Several hours later, I pulled into the empty parking lot outside the trailhead where Ori had asked me to meet him, after quickly Googling the directions on Evelyn’s computer… and taking a short three-hour nap on her couch.
Damn, I forgot to get her mail, I chided myself as I took off my helmet, shaking out my hair. I’ll have to go back later.
I glanced up at the darkening sky above. Just as Ori had said, angry dark rainclouds were indeed rolling in. I could smell the storm brewing.
“Ma nish, Aspen!” came a deep voice behind me. I whipped around. Ori was stepping out of the forest near the trailhead post, the front of his charcoal-gray t-shirt damp from sweat.
“Ori, hey!” I answered, regarding his muddy hiking boots. “Finishing up a hike?”
“We don’t have mountains like these in Tel Aviv,” he smiled, taking a quick swig from a water bottle, then replacing it in his backpack. “If I’m going to be here for a while, I might as well admire the views!” He took his phone from his pocket to show me a square, sepia-toned photo of a placid mountain lake he had just snapped.
“It’s nice, but what’s with the brown tint?” I asked.
“It’s an Instagram filter,” he replied. “Don’t you Insta – Oh my god, is that your bike?” he asked eagerly, cutting himself off.
“Yeah, sure is,” I answered proudly. “I literally can’t go anywhere without it.”
He laughed. “Wow. Beautiful, rides a motorcycle, and witty too! Maybe I shouldn’t complain so much about having to leave my cat behind to train you.”
I felt myself blush. Above us, thunder rumbled.
“So, you’re stuck here entirely on my account?” I asked, skirting around his compliment.
“Yes, it is entirely your fault,” he replied, clearly not one to mince his words. He was bent over, fumbling to pull some thick rubber gloves from his backpack. “I really can’t complain though – if I wasn’t here, I’d be back on active reserve duty.” He yanked a tightly-stuffed red rubber jacket out of his pack. “My commander in the IDF is an official in the Tel Aviv Chapter though, so at least getting my absence authorized was no problem. Just a disclaimer, I’m not the strongest Electromancer in the world, just a solid Level Two, but it’s not exactly easy to track down Level-Three Electromancers at a moment’s notice…”
Suddenly, a streak of white lightning seared across the dark sky above us. A moment later, thunder rumbled.
“Ah!” he said excitedly, rubbing his hands together. “It’s time! Here, quickly. I know it’s not exactly fashionable but as a total beginner out here you should wear it, at least initially. Take off your leather jacket first, the zipper is metal.” He thrust the thick rubber gloves and the red rubber jacket at me. “These are insulated to protect you from being electrocuted. Make sure the Velcro is fastened all the way up to your neck,” he said. “And put the gloves on over your jacket cuffs. Are your boot soles rubber?” he asked, kneeling down to examine my black riding boots.
“I think so,” I answered, fumbling with the jacket’s Velcro collar. I felt like an idiot. He poked the bottoms of my boots, satisfied. “Are you wearing any metal?”
I hesitated before answering. “I’m wearing a necklace, but I really never take it off…”
“There will come a point in the future where we use metal to attract and focus Electricity, but tonight is not that night. For now, just tuck it in the pocket of your leather jacket, and leave them both with your bike.”
Begrudgingly, I unclasped my necklace and did as he asked.
“It’s more or less overkill,” he said as I came back, then helped me slip on the gloves, “since you seem to be able to control Electricity quite cleverly, but Lightning does sometimes have a mind of its own, so I’d rather you be safe than electrocuted.” I raised my eyebrows at his unsettling candor, but he didn’t seem to notice. “Oh, I almost forgot,” he added, rising to retrieve a pair of plastic safety glasses from his pack. “There can be danger of injury to the eyes or face from electric arcs, or from flying objects resulting from electrical explosions.”
I tentatively reached out to take them and set them gingerly on my face. He pulled out a second pair from his pack and did the same. Lastly, he pulled out a white hard hat from his ever-accommodating Mary Poppins bag and set it snugly on my head.
“At the very least, insulated gloves really should have been provided at your assessment, but I don’t think anyone actually expected you to handle the Van de Graaf generator as skillfully as you did,” Ori explained. “They’ve since changed the safety requirements at your chapter for beginner Electromancy assessments.” His mouth turned up into a slightly-mischievous smirk.
Lightning cracked across the sky again and it started to drizzle. Thunder boomed as the storm grew closer.
“Okay!” Ori’s voice grew louder as the rain started to fall harder. “Take a moment to ground yourself – if you’ll forgive the pun. Relax your mind and feel the air around you. It’s ionized with potential.”
I did as Ori instructed and took a deep breath. I could in fact feel the ionized air around me. It felt almost – excited. Lightning flashed above me and a loud clap of thunder vibrated under my feet.
“During a lightning storm, the electrical fields in the clouds become very strong,” Ori shouted from beside me, “They cause the surrounding air to become separated into positive ions and electrons. This ionization means that the electrons and positive ions are farther apart than before and are now free to move about far more easily than usual… There!” he cried, as lightning arced across the sky, leaving a bright purple remnant in its wake. “Look at those flux lines! The step leader – the bolt of lightning that reaches the earth first, that is – provides a conductive path between the cloud and the ground. If you trace the origins of the strikes closely, you can actually predict the subsequent branches of lightning and draw them toward you!”
I don’t know whether it was Ori’s enthusiasm, or the charge in the air around me, but in that moment, I felt energized. I remembered how elated I had felt in the arena yesterday, when I stood in front of the generator, drawing Lightning from the spark. Something about wielding Electricity leaves you feeling high, reckless even. Its raw, untapped energy is, well… electrifying.
Right above us, a huge bolt of lightning tore from a cloud, igniting the underside in neon-purple light. I could feel the plasma in the electrified air; I could see the clear path of conduction forged between the earth and sky.
“Call it, Aspen!” Ori shouted. “Bring it to you!”
Without thinking, I reached my hand to the sky and beckoned for the lightning to come to me. Every nerve in my body was tingling with Electricity. My hair floated lightly around my head as though I were standing underwater.
The arc of Lightning shot from the cloud, splintering across the sky as it hurtled straight toward me. My eyes widened like a deer caught in the headlights as I suddenly realized what I’d done. Screaming, I hurled myself away from the bolt of Lightning as everything around me bleached away into brilliant, blinding whiteness.