"Well, that's where we're sending that witch, isn't it?" Nana said cheerfully, adding a beautiful flourish to her Hagalaz rune. "I figured she deserved a soundtrack."
"I don't think that's how the afterlife works, Mother," Mom said as she fought a smile.
"I'm not ready to find out," Nana shot back. "But, if I'm going to help banish some evil witch, I'm going to enjoy the process."
Nina giggled, the sound bright and infectious. "Can we always have background music for magic work? This is so much better than studying for algebra."
"Everything's better than algebra," I agreed, carefully adding the water rune to my disc. "Trust me, kiddo, I've done both."
"Your mother was terrible at math," Mom added helpfully. "Always said she didn't need it because she was going to be an artist."
"And yes, that bit me in the ass when I became a nurse," I said dryly.
"Life's funny like that," Nana observed as her runes glowed. "You spend your whole life thinking you know what you're good at, then magic shows up and turns everything sideways."
"Some of us are adapting better than others," Mom said, eyeing Nana's increasingly theatrical display with a mixture of admiration and concern.
"Some of us are having more fun than others," Nana corrected. "Nina, stop trying to make your runes look like mine and start making them look like you. Magic's not a copy-paste situation."
"But yours are so cool," Nina protested.
"Cool is overrated," I said, then caught Nana's look. "Okay, cool is not overrated, but effective is more important. We're not trying to win a magical art contest here."
"Speak for yourself," Nana muttered, but she winked at Nina. "Though your mom's got a point, kiddo. Make it yours first, then make it pretty."
“I can do that,” Nina muttered as she went back to work.
"The fourth ring is for the amplification runes," Luciana interjected when we finished a few minutes later. "There will be a base on this level as well. They will magnify the purification effect exponentially. We will use sowilo for solar power. Dagaz for breakthrough transformation. And wunjo for joy overcoming despair."
We worked with the kind of focused determination that would have made a monk proud. Each of us found our groove in this weird new world of magical craftsmanship. Nina had finally stopped trying to copy everyone else and started putting her own spin on things. It was both encouraging and mildly terrifying.
My hands were starting to cramp, but the babies kept sending little bursts of energy through my system. It was like tiny magical espresso shots that kept me going when my mortal flesh wanted to tap out. I almost threw my stylus across the room when Nina let out a whoop that rattled the windows.
"Yes! Oh my God, look at this one!" She held up her disc, practically vibrating with excitement. Her latest rune was glowing with steady silver light, but what made it special were the tiny spirals she'd added around the edges.
"Now that," Nana said, looking up from her own work with genuine pride, "is what I'm talking about. You made it yours, kiddo. You made it sing."
Nina's face lit up like Christmas morning. "Really? You don't think it's too much?"
"Honey," Nana said, gesturing to her own disc, which looked like it had been carved by an artistic lightning strike, "there's no such thing as too much. There's just not enough coffee to appreciate it properly."
"That's... actually not terrible advice," Mom admitted.
"I'm full of surprises," Nana said cheerfully, going back to her rune work with renewed enthusiasm.
I had to admit, watching Nina discover her style was almost worth the hand cramps. Almost. My fingers were ready to go on strike by the time we moved on to the fifth ring.
"You’re on the last ring now. This is for the temporal binding runes," Luciana announced. "The base will anchor the spells. That will be made up ofraidhofor journey's completion,ehwazfor partnership between magical and physical realms, andingwazfor stored energy waiting to burst forth."
"How are you not exhausted?" I demanded of Nana, who was still carving enthusiastically.
"Because I'm not an amateur," she said smugly, then winked. "Also, these babies keep sending me energy boosts. They're considerate little rugrats." They were doing the same for me, but it didn’t have quite the same effect.
"Now we need to bind it all with your family magic," Luciana continued when we finished the temporal runes. "These symbols ensure only Duedonne family magic can activate or deactivate the anchors."
I blinked at her. "We don't have family symbols. I mean, we haven't had our magic that long."
"Every magical family develops their own runic signature over time," Luciana explained patiently. "Since you're new to this, we'll need to create yours now. It should represent something fundamental about your family's magical essence."
