pretty cool art. Good thing he hadn’t been in charge of decorating.
He’d heard rumors that Elorie had been having a tough time with the technology required for her magic. Whoever believed that hadn’t spent the last several hours on the receiving end of her orders. When it came to organizing witches, he’d thought Nell was untouchable. He’d been wrong.
He leaned over to his sister. “This is the woman who is scared of the virtual world?”
Nell shrugged. “She didn’t know how to power up an iPhone two days ago.”
Jamie snorted. Elorie had taken over Realm, issued very polite orders for an online meeting space, and shuttled four-dozen witches into virtual reality. This was not a woman shy about using technology.
Or at least getting everyone else to use it for her. Shay and Mia had spent three very busy hours coding the new online witch hangout. And he’d kidnapped Ginia and Aervyn practically as they stepped off the airplane so they could figure out how to bottle a transporting spell. Good thing he had lots of minions.
Once serious witch business was over, he was so going to beam himself into the Realm gaming levels. Hot damn, that was going to be a game-changer.
For now, Elorie had a meeting room and a witch shuttle service. He couldn’t wait to see what she did with it.
He wasn’t the only one waiting. Moira sat on a comfy blue couch, Aervyn snuggled on her lap and the triplets at her feet, watching her granddaughter with pride.
Jamie knew the look—all witch trainers did. It happened when you watched your trainee step out of the nest. Whatever her path to get here, Elorie at this moment was a woman confident in her power and her purpose.
She stood up at the front of the room, and every head turned in her direction. “I wanted to thank all of you for coming. I know it was short notice and not much explanation.”
Sophie smiled. “You asked, we came.”
Jamie nodded, as did many others. It was the way of witches. Elorie had put out the call for spellcoders, and they had come. No questions asked.
“As many of you know, we’ve discovered a new kind of power source—and those of you who spellcode can all use it.”
“But we can’t do what you can with it,” said Govin, one of Realm’s best players.
“True. Some of us can use Net power differently, and we’ve spent the last week learning a lot about what’s possible. I think Jamie and Uncle Marcus have briefed you on what we’ve learned.”
Govin leaned forward. “You can push magic to any of us through the Internet, right?”
Elorie nodded, and murmurs started. She held up her hand. “We can also pull magic. It gives us a lot of freedom to put the right magic in the hands of any available witch. I asked you to meet here today to talk about how we can best use that in service of those around us.”
Govin considered for a moment. “It would really help with witchling training. We often have a mismatch with available trainers, especially when new talents emerge quickly.”
Moira beamed. “Just so, Govin. And you can definitely use it in your weather work.” Govin and his partner spent countless hours working to minimize the devastation of some of the planet’s harsher weather patterns.
Sophie spoke next. “There are things I can’t do in Colorado because I’m a solitary witch.” She touched Mike’s shoulder. “Or I was. Last month, one of the little ones on my street got lost. It would have been a true blessing to call on Jamie or Aervyn for a seeking spell. It’s not a talent I have.”
Nell nodded. “We lack healers in California. There are times it would be very handy to have one available.” She frowned. “This sounds like a pretty big organizational challenge, though. Hard to have the right people on call all the time to make the spells that are needed.”
Elorie’s eyes gleamed. “That’s just it. For a lot of the things you’ve mentioned, we don’t actually need to have the right people available at the exact right time. We just need their spells.”
Ah. Jamie connected the last of the dots. Now he knew why she’d asked for spellcoders. She was freaking brilliant.
Her energy danced through the room. “Witches like Aervyn and Ginia and me can push magic to witches who need it, but we don’t need a live witch making the spell. We can use one that’s already spellcoded. That’s what I’m hoping all of you