Little did Jon know that the wish he had just made had affected the whole world to some degree. And it would be a little while before Jon found out. For now, he was exhausted. The stone was gone. It had no reason to exist anymore. Jon had all of its power. And all of that power suddenly entering Jon left him more tired than he had ever felt in his entire life. Everything went blurry for a moment while Jon tried to make it to his bed, where he fell, fast asleep, still fully clothed.
*******************
"Jon, wake up!" called Jon's mother from down the hall. "Jon! It's time to get up and get ready for school."
"Ugh," groaned Jon, rubbing his head as he sat up in bed. "What happened last night?" He noticed he was still dressed in yesterday's clothes, so he took them off, leaving on his boxers, and headed down the hall to the bathroom to piss and take a shower.
While in the shower, Jon's head cleared, and he recalled his wish from last night as well as the disappearance of the stone. "Crap. What was I thinking?" He said to himself.
As Jon continued getting ready for school, he started noticing very faint colorful lines around his rooms and one big bold red line running vertically through the center of the room. Even his furniture and clothes were surrounded by faintly glowing ... auras, he guessed he could call them. Looking in the mirror, he realized that he too was glowing, a faint red. He found that if he focused, these lines and auras could become brighter. He began to reach for one yellow line running above his head when his mom called, "Jon, are you ready yet? You're going to be late if you don't get down here and get some breakfast soon." Jon forgot what he had been doing and headed down stairs, where his mom eyed him suspiciously from the kitchen.
"Were you playing with magic again last night?" she ask him.
"I don't know what you mean," Jon replied, somewhat truthfully, for he really did not know specifically what his wish had done.
"You know you can't lie to me about this, Jon," his mom replied. "I'm a sensor, and I'm pretty good at it. And I can see red all over you. What did you do?"
"Red? Oh, that. Um ... I'm not sure, to be honest," Jon said. His mom continued to look at him with suspicion, but she didn't press the matter. Jon ate a quick breakfast, washing it down with a glass of orange juice, grabbed his bookbag, and headed out the door. "Bye, mom," he called right before he shut the door.
He walked down the sidewalk toward his school, noticing even more of those glowing lines out here. At the next corner, Karyn ran up to meet him.
"What did you do?" she asked Jon, not even pausing to say hello. "This morning I woke up with two different sets of memories, and I know you have something to do with it."
"Well, that's more than I've got," Jon said. "I only have one set, and it's from the world before I made my wish."
"What exactly did you wish for?" Karyn pressed.
"I wished for the world to be magical, like in the novels I like to read. I also wished that you'd remember the old world. I just forgot to specify that I should have memories of the new world. And, the stone disappeared."
"What!? The stone's gone? Where did it go?"
"Your guess is as good as mine," Jon replied. "And I have no idea what this new world is like. I mean, I know magic entered the world about two years ago, though I don't know how or why people think it did. Of course, I wished for it, but I hope no one else knows that. I know there are levels of magic users, and I know people think I'm somewhere in the middle, but I really don't know much beyond that."
"Well, good thing I remember both worlds, though it's starting to hurt my head trying to keep them straight," Karyn said. "I'll try to fill you in as much as I can on our walk to school. But I want you to know that you're and idiot for making such a stupid wish."
"Ugh, don't remind me. I don't know what I was thinking," Jon said.
"Now that that's out of the way, here's what you need to know. First, yes, there are theoretically ten levels of magic users, though no one has ever met a level 10. To say you're in the middle is only partly true. You're a level 5, which is actually pretty high. Most people in school are ones and twos. Really, only a few of the teachers are level fives, and the principal is a level 6. So, while level 5 is technically between levels 1 and 10, it's not really in the middle in terms of average. Average would be a level 1 with two specialties."
"So, are you telling me I'm special?" Jon asked with a grin. He didn't want to tell Karyn yet that he was the only level 10.
"You keep telling yourself that," Karyn said, smiling back at him and punching him in the arm. "I'm a level 3 with nine specialties. So, I'm a bit more advanced than most people in school, but not as magically advanced as you are."
"What are your specialties?" Jon asked.
She frowned at him. "That's not really something you ask someone. It gives away your weaknesses. Only a few people (my parents, the principal, some of the teachers) know all of my specialties, and in this reality, you only know two of them, which is one more than most people know. My primary specialty is shapeshifting. All shapeshifters can change their whole body at will, and all shapeshifters have a particular secondondary form that comes most naturally and easily to them, but beyond that, each shapeshifter is different. Some can control individual body parts; some cannot. Some can control their clothes; some cannot (which can be embarrassing for them). Some can only maintain a different shape for a short period of time (less than half an hour), while some, like myself, can maintain it as long as we're conscious. I'm not as powerful as some shifters are, but I would say I'm pretty well above average." She smiled.
"Everyone who knows me knows I'm a shifter, though not everyone knows how good I am at it. Only you and a handful of others know that I'm also a minor telekenetic. I'm nowhere near as good at this as I am at shifting, but I can sort of force-push stuff around. It comes in handy for grabbing the remote, but I'm nothing like combat-level proficient at it."
"Combat level?" Jon asked.
"Oh, yeah, I guess you wouldn't know about that," Karyn replied. "It didn't take the government long to realize the military potential of magic users once the magic began. For some reason, our area has some of the strongest magic users in the world, so recruiters visit the school often. In fact, many people find life in military service to be deeply satisfying. They are able to exercise their gifts with a purpose. In this reality, you were seriously thinking about joining up after graduation."
"Wait, you said, 'in the world.' Do you mean to say that the whole world was affected by my wish?"
"Oh, I hadn't thought about that. Yeah, I guess it was. The day the magic began, there had been a bizarre alignment of the stars, and many scientists thought the alignment might have had something to do with the magic. People now just call it The Alignment. Wait. Did you make your wish last night?"
"Yeah, why?" Jon asked.
"Because, that same Alignment happened again last night. It was all over the news. People wondered if the magic would go back to wherever it had come from or if there would be a second outpouring of magic. It was like the Y2K scare all over again. I bet your wish somehow reached the entire planet because of The Alignment, and it's somehow connected to The Alignment of two years ago. That would also explain why magic so much stronger here than elsewhere. The further out you go from our town, the less strong the magic users. Our town has the only known level nines on the planet. The farther away you go, the fewer people with strong abilities. By the time your each the other side of the globe, there's almost no one above a level 1 with one specialty."
"Well, shit," Jon said, marveling at the scope of his wish. "So, what are all of these glowing lines and auras and stuff everywhere I look?"
Karyn looked surprised. "I didn't know you were a sensor, Jon. Though I guess it makes sense since that's your mom's strongest ability. You should probably talk to her about it, since I'm not a sensor and I don't exactly know what you're seeing or what you can do with it. All I know is that sensors can sense magic. If a shifter walked up to you in a shift, you would be able to tell. You might not know who it was, but you'd know it was a shifted shifter. You know when magic is being used. Everything is touched by magic to some extent or other, so the lines and auras you're seeing are traces of that magic. Beyond that, I don't know what to tell you except that pretty much all of the teachers are also sensors, which is good, I guess--helps them keep order if they know when magic is afoot."
"So, what powers do you know that I have?" Jon asked.
"Well, I know you're a level 5, so I know you have quite a few specialties, though I don't really know exactly how many. Probably around twenty, I would guess."
"Jeez, how many are there?"
"A lot. No one knows exactly how many, but I think at last count there were around sixty known specialties. And they seem to be finding new ones practically every day."
"Wow. Who knew there could be so many different kinds of magic?"
"As for your specialties," Karyn continued, "I know that you're a controller, which is really scary. You're the only strong controller in the school. Most controllers can only control specific things or body parts, but you can control pretty much anything."
"What do you mean, 'control?'" Jon asked.
"I mean, if you wanted me to move my arm, it would be really hard for me not to do it. Try focusing on making me do something."
Jon thought for a minute about what he would have Karyn do and then concentrated on making her do it. "That's what it's all about," laughed Jon, when Karyn started moving her right foot in and out followed by her left foot. He stopped when she frowned at him.
"Very funny, Jon," she said. "Now you see why I say it's a scary talent. I'm just glad you're the only one I know who has a strong controller ability. At least you have a conscience. Can you imagine if Sarah McMillan had that power? Shudder." Karyn physically shuddered as she thought about the prospect. "Anyway, most controllers can only control small things. Some can only control hands. Some feet. Some can control mouths. And so on. No one except you that I know of can control a person entirely. However, I should warn you that if a person knows you're trying to control them, they can fight back. You're pretty strong, so you might still be able to control someone who is fighting back, but someone who has strong will power could probably resist you. Oh, and if you ever control someone without permission at school, especially a teacher, the principal will totally flip out on you, so ... just don't push it."
"Ok, so I'm a controller. What other abilities do I have?"
"Other than your sensor ability, the only other one I'm aware of is that you're also a mimic. That means you can copy another person's mannerisms almost perfectly. If you were a mimic and a shifter, you could fool pretty much anyone other than a sensor. You're also the strongest mimic I know. Once you see someone do something, you have it forever. If you watch a Bruce Lee movie and focus, you could do his moves perfectly. I believe you could probably learn languages pretty quickly. Oh, and you can mimic anyone's voice once you've heard it. Say something in my voice."
"Say something in my voice," Jon replied, startled to hear Karyn's exact voice and intonation come from his mouth. "Wow," he said in his own voice, eyes going wide. "That's creepy."
"You're telling me," she said. "Every specialty has its own inherent dangers for the specialist. The main danger for a mimic is that if you're not careful, you can forget that your mimicking. I mean, you can start to actually behave that way all the time, taking whatever you're mimicking and replacing your own normal behavior with it. So, in theory, you could forget to talk like yourself and start talking like me all the time."
"That would be bizarre," Jon said.
"For me and others around you, yes. But I don't think you'd be aware unless someone pointed it out to you. It would be subconscious."
"Ok. I'll be ever-vigilant," said Jon in his best superhero voice, which was pretty much spot on Superman since Jon was a mimic. "Weird," he said in his own voice, visibly a little frightened by himself.
"Yeah. So, I think that's about it," Karyn said. "Oh, actually, I just remembered something else. There are spellcasters, like witches and wizards from the storybooks. Casting and the spells themselves vary from person to person, but they usually involve some bit of equipment: a mirror, a wand, a staff, even some chalk can do the trick depending on the particular caster. You've never told me you're a caster, but I'm pretty sure you are one. I wouldn't typically have told you that I suspected it except that since you're new to this whole magic thing you might be happy for whatever information I can give you.
"We're near school now," Karyn continued, "and I don't have time to go through every type of magic user you'll find here, but I think you have enough base knowledge to be safe. You can look more up on the internet later. That sensor ability of yours should come in handy while you get used to everything."
Then, leaning close to Jon's ear, Karyn whispered, "And don't let anyone realize that you don't know what's going on. Try to play along as best as you can, which shouldn't be difficult with your mimic ability. Because you're a level 5, most people avoid messing with you. But if anyone became suspicious, it would be like blood in the water, especially for people like Sarah and Biff."
With that, Karyn started to leave Jon at the front door, heading to wherever her first class was, but she quickly turned back and whispered to Jon, "You're in Rawson's room. I'll meet you there after first period and take you to our second class, which we have together."
Then she was gone. And Jon had a lot to learn.
