Sarah McMillan clicked to return to her inbox and made a McKayla Maroney face at her screen for a few seconds. Then she shrugged her shoulders, walked over to her vanity, and opened the drawer where she'd put that ugly, ugly porcelain egg all those months ago.
Then she smashed it. And what was inside made her gasp.
It was a ring. Well, a ring and a folded sheet of paper. The ring was a simple gold band, and the sheet of paper looked like it had been torn out of a notebook. Ignoring the shards of egg for the moment, Sarah picked up the ring and read the paper:
Sarah, this is a Ring of Influence. While wearing it, you can concentrate on anybody that you can see, and implant some thoughts into their heads. The farther away you are, the simpler the thought must be and the weaker an effect it will have on your target. But the closer, the stronger. If you can come in physical contact with a person, you may even be able to change fundamental elements of their personality. Go on, test it out. What do you want for dinner? With a thought, it will be what your mother wants, as well.
Sarah donned the ring. At first it felt very loose around her finger, but after a moment it seemed to adjust its size to fit her, despite remaining solid metal. A smile wrapped its way around her lips.
The Oxbone Tavern was the nicest restaurant in Lake Point. One of the nicest in the state. Sarah didn't care so much about the food there, exactly, it was more about the atmosphere. The prestige. And her family could easily afford to eat there every night, but her mother insisted that it was "a place of celebration," and that if they went there all the time, it would lose what made it special.
As Sarah McMillan descended the staircase and made her way to the kitchen, her mother's form came into view. You want to eat at the Oxbone Tavern tonight, Susan McMillan, Sarah thought as she focused her eyes.
And just as the thought completed, Susan's head perked up. She noticed her daughter and turned to greet her, "Oh hey, Sarah. Do me a favor and change into something a little nicer, I was thinking of going to the Oxbone Tavern tonight."
"Really?" Sarah would have feigned surprise, but the truth was that she didn't expect this to work, and that her surprise was genuine. "Did something special happen today?"
Susan paused a moment to think about this question. "No. But today feels special, somehow. I just want to celebrate the idea that we can celebrate, I guess."
"Okay," Sarah said with a grin that didn't mean exactly what Susan thought it meant.
"Now go get changed," Susan made a playful shooing motion with her hands. "I'll call your father and we'll meet him there."
Sarah's grin only intensified as she turned away from her mother's view. She was going to have some fun with her new ring.
