David forcibly calmed himself and let Evelyn tend to the injuries on her own. While he had some decent first-aid experience, Evelyn was on a completely different level, both in terms of medical knowledge and now with her new magical abilities. Instead, he focused on getting people settled in.

Lighting in the cabin left a bit to be desired. The only flashlights that worked were the old incandescent style, and these had further become so dim that often the moonlight through the windows was better. With the rest of the house both dark and increasingly cold, David collected some blankets and brought them to the common room. A fire now roared in the hearth, and the central room felt cozy, friendly, and inviting. He prepared some additional food on the grill, some late-night snacks along the same theme as the dinner he had made earlier, plus some hot chocolate on request. Nobody wanted to sleep; or at least, nobody wanted to leave to go to bed and sleep. So there by the light of the fire, they all contentedly ate, drank, talked, and laughed as the evening grew deeper.

David noticed Evelyn looking at her ruby necklace at a lull in the conversation, and it was at this point that he finally made the connection that had probably been on her mind for hours. Given the severity of her injuries in the car, that little ruby had saved her life. But that wasn't all. Every single person in their group was injured now and needed her medical attention, everyone but herself. It wasn't that she escaped unscathed; in fact, she had gotten the worst of it. But she had just been first and was able to heal while the magic was still strong.

Evelyn made a comment out of the blue that seemed to fit this line of thought:

"This magic stuff is infuriating," she blurted in response to nothing at all. "I know I could do so much more if I could just control it correctly. Plus, I'm absolutely certain that I'm supposed to be able to control it better. It just doesn't fit right. It's like human brains are the wrong shape or something."

She had mentioned something like this before, but this time Gary perked up. He asked a few technical questions about the way the magic flowed, how it recharged, and how the different forms of energy interacted. She answered as best she could. He fetched the notes from earlier that day, and Gary and Evelyn started discussing the hastily scrawled pages like they were tomes full of ancient secrets. David found this detail utterly nutty. Gary had written half of those notes himself, and crazier still, David had written the rest. At the time, they had been taking no thought at all for how useful or even correct their writings may be, and David distinctly remembered referring to at least three video games in his notes. Yet here these two top-tier geniuses were studying and actually cross-referencing the stuff as though it made sense.

Eventually Gary got out some of the jewelry and started drawing little diagrams on paper with Evelyn's assistance, sometimes touching gems of different colors as he drew. The two of them moved to a table off to the side, still within range of the firelight but with space for them to work. And there the father-daughter pair, who David was certain were both among the smartest people in the world, continued unraveling the secrets of the universe.

With those two off in their own little world, Samantha struck up a separate conversation with Dana, catching up on life in general, while James listened and chimed in on the parts that he knew. David tended the fire, cleaned up, and made sure everyone was comfortable. Especially given all the injuries, a reasonable selection of bandages, pillows, and blankets on hand was more than just a luxury.

The night slowly grew deeper, the conversation quieter, and the fire louder by comparison. David settled into the empty couch, pulled a blanket over himself, and resumed reading the novel he had abandoned that afternoon.

Gary and Evelyn continued to chat and draw, discarding one sheet of paper after another. Every now and then one or both of them would suddenly get excited. David noticed that the lines on the drawings often seemed to glow in one color or another. Several times the pages spontaneously went up in huge flames, a trick David felt could have come in handy when lighting the fire earlier. Each of the little reactions they produced led to more excitement and a redoubling of experimentation from the two wizards. At some point, a hushed argument broke out between them:

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

"No, Dad, that would be both crazy and dangerous."

"It is our best hope for solving the magic control problem. This is important. Plus, I'm pretty sure I could figure it out."

"Or maybe you'd just die. Or worse. It's not worth the risk."

Gary grunted in acknowledgement. They apparently abandoned whatever grand and dangerous plans Gary had been contemplating, because pretty soon they were both drawing excitedly again.

After nearly four hours, a lot of scribbling, and even more hushed discussions with his daughter, Gary grabbed a new piece of paper, drew a complex pattern on it while touching several of the gems in sequence, and left the room to grab a few more things. A moment later he returned and used some transparent packing tape to attach a small glass marble to the middle of the sheet of paper. Almost immediately, the marble started to glow with a white light, as bright as a household lamp.

"What the hell is that, Gary?" asked David.

"It is precisely what it looks like," he grinned.

"I don't know. To me it just looks like a glowing marble taped to a piece of paper."

"Well done," he responded, still smiling like a kid on Christmas, "and on your first guess, too."

"So, it's like a light bulb?"

"That seems to be the most useful application at the moment."

"That would be useful right now. Can you turn it off, too?"

Gary glanced over at Evelyn who was covering her mouth, suddenly having trouble suppressing a giggle.

"See? I told you I forgot something."

The two got back to work, and David got back to reading, now with much better light than was provided by the slowly dying fire. Dana drifted off to sleep, with James asleep as well under the same blanket with his mother.

Samantha came over and took the empty spot on the couch next to David. With her shirt having been destroyed a few hours earlier, and given how much blood they expected to get on anything they wore right now, she had changed into some of the old clothes from upstairs. It was something Evelyn used to wear back in high school, one of the few things small enough to fit Samantha. On the one hand it brought back complex memories of Evelyn's struggles and accomplishments. But on the other, the outfit on Samantha's smaller, muscular frame looked entirely "her." While Evelyn's blonde hair and bright blue eyes tended to accentuate the deep lines and shadows of anything she wore, Samantha's darker olive skin and long, nearly black hair instead made the highlights and colors pop with the very same clothes. It was an intriguing contrast.

"Do you like to watch?" she asked.

"Watch what?"

"I always find the fire hypnotizing. The dancing, popping flames above seem to shout for your attention, waving like little hands and spitting embers into the air as if to dazzle and distract." Samantha never spoke this softly or poetically; given that fact alone she had David's full attention. "But I always find my eyes drawn instead to the steady, gentle heat that slowly pulses down at the center. It's the part that keeps the whole fire burning, and yet it stays quietly hidden behind the light show it puts on for everyone. Like it doesn't want you to see."

"Is that a metaphor for something?"

"Probably. I just like looking, though," she smirked.

"Are you warm enough?" The outfit she had appropriated looked soft and comfy enough, but it was very much a summer thing, and he could see goosebumps on her legs and arms.

"It's cold as balls," she sputtered desperately, as if she had been waiting for permission to speak.

He shook his head with a chuckle and motioned for her to join him under the heavy blanket.

"Ohmygodthankyou," she whispered with a gasp, the words flying out in a jumbled mess. She disappeared entirely underneath the blanket for several seconds, visible only as a lump roving around under the fabric, questing for an exit. Then just her head popped out near David's arm. She stayed that way.

"Mmmm, this feels heavenly," she said, moaning out the last word of immense satisfaction. "I'm staying right here forever."

"Cold nights, warm blankets, cozy fire," David agreed.

He went back to reading, with Samantha leaning comfortably against his side watching the slowly dying fire. Across the minutes and hours, her posture increasingly relaxed and her breathing slowed and became more regular. Several more chapters later, he put down his book and silently watched the flickering red glow at the base of the fire. Samantha slept quietly at his side with all but her head covered in three layers of blankets. Off to the side beyond his sight, Gary and Evelyn continued their work, their hushed conversation so quiet that it barely covered the sound of pencils scratching on paper as they worked.

He didn't think he ever fell asleep that night, but the morning told him otherwise.