Page 49 of A Spark of Something (A Librarian’s Guide to Witchery #1)

O llie closed the book with a sigh. Having checked all of the older ones he had in the Rare Books section about ghosts, he was now browsing some of the newer editions of older books, but was still finding squat.

Pushing out from the table, he stood and returned to browsing the shelves behind him, after slipping the book back in its place. Ollie’s gaze trailed over the spines, reading quickly. His eyes narrowed as he spotted his grimoire, impossibly fitting on a shelf that was not even close to being tall enough to hold it.

Ignoring it with a hmph, he grabbed a book that was right next to it, and sat back down to read.

He flinched with a start when instead of Guide to Apparitions , he found he was about to open his grimoire.

“You,” he hissed.

Setting it down with a huff, he got back up, and while keeping his eye on it to make sure it didn’t move, he blindly grabbed a book from one of the shelves.

But when he brought it around to read the cover, it was again his grimoire. Between one blink and the next, on the table now sat the book he had grabbed in the first place.

“FINE! Fine!” he growled. “But this better not be you trying to insult me, or I’ll find a…box to lock you in!”

Not that it would likely stay in the box, as his book had managed to get through locked doors before , he thought with a sigh as he placed it on the table and sat down again.

Flipping the cover open, as it always did, the pages began turning on their own until they stopped at the center. Instead of an insult, or something rude or vague, it had what appeared to be a textbook explanation, which he began to read aloud.

“ Death’s Mark. Each ghost has what is called Death’s Mark, which is aptly named as it shows the cause of expiration. While seeing Death’s Mark is in no way easy, and overall is a rare and hard-won ability for even Death Callers, it is, however, the true appearance of the ghost stuck on this plane.

“When it comes to ghosts who died from natural causes, or internal difficulties, it will be harder still to see, if not impossible, as they will appear on the skin as flowers of lightning, and are often hidden underneath the clothes the person was wearing upon their death. ”

He frowned. Flowers of lightning? So…Lichtenberg figures? What are Death Callers?

Ollie read on. “ The easiest to see are those who suffered violent ends, accidental or not, as those will appear just as they had in life; bloody, wounds and all. Which explains why I saw the blood, even if I didn’t quite see the wound.” His nose wrinkled. “Okay, but how do I see it? Even if it is uncommon, I did see it once.”

The words changed, or rather, it was like the pen wrote more, as the earlier parts remained on the page. Ollie read it aloud as it was written, “ To see Death’s Mark, one must either already have the gift inside of them, along with having their ears lovingly open to Death’s Call, or one must be powerful enough to bypass what they lack, using the pure arcane magic of the other affinities to demand that their reflection shows the truth of the ghost’s existence. ” He gasped, “Reflection?! Glass…mirrors! I didn’t see the blood out of the corner of my eye, I saw it reflected in the corner of my glasses!”

Which was why, every time he’d tried to see it again, it hadn’t worked. And while that didn’t mean it would work if he tried with a mirror or glass…at least he knew what to try now, right?!

Ollie eyed his grimoire. “Ah, thank you,” he said slowly. “For helping me.”

The book slowly closed without saying anything more, which was odd. He frowned. “Are you…feeling okay?”

It didn’t answer. He sighed. “Great…now I’m talking to books.”

Pulling his notebook towards him, he quickly wrote down what he just learned, before stacking it on top of his grimoire and picking both up. Standing, he clutched them to his chest, and turned to leave.

Ollie flinched back with a gasp when he almost walked right through Annabel. “Ah! Oh…you scared me.” He smiled hesitantly. “Hi…I suppose I should have tried to talk to you before now…”

She smiled. “It’s fine. No one told you the truth. And I accidently revealed some unpleasant truths to you the last time we spoke. It is not surprising you needed time to adjust.”

“How long have you been in here?” he asked. For some reason, he had a feeling she hadn’t just floated in.

“For a while. Sorry for spying, I was curious as to what you were up to.”

“Then you heard me reading. It isn’t lying to me, is it?”

“No…” She breathed in, which was odd now that he thought about it, since she was dead. “I will say, you have an exceedingly stubborn grimoire on your hands.”

“Yeah,” he chuckled. “I have realized that. So…umm, I’m ready to listen. Tell me, how do I be a witch?”

Annabel giggled. “You don’t be one, you just are. Though there are made witches, but I’ll leave that for another day, so you can get the basics down first.” She waved towards the table. “Please, sit.”

Ollie sat, setting his books back down as he did, but as soon as it touched the wood, his grimoire disappeared, his notebook falling onto the table. “Ah…I guess it was done here.”

“Mm, they do have a mind of their own,” she said, sounding almost fond as she sat on—well, more hovered above—the table. “Now, let’s start with the affinities.”

“Affinities,” he repeated as he opened his notebook and wrote the word down.

“Yes, affinities. In the arcane, which is what we classify the… well, I suppose you could call them Deities; Gods, Goddesses, Demons, and more. Really, they can be whatever you want to think of them as.”

“You know, despite being from the 1600s, you use some rather…”

“Updated terms?’

“Yes.”

“Well, I can’t do much more than listen, and I’ve had a lot of time to do so.”

“Ah…” Ollie cleared his throat. “So, what are they really?” he asked as he wrote the short bit of information down.

“Beings, or I personally have always favored arcana. Overall, they are powerful beings that are other . Arcane and arcana, by the way, can be vague words that we associate with a variety of things, not just the beings themselves. They can, in fact, be used to replace the word magic. But these beings are the arcane, the deep pool of powers that all witches pull from, that creates what we are. This isn’t to say that the power we have is unlimited. It is just that part of what is allotted to us comes from the same place. Not the same being, mind you, but the same place.

“Something for you to always remember is that magic takes energy. Think of it as a sport. While playing the game, you can feel energized and motivated, and you push yourself through the aches and pains to keep playing, but by the time it’s over, you feel all of that. You feel the exhaustion and the aches, which become worse in the days after.

“Overusing a muscle is the same as overusing magic. Just as overexerting a muscle can have dire consequences, so can overexerting your magic. But just as stretching and working out a muscle can improve and extend its use, so can practicing magic.”

“Easy enough concept to understand, I suppose,” Ollie mused as he wrote away. “So, affinities?”

“Right, so there are minor and major beings who, at their purview, show their favor towards magic users. To us, favoring means we have an affinity magic-wise towards that being. For them, it means that while they have filled us with essentially their own power, it also connects us to them, feeds them, and our actions, when we use what they deem to be theirs, often pleases them.”

His nose wrinkled. Pleases them…? “That’s slightly creepy. Not going to lie.”

She chuckled. “I can’t say I didn’t think the same when I found out myself. But the reason why it takes energy to use magic, that is fundamentally a borrowed gift, is because they take that energy in exchange for it.

“That is not to say we don’t have magic that is solely ours. We do, as the only way for them to essentially bind us to them is for us to have magic to build off of. It’s just that the magic they have given to us returns to them on our deaths. And the magic we have is what we can strengthen and expand, and use in ways that have nothing to do with our affinities.”

He frowned. “What if…we do something that they don’t like with their power?”

Annabel grimaced. “It is best to not ever find out.”

“Okay… Minor and major arcana?”

“I’m not going to bother going over the minor arcana right now, as there are too many to count, and it seems as if they grow in number each century. Well, that and it would be highly unlikely that any minor being would have a chance of even attempting to sink their claws into the magic pool of a witch with such an extensive family line of powerful magic users like your own.”

The claw part was disconcerting, as it supposedly meant that someone of the major arcana already had.

“How lucky for me,” he said slowly.

She giggled. “Most would see it as so. Anyway, there are thirteen major arcana. The Endless Death, The Living Flame, The Ceaseless Hunter, The Relentless Mother, The Merciless Healer, The Knowing, The Unknowing, The Unforgiving Cold, The Faceless, The Forbidden Traveler, The Breathless Few, The Infected, and lastly, The Tainted. Their names all relate to the abilities they can provide. And to be clear, it’s common for witches to have a strong affinity to one or two of the major or minor arcana. But just as with most things, witches will have spells, and certain types of magic, that they are good at, and ones they are, frankly, horrible at.

“My weakness in life happened to be anything dealing with The Endless Death. To note, the major arcana are what most magic is sorted by, as they are the largest sects of magic users, and what most spells are based on.”

“While I can only guess what all of them mean…with the powers we can have… How can witch hunters even?—”

“Kill us? Well, because our powers can be heavily skewed in terms of protection. While one witch may be strong, with spells that can cause great harm, another could lean solely towards those that heal, or ones that are harmless in many circumstances.

“For instance, in life, my affinities were to The Relentless Mother and The Merciless Healer. Both sound quite impressive, and they are in their own rights. However, in terms of The Relentless Mother, the ability to control nature, such as plants, natural rock formations, and even the plates deep within the earth, can have its limits, as most is dependent on what is accessible from where you are. And well, the other is healing, which is not too helpful in a fight. In the aftermath? Sure, but during? Not so much.”

So The Relentless Mother was like Mother Earth? And the other was healing, though he was curious as to why the arcana called itself The Merciless Healer? That was something he could ask later, as he had other, more important questions right now.

“You had two?”

“I did. You, however, will likely have an affinity to at least three major arcana. I do not believe anyone has been born into the Cross family without at least that for as many years as I have known of them.”

He blinked. “So, I’m really not a common witch, huh?”

“No, you are not.”

“I suppose it wouldn’t be wrong to assume that I have an affinity to The Endless Death. Would it happen to have anything to do with Death’s Call or Death’s Caller?”

“You would be correct. Those with an affinity for The Endless Death, often say their ears are open to Death’s Call. Or in some cases, that they are Death’s Callers, as in the bringer of.”

“Ah…” He let out a nervous laugh. “Sounds…lovely. Then…I guess maybe my second affinity would be to The Living Flame?”