A Modern Witch

CHAPTER 14



The funky outdoor café was crowded with breakfast seekers. According to Jennie, it was the best place in town for morning fare. Lauren sniffed the bacon and eggs as the waiter set her plate down, a double order of everything. She was hollow with hunger.

“A bit more practice, and maintaining functional barriers won’t demand so much food. It’s energy draining at first,” Jennie said.

“I’m eating like a teenaged boy.” Lauren tried not to shovel in the eggs. “Of course, there are upsides to that. I ate a pint of ice cream yesterday, and I don’t have to do penance today.”

“Had some girl time with Nat, did you?”

“You get that from my mind or hers?”

“Neither. In my sixty-three years, I’ve gotten pretty smart at using my eyes. It doesn’t take mind powers to see how tight the two of you are, or what’s brewing between Nat and Jamie. Is it prying to ask how that’s going?”

“Well, you saw the bit between them in yoga class yesterday. He’s definitely gotten to her. I’d feel better knowing it goes both ways. I like Jamie, but—”

“Nat’s your sister.”

“Yeah, she is. My parents are wonderful, but they moved to Florida when my dad retired. Nat’s my family. I don’t want her messed up.”

“Men can mess us up without even trying, but if it’s any consolation, I think Jamie’s at least as twisted up about this as she is. It has to be a huge shift for her, but she’s one of the most centered people I’ve ever met.”

Lauren was glad to have her friend appreciated, but she still worried. “She is, but she’s also got a heart that yearns. Her family sucks and yours is pretty awesome.”

Jennie touched her hand gently. “Are you worried we can’t make room for one more?”

“Not at all. I’m worried how much it will hurt her if things don’t go the way of Jamie’s precog. We’re supposed to leave in a few more days, and I can already feel how that pulls her in two directions.”

“Her yoga studio is in Chicago,” Jennie said.

“Yes, and the life we’ve both built since university. Her studio is like my couch. It’s her center.”

“We can worry about those we love, but even we witches can’t wave magic wands and make it all easy. They’re two good people, and they’ll work out the journey between them.”

Lauren hoped so. “Nat deserves everything.”

“Then I hope she gets it. How are you feeling about going back to Chicago next week?”

Lauren looked around the café. “I couldn’t have done this just a couple of days ago—sat in a crowd of people like this. It still feels like work, but I can be here and eat breakfast and carry on a conversation, so that’s progress.”

“You’ve made beautiful progress. Your basic barrier setting is solid now, although I’ll want you to continue the exercises we’ve gone through. The next level is to be able to fine-tune your control so you can let in what you want, when you want, and no more. That’s the piece you’ll need to keep working on back home.”

It was scary to think of losing her trainer when she’d only just gotten started. “I’m pretty sure if it weren’t for you, I’d have spent the rest of my life terrified of crowded places. I can’t thank you enough.”

Jennie looked very pleased. “Jamie would have helped you, but I like to think we got there a little faster. I’ve never tried training someone long distance, but I’m sure we can figure something out. It’s a true pleasure to watch your skills blossom.

“You’ll have to come back, though. I want to be watching the next time you beat Aervyn; it’s a rare sight, and I much enjoyed my front-row seat when you zinged your little red car through his barriers.”

“It’s hard for me to wrap my head around the power he has when he still puts his shoes on the wrong feet. I’m going to miss him. I haven’t spent much time around little kids, but he’s adorable.”

“If Jamie’s precog comes to pass, you’ll be honorary aunt to his double one day.”

Lauren ate her eggs. One witchling at a time was plenty.

…

“Uncle Jamie, are you going to marry Nat?” Ginia smiled shyly, flashing her brand-new braces.

God, thought Jamie, as three identical faces looked at him expectantly. There was no good answer to a question like that, especially when the woman in question was sitting right beside you eating French fries.

He reached across the table and swiped one of Ginia’s fries. “I thought I was supposed to wait until you grew up so I could marry you.”

Ginia giggled. “We like Nat. You could marry her instead; that would be okay with us.” Shay and Mia nodded in agreement.

“Getting married is a big deal. It takes time to decide stuff like that.”

Shay, usually the ringleader of the three, shook her head. “Nuh uh. Didn’t for Mama and Dad—they fell in love in like two minutes. That’s what Dad always says. You met Nat a lot more minutes ago than that.”

Nat swiped one of Jamie’s fries. “That sounds like a good story. How did your parents meet?”

He could love her just for rescuing him from three eight-year-old girls on a mission. Knowing the story well, he watched Nat to see her reaction.

“Well,” started Mia, “Mama writes the code for Enchanter’s Realm. It’s a really cool video game where you can pretend to be a witch. You can play online too. There’s extra-special levels online, for if you’re really a witch.”

Ginia picked up the story. “The game sends Mama an email whenever a new witch joins the extra-special levels, so she or Uncle Jamie can go check them out, make sure they’re lemigitate.”

“I think ‘legitimate’ is the word you want there, sweetheart,” Jamie said.

Ginia nodded. “Yeah, legitimate. That means to make sure they’re a good witch and everything, and that they don’t cheat.”

Shay spoke next. “She went into one of the special witch-only levels to watch the new witch play. He was really good, and he had some really cool spells and everything. Mama was like totally impressed, so she looked at his spell code.”

“Someone with power can blend computer code and magic to create a spell for the online world,” Jamie explained.

Mia nodded. “Mama and Uncle Jamie build lots of spells for those levels—they’re really good at spellcoding. I’m a good coder, but I can’t do spells, cuz I’m not a witch.”

“Good thing. We’d never keep up with the three of you if you could magic your code,” Jamie said. He leaned over and stage-whispered to Nat. “The three of them are all way better coders than Nell or I was at eight, but don’t tell them that. It will make their heads grow big and explode.”

The three heads in question all giggled. “It’s genetic,” Mia said. “Mama told us that.”

“Keep telling your story,” Jamie said.

Ginia picked up the thread. “So, Mama went to read the spell code for the new witch—she can do that, because she’s the boss. She figured out that his spells weren’t really spells after all, they were just really nifty code. That was weird, because why would a witch write lots of really cool code instead of just adding a little magic?”

Shay bounced on her seat, ready to tell the best part. “Mama went into the game and challenged this new witch to a magical duel. She wanted to see his stuff. They dueled for a whole hour, and Mama couldn’t beat him. So, she asked him to meet her at the office.”

“We were looking to hire a new programmer,” Jamie said. “She figured he might fit the bill.”

The triplets exchanged looks, and Ginia was clearly designated to finish the story. “He came to her office, and Mama found out he wasn’t really a witch, but he still earned his way into the witch-only levels of Enchanter’s Realm. No one had ever done that before.”

Nat looked appropriately surprised and impressed. “How did he do it?”

Ginia grinned. “Because he is the supreme-awesome-coder dude. He dueled with Mama, and she has magic, and she still couldn’t beat him. So, they fell in love and lived happily ever after. Dad is teaching us how to be supreme-awesome coders so that one day we can duel with a guy too and know if we should get married.”

Daniel was one tricky dude, thought Jamie. His three girls were kick-ass coders already and getting better fast. Their dad obviously intended his daughters to be single for a very long time.

“So, if your dad isn’t a witch, what does he do?” Nat asked.

“Nope,” Mia said. “He’s a hacker for hire. He tries to rob banks and steal company data and stuff like that. Companies pay him to pretend to be a bad guy, and they pay him more if he wins, so he wins a lot.”

And he shows his three non-witchling daughters that you can be a fulfilled and successful person without any magical talents, thought Jamie. Which is especially important when your baby brother is the most revered witchling for generations.

Ginia looked at Nat, worship in her eyes. “So see, sometimes witches marry someone who isn’t a witch, and it can turn out really good.”

Little plotters, thought Jamie. So much for thinking they’d been distracted from their initial mission. “Sometimes uncles with sneaky triplet nieces have to turn all their French fries green.”

Three heads looked at their food. “Uncle Jamie, that’s gross!”

Worked every time. Precog visions were plenty of pressure. They didn’t need three pint-sized matchmakers too.

...

Lauren and Jennie wandered along Derby Street, site of the Friday Berkeley farmers’ market and Lauren’s next lesson.

Jennie had picked a fairly quiet time, mostly families and little kids. Lauren was trying to mentally adjust to a climate where you could buy fresh produce in February. There were stalls with everything from mushrooms and broccoli to artisan cheeses and locally ground flour.

“This is so not Chicago,” Lauren said. “What an amazing place.”

“I used to come down here and take pictures almost every week. I think every kind of person eventually drifts through the Berkeley farmers’ market.”

Lauren looked around. You saw a pretty wide range of humanity living in downtown Chicago, but she still felt like a gawking tourist. “I can believe it. Check out the twin toddlers with purple hair playing on the grass over there.”

Jennie followed her point. “They’ll make a nice first training exercise. This afternoon, we’re going to practice reading outer mind thoughts. I want you to soften your barriers just enough to scan and figure out who owns those two cuties.”

Lauren frowned. “That seems a bit invasive. How do I not get a lot more than I want to know, or than someone wants to share?”

“Our minds have layers. We all keep our more private thoughts well sheltered. The outermost layer almost always contains information we’d be happy to share with most people. You have to be respectful—occasionally you will encounter a mind where the layers are not as well formed, or the content is about you, and unless you have good reason, you’ll need to back away.”

“That doesn’t sound very black and white.”

“It’s not. The ethics of using power rarely are. With children, we give more concrete rules, but you’re a grown woman, so you’re going to have to figure out your own rules. Have you found a parent for the two toddlers yet?”

“I’m supposed to do that and talk, too?”

Jennie laughed. “Not really, but it would have been very impressive. Try a light scan now.”

Lauren stopped and adjusted her dome just enough to have a few thoughts filtering through. The artisan cheese maker worried he was running out of samples.

Someone was very unhappy about the broccoli his mother was buying, but she couldn’t tell who. It was hard to match what her mind picked up with what her eyes could see.

Now she had him. It was the little boy in bright green Crocs. She floated lightly over to his mother’s mind and smiled. His mom had no intention of feeding him the broccoli—he’d be getting carrots for dinner instead.

Nice touch, said Jennie’s voice inside her head. Now see if you can brighten the little boy’s mood just a tiny bit. Lauren reached out a rainbow thread from her dome and gently sent a thought to the boy’s outer mind. She cheered her small victory when he turned to his mom and asked for carrots for dinner.

“Very well done, Lauren. Most students would have tried to adjust his emotions. That’s a far heavier lift, and far more invasive than planting a small thought. Same outcome, but much gentler use of power. I hadn’t planned to try that exercise until later today, but I can never resist a small boy who hates broccoli.”

Lauren considered the child, now skipping happily beside his mother. “So, that felt really good, and I imagine it could get fairly addictive. How do you know when it’s okay to intervene?”

“That’s another one of those things you’ll need to work out for yourself. Some mind witches use their powers very sparingly to shift other minds. I tend to fall toward the other end of the spectrum. I could have walked over, started a conversation with that mom, and cheered up her little boy that way.

“Power, for me, is just another tool for those random and not-so-random acts of kindness that can make our world a little better. It can be tricky to decide when to intervene, but I believe power exists for a reason, and that it’s meant to be used. You’ll need to find a balance that works for you; one that fulfills without burning you out.”

This was a woman who had taken some of the world’s most memorable portraits, Lauren thought. She used her power, and she made a difference. Something to noodle on later.

She continued her scan, looking for a parental unit of the purple twosome. The gorgeous woman in the henna designs booth was bored silly by the guy currently talking to her. The guy was hoping to see her naked as soon as possible. Lauren blushed and reversed out of his thoughts. Good luck with that, dude.

There were a lot of parents at the market, and clearly parents always had their kids top of mind. She’d seen lots of toddler mind images, but none with purple hair yet. Wait, wait. Lauren backed up to a couple of women sitting on a bench eating samosas. There. One woman had two toddlers in her thoughts. No purple hair, so that must be new, or temporary enough that it didn’t reshape her thoughts.

Lauren then did what she realized she should have done first, and gently touched the minds of the two toddlers. Yup, the woman sitting on the bench was their mother. Actually, both women sitting on the bench were their mothers. Dang, Jennie was tricky.

“You have a flexible and creative mind, and that’s going to make you a very interesting witch,” Jennie said. “Once again, very nicely done. I didn’t expect you to find them both.” She waved over at the two moms, who smiled and waved back.

“You know them?”

“I do. They volunteered to help with this afternoon’s lesson. Come meet my daughter and her family.”

…

Warm hands slid slowly up her body, teasing Lauren awake with gentle touches. The delicious newness of waking up next to a lover with warm hands was something to savor for an extra moment. The slow demands of hands and lips, the curling in her belly, the glorious feel of tangled legs. Oh, Jamie.

Jamie? Lauren sat bolt upright in bed. Her very empty bed. The moon cast enough light in her window to be sure she was alone.

That had been one extremely vivid dream. Not to mention a disturbing one. She wasn’t interested in Jamie that way, and even if she had been, Nat was her best friend. He was way, way, way off limits. Eeeewww.

Lauren, shut up and go away. Jamie sounded a tad irritated. You’re thinking loud enough half the planet could hear you. I’m busy here. Go away.

Oh, cripes. Oh no. Lauren yanked her mental barriers down tight. She stared at the wall next to her bed—the wall between her bedroom and Jamie’s master suite. Seriously? Nat and Jamie?

Then her sense of humor found its legs. She and Nat had always been close, but that was over the line. In the morning, she’d ask Jennie how to barrier while she was sleeping. Well, first she’d corner Nat and get her information the old-fashioned way, and then she’d ask Jennie for a lesson.

Since she wasn’t going to risk sleep again any time soon, Lauren got up and headed to the kitchen to make some tea. She walked downstairs and found Jennie already there. The kettle was on the stove, and a plate of brownies was on the table.

“I figure neither one of us wants to go back to sleep for the next little bit,” Jennie said.

Lauren blushed. “Did you pick up stuff from Nat and Jamie, too?”

Jennie laughed. “No, sweetie, I picked up stuff from you. I woke up before you did, since some young man’s hands on my body was perhaps a little harder for me to imagine than it was for you. My husband is a wonderful lover, but I haven’t had that sensation of newness for a long time.”

Lauren blushed harder. “Oh, God—I pushed my dream out to you? No wait, it wasn’t a dream. I must have been picking things up from Nat’s mind.”

“I’m guessing so. It’s unusual for a connection that strong to exist with a non-witch, but the two of you are very close. You’re sleeping in close proximity to them as well, so that probably contributed.

“We’ll move you down the hall tomorrow, and I’ll show you how to use your crystals. The white moonstone will help barrier you while you sleep. Eventually you’ll be able to bespell sleep protections, but crystals are the easier path for now.”

“I’m going to learn to cast spells?”

“Just a few very simple ones. Nothing we’ve learned so far suggests you have spellcasting talents, so I’ll just show you the few that almost every witch uses. You’ll also learn some basic spellwork as part of the outer circle on Monday. The inner circle does most of the work, but any witches in the outer circle also help cast and hold the protections.”

“I meant to ask you more about that. Nell mentioned a circle in chat yesterday. I think Sophie is going to fly in for it. That sounds like a pretty big deal.”

“A large circle like the one on Monday is a big deal,” said Jennie. “It will be Aervyn’s first time as spellcaster for a full circle, and that’s always a momentous event in the witching world.”

“I don’t really know anything about circles.” Lauren bit into a second brownie.

“I know. I’ve asked Moira to have a chat with you, actually. She’ll be able to tell you a lot more of the history and traditions than I could, and I know she yearns to play a small role in your training.”

“Thank you. I feel lost sometimes, like I skipped the first few years of school or something.”

“Not to worry, we’ll catch you up. As for the circle, the role of the outer circle is very simple—love and support. Nat will be coming as well. Aervyn has asked for you to be there, and it’s a really big day for him. Maybe we’ll do some beginner circle work tomorrow; it would be good for both of you.”

Well, thought Lauren, if Jamie and Nat weren’t enough to keep her awake, thinking about witch rituals big enough to make Aervyn nervous certainly would. It was definitely a three-brownie night.