5. Seeing What Blooms

A hush falls over us as we walk through the campus. We end up in an empty lot behind the biology building. The university bought the property, tore down whatever old structure was there before, and now only dirt and earth remain, waiting for whatever shape the place takes next.

This is my night to go wild with earth magic. I know exactly what I want to accomplish.

“Where do you want this?” he asks quietly, holding up a bag of our supplies. The sunlight is quickly fading from the sky, but there’s enough light left to see his eyes widen. “Wait, I can talk, right?”

“Yes, why can’t you talk?”

“I don’t wanna mess up the spell,” he whispers, careful not to disturb the magic in his imagination.

“We haven’t cast anything yet,” I point out with amusement.

“Oh. Right.” Ewan clears his throat and coughs to cover his embarrassment. “Okay then. Carry on.”

Since he sensed my magic in the air when we met, he has more of an instinct for this than he realizes. I’m interested in seeing what he picks up on this time.

I’m interested in what we’ll do together.

The magical studies department suggested a garden for this land so all the wizarding students could understand how to properly care for and use natural ingredients. Others are lobbying for a parking lot because busy universities always need more parking.

Nobody is even clear if a garden can survive on this barren square of dirt and mud, so I’d like to find out with a practical demonstration.

Since I’m using my own materials and my efforts can be undone easily enough, there shouldn’t be any problem. Us magical students are encouraged to find opportunities to practice our abilities while also abiding by basic rules of common courtesy. One professor sums up this philosophy as ‘practice where ye can, but don’t be an asshole about it.’

I’m ready and eager to get started. Ewan is…

“Are you sure about this?” he asks.

Ewan is less ready.

“Are you having second thoughts?”

“I don’t know. Isn’t doing too much magic, you know, dangerous?” He whispers again, but this time it comes from a place of concern for me. “Can’t you get hurt?”

Now I hold back a smile. Ewan isn’t questioning my abilities. If he isn’t familiar with practicing magic, of course he isn’t familiar with how novice casters work. He’s worried about me and wants to make sure I’ll be okay.

I unlink the keyring from my belt and hold it up for him to see. “Unbranded casters use tokens to safely practice magic. Tokens contain a small amount of elemental power blessed by a branded person. This lets us safely harness some of an element’s power.”

Ewan shines the light of his phone over the string of my tokens, bobbing his head and inspecting them all.

After a moment of hesitation, I take one charm off the keyring. Nobody except for me touches my tokens, but Ewan is helping me out here and deserves to have his concerns addressed. I place the petal token in his outstretched hand. He gasps, either feeling something there or from the contact of our palms.

The dusty pink, perfectly preserved rose blossom is one of the earth tokens I use. He traces over it reverently.

“The tokens assist us, but there are also safeguards in place to prevent us from going too far.”

“There are?” Ewan lets out a deep breath, relaxing at that.

“Protection rituals are done when one exhibits magical potential or at birth in some cases.” I smile. “My protections were put in place shortly after I was born, since I’m from a magical family. They kick into gear and inhibit our powers if we start extending ourselves and our bodies farther than we can handle.”

The tokens and the safeguards work together, giving a caster enough power to safely practice and learn while preventing them from overextending themselves. The effectiveness of this system weakens around middle age, but I have many years ahead before worrying about that.

“The protections will kick in if I come close to getting hurt,” I continue. “Plus, the moon is out—”

“The moon makes me stronger,” he objects. “Not you.”

“Your strength makes me stronger.”

Wolves go hand in hand with howling at the full moon, though the truth is that wolves can be connected to the land they roam just as closely. Given that Ewan works with his hands and natural materials, given that he spends time running through the forest on all fours, and given that sensing my earth magic caused him to find me… I just know this wolf in particular has a strong tie to the earth too.

“We can do this,” I say. “I can do this.”

He must see the conviction on my face and he sighs. “You are sure of this. Aren’t you, Jack? Why are you so sure?”

“You asked what I’d do if I could do anything.” I shrug, not knowing how else to explain it. “This is my choice.”

If we’d known each other longer than a day, he might be stiff competition for what I desire most from a night of freedom. Heck, we’ve known each other less than a day and he’s already in second place. This dream of exploring earth magic has been in my heart for longer, so it’s clearer. If this night is all I get, I have to try and fulfill it.

“Alright,” Ewan says eventually. “Let’s do this.”

Ewan has a flashlight in his toolbox, and we need it and our phones for light as night falls. We set up a workspace and get busy preparing our ingredients and going through the necessary steps of a magical ritual for growth. The magical routine grounds me, rooted in the same principles that I’ve been around and known as long as I’ve known my own name.

We designate and mark off an area to concentrate on when directing the magic, a square patch of dirt that will become our garden. In no time at all, it’s time to work my magic, literally.

Gathering my ring of tokens from my pocket, I hold the pebble charm in my hand and call the earth to me. The pebble symbolizes rock and earth, used when working with the land itself.

“Nowwe’re starting,” I say with a smile.

Ewan only nods solemnly.

I feel a sensation, a faint vibration when the ground responds to me. We reach out to each other.

Ewan can’t see the magic, but he can sense it. I feel him perk up and track it. My power flows towards him, questioning, and he accepts it. His support rushes towards me, a raw shock of potential.

”Woah,” he sways backward as he adjusts to the feeling of supporting my spell.

I pull up a massive chunk of dirt, going much too deep into the ground. The piece of earth rises up in the air. It lifts high enough to block out the moon from view. Shafts of moonlight peek through as the dirt breaks up in pieces and falls back down.

“Oops,” I duck my head, bashful. “A little overeager there.”

“That’s a good sign, right? We go together well?”

“Y-yeah.” Casting with him doesn’t feel the same as anyone I’ve worked with before.

Ewan’s presence is warm and open, inviting me in. The combination of us together is a bit addicting. We till and prepare the soil easily.

“Will you help?” I offer him a packet of seeds next.

“Sure. I’m not afraid of getting my hands dirty.”

We plant the seeds the old-fashioned way, by hand one by one. Touching them and connecting with them will only help when we add magic later.

Planting and working at night isn’t the norm but we manage together easily. We respond to each other well and can coordinate our efforts with just a few words. We make a good team. I’m even more excited to see what grows if this keeps up.

“Now we need a little water.”

Ewan looks up to the sky. “Doesn’t look like rain.”

Apparently he still isn’t used to someone with the elements at their command. I smile as I grab the token around my neck.

Ice comes from water, though each is treated as its own magical discipline. One is flowing and liquid, the other solid and stable. Two different styles of magic that attract two different types of caster.

Still, the ice token lets me channel both. The token itself looks like a large snowflake and is made of ice that never melts. My parents created it themselves. The full blessing of the element is a privilege every hopeful must learn for themselves, but as my parents both have ice essence inside them, some ice is in my veins. Not enough for a brand, the ice’s potential is basically a token I carry in my blood. The snowflake token itself is symbolic, a talisman to focus on.

“Whoa, Jack. That’s enough water!”

The water flows so easily, only my reacting in time prevents a flood. Sometimes getting another element to react when a different element features more predominantly in a spell is challenging, but the water responds to me almost as naturally as ice.

Once the seeds are planted and watered, it’s time for them to grow.

“Here goes nothing.”

With my final earth token, a small seed, I give the final commands. “Take root. Grow.”

A branded wizard needs no tokens. They carry all the necessary tools inside them. Novices receive basic training tokens for learning and practicing. Since I never formally focused on studying earth magic or found a sponsorship, I have three relatively weak training tokens for the earth.

If I practiced earth magic more or earned stronger tokens, would something be happening right now?

“Take root,” I say again. “Grow.”

The breathless silence extends while we wait. Nothing happens. Why isn’t anything happening?

I pour more power into the earth. I start to sweat and pant as I work harder.

There’s no warning tug from the protections wrapping around my body and soul, so I’m not in any immediate danger of hurting myself. If I keep working this hard without success, however, I will reach a breaking point soon.

No, this is my chance to work earth magic. I can’t fail. I keep pouring myself into the spell and hitting resistance.

Ewan clears his throat. “Are you okay?”

Ewan. I try drawing strength from him. He should compensate for what I lack, but nothing happens. My tokens are becoming hot in my hand, doing all they can.

“Jack, talk to me. Are you alright?”

“I’ll be fine,” I insist, not letting the interruption stop me. This is my chance to create something beautiful. And if I can’t, I should at least be able to do something.

“Can I help?” Ewan asks quietly.

The question confuses me for a moment. “Are you asking to help or asking whether you’re capable of helping?

“Uh, both?” He chuckles weakly. “Let me try to help, at least.”

“Okay.”

He steps closer and offers me his hand. My heart beats harder in my chest, but this is just for practical purposes. Not surprising that a shifter needs skin to skin contact. His connection to the earth and the warm presence of the man next to me threaten to distract me terribly.

Ewan nods, like he’s confirming his suspicions. “Okay, correct me if I’m wrong here, but I get the sense you’re telling the seeds what to do.”

“Yeah. They won’t grow in an instant on their own.”

“But they will grow,” he reminds me gently. “In time. That’s the cool thing about the earth. It follows natural cycles of life. It already knows what to do, so you don’t have to direct it. Everything will happen naturally. All you need to do is give it some power to speed things up.”

“Oh.” I take his suggestion and already it feels like the wall I’ve been running into has melted away. “I, I see what you mean.”

“You’re doing great,” he assures warmly. “I think we can manage together.”

I feel foolish but can’t give up when met with his honest encouragement and support. Honestly, his suggestion has put everything into perspective.

My mindset and powers revolve around working with ice. Ice magic is all about setting things up right. You set the conditions for the element to thrive and then give it form and structure. Then you carefully watch over the ice you created. If you aren’t paying attention, ice can crack and melt. It’s all about control.

Nature is different. It can grow and thrive anywhere without help from us at all.

I do as Ewan says. Instead of directing the seeds, I give them warmth and rich soil and everything they need to come alive. Plus, a little magic to speed up the process. The power flows from Ewan into me. I direct the energy to the ground and the seeds waiting there in the dark. Then I let nature run its course from there and trust.

We wait in expectant silence, for minutes or seconds, who knows. Then…

“Holy crap,” he breathes.

My eyes are closed, I realize, so I open them. Darkness greets me. His phone has gone dark and the light of the moon isn’t showing me anything out of the ordinary.

When he provides light once more, I’m not sure what I should be seeing. I have to kneel down and look very carefully. The little sprout is hidden in the dirt, barely there. I finally see it and don’t believe my eyes. I wonder if it’s a mistake. Was it already there?

The sprout lengthens a fraction, a small green wisp emerging from the dirt. It’s real. And growing. We did that. The sprout we planted minutes ago is growing. Our magic allowed it to happen almost instantly.

“Whoa… we did it?”

“I had no doubt,” Ewan says. “Well, my understanding of magic is a bit iffy, but I believed in you.”

That tiny little blade is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. I stand to share my excitement with Ewan—everything changes. Like a secret switch flips or the last invisible piece of the puzzle falls into place. Everything comes together and the magic takes root.

Everything starts growing.

The garden grows around us. Grass sprouts and takes over the plot of dirt, so rapidly a blade sneaks in under the cuff of my pants and tickles my ankle. Plants follow with leaves and stems and green buds that bloom in an instant.

A garden of blue, purple, and pink plants surge to life around us. I reach out and the petals are soft and waxy against my fingers. They’re real. It’s like we stumbled onto a teeming garden that’s been growing for years. The floral scent fills my nose and smells sweeter than ever.

“We, we did it,” I laugh shakily. “It, it’s… amazing.”

“Beautiful,” he agrees.

Ice magic comes naturally to me, the earth’s power more foreign. I’ve always imagined earth magic could be rather glorious when done right.

I’ve just never felt it myself. Not until now.

Could I have this all the time? Is this some incredible fluke? Maybe only the man I’m casting with makes it so incredible?

”I didn’t—” My words come out in a whisper, and I try again, speaking up to be heard. “I didn”t know it could be like this. Is this, do you…”

“Yeah, I know this feeling. It’s like pack and home, alive and warm and vibrant.”

“It’s amazing. I’m so used to… cold.”

Ewan and I are standing close, closer than I realized. He reaches out and barely needs to move forward to brush his hand against my face. “You feel warm to me.”