The first skill I mastered – and I didn’t do anything else for a WEEK until I mastered it – was Mystic Sight. It required me to roll my eyes around in an odd way. Really odd. Anyway, doing it allowed me to look “up” the dimensions, above the first three.
It lets me see wisps and tendrils of magic as they trickle down into our 3D space and into places and objects. I could see magical energy in objects.
That meant I could look at my collection of books and separate out the real ones from the crap. Mr. Salama got a few returns that week. He seemed happy to get them back – probably thought I was finally outgrowing my obsession. I bought a book on Greek Antiquity to keep him thinking that.
Sight had other uses, though. I could see magic lines, like fault lines in the ground. The books call them Ley lines or dragon lines. They’re a big part of oriental magic.
I also found something funny about the books. The words looked different when you tried to read them using Sight. The meanings seem to change. I got new insights into the teachings by comparing the two versions. It was like looking at a thing from two directions, or looking at two pictures of an object, each taken at a different angle.
And the funniest part? It worked on some non-magical books, too. I felt like I was getting more of what the author was trying to say. I looked at paintings – well, some paintings – and art, and saw what the artist was trying to show people. “This is not a pipe.” Exactly. It was just a picture of a pipe, not an actual pipe. Just like a flag is not a country, a symbol is not a philosophy, and a person is not an organization.
Unfortunately, that’s where my studies ended for a while. My math midterms were a disaster. Now I know why wizards never seem to learn about anything else but magic – magical studies are time consuming. Mom laid down the law – put the magic stuff away and concentrate on schoolbooks.
Yes, Mom.
It didn’t stop me from using Sight on the way to school, or on the stuff on the blackboards, though. It actually helped me learn a lot better. And going for walks around the town let me see it in a new light.
And that’s how I found a house with a bright magical light coming from the basement. A light that you couldn’t see with normal vision. I had to check it out.