The Paper Magician 1
Charlie N. Holmberg
1. Ceony has been going to school to learn about magic. She wants to become a smelter and work with metal, but since there are not many people that choose to become a paper folding magician, that is what she is assigned to. Mg. Aviosky escorts her Mg. Thames’s home where Ceony will learn her new craft. She is disgusted by not being able to follow her dreams, but she knows this is her only option if she wants to continue to be able to use magic. Mg. Thane gives her a tour and shows her the plain, empty bedroom where she will live. Next, she is bonded to paper until she dies, which means she can’t use any other type of magic
2. Mg. Aviosky gives Ceony a red apron and black top hat, the “garb of an apprentice,” before leaving. While Thane is walking Aviosky out, he tells Ceony to feel the paper from the bonding and she notices it feels different than before. While the magicians are talking, Ceony goes into Thane’s clutters study. He finds her there and suggests he show her a bit of folding to prove to her it isn’t as dull as it seems. As they are leaving the room, she finds the letter she sent to the anonymous donor that paid for her education at Tagis Praff. She asks him about it, but he is not willing to say much except he did not request her to be his apprentice. He takes her to another room and starts folding paper into animals and animating them. He says his servant Jonto uses the same concept on a much larger scale. He has her read a children’s book until she can create the animation in the air. He has paper snowflakes fall from the air and they make the room cold. Lastly, he folds a fortune-teller and uses it to tell her she’s about to have an adventure. She uses it next and sees a woman. She asks him who Lira is, but he isn’t willing to talk about it. He tells her to practice with the book and the fortune teller.
3. Ceony takes on of the paper snowflakes to study later. She goes to her room and unpacks her things from her suitcase. She has the collar from her dog, Bizzy, that she had to leave with her mom because of Thane’s allergies. He gives her more books and tells her they will be an important part of her education. When he leaves, she starts studying them. She wakes up in the middle of the night and is hungry. She goes to the kitchen and gets a bowl of rice from the stove and hears Thane is still up. She sees him in his study, but his back is turned and she can’t see what he is working on. She quietly goes back to bed. While Ceony is making breakfast, a small paper dog comes up to her. She is surprised at how solid it feels. Thane says the paper dog will have to do for now. She thanks him and names the dog Fennel after the food she spilled when she met him. After breakfast, he teaches her the first two folds. His mind seems to be far away and Ceony tells him she will be alright if he has other things to do. He leaves her and she practices the folds with Fennel sleeping in her lap. She makes chicken and pasta for dinner and he is impressed with her cooking. She asks about a stipend he reveals the school board decides on it (10 pounds/week) plus anything he decides to pay her. She is excited it is enough to send some money home to her family. They continue to talk over dinner and he decides her first quiz will be in the morning.
4. Lessons start with folding and cutting. Thane shows Ceony how to make a snowflake and the necessary cut to make it cold. He notes the decorative cuts don’t require any specific pattern. Ceony offers to do the grocery shopping knowing it is a chore he doesn’t like. He gives her money and calls a buggy for her to do so. In her second week, he starts teaching her about animation. He prefolds the paper for Ceony to make a frog. She is confident she can do it on her own, but follows his instructions. The pre-folded paper results in a sluggish frog. Thane has her practice the frog and will move her on to a new creature the next day. He is impressed with how quickly she learns, especially knowing she wanted to be a smelter. She is surprised he knows that about her. He reminds her of her readings. Her quiz is that she has to create a frog that can beat Thane’s in a race. While she is working on one, a telegraph comes in saying “found in solihull.” Ceony asks what was found, but Thane is preoccupied with the message. He leaves the room and when he returns, he shows Ceony how to fold a fan that can produce unnatural wind. He gives her additial reading assignments and tells her to take notes. He will be gone a few days and she is shocked he is leaving her alone. She asks if everything is alright. He tells her it is, but also to keep the doors locked.
5. Ceony is shocked at being left alone and goes through some of the papers in Thane’s study. She notices there isn’t any correspondence from family members, but a letter from a high ranking man, Albert Hughes. She goes about her studies for the rest of the day. The next day, her teacher still hasn’t returned and she finds herself worrying about him. She decides to do laundry and goes into Thane’s room to get his dirty clothes as well. This time, she does not snoop around. The next day, Ceony is putting Thane’s clothes on his bed when she notices a bookshelf. She reads the titles and finds it odd he has a hymnal. While flipping through it, she notices “Thanes” is engraved on the cover and ther are a few flowers in the pages. She puts everything back and leaves the room. A few days later, Thane wakes Ceony up to tell her that are starting lessons early. He thanks her for doing his laundry and leaves her to get ready. While teaching her how to make a paper boat, Ceony notices a bandage on one of Thane’s arms and asks him about it. He says he walked into something, but she doesn’t believe him. He suggests they go down to the river to test the boats, but Ceony is afraid of water and asks to use the tub instead. She has trouble concentrating. She makes dinner and Thane joins her. Before they can start eating, a woman name Lira shows up. She uses a red liquid to throw Ceony against the table, knocking the dishes to the ground. It takes Ceony a moment to come to and notices she is covered in blood that sinks her own. Lira is a Excisioner (forbidden magic using flesh). Lira has Thane against the wall and pulls a beating heart from his chest. Lira says she is taking him with her and uses more blood to leave. Ceony starts to make her way over to Thane as he slumps to the floor
6. The hole in Thane’s chest is starting to close. She rushes around to get paper to create a replacement heart. She doesn’t know how to make one, but she does her best and gets it in before the hole closes completely. She calls Mg. Aviosky for help. Thane comes to and tells her to get a chain from the library. She finds two and brings them both to Thane. He chooses one and tells her it is a vitality chain, which will help the poorly made heart last a bit longer. She does all she can to make him comfortable. Mg. Aviosky, Alfred Hughes (super), and John Katter (smelter) arrive. Aviosky reassures Ceony she did not cause this to happen through the fortune telling paper. Despite her protests, Ceony is taken to her room to get some rest. She sneaks back downstairs to listen to the three magicians discuss the situation. There were wards in place on the house that should have kept any excisioners out. Another hunter (like Thane) named Karl Tode was killed the previous morning. They believe there is a reason it was Lira and she has a purpose behind what she is doing, maybe a personal vendetta because of their history. The magicians cannot go after Lira and will have to take the information to the cabinet. Though this might give Lira the time she needs to escape, they cannot blindly charge after an excisioner. There isn’t much they can do for Thane except keep him comfortable. Ceony cannot accept that. She creates 5 paper birds and then writes out a narrative about Lira. She brings the birds to life and uses the narrative to show the birds who they need to look for. She lets them out the window. She packs up her bag and tries to get some sleep. The next morning, a green paper bird returns. She sneaks down to the kitchen and packs two says worth of food while trying not to wake Aviosky. She decides to see what “big spells” are on the third floor and finds a large paper airplane and unfinished bird. She repairs the green birds wing with glue and gets herself set to fly the glider after it to Lira. Fennel joins her and they take off.
7. Ceony marvels at the view as she flies over the city. She follows the bird to the coast and lands the plane on top of the cliffs. She tells the plane and the bird to “cease” and hopes they will stay dry. She finds a cliff that is not too steep for her to climb down and makes her way to the rocky shore. She tries to keep herself between Fennel and the water that sprays against the rocks. They find a cave and Ceony goes in. Towards the back, she finds Thane’s heart in a pool of blood. Lira appears at the mouth of the cave. She pulls a vial of blood from her belt and starts chanting. Ceony shoots her in the heart, but Lira heals herself with the spell she had already started. Ceony is out of bullets. Lira is pleased with herself for getting Thane’s heart and apprentice.
8. Waking up in a strange room, Ceony tries to figure out where she is. She recognizes the form from biology class when she had to dissect a frog. She is inside Thane’s heart. Lira appears and tell her the heart trap was the best way to catch her. Suddenly, Ceony finds herself on a bee farm with children run in around. The farmer asks Emery to hand him a spoon and Ceony realizes it is Thane as a child. She wonders why Thane told her he was an only child. She see a girl on a tire swing. When she sees it is Lira, she starts running. She is them in a large theater with people applauding. Thane receives the plaque noting he is officially a magician. Ceony goes through a door and finds Thane helping a woman birth her son. She then sees him finish writing a book. She realizes she is in the warmest part of his heart and seeing his memories. She wonders if going through all four chambers of the heart will set her free. She continues on and sees Thane marrying Lira. In the next scene, Thane is working on creating his paper butler, Jonto, while teaching his apprentice, Langston. She finds herself wondering if the he is the apprentice that didn’t make it through to becoming a magician. She keeps going and finds herself in Draper’s Hall. She recognizes the even as her last job. She watches herself pour wine over a man that fondled her lug under her skirt not realizing it was the man, Mueller, that had awarded her the scholarship she needed to attend Tagis Praff. Thane laughs at the ordeal. There is a second Thane behind the first one that says Mueller deserved it. Ceony doesn’t know if the second Thane can hear her. He explains he found out who she was and gave her the scholarship because he doesn’t like Mueller and his corrupt ways. The second Thane vanishes as Lira starts looking for Ceony in the crowd. Ceony takes off through a door and finds herself out of the visions and back in the heart chamber. He has Fennel fold up into her bag and wades through the blood to get to a door made of flesh and veins hat leads to the second chamber.
9. The valve squeezes Ceony tightly until a river of blood pushes her through to the second chamber. She doesn’t have much time before the chamber starts to fill up with blood and she begs not to be drowned. She suddenly finds herself in a library with color coated books on the shelf. She finds one about basic chains and teaches herself how to make a shield chain. She also makes a fan and hopes Thane was right about how powerful of a gust of wind she would be able to generate with it. The scene starts to change and she is on the stage at Albert Hall where there are thunderous applause. She is an active participant in a scene where is attending the ceremony to celebrate completing her apprenticeship. It fades into a prison where Lira is a prisoner in one of the cells. Another Excisioner names Grath Cobalt is in the next cell. Ceony realizes she is seeing Thane’a hopes. The real Lira appears and wants to kill Ceony because she doesn’t want to share Thane. She sends hands after Ceony and one gets wrapped around the young girl’s throat. He protection chain isn’t working and she has to use her paper animals and Dan to fend off the rest of the attacks. As the scene changes again, Fennel helps free Ceony’s neck of the hand choking her. Lira did not follow them into the new vision. She finds the mistake on her protection chain and fixes it. Ceony sees Thane with a woman and two children. She realizes he wants a family. She promises Thane he will have that future before she moves on.
10. Ceony finds herself in The town square of London. She sees an archway and makes her way to it. Suddenly, she is instead near a church. She makes a paper bird and tells it to tap on the window if Lira gets close. She goes inside and goes upstairs. She finds Thane looking over the balcony at the congregation. He says he envy’s their faith because it must make life easier. Ceony asks him for help, but he doesn’t respond. She asks him what he means and he tells her they having one thing you believe in makes it simpler than trying to figure out what to believe in. She says she pulled pieces of different beliefs to find something that worked for her. She starts heading down the stairs and a door appears. She pushes to go through it and folds up Fennel. She has to go through another valve to the next chamber of his heart. The paper chain she made makes the valve open around her and blood flushed through almost drowning her. Ceony is able to pull herself through and finds herself in a dark office. Thane rushes at her and throws her back with a scowl.
11. Ceony is able to step out of the way and watch the scene play out between Thane and Lira. He accuses her of being away with Garth Cobalt for 3 days. People will be suspicious of her because of a death that occurred. Ceony leaves the office and finds herself at Thane’s parent’s funeral. Thank is only about 3 years old and she wants to comfort him. Her hand passes through him and she asks Thane to let her help him. She is able to hold him for a bit in the rain. She has to move on before Fennel gets soaked and ruined. Next she watches Thane and Mg. Hughes discuss the fate of Thane’s apprentice he hasn’t had enough time to work with due to his suspicions of his wife being an Exisioner. Hughes says he can put him in contact with someone that can help rid the country of the dark magic. Suddenly, Ceony is at Granger Academy, her secondary school. She watches Thane bully a kid named Prit for practicing folding. Ceony is transported to Thane’s office in his house where he is signing divorce papers. Lira shows up asking him for help. When the police come to get her, he tells them he hasn’t seen her. Ceony cries as the couple kisses knowing her life would have been very different if Thane had handed his wife Over to the police. She looks for the entrance to the last chamber of his heart, but the third one still has more to show her.
12. Ceony finds herself in a city she has beer been to before. She tries to run, but ends up falling and hurting herself. She sees a paper plane go to a policeman and he reads a note from Thane saying he will meet them in the meat factory. Ceony goes to find Thane and follows him in. When she gets to the room with human bodies mutilated all over, she throws up. Thane is blaming himself for not turning in Lira earlier. The real Lira appears and tries to attack Ceony with boiling blood. The paper chain protects her. A door appears and Ceony rushes through it. She finds herself back in Thane’s office.
13. This time, Thane has a hold of her. She tells him she is trying to help him. He tells her to stop. He reminds her of the dead bodies and says they are all his fault. Ceony reminds him he didn’t kill those people and he tried to save them. She tells him everyone makes mistakes that need to be let go eventually. She tells him about how she left her sister out in the could and she got sick and almost died because of it. She had stolen money a man dropped. She showed up late to meet her best friend and found her dead with her wrists slit. He tears apart Fennel’s head and grabs Ceony by the hair. Lira’s voice tells her he cannot hurt his true love within his own heart. He doesn’t love her. But Ceony believes he will. She tells Thane she forgives him. He doesn’t want her forgiveness so she tells him to forgive himself. She tells him to let her go so she can help him. She finds herself in the heart chamber and quickly mourns Fennel before deciding she has to keep moving on.
14. Ceony forced herself through the valve into the last chamber. She is once again able to interact with the Thane there and she quickly realizes it is his doubts. There is a canyon slowly being filled. Thane realizes he is dying and can’t stop Lira. He fixes Fennel. Ceony knows he can break the spell because it is his heart. He admits he thinks he can, but it will make him tired. Ceony doesn’t know enough magic to be able to fight off Lira. Thane asks her why she is doing all of this for him. She tells him she is falling in love with him. He agrees to teach her a few more spells. One he wants her to forget if she survives the ordeal. She agrees to this and he starts showing her with what is left of her paper.
15. With a bag full of folded papers for spells, Ceony prepared herself to leave. Thane disappears and the world starts to shake around her. She finds herself back in the cave and Lira joins her shortly after. Ceony uses her paper stars to get out of the cave so Their spells don’t destroy Thane’s heart. Lira is able to break her shield chain and then use blood to soak most of her papers. Lira gets a bloody hand on Ceony, which can allow a lira to use a spell that will kill Ceony. Ceony is able to use the spell that vibrates paper really fast. She gets to Lira’s knife and slashes at her face. Lira has trouble speaking. Ceony is out of spells, but has a blank piece of paper. She writes “Lira froze” on it in blood and reads it out loud. Lira is unable to love. Ceony adds “and never moved again.” She tosses the paper into the sea. Two men in a boat are approaching, so Ceony knows she had to get out of there. She takes apart pieces of Fennel to make a vitality chain large enough for Thane’s heart and the. Takes it to the large paper airplane. She takes off back toward’s Thane’s house.
16. The glider goes through the open window and lands in the attic almost on its own. Ceony stumbles down two flights of stairs to Mg. Aviosky and Thane’s body. The paper heart is still beating. She replaces it with his real heart and the opening closes up fast. Ceony tells Mg. Aviosky to call a doctor before she goes to bed. When Ceony wakes up, the doctor checks her out and gives her a clean bill of health. She asks about Thane and the doctor confirms he also seems fine. He tells her to call him if Thane acts strange. After the doctor leaves, Aviosky asks her what happened. Ceony says she took the glider, but Lira fled when chased. She says she found the heart in the cave and brought it back. She tells is afraid of what everyone will think of her if they know she used Lira’s blood to freeze her using written word. After Aviosky leaves, she goes to Thames room. She admits her fears to him while he sleeps. She knows she isn’t like Lira, but doesn’t know what to do.
17. Ceony spends days going through a daily routine of cooking and cleaning while waiting for Thane to wake up. Fennel comes running up to her and she knows Thane must have fixed him. He comes to the kitchen and asks her what happened when she wasn’t in his heart. She admits she stole his glider and tried to take on Lira. She didn’t mean to go through his heart, but thought she had to go all the way through to get out. She tells him about her battle with Lira and how she froze the Exercisor. Thane explains Ceony couldn’t use blood magic because she is bonded to paper. Lira was not a magician when he met her; she was a nursing student and became a magician later. Thane admits he is not sure what Ceony did, but doesn’t believe she would be found guilty of anything if the counsel found out. She goes to get a piece of paper and makes a fortune teller. She sees him sitting with his family at sunset and the wife has red hair like Ceony. She doesn’t tell him what she sees. She asks why he chose to become a folder and he admits he didn’t chose it, but it worked out well for him.