Carrot and Stick: How to Practice Responsible Witchcraft in a High-Crime Neighborhood - Chapter X 

Chapter X 

Hmm... should we change the title?

Also, art! Just some early sketches by the very super talented Zara! Probably gonna go with the version with the bow, and the Mister Roger's blouse! Oh, she has a portfolio: https://zarwilsonart.format.com/

***

He didn’t even have to guess when there was a knock at his front door. There was only one person it could be.

“One moment!” he called out.

He was, currently, on the floor, feet stuck in under the small bedroom’s closet to help him though some situps. He'd gotten through five before having to rest. It was worse than his morning pushups, even.

Still, the fact that he could do any exercise at all was a good sign. He was recovering. Another two or three days and he’d be... well, not in shape, but closer to it. Especially if he could get access to his phone and the few healing spells on it. 

He grabbed a button-up shirt on the way out and slipped it on, doing the buttons quickly before he arrived at the door and peeked through the blinds. Unsurprisingly, Carrot was standing right there on the other side, his ex-hat tipped way back so that her face was visible. “Hi!” she called out.

Silas opened the door then stepped back. “Miss Cuddlesworth,” he said with a nod. “You’re early.”

“Yup! Mom always told me that it’s better to arrive anywhere early, that way you can wait until you’re on time.”

“I... suppose I can’t really fault you for being punctual. It’s hardly a sin.”

Carrot giggled.  “You’d think that! Anyway, I thought it best that we start early? I don’t have that much time off, you know?”

“Oh?” he asked as he made his way further in. He had a few things to pick up. “Right, you mentioned that you were going to school?”

“Yup! Winter break is on now, but it’s only for another two weeks! You caught me early.”

“Let’s hope we find that phone before those two weeks are up, then,” Silas said. He grit his teeth as he pulled on his coat and it pulled at some of his bruises. “Are you ready to go, then?”

“Yup!” Carrot said. She bounced on the spot. “I have so much energy! I spent all evening yesterday practicing magic, you know!”

“That usually leads to less energy,” he said.

“Nah! I got my Black Petal Thorn way smaller and more efficient! I can’t wait to run into some big bad daemon to test it on. They’ll be so surprised!”

“Suire, but let’s find them, first, yes?” he said. “Just... give me two minutes, I need to grab a few last things. You can wait outside, if you want.”

He wasn't sure he really wanted to find daemons today. He was move rested now than he had been, but that didn’t mean he was anywhere near his one-hundred percent. That might cost him if it came to a fight or anything violent. 

Slipping into his bedroom, he pulled his briefcase up onto the bed and opened it. Within were some papers, of course, but also a set of magical tools, each one in a pocket specifically made for it. This was his Extermination kit, which was a fancy way of saying that it was the cheapest set of general-use tools he could afford. 

Better wizards had better kits, with additional storage, pockets that were bigger on the inside, and probably some potions and other restoratives. This was the cheapest option, so other than a few things he’d picked up over the years, it was mostly the basics.

Still, he had a device for measuring ambient magical energy levels, similar to the ones he’d scattered across the city, but less disposable. He pocketed that, then grabbed an extra diffuser, just in case. 

Then, just as he was about to close the case, he reopened it and pulled out a small round device from a side pocket on the inside. It wasn’t something he had purchased, but rather a device he’d been given a couple of years ago while out on a mission with a smaller team. He’d been a Rank III wizard then, and wasn’t in charge of fighting anything. Instead, his job had been to distract non-magical civilians away from the scene of a small fight between their team’s more senior members and a local dog daemon. 

This had been given to him, and since he hadn’t used it... he had kind of just kept it.

He nodded, then slipped it into the breast pocket of his coat.

A minute or two later, he was out of the door, locking it behind him. Carrot was standing nearby, shifting from side to side in a way that made her skirt swirl around her ankles. “Ready?” he asked.

“Yup!” She gasped, then reached down to her side where she had a small purse hanging. It was all canvas, with a few hearts and stars sewn into the material. “I brought a map of the city! We used to use it for driving, I think? But like, no one needs paper maps anymore, which is sad, because they’re fun!” She waved her hand and the map unfurled into a huge mess that Carrot fought to hold straight.

“I see,” Silas replied. “I suppose that’s not the worst idea.”

“Thanks! I like it when my ideas rate somewhere between the best and not the worst,” Carrot said rather cheekily. “I brought a marker too. I think that we don’t need to do every street, right?”

“Why not?” he asked as he looked over the map. Julberwood was relatively large, but by no means huge. Fortunately, the city didn’t stretch far outside of its bounds and didn’t have much of a suburbia to speak of. 

“Well, I can probably sense a strong daemon from at least one block over,” Carrot said casually.

He eyed her. He was beyond the point where he was too surprised by the young woman’s capabilities. Still, that kind of sensing range would make her a darling of some of the ordos back home. “That’s good. I have a device that can help as well. I suppose there’s no harm in walking through every-other road. We don’t know if our target is even in Julberwood, however.”

“Hmm, I guess we don’t.” 

Silas looked at the map, then pointed to the downtown area. “Let’s start there. It’ll make the search a little lop-sided, but it’s the most populous part of the city, and where all of the more public-facing businesses are. A lot of people cross there every day as well, I think.”

“Makes sense to me,” Carrot said. “Will you be okay, walking that much?”

“I’ll be fine,” he said. He could take a few breaks, if needed, but it wouldn’t hurt to push himself this much.

So, they took off. His rented place wasn’t too far from the centre of the city. For all of its many problems, Julberwood actually had functional buses. They were grimey and dirty, and didn’t run on time, but they did work... some of the time. Carrot had to fold her hat up in order to squeeze into one, which led to a conversation about magical items.

“I can make it smaller?” Carrot asked.

“Yes? The hat is a soul-bound item. It’ll reflect you. It’s probably only so large as a reflection of the size of your uncontrolled magical energy. If you knew how to better control your reserves, the hat would probably be much smaller, and more manageable.”

“Oh, neat!” Carrot said. They were walking along one of the side roads, a few down from where most of the shops were. So far, it was quiet, and a little cold. The weather was far from nice, actually, but at least it wasn’t snowing, just windy. “Are there lots of magic items, then?”

“Sure,” he said. “They generally fall into two broad categories. Ulvex and caltre. And before you ask, the hat is ulvex.”

“I don’t think that’s a real word,” Carrot said.

“It is,” he said. “Ulvex items are those made from magical materials. When magical energy collects in a place, it can sometimes infuse into items or just things in the world around that area. The dirt, trees, random items. If the magic isn’t tainted by negative emotions, then those items become slightly magical. Though they don’t necessarily have any magical effect.”

“Neat! So lucky socks?”

“Could be real, I suppose,” he said. “I think they’re mostly a scam sold to younger students by clever upper-years at the academies, though.”

“There’s magic academies?” Carrot asked with a gasp.

“You’re too old,” he shot her down.

She slumped. “Darn... I could have had a whole school arc.”

“Sure.”

“What about the other? Calter?” 

He chuckled. He’d never admit it, but he liked teaching. Summer loved to ask him all sorts of questions when he came back from the academy, and he’d taught her a fair bit then. “Caltre, it ends with an R-E. Anyway, those are otherwise mundane items enchanted into being magical.”

“Hmm,” Carrot said. “And the hat is Ulvex?”

“It’s both. Magical materials enchanted to a purpose. And complex enchantments at that.”

“Neat!” Carrot said. “Do... you want it back?”

He sighed. He did, but... “No,” he lied a little. “Best you keep it for now. You’re more vulnerable to soul-based attacks than I am.”

“Gosh, another thing to learn,” Carrot said. “I have to figure out a sort of shield for that.”

He nodded along. “Some exist, sure. I can show you my notes on those once I get my phone back. That’s a spell that none of the ordos would mind a non-society mage having.”

“Cool!”

Carrot skipped along next to him until they crossed a group of young women on the road. She turned and looked after them.

“Friends of yours?” he asked.

“No... there’s magic on one of them.”

He turned, then pulled out his magic energy reading device and gestured it in the direction of the young woman. It ticked up a little as he pointed it to the one in the middle of the group, but only faintly. “Weak,” he said.

“Yeah. I barely felt it,” Carrot said.

“Could be one of those ulvex items I talked about. Magic imbued into some random piece of clothing. It’s harmless.”

“Okay,” Carrot said.

They continued, skipping the next road, then the next. Carrot started to prattle on about some... cartoon or something. He wasn’t paying that much attention, not until his detector ticked a few times. He pointed it this way and that, then walked a little to the left and right to triangulate. It was someone walking alone on the other side of the street, an older woman, all bundled up in winter clothes. 

“I feel it too,” Carrot said. “Weak.”

“Yeah, weak,” he agreed. “Probably nothing.”

“Are you sure?” Carrot asked. “Because it feels the same.”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“I mean, it feels the same... like, flavour, as the other girl we passed.”

He worked his jaw. The device he had was nowhere near so accurate. It measured intensity and nothing else. “It could be something, I suppose. But it could be nothing.”

“Hmm, okay.”

They were a block over from the main commercial street when Carrot perked up. “I sense more, two this time,” she said. “Same flavour of magic. It’s kind of dirty? Like, not evil, but yuck?”

“I see,” he said. He waved his device around, and yes, there were two signals. Both coming from women just halfway down the street, talking to each other under a bus stop. “Weird,” he said.

“Well, I’m gonna ask,” Carrot said.

“Huh?”

Silas blinked, then jogged to catch up, but before he could stop her, Carrot was next to the women and introduced herself with a beaming bright smile and enough good cheer to bulldoze through any awkwardness. “Hi! Oh, I love your nails! They’re so pretty!”

“Thank you,” one of the women said. She gestured, revealing dark brown nails. “Aren’t they the best?”

“Uh-huh,” Carrot said.

Silas frowned. They looked... amateurish? Maybe? He didn’t know anything about makeup, and certainly not nails.

“Where did you have them done?”

“Oh, at Luna Nails, just over by Smith. It’s new,” the other woman said. Her nails were painted too, so were the tops of her fingers and the space around her nails. “Aren’t they pretty?”

“Yeah!” Carrot said. 

“Here,” the first woman said as she pulled something out of her purse. A flyer? “First visit is free.”

“Thanks!” Carrot said. She was smiling, but her eyes searched out Silas’ and there was a heavy warning there. Something was definitely up.

***