Eddie continues, “All I want you to do is close your eyes and feel the earth beneath you. Clear your mind of all thought and listen to the soil. Listen to the seeds beneath you as they grow.”
Victor crisscrosses his legs and places his hands on his knees. He closes his eyes and starts to meditate. He can only hear Eddie’s voice and the breeze rustling the nearby flora. As though it were instinct, Victor places his hands on the dirt.
Eddie notices. “Good. Feel the earth in your hands.” After moments of silence, Victor tilts his head ever so slightly, eyes remaining closed. “You felt something, didn’t you?” Eddie asks.
“Yes,” Victor answers. “It is almost like there’s something under my hands.”
“Can you feel them tickling your fingers?” Eddie smiles. Victor slowly nods. “Help them,” Eddie commands softly.
Victor opens his eyes and looks confused. “Help them? Who?”
Eddie closes his eyes and places his hands in the dirt. He takes a deep breath, and as he exhales slowly, blades of grass begin to grow around his hands. He takes one more deep breath, then opens his eyes to look at Victor. He gives Victor a slight smile. “Help them grow.”
Victor closes his eyes and regains his focus. He starts to rub his hands slowly in the dirt, taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly. As he opens his eyes, he sees blades of grass growing around his hands. Victor laughs lightly, “I’m sure my dad would like to have fresh grass in his backyard.”
Eddie smiles and then lifts his palms upward. When he does, more grass grows around him and Victor. He then holds out one of his hands and focuses on a spot between himself and Victor. Victor sees a small bud grow from the ground. As it grows taller, it blossoms into a red carnation. Victor reaches and plucks it from the ground. He looks at it carefully in his hands.
“Carnations were my mom’s favorite flower,” Victor mentions, holding the flower delicately in his hands.
Eddie stands up and brushes himself off. “I remember. Your grandmother mentioned it to me one day when your mom was younger.”
Victor looks up at Eddie in shock. “You met my mom?”
Eddie shakes his head. He holds out a hand to help Victor off the ground. “I never got a chance to meet her. But I remember it was your mother’s birthday, and your grandmother was so busy she almost forgot. She asked me to make a bouquet of carnations as a gift for your mother.”
Eddie takes the carnation from Victor. “You’ll be amazed by the wonders you can create with this magic. All around you, I have a thriving agave field. All the fruit and vegetables you’ve eaten have been from the my staff’s gardens, who share this magic. We might grow the plants with magic, but there’s some satisfaction in harvesting by hand.”
“How does Superior Charles feel about you having mundane around?” Victor asks curiously.
“He doesn’t like it. But if he ordered me not to hire mundane workers, he wouldn’t get any more bottles of his favorite tequila.” Eddie places a hand on Victor’s shoulder. “I didn’t like the conversation with him about your friends. I tried to talk to him about it, but he doesn’t like hearing when he’s wrong. Plenty of mundane people aren’t afraid of individuals like you and me. I wouldn’t have that many workers if that were the case.”
Eddie looks over at Leo, who is looking at his phone. “Are you going to tell me what happened between you two?”
Victor looks over at Leo, responding solemnly, “Not right now. I’m not ready to talk about it.”
Eddie nods. “Then let’s continue.”
Eddie reaches down and picks up some dirt in his hand. In the small pile of land, he grows a tiny daisy. “We’re going to start small and then work on bigger things.”
As Victor and Eddie return to the lessons, Leo looks over the tops of his sunglasses with pain in his eyes. Leo doesn’t know how to feel about Victor being upset with him.What did I do wrong?Leo asks himself.I thought everything was working out for the two of us.
Two days have passed by quickly. Victor is standing in the middle of the field, growing two pine trees. As they get larger, he twists the trunks into a spiral. Then, he binds the tops of the trees towards each other and starts curving the tops together.
“Very good,” Eddie says proudly. “You have exceeded my expectations these past couple of days, mi amigo. Do you think you’re ready for a battle?”
“Already?” Victor asks as he drops his hands to his sides. “I feel like there’s still a lot I need to know.”
Eddie bends the two pine trees to break at the base of the trunk. “I think some practice will be okay.” He uses his Air Magic to toss the trees off to the side. He then lowers his hands to push the tree stumps into the ground.
“You’re just gonna leave those trunks there?” Victor asks.
“Nah. My workers will come by and pick them up. They can use the wood for the fire pits.” Eddie turns to Victor with a smile. “Ready?”
Victor shrugs, uncertain by this sudden request from Eddie. “I guess, I mean, if you think it’s necessary.” As he moves to his spot, he looks over at Leo, who’s still looking at his phone. He looks back at Eddie and asks, “Are you not going to make a dome?”
Eddie shakes his head. “There’s nothing close by that you can damage. I can always regrow and repair any plants that are destroyed. But don’t worry, I’ll go easy on you.”
As Victor and Eddie prepare to fight, a large dirt and rocky wall emerges behind Victor and begins to fall. Victor looks up and splits the wall in two, letting the pieces fall on each side of him. He turns to Eddie with a look of concern and confusion. “What the fuck, Eddie?”
