If you add up the amount of time I spent at the Wus' house since age eight, it probably totals to more than a year. Yet, now that I was in on their secret, their home felt like a different place.

  "Dad and his gadgets," Crystal said with an eye roll about the magical dishwasher. It was the next morning and we were preparing to go back to my grandparents' house after a breakfast of French toast, preserved Door County cherries, and Wisconsin maple syrup that Mrs. Wu served Crystal and me before we asked for it. Mr. Wu's new toy was doing the dishes.

  "Normal American families have electric, nonmagical dishwashers but Dad needs a magical one that makes the dishes fly. The only labor it saves over a regular dishwasher is clearing the table, loading the dishwasher, and putting the dishes away. Dad claims he needed it because it saves on water and electricity, and it's mana-efficient to boot-"

  "Crystal," I said, cutting her off. "How does divination work? I mean, is that why you're so good at kung fu? You always seem to anticipate your opponent's moves in advance. You're very difficult to punch."

  Crystal looked at me with a sly grin, then slid into my passenger seat.

  "No, seriously!" I said, letting Tansy into the car before getting in myself. "I want to know how it works. Like, is there any point trying to keep your birthday presents a surprise? Have you been pretending to act surprised all these years?"

  "Divination isn't perfect knowledge of the future, especially without training and with a child's small mana pool," she answered. "Diviners have some innate skill with intuition, but we hone it over time and it grows as our mana pool enlarges. Ummm, how should I put it?"

  She put on her seatbelt, then continued. "Divination allows us to see over space and time. The larger your mana pool, the further away you can see - both to faraway places and into the future. But the more you hone your skill, the greater precision you have."

  I buckled up and then backed out of the driveway. "I feel like I sound so stupid, but is it like in fantasy books? You know, scrying?"

  Crystal, thankfully, did not act like my question was stupid. "Yes, some of the time, but I mostly use intuition," she said. "Intuition strikes in the moment. It's - I guess it's a little bit like listening. You can hear more if focus on the sounds around you, but you can't hear sound that isn't within earshot. I've worked - am still working - to be more receptive to intuitions that strike me, but they are usually about the immediate future and locations nearby, not the distant future or places far away."

  She turned to me with an expression I call her evil grin, "It's ideal for kung fu. A fist coming at my face is very close by in time and space. I have fantasies of being the next Zhang Ziyi like every other girl, but I mostly did all that kung fu to train my intuition."

  Zhang Ziyi was the actress in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Crystal's been obsessed with her since before we met, and not just because she's hot.

  "To go back to your question, when intuition isn't enough, that's when we use scrying. Intuition is more passive, whereas scrying is more active. If I want to know about something and my intuition doesn't offer it up, I need to scry. I'm not all that good at it yet, but my parents are masters."

  We fell into comfortable silence as we drove through downtown and headed south to Oregon. As we got closer, Crystal said, "Do you know what we're looking for?" With that, we spent the rest of the ride making a game plan.

  Once at my grandparents' place, I texted my mom, "Still with Crystal. Hanging out for a bit." Then I used the key to open the door. We entered through the mud room. Tansy sprang past us, happy to be home and eager to play hostess. Between Tansy's knowledge and Crystal's intuition, we had a very fruitful visit.

  "First, we look for a bag or ring with extradimensional storage," Crystal said, rifling through a group of bags hanging on hooks in the mud room. "Here!"

  She grabbed what looked like a typical yellow Osprey backpack, and not even a particularly large one.

  "It has an indigo aura. That's powerful magic. Let's see if it's the type that responds to voice commands." She pulled out her hair tie, held it near the bag, and said, "Bag store hair tie." The hair tie vanished.

  Handing the bag to me, she told me to say, "Bag retrieve hair tie." I did, and the hair tie was in my hand. Holy shit.

  I've read enough fantasy books to know what a gamechanger an extradimensional bag can be, and this bag was apparently a good one. I also knew what a big job our next step was likely to be. Depending on what Grandma put in it and how much capacity the bag had, it was likely stuffed full. We took the bag into the living room, set it down in an area with a lot of empty space around it, and Crystal said, "Bag retrieve all."

  The room was suddenly full of books. LOTS of books. That bag held an entire library and going through them was going to be just as big of a job as I feared. Well, at least it was an exciting job.

  Flipping through the books, I saw they were mostly about nature magic: Magical Plants of the American Southwest, Magical Plants of the American Midwest, Magical Plants of Hawaii... OK, that was clearly a series. I put them together in a stack of 18 books in all, then reconsidered and put the Midwest and California ones in the yellow bag. I wasn't ready to hope I could go to Artemisia myself yet, but I'd certainly visit Crystal there.

  "Look at this!" cried Crystal. She showed me a book called Herbal Healing: A Mage's Primer.

  She knew I'd love that one. I stored it in the bag.

  An hour later, I had 30 books in the bag: an introductory book on magical animal care, a North American bestiary, a book on magical plant and seed storage, one on magical poisons and dangerous plants, several potions books, a book on magical cats, and more. I wanted Grandma's entire collection but I didn't know how much room I had in the backpack or how much else I would need to fit in there.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  After that, we split up. Crystal's job was to work with Tansy to gather all the cat supplies while snagging anything her intuition led her to. I headed to my mom's childhood bedroom to snoop.

  Mom's bedroom didn't yield that much. She must have purged it of anything magical when she rejected her magic. I found a few of her old clothes in the closet that I thought might fit me, but then that felt weird. Theft for the sake of theft. Mom would be coming here to clean out her parents' house, and she would probably still fit in her old clothes. I left them for her. Then, I saw something in the back of the closet on a tall shelf. I went back to the desk to grab a chair and then stood on it to see what it was. Yearbooks. Artemisia College 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 school years. What?

  Gathering the books to my chest, I climbed off the chair and sat on the closet floor. I flipped the 2005-2006 book to B and I found her: Laurel Buckthorn. My mom. She was a sophomore. Doing some mental math, I realized she would have been 19 or 20 in that picture, depending on when in the school year it was taken. And I was conceived late that summer and born May 5 the following year when mom was 21. If there were no more yearbooks after 2005-2006 and Mom was pregnant and gave up magic in 2006-2007, did she drop out?

  I felt something unpleasant in the pit of my stomach. Did Mom drop out of magical college because of me? Did she give up her magic because her pregnancy crushed her dreams? I was suddenly less eager to confront her about magic. Maybe that conversation could wait.

  On the other hand, Mom went to Artemisia, just like Crystal. I had spent the past year imagining joining the UW Hoofers outdoor adventure club, having pitchers of beer on the Terrace, gardening at Eagle Heights, and eating Babcock Hall ice cream. Suddenly UW felt much less appealing. A university that makes its own ice cream can't compete with a school of magic.

  Rushing out of the room with the yearbooks, I nearly tripped over Tansy and collided with Crystal. Crystal sidestepped me and gently picked up the cat just in time, because of course she did.

  "Look at this!" I exclaimed, thrusting the yearbooks at her just as she said, "You need to come here, and I think you should sit down."

  We looked at each other and she said, "You first." We took the yearbooks to the kitchen table. My partners in crime had gathered a small mountain of loot on nearly every surface in the kitchen. I handed Crystal the books and said, "Turn to B. Laurel Buckthorn."

  As she did that, I made us tea. Calming catnip, with mint added to soothe the feeling in my stomach. Instead of tea, I gave Tansy her catnip in dried herb form. I put the kettle on, then pulled out Grandma's teapot with a built-in strainer and added the herbs.

  Crystal looked up. "That's your mother. She went by Laurel back then?"

  I nodded and my lower lip quivered. Tears threatened. I explained my fears to Crystal.

  "I don't think you should feel responsible," she said. "First of all, you have no evidence having you and dropping out of school was related. Maybe she was failing her classes and after dropping out she decided she wanted a baby. Maybe being part of magical society as a dropout was too painful, and she decided she'd rather be a successful accountant than a magical failure.

  Second, even if her pregnancy is connected to her dropping out, you didn't ask to be born. She chose to have you. I hate to say it since we're talking about you, but abortion was legal back then. Your mother may have gotten pregnant by accident, but having you was her choice. And if she dropped out of school, that was her choice too.

  "Surely your grandparents would have helped her continue school, even with a baby. They were financially secure and they watched you a ton when you were small anyway. If your mom stayed in school in San Diego, her parents watching you would have required regular teleporting between Wisconsin and San Diego, but that would have been affordable and trivially easy."

  I made a mental note to ask about teleportation later, since it didn't seem appropriate for this discussion. Then the kettle whistled.

  While I made and served our tea, Crystal asked, "You still have no idea who your father is?"

  "No," I said. "All my mom has ever said about that is 'you have no father' and 'I didn't go to a sperm bank.' I don't suppose there's a magical way to conceive a child without sperm?" She shook her head.

  After we took a few sips of our tea and my nerves calmed, Crystal pulled out a letter and handed it to me. "You need to see this."

  I read:

  Darling Angelica,

  As much as it has pained me, I have respected your mother's wishes to stay away these past 12 years. I missed watching you grow up and getting to be your grandmother who spoiled you. You are 18 years old now, a young adult. Your choices are now your own.

  If I know my daughter, she hasn't told you about our family legacy. We aren't just avid gardeners and animal lovers who dabble in herbal medicine. We are practitioners of nature magic. As an adult, you can choose whether or not to embrace your heritage. Your grandfather and I have been waiting for you to grow up to introduce you to the magical world and teach you our family traditions. Sadly, your grandfather never got that opportunity. His time on this earth was much too short.

  In addition to learning about magic from me, you can also go to school for magic if you choose. Our family traditionally trains at a school called Artemisia College. It is located in San Diego, and I suspect it's off your radar, cut off from the magical world as you are. I'm also not sure if your mother would be willing to pay your tuition. Maybe she will respect and support your choices, but your grandfather and I wanted to prepare in case she did not. We have saved you a college fund. I am enclosing the financial details you need to access the money. It is enough to cover four years at Artemisia. You won't have the most luxurious lifestyle, given the cost of living in San Diego, but you also won't graduate in debt.

  Along with this letter, I am including information and application materials for Artemisia and a list of supplies you should bring to school with you if you choose this route. I can provide you with most supplies from extra items we have around the house if you don't mind used materials. This can save you some money and help stretch your budget.

  Artemisia will be willing to admit you late, but not too late. Make your choice and contact their admissions office by July. Your mother will likely be upset if you choose to embrace your magic and attend Artemisia. Please be gentle with her. She loves you. On the other hand, make sure your choice is your own. Your job is not to please me or your mother, but to choose the right future for yourself.

  Love,

  Grandma Juniper

  I looked up at Crystal. "Oh my god."

  "You going to fill me in?" Tansy interjected in my head.

  I turned to the cat. "Grandma Juniper saved me a college fund in case I wanted to go to Artemisia and learn magic. But - look," I said, handing the letter back to Crystal. "She assumed she would still be alive to mentor me in magic herself. And she never sent this letter. Clearly, she didn't anticipate dying so suddenly, but why didn't she send the letter? I turned 18 last month."

  "From the looks of it, she was struggling with how to write the letter. The wastebasket in her office is filled with discarded drafts," Crystal answered. "Buuut..." she said, dragging out the word, "Are you going to do it? Should I get my hopes up that my best friend is coming to college with me?"

  "Roommates?" I asked. Crystal squealed and hugged me. Dear god, these past two days were an emotional roller coaster.

  In my mind, I heard the sound of a cat clearing her throat. I picked up a disgruntled Tansy, making it a group hug. All three of us were headed for California.