All sentient life is connected. The appendages may be different, we may eat different things, and live in different universes, but at the end of the day, we’re all one big family.
It’s time to explore the branches of the multiversal family tree, and today, we present:
(Node 5 Prime 5)
The Old House
– Issue 4 – Hand Magic
“Why you want to learn hand magic?” Sene said skeptically. She was the size of a normal human, but she was about a foot shorter than Ariel, and she had large, translucent wings at her back. Her arms were crossed over her chest.
“I need to help my family. Death took over a house and my uncle needs help to stop it from terrorizing our hometown. Have you ever been to Monroe? I don’t even know if it’s any Divine Essence there, I never thought to check. But if there isn’t, I know why now. My uncle cursed Monroe with a spoon, with death’s spoon…”
Sene lifted a hand and Ariel, who had been speaking very quickly, stopped talking.
“We know about Monroe here. That is a Deads Town or another kind, we never really understood why though. We just figured something was there with powerful dark magic. We didn’t think it was the Baron himself.”
“The Baron?” Ariel asked curiously.
“Baron Samedi,” Sene said in a whispered voice and she looked around them cautiously like she hoped no one else heard her utter the name. But there was seemingly no one else in the swamp, not their size anyway. The large swamp that was full of trees buzzed with thousands of small lights, each belonging to an umbatia who were only a few inches tall.
“No,” Ariel explained, “this thing is from the Fonlands. You know the name for death that Fonlanders don’t say?”
Sene looked at her skeptically. “That ain’t the death that comes to this realm. That death is aVodun and Vodun don’t come here. It must be the Baron.”
“I definitely want to know more about this Baron some other time, but I’m talking about the Vodun. My uncle took his spoon to Monroe and it cursed the house. He said I could use a spell as a mmoatia to hide it so that the death Vodun can’t use it as a conduit to Earth anymore. Is that something you can teach me?”
“Hand magic,” Sene said with a nod. “I didn’t think the Mmoatia used spells for anything but portals anymore, especially the Supremes. Y’all got so much essence in you and the natural abilities of your bodies make hand magic unnecessary. But I guess if you don’t got the natural ability to hide things, then a spell is a useful way to direct the essence you already got to do it.”
“Why do you call it hand magic?” Ariel asked.
Sene lifted her left hand that looked like Ariel’s but was wrinkled with age. Her fingers were long and lithe and she extended her pointer finger up, bawling the others into a fist.
“‘Cause you need a hand to do it,” she said to Ariel. “Actually, that ain’t really true, is it?”she asked herself and looked up quizzically. “I done seen some of the things in this realm throw magic with they tails. But we call it hand magic ‘cause we use our hands, and you can only make certain spells work by moving something to direct it out your body, otherwise you can hurt yourself. We used our hands, and for hand magic, it starts with this.” She looked at her extended pointer finger.
Ariel did the same, putting the pointer finger of her right hand up. As she did, Sene fanned her three fingers up and twisted her hand slightly so that her pointer finger was highest. Her thumb was extended as well and it looked as though she held something invisible in her hand. She connected the tips of her thumb and pinky fingers and they began to glow with golden light that also ignited on each of her fingertips.
“Always pointer high, that’s where all the magic you conjure with the spell leaves the body. When I used my Essence magic, I realized it’s easier to conjure it through the hands, too. But always pointer finger high. Be precise. Use sharp and intentional movement. The best thing to learn is to always be aware of your hands and your fingers. Do what I’m doing,” she said and nodded to Ariel’s pointer finger.
Ariel fanned her fingers and Sene shook her head.
“Come closer and see what I am doing.”
Weeks passed in the swamp and Sene used her pointer finger to zap Ariel’s fingers when her formations were flawed.
And just like her uncle had said, the demolition crew was unable to demolish the old house in Monroe, even after he had been arrested for trying to obstruct their work. He heard about the death of the demolition crew from a jail cell. Apparently, a black mist issued from the house and tossed all of the machinery around, damaging other homes and roads in the area, but leaving the old house unscathed. Others went after them to try to finish the job, but it only led to more death.
“Where are you Ariel?” her uncle asked from his jail cell.
If it had been up to Sene, Ariel would have been in the swamp for months learning hand magic, but Ariel managed to convince Sene to put their lessons on hold after a few weeks, then she went back to the old house.
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