“Any tips on creating illusions?” I asked.
“It’s all in your imagination,” Kallie instructed. “The way it works with fae magic, you have to believe in the illusion you’re creating. The stronger your belief, the stronger the illusion becomes in reality. That’s why our illusions can become solid.”
“But I can’t do that, because I’m not a fae,” I said.
“The concept is the same. Let’s start by picking a scent.”
“Roses?” Marcus suggested, almost too quickly. Did the guy have a thing for flowers or something?
“Uh, sure,” I said. “I can try roses.”
“All you have to do is imagine the scent in your mind,” Kallie said. “Then believe it into existence.”
It sounded easier said than done, but I closed my eyes and tried to imagine I was in a field of roses, inhaling their scent. A whole minute must’ve passed, and nothing changed.
“It’s not working,” I finally said.
“What’s going on in your head?” Kallie wondered. “Maybe I can help.”
“I’m imagining I’m standing in a field of roses,” I said.
“You’ve got to go deeper than that,” Kallie told me. “This isn’t a daydream. You need to make it real. Don’t put yourself in the field of roses. Bring the roses to you, into this room. Believe that it is already done, and it will be.”
My eyebrows pinched together. I didn’t know how I could believe in something that wasn’t real, but Kallie knew more about illusions than I did, so I had to follow her lead.
I started by getting into my body, feeling the ground beneath my feet and listening to the sound of Ava’s breathing to ground me in the moment. Then I imagined the room filling with roses, pictured their soft, silky petals and sharp thorns. I imagined what it would smell like if the room was full of roses, like a flower shop.
“I smell roses!” Kallie said in excitement.
It threw me off initially, because I didn’t smell anything. Could I have actually done it?
“Yeah, I think I smell something, too,” Marcus said. “It’s definitely floral.”
“Oh… they smell so sweet,” Ava added.
So divine,Oberi said sarcastically, and I took a playful swipe at her. She fluttered out of the way.
“A job well done,” Takahashi encouraged.
Tingles of magic spread through my body— so light I barely noticed it. It wasn’t like the other magic I’d cast before. Slowly, the scent filled my nose. It was light at first, but as my friends began to show excitement, the smell became stronger.
“Holy shit, I actually did it,” I said.
“You did!” Kallie cried in excitement. “Do you want to know the secret? We didn’t actually smell anything at first.”
“You were lying?” I asked.
“We weredemonstrating,” Kallie clarified. “I was trying to get you to believe you’d done it, because you can only create an illusion if you believe it’s already complete. Once you thought you’d already cast it, it happened.”
I wasn’t mad that they’d lied to me. I’d actually accomplished progress, and that made me feel powerful.
“This is great! What else can I do?” I wondered.
“I said I had an idea,” Ava announced. “I don’t know if it’ll work, but the least we can do is try. Charlie has powers the other Elves don’t. I wonder if he can use simultension on himself to make his illusions solid, like how I used simultension on myself during the Darke Games to combine Fire and Water.”
“That’s a very good theory,” Takahashi said. “Would you like to try it, Charlie?”
“How would it work?” I asked curiously. “Illusion mixed with Earth… you think I could make a tree solid— just create plants out of nothing?”
