“Magical…what?” At the time, I didn’t realize that items could be imbued with magic, so I was completely flummoxed. Seeing my confusion, Seven smirked as he continued to explain.
“It’s the process of embedding magical power into various things and granting them specific effects.”
I’m sure Seven thought that was a perfectly fine explanation, but I still had no idea what he was talking about. As I stood there, scratching my head and trying to figure out exactly what he meant, Seven decided to take a different approach.
“Fi, when you use strengthening magic or protection magic on the knights, you can see those effects on their bodies, right? In the same way, if you cast magic on a sword or shield, it’ll retain that effect for a certain amount of time.”
“Something like that’s possible?!” I asked, my eyes opening wide in surprise.
“Anything’s possible!” Seven declared proudly. “Although, it seems the effect was granted to a handkerchief this time. That’s really rare.”
“Oh? So, that’s what it was?” I gasped, finally understanding what had happened during the battle.
Seven crossed his arms, as if he was thinking about something. “I’m pretty sure that happened because you’re an unusually strong magic user, Fi. There are items that respond to being infused with magic better than others. Something like a handkerchief or thread should only have a one-time effect, and even then, it wouldn’t be a very strong one.”
That effect had protected Sirius’s life, so it seemed pretty powerful to me. But I guess that meant it could’ve been even more potent if I’d used a different object.
“In that case, is it better to enhance items like swords and shields instead?” I asked.
“Not necessarily. True, those items are better than cloth, but the best targets of all are minerals that have been formed over a long period of time.”
“When you say minerals, you mean something like gemstones, right? If it’s a stone that took a super long time to form deep underground, it’s gotta be able to hold a lot of magic! Now that I think about it, a stone that’s soaked up the power of the earth and water for hundreds or even thousands of years and turned into a crystal would probably make a great vessel!”
When Seven nodded in agreement, I asked him another question that had popped into my head.
“Would it be the same for the magic stones created in the body of a monster?”
Since monsters only lived for around a hundred years, when compared to gemstones, it didn’t take nearly as long for the magic stones that could be found inside them to crystallize. But a magic stone in a monster’s body would probably be soaking up magic the whole time it was crystallizing, so it would likely be amazing at storing magic.
“Magic stones from monsters? I’ve never really considered that before, but it might be fun to try and experiment on them.”
I couldn’t help but grin when I saw how his eyes were sparkling with excitement.
“Some monsters also use magic, right? I can’t wait to see what would happen if we enhanced a stone from one of them that’s been bathing in magic for years and years!” It was always fun to try new things, especially when you had no idea how they’d turn out.
Seven and I excitedly promised each other we’d experiment by enhancing magic stones.
✦ ✦ ✦
Of course, Sirius had no idea about that promise, which was probably why he sounded like he was choosing his words carefully when he finally responded to me.
“Serafina,” he began with a clearly troubled look on his face, “magic stones are almost always dark shades—colors that clearly signal danger. They’re not the type of thing you’d wear as an accessory.”
Oh dear, it seemed he’d misunderstood why I wanted the magic stones and thought I wanted to turn them into jewelry, like rings or necklaces.
“No, no! I’m not going to make accessories with them. I don’t plan to wear them at all, so rather than a big gemstone or magic stone, I’d rather have a whole bunch of small ones!”
Magically enhancing objects was something new I was just getting ready to try. I would probably mess up a lot while I was still getting the hang of it, so nothing would make me happier than having a plethora of small stones to practice on.
When I explained how I felt to Sirius, he stared at my face intently before finally nodding his head.
“I understand what it is that you desire,” he said.
With that, he left my room. Yup, I was pretty sure this whole visit was just him trying to figure out what I wanted for my birthday. Having gotten his answers, he probably left to start making plans as quickly as he could.
Sirius told me that he was only bringing up “birthdays” as an example, but that had to be it.
Heh heh, Sirius is always so sincere, I thought, smiling as I let myself imagine what kind of stones I might receive for my birthday.
“Since it doesn’t matter how tiny the gemstones or magic stones are, getting around ten or so would be fantastic. Or maybe I’m being a little too greedy? I’ll be turning seven this year, so even just seven would suffice! Hmm…but would that still be asking for too much?”
I was having fun daydreaming about what might happen, completely unaware that my idea of a “whole bunch” and Sirius’s idea of a “whole bunch” were as different as night and day. But I wouldn’t realize just how big of a disparity that was until my birthday came.