Sierra knew she'd done all the right steps, and she was positive she'd said the incantation the right way, too. So what had happened? In her younger days, she'd have blamed the broom. Now that she was a little older, though, and had ambition and power at the top of her priorities, she had a desire to get things right.

Intent. She needed intent. She took a few moments to look at the broom and get a good mental picture of what she wanted it to do. She could almost see it steadily sweeping the floor. As she pictured it, she began making a swishing motion with her wand, and then she followed that up with a clockwise twirl. "Liberum Arbitrium Broom!" she exclaimed.

This time, the broom sprang to life. Well, maybe not sprang to life, but it at least pushed itself off the wall and stood up. It even made a little movement to the left, beginning the sweeping process. Then a second later, it fell to the floor with a loud clang. Sierra sighed. At least it'd moved.