"Hi Mala! I'm taking the broomcraft class but I want to learn medicine too. Can you teach me what you learn about it?"

"...Maybe? When? They make us do so many things. Always learning. And I still have extra English lessons."

"True. But it's more fun than chores and looking after little siblings. Maybe we can eat meals together sometimes and you can tell me then?" Margaretta already eats with Mala occasionally, but not exclusively; she moves around a lot.

"I could tell you some things after classes and before lights-out maybe. Or during meals... Maybe. I - I eat with my brother mostly. But I don't know how much I will learn about medicine. It sounds hard."

"Those times sound good! And you're sure to learn more medicine than I will; I'm not taking it." She quirks a half-smile at this last.

"You're smarter than me... But yeah. I read this book written by a witch doctor. She was... Strong. That's why I want to learn medicine, you know? I'm not that smart but I can maybe be strong."

"You can definitely be strong if you work hard! I want to be strong too." 

"We have stories about witches at home... Not all witches are smart, or good. But they're always strong. You can never ignore a witch, or make her marry you or anything. That... Sounds nice."

"Yeah. I'm glad nobody can make me marry them. My parents would probably have found someone good for me to marry, but if I don't have to get married I can wait to be really sure of the person first."

"I probably want to marry. But not for a while, yeah... Okay. I'll try to teach you some things about medicine. But I don't know how well it will work. Do you... Want anything else?"

"Nope! Thanks so much for being willing to teach me! I'll teach you anything you want to know about too. Or if I make a neat broom in Broomcraft and you want to ride it you can."

"That would be fun! Thanks! It is nice to have friends."

"It is!"

Classes continue. They push everyone fairly hard. Some are better at learning academics than others. They split the girls into two different classes at different paces soon. They also put the young ladies through some light exercises disguised as games and mention that a good witch is sharp in mind and magic and body.

But before that, the special classes start! It looks like around a dozen others chose this class, too. It's in a large room with stone floors and small windows. There is a fancy-looking 'broom' made mostly of metal at the front. Sleek, with strange prongs of metal flaring out at odd angles, mostly down and back.

The teacher opens with, "Come up and have a close look, everyone! I want to start you off with something interesting, so this is a spare very new steel-body broom I was able to get my hands on. Can anyone guess what features might make it a good or bad broom? Don't worry about being wrong, guess!"

(Margaretta ends up in the faster class despite her minor remaining language troubles, and dislikes the exercises but acknowledges that they're a good idea.)

"Maybe it's good because the sticking-out bits point in directions you can use to steer better? Or because they point those directions for some other reason."

"It's not as long as a regular broom."

"Does being metal help?"

"It looks easier to stay on than a stick."

"Yes, they serve a similar purpose to the bristles on a regular broom! Yes it is, for some things being metal helps, and yes! That last question is a good one. How a broom flies is only one thing about the broom. How easy it is to use and how durable it is, or how expensive it is or how easy to repair, are also very important."

If the teacher still appears to want comments, Margaretta adds, "This one looks harder to build or fix but also harder to break."

"It is a lot more expensive and needs special care and maintenance, yes. Wood is the traditional material for a good reason. It's cheap and durable if properly made. Steel is much, much more conductive to magical energy, which changes a lot of things about how the broom works. But for now I need to explain the basic theories behind broomcraft. To your seats, everyone!"

Why witches can do the things they can do is not really understood, but what is happening in a broom is mana - magical energy - being converted directly into force through an object. Witches can channel mana into some objects and it will just sit there, but to fly they push mana through a broom. They can do that for object they touch if they get a feel for it! If you were very, very good you could fly a chair!

However, 'flying' anything too un-broom-like usually just results in the thing flying off in some random direction, being smashed to splinters, or being crushed as it is pushed in every direction at once. Something about the 'broom' design makes the force easy to control, to channel down, back, left and right.

Understanding pouring mana through objects as innately as possible is a key skill for broomcrafters. There are math problems and diagrams and theories they will learn later, but the first step is to practice doing it and get a good feel for it.

Margaretta applies herself diligently to both diagrams and practice. She already has a lot of experience pushing mana through metal things! She hopes her special will make it easier to deal with metal brooms.

Some of the students are clearly trying a lot harder than others. Grenadine has a natural talent for feeling - and seeing - the flow of mana, which the teachers constantly complain about her not applying.

"I don't wanna." 

"Remember your English lessons, young lady."

"I do-not want-to," she carefully enunciates each syllable, "I wan-ted to do the outdoor class. You said this would be fun but it is not."

"Sometimes we have to do things that are not fun. This class will teach you valuable skills for the future, for magical development! You should follow Margaretta's example and apply yourself more. If you continue to misbehave, your time at the school will become less pleasant. Here, just work out this problem, and this one, and then you'll be done for now. I'll come back in a bit and help you in a bit."

(Vague grumbling in a foreign language ensues as Grenadine gives in and tries to do the math.)

Margaretta makes a face. She is doing this because it is fun and because she wants to work on cool things, not to give teachers an excuse to give her friend a hard time! She would offer to help Grenadine if she wasn't worried that it would look like she was agreeing with what the teacher said. Instead she passes her a note when nobody's looking.

Sorry about that. Also it's really cool how well you can trace mana flows and I want to learn how. If you can teach it and it's not just you being really strong or trying really hard.

It's my special. I can see magic. Except it's not really seeing or hearing or smelling. It has colors that aren't colors. And I can make it echo. And magic can be rough or cold and stuff.

Oh wow, that sounds really useful and fun. I love my special and the extra sense it has but yours is pretty great too.

It's great but it's so great everyone tells me what to do

You wrote down more notes than me why doesn't this work I can't remember?

And below that shaky handwritten line is a sketch of one of the spine arrangements.

Margaretta puzzles over the spine arrangement for a moment, then realizes she's at risk of losing the flow of the lecture or getting caught passing notes or both. Instead she finds Gren after class and points at the diagram. "This spine is too big, so some of the energy that should go into this one goes into it instead, which makes a dead spot here. And if you make the gap gig enough that that doesn't happen, you get a dead spot down here instead. Or at least that's what I understood the problem as being; does it sound right?"