A Modern Witch - By Debora Geary Page 0,51
enough that it surprised me. Makes sense now, though—you aren’t pushing your barriers out from your center. They’ll get a lot more effective as soon as you do.”
“That would be nice. Will my head still feel swaddled?”
Jennie grinned. Impatient witch. “When you and Aervyn connected yesterday—that strong and flexible feeling? That’s what we’re going for. Try it now. I want you to visualize that nest of a couch as your center and grow barriers out from that.”
Jennie tapped into the monitoring connection to watch her trainee work. Lauren wobbled around for a moment, and then settled quickly into her couch nest. Excellent. Moments later, slimy pink goo grew out of the couch. Eeww, what was that? Bubble gum. Silly girl. Jennie popped the bubble to get Lauren’s attention and dropped out of mindlink to wait.
“Did you have to pop my bubble? I’ll never get that stuff out of my couch.”
Jennie’s lips quirked. “Then don’t make your barriers out of chewing gum, child. Your barrier image needs to be a part of your center, an outgrowth of that.”
Lauren looked confused, and then nodded. “Like your camera lenses are an extension of your camera.”
Smart girl. Jennie nodded.
“Okay, that makes sense, but how do I grow barriers out of a couch? What do I do, add monster pillows?”
“Not a bad thought, actually. The visualizations don’t have to be totally realistic. You could use soft pillows as a barrier; I imagine they’re a wonderful buffer. It needs to be your image, though. Think of something that naturally extends from your couch, that you can tinker with fairly easily.”
Lauren thought a moment and closed her eyes. Jennie dropped into mindlink to watch. This time, the girl found her center with lightning speed for a trainee.
Nothing happened for a bit, and then a gorgeous rainbow dome lifted up to cover Lauren and the couch. It looked warm and fuzzy and delightful, like a gigantic blanket. As Jenny watched, the texture of the dome changed. It was more like silk now, and somewhat see-through.
She walked over and gave the dome a gentle, testing poke. Bravo, girl—very nicely done. Now let’s see what you’ve got.
Jennie stepped back a few paces, imagined a ball of light into her hand, and threw. When the ball bounced off Lauren’s dome, she grinned and manifested another ball. This time she called on her Little League pitcher-of-the-year skills and hurled a fastball. When it ricocheted back into her leg, she hopped around cursing. Damn, should have seen that one coming. She was getting old.
Jennie looked up and saw Lauren’s rainbow dome shaking. Oh dear, had the fastball really done some damage? She reached out with a deeper monitoring channel.
The girl was laughing at her. Trainer pride won over the dent to her ego. Not only did Lauren have excellent shielding in place now, but obviously she could still see out. A very fine morning’s work.
…
Nell: Morning, all. Jamie should be here shortly as well.
Sophie: So, Nell, you’ve met Lauren now.
Nell: I have.
Moira: What did you think of her, our Lauren?
Nell: I don’t think it had really occurred to me until she got here, how wild a ride she’s been on for the past few days. I like her—she’s rolling with things amazingly well. She’s having her first lesson with Aunt Jennie this morning. I have plenty of gossip from yesterday, though.
Sophie: Oh, do tell!
Nell: Do I ever not tell? Let me brag about my youngest witchling, first. Jamie rigged an iPod to shield Lauren on the airplane, but it conked out when they landed. Aervyn spellcast barriers for her in the middle of the San Francisco airport.
Sophie: Wow. That’s a lot of people to counteract.
Nell: Exactly.
Moira: It’s a marvelous job of raising him you’re doing, Nell. He’s growing into his powers with as much support as any witchling could have. He’s a fortunate boy.
Jamie: He didn’t turn you into Cat Woman.
Sophie: Hey, Jamie. Aervyn turned you into a sexy woman with furry ears? Please tell me someone took pictures.
Nell: It was just an illusion spell. He did it at dinner last night—it was damn funny. However, the part that will interest you most is that he worked with Lauren to pull it off.
Moira: She’s got spellcasting talent? Even if she does, surely it’s dangerous for her to be working on that so soon.
Nell: It wasn’t planned. The two of them cooked it up and made it happen before anyone figured out what was going on. Aervyn spellcast, and Jennie says he used Lauren.
Moira: