Daniel could see her eyes gleam.

Bitty nodded slowly. "Yes. Sort of. Diamonds are just carbon. So, you would search for the earth element carbon. Problem is carbon is in everything. We heard of a witch circle who laboured for years finding precious elements like that. Something happened to it. My den father said they fell into infighting. Destroyed themselves with avarice."

Jasmine's shoulders fell. "Oh."

Amber looked equally disappointed. Daniel mulled that over. He also didn't believe Bitty. If you knew enough about what you were searching for, you should be able to be quite specific. Like purity levels, he thought. Mother once told me diamonds are pure carbon. You could also search for pure gold. That would eliminate false findings...

His thoughts were interrupted by Bitty asking Amber exactly what he had first asked.

"So, what ritual are you doing tonight?" asked Bitty.

Amber kept her mouth shut. It was Amy who answered after first looking annoyed at Amber. "Really Amber, you need to accept that our circle now includes Daniel. He is our spell caster. Grace has told us he is already bound to us."

Amber blew an exasperated shot of air from her mouth. “Bound to you and Jasmine, you mean. I can never truly accept him. Never."

Amy's eyes flashed with anger, and Daniel could feel her anger, surprising him. Jasmine was also angry at Amber's words, but kept her face lowered.

Interesting, he thought.

Amy focused on Bitty and forced a smile. "To answer you, Amber said we need to perform the Influence People ritual."

“Wihy?" Bitty asked at once.

“To get people to not look to us for removing the curse from the gnomes, of course."

Bitty Laughed, and the sound brightened the room. Jasmine looked up at the sound and smiled. It was like hearing a child's laughter. It was infectious. "No way! That's not going to work."

Amber scowled. "How do you know?"

Bitty laughed again. “How many people do you think live in this Land?

A hundred thousand? Two hundred thousand? Half a million? I have no idea, but it's a lot of people. And to do it right, you actually have to know these people. To influence someone, you need to understand how they think. Then you manipulate that. Change their way of thinking or make them think about something else that favours you.

It's very subtle. And very hard to do. You would need so much magic to do that. Sorry guys, but you simply don't have the ability to do that."

Amber looked crestfallen.

They sat in silence for a long time, deep in their own thoughts. It was Bitty who spoke first.

"Why do you want to exclude Daniel?" she asked Amber.

“Because he is not part of the circle."

Bitty Laughed again. “Actually, it's you who isn't. Isn't that right?"

Amber went a deep shade of crimson. The entire room felt the anger radiating off her. She stood rapidly and quivered there a moment; her hands clenched at her sides. Without a word, she stormed off and disappeared out into the garden.