"That witch!" Marisa seethed, oblivious to the apparent irony of her exclamation. "I'll never know what she's thinking." She paced around the room, hands clutched behind her back, deep in thought. After what I had told her, she clearly had a lot to process.

Following a little prodding on her part, I had told her about my visit to the Mansion library, Patchouli Knowledge's exposure of me to one of her magic tomes, and my subsequent blackout. Patchouli's offer to teach me more about magic had been in the back of my mind for some time, and I relayed this memory to Marisa, at which point she had stood up and begun her soliloquy.

My head was still reeling from whatever it was that had brought my mind to the brink, but a tea brew that Marisa had given me (she had told me it was "coriander, lemongrass, and sun grass"), while coming equipped with a pungent and striking smell, was surprisingly nice on the tongue. I sipped from the pot while I waited for the clouds casting long, hard shadows over my brain to clear.

Marisa stopped abruptly, her shoes squeaking on the stone floor as she came to a halt.

"I would get you out of this forest if I could do so safely. At this point, there's no guarantee you'll be able to make the broom ride without falling off, unless I tie you to a harness." An image of a stork carrying a baby in a pouch aloft in its beak flashes across my eyes. "So, to spare you that, we should get you attuned to the magic around here first. After all, there is a lot of it."

"How will we do that though?" I asked, puzzled.

"One thing you have to learn about magic is that it's a form of energy that is generated as you move and perform actions. Think of it as a windmill that creates energy as the wind whistles through its sails."

"Like a wind turbine?"

"A what?"

Hearing Marisa's confusion made me instinctively reach for my pocket. Somehow, the smartphone was still there, lying undisturbed amidst all that had been going on.

"Anyway. The energy is stored latently inside your mind, in a cross-dimensional container that all humans have. At least, that's what it seems like to me. If all the magic in there were physical in some way, my brain would've been ashes a long time ago."

"Sounds reasonable. So, the magic is just sitting there, dormant?"

"Exactly. Normal humans have no interaction with magic, so their reserves remain untapped for the rest of their lives, from birth, 'til death. However, if a switch is pushed, the container starts filling up. That," Marisa's expression darkened, "is where Patchouli's tome comes in. It pains me to say that Patchouli knows a lot more about magic than I do. I've never studied it in any kind of capacity – it just comes to me, like a reflex, due to my affinity with the magic in this forest that keeps my inventory stocked. But any kind of official form of study is beyond me." Her eyes widened. "You know what? I've got the perfect idea. You fancy a walk?"

"I think so. But to where?"

"To my shop. I keep a lot of magical items there, including things we can use to help you release some of that spare magic. Spell books, magic items, and objects we could turn into target practice."

"Is that the potion shop you run in the human village?"

"Oh, no. That's my main job. This shop is in the Forest. It's not the most stable source of income, but I enjoy running it considerably."

Marisa clicked her fingers, and the fire under the boiling flask on the worktable puffed and vanished. We made our way back to the clearing, and went beyond it, entering the forest proper for the first time.

The fog had thinned slightly, and tiny spears of weak sunlight shone through the gaps in the canopy above. The vines curling around the tree trunks took on a jaded emerald hue, and the dew falling off the branches splattered lightly onto the leaf-matted forest floor, sparkling in the transient light, reflecting pinpricks of white and green into my eyes. Even the sight alone was magical, and I took it in with a newfound sense of awe.

A roughly fifteen-minute walk led us to a second clearing, a smaller one than the first, where another cabin resided. It was clear that this was meant to be a shop, as one of the walls had been battered down, leaving a window behind which a shopkeeper might sit. Indeed, as we approached, a sleeping figure lifted her head from the countertop.

Marisa froze.

"Were you looking for me?" she called in a guarded manner.

The figure shook the hair, formed in locks almost as golden and spectacular as Marisa's own, away from her face to reveal a squinting, dark-rimmed, angry pair of brown irises.

"Marisa." My host flinched upon hearing her own name. "You took this, didn't you?" She pointed to a tiny doll, so detailed and well-woven as to almost be a copy of the girl herself, wedged awkwardly between two leather-bound books.

"That… is not my doing. Someone gave it to me."

"Liar." The girl stood up, patting the frilled drape around her shoulders. "It was at my house yesterday. I remember you paying a visit before you left."

"I'm just telling the truth as I know it. The Three Fairies were with me, as you recall. They handed it to me afterwards."

"The Three Fairies wouldn't steal from me. I know their ilk. But you…"

She lifted her hand. The doll between the books suddenly glowed, and rose above the pile of junk inhabiting the back of Marisa's shop, hovering slowly over to her master's side, glaring at Marisa and I menacingly.

"Alice, please. Today's not the day for this. This human needs my help."

Alice Margatroid remained unmoved. "I thought you'd never dare steal from me. It seems I was mistaken." Another doll materialized into the air behind her.

Without warning, a fierce heat erupted from beside me. I turned to see Marisa, orb of flickering fire in hand, giving physical illumination to the anger that now lit up her delicate features.

"I apologize, traveler," she muttered. "We may have to postpone our session for today."

"Take your time, I suppose." I retreated hastily from the battlefield, just as the first fireball was launched.