A Hidden Witch

chapter 12

Nell looked around Moira’s back yard and grinned. It looked like a tornado had swept through and dumped off random heaps of computer parts. Clustered around them were some excited, but very confused, witches.

Moira had put out the call—everyone should come to be tested. Clearly the witch population of Nova Scotia had taken that literally. There were almost a hundred people in the back yard, with only a handful competent enough to test for Net power. And one of those was four and in need of a nap.

To make matters worse, most of the new arrivals seemed to believe they needed some sort of computer part to activate their Net power. Which was true, but Nell was pretty sure most of the parts littered in Moira’s yard pre-dated the Internet. Ginia had been shocked to discover floppy disks actually still existed.

Nell waded through the crowd, dispensing cookies and blueberries as she went. Yup, Ginia was looking a little frazzled. Time for a rescue. “Hey, sweetie. How’s it going?”

“It’s a little crazy, Mama. I’m trying to get everyone scanned, but most of them can’t spellcode, so I have to teach them how to do that first.”

Since Ginia’s current audience was all over sixty, Nell guessed that wasn’t going overly well.

And no way did she plan to spend the entire week teaching the witch population of Nova Scotia to code. Time for Plan B.

“Go find Lauren and your brother, sweetie. I have an idea.”

Ginia dashed off, looking relieved. Nell clapped her hands and spell-projected her voice. “Good morning, everybody! Can I get you all to take a seat and face this direction?”

Lauren made her way over with a grumpy Aervyn in tow. Nell handed him a cookie. Chocolate chips could work miracles on four-year-old moods.

“I hope you have a plan,” Lauren said. “This is nuts.”

“I do. I think we need to teach them how to activate Net power without spellcoding. Just like you did with Aervyn and Elorie, but we’ll give them a group demonstration first.”

She turned back to the now-seated and mostly quiet group. “We weren’t expecting such a crowd this morning, so thanks for your patience. As many of you have obviously heard, one way of using Net power is online, with spellcoding. But it can also be activated much like mind power, and we think that might be an easier way to test most of you.”

“Thank goodness,” said a voice at the back. Judging from the laughter, a lot of people agreed with him.

Nell grinned. It didn’t look like Realm was going to pick up a flood of new players from the east. “What we’re going to do first is a quick demonstration, with Ginia activating her Net power. Lauren and Aervyn will mindlink and broadcast so all of you can see.”

Marcus stood up on her left. “I’ll help with that. This is a sizable crowd.”

Nell was pretty sure Aervyn could have handled the job on his own, but she wasn’t about to argue with the local talent.

Ginia pulled out her commandeered iPhone, which got plenty of murmurs all on its own. Marcus leaned over toward Nell. “You’re going to have to raise the rates for Realm if she keeps using that up here.”

Nell snorted. Her girl was smarter than that. “She and Jamie hunkered down last night and hooked up a wireless bubble on her laptop. They juiced the range, so it should work from here.”

“Interesting.” Marcus pulled an iPhone out of his pocket.

Wait just a minute. “You’ve had that all this time?” While she’d been paying a gadzillion dollars a minute in roaming charges?

Marcus raised an eyebrow. “Just how many Net witches do you think we have sitting here, and how many iPhones? I’d never get it back.”

That grated on Nell’s last nerve. Selfish old man. Okay, maybe she was a little cranky too, but witches shared. It was an unspoken rule.

Nell felt Lauren’s incoming mindlink and realized the demonstration was ready to begin. Time to stop squabbling with Marcus.

Very slowly, Ginia walked through the exercise of activating her Net power, with Lauren providing mental commentary. When they’d done it several times, Aervyn ran the slow-motion replay. No one in the audience so much as blinked until he was finished.

Then bedlam broke out. Marcus raised a hand. QUIET.

Lauren winced. Warn me the next time you plan to mind-yell, please.

My apologies. I wasn’t aware you were so sensitive.

Nell grabbed Lauren before she whacked Marcus with a mental two-by-four. Later, girl. Right now, we have a herd of witches to train, and we need him. Play nicely, and I’ll help you get even later.

She’d never heard Lauren growl before. Trust Marcus to bring out the best in all the women around him.

Are you two done yet? Marcus asked dryly. I suggest you pick a volunteer to test.

Nell looked at the waiting audience and tried to figure out the best way to proceed. Ginia tugged on her arm. “Start with the kids, Mama. I’m pretty sure Kevin is a Net witch.”

It wasn’t a bad idea, but they definitely didn’t need several dozen witches watching. “Can I get anyone under twelve to come up here, please? And can I ask the rest of you to collect into groups of five or six and practice? We’ll come around to you and help as we’re able.”

The back yard settled into the relative order of witches hard at work.

After a few minutes with the dozen or so Nova Scotia witchlings, a couple of things were clear. One, the children with Net power caught on fast. Aervyn had figured out a way to piggyback onto their channels, kind of like a pair of guiding hands, and it got results very quickly.

And two, while Net power was evidently quite common, most of them were like Nell—a spark or two, but nothing more. The exception was Kevin. His initial, Aervyn-assisted fireworks were almost as bright as Ginia’s—and then he repeated it on his own seconds later.

His quiet grin snagged Nell’s heart. She looked over at Elorie, who had been watching with silent pride. “Looks like you have a training buddy.”

Elorie pulled Kevin in for a hug. “I guess I do.”

~ ~ ~

Preparing tea for her guests, Moira smiled in satisfaction. Apparently you could teach an old witch new tricks. She was a Net witch—imagine that!—and a strong one, if Ginia and Lauren were to be believed.

What an irony that would be. Her entire life, she’d been the witch with a little bit of a lot of magics, but never a big dose of anything. It had made her a good trainer, and she had thought that her life’s purpose. Now, it appeared she would be joining her granddaughter in the history books as part of the first wave of witches with an entirely new form of power.

She felt positively giddy.

“Don’t rub it in,” said Marcus, coming into her kitchen. Nell was right behind him, not trying to hide her grin at all.

“I’m hardly doing that,” Moira said. “You’ve been a powerful witch since you were three years old. Surely you don’t begrudge others a little power of their own.”

Marcus picked up mugs of tea to carry to the table. She was pleased; hospitality was not one of her nephew’s stronger traits.

“I don’t,” he said. “It just seems rather unfair that those of us who have used our Net power the most are actually the most restricted in what we can do with it.”

“Tell me about it,” Nell said. “I have an entire crew of seriously unhappy Realm players.”

Moira sat down at the table and gestured for them to join her. “So explain this to me—I haven’t really understood it just yet. Why is it that some of us are so different? That would be the wee bit I’m not understanding.”

“None of us do,” Nell said. “But it looks like those of us with a lot of spellcoding experience are limited in how we can use Net power. Marcus gets powerful readings on our scans when he’s spellcoding, but he can only access a tiny fraction of that in the way we tried today.”

Marcus scowled. “It’s as if our brains have gotten hardwired.”

“It’s not the only kind of magic where that happens.” Moira stirred her tea contemplatively. “It works that way with astral travel as well. Mediums and travelers are fueled by the same power source, but generally witches with that talent can only do one or the other, unless they’re carefully trained in both while their talents are first emerging.”

Marcus raised an eyebrow. “That’s interesting. So if both are trained early, then a witchling retains both abilities?”

“That’s what our histories say.” She reached out to touch her nephew’s hand and hoped he might accept a small bit of comfort. “As you know, it’s a great sadness that we lose most of our astral travelers far too young.”

He said nothing, but she noticed he didn’t take his hand away, either. Her healer’s heart was gladdened by the small victory.

Marcus looked over at Nell. “If Aunt Moira’s correct, we need to think carefully about how we proceed with training.”

“Yup.” Nell topped up everyone’s tea. “We’ll need to teach all our Net witches to work with their power offline and online.” She grinned at Moira. “We need to teach you to spellcode.”

Ginia had been teaching her for several days now, but old witches knew how to keep secrets. “I think you’ll have better luck with young Kevin. His mind likes new challenges.”

“She has a point,” Marcus said. “We have seven Net witches with decent strength of the non-spellcoding variety. We clearly don’t want to be teaching everyone at once.”

This was a problem Moira could solve. “We shouldn’t try. We’ll train those from this village first, with Nell’s help, and then once we’ve figured things out here, you can help me with our more far-flung witches.”

She could see Marcus fighting with himself. A solitary witch, he had never enjoyed the communal aspects of witchcraft, but no one was more aware of the dangers of power left untended. He finally nodded, just once. “It’s a good plan.”

“So who do we have from here, then?” Nell asked. “It was a bit crazy, so I’m not sure I caught all the results.”

Marcus started counting off on his fingers. “Young Kevin, and Elorie, of course. Aunt Moira, and then your Ginia and Aervyn. I think that’s all in the first group to train. Sophie and I can’t do the mental fireworks, but we can help teach spellcoding.”

Nell nodded. “As can Ginia and I.”

Witches to train. Moira could feel the gladness in her heart. “You and Sophie will be busy. We’ve other witchlings and other magics to train as well.”

Marcus grunted. “There are plenty of hands to help. Lauren with the mind-witch lessons, and Mike would be an excellent choice to teach Sean the finer points of his earth magics.”

“Aye. It would be good if the ground rumbled a little less around here.” Sean’s earth talents were not of the gentler sort that worked with plants and growing things, but rather the hard magics of rock and land.

Nell grinned. “Aervyn has some skill in that direction as well, but I’m not sure you want to put him and Sean in the same training group.”

Sometimes it was handy to be the wise elder witch. “It will be good for Mike to earn his breakfast. I’m sure he can handle two small boys.” And if not, she’d always had a soft spot for witchling mischief, particularly if she wasn’t in charge of cleanup afterward.

~ ~ ~

Elorie looked around at her fellow students and leaned toward Moira. “I feel a little old for this class, Gran.”

Moira chortled. “How do you think I feel, especially with sweet Ginia about to be our teacher?”

Lauren, Marcus, and Ginia had their heads together in one corner of the room; Kevin and Aervyn were tucked in another corner with a bowl of blueberries. Elorie felt a bit useless. Organizing training had been her job just a week ago.

Sophie sat quietly in the corner, reading one of Gran’s herbals. For some reason Elorie didn’t want to explore, her presence grated. “Why is Sophie here? I thought her Net power was only the spellcoding kind.”

“She’s never been a threat to who you are, granddaughter mine.” Gran’s eyes were quiet and sad. “Do you truly not know why she’s here?”

Elorie squirmed. She felt like she was ten years old again, caught napping in witch history class. And she was disappointing Gran—that much was obvious. She just wasn’t sure why.

Their three teachers turned around, interrupting her puzzlement. Marcus called the two boys over. “Lets see if we can figure out what to do with this Net power of yours, shall we?”

So like Uncle Marcus. No preliminaries, just straight to the point. Not that she really minded today. Everything in her yearned to finally do magic.

Lauren smiled, as if she had read Elorie’s thoughts. With her gizmo off, it was entirely possible. Nothing like four mind witches in the room to decimate your privacy.

Well, hopefully action would keep their brains focused on something other than her leaky thoughts. Elorie roused herself and caught Ginia’s eye. “Show me what you did yesterday, blending spells together. I want to try that.”

Moira spoke just as Ginia nodded yes. “Slow down, my sweet girls. We need a plan.” She held up a hand before the protests could begin. “I felt this Net power, and I’d like nothing better to play with it. But we must learn with caution.”

She paused and looked around the room with great seriousness. “We are the first, the pioneers. Magic can be dangerous, and we play with unknown magic here. Care and caution will keep us safe.”

Elorie had spoken variations of that last sentence a hundred times in her life. And now, with memories of the rush of power strong in her mind, she finally understood why very few witchlings ever paid attention.

Moira leaned over and spoke quietly. “I know it calls you, child, but you must learn control first.”

“I know. I had no idea it could feel this way, though.”

“Neither did I.” Wonder crossed Gran’s face. “It’s more power than I’ve ever known. Such magic, waiting for us…”

“Then let’s get started, shall we?” Marcus nodded at Ginia. “Let’s have you do your joining trick. Aervyn and I will give you two simple spells to work with.”

He looked at the rest of the group. “Lauren will mindcast what Ginia does so you can all see. Once you think you’ve understood, let Lauren know.”

Elorie frowned. She was no mindspeaker.

Marcus rolled his eyes. Trust me, niece—she won’t miss anything you’re thinking.

She and Uncle Marcus were going to have a conversation about privacy. Soon.

Until then, she’d better start paying attention. Ginia was already pulling Net power. Much like the day before, Elorie watched from the mind-window Lauren provided as dancing power streams formed into intricate spell shapes, and then melded. Some of it had made sense, but she wanted to watch one more time.

One more time didn’t happen, however. Lauren dropped them out of mindlink, and Kevin nodded solemnly. “I can do it, I think.”

Marcus raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure you don’t want to see it again?”

Kevin met his gaze straight on. “Yes. I want to try.” Elorie mentally cheered at his self-confidence. Generally Sean was the twin rushing headlong into magic, with Kevin trailing quietly behind.

Aervyn and Marcus began their spellwork again, and this time Elorie watched with her eyes. Marcus created a globe of dancing color on his palm, and Aervyn whipped up a very small whirlwind. Kevin focused, a look of deep concentration on his face.

The globe disappeared for a moment, and color briefly danced around the room. Then all signs of magic vanished. Elorie’s breath caught.

Kevin never wavered. “Again, please.”

One more time, Marcus and Aervyn created their spells and Kevin focused. One more time, the globe wavered. Everyone in the room held their breath.

And then light blew around the room, a shimmering stream of dancing color.

The fierce pride in Kevin’s eyes nearly brought Elorie to tears.

Then it was Moira’s turn, and she repeated the trick with quiet confidence and not the slightest wobble, childlike joy on her face. Kevin looked at her in awe. “Wow, Gran, that was great.”

Moira ruffled his head. “I’ve been practicing spellwork for seventy years, darling boy. Now I know why.”

Jeebers. Her turn next, and she had a grand total of about two minutes of spellwork practice.

Globe of light waiting on his palm, Marcus raised an eyebrow. It was time.

Elorie closed her eyes—and realized she had a big problem. By the time she’d opened her eyes, it was clear every mind witch in the room knew as well.

“That’s rather an issue,” Marcus said.

“What is?” Ginia asked.

Lauren explained. “Unlike the rest of you, Elorie doesn’t have elemental power, so she can’t see the power streams or shapes for the two spells.”

Terrific. She wasn’t a useless witch now, just a defective one.

Aervyn looked puzzled. “What’s a ‘defective’ witch? Can you solve mysteries?”

Ginia giggled. “That’s a detective, goofy boy.”

Lauren shot Elorie a warning look, but she’d already gotten the message loud and clear. No pity parties while the witchlings were listening. Good grief, she wasn’t usually this much of a wimp.

She cleared her throat. “So how do we fix this? I could see the power streams when you were patching me in, Lauren—can you do that for me again?”

“Nope.” Lauren shook her head and winked. “Welcome to the exclusive and sometimes inconvenient club of witches with no elemental powers. You could see them before because Marcus and I were working together, and he can visualize the elemental energies. I can’t.”

Elorie tried really, really hard to block the next thought that came to her mind. What on earth had she done in her life to deserve having to partner with Uncle Marcus if she wanted to do any magic?

Given Marcus’s snort, she hadn’t blocked hard enough. “You’ll notice I haven’t yet volunteered.”

“You’re not the only witch on this coast,” Moira said crisply.

Kevin rode to the rescue, all valiant four-and-a-half feet of him. “I can do it. I can help you see, Elorie.”

Marcus looked skeptical. “You’ve had mind powers for all of a week, my boy, and they’re not that strong. Broadcasting takes a steady hand. If you falter, Elorie’s spell could easily go awry.”

Kevin gave him a pointed look. “Then you’d better cast a training circle. Gran will be mad if we scorch her furniture.”

Elorie bit back a giggle, and then shoved any doubts out of her mind. If Kevin was willing to try, she would do everything she could to make it work. The alternative didn’t bear considering.

Marcus and Aervyn readied their spells. She looked at Kevin and felt his mindlink click into place. It wasn’t as fast or as steady as Lauren’s, but she could see the spellshapes.

She paused for a moment and reviewed the steps Ginia had gone through, then laid her hand on the mouse and reached for power, just as she’d been practicing. Energy stormed through her, and it took every ounce of will she had not to reach out and grab the waiting spells. Slowly, girl. You’ve waited your whole life to do this. Get it right.

Attempting to copy Ginia’s delicate control, she gently wrapped power around the two spells, gliding them closer together. Even she could tell her power was far more wobbly than anyone else’s, but she pressed on—it took practice to be a better witch. Once the spells were fairly close together, she looked for the points where they needed to connect. When she’d watched Ginia, the spellshapes had pulsed light at those points, but they weren’t doing it now.

As she stared at the shapes in consternation, Elorie could feel her power tugging. Not demanding, this time, but asking permission. It had an odd similarity to the tug she sometimes felt sitting in her studio, when a collection of sea glass and silver wire seemed to know what it needed to be. She had long practice trusting that tug; it produced some of her best work.

Very slowly, she let a finger of power go toward Aervyn’s spell. Little fireworks of Net power slid into his spellshape. She sent another very small flow toward Marcus’s spell. As Net power melded into the second spell, she could suddenly see—see them as they were, and as they were meant to be. Now they were her spells, and she knew what to do with them.

With sure hands, she moved the streams of spellpower around, weaving and turning them until they were perfectly aligned. It was exactly like fitting together silver wire and sea glass. So many ways they could go together, but only one way calling to her.

And then everything was ready. Tendrils of Net power reached out from both spells, seeking connection. She breathed deeply, and just as Ginia had done, released the tight hold on her power.

The spells shimmered for a moment, then melded. Power danced and whirled in the beauty of magic completed. Elorie could feel Kevin’s delight—and an instant later, his panic and a resounding thunk as his mindlink vanished.

She opened her eyes to a sea of shock and grabbed Kevin as he swayed in his seat. “What happened?”

Aervyn pointed at the ceiling, eyes big. Elorie gazed in disbelief at the large, scorched circle over her head. “I did that?”

Marcus nodded. “Indeed you did. You and that sidekick of yours broke my circle. I’ll cast a stronger one next time.” He looked at Kevin. “Not bad. Don’t drop her at the end next time, but you did quite well. That was some serious power she kicked at you.”

Horror crawled through Elorie’s gut. She’d pushed magic at Kevin? He was just a child.

He’s an able witch, came Lauren’s gentle reply. And your partner. That was very nice work you did together. She winked at Kevin. “Later today I’ll show you some extra-special mind-witch protection for when you’re working with Elorie. We didn’t know she was going to have magic quite that strong.”

Ginia waved her mouse. “First you have to teach me how you did that. That was awesome cool.” She looked up. “Maybe we should go outside, though.”

Elorie looked at the ceiling again, still distraught at what she’d managed to do with her first act of real magic. She’d preached “do no harm” often enough she ought to have been able to remember it. She turned at a hand on her shoulder, and Gran’s delighted chortle. “You’re not the first person to leave scorch marks in my house, child, and I doubt you’ll be the last.”

Then Gran’s voice wavered, and she laid a hand on Elorie’s cheek. “My sweet girl. Your first magic. I’ve waited so long for this.”

She reached her other hand toward Sophie, still sitting quietly in the corner, herbal in her hand and joy on her face. “And so has she.”