“That doesn’t look like his handwriting, Erin,” Sarah said, a confused frown on her face.

“It doesn’t, but look in the journal. If you go through the pages, you can see it changing over time. It’s really I’m almost certain all of this was written by Becker,” Erin said, holding out the diary to Sarah.

“He can’t be that old, it’s just not possible,” Sarah muttered, flicking through the pages.

As much as Sarah wanted to refute Erin’s theory, she had to admit that her friend was right. Nowhere in the diary could she find an abrupt change in handwriting. The transition was almost seamless, even though there were only a couple of entries per year. Dimly, Sarah noticed that Becker’s handwriting hadn’t improved at all throughout the years, it had just become unreadable in new ways.

Putting the journal down in her lap, Sarah exhaled, unsure of what to think. Erin was looking at her, seemingly just as lost as she was. As much as she didn’t want to believe it, the evidence was right in front of her. Still, she had to know for sure.

“We need to read this journal. We’ll probably be able to confirm that Becker really did write the whole thing if we do that,” Sarah said, then sighed. “And, unfortunately, I think I’m the one who’s going to have to read it.”

“Why’s that?” Erin asked, puzzled.

“Because we’re really low on time and we have dozens of books to go through, you won’t be able to read everything by yourself. I can’t do magic, so reading the textbooks would be kind of useless for me, same for research notes and stuff like that. That leaves Becker’s diary and his terrible handwriting,” Sarah replied, glancing at the journal in question with an unhappy expression.

“Oh,” Erin giggled. “That does make a lot of sense, sorry I guess,”

With that said, a comfortable silence slowly settled into the room. Erin was smiling at her friend, who was gazing back at her with a similar expression. For just a moment, they’d forgotten about everything and were just basking in each other’s presence, simply content to be in the moment and to enjoy each other’s company.

“Thank you,” Erin finally said, breaking the silence. “For everything. I don’t think I can thank you enough, actually,”

“You’ve already thanked me plenty of times,” Sarah said quietly. “But I’m just as thankful to you, you know.”

“For what?”

“For making my life so interesting, and for being such a kind person. For being you.”

Blushing, Erin looked away. Even though she definitely felt like she’d gotten much more out of their friendship, that fact only made her want to do more for Sarah, and she resolved to do her best in the future to give back some of the happiness she’d been so readily given.

After that, the two of them tried working for a little while longer, but it was already getting late. It was only a few minutes later when they finally gave up and turned the lights off and got ready for bed, still basking in the comfortable atmosphere that reigned in the bedroom. Soon enough they drifted off to sleep, both of them in high spirits.

- - -

The next day proved to be a lot less interesting than the previous one. Most of the wonder that had been present then was gone, and all that was left was the repetitive yet important task of going through everything in Becker’s little hideout. As much as they wished to, they couldn’t just take everything with them. Sarah’s room may have been spacious, but it still wasn’t big enough to store all of Becker’s trinkets, and they didn’t wish to alert Sarah’s mom that something was up, which meant they would have to leave some things behind.

Becker’s book collection was of course both the priority and the most interesting thing in there, obviously, but some of the tools stored in the little shed could well have been very useful, and so Erin spent most of her time trying to figure out the uses of each of them. On the few occasions when she was stumped, she would ask Sarah for some help, who would then use her Seer abilities to scan and understand whatever she could. They couldn’t just have Sarah magically understand everything, unfortunately, as she would be left with a mild headache if she used her magic in too rapid successions.

At the end of the day, they left Becker’s house with only a handful of items. A few measuring tools that would help Erin while she was studying as well as a couple of foci, enchanted items which helped cast more complex spells. Sarah kept calling them magic wands, and, while most of them weren’t wand-shaped, Erin had to begrudgingly admit that the description fit pretty well.

In the end, it had taken them way less time to get everything than they’d expected. By the end of the day, they were ready to head back, and carefully locked all the doors of the house, hid the entrance to Becker’s secret room again, and then reactivated all the arrays they’d turned off when they’d first arrived on Friday.

From then on, Sarah and Erin settled into a pretty simple routine. Erin would read as much as she could every day, absorbing knowledge like a sponge, while Sarah would occasionally work a little bit on deciphering Becker’s journal. From time to time, the duo would head off to the outskirts of the forest so Erin could practice what she’d learned and test out some of her theories. From the two of them, Erin was definitely the one who worked the most, and Sarah often had to force her to take breaks.

All of that work paid off very quickly, however. In mere days, Erin’s magical talent progressed by leaps and bounds, and it showed. The books filled what felt like dozens and dozens of gaps in her knowledge that she’d never been able to remove before now. Suddenly, so many things made more sense to her, and she was extremely eager to learn even more. In Sarah’s opinion, seeing her nearly giggle in excitement every time she finally figured something out was extremely cute.

Spending so much time studying magic instead of more mundane subjects also meant that Erin’s grades took a bit of a hit, but with her parents off her back for the foreseeable future and her previously excellent grades she could more than take it.

Interestingly, while Erin was learning at an alarming speed, she didn’t focus much of her attention on studying and developing new spells. Because she’d only ever known a handful of spells, she’d spent a lot of time fine-tuning and mastering them, and knew them like the back of her hand. She'd thus decided that her time would be better spent further improving the few spells she already knew, rather than having to learn completely new techniques. As a result, she was now able to cast her spells at a much faster rate while using only a fraction of the magic she used to need. As happy as she was with all the knowledge she now could access, she hadn’t forgotten why she and Sarah had gone and stolen it all. Something was lurking in the forest, and she needed to get as powerful as she could in as little time as possible. There would be time in the future to learn new spells and techniques. Still, she did learn a few simple cantrips that she thought might be useful, just in case.

With Erin so busy with her studies, Sarah was left with a considerable amount of time, which she also used to try and get more attuned to her own powers. Unfortunately, it seemed like she was hitting a wall in terms of progress. Progress was agonizingly slow, but she didn’t let it discourage her. She stuck to her practice and was able to further improve the amount of times she could use her divination power without feeling like her head was going to split apart. It wasn’t much, but every little bit helped.

For the most part, things went swimmingly for the next two weeks. They had a bit of a scare, however, when Sarah’s mother sat both of them down a few days after they’d finished getting everything they needed from Becker’s.

- - -

“I know you two are hiding something from me.”

That was enough to make both Sarah and Erin’s blood run cold. They’d barely sat down at the table, facing Lisa, Sarah’s mother, that she’d uttered that dreaded statement. Caught off guard, the two teenagers could do nothing but glance at each other, unsure of how to proceed.

Seeing their reaction, Lisa sighed. This all but confirmed what she’d already known for a little while. Still, as much as she worried about her daughter and her friend’s safety, she also didn’t want to intrude on their privacy. As far as she knew, she could very well be asking about a very sensitive subject and introducing on their private lives.

Covering her face with her hands, Lisa sighed again. “I am not going to force you to tell me what it is,” she said, to the relief of the two teens. “However, I want you to know that I’m here if you ever need anything, no matter how bad the situation gets. I believe you’re old enough to deal with your own problems, but that doesn’t mean you have to do everything on your own, and I know whatever you’re hiding has been weighing on your mind, it shows. The only thing I ask is that you come to me if you ever need help. Deal?”

“Deal,” Sarah agreed, her expression torn. “I’m sorry we can’t tell you, mom,”

“Oh, honey, you’re allowed to have your secrets, but I’m your mom, I’ll always worry for you,” she said, standing up and pulling her daughter into a hug. “That applies to you too, Erin,” she added, quickly hugging her as well.

Everything had been said, and with that, everything went back to normal afterwards. In the end, Erin and Sarah kept to their routine for a little bit less than two weeks. By the end of it, both of them were getting pretty tired, even if Erin tried not to show it. A break was in order, and Sarah knew just what they needed.

- - -

“Can’t you at least tell me where we’re going?” Erin asked, walking in tow with Sarah.

“I told you at least 10 times, it’s a surprise,” Sarah replied cheekily.

It was Saturday morning, and the two of them were walking leisurely down the streets of a nearby city, having just arrived there by taking the bus. Despite the chilly weather, the sun was shining bright, and it made for the perfect day to go out and have fun.

“You won’t have to wait much longer anyway, I can see her waiting for us,” Sarah added, looking straight forward for something. Suddenly, she smiled and started waving while picking up her pace, forcing Erin to do the same.

“Wait, her?” Erin asked, a bit confused and suddenly nervous. Were they meeting up with someone?

“Yeah, I’m going to introduce you to a friend!” Sarah said, glancing back at Erin with an excited smile.

Erin didn’t really know what to think, but did her best to remain calm and smile back. Meeting someone else meant pretending to be a girl in front of yet another person. She felt a little bit bad at the idea of lying to a friend of Sarah, but she couldn’t exactly just tell her the truth about her bracelet either. In the end, she was going to have to pretend to be a girl for the rest of the day, whether she liked it or not.