A Hidden Witch - By Debora Geary Page 0,18

Isn’t being a witch more important than any hobby?

Nell: Spoken like an old-school witch. Elorie is a deeply talented artist, and if what I hear is true, she’ll likely earn more in the four days of the Art Fair than most people in Nova Scotia earn in six months.

Marcus: I stand corrected. Her bobbles are attractive enough, but they’re just beach glass. Decoration.

Nell: This from the guy who has the biggest costume collection in Realm?

Marcus: Those are necessary for my game strategy.

Nell: Dammit, warn me when you’re going to be funny. I just spit coffee all over my monitor.

Marcus: Try a simple kitchen spell, dear.

Nell: I’m not a kitchen witch, and only Moira gets to call me dear. If you’re not careful, Gandalf, I’ll be helping my daughter take you down a notch.

Marcus: She doesn’t need your help.

Nell: Oh, really.

Marcus: I’m the biggest challenge she has left, and it’s not going to take her much longer to leave me in the dust. She took a good run at it earlier today. The little punk sent a sneaker to try to infiltrate one of my spells. I’m not entirely convinced there was only one. She’s a very tricky little witchling.

Nell: Well, I guess you’re not a total loss.

Marcus: What I am is the only witch in Nova Scotia who believes your computer scans. Which means, like it or not, I’m in a position to help.

Nell: I don’t know that there’s much of anything to do until we can figure out what kind of power source Elorie’s accessing. The girls and Jamie are huddling over code, trying to figure it out.

Marcus: Warrior Girl got me to thinking this morning, and I have an idea about that.

Nell: All ears.

Marcus: Her power might be connected to the online world in some way. A kind of power we haven’t seen before.

Nell: It seems a little hard to believe she has some kind of completely unique magical talent.

Marcus: Exactly. Perhaps she’s not unique.

Nell: Now you’ve lost me.

Marcus: Pay better attention, then.

Nell: Careful, or I’ll have Moira drag out her cauldron for you to scrub.

Marcus: I’m in possession of an excellent scrubbing spell. Let me try to explain more simply. Elorie’s not the first witch to combine technology and magic.

Nell: Well, there’s spellcoding, but that’s different.

Marcus: How?

Nell: It’s a blend of magical power sources with online code. But the power sources are the traditional ones.

Marcus: Correct. Can every witch spellcode?

Nell: Hell, no.

Marcus: Why not?

Nell: What is this, a test? Because most of them are crappy coders, for one.

Marcus: Agreed. But think about Realm. There are plenty of players in the witch-only levels who are pathetic spellcoders, and it’s not always well-correlated to either their coding capabilities or their strength as a witch.

Nell: True… Wait—are you suggesting that spellcoding is a separate talent?

Marcus: Something like that.

Nell: Keep talking.

Marcus: If spellcoding was simply about adding good code together with decent magical strength, then I think the rankings in Realm would be very different. Look at your daughter. She’s an innovative little witchling, and a smart coder, but she can’t come close to matching my magical power yet. She’s been a witch for what, a few months now?

Nell: Huh. Yeah, she’s leapfrogged some pretty skilled witches recently. You don’t think it’s just her coding skills?

Marcus: Your husband Daniel has reason to respect my coding abilities. I’m not quite at his level, but not all that far behind, either. Your daughter would find me more difficult to beat code-to-code.

Nell: That’s not the impression you gave her.

Marcus: Contrary to popular opinion, I don’t eat young girls for breakfast.

Nell: That’s still open for debate. So, you think she has some separate dose of spellcoding talent.

Marcus: I’m wondering if perhaps there is a magical ability we’ve never really isolated and identified because it tends to come along with other powers.

Nell: Ah. And you think Elorie might possess this talent.

Marcus: Yes. And only that talent.

Nell: But any known talent leaves power traces. Why wouldn’t this one?

Marcus: It does. It simply leaves them in a different place.

Nell: ??

Marcus: Online, Nell. That would be why Moira and I can’t read it, but your scanner did.

Nell: It leaves virtual power traces?

Marcus: A fascinating thought, no? And one I leave with you to pursue. There are very few computer-competent witches on this coast, but you have access to two groups with deep coding skills and witch power. A good test population, I would think.

Nell: Yeah, the witch-level Realm players would go nuts to help with this. What’s the second