The day prior, Sorrel taught them the difference between spells and charms. And today, she continued delving deeper into the subject.
"So let us learn more about the types of magic. By now, we all know about spells and charms, which I have talked about yesterday, but there are two more very important types of magic - blessings and curses. These are more difficult to describe, as they are very different from spells and charms."
She knocked on the blackboard and two drawings appeared on it - a stick figure and a flower.
"As you may already know, blessings and curses come from wishes directed toward another existence. A blessing means a good wish, and a curse is the opposite. If a person blesses another with, for example, health, then that wish travels to the recipient."
While Sorrel was talking, the text «may you be healthy» appeared above the stick figure, then an arrow appeared, connecting the wish to the flower.
"However, this doesn’t end here," she continued. "After the wish travels to the recipient, it duplicates and the duplicate bounces back to the giver. That is a blessing."
Another arrow appeared on the blackboard coming from the flower toward the stick figure. Then Sorrel turned away from the blackboard and faced the students.
"That’s the definition, but that's not the end of the story," she stated. "A blessing can be almost anything, a note on a piece of paper, a sentence carved in a stone, a spoken sequence of words, or even a thought. The power of a blessing is dependent on the strength of one’s feelings, so the more you mean it, the more powerful the blessing becomes."
She took a deep breath, before she added, "however, there’s one more thing, which people often don’t know. A blessing doesn’t always arrive at the recipient. If the recipient possesses a very impure soul and is unworthy of the blessing, then the blessing returns to the giver without ever reaching the intended recipient."
Sorrel explained all of that, while facing the classroom, but afterward she once again turned toward the blackboard. With a snap of her fingers, she erased the drawings and the text.
"The process is the same with blessings as it is with curses," she said, then two stick figures appeared on the blackboard. One was labelled «Salt», and the other was labelled «Pepper».
"So," Sorrel pointed at the stick figure on the left. The text «I hope that sir Pepper dies» appeared above the stick figure, then Sorrel continued her explanation.
"If sir Salt thinks something like this, then that thought becomes a curse, and the power of the curse depends on how strong are the feelings of sir Salt."
An arrow appeared from the text bubble to the stick figure named Pepper. Then another arrow appeared from sir Pepper to sir Salt.
"But just like with blessings, the curses also return back to the giver," the teacheress asserted. "Thus if you curse someone, who has a very pure soul and doesn’t deserve the curse, the curse will bounce back at the giver without harming the recipient."
The arrow, which pointed at sir Pepper, made a U-turn, and now it pointed at sir Salt.
Sorrel sighed. "People of pure souls rarely curse others. The givers of curses tend to have much, much more impure souls than those around them, which is why most curses return back to the givers, without ever harming the recipient."
Yew listened attentively, as did many other students in his class. Ever since he was born, his family always blessed him at almost any occasion. Yet he knew nothing about blessings. Just like other kids in the class, he had thought of blessings as an annoying tradition, until this very moment, when he learned that blessings were magical, and carried amazing powers.
"Do you have any questions?" Sorrel asked. No one answered, so she moved on. "Before we start the next topic, please record in your notebooks, that magic is divided into four types: spells, charms, blessings, and curses. I don’t want you to forget about it. And I don't want you to confuse it with what I'm about to tell you."
She gave the students several minutes to take notes. Then she tapped the blackboard, which became empty. With another tap, two words appeared on the blackboard: «Incantation» and «Chant».
"So, an incantation," she started. "To an uneducated human, it may appear magic-like, but it is not magic. An incantation comes from words. Most of you have heard the legend of creation, and you know that the world was created from words. This legend has some basis in reality. Spoken words, no matter what kind, carry a special power within them. But that power isn’t magic. The laws of magic and the laws of words are very different."
She stopped speaking for a moment, then apologized, "I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be talking about the laws of magic. That’s something you’ll learn in later years, so I apologize if it confused you. Anyway, if you see anything supernatural happening after you hear a voice, that will be either an incantation or a chant. NEVER magic," she stressed the negation. "I want you to remember this: magic doesn't use words."
One kid in the class raised a hand.
"Yes?" She encouraged the boy to speak.
"What about magical items?" he asked her.
"Good question," she acknowledged. "Certain magical items use words to unlock the magic inside them. However, the words are used like a key to unlock a door to a room full of magic. The magic itself works in silence. Are there any more questions?" She waited a moment before she returned to her lecture.
"An incantation occurs when the right sounds are put together in the right order. This is something, which we, humans, cannot do. We have fairly limited hearing and speaking abilities. For these reasons, humans have almost a hundred percent chance of saying it wrong, even if theoretically we could use a simple incantation."
She tapped the blackboard, and under the word «Incantation» a list of beings appeared, «Spirits, Fairies, Angels». The students saw the list and some of them wrote it down in their notebooks.
"There are more beings, who can use incantations, but these three are the ones, who are most known for it. In our world, there are millions of vowels, millions of consonants, millions of tones, and millions of other sounds, which can be a part of speech. And we, humans, cannot even distinguish between most of them. That’s precisely why we fail when we try to use incantations."
Sorrel pointed at the list on the blackboard. "But some other beings, such as these, can tell apart even the most minor differences between two sounds. They can control with the finest precision every sound they utter, which is why they can use incantations."
She walked up to the other side of the blackboard. "On the other hand, when it comes to words, humans have chants."
The students followed her with their eyes, eagerly awaiting what kind of awesome power humans can do with words.
"I’m sure all of you have been to a temple at least once, and saw monks and nuns chanting. Chants can be spoken, but they can also be sung. The form doesn’t matter here, but the content does. Chants are holy words. The words are from our language, so we can understand those words. However, chants are weaved not by humans, but by spirits."
Sorrel smiled with warmth at the students.
"I can see that you look very disappointed, but chants have a very important role. They guard us against evil. In ancient times, when no one chanted, the world was full of evil. People murdered each other, and horrible acts were committed. Those sorts of terrifying things should have never happened."
She looked at the scenery behind the window, recalling something in her memory. Her eyes appeared distant, as if she was looking far beyond. The students waited to hear more about the topic, but she never shared with them anything else, and the class slowly neared its endtime.
Sorrel looked at the clock above the door, and realized that she needed to wrap up the lesson. Just as she was about to address the class, a student raised his hand. She encouraged him to speak by beckoning with her left hand.
"Can witches use magic?" the boy asked.
His classmates looked at him. Most of them were smirking anticipating his fall, while several openly snorted at the foolish question.
"Witches don’t exist," someone murmured behind the boy.
Sorrel heard the comment. "Well, it’s true that nowadays there are no witches except in fairytales and old legends, but they used to exist in the past. However, witches never used magic."
The students, who were ready to make fun of the boy, got dead quiet.
"To be precise," Sorrel spoke on, "witches cannot use magic. Only humans can use magic. The power used by witches is called witchcraft, and it is more similar to possession than anything else."
"Possession?" Yew was baffled by the terminology, and he repeated it aloud without realizing.
Sorrel nodded at him, and he looked away, embarrassed at his actions and at the attention he got from his impromptu question.
Sorrel addressed the whole class, "this is not part of the school curriculum, and we don’t teach here anything about witchcraft or possession, but I don’t want you to leave this classroom misinformed, so I’ll explain."
With a gentle sway of her hand, she summoned her chair, which smoothly floated toward her and landed right underneath her palm. She comfortably sat on it with one leg over the other, and her fingers resting on her knees.
"A long time ago, there were demons and witches in this world. Demons had the power of possession, and witches had the power of witchcraft. On the outside, these powers may have looked similar to magic, but they were nothing like magic."
She held up her index finger. "Firstly, possession required demons to inhabit an object. Demons, like ghosts, are spirits. They don't have a physical body, but are able to inhabit one. So, if a demon wanted to move a pen, he'd have to possess it first. If he was successful, he could gain absolute control over the pen."
She added her middle finger. "Secondly, the laws of possession are very, very different from the laws of magic. In a nutshell, magic has a lot more limits than possession. For example, a demon possessing a person can move that person's body however it wants, but magic cannot move someone's body, if it's against the will of that person."
She raised up her ring finger in order to match the count. "Thirdly, magic is based on stamina, so it becomes weaker over time. However it’s the opposite with possession. The longer the possession lasts, the more powerful it becomes."
Finally, she stretched out her pinky, leaving only her thumb bent. "And fourthly, possession damages the possessed, and often this damage is permanent. This is very different from magic, which is always reversible, and naturally dissipates over time."
She looked at the class as she felt the dread of the boys in the air. Suddenly aware of how terrifying the topic must be for her students, she made her voice sweeter.
"I really don’t want you to feel scared though. Demons existed in ancient times, and so did witches. Neither one exists anymore."
Upon the assurance, all the boys relaxed.
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