Chapter 13

Tanner suggested drawing an outline of my apartment to practice on, I thought a scaled down model would do the job. Tanner quickly recognized my intent and told me to make the outline as close to the actual size of the apartment as I could. He told me his reasons too. “There are two things to get out of this exercise: You’ll embed some of your Magic into the drawing and the more you do, the better this will work. And you’ll practice your recall skills. With the Law of Secrecy, we’re not allowed to record our spells to use later because those notes might be found by outsiders. So, you need to be able to recall details at any time.”

What he said made sense, to a degree. I didn’t foresee the need to repeat spells as often as he implied, but exercising my mind was never a bad thing, so I set to work. What I didn’t expect was to take as long as I did to draw the outline. My knees were sore from crawling around on the concrete floor and I was getting cranky, but I couldn’t blame Tanner. I wanted to do this right, which meant the outline had to be right, and that meant I had to go over it several times to make sure the dimensions were correct, including the internal walls, all of the doorways, and windows.

I stood up from an adjustment of the window placement in the bedroom and was sorely tempted to draw an outline of my bed to make sure the windows were right.

Tanner spoke up. “Now, from everything you’ve told me and the questions you’ve asked, I’m fairly sure putting together this spell in your mind will be easy for you.” He stood near the booth and drinks looking satisfied.

I looked at the bedroom windows again and thought they weren’t quite right, but I fought off the urge to make further corrections and said, “You say that now, but you might be wrong.” I turned from the window markers, and walked toward Tanner. I was careful to step over the lines so I wouldn’t have to draw them again, and possibly get caught up in this effort of perfection I found myself in. I stopped in front of the “front door” and looked at Tanner. “Especially if I blow us up.”

I meant it as a joke, but Tanner didn’t smile. Instead, he frowned. “You simply don’t understand, do you? Magic is a tool that you control, like a hammer or slide rule. Unless you direct it to cause damage, it won’t.”

I rolled my eyes. “Okay, I won’t blow us up, but I might make us go deaf.”

He shook his head. “Keep your head on straight, focus on the purpose of the spell, and we’ll both walk away intact.”

So much for relieving some of the tension with a joke.

I shook my head and looked at the outline again. “I still don’t get why anyone would want to listen in on me.” I looked up. “It seems anyone who wants to do our Community any real harm would go after higher level officials.”

Tanner nodded. “You’re right, but our leaders are very well protected. Besides, we’re pretty sure members of the Assembly would be very happy if all us Magic-types simply shriveled up and died.”

“Even if they have to help with the shriveling part?” I asked, trying to joke again, but Tanner didn’t smile. “Okay, fine, I need the spell, but shouldn’t I know more about the kinds of spells that would be used to listen in and block those?”

“Most spells nowadays are designed to mimic technology,” he said. “For instance, a Magus might inbue his cell phone with a spell that allowed him to dial the number for another phone, though not actually call it, and still hear what was being said. Yet, to anyone who notices him, he appears as if he were simply talking on his phone.”

I shook my head. “Are you saying someone will be listening through my phone?”

He shrugged. “That’s only one possibility. But the classic eavesdropping spell is referred to as a scrying spell. Basically, a Magus uses something to gaze in, like a Magically prepared mirror, bowl of water, or something else that offers a reflection. The next part is to target a person or place, and the Magus usually collects something from that target, like some hair, fingernail clippings, or a piece of the location.”

“If they wanted to listen in at my apartment, they’d only have to walk up and grab a stone next to the door,” I said.

He shook his head. “No, it would have to be from within the structure. A stone from outside would allow them to listen to you while outside your door, but that’s all.”

“Then, shouldn’t I worry about people breaking into my apartment instead?” I asked, “To keep them from taking anything they can use for any purpose like that or anything else?”

“Eventually, yes,” he said. “You’re going to have to add more security spells as time goes on. Right now, we’re trying to keep simpler scrying spells from penetrating. Those simpler spells don’t require an item from your apartment.”

“So, even if they don’t have something to help them target my apartment, they can still listen in,” I said, feeling wary and worn out.

Tanner nodded. “Right now, yes.”

“But how would a scrying spell gain access?” I asked. “I need to know that at least.”

Tanner shook his head. “Haven’t you been paying attention? If you counter a specific spell, others that work in different ways could gain access.”

I stood there for a second, calming down from his jibe. “I thought you said there were only so many ways someone might be able to gain access.”

“Did you have any toys as a child?” he asked, sounding impatient.

I sat on the floor, crossing my legs. I was confused by his change in topic. “A few, yeah. Why? What does...”

“Did you have Erector sets, Lincoln logs, or Legos?” he asked, interrupting me.

I shrugged. “A couple of sets of Legos, but what does...”

He shook his head. “Did you build things with those sets? Things the instructions didn’t suggest?”

I nodded. “The sets were for a boat and a car, and I tried to build a robot out of them.”

He nodded. “Now, if you’d had more Legos, you could have built different kinds of robots, or bigger robots, right?”

I frowned and nodded. “Yes.”

“It’s the same principle with Magic,” He said. “Worrying about how a spell penetrates your apartment isn’t important because there are a lot of different ways to build a spell like that.”

“So, I’m constructing a general, all-purpose anti-scrying spell,” I said.

He grinned and nodded. “Correct. And when you build the spell, you do it your own way. Don’t think of it in terms of piece shapes or sizes, but in simple energy. Your Magical energy is like the Lego pieces you had. The more you have, the more you can do, and the more elaborate you can make it.”

“So, I shouldn’t worry about sound waves, or acoustics?” I said, confused.

He shook his head with that lop-sided grin. “No. Don’t worry about that. Think about the final effect, what you want your Magic to do and where you want it to do it. You shape it to line the walls, ceiling and floor. You design it to keep anything you or anyone else says inside the apartment. Then you force the energy to conform to those specifications.”

I nodded. “Then working from the Lego angle, how do I put this spell together?”

“Okay, like the fetish you made, there are several components to consider. Unlike your fetish, which you use your Will to power, this should work whether you’re home or not. So, you’re going to have to instill this shield into the walls, ceiling, floor, windows and door.”

I frowned. “I guess I understand the ceiling, but the floor too?”

“You know why sound doesn’t travel in space?” he asked.

“Because it’s a vacuum,” I answered almost automatically even though I was confused by what his question had to do with my lack of understanding. “Sound waves commonly travel through the particles that make up the air we breathe.”

“Right,” he said. “And sound travels very well through solid objects, like metal, wood, and rock.”

I looked up. “Native Americans used to listen to rocks on the ground and could reportedly hear the approach of horses from up to ten miles away.”

“Who says they ever stopped?” Tanner asked with that lop-sided grin. “In our case, the same holds true for most listening spells. It’s actually easier to listen in through the ground – especially if you live somewhere with a lot of concrete like your apartment – than by any other means.”

“So, basically, I’m going to make a bubble to stop sound waves,” I said.

“Yes,” he said. “Now, for the spell. What are the three basic aspects to casting?”

“Magic, force of will, and focus of intent,” I said.

“Good, and do you know what it takes to infuse those aspects into an inanimate object?” he asked.

I thought about my fetish. “Well, the amber stone of my fetish represents my Magic. I only kept that on my person for a couple of hours and was told it would do the job, which it did. For Magic, I’m guessing my presence.”

“For something as small as a stone, yes, but for your apartment, it’ll take a lot more,” he said. “How often do you have sex at your apartment to feed your power?”

“All the time,” I said. “Though I don’t think I will be this weekend since my sister is staying there while she finds her own place.”

I looked up when Tanner didn’t immediately reply. He was staring at me with a curious look on his face. “Well,” he said finally, “I suppose that’s one advantage to letting your Fonti know what’s really going on.”

I frowned slightly, wondering what was happening with Dalton and my girls. No one else had shown up at the warehouse and I continued to take that as a good sign. Of course, it occurred to me that Dalton didn’t have to bring the girls here specifically to make any Magical adjustments to them. I shook off that thought as well as the feeling of dread so I could focus and asked, “Why? What would you have suggested?”

“For your apartment, sex every night for a week would do the trick,” he said. “But you’ve surpassed that.”

“Okay, then what about Intent?” I asked. “How do I infuse that into the building?”

He held up a finger. “Not the building, just your apartment. You don’t want to over-extend into areas you don’t control. If someone trying to survey you moved into an adjoining apartment, within your protective bubble, then that protection would be useless.”

I considered arguing, since Milena’s apartment was adjacent to mine, but changed my mind. If nothing else, I could duplicate the shield for her place too.

“For Intent and Will though, you’ll design those into how the shield works. As an example, this warehouse; I could open all of the doors and it would still be secure, because of the way the spell was designed. For your apartment though, I would suggest something simpler. You could go with the ‘live circuit’ design.”

I frowned. “Wait, you just jumped past how to infuse my place with my Will and Intent and went straight to the design.”

“No, your Will and Intent are what make the design and utilize the Magic already imbued into the structure,” he said.

“Then you’re suggesting I don’t need to understand how it works for it to work,” I said.

“Go back to the Lego robot,” he said. “After you built it, did you need to know how it worked to know it could walk, grab stuff, and talk?”