There are about fifty different spells but no single witch can do all of them. There are good spells, neutral spells and bad spells. A witch's current alignment and skill level determines what spells she has learnt and can cast. As a witch's skill in a particular branch of witchcraft improves, more spells, potions and magical objects become available. If a witch does not have the right reagants, however, the spell is listed but greyed out.

Reagants are the raw materials needed to cast spells and are made in the cauldron or bought from other witches. There are six of them. Two in each category. The Good Reagants are Essence of Light and Crystallised Mushrooms, the Neutral Reagants are Mystic Dust and Dragon Scales, and the Evil Reagants are Eye of Newt and Viper Venom. The more extreme a witch's alignment is, it takes less time to make reagants from their own alignment, more time to make reagants from the neutral alignment and even longer to make reagants from the other alignment.

A witch's skill is increased by the study and practice of magic. A grimoire can be used to study good, neutral and evil magic and the type of magic covered affects a witch's alignment and the type of skills that they can cast.

Alignments are not fixed. All new witches find that they know some low level spells in all three alignments. Casting a spell not normally associated with the chosen alignment would not cause the alignment to shift that much unless it became a repeated practice. If that was the case, the colour of the robes and hat would change.

As your knowledge grows, your witch increases in level and they acquire more spells appropriate to their alignment. Although it does remind me a bit of "Dungeons & Dragons" with phrasing like Level 2 Spells for Good Magic Users, this system does seem to work very well. When something knew is learnt, a pop-up box informs you of it and recommends you check out your grimoire. Spell names are in Simlatin and their descriptions are somewhat cryptic, but they do indicate what reagants are needed in order to cast the spell.

Whereas with "Making Magic" for TS1, there was a complete Magic Town, we have this time a Magical World only available to witches and warlocks. In this world are two castles, one which belongs to the High Witch of Light and the other which belongs to the High Witch of Darkness. You can always come to one of these castles to use their grimoires and cauldrons. You can even buy a new grimoire or cauldron from the High Witch and reagants of their alignment and those that are neutral.

As your magic skill improves, you are also able to make new magical items in your cauldron. These are also dependant upon your alignment. The magic throne that Ricardo sat on at the Palace of Neverending Light can be crafted by a High Witch or Warlock of Light. There is a similar throne that can be cast by black witches with a high skill level. I don't believe it would be a good idea to have a white witch sit on one that is made by black witches and vice versa. The effects might not be the same. On the right, however, is one of the earlier items that can be crafted, which is an ornament of Little Miss Wendalyn, whose name reminds me a lot of one of our staff members.

Anyway, let's see what else Ricardo has been up to.

I kept up with my grades and Tracey did with hers too. Guess what. She wanted to be a witch too. As if being in "llama club" on campus secret wasn't enough for her. Anyway, she wanted to be different. She asked if I knew the way to the castle of the High Witch of Darkness. I figured I could so she asked if she could come along. Off we went and we found the place as easily as I'd found Phoebe's palace, which had reminded me of something from Disneyland. This new place looked like something from the Wizard of Oz. Black and grim and raining. I felt oddly out of place here but I chose to sit down on a dark throne hoping it might refresh me. Bad idea. I started to feel worse instead of better. Anyway, Tracey seemed to get on well with Frances the Atrociously Evil Witch. I think I heard them say "let's do lunch".

However, the next day, despite having done well in my exams, I was in a bit of a bad mood. There was this professor dude who kept turning up uninvited. He said he was there to help people improve their grades. I was sure he was just after getting the girls and I was fed up of him turning up. So, I cast Meliferra Attackum on him and within seconds, a swarm of bees was chasing him. It feels good to be bad at times. Anyway, there's nothing to say I can't cast the odd naughty spell from time to time. I decided to recharge my batteries, went back to Phoebe's palace, made a few more reagants and learnt some more spells. I've never been a cat person, really, but I can call one now.

I spoke to mom today. She told me dad and grandma are both upset about my being a witch. Grandma had been muttering something about calling Nylon Mather and the Witchfinder General to stop me being a witch and that dad seemed to physically shudder when anyone mentioned witchcraft to him. I guess when I have to go home, I might just have to not wear my robes and hat. Even then, I don't know if that'll fool them.

You can't please everyone, I guess.