Chapter 4: Theoretical Thaumaturgy and beyond

That evening there was a meeting of the Pistol and Rifle Club for the new members. There were three of us. June Fiske, Michael Mead and myself. The instructor for the evening was Gerald Shaw.

After the introductions were made, he said.

"This evening, the idea is that you get to know your way around the range here and that I get an idea of how much you know. You'll also get a chance to show me how well you can shoot."

We were first instructed in range discipline which more or less duplicated the regulations of the Ashland police range where Goodman Brown had taught me to shoot. June and Michael also had had some range experience so we were soon examining the pistols that the Club used.

They were very similar to the police pistols that I had been taught to use. The targets too were similar. They were a series of circles scored from one to ten. However, they were somewhat larger than the targets that I was used to.

Gerald issued us with ammunition and assigned us to non-adjacent lanes. He told us to fire only on his command. I asked why he had told us that and he replied "It cuts down any mistakes in scoring."

The inference of his words was that he thought we would be wildly inaccurate and that our shots would go every which way. I thought when my turn came, that I would show him some shooting.

June was the first to fire and scored forty-three out of fifty. Michael followed and scored thirty-nine. My turn came. I took up a two handed stance and let fly with all five rounds.

"That's forty-seven. Not bad, young Robert. Here are five more rounds. Let's see how you can do if you take your time and aim properly."

He changed the target.

This time I put all five rounds through the middle of the bull's-eye. One shot was a little off, but it still overlapped the central hole I had made in the target.

"That's better, Robert. This time you were breathing properly. You see the difference it made?"

I was disappointed at his reaction, or rather the lack of one!

The rest of the evening at the range was spent in improving our accuracy at ever longer distances. Finally we cleaned our weapons and picked up our spent brass before returning to our rooms.

Before I went to bed, I got out my set of weights and practiced my lifts. Jim had introduced me to kinesis, but I had not exercised much, as school work took up so much of my time.

The next morning we gathered in our classroom and were chatting when the door opened and a young lady entered and stood behind the lecturer's desk.

"A good morning to you, everybody. Please settle down. My name is Doreen Blythe. I am a graduate student in the Theoretical Thaumaturgy Department and I'll be teaching you this trimester. Later on you'll be getting a few lectures from the Head of Department, Sir James Whiteshield. He mainly concerns himself with the more advanced students, but he likes to get some idea of your abilities in this subject. This morning we are going to study the development of the household preservator."

It soon proved to be a fascinating story. We learned how a sorcerer about a hundred and fifty years ago had tried to duplicate the properties of an ice box, which was then being used to preserve food. After some time of trial and error, he had at last succeeded. However, the spell on the commercial models required regular updating.

This process had set the standard procedure for the development of further magical devices: to perceive the need and to construct and to perfect the spells to fulfill the need. Human imagination progressed, as had the devices and as had the spells required to activate them become more complicated. Consider the teleson, for example!