A Hidden Witch (A Modern Witch Series: Book 2) (14 page)

“You did. Now we need to figure out what we can
do with it.”

His lunch guests scrunched up their faces in
identical quizzical lines. “Don’t you know?” Aervyn asked.

Jamie shook his head. “I don’t. Usually when
witches are learning something new, someone who already knows how
to do it teaches them.”

“Like you teach me, except sometimes I surprise
you.”

He certainly did. “Just like that, kiddo. But
sometimes a new kind of magic or a new kind of spell comes
along—not very often, but when it does, witches have to work
together to figure out what to do with it.”

Ginia tilted her head to one side, deep in
thought. “Well, we know you can use Net power to spellcode.”

“Right, but that might not be the only use. All
we know for sure is that it’s a power source, and most power
sources can be used to create lots of different kinds of
magic.”

Aervyn bounced on his seat. “We get to make up
stuff?”

Jamie hoped he wasn’t digging himself way in
over his head. Nothing like letting the world’s most powerful
witchling loose with a new magic source and no rules. “It’s more
like being detectives. We need to do some small tests and see what
kinds of magic we can maybe do.”

Aervyn’s face fell comically. “If we can get the
small magic to work, can we try big magic?”

“Absolutely.” Jamie closed his eyes for a moment
and ported a box of training props from the basement. He started to
lift a candle out of the box, and then changed his mind; he wanted
Ginia to have first crack at this. Pulling out a closed rosebud, he
handed it to his niece.

She looked confused for a moment, and then
nodded, clearly having figured out what he wanted.

He dropped into light monitoring contact to
watch her work. Reaching for the mouse, she had fireworks going off
in her mind almost instantly. Jamie was impressed—someone had been
practicing.

Pretty fast there, Warrior Girl. Now let’s
see if you can get that bud to bloom. Net power only; don’t use
your earth powers
.

He watched several tries and could see her
problem. Her mind knew how to pull earth energies for this kind of
magic, and she couldn’t keep them entirely turned off.

Hmm. Let’s try something you can’t do with
elemental powers.

Jamie poured water into a glass and added a tall
straw.
Can you get the water to move up the straw?
Ginia had
strong earth power and a little fire as well, but she had no water
talent.

It was apparent in a few minutes that she wasn’t
going to get the job done with Net power, either. Ginia opened her
eyes and scowled. “This isn’t going to work.”

“That didn’t, but let’s give Aervyn a try, and
then we’ll move on to something else.”

She shook her head, an undersized woman on a
mission. “It doesn’t make any sense. Net power is new—why would it
work to do old magic? Water power works to move water around, so
maybe Net power moves… I don’t know, ‘Net’ around.”

Aervyn’s eyes went big. “What’s that?”

Ginia giggled. “Maybe it’s like an invisible
superpower. So it works best to do stuff that’s invisible.”

Invisible stuff… light bulbs went off in Jamie’s
head. “When you spellcode, Ginia, the Net power readings are
strongest when you join the programming code to the spell.”

“Sure. That’s the trickiest step.”

“Right.” Jamie tried to bring focus to his very
fuzzy idea. “But think about what you’re actually doing at that
moment—you’re joining two things together. Maybe Net power is good
for joining kinds of magic.”

“Like the Internet.” Ginia sucked in her breath.
“The Net joins people, and ideas, and…” her words trickled off in
wordless excitement.

Right. Magic had affinities. Water power worked
best with water and other things that flowed. Fire power was most
effective at creating heat and light. Maybe Net power was meant to
be used to form connections and links.

He put together a picture in his mind of what he
wanted to try and pushed it out to his trainees. He picked up a
candle out of the box for himself and handed the closed rosebud to
Aervyn. Ginia held the mouse and nodded. Ready.

Jamie used fire power to light the candle as
Aervyn gently trickled earth magic to open the flower. He could see
the fierce concentration on Ginia’s face and the building light in
her mind.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then flame
danced from the petals of the open flower in Aervyn’s hand. Ginia
had done it. She’d joined their spells.

There were few moments Jamie loved more than
watching a witchling own their power for the first time. Her
sun-bright joy was contagious, and he felt his magic surge in
response.

Unfortunately, the other person who got swept up
in the excitement had fire in his hands and a fairly unlimited
power supply. A few very busy seconds later, Jamie looked up at the
scorch marks on his ceiling and sighed. You’d think by now he would
have learned to play with fire outside.

Aervyn looked slightly worried. “Sorry, Uncle
Jamie. I didn’t mean to.”

“I know it, short stuff.” He looked over at
Ginia, whose delight hadn’t been dampened at all by the accidental
fire. She was radiant.

He was blindsided by the force of his sudden
yearning. Maybe one day, he’d be lucky enough to be there when his
baby girl owned her magic for the first time.

He’d paint over all the scorch marks in the
world for that chance.

~ ~ ~

Moira sat at her kitchen table, the warm comfort
of a cup of tea in her hands, and tried to be patient. It wasn’t
easy. Her heart needed to set eyes on her granddaughter.

A journey to the other side of the continent was
big enough, but Elorie had also walked the path from woman to
witch. A sizable part of Moira’s heart hurt that she hadn’t been
there to see it.

No matter. She’d soon see her sweet girl and
know for herself how things sat. Being a witch wasn’t always
sunshine and roses, and if Marcus spoke true, Elorie was having a
bit of a difficult time.

She got to her feet at the sound of footsteps
coming up the garden path. At last.

“Gran.” Elorie took the few steps from the door
into Moira’s arms.

“Welcome home, my beautiful granddaughter. Let
me look at you.” It was obvious at a glance that Marcus had indeed
been right. All was not well with her girl. “Let’s take a walk in
the garden, shall we? I could use some fresh flowers, and your
young legs could save mine a bit of bending.”

“Nice try.” Elorie smiled as she reached for the
kitchen shears. “Those flowers on the table look cut this morning,
and I’m sure your old legs were up to the job.”

There we go; that was a bit more like her
granddaughter. Moira hid her satisfaction. “Then we’ll send flowers
home with you. Aaron always has room for another vase or two.”

Moira trusted that the gardens would work their
magic of soothing and opening. They almost always did. And if that
didn’t work, there was always good old-fashioned prying. The Irish
were masters at sticking their noses in where it mattered.

Elorie cut a few flowers and laid them in the
gathering basket. Then she looked up and spoke softly. “It’s not at
all what I imagined, Gran.”

Moira’s heart squeezed. “Sometimes it isn’t,
sweetling. Tell me about what it is like, then.”

“There’s power—I felt it turn on inside me. But
there’s no magic.” She held up a flower. “I always dreamed that one
day I would sit in your garden and watch a flower bloom in my
hands, or light a candle.”

“I know, my sweet girl.” Moira laid her hand
gently on her granddaughter’s shoulder. Elorie wasn’t the only one
who had held that dream tightly and needed to let it go now. “But
we must live with what is. One day, you’ll sit in my garden and
we’ll work magic together—that I can promise you. For now, your job
is to learn about your gifts and what they can do.”

Elorie broke away, agitated. “My gift is to put
my hand on a computer part and set off some nice readings on a
screen. What use is that?” She kicked at a rock. “I’m a freak, not
a witch.”

Moira hesitated a moment, unsure how best to
comfort. “You’re not alone.”

Elorie took a deep breath. “I know, and I’m
sorry. I don’t mean to sound like Lizzie when she needs a snack.
Ginia is delighted with this new power, but she has a way to use
it. The last thing I want to learn is how to play some online
game.”

“Well, then, we’ll just have to find some other
purpose for this magic of yours, won’t we? We can’t have a useless
witch in our midst.” Moira picked up the basket of flowers. “Come,
let’s have some tea.”

Elorie stood frozen on the path. “I’m not
useless!”

Moira swallowed a smile and pinned her
granddaughter with a very serious look. “Indeed, you’re not. You’re
simply a witch on a journey to find her true purpose. That’s a very
important difference, my girl, and you’ve a lot of people to help
you.”

“I have a purpose.”

“Aye, and one you’ve fought hard for, child. You
stand at the very heart of this community, and you do wonderful
work. We’re richer because of who you are. All the computer parts
in the world won’t change that.”

She saw that idea land in her granddaughter’s
heart and deeply hoped it would be true. Sometimes magic rooted in
what was already there and added to the beauty. Sometimes it turned
the whole garden upside down, and you had to start from scratch.
For now, they’d try the easier way. It was a rare witch that took
the easier path, but they could surely try.

Her eyes misted as Elorie’s arms wrapped around
her neck. “Thank you, Gran. It’s good to be home.”

~ ~ ~

Jamie sat down at his computer and logged into
the admin panel for Realm. His niece and Marcus were both online,
so he watched the action for a few minutes. She was laying some
kind of spell trail, but even with his all-access eyes, he couldn’t
figure out exactly what she was doing. Tricky little witch.

He laughed as moments later, everything in Realm
turned pink and glittery. Trust a nine-year-old girl to waste that
many game points redecorating. Feeling some sympathy for crusty old
Marcus, he sent out an administrator instant message.

Marcus:
Is Warrior Girl
putting you up to this?

Jamie:
Huh?

Marcus:
You all keep grabbing
me into chat as she skulks around and prepares whatever nefarious
tricks she’s going to throw out next.

Jamie:
Got you on the ropes,
has she? That glitter’s definitely scary stuff—I can see why you’re
worried.

Marcus:
She’s the mistress of
multi-layer spells. I’d bet half my weapons stash that while
everyone in Realm is pointing at the pink clouds and glittery
castles, she’s poisoning our water supply or something. It’s
embarrassing. She’s nine, for crying out loud.

Jamie:
Yeah. Be glad her two
sisters don’t have magic. They code just as well as she does.

Marcus:
Someone’s keeping
them on the straight and narrow, right? They’d make marvelous
hackers.

Jamie:
Fortunately, that job
is up to Daniel. But that’s not why I paged you. Let me fill you in
on what’s happened with our Net power experiments.

Marcus:
I’ve been hearing
rumbles in Realm. Sounds like you haven’t found any Net witches old
enough to drive yet.

Jamie:
Well, we have people
who can use Net power to spellcode, but the only ones who can take
it further than that so far are Ginia, Aervyn, and Elorie. It’s
like anyone who has done significant spellcoding has hardwired
their magical paths, or something.

Marcus:
Fascinating
theory.

Jamie:
I’m not in love with
it, since my brain is one of the ones that are apparently too old
to adapt. If I’m right, yours is too.

Marcus:
Well, we shall see. I
trust that one of your crew can walk me through the basics and see
if I can break the mold.

Jamie:
Aervyn should be able
to show you. With your mind powers, you’ll be useful monitoring the
testing of others, as well.

Marcus:
You’re thinking that
we electronically challenged witches on this coast won’t have so
many hardwired brains.

Jamie:
Let’s just say I’m
guessing you’ll find more raw talent to work with. And if Elorie’s
potential is any indication, the genes may run stronger in your
branches of the family tree.

Marcus:
Ah, the irony.

Jamie:
Tell me about it.
However, you might be interested in the new piece we’ve worked out.
Let’s go find Warrior Girl.

Jamie dropped out of chat and flexed his
administrator muscles again, pulling Ginia and Marcus into an empty
Realm level. He activated three-way video chat, a brand-new
addition courtesy of Shay and Mia.

Marcus looked around in approval. “Nice. Not
quite so pink.”

Ginia waved. “Hey, Uncle Jamie. Did you like my
redecorating job?”

“You realize I’m going to have to send your
sisters to clean it up, right?”

Ginia raised an eyebrow. “Tell them good luck
with that. It’s booby-trapped.”

Punk witchling. He’d taught her well. “Want to
show Marcus your new trick?”

She nodded, always ready for something new.
“Sure. Which one?”

“The one where you use Net power to join two
spells. I’m thinking we could try that in virtual space.”

Marcus leaned forward, suddenly intent, but said
nothing. Ginia’s eyes got big. “Oh. Because it’s kind of a virtual
power, right? You think we can do magic in Realm without
spellcoding?”

Jamie grinned and headed his Realm avatar over
to a nearby virtual flower garden. “I think maybe
you
can.
Marcus and I probably aren’t so lucky. Let’s do some really simple
magics first. Marcus, do you have a firelighting spell in your bag
of tricks?”