It takes a while to find the right angle, but once Mary Grace catches a sunbeam, the tree doesn't hesitate to start sparking and smoking. Blue light fills the Wildgulch symbol like a trail of lit gunpowder. A burst of energy shoots from her fingers to her toes, right up into her head where the feeling percolates, a shaken can of soda. Strength, inspiration, resolve. For a second, her whole body goes hot — so hot it melts Trudy's glasses. Whoops.

The magimagicicada who burns like a campfire brushes their fingers over the Wildgulch symbol and then freezes. The whole tree seems to glow from within, and the cicadas' screams pitch up to a deafening roar.