Key was glad the business with Antony had ended, if only so she could focus on Mat's baby shawl and her exam for Mrs. Theelnin. To no one's surprise, the electrocasting class wasn't the only one being tortured with Messengers Day-inspired exams. Tilli and Mat had to create perpetual snow globes and were spending an increasing amount of time trying to capture tiny gusts of wind in glass jars. It was not going well.
"What if you created a switch on the base?" Key suggested during a study session in the common. "To activate the wind?" She had been studying her channeling objects textbook, and turned it around to show Mat.
"It's certainly worth a try," Mat said as he clapped the lid on his jar and watched a tiny swirl of paper settle to the bottom. "It's due next week. And this is not working. What's your exam for Wayteel like?" he asked Miriam, who was reading her history book.
"Impromptu. She said there's no way to study for it."
Tilli looked at the tiny snowy forest she had glued into the lid of her jar. "I think I like this more."
"It's done." Ayan walked in from the hallway holding a large piece of fabric. She unfolded it and everyone gasped. The quilt had twelve different patterned stars in various pastel shades, but each with a burst of red. Orange strips joined the blocks together, and it was finished in a sky blue border. Key recognized the pattern immediately.
"A Pelan star quilt." Mat instinctively reached out for it, and Ayan handed it to him.
"I didn't do the braided sashing," she said, "I don't know how."
Key wasn't sure what this meant and made a mental note to ask Ayan later. Whatever it was, it didn't bother Mat, who lovingly ran his fingers over each square before returning it with the same care he had once shown his headscarf. "It's beautiful, Ayan."
She thanked him and then passed the quilt to Tilli and Miriam.
"What are you doing for Mr. Depping's class?" Mat turned to Key.
"Oh, um... just more Thisaazhou embroidery." Key shrugged. "I didn't even finish. But I'm still turning it in tomorrow."
"We have another week left. Why does he want it tomorrow?"
"He said if I turned it in early, I could have it back to work on over the break too."
"You want to show your dad," Matsias said. Key nodded, and hoped he'd leave it at that.
"It also means we can focus on all our other tests. I haven't touched the chapter for Mr. Connor yet." Ayan climbed over Tilli to take a seat on the couch next to Miriam.
"The chapter on the Pelan?" Mat asked. "That should be easy. If you have any questions, just ask me." Key had noticed Matsias had gotten even more comfortable around the girls once they knew his heritage. It was nice to see him taking so much pride in it again.
"Can you explain this?" Miriam turned the book to face the group. There was a full color drawing of a woman in traditional Pelan clothing leaning on a cane. Key knew it was Tsia Xitano, the Grand Matriarch who had once united the proto-Pelan tribes.
"Wow," Ayan said, "she looks just like you."
It was no surprise to Key that this made Matsias smile. "Yeah. We even have the same bad leg."
"I think he's descended from her." Key was about to start on her theory, which she knew Mat would claim there was no evidence for, when Tilli let out a whoop.
Her roommate was holding her jar with the winter scene and a tiny tornado of white paper. She and Matsias exchanged a glance. "Funnels!" They said at the same time.
"If you keep the wind tight, it makes it easier to capture. And the speed keeps it from dying out once you close it off." Tilli set her jar on the table. "But, so much for making a switch. I do not want to try catching it again."
"I think you can still do it." Key thumbed through the book, sure she had seen something about that in class.
"Here, I'll trade you." Mat put a hand out for the book and held up the base of his own snowglobe--a village square that reminded her of Illegate. She doubted that was accidental.
"You want me to capture wind in a jar for you?"
"No," He laughed as if this was obvious. "I thought... maybe you could put light into it?"
"Light?"
"Well, you've done it before."
Key was supposed to be in class with Mat and the other students at the temple school, reading. But she was tired of stumbling over the words in front of everyone, so she'd hid herself in a storage closet and decided to practice her electricity magic. She'd been able to fill some rocks with lighting, and she wanted to know what else she could do with it. She called it from the air into her hand, and it crackled over her fingers like bugs she'd dug up. "Stop going everywhere," she told the sparks, "make a ball."
And they did. Slowly, they peeled off her skin and joined together in a ball in the middle of her hand. Key was giddy with excitement until the door opened. "Key?" Someone had found her. She tried to draw all of the electricity back into herself. The current came, but... "ooh!" Mat blinked wide-eyed at the globe of light that had been left behind.
"I did it once, when we were ten." As much as Key had tried to fill her stones with light after that, she had been unable to replicate what she had done. She thought of the fizzing string of lights running across Mrs. Theelnin's room. "Mat, if I mess this up, I could melt your whole scene." Part of her also worried about popping some of the lights above them, but she didn't mention that.
"Then I'll redo it. Key, I trust you." He said it the same way he had once talked about both of them going to Faraday, and Key knew she would feel guilty if she didn't try. She drew the smallest spark she could from her skin and threaded it into one of the houses. She imagined looping it through an invisible layer of fabric, bringing the current back to herself and leaving a tiny stitch of light. She heard a joyous laugh from Matsias and a gasp from one of the other girls. She looked at the interior lights she had given the house--without even a bulb--and realized she knew exactly how to pass Mrs. Theelnin's test.
She asked to complete her electrocasting midterm the next day. She could feel everyone watching her, wondering which light string she would pick. It didn't really matter to her, so she picked the fizzing one she knew no one else wanted. Then she did as she had done the night before. She drew a spark off her skin and fed it into the light. It popped only once, and then settled into a soft glow as she threaded her electric string back out. Instead of sending a current through the wires, she concentrated on the next bulb, willing the glass to glow, and not the filament. She continued until all of the lights were lit. The string didn't fizz again, and the bulbs were in tact.
She looked at Mrs. Theelnin, who raised her eyebrows, but said nothing. The silence hung like an additional string of lights. Key's heart thumped in her chest as she waited to get called out for cheating. Then, the teacher nodded. "A fine example of playing to your strengths. Excellent control. I'll see you next semester."
