Thaumatology 101 (20 page)

‘How long were you working on it?’

‘I did the boundaries on one day and the house on the next.’

Bellamy sucked at his teeth. ‘And you felt fine after that? No fatigue, blurred vision, headaches?’

Ceri raised an eyebrow. ‘No. Mind you I was having some other issues at the time, um, personal matter. One of my housemates is a half-succubus.’

Obviously not knowing what to say to that, Bellamy tried his best to ignore it. ‘Most enchanters working on something like that would take several days, perhaps a couple of weeks. Since you’re new to this and have had no formal training I’d suggest you were over-exerting yourself, but there are none of the normal signs. You work with Doctor Tennant at the Met, don’t you?’

‘I’m her research assistant,’ Ceri confirmed.

‘She should have all the necessary equipment to run tests. Could I suggest that you ask her to run some broad spectrum thaumic field analysis tests together with a metabolic thaumogenesis test?’ He grinned at the expression on her face. ‘I started out as an academic, Ceri. I worked in the thaumatology department in Cambridge until… Well, I had to leave and now I do PPC courses. Whatever, I know my thaumatology. Now you go home so I can get some rest away from students.’

Ceri nodded, gathered her stuff, and headed off.

Holloway, October 8
^th

‘Carl Bellamy,’ Cheryl said thoughtfully as she disentangled a set of leads from a box she had pulled out of one of the back rooms. ‘The name’s familiar… Take your shirt off please, dear.’

Ceri was perched on a stool in the middle of the containment circle surrounded by an array of thaumometers not dissimilar to the one she had jury-rigged for Carter in the Collar Club. This one was a little more professional since the sensor heads were on specially designed stands, and the instruments themselves were high resolution slit-scan models, but the principle was the same. She pulled her T-shirt over her head and tossed it over an equipment rack.

Cheryl began sticking transducer pads to Ceri’s chest. ‘So, Bellamy is concerned that you seem to be generating a lot of power and not tiring from it?’

‘I’m not entirely sure what he was concerned about,’ Ceri replied. ‘Something like that though.’

‘You understand the mechanism mages use to generate power?’ Finishing with the skin contacts, Cheryl produced a headband with four contacts mounted on it and strapped it around Ceri’s head.

‘The basics,’ Ceri replied. ‘Mages generate thaumic energy through an act of will which manifests as a surge from the Muladhara node at the base of the Chakral Median. This builds up through the median until it reaches the Sahasrara node at the crown of the head. At that point it manifests as thaumic energy, but prior to that it’s more like an electrical discharge.’

Cheryl nodded. ‘The process is tiring. A mage exerts him or herself physically to generate the energy required. Attempting a sufficiently large spell, generating too much power at once, can actually kill you. Generally you know your limitations and you would feel yourself tiring and break off. Bellamy may be concerned that you don’t get the normal warning signs and you’ll kill yourself working magic.’

Ceri blinked. ‘I, uh, hadn’t thought of it like that,’ she said.

The Doctor smiled at her reassuringly. ‘Let’s get started, shall we.’ She walked over to a console and pulled up the scanning software. ‘Scanning started, biological monitors running. If you could… do something?’

Something? Okay, something.
Ceri raised her hand, cupping it, and closed her eyes. There was a spark and then a ball of glowing, blue energy filled her palm. She opened her eyes and looked down at her hand. The energy shifted and shimmered. It was rather beautiful really. ‘Something,’ she said. Grinning, she looked up at Cheryl.

The Doctor was standing there with her jaw hanging open. ‘I’ve never seen anything like this,’ she said.

Ceri frowned. ‘Boss, you’re scaring your research assistant,’ she said. Closing her hand, she dismissed the energy in it as easily as it had come.

‘Stay there,’ Cheryl said. ‘I’ll wheel this over to you. I’d like to do another run to confirm the results in a minute.’ She grabbed the trolley’s handle and pulled it over so that Ceri could see the screen. A couple of button presses and the imagery Cheryl had seen was replayed.

The scanners had supplied a basic outline of her body and the stool prior to her summoning the energy. She watched the outline raise its hand and then there was a flare of energy filling that hand. There was no reaction in the body, no stream along the spine, nothing. ‘Play it again,’ she said.

Cheryl tapped keys. ‘Watch the biometrics,’ she said. Ceri did as directed. Her heart rate and respiration remained constant through the recording, but there was a spike in neurological activity prior to the energy appearing which kept going until it vanished. Ceri noticed that the power, summoned apparently from nowhere, vanished back into the same place.

Cheryl pushed the trolley back again. ‘All right,’ she said, ‘again, but this time I’m going to run the scanners at twice the resolution. This is fascinating.’

Ceri giggled. It
was
fascinating, and she had never been the subject of an experiment before. ‘Lab rat number one reporting for duty,’ she said, saluting.

Rolling her eyes, Cheryl hit the record button. ‘When you’re ready…’

Once again, the ball of bluish energy flared into existence in her hand. She looked at it; raw power sitting in her palm, ready to do whatever she wished of it. ‘What’s the thaumometer reading?’ she asked.

‘You’re casually holding about five thaums,’ Cheryl said. She turned and looked around at Ceri, frowning. ‘What are you, girl?’ she asked quietly.

Kennington, October 9
^th

A small army of dusters skittered across the bookshelves of the study directed by a nut-brown fairy who was smaller than they were. Ceri watched them as they swirled around the books, getting into the little nooks and crannies as good little dusters should. She was sat there while Twill did the dusting, examining the processed data from the scans Cheryl had run on her the day before. Nothing she had managed to find showed anything different from the initial conclusions; somehow, Ceri was able to conjure raw thaumic energy from nothing.

‘Twill, mind if I ask you a question?’ she said.

‘Well,’ the fairy said, not looking around, ‘that obviously depends upon the question.’

‘Your magic doesn’t make you tired, does it?’

‘You mean the way human magicians tire from using spells? No, no it doesn’t. Fae magic is driven by a reservoir of energy held within our bodies.’ She flitted over to where Ceri was sitting at the desk. ‘True supernatural beings…’

‘True supernatural beings,’ Ceri interrupted, ‘exhibit the ability to generate thaumitons, using or emitting them as required by their metabolic processes. Fairies emit a constant field of T-Plus thaumitons, which tends to generate a feeling of well-being, even elation, in those around them.’

Tiny brown eyes narrowed at her. ‘If you know all the answers, Miss Know-It-All-Thaumatologist, why bother asking?’

‘Because I wanted to know what it
feels
like,’ Ceri said. Looking at Twill with her Sight, she could actually see the field of energy which surrounded her and the sparkle of stored energy which seemed to occupy the pit of her stomach, the Manipura node on her Tantric Median, if Ceri was judging it right.

Twill’s expression shifted to one of mild consternation. ‘What it feels like…’ she murmured. ‘What it feels like… I don’t know, what does breathing feel like?’

It was Ceri’s turn to look perplexed. ‘I don’t know, I just do it.’

‘Quite.’ She nodded emphatically. ‘Look, fae don’t learn spells like humans do. Well, fae
can
learn spells, and the ones who do can be very good at them, but some things just come to us naturally. We do them without thinking, like breathing.’

‘Your invisibility,’ Ceri suggested, ‘glamors, telekinesis…’

‘Flight,’ Twill added. ‘You don’t think these wings are practically capable of supporting my body in the air, do you?’

‘Honestly? I hadn’t thought about it, but now you mention it…’

Twill alighted on the desk and sat down, knotting her somewhat disproportionately long legs into a lotus posture. ‘What’s brought this on?’ she asked.

‘My course tutor got worried that I didn’t get tired from working magic,’ she said. ‘So Cheryl ran some tests on me yesterday. I don’t use the same metabolic process to generate thaumic energy as most mages do. I just… get it out of the air.’

‘That’s not how magic works, my girl,’ Twill said. Then she frowned. ‘Well, it hasn’t worked like that in… almost fifteen centuries. And that’s only if you believe a lot of old legends.’

‘Twill,’ Ceri said, ‘you’re being cryptic. I hate it when you go all Zen Master on me.’

‘Sorcerers, Ceri,’ Twill said, as if it should be obvious, ‘I’m talking about sorcerers. Merlin, Gwydion, your namesake, Ceridwen. Supposedly they could work fearfully powerful magic without the aid of demons, gods, or spirits. They understood how the universe worked, and their great knowledge gave them power. Of course, it’s a matter of legend. If they existed, no sorcerer lived past the Battle of Badon in five-fifteen.’

Ceri shrugged. ‘Merlin was supposed to be a half-demon,’ she said, ‘and I was always told that great magic in the past was either exaggerated or down to pacted wizards.’

‘My great-grandmother,’ Twill said, ‘or maybe my great-great-grandmother, told tales of Gwydion. She said he could bend the weather to his will, turn into any animal he wished, speak to the dead…’

‘None of that can’t be done by anyone with the right spells,’ Ceri replied. ‘Well, no one knows how to do animal transformations anymore, but…’

‘But he did it as though it were nothing,’ Twill said. ‘To him, it was a matter of
knowing,
and once you knew you could do anything. The world listened when he spoke.’ She shrugged tiny shoulders. ‘But the sorcerers have been dead a long time with no sign of them in all those years. Mind you,’ she added thoughtfully, ‘I never heard anyone tell where they came from in the first place.’

~~~

‘Hey, Carter bedded Suzie Shore?’ Ceri said, looking up at Lily across the kitchen table from her copy of
The Wednesday Witch.

‘Huh? Oh, yeah,’ Lily replied, grinning. ‘She came to the Dragon last Saturday and got a bit sloshed. Carter said he’d take her home, but he didn’t mention
who’s
home.’ She giggled. ‘I think he’s taken a bit of a shine to your boss.’

‘Cheryl?’

‘Uh-huh. She came in on Wednesday and they left together.
And
you don’t see her in the gossip columns.’ This, it seemed, was the clinching factor as far as Lily was concerned.

‘Why does that make a difference?’ Ceri asked.

‘The ones he cares about never turn up in the newspapers,’ Lily replied. ‘There’s been a couple of women I’ve known about who have never been linked with him, but he’s seen more than once. And there’s you.’ Ceri blinked. Lily raised an eyebrow. ‘You’re telling me you haven’t noticed how he looks at you?’

‘Lil, this is Carter Fleming we’re talking about,’ Ceri said dryly. ‘Is there a girl on the planet he doesn’t look at like that?’

‘Just you,’ Lily said. ‘You’re not used to seeing him.’

‘Have you been taking cryptic lessons from Twill?’

Lily giggled. ‘Carter has the look he gives the women he’s going to sleep with and dump, the one he gives the girls who know they’re both in it for the sex, like Jasmine. And then there’s the other ones. You, me, and Cheryl and the few others like her.’

Ceri looked down at her magazine again. ‘Is he any good?’ she asked as casually as she could. She could
feel
Lily’s smirk.

‘I won’t say he’s the best sex I’ve ever had,’ Lily said. ‘Actually, no, he might be.’ She gave a little, over-dramatic sigh. ‘Awesome foreplay, really takes his time making sure you get what you want, fantastic staying power, recovers really quickly…’

Ceri raised her eyes to look at Lily. ‘Do I have to get the riding crop out?’

‘Only if you want to,’ Lily said, giggling. ‘I haven’t had the slightest urge for days,’ she added and frowned a little. ‘I’m… content.’ She perked up again almost immediately. ‘I don’t think you’re going to get to find out how good Carter is in the sack, to be honest. The way he looks at you, it’s like… desire and regret. I think he wants to, but he won’t.’

‘Weird,’ Ceri commented, trying to keep any disappointment out of her voice.

Lily shrugged. ‘He knew your parents, maybe it’s some respect thing.’

Ceri frowned. Yes, he
had
known her parents. ‘Lil,’ she said, ‘could you ask him if I could come see him tomorrow?’

‘Uh, sure, what about?’

‘Tell him it’s about my parents,’ Ceri said.

~~~

The trilling of the phone jerked Ceri out of her study of her test data with a start. Snatching up the handset from its cradle on the desk, she hit the receive button. ‘Hello,’ she said.

‘Ceri?’ The voice on the other end was Lily’s. ‘Can you get down to the Dragon? Now?’

Ceri glanced at the clock in the corner of her tablet; it was almost midnight. ‘Uh, yeah,’ she said. ‘Why?’

‘Carter said he needed to speak to you,’ Lily replied. ‘It needs to be tonight, he’s got to go down to Winchester in the morning.’

Ceri frowned. It seemed odd, but… ‘I’ll be there in about forty-five minutes,’ she said, and hung up.

Heading up to her room, she dressed quickly, pulling on a teddy she thought Lily would like and her black jeans with the red embroidery. There was a brief consideration of footwear before she plumped for a pair of sling-backed heels. Curiosity at what Carter needed to talk to her about spurred her on and she hurried out of the house and through the south gate to cut across the park to the Oval tube station.

There was almost no moon; it was two days past new and only the barest sliver showed in the clear night sky. Ceri walked quickly through the trees, her eyes darting to every shadow. She no longer had her tattoos to protect her, just her wits and whatever magic she could summon up. As her heels clicked on the path, she decided that it might be a good idea to learn a few defensive spells sometime really soon.