EP - Lightning in a bottle (OTA)

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Corbie woke that morning with an idea which she turned over for a couple of hours before she finally decided to act on. The only problem was, she would probably have to do this outside. Unless she wanted to set off a smoke alarm--she'd done that in the kitchen once and nearly had a heart attack--or otherwise risk burning something.

So that was why she was in the middle of the road that no one used with a small bunch of fallen leaves in her hands and little witchlights floating about her head, turning her eyes bright violet. Pavement wouldn't burn.

Half an hour later, there were several little piles of ashes on the asphalt and Corbie was pacing, puzzled. How was she to do it? She was trying to repeat, writ small, what Felix had done with the Automaton of Corybant. She knew she couldn't do anything that big and she wasn't going for anything that destructive, but she knew the basic idea behind what he'd done, he had explained it to her well. The thing entire was too big for her as yet, but surely she could take this step...

So why could she not do it? She had set her witchlight to each of those burned leaves, but it hadn't happened as it should. Maybe it was frustration or impatience, but regardless of what she did with the light, she kept setting them on fire separately. That was just the candle lighting spell, applied different. She could tell. She could not get her witchlight to move fast enough, hot enough, to create that lightning-like effect.

You need to change your metaphor.

So what metaphor should I be using?

She thought of something the boys in the Mammothium had showed her, using a magnifying glass. How when you held the lens just so under the sun...

Corbie started like she'd been poked with a pin and set another leaf down, squatting down over it.

Staring intently, she focused on the leaf, on the image of a magnifying glass, and poured her magic into this idea. She thought of aiming the lens--her witchlight--just right to bend the light.

Then she let loose.

The little purple light shot out at that leaf and the center of it burst into purple fire.

Corbie whooped and bounced to her feet, jumping up and down like a child.