“Findin’ stuff I’d lose. Or not lose, but drop in th’ straw.” Since the straw underfoot here in the workshop was at least a couple inches deep, she nodded. It would be very easy to lose a small dropped tool in here.

“I’d drop a chisel or som’thin’, lean over, an’ the liddle critter’d be there, holdin’ it up fer me.” He scratched his head. “I figgered at thet point it weren’t no fever-dream, and weren’t somethin’ I was maunderin’ over. So, what are they?”

She was only too happy to explain, and he listened intently, nodding from time to time, but didn’t interrupt her. About the Elementals, and magicians. About the magic that her Aunt Jinny called the Glory. About how that was why she was here with her aunt in the first place. About Aunt Jinny and her Great-Granpappy and Great-Granny.

She hadn’t really thought about how he would react when Aunt Jinny had told her she should tell him all about magic. And it wasn’t until she’d started in on it that it had occurred to her that he might not take it all in stride—

But he did. In fact, he acted as if this was something he might could have been thinking and wondering about for some time.

“But they ain’t yore Great-Granpappy an’ Great-Granny, right?” he asked. “’Cause they’s yore Aunt Jinny’s, an’ she ain’t yore Ma, an’ yore Ma’s on’y her half-sister. So how’s come y’all got thet there magic?”

“Dunno,” she admitted. “I don’t unnerstand a lot of it. I was afeerd there was somethin’ bad ’bout it, on account’a it says in the Bible thet ‘thou shalt not suffer a witch t’live,’ so I arst Jesus fer a sign, an’—” She hesitated. “An’ it seems like Jesus don’ think it’s a bad thang t’hev magic, long as y’all does good with it.”

“Seems t’me it’s jest another thang folks c’n do,” he observed, looking earnestly into her eyes, as if he was trying to reassure her. “Like havin’ a silver tongue, that’s somethin’ Pa talks ’bout sometimes. It means y’all c’n talk a body inter almost anythin’. Y’all c’n—oh, I dunno. Be a good preacher! Or y’all c’n use it t’swindle folks.” He grinned at her. “I purely cain’t think y’all would ever do nobody no harm, even iffen y’all was mad as hops at ’em.”

She nodded, amazed and thrilled that he seemed to understand it all and accept it so easily, without even asking for proof. “Reckon yore right. Aunt Jinny uses it t’ stren’then up her potions, so they work better.”

He flexed his fingers and stood back up. “I’m a-gonna get back t’chippin’, an’ yore welcome to set by me. I prolly won’t talk much, but iffen y’all wanter go on a-talkin’ ’bout this magic stuff, I’ll be a-listenin’ purt hard. This’s jest answerin’ a whole lotta questions I didn’t even know I had.”

“I don’ mind,” she said, and she didn’t. And for a while, she just sat there and watched him work. It was interesting to watch how he considered the stone before he set the chisel on it, and hit it with the hammer just so, then set to considering again.