Gwen felt proud scaring them good. If word gets out she’s accommodating rush orders, it would be catastrophe. There was a deep-seated fear that Gwen fosters about this job of hers. One that keeps her on her feet and not get complacent. One that she would never dare admit to her father. For as much as magic can be wondrous, it can be downright horrifying as well.

If used carelessly that is.

Magic, as best as she can tell from what she’d learned so far, can be found in the world around you. Magic was the art of influencing the tiniest miniscule of reality. Bending the rules just a little, but not outright breaking it. Normal people can identify what is real and what is magic, something that shouldn’t be but is. Their hair would be standing at the back of their neck or seeing the same black cat twice and feeling a sense of deja vu. A sense of something amiss or peculiar at first, one’s brain trying to find reason where there shouldn’t be one. Almost kind of like some sort of glitch in the Matrix, by her reckoning.

"I need to know what kind of test is it gonna be. Will it be Multiple Choice. True or False or Essay Writing?"

"Uhm, multiple choice. Maybe a bit of True or False. W-why? Is it gonna be a problem?"

“Just needed a specifics for the spell. The more I know, the better. So here's what's going to happen: You’re going to feel something. It’s hard to put into words but the best way I can describe it is almost like a pull," Gwen instructed Blondie as she prepped herself.

Magic still has to obey some laws of the natural world, despite the goal is to bend it to ones will. One such law is: No one can create something from nothing. That’s where Items of Power comes in. Stuff you can find in nature. Wherein the hands of normies, they may be just random knickknacks you can pick off from a simple hiking trip to the woods: Bird feathers, natural forming crystals, wood bark or even the silly looking rocks you can find along the riverbed. But at the hands of a practitioner? These can be a potent mix. For a practitioners job is to tap into the latent energy within these individual items, binding the wild energies into one another, and enact the practitioner’s will. Sort of like coding.

Gwen bit back a sigh. Again with another Matrix reference?

Not Gwen’s fault her dad, at one point, repeatedly watched the first Matrix every night for seven days straight. Followed by the remaining sequels the week after. Every now and then she has to fight back the urge to get herself a pair of shades. Gwen shivered from the cringed.

Come on, girl. Focus!

Although she made this method sound dire, it wasn’t the first time she had done it. She made it sound like she was going to give heart transplant where it should be around the degree of something like a blood transfusion, not life threating if done in small amounts. It was easy enough. She just had to be careful not to draw too much or she’ll put the girl in a coma. Plus, she needed to sell this to rack up a rep. Word would soon travel around.

“I’m going to ask you three times. I need your full-hearted consent on this." Gwen put a hand over Blondie's temple and another one holding her hand. Blondie was cold and almost shaking with fear.

"O-okay."

"Seriously, I need you wholehearted consent, no hesitation whatsoever. It’s that you have to accept."

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"W-what then?"

"Then you’re gonna feel like shit for the next couple of days. Silver lining is, this is more potent than the Au Naturel method. The spell could last days whereas the latter method could last for only a few hours. The downside? Is just you’re gonna have like a cold for the next day or two. Okay, here goes."

At first nothing seemed to happen. Blondie was almost fidgeting at her spot while Gwen held her, eyes closed.

Unbeknownst to her, time slowed to a halt for Gwen. Gwen had opened her eyes and the earth itself stopped in its rotation, birds went silent and the universe went still. This all happened in barely a millisecond and yet she felt it all with absolute clarity. She blinked for an instant and everything went dark and cold. One moment she was standing at the spare lot at the back of Phil's mart, the next she was adrift in the middle of a void. Darkness surrounded her but Gwen wasn't afraid. A bit uneasy but not terrified. She knew where she was and that was within Blondie's astral subspace. Or just outside of it at least.

Gwen waited for a bit.

Perception of time here was a bit weird. Could be a few seconds, could be a few hours. It was all relative. She didn't know exactly how long she was standing in the void nor when Blondie's Astral form appeared in front of her. There was nothing at first but after another blink, Blondie appeared as she was, only in spirit form. A mental projection of her real self in the real world, adrift in the void. Her eyes were closed and she still wore her uniform. Only difference was that a light exuded from her, her life force. Gwen floated towards Blondie's form and reached out until her hands were touching Blondie's spirit. Gwen's hand hit something solid and then, with a little bit of effort, her hand went inside Blondie. Almost like liquid.

She only need a small amount of energy. This was a person's life force they're talking about after all. Gwen pulled her hand back and collected a small palmful of shining golden light. The next step was to detach herself from the Blondie's Astral Subspace. It took Gwen weeks for her to learn how to detach to another person's astral form. Or it seemed weeks to her anyway. It wasn't a physical act, not quite. It was all a mental act, sounds simple but quite difficult when put to motion. She went on days not coming out of her room and had another fight about it with her dad. But after almost a month of seclusion from general society, her mind finally caught the gist of it. It was a very satisfying feeling despite reading online how kids her age from family covens have the skill mastered at before they were seven.

Gwen opened her eyes and here she was again, back at the lot of Phil's mart. Blondie breathed out suddenly as if she had been holding her breath and nearly wobbled on her knees. Gwen could hear birds again and the rush of the fall wind traipsing through the island with the soon-to-be winter chill.

It wasn't visible to the naked eye, not even to Gwen's but it could be undeniably felt. Pure power in the palm of their hands. The wind rushed from and around Gwen's palms as if heralding the coming of a small hurricane. The space there seemed to be distorted like seeing heat come out of the road. Blondie's eyes were wide with amazement, as well as Red's.

"T-that's my life force?"

"Yup. Got a pen?"

Five minutes later, Gwen had imbued the pen with a charm that would allow it to redirect to answer correctly. Blondie ,or anyone she allows to use, would feel a tugging motion to what is the correct answer.

"You're going to start to feel woozy. Don't worry, all you need is sleep and rest as you're body start to recuperate naturally from the mana shock. So I suggest you bounce fast before you start to feel weak."

"T-thanks! That was awesome!" And they were off, all giddy as their grades were secured and having seen a practitioner of Magick firsthand. Gwen had to stop herself grinning like an idiot. In just little over as two years she was able to make a somewhat stable living with magick. But it was still nowhere enough to survive in the cities ones she hits the road. Thinking of the future put her in a dour mood, It's as if she was losing sight of what it means to be young. She earned several day's pay in just barely half an hour, those don't happen often. Plus, Gwen charged four times than what was normal, taken into account of the rush job and the use of Life Force. She was well justified. Besides, those girls must be rich as hell to be going into Curnow-Slater anyway.

So, stopping any thoughts of future woes, it was time for a little celebration.