Chapter Text
When the ritual was finished, the little charm pulsed with a low thrumming buzz, once, twice, three times…and then stopped.
"Did it work?" I asked.
Mal leaned down from her cross-legged position in the center of the pentacle and tentatively extended a hand to pick up the newly forged magic item. "It's still warm," she reported. "Are you getting an aura off of it?"
I looked more closely. I was perched on the bed just above the ritual circle, so I had a pretty good view. Yes, there was an octarine glow about it—weak, but still present. I nodded.
"Okay, let me see if it holds a proper charge. Charm of Farsight, I call upon thy power!"
As Mal held up the item and spoke the command words, I could see her own aura begin to swirl around her hands and mingle with the charm's, funneling into it, lending it strength. Then…it stopped. The charm had all the power it needed for now.
"It sure feels like it worked," Mal said. "Are you ready to put it on?"
"Not getting any readier!" I hopped down onto her lap, and she fastened the collar around my neck.
Immediately, my vision sharpened, just like I'd put on a new pair of glasses, except more. I could pick out the CMYK dots on the Indigo Girls poster across the room. I could count the individual strands of hair stuck to the hairbrush on the dresser. "Oh yeah," I said. "Yeah, it definitely worked. Wow."
"Is it overkill? It's supposed to be an equivalent boost to visual acuity as if you were 80 feet closer to whatever you're looking at…"
"It's awesome is what it is. Overkill shmoverkill. I'm keeping it." I snuggled affectionately up against her. "Thanks."
She patted my head. "Anything for you, Kate."
The doorbell rang.
"Oh! I'll get it," Mal said, nudging me off her lap so that she could stand up. "Whoever that is, they have good timing, waiting until the ritual is over."
"Okay, I'll clean up these reagents in the meantime." I started levitating the ritual's focus components back to their drawer as Mal walked off to answer the door.
And then…I don't really know what happened.
It all went so fast.
I heard voices. I couldn't make out the words. And then a crackling sound, and then…pain. Pain, like all my internal organs had been lit on fire.
The last thing I heard before I blacked out was the sound of an engine driving away.