Active Magic (TatlTails and othyrworld)

"Alright!" Madi responded gratefully to Sequoia's enthusiasm, moving to the bookshelves and picking out her best potion books as she continued speaking. "So you know Magic is a force of nature, accessibe through concentration and compromise. Verbal spells are basically asking Magic for a favor in exchange for energy. Nonverbal spells like potions and charms are asking Magic for a deal, in exchange for both energy and stuff. Use this stuff to make your job easier, and then I'll use it to make my job easier. It's really just about changing the conversation."

It was at this point she brought her approximately three books back to Sequoia and plopped them on the desk. "Which coming from me, it's extra hypocritical to claim that's easy. But it's no harder than learning a new language or dialect. It's just about listening, accepting what you do and don't know at any given moment, and putting it into practice. I'm only as good at it as I am because I neglected learning verbal magic to concentrate on this, so don't beat yourself up if you don't get it all right away. But before I overload you with this stuff out of the sheer urge to talk, are you following me so far?"
 
Sequoia was kind of following. She'd never thought of magic as a force of nature. To her, it was more like a goddess. You pled for her to give you a power, and she usually complied unless you offended her. But that wasn't super important. The more she thought about it, the more she understood. What she didn't understand was how Madi had never learned verbal magic. She supposed it made sense, each word had to be said in a certain way to get the result you want, but it came so naturally to Sequoia that she'd never really thought other people wouldn't choose to use it. After a few moments of thinking, she replied, "I think I get it. Keep going."
 
"Okay, cool." Madi sighed with relief, sliding one of the books towards herself and starting to flip through the pages. "Charming and enchanting objects is as simple as what I already described, but potion-making is a bit more complicated. It's a science, a literal science. You have to use substances that already naturally lean towards doing what you're aiming for, like how mint on it's own is good for stomachaches and stuff? It's like that, because Magic can't alter Nature at it's core. It can only enhance or detract from what's already there. Our job is to solve the equations, put the puzzle pieces together, get the outcome we want from what substances and Magic we have. It doesn't sound fun on a technical level, but there's a lot of room for personalization and experimentation, so it's not actually as stuffy as it seems. It's just more structured than simple spells and conjurings."
 
"Okay," Sequoia said. This seemed easy enough. She wracked her brain with an example to make sure she was actually getting what was going on and not just kidding herself. "So, like, if I wanted to make a sleeping potion I'd use something like lavender or chamomile, stuff that's already a sleeping aid?" She tilted her head and uncrossed her legs, shifting in her seat so she could get more comfortable.
 
"Yes! Exactly." Madi replied, slamming one hand down on the table and pointing at Sequoia with the other. "That's not all you'd use, but those would definitely be staple ingredients for sleep aids. They're in the potion I'm gonna give you later, along with stuff like hops, cedar, star anise, rosemary, the works. I'm still looking for better recipes, but the one I've got now is decent enough."

Okay now she was getting off-subject. "Anyway, this is not an excuse to ramble about my insecurities, this is supposed to teach you how to make potions. The most important step is one of the first, even the first step depending on how you look at it: enchanting your substances. They aren't gonna do shit if they aren't imbued with any magic, they'll work about as well as human medicine did in the Dark Ages. AKA they won't. It's a delicate process to make sure the balance of magical versus physical is right, because if something is too weak then it gets overpowered in a potion and the ratios and effects end up all off, and if something has too much magic put in it then it gets really unstable and too dangerous to use in anything consumable. So I'd say that's the tricky part. The rest is just following recipes, keeping your mind and magic open while you work, and a whole lot of trial and error."
 
"Well, this doesn't sound that hard," Sequoia said, confusion seeping into her voice. Potion making was an art, and a tricky one at that, so there was no way it could be this easy. Of course, if it were this easy she was totally going to cash in on everything and become the best potion-maker in this whole house. Well, second best. There was no way she was going to beat Madi when she had years of experience under her belt. "Let's get started. Trial and error it up."
 
Madi's eyebrows shot up when Sequoia said potion-making didn't sound hard. Maybe she'd been a bit too lenient with her explanation because she knew potion-making came second-nature to her by now, but that was only after a decade of work and devoting her life to the craft. Of course it seemed easy to her. But to a complete newcomer...?

"Trust me, there'll be a lot of trial and a lot of error."

She pulled out one of her books as soon as that statement was made, and flipped through it until she landed on a certain page. "Some of the easiest potions to make are restorative potions. Healing potions are in that category, but they're not the simplest of the bunch. Revitalizing potions are just about the best beginner's potion, since all they do is reverse decay, so we could start with one of those?"
 
"Sure. Sounds great!" Sequoia said, pulling one of her feet under her and tapping her fingers on the counter. She had no idea what you would do with a restorative potion, but she was sure she could figure out something. She was creative. She turned over to ask Flora what she thought about all this potion making only to find that her friend was sleeping. She smiled softly at Flora and then turned back to Madi, ready to do what she had to and make some rad regeneration- no, restorative- potions.
 
"Awesome." Madi nodded, sliding the book over to Sequoia and stepping away to start searching for ingredients. Immediately she realized something was off with her supply, and she turned around to ask "Dageru? Can you go up and get some more fennel? I think I've already enchanted all of the supply down here, and I do not want to run the risk of clashing magic right now."

The only reply given by the cat was a discontented mewling sound, before he ran up the basement stairs to probably do exactly as she'd asked. Especially because she called up "Thanks!" after him.
 
Sequoia pulled both legs under her so she could sit more comfortably and began tapping her fingers on the table to let off a bit of energy. It was odd to have so much energy that wasn't being worked off. At the circus the schedule was roughly: work, practice, take your beatings, work, work, work, sleep if you were lucky. If you weren't lucky there was less food and sleep, more beatings and work. Here there was no schedule, only sitting around and learning. It was nice, but it kept her full of energy. She really didn't like the energy. "Soooo, while we wait for Dagger to get back, let's talk about stuff. You pick first topic."
 
Madi actually couldn't help but laugh at Sequoia's request. Not a mocking laugh, just a little surprised one. She returned to the table with a piece of her prepared fennel root in hand, and set it on the table as she said "I only have so much time to talk to you before I physically can't even try for the next 12 hours. I don't think either of us really want to waste any of that time, especially when the alternative'll be Dageru trying to teach you potion-making instead of me. If you really do catch on quickly, I'll see what I have time to chat about, but for now, try to pick up the magic signature in this."

She rolled the fennel over to Sequoia, then explained. "Everyone's magic is a little different, so hopefully you'll be able to tell the difference between mine, no one's (that'll be the fresh one), and your own once you try it out."
 
"Sounds crappy," Sequoia said, wincing when she thought about not being able to do any talking for 12 hours. "But I guess you're right. Focusing on the fennel." She stared intently at it, trying to figure out how to best figure it out. The only magic she'd ever 'felt' before were Flora's and her own. She couldn't really tell how she did that though, so this was going to be a problem. She did her best to feel the fennel with her mind, but whenever she tried to concentrate on it, she got distracted by Flora's breathing or the mushrooms in the corner of the room or her own subtle movement.
 
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Madi let Sequoia try and work for a minute, but when she saw the girl clearly struggling, she tapped her on the shoulder and said "Here, stop. You're trying too hard. This isn't about searching for some deep mysterious force buried in the object, it's just... feeling the magic. Take a breath, tune in, and just feel the energy around you. Don't worry about getting something 'right', 'cause magic is already everywhere. Let it in, and you'll feel something. Then you can start making choices."
 
"Okay. If you say so." A hint of unease seeped into her tone, but Sequoia brushed her worries aside and did her best to just feel. She tried to sit still and let everything seep into her but she was still getting distracted. She still needed to fidget and look at everything and she had way too much energy to just passively feel. She had to force herself to stay in her seat and not scratch the itch working its way into her side and she still wasn't feeling anything. She clenched and unclenched her fists and sat and couldn't take in anything. "I can't do it!" She eventually said, throwing her eyes open and scratching furiously at her side.
 
"Hey, hey!" Madi jumped back when Sequoia suddenly grew frustrated, concern pulling her eyebrows together. She hadn't meant to make her lash out like that...

"It's okay," She tried to soothe the other girl, desperately hoping she didn't accidentally sound condescending or pandering or anything. "It's not something everyone does, especially not easily. I'm sorry. I shouldn'tve pushed you."

It was at this inopportune moment that Dageru walked back in, still in cat form with a fresh lentil in his mouth. One glance at the scene, and he knew very well to just stay out of sight for another minute.
 
Sequoia slammed her hands down on the table, letting out a sigh of frustration. "It's my fault, not yours. I just can't fucking focus." She glared at the fennel with disdain, hopping off the chair so she could move. She needed to move. She began pacing behind her chair, trying to work off all this stupid energy so she could focus. She was glad her little fit hadn't woken Flora. Flora would be concerned and kind and ready to take her out of the room but she wanted to stay here and learn. She just couldn't. "Do you know anything that'll let me, like, calm down?"
 
"Uh," Madi cleverly replied, stepping out of the way of Sequoia's pacing as she tried to think all this through. The pacing itself was starting to give her an idea... "Well, there's lots of stuff in here that could induce calming, but I'm not so sure you need it. Maybe instead of chilling out and letting the feelings come to you, you go searching for them? It's pretty clear your biggest issue is having more energy than you know what to do with, so maybe having your energy be an active part of your magic could help you accomplish more. I don't know for sure, it's only a guess, but if there's one thing I do know for sure, it's that working with what you have is the best way to use your magic. If you have to force or change something about yourself, your power'll never be at it's best."
 
"Yeah, that makes sense, but I..I just...I can do verbal magic just fine!" She ran a hand down her face and tried to send energy out of herself and into the room. At first, she didn't feel anything, which freaked her out. What if she just couldn't learn potions? She was about to give up again when she realized that the fennel actually felt different from the rest of the room. It was softer? Like there was some kind of energy around the fennel that wasn't present in the rest of the room. She let out a squeal of excitement and promptly lost the energy.
 
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Madi had just nodded along sympathetically with Sequoia's frustrations. She knew even now that she couldn't really get the hang of verbal magic like most other witches could. It was probably exactly the reverse for Sequoia, and pretty late in life to have never tried. But that didn't stop Madi holding her breath while Sequoia tried again.

And when Sequoia squealed with delight, that breath went out in just as delighted a cry of "Did you do it?!"
 
"Yeah! I...I think so!" She said, trying to grasp the way the fennel felt. "It was like...like really peaceful and soft and friendly." She sent out her magic again, reaching for the place she had felt the energy before. When she reached it again, it was like walking into a cloud. Like pastel butterflies and a sedate spring day. It was like a home. "What is this? Is this really you?"
 
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