A Hidden Witch - By Debora Geary Page 0,28
she was becoming.
I do now, said Lauren’s amused voice in his head. Want to watch? I think I can pipe you a channel, too.
The easy strength of her mind powers was obvious the instant she linked him in. His view of Ginia’s brain via mindlink had been murky and distorted; hers was crystal clear.
He watched as Ginia pulled earth power to weave the initial spell. Then she reached for her computer keyboard, and small fireworks of light exploded everywhere.
He could feel Lauren’s shock. What the heck was that?
I assume it’s Net power in action, sent Jamie dryly. That’s the first time I’ve seen it that clearly. Any idea what she did?
Not really. Most power use comes from a single focal point, so I wasn’t expecting anything like this. There was no focus—it’s like it was all over her brain.
Try it again please, Ginia, Lauren sent. As slowly as you can.
They had Ginia loop through the spellcoding routine five or six more times before Lauren dropped them all out of mindlink. Jamie’s brain hurt just from watching.
“So,” said Ginia, picking up her ice cream, “did you figure out how I’m doing it?”
Lauren looked at Jamie. “Maybe. It’s a bit similar to mind power, actually. It behaves like an internal energy source, rather than an external one like earth or fire power.”
He wasn’t trying to be disagreeable, but that didn’t make any sense. “Well, since you have to be hooked up to a computer to use it, it’s obviously not an internal source.”
Lauren shrugged, and swiped Ginia’s ice cream. “Okay, but if we skip that little technicality, once it activates, it looks like an internal power source. If it looks like mind power, maybe it trains like mind power.”
Ginia frowned. “I don’t get it.”
He didn’t get it either. Jamie reached out with his spoon, since his pint was mysteriously empty.
“When I use mind power,” Lauren said, “it’s just kind of there, but I have to turn it on. From the inside, not like elemental power where you reach externally.”
Jamie nodded. His mind-witch powers were a little clunky, but definitely different from his other talents. “Kind of like flipping a mental switch.”
“Close enough. You get readings on Elorie even though she isn’t actively using power, right? What if Net power is just kind of there, at least when you’re online, but you need to turn it on?”
And Elorie’s switch was stuck partway on. That made an odd kind of sense.
“Okay,” said Ginia, always the adaptable witchling. “How do I turn on my switch?”
Lauren grinned. “We’re going to experiment. I’m going to pretend you have mind power and walk you through turning it on. You keep your hand on the mouse.”
Jamie mentally groaned. Powers weren’t interchangeable like that. They needed to figure out how Net power worked before anyone was going to be able to just flip a switch.
You’re such a guy, Lauren sent, rolling her eyes at him. “You don’t have water power, and yet you teach witchlings how to use it. How do you do that?”
He was getting backed into a corner here, he could just tell. “It doesn’t really matter which elemental power it is—you tap into them more or less the same way. But those are both elemental energies. Net power isn’t mind power.”
Lauren shrugged. “We don’t have any idea what Net power is, and it looks like mind power.” She pulled them both into mind connection one more time.
Jamie watched in skeptical silence as Lauren walked Ginia through the most basic steps of accessing mind power. Zilch. Nothing.
Lauren mentally elbowed him. Do all your witchlings get it on the first try?
Ouch. She could be loud when she wanted to be.
She very patiently walked Ginia through the exercise several more times. Jamie yawned, and then sat up in shock as the mental lights went on. Holy crap.
He dropped partway out of mindlink and grabbed his laptop. Have her do it again, he sent to Lauren. I want to get some readings. Jamie watched his screen as Ginia caused three spikes in a row. The last one was as big as anything they’d seen when she was spellcoding.
He looked up just in time to catch his niece in mid-leap. “I did it, Uncle Jamie!”
“You sure did, cutie. You know, this makes you famous.”
“Why?”
“First person to ever intentionally activate Net power. You’ll be in the witch history books.”
“Cool!” No one missed what she didn’t say. Just like Aervyn.
Damn. The next logical person to teach was her baby brother, but Ginia deserved her