and a wolf will move among the lambs

[impetuous_force]

It's that afternoon after school when Bella next visits the Witchnook. (She already made another nighttime visit to pick up her powder, and it's safely stashed under the false bottom in the box full of notebooks under her bed.) This time she just needs beetle wings and a reasonably clear chunk of quartz. Her books and the goldvine bramble she ordered aren't in yet.

Comments

[impetuous_force]

"Charlie more so than Renée," says Bella slowly, shifting in her seat. "Risk of draft, risk of botched spell, risk of addiction and magic accordingly taking over one's life."

[eversomuchfun]

"I suppose a career in medicine carries none of those risks."

[impetuous_force]

"They have better luck at enticing doctors into the USADI with mere large amounts of money," says Bella. "And the obsession symptom is a temporary feature of medical school, and if you botch something, that's what malpractice insurance is for."

[eversomuchfun]

He laughs.

[impetuous_force]

"But the scale and flexibility of a halfway decent witch are better." She shrugs.

[alicornucopia]

"I'd be scared to even try a spell. Some things are just - bigger than me," says Angie, shaking her head. "Bella's brave," she adds in a stage whisper to Sherlock.

[eversomuchfun]

"I noticed," he murmurs back.

[impetuous_force]

"I have confidence in my own - meticulousness, when things are important," says Bella. "I assess things and then follow through on trusting my assessments even if the thing I have to do still isn't great. I don't think that's the same thing."

[alicornucopia]

"It's a kind of brave. Maybe not the only kind."

[eversomuchfun]

"Better than some others," says Sherlock.

[impetuous_force]

"Such as?"

[eversomuchfun]

"Bravery is a complicated concept. Sometimes it can mean - a kind of recklessness. And recklessness is nobody's friend."

[alicornucopia]

"I wouldn't ever describe Bella as reckless," says Angie.

[eversomuchfun]

"Nor would I."

[impetuous_force]

"No, sometimes I do get in over my head," says Bella. "I just make sure I have a good reason to take the chance first. I don't think that's factored into the definition of recklessness."

[eversomuchfun]

"I think taking chances without making sure you have a good reason to is exactly the definition of recklessness."

[alicornucopia]

"I think Bella has a point, though. If somebody goes into a burning building to save somebody else and they're wrong about whether they can, and they die, they might get called reckless. But if they had a good chance of being right, then there was a good reason to take the chance."

[eversomuchfun]

"I wouldn't call them reckless, if I knew why they made the choice."

[impetuous_force]

"I would call them reckless if there were precautions readily available that they didn't take," Bella says.

[alicornucopia]

"But you never saw a precaution you didn't like," teases Angie, "so I guess you aren't reckless, then."

[eversomuchfun]

Sherlock laughs.

[impetuous_force]

Time passes. The recruitment drive occurs after John Escott has been enrolled for two and a half weeks; a witch in a USADI uniform peers at Bella and appears about to ask her something before Bella asks if she'd be so kind, as long as she's here, to have a look at her good-luck-charm (this is what the quartz was for) and see if it's any good. The witch examines the charm, determines it the likely source of any magic Bella's giving off that she's noticed, and hands it back saying that it's reasonably well done but she hopes Bella didn't pay more than thirty dollars for it. Bella has gone three days without casting any spells prior to the drive, and enchanted the charm just before that, for just such an eventuality.

Going without magic makes her irritable, especially by day three, and maintaining a poker face with the uniformed witch takes about all she has. She hustles to the Witchnook after school to get fixings for a pick-me-up; the USADI drive is over with and no more witches who might want to draft her are going to encounter her anytime soon.

[eversomuchfun]

"You look like hell," Sherlock comments. "What can I get you?"

[impetuous_force]

"Ugh, I don't even know, I was going to just fix the sink but Renée called a plumber before I expected her to get around to it," growls Bella, scratching irritably at her scalp. "I could make another charm but who'm I going to give it to, you?"

[eversomuchfun]

"Keep it. Who can't use a little more luck?"