April 2024

Amy sighed and lowered her arms.

“Well, that didn’t work either.”

Soft exclamations of fatigue and frustration rippled from shadowed spots around the glowing magic circle that filled the darkened room. Everyone sounded as defeated as Amy felt.

The splendid curio cabinet sat resolutely on the table in the center of the engraved circle, bathed in the soft yellow glow of the overhead spotlight and unmoved by their efforts. Amy and her four colleagues had been working at opening it all morning with zero success. The cabinet remained as closed and sealed as it had three days ago when they’d finally extracted it from that exotic, magically-bound trunk.

“I’m going to power us down and bring the lights back up.”

Amy mentally eased the mystical bonds that tied the five women together into a magical group effort. The faint, silvery blue light of the circle faded, leaving the central spotlight as the only illumination in the room. At least, until Amy reached over to slide up the power on the surrounding light racks. Five sets of eyes winced as the basement room was flooded with bright whiteness.

With the room back up to regular lighting, Amy could once again see the faces of her four closest college friends: Kimberly Sanders, Brigid Murphy, Tonya Kelley, and Yuanlin Cheng. For the last four and a half years, they'd also been partners in their up-and-coming magic consulting business, Five Wise Gals.

Amy certainly didn’t feel very wise at the moment.

Hoping to avoid the disappointed expressions on her friends’ faces for as long as possible, Amy switched over to aura sight. She stepped into the middle of the still shimmering circle, keeping her focus on the now brilliantly glowing heirloom piece that they’d been contracted to disenchant, open, inspect, and if necessary, de-curse. Any wonder at the cabinet’s impressive magical signature had long since faded.

Nasty little puzzle box. What was it going to take to reveal your secrets?

Naturally, the warmly glowing earth-toned aura that was Tonya spoke first.

“Amy, hon, I think maybe you should take a break.”

Amy feigned indifference as she fiddled with a glowing knob, then ran a finger over shimmering glass that was impenetrably masked from inside by thick cloth. A gaudily whirling purple glow heralded Brigid’s quiet approach from the left. A small hand pressed softly against Amy’s shoulder, gently smoothing the woolen fabric of her blouse.

“You sure you’re feeling okay Aim? Your control of the circle didn’t seem as strong as usual.”

“I’m fine.”

Although Amy brushed off Bri’s concern, she made no effort to shake off the comfort of her friend’s touch. There was always something soothing about Bri’s presence, even without any magical boost.

“Well, if you say you’re fine, you’re fine – right?” Bri offered diplomatically. “I mean – you would know.”

“You are not fine.”

Yuanlin was never one to mince words.

“Even father noticed last night at dinner. And he notices less than I do.”

Amy sighed and rubbed her eyes before slipping back into mundane vision. She opened them reluctantly to look left toward the place at the circle that Lin always claimed.

Lin’s thin arms were crossed tightly across her chest. The artificer’s narrow face was impassive as ever, but Amy knew her stoic friend was extremely annoyed. Her terse words were proof enough of that.

“Whatever is wrong, deal with it. Soon.”

Amy was more than willing to deal with whatever might be wrong. That itself wasn’t the problem.

What was wrong with her?

“Hey, enough of the dagger eyes, Lin. Ripping into Amy won’t make anything better.”

Kim was reaching upward with ebony, tattooed arms, stretching out the kinks in her neck and shoulders. Despite the grueling efforts of the last three hours, she didn’t seem at all perturbed.

“Bad days happen to all of us, even you. No sense getting so upset about it.”

Lin’s dark-eyed gaze on Amy never wavered.

“I am not upset. I am identifying observable issues. Amy is not fine, and her work performance confirms it. Of the last seventeen attempts, nine consisted entirely of methods already proven ineffective. Doing the same thing under the same circumstances and expecting a different result …”

“… is a form of insanity.”

All four had chimed in to finish one of Lin’s favorite phrases.

“Exactly,” Lin concluded with a self-assured nod.

“Amy’s not insane, Lin,” Bri pleaded. “Don’t be so mean. Please.”

“It’s okay Bri,” Amy shook her head to stave off the growing ache. “Lin’s right. Being as stubborn as I’ve been today might as well be insanity, especially when I take it too far.”

“Amy, stop being so hard on yourself.”

Tonya had left her position on the magic circle and made her way to the office in the adjoining room opposite the stairs that led up to the ground floor. Amy watched through the dividing window as the unofficial leader of their group searched through the folders holding the details of this job.

“You’re not a liar, and you’re not insane. You just seem a little … worn down.”

“And maybe a little hungry,” Bri suggested, to which her own stomach growled loudly in agreement.

“Sorry!” And as the gurgling continued, “Oh, stop it already! You’ll make us die of embarrassment!”

“Oh, come on Bri, I know you had breakfast,” Kim put her fists on her hips accusingly. “I was there!”

“Then I think it’s a good time for a break for all of us,” Tonya declared from the office, a bright smile on her round, fleshy face. “It’s been long enough that I’m sure Donna and Jae are beginning to worry.”

“And they will need their own breaks,” Lin added in her constantly even voice. She let off a short huff before turning and heading to the stairs. “I will supervise the store until after the lunch rush."

Lin paused at the stairwell doorway long enough to call back a warning, “And we are not making another group attempt at that cabinet until my mother confirms that Amy is ready. She will know.”