Editing Edith James (section)

==Abilities and Art==
She has some knowledge of basic [[Practitioner|Practice]],<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> to the point where she is arguably a Practitioner<ref name=":6">There have been some arguable cases like Edith and Matthew here, but Charles was the sole ''practitioner '' of Kennet for a good decade. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/05/09 Excerpt] from [[Lost for Words 1.1]]</ref> able to benefit from practice like behavior.<ref>“If you wanted to, could you have hurt [The Carmine Beast] [...] Edith?” Lucy asked.<br><br>“No, I’m not that strong.  And my fire isn’t… as much as I describe burning up spirits and immaterial things, it’s not a fire meant to harm.  It can change a place or the meaning of a place, or that place’s potential, like its potential to burn in the right circumstance, and it can bring about disaster by way of inferno, given the right situation, it can do little, useful things, but it’s… not a flamethrower.  It’s not a weapon that could kill something like that, even if I was that strong.”<br><br>“Can you practice?” Verona asked.  “Matthew mentioned it.  It’s been sort of vague.”<br><br>“I can’t Awaken because Awakening presumes some measure of innocence, and I am far from that.  I’m Other.  The full omnibus of spirits don’t answer me, new practices would rebuke me or fail to respond, gods don’t draw particular power from my worship so much as they would create things like me in exchange for the worship of people.  At best, I can use practice-like behavior to do things I can already do, better.  Burning, fire, light, smoke, and things related to that.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/07/28 Excerpt] from [[Out on a Limb 3.5]]</ref>

Like many Others, she has some enhanced perceptions, comparable to a Practitioner's [[Sight]].<ref>Zed turned around, his eyes flashing as he did.<br><br>Four figures stood at the clearing’s edge.  At first glance, they could be mistaken for human.  One was a man, smoking, with his partner hugging him from the side- a woman with greasy hair and tired eyes who wore a mask that was connected to an oxygen tank. There was a woman with damp hair, coughing, and a woman with a heavy coat that hid something she was wearing or carrying, her hair shorn short and dyed red.<br><br>“Vessels?” Zed asked.<br><br>“Three elemental vessels, and one man with something elemental-related in him,” Edith said.  Matthew nodded his agreement, his expression serious.<br><br>[...]<br><br>These three were vessels.  Like Edith was, but these ones were too neat, when he looked at them with the Doom’s eyes.  Closer to the space he’d carved out for his Doom, but… a much, much bigger hole. [...] To his Doomsight, there was someone nestled inside her, dark, chafed around the edges and shadowy, like she’d had pale skin before being rinsed in thin black ink that had settled into the creases.  It was a woman, long-haired, human sized and human shaped, curled up and contorted into a space as small as this woman’s upper body.  Her eyes and teeth were too white and bright. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/10/24 Excerpt] from [[Back Away 5.d]]</ref>

She has an ability to extend her power and a portion of the [[Spirit World]] across an area around her, making it more hospitable to spirits and similar things such as [[Snowdrop]],<ref>Snowdrop was running along the expanse of black wax like it was solid, practically skipping as she ran ahead.  Cherrypop perched on her head, holding her hair, while Bluntmunch and Gashwad fought to wade through.<br><br>“I didn’t think Edith was that powerful,” Lucy admitted, looking at all of this.<br><br>“It’s a specific kind of power,” Maricica said.  “Candles are set within home, temple, or sanctuary, in times of darkness.  There are Others who can bring the spirit world with them, at least for a little while.  It makes spirits stronger, but that’s not what we need right now.  They may have more spirits than we do.”  - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/07/18 Excerpt] from [[Out on a Limb 3.2]]</ref> filling it with associated things - black molten wax, smoke, candles drifting around in bowls, burning papers, etc.<ref>The truck continued down the dirt road, until the tires weren’t traveling down dirt anymore.  Clouds of smoke rolled past them.<br><br>[...]<br><br>The dirt was black, and candles in bowls drifted slowly across the surface.  The smoke rolled past them in waves, and each time it did, the scene was subtly different.  Darker, with brighter trees, more candles.<br><br>There were papers stuck to the trees, and the bottom edge of each paper burned but didn’t consume.<br><br>The tires sloshed through the ‘dirt’ like it was thick mud.  Globs flew and were absorbed by the rest.<br><br>The truck rounded the last corner, passing through the thickest of the smoke.<br><br>[...]<br><br>With the burning papers on every tree and two hundred little candles floating on what looked like a lake of black oil, the clearing around the cabin was illuminated with an orange-red light that only barely reached the building.<br><br>[...]<br><br>Smoke from multiple candles and burning papers seemed to braid and collect together, forming larger masses that moved over the area.  It reminded her of the ‘manna’ of the spirit world.<br><br>The liquid was hot wax.  It was just warm enough she could feel it through her sneakers.  She hoped it didn’t ruin them.  - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/07/18 Excerpt] from [[Out on a Limb 3.2]]</ref> These things aren't "real" and fade when she lifts the effect.<ref>“This is only preparation.”<br><br>Even as she said it, the smoke began to withdraw, reversing direction to flow toward candles and papers.  The wax was a pool in the clearing,  but the edges began to recede, the pool shrinking.<br><br>Edith had blown one end of the candle out.  Candles along the ground began to go out.  She turned her double-ended candle around.  Already, the pool had shrunk to half of what it was.<br><br>Lucy looked with the Sight, and it was easier to see the spiritual, A little sword holding every paper to the nearby trees.  Her normal vision seemed to ‘forget’ the aesthetic, seeing the pool as smaller, more of the candles unlit.<br><br>Edith blew out the other candle, then embraced it, ducking her head down and crawling into Edith James’s back.  Liquid wax sloshed and overflowed, heavy with soot and smoke, rolling over Edith’s hair, body, and clothes.  It dried and solidified into a thin layer that became nonexistent a second later.  Not truly there or solid. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/07/18 Excerpt] from [[Out on a Limb 3.2]]</ref> Afterwards, the area is filled with invisible (even to basic [[Sight]]) burning papers with [[Diagram|diagrams]] on them, which can boost fire/smoke/light-related magic or manifest to destroy certain sendings. She can partially re-manifest them to tweak the diagrams with a look.<ref>Then there was no obvious sign that anything had been done.  A few more blades in the trees than there had been last night, maybe.<br><br>[...]<br><br>“Should we know what you did?” Lucy asked Edith.  “The spirit world stuff?”<br><br>“I’m so curious,” Verona added.<br><br>“I prepared the area, in case there was a fight.  Put myself into it.  Fire, light, and smoke are best, if you have to use any practice.”<br><br>“Funny thing,” Verona said, looking around.  The goblins had settled at the edges of the trees.  “You taught us a good bit about fire, light, and smoke.  I’ve got spell cards.”<br><br>“It won’t work, Edith,” Maricica purred.  She was full-size, half-draped over the tin roof of the cabin.  “They see it already.  They’ve decided what to do about it.”<br><br>[...]<br><br>All around them, birds found perches on branches at the clearing’s edge.  Every single one of those birds proceeded to catch fire and tumble, flapping, to the dirt and grass below.  Papers appeared out of nowhere, igniting and burning.<br><br>“Hey, Edith?” Verona asked.  “Do you think you could tweak the papers? Is that asking too much?”<br><br>“What tweak?  It would have to be small.”<br><br>“Bright, more than hot?”<br><br>“A little bit brighter, perhaps,” Edith said.  She turned, her eyes roving over the trees, as birds continued to land and burn, tumbling as the fire got too bad.  Where her eyes traveled, the outlines of papers appeared, the diagrams on those papers emerging like they were scratched into the bark.  The same lines and diagrams shifted, symbols translating from underlined triangles to circles with dots, lines moving to become crowns of three rather than single lines.<br><br>Birds continued to land, and the fires were more like flashes, abrupt and bright.  - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/07/18 Excerpt] from [[Out on a Limb 3.2]]</ref> In the right circumstances such an effect could cause or exacerbate a forest fire.<ref name=":6" />
===Tools===
Besides the syringe.

Has an artistic arrangement<ref>They followed [Edith].  Through the house, past a decoration that was an arrangement of carefully scorched wood into something that could almost have been a rune, but wasn’t recognizable to Lucy, and down the stairs.  A shelf overlooking the stairs had some carvings on it, wood blackened and then carved down, a bear, a leaping fish.  They weren’t great but they weren’t so bad she wouldn’t display them either.  Probably Matthew’s work. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/03/02 Excerpt] from [[Shaking Hands 9.7]]</ref> that could expand her influence for influencing spirits.<ref>Some of the artwork was pretty normal, and might have been stuff Matthew had picked up, but there was also an arrangement of planks that looked like it had been scorched strategically, and a collection of wicker bristles and woven things arranged around branches, that looked like a star giving birth to baby witch’s brooms.  Avery found herself studying it in new light.<br><br>“Can we take that down?” Avery asked, pointing at the decoration.  “[...]“It gives me a bad feeling.  It’s very ''you,''” Avery said.<br><br>“Claim,” Verona added.  “Could influence spiritual flows.”<br><br>“Well, that,” Avery said.  “But also I remember when we were protecting the perimeter against Aware, she liked surrounding herself with candles, papers, and things.”<br><br>Trust your instincts,” Lucy said.  “Matthew?  Please.  The candles and candlesticks too.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/05/08 Excerpt] from [[Dash to Pieces 11.3]]</ref> She got it from a fall court market after trading the first needle she got.<ref>“No.  The syringe broke when we moved into this house.  I thought it was a good thing.  I had no intention of using it again.  So I traded for that thing on the table there.  I’d ask you not to give too much consideration to the design.  I won’t name who gave it to me, but more Others than you think will associate with the Fall courts where they engage in the most trade.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/05/11 Excerpt] from [[Dash to Pieces 11.4]]</ref>
===Nature===
The Girl by Candlelight has an [[elemental]] nature but can also influence the world by bringing in different spirits.<ref>  - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/04/27 Excerpt] from [[One After Another 10.z]]</ref>