A Practical Guide to Sorcery

Chapter 273: Chirality

Siobhan

Month 5, Day 16, Friday 10:40 p.m.

Siobhan’s stunned expression must have pleased Claudio, because he tousled her hair and played painfully with her cheeks, pinching and tugging until tears sprang to her eyes. “I even suspect that the ability to give myself minor new abilities might come from Hyperiodax. But…” He sighed deeply, full of sorrow. “This blessing does not come without a commensurate burden. Really, so many downsides and restrictions! It’s a huge headache,” he lamented, rubbing his forehead as if massaging away worries.

“A lesser being would have either been crippled or driven mad by the frustration,” he announced proudly, holding up his forefinger. “The biggest of which is that even awe-inspiring power is not enough to fuel the magic of a Titan, or, in my case, a half-Titan. This is why they were always hungry—willing to eat anything.”

In Siobhan’s opinion, Claudio had an over-inflated sense of his own worth. He was an Aberrant. Comparing himself to a Titan was pure hubris. Was this the original Claudio’s personality, too? The thought sent a pang through her heart. If it was, that meant there was something of the human left. But at least Claudio was trapped in a body that worked and obviously wasn’t in pain. She couldn’t help but look at Mom again.

Claudio chuckled bitterly. “Unfortunately, I cannot eat. There’s nowhere for the food I swallow to go.” He nodded at her expression. “Yes. Your grandfather was not poisoning me. Though I maintain he would have felt no guilt in doing so if he thought it necessary. However, as you once suggested he would, when he became hostile, he chose to attack me directly.”

Siobhan wanted to ask what Claudio had done to Grandfather, but she dreaded his answer and hesitated long enough that Claudio returned to his monologue.

“Since I cannot eat, I have no way to replenish my power except to wait until more is generated naturally. When using my ability frequently, this is not nearly fast enough. That’s why I’ve run myself into such a ragged state. I must look half dead.” He gestured ruefully at himself. “If I were a human, my Will would surely have broken by now.”

“Can you kill yourself by casting too much?” Siobhan asked. Rory had said Claudio collapsed, but had that been an act or the effect of extreme exhaustion?

Claudio shrugged. “Who knows? Don’t look too hopeful.” He rapped her on the forehead with a knuckle. “I suspect Hyperiodax could devour other Titans’ abilities when he consumed their forms, in addition to the energy contained in every drop of their blood. And I…” “You want that ability,” Siobhan finished.

“It was a long trek back home, and I had ample time to experiment with my abilities along the way. Especially since I got lost in reality a few times after treks within the spirit realm. None of my attempts or experiments with those I met along the way bore fruit—and I had to run from the Red Guard several times. When I eventually arrived at my predecessor’s home and found the letter from Raaz Kalvidasan…it seemed serendipitous.”

“Why did Grandfather want you? The original Claudio, I mean.”

Claudio smiled gleefully. “Can’t you imagine how the ability to build and stabilize gardens of thought within the spirit realm, or define and call upon a certain entity, might combine with the ability to view and manifest things from elsewhere into the mundane plane? But it was also a great opportunity for me. Miakoda’s new ability seems almost designed to support and assist me.”

“To help you turn the village into that?” She jerked her chin toward the mirror without looking at it directly.

“Yes. Though even Miakoda seems to have trouble gazing upon the form of Hyperiodax directly, and cannot view the spirit realm at all without my direction. If we can get as close as possible…” He trailed off longingly but soon brightened. “She makes travel easier, too! She is not just a window, but a doorway—for me. Your grandfather didn’t seem able to pass through on his own. And of course, one must be able to survive on the other side. Neither the Elemental Planes nor the spirit realm are conducive to frail human life.”

Siobhan swallowed. “Where is Grandfather?” She shifted slightly, moving her legs into a position that still seemed relaxed but would make it easier to spring into action.

Claudio rolled his eye.

It was the first time she had seen him do this, and she couldn’t help but wonder if, absurdly, he had learned the expression from her.

“Unfortunately, Raaz isn’t stupid,” Claudio said. “He was surprisingly open-minded. Truly, where did you find such a man to be your grandfather? I’m jealous.” Claudio didn’t wait for her to answer the absurd question. “Raaz even allowed me a little leeway to sate my urges…until he realized what I was really after.”

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Was Claudio hinting that Grandfather had known what he was, and even had some idea of what Claudio was doing to the villagers? Siobhan’s stomach turned. Everyone knew that Aberrants couldn’t resist propagating their anomalous effects. Had he thought Claudio’s actions harmless? Or had he just not cared enough about the villagers to bother?

“Also, I’m surprised Raaz allowed the title of Master to stand. It was an insult to his capabilities. With my somewhat…limited skillset, I couldn’t overpower him. So, I took him into the spirit realm through Miakoda. That is not a place where normal mortals can survive, but he kept clinging to me every time I tried to leave him behind.” Claudio’s fingers rose to touch the edge of his eyepatch. “He is a fierce fighter, but eventually I escaped and left him there. By now, he is surely dead.”

Siobhan instinctively wanted to deny this. Mom had shown her Grandfather’s ever-crumbling form walking about the forest floor, hunched and weary. She had been trying to tell Siobhan that he was still alive, somewhere in the spirit realm.

Siobhan blinked away the burn in her eyes that portended tears. Grandfather hadn’t left her. He’d been kidnapped and imprisoned.

“With Raaz gone, no one can stop me now.” He paused, pinched his chin, and chuckled to himself. “Wow. I sound like some kind of storybook villain!”

Siobhan glared at him. His nonchalance, his childish whimsy while committing atrocities, made him seem only more evil and alien. Could he even understand what it meant to hurt someone?

“It’s a shame you’re not a bit older, with a more established Will—that would be more useful. But…” He reached out and brushed some of the stray hairs away from Siobhan’s face. “It’s not like I can leave you free to grow. A bit of entertainment isn’t enough to justify losing one more tether. I’ve already used up all the villagers, and Miakoda seems to be at her limit, too. Just a bit more.”

“The Red Guard will stop you. They’ll kill you,” Siobhan said defiantly.

Claudio chuckled. “They will certainly come. But will they stop me? Dreams create a certain reality. Once I have created a small piece of true reality in this world, how will they undo my work? How will they tear from me my powers? And perhaps they can kill me…” He stood, turned his back on her, and walked toward Mom’s frame.

Siobhan looked at the blood glyph that seemed to control Mom, gauging the distance between it and her. Moving subtly, she pulled one of the already-plucked hairs from her pocket and held it inconspicuously between her pinky and ring finger, leaving her hand seemingly relaxed.

“Those in power will not be able to resist the lure of my abilities, just as your grandfather could not. As long as I can establish a base of power before it’s too late, they will bring me more subjects in exchange for my work. They’ve shown themselves willing to appease and negotiate before, after all.” Claudio pressed his fingers into the invisible barrier between this world and the spirit realm and drew away a handful of rippling, reflective silver. He turned back toward her. “I welcome the sundered zone.”

Claudio lunged at her, but Siobhan was ready. In one continuous motion, she shot him with the bone bracelet, ripped a few strands of hair away from her head, and shot him again.

He went reeling backward and slammed into the edge of the frame. The magic had punctured two inch-wide holes in his torso and likely would have broken several ribs or bruised his organs if he were a human. Instead, a pinkish-clear liquid seeped from the destroyed flesh, which looked as if it was just skin all the way through; its color didn’t change to the red of muscle or the off-white of bone and fat.

Siobhan tried for a third shot, but the bracelet didn’t grasp the hair she tried to feed it. As Claudio recovered his footing and stared down at his chest in shock, she turned to run, mindlessly spewing some of the worst curse words she’d ever heard Father say.

She reached the door, but the handle didn’t turn, and before she could figure out what locking mechanism was still in place, Claudio slammed into her. The impact knocked the air from her lungs and bounced her forehead off the steadfast lead slab hard enough to daze her.

Even with her chest screaming at her that it had collapsed like thin paper mache and her head swimming, Siobhan pushed against the door and ripped herself around to face Claudio. She bit the hand that was reaching for her face, sinking her teeth in and ignoring the strange, salty taste of Claudio’s body fluid. He let out a strangled grunt and tore his hand away so hard that she felt like some of her teeth almost went with him.

She kneed him between the legs before he could step back or hit her.

Both of them stared down at her leg, shoved hard between both of his. Experimentally, she kneed him again.

Claudio raised his face to meet her gaze and raised one eyebrow. “I have no organs,” he reminded her.

That wasn’t exactly true. As Father had taught her: “Balls, eyes, eardrums, throat, in that order.” She lunged up and raked at Claudio’s face.

He jerked away, and his eyepatch tore free. His left eye was gone. His lid hung strangely limp, and the socket was pale and fleshy, with a few stringy tendrils dangling from the back. The cavity slowly leaked more of that pink-tinted fluid.

Siobhan wasted only a fraction of a second on shock, then hooked several fingers into the slippery socket and used it as a grip to yank Claudio’s head violently sideways. His neck didn’t break, but he stumbled off balance and released her.

She ran toward Mom’s frame, sliding to the ground in front of it and slamming her hand onto the blood glyph Claudio had used to control it earlier. As if she were casting a spell, she turned her Will to searching for Grandfather.

The scene beyond the divide flitted strangely, twisting and half resolving only to twist again in sickening ways until it finally settled onto a land of sand dunes and smoky wind.

Claudio was on her. He smashed the hand with the bit of liquid mirror into her face. The handful of mirror slithered inside her eye, slipping past the lid and around the sides of her eyeball.

A light as blinding as the sun burst apart like a firework inside Siobhan’s mind, and she lost herself.