The next day, Machaela and Jesse went to their first class, Magic Problem-Solving 101, which Carter held in the large training room on the second floor.
When they walked in, Carter wasn't there yet. Walt and Jaz were, though, so the siblings wandered over.
"Morning," Jesse said.
Walt nodded hello as Jaz spun around. "Good morning!" Jesse resisted taking half a step back. Jaz was entirely too bubbly for this early in the morning. "How'd you sleep?"
Machaela shrugged. "Good enough." She looked around. "Why are the Ra statues like that?" Statues of various gods were spread around the mansion, of course, but these particular statues of the sun god had the sun ring above Ra's head hollowed out and the entire statue jutting perpendicular to the wall.
"Carter is apparently a fan of basketball," Walt replied. "We decided the statues were handy and made great basketball hoops."
Jesse chuckled. "That sounds like a prank waiting to happen."
Machaela gave him a cautious glance, agreeing but not quite that relaxed in their new home. "So what kind of class is this?" she asked, changing the subject. Jaz looked to Walt as well, maybe wondering the same thing.
"Carter calls it Magic Problem-Solving," Walt answered, "but it's really better named Whatever Works. He'll give us a problem, and we can solve it however we want. When it's done to satisfaction, we're dismissed. For you three, he'll probably pick something that gives him an idea of what magic you already know and what he can help you learn."
"Considering you've only been here a few days, Walt," Carter said as he walked in, "You sure do know about my teaching method."
Walt spun around, replying, "Well, that's what you did with me."
Carter grinned, turning to the others. "He's right," he told them. "I was homeschooled. I have no idea how regular school works, and I see no reason to make you stick around even after the assignments are done."
Calling four trunks from the Duat, he positioned one person in front of each.
"For the first part of today's class," he continued, "open the trunk without damaging it or the lock."
Machaela and Jesse immediately turned to the trunk before them, though they made sure to position themselves so they could see Walt and Jaz.
Machaela quickly decided on a method and started kneading some wax while muttering spells.
Jesse, though, wasn't quite sure how to proceed. He was better with combat than spells, so he watched the others for a minute, seeing their methods.
Jaz went for simple and effective. She took a bobby pin out of her hair and started picking the lock. Walt, however, seemed to be hesitating. Fingering several amulets on his necklace and belt, he examined the trunk, going around and around tapping the outside.
As Walt finally picked an amulet and started, Jesse got an idea. Picturing the trunk like one of his puzzle boxes, he began knocking on the wood in several places around the sides, listening.
Machaela finished her shabti, which turned into some kind of four-legged lizard-type animal at her command word. It nosed around the outside of the box, then sucked its legs in and crawled into the keyhole. A moment later, the lock clicked, and the top opened, revealing a slowly melting hot fudge sundae.
Jaz finished picking her lock at about the same time, and her box clicked open. They sat down to eat, watching the boys.
Walt finished working with his amulet, and his box finally opened a minute later. Now only Jesse's box was still closed.
"Come on, Jesse!" Machaela said, watching him knock on the wood, though his knocks seemed to be more precisely placed than they were a minute before. "You can do it!"
Jesse didn't look up, focused on his plan. He tapped solidly on the side of the trunk, then turned it ninety degrees and tapped lightly on the back. The lock clicked, and he dug into his ice cream, giving his sister a smug look.
Carter looked a bit confused. He glanced at Sadie, who was watching from the sidelines as she read through scrolls, but when she didn't comment, he turned back to Jesse. "No magic?" he finally asked.
Jesse shrugged. "You didn't say we had to use magic," he answered, "and, besides, I'm a combat magician. I can't use those more precise spells like Machaela can. But I do know that everything has a pattern." He pointed his chocolate-covered spoon at the box. "It's just like a puzzle box. I simply hit it in the right order to spring the lock."
Carter chose not to comment and started setting up the next test. By the time the others had finished their ice cream, he had four pillars standing around the room, each with something resting on top, well out of reach.
"On top of each of these pillars," Carter told them, "is a very brittle piece of clay. Get the clay off the pillar without breaking it. Machaela? No shabtis. Those are your specialty, and I want to see what else you can do. Jesse? Jaz? Use magic, anything you can. Jesse, I want to see what kind of magic you favor. Jaz, I want to see what magic you know."
He looked ready to have them start, but Sadie called over to them before he could. "He means do it without breaking the clay, not the pillar."
Carter looked at her weirdly. That's what he had said, but her eyes were on Jesse, who seemed torn between frowning at her and laughing. "Thanks for stealing my loophole, Sadie!" he called sarcastically.
She just grinned. "No problem."
"What loophole?" Carter asked.
"You should work on your phrasing, brother dear," was Sadie's answer. "You said to get the clay off the pillar without breaking it."
"So?" Carter replied.
Jesse huffed. "A pronoun's antecedent is the closest noun prior to the pronoun. In your sentence, that's pillar, so even though I knew what you meant, that was a loophole. I'm a combat magician, Carter. I don't do complex spells on the fly. I hit the enemy with a sword. If it moves, I hit it again. I might use complex strategies to do that, but the end result is the same."
Carter shook his head. "How did you catch that, Sadie? I thought you hated English class."
She rolled her eyes. "Who doesn't? But Gran was a stickler for that, always going on about a proper young lady knowing her own language. After my mates heard her, we started making a game of it."
Carter turned away, obviously uncomfortable at the mention of his grandmother, and Machaela remembered the mention of the Spatula Incident.
Jaz must have been thinking the same thing. "Can we start, now?"
Carter cleared his throat. "Yes. Begin!"
Jesse saw Walt reach for an amulet and Machaela start a spell, but he was still floundering. After a moment, though, as he watched Machaela's spell float the clay down, he decided to stick with simple. Focusing on the piece of clay, he shoved it into his Duat locker. At the same time that Machaela's piece came to rest in her hand, his piece appeared in his.
Walt's bird turned back into an amulet at the same time Jaz gently caught the falling clay, and they all turned back to Carter.
"Okay," he says. "Walt, Jaz, Machaela, you're dismissed. Jaz and Machaela, you should probably start researching the gods, deciding which path suits your interests and knowledge. Walt, go ahead and pick up where you left off. Jesse," Carter faced him, noticing his raised eyebrow at being singled out, "I want you to do one more challenge, since you're a combat magician." Carter pulled a shabti out of his bag and set it on the ground in front of Jesse. "Give it your best. Show off. Show me what you can do. However long or short it takes to defeat the shabti, use combat magic."
Jesse nodded, calling his kopis from the Duat and taking a defensive stance a few feet away from the shabti as Carter's command word made it grow.
"Begin!"
The shabti attacked, and Jesse dodged the first strike. He quickly realized someone more skilled than Carter had made this shabti, as it was a very good fighter. It experimented with a simple stab, but he batted it away. It then launched into a series of complicated footwork, combining stabs with slashes and twirls, and Jesse, still deciding on his method to kill it, simply defended.
After about a minute of dodging and blocking, the shabti was as close to exasperated as a magically-animated piece of clay could get, and Jesse decided on his method.
You want me to show off? he thought. You're on!
He stepped into the shabti's next lunge, using the flat of his kopis to knock the shabti's khopesh to the side. Jesse's next swing disarmed the shabti, literally. The shabti's sword and lower forearm flew through the air, turning to shards upon hitting the floor. Jesse took a step back, making the observers wonder what he was doing—the shabti wasn't dead yet. Jesse's intent became apparent a moment later, however, when an avatar appeared around his arm and sword. With a quick swipe, the avatar tip of the sword sliced through the shabti, shattering it into small pieces.
He turned back towards the others, his kopis disappearing into the Duat as he turned. His sister grinned at him, glad he had had a chance to show off his skill. Carter, however, looked slightly speechless. Perhaps he hadn't expected the avatar, even though Jesse had mentioned them in passing the day before.
"Sadie?" he finally asked. "Were you watching that?"
Jesse saw Sadie roll her eyes from her seat. "Of course I was. Quite a show that was."
Jesse gave her a cheeky grin. "That's what he asked for."
Carter pulled a face at them for the teasing, but waved the others closer. "Does anyone have an objection to Machaela and Jesse teaching basic magic in addition to Sadie and me?" He directed his question at Walt, Jaz, and Sadie, but also left it open for Machaela or Jesse to plead out. Nobody replied, and he turned to the siblings. "You up for that? You can teach some of the basic magic instead of or in addition to Sadie and me, and we'll focus on teaching the path of the gods."
Machaela and Jesse looked at each other, each seeing if the other had a problem with that. Slowly, Jesse shrugged, a small smile on his face. "Sure," Machaela answered for them both. "Why not?"
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