Story: An Argument of Magic
Prompt: Magic
Series: The Aunt Family
Summary: Evangaline and the Grannies are not in agreement about teaching magic to the next generation. Eva’s the Aunt, though…

Evangaline was having an argument with the Grannies.

She wasn’t having it directly, of course. One did not simply walk into Mordor; one didn’t simply confront the Grannies. At least, it wasn’t often done, and she hadn’t quite gotten up the nerve yet.

But she was doing things they were telling her not to, in ways that they were certain to find out about eventually.

“Let the children come to their magic naturally. The time for formal training is once they’re older, and once they’re more certain in their power.” That was the line every single one of the grannies – except Rosaria, who just smirked – had given. Implicit in the instruction were two things: that the “children” were female, and that learning either happened on one’s own or via formal instruction. Evangaline was kicking both of those assumptions in the teeth.

She’d started the “lessons” over something that nobody actually called “baby-sitting,” because the children were in their teens or tweens, and certainly old enough, by normal standards, to be left on their own. Beryl and Stone had started them, actually, by asking questions. It had taken Evangaline a couple visits to realize exactly how intent the kids were, and by the fourth lesson, she was prepared for them.

“Why do you think we save everything?”

She could tell by the way they looked at each other – five of them, Beryl and Stone first among them, but the rest no less magically-inclined or bright – that they hadn’t been expecting her to catch on so quickly.

“You can consider me practice for the Grannies. You need to work on your subtlety, but we can focus on that another time. Why do you think we save everything?”

Anessa answered, cautiously. “The grannies – that is, Grandma Karen – said it wasn’t time to teach us, yet.”

“And I’m just asking you questions. Why do you think we save everything?”

Anessa’s brother Matthias finally answered, every bit as cautious. “Because there’s a lesson in everything?”

“Exactly. And I need you five to help me clean out the storage room, so I have room for my own stores. Let’s go.”

She might be having an argument with the Grannies, but she was going to give herself plenty of wiggle room, until she was too far into this for them to call her off. She might be the Aunt, but she knew where the family power came from.

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