Lyra stood frozen in the bathroom doorway, staring at the Enjoyment magic sparkling over Caramelle's fingers.

"How… you…"

"I danced!" Caramelle spun around, leaving a trail of yellow shimmer in the air as she laughed. "I was baking, and started dancing around, and then…"

"And then, poof!" Ginger shouted. Dragging Lyra with her, she rushed forward to turn the solo spinning into a twirling group hug. "Poof, voila, presto! Enjoyment is real!"

The laughing and spinning went on for quite a while. Lyra dimly recognized that the yellow light was not the only sign of Enjoyment magic at work. The air in Filo was full of it. She could feel the energy seeping into her pores and sweeping into her lungs, mixing with the rich aroma of the four just-baked coffee genoise cake layers cooling on the counter.

With her teeth buzzing and every nerve ending alight with glee, it was impossible to do anything other than laugh and twirl in a delightfully riotous cacophony.

Finally, the three girls collapsed on the floor in a heap of giggles.

"From the top," Lyra gasped. "Start again. What exactly did you do?"

Caramelle waved her hands, which still gleamed with a faint golden sheen. "It was Boysen. And Cardamom, if you can believe it. That silly spat they were having this morning. Something about it caught my attention. I've been pondering it ever since."

"You have been quiet all day," Lyra remembered. "I just thought you were tired."

"You said you were tired," Ginger pointed out. "When you left Puff Paragon Recreation early."

Caramelle nodded sheepishly. "A tiny fib, and not entirely that. We've all been tired since… since we got to the academy, really. Last year. Today, though, I had an idea I wanted to try: what if Enjoyment magic is even more different from the other three disciplines than we realized? Not just in the content of the spells, but in the very nature of how that content is expressed?"

She leaned in, and the other two girls followed suit, their faces illuminated by the glow of her still-shining hands. "What if the actual spells are different for every baker?"

"Different spells?" Ginger echoed. "How would that even work?"

"Think about it." Caramelle leapt up and began flipping through her Enjoyment notebook, which was lying open on the counter next to her recipe book. Finding a page almost at the beginning, she seized the book and began to read. "'The yellow light Lyra has produced is incontrovertible, but so is the fact that no one else can replicate it. "The Joy Song" seems to be the prime catalyst. Yet the rest of us sing, speak, and think it to no avail. It's almost like the song only works for Lyra.'"

She looked up triumphantly to find Ginger and Lyra still seated on the ground, gazing up at her with blank faces.

"So the magic only works for me?" Lyra shook her head. "That's exactly what Madame Bundt objected to."

"Not the magic, my dear sugar-snap," Caramelle corrected her. "The song. The song only works for you because that song is your Enjoyment spell. That's how you tap into Enjoyment magic. But it's not effective for anyone else, because that's not how Enjoyment works."

"And how does Enjoyment work?" Ginger demanded.

Caramelle waggled the open notebook in their upturned faces. "I'm trying to tell you!"

Then, out of nowhere, she was giggling again. Lyra and Ginger were quick to join. On any other night, the sudden and uncharacteristic difficulty of the Meringue in communicating her main idea would have been keenly frustrating to all concerned. But with the wonder of Enjoyment still coating every molecule of surface area in the room, the three girls were conscious only of the wonder of prolonged merriment.

"As I was saying," Caramelle managed to get out, several giggle-seconds later, "the song only works for Lyra because most bakers don't enjoy singing as much as Lyra does. And even for those bakers who do love singing, 'The Joy Song' probably wouldn't be their catalyst. It would be some other tune. Whatever brings that individual baker the most joy."

Lyra's eyes widened as Cardamom Coulis' haughty words from that morning echoed in her mind. "So every baker just… does their own thing?"

"Exactly!" Caramelle turned in the notebook to that day's entry and pointed to the spot where she had recorded Boysen's phrase. "One baker's distraction —"

"Is another baker's magic! Oh, Caramelle!" Lyra started applauding, too choked by a confused chorus of tears and chortles to speak further.

Thankfully, Ginger stepped in. "So what does that mean? How does that make Enjoyment replicable and teachable? We need something to present to the board. Unless you want to get Cardamom and Boysen to replicate their argument for Madame Bundt's benefit."

"It means we've been going about it all wrong." Caramelle swallowed another laughter fit with obvious effort and flipped back through the notebook. "All our experiments have been designed to find one single spell that would unlock Enjoyment for everyone, thereby guiding our way for future spells in this discipline. But we were off-recipe from the start! Enjoyment is about joy."

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Lyra couldn't help it. She snickered loudly. "And Presentation is about presents, and Texture is about text, and Flavor is —"

Ginger grabbed the notebook from Caramelle and bonked Lyra lightly on the head to silence her. "Treble, you're delirious. Though I can't blame you, I also can't let you keep interrupting. Shush."

With great dignity, Ginger handed the notebook back to Caramelle. "Continue, Meringue."

Caramelle seemed just two pinches short of delirium herself. Calling upon some deep well of calm Texturist efficiency, she struggled on, "Enjoyment is about joy. Specifically the joy the baker experiences in baking. As a discipline of magic, Enjoyment makes it possible to release that joy in a concentrated way, changing the molecular structure of the food itself so whoever eats it can experience that same joy. This makes it fundamentally different from the other three disciplines."

"How?" Ginger asked. "Doesn't all baking magic affect food on the molecular level?"

Lyra pretended to scowl at Ginger. This was difficult, since her lips appeared to have been frozen into a permanent grin by one of Cardamom's advanced preservation spells, but she gave it her best attempt.

"How come you get to interrupt?"

Ginger shook a finger at her in warning. "One more word from you, and I will march into the Flavor King's dorm room right now and declare your eternal love for him. Do not test me."

"The other three disciplines do change the molecular structure of the food," Caramelle said, ignoring both Ginger's threat and the suddenly nervous tone of Lyra's ongoing giggles. "The difference lies in the location of the magic. Flavor, Texture, and Presentation are all conditions inherent within the food itself. They are the result of a baker using magic to call forth those conditions and shape them according to the baker's will. Yes?"

Ginger's whole face lit up. "Yes! And Enjoyment is a condition inherent within the baker!"

"That's it!" Caramelle clapped her faintly sparkling hands. "And that's why we all feel it in a different place. Lyra's experience of Enjoyment always starts in her heart and spreads out. My relationship to baking seems to emphasize the work of my hands, so the yellow light appears first around my fingers. Mac always feels it behind his eyes."

"Because he enjoys looking at pretty things." Ginger nodded. "Makes sense. And Boysen —"

"Experiences it in his gut, same as his Flavor instincts," Lyra finished automatically, then clamped her mouth shut.

Ginger sighed. "Interruption acknowledged, and allowed for relevance. But neither of the boys has manifested the yellow light yet. Which brings us back to my original question. How does this make Enjoyment replicable and teachable?"

"For that, we need a lot more bakers." Caramelle closed the notebook with a resounding snap and began walking briskly towards the door. "Go get the boys. I'll fetch the professors. Emergency meeting in the academy kitchens NOW!"

—

"Let me get this straight, Aspiring Baker Meringue." Professor Puff looked up from Caramelle's notebook and gazed at the auburn-haired girl, her calm eyes sparkling with unconcealed wonder. "You simply began dancing about the kitchen whilst baking? At what point in the process did the dancing commence?"

"I had just taken the cakes out of the oven," Caramelle replied. "I was whipping up the frosting when the urge came over me."

"The urge?" Professor Genoise repeated. "You did not plan to dance?"

"Does anyone?" Ginger asked innocently.

Caramelle laughed outright, then quickly covered her mouth with her hand. "Sorry, Professor. I don't know that 'plan' is the most accurate word. I wanted to test the theory I was developing about Enjoyment. Lyra sings while baking because singing brings her joy. Music helps her enjoy baking even more than she usually does. So I thought, what brings me joy? Other than baking, of course."

"Mac," Lyra said to Ginger in a loud whisper. "Mac brings her joy."

Mac didn't seem to have heard. He didn't even react when Boysen elbowed him in the side. He was looking from Caramelle's shining hands to her glowing face and back again, his mouth hanging slightly open.

Caramelle, meanwhile, kept her focus on Professor Puff. "I knew I couldn't force anything. I tried to relax into the process and enjoy baking. It is not my habit to let my mind drift, but I gave it my best effort. And when the cakes were going into the oven, I realized that I was thinking about the talent show."

All heads whipped around to glare at Professor Honeycomb, whose feet had performed a 'shuffle-ball-change' of their own accord at the words 'talent show.'

The Flavor professor mouthed a silent apology to Caramelle, who nodded graciously before pressing on. "I was excited about practicing tomorrow with Ginger and Lyra. About sharing this part of myself with all of you in a few weeks at the actual show. About dancing itself. The more I thought about it all, the more excited I became. Excited, and happy, and brimming over with…"

"Joy?" Professor Puff supplied.

Caramelle beamed. "Too much joy to stand still. It was like my muscles suddenly had a mind of their own. I was halfway through the first combination before I realized I was practicing my routine, right there in the kitchen. I still had the whisk I was using for the frosting in my hand."

Professor Puff leaned forward, her pen poised to record Caramelle's every word. "And how did it feel?"

"Like…" Caramelle faltered. She glanced at Lyra, who gave her an encouraging smile. "Like… I was doing exactly what I was meant to do. Like I finally understood what it means to be me. I was dancing, and I was baking, and that was enough. More than enough. I was…"

A contented sigh slipped out with the final word. "Free."

"Excellent." Professor Puff was writing busily. "And that is when the yellow light appeared?"

In answer, Caramelle held up her hands, which were only now losing their faint golden sheen.

"She must do it again!" Professor Genoise leapt up from his stool and spread his arms wide. "Right, Praline? We must see the miracle in action!"

Professor Puff turned to a fresh page in the notebook. "Of course. In fact, I believe we should all try."

Professor Genoise froze. "You mean… we should all dance?"

"Oh, Basil!" Professor Honeycomb reached over to pat the Presentation headmaster on the shoulder. "Weren't you listening? We all simply have to bake in a way that brings us joy!"

"Which means returning to the 'favorite recipe' strategy," Professor Puff said. "Aspiring Baker Meringue, which recipe were you completing?"

Caramelle blushed. "Coffee genoise sponge with meringue buttercream frosting and… a chocolate caramel drizzle."

"Th-that's my exam cake!" Mac stammered. "From last year!"

Caramelle smiled radiantly at him, her face nearly as red as her hair.

"Like Lyra said," Boysen whispered at top volume to no one in particular, "Mac brings her joy."

The young man in question had stood up and was stumbling dazedly towards Caramelle when Chef Flax's booming voice recalled everyone's attention to the main point.

"Another late night baking session! That does seem to be part of Enjoyment's menu. Takes me back to my own student days. Bumble, any thoughts or instructions?"

The flying squirrel leapt to the counter and held up his arms like he was about to announce the start of a race. Looking directly at Lyra, he chattered one loud, emphatic phrase.

"You heard Sous Chef Bumble." Chef Flax held up his own arms. "Let the joy fest begin!

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