Steven Granger

"And Los Angeles is a Magic City," I nodded.

"Your friend, Jaci Stone? She has blessed the whole of the city with...flowers and greenery. The whole city was alive with psychic energy! We were given permission to bring some of her blessings back to your house."

"Our house, Tima," I corrected. "This house is for us and our children."

"Sorry," Tima blushed. "In any case, we need to record our experiences, for the future magicians to see."

"Starr and Pete have told me that they would get me a 'Library Pass," I said.

"But where is it?" Sonia asked. "I have heard the same thing, but never a location."

"Well, if I were a magician, which I am, and I wanted to put a public repository of information, say a library," I began.

"It is probably situated somewhere near the largest mortal library in the city," Rama beamed.

***

While the motives for us going to Los Angeles weren't clear, I gladly folded the nine of us to the condo which had been purchased on my behalf. An internet search revealed that we were over ten kilometers from the main branch of the library of the city, but nobody wanted to call for a ride.

The streets were, for the most part, interesting. While there was all sorts of gangland tags along our path, we didn't seem to feel that we were in danger. Had Hollywood been lying to us, was LA an actual City of Angels, put in a bad light on a silver screen?

A woman popped into existence beside me. "Mother did that," she said.

"You're one of Jaci's daughters," I pointed out.

"I'm Grace," she stopped and offered her hand. "Grace Stone."

"Steven Granger," I shook her hand.

"You, Steven," Grace turned to face Sonia, "And you, Sonia, have a great love."

"Hello?" Uma asked from behind us.

"You didn't let me finish," Grace scolded. "Along with your...what did Aysun say...playful? You have a perfect love. Some of the old books say that seven is a perfect number, but I know that it is not. Nine is a number that fits into a circle, not seven."

"With a remainder of forty," Sonia said.

Grace gave us a sly smile. "Do some more math, Missus Granger. Look at, I don't know...eights?" Then she was gone.

"Let's keep walking," I said.

After three more blocks, Sonia grabbed ahold of my hand. "You know something, don't you?"

I sighed. "When birotor sets are introduced into a winding system, they do so in sets of eight. You have a 'lead' or 'master' birotor, and the computer tries to sync the number eight shaft to the rest of the number eight birotors in the line."

"Okay?" Sonia half-asked.

"What do you get when you divide eight into three hundred sixty?" I asked.

"Forty-five. What?"

"Take nine out of your equation. What is eight into three hundred sixty?"

Sonia went into deep thought. "Forty-five."

"For argument's sake, I have a winding line. This huge line is three hundred sixty winders long. I have eight shafts synchronized per controller, forty-five controllers."

"Okay, so eight times forty-five equals...three hundred sixty. And?"

"Say you have forty-five playfuls." I offered. I heard Rama gasp. "Pixies in groups of seven, but looking for the eighth to guide them."

"And?" Sonia wrinkled her brow.

"So you are the eighth member of each playful, Sonia. All forty-five of them."

"No, that's not possible..."

"Sonia, I am at the center with you. The center of forty-five playfuls. Of course, that is just my experience dealing with winding systems; real life, not magical life."

The thought was just too much for me, so I kept walking. Sonia's hand in mine was enough to keep me stable through the walk to the library. "That's just not possible," Sonia finally said.

"There are how many people on earth? Nine billion, with a 'b?'" I asked

"Steven, there isn't any logic as to what you are saying."

"What did Shemar say to us? That there are how many pixies in LA at any given time?" I asked.

"Over five hundred," Sonia answered in a whisper.

"Now shut up," I ordered.

We reached the main branch of the LA mortal library, Sonia immediately drawn to something I could see if I squinted at it. "It's a box," she announced. Taking my hand, she pulled me into what seemed like a solid granite wall, to a simple librarian's desk. "Hi," Sonia said.

"Hello," the Librarian said. "The Clan Granger?"

"Sanderson?" I offered.

"The Sanderson Clan has its own library card," the woman said. "You are the Clan Granger?"

Rama and the rest of our playful appeared behind Sonia and I. "I suppose that we are, ma'am," I acknowledged. I offered my hand to her. "Steven Granger."

She took my hand, it was warm and made me feel warm. "My name is Warm, Mister Granger."

"Thanks?" I asked.

"Certainly," Warm chuckled. "Feel free to wander, Clan Granger. The Library will protect you from what you do not understand."

Rama and the rest of my playful bounded into the 'stacks,' touching books at random. I didn't appreciate the gravity of the situation until Sonia pulled free from me. "I'll be back," she promised before she wandered off.

"You're a wizard," Warm said.

"A term often afforded me," I shrugged.

"You have a family. For some reason you think that there is something here you can use to protect them."

"Warm, I was told that this was a library of magic. If there wasn't something here, a spell or warding, to help me pursue the protection of my wife, playful, and children? I would be sorely disappointed."

She turned to her right and pointed. "Down those stacks to the staircase. Don't stop at the Red Level, go to the White Level."

"Thank you," I nodded.

"Steven, thank you," Warm nodded.

The way seemed clear, down a row of shelves to what looked like an iron circular staircase. I felt mezmerised, following that path; then again, blindly following Lisa that very first day had felt the same way.

I reached the White Level and wandered into the shelves. I was surprised by the amount of shelves and books. Was there really that many different spells that could be cast? One book presented itself, red text along a grey binder instead of black text along a white binder.

Goddess, the contents of the book were simple but amazing. Assuming that a person had a near infinite amount of gold, which I did, every spell in the book could be cast to protect my family. Once I read into the spells, their depth, it seemed like most of them were already protecting my family in the way of technology. When I saw the differences on a delay; no single spell was infallible. While the protection spells worked for stationary objects, the language of the spells changed for a person or object in motion.

This was obviously a weakness, but why had the spell itself been written in such a manner? To protect a person within a simple boundary, say a square kilometer, would require two grams of gold to cast and would last years. That protection spell would require much more, ten grams to cast on that same person in a different location two thousand kilometers away.

"Well, shit," I muttered. Of course, the spells that Charity had cast on me had cost a great deal of real-world money. She had asked for one hundred grams of gold in return, which meant that her spell had cost almost four thousand dollars. I would get that sent to her, wherever she was, as soon as fucking possible. Having never dealt with those numbers before, I had never known what sacrifice she had made for me.

Other books called for my attention, but they told me nothing more than the first: Protection cost money, in the magic world as well as the real world. I could handle both, but what about those who couldn't? Another book, a book I had passed by before, provided the answer. It took thousands of words to tell me that I could not protect mortals from real-world events, just like gaia couldn't protect the real world from plagues and wars.

"Did you think she was lying to you, gaia?" Warm asked when I returned to the desk.

"I don't know," I finally admitted. "It just seems wrong, people having to suffer."

"Mortals have to suffer to excel," Warm said. "Gaia told you that, remember?"

"She did, but I don't see it," I admitted.

"That was the whole point of this exercise," Warm smiled. "You came here to tell your story as well?"

"What's suitable for children," I answered. "I'm guessing there are writing rooms somewhere around?"

"That way," she pointed to a hallway behind me. "Your wife is in the first room on the right."

"My thanks," I nodded.

Sonia was lounging in a very comfortable-looking chair, reading an oversized book. "Are you finding everything you need?" She asked.

"More questions than answers," I admitted. "I came to write our story, for the generations to come."

"I'll help," Sonia put the book down on the table beside her chair.

"Are there writing rooms here?" I asked.

"Having not been in any library before, you don't know the manual," Sonia teased. "Ask for the table and paper, and they will come."

All of a sudden, a table, chair, paper and pen were in the room. "Shit!"

"Start at the beginning," Sonia prompted. "All the way back when you met my sister. When you were lost."

I put my pen to the paper. Being lost in a small town is different than being lost in a large city...