At the same time, I thought that without magic, there was a lot I never would’ve attained. Knowing all the people in town, or Inori or Sophie, for that matter. I wouldn’t have Carbuncle rubbing his head against me or White-Owl watching patiently from the windowsill, and I may have never been adopted by my teacher.
One thing was certain in that case. Meg Raspberry, the witch, would never exist.
There were two sides to everything in life. This was something my teacher had taught me before.
It was true—the existence of magic had harmed me in many ways. But it had also given me so much.
“Argh, I have no idea what to think. Let’s go get some tea.”
“Squeak.”
Carbuncle hopped onto my shoulder, and we went to the living room to put some water in the pot. Then my teacher showed up going, “Owww, ouch, ouch…”
“Hey, Teacher. You’re standing already?”
“Yes, barely… It’s thanks to your medicine patch.”
“I’m glad I could help. Fancy some tea?”
“I would, thank you.”
I poured two cups of black tea, and we let out puffs of white-hot breath as we drank them together. There was nothing better than warm tea on a cold winter day, something my teacher always said.
“Where is Sophie?”
“She’s asleep in the guest room. She passed out as soon as we got home.”
“She must be awfully knackered.”
“Was Sophie always like that, Teacher?”
“What do you mean?”
“She looks so lonely, like she’s living in her own world or something. I’m guessing it has to do with how she hates magic and all that, though.”
When I said this, my teacher said, “Perhaps…” and stared off into the distance, then continued. “She was like that when we first met, too. Always staying away from people and keeping to herself.”
“Sophie said she wants to eliminate magic and that I have too much to learn it properly.”
“Is that right…? I suppose you may seem that way from her perspective.”
“What do you mean?”
“Do you know how old Sophie was when she left her family, Meg?”
“I thought it was when she became a Sage, at seventeen.”
“It was when she was five.”
“Five?!”
“She was too smart for her own good. Smarter than anyone. And nobody wanted to accept her for who she was.”
Sophie was born in northern Europe with powerful magic inside her, which was what turned her hair blue and her eyes red. It was said, though, that because of her hair, Sophie’s parents thought she was the devil’s child. Nevertheless, her birth parents tried to take care of her, or so it was said.
It wouldn’t take long for them to discover, however, that it wasn’t just her hair and eyes that differed from regular children.
“Mum… Dad…”
Sophie spoke her first words when she was one year old. When most one-year-old babies were barely talking at all, she could have a full conversation. By the time she was two, she could read and do math as well.
That wasn’t all, though.
“Who’s that boy standing there?”
Sophie started saying things like this by the time she was three. She would point to a spot where there was nobody and claim to see someone. Her parents thought she was playing a joke on them at first.
“Sophie. What did you do with the plates I left here?”
“The boy from before took them to the sink.”
“Not that again…”
In the next instant, the sound of a plate shattering on the floor rang out through the house. The parents went to see what it was, and there was a broken plate in the sink. The same plate Sophie and her mum were talking about before.
Strange occurrences like this started to happen more frequently, and Sophie’s parents began to find her unsettling. It wasn’t just her parents; everyone in Sophie’s life began to distance themselves from her.
Sophie was alone. It was around this time when she began to take an interest in magic and harnessed it with what knowledge she’d gathered on her own. It was likely that she just wanted to impress her parents, but in the north, where magic wasn’t as accepted as it was in the rest of the world, she was labeled a demon and hated for it.
She was all alone, seeing things no one else could see and using power no one understood.
Eventually, the Council of Magic found their way to Sophie, took her in, and had her undergo a special curriculum to learn about magic. Something her parents were overjoyed about.
My teacher just so happened to be working at the facility as a temporary teacher when this happened.
“When I first saw Sophie, it struck me how sad she looked. She had to accept the fact that she was abandoned at such a young age because of magic. Magic changed her life. It was what she was best at but also what made the people she loved most discard her.”
“I don’t know what to say…”
“From the perspective of someone who feels truly alone, you may look very privileged. Despite coming from a similar place, you are surrounded by people. What Sophie needed was people who understood magic and accepted her when she was younger.”
“So that’s why she hates magic.”
I’d misunderstood everything about her. I’d assumed she was from a wealthy family that helped her with her magic studies from a very young age, but it was the opposite. Though she did receive an advanced curriculum for her magic from a very young age, she must have felt conflicted by it because magic was what drove those she loved away from her.
“My goal is to eliminate magic from this world.”
That was what Sophie told me. My best guess was that she believed eliminating magic would allow her to live with her family once more. This was surely the reason she’d decided to lean into magic and to become one of the world’s greatest witches. Sophie had nothing left but her magic, after all. Her only option was to build on what she had.
In that same vein, it must’ve been difficult for her to accept that I could study magic without any real purpose and have a place to call home.
She told me that having nothing was the key to learning magic fast. Though there may have been some logic to that, was it really the case?
“I still have one question. Why does Sophie use her magic for performances and shows despite hating it so much? It feels like her use of magic draws more attention to it than anything else.”
Hearing this, my teacher answered with a sad expression, “She likely wants someone to notice her,” before continuing. “She may try to isolate herself, but I know somewhere on the inside, she still desires other people in her life. That is why she chose to use her magic in a way that made the most people happy. Maybe she wants her parents to accept her for who she is, too. She is trying to use magic to take back what it took away from her.”
“With magic…”
Sophie was a genius with drive, but she also had a hard time vocalizing her ideas. She must’ve put everything into learning magic, like her life depended on it—like she was desperate.
No… She’s still desperate.
“Listen to me, Meg. You are nothing compared to Sophie. An idiot who grew up in the best environment imaginable for learning magic. You’re loud and crude, with your skills in the kitchen being your only saving grace.”
“I think you’re taking this a little bit too far…”
“But you have something she doesn’t.”
“And that is…?”
“You both grew up in similar situations, but you never allowed yourself to harbor hatred for it. You have light in your heart. A warm light—warmth that can melt Sophie’s frozen heart.”
My teacher said this and smiled a smile that made me sigh. It was another unmanageable task.
It’s not easy opening someone up, you know.
That said, I wasn’t the type to let Sophie leave Lapis feeling like this. She was such an incredible witch, which wasn’t just my opinion, either; the entire world adored her, and I wasn’t going to let her feel alone.
The next day, Sophie and I began the preparations together. There were seven layers to the magic formula needed for Sophie to open the portal, each requiring materials that needed to be gathered from throughout the town.
Though this was something we did every year, it was impossible to use the same formula. This was because the magic that flowed through the town and its surrounding environment was ever-changing. Building even just one new building, for example, completely changed the formula. This was how meticulous a process it was to open the portal to other worlds.
“Here you go, Meg! I brought you some snacks!”
“Oh! Thanks, Fine!”
My best friend came bearing tea and bread she’d purchased at the local supermarket.