Gradually, the others all joined them at the table, Myra and Anna were the last to arrive as Gogo at least didn’t have the presumption to wake them up. As Gabby had told her earlier, breakfast was blueberry lemon muffins, among other things, and with no hurry to get anywhere Sharna ate much more than she should.

Sharna leaned back in her chair and sighed with pleasure. Everything Marjorie made was so delicious, even if her stomach now felt uncomfortably tight, she probably needed the food after missing a meal the day before.

It looked as though everyone else had finished eating too, Gogo moved to push back her chair to stand when Myra stopped her with a hand on her arm.

“Wait, can everyone please stay for a moment? Sharna and I need to speak with you all about something important.”

Gogo slumped back into her chair melodramatically, rolling her eyes. Sharna watched her curiously, maybe something was up with Gogo, she would try to speak with her privately later.

Myra continued, “I would like to ask all of you to keep what Sharna is about to share secret.” Myra looked at them each in turn, “if you feel that you would be unable to do this for any reason, please could you head to your room to give us some privacy.”

She waited but they all remained seated, looking at Sharna with curiosity.

“Sharna?” Myra indicated for her to speak.

“So I made something a little while ago that I think it would be good for you all to know about now that we are living together.” Sharna put her hands between her knees to stop them shaking the tiniest bit. She wasn't quite sure how to introduce Quinn, Myra smiled and nodded at her encouragingly and everyone else was still watching her with interest.

Sharna took a deep breath, “well..” she started again.

“Ta-dah!” Quinn flew up out of Sharna's pocket and did a few circuits of the table. Everyone was shocked by her sudden appearance and pulled back away from her by reflex. Marjorie pushed back so quickly that her chair would have fallen back if it hadn't caught on the sideboard instead, Eliza helped her straighten up.

“So this is Quinn,” said Sharna quickly, trying to recover the situation. “I made her with soul genesis.”

This did not recover the situation, everyone looked shocked, with all eyes on Quinn, she flew back to Sharna.

“Ta-dah,” said Sharna weakly, smiling awkwardly as all eyes moved to her.

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Myra looked at them both with some humorous exasperation, “Quinn is a fairy that Sharna has created through soul genesis. The existence of something like Quinn could potentially put Sharna at risk of exposure to people with less than stellar intentions. We have not previously heard of anyone creating something like this before so I would like to stress the importance of not sharing Quinn’s existence with ANYONE.”

“Can I hold her?” Gogo blurted out, leaning over the table as though pulled towards Quinn’s presence.

Sharna smiled at her, “technically, no. She is manifested from mana, so has no corporeal body, you can only feel some warmth coming from her visible form.” Quinn hid in Sharna’s hair, “but once she gets used to everyone, I’m sure she’d be happy for you to examine her more closely.”

I would not, Quinn grumbled telepathically to Sharna.

I’m so proud of you, thanks for your help telling the others, Sharna sent back. Quinn’s grumbling lessened but she remained hidden under Sharna’s hair.

Gogo leant back, disappointed.

Sharna’s shoulders rose as she asked, “does anyone else have any questions about Quinn?”

“Isn’t your affinity with image-manifestation?” Eliza asked immediately, “how did you use soul genesis?”

“I see it more that my ability is manifestation rather than explicitly image-manifestation,” Sharna began slowly.

“What do you mean by that?” Anna interjected intently.

“Well.. Magic is all about perception, right?” The looks on everyone else’s faces indicated that this was definitely not information that they agreed with, but Sharna persisted because she knew that her knowledge in this area was correct. “Okay, well magic IS actually all about perception. How we perceive manifestation affects what we can do with it, and we are limited by our beliefs.”

Sharna could see incredulity on some of their faces but she continued resolutely, “one of my tutors had an interest in soul magic,” Myra snorted at this comment, Sharna turned to look at her but Myra waved for her to continue, clearly interested to hear more.

“He taught me a lot about soul magic, and he mentioned soul genesis as a theoretical concept.”

“What exactly is soul genesis?” Gogo asked.

“Soul genesis is the creation of an independent being from one’s soul, one that has self-awareness and can feel and learn as a separate being from the creator. So essentially it is a being that one manifests from one’s soul.” Sharna paused to give this a moment to sink in.

“That’s not how manifestation works,” objected Eliza. “If we could manifest whatever we wanted, then why isn’t anyone doing that? We could just manifest statues or furniture or whatever we wanted.”

“Yes,” Sharna replied, looking directly at Eliza, “we could manifest whatever we wanted.”

Eliza turned to Myra, in some distress over Sharna’s response, “that’s not right, image-manifestation lets us manifest images only, right?”

Myra put her hands up placatingly, “that is certainly what I learned. However, Sharna’s differing techniques and Quinn’s very existence lend credence to her claims. I think we would do well to keep an open mind. Sharna obviously has different knowledge than we do, and her grandmother was an expert in our field.

Eliza turned to look open-mouthed at Sharna again.

“Why don’t you tell us a bit more about Quinn,” Anna prompted gently.

Sharna smiled at her, grateful for the encouragement. “So Quinn was formed from ambient mana but we are hoping to make her more of a solid form once I work out how. She and I can communicate telepathically if we are close to each other, and we discovered yesterday that I can call her back to me instantly with mana.” Sharna looked at Myra apologetically, “but we’re trying to avoid that for now to avoid detection by others outside of our household.”

“How did you learn how to use soul genesis?” Anna asked. “Was it your tutor who had an interest in soul magic who taught you?”

“I guessed.” Sharna replied, shrugging her shoulders. “I couldn’t find any examples anywhere of anyone that had successfully performed soul genesis, but I had studied everything that I could find. I think I just got lucky.” Sharna’s smile faded a little as everyone stared back at her in shock.