so there was this deck of cards, right

[lexicality]

Jessica's house is cute. Lexi could see doing a lot of her homework here, listening to the calming chatter of gossip and getting help from Jessica on math (Bella's no help there) and helping Jessica on English. Forks isn't so bad. She doesn't mind the rain as much as Bella does.

Jessica goes to pee before they even start their assignment, after just introducing Lexi to her mom and dad as "one of Chief Swan's kids", and Lexi doesn't want to do work by herself or she wouldn't have come over in the first place. She sits on the couch and plunks her bag down and waits. There's a random deck of cards over there; she picks it up and flips through it. She's been trying to learn to bridge-shuffle.

Comments

[cardistry]

"I don't know what you mean by where you get them. I know where I get them - I make them, or somebody installs them, or I copy them from somewhere - but you're not a device, I don't know if you work the same way."

[incanted]

"Well, I can clearly do a shield, did I just - download all your spells when I was dressed up or something?" she asks quizzically.

[cardistry]

"I think it's only the ones we used," he says.

[incanted]

"What other ones do you have?"

[cardistry]

"Mostly ones you don't want me using in here unless you really hate your walls," he says. "A couple searches, I guess."

[incanted]

"What can you search for?"

[cardistry]

"People I've met. Things I've seen. Nearby magic."

[incanted]

"That sounds really useful. I guess I could test the hypothesis that I only got the spells we used while I was in costume, if you'll tell me the incantation for one of those?"

[cardistry]

"Sure," he says. "'Area Search'."

[incanted]

"What all do I need to have in mind? The thing I'm looking for - anything else?"

[cardistry]

"Nope, that's about it."

[incanted]

Bella decides to see if she can "find" Lexi. "Area Search."

[cardistry]

Nope.

[incanted]

"Nothing. Is there some step I could've missed or do I just not have it - installed?"

[cardistry]

"Yeah, looks like you just don't have it," he says. "Look - Area Search."

A small blob of multicoloured light rises out of the deck and darts over to hover in front of Bella.

"Try it again, see if you picked it up just from watching me do it."

[incanted]

"Area Search," Bella attempts, still looking for Lexi.

[cardistry]

She produces a little multicoloured blob of light that flits away in search of her sister.

[incanted]

"Cool. So spells are contagious," she says brightly.

[lexicality]

"Bella, is this blob of light yours or the device's?" calls Lexi.

[incanted]

"It's mine! I'm learning spells!" Bella calls.

[cardistry]

"You can make it go away," says Brilliance helpfully, dispelling his.

[incanted]

Bella wants-it-away, and it stops feeding her information. "Can I make those invisible?" she asks. "Or are they all glowy?"

[cardistry]

"I've never done an invisible one," he says. "You could wrap it in a barrier, I guess."

[incanted]

"How do those work?"

[cardistry]

"You remember when we went in that house and there was nobody there, even though there were people there? That's a barrier," he explains. "People and magic inside it can't see or touch people and magic outside it or vice versa, but stuff like houses and tables is still in both. If there was a way to put a kind of - one-way barrier around a search spell, then most people wouldn't see it running around. I guess anybody who's good with barriers could still tell."