Seventeen Stones (30 page)

Mia
was chatting with Ella as they walked into Creation when Martin stalked past,
smirking.  Ella gave him a cold, ‘I’m not impressed’ glance, and turned back to
Mia to finish her sentence.  Martin sat down in Mia’s accustomed seat.  Mia
moved across the room and Ella followed and they sat next to the Stubbs boy. 
He wasn’t Mia’s favorite person: he was just
so
boring.  But he was
friendly enough and Martin couldn’t stand him.  That made it well worth it to
sit through his ponderous hello.

Professor
Fain called the class to order and hopped on his desk.  “Here’s one of the more
paradoxical points in Creation:  I can create an apple; just as red, just as
sweet, and just as juicy as any apple that ever grew on a limb of a tree.”  He
whisked his wand around and created a single apple.  He reached into a drawer
in his desk and pulled out a second apple and a sharp silver knife.  He cut the
fruit in half as he continued.  “Perfect in every way, except…”  The created
apple was pure white inside, without a hint of a core or a seed.  A boy in the
back of class exclaimed “That’s even better!”  

Professor
Fain turned his hawk-like glare to the speaker.  “Do you think so?”  His voice
was quiet and deep.  “And what would happen, if for instance, a famine struck
the City as it did two and a half centuries ago?  What would happen to you and
your family if you had no choice but to create your food?” 

Mia was the first to
understand.  “The wanded would literally starve themselves to death trying to
feed the others.”  A cynical smile quirked the professor’s lips. 

“It’s
doubtful they were trying to feed the entire City.  They were probably just trying
to save themselves and their families.  But yes, many wanded people died during
the famine, mostly from over-exertion.  That was before Harold Ottworthy
devised the system that we use to measure the amount of energy, or calories,
that a specific magical act requires.”  He pointed at the multicolored chart on
the wall.

“Creating
an apple, for instance, uses more calories than eating the apple provides.  A
multiplying charm has a ratio of three to one: basically you can multiply an
apple three times before you get into calorie deficiency.”  He took a large
bite of the created apple and swallowed before he continued.  “If you want the
exact mathematical formula you’ll have to take the advanced Theory class with
Professor Patrick.”  He put down the apple and hopped off the desk.  “Back to the
subject we are covering today…Who can tell me why the created apple has no
seeds?”

The
lone hand willing to attempt an answer to the question was attached to Mia.  “I
expect that creating a seed would take enough energy to kill the wand wielder. 
A full-grown apple tree might be easier to grow…”

Professor
Fain interrupted with the excited energy of a true enthusiast.  “Excellent
point!  Martin, Mia, if you don’t mind, come up to the front.  We’ll do a
little experiment!”  He pulled out his wand and summoned two clay pots, a small
bag of dirt, and took the apple seeds out of the fruit on his desk.  “I want
one of you to try to create a seed and the other to try to grow a mature apple
tree.”  Martin sneered at her and indicated that he would try to create the
seed, leaving Mia with the task of growing the tree.  She rolled her eyes. 
Martin pulled out his wand and pretended to consider the task.  After being
told it was basically impossible, Mia knew he wouldn’t put forth any real
effort. 

She turned
her attention to her own task, quietly examining the seed with her magic.  It
was unblemished, whole, and ready to produce a plant if placed in the right
environment.  She tested it and found the focus within herself.  She’d never
tried to aid growth to this extent before.  A moment later a small plant was
spurting out of the pot.   She poured energy into the plant as she summoned
water, more soil, and reflected light from outside.  When the tree was six
inches tall she summoned another pot from the greenhouses.  The tree wasn’t
using as much water as she’d expected, but it was growing very quickly.  She’d
repotted it twice when she felt her knees give out. Her mind was hazy, but she
was determined to complete the assignment.  She felt hands on her wand, trying
to take it away, but she held on.  Everything went dark around the edges of her
vision.  

***

     The next thing Mia knew,
she was nestled in a soft feather bed, with a down comforter, staring out a
window into what could only be early morning light.  Only the first rays of
sunshine have that pale lemon quality.  For a moment she couldn’t remember why
she would be getting up so early.  Emma didn’t normally rise at dawn…

Upon
turning her head she realized that she must be in one of the private rooms in
the infirmary.  Vivian was sitting up in a hideous olive green chair beside the
bed, fast asleep.  Mia hadn’t quite worked out why she would be in the
infirmary when Vivian gave a little jerk and her eyes opened.

“You’re
awake!”  She was grinning like a fool.  Mia smiled at her and agreed “So are
you.”  Vivian blushed slightly.  “Some nurse I make!  It’s a good thing I’m
going to marry an incredibly rich man.  I certainly wouldn’t make much of a
healer!  How’s your head?”  Mia answered truthfully “Pounding.”   Vivian
fumbled around for a second and managed to extract a small cobalt bottle from
the bedside table.  “Drink this while I get Mrs. Bennett.”  Mia glanced at the
bottle.  It was tiny, it couldn’t hold much more than a teaspoon of whatever
was in it.  “What happened?  The last thing I remember was the apple tree sort
of taking on a life of its own.” 

Vivian
plopped down into the ugly chair.  “You can say that again.  You scared us half
to death.  Apparently you were doing some sort of experiment in Creation for
Professor Fain.  Something went wrong and the apple tree started growing so
quickly that it erupted out of the class.  Ella said that Professor Fain used
some of the most amazing wand work she’d ever seen to remove the tree and get
you to the infirmary.  Then he and Professor Cavendish had a shouting match
outside the office and Mrs. Bennett threw them both out.”

Mia realized
that she must have overextended her magical power again.  Vivian continued. 
“We volunteered to sit up with you, just in case.”   Mia threw a grateful look
at her dorm-mate.  “Anyway, I was in class when they had the shouting match so
I don’t have all the details,
yet
.  Mrs. Bennett was really worried, but
you looked better once she injected about fifteen meals into you.  Which reminds
me…you really need to drink the potion.  She said you’d feel better once you
took it.”

Mia
glanced again at the bottle.  “What is it?”  Mrs. Bennett appeared in the
doorway.  “It’s vitalis.  We use it for wand wielders who don’t have the sense
that little green tomatoes have.  Sometimes it keeps the fools from dying or losing
their powers…sometimes they still die.” 

Mrs.
Bennett was standing in a well-washed (formally fluffy) pink robe, and matching
slippers.  Her hair was up in soft pink rollers.  There were new lines on her
face, and her expression was sour.  “Did the fall addle your wits child? 
Drink!”  Mia responded to the imperious note of command in the healer’s voice
and uncorked the bottle.  The potion tasted like summer would if you put it in
liquid form.  It tasted like sunshine, honeysuckle and all sorts of green
things and somehow like cold spring water.  The sensation was entirely too
sharp to linger over, and Mia was sipping a glass of water within seconds. 
Mrs. Bennett looked down at her patient and nodded.  She summoned a breakfast
of fruit and pastry.  “If it stays down you can go to class today.  If not,
I’ll give you something to help you sleep.” 

Half
an hour later Mia was back at her dorm.  After a quick bath she felt well enough
to go downstairs.  The others were happy to see her.  She thanked them for
sitting with her the night before, but they seemed content to sip tea and smile
sleepily at her while she ate her omelet, pancakes, eggs, donuts, grapefruit,
bagel, and oatmeal.  She was on her second omelet when Sarah shook her hard. 

“Mia!”  She shook her again. 
Mia batted her friend’s hand away; it was interfering with her chewing. 

Headmistress
Villanova, Professor Cavendish, Mrs. Bennett, and Professor Fain arrived at
some point while she was eating.  She caught snatches of conversation between
bites.  “Are you sure that you severed the connection to the tree completely?” 
“She’s alive isn’t she?”  “Well then, what’s wrong?”  “She’s doing something
magical, expending way too many calories, but I can’t tell what she’s doing!” 
Mrs. Bennett gave her another vial of vitalis in between cups of tea.  Her mind
worked a little better after that.

Lizzy
and Beth were arguing with the Headmistress.  Beth’s chin was out.  Vivian was
sitting close to Mia, physically resisting Mrs. Bennett’s hands which seemed to
be trying to guide her away. 

“What’s going on?” 

Mrs.
Bennett rushed over to Mia and began checking her eyes with a little mirror. 
“Headmistress; the vitalis is working.”  Headmistress Villanova rushed over,
shadowed by Lizzy and Beth. 

“Mia,
can you hear me?”  She nodded, a bit confused.  “Good.  Professor Cavendish is
here.  He’s going to check some things out, but we had to get you stabilized
first.  I want you to let us know if you feel dizzy or anything.”  She swished
her wand and plates filled the table in front of Mia.  She realized that she
was still ravenous, and began stuffing bacon into her mouth.  She’d never tasted
anything so good…

Professor
Cavendish looked her in the eye at some point and said “Mia, I’m going to check
your magical aura and see if I can figure out what’s happening to you.  Do you
understand?”  She nodded and looked mournfully at her now empty plate.  “I’m
still
hungry.”  The professor sighed and summoned another pile of food:  more bacon,
toast, strawberries in whipped cream, and a pitcher of milk.  “You can eat
while I check.”  A few minutes later she gasped and put down the toast she’d
been voraciously stuffing into her mouth.  She felt a little sick. 

The
Professor wiped his brow.  “That was a bit of…something.  Take a look out the
window.”  There had been a wide grassy area in front of the dorm.  It had been
nothing but walkways an hour before, but now a full grown apple tree stood in
the middle of it.  Moreover, the earth around it showed signs of recent
upheaval.  “It was coming here, pulling itself along with its roots the way a
piranha plant does.”  The branches of the tree were merrily swaying, totally
oblivious to the fact that there wasn’t even a whisper of a breeze.  “I don’t
know what she did originally, but I can tell you what happened with the tree
today.  It was acting as if Mia was its root system, pulling magic and energy
out of her to grow instead of using its roots and light.  She’s lucky the darn
thing was inactive overnight, otherwise she’d be dead.  I don’t think it will
ever be a normal tree, not after that much magic was involved in its growth, but
I’ll need to run some tests to determine exactly what it will be able to do.” 

Mrs.
Bennett totally ignored Professor Cavendish and started checking Mia with
various objects from her bag.  “You’re staying in the infirmary until we make
sure this won’t happen again.” She snapped in a tone that boded ill for anyone
who contested her assessment. 

Professor
Cavendish nodded.  “I think that would be best.  I’ve explained to the tree
that it’s supposed to use its roots to get water and leaves to get sunlight. 
It seemed to like the arrangement.  I have a shield around it and another
around Mia, just in case.  There shouldn’t be any reason to fuss, but she might
need to sleep.”  Mrs. Bennett harrumphed and scooted Mia out of the dorm.

As
soon as Mia was able to get up, Professor Cavendish hauled her out to see the
apple tree.  “Do you realize that this is the first spontaneous mutation from
mundane to magical that we have ever been able to track from the first
generation?  In the wild if we notice the new magical traits in a plant by the
third or fourth generation we’re lucky.  Of course, we have records of the
plants that have been magically manipulated by wand wielders, but those changes
were the result of long study and exact amounts of magic.  We knew what they
were going to do before we added the spells.  This is so exciting!”

Mia couldn’t quite share his
enthusiasm. 

The
tree wasn’t a real danger: it did occasionally wrap its roots around the ankles
of innocent passersby and trip them.  Sometimes when it did something of the
sort, it shook its branches in what was obviously a tree laugh.