Magnolia’s lungs were on fire.

She took breaths with each thundering step made on the training course. The exercise made her feel at peace, the sweltering sun hanging over her, a friend she’d been well acquainted with in the peaks of summers past and present.

Sweat clung to her fair skin like dewdrops on morning grass and upon washing away the grime with relish, the malaise that had taken over her mind melted away with it.

Magnolia looked around the training course and found nothing but somber solitude. The field was pristine and manicured and the practice dummies showed little wear and tear.

It wasn’t long now before her exam would take place, before she’d have to present her grimoire and bind a spell to her will, before she’d prove to herself and the world around her that she was as capable and confident as her sister was.

She’d make her proud.

Magnolia ran back to the base of a tree she’d gathered her materials under and inspected the list again.

The classroom had ten students to speak of and the institution was kind enough to wrangle or locate the habitats of fifteen different spells of varying grades that the students were expected to bind by examinations end.

Professor Del Marin would first inspect the viability of their grimoires, their capacity to safely contain spells, and their personal inscription abilities before sending them off the deep end.

She’d thrown herself with Willow into the books to come up with a vessel suited to her talents and found the options available initially daunting and frustrating. On one hand, Magnolia wanted something that suited her personality. Something innocuous and her.

On the other hand, she wanted something that was complimentary to the spell that dwelled within her.

An issue because her passenger had laid dormant within her since she’d slotted the being and no amount of meditation or training seemed to stir it awake.

Willow had the benefit of proper Incant parents to guide her through her journey. She’d likely carve a staff and keep to the traditions they were attempting to establish as a nascent magical family.

Talking with Junie about her options led her in the right direction at the very least.

“What kind of grimoire do you carry around? I’m sort of struggling over here.” Magnolia had asked her on a night she was free.

“You know I can’t tell you that, Maggie,” Juniper comforted her with a loose embrace, “But I’m sure you’d want something that defines your path for the future. Most AWW people carry books as their grimoires to fall in line with the perceptions of wizards past. Those with a druidic, natural bent trend towards materials of the earth. You’ll figure out what you want as soon as you know what you want your future in this world to be.”

Her future…

Magnolia came back to reality and grabbed the trinket from within her bag.

She’d settled on making her grimoire a bracelet.

At first she’d considered it to be quite childish, using a bracelet with little custom charms to represent the spells she’d plan to house but the more she thought about, the more she realized it defined the sort of relationship she wanted to have with herself, the spells she’d house within and around her, and the people she wanted to associate with.

Magnolia didn’t want to lose that innocence and wonder for the beauty of the world. She wanted to seek power through friendship and diplomacy if she could help it. As far as jobs around her field were concerned, becoming a freelance binder sounded like something she’d enjoy. It’d allow her to keep her community safe and there was lucrative business in making magical items.

Finding out which binding families were well-regarded in Georgia made the prospect of researching and committing to an apprenticeship more… tenuous. The thought of having to work with the likes of Bianca caused her stomach to churn. How Willow and her family were even capable of being in the same field as her was beyond Magnolia.

Which meant that she’d have to leave the only home she knew if she wanted to pursue that career and she wasn’t sure about how strong she was to do it.

Juniper had always handled the finances, handled putting food on the table, handled practically everything for the both of them when their parents disappeared. It hurt to see Junie stretch herself thin to make ends meet for the both of them.

Magnolia didn’t even know how dangerous her job was like. Not really.

Juniper remained cagey about her exploits as a delver. She didn’t have the right to pry, not yet. She’d get that privilege to ask Junie all the questions that’d bubbled within her over the years when they could look and speak to each other as equal peers.

Magnolia pressed her thumb on the charm she’d crafted for the upcoming exam. A silver mouth with a crystalline talk bubble, like a whisper escaping one's lips.

“Alright.” Magnolia broke the silence. She stretched her body out and gathered her things.

Willow was off campus visiting her parents over some business venture they’d recently acquired. She was excited for them but her friend's good fortune meant Magnolia was spending today entirely alone.

Juniper, for all of her promises, was gone again…

A thought ran through her head.

There was a third opinion she could draw from to talk about her choices for the future.

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

Magnolia entered the faculty building with gusto. There were academics and faculty that she didn’t recognize but they were genial enough to let her walk around without a hassle.

She ascended the institution's immaculate steps to the highest point of the building and found what she was looking for.

The door itself held a similar gravitas to the matron; a white wood door with a windowpane as black as night, red ribbons tied to the stem of the door knob.

The open room she’d found herself in was equally lonesome. There were no students or faculty to speak of nor a secretary to ask for appointment times and idle chatter.

Magnolia sat and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And-

“This is ridiculous, Maggie. Get up there and knock!” Magnolia found the courage in her impatience and pressed her knuckle to the door frame.

She found no resistance, the door creaking open.

“Matron? Are you in there?” Magnolia whispered through the door crack. She waited for a response and found none.

Maybe she was meant to wait within her office?

Magnolia looked back at the empty room before walking through the threshold into the Matron’s private office. She’d expected things within the office to be more whimsical. There were bookshelves to speak of but the spines of the books that called it home were the same dry texts she’d been forced to read to shore up her lacking knowledge on the foundational elements of an Incant.

There was a window that shined light on the simple brown chair the Matron was expected to sit at. The rest of the lighting came from somewhere ethereal. A cursory examination made her believe the light was conjured out of nothing with its source hidden or absent.

The desk of the Matron was an undecorated brown slab with flyers stacked on top along with a spool of red ribbons. Taking a peak at one of the flyers, the design looked like a sun or eye with stark lines radiating outward, its colors drenched in blacks and whites.

The doorknob twisted and Magnolia’s bones jumped out of her skin.

“Eep!” She yelped.

Walking into the room, unperturbed by the young woman snooping around, was the Matron. Her skin was covered from neck to toe in an oversized red feathered coat that reminded Magnolia of a phoenix. She wore a black veil this time, parted in the center. Her black eyes softened as she took her role as mentor on the other side of the desk.

“Ah, Magnolia. It is a pleasure to see you again.” Her voice maintained that unnerving hiss in its background. Her voice was distinct and yet each syllable was spoken with characters at the periphery.

“Oh, ah, you remembered me. I, ah, didn’t expect that.” Magnolia’s cheeks grew flush with warm blood.

She was doing a terrible-

“I see you’ve come to make good on my promise?” The Matron removed her veil and allowed her scarlet locks to fall to her shoulders.

Magnolia froze.

Shit, what kind of promise had she made that the Matron was still willing to keep her end?

The Matron laughed. A small thing. Hoarse and deep and guttural and airy. It was a curdling sound.

Oh no.

“I take it you do not remember. It is alright, child. The nights have gone long and you have been preoccupied with a great many texts. Your interests in our library have been quite the talk amongst the librarians.”

Magnolia swallowed, “There’s a lot I don’t know about and I wanted to catch up. I wanted to be at even level with the others.”

The Matron nodded, “The resources are there for your use, same for all the others in your class. The fact that you’ve taken to using the facility so extensively is not a flaw, I can assure you. It is a favorable trait to have.”

She accepted the compliment with silence.

The Matron waited.

“I don’t think I’m good enough to remain here…” Magnolia mustered her dark thoughts into a whisper.

“It seems some part of you remembered my promise then.” The Matron replied.

“I honestly don’t remember our first conversation, it's been so long but I was hoping to come back with something to show for the opportunity. Our final exam’s almost upon us and I can’t even get my own spell to stir from its slumber,” Magnolia’s breathing became tighter and hot tears started to well up in the corners of her eyes, “And it's not just you I’m trying to make proud of me. I want to make Junie proud but she’s not around often enough to help me out of my low points. Willow is tied down to me and she’s more experienced than I am by a whole two years!”

No matter how many books she read, how many pages were piled onto her foundation, there was a nagging sensation that brought her to painful shrieks.

She just wasn’t good enough. She wasn’t getting to where she wanted to go fast enough.

She was being left behind.

The Matron’s voice remained neutral, “And is this everything that has been troubling you, child?”

Magnolia wiped her eyes clear and considered the extent of it all, “I can’t talk to them about this. Willow’s already dealing with so much and Junie’s always been cagey about her spell. I have this fear that I’m just not like my sister at all. That she’s just going to be stuck taking care of me forever and I just won’t be able to do anything to get her out of that mindset. And with this final examination, I’m scared I won’t be able to bind this spell to the charm I’ve made. I mean what kind of Incant is capable of inscribing a spell into an object that can’t even call open their own fucking slotted spell?”

A long moment of silence. Magnolia’s cheeks grew flush again.

“I-I’m sorry for pouring everything out and cursing there at the end.” She bowed her head and hoped the worst of her embarrassment was over.

“Pick your head up, child.” The Matron declared.

Magnolia did not hesitate to lift her head and look the Matron into those large stygian gems.

“Do you feel better? Letting all of this out?” The Matron asked, her face impassive.

Magnolia mustered the courage enough to nod.

“Good.” The Matron elegantly and effortlessly conjured a flower bulb in her hand with the flick of a wrist. “You have acquainted yourself with the teachings of Heretic Farlow, correct?”

Magnolia cleared her nose, “Yeah? The name rings a bell but I’m fuzzy on the details.”

“Reacquaint yourself then with his material. It is informative to your current predicament.” The Matron’s light scolding felt like the agonizing demise of Magnolia’s spirit, her frame receding into the thin fabrics of the chair. “I have personally found his teachings to be worthwhile. Pertaining to your issue, he would suggest reconciling these differences with the Theory of Mental Gates. It is not uncommon that Incants are changed by the spells they slot within their bodies and there are numerous texts covering the sort of machinations of communing with one kind of spell over another or whether temperaments between spell and spellcaster must much for an ideal connection.”

The Matron whispered a word to the flower bulb and it bloomed, “It is when the spell is synchronous with the spell caster that power will manifest and an Incant becomes capable of exerting their force upon the world. Circumstantial evidence supports aspects of this theory, considering that Incants are volatile when slotting a new spell into their bodies and the personalized aspect of slotted spells counter to inscribed spells.”

Magnolia chewed on the lesson, “So you’re suggesting that this spell that I’ve had for years and I have been asynchronous?”

The Matron affirmed, “This would be an answer, yes. Your maturation would be akin to a late bloomer, although the thought of this occurring is alien and would suggest a number of issues with your ascension into our fold.”

Magnolia gulped.

“Where our Heretic comes into this lesson is with his assessment of Mental Gates. The former theories discuss the method by which Incants acquire power from their spells but Farlow believed that this course of study was insufficient. There were mechanisms, he referred to as mental gates, that were barring certain interactions from occurring within our slotting process. For one, it is most unwise to attempt to slot a spell into one's body that does not meet or exceed the strength of another spell.”

Juniper had mentioned something like this before when she asked what sort of spells she housed within herself. Her sister only gave her cagey responses onto the reasons for her decisions but she’d been kind enough to reveal that she only had the one spell since becoming an Incant.

“For two,” Magnolia snapped back to focus on the Matron’s lesson, “This theory posits that sufficient duress both physical and mental can lock a spell caster from access to their spell until they become capable of handling the casting process and the aftermath.”

She hung the implication in the air with a pregnant tension so thick, Magnolia felt like she was choking.

“Although customary to cover the history of one's casting path up to now, your sister avoided providing the institution details on your pasts. This was expected, considering your sister's line of work and the vulnerability the both of you share as free agents in a budding marketplace for our kind. If you wish to learn more about your predicament, I would suggest conversing with your sister. Or remain hopeful that your skills outside of this dormant ability will carry you successfully to the final communion.” The Matron chuckled in that blood curdling way.

If this was her attempt at levity, she was failing at it.

“And what if she doesn’t give me a response?” Magnolia asked. It was the likely outcome. She’d asked before about a great many things that her sister was wary in answering and this felt firmly in the zipped lips category.

“Then defer to your talents as a student of the craft and overcome this adversity in the same way your sister has. Just your work on that grimoire of yours is enough to showcase your ingenuity in the face of unforeseen circumstances.”

Magnolia brightened up, “You really think so?” She jingled the item around on her wrist.

“Your approach to the assignment is satisfactory under my eyes. If one of your many fears is the fear of a botched binding in the heat of the examination, know that your workmanship will not be what fails you.” The Matron had assuaged her fear in that flowery speak of hers. The whole conversation had. “I remain steadfast in my assertion that you will find yourself at the end of all of this as a sister, Magnolia. Your kind does not fail. Only experiences setbacks.”

Magnolia jumped out of her seat, and suppressed the embarrassment from the overenthusiastic gesture.

“Thank you, Matron. I won’t let you down!” Magnolia exclaimed.

“I am sure you will not let any of us down. Remain vigilant in your studies and in your examination. It would be a shame to send your sister to recover you in a body bag.” The Matron disengaged from the concentration with another flick of her wrist, moving Magnolia out of the space with a mere wave.

Body bag…

Magnolia frowned. It wasn’t enough to just have the courage to face the spell in a challenge but to come back alive from the whole scenario. If these were the sorts of issues that Juniper had to deal with, then Magnolia felt it was even more prudent to get a move on with her studies and come out of this experience a capable enough person for her sister to depend on. It was hard enough for her to deal with it all and she had the benefit of the school and Willow and the Matron.

She’d be all that for her sister. It was the least she could do. For family.