I wasn’t quite finished with the story I was telling by the time 2025 ended and so decided to continue it until it reached an ending point. Then I will start a new one. Besides, I kind of want to see where Penelope ends up. And so we have…
Day 198: The container with pieces she thought were real, she put into one of the dresser drawers.
The container with pieces she thought were real, she put into one of the dresser drawers. As she closed the drawer, Penelope wondered if she could ask Michaelson for assistance with them. ‘If they are real and I go to a jeweler then if they were somehow stolen, having an agent with me to verify I wasn’t the one who stole them would help,’ She thought.
“And it would be something that didn’t involve people attacking me that he could help with.” Penelope wasn’t certain how Michaelson felt about the people attacking her. She suspected he was not a fan and that his job was supposed to be less active in it’s execution.
She returned to the kitchen and now that all the non-charmed jewelry was put away, she laide out all the new charms, taking the ones she hung up in the jewelry box out as well. She settled herself on the stool and turned to where she left off sketching out the charms and the descriptions the book gave. She figured copying them out would help her learn what the charm was supposed to do and help it stick in her memory longer than just reading alone.
‘Besides, it is a reference for the types of charms I have rather than a book of all the charms that exist.’ She looked at the book Mrs. Merriweather sent over. It was slimmer than her big book of charms in the library and tailored more towards teaching a novice how charms worked and how to create them.
‘Which I will study later.’
She made certain her big book of charms was within reach and began sorting through the multitude of charmed pieces. A lot of them had already made an appearance and she put a tick mark beside the notation she made prior so she would know how many charms of that type she had available. There were a few new ones. Some seemed useful, others seemed more specialized.
‘I suppose the one that multiplies my physical strength for a short period of time would be helpful if I was moving a couch on my own,’ Penelope thought as she sketched out the charm and added the description to her notebook. As she hung it back up in her jewelry case, Penelope indulged in a fantasy where she lifted her bed one-handed so that she could retrieve something that fell and rolled underneath.
‘I suppose I could also defeat dust bunnies that way,’ She thought as she moved on to another charm.
Most of the charms she came across were in the front half of the book. Penelope soon realized that while each charm was listed alphabetically in its section, the sections divided the charms into level of complexity.
The first section of the book had charms that novices could create. They increased in difficulty through the second and third sections. It was the fourth and beyond that became slightly different. These were charms that were not only more complex to create, but required greater magical strength. Instead of being organized by complexity, they were organized by power level.
‘I don’t know how anyone even figures out their power level.’
Somehow, she suspected it was less of an exam giving her a number and more of a try and see method. If you can do the spell, then it is within your power level.
Ten til Midnight 