Heirs of the Magi News Flash!

***Heirs of the Magi News Flash!*** It's Christmastime again in Witch Falls! Our favorite Magi of the Light love sharing the joy and love of the season with everyone they love, so even when troubles around the world can seem overwhelming and impossible; there is always hope to be found in our favorite magical town. Feel free to take as much of that magical love and happiness with you as often as you can; so to do that... ...Visit Witch Falls often to keep up with all of their latest stories; and Happy Reading!

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - October 30, 2018


Ethan:

We’ve had a really great day, and while there was a bit of rain here and there too; it was another warm fall day too.

Halloween was the only news of the day at school; and we had fun with the games and activities that were our lessons for the day.  Doing that with our friends was the best part of our school day; and then Ehlana and I were at the lab after school through until we got home late for dinner.  I worked in the archives and Ehlana played in the lab with Uncle Adam and Dillon, and while our spouses or parents were as amused as usual by our tardiness; Ehlana and I managed to nearly-finish our late dinner by the time Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne brought Zack and Brianna over for a special Magi lesson with us.

They were happy to split Olde Bakery desserts with us; and then it was time to play.  Magi-powered pumpkin carving is fun, and while that wasn’t a first for most of us; Mom just made it more-challenging for the more-experienced kids by having us carve very small pumpkins.  Zack had too much fun with the ‘guts’ of his pumpkin, but Dad and Uncle Adam kept that from getting out-of-hand-messy; and we had some Transmutation fun that included experimenting with color changes and other not-really-spooky fun.  Zack and Brianna were taken home after that; Ehlana and Mom opted for some Jacuzzi fun; and Dad and I worked in the office for a while until it was time for all of us to get some sleep.

I’m ready to do that now, since we do have one more fun-filled day of Halloween adventures ahead of us; and I get the feeling we’ll need the rest to keep up with all of the scary-good entertainment!

Don’t be afraid, though, because special agents Draper and Proctor will be on-duty tomorrow; ready to protect our favorite alien princesses from all of the goblins, ghouls, and monsters! ;^)

Ethan – out!

***
Ehlana:

Thank-you, Ethan – for that marvelous update!

Hocus Pocus references never get old at Halloween – especially when you’re only seven!

Ethan really has covered most of the news for today; so I’ll just add a comment or three about our work in the lab.

The experiment failed again, but there was some success too; and we managed to keep the reaction temperature down below a level that would be fatal to the ‘host’ cell.  The transport vector – a vapor – also successfully penetrated the cell with our ‘cure’ formula too; so the failure was that it lost the fight to the virus.  We’re on the right track for sure now, though; and I mean that we’re really close to getting it figured out.  Our friends won’t ever know that I’m involved in that project – or most of them won’t find out, but even if they did; I doubt they’d think that what I’m doing at the lab is more-exciting than all of the Halloween fun we’re having.

Ethan’s right about us needing sleep to be ready for the party, Haunted House, and trick-or-treating tomorrow, and after the quality play time in my Jacuzzi; I’m ready to get that sleep.  I’ll confirm that we really have had a fun, happy day; and I get the feeling that we’re in for another awesome, final day of Halloween adventures before we’ll have to get back to life as normal.

Okay, that’s relative for a family of Magi in our amazing little town, but you know what I mean; and I’ll actually be ready for a bit of comparative-quiet so that we can rest up for Thanksgiving and the Christmas holidays.  For right now, I just want to rest up; so that’s all I have for tonight.

This is Ehlana Proctor; coming to you live from what is now my past!

Monday, October 29, 2018

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - October 29, 2018


Ethan:

Happy 7th Birthday, Aiden!

Compared to Gwyneth’s visit to see Cassie yesterday, a best friend’s birthday and party doesn’t seem important; but it was for Aiden – and for Ehlana, Naomi, and me.

We saved our ‘big’ birthday gift for Aiden’s party, but had little gifts and other surprises for him during the day – starting with the walk to school.  That made our educational adventures more entertaining; and the mini-party at lunchtime was great too.  Add in the Halloween fun and games; and that added up to an exciting start to our school week.

Ehlana and I came home after school so that we could get ready for Aiden’s party; she needed some extra time to do that; and I’m not going to comment on that beyond noting that my sister looked amazing and she is as beautiful as Mom and Cassie.  We walked to Aiden’s, and the party was already started by then; so we joined in on the fun and video gaming – after a short visit with Aiden’s father, Hailey, and Leah in the kitchen on the way through to party central in the family room.  Leah was there for Hailey, but while best friend support for siblings at parties is normal around here; that really isn’t as big a deal for co-ed parties.

Aiden and I are the exceptions to the general rule against co-ed parties for the kids our age.  I get away with that for the obvious reason, but Aiden got razzed a lot today – and during his party – for inviting girls too.  The guys all still came to the party too, since no kid in their right mind turns down a party that includes Olde Bakery treats and cakes that are specially-made for the kids of the best baker in the world, but Aiden would rather invite Ehlana and Naomi even if that meant that none of our other friends and classmates would come to his party too.  I think that it shouldn’t be a problem in the first place – especially when the other guys will want girls at their parties in just a few more years – and none of us cared about that sort of thing just a few years ago.

Moving along, we had time for video gaming before dinner – or at least the guys did while the girls mostly pretended to be bored – or truly were; in some cases.  I’ll leave it to Ehlana to comment on the impact she had on Aiden tonight, but that was fun too; and helped to make the gaming just a bit less-competitive! ;^)

Dinner was an adventure, and while the food was great; I’m going to comment on a couple of observations.  First, the co-ed party didn’t extend to a co-ed dinner because the boys and girls were segregated on opposite sides of the table.  There were some jokes about the potential for food fights, but that didn’t happen; and I’m really just pointing that out because it’s different than when it’s just Ehlana and me with Aiden and Naomi.  Sure, we split up at meals with guys and girls sometimes too, but that’s random; and we’re just as likely to be paired up as couples instead.  I’m going to remember that little fact for future reference that I can use against Miles and some of the other guys once that dynamic changes again.

The other observation is about the food options because that’s something that is changing even in a small town like ours – and it is something that wasn’t even thought about for even Dad’s generation when they were our age.  Offering food choices that are vegan or vegetarian-friendly along with more-normal options for the omnivores is more work and nearly as much of a challenge as dealing with food allergies.  I’m not writing about this to comment on diet choices of my friends.  What I do want to record in our journal is that there is a growing percentage of the population in this country of people moving away from eating meat.  I’ll add that I’m not one of those converts, but it is something that will be a factor for us in the future – including when it comes to our work at the lab and with aspects of our family business.

None of that is about birthday fun; so let’s get back to that – though there isn’t much else to add.  We had fun at dinner; Aiden opened his gifts and we did the birthday cake and ice cream dessert along with the rest of the usual birthday fun; and then there was time to try out one of Aiden’s new video games and hang out with our friends until the party broke up at eight o’clock.  Ehlana, Naomi, and I made sure that happened for Aiden and his parents by being in the first group to head home.  That hint wouldn’t work for every friend, but all of the parents know that Aiden’s Dad has to work early; and I’m sure they helped out with getting their kids if needed.  Ehlana and I had Leah with us for the walk home; we had a short stop to say goodnight to Naomi in front of her house; and then Ehlana and I made sure that Leah got home too before meeting up with Mom and Dad in the office.

Mom did a long Magi lesson with us; we did a bedtime snack and story time with Mom and Dad after that; and then came up to our rooms and got ready for bed.  Ehlana and I had a bedtime chat on her bed too; and now I’m ready to get some sleep.  We’ve had a fun day, and unlike the birthdays for most of us; that won’t end tomorrow because the Halloween fun will kick up a few notches for the last two days of the month.  Stay tuned for all of that news, but I’m done for this report; so I’m wrapping this up and heading off to sleep.

Ethan – out!

***
Ehlana:

Happy Birthday, Aiden!

Ethan’s done a good job with his report; so I’ll just add a few notes and comments.

First up, since he mentioned it; I did dress to impress Aiden – and it was a total success; judging by the number of times he messed up playing video games whenever I was in the room!  Naomi had fun with that, but while Ethan didn’t have the same problems with his gaming; I know that he was just as impressed with her – even if he couldn’t show that while hanging out with the other guys tonight.

As for the party, Aiden had to hang out with the guys and there wasn’t much for the girls to do except hang out and talk; so it really was a bit boring for a few of us while the other girls kept entertained by poking fun at the boys.  The highlight of the night for us – other than the food and dinnertime birthday fun – was the time we spent with Hannah after she got home from the bakery.  She is one of the favorite Moms, but even Naomi and I don’t get to spend much time with her because she’s so busy with the bakery; so it was nice to spend a couple of hours with her tonight.  Ethan has already commented on the food options; so I’ll only add that I like the extra choices, but like most food anyway; and will eat pretty much any standard kid-friendly fare – along with nearly anything else I’ve tried so far.  In fact, now that I think about it, the only food I haven’t liked is only because of the cooking or recipe.  Sure, that’s rare for kids our age, but it works for Ethan and me.

Ethan skipped over the goodbye hugs and kisses that Naomi and I had for Aiden when we left the party.  Naomi tried to help Aiden out with that to cover-up for my hug and kiss, but I don’t think that it ended up keeping Aiden from getting razzed by the other guys after we left.  Ethan got a goodnight hug and kiss from Naomi at her house that earned some giggles from Leah, but wasn’t witnessed by any of our other friends; so he won’t get razzed about it tomorrow at school.  The hour and a half or so that we spent with Mom and Dad after getting home was fun, and we had a great Transmutation lesson with Mom, but it was challenging too; and is part of the reason for why we’re tired now.

I still needed to have a bedtime chat with Ethan once we were both ready for bed, but we still have a couple of busy days ahead of us; so I need to finish this and get to the sleeping part of my night too.  The last comment I’ll add is to suggest that Ethan is right; and it’s pretty good for Aiden to get to celebrate his birthday so close to another holiday so that the fun keeps going for a few days.  That isn’t the case for Christmas kids around here, since their special days normally just get lost in all of the holiday fun, and I guess that hasn’t worked for Aiden every year, since his birthday has landed on a Haunted Halloween Walk night before; but he is in for a fun week this year!

We’re going to have fun too, but not if we’re too-tired to play; so that’s all for tonight.  Check back – or keep reading – for the rest of the Halloween news; and I write all about that with the next few reports – after I get some sleep and live the news I’ll be writing about in those updates. ;^)

This is Ehlana Proctor; coming to you live from what is now my past!

Sunday, October 28, 2018

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - October 28, 2018


Ethan:

There is only one story to write about today – and there won’t even be many Magi that will find out about it until reading about it in the archives sometime in the future.

Gwyneth Hathorne came to visit Cassie, Michael, Rowen, and Tim today at their townhouses.  She got there sometime after they were finished at church, and since Mom, Ehlana, and I could sense the danger and some of what happened through our links with Cassie; I’m glad that we were at home by then too instead of at church.  We now know that Gwyneth was – and is – nearby because she’s spending her study week from Princeton with the girl she hired to be her college assistant and roommate, Amanda, and her family.  We’ve known about Amanda since she was hired, so Gwyneth’s use of her assistant to get close to Cassie isn’t a shock; but her reason for coming to see Cassie wasn’t something we anticipated or foresaw.

That’s both a perspective and knowledge disconnect, since we know how unusual it is for Dark Magi to have good relationships with other Dark Magi – including siblings; so finding out that Gwyneth had expected to visit Cassie and convince her to go home with her and become part of the Hathorne family was unexpected.  It is also a big problem, since Gwyneth didn’t take Cassie’s rejection of that generous offer well; and spent the rest of her visit trying to kill Cassie and her friends.  I’m sure that you know that she didn’t succeed – if only because you’re reading this in the future and know they survived that confrontation.  I’ll also add that they worked together on that defense; kept Gwyneth from realizing that she was fighting against four Magi instead of Cassie on her own; and while Michael and Tim were each injured before they stopped Gwyneth; they are both fine – and Cassie healed them soon-after Gwyneth was sent on her way.

I’m going to tag-team this update with Ehlana, and this seems like a good spot in the story to let her take over; so I’ll let her do that and get on with the rest of my day.

Ethan – out!

***
Ehlana:

That works for me, Ethan – though we’ll both be doing that soon; and still have some afternoon play time available if we wrap this up soon and go meet up with Naomi and Aiden for some biking and park play fun.

The top news for that Magi defense is that Cassie, Michael, Rowen, and Tim now share the same sort of link that Mom and Cassie got with Dad, Aunt Leanne, Grandma, and Grandpa after the plane crash incident – and with Uncle Adam too after the fight with Corwyn Hathorne.  I want to study that with them sometime, since I don’t have many cases to work with to understand why that’s happening under extreme danger situations, but it is still amazing; and will help them out when needed in the future.  I’m not making any predictions there, but we will have to fight for the Ascension of the Light; and Gwyneth Hathorne will be involved.

There was a lot more going on during that visit and fight – including things that we just don’t know enough about to explain.  It really is amazing that Gwyneth wanted Cassie to come and live with her – to be an equal; though I doubt that would actually have been true.  I’ll guess that Gwyneth saw that potential relationship with Cassie more as a mentor-student – or possibly the aunt-niece that they actually are instead of as equals.  The reason that concept doesn’t seem right to us is because of the inherent nature of Dark Magi.  Sharing power isn’t their way, and while there are archive records about Dark Magi cooperation; those cases were regarding specific goals – and still, usually, ended with one of those Dark Magi gaining power over the other, weaker Dark Magi.  Our point here is that Gwyneth ought to have been more-worried about Cassie being a more-powerful threat to her than hopeful that she’d be an ally and equal.  Maybe she just believes that she’s the strongest Magi and can do whatever she wants, but then that’ll be a tough belief to continue to hold after being defeated by Cassie and her friends.

Then again, Gwyneth won’t see that as a defeat because Cassie didn’t follow the Dark Magi rules for that fight.  I find that idea absurd, since Gwyneth will only believe she’s been defeated if another Magi kills her, and at our age; that ought to be something we’re not at all interested in experiencing anytime soon!

Moving along to Cassie’s defense against Gwyneth, I’m happy to know that everything we’ve learned and come up with worked perfectly.  Gwyneth was not able to break the shields and discover anything about Michael, Rowen, and Tim; and their counter-attack that surrounded Gwyneth in a barrier that was powered by her own attempts to use her Magi power worked brilliantly too.  We came up with that barrier-shield as an alternative to what Mom and Cassie did to Corwyn Hathorne when they drained his power until he burned himself out.  We didn’t want to do that to Gwyneth when we know what that would mean for her; so I’m thankful that it worked and Cassie didn’t need to do anything more-extreme to stop Gwyneth’s attack.

We had a video and telepathic chat with Cassie a little while ago – which is why Ethan and I stayed home after lunch instead of going straight out to play with our friends.  This has shaken them up, but they’re handling it well; and this has drawn them even closer together – and not just through their new sensory connections.  I’ll predict that there will be co-ed sleepovers at their townhouses tonight – and possibly more-often from now on.

I don’t want to go there, so let’s comment on what we can expect from Gwyneth from now on.

There’s no doubt that she hates Cassie now.  There are too many possible choices for her to make for us to know whether we’ll have more trouble from her while she’s in the area with Amanda and her family, but we will be prepared and keep an eye out for her – in every way we can do that.  Cassie’s rejection really is going to be harder on Gwyneth than if she’d been looking at us as enemies, so while we don’t know what will happen with her next; there’s no doubt that she will go after Cassie again – and that could include trying to get to her through the people she loves most.  Ethan and I don’t want to scare our parents, but we’re not afraid of that – possibly because we inherited something from our family that helps us to be perfectly-suited to handle dangerous situations with Dark Magi!  I’m not joking about that – even if it sounds funny.

It won’t be funny whenever we do get around to having confrontations with Dark Magi, but as we found out today; it is nice to know that we are ready to defend ourselves.  Yes, Cassie’s older and knows more than Ethan and I do, but we’re twins; have Mom here with us; and a town full of Magi to back us up if needed – though we’ll hope that’s never necessary when it comes to fighting the bad guys.

We’ll likely have more on this news in the coming days – especially if it causes any issues with the Magi Council, but I think that’s enough for today; and I’m ready to go and play for a while with Ethan and our friends.  That feels a bit weird, but Cassie’s okay and there’s nothing we can do about Gwyneth anyway – not that she could come at us now while her Magi powers are blocked by that barrier-shield.

I need to come up with a better name for that.  ;^)

Okay, that’s definitely too-glib considering the events of the day, so I’m going to wrap this up; get out of here; and make some happy memories with Ethan, Naomi, and Aiden – something that we can still do today thanks to Cassie and her friends.

This is Ehlana Proctor; coming to you live from what is now my past!