Page 49 of Monster's Mystery

“That’s impressive. I did not know about that.” His eyebrows rose in surprise. “And you want to build a spell that would allow you to see into a specific person’s past?”

“That’s what I was hoping.” I crossed my fingers.

“We can take a look at the spell your grandfather built, see how much of it is applicable. But it will take a long time.” He patted my hand. “I’m sorry.”

I heaved a sigh. “I have one more. A spell to follow a flow of magic.”

“That’s possible. A flow of magic that is currently working?”

“Specifically the magic that is being drained from the dark forest,” I clarified.

“Excellent idea. And definitely possible. It shouldn’t take too long either. Start by comparing ‘sight’ spells and ‘movement’ spells. Don’t forget to account for physics.”

I wrinkled my nose. “Do Ihaveto?”

The professor chuckled. “If you want it to work.”

“Ugh. Can I get help with my project?”

“I’ll assign group work in pairs. Will that help?”

“Please!” I nearly begged.

“Class is about to start. You’d better take your seat.”

I waited impatiently in my seat while he did a little introduction to today’s class. I did my best to pay attention to his mini-lesson in how to construct a simple spell. The rest of the class was to build a spell to transform a pencil into a flower. The instant Professor Reynolds broke us up into groups, I turned to Aiden, who was sitting a few rows behind me with Bruce.

“He gave us permission to work on the magic flow spell. Work with me, please?” I begged. “I really need help with the physics portion.”

“As if I would say no to you,” Aiden said with a smile.

“Dude.” Bruce punched him in the arm. “What about me?”

“You’ll be fine. Siobhan needs my help,” Aiden said, getting up from his chair and coming down the aisle to sit beside me. “Wouldn’t it be easier if I just sat with you?”

“You would distract me,” I replied absentmindedly, my mind already mostly on the problem in front of me. “I need to focus, and it’s difficult to do that with you in the room, let alone in sight.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Aiden said with a chuckle.

I pointed at a line of text on my paper. “I’ve got the spell for seeing magic here, and the spell for moving an object here…” I pointed at the second line. “But I don’t understand how to compare them. And Ireallydon’t understand how physics comes into play.”

“Don’t worry. I can help you with the physics. Between us, we’ll figure it out. So, right now, you need to take forces into account. Gravity, friction, that sort of thing.”

“Ugh. Help?”

“I got you,” he said, his pencil already flying through the calculations.

I tried breaking down the spells into simpler components and everything finally clicked into place when I realized that seeing magic and moving an object both involved a wave.

I excitedly explained my theory to Aiden, who agreed and worked out the wave function. Then we called Professor Reynolds over.

“You’ve got an excellent base here. Now you just have to put it together,” he said, eyes twinkling.

“How?” I asked. I felt like I was asking that a lot in this class, and it was really frustrating. I hated not knowing what I was doing.

“Start with the energy form and work your way up from there,” the professor said. “It’s the opposite of breaking it down. Take a look at some other examples of built spells and you’ll figure this one out too. Remember, no testing until I’ve looked it over.”

“So helpful,” I muttered under my breath once he was out of earshot.

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