Jason Dever entered the dilapidated building tentatively. He found the walls of the staircase oozing semi-dried black liquid, and the dingy lighting offensively spooky as he climbed up the stairs. Tugging his coat into the tightness of his armpits, he felt the air get colder. On each floor, there was at least one of four apartments operating as a small business- marked by a huge name plate, bright and simply terrifying like wide eyed old men he met every floor.
Some read of ‘the accurate astrologer’, ‘Jenny’s bakes’, others of ‘the secret pet store’, and ‘laboratory apparatus, NOTE: DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING UNLESS UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF AN EMPLOYEE’.
Jason was breathless by the time he reached the fifth and final floor. With his hands on his knees he found himself disappointed in his previously fit 20 year old physique that hadn’t aged too well into 35, despite his attempts to keep up with the gym three times a week.
Jason looked up at the two doors on either side of the edge of the staircase, where he stood. One read ‘residence of Doctor Campbell’, and the other- a much more murky brown door, read ‘office of Doctor Campbell, chemist’. Relieved to find the man still alive, Jason knocked on the latter door, his chest lifting and lowering conspicuously under his thick coat.
He heard footsteps on the other side of the door, before it opened, letting out smoke and the sound of coughing.
Jason looked down at the woman infront of him, a headcover held in her hand allowing her red curls to fall behind her, restricted by the ponytail they were tied up in. She had scrutinizing brown eyes protected by safety goggles, and wore a white lab coat, a big purple stain on her chest.
She must be the assistant, Jason concluded.
“Can I meet Doctor Campbell?” He asked, tilting forward to look past her.
She stepped between him and the view of the inside of the room. “I am Doctor Campbell.” She said.
He furrowed his eyebrows, before shaking his head. “I must have the wrong address.” He took out his phone, scrolling to find the address he’d found on Google.
She pushed down his phone. “Doctor Andrew Campbell was my grandfather.” The woman assured, her eyes relaxing.
Jason gaped.
Curse his bad luck.
“Sorry.” He said, before making to leave but she called after him.
“Sir! I am a chemist just as he was. How may I help you?”
He turned halfway, sighing. “You can’t.” Jason made down the staircase, hearing her catch up to him.
The woman grasped his fingers, pulling him to turn to her. She tilted her head. “Chemistry isn’t all I practice.” Her eyes sparkled, literally, with purple glitter. The same one he had seen thirty years ago, when his grandfather had brought him here, to his friend from the army, to have his magic sealed.
***
Jason found himself inside Doctor Campbell’s office now, following her in. In what might have been the hall, were three countertops aligned side by side, and one more with its length pressed against the wall that shadowed glass apparatus. This apparatus seemed to multiply on all the countertops, some filled with colorful or clear liquids, others empty.
“Watch out.” He heard Campbell say, and saw her point to a broken flask on the ground, foaming purple liquid splattered where it had fallen.
He edged away, entering the passageway with her. They went past the restroom, to reach what should have been a bedroom but instead held a desk and two couches. He sat down on one, and she sat down on the other, they were separated by a glass table.
Campbell took off her goggles, shaking her head, her beautiful red hair rocking from side to side. Despite himself, Jason couldn’t help but recognize that this might be the first time he was recognizing another woman as beautiful, since his divorce.
“What do you need?” She asked, her elbows on her lap.
He sighed, folding his arms as he leaned into the gray couch. “I need a seal.”
“I have many seals.” She answered quickly.
“Good, because I haven’t found any that can withstand my magic.”
“Hmm?” Campbell asked.
“Your grandfather sealed my magic thirty years ago, and recently, it’s been coming back, because the seal has been breaking. A few weeks ago, it completely exploded, and I mistakenly set my dog’s bed on fire.”
She snorted, her lips pinching up and her first hiding her mouth.
He resisted a smile.
“I really need a seal that fits, because I’ve been trying three previous ones, the strongest all three sellers had, but they broke on contact.”
Campbell nodded, rubbing her chin.
She got up, brushing dust off of her lap. “Alright. Wait here. I’ll take fifteen minutes to clear the set up outside so we can put in your seal.”
***
In ten minutes, Jason was seated in a lean back chair, like the one he had been in at the dentist. He let his arm rest against a table, where Campbell felt his forearm, her lips sealed in a tight line and her eyes undeterred.
Jason cleared his throat causing her finger tips to waver on his skin.
“What’s your name?” He asked, his other hand coiling and relaxing, his palm sweaty with nervousness.
“Lyra.” She answered.
Pretty name, he thought.
“Don’t mind me asking, but how old are you?”
Lyra glimpsed at him, giving him a side eye.
“Much younger than you, sir.” She said, her lips pinching into a smile she was evidently trying to conceal.
Lyra walked past him, to the countertop in front of him. Jason was left shoved in a corner, between the horizontal countertop and the wall in the hall.
He watched her feel the stands that held the apparatus, right before his heart jolted. Behind her, the wall opened up to a compartment suddenly, full of glowing test tubes on numerous racks. Some were pearl white, others maroon, bronze, and sapphire, at least as far as he could see.
She pulled out a strap from the compartment, and walked back to him, tying his arm tight with the strap until he could swear he felt it on his bone. A black flexible plastic on the turqoise strap came to life in numbers, and Jason almost screamed the next moment when he felt tiny needles pierce into his skin under the strap.
“What the-” He said, attempting to lift his arm to swing off the strap but she held it down, her fist pressing down on his palm.
“Still.” She ordered, and he remained unmoved, tasting blood as he bit his tongue, while his toes spread.
“Getting a seal isn’t a natural process, of course your body isn’t going to like it.” She shook her head, watching him plainly.
In twenty seconds, the pain began to multiply, which is when she pulled off the strap. Jason barely glimpsed glowing numbers on it, before she began treating the tiny wounds on his arm.
Jason closed his eyes then, his jaw tightening as disinfectant burned him, followed by her fingers feeling the cuts, and then the soft cover of a bandage wrapping multifold.
In minutes, she came back with a glowing lilac foam, whirling in clear violet oil in a test tube.
“That’s a lot of magic in one person.” She said, shaking the test tube, while reading the black screen on the strap. She put it down, before turning to the counter behind her where she began filling an injection syringe with the cloudy purple liquid.
“I didn’t mean to let it get out of hand-”
“If you knew how to control it, it wouldn’t be out of hand.”
Jason felt a shiver run up his spine. He was getting a seal because he had never been able to learn how to control his magic. He knew the magical community detested seals, it was like rejecting your heritage- a heritage you shared with them, but he didn’t have a choice. His abilities to control his magic had been near non existent when he was younger, compared to five year olds his age who were not flooding the house every six times a day. This was why his grandfather had had a seal installed instead. It was easier, and safer than waiting for a kid who had never learnt to finally do so.
“I’ve never lived my life with magic. Not since I was five-”
“Woah, that’s a long time ago.” She laughed.
He sighed. “I don’t want to live with it now either.”
Jason squeezed his eyes shut when he saw her pierce his skin, a stinging pain.
He couldn’t help the little tears that squeezed out of his eyes.
“You’re worse than my six year old nephew.” Campbell commented, pulling his forearm towards her as she examined it.
He sat up while she waited, so did he. Like thirty years ago, this had to work. In seconds, purple roots glew under his skin, rising and wrapping around his arm. In a few minutes, they should become white scars, and then fade entirely in a few days.
Faint bands on his arm spoke of old seals he had tried, and broken.
Jason balled up his fist, and relaxed it, as Lyra helped him wear an aluminium bracelet she had placed on the countertop. It glinted shiny white pearls, but Jason knew none of it was real. The seal was just another iron band, maybe with a different iron composition.
She held his hand, muttering something that made the lilac roots in his arms glow bright
Right before the seal exploded into two, hitting the side of the countertop, and the wall.
She swore, checking the black screen again.
“It rose.” Lyra concluded about his capacity. “I tried one that suited your magic and capacity, but your capacity rose. Should I try the others I have?” She raised her eyebrows. “They’re stronger.”
Jason nodded, his heart beating fast. This had to work.
***
After eight seals, it had not worked.
Lyra might as well have worn chainmail, instead she ran to the other side of the room to take cover. More than once, Jason had got hit on the arm, jaw, and neck. All of his bruises gaining composure.
Infront of him, Lyra paced the room, rubbing her hands down her face in agony.
“It’s ok.” Jason said, his voice coarse and heavy as he made to get up but she demanded against.
“Stay!” Lyra snapped.
Truly, Jason wouldn’t have been able to get up either with the roots formed under his skin weighing his arm down by a few pound, not unless he was willing to break a bone.
Jason leaned back, closing his eyes as a groan fitted in the back of his throat. “You’re not the first healer that didn’t have a seal that fit me.”
Lyra turned back to him, restless as she stared at the ground, slightly wide eyed. “I don’t get it. Your magic, it’s way volatile. I know magic resists usually, but just a little bit. I used a 79 percent iron seal, and it still managed to fight it off.”
Lyra walked to the bin diagonally across the room. Jason heard her shark skin gloves snap off of her hands as she threw them into the trash, annoyed but composed.
He forced himself to look away, red rising up his cheeks as he attempted to ignore her.
“You alright there?” He asked tentatively.
She snapped her wrist at him, swatting down any concern. “I-I think we can fix this.” She said, placing her hands on her hips.
Her eyebrows relaxed, and her gaze softened, boring into him.
“I know a dealer in Rome. They have the best seals in the world. Luckily, it’s a friend’s mother so I can get the seal asap. I’m presuming a week’s wait at most, but lucky for us, the wait is usually a month for everyone else. Would that be alright with you?” She asked. “There’ll be extra charges for my ticket, and the seal.”
Jason stared at her.
“How much?” He asked.
“Twenty thousand.” She answered.
Jason considered the idea for a while.
“You can think about it, there’s no need to-”
“Do it.” He interrupted her, his gaze stern. “I need my magic sealed.” He said, tilting his head down, his face casting into shadows.
She blinked, looking away. “Ok.” Lyra answered, folding her arms.
“There’s a condition though.” Jason said, raising his head so he was looking down at her.
“I will accompany you.”
Lyra furrowed her eyebrows. “Why?”
Would it be wrong for Jason to say that he was terrified of being left alone with his magic? Would it be false, if he said that he found himself to be a hazard to society and his home, and that he just needed someone of the magic community to be like a safety net if he accidentally set of a mass homicide? He had done that last week, at the supermarket, they’d called the cops and the fire brigade. A total mess, but luckily no one had traced him to be the cause. Potentially because people just didn’t know of magic. Thank God they didn’t know anything about magic. He would be serving time if they had, seeing that his control over his powers was as good as a five year old reigning in an aggressive fully grown pitbull. It bit, and it bit back.
“I want to see Rome. Don’t worry, it will be a completely professional trip.” He smiled. “I just got too much money from my divorce settlement, and well, I’ve always wanted to see Rome so might as well have a travel buddy-”
“Nope. Not your travel buddy.”
He rolled his eyes. “Just, a kid. You get the seal, I live in the room next to you while you do, and we come back, and you put the seal into place, unless of course we can get that done in Rome itself.”
She would be able to reign in his magic pitbull, right?
He eyed her up and down. In her labcoat, Lyra looked like a rectangle with baby fat at the face that glew a constant rose pink. Dammit, she was basically a child.
“Fine.”
Jason nodded. “Totally professional. I’ll, uhm, stay far. I just figured, why not take the trip since it has come up. I suppose, this will also be useful for you to examine the anomalous case I am.” He laughed nervously.
Lyra narrowed her eyes.
“I don’t really care, as long as you remember that I am your healer and nothing more.” She said.
Jason nodded incessantly. “I’m going to need your number-”
She handed him a business card. “Healer.” Lyra asserted, while Jason gulped uneasily.
(Chapter 2: https://saragawde.com/power-unsealed-chapter-2/)