My contribution to the deadlinesforwriters short story challenge October 2025. The prompt was „excellence“ and the required word count was 1800.
Picture by Pexels ob Pixabay with a turquoise filter applied by me.
Magical Shortcuts
Zoe ran into her room and slammed the door shut behind her. Why couldn’t her mother leave her alone? She fell headlong on her bed in between yesterday’s outfit and her plush animals.
At first glance, Zoe’s room looked just like any other fourteen-year-old’s. Posters of musicians her parents had never heard of and a large mirror on her wardrobe. There were also the black hand-painted symbols on the insides of her windows, as well as a crystal ball with a price tag still attached, resting in a holder on her desk.
Zoe groaned into the mattress and hit her pillow with a fist. A ringing behind her made her lift her head enough so she could stare at the intruder.
Her mother’s head floated in the air near the closed door and said, “Are you sure you don’t want me to help you figure it out? I remember my first year and how we all struggled with the Scintilla. It will get easier, I promise!”
“Mum! What have I told you about appearing in my room? Don’t! That’s what I said!”
Zoe’s mother at least had the decency to look contrite. “Okay, I hear you. Whenever you want dinner, come downstairs!” And with that she disappeared.
Zoe sat up and fished for the spellbook from her bag, weighing it in her hand. Today hadn’t gone great at all. Trisha had been the only one to produce some measly sparks, and not even in the right colour.
When the ringing sounded again, Zoe was ready to jump into a tantrum. But it was only Bea, whose older sister sometimes gave her extra pointers. She had masterered Appearing during the summer, and Zoe was willing to not be weird about it, Bea being her best friend and all.
“What’s up?” Bea asked.
“This whole magic school thing sucks. I wish I’d been born into a non-magical family. How am I supposed to figure the sparkles out until Monday? It’s Friday tomorrow! Up until last grade in normal school, everything was easy or at least manageable. This just isn’t me! I guess tonight I will ask my parents to let me transfer back again.”
“No, Zoe! Please don’t! Look, I haven’t been able to do Scintilla yet either. My whole family tells me the first spell you learn is the hardest. We’ll just have to work at it, right?”
“Ugh!” Zoe smashed her face into her pillows again so she couldn’t see Bea biting her lower lip.
“Please don’t mention anything to your parents tonight. If you stay quiet about it, maybe there is a shortcut that my sister may have told me about. See you tomorrow!”
Zoe registered the sound of Bea disappearing, but she didn’t move for another while. She wondered if the story about this spell was just a big wind-up. Eventually, she was hungry enough to traipse downstairs for dinner. On the way she checked her reflection in the mirror. Weird how she was the only ginger in her entire school. So much for clichés.
She spent some time tossing and turning that night. In the end Zoe hadn’t asked her parents to transfer her back, even though she knew they wouldn’t object. Grandma would, though. She was traditional and had actually worked as a village witch. When Mum and Dad had moved into the city there had been grumbling and frowning for weeks.
Zoe had expected things to go more smoothly. However, Professor Mason had told them that magic was less a thing of genetics and more a product of persistence. It was just that non-magical families mostly weren’t interested in having their children trained at magic schools.
An image came up in her mind. A memory of herself sitting with her grandmother in the garden and watching her throw fireballs at the mosquitoes. With a smile on her face, Zoe fell asleep at last.
The next morning she met a grinning Bea at the school gates. They went inside, ready to face the last few classes for the week. Also Trisha, who apparently had spent Thursday night practicing. She didn’t seem to ever want to stop making grand gestures, sweeping bright turquoise sparks all through the hall.
Zoe’s face turned glum again.
“Wait and see what the library has in store for us.” Bea winked and nudged her best friend.
Some classes were for normal subjects like maths and PE, fortunately. Their magical school was one of the modern types that openly advertised and prepared the students for all kinds of careers besides just village witches. So these were the classes that gave Zoe the opportunity to relax and just work on some nice equations or dodge balls thrown at her by the opposite team.
When the bell rang for the last time, Bea grabbed Zoe’s hand and pulled her in the direction of the library. The librarian threw them a suspicious look from behind her counter.
“What is it you’re looking for? Don’t you have a weekend to run off into?” she called after them.
Bea, however, went straight for the section at the back, where the books looked medieval. The sign atop the bookshelf read “Advanced Studies”.
Zoe pulled her hand out of Bea’s grip and looked around.
“Is this right? We’re anything but advanced, Bea. Are you sure this is what Lillian meant?”
“I’m certain. When I came home and told her how we had failed the Scintilla so royally, she just laughed and sparkled at me for a bit on purpose. I had to nag her the entire afternoon until she caved and came clean. All this time I had thought she was just that much more talented than everyone else. Thing is, she hadn’t been able to get the sparks right at first, either. At some stage, an older student had told her about a secret spell.”
“What kind of secret spell?”
“It’s called Brevis. Basically a shortcut that increases your magic ability so you’re able to do all the other spells with ease.”
Zoe’s eyes widened. Good old Lillian! At least she had shared this with her younger sister and, by extension, with Zoe. This was going to help immensely.
Once they had found the right book, they opened it. They were going to take the fact that it instantly presented the correct page as a good sign. There it was, a long description of ingredients and magic words under the heading “Brevis”, just like Lillian had promised.
Both of them took pictures with their smartphones and scanned the ingredients list. Some of the stuff they would be able to get from the school lab. Some they actually had at home. Getting it all done before Monday seemed more than realistic. They stuffed the book back onto the shelf and treated each other to a fist bump.
Later in the evening, Zoe sat on her circular rug, an assortment of candles and mostly bits of plants in front of her. She wondered if she should risk trying the spell now or postpone it until tomorrow when her parents would be out visiting Aunt Hilda. She picked up a translucent piece of rock and weighed it in her hands.
The knock on the door made the decision for her. At least Mum had accepted the rule of no appearing, so Zoe got up, opened the door a tiny bit, and looked out through the crack.
“What is it?”
“I just wondered if you would like to watch TV with us? Or maybe sit and talk? If not, that’s okay too, you know. You know, right, Zoe?”
“Yes Mum, I know.” Zoe opened the door a fraction wider and leaned out to hug her mother.
“Good night, Darling!” Mum shouted at the door, closed again already.
The next morning, Zoe couldn’t wait for her parents to leave the house. She heard their car starting the same moment Bea’s face rang into her field of vision.
“Have you tried the spell out yet? I would have loved to do this together, but as I said, Lillian swears it only works when performed solitary.”
“No, I was just going to get to it. Have you?”
“Not yet. But I will. This will work. Do you think it’ll work?”
Zoe laughed. “It better. And now you go back and level up your magics while I do the same here, and let’s meet later in the afternoon to compare results.”
Bea nodded and faded away with a wink.
Two hours later, Zoe was stomping around in her room, sweating and swearing. This stupid little image was just too fiddly to zoom in on on the stupid little screen. One thing was for sure: Brevis was not at all easier than Scintilla. She wondered if she should instead go back to just practicing sparks, because it felt like Monday was approaching fast and she had nothing to show for her efforts. And soon her parents would be back and maybe knocking on her door again, maybe even asking questions.
She took a deep breath, wiped her hair out of her face, and sat down again in the center of her rug. This just had to work. There was no way she was going to knuckle through the studying and practicing for every damn spell on her way to graduation. She would get this to work even if she had to go through the ritual again and again for, well, probably another two hours or so. Right. Back to work.
Zoe closed her eyes and repeated the formula she knew by heart at this point. She felt her will focus at a point between her eyes like a sharp knife. She opened her eyes, shivering, and performed the sweeping gestures described in the ancient textbook. What happened was not what she expected. What happened was a shower of shiny sparks cascading from out of her fingertips.
Zoe also hadn’t expected a piece of parchment to drop out of thin air with a loud pop. It fell onto her rug, curls of smoke rising gently from its scorched edges.
It said the following:
“Congratulations on mastering the alternative Scintilla! Well done! If someone has given you the information for this spell, know that they also failed at first and also tried to shortcut their way to graduation. Unfortunately, there is no shortcut. There is growing from practice and from supporting each other. That said, please pass on the story of the Brevis to anyone who needs it, but keep the truth a secret!”
Well. Zoe couldn’t wait to have a chat with Bea. She folded her arms and leaned back, her brow furrowed.
Then she said the magic words again and drew the sigils in the air with her hands. Those turquoise sparks were pretty damn impressive after all.
Like my contribution to the story challenge October 2025? On my blog you can find and read more of my stories!
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