“What exactly will the spell do?” Launi asked Glandria while keeping an eye out for mugwort as they walked among the trees.
“Ah, I’d thought I’d told you.”
Launi shook her head.
“It’s going to cast dark magic from the land.”
“What?” Launi exclaimed, surprised and not entirely sure she’d heard correctly. “We’re going to get rid of dark magic? How? Will it take the curse off my village?”
“This spell is one what will limit the amount of dark magic available and as a result will be able to take away all dark curses that are currently in place; there will be no more dark magic to supply them. It is a strong spell to begin with, but we are going to cast it at the equinox, that is when the dark mages have the most power.”
“Why the equinox?” Launi wondered.
“There is a balance to all things. The solstices are the peak of light magic when it has the most power and influence. The equinoxes are the opposite. They harbor dark magic and during these times the dark mages have the most power.”
“So why aren’t you waiting to cast the spell during the solstice?”
“Two reasons,” Glandria explained, kneeling down to pluck a flowering plant out by the roots and adding it to her basket. “The first is that your village came under a dark spell and the second is that to be able to defeat dark magic, we need to cast the limiting spell when there’s the highest amount of dark magic around. That way it will have the greatest effect.”
“What will happen to it? Didn’t you say that there was a balance to the two magics?” Launi inquired.
“I did,” Glandria said with a nod of her head. “This doesn’t banish the dark magic entirely, for where there is light there must be dark. However, we will be limiting the amount of magic a mage can access at any one time. It will be hard to cast anything half as big as they did on the village.”
“So, there will still be mages that will hurt people?” Launi wasn’t sure she liked the idea.
“Yes,” her mother said solemnly. “Where there is light there is dark. We can’t have one without the other. It’s a frustrating part of the world, but alas there must always be a balance. We won’t ever be able to get rid of dark magic, for then we’d have to get rid of magic entirely. We can simply do our best to limit their resources as a way minimize the damage.”
As Launi thought about it, she realized something. “Even if we could find a way to eliminate dark magic entirely, there would be some dark mage out there who would find a way to use the light magic against other people.”
Glandria nodded. “That’s true and I’ve thought about that. There used to be only one type of magic, until over time mages began to use it for exclusively good and bad. Over time and after many enchantments and battles among the mages the two magics were eventually separated.”
An idea came to Launi and at first, she was uncertain about voicing it but knew that if she didn’t no one would. “What would happen if we unseparated the magics?”
“You mean take away the boundaries that have been set up.”
“Yeah, I’m not saying we should, but what would happen?”
“I’m not sure,” Glandria admitted. “I suppose it would simply be as it was before.”
“I don’t think it’s right for us to get rid of dark magic and leave light magic the same. We need a balance, right? So, what if we cast the spell that limits the amount of dark magic a mage can access and then take down the barriers?”
Glandria was silent for a while, obviously thinking over her daughter’s proposal. “That could work,” she said finally. “It shouldn’t be that much harder to do, especially if we’re already working with large spells.”
“Would it work, though?” Launi asked starting to question her own logic. “If we take down the barrier wouldn’t it take away the limits on the dark magic?”
“Yes, it probably would,” Glandria admitted.
Mother and daughter continued on in silence, each trying desperately to find a solution to the problem. Dark and light magic needed to be in balance, Launi knew (though she wasn’t entirely sure how exactly she did) that without dark magic there would be no light magic. The world was a balancing act with magic at the heart.
They were making their way back to the cottage when an idea came to Launi and she felt certain that it was the solution.
“I’ve got it!” She told her mother excitedly. “What if we cast a warding spell across the entire realm? That way everything will be safe from dark magic, but we haven’t removed it from the world?”
Glandria didn’t respond right away, clearly thinking over the suggestion. “That is a great idea. It would give us some time to figure out a long-term solution as well; the dark mages will eventually find a way around it. It might give us years to come up with something better, maybe even try to bring the dark mages around to the light.”
“We’re going to do it then?” Launi asked feeling strangely nervous all of a sudden.
“We will, though we’ll have to ask permission from the other light mages before doing so. This is something too big for a single person to decide. I’m sure they’ll agree, though. I’ll contact them as soon as we return.”
Again, thank you.
🙂