most of the new arrivals seemed to believe they needed some sort of computer part to activate their Net power. Which was true, but Nell was pretty sure most of the parts littered in Moira’s yard pre-dated the Internet. Ginia had been shocked to discover floppy disks actually still existed.
Nell waded through the crowd, dispensing cookies and blueberries as she went. Yup, Ginia was looking a little frazzled. Time for a rescue. “Hey, sweetie. How’s it going?”
“It’s a little crazy, Mama. I’m trying to get everyone scanned, but most of them can’t spellcode, so I have to teach them how to do that first.”
Since Ginia’s current audience was all over sixty, Nell guessed that wasn’t going overly well.
And no way did she plan to spend the entire week teaching the witch population of Nova Scotia to code. Time for Plan B.
“Go find Lauren and your brother, sweetie. I have an idea.”
Ginia dashed off, looking relieved. Nell clapped her hands and spell-projected her voice. “Good morning, everybody! Can I get you all to take a seat and face this direction?”
Lauren made her way over with a grumpy Aervyn in tow. Nell handed him a cookie. Chocolate chips could work miracles on four-year-old moods.
“I hope you have a plan,” Lauren said. “This is nuts.”
“I do. I think we need to teach them how to activate Net power without spellcoding. Just like you did with Aervyn and Elorie, but we’ll give them a group demonstration first.”
She turned back to the now-seated and mostly quiet group. “We weren’t expecting such a crowd this morning, so thanks for your patience. As many of you have obviously heard, one way of using Net power is online, with spellcoding. But it can also be activated much like mind power, and we think that might be an easier way to test most of you.”
“Thank goodness,” said a voice at the back. Judging from the laughter, a lot of people agreed with him.
Nell grinned. It didn’t look like Realm was going to pick up a flood of new players from the east. “What we’re going to do first is a quick demonstration, with Ginia activating her Net power. Lauren and Aervyn will mindlink and broadcast so all of you can see.”
Marcus stood up on her left. “I’ll help with that. This is a sizable crowd.”
Nell was pretty sure Aervyn could have handled the job on his own, but she wasn’t about to argue with the local talent.
Ginia pulled out her commandeered iPhone, which got plenty of murmurs all on its own. Marcus leaned over toward Nell. “You’re going to have to raise the rates for Realm if she keeps using that up here.”
Nell snorted. Her girl was smarter than that. “She and Jamie hunkered down last night and hooked up a wireless bubble on her laptop. They juiced the range, so it should work from here.”
“Interesting.” Marcus pulled an iPhone out of his pocket.
Wait just a minute. “You’ve had that all this time?” While she’d been paying a gadzillion dollars a minute in roaming charges?
Marcus raised an eyebrow. “Just how many Net witches do you think we have sitting here, and how many iPhones? I’d never get it back.”
That grated on Nell’s last nerve. Selfish old man. Okay, maybe she was a little cranky too, but witches shared. It was an unspoken rule.
Nell felt Lauren’s incoming mindlink and realized the demonstration was ready to begin. Time to stop squabbling with Marcus.
Very slowly, Ginia walked through the exercise of activating her Net power, with Lauren providing mental commentary. When they’d done it several times, Aervyn ran the slow-motion replay. No one in the audience so much as blinked until he was finished.
Then bedlam broke out. Marcus raised a hand. QUIET.
Lauren winced. Warn me the next time you plan to mind-yell, please.
My apologies. I wasn’t aware you were so sensitive.
Nell grabbed Lauren before she whacked Marcus with a mental two-by-four. Later, girl. Right now, we have a herd of witches to train, and we need him. Play nicely, and I’ll help you get even later.
She’d never heard Lauren growl before. Trust Marcus to bring out the best in all the women around him.
Are you two done yet? Marcus asked dryly. I suggest you pick a volunteer to test.
Nell looked at the waiting audience and tried to figure out the best way to proceed. Ginia tugged on her arm. “Start with the kids, Mama. I’m pretty sure Kevin is a Net witch.”
It wasn’t a bad idea, but they definitely didn’t need several