“My land,” Jinny replied, sounding relieved. “My flibbertigibbet sister done give birth t’ a gel with sense in her haid. Lawd hev mercy, it’s a miracle.”

She sounded sincere. Anna smiled a little.

Then she started to notice pain. It started out as a sort of dull throb, and the feeling that her eyes were dry and tired. Then it grew until the pain was definite, sharp, and located right behind her eyes. “Aunt Jinny!” she exclaimed. “Is this s’posed t’ hurt?!”

“Let it go!” her aunt ordered sharply, and somehow, she did; the world plunged back into ordinary darkness, lit only by fireflies and the rising moon, and the pain dulled immediately to nothing more than sore-ish eyes and a light, dull headache.

“Usin’ the Sight is like usin’ a muscle y’all ain’t niver used afore,” her aunt explained, as Anna rubbed her watering eyes. “It hurts at fust. Th’ more y’all use it, th’ less it’ll hurt, an’ the longer y’all will be able t’use it.”

“Like runnin’?” she asked. “When yore legs git all sore, but they gets better, an’ the more y’all run, th’ better y’all run?”

“’Zactly like runnin’,” Jinny replied, and tapped her on the shoulder. “Come inter th’ house. We’ll hev some tea. Thet’ll he’p.”

Anna was not at all loath to do that, because the headache reminded her sharply of the headaches she had back in Soddy that never seemed to end. When both of them were sitting at the table, a lit candle between them and cups of warm, honey-sweetened tea in their hands, Jinny beamed at her with approval. “Y’all done good, Anna,” she said. “Y’all done real good. I dunno where y’all got the Glory from, but y’all got it strong. But more’n thet, y’all got good sense. Thet’s a good combination.”

Anna sipped her tea, noticing a slightly more astringent aftertaste than usual. “Y’all put more willerbark innit,” she said aloud.

Her aunt smiled even wider. “An’ here, when I fust tol’ yore Ma t’send y’all t’me, I figgered y’all was gonna be a burden an’ I was gonna hev t’lead y’all around like a liddle chile,” she said. “Y’all ain’t been here but a fortnight, an’ y’all kin see the Glory an’ th’ Elementals, y’all kin foller a receipt an’ knows what th’ makin’s look like a-growin’, an’ y’all kin tell when I added somethin’ t’ y’all’s tea. I swan, I am ’bout to bust with how proud y’all are a-makin’ me!”

Well . . . this was unexpected, but very welcome. Anna smiled, and felt far better than just the tea could have made her. “I got th’ best teacher!” she burst out. “An’ not nobody could’a arst fer a better aunt!”

And at that moment, every bit of her homesickness faded away.

Her aunt flushed, apparent even in the candlelight, but looked pleased. “Pshaw,” she said. “Teacher gotter hev a good pupil too.”

Anna knew by this point that this was as demonstrative as her aunt was going to get, so she just smiled and nodded, and sipped her tea until it was gone. “I’ll wash up,” she said, standing up and taking her aunt’s cup from her. “Y’all got potions t’ put th’ Glory inter ternight?”