Lyra's parents had always told her to 'keep on singing.'

She once thought this advice was only applicable in certain circumstances, or for certain people. Much of the past year seemed to be trying to convince her that such a musical mantra did not belong outside an exclusively musical world. 'Keep on singing' worked only for the Trebles.

They were bards, after all.

But now, sitting in the exam hall of the Royal Academy of Magical Baking, Lyra could confidently say that her parents' motto had proved itself as adaptable as it was crucial.

The long-dreaded third term exam had flown by. Lyra felt like she had been swept along on the current of a gentle, generous river, one that buoyed her up instead of dragging her under.

The current hadn't started with the exam, though. Looking back, Lyra thought she could trace its beginning to exactly one week before, when Caramelle had rounded all the first-years up for a day-long group study session…

—

After a rather chaotic 'Recreation-Turned-Review' on Friday, Caramelle sprang into action early Saturday morning. The Whisk Whizzes would not be attacking such an important exam haphazardly. Not on her watch.

Employing all the organizational skills that made her an admirable student of Texture, and a formidable student in general, she gathered the first-years into the common area kitchen and set about making a plan for the entire week.

"First step is to get all the recipes out in the open," she said, her tone as calm and clipped as Professor Puff at her most businesslike. "Confirm all the spells needed for each. I'll go first."

Caramelle took her recipe book from Mac's willing hands and opened it on the counter. Then she laid out four pieces of parchment and wrote 'Caramelle Meringue – Exam Cake' across the top of one.

"For Texture, I used Master Chiffon's Aeration Charm, advanced. And Madame Dacquoise's Superior Sponge Spell."

Mac gulped. "Um, can —"

Caramelle held up a hand to silence him, looking remarkably like the Texture headmistress herself. "Let's just make a list of everything for now. We'll address questions later, if any remain after we make a plan."

Mac nodded meekly.

"We were all required to use Madame Hazelnut for Flavor and Master Brulée for Presentation," Caramelle continued, writing constantly on the parchment as she spoke. "My Flavors are lemon, white chocolate, and caramel. Colors are white and gold. Regarding the other spell for each discipline, I employed The Soufflé Sisters Cooperation Chant in Flavor and Master Glaze's Shine Spell, advanced, in Presentation."

"So did I," Lyra pointed out.

Caramelle nodded, writing 'Lyra Treble – Exam Cake' across the top of another parchment. "We did use all the same spells, didn't we? Except for Texture. You used Master Chiffon at the intermediate level, and…"

"Madame Pavlova's Spell of Fluffening," Lyra said. "Also intermediate."

Caramelle nodded again. "Colors?"

"White, red, and dusky rose."

"Dusky rose?" Caramelle repeated, raising her eyebrows.

"It was tricky to get, but it's lovely," Lyra assured her. "I taught all of you that song at the beginning of term, when Professor Genoise had me go through all the coloring charms. You'll be great after some practice."

"Right…" Caramelle took a deep, steadying breath and turned back to the parchment. "Flavors are vanilla and boysenberry, right?"

"That's right!" Boysen clapped a hand on Caramelle's shoulder. "All due respect to Master Glaze, but it's the berry that really makes this cake shine."

Mac groaned. "Make him stop, Caramelle."

"I'll make him work instead." Caramelle wrote Boysen's name on another piece of parchment. "Spells, Flavors, and colors, Berry. Now."

"Pretty standard, except for Presentation," Boysen replied. "Madame Hazelnut and the Soufflé Sisters for Flavor. Chocolate and peanut butter, with whipped cream frosting. Madame Pavlova and Master Chiffon for Texture, both advanced."

"Advanced?" Lyra echoed. She had managed to miss that detail when going over the recipe the night before.

Boysen held up a hand in an uncanny imitation of Caramelle. "Let's just make a list of everything for now, Treble."

"But —"

"Blue and white for the colors," he blazed on, "with a dash of yellow." He winked at Lyra. "For an extra shot of joy."

"And then there's that truly wicked Presentation spell," Caramelle finished, pausing her notation to give Lyra a look of sympathy. "Madame Patisserie's Shaping Spell, Spherical Edition."

"Fifth Spherical Edition," Boysen corrected her.

Caramelle actually stuck her tongue out at him, then turned to Mac.

"Do tell us about your cake, Macaron. For Boysen's sake, I hope it's fiendishly difficult."

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

"Pretty boring," Mac said apologetically. "Coffee genoise sponge with marzipan filling. Fondant on the top layer. Swirled coating of caramel buttercream, with some piping. Covered with a drizzled lattice of caramel and tempered chocolate."

"Ah yes, so boring." Boysen covered his face with his hands. "Kill me now."

"The spells are basic, though," Mac rushed to reassure him. "The Soufflé Sisters really do help blend all the Flavors. I only did intermediate levels of Master Chiffon and Madame Pavlova for Texture. And the colors are easy. I just tried to bring out the natural richness of brown, gold, and cream."

"What about the other Presentation spell?" Boysen demanded.

"It's just Master Glaze…" Mac took off his glasses and became very focused on polishing them. "At the… um, expert level."

Boysen flopped over onto the counter and lay there like a beached whale.

"Expert," Caramelle murmured. She wrote the word with reverent awe. "Well done, Macaron."

"Don't encourage him," Boysen said, his voice muffled by the countertop.

Lyra nudged the prone Flavor King. "Stop whining."

"Start baking," answered Caramelle and Mac simultaneously, which made all four laugh.

"We have our work cut out for us," Caramelle said once they'd recovered. "But these are mostly familiar spells, and we have music to help as needed. Right, Lyra?"

"Absolutely," Lyra replied.

Caramelle looked over the four pieces of parchment. "I think it makes sense to start with Flavor," she mused. "We all have to use Madame Hazelnut's Deepening Spell and the Soufflé Sisters Cooperation Chant. Why don't we review those basic songs first, and then start going over the Flavors for the individual cakes?"

Lyra picked up her guitar, which she had managed to grab earlier when Caramelle woke her up and demanded her presence in the common area kitchen. Making sure it was in tune, she strummed the first chord of Madame Hazelnut's melody.

"Ready when you are!"

—

Lyra grinned at the memory as she sat on her stool in the exam hall, watching the professors perform their silent judging ritual of Mac's cake. Yes, that was definitely when the current began. It had carried them through that whole long week of constant practice.

And it had never stopped. Her ears still rang with the hum of low singing that had filled the hall all morning. Far from being a distraction, the work of her fellow first-years had provided a soothing soundtrack to her own exam efforts.

Lyra had smiled every time she heard Boysen's voice behind her, steadily repeating her 'Master Glaze' melody. She'd giggled outright when Mac burst into the tune she'd written for Madame Dacquoise's Superior Sponge Spell. Poor Mac had found it worked best when he started the song extra-loudly, just to give himself an extra jolt of confidence.

"It's like jumping off a cliff," he'd explained in one of their many group practice sessions the week before. "I just have to make a running leap, and then I can moderate as I fall."

Best of all were the occasional faint melodies coming from Caramelle's work-station. She had worked diligently with Lyra all week, learning the songs Lyra had devised for her vanilla-boysenberry exam cake.

Caramelle was never going to be a noisy baker. She rarely got any louder than whispering. She also didn't need any help in Texture. For Caramelle, the equations and precise rhythms in that brand of magic were their own kind of music.

But she had thanked Lyra repeatedly for the Flavor songs, and Lyra knew she was using them in the exam. All morning, whenever Lyra caught a hint of 'The Soufflé Sisters Cooperation Chant' tune, or 'Madame Hazelnut's Deepening Spell' chorus, she had sighed in quiet delight.

Her classmates' voices mixed amiably with the song-spells Lyra herself was performing.The melodies all swirled together inside her head in a relaxing tide. The flow of music, without and within, was a pleasant contrast to the forced silence of the second term final exam.

And the musical flow enhanced the magic. It was an undeniable fact.

Lyra knew the green glow of Madame Hazelnut's Deepening Spell had never been so vivid around her hands than it was that morning, when accompanied by the simple tune Rondo had helped her develop. The songs of chocolate and peanut butter had never come through so clearly, nor blended so harmoniously. It was like the Soufflé Sisters had always meant their 'Cooperation Chant' to be sung.

The musical benefit carried over into Texture. Boysen's exam cake used Madame Pavlova's Spell of Fluffening and Master Chiffon's Aeration Charm, both at the advanced level. Madame Pavlova felt like an old friend to Lyra, but Master Chiffon… she still couldn't think past 'intermediate' without trembling.

Thankfully, Lyra's mother had been particularly fascinated with Master Chiffon's Aeration Charm during the break before third term. She had worked for hours with Lyra to fine-tune an appropriately intricate melody. The other first-years had been using it ever since, delighting in the burst of blue sparkles it always called forth. Even Professor Puff, when witnessing this audiovisual display in Texture lab, had given a slight approving nod.

Caramelle had worked with Lyra over the past week, adapting the melody to the advanced level. When Lyra sang the last complicated trill in the exam hall that morning, she couldn't help thinking the blue sparkles looked particularly radiant. And the heightened effect lingered. Even now, when the exam was technically over, Master Chiffon's song sang on beneath Lyra's skin, making her soul feel lighter and fluffier than the three-layered cake she'd produced.

Never had Master Chiffon's work been so uplifting, in every sense of the word.

As for Presentation…

Lyra gazed with shining eyes at her perfectly spherical cake, resting in a bank of fluffy whipped cream clouds. Her fingers still tingled with the streams of purple Presentation magic that had carved the three layers into this clean shape before her very eyes.

It had been a rough road. Madame Patisserie's Shaping Spell was an absolute terror. Though a properly grand and dramatic Presentation spell, it required enough equations and precision to make most baking spellbooks double-classify it with Texture. This hybrid difficulty made the spell especially tricky to capture in music. It had resisted all of Lyra's initial attempts, to the point that she despaired halfway through the week.

Wednesday night had been the turning point. Boysen disappeared after Texture lab, returning just before dinner with two of Lyra's brothers. Canto and Rondo had been more than happy to work with Lyra. Together, they wrestled all seven pages of Madame Patisserie's work into a charming tune that was catchy enough to stick in even a busy baker's memory.

It was so catchy, in fact, that Boysen had complained it was still stuck in his head two full days later. Lyra sweetly reminded him that he was the one who had chosen such a diabolical spell in the first place. She then proceeded to sing it several more times in his presence, loudly, claiming to need the practice.

Lyra smirked as she stood beside her cake in the exam hall. That song was probably still blaring through Boysen's head, even now.

It was certainly rolling around in her own mind, mixing with all the other music she'd employed that morning. Madame Hazelnut's melody, Master Chiffon's song, Master Brulée's 'cerulean blue' tune… even 'The Joy Song' made an appearance, flowing effortlessly in and out of the baking magic like it belonged there. Lyra leaned into the medley, letting the mysterious 'third term exam' current hold her up as she waited for the professors to finish judging.

The music IS the current, she thought, watching Professor Genoise study Caramelle's cake. It's not necessary for good baking. It's not the same for every baker. But it can help. It's carried us all through this exam.

The three professors nodded at Caramelle, then moved swiftly to the platform, where they bent their heads together and began whispering. Lyra sat a little straighter on her stool.

Now to see where that current would lead.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.