i might as well be the man on the moon

"It was this one -" Shura reads off the syllables from the book, and Nicoa starts glowing; he cycles through several forms and the glow persists and he laughs. "It's to see in the dark!"

carillons

"Coooool," says Helen. She reads the spell, and Kalavar turns into a firefly and flutters bright bright circles around her head.

"I wonder what all these words mean. Do you think I should learn these old witch languages nobody our age speaks?"

carillons

"Yeah!" says Helen. "I'll learn them too and then we can both speak them!"

"And nobody will understand us!" giggles Shura. "Except really old people. My great-great-grandma knows them!"

carillons

"Will she teach us, do you think?"

"Maybe!"

The magic teacher says, "Perhaps, but right now we are studying spells. Keep reading your books."

carillons

"Okay," says Helen. She looks in her book for another spell.

There are several in this little book. Simple first-aid, the snow-circle, a spell to thicken liquids so they'll make clear runes without soaking into the ground or splashing, a few they can't use yet that pertain to cloud-pine maintenance. It also has a section about the uses of herbs, although none of the spells in this book actually use them - that's more advanced.

carillons

She reads that section anyway, fascinated.

The teacher's style is to assume that they know all the things they have read, and quiz them, impromptu single questions that require synthesizing the knowledge - creatively or logically; either can world. "Kaydi. What would adding marjoram to the spell for small cuts do?"

"Uh - make it work faster?" guesses Kaydi.

"Inkeri. The spell on page sixteen invokes Segaard Oskei. What might happen if you substituted Farakhel Nimah?"

"...It would make the liquid hot?" Inkeri supposes.

"Helen. What would happen if you omitted a line from the middle of the snow-circle?"

carillons

"I'm pretty sure it wouldn't make a snow-circle," she says, "but I don't know what it would do instead." With a glance at Shura, "Hopefully not explode."

The teacher smiles. "Shura. You exchanged goddesses in the daemonglow spell and got an explosion, which you are very lucky did not involve your daemon. What might happen if you used a different one - any of your choice?"

"Um, it said Amariah Lytess... probably because she does daemons... and I put Farakhel Nimah and it exploded - because she does fire?... um... maybe if I put Yambe Akka it would make something cold?"

The teacher inclines her head. "That spell is actually a very versatile one, which you will be able to vary to assorted effects as an adult; it calls on numbered domains from the named goddess, which in the case you see in your book results in combining your daemon and the full moon, but if the numbers, the goddess, or both are changed can do any number of things. Including make something cold."

carillons

"What if you put in Kas Petaal?" wonders Helen.

"If you don't change the numbers, it will snuff out light around a target male mortal," says the teacher. "Not particularly useful."

carillons

Helen giggles.

"Because this spell is so useful, though," says the teacher, "it is worth learning the numbers in this language even if you learn nothing else. Turn to the back; there is a chart."

Little witches turn pages.

carillons

Ooh, a chart. Helen peruses the chart.

It has goddesses in it, and domains in neat columns, and numbers in the spell's language.

carillons

This is a good chart. Helen likes this chart. She reads it over and over and hums to herself.

"This is worth memorizing," comments the teacher. "Just remember that if you need a mnemonic -"

"No verse," chorus little witches.

"Especially with all those goddesses," says the teacher. "Anything could happen."

carillons

Helen giggles.

"Explosions! People turning into spinach!"

"Spinach is specific enough that it would probably need herbs or runes or both, but yes," says the teacher gravely.

carillons

Helen looks speculative.