"So just thinking about them does nothing. Next test is to trace the symbols in the air while trying to cast, with our fingers." He writes down the results of the previous test and does that.

Fails to do anything for either of them.

And on to actually drawing them out on a piece of paper.

Now there's a change. When he draws a symbol on the paper, it shimmers a bit, softly, for a second, then returns to normal.

"A reaction. Maybe not useful but means we're looking in vaguely the right direction at least. Sadde, see if you get it too!"

She does!

"Okay but what does this even mean."

"It means that while merely thinking about the symbols had no effect - actually writing them out seems like it probably does. I'll have to ask Kero, not that I expect it to help much, then rewrite the list to see if we can get any of these to do anything. But first... East and West are about Windy, I'll try to make a breeze, then write East large, West small, and try again."

So he closes his eyes and, same thing he tried with Float, trying to feel Windy-ish - I just want a tiny breeze, just enough to move that corner of notebook paper.

The barest of breezes, barely a whisper. It's not actually enough to move the paper.

He thinks it didn't work. Calm, centered, almost-meditating. Deep breaths. One more try.

Same result.

"...I can't get a breeze like so. Let's see if east and west help."

"What are you gonna try to do?"

"Windy is associated with east and west. So I'm going to write east and west, in Chinese and in English, and try to draw on that."

"Oh, makes sense. ...I'll try to do that with the moon to change."

So he does that.

And Sadde tries the same!

Nothing changes.

"Hmm. Last two tries today, a short chant, then symbols and chant together." He invents a chant on the spot, keeping to the theme of the Clow Cards' chants but not actually mentioning cards.

Well the chant actually creates a noticeable effect.

"Ooh."

"Ooh. We can probably look at this tomorrow right? It's getting kind of late."

"Mmprobably, yeah. Mom's gonna be home any minute, now, too."

"And less homework is not no homework. Probably can't see you tomorrow, club thing then family thing. Friday?"

"Club thing? And sure."

"I am tech guru for a bunch of different clubs and tomorrow I am training the trivia club on Linux commands I wrote for the question asker thingy."

"Have I mentioned you're adorable? Because you're adorable."

Blush. "The only reason they let me install Linux is because it's free. I wrote a checklist and cheat sheet for them and I get paid in snacks and soda. And teacher goodwill."