Building Magic

She’s crying again. My human does that a lot these days, but I have yet to truly figure out what has been causing it. She usually starts after staring at the small glowing box she’s always holding. Sometimes, she holds it for several hours when the tears suddenly appear. Sometimes, she picks it up for only a few minutes. I can’t imagine what is in such a small box that would be this awful. I personally love boxes and have never found something in one that made me sad.

Glancing at my brother, I find that he’s oblivious as ever. Lying on his back. Snoring inconsistently. Splayed out. Belly completely exposed for any predator to eviscerate him.

I contemplate doing just that before simply slapping him in the face with my tail. He grunts in surprise, but I’ve already jumped to the floor when he looks around. He’s an idiot, and I loathe the fact that I am related to him.

I slip passed my human, rubbing my body against her legs. She doesn’t react, still consumed by the glowing box and pulling at her hair. One day, she would be bald, and it would be her own fault.

Before I could reach my food bowl, a sob filled the room, followed by another and another and another. Yes, my human cried a lot, but she rarely made sound outside her sniffling. Even when she did, it was usually her choking on words as she spoke to the box.

It was completely ridiculous. What was there to cry about? They always had food and water. There were tons of soft places to nap or bask in the sun. There were even softer blankets to knead and suckle on. The toy situation was abysmal, but it was made up for by all the things I could dig my nails into. Truly, we were living a charmed life.

I waited several moments to see if she calmed down, but it only seemed to get worse. With a roll of my eyes, I turned back and jumped up onto the couch. Padding over to her, I butted my head against the hand holding the glowing box and meowed at her.

Surprisingly, her eyes actually flicked down to me. Brown eyes filled with tears looked back. With each blink, another tear fell but was immediately replaced. Trembling lips appeared as she dropped her hand to stroke my head and scratch at my chin.

I purred contentedly, pushing against her hand so insistently that I somersaulted when she removed her hand. While surprised, I didn’t let that stop me. I stood, but immediately flopped down across her lap. My purr was quiet, but I knew how powerful it was. It vibrated through my body, sending out waves of healing. I was magical, she had told me so over and over again, especially when she was borrowing my power for her own craft.

Our connection was one of push and pull. She pulled power from me when performing her magic. Rituals, celebrations, prayers. Even when she simply lit a candle for her goddess. In return, she channeled the natural magic of the earth into me, though I wasn’t sure she actually knew that. Humans really enjoyed messing with things they didn’t completely understand.

She understood better than others, though. Better than the individuals who visited on full moons. Better than the individuals who brought boxes that smelled of cheese and tomatoes. Better than the man she cuddled with night after night.

Her hands ran over my meticulously groomed fur, tears dropping onto me over and over again. Eventually, she lifted her head and called to my brother.

His head popped up, and he immediately came over to us. I glared at him as he sniffed at my head, considering pushing me off my human’s lap. He was larger than me, but I wouldn’t hesitate to bite him. In an uncharacteristic display of wisdom, he jumped to my human’s other side and curled up against her hip. She didn’t let him stay there for long, bundling him into her arms and pressing her face into his soft belly.

I flopped my head back down, going limp across her lap. We stayed there for a long time, my human’s crying muffled by my brother’s belly, our purrs resonating in her body. I slipped into a nap, only vaguely aware of the sounds around me. My sleep was disturbed by a sudden movement.

My human set my brother down, ignoring how he immediately pushed against her hands again, and moved me from her lap. When she stood, determination covered her face despite it being red and blotchy, nose runny, and with fur stuck to her cheeks. There was a light flickering in her eyes like the lightning that sometimes cracks across the sky. And just like that lightning, I had not seen that look in her eyes for a very long time.

I followed her off the couch, sitting behind her as she picked through all the little bits and bobs she hoarded for her craft. She pulled out crystals, candles, and even a bottle of thick scented liquid. She paused in the middle of tugging out the box that housed her scrying mirror and hurried over to her bookshelf. Pulling off one book, then another and another, the stack in her arms grew quickly. When her arms strained and muscles began to visibly tremble, she dropped the stack on the coffee table. Immediately, she had to scramble to catch the stack as it began to tilt.

She was pulling power from me already, the draw almost a physical sensation in my chest. I continued to purr, the happiness at seeing her passionate and returning to the craft she hadn’t touched in months was overwhelming. She was radiant, a halo of energy surrounding her. Around her began to gather a familiar group of incorporeal people. Her spirit guides or spirit team, I think she had called them once. I didn’t really care what they were called, just that they hadn’t been around a lot recently.

Seeing them here now, gathering close like they hadn’t left her alone all this time, kind of pissed me off. But they were helping her find what she was looking for, whispering in her ear and focusing her energy, so I gave them a pass. Only for today, though. As soon as my human was sorted out again, I was going to introduce them to the business end of my claws.

My human flipped rapidly through books and flitted around the room. The room was beginning to dim by the time she seemed satisfied. Her bun had come loose, leaving her hair to trail down her back, and her cheeks were flushed with exertion rather than from tears. I meowed up at her as she pushed her bangs off her forehead, and I stretched up to place my paws on her upper thigh.

Her eyes dropped to me. She ran a hand over my head and scratched behind my ears. Her eyes were luminous with all the power she held in her body. Her smile was so wide that it crinkled her eyes. “It’s time for things to change. We’re going to make that happen.”

I believed her. I had watched her do it before. With the magic we built together, she could do anything she set her mind to.