says slowly. "Or, rather, those who are adept at magic--"
"Like the late Professor Blackwell. Or me ..."
Dusk has well progressed by this point, and the library seems very dark. "I doubt it could penetrate a mask," says Caleb quietly. "I mean, if one tried to place it upon someone who was wearing a mask."
"None of us is likely to take a mask off. At least, not willingly."
"Then this device you've made is useful only for unlocking the next spell."
"I suppose so. Well, then that's it for the night." You stand and start to gather up your things.
"You will abide by our promise not to open any more spells without myself and Keith around, won't you?" Caleb asks.
"Don't you trust me?" You flush. "Here," you add before he can answer. "You can keep the Libra and the anima band, until tomorrow, when we all get together. Since you're so keen on keeping that promise." He looks pained. "I wanna borrow this book on anima, though. I wanna read up some more on it, in case we've missed something."
"It seems to me that we've covered the salient points, but as you desire." You snort, and leave the house without a further word.
* * * * *
But late that night, after further reading, you decide you have spotted an additional angle. Anima covers everything that makes a person into the person that they are, and the discussion in the book makes clear that this even covers the sense of identity. If Caleb copied your anima and then placed it upon himself, he would become convinced that he was you; and, symmetrically, if you copied him, you'd become convinced that you were him. The bands are thus a way of doubling the number of people out in the world, but doubling them while disguised as other people. You would be turning the victims into psychological duplicates of the copied person.
You ponder the strategic possibilities. Turn Caleb and Keith into your duplicates of yourself? That seems promising, until you remember that your duplicates would have your own abilities. And if you're the kind of asshole who would double-cross your friend, you'd be creating twins who would ... double-cross you?
But there's no point in putting their anima upon yourself; that would be a way of obliterating yourself.
It's nearly midnight, and you change into pajamas and slide into bed, but you stare at the dark ceiling, still absorbed in the problem. What about putting Caleb and Keith's anima onto other people? If Caleb and Keith are willing to help you, then their twins would be willing to help you. And the bands are removable, so these allies would only be temporary.
Interesting ... But still dangerous.   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
| Members who added to this interactive story also contributed to these: |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
More by this author