Chapter 9: The Levitation

Anise accidentally causes everything and everyone in the house to fly after practicing some magic.

"Let me know if you need anything else, Anise." Zam explained, settling a cup of tea on the table while I studied. Being a little distracted, I simply nodded and thanked him without thinking about it. Zam didn't mind though, or at least he didn't seem to mind as he left the room to complete other tasks. I blew the steam away from my tea before taking a sip. Slightly sweetened with the herbal flavor, just how I liked it.

The first date wasn't coming up for a little while and so I had plenty of time to myself to practice my witchcraft or relax for the summer before classes start. Today, I decided to dedicate my time to studying and practicing. My levitation powers could use some polishing up. Fire was something that I was much better at controlling than objects themselves, but if I only focused on fire magic, then my levitation skills wouldn't get better.

After reading my grandmother's notes and some extra books on the matter, I closed them all and stood up from the table. It was time to start practicing. Grabbing a feather from a small collection bottle within the room, I gathered my materials and prepped my practicing station. I thought of a quick chant to say to get some energy flowing and I imagined that the feather was floating in midair.

"With my mind in the sky, make this feather fly." I chanted, quietly at first to get used to saying it and then growing louder to make it so. The feather moved only a smidge during the first few real commands. Then, it actually began to lift up from the table. It began to float straight up into the air, spinning slowly around as the surrounding air currents from the air conditioning hit it. Still, this was undeniably my doing.

I was excited! The spell was working and I felt like it didn't take too long to perfect it. Well, maybe not perfect it. I still needed to practice on other objects as well. The feather floated back down onto the table and I began to think about what other things I could levitate. A lighter book on the table was focused on and I repeated the spell. This one was a little harder to lift up into the air as I can feel that familiar wall that was stopping my energy, the weight of the book. However, with some more focus, I was able to lift the book a few inches off the table.

There was a loud knock at the door and a familiar pair of brown wolf ears were spotted first before I saw Beo's face. He beamed at me and his tail began to wag. "Hey, Anise! What are you working on? Something exciting?"

I nodded and gently settled the book down, still concentrating on my magic. "I'm practicing my levitation magic. It takes some concentration and practice to perfect. I think I'm getting the hang of it though."

"Levitation magic? I didn't know witches could do that sort of thing. I never say Mrs. Rosemary do that kind of magic. Or perhaps I just wasn't paying attention! Ha ha!" Beo laughed, his tail wagging energetically behind him. It actually wouldn't surprise me if Beo had ended up missing out on my grandmother's magical demonstrations due to him doing whatever other activities he was interested in. Beo just seemed like the type to be distracted by other things easily. Perhaps it was because he was a werewolf which in turn made his personality resemble a dog's personality.

I smiled along with his laugh and continued to work on balancing the item in the air. "The Devane witches are capable of all sorts of magic. However, it depends on the person on what their specialty is. I'm particularly good at fire and wind magic."

"I see. Then I guess I better leave you to concentrate, huh?" Beo concluded on his own. He made his way over to me though and placed his hand on top of my head, giving me a little pet. He had a giant grin on his face and his tail was wagging like crazy.

"Good work so far, Ani!" He praised. I felt a blush creep along my cheeks as he did so. Before I could reply, he left the room to leave me to practice. I sighed and lowered my hand to put the prop down. I didn't know why, but I felt really happy when Beo did that. It made me feel sort of like a dog myself in that regard. I enjoyed being praised and having my head pat like that. It felt like Beo was genuinely proud of me.

Moving on to the next book and working my way up, I managed to spend an hour on making things float in the air and move around the room. My teacup was empty, which I made one of my props to practice on, but I decided to go for a refill. As the cup of tea floated behind me, I made my way towards the door. Touching the door frame on my way out unconsciously, I felt a burst of energy coming from me and into the frame. A light, lavender aura began to spread throughout the room and before I knew it, everything began to slowly levitate into the air.

There were several yells and alarmed sounds coming from around the house. No way. Did my magic spread throughout the whole house?! I opened the door and right before my eyes, a handsome incubus floated up in front of me, smirking a bit.

"While normally I would just fly with my wings, this is much less effort. Although, it isn't as graceful and charming to see. It certainly wouldn't help impress you, Ani." He teased, his body turning in a way that made him appear upside down from my perspective. Oh no. This wasn't good!

"Uh, Anise? I always wanted to know what it was like to fly, but now that I know, I don't like it. Can you put me down now?" Beo floated right by, his speed causing him to slam into the wall and bounce off to float in another direction. I made an easy guess that everyone in the house except for me was experiencing zero gravity at the moment.

"I-I'm so sorry! I'll try to fix it now!" I promised. I clapped my hands together and tried to imagine everything falling back into place, everything gently floating down and settling on the ground. I inhaled and then exhaled slowly before placing my hand against the door frame once more to take all my energy back. However, I felt nothing. Looking up, Cassi and Beo were still high in the sky. This was going to be harder than I thought. I had no idea what caused the energy surge, so it was going to be tough to get it all back.

"Hey! What the hell, Devane!? Why are we all flying?!" Endrian came flying up the steps, an angry look on his face. The last thing I wanted to hear was Endrian's complaints too. I was beginning to get flustered and panicky since that was what everyone else seemed to be doing. Besides that, this was all my fault.

Endrian's face softened just a bit and he groaned. "Just relax, Devane. I'll round everyone up and secure ourselves so you can work on your magic in peace. There's gotta be something in that room that can help."

I was surprised at Endrian's change of heart and tone so quickly. Nonetheless, I nodded and headed back into the room to try to find some way to reverse the spell. I first began to go through the levitation spell books, reading up on how energy directly influences the strength of the spell as a refresher. It was good to work one step at a time. I supposed that I needed to take a few more steps back to figure out what happened in the first place though. Why did my magic suddenly just go berserk like that?

Looking through a book on the basics of witch energies, I began to uncover the answer to my question. In random moments for inexperienced witches practicing a new magic and/or witches that haven't reached the mature age of twenty-one, energy may suddenly burst out from within their souls and affect the environment around them without meaning too. This is mostly due to the still immature energy within them that wishes to be released. Practicing new magic can make the energy that much more uncontrollable.

It was a wonder how I didn't end up setting a house on fire with that explanation. I also wondered why my mothers neglected to give me this information. I felt like I would've encountered a mess like this before as well. There was no time to dwell on the what-ifs and whys though. There were monsters in the house that needed to come back down again. Now that I understood why what happened had happened, I knew how to reverse it. Mostly. Maybe. Hopefully.

I left the room and met everyone within the living room, everyone save for Mystis floating in the air. That's right, she wouldn't have been affected given that she lived in the garden, not in the house. Danton seemed to be fine as well since he was a ghost. It would take a different kind of magic to affect him directly. Everyone else though was floating through the air, unable to grab onto anything since everything else was floating too. Cleaning up was going to be a huge pain.

"Okay, everyone. I have an idea. I need you all to try to come down and hold hands in a circle. I'll be part of the circle as well. From there, I would need you to try to channel your energy to me so I can pick it apart to find my own that has escaped. After that, then I'll work on getting everything else back to normal.

Everyone seemed reluctant to join hands, but it wasn't like they had much of a choice unless they wanted to float for who knows how long. One by one, they all managed to float down towards me and each other, connecting their hands to form a circle. Mystis just watched with an amused expression and Danton just stared in what looked like wonder. Once everyone was steady and connected properly, I closed my eyes and tried to pick apart everyone's energies. I could feel pieces of everyone's individual soul. Zamuel's, Endrian's, Beo's, and Cassius' souls were all so different.

Zam's was so calming and it felt sophisticated, my mind thinking of a silvery grey like his hair as it made itself more apparent. Endrian's soul was fiery red, showing off his assertive and hot-headed nature. Though, it would sometimes dull to a bright orange like a dying flame, showing me that he can calm down as well. Beo's was a rambunctious and flowing blue. Cassius' was sporting, of course, a seductive purple that conveyed romance and passion that could be dangerous to get close to.

In the midst of their energies was my own specks of white energy. I took it all back slowly, gravity bringing their bodies back down to earth. Finally, they all landed on their feet. Once my energy from them was back, I let go of Zam's and Beo's hand. They sighed and went to try to pull down the various object back from the air without a word. They worked in silence until Beo approached me and pat my head. "Good work, Ani! I knew you could do it!"

"Thanks, Beo. Let's just try to get everything else back to normal before celebrating." I expressed my gratitude, blushing a bit by the head pat. Eventually, most of the house was back to normal. I even managed to make everything float back down to its original place. It took a lot of energy out of me though despite sucking my energy back from the objects. It must've been the physical effort and the fact that I had to go through everything one by one. Once the couch had touched down on the floor, I took a seat and lied down, exhausted.

Before I knew it, I was completely asleep.