Story Ghozt

I let the ball of light hover in my hand. Outside of its shining light, the universe is dark. The landscape that stretched in every direction has been plunged into midnight. All of the lives that filled the world are now groping around, suddenly blind. This orb is the only source of illumination that remains and even it is dwindling. In front of me, the spell book is a patchwork of pages and ashy holes. I have done the unspeakable and I have burned away the spell to reverse this tragedy. I only wanted to know what this was like for a moment, not to live in an universe irreversibly altered.

Everything is cold. I see the faint reflections of light become obscured as water condenses and freezes. The orb in my hand is a faint unsatisfactory heat source as I begin to puff plumes of clouds. The light flickers, sparks vanishing into the darkness. I hear voices of those groping through the unseen world, searching for the last light. I watch the light flicker into darkness casting everything into black. There is no more light to see the spell book, no way to see the beauty in the world, and no longer anything to do but embrace the night.

I sit in a soft pile of disheveled papers. Who knew the day could come when someone would just evaporate all light away. In some ways, I’m not even concerned that I can’t see anything. Plenty of people are already blind, and while the modern world isn’t built for the blind, that part of this predicament could be adjusted to. I’m actually concerned that everything will keep becoming unsustainably colder.

Fumbling through the room, I find the radio. The stations that operate automatically with their precurated albums are still running, but it’s difficult to find one with people actually talking live. It hasn’t been long since the lights have vanished, but hopefully there is someone trying to be a beacon of hope to counter the void of despair I have released. I cycle through the channels, switching between AM and FM radio in search for the voice of someone speaking live or an automated emergency announcement. I don’t know what to do. I am in the place where I doomed the world, but even if I had the ability to undo the tragedy, I am lost, unable to take action to fix what I have broken.

I stumble onto two overlapping frequencies. One resolves into a call for information, some scientists and thinking people wishing to pry open a solution from the void, and the other station becomes instructions for heated shelters that can keep the population alive while the rest of the world freezes. I listen to the ad from the scientists a few times. Should I call them? Magic is, well, magic, it’s not as grounded in the laws of thermodynamics and laughs in the face of conservation of energy, so how will they take a phone call from me?

I hesitantly ring them up and wait on hold. The air grows colder around me. If I wait for them to answer for much longer, I might not be able to find my way to the shelters before the cold sinks its teeth into my heart. The automated holding sounds drone cuts off with the sigh of an overworked person on the other end. “Hello this is Dave, do you have any new observations that you think could help us understand what is going on?”

“Hi, uh… I performed a spell that uh, vanishes light. I um, think that all of this is my fault.” I answer. “Unfortunately the spell destroyed the spell book and I can’t see it anymore anyways.”

“Magic huh. And you think you did it?” Dave replies.

“Sadly. I held the last light in my hand as it evaporated away.” I explain.

Dave sighs again, “Okay, I haven’t studied magic so is it okay if I have you call someone else. They are a professor in magic and might be able to figure out how to undo the spell.”

I hang up after getting the next number to call. The number echoes in my head as I tell the virtual assistant the digits. It buzzes a few moments before clicking with a chipper voice calling out from the otherside, “Hello, this is Mx. Trixy, professor of magic and suddenly experiencing my inner darkness surrounding themself. How may I help you?”

“Uh, hello. Dave gave me your number,” I venture.

“Oh Dave. How’s he been? It’s been a moment since we’ve talked,” They respond, “So what prompted him to give you my number?”

“I’m responsible for the darkness.” I reply.

“Really now?” Trixy says, “That’s a big claim. Magic I take it? It’s not really Dave’s thing.”

“Yeah, magic. The spell book was destroyed in the process,” I say.

“Ah,” Trixy sighs, “Those things are expensive. I gather that you don’t know how to reverse the spell then?”

“Nope,” I reply. “I held all of the world’s light in my hand before it evaporated.”

“That’s a shame.” Mx. Trixy sounds like they are laying back in a chair. “Do you remember how to perform the spell?”

I sigh. The cold is closing in on me from every direction. “I don’t.”

“Fantastic!” They actually sound excited. All the sighs and boredom seem to have evaporated from them as I hear them get up to walk back and forth somewhere across the world. “Do you know fireball?”

“Yes. It’s a classic,” I reply.

“Agreed, so I want you to perform it and tell me what happens.” Trixy seems to wait in anticipation as I gather myself to perform the spell.

A light illuminates in my hand. A ball of fire, glimmering with power as though it was the first time I have ever performed this spell. I feel the warmth course through me and fill up the room. “I did it. I can see the light the fireball is creating. I feel its warmth.” A tear leaks out of my eyes. “I can see.”

“We have now established that you are a thief.” Trixy seems to laugh a bit, “That’s far better than the other option. Now we get to figure out how to return what you stole.”

I navigate my room to find the burnt scraps of the spell book. Everything is too burned to be legible. “You’re saying, I stole the light?”

“Yup,” Trixy replies, “Now mom says it’s everyone else’s turn to have the light back.”

“Mom?” I ask.

“References, ignore me.” They say, “Anyways you should be absolutely buzzing with power right now. I’m kinda surprised you wouldn’t have noticed already, but you should be able to bend the laws of magic and physics easily without a spell book.”

“Wait, how? Don’t you have to follow specific rules and steps to perform magic?” I ask.

“That’s not how magic was found to begin with,” they reply, “though maybe try not to change physics too much. It’ll make Dave upset. Just think about how you would return light to the world and give it a shot.”

“What if it doesn’t work?” I ask.

“Then you’ll try something else,” Trixy replies, “one of my favorite parts of magic is growing from my mistakes and learning from my intuitions. Just trust that you can undo this.”

I take a deep breath and imagine the fireball growing, separating, and spreading out to fill existence. The light glows, the world becomes illuminated, and I watch as the fire in my palm evaporates into a disperse cloud that fills up everything that was void. On the other side of the phone I hear snoring but outside I hear the birds chirping and see the rays of sunlight shining through the crisscrossing branches. I concentrate on releasing the light that I absorbed to let the world shine again before joining Trixy in a midday nap.