Edie

When Dawn opened her eyes, she could see all the magic around her. For a moment she was overwhelmed by her two friends—Corrie just had so much magic, and Edie’s was so strange and sparkling. But her internal eyes quickly adjusted, and she could see the haze of magic all around her. And it really was all around; as Corrie had predicted, all the books seemed to have a little magic in them, more than other inanimate objects. Dawn wondered whether that was something inherent to all books, or whether they had picked it up from being on a magical campus and used by people who did magic.

By the time Dawn’s shift ended, not only was she starving, but she had hardly found any of the books. She managed to check on the titles of the ones she did remember in the library computer system, and found that four of them had been checked out (including The Practical Use of Magic, which was under her name, of course) and three were on the shelves. When she located the ones on the shelves, she realized she had no idea how to check them. Two were history books and one was an upper-level philosophy text.

Corrie shoved her hands in her coat pockets as they left the magic building, heading back toward Gilkey. It was getting really cold. “Dammit, I don’t want to do my homework.”

“Well, I don’t think you have to quite yet,” said Dawn. “We should really tell everyone else about this.”

Corrie glanced at her and nodded. “You’re right. Our friends need to know.”

“I should probably let Leila know,” said Edie with a frown. “I mean, it’s her sister trying to mess with us still. They really don’t seem to get along at all.”

Sunday, November 23

Corrie, Dawn, and Edie had agreed that they would all go see Professor Lal. They’d all used the book, and Edie, after hearing about how the book had failed to give Dawn the instructions that would have helped her, and the fact that Professor Lal was worried about it, feared there might have been some malevolent magic on it that affected them. Corrie thought she was being over-cautious, but was certainly willing to indulge her; it was certainly safer to be too cautious than not cautious enough.

They kept working on their magic. By the time they were thoroughly chilled and ready to go home, Edie had made a pool of a rather respectable size, Dawn had managed a twig that kept its shape, and Corrie had started her own metalwork practice. She was making all different shapes out of iron, including knives and something like a morningstar, with a long handle to grip. They weren’t pretty, but they would be extremely useful against faeries if they had to fight. And Corrie was pretty sure she could create iron at will now. Dawn was going to have to experiment with that herself.

Thursday, November 20

It was unusually warm for November—over fifty degrees out, and all the snow had already melted. Edie wasn’t doing anything that evening and had suggested the three of them go out and try trance magic again, which was why they were bundled up (but not too bundled up) and walking away from Gilkey, towards the environmental co-op’s orchard.

“Really?” Corrie glanced between the two of them. She still couldn’t see anything, of course. “How is it different?”

“Well, everyone else’s magic is in a particular spot in their bodies,” said Dawn. “Mine is in my head, and yours is in your stomach, and I’ve seen a few other people’s magic, and it’s in different places. All the natural stuff, the earth and the plants and everything, have magic all through them, but I haven’t seen anyone else… wait.” She frowned, her eyebrows scrunching together.

“What is it?” Edie asked.

Corrie returned to her dorm room that afternoon, tired from a day of work and from slogging through the slush that was all that was left of Friday’s snow, to find Edie sitting on her bed and reading. “What have you got there?” she asked as she pulled off her coat, though she thought she knew the answer. It was an old leather book and the title was too faded and covered up by Edie’s hands to read. There couldn’t be too many books that fit that description.

“The Practical Use of Magic,” Edie said. “Dawn gave it to me the other day.”

Dawn took a deep breath. She was still grounded. She could still sense all the magic around her. All she had to do was draw on it…

Water started to seep from her palm. First a trickle, then a stream, like the water from a bathroom tap. She focused and she controlled it. It didn’t turn into a gush. She started to smile.

Dawn took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She would have to open them again later, but she seemed to connect to the earth magic better when she wasn’t reacting to any other stimuli—and the sun glittering off the snow was certainly stimulating. Breathing slowly and steadily, she imagined roots growing down from her legs and into the ground. Quickly but gradually, she felt supported, stronger, more relaxed. It was working.