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I was horrified when I did. Whatever it was now, the shadow had started out life as a human. I had known that it had been Cedric's fault, but I was still appalled at how far he'd gone. Horrified that anyone would do something like that, strip away person hood, and leave another man a shadow. There was poison in the shadow for me, and an enchantment for the twins. If it had come across us sleeping, there was a good chance that none of my protections would have saved us. Furrowing my brow, I started to unravel the enchantments that bound the shadow. First I extracted the spells that it carried, storing them, because offensive spells were not something I was good at crafting. Then the spell that bound it to Cedric- carefully, so it wouldn't snap and rebound on him; letting him know that I had caught it. Finally, I could see the spell that had killed the person it was, and bound it to this world. The shadow faded to a glimmer, then disappeared.
“Drat.”
“You weren't hoping for a ghost, were you?” Saki asked.
“Well- yes sort of. I couldn't get much out of it. A ghost I could have spoken to. As a shadow, it could only reflect what it had seen.” I went to dampen a cloth, to clean the floor, and my knees stopped holding me. I hit the ground ,and charms scattered out of the box as my foot hit it. Momentarily I managed to catch myself on my hands, but then I found myself completely prone.
“You always wear yourself out when you do magic.” Saki observed, rolling me on my side.
“I hadn't noticed.” I muttered weakly, holding in a cough with all my might.
“Don't be silly, Xan.” Suki ordered, putting the kettle on. “You know it perfectly well and you do it anyway.” She turned and looked at me, raising the eyebrow above her green eye, bangs briefly obscuring the brown one. (it's funny the details you remember, isn't it?) “Saki-” her brother stood up, as I calmly tried to catch my breath, and they whispered at each other, occasionally looking over at me.
At last, they both made small surprised noises, and I managed to sit up.
“If you're quite done discussing me as if I wasn't here?” I asked
“All of the magic you use comes from inside you!” they said, obviously shocked.
'Well, yes, where else would it come from?” I demanded. “Magic comes from inside things; demons, people, fairies, and spirits. That's why magicians call demons, and why Cedric does what he does, to get the magic that's inside them.”
“Rocks.” Supplied Saki
“Plants.” Suki pointed out
“Water.”
“Animals.”
“Air”
“Everything.”
“Everything has magic in it.” they said seriously. “You can take energy from all of those.”
“What do you mean? I've never read about anything like that.”
“You can't read about everything.” they giggled with each other. “That's what makes some people natural mages.” Their strange, odd colored eyes stared at me for a moment. “Though if you catch the knack of it you could be amazing; given how strong you are with your own magic.”
“You want me to do something to call in power that I don't know anything about?” I let myself fall back onto the ground. “You're out of your minds.”
“Everyone has to do something for the first time at least once.”
I took a moment to work that statement through.
“Alright.” I said at last. “Talk to me; how?”