Jonathan limped after Abigail out of Mr. Geiller's yard and back toward the orphanage. Man oh man, shoes might be even more critical an acquisition than pants. This was the worst.

Abigail walked through the gate to the orphanage and happened to glance back as Jonathan winced his way past the last of the gravel. "Are you alright, Jonathan? You're limping."

"Yeah, I'm just not used to walking on all these rocks." Jonathan put a hand on the fence post of the gate and lifted a foot. "I'm not bleeding or anything, but it sure doesn't feel very good."

Abigail's face fell. "I don't think there are going to be any shoes in the attic. I mean, we can't even find you that pair of pants you've been wanting…"

"It's fine, it's fine, I realized a bit ago that I could just conjure some clothes. Not sure why I didn't think of it before, honestly."

"But isn't magic hurting you?"

"Well, yeah, but you heard Mr. Geiller. As long as I don't overdo it, I should be fine. It's not like I'm going to die from a lack of pants or shoes; I'll just make sure to conjure them when I have a chance between meals."

"If you're sure…"

Jonathan stepped up next to her and ruffled her hair. "Don't worry about it, kid. I'm the guardian and you're the ward, remember? I've spent most of my life not quite managing to kill myself, I'll be fine."

"…What does that even mean?"

"Ask me when you're older, kiddo. You know what would be wonderful, though: is there any way to make hot water outside of putting it in a pot and boiling it? Not that we have a pot. Or anything to burn in the oven."

"Yeah, the heating catalysts on the sinks all still work."

"Heating catalysts? What are those?"

"Come on, I'll show you."

Abigail led him inside to the sink in the kitchen and pointed to a patch of what appeared to be copper near the base of the faucet. "Here's the heating catalyst. You just turn the water on and activate that."

"Uh huh, that's nice. So how do you activate a catalyst?"

Abigail looked surprised. "Your world didn't have catalysts?"

"No magic, remember?"

"Oh, right. That's so weird. How did you get hot water? Or light your house at night?"

"We used electricity and machines for all that stuff."

"Electricity? That doesn't make any sense. How would that heat water?"

"Never mind that, we can talk about my world some other time. What's a catalyst?"

"A catalyst is a material that has been charged with magical energy. A magical tool is a tool that uses magic to create a specific effect, and the catalyst is what powers it. Faucets are a really common magical tool, so they all work pretty similar to one another. Or at least that's what I've heard. Honestly, I haven't used a lot of faucets outside of the orphanage."

"Okay, so there's magic energy stored in this copper patch. Do I just tap it or something to activate it?"

"Ha, no silly. That wouldn't be safe at all. You have to…what did the docent call it? Enliven your magic and connect to the catalyst. Most people do touch them to activate, though, because it's really difficult to project magic outside your body."

"Enliven my magic. Right. Why didn't I think of that?"

Abigail shrugged. "I don't know; even the three-year-olds at the orphanage could do that."

"…Lovely. You wouldn't happen to remember how the docent taught those three-year-olds, would you?"

Abigail gave that some thought. "Maybe? I didn't pay a lot of attention to them, honestly."

"How about you give it your best shot? I'd really love not to freeze myself every time I wash my hands." Which reminded him, he needed to track down or conjure some soap. Ugh, the list just kept growing.

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"Okay watch me, then." Abigail stared Jonathan in the eyes briefly, then reached out with an exaggerated gesture and brushed a finger along the piece of copper before twisting the faucet open.

Jonathan stuck a hand in the water, and it was indeed warm! Wow, that was pretty handy.

"Okay, now you try." Abigail turned off the water and brushed her finger along the copper again. "You have to make sure that you deactivate the catalyst after you're done with it, though, because otherwise you'll waste its energy. Kids always got in huge trouble whenever the headmistress discovered they'd left the catalysts activated."

Jonathan wasn't sure what exactly she did, but whatever. He brushed his finger along the copper pretty much the way Abigail had, turned on the water, and stuck his finger in it. Colder than Mr. Geiller's soul.

Abigail turned off the water. "No, no, you have to enliven your magic first!"

"You mean what I do before I conjure something? Connect to the Infernal Abyss?"

"I don't think so. That's how you create a magic effect yourself, but here you're just trying to activate the catalyst so the magic tool will create the effect for you."

"Okay, so how do I enliven my magic, then?"

Abigail looked sheepish. "That's what I'm having trouble describing. It's just something you can do. It's like blinking."

"Well, what do you mean by enlivening magic, then?"

"Um, it's—oh, I know! Remember how Mr. Geiller said that everyone has some level of ability to create magical effects? That's because we all have a small amount of magic in our bodies. So what you do, is you just have to kind of speed up that internal magic, and then when you bring it near a catalyst it wakes it right up."

"Just like blinking."

"Yeah, exactly! Just like blinking!"

Sarcasm was lost on this girl. "I don't understand this at all."

"How did the docent…?" Abigail muttered to herself, before her eyes lit up. "Oh, I think I remember! Grab my hands!"

She held out her hands palm down, and Jonathan grabbed them.

"Okay, now wait just a moment…there, did you feel that?"

Oddly, Jonathan did. Like the red mist, he was having a hard time identifying the feeling, but he'd definitely felt something shift in her hands. It wasn't that they were warmer, just that they were more…something. "Yeah, I did. Wow, that was weird."

"Okay, so that's how it feels when I'm enlivening my magic…and now I've stopped."

"Yeah, the feeling went away. I'm not even sure how to describe that, though, much less do it myself."

"Well, that's a start! Let's try again and see if you can get the handle of it."

----------------------------------------

After numerous iterations of Abigail enlivening her magic while Jonathan tried to figure out what exactly she was doing, Jonathan closed his eyes in frustration and accidentally triggered his sense of the red smoke. As it billowed out around Abigail, she exclaimed, "Yes, exactly like that!"

Jonathan opened his eyes in surprise and the red smoke faded away.

"Oh, there it goes. You had it for a second there, though!"

"The heck? So enlivening my magic happens automatically when I'm perceiving that weird smoke stuff?"

"Oh, is that what you did? Well, it worked, whatever it was! Try that again."

Abigail kept Jonathan's hands in hers while he concentrated on recreating the feeling of perceiving the red smoke. This time he kept his eyes open, since he had a feeling he needed to be able to do magic without closing his eyes. It was more difficult than when he had his eyes closed, since being able to see physical reality somehow interfered with being able to perceive magical phenomenon. After unfocusing his vision and thinking back to the feeling he'd experienced when the red smoke had shown up, he finally succeeded in activating his magical perceptions.

"There it is again! Good job, Jonathan!"

"Huh, I guess enlivening my mana and seeing the red smoke are related somehow for me."

"Seems like it. Now you just have to remember how it feels so you can do it when I'm not around."

"Oh, yeah, there is that." Jonathan focused on his body. Maybe something felt a little different? He wasn't quite sure. Detecting the red smoke had been getting easier and easier the more he did it, so he'd just have to hope that he'd get a handle on the whole enlivening magic thing as he practiced.

"For now, how about you try using the catalyst?"

"So I just enliven my magic, then touch the catalyst? I don't have to picture it turning on or anything silly?"

"Nope, that's it. You have to stop enlivening your magic while touching the catalyst to stop it, but activating it is easy."

"Sounds good." Jonathan focused for a few seconds, and the red smoke started swirling around Abigail once more. He still didn't really feel anything when that happened; he'd have to try it when she wasn't in sight and see if he could figure out if there was some sort of physical feedback he could rely on. Without letting the red smoke disappear, he reached out and brushed the catalyst, then quickly turned on the water. When he held his finger underneath the spigot, the water coming out was warm, edging towards hot. "I did it! Nice, I can turn on the hot water!"

"That, uh, that's great! Way to go!" Abigail cheered him on from the sidelines, and Jonathan shot her a suspicious glance. That didn't sound mocking, but she was being awfully nice to him about this whole thing…

"Are you still feeling bad about what Mr. Geiller said?"

"What? Uh, n—ugh, that stupid contract! I don't want to tell you, okay?"

"Oh, sorry. I'd forgotten about that clause. So there is some sort of indication when you're about to break part of it?"

"Yeah, I could feel it. You'd have probably felt it, too, if I hadn't managed to stop myself in time."

"Well, sorry about that. I didn't mean to make you feel awkward. And like I said before, I'm fine. You really don't need to worry about Mr. Geiller." Because he was a raging asshole, and Jonathan was halfway certain most of the things he'd said were just to screw with him. "We'll figure this out together, okay? I'm not going to leave you in the lurch."

Abigail looked down. "Thank you, Jonathan," she said quietly.

Jonathan patted her on the shoulder. "Not a problem. Now, I think I'm going to retire with some of this hot water and give my poor feet a little…soak. Oh, crap."

He'd forgotten the only water-proof containers they had on hand were a pair of small, bright pink plastic bowls.