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Chapter 68

"Go on," said Beckham as he made a sort of rolling motion with one hand. "Don't leave us all hanging."

"I don't have to fill all of something up. It can be tricky, but look," said Sarah. She took off her leather coat, and pulled all of the light out of it, leaving it just a dead black piece of leather. Taking a deep breath, she concentrated and channeled a trickle of blue light into her finger. She then traced it along the back of the jacket, dribbling out light as she went.

Sarah had gotten the idea from both Alexa and Finn. Alexa could change how her light affected her by moving it around her body and focusing the green magic in different places or organs. For the most part, it seemed pretty automatic. If Alexa wanted to jump high, the light gathered in her legs; if Alexa wanted to see farther than normal, the light gathered in her eyes. Finn, on the other hand, had to think about what he was doing and plan out his constructions. Apparently, he couldn't just think 'fire' and make fire. Instead, Finn shaped his light just so, making complicated patterns with his red light to do anything other than an undirected blast of energy.

Sarah was doing a bit of both. There was something instinctual about how she placed her blue magic into lines, and even though she was consciously guiding her finger, locking it into place instead of letting it flow out like water didn't require much more than her own desire. Of course, she wasn't looking to make the leather do anything different, she was just making a pattern recognizable to anyone who saw it.

After a minute of tracing, she fought to hold back a yawn and decided it was good enough. Sarah held up the coat so everyone could see. A brilliant blue smiley face grinned from the dark leather, shining in the dark night. "It's not fast, but I'm pretty sure it'll last a decent amount of time. Depends on what I use to write on, I guess."

"Can I see that?" said Samantha.

Sarah tossed the jacket to her and then pulled her chair closer to the fire. It was still early September, but the night air was chilly. The others sat, watching Ashleigh and Samantha poke at the jacket. Ashleigh took a trickle and started to write, but his finger ran out almost immediately and he only managed to draw an elongated dot on the leather.

"It's easier to be smooth if you've already gathered power," said Samantha. She gestured at her belt, and drew a trickle of magic from the horn panels into her finger, writing her name on the black leather. "When you pull from the air, it stutters. You have to concentrate on pulling smoothly, but even then it isn't steady. Makes the little stuff a lot harder."

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"I know, I know. I've got to get something," said Ashleigh.

"Or make it," said Sarah.

"I'll find something," he said, shaking his head.

"Puka shells?" asked Jacob with a smile in his voice.

"Something. It's first on my list," said Ashleigh.

"Anyway," said Sarah, yawning again. "I can put up signs like this in places. I'll try and find places where lots of people pass, and then I'll find whatever will hold the magic the best. It won't be hard."

"I think it'll be harder than you think," said Jacob. "If nothing else, you've got to travel around some. Plus it means that it's all up to the blues. Not much for the rest of us to do."

"Sure there is," said Alexa. She covered up a yawn of her own. "We've got to figure out exactly what to tell new magical types, keep track of where signs go up, and keep track of who all is around. When someone calls in, we've got to figure out who'll be closest, and who's available. Share what we can if no one can visit."

"And we'll need to keep doing these get-togethers," said Finn. "Keep everyone on the same page. That's going to be important too. Especially if we get bigger, we might end up needing to ask for donations so we can rent a hotel or something instead of camping, if we get enough people needing to show up."

"I'll make signs if I don't have to talk on the phone or plan parties," said Ashleigh with a laugh. "I won't even complain about it. That's not nearly as much of a pain as keeping track of crap or getting people to show up to the woods at night."

"It's settled then," said Finn. "Blues will make signs, and we'll try and spread them around. It'll be easy enough getting stuff up here and at school. But we'll need to keep track if anyone goes on a trip. It's entirely possible that we've already found everyone at the university already..."

"Maybe. There's what, twenty thousand undergrads this fall? That's a lot of people I haven't met yet, and odds are good I've only walked past a fraction. Besides, we've really only done the summer semester," said Jacob. "But yeah, if the blues are doing that, then maybe we should assign jobs for the greens and reds too."

"Regardless, I can put something up there, just as soon as we have a phone number or something to direct people," said Sarah. "But right now, I'm tired, so I'm going to go crawl into my bag to sleep. Figure out what we want to say, and try and keep it short and simple."

And with that said, Sarah ignored the conversation as people started to argue about what exactly should go on the signs. She was happy to just crawl into the tent and slither into her sleeping bag. She filled her wool bag up with blue light - hopefully, it would be smart enough to slowly open and close in the middle of the night to keep her warm without letting her overheat. But that thought had barely crossed her mind as she relaxed and fell asleep to the sounds of the voices by the fire.