The Lady Mariam
an excerpt

Persephone typed the figures in for the third time, and again the totals were far less than the numbers in the ledger. She cursed and closed the book. She picked up her cell phone and looked at the clock display. No new messages. She sighed and opened the ledger and keyed in the numbers. The totals were way over the figures in the ledger. She began to imagine her computer sneering at her from just behind the monitor screen. Curling her lip she placed her right palm on her computer tower. She filled her mind with a gray mist and allowed the image of her computer rise before her. Convinced there must be some sort of mischievous spirit infecting her computer she mentally peeled back the outer layers of her computer's case searching for foreign energies. All she found was the hum of the electric current that powered the PC. She released the image from her mind and cleared the mist. Damn, she thought. Feeling a little self conscious she looked around to make sure no one was standing by her cube watching her make a fool of herself. She could hear the her 2nd grade teacher’s voice repeating one of the first lessons everyone learned:
“Whenever something mysterious happens, always look for the mundane solution first. Once you have ruled all those out, then suspect magic.”