A Hidden Witch

chapter 7

Jamie lounged on the grass in his new back yard, a pint of ice cream in his hand. Lauren had vetoed working in the coding cave in the basement. Feeling the warm sun and the light touch of a breeze on his face, he conceded that maybe she had a point.

No need to let her know that, though. “So we’re outside, catching some sun, and we’ve fortified ourselves with chocolate ice cream. Are we finally ready to begin actual work?”

Lauren rolled her eyes at Ginia. “Girls work better on chocolate. So, what is it I’m supposed to be looking for, exactly? And please tell me it doesn’t involve learning how to code.”

God, he hoped not. “In theory, Net power is just like any other power source. You need to access it, and then apply it. Spellcoding is one application, but there may be others. First, we need to know how Ginia accesses Net power.”

“Okay, makes sense,” Lauren said. “Jennie did something similar when she worked out how I powered Cat Woman with Aervyn.”

That had been the first magic trick where they’d gotten some clue as to the strength of Lauren’s talent. As the guy who’d been on the receiving end of their illusion spell, Jamie resisted the temptation to reach up and make sure he wasn’t wearing fuzzy ears again. “I’ve been trying to link with Ginia and watch, but I’m not getting a good read. All I see is a burst of light, and that’s not very helpful. We figured you’d get better results.”

Ginia giggled. “Auntie Nat figured. Uncle Jamie and I were dopes, and we didn’t think of it.”

Lauren poked Ginia with her spoon. “That’s probably because I’m not a supreme awesome coder like you, hot stuff. Show me what you can do, and I’ll try to watch.”

Ginia picked up her laptop, which already had several simple spellcoding sequences set up. Lauren closed her eyes and dropped quickly into mindlink. Jamie wondered if she had any idea how skilled a mind witch she was becoming.

I do now, said Lauren’s amused voice in his head. Want to watch? I think I can pipe you a channel, too.

The easy strength of her mind powers was obvious the instant she linked him in. His view of Ginia’s brain via mindlink had been murky and distorted; hers was crystal clear.

He watched as Ginia pulled earth power to weave the initial spell. Then she reached for her computer keyboard, and small fireworks of light exploded everywhere.

He could feel Lauren’s shock. What the heck was that?

I assume it’s Net power in action, sent Jamie dryly. That’s the first time I’ve seen it that clearly. Any idea what she did?

Not really. Most power use comes from a single focal point, so I wasn’t expecting anything like this. There was no focus—it’s like it was all over her brain.

Try it again please, Ginia, Lauren sent. As slowly as you can.

They had Ginia loop through the spellcoding routine five or six more times before Lauren dropped them all out of mindlink. Jamie’s brain hurt just from watching.

“So,” said Ginia, picking up her ice cream, “did you figure out how I’m doing it?”

Lauren looked at Jamie. “Maybe. It’s a bit similar to mind power, actually. It behaves like an internal energy source, rather than an external one like earth or fire power.”

He wasn’t trying to be disagreeable, but that didn’t make any sense. “Well, since you have to be hooked up to a computer to use it, it’s obviously not an internal source.”

Lauren shrugged, and swiped Ginia’s ice cream. “Okay, but if we skip that little technicality, once it activates, it looks like an internal power source. If it looks like mind power, maybe it trains like mind power.”

Ginia frowned. “I don’t get it.”

He didn’t get it either. Jamie reached out with his spoon, since his pint was mysteriously empty.

“When I use mind power,” Lauren said, “it’s just kind of there, but I have to turn it on. From the inside, not like elemental power where you reach externally.”

Jamie nodded. His mind-witch powers were a little clunky, but definitely different from his other talents. “Kind of like flipping a mental switch.”

“Close enough. You get readings on Elorie even though she isn’t actively using power, right? What if Net power is just kind of there, at least when you’re online, but you need to turn it on?”

And Elorie’s switch was stuck partway on. That made an odd kind of sense.

“Okay,” said Ginia, always the adaptable witchling. “How do I turn on my switch?”

Lauren grinned. “We’re going to experiment. I’m going to pretend you have mind power and walk you through turning it on. You keep your hand on the mouse.”

Jamie mentally groaned. Powers weren’t interchangeable like that. They needed to figure out how Net power worked before anyone was going to be able to just flip a switch.

You’re such a guy, Lauren sent, rolling her eyes at him. “You don’t have water power, and yet you teach witchlings how to use it. How do you do that?”

He was getting backed into a corner here, he could just tell. “It doesn’t really matter which elemental power it is—you tap into them more or less the same way. But those are both elemental energies. Net power isn’t mind power.”

Lauren shrugged. “We don’t have any idea what Net power is, and it looks like mind power.” She pulled them both into mind connection one more time.

Jamie watched in skeptical silence as Lauren walked Ginia through the most basic steps of accessing mind power. Zilch. Nothing.

Lauren mentally elbowed him. Do all your witchlings get it on the first try?

Ouch. She could be loud when she wanted to be.

She very patiently walked Ginia through the exercise several more times. Jamie yawned, and then sat up in shock as the mental lights went on. Holy crap.

He dropped partway out of mindlink and grabbed his laptop. Have her do it again, he sent to Lauren. I want to get some readings. Jamie watched his screen as Ginia caused three spikes in a row. The last one was as big as anything they’d seen when she was spellcoding.

He looked up just in time to catch his niece in mid-leap. “I did it, Uncle Jamie!”

“You sure did, cutie. You know, this makes you famous.”

“Why?”

“First person to ever intentionally activate Net power. You’ll be in the witch history books.”

“Cool!” No one missed what she didn’t say. Just like Aervyn.

Damn. The next logical person to teach was her baby brother, but Ginia deserved her day in the sun before being eclipsed. Especially if she was having one of those rare days when being big sister to the world’s most powerful witchling was a little touchy.

Give her some time, Lauren sent. And don’t make assumptions. Maybe Super Boy won’t be the most powerful Net witch in the land.

Jamie had lost too many times recently to make any more bets with the women in his life, but he was unconvinced. There were very, very few things where Aervyn wasn’t the strongest.

~ ~ ~

The Art Fair was crammed full of people who loved handmade items and things of beauty. It buzzed with the sounds of thousands on a mission, mixed with the occasional cry of a baby or the squawk of a loudspeaker.

Elorie’s reticence had melted away in the first ten minutes, and now she was having a glorious time sharing her wares with all the fascinating people flowing into her booth.

She was also starting to get a little worried that she might run out of things to sell, which was flabbergasting. She was an artist first, but a businesswoman second. At the rate her bits of glass were selling, she was going to clear over twenty thousand dollars in four days.

A small girl caught her attention. She was managing to twirl in the crowded booth space, holding one of Elorie’s favorite pieces—a simple chain with four small droplets of glass.

Elorie smiled at the woman with the little girl and crouched down. “That’s a very special necklace. I call it the Mermaids’ Tears.”

The child’s eyes got big. “Are you a mermaid?”

“Well, my feet are a little sore in these shoes, but no, I’m just an ordinary girl. What about you—are you a mermaid?”

The girl looked at her shoes very seriously for a minute. “Not today. It’s hard to walk around with a tail, so today I put my legs on.”

Elorie smothered a smile. “I’m glad you did, so you could come see me and try on a pretty necklace.” She lifted the child’s soft hair, draped the chain around her neck, and led her to a small mirror.

“How do you make all the pretty colors? Is it a magic necklace?”

“Perhaps,” Elorie said. She liked to believe there was magic in the ocean waters, and maybe even a mermaid or two. “The colors are pieces of glass that live in the ocean for a long time. All I do is walk along the beaches and collect them. I like to think maybe the mermaids send them to me so I can make beautiful things.”

The child looked skeptical. “I’ve never seen any tears on my beaches.”

Elorie skipped her usual explanation of ocean currents. “Well, maybe mermaids don’t swim near your beaches. I’ll have to go walking on one myself later today and see what I can find.”

“They come and play,” the girl said. “But they don’t cry, because I sing to them a lot. They like singing.”

The girl fingered the bits of glass on her chest, and Elorie knew this was one of those times when one of her creations simply belonged to someone. “Well, that must be why they sent me these tears.”

The child looked puzzled. “Why?”

“The mermaids must really love your singing and want to say thank you. I believe that every necklace I make has a true owner, and this one must be yours.” The girl beamed, and Elorie shook her head as the woman dug out her purse. “It’s a gift from the mermaids. No charge for those.”

It was so easy to make a small child happy.

Elorie realized a little belatedly that she’d been ignoring everyone else in her booth. As she turned to help them out, she heard the lilting and slightly off-key notes of a little girl’s song float into the air.

She wasn’t sure if it was the song or the adorable girl modeling her treasure that caused the general flood of goodwill into her booth, but she sold out of Mermaids’ Tears necklaces in the next hour.

~ ~ ~

Lauren laughed at Jamie’s look of disgust.

“I don’t get it,” he said. “I can see what you’re telling me to do, but it just doesn’t turn on the same way as mind power for me.”

They’d been trying to replicate Ginia’s success activating her Net power. As both mind witch and talented spellcoder, Jamie had seemed like a good candidate, but so far he was getting exactly nowhere.

“Maybe we should try with someone else,” Ginia said. “Mama’s a wicked spellcoder, or we could get Aervyn. He’s a good mind witch, so maybe he can figure this out.”

She’s right, sent Lauren, as Jamie spluttered in protest. “Sounds like a plan. Why don’t you go fetch them?”

“We’re already here,” Nell said, walking out into the back yard with a pizza box, Aervyn skipping at her heels. “I came to trade Ginia for food, but there’s enough here for everyone. What do you need?”

As they all settled on the grass, lulled by gloriously cheesy pizza, Lauren explained what they were working on.

Aervyn spoke with his mouth full. “So it’s just like mind power, but we hafta hold the mouse when we turn it on?”

Jamie rolled his eyes and grabbed another slice. “I hope it’s that easy for you, short stuff.”

“Let’s give your mama a try first,” Lauren said. She looked at Nell. “We assume it will be easier for people who already know how to spellcode. I’ll pull you into mindlink so you can watch Ginia, and then I’ll walk you through it more slowly.”

Nell nodded and hooked easily into mind connection. After watching Ginia access Net power several times, she backed out. “Got it. It’s kind of like gathering energy for spellcasting.”

“Uh, huh,” Jamie said. “But it’s a lot harder than it looks.”

Nell smirked. “Watch and learn, brother mine.”

Big witches were sometimes no more mature than the witchlings, Lauren thought. When Ginia was ready to track the scanner readings, Nell closed her eyes, and Lauren dropped into monitoring to watch.

After several tries, they knew two things. One, Nell was indeed better than her brother. And two, that wasn’t saying much. She’d managed to get a couple of tiny bursts of light to fire, but that was about it. The power levels had been no more than a blip on Ginia’s screen.

Lauren hoped Aervyn wouldn’t squish the growing sense of pride she could sense in Ginia.

Go ahead, Jamie sent. Let Aervyn show us creaky old witches how it’s done.

She’ll be okay, sent Nell, with a small nod toward Ginia. I think. And if she’s not, we’ll deal.

Lauren wiped the tomato sauce off Super Boy Wonder Witch’s face. “Aervyn, why don’t you mindlink with me, and we can watch what Ginia does. Then I’ll walk you through it slowly.”

“Okay.” He finished wiping his mouth on his sleeve, causing Nell to roll her eyes.

Lauren dropped quickly into their very familiar connection, and together they watched the mental fireworks of Ginia accessing Net power.

I can do that, Aervyn sent.

Oh, boy. Let’s go through it a few more times, buddy. I know it moves kind of fast.

Nuh, uh, I can do it. Aervyn dropped out of mindlink long enough to take the mouse from his sister. Lauren watched in bemused awe as he set off his own mental fireworks seconds later.

Nell looked at her grinning son and shook her head. “I take it he can do it, too.”

“Yeah.” Lauren shook her head. “Sorry, I didn’t even have time to clip you in to watch.”

Ginia looked at the computer readouts and waved at Jamie to take over. “Hey, Aervyn, can you do it again? This time turn on all the power, ’kay?”

Aervyn tried again. And a third time. He was consistent and fast, and Ginia was a very good coach. In a few minutes, they were all convinced he was accessing his full power. But Lauren, with a mind channel hooked into Jamie, could read his surprise. Aervyn’s spikes weren’t nearly as high as Ginia’s.

Well, damn, Jamie sent on a very narrow band. He’s got decent power, but Ginia’s far stronger.

Nell nodded in approval as she watched her two witchlings work together. Good.

Elorie walked into the back yard, sniffing. “Please tell me that’s food. I’m hungrier than a herd of seals.”

Nell shook her head and laughed. “Witches are always hungry. Glad you got my text to come here. Aervyn, honey, there are two more pizza boxes on the counter. Can you get them?”

Jamie pouted in protest. “There’s more, and you were hiding it?”

Two boxes thunked onto the ground at Elorie’s feet, causing her to jump. Aervyn giggled. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to get your toes.”

She rubbed his head. “I forgot you can teleport, sweetie. We don’t have any witchlings in Nova Scotia who can do that. It’s kind of handy when I’m this hungry, though—thanks!”

Jamie’s voice spoke in Lauren’s head. Do we hit her with this now?

We don’t have a lot of choice. She leaves the day after tomorrow.

Elorie looked around at all the computer equipment strewn in the grass and sobered. “Are you still doing readings on that new power?”

“Sort of,” Jamie said. “We’re trying to figure out how to train it.”

Lauren could feel mixed emotions streaming out of their new arrival. Jamie was right—Elorie’s brain was really leaky. She tightened up her mental barriers.

“It’s okay,” Aervyn said, obviously reading the emotional storm as easily as Lauren. He took Elorie’s hand. “It’s really easy to use. I can show you.”

Lauren started to interrupt, and then reconsidered. Elorie might well respond better to coaching from a pint-sized teacher—she seemed to have a real fondness for kids. Go ahead, Super Boy, she sent to Aervyn. But go SLOW. Remember, she’s a brand-new witch.

Jamie’s mental voice was highly amused. If he goes as slow as he did when you were new, he’ll scare her silly.

Lauren remembered all too well the totally overwhelmed feelings of her first week at witch boot camp. She hooked into Aervyn’s mental connection with Elorie, ready to put on the brakes if necessary. Hearing Jamie’s mental knock, she patched him in as well.

Aervyn, taking his trainer responsibilities very seriously, helped Elorie watch as Ginia accessed Net power. Then, in a very nifty move, he replayed it in slow motion for her.

Well, heck, Lauren muttered. Why didn’t I think of that?

That’d be why he’s Super Boy, and we’re just old and creaky, Nell sent dryly. Although, even seeing it in slow motion, I don’t think I could do it any better. We’ll see how our newest witch does.

After watching the replay several times, Elorie’s emotions had settled. Good, Lauren thought as Ginia handed over the mouse. And very interesting. Unlike everyone else, her brain showed a low level of Net power activity even when she wasn’t trying to pull power.

That’s why we were getting readings on the scanner, Jamie sent. She’s got a really strong affinity for Net power.

So, what does that mean, exactly?

Damned if I know.

Aervyn very patiently walked Elorie through her first attempts at accessing Net power, and like most newbie witches, her initial efforts got nowhere.

By now, Lauren had patched in Nell and Ginia as well, and they let out a collective mental sigh at each failed try.

Lauren thought she could see the problem. At the key point of engaging more active power, Elorie balked.

She’s not the first, Jamie sent. I remember a certain mind witch who didn’t step up and claim her power happily, either.

Lauren stuck out her mental tongue at him. Then she paused. Aervyn was setting his student up for another attempt, and she had the distinct feeling he had something up his sleeve.

As Elorie hit the sticking point, Aervyn moved like mental lightning. Giggles reverberated in all their heads as he launched a sneak tickle attack.

A moment of shock and laughter—and then fireworks exploded in Elorie’s head.

Lauren could feel the awe of every witch present, including Aervyn. Oh crap, Jamie sent. Now we’re in the big leagues.

Yup, said Nell. With a newbie at bat and a four-year-old manager.

Ahem, came from Ginia.

Well, I guess you’re a little better than a four-year-old in charge, Jamie teased as Ginia spluttered.

Who’s going to tell Elorie she’s the baddest Net witch in the West? Lauren asked—and was promptly reminded that when push came to shove, the Walker clan voted as a bloc, and Jamie was all too happy to join them. Terrific.

~ ~ ~

Elorie took off her shoes and enjoyed the feel of sand between her toes. Most Nova Scotia beaches had more pebbles than sand, so this was a strange, but lovely, feeling.

The crisp night air was a welcome change from the smells of stale popcorn and slightly burned hot dogs she’d been breathing in her booth.

She could feel her very soul exhaling as she began to meander down the moonlit beach. Jamie had dropped her off and then gone for a late-night ride, promising to return for her in an hour. She had a blessed sixty minutes to herself.

The motorcycle ride had been exhilarating, but what she really craved was silence. Or what passed for silence on an ocean beach, with the sounds of waves crashing and occasional birds overhead. Night spray blew against her face as she dipped her toes into the receding water.

She didn’t think of herself as a solitary creature, but three days in a row of people-packed art show, and she was ready to drop.

She sighed. And that was what Gran would call utter hogwash. The Art Fair was an amazing experience, with so many people loving her handcrafted glass trinkets. As an artist, she was riding a wave of euphoria. As a witch—well, that was the proverbial whale on the beach.

Truly, it was hard to think of herself as a witch just yet. And even harder to think of herself as a witch with a weird new power, especially when that new power didn’t seem much good for anything.

Oh, it had been an amazing rush to feel the whoosh inside her head as she activated her talent purposefully for the first time. It shamed her a little to admit it, but it had also been nice to see witches looking at her with magical respect for once.

But growing up with Gran had instilled strong values, and the first of those was that witches didn’t have magic—witches did magic, for the greater good of the witching community and the planet.

So when the lights had gone on inside her head, she’d asked the question any witch raised with Gran would ask. “What can I do with it?”

Aervyn’s answer had left her empty. “I don’t know, but it’s really pretty!”

If she wanted something pretty, she’d make a necklace. Power was meant to work, to do, to give. If hers couldn’t do anything, then she was a fairly useless witch.

Elorie realized she was now marching down the beach like a two-year-old having a tantrum. She paused, wrapping her arms around her waist.

She knew what she needed. Home.

She’d caught Aaron on her cell phone as she left the Art Fair, but she really needed Gran’s wisdom right about now. Gran had offered via the grapevine to stay up late for a video chat, but Elorie had reached her limits with computers. She just wanted to be home.

She realized her eyes were casting around the beach. Silly girl, looking for sea glass on the wrong side of the world. She was a fish out of water here. She wasn’t a coder, or a modern witch. She was Elorie Shaw—artist, organizer, wife.

One more day as Elorie Shaw, art-fair sensation, and then she would go home.