Song: "Light Spinner" from Music from She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

Media: The Great Hall, Morning Moonrise

When I was little, I wanted to be a sorceress more than anything. Mother, do you remember how proud you were when I first made a fire in the hearth with my magic? It was the one thing I didn't need teaching to accomplish, something I instinctively taught myself.

❂❂❂

The next day, the three students crowded each other in the elevator as it descended from Phoenix Dorm to the first floor. Ver squealed. "I can't believe you're coming to class with us today!"

"I can't believe she let you in," Asteria muttered with a rueful smile. "Hope you survive."

Micah was quiet, deep in thought. That wasn't normal human heat I felt. I mean, she's not human, but whatever. I wonder why her hands are like that. "What's up?" Ver asked, jostling his shoulder.

His fingers brushed the cuffs of his sleeves. "Light Spinner's hands. They're hot. Why is that?" Her touch was like warm sand beneath his toes; Asteria's hands didn't feel like that, so it couldn't be a Delvalian thing.

Both students shrunk back slightly. "Light Spinner...she's special," Ver said.

"She's different," Asteria corrected. "Micah, sometimes sorcerers are only naturally gifted in one or two schools of magic. The rest take extreme work and dedication to master for them. Light Spinner's the most powerful sorceress in Mystacor, but it wasn't always that way."

"She used to only be good at evocation magic," Ver said.

"Evocation. So she can destroy things?"

"She can fire pure light from her hands," Asteria murmured. "Nobody knows why that is. Or why she glows. Everyone's got different theories on it - the Guild, my parents, the Seraphite church -"

Ver shifted on her feet. "She learned to control it, but no one trusts her. She has no friends either - just Master Norwyn."

He guessed that's why Light Spinner had no wedding ring in her ear, either. "Why does she stay in Mystacor if everyone's afraid of her, then? Why doesn't she go back to Bel Delvala?"

"It's the one thing no one can figure out," Asteria said. "But she has a temper, and when she gets mad, I hear her light blasts act on their own. She's decent, but her light's something people need to watch out for."

Micah bit the inside of his cheek as they continued walking along the mossy stone path to the Great Hall, that cloudy look in Light Spinner's bright green eyes in his mind. It's okay. She can't be all bad. Can she?

✧✧✧

Light Spinner dusted silver makeup over her eyelids and rearranged the overflowing pot of daisies on her desk as the students walked in. The Tropicil boy gazed at the enormous back window out toward the waterfalls of Mystacor, then at the stained-glass images on the side wall. She pushed down the disbelief and apprehension that threatened her relatively subdued demeanor toward her students. You'll figure out how to get him under control. Everyone will learn.

Light Spinner forced a smile in his direction; he couldn't see her lips, but her eyes would communicate the message. "Welcome to class. Today we're going outside to practice light illusions. Be quiet as we walk down the hall." Her students nodded, and they walked out the door, walking single-file.

They rounded the corridor and entered the Hall of Sorcerers. Statues of the most powerful Guild members resided on both walls of the room. Light Spinner's gaze passed over her own; the woman's face only vaguely resembled her own, but she didn't care. Statues and public images only showed what the person went down in history for, not who they actually were.

Micah piped up from behind her. "Hey, Light Spinner?"

"Be quiet."

He lowered his voice. "Hey, Light Spinner?"

Light Spinner halted, and the students rear-ended her. "What?" She tried to keep her tone kind and low around students, but there was something about Micah that drove her up a wall. He's every bit as obnoxious as the other teachers say.

Sprigs of red came to Micah's tanned cheeks, and his almond-shaped eyes were downcast. "I was just wondering...do you ever get tired when you do magic?"

Light Spinner bit down hard on her tongue, her voice hardening. "No," she lied. "Now keep walking."

As she continued down the hallway, she clenched her fists, little flames tickling her fingers. A voice from long ago echoed in her head. Do you ever tire of trying to ruin my life? All you do is make things worse. That's all you ever did.

They walked out onto the terrace at the edge of the floating island. The other isles of Mystacor, suspended in the air, glowed in the distance of the cool morning light. Light Spinner spoke to the students. "Practice your light illusions. Especially you," she said, pointing at Micah. "You need the most improvement."

He grinned. "You didn't like my ram? I think I'm feeling a little sheepish."

Holy moons, just do your work! She tossed her head. "I think it could be better."

As the students got to work, Light Spinner drew a more complicated spell in the air, gathering magic from her surroundings and channeling it into her own mandala. This process hadn't always been easy for her, but now it was second-nature, requiring only concentration to see through. She conjured a golden phoenix that swooped and twirled through the sky, enchanting it to make the appropriate noises.

Light Spinner's ears popped suddenly, but she kept her mandala intact. My spell broke. When her gaze passed upward, the phoenix was broken, replaced by a blue ram. What in the moons?

Micah's eyes met hers, and he blushed. Light Spinner smiled with a raised brow, turning back to her mandala. Amusement rose in her chest as she raised the size of the phoenix, enchanting it to crash into the ram and dissolve it in gorgeous blue lights.

Ver and Asteria were watching the light show, mouths agape, but she had to correct her new student for disrupting class. "Impressive casting, Micah. But you allowed yourself to become distracted."

Asteria snickered, and Micah frowned at her. "You can't expect me to outcast Light Spinner," he said, making grandiose gestures as he came up near her. "The greatest sorceress ever to walk the halls of Mystacor!"

Light Spinner touched her fingertips together. He's every bit as gifted as Ahelia said, she thought to herself. No one has tried to break my spells before - but of course, no one has tried either. "I've no time for your flattery. If you're going to interrupt my lessons," she said, coming up near him, "you might at least apply yourself." With this, she poked Micah in the chest, sending him back a few steps with kinesis magic.

As she turned to help Ver correct her mandala, Micah frowned. "Light Spinner, wait!"

She sighed. "What is it this time, Micah?"

She gazed at him through her peripheral vision as he waved his hands around. "I'm bored. Light illusions are the easiest thing in the world to do. Teach me something real—I want to levitate, and travel through mirrors, and shapeshift—y'know, the cool stuff!"

Is he serious? "The Guild forbids your level from learning such things. You know that, Micah."

As she walked down the path to help Asteria, Micah drew a light illusion, trapping himself in a sock-puppet rendition of Master Norwyn and trying to imitate the satyr's gentle, gravelly voice. "The Guild of Sorcerers prides itself on being out-of-touch geezers. We wouldn't want anyone to learn actual magic, or anything fun!"

Light Spinner turned, crossing her arms. She didn't appreciate people mocking her father, nor did she like him calling her an out-of-touch geezer when she couldn't control the academy's customs. "That's a poor likeness of Master Norwyn."

Micah burst out of the illusion. "Then teach me shapeshifting!"

His smile was so cheerful that she almost forgot to be annoyed at his illusion. She walked back toward him gently, sternness in her tone. "Patience, Micah. You must start at the beginning."

As she walked away, he spoke to her back, the lightness in his tone fading. "Right. At the beginning. I've got it! I'll do it just fine."

✧✧✧

At the end of that week, Norwyn came to Light Spinner's house, and they met in the enormous rose garden outside her house. His dark blue robes glittered in the evening sunset as he sat down on the bench behind her. "You look...frazzled."

Light Spinner hadn't been expecting such levels of straightforwardness from the old satyr. "It is none of your concern."

She wanted to tell Norwyn about Micah, but the thought of the dark-eyed boy made her blood boil for a reason she couldn't explain beyond interrupting my light illusions, which could very well have been an accident. He also wouldn't care nearly as much as she did over the jokes Micah had pulled about the Guild. Lowering her eyes, she snapped a dead branch almost aggressively with her shears. Of course I would be the one stressed out with him. Perhaps I  should talk to the other teachers about how to deal with him.

Norwyn sighed. "The Guild has not been easy to get along with lately."

"Let me guess why."

Norwyn frowned. "You can't blame them for being just a little wary about you. I don't see you that way, but that is because I know you. They hardly do."

Light Spinner pursed her lips from behind her veil. "Why must they know me to understand I'm not dangerous? Can't they simply judge me by my actions?"

"Your actions, to them, indicate being ambitious and abrasive in a way that is unfitting of a Guild member, not to mention a Delvalian."

"Well, they should get used to it," she huffed. "This is who I am."

"Light Spinner, we've been over this. You can't just chase magical knowledge. It'll let you down in the end."

Some days she could have sworn Norwyn knew about her secret runestone studies. "I don't just chase magical knowledge. I use it to help others. But apparently my own natural talents, which could be very useful on a battlefield—"

"We're not in a war—"

"But we could be. Don't you think it's peculiar that we haven't had war in five hundred years?"

"I find it praiseworthy that the Etherian kingdoms are not at each other's throats. Don't you?"

Light Spinner had never known a life without personal war; her mind was too hard and cynical to believe in the idealistic fantasies the rest of the planet did. She sighed. "Yes. I just wish that I could use the power I am good at for something. There's more out there for me. I can feel it."

"But even if we were on the brink of war," Master Norwyn pointed out, "that would not justify using your powers."

"Then what would?" she muttered back.

"Nothing. We've talked over this many times, Light Spinner. If you use your powers, they will corrupt you."

"Why would I be given these powers if I wasn't ever supposed to use them?" she said, her voice rising.

"Sometimes we are born defective," he said. When she scrunched up her nose in anger, he amended. "Not in character, but in powers, desires, or health. We must take care that we do not act on every desire that comes to mind. Even if you aren't a Seraphite, at least take that teaching to heart."

"It is the desire to protect, to love," she said. "It is the same as if you saw someone attacking a child and disarmed them before they could hurt anyone." Hurt from fourteen years with him threatened to bubble up, and she bit her tongue. Or are you too much of a coward for that either? 

Norwyn sighed. "You can disagree with us all you wish, so long as you don't act on it." He rose. "I sense you wish to be left alone."

"You sense correctly," she said tightly. "Goodnight."

❂❂❂

https://youtu.be/ZX62ty-44QY

● The second scene in this chapter was novelized from She-Ra itself. Take a look at the video above to see what I mean (and what their voices sound like too!) No need to have seen the show to understand what's going on.

● The Seraphites are something I added when making Alura a trilogy. In the second and third books, they're incredibly important. 

● Yep, I posted this one early. I was too excited to showcase it. 😂

Tell me what you think...

● What do you make of Light Spinner's sudden flashback?

● How right do you think other people are about her regarding her power?