Krista sets her mug down with both hands, knuckles white.
“Can we undo it?”
“No.”
She nods. Doesn’t cry. Doesn’t panic. Just starts thinking, the way she always does: quiet, deep, practical.
“What now?”
“You start learning. Not charms and soft sigils. You need real wards. Combat ones. Boundaries that hold. Those with ill intent will come for her. Entities that are drawn to power and don’t even know it.”
“I’ve only been at this a few weeks.”
“You don’t have time for more.”
She stands then, rubbing her hands on her thighs like she’s trying to ground herself. Her voice is soft but firm. “Teach me.”
“I’m not a teacher.”
“Then be something else. But I need to know. For her.”
Her shoulders don’t shake. Her chin doesn’t dip. She just looks at me like I’m a wall she plans to climb whether or not I offer a hand.
I nod once.
That afternoon,we clear the garden patch and turn it into a warding circle. The grass is flattened, the stones laid in a precise arc with a break on the northern end. I draw the sigils with coal and ash, dusted with salt ground from a slab I brought from my forge. Krista watches everything. She doesn’t interrupt. Doesn’t question.
She’s quicker than I expected.
“The first rule is focus,” I say, crouched over the ring. “You don’t let your fear take the reins. You feel it. You let it pass. Then you act.”
She mirrors my stance. “Like how?”
“Like this.”
I draw a symbol for protection in the dirt—a square inside a circle, wrapped in points that form a star. Then I hold my palmto the center and murmur the invocation. The line glows, faint at first, then pulses.
Krista copies the shape, her fingers smudging slightly as she moves. Her hands aren’t steady yet, but her intent is sharp.
She speaks the words.
The mark flickers.
Not a pulse. A spark.
I blink.
She sits back, panting slightly. “Did I mess it up?”
“No,” I say, slowly. “You stabilized it. First try.”
She lifts a brow. “That’s… good?”
“That’s not supposed to happen.”
She frowns. “What do you mean?”
“I mean this is war magic. It takes months. You just settled it on instinct.”
