A Modern Witch - By Debora Geary Page 0,77
attempts, and then the glorious, blinding success of their final effort. She opened her eyes and raised an eyebrow at Edric.
His nod was a silent passing of the baton. “The girl is very creative, and too new to know the insanity of what she handled there.”
Jennie nodded. “Yes to both—and maybe that’s for the best. Edric, we’d like for you to handle point for the circle’s water trio. Nathan and I will work with you.” Aervyn’s older brother had only done one full circle before, and his face shone with the honor.
Edric frowned. “Nathan’s got a nice hand with water elementals, but aren’t you better with air or fire, Jennie?”
“I am, but we want a mind witch in each trio. I’ll talk about that in a moment. None of us have very strong water talents, but I’m the best of the bunch, so you get me.”
Jennie turned. “Sophie, Mike, and Tabitha, you will be the earth trio. Mike, as the strongest with earth elementals, you’ll take point.”
Tabitha looked shocked. “Jennie, my elemental magic is practically non-existent for anything but fire. As far as earth power goes, I can hardly get a flower to bloom.”
“Give me a minute, Tabby, and I’ll explain why we’ve got the mind witches where we have you. Nell, you’ll take point on fire, and Caro will be your resident mind witch.” Caro paused in her knitting and nodded. She never said much, but she was as steady in a circle as they came.
“Govin, you’ll be the third in the fire trio.” The stocky man in the corner tossed a flaming globe in reply.
“Jamie’s leading the air trio, and he’ll be joined by Aurelia and Scott.” The married couple nodded. “You’ll have one of the trickier tasks of the night. In the training circle, as you saw, Aervyn clipped in to the circle and added a power stream.”
“Seems like a foolhardy thing for a spellcaster to do,” Edric said. “You’re not thinking he’ll do it again?”
Jamie spoke up. “I’ve been talking with him, and while it looked like a stunt when he did it, I think it actually helped him ground some of the power leakage from his spell. I still don’t know exactly how he worked it, but his magical instincts are usually pretty solid. I think it strengthens his spellcasting, and I don’t want to mess with that.”
Edric nodded. “I trust you, Jamie boy. It’s not the way I’ve done things, but what doesn’t change gets weaker.”
Phew, thought Jennie. Where Edric went, others followed. The hard part was over.
Mike spoke up from the corner. “In what you showed us, Jennie, Aervyn piped his power directly to Lauren. Are you thinking he’ll connect in through the air trio this time?”
Just one of the reasons she’d put Mike on point. A talented spellcaster in his own right, he was also a highly innovative witch, and very quick to embrace possibilities.
“Exactly right, Mike. The biggest risk to the circle would be an abrupt change in Aervyn’s power levels—that could destabilize the entire circle.
“Jamie’s going to act as a bit of a circuit breaker. He’s the only one of us besides Aervyn with both spellcasting and mind-witch talents, so he’s the one most likely to sense a power fluctuation coming and be able to buffer it. Scott and Aurelia, you’ll want to be ready for surprises, as should everyone.”
Jennie surveyed the room, and then did a quick mind scan. No signs of discontent or fear. Good.
Tabitha leaned forward. “So what’s with all the mind witches, Jennie? You’ve got one in each trio, and we’re clearly not all playing to our strongest elements. What gives?”
“Lauren isn’t an elemental witch,” Jennie said. “We learned a couple of things through trial and error in the training circle. In order for her to manage elemental power flows, it seems to work best if two things happen. First, she will connect to Aervyn, then to the four of you on elemental points.”
“Damn smart,” Edric said. “When you’ve got that kind of power on tap, it’s hard to hold. Can’t believe someone didn’t think to try that sooner. You’ve trained her well.”
Jennie laughed. “She came up with that one all on her own. Second thing is that Lauren uses only mind power to channel, since she has no elemental talent. It seems to help if there is a thread of mind power in the energy we feed to her.”
Comprehension dawned for Tabby. “Ah, so I’m not sharing fire power with the circle, I’m providing mind