Chapter 10: Chapter 10: Match Maker

I woke up several hours later, face in my textbook, drooling all over the pages. “Crap,” I mumbled, picking my head off the drool-encrusted book and rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.

Now, I wouldn’t call myself a bad student, but if don’t care about something, my focus and attention go straight out the window. And unfortunately, it appeared that all this electrical nerd stuff fell well outside the realm of my interests.

“Work brain, darn you!” I hissed, rapping a fist against my forehead. “If we don’t learn this stuff, we can’t go home!” Despite my pleas, my brain remained stubbornly stupid, and I realized I was only really interested in theater, boys, and food, in that order (and apparently homemade disinfectants).

I stared sourly down at my textbook, feeling a volatile concoction of pity and self-loathing. If Gerard and I had switched places and he’d been the one stuck in the past, he’d probably have solved this laptop problem in an afternoon. Heck, he might have even invented the internet while he was here, just to give himself a challenge. I, on the other hand, couldn’t even stay awake to learn how to make a simple electrical current, especially when the book was using big words like branch circuit, neutral conductor, and–.

XXX

I woke up sprawled on the floor, my open textbook splayed across my chest and covered in drool. Darn it, not again!

I sat up, cursing my inability to learn things, when a knock and a familiar voice sounded at my door. “Your witchiness, I’m here for my training.”

I sighed, that was Thomas. If nothing else, he was persistent. Making sure I was modest, I got off the floor, opened the front door, and gave him my best theatrical frown. “Please stop calling me that,” I grumbled, “and no training either; I’m too busy coming to terms with the fact that I’m an idiot.”

Thomas flashed me his trademark pouty lip. “But I learned so much from you yesterday!” He exclaimed, “I even brought you breakfast…again!”

Thomas held up a bread bowl filled with lumpy porridge, the same thing he’d offered me the day before, but somehow, this batch looked even lumpier and less appealing. My stomach grumbled, and I realized that in the rush to take care of the Smith family and their medical woes, I’d completely forgotten to eat yesterday. Had I seriously gone two days without eating? Well, one day, technically, if you counted that single bite of maggot-infested corn Lucille had given me. I hoped she and her family were doing alright.

I stared down at the bread bowl, horrified that my animalistic side found the slop in front of me appealing. “Food!” inner Piper screamed. “Need food, so don’t die!” Quiet me! I internally shouted back. I know you’re hungry, but we still have standards!

“Thanks for the food, Thomas,” I replied, walking back to my copper chest and grabbing my witch cloak. “But I think I wanna take a peek at what else is on the menu.” Part of me feared Thomas had offered me lumpy porridge two days in a row because that was all they had to eat at the castle. When I’d first arrived in Praedones, Thomas and Poofy Pants had mentioned something about a blockade, so maybe it was all lumpy food all the time because they couldn’t import anything else. Still, I had to verify that the castle wasn’t stocked with bagels, cream cheese, and freshly squeezed orange juice. Hey, a girl could dream.

I wrapped my cloak around my shoulders and realized I’d forgotten to put on my dark eyeliner; my witchy look wouldn’t be complete without it. Turning around to search for where I left it, I saw Thomas sitting on my bed, flipping through Gerard’s nerd textbook. “Ok, we gotta have a conversation about personal space,” I said, putting my hands on my hips and making sure I looked appropriately irked.

“What’s a lightbulb?” Asked Thomas, face buried in the book, not even looking up at me.

I gave Thomas a once-over and peeked down at the page he was reading. Immediately, I felt my eyes grow heavy from prolonged exposure to boring learning material, and I quickly pulled away. Phew, that was a close one, but from my brief glance, I’d confirmed that the page Thomas was reading definitely said something about light bulbs. “I didn’t know you could read,” I said, surprised.

Thomas frowned. “I read your spellbook yesterday, remember?” He said, flipping to another page in the book.

I blushed; oh, right, I’d completely forgotten about that. And hadn’t Thomas also alphabetized all the shelves in his wizard room? I guess it was pretty obvious he was literate; I just hadn’t noticed. In my defense, I had been having a pretty hectic past few days.

“Sorry,” I said quickly, “I just know that most people from this time, er, area, aren’t typically able to read.”

Thomas finally looked up from the textbook. “Most common folk can’t,” he admitted, “but if you’re a royal knight, you receive special schooling.” He rapped a fist against his armor, smiling proudly, “I can read and speak English, German, Norse, Burmese, and Latin.”

“Really?” I asked, a little jealous, as the only other language I could speak besides English was French and Swahili.

Thomas nodded. “Si hoc intelligere potest, tunc vos es Nerd.”

I cocked my head to the side. “Huh?” That sounded way cooler and magical-sounding than anything I could say.

“Don’t worry about it,” said Thomas, laughing easily as he redirected his attention back to Gerard’s textbook. “By the way, you never told me what a lightbulb was.”

“Oh, it’s a lot like my flashlight,” I responded before realizing I’d name-dropped another future object.

“Your flash-what?”

“My sun cylinder,” I replied quickly, remembering how Poofy Pants had referred to it the other day.

“Ooh, tell me more!” said Thomas, his attention redirected back to me as he bounced excitedly on the bed. Gosh, Thomas was adorable. Maybe I should snag that textbook from him while he’s distracted. I still wasn’t sure where I stood on this whole exposing people to future knowledge thing.

We were interrupted by another impolite gurgle from my stomach. “Food first, work later,” I said, grabbing Thomas by the hand and dragging him out the door. “If you’re gonna bring me breakfast again, I wanna show you my order.”

XXX

I wasn’t sure what a medieval mess hall would look like, but upon arrival, it sorta reminded me of a modern-day school cafeteria, albeit with candles instead of electrical light, long wooden tables filled with people gorging themselves on slop, and really strong B.O. On second thought, it was almost exactly like a modern-day cafeteria.

“Is there anywhere specific we’re supposed to sit?” I asked Thomas, wanting to avoid any potential medieval social faux pas.

“What, you mean everyone can’t do 1,000 push-ups?” Said Thomas suddenly, deepening his voice and sticking out his chest, “I guess those peasant folk are softer than I thought.”

I narrowed my eyes; what was up with Thomas? He’d never acted this randomly machismo before, and come to think of it, the only reason a guy would suddenly try and act that way would be because of–.

I followed Thomas’ gaze, scanning the room; my girl vision quickly picked out a cute-looking noblewoman with bright red hair, sitting and eating at a table with several other well-dressed ladies. She wore a light pink dress with frills and lace on the hems and cuffs, maybe not as frilly as Princess Melanie’s getup, but it was pretty close. To my surprise, I recognized her as one of the nobles from King Cassian’s throne room. I was pretty sure she had helped calm the king down the other day when he’d been about to charge after the assassins.

“Alright, Thomas,” I said, all business. “Spill the tea; what are we working with here?”

“Why would you spill perfectly good tea?” He asked, dropping to the ground and attempting to do sexy-looking push-ups.

“I mean that cute redhead you’ve got goo-goo eyes for,” I replied, discreetly pointing in her direction. “What’s the deal with that?”

Oh, Elswyrth?” asked Thomas dejectedly, managing to do an impressive amount of push-ups despite wearing bulky metal armor. “She’s the most beautiful maiden in the entire kingdom, but she’s also a duchess.”

“Meaning?” I asked, once again regretting the abysmal amount of knowledge I’d retained from history class.

“Well, she’s nobility, so that means she’d never be interested in a simple knight like me,” replied Thomas, finishing his sexy push-ups and standing back up, not even having broken a sweat. “Besides,” He continued, eyeing the group of women warily, “girls are scary.”

I frowned. “Excuse me, I’m a girl too.”

Thomas grabbed a flagon from a nearby table and started curling it like a dumbbell, striking a pose that made him look startlingly similar to a medieval version of Gerard. “Yeah, but you’re also a witch,” he replied, matter of fact, “that’s a different kind of scary. The two scaries kind of cancel each other out.”

I looked back at Elyswryth, laughing and eating with her friends, and felt sorry for Thomas. Yeah, she was nobility, so she was probably way out of his league, but that shouldn’t mean Thomas couldn’t at least shoot his shot. Even in my time period, the science geek could ask out the head cheerleader. Yeah, it’d probably never work out, but you’d never know until you tried. “You won’t get thrown in a dungeon or anything if you try to talk to her, right?”

Thomas shook his head.

“Perfect!” I grabbed a surprised Thomas by the hand and dragged him towards Elyswyrth.

“Piper, what are you doing?!” Gasped Thomas, eyes widening in fear.

“Bein’ your wingman, er, wingwoman,” I replied with my breeziest of smiles.

We made it over to Elywryth’s table, and by this point, all eyes in the mess hall were on us. Probably because the castle’s newest witch was trying to play matchmaker. “Hiya, gals!” I said cheerily, waving and smiling at the women. “I’m Piper, and this is my very strong and handsome friend, Thomas. Say hi, Thomas.”

Thomas’ face had turned bright red by this point; his hand, which he’d previously been trying to wrench free, was now clasping onto mine in a death grip. Ever so slowly, he nodded his head in the direction of Elyswyth. “G-good morning l-ladies.” He finally managed to stammer out.

A chorus of polite, if slightly confused, hellos followed from the noblewomen. “Hello, Thomas,” said Elyswyrth with a friendly nod and a warm smile, her voice more mature sounding than I’d expected. “It’s good to see you again.”

Thomas nodded stiffly. “You too, Miss Elyswyrth.”

“Please,” said Elyswyrth with a gentle laugh, “I’ve told you before, you can call me Ellie.”

I perked up at that clue. Elyswyrth had told Thomas to call her Ellie, which implied some level of familiarity between the two. I decided to file that information away for later.

“And correct me if I’m wrong,” continued Elyswyrth, turning to face me and furrowing her perfectly sculpted eyebrows, “but I believe we’ve already had the pleasure of meeting briefly somewhere before, isn’t that right?”

I nodded, “Yes, ma’am, we were both in the throne room during my impromptu execution and even more impromptu hiring.”

Elyswyrth’s eyes lit up with recognition. “Ah yes, I remember now, you’re the witch. How could I have forgotten that scandalous amount of ankle you were showing in front of the king?”

I looked down at my exposed legs, realizing I hadn’t changed outfits since I’d arrived. I probably needed a bath desperately.

Elyswyrth turned back to face Thomas, “And Thomas, I distinctly recall you were the one who suggested King Cassian make use of Piper’s abilities to save Princess Melanie; that was some quick thinking on your part.”

Thomas blushed at the compliment. “T-thank you, Miss Elyswryth,” he finally managed to say.

Ellie laughed. “Honestly, Thomas, just Ellie, please. Calling me, Elyswryth makes me sound 20 years older.”

I smiled at Ellie’s easy and laid-back mannerisms; she acted way cooler than I assumed the typical noble would. Not to mention, she was pretty, to boot. I could see why Thomas was so head over heels for her.

Before the conversation could go elsewhere, I saddled up next to Ellie at her table and whispered conspiratorially into her ear. “Say, if you don’t mind, can you ask your friends to leave for a bit? Thomas wanted to have a word with you.”

Ellie’s eyes quickly flicked from Thomas and back to me. She smiled mischievously, and we shared that conspiratorial giggle girls do whenever we talk about boys.

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“I think I need a moment to speak with Lady Piper,” said Ellie, turning to her friends, “would you mind waiting for me back in my chambers?”

Her friends nodded in affirmation and said a few pleasant goodbyes as they cleared out from the mess hall. A few moments later, it was just Ellie and I sitting at the table. Thomas was still standing, hovering awkwardly a few inches away.

“Go on, Thomas,” I said, motioning for him to sit, “she won’t bite.”

Thomas robotically moved towards the table, sitting down and staring straight ahead, beads of sweat forming across his brow.

We sat there in silence, expectantly waiting for Thomas to initiate the conversation. He didn’t say a word; in fact, it looked like he was having a stroke.

“So, Ellie,” I said conversationally, trying to get the ball rolling. “You wouldn’t happen to have a boyfriend, would you?”

Ellie blinked, looking at me, confused. “A boyfriend?” She said, the word sounding foreign on her lips.

Shoot, medieval people probably say something fancier sounding than boyfriend. It’s probably not manservant, either. Simp? Boytoy?

“Are you asking whether or not I have a suitor?” continued Ellie, “If that’s the case, no, I don’t.” Ellie looked back to Thomas and smiled sweetly. “I guess I’m still waiting for the right gentleman to approach me.”

Thomas’ mouth opened, but no sound came out. I didn’t think it was possible, but his face somehow became even redder. “I-I need to g-g-go,” he said, bolting out of his seat and practically fleeing the room.

I sighed in annoyance as we watched him leave, men.

“I’m impressed,” said Ellie with a gentle laugh, “that’s the most he’s said to me in a long time.”

I turned back to face Ellie, arching an eyebrow in surprise. “He’s actually talked to you before? From what I’ve seen, I assumed he just did push-ups in your general vicinity.”

“We’ve known each other since we were kids.” Replied Ellie, sounding nostalgic. “Thomas’ parents are merchants. They used to visit the royal court every couple of weeks to sell their wares, and the two of us would run off to play while the adults talked business.” Ellie’s smile dropped a few notches. “Unfortunately, things between us have gotten weird as we’ve grown older.”

I winced, recalling my own experiences with guy friends. Hormones made things way more complicated than they needed to be. “So I assume it’s obvious the guy is head over heels crazy for you?”

“Ellie smiled. “Thomas is a great guy. He’s kind, hardworking, and curious about the world around him.” She blushed slightly. “And he’s certainly matured into a very handsome man. I would certainly love for him to court me, but he’s never worked up the courage to ask.”

Wow, that had been easier than expected; it sounded like Thomas already had this fish on the line; he just needed to reel her in. Though he probably needed to act fast. “Are there not a lot of noblemen already wanting to ask you out, er, I mean, seek your hand?”

Ellie gave an annoyed sigh, and for the first time, a frown appeared on her otherwise serene-looking face. “Oh, I’ve got lots of would-be suitors; the problem is that none of them are worth my time.”

I nodded in understanding. The rest of the world didn’t understand how tough it was for us beautiful women.

“I assume you have little to no experience with the royal court?” Ellie asked, twirling a finger absently through her hair. I shook my head, no. “Well, consider that a boon. Despite the fancy title, it’s all vapid games and political subterfuge,” she said, voice irritable. “No one really means what they say, and everyone is simply trying to look out for themselves. Not to mention, noble life is stuffy and boring.” Ellie rested her chin in her hand, staring out a window into the city proper. “Honestly, some days I wish I’d been born a commoner like Thomas, their lives are far more exciting.”

I considered Ellie’s words; based on what she’d said, the noble court sounded a lot like a high school click and a really bad one at that. Maybe humanity hadn’t changed all that much in the last thousand years. “And you like Thomas because he’s different from all those stuffy noblemen?” I asked.

“Whether or not he’s the bravest, smartest, or most handsome, he’s himself.” Replied Ellie. “And having spent my entire life surrounded by fakes, I find that honesty refreshing.”

“Except for when he tries to do sexy push-ups in front of you,” I said, giggling.

Ellie gave an unladylike snort in response. “Well, nobodies perfect.”

“Outta the way, royalty comin’ through!”

I perked up at the familiar-sounding voice. A moment later, my eyes were assaulted by one of the poofiest and yellowest dresses that had ever been made on God’s green earth. Princess Melanie stalked into the mess hall, her lips curled upward like she’d just eaten a particularly sour lemon. Her eyes zeroed in on the food line, and she marched over to where several people were waiting their turns.

“Need food.” She said, jerking her thumb towards the rest of the mess hall. “Outta the way.” Everyone practically fled in terror, leaving the line empty. Princess Melanie stalked to the front of the line, where several large bowls of food were sitting. I hadn’t seen what was on the menu yet, but Melanie didn’t appear to like her options. She spat on the table, stuck up her nose, and began yelling obscenities at the cook.

“What’s her problem?” I whispered to Ellie. Princess Melanie had been pretty ornery the other day, too, but I’d assumed that was because she was still in shock from her recent kidnapping. However, as I watched her yell and gesticulate wildly at the poor cook, I realized that ornery might be her general mood.

“Well, the princess is…unique.” Replied Ellie with a strained smile. “No one really knows why she’s the way she is.”

My mind instantly went back to my half-semester of Psychology 101. “Think it’s because of the king?” I asked, remembering psychologists always asked about a patient’s relationship with their parents.

Ellie shook her head sharply. “Certainly not. King Cassian has done nothing but love and dote on his daughter ever since she was born.”

That made sense. I didn’t know the guy very well, but he’d been prepared to charge into a house full of assassins to get his daughter back, so it seemed like he cared for her a lot. Maybe the issue was that he was overbearing, like an old-fashioned helicopter parent, or maybe the problem was something else entirely.

Ellie leaned towards me. “There have been rumors circulating around the castle that the princess is actually a witch in disguise,” she whispered, “but after meeting you–” Ellie looked me up and down with a smirk. “I don’t think having a bitter disposition necessarily means you practice magic.”

My stomach rumbled again, reminding me that I still needed food. “I’m gonna grab a bite to eat,” I said, standing up and heading towards the food line where Princess Melanie was still berating the cook.

Ellie grabbed my arm. “Maybe you should wait a few minutes for the Princess to leave.” She said, sounding genuinely concerned. “Miss Melanie is,” Ellie scrunched up her face, searching for the right word, “a lot.”

I shrugged, “I’ll be fine, and if she starts something, I can just curse her bloodline.” Ellie’s face went slightly pale. “That was a joke,” I said quickly. “I’ll be right back.”

I saddled up next to Princess Melanie at the front of the food line, and remembering Cassian’s request to try and befriend her, gave the Princess a friendly wave. Unfortunately, she was so busy tearing into the chef that she didn’t notice me. “Whaddya mean there’s no quail stew for breakfast!?” She screeched at the poor chef, “Next, you’re gonna tell me something even more stupid like your mother wasn’t a professional bedswerver!”

The poor chef burst into tears and fled the mess hall. I cocked my head to the side, trying to figure out what bedswerver meant, and assumed it wasn’t anything nice. As I stared at the back of the Princess, I realized there was something about her that felt familiar, kind of like how Thomas reminded me of Gerard when he had started working out.

I frowned, thinking about my cousin. If Gerard had gotten the time machine fixed, then he would already be searching for me. I hope he stayed safe and didn’t get hit by a stray ballista bolt or catch the black plague while he was time-traveling.

I shook my head. I could worry about that after I got something in my stomach. I took a look at the various food items that were available and considered my options. There were several platters of stale bread, lumpy porridge, salted fish that looked several days expired, and moldy slices of meat so thin, they were practically transparent. I frowned, doing a double take on the fish. Were those anchovies? For breakfast?! I patted my stomach sadly and picked up a few scraps of meat and pieces of rock-hard bread. Times were not plentiful for the kingdom of Praedones. I reached for a water pitcher and, to my surprise, found the liquid inside a pale red. I cautiously sniffed it and realized they were serving wine for breakfast.

“At least we don’t have to be 21 to drink,” I chuckled, realizing there probably wasn’t a legal drinking age in Medieval Europe.

Princess Melanie stiffened at my voice and spun around to face me. “And who are you supposed to be?” She asked rudely, staring at my outfit, unimpressed. “The castle servants are supposed to eat in a separate mess hall.”

Ok, rude. Starting off by calling me poor-looking, but I can roll with the punches. “I’m Piper,” I said, attempting to sound friendly, “Y’know, the great and powerful witch who saved your life the other night?”

I saw recognition flit across her face. “Oh, and I suppose you want a thank you then?” She asked, narrowing her bright green eyes in a way that looked almost predatory.

“Uh, not exactly,” I replied, “I just knew you’d recognize–”

“Well, thank you, Piper,” sneered Melanie, cutting me off. “Thank you so much for using dark magic to terrify half the kingdom and for rescuing a poor, defenseless damsel who totally wasn’t about to free herself in the next couple of minutes. Gosh, it sure was brave of you to cast spells against stupid peasants who didn’t even have real magic to defend themselves with.”

I stared at the Princess for a few seconds, not quite believing someone could be this big of a jerk. “I think I’m gonna go now,” I said, taking my food and starting a tactical retreat.

Princess Melanie nodded, “Good. The quality of my day will improve greatly once you do.” And with that, the Princess brandished a knife from within the folds of her dress, and stabbed the bowl of anchovies. She lifted the blade like a shish kabob, several fish pierced on the steel, and stormed out of the mess hall, her jet-black hair flowing behind her.

I sat back down across from Ellie and numbly nibbled on my stale bread. “I tried to warn you, Piper,” she said apologetically.

I nodded; she had indeed tried.

XXX

After eating some very unpleasant food and speaking with Ellie for a bit longer, I decided to head back to my room and bang my head against a wall for a few hours. Meaning I was gonna try learning about electricity again and hope against hope I wouldn’t fall into another learning coma.

I climbed back up to the third story of the castle, stepped into my room, and went to my bed to do some reading. I reached for Gerard’s textbook and felt ice-cold terror grip my entire body when I realized the book wasn’t there. Without that textbook, there was zero chance I could figure out how to make electricity, and I’d been certain I’d left the book on my bed. I was nearly about to start hyperventilating when I spotted a creme sheet of paper resting on the desk. I picked up the note, noting (lol) that a single sentence was written on it in fine cursive.

I.O.U. one magic spellbook. Regards, Thomas.

XXX

I stomped down to Thomas’ Wizard Room and kicked the door open. Or at least I tried; Thomas must’ve locked the door on the other side, and all I got for my efforts was a bruised foot. “Who is it?” came Thomas’ voice from inside the room, the sounds of tinkering and the turning of pages coming from within.

“It’s a very angry witch,” I called back, making no effort to mask the irritation in my voice.

I heard footsteps approaching the door and the sliding sound of a bolt lock. A moment later, Thomas’ face appeared in the door. “Hey, Piper,” he said sheepishly, “I thought you were gonna be at breakfast for a bit longer.”

“Nope,” I said flatly, pushing the door open and striding inside. I found Gerard’s textbook easy enough; it was smack dab in the middle of the floor, but it looked like a miniature tornado had gone off around it. Dozens of random bits and baubles, scraps of metal and fabrics were off their shelves and scattered across the ground, joined together and mashed in various ways like Thomas had been trying to build something.

“Any particular reason why you felt motivated to steal from me?” I asked, striding over to my textbook and snatching it up. I probably shouldn’t have been so hard on Thomas, but the dude seemed to have no concept of personal space. If he walked into my room while I was changing or using the chamber pot, he wouldn’t like what I’d do to him.

“I’m sorry,” he said, bowing his head and looking at the floor. “Talking to Eyswyrth was just so stressful; I needed to do something to calm myself down.”

I frowned, remembering I was the one who had forced him to talk to Ellie in the first place. “I need that textbook, Thomas.” I said somewhat more gently, “If something happened to it, I’d be in a lot of trouble.”

Thomas shuffled his feet, looking confused. “But you’re an all-powerful witch. Does someone with your abilities even need a spellbook?”

“I’m not nearly as great as you think I am,” I replied, wanting to be honest but also not spill the beans on my secret, “I need to find a way to create electricity, and I can’t do that without my textbook.”

Thomas lit up, “Electricity!” He said, eyes gleaming, “I remember reading about that!” Thomas practically dove into his pile of stuff on the ground, furiously searching for something. A few moments later, he pulled out what looked like a black tube of rubber, no longer than a few inches, and held it in front of me.

“Uh, what’s that?” I asked.

“It’s a wiereh.” He said proudly. “According to your spellbook, it’s a connector thingie that allows electricity to flow across magical devices.”

I’d never heard of wiereh, so I asked Thomas to show me where he’d seen the word in the textbook. He pointed at a long paragraph of technical mumbo-jumbo. My eyes began to glaze over, but I could see that the word he was attempting to pronounce was wire.

“A wire?” I asked, eyes suddenly embiggening. “You made a wire?!”

Thomas visibly shrunk back from my loud exclamation. “Uh yeah, is that bad?” he asked nervously.

I laughed, my chest feeling like a massive weight had been lifted from it. Even someone as technically challenged as me knew that electricity needed wires to safely travel from object to object. I’d forgotten to bring my laptop’s charging cable when I went to school the other day, so creating a power cable had been a problem I’d decided to attempt and solve after I figured out how to make electricity. It looked like Thomas was already partway there.

“Why’d you make a wire of all things?” I asked, excited that I now had another piece of my puzzle to get home, but was also a little confused as to why Thomas had made something so random.

“Well, I wanna learn everything I can from your spellbook,” replied Thomas, and a wiereh seemed like the easiest thing for me to start with.” Thomas pointed back to his dragon hoard’s worth of random stuff. I already had most of the necessary components here in my Wizard Room, and the stuff I didn’t have, I just…borrowed.

“Hold up,” I said, slightly disturbed. “You want to learn? Like that’s something you enjoy doing?”

He nodded emphatically. “Oh, most definitely, I love learning, especially about magic.”

I gasped with realization. Thomas was a nerd, which meant he liked learning!

“Would you like to learn how to build a charging cable and a power supply?” I asked, not quite able to believe my good fortune.

Thomas shrugged. “Well, it sounds sorta interesting,” he admitted, “but like I said already, what I really wanna learn more about is magic.”

I rolled my eyes. “Sure, wanna learn how to make a magical charging cable and a magical power supply?”

Thomas practically leaped out of his skin. “Yes, yes, yes!” He exclaimed, hopping from foot to foot. Gosh, Thomas was just so cute, I had to actively stop myself from pinching his cheeks.

“Okay,” I said, rubbing my hands together, “if we’re gonna make this work, first things first, we need a way to create electricity.” Thomas raised his hand. “Yes, Thomas?” I asked, suddenly feeling like a school teacher.

“Are lemons magical?” He asked.

I blinked. “Huh?”

Thomas turned the textbook around and showed me a diagram of several lemons wired together to power a small light bulb. “It says here that lemons can create electricity, so if we use this wiereh I just made, does that mean we can suck the magic out of a lemon to make power?”

“Lemons!” I shouted, “That’s it!” Practically every kid ever had strung a couple of lemons together to turn on a light bulb. Maybe I didn’t need to invent solar power or create a wind farm to generate electricity; I could just plug my laptop into a couple of lemons and get back home that way.

“Yeah, they’re super magical,” I said excitedly. “Do you know where we can find any?”

Thomas frowned; that was never a good sign. “Lemons are actually kind of hard to come by,” he said slowly, “also, it’s almost winter, so any that we had would probably have been harvested and eaten a while ago.”

Hmm, that could be a problem, but I had come too far to be hindered by mundane things like crop cycles and the Earth’s rotation around the sun. “I can just ask the king if there are any lying around,” I said, swishing my cape to and fro, “I am the royal witch, after all.”

A knock sounded at the door, and a tiny man popped his head inside. I recognized him as another one of the people I’d met in the royal court. He’d been the poor dude flung around by King Cassian when he’d been having his moment. “Gumbo,” I said, nodding my head in greeting.

He frowned. “Actually, your witchiness, I’m Gomes. I’ve been sent to fetch you; the king has immediate need of your presence.”

Oh, well, that was certainly convenient. I could meet with King Cassian and ask him for some lemons afterward. “I gotta go now.” I said, turning back to Thomas, “But if you can keep learning about electricity while I’m gone, that’d really help with my magic spells.”

Thomas offered me a crisp salute. “I’m on the case!”

I gave him a grin and exited the room with Gomez. It seemed like things might just be starting to go my way.