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Tina awoke on her bed. She felt drained and her head was throbbing. "Tina, are you awake?" Charlotte asked, noticing her slight movement.

"Uh, yeah. What happened?" she asked.

Charlotte smiled wryly, "I was hoping you could tell me."

"Ugh. My head hurts! Wait...did I...cast a spell?" Tina said, confused.

"Yes, yes you did. Without any tools of any kind, let alone a ritual circle. I'm afraid your actions have fully convinced Nathaniel that his coven is withholding information from him. But I'm more concerned with how you did that." Charlotte replied.

Tina held her hand on her aching head and closed her eyes to think. "I'm not sure. I've had all those symbols floating around in my head all day. When he came at me with that knife some of them suddenly came together and I just...reacted."

"By symbols I assume you mean the spell forms?" Charlotte asked.

Tina started to shake her head and stopped with a groan, "Ouch...no, the spell forms are made out of the symbols. It's kind of like how words are made up of letters, but also not. It's hard to explain."

"Well, we'll worry about that later. Let me get you something for that headache." Charlotte said. She left the room but returned a minute or two later with some pills and a glass of water. "Here, take these. Once your headache lets up you'll need to eat."

Tina took the pills gratefully. "Did I hit my head or something?" she asked as she handed back the glass.

Charlotte shook her head, "No. You overexerted yourself. I've done it a time or two, myself, so I recognize the symptoms. That's why you blacked out. Willow and Rose managed to keep you from hitting your head when you fell."

"What about Nathaniel?" Tina asked worriedly.

"He's fine. Your spell just knocked him down. He screamed at us afterward, but then he ran off. I think he's scared of me." Charlotte said.

"Scared of you? Why?" Tina asked.

"Probably because I taught you, and you managed to knock him down with a spell like that. Also, I have a bit of a reputation in the magical community. I've been running this store for a long time, after all." she replied.

By the time the painkillers took effect Tina's stomach was growling loudly. Charlotte helped her off of her bed and down to the kitchen.

"It'll just take a minute to heat up the plate I prepared for you while you were sleeping." Charlotte said. A few minutes later Tina was wolfing down her meal like she hadn't eaten in three days.

"Why was I so hungry?" Tina asked while Charlotte washed the dishes.

"When you overexert yourself magically, you don't just use up your magical energy reserves. You also burn off all of your physical energy. Really active practitioners often look emaciated if they're not careful. Now that you've eaten you'll probably get very sleepy soon and sleep right through the night." Charlotte said.

Tina yawned on cue, "That sounds nice." Charlotte barely managed to get her to bed before she passed out.

They didn't have a chance to talk before Tina had to leave for work in the morning. She felt refreshed and full of energy, so assumed she must have recovered from overexerting herself. The symbols that had danced in her head the previous day seemed to hang on the edge of her consciousness, but didn't intrude like they had the previous day.

Sarah wasn't at work that day, but Tina noticed that Tiffany had her hair done in a really striking way. It was snow white at the tips, and shaded to pitch black at the roots. It was so gradual and flawless that she had to ask who did it when she got a chance to talk to her at lunch. "Hey Tiffany, where did you get your hair done?! It's awesome!" she said.

Tiffany looked a little confused and said, "A friend did it." before rushing off.

Huh, that was weird. Tina thought.

The rest of the workday was uneventful and she returned home to help her grandmother close up her shop. While they were cooking dinner she asked, "Have you heard anything about Nathaniel?"

"Yes, I have. Rose called a little while ago and said that no one has seen him since yesterday. They're worried about him, but since none of them know where he lives there's not much any of us can do. I just hope he doesn't do something foolish." Charlotte replied worriedly.

They stuck to mundane matters after that until they'd finished cleaning up after dinner. "So, do you have any more insights into what happened yesterday?" Charlotte asked once they were settled in the living room.

Tina thought for a moment and nodded, "Yeah, I think I do. When I was studying the spell forms I noticed that they were all made up of these symbols. I was able to figure out what a few of them represented from how they were used in the different spells. When Nathaniel came at me I put some of those symbols together to form a new spell form. I'm still not sure how I cast it like that, or why the lines of the spell form appeared in the air."

"I don't know about the casting, but I'm not surprised about the spell form being visible. It always is when we cast our spells, after all. It's just that it is usually contained in the ritual circle. I also noticed that the spell form wasn't very clear. I think not having a ritual circle, or time, to help shape the spell resulted in it being less effective than it otherwise would have been. I suspect you could improve on that with practice, though." Charlotte said.

"You mean it could have been even more powerful?!" Tina exclaimed.

"Oh yes. Willow, Rose and I talked about it a bit before they left. We all felt the force of the spell, even though it wasn't directed at us. If it had been as sharply focused as your spells usually are, it might have blasted Nathaniel right through the wall!" Charlotte said.

"Wow!" Tina breathed, glad her spell hadn't been that focused. She could only assume that he would have been seriously injured if that had happened!

"So, what about these symbols. Could you draw one of them for me? One that you feel you have a good understanding of, perhaps?" Charlotte asked.

"Sure." Tina said. She started drawing one of the symbols she'd used in the spell she blasted Nathaniel with and then showed it to her grandmother. "This one basically means 'air'. From what I've seen so far it can be used in all sorts of different ways."

"Hmm..." Charlotte looked thoughtful as she looked at the drawing. "I think I've seen this somewhere before..." She set the drawing down and walked over to the bookcase she kept the older journals in. After looking through several she said, "Here it is!"

Tina hurried over to see what her grandmother had found and saw the same symbol written in the journal along with a few others that she'd seen and a few more she hadn't. "Does it say anything about them?" she asked.

Charlotte read for a moment and nodded, "Yes, it does. The writer didn't understand how to use them, but she describes them as the building blocks of magic as used in the distant past. She calls them glyphs."

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To Be Continued…

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