Last time on Gemma, Gemma decides she’s going to bring her mom back from the dead. There’s no way this can go wrong!

Today, they’re going to the caves.

“The quite remarkable thing about this cave is that there are depictions of all sorts of goddesses here. It isn’t just the Pagan or Roman but the Norse, the Germanic, the Celtic.

Listen, Miss Moore. You’re apparently confused so let me give you a handy guideline for figuring out if something’s pagan.

Is it Christianity?

If no, it’s the filthy lies of the heathens. Some of those filthy heathens were white, but they were still stupid devilworshipping savages. All polytheism and all but one monotheistic religions are UNGODLY DEVIL-LIES MISS MOORE DO YOU UNDERSTAND? BECAUSE I AM NOT SURE YOU SHOULD BE ALLOWED AROUND IMPRESSIONABLE TEENAGER GIRLS IF YOU DON’T.

She claims this place was a meeting ground for all sorts of travelers to practice magic. At this point Moore starts going on a ramble the author copied out of some Wiccan website, about how they knew herbs and delivering babies and healing but women with power are feared so they got called evil.

“I think they are extraordinary,” Felicity says, moving her lantern closer to the wall. Her fingers trail over a rough silhouette of what appears to be a crow woman flanked by two other women who’ve been partially rubbed away by time.

Felicity your ongoing cruelty to your fellow students is one thing but if you touch the historical drawings again I will hunt you down and kill you. Some things are just wrong, Felicity.

“Ugh, that’s rather nasty,” Cecily says. Shadows flicker across her face, and for a moment, I can imagine what she’ll look like as an old woman—sort of pinched and thin with a large nose

Ah, feminism. Sisterhood! Girl power! Anyone who doesn’t agree will grow up to be ugly and worthless!

Moore continues to know way, way too much about the goddessses drawn there and be way too sympathetic about them. You know what would be cool? If she was actually the devil or something trying to mess with them. That would make this historically accurate.

Gemma doodles her necklace and Moore explains it’s a symbol of the order, an ancient sorceress group that had access to another world and illusion powers, and it’s a protective charm. Gemma finally puts two and two together and realizes that her mom gave up the charm to protect her and then died without it.

Moore, incidentally, insists that illusion is the greatest power of all, over the valid disagreement of Cecily and Elizabeth, the two beta wolves whose appearance Gemma keeps insulting. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that we’re going to be hitting casual sexism to match our casual racism very, very soon. Maybe next she can explain that women have the real power because their boobs let them control men.

“Didn’t you have any sadistic nannies who told you these tales to keep you quiet and well behaved at night? Heavens, what’s to become of the Empire if governesses have lost their touch for scaring the wits out of their girls?”

Nannies and governesses are different things. At this rate I’m going to guess that if I could speak French those passages would be exactly as error-ridden.

Incidentally in a few decades your empire’s going to get involved in a horrible war, then another horrible war and spiral into decline from which you will never recover.

Look, I’m just saying that if you set your story right before WWI there are some things you really shouldn’t draw attention to.

Anyway then Moore tells about the Order’s ritual where they held hands and visualized the same shining door mentioned in the diary Gemma read, then suddenly goes “but it’s just a myth who cares okay back to the school now girls!”

The girls insult Ann again and Gemma is annoyed. Felicity keeps being super friendly with Gemma, though, over her complaints, so she gives in and smiles back. Then Felicity, inevitably, suggests they form their own mini Order, which is why you don’t tell schoolgirls about witches and goddesses, Miss Moore. I hope you have a marriage lined up because you’re going to be fired when this gets out.

“Just think of it: We’d make our own plans, wield our own influence, have a bit of fun while we can. We would own Spence.”

I really don’t see how pretendy funtime games will get you power, but okay.

Gemma says she’ll join but only if they let Ann join. Felicity says the rest would never allow that, and Gemma just says oh, she didn’t realize they’re calling the shots, and Ann’s in.

Then they run into Hot Gypsy Boy, who, in front of everyone, hands her a flower.

I think this is supposed to be romantic. Certainly the book is clear that Felicity’s response is wrong.

Felicity’s face is a stone as she tosses the flower to the ground. “Miss Moore, can’t we clean out these woods of all this riffraff? It’s a blight.” Her words are a slap. She raises her skirts delicately with her hands, steps on the flower, crushing it with her boot, and races ahead of the pack. The others fall in behind her.
I can’t help feeling humiliated for Ithal. He stands at the wall and watches us go, and when we reach the turnoff for the school, he’s still there with the mangled flower in his hand, far behind us, a small, dying star fading out of our constellation.

Maybe the asshole should have respected the fact she didn’t want her life ruined and her family to disown her. This doesn’t even come off as him being so in love he wants to keep seeing her. That would be him showing up and not engaging her, then being hurt when she completely ignored him anyway. This really does seem like he’s trying to get her caught so she’ll have no choice but to marry him.

Next chapter, it’s time for the Order to begin.

You know, this sort of bugs me. It’s just the convergence. Gemma should either learn about things from Kartik and the diary, OR he shouldn’t be there and it should be Felicity’s desire to play with fire that sets things off. Both at the same time don’t work, Gemma knows enough to know that the Order is real, the vision thing is real, and that as a whole, Felicity’s game is going to actually involve real magic. Gemma doesn’t need any circle to cause her own visions, so she doesn’t need their help. The mini-Order would be a perfectly good catalyst for getting her to realize the visions are real and magic if she hasn’t already had that all explained to her, but as it is it’s redundant.

So anyway, they go to hang out and Felicity decides that they should all get drunk on the wine Gemma stole, only it wasn’t wine, she snagged the guy’s whiskey by accident. Gemma successfully drinks herself dumb, but then gets really sad thinking about if this is what her dad’s life is like all the time.

They discuss names for their group until Gemma finally mentions the obvious, the Order.

“How absolutely perfect! Gemma, you are our genius.” I’m a little embarrassed, so I twist the stem of the apple in my hand till it breaks with a snap. Felicity pulls my hand to her mouth and bites into the fruit cupped there. Her mouth is still sticky sweet from it as she kisses me full on the lips. I have to put my hand to them to stop the tingling, and a blush has flooded my entire body.

So yeah.

Pippa asks if they think it’s really true that there was an order and gets mocked. Gemma, for some reason, brought the diary with her and produces it. Felicity promptly grabs it and starts reading through.

“Have you found the part where she goes into the garden?” I ask.
“We’re past that,” Felicity says.
“Wait a minute! I haven’t even read past that! Where’ve you got to?” I say, sounding like a whining child.

I think I want Felicity as our protagonist. Gemma has the diary of a girl with magic powers and she’s been reading through it at a snail’s pace. Shut up and let them actually find stuff out, Gemma.

In the diary, the two girls went into the realms on their own and came across a misty wood full of ghosts with unfinished business. They explain that some ghosts will become corrupted and evil, and those ones are stuck in the Winterlands, where only a few people are allowed to go because the ghosts are good at corrupting the living.

They will make you a slave for power if you do not know how to use and banish them as the elders do. To answer such a fallen spirit, to bind it to you, could change the balance of the realms forever.

So I guess that’s what happened? You know, if it’s that easy I don’t see how the Order could have lasted that long. The balance of the realms should have gotten changed every other week.

Anyway there’s your usual new age stuff for a bit and the girls tittering over if it’s code for having sex. Afterward, the two claim they brought back some of the power into the real world, and her friend can change her food from one thing into another.

The girls make fun of the idea it’s real, and Gemma mentally describes how ugly they are the whole time. I’d say I hope this is meant to be Gemma being unsympathetic, but that would imply that was a possibility and let’s face it, it’s not. The limits of my hope are that shaming people based on appearance just doesn’t get worse from here.

Felicity decides she’s keeping the diary because Gemma randomly lied about finding it in the library.

Then we find out that Felicity’s mom lives in France despite being English and not with her dad and apparently she’s very touchy on the subject.

Pippa then complains about her own more usual mother who’s trying to marry her off to a rich guy because her dad’s gambling away the fortune. Pippa, dear, just marry the fifty year old and smother him in his sleep. It’s a fine English tradition. They giggle to her stories of suitors and then she says Gemma and Ann are so lucky not to have to deal with a mom, for which Felicity kicks her. I’m not sure if that’s Felicity’s conscience dropping in for a minute before flitting off again, or if she just doesn’t like other people crushing souls because those are her toys.

Ann doesn’t even notice because she’s just found porn.

It’s a drawing of a woman with grapes in her hair coupling with a man in animal skins, a mask with horns adorning his head. The caption reads,The Rites of Spring by Sarah Rees-Toome.

Um.

Anyway, Ann doesn’t know what’s going on but the rest of the girls do, to the point of making erection jokes. I was kind of under the impression Victorian sixteen year old girls were not intimately familiar with dick pictures. And when the hell did Gemma learn all about it when she claims to have been practically joined at the hip with her mom her whole life and Hot Indian Boy so is noteworthy because he’s the only Hot Anything Boy she’s been within ten feet of? (And indeed, she immediately starts thinking about Hot Indian Boy and his lovely eyelashes.)

Also, so Sarah was drawing explicit porn in her platonic definitely platonic best girlfriend’s diary.

Only Ann has the reasonable response, which is oh god what, so Felicity offers to show her and when Ann recoils licks her face, changing her opinion to OH GOD WHAT.

On the brighter side a bit more trauma and Ann will be happy to spend her life a sexless governess untouched by scandal.

Felicity only laughs and falls back against a low rock, stretching her arms over her head. Her full breasts strain at the bodice of her gown. She stares at a point beyond our heads. “I’m going to have many men.”

I think this is the perfect summation of the sexuality thing going on here. The narration keeps having edgy Sapphic hints, but it’s really more like “bicurious” college students. Sure, they’ll make out now because there aren’t any boys around and anyway it’s what Mom and Dad said not to do, but it’s boys they really want. Similarly, the book likely thinks it’s terribly progressive with the lesbianism hints, but not so much it doesn’t revolve around dicks. And neither is Felicity actually expressing any sign of real sexuality here, it’s just because it’s something people aren’t supposed to do.

I suppose it’s better than all this not existing at all, but it’s hardly impressive.

Once Felicity has properly shocked them with her plans to sleep with exactly half the known world, she proposes a ritual. Using the sharp point of the crescent moon on Gemma’s necklace, each girl cuts her finger and smears blood on another one – Felicity has to help out on the actual cutting because some balk – and then everyone swears to keep the group secret and never lie while they’re there.

Then they pass a candle around and each had to say what they want most.

Pippa takes the candle and says solemnly, “To find true love.”
“This is silly,” Ann says, trying to pass the candle to Felicity, who refuses it.
“Your heart’s desire, Ann,” she says.
Ann won’t look at any of us when she says, “To be beautiful.”
Felicity’s grip on the candle is strong, her voice determined. “I wish to be too powerful to ignore.”

I’m assuming all three are going to explode in their faces. That makes me sad, especially because Felicity’s is inevitably going to be whatever the fantasy equivalent of the don’t-play-god trope of scifi is. You know, powers man was not meant to have? Hate that so much.

What is my heart’s desire? They want the truth, but the most truthful answer I can give is that I don’t know my own heart any better than I know theirs.
“To understand myself.”

Oh bullshit.

Okay, I mentioned earlier about how this plotline seems to be overlapping with Kartik’s stuff, but now it seems to have retconned the earlier chapters out entirely. Gemma’s heart’s desire is to bring back her mom. Her response to being told that it’s impossible and even checking it out is playing into the hands of evil murderers is to say fuck you you can’t stop me from bringing back Mom. More broadly, it’s to fix her family – in this chapter she starts crying when she thinks about how her dad lives in a drugged stupor because of his grief, she’s torn up with guilt over how she acted on the last day with her mother and when she was with her brother in the third chapter every other paragraph was about how he’s not the boy she used to know who was her friend. She wants to go back to how things were before, when they were all together and happy.

Cut out all that, make the story just Gemma finally being sent off to school, and this whole exchange works well. Isn’t knowing yourself a valid thing to wish for? Yes, WHEN YOUR MOM ISN’T DEAD. It makes sense for a sixteen year old to be introspective and concerned with knowing herself. It just doesn’t make sense for this sixteen year old.

Oh, and this was chapter thirteen. Not sure if it’s intentional or anything, but it is kind of cool to have the thirteenth chapter setting up what I assume is the core of what’ll go wrong.

Though I could be wrong and this is all a red herring because only Gemma has powers and it’ll be her alone messing with the realms, in which case forget that.