Extra Scene from Emerging Magic
If you go to Emerging Magic's page on the Torquere site, you'll see the official excerpt, which comes from the first chapter. There's another scene I like, though, that I think is fun and want to share here. :)
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Rory's mother took him to psychiatrists, let them circumscribe his life, let them give him drugs, while knowing all along there was nothing wrong with him. When Rory finds out, he's angry and confused and just wants to get away for a while. His mother's betrayal plus another kidnap attempt make a visit to the father he hasn't seen in ten years seem like a great idea.
When Rory, Paul and Aubrey get to Seattle, though, it's obviously not going to be just a normal family Christmas. Someone north of San Jose tried to kidnap Rory twice before they left, and to Paul, it's too much of a coincidence that Nathan, Rory's dad, has magic talented friends. While Rory tries to reconnect with his only other family, Paul is trying to figure out whether anyone in Nathan's group is after Rory. They definitely have secrets, and at least one of them has been playing around with things he doesn't understand; the local fey are after him, and elves aren't known for caring too much about collateral damage.
And there's a master wizard in the area who's up to something big and would really like to have Rory's help....
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"No, focus! Visualize the bolt going from your finger to the can, like an arrow or a bullet! You have to concentrate, or it could go anywhere." Aubrey sounded annoyed, which just made Rory that much more nervous.
"I'm sorry, let me try again." Rory focused on the array of five aluminum cans dangling from strings tacked to a ceiling joist.
"And again and again, until you can do it every time. This isn't hard, you just have to find the groove." Aubrey was pacing back and forth behind Rory, which wasn't helping, but Rory was too embarrassed to say so.
He focused on the Pepsi can toward the middle of the grouping, pointed his finger and "fired." This time a stream of bright blue magic gushed out, like water from a leaky hose, and sprayed across the room. Some of it hit the Pepsi can, and the two A&W cans near it. That was something -- better than the lumpy blob he'd produced before, that had drifted in vaguely the right direction but dissipated before it got halfway to its target.
"Better, but not good enough. Again."
Rory nodded and tried again.
"Don't mind him," said a third voice. "He's just grumpy because he's forced to let you get all practical before giving you years of theory." Cal, who was lounging in a folding chair to one side, gave Rory a grin and an encouraging wave.
"Don't you have to get to work?" Aubrey's voice was sharp enough to make Rory wince, but Cal just shrugged and shook his head.
"Nope, I've got almost half an hour. Sorry, Master, you're stuck with me for a while."
"I'm sure I could find you something to do, if you're just going to hang around distracting my student."
"I'm sure you could too," Cal agreed, his voice as cheerful as ever despite the rebuke, "but I think we'd all be better off if you went down and got a drink or something, and let me hang with Rory for a while. Seriously, you're pissed off because you think you're doing this all wrong, but you know we have to do it this way, and your mood is getting to Rory. Go away, let me work with him for a little while, relax, have some successes maybe, then you can come crack the whip again."
Rory looked from one to the other, expecting some kind of blow-up, but after a good, long glare, Aubrey just threw his hands into the air with great drama and said, "Fine, you're right, this is ridiculous but we're in a rush, and the idea of rushing through lessons makes me want to bite something. See if you can teach him to hit a target with his squirt gun; come get me when you leave."
He turned around and stomped off down the stairs, leaving Rory alone with Cal.
Cal hopped up off his chair and moved over next to Rory. "There, now that the grumpy-butt is gone, let's have some fun. He thinks hard work and 'focus' is what's important, but that's just because he hasn't been a kid since, like, Shakespeare's time or something."
Rory grinned back at Cal and ducked a hand that tried to yank on his braid. "I know! I just get so nervous, I can't concentrate!"
"Well, there you go -- you're trying to concentrate. This isn't rocket science, it's like shooting rubberbands. Just do it." Cal made guns out of his hands, with his two index fingers sticking out, and said, "Pow! Pow! Pow!" as he fired off three magical shots. "See? Just do it! Go! Now! Come on, race you!"
Cal was like a bouncy five-year-old in a body that was seven inches taller than Rory's. Rory couldn't help laughing, and Cal kept nudging, bumping and poking him with one finger until Rory started firing.
"That's it, faster! Don't think, just hit the suckers! Go! There! Yes!"
This time, Rory's focus was on the cans instead of his fingers or the magic or the path through the air or any of the other variables he'd been trying to hold in his brain. Cal urged him to shoot faster and faster, joining in, turning it into a competition. Cal was shooting cans too, and the random impacts made them swing in wild arcs, strings twisting and untangling, and fresh shots knocking them off in new directions whenever Rory thought he had a bead on one of them. Misses sparked and vanished against the attic wall, absorbed by the glowing ward patterns Rory could see if he focused on his magesight, but once he got into it, fewer and fewer shots missed.
"More! Faster, faster! Go! Yes! There! Good!" Cal smacked Rory on the back, still firing with one hand. Rory elbowed him back and kept firing two-handed, hitting the cans almost every time, pung-pung-pung.
Cal stepped back out of Rory's field of vision, but Rory was having too much fun to stop and look around for him. He was actually kind of afraid to stop, afraid he'd lose whatever... whatever "groove" he'd finally found. It was like his brain was disconnected, or at least staying out of the way, and he was running on reflex.
Then another can sailed over his head in a long arc. Rory froze for a second, then fired and missed. Another one appeared and he shot it. Another, then two at once -- pung-pung!
One more, two, one, one, then three at once and Rory had to scramble to hit them all, barely getting a graze on the third.
"Hah! Good!" Cal kept cheering and tossing cans, and Rory kept shooting, like a kid playing cops-androbbers but his fingers actually fired and how cool was that? A huge grin stretched across his face and his eyes darted wildly around, tracking targets.
Rory lost track of time until finally no more cans appeared. He waited a moment, and another, then turned around and saw Cal standing there with a huge grin, shrugging with empty hands spread. "That's it, ran out of cans."
"Well, damn!" Rory laughed and looked back toward the far wall -- sure enough, there were like five hundred empty cans piled up on the floor. "Can we do it again? Just turn everything around and throw them the other way?"
"You'll have to ask Master Grumpy-Pants about that," Cal said with an exaggerated sigh of disappointment. "I have to head off to work, make sure the crew doesn't burn the place down or something."
Rory pouted at him, but couldn't maintain it for more than a second. He laughed, then bounced over to Cal and hugged him. "Thanks! That was genius, and fun, and we'll have to do it again!"
Cal hugged him back and gave him a big, smacking kiss on the forehead. "Just had to get you out of your head. You can't pay attention or you'll screw yourself up -- it has to be reflex."
Rory nodded. "That's exactly it! It's like something just clicked, and then it was easy."
"There you go." Cal nodded back, then checked his watch. "And speaking of going, I've gotta. You keep practicing, have fun, and don't let the grump get to you." He paused a moment, then lowered his voice and said, "He really is the greatest teacher around, kidding aside. It's just that you're doing this all backwards -- usually you'd start out learning how it works, then do some beginning exercises to show you how the theory applies and how to slide into magic mode without your brain getting in the way. It's better if you understand what you're doing by the time you start shooting things, you know? You're on a tight schedule, though, and can't afford to take the lecture course first. You're going to end up practicing in a lot of bad habits you'll have to work to break later. Aubrey knows that and hates it, but he can't get around it. Try to relax, don't let him get to you, and we'll have you potting your own ogres in no time. We can back up and fill in the rest of it later."
Rory nodded again, the sudden weight of... well, everything, filling him up and pressing him down. He hadn't realized just how heavy it all was, all the worry and all the suck and all the confusion and anger and wishing it were different -- not until having some wild fun had banished it for a while.
"I will," he said. "I'll try, at least. I really appreciate him helping me out. And you too."
"No prob. You're family now." Cal gave him a big grin and a punch on the arm, then waved and went clattering down the stairs.
Rory stared into the shadowy doorway that led to the staircase and down to the rest of the house. Some of the load weighing him down had drifted away; Rory went back to shooting at the cans on strings.
==========
Rory's mother took him to psychiatrists, let them circumscribe his life, let them give him drugs, while knowing all along there was nothing wrong with him. When Rory finds out, he's angry and confused and just wants to get away for a while. His mother's betrayal plus another kidnap attempt make a visit to the father he hasn't seen in ten years seem like a great idea.
When Rory, Paul and Aubrey get to Seattle, though, it's obviously not going to be just a normal family Christmas. Someone north of San Jose tried to kidnap Rory twice before they left, and to Paul, it's too much of a coincidence that Nathan, Rory's dad, has magic talented friends. While Rory tries to reconnect with his only other family, Paul is trying to figure out whether anyone in Nathan's group is after Rory. They definitely have secrets, and at least one of them has been playing around with things he doesn't understand; the local fey are after him, and elves aren't known for caring too much about collateral damage.
And there's a master wizard in the area who's up to something big and would really like to have Rory's help....
==========
"No, focus! Visualize the bolt going from your finger to the can, like an arrow or a bullet! You have to concentrate, or it could go anywhere." Aubrey sounded annoyed, which just made Rory that much more nervous.
"I'm sorry, let me try again." Rory focused on the array of five aluminum cans dangling from strings tacked to a ceiling joist.
"And again and again, until you can do it every time. This isn't hard, you just have to find the groove." Aubrey was pacing back and forth behind Rory, which wasn't helping, but Rory was too embarrassed to say so.
He focused on the Pepsi can toward the middle of the grouping, pointed his finger and "fired." This time a stream of bright blue magic gushed out, like water from a leaky hose, and sprayed across the room. Some of it hit the Pepsi can, and the two A&W cans near it. That was something -- better than the lumpy blob he'd produced before, that had drifted in vaguely the right direction but dissipated before it got halfway to its target.
"Better, but not good enough. Again."
Rory nodded and tried again.
"Don't mind him," said a third voice. "He's just grumpy because he's forced to let you get all practical before giving you years of theory." Cal, who was lounging in a folding chair to one side, gave Rory a grin and an encouraging wave.
"Don't you have to get to work?" Aubrey's voice was sharp enough to make Rory wince, but Cal just shrugged and shook his head.
"Nope, I've got almost half an hour. Sorry, Master, you're stuck with me for a while."
"I'm sure I could find you something to do, if you're just going to hang around distracting my student."
"I'm sure you could too," Cal agreed, his voice as cheerful as ever despite the rebuke, "but I think we'd all be better off if you went down and got a drink or something, and let me hang with Rory for a while. Seriously, you're pissed off because you think you're doing this all wrong, but you know we have to do it this way, and your mood is getting to Rory. Go away, let me work with him for a little while, relax, have some successes maybe, then you can come crack the whip again."
Rory looked from one to the other, expecting some kind of blow-up, but after a good, long glare, Aubrey just threw his hands into the air with great drama and said, "Fine, you're right, this is ridiculous but we're in a rush, and the idea of rushing through lessons makes me want to bite something. See if you can teach him to hit a target with his squirt gun; come get me when you leave."
He turned around and stomped off down the stairs, leaving Rory alone with Cal.
Cal hopped up off his chair and moved over next to Rory. "There, now that the grumpy-butt is gone, let's have some fun. He thinks hard work and 'focus' is what's important, but that's just because he hasn't been a kid since, like, Shakespeare's time or something."
Rory grinned back at Cal and ducked a hand that tried to yank on his braid. "I know! I just get so nervous, I can't concentrate!"
"Well, there you go -- you're trying to concentrate. This isn't rocket science, it's like shooting rubberbands. Just do it." Cal made guns out of his hands, with his two index fingers sticking out, and said, "Pow! Pow! Pow!" as he fired off three magical shots. "See? Just do it! Go! Now! Come on, race you!"
Cal was like a bouncy five-year-old in a body that was seven inches taller than Rory's. Rory couldn't help laughing, and Cal kept nudging, bumping and poking him with one finger until Rory started firing.
"That's it, faster! Don't think, just hit the suckers! Go! There! Yes!"
This time, Rory's focus was on the cans instead of his fingers or the magic or the path through the air or any of the other variables he'd been trying to hold in his brain. Cal urged him to shoot faster and faster, joining in, turning it into a competition. Cal was shooting cans too, and the random impacts made them swing in wild arcs, strings twisting and untangling, and fresh shots knocking them off in new directions whenever Rory thought he had a bead on one of them. Misses sparked and vanished against the attic wall, absorbed by the glowing ward patterns Rory could see if he focused on his magesight, but once he got into it, fewer and fewer shots missed.
"More! Faster, faster! Go! Yes! There! Good!" Cal smacked Rory on the back, still firing with one hand. Rory elbowed him back and kept firing two-handed, hitting the cans almost every time, pung-pung-pung.
Cal stepped back out of Rory's field of vision, but Rory was having too much fun to stop and look around for him. He was actually kind of afraid to stop, afraid he'd lose whatever... whatever "groove" he'd finally found. It was like his brain was disconnected, or at least staying out of the way, and he was running on reflex.
Then another can sailed over his head in a long arc. Rory froze for a second, then fired and missed. Another one appeared and he shot it. Another, then two at once -- pung-pung!
One more, two, one, one, then three at once and Rory had to scramble to hit them all, barely getting a graze on the third.
"Hah! Good!" Cal kept cheering and tossing cans, and Rory kept shooting, like a kid playing cops-androbbers but his fingers actually fired and how cool was that? A huge grin stretched across his face and his eyes darted wildly around, tracking targets.
Rory lost track of time until finally no more cans appeared. He waited a moment, and another, then turned around and saw Cal standing there with a huge grin, shrugging with empty hands spread. "That's it, ran out of cans."
"Well, damn!" Rory laughed and looked back toward the far wall -- sure enough, there were like five hundred empty cans piled up on the floor. "Can we do it again? Just turn everything around and throw them the other way?"
"You'll have to ask Master Grumpy-Pants about that," Cal said with an exaggerated sigh of disappointment. "I have to head off to work, make sure the crew doesn't burn the place down or something."
Rory pouted at him, but couldn't maintain it for more than a second. He laughed, then bounced over to Cal and hugged him. "Thanks! That was genius, and fun, and we'll have to do it again!"
Cal hugged him back and gave him a big, smacking kiss on the forehead. "Just had to get you out of your head. You can't pay attention or you'll screw yourself up -- it has to be reflex."
Rory nodded. "That's exactly it! It's like something just clicked, and then it was easy."
"There you go." Cal nodded back, then checked his watch. "And speaking of going, I've gotta. You keep practicing, have fun, and don't let the grump get to you." He paused a moment, then lowered his voice and said, "He really is the greatest teacher around, kidding aside. It's just that you're doing this all backwards -- usually you'd start out learning how it works, then do some beginning exercises to show you how the theory applies and how to slide into magic mode without your brain getting in the way. It's better if you understand what you're doing by the time you start shooting things, you know? You're on a tight schedule, though, and can't afford to take the lecture course first. You're going to end up practicing in a lot of bad habits you'll have to work to break later. Aubrey knows that and hates it, but he can't get around it. Try to relax, don't let him get to you, and we'll have you potting your own ogres in no time. We can back up and fill in the rest of it later."
Rory nodded again, the sudden weight of... well, everything, filling him up and pressing him down. He hadn't realized just how heavy it all was, all the worry and all the suck and all the confusion and anger and wishing it were different -- not until having some wild fun had banished it for a while.
"I will," he said. "I'll try, at least. I really appreciate him helping me out. And you too."
"No prob. You're family now." Cal gave him a big grin and a punch on the arm, then waved and went clattering down the stairs.
Rory stared into the shadowy doorway that led to the staircase and down to the rest of the house. Some of the load weighing him down had drifted away; Rory went back to shooting at the cans on strings.