The Orchard of Hope (25 page)

Chapter

16

“Weather” Or Not
Reality

“We’re not
scrying again, are we?” Nicholas asked as he sat down at the table
in Mos
s'
large
study. His hands felt weak as he glanced at the shelf where Moss
stored the scrying bowl.

“Yes,” Moss said loudly, and
Nicholas felt his entire body go rigid. “But not today.” Nicholas
relaxed his tense muscles as soon as he heard the news.

“Great!” Nicholas said with a
little too much enthusiasm. “What are we doing today?”

“Incantations.”

“Spells?” Nicholas turned his head
to one side as he asked the question.

“Incantations are more than
spells. They can be enchantments or other powerful things, but
they’re extremely useful for separating reality from fiction. But
don’t use incantations when reading a book.”

“Why? Does it bring the characters
to life?”

“No,” Moss said, “it ruins the
plot. It can change the order of the words on the page and you may
never know if the boy gets the girl he’s loved for most of his life
or if the criminal with a heart of gold gets caught stealing to
help the poor and winds up in jail, or if —”

“Moss,” Newton interrupted with a
sharp tone in his voice, “give up. You made a mistake and ruined a
book. Just go buy another copy so you can finish reading the
story”

Mos
s'
eyes lit up at the suggestion.

“Brilliant!” Moss exclaimed. He
took out a pad of paper and made a note to remind himself to
purchase another copy of the book he had ruined. Nicholas and
Newton exchanged knowing glances. Sometimes it’s good to have a
gargoyle around to keep you grounded when you’re dealing with
someone like Moss. After he finished scribbling the note and had
taped it to the front of the walnut cabinet, Moss turned to face
Nicholas with a look of admiration on his face. “That
bringing-characters-to-life suggestion, Nicholas … That is another
excellent idea! I’ll begin working on that spell, also.” He stopped
to write himself another note. After he finished taping this note
to the cabinet door right next to the other one, Nicholas
spoke.

“So, what’s our lesson for today?”
Nicholas asked, hoping to get started quickly so that after his
healing lesson with Megan in the afternoon he would have enough
time to play a game of gargoyle chess with Newton.

“First of all, you know that there
are many potential realities and that it’s possible to find the one
true reality by comparing all of them and identifying the false
ones because they contradict one another.”

“Yes, but I still don’t know how
to do it.” Nicholas shifted his sitting position in the hard wooden
chair.

“All in good time,” Moss replied.
“It’s important to be present for incantations, but not as
important as it is for scrying. For now, we’re interested in
learning about the theory behind incantations.”

“Theories are boring,” Newton said
flatly. He was sharpening his talons with a pencil sharpener. He
inserted a talon into the hole for the pencil and then turned the
handle on the crank with his opposite paw.

“No one asked you, Newton,” Moss
retorted.

“I’m just telling the truth.” He
pulled the talon he was sharpening out of the machine and blew on
it before inspecting the tip. He tapped it on the wooden table top
to test the sharpness.

“Reality is not boring,” Moss
retorted. “And theories bring us closer to reality.”

“Reality can be very boring,”
Newton said as he studied the talons on his left front paw. “Take
this lesson about theories, for example. The reality is that the
lesson is boring.” He looked up at Moss and continued, “What this
kid needs is some action. He needs practice.” Newton started
working on sharpening his back talons, which proved to be a bit
more awkward.

“Perhaps I could have a little of
both,” Nicholas interjected before Moss and Newton got into a
heated argument. Moss stared defiantly at Newton, and the gargoyle
stared coolly back at the sorcerer. After a few moments, the two of
them broke eye contact and leaned away from each other.

“I don’t think that will be a
problem,” Moss agreed. “We can do both.” He stroked his beard a few
times and then added, “As long as Newton is quiet during the
lesson.”

“Agreed.” Newton replied. He
pushed the pencil sharpener away and squatted in place to observe
the lesson.

“You just spoke,” Moss
snapped.

“The lesson hasn’t started,”
Newton said in protest.

“We can start it now,” Nicholas
said loudly. He turned to Newton and put his finger to his lips.
Newton took a few steps backwards and then flew up to perch on top
of a cabinet and watch.

“You know I hate it when you stare
down at me,” Moss said with a hint of irritation still in his
voice. Newton remained stoic and didn’t respond. He was like
stone.

“Now,” Moss said as he turned to
Nicholas. “Words, as you know, have power. But what you don’t know
is that the frame of mind in which the words are spoken gives them
even more power. Words can become authentic reality, but not if the
words are spoken with malice or the intent to deceive. This is why
the sorcerer can’t create a true reality. He simply creates false
realities that confuse people.”

“But it’s possible to create a
true reality with words? Like creating something out of
nothing?”

“Absolutely.”

“Then why don’t we create an
authentic reality where the sorcerer doesn’t exist? That would get
rid of him and his spell.”

“Because that incantation would
involve malice – wishing the sorcerer the harm of non-existence –
and those types of incantations cannot create realities. You see,
it’s not quite as simple as it sounds.”

“This is tricky,” Nicholas agreed
as he put his elbow on the table and rested his chin in his
hand.

“It is and it isn’t. It all boils
down to your intent. Sometimes you have a positive intent to help
one person or a group of people, but at the same time it has a
negative intent for someone else. You can create incantations, and
they’ll have effects, but they will never become a reality. It will
merely become a false reality.”

“I’m not sure if I can follow
this,” Nicholas said. “It’s a bit complex.”

Newton cleared his throat
dramatically. Moss glared at him for a few moments and then took
the hint that Nicholas needed experience.

“Perhaps if we begin trying a few
simple incantations you’ll gain some understanding. Remember that
it all has to do with the purpose for the action.” Moss glanced
around the room before continuing. “Perhaps a few weather spells
would be a good start. These are simple and yet very
useful.”

“What do weather spells do?”
Nicholas asked.

“They control the weather, of
course,” Moss responded with a wave of his hand. “But the type of
weather is controlled by your mood when you cast the
spell.”

“Should we maybe take this lesson
outside?” Nicholas asked cautiously.

“Oh, no, that won’t be necessary,”
Moss said as he stood up from the striped chair he had been sitting
on. “First of all, you can create sunshine.”

“And we don’t need to go outside
to do that?” Nicholas asked.

“Of course not.” Moss spoke with a
tone that suggested Nicholas was the one spouting nonsense. He
raised both his arms and gently stretched them in the air by
extending them out at his sides. His loosely fitted sleeves fell
and bunched up near his shoulders, but he paid no attention to
them. He closed his eyes and the room gradually became brighter,
illuminating everything. The glass bottles and metal gadgets were
reflecting the light as if they were mirrors. The light was also
generating so much heat that it felt as if the sun were somewhere
in the room with them. Nicholas was awed by the warmth and
brilliance until he detected the scent of something
burning.

“Sufferin’ sunshine!” Moss
exclaimed and dropped his arms. The light and warmth immediately
vanished, revealing a rather large scorch mark on the ceiling. “I
always burn something when I do that indoors.” He pushed his round
spectacles firmly onto his nose and studied the black mark on the
ceiling for a moment.

“I do rather like the pattern,” he
said with admiration. “If you look at it in just the right way, it
resembles a fruit bat. Not a bad mark, really,” he mused. After a
few moments, he turned his attention back to Nicholas. “Never mind
the scorching,” Moss said, turning away from the damage, “I’ll fix
that later.” He walked back to where he had been standing when he
had produced the indoor sunshine. “Now I’ll show you rain. It’s
simple. It’s also very similar to snow, but we can work out the
difference later. He raised his arms again and scrunched up his
forehead as he closed his eyes in concentration. It started
drizzling over everything in the room, and Nicholas glanced around
at all the fabric and paper that was getting wet. He shoved his
notebook under his sweater to protect it just as the heavy downpour
began. The rain was thick and cold, and it made Nicholas
shiver.

“Everything’s getting ruined,
Moss!” he shouted above the noise of the pouring rain.

“Nonsense,” Moss shouted back as
he continued to concentrate, and the rain kept flowing. Soon the
water was building up and pooling around their feet. Nicholas felt
a chill from the water around his ankles, and he began to shiver
more.

“I think that’s enough of an
example,” Nicholas shouted. “I know what rain looks like. I’m
familiar with it.”

“Just a little more,” Moss
insisted.

“More? For what?”

“Effect.” Moss continued to
concentrate, and the rain continued to flood the room until
Nicholas felt the urge to stand up in order to keep his head above
the water level. Nicholas wondered if the room would ever be dry
again. He also wondered how many rooms in the castle Moss had
destroyed by burning or flooding them.

“I think we have quite an effect
now,” Nicholas shouted.

“Are you sure?” Moss
asked.

“The water is almost up to my
shoulders.”

“It’s not up to my
shoulders.”

“One set of shoulders under water
is enough of an effect, don’t you think?” Nicholas asked. He raised
his arms above the level of the water, but didn’t know where to put
them.

“One set is enough if they’re the
right shoulders,” Moss replied. “Are your shoulders under
water?”

“They are now.”

“Good,” Moss replied firmly as he
dropped his arms and, as he did so, the rain and the water
vanished. Nicholas’ eyes glanced from object to object, inspecting
everything in the room.

“How did you dry everything so
quickly?” he asked.

“I didn’t,” Moss replied. “I did
something better: I never got things wet in the first
place.”

Nicholas quickly glanced at the
ceiling to see whether the scorch mark was still there. It
was.

“The water wasn’t real,” Nicholas
said, “but the sunshine was.”

“Precisely!” Moss exclaimed. “And
do you know why?”

Nicholas thought
carefully. He could see that an illusion had taken place – a very
good illusion, too. But something real had also taken place. He
recalled Mos
s'
theory lesson from earlier.

“Your intention was different,”
Nicholas explained. “You didn’t mean to burn the ceiling. You were
only trying to warm the room. However, you wanted to flood the
room. That’s a destructive thing to do, and that’s also why the
rain wasn’t real.”

“That’s it!” Moss exclaimed.
“You’re a natural!”

“Thank you, sir,” Nicholas said
with an embarrassed smile.

“Now it’s your turn.”

Nicholas stood up and spent the
next few hours trying to make rain. He pooled together every angry
thought he could ever remember having and concentrated on those
angry thoughts being present in the room and filling it with water.
His first attempts were weak, and only a few drops fell. After some
additional coaching from Moss, he generated a light sprinkle. It
would take another week of practicing before he could work up a
storm with thunder and lightning, but Moss was pleased with the
progress.