That morning, coming back home, Zachary found cats in front of his doors. Again. And not one or two cats. No. Two dozen cats were  mewing under his windows, nesting all around the home, crowding steps and scratching at his doors. He had given up attempts to chase them off, when they were in such a mood, a long time ago. It was Autumn again. She enjoyed those kind of things, and simply would not listen when he plead her to stop playing with cats. Once he was behind the door, he called her name, failing to hide irritation in his voice.

“Autumn! Come here, at once!”

“In a moment!”

“What are you doing to those poor animals out there.”

“Nothing!”

“Autumn! I have warned you to leave them alone.”

“I’m not doing anything.”

“Yeah, not doing it right now. What did you do, to make them so crazy?”

“First of all, they are not being crazy. They only crave for the fish guts.”

“What fish guts? We don’t have any fish.”

“That is true, but they don’t know it, out there.”

“Oh for the Ligth of the One, would you stop it. Why are you playing with cats of all the animals?”

“Because it is hard. They are not easily brought to heal as dogs or horses are. Of all the animals in the city, they are most difficult to control. Except maybe for the rats. Would you like me to practice with the rats?”

“Autumn, please. Spare me the nonsense. Why do you have to practice it at all? It is not an useful knowledge.”

“Well, if you would like to teach me something else.”

“I am teaching you a thousand and one interesting thing.”

“But not Magic.”

“I will not teach you the magic. I’m not good at it, and I don’t approve the use of it.”

“Well, then, I’ll have to do with as little as I know.”

“Why can’t you learn something else? You have access to almost all the books in my house. A smart girl like you, with so much time to learn, can excel in any field of science.”

“Science is boring. I like the magic better.”

“No, Science is not boring. We have been talking about it before.”

“All right. I tried to learn some magic from the books.”

“You did? What books?”

“I have found “Morning of the Wizard” by Terguine among your books.”

“Have you now? If I recall well, that book was in the cabinet that was off limits for you.”

“Oh, that’s right. It was. Now it is not. You shouldn’t tell me that something was off limits if you wanted to hide it from me. Anyhow, I tried some magic from the book, and it doesn’t work. I was of the mind to talk with you about it.”

“Very well. We will talk, just send those cats away. Neighbors are already suspicious about them.”

Zachary went to his library, and took his favorite place in the armchair, only after he cleared it by throwing the things that were on it, and did not belong there. He liked girl much, but sometimes she was more than he could take.  He wanted to teach her a lot of things that he considered wise and important and spared no time or resource to do that. She was a sweet, clever and curious child, but at the same time, she could be so headstrong and persistent, quite disinterested in anything he had to say. That was the reason why he gave in so easily, accepting any excuse to teach her whatever she was interested in.

She walked into the library with a self-satisfied look on her face, completely ignoring a mess created partly by the way Zachary cleared his armchair, but mostly by her own doing during his absence. She took a chair facing him, ready for the promised lecture. In absolutely off handed way she fished out the book from the rubble on the floor, and found particular page.

“I have found something interesting right here. It should be a complete description, but doesn’t work. It seems to me that something is amiss there.”

Zachary did not have to look at the page. He knew that particular book like the back of his hand, and although he kept it for a different reason, pieces of the real but quite harmless magic could have been found in it.

“Could be.”

“Do you know what is missing?”

“I think that I do.”

“Would you tell me what it is?”

“I have a story for you. It could help you understand. Have you heard about the Sherywore cure?”

“Errr, it sounds familiar, but I can’t quite remember.”

“It is a secret recipe, but people swear that it could cure everything, even the Black Death. Now what is interesting is that just a precious few of the recipe is secret. All the other things are well known, and what’s more the one that is sick is required to provide it.”

For once, Autumn was all ears, and did not interrupt his story, so he took his time to tell the story the proper way.

“The one that is sick and need a cure, must bring the tincture made of the very first cherry blossoms and a husk of the last walnut of that season from the walnut tree closest to his home. It must be collected by his own hand, or his next of kin. People say that the ones able to provide that under such conditions would be cured, otherwise the cure wouldn’t help. What do you think why is that?”

“There is something important that could be found in the first cherry blossom and the shell of the last walnut?”

“The husk of the last walnut, actually. Frankly, I don’t think so. It might be, but I doubt that it is all that much important that it should be the very last walnut. Everything found in the last, could be found in the one that fell from the same tree just a short while ago. Yet, people swear that the cure works only if all the conditions are met, otherwise it would fail. What do you think why is that?”

“I have no idea!”

“It is because people believe in it. When someone is so dedicated to collect the very first blossoms, and the very last husk, he is bound to believe it will work.”

“It does work?”

“Well, as far as I know, there is not much in it that could really help you, but nothing that could harm you either.”

“How does it work then?”

“People have a faith. The one believing this cure will help him, would be cured. On a subconscious level, a body will cure itself, once a mind is hopeful and at ease.”

“All right, that was a nice story. But what does it have to do with anything?”

“Oh, what were we talking about?”

“About the magic in the “Morning of the Wizard”, and why does it no work.”

“It is because you are missing it.”

“Missing what?”

“Faith! You must believe in the magic to perform some. Otherwise, you are just a trickster, trying to trick people to believe in something you don’t.”