“Hmmm.” She dearly wanted one of those black beads.
Risna smiled and shook her head. “Master mental shielding first; otherwise, using a protection stone will become a crutch.”
Elizabeth nodded and bent to peer at the rest of the shelves.
“What about this one?” Elizabeth asked, as she spied a dull turquoise one with a crackled surface.
The stone was a large, fist-sized chunk of rock and seemed to be the only one of its kind in the shop. When she picked it up, it caught the light, turning an iridescent yellow. Mesmerized, she shifted it in her hands. The colours in the stone ranged from dull blue-gray to bright yellow to turquoise, depending on the angle of the light.
“Labradorite. We call it the student stone.”
Elizabeth furrowed her brows.
“Its properties are of protection and awakening,” Risna clarified. “It helps new witches to open their inner eye to the metaphysical plane and access their magic. It also offers a small shielding against magical mishaps.”
Her mouth formed an “o” in fascination. She liked the sound of a small shielding charm.
Risna continued, “It is customary for a young witch to be given a student stone by her teacher,” the older witch mentioned. “And when she feels ready to be initiated into a coven, she will pass a series of tests and exchange her student stone for the marker of a full-fledged witch.” Risna gestured at the moonstone at her throat. “We exchange a stone of learning for a stone of greater magical power. There is a lengthy ceremony involved, and to be given a witch stone like this one is considered a great honour.”
“What does one have to do to get a student stone?” she asked, not wanting to be pert, but wasn’t she a student of magic now?
“Do you have a desire to go down the path of being initiated into a coven and being accepted as a full-fledged witch?” Risna asked, raising a brow.
Elizabeth was silent.
“Then do not worry about such things.” Risna chuckled. “It is mostly done for tradition.”
“Interesting,” Elizabeth said, meaning it. She was experiencing a piece of the lore from this world she suspected had been passed down from witch to witch and never written down.
“And this one?” She pointed to a deep blue stone with veins of gray and white.
“Lapis Lazuli.”
“Bless you.”
“No child, it is the name of the stone,” Risna said, chuckling. “It is the stone of Seers. It promotes visions, truth, and spiritual awareness.” She pulled out a charm bracelet with several midnight blue stones. “This is what I hold in my pocket when I read fortunes and try to untangle the threads of life to divine the future.”
“But surely it doesn’t work. I couldn’t hold it and figure out what they will serve at dinner tomorrow. How can you be sure it works?”
“You are very skeptical for a woman who is trying to learn magic, dear. You are practical and grounded, which is not a bad thing in itself. But for magic, you must learn to broaden your mind and accept the possibility that there ismore.”
“Skepticism and practicality have gotten me further in life than being a dreamer,” she couldn’t help but say wryly.
“The metaphysical is the opposite of the physical!” scolded Risna sharply. “Your inner eye, your magic, do not work onlogic. Spiritual awakening is the most difficult part of teaching adults, and why we typically teach these things to children before their minds become solid and unmovable.”
She tried to school her expression into one of a polite student once again. “Yes, Risna.”
“It is essential that you understand this! If you think about your magic in terms of what is physically possible in a world of logic and fact, you will never be able to perform magic. You will cast a spell, but the logical and practical side of your mind will tell you it probably won't work, and so it never will. You need to open your mind to the possibility of more.”
Elizabeth nodded. “I understand.”
“There are no shortcuts to learning spellcraft, I’m afraid,” Risna said, giving her a look that was almost pitying. “It might take you a little longer to learn than most people, but that’s alright. I have faith you’ll get there.”
Elizabeth practiced, or rather, failed at magic for another hour, and left the shop clutching her head. Wrinkling her nose at the headache that settled in her temples from her repeated attempts to shield her mind against Risna’s attacks, shewondered why the angel thought it was so important for her to master whatever small drop of magic she possessed.
Her gift was hardly enough to lift a crystal in the air, certainly not enough of a gift to change the tide of their world.
Chapter 38
