biggest hearts. We've made a good start, I think. A few missteps, but we've touched the woman."
Sophie lifted her head off a convenient rocky pillow, eyes suddenly alert. "That's an interesting choice of words."
Lauren was nodding slowly. "But an apt one, I think. We haven't really connected with her magic."
Aye. The woman, they'd begun to reach, and that was nothing but good. The witch - well, she was still in hiding.
"Not for lack of trying." Nell's sigh was a series of frustrated little spurts. "She's so linear in her magic, and so inflexible. It's really difficult to work with."
They all waited quietly - Nell was plenty capable of finishing that sentence herself.
When she did, the smile that came with it was wry. "Especially when her trainer is opinionated and not very flexible either."
"I've never known a spellcaster to be all that flexible - and you're one of our best." Moira patted her hand. "Complicated magic requires a witch who knows how to drive to her goal. But that's not all that's impeding our efforts with Beth. Jamie had little more success, and he's a very adaptable, creative witch. Probably the best trainer we have."
Every head in the tub was nodding now.
"He keeps up with my munchkin." Nell traced wet lines on a rock. "And Aervyn did really well with Beth, but he's hardly ready to be her trainer."
Moira sent a mental cuddle to the boy she loved beyond measure. "He's got a fine hand as an assistant."
"In most cases." Nell spoke slowly now, her words measured. "And he did well with Beth when they were just playing. But any time someone has tried to guide her learning, there's been struggle."
And a mama bear protected her little ones. "You don't want him in the middle of that."
"Not if there's any way to avoid it."
"She doesn't know how to trust." Lauren was still gazing up at the stars. "People with autism learn a lot of things on their own. I think she's very used to acting as her own guide."
Sophie frowned. "She has a partner. That speaks of a pretty solid ability to connect and relate."
"Yes, and there's deep trust between them."
Instinct tugged on Moira now. "The kind that's built over years. We don't have that kind of history with her."
"We don't." Lauren's words were mild, but Moira could hear layers behind them. "And the brief history we do have might not be all that convincing as to our worthiness as guides."
Aye. They'd shown the girl strong magic, but of the rather reckless kind. Running amok in her coven, teleporting her hither and yon.
Her coven.
The vague feelings in Moira's gut suddenly took on shape and texture and grit. "Perhaps we've been going about it wrong."
Nell snorted. "I don't think that's much in doubt."
Lauren abandoned her stargazing and raised an eyebrow. "You have an idea."
"I do." Moira stirred a hand through the warm waters. "We've been trying to shape her magic, to teach it. Perhaps instead, we need to share it." The rightness of her idea was growing. "We'll be having a solstice circle, no?"
"Of course." Nell was already frowning. "You can't be thinking to put her in the circle."
"Not the big one, no. But a circle, yes."
"That's - " Nell stopped and forcibly relaxed. "I'm listening."
Moira hid her smile. There was more than one witch in the pool used to getting her way. "It would obviously require a rehearsal, but she's no novice. She's done ten years of circle work, and Jamie tells me she did admirably well in Chicago for a witch with so little to work with."
There was silence in the pool for a long moment. Moira kept her eyes on Nell - it was there that the idea would live or die.
When Nell finally spoke, it was a single, drawn-out word. "Why?"
In answer, Moira rooted herself in the long-tilled soils of tradition. She smiled at the fierce warrior across the pool. "What are the three responsibilities of a witch in the circle?" She'd taught every last one of them to a young Nell Sullivan herself.
"To join her flow with others."
Moira only nodded.
"To hold steady."
"Her circle work in Chicago will have taught her both those things."