Ginia bounced on her seat. “That’s the hardest step, so it should have been the easiest to see.” She and Nell both jumped up to look at the readouts on Jamie’s monitor. Elorie felt oddly naked, floating on the edges of something she didn’t pretend to understand.
Jamie looked up at Elorie, eyes deep with sympathy. “You’re a witch, little sister. Welcome.”
She felt the breath simply leak out of her.
Ginia came to hold one of her hands, and Nell the other. Elorie looked down at the joining of her very first witch circle, and let the tears come.
~ ~ ~
Moira: Hello, Nell. Is my sweet Elorie there? I was hoping to speak with her.
Nell: Sorry, you just missed her. With the time change, it might be tricky to connect with her in the next couple of days. Jamie, Nat, and the girls took her down to the Art Fair to set up her booth. That’s probably way more help than she needs, but everyone is a little excited right now.
Sophie: I just heard the news—I ran into Marcus in Realm.
Nell: Yeah, he’s rounding up witch players so we can do more widespread testing.
Moira: Pardon an old woman for a moment. It’s true, then—my Elorie is a witch?
Nell: She is. She was just a very well-hidden one.
Sophie: Your girl’s a witch, Aunt Moira. We have a new sister.
Moira: It’s a little hard to take in just yet. I never imagined we would find out quite like this, with her practically on the other side of the world.
Sophie: Nell, please give her a hug, and all my blessings. We haven’t been as close in recent years, but she is the sister of my childhood.
Moira: It was very difficult for her as you grew into power, sweetheart.
Sophie: I know it.
Moira: I also know it’s one of the reasons you live so far away.
Sophie: Not the only one, but yes. Her heart is there, and it would ache more often if I lived underfoot.
Moira: Know that mine aches for the choice you made. It wasn’t a fair one to ask of you. In my heart, you have always had a home here.
Sophie: I love you, too :-). Power is not always fair, or easy. It won’t be for Elorie, either, but this feels right. I’m so very happy for her.
Moira: My heart is full to bursting, but my head is very confused. Nell, please have pity and explain to me exactly what you’ve discovered. Marcus was talking about spells and coding and such and I admit to not understanding a word of it. My granddaughter is a witch, but that’s all I know.
Nell: The important part is that we believe there’s a power source we hadn’t previously identified, and Elorie is not the only one who can use it.
Sophie: Net power. That is so cool.
Nell: You’re a pretty good spellcoder, Sophie—make sure Jamie tests you in the next few days. He and Marcus are just doing some tweaking first to make sure we don’t melt any more computers doing the remote scanning.
Moira: Old-lady English, please…
Nell: Sorry, Moira. We’re still trying to understand this new power source. You remember back when I was a child, and they were just beginning to understand how shapeshifting and such worked?
Moira: Indeed. It took some of our best minds to figure out the source powering those magics. Harder still because it’s a relatively rare talent.
Nell: Well, this is another power source we don’t understand much about yet. The good news is, it may not be so rare. Ginia tests for it, and we think that anyone who can spellcode probably has some degree of this talent. Marcus does, as do Jamie and I. Ginia’s the strongest we’ve found so far, though.
Sophie: I repeat, this is so cool.
Nell: Get Jamie to test you, girl.
Moira: And you think my Elorie has this Net power. She will be a spellcoder, then?
Nell: That’s where things get confusing again. For most of us, our scan only registers power when we’re actively spellcoding. For Elorie, all she has to do is touch a mouse and we get higher readings than we see from anyone else.
Sophie: Meaning what, exactly?
Nell: We’re all guessing. Moira, maybe you can help us think this through. There are witchlings who have an unusual affinity for certain power sources, right? Even when they’re not actively doing magic?
Moira: Certainly. Your Aervyn was one of them, playing with power threads while he was still in your belly.
Nell: Exactly. And Jamie and Nat’s babe plays with