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"The point is, same logic here. You take a glass, focus light through it, and presto! Shit gets hot." The aura engulfed her hand in light. Delaney shielded her face and cast a glance over her shoulder to check how Sloan's gun was holding up in the constant war of the roots. She applied a few bubbles to aid the defense.

She didn't have the heart to tell Sloan her scheme lacked scientific feasibility. Ignoring the suboptimal use of non-prescription reading lenses as a substitute for the uniform regularity and superior convexity of a magnifying glass, the laws of entropy meant no matter the focusing power of her lens Sloan could not create heat that exceeded the temperature of the heat's source, i.e. the orb of light in her hand. And since the orb gave off little heat, by Sloan's own admission and Delaney's observation, this was an exercise in futility.

At least she thought that until a small charred mark appeared on the tip of the map. Delaney lowered her hand and squinted. The mark spread, the map bending and decaying as if animated in stop-motion, the red lines of Williston contorting and ultimately dissolving into nothingness, the town becoming effigy, an erasure in facsimile. But it made no scientific sense! Entropy—

Delaney, you idiot. The powers of a Magical Girl were specifically harnessed to combat entropy. Their magic was emotion transformed into literal power. Sloan's belief in her ability meant more than the scientific processes guiding it, as she literally traded chunks of her soul for a desired outcome. Hence a Magical Girl's most vital attribute: Creativity.

(And the capacity of their gem, of course. Delaney had no doubt this minor act of combusting a paper cost Sloan more than the machine gun had in the past ten minutes.)

The second the map caught flame Sloan shut off her light and tossed the glasses back to Delaney. She cupped a hand around the inchoate flicker, gently blowing and protecting it from the stagnant airless air that surrounded them. The fire grew; more of Williston was seared away.

(Chapter 11)