Heri put the blue crayon down and picked up a red one.
Very much by accident had she learned a new dynamic of runes: The colours one used to draw them affected their strength, balance, and how they worked with other runes. It was something no book she had ever read before covered and she doubted they ever would. She didn't think any witch or wizard had ever tried drawing runes with anything but a wand, a quill, or ritual chalk; crayons — especially the crude kind made for children — likely didn't even exist in others' minds despite their usefulness.
That was another thing. Crayons themselves were surprisingly magical or at least conducted magic extremely well. She didn't know if it was the wax — an excellent conduit of magic — used to make them, or the fact that they were made with the intent to be a creative outlet, but she made them a part of her rune-crafting kit when she realised that the sketch of a bind-rune she was working on for class worked better than the finished version she had made with black ink.
Heri put the red pastel down before picking up the page to hold it up to the light, making sure she had applied the colours evenly. She was using a student-quality set at the moment, but since she wasn't exactly creating a portrait to enchant, it didn't really matter in the long run. She might buy a better set in the future though.
"Io?" Heri said, glancing around the abandoned office she had found.
An answer came in the form of a clatter from the dusty bookshelf as Iolanthe popped out of an empty fish bowl and nearly fell off the shelf. A tinkling sound much like a glass bell chimed when the doll opened her mouth. She had no mechanism for vocalisation yet, but she could make some sound with the way her porcelain tongue clinked around in her porcelain mouth.
"Come here for a bit, would you, poppet?" said Heri, motioning to the table she was sitting at. "It's almost ready for you."
Iolanthe perked visibly and tinkled in excitement. With all the recklessness that came from being a chunk of Heri's magic in a physical vessel, she took a flying leap from the bookshelf, performed a double front-flip, and landed in a handstand. The little show-off.
Heri dutifully gave Iolanthe a round of applause when she gave Heri eager, expectant eyes. Curse those puppy-dog eyes. Did Heri look like that too when she was hopeful? It would be a powerful look to utilise; it could be combined with cutesy Position No. 3 to topple nations.
Heri took the slip of parchment she was working on and transfigured it into thick paper. Then she shrunk it until the seal she had created was the size of the first knuckle of Io's thumb. Finishing that, she handed the tiny scrap of paper to the eager doll.
"Now," Heri said, "put that on your tongue with the image facing down."
Iolanthe did as instructed, carefully placing the seal so that it sat in the centre of her tongue. When she was satisfied, she looked back to Heri for more instructions.
"Alright, now just hold still," said Heri, leaning forward with her wand in her hand. "This won't hurt, but I'd rather not chance burning anything accidentally."
The tip of her wand glowed bright red as Heri placed it to the faint outline still visible. The colour of wax bled through the back of the paper as it melted from the overpowered heating spell. Cautiously, Heri turned the spell from a heating charm to branding spell. The lines of melted wax and charred paper burned into the surface, the china of Iolanthe's tongue . . . scarring, for a lack of a better word.
When Heri cancelled the spell, the paper was nothing but ash on the glistening wet wax embedded into Io's little tongue.
"One last thing . . ." she muttered, flicking her wand just so, causing a stream of freezing air to fill Iolanthe's mouth. "And we're done!"
Iolanthe cautiously prodded the tongue she still had sticking out, running her fingers over the smooth new texture of the rune on it.
"Give it a try," Heri prodded her.
Iolanthe frowned lightly.
"Is . . ." a faltering, chirpy voice came. "Is it working?"
Huge, beaming smiles alighted on both of their faces.
"It worked!" they crowed in tandem.
Another success! Heri had worried it would be another failure after how poorly the seal had done with ink; another credit for crayons! She had to add this to her family grimoire! She could put Iolanthe's entire creation outline in the book for future generations to come!
Oh, what else could she work on now? She had other things she had brought from home that she had started working on already, maybe she could make greater headway on them as well!
Heri stuffed her equipment and kit into her satchel and slung the bag onto her shoulders. She plucked Iolanthe up and rushed out of the room, clutching the squealing doll to her chest.
"We have to tell Myrtle!" Heri said. "Now you two can have a proper conversation when you visit her!"
Heri's giddiness after an experiment well done lasted well up to the day of the First Task.
Heri stood just within the entrance of the stadium. There were hundreds upon hundreds of faces staring down at her from stands that had been magicked there for the sake of the Task. At the other end of the enclosure was the Hungarian Horntail, crouched low over her clutch of eggs, her wings half-furled, her serpentine, yellow eyes upon Heri. She was a gigantic, scaly, black lizard, thrashing her spiked tail, leaving yard-long gouges in the hard ground. The crowd was making a great deal of noise, but whether friendly or not, Heri didn't know or care.
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