This month, I’ve got another piece from my WIP Wilderlands that I’ve removed during edits. Like last month’s piece on Willow’s experience with indoor plumbing, this snippet is a chunk of worldbuilding that no longer fits where it was written.

This snippet focuses on the magic that runs the school’s campus, specifically the lights that line the walkways and training grounds–a luxury that Willow never even dreamed of in her previous life on a farm. These details may come back into play in another form as they’re still relevant to the larger plot that Willow uncovers, but this lore-drop style is being removed.

Willow found herself quite taken with the strange, flameless lights that hovered overhead throughout the Chaparral’s walkways, casting a glow of light on the training grounds. There was a switch on the wall of the classroom building, that, when flipped, produced a large orb of light. It shot out to the middle of the clearing at least ten feet into the air, then burst apart, creating several small orbs which flew to various points around the perimeter of the grounds so that the area was evenly lit.

One of these days, Willow really was going to have to ask how such spells worked. Was it pulling energy from them when they used it? Because she certainly didn’t feel it, if it did. Or did the caster somehow imbue it with dormant magic when they set it up? In which case, how long did it last? Did it need to be refilled?

This, like the stairs and the entrance down at the tree’s base, was a feat of magic that seemed entirely impossible given her current level of knowledge.