The experiments in trying to get people to fly with the help of pixie dust were doomed to failure. Pixies weigh only a few pounds and have wings to help them; humans weigh of the order of one hundred pounds and have no wings. Using the spells might prove to be much more successful, however.
And talking of magic, Sharon had originally assumed that as a created pixie rather than a natural one she would not have any inherent magical abilities. Her ability to receive the vision transmitted to her by the ent, however, made her wonder whether perhaps there were other things of a magical nature that she could do. (The ent had been able to tranmit both pictures and sound, so she knew that Mr O'Brien had what could only be described as a gray voice and had an outwardly colourless personality to match it.) With the two men poring over their agreement, and not paying her any attention, now would be a good time to make an escape attempt. However, even if she succeeded, she couldn't see how she could rescue Tayla unless the pixie could somwhow be brought round.
Sharon's knowledge of physics was very basic, and her knowledge of what, if any, magic she could do was non-existent - she would have to proceed by trial and error. If the lock was electrified, then there must be a wire taking a current to it, she reasoned. That was presumably outside the box, since there was no wire visible inside it. She decided to try a bit of psychokinesis, and attempted to will the end of the wire to come detached from the lock. The only way to tell if she had been successful was to fly up - a little more laboriously than before, since she estimated that her weight was now greater by around ten per cent - and touch the lock. Very gingerly, she touched one finger to it - and to her pleasant surprise she didn't get a shock. It had worked!
Now that the lock was no longer electrified, by wedging her feet against the wall of the box and pushing as hard as she could with her arms, she was able to force back the bolt. Then she pushed upwards to raise the lid. Emerging from the box, she had to rest for a moment, tired as much from her magical effort as from her physical exertions. She sat on the box. Fortunately the two men had their backs to her.
Sat Sep 18 12:45:12 1999