Disclaimer: Don't own and never will.
"So this is where they were doing magic?" Dean asked as he looked around the room and Susan nodded.
"Yes, it was right here," she said. "They were sitting right here, trying to do...something." She frowned. "I didn't expect Will to share magic with her new friends before she did me."
"Well it's possible that it might be one of her friends," Dean said absent mindedly as he looked around the room once more. No sign of magic was on the walls but there were some trace amounts glowing on the television and some even fainter amounts were on the table. "And you haven't used any magic in here since then?"
Susan shook her head.
"No, of course not."
"Well, we know that one of them is a Pyrokinetic, but judging by the magics in the room, it looks like we might have some kind of Technomage or Vitalier as well," he said and a puzzled frown crossed Susan's face.
"A Vitalier?" she asked and Dean resisted the urge to chuckle. She looked beautiful when she frowned like that.
"Vitaliers are mages who can bring non living items to life," Dean said, before waving a hand at the television. "A Vitalier could bring your tv to life without any problems. In fact, most electronic devices are easier to bring to life than anything else. It wouldn't surprise me if our vitalier did this to every device in your house by accident. He paused and looked at Susan. "Unlike Necromancers, they can't bring the dead back to life or reanimated something that is dead and unlike healers, they can't regenerate living tissue."
"I've never even heard of them," Susan said and Dean nodded.
"Vitaliers are a very rare type of mage. I don't think that I've ever seen one in person and whoever it is, if they are a Vitalier, then their magic is extremely stable. It could be that the magical artifact that they're in contact with is preventing any surges."
They both chuckled.
"Do you remember your first time you had an uncontrolled magical surge?" Susan asked, before suddenly blushing. "Sorry, that was ru-"
"I was in the library and suddenly my head was filled with the knowledge of every book in my high school library." He grimaced for a moment. "It gave me a splitting headache. And I forgot everything within an hour."
Susan laughed and even Dean smiled.
"I was in biology class," Susan said with a smile. "And we were dissecting frogs." She looked at him with amusement in her eyes. He could see where this was going. "Anyway, I felt a sudden tingle and every frog in the class suddenly came to life, croaking and moving and trying to get away. Even ones with half their guts hanging out."
They both laughed.
"The company spent months covering that up," she said with a smile and Dean shrugged.
"It's not like we're the only ones to do that," he said with a shrug. He placed his hand on the television and began to psychometrically read the magic. He could see the nature documentary that the girls had been watching. (He would have thought that they would have been watching that Boy Comet show that was so popular at the moment, but apparently not.) Then he saw Will point her finger at the television and suddenly his vision became blurry.
He shook his head. He really should have seen this coming really. Whatever had blocked him at the school was blocking him here.
Still, he was getting close, he could feel it.
WITCH WITCH WITCH WITCH WITCH WITCH WITCH WITCH
Joan Lin frowned as she stepped out of Yan Lin's room.
The older woman was still very ill and still sleeping, but even Joan could tell that a powerful magical artifact had been active in this room.
The magic wasn't negative. Yan Lin's cold was just a cold. But she could definitely feel something in the air. And she didn't like it.
She always knew that Yan was a fiercely independent woman. And she knew that she was a big fan of myths and legends from across the world. (Myths that weren't always myths admittedly, but still…)
Magical artifacts were unpredictable in her experience. The last one that she had been in contact with had almost killed her. She glared at Yan Lin's room. She might be happy about handing out powerful magical artifacts to her granddaughter, but this was her daughter!
"Is something wrong?"
Joan jerked her head around to see Chen looking at her with concern. She must have been there longer than she realised.
"Yeah...I'm picking up traces of…" She looked surreptitiously at Yan Lin's room. "Something unusual. Something I haven't smelled in some fifteen years."
"Really?" Chen asked, his eyes widening. Joan didn't blame him. The idea that a powerful magic could remain hidden in their very home seemed to be almost surreal.
"Yeah, it's something small. And coming from her," Joan gestured to Yan Lin's room, "room. Nothing malevolent, at least not yet."
"You think that my mother is involved?" Chen asked and Joan frowned.
"Possibly," she said. "I'm not sure."
"Well it's not malevolent at least," Chen said hopefully and Joan shook her head.
"Neither was the other artifact," Joan said. They both knew what she was talking about. "I don't trust it."
A telephone ringing downstairs reminded them that the restaurant was still open. They hurried down to it. As her husband ran downstairs, Joan shot a quick look at Yan Lin's room. She really hoped that her senses were off or that she was wrong.
WITCH WITCH WITCH WITCH WITCH WITCH WITCH WITCH
Irma was panicking.
The evening had started off so well. Andrew was interested in her, everyone was in awe of the cool girl and her secret hadn't been discovered. It was, all in all, perfect.
Then Andrew had tried to kiss her.
Then it had all gone unstuck. Somehow (and she had no idea how), she had turned him into a frog! A FROG! And to make matters worse, he had proceeded to hop away before she could stop him!
"Where are you, where are you, where are you?" she muttered to herself as she desperately searched for him. "Come on, I thought princes turned into frogs were supposed to talk to princesses."
The croaking of frogs was her only reply.
"Andrew, where are you?" she hissed in a low voice. Still no reply and she could hardly see in this light. She didn't even have her phone to shed light on the situation.
"I know I'm a witch," at this, She chuckled to herself despite the situation. "But I need to find you. My dad is going to kill me if he discovers I turned a boy into a frog!" She chuckled again. "Worse, he'll ground me forever and I'll never get a boyfriend!"
Slightly further away, she could hear the party going on. Between that and the frogs croaking, it seemed as though the universe was mocking her.
"That's right, feel my pain," she grumbled to herself. "Rub it in, why don't you?"
She could try calling her friends. Just borrow a phone and call Hay Lin, but that would inevitably draw a LOT more attention than they wanted. And Corny would never let her forget it. Ever. She could see her bringing it up at her wedding. And the others would be mad. Really mad. Somehow, she didn't think that Yan Lin would consider this the proper use of her powers. And Hay Lin was going through a lot at the moment with her grandmother. No, she had to find Andrew on her own.
If only she had any idea where to look.
The mud squished beneath her feet and Irma winced. Why did he have to disappear into a swamp? Couldn't he have hopped into a nice clean, well lit area?
(He was planning to kiss you. A lot. Like you've actually been fantasizing about! her mind reminded her and she almost winced. She was pretty sure none of those fantasies involved her turning him into a frog!)
"Where are you Andrew?" she hissed once more. This time however, she was rewarded by the sounds of reeds rustling nearby. She grinned. Slowly moving closer and closer to the sound, she saw the reeds move once more. Slowly reaching forward, she grabbed the reeds and…
"Hey, do you mind?" a girl with short black hair shouted at her as she glared at Irma. Beneath her was her boyfriend (or at least Irma assumed that it was her boyfriend) with a slightly dopey look on his face.
"Sorry," Irma said quickly, as she backed away. She could see another couple walking towards her and she almost groaned. The party was still in full swing and nobody seemed to have noticed her leaving with Andrew. And there was no way that she could find Andrew like this. The party was loud and other couples were coming out to make out. (And maybe more. But make out at least.) Suddenly making Andrew turn back into a boy in front of a bunch of teenage witnesses would definitely look strange and...Yan Lin was insistent that they do NOT reveal their secret.
With one last look towards the swamp, more out of desperate hope than actual expectation, she began to walk away. (Walk, not run. Running looks suspicious as her father had once told her.) Surely she would be able to find him during the day. Surely.