Edie

Saturday, November 15

Dawn woke feeling, thankfully, refreshed and well. She was hungry, but that was just because it was morning. After her shower, she felt almost perfect; the snow had stopped, and outside everything was crisp and sparkling. Even the forest looked friendly in its white blanket. The only problems were that she was hungry and Naomi was nowhere to be seen.

“Well…” Edie shifted against the tree, trying to stand somewhere that snow wouldn’t drip down onto her nose, and taking the time to formulate her thoughts. “My friends who are taking magic classes say that there are two ways to get magic. One is the magic inside you, and the other is the magic that’s in everything else, and you have to do a sort of meditation to use that magic.”

Leila was gazing out at the falling snow, not looking at Edie. “Yes, I understand that to be the case for humans.”

The snow was heavy and wet, and the wind was still blowing hard. Edie tried to lean into the wind and pull her hood over her face to protect herself from the flying snow, but it kept changing direction, and soon her face was damp and freezing. She could barely see where she was going, but at least all the buildings she was near had lights blazing in every window. She threw her arms in front of her face and careened through the thick snow to the environmental co-op.

When Dawn had eaten three slices of pizza (and she’d never devoured so much so quickly in her life) and half a bottle of cola and was feeling a little better, she took a fourth slice and her bottle to the couch, where Corrie and Annie already were. “Wow, it’s a good thing we ordered a lot of pizza, Dawn,” said Corrie with a grin. “Hungry much?”

Dawn swallowed her bite and nodded with a rueful smile. “I’m guessing this is also a side effect of the magic. I’ve never been so hungry or so tired in one afternoon before.”

Something intruded on Dawn’s sleep—there was a noise, a crash? She realized it was the door. Then she realized she was sleeping and opened her eyes and sat up.

She felt flushed, over-warm, and still drowsy. She had to blink several times before she noticed Naomi standing in the middle of the room and grinning at her. “What’s up with you, miss never-takes-naps?”

“Naps?” Dawn echoed, confused, then glanced at the window. The snow was still falling, but it was definitely daytime. “Oh, no… I missed class!”

Edie paused just long enough to grab her coat, which was hung on a hook in the theater lobby, before rushing out of the building. She wanted to put as much space as possible between her and Chris. Her hands were still shaking.

“So I told her,” said Genesis, “if that’s how you use a hammer when you’re building sets, I feel sorry for your boyfriend!” The rest of the room exploded with laugher. Edie smiled tentatively, unable to muster even a forced smile in the mood she was in, and took a sip of her soda to cover her lack of mirth.

“Is that safe?” Annie asked. Her eyes were wide, but she was chewing on her lower lip in a thoughtful fashion. She didn’t look opposed to the idea of learning directly from the book, just nervous.

“I don’t see why not,” said Corrie.

“But we have to use this magically shielded equipment, and Professor Rook has to be around in case of injury,” said Rico. “If we’re hiding this from them, we can’t use their equipment or their healing.”

Dawn left the library late that evening—technically afternoon, perhaps, but now that it was November and Daylight Saving Time had ended, the sun had set before she completed her shift—having checked out the Miranda Swick book. She hurried along the paths, partly because it was really quite cold, and partly because she was excited to show the book to Corrie and Roe. It looked like it had some interesting information, and she wasn’t quite sure what to make of all of it.

It had been a long time since Edie had been to a Rainbow Alliance meeting. Most Wednesday evenings, she spent with Leila. Today, they’d made no plans, and she hadn’t been able to get in touch with Leila. On Monday, they had gone to the orchard by the co-op and checked that the trees were bedding down properly for the night, but that was the only time they’d spent together all week. So despite her social anxiety, Corrie and Dawn had persuaded her to come with them to the meeting.