Chapter Text
Viney had led Emira halfway back to Hexside before Emira spoke up. “So what’s the plan?” She asked, “Because all the classrooms are locked, and I’m not exactly welcome in the healers’ ward.” She smirked over at Viney as they walked, “Ooh, is there a secret multi-track study room?”
To Emira’s surprise, Viney shot her a brief, suspicious look. Then she grinned, “Nah, I’ve got the key to the healing homeroom.” She winked at Emira, “Top student privileges.”
Interesting, Viney had played it off well, but Emira hadn’t become one of Hexside’s top illusion students without being able to spot a lie. Emira added yet another mental note to her growing list then gasped and put a hand over her bile sac in mock outrage, “Me and Ed are top students! Why don’t we have keys?”
Viney snorted with laughter, “You’re right; I can’t think of any reason why a teacher wouldn’t trust Edric and Emira Blight with access to their room.” Emira continued making vaguely offended noises all the way until Viney let the two of them into a classroom.
The first thing Emira noticed when she walked into the healing homeroom was the larger than life illusory model of a witch in the corner. It was bald, and its other features seemed calculated to be completely average and unremarkable. “What’s this guy for?” Emira said, walking over to it.
Viney picked up a wand from the teacher's desk and said simply, "This." She spun a spell circle with the wand, and the model's skin sloughed off, leaving the muscle exposed. She spun another circle, and the muscles fell away too, revealing the organs and bones. The heart and bile sac were beating.
Emira stared at the model, transfixed and disgusted, "It's for grossing out innocent, unsuspecting witches?"
Viney barked with laughter, "I thought you'd appreciate the practical application of illusions." Emira turned her head to give Viney an unimpressed look. Viney continued, "also yes, it's for grossing out new healing students. It gets everyone the first time." Emira pouted, and Viney winked at her, remorseless, "Don't tell me Emira Blight can't take a harmless prank."
Emira rolled her eyes, fighting not to grin, and turned back to the model, "No, you got me there. And you're right, it is an interesting problem, how to make magic accessible to people in other covens. It's what my parents do for abominations." It was her rote response whenever anyone asked what she thought of Blight Industries’ work.
Viney hummed, "Speaking of other tracks of magic, let's get to it." Emira turned and gave Viney her full attention, conjuring a quill and scroll illusion to complete the picture. Viney ignored her overacting apart from the amusement in her eyes, "We're gonna start where most people start." Viney started rolling up her right sleeve, and Emira's eyes snapped down, watching as Viney revealed winding trails of mottled purple and green standing out amidst the freckles on her toned forearm. "Bruises"
Emira, who had not expected the prospect of working closely with Viney's muscles, could feel herself turning red and couldn't seem to form words. When she didn't respond, Viney said dismissively, "Oh, they're not that bad. I've gotten worse from Puddles."
Emira snapped out of her trance to say, "Ye…yeah! I was just… they're from Willow right? That move with the vines?" She mentally patted herself on the back for the quick save.
Viney nodded and raised her hand to display her arm from all angles, "Yup, the captain doesn't pull her punches, and this is with my aura spell preventing the worst of it. But it's a rough game." Viney shrugged, "these things happen."
"Sure," said Emira, cautiously. She had been thinking more about how Mom made Mittens throw Willow out of her party for being bad at magic. Good thing Luz had gotten Mittens to make up with her; she was clearly not a witch to dismiss anymore. "And I guess that’s why you’re on the team, anyway."
“Hey!” said Viney sharply, pointing the index finger of her injured arm in Emira’s face and grinning again, “It’s one of many reasons I’m on the team!”
Viney paused for Emira’s chuckle before getting back on topic, her tone suddenly business like, “Alright, impulse and intent.” Emira nodded, recognizing the components of a spell. “The basic impulse for healing magic is caring; I just think about my pet, Puddles.” Emira nodded again; Mittens and Ed should do.
“The intent is a little harder. You have to know about the anatomical structures and processes you’re trying to manipulate, so for bruises” Viney turned back to the model and used the control wand to reveal its blood and bile vessels. Then some of the thinner vessels in the arm, closer to the surface, exploded, spilling their contents into the surrounding space. “It’s like that. Broken capillaries and loose fluids. So what we have to do” She spun one more spell circle, and the damaged tubules reknit themselves. "is put the blood and bile back where it goes and get the broken ends to find each other and stick back together." She turned back to Emira, who was starting to feel like she might be in over her head, "So, ready to try?"
Emira blinked. "Like on your arm? You sure? I only mostly followed that."
Viney nodded and said encouragingly, "Yeah, this is how I learned. Worst case scenario, nothing happens. And mostly is plenty, anyway. Just start with a small section and keep the magic flowing."
Well, how hard could imagining a bunch of tubes be? Emira had to hold every detail of a face in her mind for illusions all the time.
Emira took a slow breath. She thought about Ed and how she didn't want him to keep getting hurt. Like Viney said, that part was pretty easy. Then she pictured some broken tubes gluing themselves together and started a spell.
It… didn’t really look like anything was happening. The spell circle hadn’t broken, and it was the right color, but Viney’s arm still looked the same when she stopped her after a minute.
Emira looked up at Viney and found her looking teasingly back at her. In the time it took Emira to pass through surprise into irritation Viney said softly and earnestly, “You’re cute when you concentrate, Blight.” which sent Emira hurtling back through surprise and landed somewhere that turned her face red again.
She managed to respond with something, but through the sudden lightheadedness she’d have been hard pressed to remember it. Viney just chuckled, so it can’t have been too bad.
Viney asked where Emira had been targeting her spell, and Emira sheepishly indicated the area just above Viney’s wrist. Viney poked and prodded a few spots on her arm, and her expression shifted to pleasant surprise. “Not bad for a first try!” She said, “It's less tender than the rest, so you probably closed up most of the broken blood vessels. You just didn’t get the blood back in them first.”
Emira was also surprised it had worked; she was used to spells being visual things. “Huh, cool.” she smiled, “Is it a problem that the blood is still out there?”
Viney waved a hand, “Nah. Putting it back would help the swelling, but repairing the capillaries is the bigger part of it. Let’s try again but switch up what you’re using for the impulse. See if we can get some more bile pumping.”
Emira nodded, energized now. She thought of the last time she’d dyed Mittens’s hair and their conversation beforehand, remembered to add stuff flowing into the broken tubes in her visualization, and cast her spell again. This time, the color faded slowly from some of Viney’s bruises.
Emira slowly practiced her way up Viney’s arm, fine tuning her impulse. After a while, Viney stopped her and gave a more detailed explanation of the healing process to refine Emira’s intent as well. In broad strokes, it was the same way she learned new illusion spells, just hands on with a very pretty girl. By the time Emira reached Viney’s shoulder, she felt pretty good about her progress. And she hadn’t stumbled at the bicep or anything!
“Alright! Good work, Blight!” Viney said, examining the last patch Emira healed, “Ready to stop for today?”
Emira looked around the room. When had the sun started setting? “Yeah, sure.” she said through a contented sigh, stretching out the bile burn in her arms, "I got that one down."
Viney snorted, "You did great for a first timer, but," she spun a spell circle, and as it traveled up her arm, every remaining blemish vanished in an instant, "you've got a ways to go."
Emira hummed, leaning against a desk and watching Viney closely, "Then I guess we'll have to do this again."
Emira's tone made Viney focus back on her. "For sure." she said, appraisingly, "also, don't forget you owe me some illusions." The two of them started leaving the room.
"Don't worry." Emira put a hand on her chest and turned up her nose in the haughtiest expression she could muster and put on the impression she'd been working on her whole life, "A Blight always upholds her end of a bargain."
Viney smirked and raised an eyebrow, "Glad to hear it. Thursday after school then?" She locked the classroom behind them.
"Sure." Emira nodded as they walked out, "You gonna tell me what we're doing?"
"Nah, where's the fun in that?"
"Not even a hint?"
"Nope." Viney said, popping the p, "Just meet me on the front steps 20 minutes after last bell."
Emira spent the rest of the walk out of the school and through the sunset-lit Bonesborough making increasingly outlandish guesses at what Viney would have her do. Viney mostly just laughed, but that only encouraged Emira.
"OK, I got it. You need a slitherbeast to see who would win in a fight between a slitherbeast and a swarm of fire bees."
Viney shook her head, "Gotta be the fire bees. What’s a slitherbeast gonna do about fire?"
“If it’s a training wand fireball it’ll mostly just get really mad.” At Viney’s surprised look, Emira said, “Long story. I’ll tell you some time.”
“I’ll hold you to that.” said Viney. She paused at an intersection, "I'm going this way. I'll see you around, Blight." She winked at Emira and walked away.
Emira… couldn't trust herself to respond; she could feel her face burning. She just waved instead. As soon as Viney was out of sight, Emira released the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. She headed home, mentally reviewing what she'd learned and generally trying to think about anything other than that parting wink and how the sunset brought out the color of Viney’s eyes.
Emira managed to get home without passing out and was pleasantly surprised to see that her mother’s wraith wasn’t waiting to accost her at the front door. Someone must’ve covered for her, and as she reached the landing where her and her siblings’ bedrooms were, Emira could hear that both of the potential someones were in Mittens’s room. Ed was groaning, and Mittens was snapping at him. All seemed right with the world.
Emira entered the room, and immediately Ed looked up from where he was lying on Mittens’s bed, flopped back down, put his arm over his face dramatically, and said, “Oh, Mittens, who is that? I almost recognize her, but it’s been so long.”
Mittens looked up from her homework and over her shoulder at Emira and growled, annoyed, “Em, he’s been doing this for hours. I’m losing my mind.”
Emira walked over and perched next to Ghost on the end of Mittens’s desk. Instead of responding to her siblings’ complaints, she said, “OK but listen to my problem:” she paused for effect, “there is a hot girl.”
“Betrayed! Abandoned by my own sister for the sake of her lusts!” Emira and Mittens simultaneously levitated pillows and threw them at Ed.
“Now Emira, my favorite sister,” said Mittens, with a dangerous edge to her voice that rivaled their mother’s, “I did leave you alone with my girlfriend.”
“Yes,” said Emira, speaking quickly before Mittens could finish her spell circle, “and then she introduced me to her friend Viney.”
Mittens nodded and lowered her finger, sounding calmer now, “I’ve met her a couple times. How’d it go?”
“She’s nice and funny and she called me cute and I only almost blacked out twice.”
“So what’s the problem?” came Ed’s muffled voice from beneath the pillows.
Emira smirked, “Oh nothing, I’m just bragging.”
Ed grabbed one of the pillows off his face and flung it at Emira. It went wide, knocked a book off Mittens's desk, and woke Ghost up from their nap.
Mittens rolled her eyes, smiling a little bit, "Well good for you.” She turned back to her homework, “Are you going to see her again?" Ghost started rubbing against Emira, begging for attention.
Emira nodded and started scratching Ghost behind the ear. "Yeah, she asked me for a favor, so we’re meeting up in a couple days."
“A favor?” asked Ed, sitting up.
“Yeah?”
“So not a date.”
Emira shrugged, “Not not a date.” She thought about it for a second, “Probably. She wouldn’t tell me what the favor was.”
Mittens and Ed exchanged a look. Emira huffed irritably, “Alright fine, probably not a date.” she said. She recovered quickly, “but we just met today! I’ll get there.”
Ed whistled, “Damn, Em, just met today, and you’re already wrapped around her finger. What’d she do?”
“Nothing! She just,” Emira stopped herself and changed tact, “got some tea with me after her practice, that’s all.” She gestured at her sister, “Back me up here, Mittens! You’ve seen those arms and that earring!”
Ed and Mittens went back and forth for a while about whether or not Emira’s tastes were valid. Emira herself was busy thinking. Why did she lie? She and Ed told each other everything, and they were both trying to include Mittens more. Well, she reasoned, probably best not to say out loud that she was studying off-track magic. You never know who’s listening with a nosy oracle for a mom. Besides, she thought, defiant, she was her own person. She deserved something to herself. Guilt assuaged, she tuned back into the conversation.
Eventually Mittens got frustrated and threw the twins out of her room. Emira went to bed still trying to guess what Viney had planned.