Chapter 7

[Emily]

As Jane was getting to know Flex, Anna and Emily sat in the living room.

"Emily, has Jane told you about the magic club at school?" Anna asked.

"Yep, along with Helen and Tom, both of whom picked up that I had some magic, but from the way they acted, they have no idea what my true levels are."

"Well I think it would be good for you to join as well, it will let you be a little bit more open about simple magic."

"Yes, I have been thinking about it. You meet Mondays at lunch time, right?" Emily asked.

"Yes, that's right. Well, let me know as soon as you can if you are going to join the club, so I can get you all joined up." Anna said, with a smile.

"Ok, I'll let you know as soon as I have made up my mind."

"Do you have a mobile phone, Emily?" Anna asked.

"No, but I do know what one is." Emily replied.

"You need to get one so that if something comes up we can contact each other."

"Contact, hmm." As Emily considered this, she felt the nudge and instant knowledge that she was now coming to link with the 'request magical help spell'. She looked at Anna, "No, but there is a way for two familiars to communicate over long and short distances, but I don't know what the spell is called."

"The help spell again Emily?" Ben asked, she nodded. "It is an old spell from the days when exploring the land was still common place, it allowed a group of up to six to communicate with each other. Well, I say each other, but in the old days no elf wished to be bugged by a second elf, so that spell came about to let their familiar be a type of intermediary. It works off the same magic as the mind link does. Only with this link, it is familiar to familiar and only directed thought. It was called the 'familiars group link'. The last time I had it cast on me was over three summonses ago." Ben finished.

"Could you use that to fill Flex in on what has happened, tonight when we are all asleep?" Emily asked. As she Looked at the clock it said it was 9:19 PM.

Anna also looked at the time. "My god, look at the time. Where did it all go? Well, there is no time for you to do your homework now. I will mark it as received and you will have to do it on the weekend and get it to me, Jane will have to do the same." As Anna said this, Ben sent by mind link to Emily "Yes, I can do that tonight."

"You can do that?" Mum asked.

"Any parent who e-mails me a message saying that family commitments have prevented their kid from getting their homework done on time get's the same treatment." Anna explained.

Anna and Mum chatted for a bit about how schools had changed now from the days when they were in school. Until Jane rejoined them with Flex on her shoulder.

Emily told Jane about the 'familiars group link', and explained how to cast the little spell to establish the link for Flex and Ben.

With Anna to help with timing, as it was only a small spell, and with small spells cast by more than one person, timing is key.

Emily and Jane cast the spell, Emily casting onto Flex and Jane casting onto Ben. There were no glowing lights of colour for this spell as the level of magic use was so small. When Anna asked about that Flex replied. "It's piggybacking itself off the mind link magic that is already there, so it only needs a small amount of magic to register."

"It's like exchanging e-mails, only the mind link magic can only hold up to five other e-mails." Ben explained in a way Anna and Jane could understand.

"So, how do we send back and forth, Emily?" Jane asked.

"Just think send to Emily before the words you like to send me." Emily explained.

A moment later Ben relayed to Emily. "Message from Jane; 'like this?'"

"Yep just like that." Emily told Jane.

"Is there any more stuff to chat about, as we need to be getting home and Jane and Emily need their sleep." Anna said.

"No, I think that is all for today. It is a lot to take in. Let it all sink in for now." Emily replied.

Anna and Jane with Flex said their goodbyes and left the house to head home.

Emily sat down at her desk, Ben on his stand as normal. She reached into her school bag and pulled out the timetable she had got at the end of the school day from Mrs. Walker.

She looked at it for the first time. Then she started to laugh out loud. Ben looked over at her.

"What is so funny?" Ben asked.

"This... (Laugh) timetable... (Laugh) if... (Laugh) you can... (Laugh) call it a... (Laugh) timetable." Emily said.

"What can be that funny about a timetable?" Ben asked.

Pulling herself together Emily explained. "It's what is written in the timetable. Look, here is Monday; homeroom, break, homeroom, lunch, Science (5-B). But it is what is printed under homeroom that made me laugh, 'whatever lessons Mrs. Walker decides.' I know Jane said she's a bit loose on what lessons she teaches us and when we get them, she also said we get at least one lesson in each subject once a week, but reading it just hit my funny bone. Just look at the mass of Homerooms on here, the only time we not in homeroom is Monday afternoon when we have Science in 5-B, Tuesday afternoon when we have advanced computers in 5-D, Thursday afternoon when we've got D.T. - whatever that is." She looked at Ben "Send to Jane; sorry to bug you, but what is D.T. in the timetable."

"Message from Jane; Design and Technology." Ben relayed back to Emily.

"Send to Jane; thanks." Then she said to Ben. "Well, we have that in 5-A. Saturday morning we have P.E. Then we get to go home. Should make for an interesting time."

"You'd better get to sleep, Emily." Ben said. "I have a long chat with Flex to do as soon as Jane is asleep."

"Goodnight, Ben." "Send to Jane; I am going to bed now, goodnight"

"Message from Jane; so will I in a minute, goodnight Emily." Ben relayed back to Emily.

[Jane]

Anna and Jane had just left Emily's house and were on the way home. Jane sat in the back with Flex on her lap.

"Mom, what can you tell me about elves?" Jane asked.

"There is not a lot that I know. You remember me telling you about the different realms that exist, don't you?" Anna asked.

"Yes, you told me that there are many realms that exist, in each realm is a planet like this one, each planet is called a name, that name became the name of the realm. This realm is called earth realm."

"That's right, and elves do not come from this realm but from a realm called Finnarth realm. Finnarth is a realm where magic is strong. Here in earth realm magic is weak. This is what my mother told me when I asked about elves."

"So if magic is weak here, would we have more magic if we were on Finnarth?"

"No, that's wrong, let me explain this way. There is magic in all life, in all realms, the level of magic depends on the realm the life form in question is native to. As we just found out, we are half-elves, so we are native to both earth and Finnarth. Ugg, even I don't really understand it yet."