Isaiah
It was twenty after ten when Hurricane Davie finally blew into the practice room, flustered, disheveled and, inexplicably, carrying a picnic basket. “Do we need chairs for the circle?”
“No,” I said. “I got tired of waiting.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to be late. I had to swing by Cryptid Studies on the way. Well, not on the way, it’s way the hell out of the way, but before.”
“What were you doing in Crypto?”
“Had to stop by veterinary to get Pyewacket.” She opened the basket and picked up a shaggy, gold cat that had seen better days. It was missing patches of fur, had a chunk gone from one ear, and one of its back legs was splinted and bandaged.
“What’s that?”
“My cat.”
“I didn’t know you had a cat.” Not that I made a habit of making small talk with Davie, but I think Cabot would have mentioned it by now if there was a cat in the room he spent so much time in.
“He’s new,” she said. “Aren’t you, moon pie? Yes, you are.” She rubbed noses with him. He looked annoyed.
“That cat may be a lot of things, but new is definitely not one of them.”
She looked at me like I’d hurt the cat’s feelings. “He’s seen some shit, yes. But he’s safe now. Isn’t that right, marshmallow? Kiss kiss.” And then she did, in fact, kiss the cat, right on the mouth. I’d kissed a cat or three in my life, but there was something about watching Davie do it that was just unnatural.
“Will he behave while we work?” As soon as I asked, I considered the bandaged leg and figured that’d keep him under control if nothing else. I didn’t say it aloud, for fear of being accused of offending the cat again. So many people Markston could have partnered me with.
“He’ll be fine.” She set the picnic basket on the chair and placed the cat inside, leaving the lid open. “He can watch.”
“I’m sure he’ll be riveted. Did you read over the instructions?”
“Of course. We’re basically casting a regular circle, then squaring it off, doing this weird strip of symbols inside, then activating them.”
“Seems like,” I said, not admitting I’d already tried it with Cabot. “You want to do the main circle together?” I wasn’t crazy about the idea of sharing circle casting with Davie, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to let her do it alone, and I knew she’d feel the same about me.
“Sure. You do the athame, and I’ll do the wand. Then you can do the incense, and I’ll draw the symbols.”
“Oh, no. You arranged it that way on purpose so you could draw all the symbols. I’ll do athame and incense, but then we’ll each draw half of the symbols. It doesn’t matter what order they’re drawn in, because they need to be activated. Since I’ll have two passes at the circle, you can choose to either do the long symbol in the center or draw the square.”
I saw her going over this in her mind, looking for something she could argue with. “Fine. I’ll draw the square. Whoever gets to the center of the symbols first draws the long one.”
“Okay, but if you rush and your symbols are sloppy, I get to draw them all next round.”
“Same.”
I felt like we should shake hands.
We had a second round of negotiation over who’d draw the outer chalk circle. I won that one when the cat meowed and Davie decided he was feeling neglected. Once the circle was drawn and the cat was settled again, we were able to begin for real. I picked up my athame and went to the East wall. I walked the circle, sending out energy I now couldn’t help but picture as a big ring of blue-green toothpaste, thanks to Cabot’s description.
Davie took her turn, using her wand to shape the energy into a bubble, then I did the pass with the incense, solidifying the circle.
“Goddammit,” Davie said, glaring at me.
“What?”
“You didn’t leave any chalk inside the circle.”
Shit. I’d left the chalk attached to the compass line and set the whole thing on the shelf. “I’ll get it,” I said, reaching for my athame.
“We’re not going to start right out with a weakened circle because you cut a doorway,” Davie argued. She stepped through the circle, dissipating its energy. She pulled the chalk from the loop in the rope. “We’re just going to start over.”
I couldn’t argue. I did my athame pass again, careful to do it perfectly. If we had to start over a second time because of anything I did, she’d insist on doing the whole thing herself.
We got the main circle cast, then moved on to the next stage. She drew the square inside the circle, including the extra line that created the box for the symbols, then we each started at one end, drawing the symbols, working toward the center. I concentrated, needing to beat her to the middle without being sloppy. I kept looking over to check her progress, judging the quality of her symbols. I caught her checking mine, too.
We got to the center at the same time, and had a bit of a stare-down. I decided to be the reasonable one. “I’ll draw the X and the O, you draw the line in between.”
She considered for a second, then agreed. I drew the X at the center of the line of symbols and a circle around the compass hole, then she connected them with a long line. I was impressed by how straight her line was, but I kept it to myself.
“Okay, time to activate the symbols,” she said, as though I hadn’t read the instructions, too.
We each stood before the half of the symbols we’d drawn, me South and her North, and pointed our respective tools at the outermost one. I concentrated on sending energy into the symbol, visualized it glowing bright and strong, then moved on to the next. Then the next.
We got to the center, aimed both tools at the X and then, after a moment, traced them down the line to the O. And then…
Nothing.
“The instructions say the circle should become visible. That’s how you read it too, yeah?” she asked.
“Yep.”
“Have you ever seen a literally visible circle before?”
“Nope.”
“How many circles have you cast?”
“More than I can count. I’ve been casting circles since I was thirteen, and saw plenty more cast by others before that.”
The look on her face that was more experience than she had.
“Have you ever seen a visible circle?” I asked.
She admitted she hadn’t, either. I spared her the interrogation about her own magickal history; something had gotten her recruited to OTA. She may not have grown up with magick, even the mundane Wiccan variety I’d had, but I was sure she had experience before coming to school. “Let’s try again,” I said. “We’ll take the circle down right this time, so we don’t have a bunch of dissipated energy floating around, interfering.”
A slight furrow in her brow confirmed she’d registered the shade. Good.
The second attempt failed as miserably as the first. The main circles were strong, but the construction inside seemed like nothing more than sidewalk chalk drawings on a summer day. It did nothing.
“We need to start all the way over,” Davie said. “Erase the symbols and re-draw them.”
I didn’t see anything wrong with what we’d drawn, but I also had no idea what any of it meant. Neither did she. “Fine. But this time, only one of us draws them all. Maybe they aren’t connecting because different people drew them. Lack of continuity, conflicting energies, something like that.”
She considered. “That could be valid,” She said. “I’ll draw them all.”
“Oh, will you, now?”
“I called it first.”
“This isn’t a road trip. You can’t call shotgun.”
“Except I did.”
“And I rejected it. Here’s my suggestion. You draw everything, circle, square, symbols, the works, and then we try. Then we erase it all, smudge the room to clear the energy, then we do it again with me drawing everything. Whether it works the first time or not, we do the whole thing twice.”
She was quiet for a moment, probably weighing the same considerations I had before making my suggestion. If she went first, then we’d have more practice by the time we got to my turn, so we’d likely be more successful with my drawing than hers. On the other hand, we might also be getting tired by my round, and not do as well. It was a risk.
“Fine,” she said at last. Get the eraser.”
We were about halfway through our second full practice, the one with me doing all the chalk work, when the cat decided he’d had enough. He started yowling and trying to get out of the basket, despite his injured leg.
I focused on drawing my symbols, ignoring her cooing as she tried to soothe the restless animal.
“Pyewacket! No!” I looked up just in time to see the cat hit the floor. It howled in pain and went sliding, right into the circle.
“I’m done,” I announced, standing up. There was a streak, the width of the skinny cat, right through the middle of my line of perfect symbols. “We’ve practiced enough for one day. You can erase the floor after you get your new friend under control.” I picked up my backpack and left.
“Shit,” I said aloud, stopping outside the door. I went back into the room, crossed to the chair holding Davie’s picnic basket, picked my Spiritual Studies book up from the floor, turned around, and left again. Nothing like leaving something behind to ruin a perfectly good storming out.
Davie
I walked into Witchcraft class Tuesday morning and took my seat without looking Isaiah’s way once. He didn’t look at me, either, which was fine by me.
“Everybody settled?” Markston asked, which was her polite way of telling us to settle. “Before we talk about the reading, I wanted to check in with everyone on how you’re doing with the circle project.” She smirked as several people groaned. “I know, I know. I didn’t warn you. That was sort of the point. I didn’t want a bunch of well-prepared, formal statements, I want to know how things are really going. Madeline and Luna, let’s start with you. Have you given your circle a try yet?”
“Yeah,” Madeline said. “It’s… different.”
“Tell the class a bit about your circle.”
Luna answered this time. “It’s a compass round. Or, at least, we’re pretty sure it is. Neither of us have ever done anything so…” She trailed off, looking for a word.
Madeline picked up where Luna left off. “I don’t want to say dark, that sounds negative, and I don’t want to seem like we’re insulting Trad witches. But Luna and I have both always done strictly Goddess-centered work, and this is more…”
Markston interrupted, putting the two out of their misery. “This is why I was careful to give everyone a circle type they hadn’t done before. Traditional Witchcraft is more earthy, and I won’t deny it can sometimes be darker than some other paths. Goddess traditions tend to focus on love and light, even more so than Wicca. Traditional Witchcraft often has a strong masculine influence, which gives it a different feel, and it acknowledges the dark as well as the light. Even in something as basic as casting a circle, these differences can be seen and felt. If you’re picking up on them, then you’re making good progress with your circle. Keep it up.
She moved on to Logan and Sylvan. There were only twelve students in the class; it wasn’t going to take long until it was our turn. I looked at Isaiah, wondering which of us she was going to call on first, and what he’d say to make us look bad when it was his turn.
Isaiah
Davie was staring at me. I turned away, hoping she’d get the message. After yesterday, I’d had enough of her. We’d gotten together for a second circle practice on Monday evening, and it had gone even worse than the first one.
She was late, yet again. She showed up without the cat, at least, though she talked about him for what felt like an hour before we were able to get started. “I had to pick Pyewacket up from his veterinary appointment after my Healing class. All they could do over the weekend was set his leg and splint it, but he got magickal healing today, and he’s almost completely healed now. He’ll need another appointment or two, but he’ll be good as new soon.”
I nodded. It was good he was getting better. I liked cats. Too bad this one was stuck with Davie.
“The vet tech asked about you. Jessica? She didn’t tell me her last name, but the initial on her name tag was a V. Said she’s in your—”
“—Spiritual Studies class, yeah. What’d she ask about me?” I’d barely spoken to Jessica. And why would she ask Davie about me, of all people?
Davie shrugged. “We were talking while we waited for the vet, and when she found out I’m a second year Witchcraft major, she asked if I knew you.”
“Ah. She seems nice.”
“Yeah?” She raised an eyebrow in a way I could have done without.
“Not like that.” I said. “She has a girlfriend. Can we get started on the circle now?”
“Fine, whatever,” she said, as though she were the most misunderstood creature in the Universe. “Just trying to be civil.”
We agreed to the same approach as our previous practice, taking turns doing all the chalk work. She tried her usual trick of “letting” me go first but, unlike most people, I knew her game. We argued for another five minutes about whether to flip a coin before she pulled out the tarot deck she always carried. “High card goes second, Major Arcana trumps Minor.”
“Okay,” I said. “But you’re not shuffling.”
After another round of negotiating, we each shuffled half the deck, then mixed them together. She fanned out the cards face down. I studied the pinkish-purple backs, each featuring a sun with a stylized eye in the center, looking for any sign she had them marked in some way. Eventually I chose one, as did she.
Her Judgment card beat out my Ace of Cups.
I used the compass line to draw the outer circle, then added the square inside and the row of symbols. Davie sat, looking bored. She watched part of the time, but also spent time texting and digging through her bag, ignoring what I was doing.
I was careful to follow the written instructions to the letter, doing each step in the correct order. I did the long, center symbol last, beginning with an X at the middle of the row of symbols, then the vertical line ending with a small circle at the middle of the main circle. It looked perfect, as far as I could tell.
But it failed. Again.
“…So, we’ve decided to start doing meditation practice every day together, to get ourselves in sync.”
I’d gotten lost in my own thoughts and hadn’t been paying attention to class.
DAVIE
“That’s a good idea, Sylvan,” Markston said.
She and Logan had been having trouble with their circle, too. Markston seemed okay with it, which was good news for us.
“Isaiah?” Markston said. Fuck. Here we go…
“Our circle is… weird.”
Great start, asshole, admitting we don’t know what we’re doing.
“Can you elaborate on weird?”
“Well,” he said. “The main circle is pretty straightforward. It’s the sort of standard circle we’d use in Wicca, minus any religious elements. I’m actually surprised we were given it, since it’s so much like what we’re already both used to doing.”
He was fucking this up so bad.
“But it has a second part, a construction inside the main circle that seems more like something out of Ceremonial Magick. Neither of us recognize it.”
“Davie,” she said, turning to me.
Fucking great, she was expecting me to fix his mess. And I couldn’t.
“Have you identified any part of the inner construction?”
“Not yet,” I admitted.
“What research have you done?”
Isaiah and I looked at each other. We both libraried harder than anyone, but neither of us had done much research. We hadn’t even discussed it.
“Have either of you done any research yet?”
“We’ve…” Isaiah said, then trailed off.
“We’ve practiced the circle together several times,” I said.
“And how did it go? Have you been getting the result indicated in your instructions?”
“Well…”
“No.”
“You still have a couple of weeks before the test,” she said, the nearness of it alarming me. “I suggest you hit the books and figure things out, then resume practice. You need to work together. Remember you aren’t competing with one another this time.”
Isaiah
“This is a reminder to everyone,” Markston said, now addressing the whole class. “This project is your grade for this unit, making it fifteen percent of your final grade.”
Markston always broke out her grades the same way. Four units per semester, each with a paper or project worth fifteen percent, then the midterm was another fifteen percent and the final was worth twenty-five percent. She said she did things that way to be fair to people who were learning and doing well in class, but who suffered from test anxiety. I’d personally always thought those people just needed to study harder, but it wasn’t my decision to make.
I turned to Davie, to show her with my facial expression how I felt about her making us look bad. She was already shooting daggers at me when our eyes met.
“Zach and Mandy, what about you? How’s it going with your circle?”
Davie
I couldn’t believe he’d told her, in front of the whole class, we hadn’t done any research. I wasn’t one for hesitating or procrastinating because I wanted to do more research first, but I also didn’t skip it all together. Working with Isaiah was a bad influence on me.
Last night’s circle had almost worked once, and it was the time I drew the symbols. I didn’t know what he was doing wrong but, whatever it was, I did it better.
I was just finishing up drawing the long, center symbol when Sofia came into the room. She’d texted while Isaiah was drawing his circle, saying she couldn’t find the textbook for her MAPA Core class. I checked my bag; somehow it had gotten mixed up with my books. I told her we were in practice room four, and she should come by and get it.
“That looks interesting,” she said, looking at the chalk drawings on the floor.
Isaiah grunted and rolled his eyes.
“It’d be more interesting if we could make the fucker work,” I said, handing over her book.
“What’s not working?”
“Hell if I know. The instructions say it’s supposed to be visible when it works.”
She looked at the floor. “It isn’t visible now?”
I heard Isaiah sigh somewhere behind me and chose to ignore him.
“The chalk circle is just a guide, not the circle itself. The real circle will be a bubble of energy around us.”
“Are you getting ready to do it now?” she asked, sounding intrigued.
“Yet again,” I said. “You wanna watch?”
“Are you kidding me?” Isaiah asked from across the room.
“She isn’t going to hurt anything,” I said. “And who better to let us know if it’s working? The instructions say it’s supposed to be visible by anyone when it works, even someone who doesn’t know magick. Doesn’t that mean having a non-magickal observer makes sense?” I turned back to Sofia. “Can you stick around and be our objective observer for a bit, or do you have plans with Cabot?”
“Nah, he’s with Gillian.” Cabot’s best friend, Gillian, was a PA student, like Sofia. “She had one of her visions last night, and she’s had a horrible migraine ever since. He’s taking care of her.”
“Good, then. Well, for us, I mean. Not Gillian. That happens to her a lot, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah. Her visions hit her hard. It was awful when I couldn’t control my telepathy, but at least I wasn’t in debilitating pain on a regular basis. I can stay and watch a while. If you think it’s really a good idea?” She cast an uncertain look at Isaiah, who was dragging a folding chair out of the closet like it had personally offended him in some way.
“He’ll live. If he didn’t know I was right about having an observer, he wouldn’t be getting you a chair. Don’t wait around for him to admit it out loud, or we’ll all starve.”
Sofia sat down, and Isaiah and I started casting. We got to the final step, where we activated the line of symbols.
I aimed the tip of my wand at the first one. My wand was a narrow shaft of rosewood, polished smooth but left with the natural shape of the branch. A clear quartz point was affixed at the top, and a small, rose quartz cabochon capped the handle end. Tiny rose quartz and garnet chips adorned the shaft at intervals. Several rose thorns were also affixed to the wand, glued flat against the branch with their points aimed toward the tip.
I visualized the energy coming through me and through the wand, running along the path indicated by the thorns, and out the crystal tip. The symbol glowed in my mind after a few seconds, and I moved on to the next one, then the next. I glanced up at Sofia, still watching. Her eyes were wide and fixed on us, while her hand fiddled unconsciously with the tourmilated quartz necklace she always wore.
I continued to progress through the symbols; when I reached the third one from the center, it started to flicker. I wanted to look up at Isaiah, to see if he’d noticed it too, but I didn’t want to break my concentration.
I moved on, and the next symbol glowed even more fully than the previous one. I looked across the center, and saw Isaiah’s most recent symbol was glowing as well. This time, we glanced up and made eye contact for a brief second. He looked as amazed as I felt.
We reached the center symbol, aiming our wands at it together. It glowed immediately, the X lighting up like we’d flipped a wall switch. “Holy fuck,” I muttered.
“Yeah,” he agreed.
As we traced the long line, a band of light appeared above the chalk. The little circle at the end of the line glowed, then it became a sphere the size of a marble. We continued to send energy into it, and it grew, reaching the size of a walnut.
Maybe this ball was going to grow until it filled the whole circle, and that was the visible part. I held my breath, expecting the bubble to burst any second.
Sofia had let the necklace drop back under her shirt, everything in the world but our circle forgotten. Her chair scraped against the floor as she leaned forward to get a better look.
The little walnut of light flickered once, then the whole thing went dark.
“Goddammit,” Isaiah growled. He turned and walked right out of the circle, dissipating the energy.
“I’m sorry, I’ll get out,” Sofia said, snatching up her book and leaving without another word.
“That wasn’t her fault,” I said.
“No, it wasn’t. It was yours.”
“Mine? How was it my fault?”
“You let her stay, then you let her distract you.”
“We did better with her in the room than we have this whole time.”
“For a while.”
“I’m done. We’ll try again later.” I picked up my bag from the floor and left, wand still in my hand. He could clean up the practice room himself, bastard.
Isaiah
Zach and Mandy were struggling with their circle, too. Markston didn’t chew them out for not trying hard enough, though. No, she saved that for Davie and me. I hadn’t been called out as the underachiever in class since I was nine years old.
Once she’d interrogated all six pairs, Markston began the day’s lecture. I let Davie know what I thought of her with one last, filthy look before I picked up my pen to start taking notes.
I only half heard Markston’s lecture about the alignment of the elements with the cardinal directions, because I was lost in thoughts about our circle. Markston was right, we needed to research and figure out what the hell we were even trying to do. This was a heavy class day, but as soon as I was out of Divination at six, I was heading for the Library and figuring this shit out.
“…placed the element of Water in the East, due to the position of the Atlantic Ocean.”
Water in the East, not West? Shit. I needed to pay attention to this lecture. I glared at Davie for distracting me, then tried to catch up enough to figure out when you’d associate Water with East.
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