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The night of the wizard confrontation
The bobcat on Ilo’s couch stirred. Ilo’s ears perked, and he moved across his living room to find a spot that would be visible, but kept a respectful distance. The witch opened her eyes, and with great effort sat up. She looked around the room, her eyes landing on Ilo, and she screamed. She tried to get off the couch, but her legs wouldn’t move.
“What did you do to me??” Meryl shouted.
Ilo held up his hands. “Hey, whoa whoa whoa. You’re hurt and you need to relax.”
Meryl hurled a ball of magic at Ilo. Ilo flinched, holding out his hand, blocking the ball with an invisible shield.
“Wait, please wait,” Ilo said, blocking another volley from the witch.
“What did you do?” Meryl said, lowering her voice a little.
Ilo hesitated, waiting. He could wait people out like this. He knew it was just a matter of time. “There was a fight-“
“Oh yeah, hey what the fuck??” Meryl struggled to move again. “What the hell?”
“Honestly, I didn’t expect it to break like that.”
“You attacked us!” Meryl found a book within reach and flung it at Ilo. It hit him on the head and he let out a little shout.
“I didn’t know! He said we were going to talk things out! And then he starts attacking you all and you friend tried to attack him but she hit you instead.”
“Elliot…” Meryl said. She remembered. Her ears lowered a little.
“You were hurt badly and with the kind of magic she used, it’d take some work to get it all out. So I grabbed you and brought you here.”
Meryl watched the wizard for a moment. She looked around the room. “So where are we…?”
“My apartment,” Ilo said, looking sheepish. “I didn’t know where else to take you. That wound was drenched in dark magic.”
Meryl lifted her shirt, revealing the badly singed fur where Elliot had hit her, along with a fresh scar. “Oh…” And she brightened. “Oh wow! She’s been learning!” She ran her hand over the patch of fur. “You fixed this?” Meryl asked.
“It took some work but I got it all out,” Ilo said.
“You did really good,” Meryl said. “I’ve never seen anyone recover from this before. Not quickly, at least.” Her ears suddenly perked. “Oh no, what year is it?”
“It’s been like ten hours tops,” Ilo said, cracking a smile. He stood.
“So not being able to walk isn’t because I’ve been in a coma then.”
“No, it’s cause you almost died. But,” Ilo moved to his fridge, across the room, “I have something for that.” He pulled a vial of a bright blue liquid from a rack in the door and carefully approached the witch.
“I’m not drinking dish soap,” Meryl said.
Ilo pulled the cork from the vial. “Healing potion. It’ll help get your energy back up.”
Meryl stared at the vial for a moment. “Why should I trust you?”
“You don’t have to. There’s no reason you should. But I did save your life.”
Meryl took the vial from Ilo.
“So, it’s just a mix of-”
Meryl downed the potion.
“Okay, cool.” Ilo took the empty vial. He returned to his kitchen and put the vial in his sink. “You know dark magic,” he said after some thought.
“No such thing,” Meryl said. “Oh god, pins and needles!” She rubbed her legs.
“It’s working,” Ilo said. “It might be like that for a moment.”
“Magic is what the user makes of it,” Meryl said, and hissed, grabbing her leg.
“The wound was necrotic,” Ilo said. “Death was literally eating you alive.”
“Death is natural,” Meryl said. “There’s nothing dark about it.”
Ilo furrowed his brow, and opened his mouth to speak.
“Okay, it’s kind of dark,” Meryl said. She poked at her wound some more. “So, all of that had to go somewhere. Where did you put it? You… you didn’t absorb it, did you?”
Ilo hugged himself and looked out the sliding glass door in his living room. “A seagull I caught. It’s in my freezer now.” His ears dropped.
“Poor guy. At least you could have it for dinner.”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t.” Ilo got up again. He went to the kitchen again, and came back. “So, like, you want something to drink, or…”
“We’re just not going to talk about the whole wizard thing, huh?” Meryl sat up.
Ilo’s ears perked. “Oh, yeah, right.” He somehow looked small. “I don’t know where to start?”
“You always known how to do magic?”
“Have you?”
“Deflecting,” Meryl said. “Who taught you?”
“These are really big questions. But… I really didn’t figure out until I was like 15. And then a lot of things made sense.”
“Did you accidentally do that two of you at once thing?”
“You know what a tulpa is?”
Meryl nodded.
“I might have accidentally summoned one in 3rd grade…” He rubbed the back of his neck and looked away. “My school went on lockdown before that was a thing, and this… monster roamed the halls and tried to get into classrooms. It only went away when I wished it away. Or willed it, I guess. Put that one in the vault right away, and didn’t think about it again until I realized I could do magic.”
“Neat!” Meryl tried to stand. She got to her feel, wobbled, and fell back onto the couch. “I’ll try that again in a second. Are there a lot of wizards?”
“You first,” Ilo said.
“I know maybe a dozen witches,” Meryl said. “Gimble knows more.”
“The Gimble in your emergency call list?”
“She’s my coven leader, or whatever. Wait, did you call her?”
“She’s in your emergency call list,” Ilo said.
“Gimble was at the fight,” Meryl said. “What did she say?”
There was a knock at Ilo’s door.
Meryl and Ilo both stared at the door for a quick second, and then looked at each other.
“Maybe I should get it,” Meryl said.
“Not a bad idea.”
Meryl got to her feet again and wobbly but steadily made her way to the door.
Gimble waited on the other side, and when Meryl opened the door, they shared a long hug.
“We were skeptical,” Gimble said.
Meryl just laughed. A second later, Ty pushed her way in to the apartment and pulled Meryl from Gimble. She held Meryl close, tears running down her face. Meryl wiped them away.
“Shh,” she said softly. “I’m okay! Look! Everything’s okay.”
Z entered last, sweeping her gaze around the room until her eyes landed on Ilo. He took a step back.
“Hey, shitbag,” Z said. She took a step forward. Gimble and Meryl both grabbed her by her arms.
“Wait wait wait,” Meryl said.
“He called us,” Gimble said.
“And he saved my life,” Meryl said. “I could have died if he hadn’t done anything.”
“Is this true?” Gimble asked. She appraised Ilo. “You healed her?”
“I’m a healer,” Ilo said. “I’ve always been really good at it.”
Ty said, “I know what Meryl can do. If she taught Elliot what Elliot did, that was dark magic.”
“It took a lot of work,” Ilo said.
“He did a really good job, too!” Meryl said.
“So,” Z said. “You healed her, you called us here. What’s in this for you?”
Ilo’s eyes grew wide. “Oh, I’m… I didn’t do this for points.”
“So you’re faking hanging out with those other wizards?” Ty said sharply.
“They’re my co-workers. I… don’t really like them? They’re kind of assholes.”
“So what’s the deal?” Z asked. “What do you want?”
“I didn’t want anyone to get hurt,” Ilo said. “I have a lot of questions about witches. But also, I believe what is happening is really bad and someone needs to stop us.”
“You want to talk,” Gimble said.
“And I want to meet Elliot.”
“Creepy,” Z said. “Why?”
Ilo’s ears twitched. He thought a moment, and then said, “The fact that we kept running into each other has to be more than coincidence. I think that there’s a connection, and if I’ve learned anything about dealing with magic, it’s that there’s not a lot of coincidences. I’m listening to my gut.”
“We do have a lot to talk about,” Gimble said. She turned to the other witches. “You all can leave if you want, but I would like to hear this wizard out.”
“Ilo,” he said.
“I would like to hear Ilo out,” Gimble said.
“Yeah, we’re staying,” Z said. “I want to hear this too.”
“I have some tea. It’s not much but…”
Gimble sat down on Ilo’s couch. “That sounds lovely.”
Ilo nodded, and went to his kitchen. Z sat down next to Gimble, and Ty deposited Meryl next to her. Gimble’s phone buzzed, and she read a message from Right Determination. Things were suddenly coming together, and she had to think it wasn’t coincidence.
[g]