"So," Raine says, nudging Eda as she gathers her things from her lockers. "When we were doing that stupid competition, I heard you talking to some other 'coven witches' about me. You decided to defend bard magic, huh? Told those other witches it could be cool?"
"It can be cool! That thing you do with drinks, the whistle- and how you levitate your books around because you're too good for a backpack? That's awesome! Those witches had no idea what they were talking about. I wish I could learn bard magic, instead of being stuck with stupid potions." She rolls her eyes, thinking back to her lesson that morning. Her attempt at an elixir had exploded, and not in a fun way. She spent most of lunch washing green goop out of her hair.
Raine, apparently thinking of the same incident, swipes some residual goop off of her forehead. Eda's cheeks definitely aren't heating up, nope, not at all. "Want me to teach you?"
"I shouldn't. Mixing magic is bad, right?" She lowers her voice into a bad imitation of Emperor Belos. "It is the Titan's will to keep magic in separate, boring boxes."
They laugh. "Like you're going to obey that stupid law, Clawthorne. You like chaos too much to keep magic in 'separate, boring boxes.'"
"Hmm... I do like chaos."
"I know. That's why I like you." They make eye contact a little too long, and Raine coughs, and looks away. "So. Bard lessons. You in?"
"Only you could get me to do lessons outside of Hexside, Rainstorm. You're turning me into a nerd."
They extend a hand to her, and Eda takes it. This isn't special. We've held hands before. Calm down, Edalyn. For whatever reason, her inner critic sounds like Lillith. Her panicked musings are interrupted by Raine's voice, saying "Come on. I know a great place to practice." Half running, they pull her along, out of Hexside and down a winding path, through long grasses and flowers.
"Raine, are you kidnapping me?"
"Maybe," they reply, stretching out the word. "We're here."
Here seems to be a small hill, surrounded by snapdragon flowers. It's nice, out of the way of the noise and business of Bonesborough. Raine sits down and pats the grass next to them. "Ready to become a cool bard?" She grins and sits.
"Nice place."
"Yeah. I come here when I need to get away from... people. Ugh. They're the worst."
"You don't hate all people, right? I'm still here."
They shrug. "You're an exception." Eda scratches the back of her neck, trying not to say anything dumb in response to that. Raine makes her too dumb. She doesn't like it. "Here," they say, handing her a mandolin. She stared at it apprehensively.
"Raine. What do I do with this?"
"I'm gonna show you, Eda." They take her hand in theirs and position her fingers on the mandolin. "Now strum." She does. The hill and its surrounding flowers glow, and one floats over to the pair. Eda catches it and tucks it in Raine's hair, letting her hand linger for longer than is probably necessary. "That was great!"
"I had a great teacher." She leans her head on their shoulder and plays the note again, and again, until flowers swirl all around them. She'd been right, in that labyrinth. Bard magic can be very, very cool.