There Should be a Spell for That

Why won’t this cursed hair stay down?! Ivy ran her hand over the top of her head yet again and let out an exasperated sigh when the hair in question popped right back up. There ought to be a spell for that.

Ivy paused with her hand on the bottle of hair potion. There really ought to be a spell for that. She stood up from her dressing table and went to her desk for parchment and quill. Well, I’ll just have to make one.

After scribbling runes for the next hour, Ivy let out a cry and jumped up. That just might work! A simple anti-levitation spell wasn’t enough; she’d had to combine it with a binding spell and narrow the focus to a single tiny hair, which was harder than it sounded. Time to test it. 

She ran her fingers over the runes, a glow emanating from each one as she did so, while reciting the spell aloud. She watched as a glowing thread wrapped around her stubborn hair. She finished the incantation and the hair was pulled into place. Hah!

Ivy stared at her reflection with smug satisfaction. Imagine never having to deal with another hair out of place. She giggled gleefully as she finished preparing for the day. 

…

Ivy looked up from her book and took in the sights of her garden. The bright flowers all around her seemed to drink in the soft light and vines climbed up the wooden trellis overhead as if reaching for the cloudless sky. She loved reading out here on a spring day. 

She looked around for her bookmark, before realizing she had started a new book and forgotten to grab one. With her finger holding her place, she tried to find something to keep her spot in the book. She could’ve transported a bookmark here if only she’d left the door open. The object wouldn’t have a clear path to reach her now. 

A grin spread across Ivy’s face as a thought occurred to her. She carried the book to her desk, finger still marking her page until she found a bookmark. She then set the book aside and pulled out her parchment and quill. 

This spell took longer than the last, mostly because she had to work out what exactly she needed the spell to do. She wasn’t trying to place an object in the book, and she didn’t want to alter the book at all. It finally occurred to her that she needed a type of memorization spell. After that, it took a few more moments to work out that she wanted the book to flip to the exact page she’d left off on the next time she opened it. Oh, what a spell that would be! 

Excitement bubbled up in her chest as she began working out the necessary spell components. 

Her previous spell had been simple and ordered: bind the hair then pull it down. But this spell had one component that was dependent upon the other. The movement of an inanimate object would need to be linked to a memorization spell. The book would need to turn to the correct page, which would be different each time. 

And the spell was not intended to be immediate. She realized she needed to add a trigger to the movement spell, which she decided would be when the book was touched. So she had a memorization spell that needed to store the page number until the trigger activated the movement spell. 

After a bit of trial and error, Ivy thought she had finally worked it out. She opened her book again to the marked page, removing the bookmark. She then touched her perfected copy of the spell and began to cast it. When all the runes were aglow, she closed the book. Ivy waited a few breaths before touching the cover of the book. 

It sprang open to the correct page, and Ivy jumped for joy. What a spell indeed!

…

Ivy lay in bed that night thinking about what a lovely day it had been. She had invented two new spells. Most spells were invented for complex or time-consuming tasks, or to do things one couldn’t do on their own. But Ivy quite liked inventing spells for the minor inconveniences that plagued her day-to-day life. She was sure that others would find these spells useful too.

Maybe she should invent more spells like that. She rolled over in the bed. What kinds of annoyances could she end with a spell? What about a spell to get rid of something that’s stuck in your teeth? She laughed to herself.

That’s good. I should write that down. But she didn’t have any parchment nearby. Oh, I’ll surely forget by morning. Ivy sat up. There should be a spell for that.

…

What did you think of the story? What minor inconvenience do you wish you could create a spell to fix? Let us know in the comments!

Thanks so much for reading!

-Clever & WTF