Free Witch's Bell Book One by Odette C. Bell Page B

first lesson of raw
magic: give it purpose, and you'll bend it to your will. Practice
the force without a goal, and a stronger creature than you will
take it from you – bending you into the arc of their own, greater,
story.
    Regardless of what Nate
thought, magic was one of the universal forces. But it was curious
in the extreme, and incredibly hard to understand. And that is what
Ebony had tried to teach Nate all those weeks ago – that magic was
indeed a force of Nature, even if it did sit outside his square,
objective, scientific world. It was a type of Movement – a transfer
of energy, a means of change, a way to alter. And just like motion,
magic could gain acceleration. If directed along the correct path,
if given purpose and led forward, instead of being allowed to
branch off in any old chaotic direction – magic would gain inertia.
But, just like other forms of movement, if the magical came up
against a greater force, it would be stopped. And that greater
force would seize upon the power, the inertia, the potential, and
bend it to a new purpose. It would redirect the flow, change the
story, and replace the author.
    This was the risk Flora ran, that her
pattern-less rambles of magic would be picked out by a creature, a
creature far more powerful than her. They would absorb Flora into
their own story, taking her magic for their own, directing it along
their own lines, for their own purposes. She would become a
sideline, a footnote, a character in the background. And so she
would be owned, taken over, and absorbed. She would be transmuted
from gold into lead.
    Magic, in this way, was like
marbles. Unless your aim was steady, right, and true – the person with
more marbles would win, and claim what you had as their
own.
    Marbles, creatures, magic, and a whole
lot of trouble. Flora simply had no idea.
    Ebony gave a shudder. It all
depended on what creature took hold of her, too. Being owned was
one thing, but being taken by a full-demon of Hell, or a vicious
wizard, or a homicidal witch .... Well, it wouldn't be pretty.
    Ebony eventually took the last sip of
her milkshake, returning it to the metal table with a clang, and
wiping her lips with delicate pats of her fingers.
    She finally closed the file,
satisfied she was up to speed. She always liked to stay up to date
with the cases she wasn't directly involved in, just so she could
keep the general pattern of random magical-crime in her mind, if
that made any sense. She was like a film editor, she reasoned,
sitting on the carpet with every single frame of a movie cut up and
sprawled out before her. If Ebony could keep every single possible
scene in her mind, then she was more likely to be able to predict
how they all fitted together – if they fitted together.
    “ Okay,” Ebony said softly to the
remainder of the day, “on with the show.”
    She walked gingerly to her next
appointment, though not in the same happy daze as she'd met the
morning with. Though she was ready to totally dismiss it, she had
to admit that some of the shine was gone. The sun was still warm
and lovely, but the breeze was picking up ever so slightly, her
skirt playing against her legs with little tugs and
pulls.
    There were even a few small wisps of
cloud in the air now, just dotting the edge of the horizon like
specks of dust on an otherwise clean windscreen.
    Ebony walked quickly to Wonda's Witch
Wonders, one hand occasionally securing her hat in place as the
wind picked up even more. The other hand pressed her file into her
chest protectively.
    Wonda's Witch Wonders was
situated down a dark lane-way in the industrial district of town.
Ebony had grinned as she'd received more than a couple of
appreciative whistles from construction workers as she'd made her
way there. It was such a strange and dingy part of town for a
store – but
she understood the rationale for its location – it was out of the
way, remote, and unlikely to be chanced upon. Vale may have been
sitting right on top of a