Gravity, Part 1 of 5

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A violent red slashed the sky as the setting sun dipped below the horizon.  The clouds, far out at sea, grabbed the last of the light and transformed it into what he might have otherwise considered an ominous display.  But, he’d given up on blood magic months ago.  It had worked but the cost was too much for the results.  His eyes shifted from the horizon to the waves rolling up the beach to where he sat.  The water ebbed and flowed.  It came in.  It went out.  Sometimes the swells were larger.  Sometimes they were smaller.  But always, always, the ocean rose and fell.  The ocean.  The largest force on the planet.  Except it didn’t do it on its own.  The ocean itself was controlled by something else.  Gravity.  And that gravity came from the moon.  And anything that had that much power absolutely fascinated Richard.  He had to know how it worked.  He had to learn how to harness it and use it for his own purposes.

Sighing, Richard pushed himself off the sand and walked back to his car.  He wanted to get off the beach before it got too dark.  The clouds on the horizon were headed his direction and with the sun quickly making its daily exit, it would soon be harder to see on this empty stretch of the coast.  For a moment there, he’d thought he almost had it.  The secret.  The key he needed to unlock gravity.  He’d be back the next afternoon, though, and maybe he’d get it then.

He had plenty of time to figure it out.  He wasn’t going anywhere and neither was the moon.

Though, interestingly enough, the moon was actually moving further away from the earth all the time.

He stopped, his hand holding the key outstretched toward the driver’s side front door of his car.  “Maybe that’s it,” he muttered.  “It’s not just the gravity of the moon.  It’s the connection between the Earth’s gravity holding the water down and the moon’s gravity moving the water back and forth.  It’s the intersection of these two where the magic is.”

Biting his lip, he finished opening his door and got in.  He didn’t start the car right away, though.  His mind was going too fast to even think about driving.  He was so close to the answer.  He could almost feel the magic on his skin.

And then he laughed.  Joy bubbled out of him.  He had it.  He knew how to get at the gravity magic.

Starting his car he headed home, eager to run his first test.