The end is near and I am Excited

Just a few basic pieces of news and then on to this weeks story.

My in-progress novel just broke 7,000 words. Not saying much but it is coming along. I will try to put some serious effort into it this week as I don’t have any new projects planned. It is an urban fantasy with lots of magic.

I have three short stories that I am polishing and intend to submit different places this week. Wish me luck.

My oldest graduates (grad-gee-eights!) the first weekend in June. I will spend my holiday weekend cleaning, cutting and preparing for the celebration. We are so proud of him.

L. E. White

Inspirational Quotes

“Do what you always do, get what you always get.”

“You can change.”

“You don’t get to be happy; you get the chance to make yourself happy.”

These three quotes hang on the wall, each one of them on a different piece of paper. They weren’t printed out like a banner. No big, fancy letters. Nothing that would make them seem like more than words. That was part of the point, they weren’t more than words. Magic isn’t about saying the right things and waving special stuff in the air. There isn’t any magic in anything but your mind.

He put these words up to remind him that he had to make his own magic. Despite all that he had lost, or all that had been taken from him, or even all that he had given up. He was the source of his own magic.

There was no circle on the ground today. If he failed, he would die to teeth and claws, if he succeeded, he would never draw another circle again.

Deep breaths, slow and steady, an exercise to calm his mind and allow him to relax. Once he was ready, he opened his eyes and looked at the floor. A circle of light blazed there, clear in his thoughts and therefore as real as anything built from stone.

There wasn’t any chanting or dancing. No candles and no incense. He took one last deep breath and jumped into the deep end with three little words.

“Ego Vocco Vos.”

All the times he had done this before had been nothing compared to today. He had worked with groups and other skilled practitioners of the arts, never had something torn through the veil this fast. It slammed a great horned head against the invisible wall of the circle with such force that the windows shattered.

He just stood there looking into its eyes.

A raging bellow shook the room. Dust fell from the ceiling and the empty window frames rattled. The beast screamed and roared and lashed out at the prison that they would both see.

He didn’t move.

It looked at him. Squinted its large yellow eyes and sighed as it melted. The body of the fiend flowed like wax until it looked like he did. The same placid expression, brown hair and skinny body that had greeted him that morning now shimmered into being some five feet in front of him.

He smiled then, nodded once to indicate his approval, and released the demon, which returned home with a clap of thunder as reality snapped back together around it.

He smiled as he dropped the spell, feeling his body sag as he released the magic that had kept him alive. It had taken so much to contain the monster. His head was throbbing and he could feel blood leaking out of his nose. He had to sleep, to recover, but not until he was finished.

Slow, stumbling steps carried him to the wall with the three sheets of paper hanging on it. He placed his left hand on the smooth plaster for support before reaching up and wiping a finger along his upper lip. He made a bright red check mark with his macabre finger paint on the middle sheet. After all, he had just graduated.

He had changed.

 

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