So now I get to see magic. Millie had seen magic before, in Hancock Park, but that was… well, it was the kind of magic you’d see in a movie. This was different. Millie had never heard about a magical spell to work glass.

But now she had a pile of old bottles on one side, and at the bottom of the dry pond, Dara was stacking the bricks. She was inscribing symbols into each brick, according to her a way to make certain they didn’t shatter under the heat, while also letting her channel the heat in the way she wanted to.

“So, Kid,” Millie said. “Not to be a snoop or anything, but how does magic work? You’ve got your staff, and you cast spells, but now you’re writing stuff?”

Dara glanced at Millie and nodded. “Do you want to know?”

“Sure, might help me figure out what else you can do.”

“Okay,” Dara nodded. “Magic is… right, there are three main ways of engaging in a working. The first is gaining an affinity for some types of magic.” Dara opened her hand and a whirl of air formed above it, pulling in dust and a few leaves. “I’ve got an affinity for elemental magic, which is pretty common, but people express their affinities in different ways.”

“So you’re stuck with that?” Millie asked.

Dara made a so-so gesture with her hand. “Not entirely. I can learn more abilities, but they tend to be thematically similar. I’ll probably never be able to say, develop an affinity for say… life-magic.” She shrugged. “It can vary. I mean, fire isn’t just heat, it’s purification, and some people with an elemental affinity learn how to burn out illness.”

“So it’s more like, I dunno, learning how to be a good baseball star?” Millie asked. “You get better at it, but you’re probably never going to hop over to being a boxer?”

Dara paused, then nodded. “Yes. The second way of using a working is with foci.” She gestured at her staff. “I use a staff, but you don’t have to. One of my roommates used a necklace. But using a focus lets you channel your native energies into a pre-prepared matrix. I have a stunbolt encoded, but that’s it for now. The focus also makes it easier to use your own innate magic.”

“That’s two, what’s the third, dancing around a fire in the dark?”

Dara blinked. “Ah… no? It’s ritual magic. Ritual magic is, well… did you ever go to chemistry class?”

“You have chemistry back home?”

“Yes? Why wouldn’t we?”

Millie shook her head. Not magic. Not like we think of it. She remembered reading a few books where the magic guy was astonished at the way the hero had matches. But unless everything was different, and since Dara wasn’t dropping dead from breathing the air, it couldn’t be that different. Chemistry probably worked the same way where Dara came from.

“Um, no reason.”

“Right, well, rituals are like chemical formulas. But they take a lot longer, because of the complexity of the ritual, and you need to know enough to make the ritual.” Dara gestured. “This is simple. But I’ve seen some of the professors create rituals that needed a circle nearly the size of a room, with every inch inscribed. But you can also, ah, um… hang a ritual in your mind. Complete it and set it to go off when you want it to. Or if you want, encode it into a foci, but that can be sort of difficult unless you’re really skilled, so it can be easier to create a disposable foci like a spellgem.”

“Nice.” Millie said. “And this?”

“I’m heating the glass,” Dara said. “But I’m focusing just on the glass, and I’ll be using my affinity to shape it.” She looked down as she finished another symbol with a flourish. “And here we go!” Dara put several bottles inside the circle she’d made with the bricks, got up, and gripped her staff. She held it out and then put the tip in the center of the mass of glass. Then Dara said soft words as the symbols she’d drawn on the bricks started to glow.

Millie felt a wash of heat play over her face as the bottles started to glow, the labels flashing into fire, even as the glass started to liquify. Moments later, there was a puddle of molten glass sitting in the center of the circle, little spirals of smoke rising from where falling leaves had burned to ash.

“Got it,” Dara said. She changed her grip on the staff, holding onto it with her left hand while she raised her right hand and started moving it…

And something rose from the molten mass. It shivered, moved, and suddenly…

The hell? A glass horse? It was a horse, only a glass horse clad in some kind of armor, with a knight on top of it, waving a glass sword. Dara narrowed her eyes, sweat on her brow, and then made a quick gesture with her hands, and the horse rose up, pawing the air with its hooves, then shivered and went still.

“Don’t touch it,” Dara said, falling back with a sigh. “It’s still really hot.”

“Yeah. Holy hell, where did you learn to do that?”

“Like I said, I learned it in college.” Dara shrugged. “I also took a class in sketching. Magic isn’t just about knowing the process, creativity is also good.”

Millie frowned, remembering Dara’s comments about books on a Friday night. “And if your thing is sketching, you don’t really have to deal with people that much, do you?”

“Outside of class? Not really. That’s why I didn’t take dance or theater.”

“Hmmm…” Millie nodded. “Well, it looks good. Probably a couple of hundred right there, if we can find a buyer.”

“I have some other ideas,” Dara said. “But I wanted to make certain I could do this.”

“Ideas, eh? Just nothing that screams magic. I’d hate to be outed by eBay.”

“Eb—“

“Never mind, that’s a rabbit hole you don’t want to go down. So how many more can you make?”

Dara frowned. “No more today. I have to work on the ritual.” She mopped her brow with the back of her hand. “I’m not an archmage, after all.”

Millie stared at the glass statue. “You know, good enough. If we can drop, say, half the payment on Mike, I think I might be able to talk him through to letting us take a little more time, especially if I can show him what you’re doing.”

“Right.” Dara paused. “Millie?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re concerned about these cameras. How many are there, really?”

“Everywhere, Kid. Cell Phones, ATM cameras, security cameras, you name it, they’re around.”

“So, if someone saw me doing magic…” Dara nodded. “I have an idea.”

“Not get in trouble?”

“Something like that,” Dara said. She got up and ran for the house. “I’m going to be doing some work. Do you have any needles and thread, maybe some extra cloth?”

“Sure, the big cabinet by the front door.” Millie cocked her head. “Are you getting into sewing?”

“I’ll show you later!” Dara glanced back. “But let that statue cool down—it’ll be hot for the next thirty minutes or more.”

“Right. I don’t wanna end up in the hospital,” Millie said. Crazy kid, what is she up to?

***

After Dara got what she thought she’d need from the cabinet, she returned to her room and pulled out her college clothes. The skirt, top and cloak were dark colored, purple and green, the colors of her college. They were also made out of alchemically treated fabric, intended to repel the kind of damage that often occurred when students were learning magery.

Fire resistant, cut resistant… And then there were her boots, as well as the leggings—vital if you expected to be walking on the air above other people. Dara nodded and then held up a loose piece of dark cloth. I can attach this to the cloak and… Dara pulled it around her face, leaving only her eyes and the top of her nose exposed.

It’s great! It’s perfect It’s… not letting me breathe. Dara pulled it down and took a deep breath. Okay, just wrapping it around her face wouldn’t work. Maybe if I… She unfolded the cloth, and then cut a part of it out with the scissors. Right, that wasn’t nearly as thick. She looked down and rummaged through the supplies. There was a length of some strange fabric…

Right, flexible, and stretchable, tight, but I can pull it free. Dara nodded and grabbed some needles and thread. It took a little while, reminding her of doing needlework with her mother…

Dara bit her lip. I wonder if Mother and Father know? She shook her head. The best solution to that would be getting home, and to get home, she had to help Millie and to help Millie, she had to have a way of avoiding all the cameras. And this would do it. She finished attaching the cloth to the material she’d chosen and then worked it over her head.

And it was tight against her nose and cheeks, but the material provided enough space between her mouth and the fabric so that she could breathe.

Got it!

Dara grinned, and then did one last thing. She held her fingers to her hair and whispered the words of the cantrip, and slowly her vibrant blue hair faded to a dark brown color, the blond highlights vanishing last.

I need to remember to renew that spell. Or maybe work it into the disguise… Dara shook her head. That’d take a while and if she messed up, she might just damage the cloth. Better to just remember to cast the spell. It’d last for the better part of an hour, after all. Especially since she was going to be working on another spell. Because I do not want to get caught trying to put these clothes on in the middle of a fight.

“Now, how did Mindy do it?” Dara murmured. “Eugh… Good thing she isn’t here!” Especially since I was the one who told her that this was a waste of magic… “I need to unite the clothes with a focus…” She rooted around for something to—right, that would do it. Dara changed back into her normal clothes and then got to work.

The bracelet was copper with several copper disks hanging off of it. She could wear it around her wrist, which would keep it at hand. Better yet, it’s metal. Dara quickly opened the door and stuck her head out. “Millie!” she called. “Can I use this bracelet?”

Millie looked over from where she’d been watching a show and shrugged. “That’s just a copper luck-bracelet. I didn’t even know I still had it. Do whatever you want with it!”

“Thanks!”

Dara pulled out some paper and started sketching the ritual design. Like calls to like, but in this case, I’m using Alima’s Fourth Property of Similarity. Both clothing and bracelet will be mine, so the bracelet will call to the clothing. She got out her scriber and infused it with her power, bending down and marking the disks and metal, her working causing the metal to glow for a moment. I can’t do it like Mindy did… Mindy had spent nearly a month creating an actual enchanted necklace that would call her best clothes to her. Dara would have to put her power into the bracelet when she wanted it. Her clothes would also have to be close to her, instead of held in a state of non-existence until she needed them.

There were ways around that, such as using illusions, but Dara wasn’t about to do that. No, not after she’d seen what had happened to that one girl who walked too close to a mage demonstrating a dispelling working. Nope, she didn’t need to risk that kind of disaster.

She finished the ritual and then held the bracelet in her hand. Right, that’s set. She could feel the connections between her bracelet and her new disguise. Dara grabbed her disguise, put it in a bag, and then walked outside. Millie was still watching a show, a cup on the table in front of her.

“Millie?” Dara said. “Do you have some time?”

“Sure, what—what’d you do to your hair?”

“Cantrip,” Dara told her. “It’ll last for a short time. No more than an hour. But it’s part of what I want to show you.”

“Okay…” Millie said. “What do you want to show me?”

Dara grinned and held up her staff in one hand and then showed off the bracelet on her wrist. “I don’t have to worry about anyone seeing me if I’m doing magic, not any more.”

“What are you—Holy hell!” Millie said as Dara sent her power into the working. The ritual engaged and suddenly golden light flashed around her, the mundane clothing vanishing for a second, flaring into golden motes of light, swirling into her bag, even as the disguise flared around her, coming into being. She felt the pressure on her nose from the mask and shrugged the hood into place, leaving only her eyes clearly visible.

“And this is why I don’t have to worry about anyone finding out who I am, even if they use those cameras.”

Millie took a sip from her tea. “Uh-huh. First time you tried this?”

“Yes, but I knew it was going to work.”

“Right. Make certain you do it in private.”

Dara rolled her eyes. “Well, of course! If someone saw me putting it on, it’d defeat the entire purpose.”

“That’s not the main reason. Did you know you gave me a show?”

Gave her a show, what does she… Dara’s thoughts trailed off as she felt her face heat up.

“Thanks, gottaworkonmyspellsbye!” she squeaked as she ran back to her room.

I don’t need to eat. I can just stay in here. Until tomorrow. Or next year. Dara nodded to herself. Yes. A year would do it.

At least I didn’t try that in front of anyone else. No wonder Mindy used that curtain of light effect.

Oh gods, if she hears about this…

Dara nodded. Mindy would never hear about what had just happened, and in fact—

The knock on the door caused Dara to jump up with a little squeak of surprise. She took a deep breath and walked to the door. “Yes?”

“Dara? I’ve got a little situation, and I was wondering if you could help me with it…”