Chapter 13

The following character returns from the original Magic Ink story:

Sean Patrick Martin O’Hennessy

Senior Master Sorcerer, head of the Boston council, 5’8” tall, a thin old man with a long white beard and hair

When we arrived home, it was mid-morning on Friday the 11th of June in Statesboro. Our Moms called our sisters to let them know that we were back. Dad called the printing plant to let Uncle Will Stuart know the same thing. Sean and I didn’t have anyone to call. Neither did Annie and Sara, as they hadn’t told their Mother that they were going to the Otherworld. The four of us went up to our rooms to change clothes.

We knew that in our absence there was work that needed to be done in the fields that hadn’t been. It would also soon be time for making preserves, as the blackberries and blueberries were ripening. Annie and Sara also changed but only into robes as they were going to take a good HOT soak in our Mother’s hot tub with bubble bath salts. Sean and I joined Dad in the fields. Even our Moms were out in the garden checking on the progress of their herbs.

On Saturday, it was cleanup at the printing plant again for Sean and me. Annie and Sara joined our sisters doing bookbinding while Ed and Bill worked on the plate makers with Aunt Myra. On Sunday after church and lunch, Sean and I approached Dad about what we needed to do.

“Dad, we need to talk to you,” I told him, as our Moms were clearing the table, and Annie and Sara were taking care of the few dishes.

“You sound very serious, Gus,” Dad replied.

“Yes, Dad. This is serious,” I responded without going any further.

“All right, let’s go into the den, then,” Dad replied, and the three of us adjourned to the den for our talk.

“Is this something that your Mothers don’t need to know about?” Dad asked once we were settled in the den. Sean and I were sitting on the sofa, and Dad was in his favorite chair.

“No, sir. Annie and Sara will be telling them about it in a short while. Sean and I wanted to discuss it with you first,” I told him.

“All right. Go ahead and tell me what you are concerned about,” Dad told us.

“Dad, we need to install the same wards that we used on the cottage in the Otherworld on our house,” I told him very seriously.

“And on our sisters’ houses, the print plant and all of our full time employees’ houses,” Sean added.

“We will also need to install wards on all of the locations that we have portals to,” I finished.

“Do you believe that things will become that bad?” Dad asked.

“Yes, Dad. Magic is on the increase. There has been a very large increase in its use in the last year. The Federal Government is taking notice as well as various state governments. You already know how the politicians and bureaucrats deal with things. If they can’t control something, they want to eliminate it. They will be unable to control Magic and won’t understand it, as few of them possess the Talent. Things will become very ugly in a few years,” I finished. Sean was nodding in agreement.

“All right,” Dad agreed with a sigh. “What do you need in the way of help?” he asked.

“It’s going to take time to do all of this correctly,” Sean told him. “We’ll start with our houses and the plant. We’ll do the Stuarts and our other employees next. What we need from you is a prioritized list of the stores and other locations to be warded,” Sean finished.

“That will require some thinking,” Dad told us.

“The Denver store is a priority,” I told him.

“Yes, and the Boston Council. I’ll need to get with them on what they consider priority locations. We’re talking a good bit of time and coordination for this,” Dad noted.

“Yes, sir. That’s why we brought it up now,” I told him. “We’ll be starting on our three houses tomorrow, and then the printing plant.”

“We’ll do the others here after that and then the Denver store,” Sean told him laying out the rough plan we had decided on.

“I’ll start on the list tomorrow, after I speak to your Mothers,” Dad assured us. Sean and I then went upstairs to continue our study of Master’s Level Magic. We were soon joined by Annie and Sara.

“Your Mothers took the news very well,” Annie told us. “They are concerned about their suppliers, especially the ones supplying the herbal store.”

“Yes, we didn’t even think about them,” Sean said, “Something more to add to an already crowded list.” We studied until our usual time to dress for dinner. Dinner was at Edana and Gales house tonight.

It wasn’t until after dinner that we brought up to our sisters and their husbands the fact that we would be installing new wards on their houses and properties.

“But why?” Tara asked. She was the first one to recover from our announcement.

“Things will get real ugly and dangerous in the near future,” Annie told her and the rest of them. “We need to start preparing for that now.”

“How soon in the future?” Gale asked. “What about our schooling? Will it be interrupted?” Here was one more thing that we hadn’t considered.

“I can’t give you an exact date,” I told her. “A couple of years - maybe. It will depend on the Government, and how fast and hard they react, but be assured that trouble is coming,” I assured them all.

“We need to increase our class load to see if we can finish College sooner,” Edana told the others, who all nodded in agreement.

“Yes, summer classes!” Muriel said. “Is there any chance of getting into any of them this summer?”

“Most of the early ones have already started,” Tara informed her. “But there is a second round starting in early July. We need to go into the campus tomorrow, and see what is being given and then see if a little Magic can get us into any of them that we need.”

“Yes, we’ll go early tomorrow morning. This will include you guys, also,” Edana said, looking at their husbands.

“We’ll be ready,” Ed assured her. When we left, our sisters and their husbands were in a much more serious mood then they had been when we arrived. Later, back at our parents’ house, Annie and Sara were more serious also.

“What about our own schooling?” Sara asked when we were gathered in our study room.

“We’re taking it over the internet,” I said, as the light bulb went on in my head, and I hurried out to get my cell phone to call Edana.

“Edana!” I said when she answered.

“What is it, Gus?” Edana asked. I could tell that she wasn’t in a good mood, which meant that I had probably interrupted something personal.

“See about taking courses over the internet,” I told her.

“We already thought of that, Gus!” she said in a somewhat disgruntled tone.

“OH, sorry! Didn’t mean to interrupt anything.” I couldn’t hear anything and looked at the display on the phone. It just said, “Disconnected.” When I returned to our study room, Sara was on her laptop.

“Yes!” she was saying, as I entered. “We can start on our Junior Year right away this summer.”

“I think that we should do that,” Annie said looking at us guys.

“We’re going to be pretty busy already,” I reminded them.

“We’ll just have to fit it in,” Sara told us. Sean and I just sighed, as it was obvious that the women had already made up our minds for us.

“I guess we can get along with a little less sleep and sex,” I said.

“Maybe a little less sleep, but I’m not giving up on any sex,” Sean said, and Sara gave him a big kiss right after that. Annie snuggled up against me and kissed me too. That pretty much ended any studying for the night.

The next morning, at breakfast, Annie and Sara brought up the idea of summer school to our Mothers. While they talked, Sean and I went out with Dad to check on the crops, and especially the berry bushes. We had already started picking blackberries when the women joined us.

“We signed you up to start your Junior Year beginning next week,” Mother Katie told us, as she checked the bushes. Our Moms returned to the kitchen shortly after that to ready their canning equipment, while the rest of us continued to pick berries.

By mid-morning, we had picked everything that was ripe enough, and returned to the house with the fruits of our labor. Our Moms took charge of it. Dad went back out to work on the tractor, and the four of us went to sit on the floor in the large front parlor. Soon we were deep in the process of creating the new wards around our parents’ house. We would do the property wards later after we had all of the houses protected.

The work went somewhat quicker than we had anticipated. Of course we had used the spells quite a lot in erecting the wards around the Otherworld, and we put that down as the reason that we finished quicker than expected. We were careful to check over the wards to ensure that they were set correctly. On Tuesday and Wednesday we warded our sisters’ houses, and on Thursday we started the wards at the printing plant.

Our houses had been comparatively easy, as we only had a few people with high levels of the Talent to be allowed past the wards. The building where the printing plant, bookstore and herbal store were located was a different story, and it previewed the problems that we would have with the other stores and locations that would need to be protected. There were a number of considerations:

1. There were the employees who needed access to the building. In this case, the Stuarts and our new printers and bookbinder all had the Talent and would be easy to allow through the wards. So did the people who ran the bookstore and the herbal store. Our family could easily pass through them also.

2. There were the other employees, notably the part time bookbinders, who didn’t have the Talent, but still required access. There were also the customers who came to shop at the bookstore and the herbal store.

3. There was the need to keep government bureaucrats and investigators out of the stores and the plant. The problem being that some government employees did shop there, and it was difficult to separate out those of the various local, state and Federal levels.

To solve the various problems, we adopted a series of approaches:

First we laid the wards on just the printing plant, and made sure that the Stuarts knew the word and sign to lower the wards so the other employees could access the printing plant to work.

Secondly, we did the bookstore and the herbal store separately with only the prohibition to exclude government inspectors and investigators.

Additionally we used a separate obfuscation spell around the entire building to confuse and bewilder the government investigators and keep them out of the stores without the need of using the wards. This would allow normal customers to access the store. If trouble was imminent, the Stuarts or one of us could activate the wards around the bookstore and herbal store.

Needless to say it took us some time to work all of this out to satisfy all of the requirements, and consequently it was late Friday afternoon before we were finished and satisfied with the results.

The following week, we started on the homes of the Stuarts, the new printers, and the people who ran the bookstore and the herbal store. This was fairly easy as all of them had some level of the Talent, and we could set the spells to admit them and their immediate family. Of course there was the problem of the rest of their family and friends visiting them. We made sure that they knew how to lower the wards, but strongly suggested that they keep them active except for known visitors and to be suspicious of strangers. Those from other areas of the country already were, but the local people tended not to be as wary.

While we had been working on the wards, Dad and our Moms had been compiling an extensive list of the other people and places that would also need protection. Of course the Denver bookstore was first on the list, and it was followed by the Boston Council. We put everyone off until the following week, the week of the 28th of June, as we needed a break over the weekend to recover some.

Need I mention that while we had been doing all of this, other things were not getting done. We now had our home-school studies to do each day, since our Moms had started us in them again. There were also our Magic studies in the evening before bed.

What wasn’t getting done was our work in the fields and in the printing plant. Also, Annie and Sara had less time to help our Moms. It wasn’t just we four that were missing either. Our sisters and their husbands were out a part of each day to take the additional classes they had signed up for so they could complete their degrees sooner. The Stuarts and the new printers understood this, as did our parents, but that didn’t make it any easier on them.

Additionally, canning season would soon be here. Something would have to give and it looked like it would be the wards. They would just have to wait. We all hoped that there would be time to complete them, but no one was sure.

We visited the Denver store on the 28th of June. It was easy to sit in there and pretend to be reading one of the books while we were actually setting up the wards. We used the same plan that we had worked out for the bookstore and herbal store at home. We made sure that George knew how to activate the wards. We didn’t do anything at Annie and Sara’s mother’s house as she had no Talent and could not activate the wards.