ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY-ONE: Nightlight
181
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The timer Alden had set through his interface went off, but he dismissed the flashing light with an irritated thought and went back to staring at the page in front of him.
Focus yourself on calling the memory of light toward the symbol of the lantern, concentrating on the centermost point of the shape. Hold command of that point while returning your auriad to the release pattern of your choice. Some may be able to allow the auriad to fall for this spell, but having studied many castings, I deem it more effective to—
His second timer sounded. It was his tablet playing a series of especially annoying chimes at high volume, and he’d put it all the way across the room on top of the loft bed so that he’d have to move to get it. Alden set down Whan-tel’s Art and stood from the learning cushion, hurrying over to make the racket stop.
When he pulled himself up into the bed far enough to grab the tablet, he saw the note he’d stuck to the front: “EARRING OFF! I MEAN IT!”
“I really don’t trust myself at all, do I?”
Once he’d turned off the alarm, he pulled the clay spiral free of his lobe and place it carefully on the desk. With his mind only mostly stuck in his book, instead of entirely lost, he could see the signs of the day he’d had all over the room. Dirty clothes from a workout at North of North this morning, a smoothie cup from breakfast, the plate he’d eaten his lunch on, his books. His learning cushion had been brought over from Matadero yesterday before his meeting with Jeffy.
It was three o’clock in the afternoon, and Alden had done nothing but exercise, eat, and learn his new flashlight spell.