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Post by Avery on Jan 19, 2014 18:43:13 GMT -5
Prologue 
My first memory is of spiders.
When I was small, my mother kept them all around the house. The bigger ones she had in mason jars, the smaller ones in milk bottles with tape over their tops. I wasn’t allowed to touch them, but that didn’t stop me from watching them for hours on end. I’m not sure why, but they intrigued me—the way their entire lives were contained inside those glass enclosures, how they skimmed back and forth across the opaque bottoms as if they were going somewhere meaningful, only to be stopped dead in their tracks every time.
My mother found my interest in the spiders charming. As I watched them, she’d watch me, a smile ticking at the corners of her lips. It’s one of the few clear memories I have of her: the way she’d stand a few feet behind me, her wavy blonde hair mussed from the long hours she spent each day poring over her work, her face tired but content. “Leanne,” she’d say to me, softly, warmly. “My sweet girl. Not afraid of anything, are you? Not afraid of silly things like spiders. You see the value in all life, just like me.”
Later, after everything changed and I was brought to live at Hearthvale, I would think about the spiders, trapped in their bottles and jars. I frequently asked the headmistress, Miss Wilson, if anyone was looking after them now that Mother was gone. Never one to mince words, she’d tell me the truth: that she didn’t know. At first, I would convince myself that they were okay, that surely someone was caring for them still. It wasn’t until much later that I conceded to myself that they were probably all dead. That after what happened that night, no one had any time to look after a house full of captive spiders.
Even now, if I see an empty milk bottle or peanut butter jar, I can’t help but think of them. By keeping them in our house, Mother was trying to save their lives. That’s what she would tell me whenever I asked her.
But instead, by locking up those poor spiders, she doomed them all.
“Is that everything?” the driver asked as he pointed to the duffel bag at Leanne Kimber’s feet. “Yes,” she said, her cheeks burning. “That’s all.” “You’ve enough in there for the whole semester?” “My whole life is in there,” she murmured back. “Everything that I own.” He didn’t seem convinced, but at least he didn’t press her on the matter anymore, instead shrugging his shoulders and hefting up the bag. She winced as he gracelessly dumped it into the trunk of his car, as she imagined everything inside shattering into millions of little pieces. There wasn’t much fragile in there, but Leanne was protective over her belongings. That kind of came with the territory of owning nearly nothing: you held close what you did have, in case it might soon be gone. “I was told there would be two of you leaving,” the driver said a few moments later. “That’s right.” “So where’s the other?” Leanne glanced back over shoulder, towards the gloomy four-storey building that rose behind her. The Hearthvale Home for Orphaned & Abandoned Children, the place she’d called home for the past twelve years. If it weren’t for the banner flapping over the door that announced its purpose, you might think that Hearthvale was a run-of-the-mill school, or maybe a daycare center. It was attractive enough, anyway, with a brick exterior and a plethora of windows, and a latticework of ivy trailing up the sides. A child’s swing-set, dingy but functional, stood in a patch of overgrown grass a few yards away from the entrance, empty on account of the time of day (it wasn’t even 7am). Its riderless swings swayed lightly in the early morning breeze, their chains groaning in protest as they rocked. The difference between Hearthvale and a regular school was that at the end of the day, no parents came to retrieve their children at Hearthvale. The lights didn’t go dark with the fading of the afternoon, everyone inside dispersing to their own, separate lives. To the kids of Hearthvale, it was their lives, at least until they grew up and aged out. Or, like Leanne today, passed the stringent entrance exams to attend Mistonarc Academy, and left early one morning with a duffel bag and a stomach full of butterflies. “Are they coming?” the driver asked, cutting through Leanne’s thoughts. “What?” “The other student. Are they coming? If the two of you don’t want to be late, then we need to get moving soon. It’s a good six or seven hours from here in no traffic, you know. And the school only contracts me for so long, kid. I go over, and someone needs to be giving me extra money.” He glanced at the lean duffel bag in his trunk. “And it doesn’t take a mind magician to figure out that you probably don’t have any cash on you.” “She’ll be out in a minute. I’m sure of it,” Leanne said. As if on cue, the front door to Hearthvale yawned open, and out into the dewy morning stepped the other student who would be traveling to Mistonarc with Leanne. With a duffel bag even wimpier than Leanne’s flung over her shoulder, Azalea Greene jogged down to the curb with a coy, apologetic smile on her face. She was dressed in rather shabby clothes, but there was a certain beauty to her anyway. Her snow-white hair, even lighter than Leanne’s own pale blonde mane, swished behind her as she thrust her duffel bag into the car, on top of Leanne’s. “Sorry for the wait!” she exclaimed, jumping into the seat next to Leanne’s with a little more momentum than was strictly necessary. She tumbled into her friend’s lap and stayed there for approximately ten seconds, holding the same coy smile. Only then did she lift herself back up and take a seat not on her friend’s lap. Leanne, used to Azalea’s antics, just grinned back. “Are you ready yet?” the driver grumbled as his eyes turned to his watch. “Sorry,” the two friends replied in unison. The driver, not particularly amused by the girls’ antics, shook his head and started driving without a word. Leanne was glad that her best friend of six years was accompanying her on her adventure to Mistonarc. Azalea Greene, or Azzie for short, was without a doubt the only good thing to have come out of Leanne’s twelve years at Hearthvale. It wasn’t that Leanne was happy about the fact that Azzie’s parents had died when the girl was ten, and young Azzie Greene had found herself Hearthvale’s newest resident. But up until Azzie’s arrival, Leanne had been horribly lonely. There were a few girls around her age, but they and Leanne had never clicked. Part of it had to do with Leanne’s powers, glaring and omnipresent even from a young age. All of the kids at Hearthvale were descendants of mages, but there were different levels of magic. And it was clear from the time that Leanne was little that the magic inside her was far greater than the magic in most. The majority of the kids at Hearthvale were educated inside the orphanage. They learned things of both the magical and non-magical variety, reading and math lessons intermixed with courses on how to develop and use elemental magic. Elemental magic was that something all mages had an affinity towards, albeit with varying degrees of finesse and success: any mage worth his salt could say, light a candle by harnessing fire magic, or fill an empty glass with water magic, or use color magic to turn a flower from red to blue. But it took a lot more effort to truly master an element-- to set an entire house ablaze, or use ice magic to freeze a sprawling lake. Even rarer still were mages who had powers beyond the elements… but affinities like those didn’t usually become apparent until puberty, and even then had to be carefully coaxed out and trained. Leanne started her education at Hearthvale like the rest of the orphans, at age five. But it soon became clear that she was very likely gifted with some sort of strong magic; her grasp on the elements was far more more refined than that of the other children her age. The headmistress of Hearthvale, Miss Wilson, called in an evaluator from the village’s private school, the Entwaff Institute of Beginning Mages. He determined that at the very least young Leanne was particularly adept with the common, elemental magics, but he also noted that it seemed very possible that she had something stronger in her, as well. She was offered a place Entwaff; she was only seven at the time. The kids in the orphanage were jealous and spiteful. When you were constantly competing for attention with dozens of other children, anyone who was singled out and treated differently, no matter the reason, was an automatic target. Meanwhile, the kids at Entwaff viewed Leanne as a charity case. They mocked her mercilessly, making fun of her ratty clothes, her falling-apart backpack, the way she never had money for field trips or school activities. She felt ostracized in every section of her life. Then when she was ten, Azzie showed up. Frail and stunning, like a little broken bird, her creamy skin streaked with tears, her pales eyes puffy and red. Her entire world shattered just as Leanne’s had been six years before. Soon Leanne learned that up until her parents’ deaths, Azzie had lived in the next nearest mage village to Petal Wood, where Hearthvale was located, and had been studying at a private school there. She, too, had been determined to be a likely possessor of strong magic, and would now be attending Entwaff alongside Leanne. They bonded instantly, the next six years of their lives lived intertwined with each other. As the other kids at Hearthvale slept, the two of them worked late into the night, practicing their magic. They lived and breathed their studies. The teachers at Entwaff made it very clear that few, if any, of them would actually make it to someplace like Mistonarc. Most would graduate at fifteen, and then go on to some middling career, a middling life. Perhaps they’d live an echelon above the unskilled, the vast majority of mages who could only dabble in the common elemental magics as opposed to having a polished control of them, but being above average didn’t entail that most of them were great. “You have to understand,” a teacher said to them once. “It’s easy to master an elemental or two. But the interpersonal magic? The fate-changing? Those are the kinds of things you have to have in you for Mistonarc to even bat its eyelashes. And if it’s not in your blood, then I can’t help you.” But Leanne and Azzie knew that they had-- had to!-- be the ones who had that magic in their blood. Unlike the other kids, they didn’t have families to fall back on. The others who didn’t make it might end up okay, but that was only because they had support, parents who would pay for them to go to vocational training as they further refined their elemental skills, who would provide a roof over their heads as they got onto their feet. Azzie and Leanne had none of these things. So if Mistonarc didn’t pan out, then where would that leave them? Aging out of Hearthvale the day they turned seventeen? Flung out into the world like they were worthless, left to scrabble out whatever meager existence they could manage? There wasn’t any good fate for them if they weren’t powerful enough for Mistonarc. Sure, Miss Wilson could claim that most of her orphans turned out alright. They often ended up drifting to the non-magic villages and cities, where they flitted by as street performers or sideshow attractions. If they stayed in the mage towns, they usually wound up taking on pithy odd jobs and eking out equally as pithy existences, on the fringes of society, doing nothing much, but hey, it was something. But something wasn’t enough for Leanne and Azzie. Mistonarc was their only chance to go beyond those dead-end lives. ** The drive from Hearthvale to Mistonarc was long and tedious. Even Azzie, whose mouth usually ran like a motor, ran out of things to say by hour four. The countryside passed them in a blur: nondescript town upon nondescript town, flying by at eighty miles per hour. Leanne sat with her green eyes glazed over, staring absently out the window. They stopped once to use the restroom and another time to get lunch. Those pauses in addition to several small traffic jams in larger non-magic cities meant it was nearly three o’ clock in the afternoon by the time Mistonarc came into view, its grounds stretched before them as the hired car crested a rolling hill. Leanne’s heart skipped a beat when she first saw it. Before now, she’d only seen the expansive campus in photographs. Beside her, Azzie let out an audible gasp of wonderment. The two girls exchanged stunned yet exhilarated looks. They were here. Finally, they were here! Mistonarc Academy. Where they’d both spend the next five years of their lives. The driver let them out at the front gates, with a very pointed remark that even though he had only been paid through 2:30, he was going to let the extra thirty minutes of fare slide out of the ‘kindness of his heart’. Really, Leanne decided that he just didn’t want to deal with the headmistress of Mistonarc to haggle for more cash. Leanne had heard many tales about Headmistress von Killix. The founder of Mistonarc, Sophia Mistonarc, was said to have had a great affinity for weather manipulation. It was a tradition that had been passed down to the current headmistress, who was rumored to be one of Sophia Mistonarc’s distant descendents. In addition to changing the temperature at her whim, von Killix was said to be eccentric and neurotic, perhaps a little bit hot-tempered, but an excellent teacher nonetheless. Leanne had heard many tales about the woman-- mostly from the other kids at Entwaff, who spoke of her with a sort of longing whimsy-- and she had also talked to a few people who knew von Killix in person, and declared that the tales couldn’t even measure up to reality. Leanne had expected some flustered underling to welcome the students at the gate, and her heart dropped into her stomach like a heavy stone when she realized that it was not an underling at all, but von Killix herself. Though not a particularly tall nor muscular woman, von Killix had a commanding presence through sheer force of personality. That, and the rumors about her magical ability, which were most likely true. Even most great mages were lucky to ever fully master a single interpersonal or fate-changing affinity. As far as the rumor mill had it, Lilik von Killix had mastered two before she’d even made it to Mistonarc as a student, another by the time she’d graduated, and in her forty-six years as headmistress, she had dabbled in another few. With the official arrival time for students having been two o’ clock, Leanne and Azzie were two of the last pupils to arrive. Most of the student populace was thus already inside Mistonarc’s expansive main building, and so Leanne was all but positive that she was not merely imagining the fact that von Killix was staring right at her, hawk-like, watching with narrowed, inscrutable eyes as the two stragglers walked through the front gates. The headmistress’s eyes burned into her like hot irons. Mistonarc’s main building was decidedly grand, perched up on a hill and built in a gothic style, but Leanne had little time to notice it before a harried-looking woman pointed she and Azzie to the grand hall, telling them that they’d already missed half the welcome information, and that if they didn’t get in there soon, they’d probably miss the room assignments, as well. Fortunately, Azzie and Leanne did not, in fact, end up missing the room assignments. As they sat amid the sea of other first years students-- the creme de la creme of young mages in the country-- a rather flighty-looking man at the front of the hall, who was leaning on a cane, began to explain how room assignments had been determined. Leanne squinted to read the name plaque that was pinned to his shirt, which was missing not one, not two, but three buttons. Professor Julius Thunderbolt. “Well, ahem,” he began, “we used to room people alphabetically. But that never went well. Aheh, lots of fighting!” He beamed, as if he’d made a grand joke, but when he was met by a room of slack faces, he bit his lip and went on: “Next we tried having people randomly pick their roommates on the first day. But that didn’t go so well, either. On and on through methods we went, with each one failing spectacularly, my children! Spectacularly! Now, our new method this year is to room people by birthdays! It’s all based upon Professor Wolf-Park’s very fascinating work about how when you are born impacts your personality. It’s all quite untested, but I’m sure it works! Basically, it’s all a very complicated algorithm, wherein the date of your birth is viewed in relation to the day of the week you were born, and then the month is also taken into account-- at least, I imagine so, I, of course, am not the expert, but, ahem, yes-- well. In the end, roommates were decided! “If you did not know, Mistonarc’s rooms are in the lovely suite style! A small little common area what for homework and socializing, off which there are two small sleeping spaces that will fit two bright minds each! They are located scattered across the main building, and afterward, older students will be on standby to help you find your room. While you’re here at Mistonarc, your room will be your home base, your cozy little retreat! Students will keep the same rooms for the entire five years of attendance, so make sure not to upset your new roommate and suitemates right away, heh. Now, listen for your name, please, for I will not repeat it twice. Because that would take a very long time, given that there are one hundred and eight of you! So, I shall begin with: Amy Pett-Friend, born on December 14th, who will be roommates with the lovely summer baby Tora Kie, born on July the 23rd. And in the other bedroom of the suite shall be Tamar Chains, born on August 1st, and her roommate Tia Yow, born on February 28th. And the four of you shall be in suite nine-oh-nine. Yes, that’s nine, zero, nine. On to the next!” Listening to Professor Thunderbolt’s slow procession through the list was slightly more pleasant than the sound of a baby shrieking nonstop for six hours (an experience that Leanne had taken in plenty of times during her years at Hearthvale)... but not by much. There was a droning and wild explanation of all the groupings, none of which seemed to make the assignments more logical. She’d nearly tuned out by the time she finally heard a familiar name: Azalea Greene (born on May 2nd!). Roommate Gilly Queen (born on April 3rd!). Suitemates Elizabeth Ica (July 30th!) and Alyssa Rine (January 4th!). Suite 305. Azzie and Leanne exchanged hesitant looks. Leanne had been secretly hoping that, no matter how unlikely, she and Azzie would end up rooming together, and she was pretty sure that Azzie had been hoping for the same thing. As Thunderbolt went back to blathering, Leanne nervously ran her fingers through her hair. Okay, so she and Azzie weren’t together. But maybe they’d at least be nearby? This desperate wish, however, was quickly quashed when Thunderbolt announced that she, Leanne Kimber (February 19th!), would be rooming with someone called Ellen Summers (March 20th!), with the suitemates of November-the-4th-Elsie-Cien and March-the-5th-Lizzie-Milone, in suite 829. “It’ll be okay,” Azzie murmured unconvincingly. “We’ll still see each other, Lee.” “I know,” Leanne replied. But the words felt bitter on her tongue. After Thunderbolt finally, mercifully, concluded with his announcements, he commanded that those in the hall go look for their roommates (“Suitemates you can find back at the suite, it’ll be far too complicated to attempt to find them now, because a group of four is much more difficult to assemble than a group of two, on account of four being greater than two. Aheh, if you would like more of that FASCINATING math-work, please come take some classes with me! … not that first years have control over their schedules but I digress”). After finding their roommates, Thunderbolt also noted that the students ought to return to their respective rooms to unpack so that they would not be late for supper at six o’ clock. With Azzie and Leanne exchanging uncertain looks with each other, they went off to go find their roommates, as did everyone else. It felt like it took forever; many people stopped her asking for her name, only to find out that she wasn’t who they were looking for. The crowd cleared ever so slowly, with the few lucky people who found their roommates right away moving off to the side to escape the crowd. A few minutes later, her eyes landed on a petite girl with golden pigtails and thin-rimmed glasses, who seemed more interested in the book at her hip than the people surrounding her. Leanne figured that the girl would probably not try to find a roommate by herself, and so she approached the girl cautiously. “Um, excuse me?” Leanne inquired, tapping the girl’s shoulder. The book fell onto the floor of the hall as the girl jumped. She began to ramble, looking down. “Yes? I- I- Do you know where we go from here? I need to pay more attention but… sorry.” “Oh, no, it’s fine. We’re supposed to be looking for our roommates now…” Leanne paused. This girl likely didn’t even listen to who her roommate was. Not that she could blame her, what with how Thunderbolt had droned on and on. If she was ever going to find her roommate, someone would have to ask her first. “Are you Ellen Summers?” She looks startled, even more so than when she dropped her book. “I- Yes, how did you know? Do you have mind mag- oh, I didn’t mean to pry…” Leanne paused. “Er, no, they called your name when they announced our roommates. We’re supposed to be rooming together.” She held out a hand. “I’m Leanne.” “Oh! Leanne? I got a little distracted with this book here.” She snatched it up quickly. “‘Faeries of Porstyn’. Just escapist, but fun. I thought I would hear Mr. Thunderbolt call my name, but I got a little sidetracked with my story and I....” A little was an understatement, Leanne thought to herself. “You seem nice. What school are you from?” Ellen said. She seemed to be trying to change the subject, not that Leanne blamed her for that either. “I went to the Entwaff Institute for Beginning Mages. It’s a private school that’s… well, pretty far away from here.” She was deeply glad to have been educated somewhere outside of Hearthvale. Her entire life, Leanne had been ‘that orphan’. She was nearly positive that the kids here would find out her sorry beginnings eventually, but she’d at least like to keep it under wraps for oh, more than three minutes. “That sounds only vaguely familiar,” Ellen said. “I’m from the W.E. Woo School of Magecraft. The kids there called me Pixie, because, well, I’m really short. As you can see. I guess you can call me that too if you like, as we are roommates. Now, shall we find our room?” “Sure,” Leanne replied. She looked away from Pixie and scanned the thin crowd of students that remained within the grand hall. Of the original 108, there were perhaps only twenty or so left. This thankfully included Azzie and a red-haired girl in a ponytail, to whom she was chatting. Presumably that would be Azzie’s roommate, Gilly Queen. “Just give me one minute,” Leanne said to Pixie. “I’d like to say goodbye to my friend first.” “Ooh.” Pixie followed Leanne’s gaze, her eyes also settling on Azzie and Gilly. “Can I come with you? I don’t know anyone here.” “Of course,” Leanne said, and then started towards the two girls. Azzie saw Leanne and Ellen approach out of the corner of her eye, and she turned to wave at them. The other girl, Gilly, also looked over in interest at the two approaching strangers. “Do you know those two?” she inquired to Azzie. “Yes! Well… Not both of them, just her,” Azzie responded, gesturing to Leanne. “She’s my friend from home.” Pixie only squeaked a tiny ‘hello’ before glancing sheepishly down at her book. Leanne’s eyes met Gilly’s. Leanne had always thought you could learn a lot about a person from their eyes. Not from the color or any nonsense like that, but from the way that they looked at you. Just from the briefest flicker of eye contact, you could often tell if someone was nervous, or excited, or angry, or any emotion in between. You could see the laugh before it burst out from the mouth. You could guess the tears before they went rolling down the cheeks. But from Gilly’s eyes, Leanne got nothing. They were hard, like concrete, betraying not a single iota of feeling. It was like being stared at by a snake about to swallow you down whole. “Well, I’m Gilly Queen,” she said thickly. “I came from from the Jade School of Magicians down in the village of Soliglen. And who might you be?” “Leanne,” she replied, trying not to show Gilly how much the girl’s gaze unnerved her. “Leanne Kimber.” “Kimber?” Gilly said, like the word itself tasted bad. “As in-- oh, please don’t tell me you’re one of those Kimbers.” “What do you mean, those Kimbers?” Leanne stammered. Gilly raised an eyebrow. “I bet you are one of those Kimbers. Oh, this is mad! I can’t believe they’d let one of you into this school! Not after what your mother did.” “What… I… what…” Leanne couldn’t even get the words out. It was like her mouth had been stuffed with cotton wool. Memories that had danced dark and vague throughout her head for the past twelve years rushed to the surface, and Leanne fought to suppress them, wrest them back inside. “Oh, please don’t tell me you don’t know about what your mother did,” Gilly crooned. “My… my mother didn’t do anything.” “Well, if you count murder as nothing, then I suppose that’s true.” Leanne recoiled in disgust. “Murder?! My mother wouldn’t do that!” “Well she did,” Gilly retorted. “Murdered her own husband, I heard. Then left the daughter at an orphanage and ran. How utterly noble.” Pixie slammed the book shut and looked up. There was a fire burning in her eyes that hadn’t been there before. It seemed she had been listening to the entire altercation. “She’s not her mother. Even if you aren’t repeating rumors, what her mother did has NOTHING to do with her own character. I can’t say if her mother was a murderer, but my roommate certainly IS NOT. I won’t believe it.” Gilly scoffed. “Like mother, like daughter, that’s what I’ve always heard. And you can’t just break from that. Just because she hasn’t killed anyone yet doesn’t mean she won’t. I can’t believe they would risk the entire school just to have you here, and not keep you locked away.” By now nearly everyone else had cleared from the hall, off to unpack their things. It was just the four of them left, and then a gaggle of professors. As tensions mounted, and voices raised, one of those professors coolly walked over from her previous place near the head of the room and cleared her throat. All fours heads whipped towards her. “I have no idea what could possibly possess a group of first years to start a veritable shouting match before they’ve even unpacked their things,” the professor snapped, “but I would advise you all to stop acting like fools right now. You have been accepted to Mistonarc because you’ve been identified as some of this generation’s most promising mages. You would not want this school to regret offering acceptance before you’ve even attended one class, would you? Nor be late for the feast tonight?” “No, of course not!” Gilly nearly squeaked. “I was just uh-- we were just uh…” “... going to unpack our things,” Leanne said through gritted teeth. “Thanks for reminding us, Professor…” Her eyes trailed to where Thunderbolt had worn a name plaque, but on this woman, Leanne found none. “Riley,” the woman said. “Professor Carrie Riley. Now off with all of you.” Leanne turned back towards Pixie. “Come on, let’s go,” she said, before walking away. “Azzie, I’ll talk with you later, okay?” Azzie gave a sad smile and waved before staring with uncertainty at Gilly. “Bye Leanne’s friend!” Pixie chirped quietly with a slight wave towards Azzie, before turning on her foot back to Leanne. Gilly gave an obviously fake smile as she called after Leanne and Pixie, “Well, ta-ta you two! See you in class tomorrow! I’m sure that we’ll all be the greatest of friends!” Chapter Two
That evening, Leanne found herself treated to a stylish dinner. The orphanage almost never gave her bad food, but it paled in comparison to the meal that was on her plate tonight. When Azzie inquired about who made the food, one of the professors boasted of the school’s talented team of sensory-magic gifted chefs, who used their affinity to infuse the food with mind-popping flavors. The professor assured Azzie that general cooking skills were involved too, but Leanne could tell by the taste that the magic definitely helped. After supper, Leanne and Pixie retreated to their room. As much as Leanne wanted to spend more time talking with Azzie, she was not thrilled at the idea of seeing Gilly again. Having a teacher around in a classroom setting tomorrow only meant that her verbal attacks would become more subtle, not outright stop. And right now, Leanne didn’t want to deal with the accusations of her mother being a murderer combined with what she remembered of her. She remembered her mother’s smile, her gentle hug when Leanne was sad, and the great value she’d put on life, even with the spiders. Leanne had never been quite sure why her mother went away; she knew only that one day, in a panic almost, that… Leanne shook the thoughts out of her head. She didn’t need to think of that. She had to focus on the present. She couldn’t let some abrasive bully pick on her and dredge those depressing thoughts out of where they belonged. She spent the rest of the evening settling herself down in her new suite and room. She was used to sharing rooms from the orphanage, and as a roommate, Pixie wasn’t bad. She mostly stuck to her books, and from Leanne’s first impression, the girl didn’t really do too much that bothered her, when compared to some of the roommates she’d had in the past. The only thing that bugged her was the way that Pixie just left everything around on the floor. They had only been in the room for a few hours, but already the floor was strewn with Pixie’s things. But Leanne held her tongue. She might bring it up with her later, but right now, she was just grateful for the way that Pixie had stood up for her earlier. Plus, she didn’t want to get into another fight right away, even if it would most likely be minor by comparison. In her bed that night, Leanne shifted restlessly as Pixie snored across the room. She wasn’t sure how long ago the lights had gone out, but it was long enough for her to conclude that sleep wasn’t going to come easily to her. This hadn’t happened in a long time, not since she’d first arrived to the orphanage after being separated from her parents. Perhaps, Leanne thought, it was because this was the first major change that had happened to her in twelve years, unless you counted when she initially was sent to start at Entwaff, which Leanne didn’t really. Sure, it had gotten her out of the orphanage for a few hours each day, but she’d still found herself back at Hearthvale each night. This now, though, was an entirely new chapter. Fate-changing, Leanne thought to herself. At least this change will help me have a better chance out there in the world. ** Leanne wasn’t sure at what time she finally fell asleep, but she knew something was wrong when she woke up only a little tired, and there was no sign of her roommate, nor any commotion from within the suite. Hastily, Leanne searched for a clock before finding one on the wall. It read… “7:45?!” Leanne cried out. That very moment, she got up and tried to get dressed as fast as she could, nearly thrashing herself into the Mistonarc uniform. She thought she had given herself plenty of time to sleep, enough to wake up well before breakfast at 7:00. Apparently not. Cripes, for someone who’d grown up in an orphanage where getting yourself up in the morning was your own responsibility from the minute you were old enough to dress yourself, and if you made it late to breakfast there was no breakfast, you’d think she would have done a better job at this. Well, at least she still had 30 minutes before class began, but she also didn’t know where her first class was. Or even what… She grabbed her schedule from the nightstand by her bed and glanced at it before stuffing it back into her pocket. Apparently, her first class was Alchemy with Professor Thunderbolt on the ground level. Time to get going. And get going she did. Or rather, get going she tried to. She thought she was on the correct track with the first set of staircases taking her right down to what she believed to be the ground level. She eventually found out the hard way that not only was it not the ground level, but the stairs to get to the ground level weren’t anywhere near her location, as the stairs she took ended on… was this floor two, or three? Or… four, maybe? Her suite was on eight. She’d gone down-- uh, how many flights of steps? Leanne cursed under her breath. In the end, she spent an inordinately long time trying to navigate her way through the halls, desperately seeking the staircase that would take her to where she needed to go. By the time Leanne made her way to the ground floor, she was panicked; the last clock she’d seen had indicated that class had started five minutes ago, and that had been at least five minutes ago. And so she rushed through the halls, trying to ignore the growling of her stomach as she tried to find the right room. She almost passed it, but she stopped herself just in time. It was a door a little bit out of the way, but with an unmistakable sign: “Room G20: Alchemy Lab”. Leanne didn’t even stop to catch her breath as she slipped through the door. She had hoped to make a quiet entrance, one that called as little attention to her as possible. Alas, this hope was quickly eviscerated when the door creaked a little too loudly, and all eyes in the room darted towards her. Including Professor Thunderbolt’s. Especially Professor Thunderbolt’s. “Ah!” he said chipperly. “Nice of you to join us! And who might you be?” Leanne started to open her mouth to speak, but he interrupted, “No! No! Don’t tell me! I am a master of faces. I think I remember you from the grand hall yesterday. Would you be… ah, let’s see… Shira Tigress, born on January the 12th?” “Er, uh-- no-- I’m--” “Then you must be Kay O’Hara, born on January the 29th!” “Uh, no again.” Leanne’s cheeks were burning hot as coals. “Hmph.” Thunderbolt seemed disappointed. “Then who, exactly, are you, dear girl who’s come barging into my lecture hall an entire twelve minutes past the start of class? Don’t tell me you weren’t even born in January! And I should add, you are not five minutes, not ten minutes, but no, twelve minutes late! On the first day of classes! Which, if I do say so myself, is the most important day of classes. Except for exams, of course. But the first day holds a firm second place! Why, you’re lucky I didn’t peg you as an intruder and use my very deft fire and poison magic on you! Now, then, ahem, you are...” “Leanne,” she murmured, fighting the urge to turn around and flee right back out that door. “Leanne Kimber.” “Well, Leanne Kimber, take a seat, why don’t you? So that I may return to my titillating discussion of alchemy!” “Yes, sir,” Leanne whispered, pulling out a chair towards the back of the room. But before could sit, Professor Thunderbolt shook his head. Wagging his finger at her like you might at a petulant dog, he exclaimed, “No, no, we don’t let late-comers hide in the back. Come up here.” He pointed to an empty chair in the front row. Leanne only needed to take one glance at the chair provided for her before she had to resist a groan. For to the right of the seat was the last person she wanted to see right now: Gilly Queen. Leanne desperately took a quick glance around for any other nearby place to sit, but the rest of the front row was filled. Holding back a disgruntled sigh, she walked up to the front of the room and sat in the chair. For a moment, Gilly was the picture of a perfect student, sitting there with her eyes right at Professor Thunderbolt, her hands crossed, waiting for him to continue speaking. Professor Thunderbolt nodded curtly at Leanne before turning back to the board. “Now, as I was trying to say before, you will need to know the properties of the herbs you will be using. You will be provided with…” Thunderbolt began to write on the board, and in that moment, Gilly dropped her facade of a perfect student and leaned over to Leanne, smirking. “Look who finally came,” Gilly whispered softly. “Azzie and I had so much fun at breakfast. Really, the two of us are dearest friends already. We missed you there.” Leanne frowned and tried to ignore Gilly, but it was hard to do. Even after Professor Thunderbolt turned back around and Gilly shut up, Leanne could still feel the girl’s eyes bearing into her. Occasionally, Gilly would glance to the boy who sat on her other side and exchange some murmured barb with him, and then both of them would snigger quietly. For the life of her, Leanne could not tune them out. After the class ended, and all of the students rose to leave, Leanne was hoping to make a quick escape from Gilly as she fled to her next class, Ancients Texts and Literature with Professor Tiarl in room B14, which she supposed meant the basement. Alas, this wasn’t meant to be. Leanne hadn’t even fully stood up yet when Professor Thunderbolt said to her, “You know that there are only ten minutes between classes, Miss Leanne Kimber, yes?” “Um,” she said. “Yes. Yes I know that.” “And I also suspect that your next professor would be quite aggravated if you were late to their class as you were late to mine.” “I won’t be late,” Leanne stammered. “I um-- the stairs that led down to this level also went further down, so I imagine that’s the basement, and from there I’m sure I’ll be able to find it.” “Awfully cocky for a girl who showed up twelve minutes late!” He clucked his tongue disapprovingly. “Really, it would be outright irresponsible of me to allow you to leave this room without an escort! And I’m sure someone else in here is also in your next class. So why don’t we have them walk with you?” “I’m fine, really,” Leanne said, but Professor Thunderbolt would have none of it. “Tell me, what’s your next class?” he insisted. “Ancient Texts and Literature.” “Ah, with Professor Tiarl?” “Yes.” “Wonderful, she’s one of my dearest and most favorite colleagues! Makes a mean peach cobbler! And you should see the tricks she can do with color magic-- I daresay she’s as skilled with it as anyone I’ve ever met! Now, let’s see, does anyone else in here have Professor Tiarl for their next class?” To Leanne’s chagrin, Gilly’s hand immediately shot up in the air. “I have her next class!” Gilly proclaimed brightly. “Nova and I can escort her!” Leanne’s hand unconsciously curled over her bag into a fist. “Uh, really, it’s just--” “Sounds splendid!” Thunderbolt proclaimed. “The two of you can escort Leanne to her next class. That way we’ll make absolutely 100% sure that she won’t be the slightest bit late. Now off you go!” Gilly and the boy whom she’d called Nova walked on each side of Leanne as she tried to get out of her seat. The day was not off to a great start already; she did not need this right now. But unfortunately, the teacher wasn’t going to give her a choice. She figured it was unlikely that she could lose the two of them between here and the basement level, what with them going to the same class and all, but she found herself planning some sort of escape anyway. Gilly and Nova kept up their sugary sweet smiles all the way out of the classroom. Once they were a comfortable distance from the room, they immediately dropped their looks and gave each other knowing smirks. “Not a smart thing, showing up late,” Gilly mocked. “Shut up,” Leanne said. “Oh, but I haven’t even introduced my friend yet!” Gilly trilled. “This is Jacob Nova. We’re very close.” The black-haired boy gave a wave as he glared. “Call me Nova. Gilly, didn’t you say that she’s a Kimber?” “Yup! Daughter of that witch. Don’t know how she can even stand to show her face around here,” Gilly said, slightly laughing at the end. Oh no, they were not going down this route again, Leanne thought to herself. She glared at both of them in turn. “Look, my mother’s not a murderer!” Leanne exclaimed. “You wouldn’t even know; you haven’t even met her!” “We don’t have to. We’ve heard enough about her,” Nova retorted. “I don’t know what they taught you at that orphanage, Kimber, but mages talk. Insular community and all that, you know. It’s very big news when someone goes mad, murders their husband, abandons their child, and then flees like a dog with their tail tucked, never to be seen again.” “Well you’ve heard wrong!” cried Leanne. “You don’t know my mother. She was gentle and caring. She would never do such a thing.” “Aw, someone loves their mommy,” Gilly said in a sing-song voice as they walked down the stairs. “Look, all we’re trying to do is tell you the truth.” “Just because you have unrealistic views of your mum doesn’t mean everyone else does,” Nova added. “The sooner you accept that your mother is a terrible person who is now probably hiding like a cockroach in one of the non-magic cities, the better,” Gilly said, nodding. “I don’t see why you defend her, anyway. She did dump you off like a piece of trash, after all. And come on, we can’t be the first ones to be telling you these things, Kimber. You mean to tell me you were raised in a mage orphanage, in a mage village, and no one once brought up your history? Not a single other kid, or teacher, or anyone?” Leanne couldn’t take it anymore. Again long-suppressed memories exploded in her head like fireworks. She darted down the hallway where the stairs left off. She didn’t know exactly where room B14 was, but she was certain she could figure it out. Her problem was finding the right floor, after all, and she was sure she was in the right place. “You’re gonna get lost!” Nova called out before the duo descended into laughter. Leanne gritted her teeth as she looked frantically for the correct room. She wasn’t sure if those two actually believed what they were saying, or if they were trying to give her a hard time for the sake of giving her a hard time. Leanne didn’t care. She knew they were wrong; if they had ever met her mother, and seen the way she looked at all forms of life, even down to the smallest insect, they would know that she cared too much for life to ever descend to such a crime. She would have never murdered Leanne’s father and then gone off to hide in one of the non-magic cities, leaving Leanne behind. Leanne’s father was dead: she wasn’t pretending that wasn’t true. But her mother wasn’t responsible. She hadn’t merely discarded Leanne at Hearthvale like last night’s garbage. There’d been a reason, a good reason, that Kristy Kimber had left her daughter behind twelve years ago, even if Leanne didn’t know it. So she didn’t need Gilly and Nova’s false criticism. And she didn’t need their help finding the room either. …Though it was harder to find the room than she’d thought it would be. It turned out that the hallway she went down was not the correct one, and she had to backtrack two times before she ended up finding the right room. At least this time, she made it to class moments before the bell rang. The classroom was quite unusual, at least in comparison to the rooms Leanne had seen at her old school. Along with the compulsory bookshelves along the walls, she noticed a glass-fronted case packed with rolls of parchment. A few students were still chattering as they waited for the teacher. Some students weren’t paying close enough attention, but right when the clock struck the start time, a woman suddenly appeared at the front of the room. Some students yelped, and all of them jumped somewhat. A few them of them started whispering among themselves in shock, most of them never having witnessed somebody with teleportation magic utilizing their skill. The materialized woman smiled at the students and tapped her desk softly, having to lean over to reach it, given her impressive height of at least six feet tall. “Good morning,” she said, loudly but kindly. “I am Professor Tiarl, the instructor for this course. When we’ve all gotten settled, we can begin.” It didn’t take long. Professor Tiarl had a commanding presence and a firmness to her voice that brought all the chatter to a close almost instantly. “Excellent. Now, I’m glad that you’re all here, because the study of ancient texts and literature is going to complement your entire education here at Mistonarc. There are few things in magic that cannot be improved upon by deepening your understanding of their past applications and origins. And there are secrets within these texts, left by our predecessors, that may be crucial to understanding the mysteries of the future.” She looked lovingly at her bookshelves, took a deep breath, and turned back to the students. “Now that we’ve got that out of the way, I’d like to start you all off with a short evaluation, just to see where you are in your knowledge of magical literature.” She lifted a stack of paper off her desk and presented them to the nearest student, a nervous-looking boy, to distribute. ** By the time Leanne left her second class, she felt like her head was full of fog. Ancient Texts and Literature was interesting, but there was a lot to absorb. Professor Tiarl had even given her homework: to look through a worn old book and make notes on what she thought were the important parts. Still, she’d managed to escape the classroom without any forced escorts, and Gilly and Nova had been assigned seats across the room from Leanne, so their taunting was easier to ignore. She could even pretend that Gilly wasn’t shooting her barbed looks and sugary sweet smiles the whole time. Therefore, Leanne counted her second class as a plus. Her next course was Taming and Caring of Magical Creatures. Even though Leanne highly doubted that she had any sort of affinity towards animals, the aptitude tests she’d taken during the rigorous admissions process for Minstonarc had spat out a marginal chance, and so she’d been placed into the class by default. She didn’t mind, especially because her friend Azzie, who actually had always shown an interest in animals, was in the course, too. While both Alchemy and Ancient Texts had been held inside the main building, Taming and Caring of Magical Creatures was taught outside, and so it proved to be much easier to find. It wasn’t long after she had stepped out of Mistonarc’s main building that she found a fenced clearing where a cluster of students was gathering. She began walking towards it. For the first time today, she was early for class, so she couldn’t help but feel a bit proud of herself. While she was walking towards the fence, she heard a shout behind her, and she turned around to see Azzie running towards her. Leanne smiled and waved. After all that had happened with Gilly and Nova in the past few hours, Leanne was tremendously glad to see her friend. “Leanne, good to see you again!” Azzie proclaimed as soon as she had caught up. “Where were you at breakfast?” “I overslept,” Leanne said with a sigh. “Oh no! Didn’t anyone try to wake you?” Azzie asked. “No… Not that I know of,” Leanne replied. She wondered for a moment why Pixie hadn’t tried to wake her up. Sure, Pixie didn’t seem to be very forward about that sort of thing based on what Leanne knew about her, and maybe she was sleeping particularly heavy at the time… but it still seemed odd that as far as Leanne knew, Pixie hadn’t even attempted. “That’s too bad,” Azzie said as Leanne mulled. “Oh well, there’ll be lots more breakfasts. You’ll love the food, it was divine. And for now, at least we have lunch after this class.” “Good,” Leanne said as she heard another rumble from her stomach. After all that had happened with Gilly, she’d forgotten that she’d skipped breakfast until Azzie had brought it up. Now she felt hungrier than ever. Still, if she could hold out for one more period, then she could eat whatever she wanted. They arrived to the clearing. After confirming that this was the right place for their class, they chatted for a while about their morning’s lessons, a discussion that continued when Pixie, who was also apparently in the course, joined them. Leanne was extremely glad to see that neither Gilly nor Nova were in this class. At least she could get through one period without having to worry about them. Things finally seemed to be looking up today. Soon class began, and a skinny man with short black hair faced the throng of students. He had a friendly look in his green eyes, which were guarded by a pair of semi-frameless glasses. For a professor of a Creatures class, he was clad quite fashionably, dressed in a gray turtleneck along with black dress pants, socks, and shoes. The entire ensemble was framed by his black trenchcoat. One of his most distinguishing features was the black fedora he wore on his head, with what looked to be wolf ears attached. The man adjusted his glasses. “Good day, class. My name is Professor Ian Wolf-Park, and I am this school’s leading expert in animal communication and care, as well as healing magic. This is the Taming and Caring of Magical Creatures. It is in this class that you will be familiarized with a great variety of magical creatures, and come to understand their natures. If you turn out to have an affinity towards animals, we will further explore the nature of all animals in upper level courses. If you don’t have any ability to help you with animals, it’s still vital that you have some understanding of the creatures that are out there. You never know when you’ll get attacked and eaten by ice wolves.” Some of the class laughed half-heartedly at this. The professor gave them a moment before he continued, “You really can’t be too careful out there. So today, we’re going to go over the basic properties of magical creatures, and what separates them from normal creatures. We will build from this before going into more detail on the magical creatures you will most likely encounter in everyday life, and before the end of the year, you will each have a chance to take care of your own magical creature. Obviously, you fail if you kill it. Now then…” It really was an interesting class. The professor went over how magical animals could have a certain breadth of control over magic too, although most of them only had common elements, since the stronger magics would not be as well controlled, and those animals usually died early from their own power. Before he sent the class off at the end, he made sure that everyone understood some basic safety about dealing with magical creatures. Leanne was not surprised by this, based on the way he also kept stopping at every odd sound, as if on the lookout for any potential danger. But the class otherwise seemed to be decent, though Leanne wasn’t quite sure how good she would be with animals. Azzie, on the other hand, seemed to drink the professor’s every word. Leanne wasn’t sure whether Azzie had the affinity or not, and Azzie didn’t know either, but it definitely seemed like a strong possibility. Next was finally lunch, and Leanne was more than a little excited. Azzie and Pixie could tell, and so they hurried with her into the dining hall. Leanne piled a mountain of food onto her plate at the serving station, and the moment she sat down, she began to eat. She knew she probably didn’t have the best of manners right now, but she didn’t care; she just desperately wanted to get food inside of her. By the time Leanne felt she’d eaten enough to where she could slow down, the other two had finished loading their plates. They took seats on either side of her. As Leanne continued downing her food, she noticed Gilly and Nova stride into the dining hall, laughing with each other as if they hadn’t a care in the world. As Gilly walked towards the food station, she saw Leanne watching her and shot the girl a smug look. Leanne broke the gaze and stared down at her plate, dearly hoping that Gilly had gotten in enough torture for one day and would not attempt to sit near her. Fortunately, this indeed proved to be the case. After assembling their meals, Gilly and Nova sat with a cluster of older-looking students on the opposite side of the hall. “You shouldn’t let her bother you,” Azzie said softly, apparently having followed Leanne’s gaze. “She’s terrible, don’t get me wrong. But you’re better than her, Lee. Don’t let her get you down.” “I’m not,” Leanne murmured. “I’m just… she gets under my skin is all.” “At least the food’s good,” Pixie said, trying to cut the tension. “So much better than my mom’s cooking. Those scones at breakfast today were amazing! Speaking of breakfast… um, I’m sorry I didn’t wake you up in time to get any, Lee. I was going to, but you looked to be in the middle of some kind of dream. A really intense one. And I couldn’t get you up for the life of me. Are you always a heavy sleeper?” “No,” Leanne replied, at the exact same time that Azzie nodded and said, “Always has been.” Leanne exchanged an incredulous look with Azzie. “I’m not a heavy sleeper.” “Yes you are. I mean, not always. But when you’re having a dream? It’s like trying to wake the dead, Leanne. Trust me. I’ve shared a room with you for six years.” Leanne didn’t know what to say to that, but her stomach pinched a bit. She bit her lip and went back to fiddling with the food on her plate, although suddenly she found herself completely full. An awkward silence developed between the three girls, one that was only broken when someone new sidled up to the table and loudly cleared their throat. Leanne’s knee-jerk reaction was: great, it’s Gilly, come to harass me even more. Instead, when she glanced up, she found herself staring at what was possibly the most nervous-looking boy she’d ever seen before. The same nervous boy, in fact, whom Professor Tiarl had chosen to pass out papers earlier. His hair was dark and very short, which made the unruliness of it even more apparent. He had thin glasses which made his already pinched face look outright squashed. Though all the pupils at Mistonarc wore the same uniform-- navy slacks with a white button-up shirt, a light grey vest, and a coordinating striped tie-- this boy didn’t pull it off convincingly. He looked like he’d gone riffling through some older brother’s drawers and was now proudly donning the overly large items he’d found inside. For a few moments, he simply stared at Leanne, Pixie, and Azzie, as if he was too petrified to speak. Azzie and Leanne returned the look, though Pixie, after downing her plate of food at lightning speed, had gone on to burying her nose in a book. It took her nearly a minute to glance up from it and notice the boy. “Oh!” she exclaimed. “You’re the boy from the library! The one I met this morning when I went exploring after breakfast!” He nodded vigorously and squeaked, “Y-yes. I um. I don’t know anyone here… I mean, no one else here, except for you. And my roommate I suppose. Jay. His name is Jay. But Jay um, he’s not at lunch, he was in my last class but he’s having a very hard time adjusting, so he decided to go back to our room and cry a bit and, um, I probably shouldn’t have told you that. Anyway can I… can I sit with you?” “Of course!” Pixie replied, scooting over to make room. The boy flashed an anxious grin and then slid into the seat, plunking his own plate of food (which, Leanne noted curiously, contained only things that were brown) down onto the table. Though gleaning words from him was nearly as difficult as pulling teeth, Leanne and her friends managed to gather basic details from the boy over the rest of the lunch hour. He was also a first-year student. His most developed elemental affinity was lightning. His name was Nico Carcassone, but he went by Icon-- “because um. My penmanship is quite bad. And when I was young my teachers couldn’t read my chicken-scratch writing. And therefore I suppose ‘Nico’ looked kind of like ‘Icon’. So they would called me Icon, not Nico… I guess um, as a way of motivating me to write better? It didn’t work. And now I go by Icon. … unless you want to call me Nico. T-that’s okay too!” Leanne also discovered that Icon had been pegged as potentially having some sort of fate-changing magic-- “possibly mind magic, t-they said”-- and so he would also be in Professor Riley’s sixth period Magic of Life, Death, Mind, and the Soul class with her. Leanne only noticed that the lunch hour was ending when she saw everyone else around her group clearing their plates and filing out of the dining hall. Great, time to go on to the next class. She grabbed her books and followed the others out, hoping she wouldn’t get turned around in the confusing halls of Mistonarc yet again. Chapter Three
Her next class was called Responsibility as Magical Persons, and it was located in a classroom nearby to the dining hall, so Leanne had no chance to get lost in transit. It was taught by Professor Rawl, who was a very energetic and passionate man. Unfortunately, he was most passionate about moralizing his students, and went on and on and on about his expectations. He was even more of a chatter-box than Professor Thunderbolt! A few vaguely familiar people were in the class-- mainly just her two suitemates, Elsie Cien and Lizzie Milone, whom she’d briefly met the night before-- but there was no time allotted for chatter. Mercifully, both Gilly and Nova were absent. Still, Leanne was relieved when the class was finally over… and equally as relieved that her following course, Magic of Life, Death, Mind, and the Soul, was held in the classroom next door. She refused to get lost another time today. She met the boy from lunch there, Icon. He was fidgeting in his seat, his eyes fixed upon the door. He seemed a little too excited that she was there, but the teacher of the class was of greater concern than an over-excited boy. It was Professor Riley, from the previous evening, the one who’d intervened after things had started getting heated between Gilly and Leanne. Leanne sensed that this class would be difficult in particular. Professor Riley quickly flourished her name on the blackboard with the screech of sharply sliding chalk. “Welcome Students, to Magic of Life, Death, Mind, and the Soul. I am Professor Riley, and I will be teaching the class this year,” she orated. “I would like you all to please look to the people to the left and right of you. By the end of your time here this semester, one of you will not be passing. Or perhaps all of you.” This statement stunned the students; a silence washed over them. Professor Riley picked up a stack of textbooks and whilst moving down the rows of students, tossed one onto each desk with a bang that reverberated across the room. “Unlike some other classes, you will not find this class to have a high tolerance for… incompetence. The subject matter we deal with is extremely dangerous to the user if utilized improperly-- that is, if any of you possess the necessary magic at all. You have been placed in this class because you were identified as potentially having such powers, but in the end, most, if not all of you, will prove not to contain them. Life, death, mind, and soul magic are all exceedingly rare, after all. I am not a betting woman, but I would wager that of the eight of you in this room, not one of you will prove to truly contain such magic.” Maybe it was all in Leanne’s head, but Riley seemed to be smiling at this prospect. She went on: “This is a first rate institution, and we pride ourselves on attaining the highest standard. If anyone thinks they can’t cut it, then leave the room. Now.” A few people fidgeted and looked around at each other, but Leanne held her nerves back. Beside her, Icon didn’t seem to be faring so well. His eyes darted back and forth from Professor Riley to the door at a nearly frantic speed. Sweat began to drip down his forehead. Leanne was almost surprised when he didn’t jump up and make a break for the door. “I will not deal with a single modicum of tomfoolery in my class,” Professor Riley continued. “If you miss so much as a single assignment, you will fail. And if I have any reason to believe that you are not mature enough to dabble in what can be extremely dangerous magic, you will fail. Again, I wish to reiterate that by the end of this semester, all eight of you will likely be proven not to contain any life, death, mind, or soul magic. But on the off chance that one of you does have it in you, I must treat the whole class as if they do until proven otherwise. Now,” she said, smiling darkly, “I would like to begin this course with a bit of a… demonstration. Do I have a volunteer?” When no one raised their hand, her eyes trailed around the room. They settled briefly on Leanne, and her heart dropped into her stomach-- but then, Riley moved on to the sweating, panicking boy beside her. She asked of him, “What is your name, young man?” “M-my name?” he practically bleated. “Yes, your name.” “Er. N-Nico?” “Are you asking yourself a question, boy?” “No.” “Good. Because I would be very concerned if a student who’s made it into Mistonarc was so daft that he didn’t even know his name. Now, stand up, Nico, and join me at the front of the room.” Nico rose at the pace of an elderly, tired turtle. Watching him stumble up to Riley’s side was nearly agonizing for Leanne. All the same, she didn’t want to be in his place, nor did she want to incite Riley’s wrath by saying anything. Still, this didn’t stop her from feeling positively miserable as Icon reached the professor’s side and stared down at his feet, shaking like a leaf the whole time. She could only imagine that Icon felt like she had at Hearthvale and Entwaff, when the kids would pick on her and try to make her break down. It didn’t look like anyone would save Icon from this predicament. Professor Riley was a bully just like Leanne’s juvenile tormentors and it was a challenge to stand up to a bully-- especially one who doubled as an authority figure. “Now, students,” Professor Riley said to the class, “I did not come to be this school’s primary teacher of life, death, mind, and soul magic by accident. I was hired because I myself am one of the few mages in this country who in fact possesses well-developed soul magic. Do you know what this means, class?” For a few moments, no one in the class said anything. Then, a boy towards the back of the room raised his hand. Instantly he looked like he regretted it, but it was too late: Riley focused in on him. “Yes,” she said. “Mister…” “Kozma,” he said. “David Kozma.” “Yes, Mister Kozma. Tell me, what does it mean that I possess soul magic?” “It means that you can control others. Their bodies.” “Correct. Now, this is an easy enough concept to understand, at least in theory. But I think there is a vast difference between hypothetically understanding something, and truly, physically understanding it. Soul magic is dangerous. It can ruin lives. It can end lives. And I do not want the eight of you to proceed another minute in my class without understanding just how powerful such magic can be. What it can do in the blink of an eye.” A bubble of dread rose in the back of Leanne’s throat. Could Riley be saying what Leanne thought she was saying? The girl could only watch on in rapt horror as Riley turned towards the quivering Nico Carcassone and commanded him to look at her. It took him a moment to dredge his gaze from the floor, but the moment his eyes locked with Riley’s, he dropped to the ground, as if he’d been bowled over by an invisible weight. For a few moments, Icon merely laid there, stiff as a board. He made no sound. Then, with a nearly cat-like prowess, he sprung back to his feet and charged across the room. He almost crashed into the far wall, stopping dead in his tracks just inches from it, before collapsing back down to the floor. For a few moments he writhed, as if he were having a seizure. Then a disconcerting stillness overcame him. As Professor Riley finally broke her stare, he let out a soft moaning noise. “That may have been distressing to watch,” Riley said to the class, “but I did nothing there to hurt him. I stopped him short of the wall. I did not have him attack one of you. But if I’d wanted to, I could have done so easily. Any good soul magician can.” She glanced back at Icon. “You may return to your seat, Nico.” It took a long time for Icon to do so. His hands shook as he tried to bring himself to his feet, a look of horror on his face. He moved slowly and carefully, and when he finally got to his feet, he took a moment to balance himself on the wall before putting one hand to his head. After a moment, he walked directly over to his seat and slumped right into his chair before putting his head on the desk. Leanne watched him as he did so, noting that he looked about ready to cry. She couldn’t help but wonder what was going through his head while Professor Riley was controlling him, but she was sure that it couldn’t have been anything good. “Now that your classmate has finally returned to his desk,” Riley started curtly, “I would like to let you all know that you will have to get used to that, because I will be using my soul magic on all of you to ensure that you know how it feels, at least some time during the semester. This way if one of you does somehow end up possessing soul magic, or one of the other three disciplines that are covered in this class, then you’ll understand the responsibilities behind it. For now, burn that image into your mind, and I’ll discuss…” Professor Riley spent the rest of the class discussing the fundamentals behind soul magic, and how easy it had been for her to control the body of the quivering student, Nico. Said student kept his head low for the rest of the class, trying not to make eye contact with the teacher. When the bell finally rang, he bolted for the door before Leanne could even get out of her seat. As Leanne was walking towards the door, she glanced at Riley, only to find Riley staring right back at her. She broke the eye contact and left as soon as she could. Her last class, Introduction to Fate-Changing and Interpersonal Magic, was taught by a short, mousy man named Professor Munroe, who was a skilled illusory magician. Icon scampered in a few minutes before class time, still looking weathered from before, and he immediately took a seat next to the wall. Then not long before the class started, two more people showed up, who turned out to be… Gilly and Nova. Leanne resisted the urge to groan. It was just one more hour, and then she could get away from them, at least until dinnertime. She couldn’t help but feel sorry for Icon, though, when Gilly and Nova placed themselves close to him. Professor Munroe spent most of the class talking about the basics of interpersonal and fate-changing magics. Unlike elemental affinities, interpersonal and fate-changing skills were inborn and uncommon, with wide-reaching effects. There were all sorts of interpersonal affinities, including pain, poison, healing, animal affinity, and more, all of which had drawbacks. But those drawbacks were nothing compared to the drawbacks of the fate-changing skills. Said fate-changing magic included life, death, mind, and the soul, but there was also shape shifting, weather control, and even time manipulation. All of these things which were exceedingly rare, Professor Munroe assured them. But even if none of the students had any of these kinds of magic, they would still be important to know in case you ever became the opponent of a fate-changing caster. Finally, class ended. Once again, Icon hurried out of the room as quickly as possible. Leanne was certain that this was not due to anything Professor Munroe did, but rather what had happened in Professor Riley’s class. Leanne spent most of the rest of her time before supper in her room, trying to sort through her homework. Most teachers didn’t give her much on the first day, but for the few that did, she wanted to get started. Riley had given her the most, but she started with Tiarl’s. Even so, she couldn’t concentrate that well. Not after what had happened during sixth period. She hadn’t gotten much done by dinnertime, but she went down anyway. After skipping breakfast, she figured it probably wouldn’t do her much good to ditch out on supper as well. And anyway, Pixie-- who after classes had apparently decided to spend her time exploring the grounds with some girls she’d met in her last class of the day-- came back to the room a few minutes before six to put away her books, and she seemed to expect that Leanne would come to eat with her. In the dining hall, they each put together a plate of food and then sat down with Azzie, who’d arrived a few minutes earlier. Leanne was a bit surprised to see Icon, his head held low, slink in a couple moments later. She’d expected him to ditch supper after what had happened in Riley’s class. After filling his plate with an arrangement of brown things (a hunk of rye bread; chocolate pudding; a serving of beans), he silently joined Azzie, Pixie, and Leanne at their table. Taking almost mournful stabs at the food on his plate, Leanne was pretty sure that he was holding back tears. It had been something like three hours since Professor Riley’s cruel demonstration, but Icon didn’t seem any less shocked now than he had then. Leanne wanted to say something to him, but she couldn’t come up with the words. What was there to say, really, to an already-nervous person who had just been mortified in front of a room of his peers on his first day at a new school? Leanne was thus relieved when, after observing Icon for a while, Pixie piped up and said, “You seem to have had a rough day. Would you like my chocolate cookie?” Not even looking at her, he shook his head no. “Not hungry enough, but t-thanks.” “What’s bothering you? You can talk to me-- only if you want, that is,” the girl stammered. “It’s nothing,” Icon sighed. “Hm. Well, even if it’s nothing, you seem awfully down. But I have an idea. Whenever I get sad, books always cheer me up. And since I met you in the library, I feel as if you’re probably the same way. So what if we finish our plates and then go explore the library some more? I was going to meet some of my new friends from my last class there anyway. Shira and Kay. They’re very nice! I’m sure you’ll like them, as well. We’re thinking of maybe starting a book club.” At this, Icon brightened a bit. “A book club?” “Yes. And I think you’d be a wonderful member!” The prospect of starting a book club seemed to at least spur Icon into finishing his food, and once he had, he and Pixie cleared their places and set off, with Pixie cheerfully telling Leanne that she’d see her later in their room. Alone now with Azzie, Leanne continued picking at her own supper. Normally she and Azzie talked over meals, but tonight Leanne just wasn’t in the mood. With Pixie gone, there was no one to buffer the silence, and the astute Azzie quickly picked up on Leanne’s unusual silence. “What’s wrong, Lee?” she asked. “Nothing,” Leanne lied. “Leanne,” Azzie said sternly. “Nothing’s wro--” “Leanne, I’ve known you for years. I’ve seen you when you’re sad, when you’re hurt, when someone you like won’t look at you. I know you. Something’s bothering you, I can tell. Please, tell me what’s wrong.” Leanne paused for a moment. But she knew that Azzie was right, and that she most likely wasn’t going to stop bothering her until she told her what was wrong. She sighed. “...It’s Professor Riley,” Leanne said quietly, as if worried someone would overhear her. “In her class today, she… There’s something about her. She talked to us as if she didn’t want us to pass, or like she didn’t care about us. And she…” She paused, not certain if she wanted to mention whether Icon was the student whom Riley bothered. “...She used soul magic on one of the students--for a ‘demonstration’, she said--and then waved it away like it was nothing. And when she talked about failure or not living up to our potential, she kept glaring at me. I just… I don’t know, but I have a really bad feeling about her. I think something’s up.” Azzie listened quietly, and she remained quiet for some time after Leanne finished. Then she leaned across the table and proceeded to give Leanne a hug. “Oh Leanne. I’m sorry to hear about what happened.” Azzie hugged her tightly before pulling away and putting her hands on Leanne’s shoulders. “But Leanne… If it’s like yesterday, she mostly just seemed strict. They wouldn’t keep a teacher here who was really bad news. Anyone like that would get fired right away.” “Maybe… I just don’t know. What if the other teachers don’t realize what she’s been doing?” Leanne asked. “I’m sure someone would’ve brought it up before. Maybe she just wants what’s best for her students when it comes to powerful magic. The stuff she’s teaching… soul magic and all that… it can be so dangerous. She probably wants to drive that home so none of her students use it badly.” “I guess,” Leanne said. But she wasn’t convinced. Maybe Azzie was right, and Riley was just strict and cautious. Still, Leanne couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something deeper going on. That there was more to the soul magician Carrie Riley than first met the eye. Chapter Four
The days flew by, with most of Leanne’s time dedicated to homework and studying. The private school, Entwaff, had assigned a lot of homework compared to what was expected of the kids at Hearthvale, but it paled in comparison to the workload Mistonarc thrust onto its students right out of the gate. Some professors were more lenient than others, of course, but even Leanne’s less stringent classes were still miles more difficult than any of her courses had been at Entwaff. Leanne’s most demanding class was, without a doubt, Professor Riley’s Magic of Life, Death, Mind, and the Soul. Of the eight initial students, one, a strawberry blonde girl called Tamar Chains, had already failed out after missing a single assignment (Riley wasn’t kidding when she’d made that threat in her opening monologue on day one). Another boy called Colin Aster completely panicked one day in class when Riley decided he would be the next to be possessed. Seemingly remembering Icon writhing on the floor, he ran out of the room and never returned. Not that he’d have a chance; as soon as he was out of sight, Riley immediately announced that he had just failed the class. This was something she seemed quite cheerful about, as she also informed the remaining students that she’d been completely sure from day one that Colin had not the “foggiest chance in hell” of possessing a fate-changing magic. “Those aptitude tests,” she’d grumbled. “Giving me students semester after semester who can barely tie their shoelaces straight.” Leanne was pretty sure at this point that Riley was just looking for excuses to kick out students whom she’d determined did not possess adequate magic. Though the failed students simply ended up having a boring study hall period in place of Riley’s class, which didn’t sound very fun in and of itself, Leanne still secretly hoped that Riley might kick her out soon, too. She’d take study hall over the biting, strict professor any day. The group Leanne had found herself a part of on the first day of classes-- Pixie, Icon, and Azzie-- stayed more or less her core. She ate breakfast, lunch, and supper with them each day, and spent time with them outside of class. She met a few other friendly faces within her courses, people with whom she’d perhaps study on occasion, but largely she spent her time with her roommates and Azzie and Icon. As for Azzie’s roommate, the insufferable Gilly Queen, she remained a thorn in Leanne’s side, as did her side-kick, Jacob Nova. Though mercifully Thunderbolt no longer had designated them as Leanne’s escorts between Alchemy and Ancient Texts, they still taunted her every chance they got. By a few weeks into the semester, just seeing their faces each morning made Leanne’s blood boil. It was in the middle of September when Professor Wolf-Park announced one morning in his Taming and Caring of Magical Creatures class that tomorrow would mark the start of a crucial project that was to last the remainder of the semester. Previously, the course had consisted of Wolf-Park painstakingly cataloging and describing different sorts of magical creatures, as the students furiously scribbled notes. Leanne had found it mind-numbing, although both Azzie and Pixie seemed quite enthused. Both of Leanne’s friends were equally as enthused when Wolf-Park explained the project: after passing a short safety quiz to ensure they’d taken his all of his lessons to heart, each student would pick from a hat the name of a small, relatively tame magical creature-- and then for the rest of the semester, they would have to care for one of those creatures. “Experiential learning!” Wolf-Park exclaimed, clapping his hands together like a kid who’d just been given a pony. “I’m sure you all will love it. And caring day-by-day for a magical creature will also serve to further help me determine which of you does, and doesn’t, possess an animal affinity! Keep in mind, however, that even if I come to determine that you do not possess such an affinity--” Leanne could swear his eyes had settled directly on her “-- you still will need to keep your creature alive for the rest of the semester. Failure to do so will lead to failure in this course. Now, on to the safety exam! I shall go around asking each of you basic questions, and you will give me answers. ” The exam was pretty simple, really; Leanne could tell it was more of a formality than anything else. Anyone would know to wear gloves when handling swampmoth larva and that you have to keep sparking hamsters in a proper cage. In the end, the entire class passed, something over which Professor Wolf-Park seemed delighted. He cheerfully announced that he’d spend the night preparing the creatures. After class, as they headed towards the dining hall to get lunch, everyone was buzzing as they discussed what animals they wanted, and on the flip side, the ones they didn’t want. “Oh, I hope I don’t end up with a snake,” moaned Alyssa Rine, who was one of Azzie’s suitemates. “I hate snakes…” “You’re such a wimp,” teased one of Leanne’s own suitemates, Lizzie Milone. “I just want something I can pet. A color-shifting mouse or something, you know? I miss my cat. I wish I could have brought him here with me.” “Oh come on, don’t you want something different for once?” proclaimed Tamar Chains, the girl who’d failed out of Professor Riley’s class but seemed to have a quite a calling for magical creatures. “Personally, I’m hoping for something exotic. Like a spitting scorpion. That would be so incredibly cool.” “You flinch at the sight of a spider,” retorted Lizzie. “Why do you think you’ll be able to take care of a spitting scorpion? You get a bit of their venom in your eye and wham, lifelong blindness.” “Hey, spiders are different! Those are just… creepy. And scorpions are cool! I could blind my enemies!” “What enemies?” retorted Lizzie. “I’ll give you a day before you freak out if you get a scorpion.” As Tamar continued to explain why she most certainly would not freak out, Azzie looked over to Leanne. “Lee, what sort of creature do you want?” “I don’t know,” Leanne said. “I don’t really care. I mean, I think it’s pretty clear at this point that I don’t have an animal affinity. So just something that’s easy to take care of, I guess.” “I guess that makes sense,” said Azzie. “As for me, I want some sort of rabbit. They’re just so adorable!” “Adorable and fast,” Leanne replied. “Can you keep up?” “Oh, they’re not so bad,” replied Azzie. “Remember the time I caught that rabbit out behind Hearthvale? When we were eleven? And I kept it in a dresser drawer for a whole week before Miss Wilson found out?” Leanne cracked a smile at the recollection. “Still the angriest I’ve ever seen her. And that includes the time you turned Melly Watson’s hair bright green after you started getting good with color magic… and then couldn’t quite change it back.” “Oh no, she was so mad!” Azzie cried, laughing at the memory. “I told her I was sorry!” “Ah, it was funny,” Leanne said, waving a hand. She glanced at Pixie. “What do you want, Pix? Something that won’t keep us up at night squealing, I hope.” “I’d like a glowfish,” she said confidently. “I could use it as a booklight so I don’t have to keep draining myself with light magic after curfew. I never did like light magic.” She wrinkled her nose. “Plus, glowfish are really cute.” In the end, though, it didn’t matter what animal the students of Taming and Caring of Magical Creatures sought (or didn’t seek), because Professor Wolf-Park’s hat had other plans. When Leanne and her friends arrived to the fenced clearing the next day, there was a table set up with a dizzying array of enclosures upon it, in which rested small magical creatures of all kinds. Alyssa, who had so desperately hoped for anything but a snake, went first-- and ended up getting saddled with a fire snake. She stared at it with rapt horror as a beaming Wolf-Park presented its enclosure to her. “H-how am I supposed to feed it?” she bleated. “Why, it’s a snake. It eats mice and the like. You know that. As the teacher for this course, I shall be providing them for you as he requires them. Shouldn’t be more than once every few weeks or so.” “Right,” Alyssa said. “I know what snakes eat. I just, I mean… I can’t…” “Not another word!” cried Wolf-Park. “I am not a man who accepts a can’t-do attitude! Why, I’m sure by the end of the semester you’ll love this sweet little snake. Won’t even want to give him back, I wager! Though remember, use gloves when you handle him, fire snakes tend to fulfill their names when they get agitated, you know. Safety first! Now, next up let’s have ah, I know, Tamar, why don’t you pick next?” Tamar Chains quickly made her way to the front and put her hand in the hat, feeling around for a paper. “Come on, scorpion, scorpion, scorpion…” Tamar yanked her hand out of the hand and stared at the paper… Before hastily trying to put it back. However, Professor Wolf-Park was quicker. He yanked the paper out of Tamar’s hand and read it to the class. “Looks like you’ve got a stone-shelled snail!” the professor said. He lifted the small aquarium from the table behind him and handed it to Tamar. “I, uh…” Tamar started. “It’s just that I--” “--Will do your absolute best to be the best of friends with your lovely snail! I know this one. When I caught him, he was very friendly. You’ll like him, I promise. Now, come on up, uh, let’s see… Lizzie!” As the rest of her classmates proceeded to pick their animals-- Lizzie Milone ending up with a hairless squirrel (so sort of pettable, Leanne supposed), Azzie getting a lightning frog, and Pixie getting saddled with a saw-toothed lizard-- Leanne’s eyes settled on the creatures remaining atop the table. Of the initial twenty-five, some of the ones that she’d figured would be easier to care for had gone early, such as the stone snail and the glowfish Pixie had coveted. Dear lord, please let her not get stuck with something like the extremely needy, volatile air-leeching ladybug, an innocuous looking bug that had the ability to suck the very air out of its enclosure and thus suffocate itself if it were at all unhappy. A screeching tortoise would also be a nightmare: its vivarium looked like it would take up half the dang suite, and the noises it made were ear-splitting. Though the worst, she decided, would be the disappearing ferret, which could make itself completely transparent for hours at a time. How the heck would you be able to tell if it had escaped, or was simply in invisible mode? As the amount of pets dwindled, her eyes set upon one creature in particular. It was enclosed in a glass jar, skittering inside. A spider. Furry and black, running back and forth between the edges of the enclave, searching for any sort of escape. A dark-bellied spider. That was what it was called. Instantly, memories flooded her. There was a spider, almost just like it, in her childhood years. One she had taken a liking to in particular; she’d called it Sam. Its energetic nature had made its confinement within the jar look like torture. Memories of her mother rushed into her head: Kristy Kimber explaining to a very small Leanne how she was helping spiders like Sam by keeping them safe in a house; Leanne asking Miss Wilson at the orphanage what had happened to the spider; the imagined images of Sam languishing alone as it slowly starved to death… Leanne shook the thoughts out of her head. That was the past. Let it be. She hoped she didn’t get this spider. There were still plenty of other creatures there. Her named would be called soon, she was sure of it. However, Leanne turned out to be one of the last ones to be summoned by Professor Wolf-Park. There were three creatures left: the sparking hamster, the screeching tortoise, and the dark-bellied spider. Leanne approached slowly, praying that she would get the hamster. Or even the tortoise would be okay. She could always rearrange the furniture in the suite so there was room for the vivarium, and maybe if she kept it in the common area its screeching wouldn’t keep her up at night. Just as long as she didn’t get the spider… Professor Wolf-Park smiled as he held out the hat, seeing her hesitance. “No time like the present, Leanne.” Leanne put her hand into the hat, messing with the three pieces of paper inside. A one in three chance. She didn’t like those odds. She kept her hand in the near-empty hat for longer than was necessary, unwilling to make the choice. It was only when Professor Wolf-Park started looking restless that she finally pulled a piece of paper out. She was equally as slowing unfolding the paper as she’d been selecting it, closing her eyes until it was open enough before risking a peek. There was a long silence. “...Yes?” inquired Professor Wolf-Park. “...The spide--” “SPIDER!” Wolf-Park practically yelled out. “Wonderful! They’re really very intriguing creatures. Rather than spinning webs, they use their dark magic to ensnare their prey, but ahh-- you knew that already from your studious note-taking, I’m sure! Although yes, do keep track of its diet; they are rather fickle creatures. But I digress, here you go!” Without another moment of hesitation, Professor Wolf-Park grabbed the jar containing the spider and plunked it in Leanne’s hands. Agitated about being moved, the spider tried to scramble up the sides of the glass, but couldn’t get anywhere far. There was no escape for it, just like there hadn’t been one for Sam. ** “So,” Pixie said to Leanne that night, as they both sat on their beds doing reading for tomorrow’s classes, “have you decided what you’re going to name it yet?” “Name what?” Leanne murmured, not looking up from her book. It was a very old, dense text she’d been assigned for Professor Tiarl’s Ancient Texts and Literature class; the writing was archaic, and she was having a hard time focusing. Beyond Riley’s torture-filled course, Leanne was finding Tiarl’s the most difficult so far. “Your spider,” she said. “I’ve named my lizard Belthasar.” “Belthasar?” “Bel for short. It’s the name of a character from the book we’re reading right now in book club. You should come one day, you know. It’s already grown quite a bit in membership. In addition to Shira, Kay, Icon, and me, Icon’s gotten his roommate, Jay, to come. Well… when Jay’s not in their room crying over the telephone for his mother to come pick him up and threatening to run away and live as a street magician in one of the non-mage cities if she doesn’t, that is. And we have some older students, as well! They’re very nice. Draco Stephan is one, I don’t know if you’ve seen him around or not-- he’s kind of tall, dark hair. He’s got invocation magic. Selm Starblood is another. A fourth-year! Can do some amazingly cool illusions and make the scenes from the books just about come to life!” “Um, maybe I’ll come later on in the semester,” Leanne murmured. “I’m kind of already overwhelmed with my studies, Pix. Especially Professor Riley’s class. You blink at her wrong and she kicks you out.” Pixie sighed. “Okay. But you didn’t answer my question. What are you going to call the spider?” “It’s a spider, Pixie,” Leanne said. “It doesn’t need a name.” “Don’t be ridiculous, it’s going to be with you the whole semester!” Pixie refuted. “You may as well name it. Seems impersonal not to.” “I guess,” Leanne said, shutting her book. “But for now I’m going to bed, Pixie. I’m tired. Talk to you in the morning.” ”...Okay,” Pixie said quietly. “Night, Leanne.” Leanne set her book down and rolled over. Her eyes fell on the little spider on her night table, trying to hide from the world in its own little dark cloud. Leanne shut her eyes to block it out, but it didn’t do her much good. The memories stretched on, and when she finally drifted off to sleep, her dreams were uneasy and filled with many crawling, spidery legs, skittering along the walls, aching to get out... Perhaps it was because of her poor sleep, but the next day Leanne was even more uneasy about her spider. She saw the way Pixie chatted to her lizard and Lizzie fed their squirrel before heading off for class, but Leanne could only manage a halfhearted wave toward her shadowy charge before rushing out of the room toward her first class. After the day’s class with Professor Wolf-Park, Leanne felt even worse. Everyone had shared stories of how well they were getting along with their new pets; even Tamar was now gushing to her friends about her lovely little Goosher, and Alyssa was not entirely terrified by her fire snake. Seeing the excitement on her classmates’ faces just did more to prove, in Leanne’s eyes, that this wasn’t the way the assignment was supposed to go. She stayed quiet all through class, hoping nobody would notice. Luckily Professor Wolf-Park was kept busy answering constant questions. Amy Pett-Friend, who was very fond of her air-leeching ladybug, wanted to make sure she was giving it the best care possible; Tora Kie had many inquiries about keeping track of her disappearing ferret. And that was just the start. Leanne was quite relieved when class ended and it was time for lunch, where she’d finally be able to focus on something other than her uneasiness about her spider. Alas, it was not to be. When she finally caught up to her friends at their usual lunch table, Leanne found that Pixie and Azzie had decided to bring their pets to lunch. “Lee! Come meet Zippy,” Azzie chirped, holding out a frog with a yellowish sheen. Based on what she’d heard of lightning frogs Leanne was not entirely keen to touch it, but she smiled weakly and held out her hand so it could see she didn’t have food for it. She sat down beside Pixie, who had her lizard in its cage on her lap and was grinning at it. Icon’s head was bent over the cage, too. “Isn’t he precious?” Pixie cooed. “He is kinda cool,” Icon agreed. “Man, I wish I were taking that class now. Too bad all of my aptitude tests gave me about a zero percent chance of having an animal affinity.” “It’s great,” Pixie said. “What about you, Leanne? Have you decided what to name your spider yet?” Leanne shook her head. “I… Guys, can I tell you something?” “Sure, Lee, what’s up?” Icon asked. Pixie and Azzie turned their attention towards her, and suddenly Leanne felt a bit self-conscious. “...I don’t like this assignment,” she admitted. “It makes me feel weird. The spider, I mean. I used to…” She stopped. She wasn’t sure how to explain to her friends about the spiders in the jars. “I don’t like spiders,” she said finally. “I’m sorry,” Azzie said, patting her friend’s back. “I’m sure the spider will grow on you, Leanne.” “Awww,” crooned a voice from behind them, one that instantly sent the hairs on the back of Leanne’s neck prickling. There was no mistaking the shrill, mocking tone of Gilly Queen. “What do you want, Gilly?” Leanne snapped, glancing at the redheaded girl. She was standing with her hands on her hips and a leering Jacob Nova at her side. In the two and a half weeks Leanne had spent at Mistonarc so far, she didn’t think she’d seen the two of them apart more than once or twice. “Oh, nothing!” sang Gilly. “I was just walking by and overheard that little Leanne Kimber is scared of spiders. Kind of weird, isn’t it, you’d think the daughter of a cold-blooded murderer would have more nerves.” As Leanne’s blood pressure shot through the roof, Gilly glanced down at the lightning frog in Azzie’s lap. “He kept flashing last night, you know,” she said. “I was afraid our whole room would burn down. And the light! It interfered with my beauty rest, Azalea Greene. He’d better not start croaking, too. Or else Nova and I might have some delicious frog legs for supper someday soon. Gosh, I’m glad I’m not in that stupid class. I wouldn’t want to have to waste my time caring for some dumb toad.” Azzie hovered her hands protectively over her frog. “Sorry Gilly, I’ll try not to have him bother you at night. But it’ll take time. Could you be nice to Zippy until then?” “It’d be better if you try to make him not bothersome soon,” Gilly said, folding her arms. “I don’t want to lose another wink of sleep, you got me? I have to get up early, you know.” “You and everyone else,” Leanne said with gritted teeth. “Now shut up and go away.” Gilly and Nova only laughed at this. “You try to be tough, yet you can’t even play tough with a spider,” Gilly trilled. “That doesn’t really work out well for you. Come on Nova, let’s eat. Then we’ll go play light-dark ball a bit before class.” The duo walked off. Leanne audibly groaned when they left. “Hate them, hate them, hate them…” she muttered to herself. “If you hate them, that’s stooping down to their level,” Azzie reminded. “And… don’t take this the wrong way, Lee. But they’re hardly the first people to ever tease you. The kids at Hearthvale weren’t exactly beacons of kindness… nor were the kids at Entwaff for that matter. So why let them bother you so much? You never have before.” “I don’t know,” Leanne murmured. But that wasn’t entirely true. She did know, at least abstractly, why Gilly and Nova’s words got so deep under her skin: the subject matter. Her mother. The way their words brought forth vague, tantalizing memories that she’d tried to keep under wraps for years. Memories that she couldn’t make sense of, and didn’t necessarily want to make sense of. She swallowed hard and looked down at her plate. The food on it was only half-eaten, but suddenly she wasn’t hungry anymore. “I have to do something,” Leanne said, standing up. “I’ll see you guys later.” “Wait! Want us to come?” Pixie asked. “No, it’s fine. But thanks,” Leanne said, smiling at her friends. “I’ll be fine.” She hurried out of the dining hall and up towards her room. Her friends meant well, but they didn’t understand. They couldn’t understand, not when Leanne herself wasn’t sure if she understood, But this wasn’t how this class was supposed to go, even if she didn’t have any sort of animal affinity. ** Ten minutes later Leanne was knocking on a door in the professors’ office wing, a jar under her arm. “Professor Wolf-Park?” The door opened and a beaming Professor Wolf-Park greeted her. “Leanne! Come to ask about your new friend? How is she getting on, by the way?” “She? Ah...Not so good. Professor Park, I don’t think this spider and I were meant for each other.” She held up the jar, where the spider was skittering around inquisitively in the professor’s direction. He grinned at it, then looked back up at Leanne. “On the contrary, I think this spider is very fond of you. Look at the way she watches you.” Leanne didn’t want to. “But Professor, I’m not… I have a thing about spiders,” she admitted. “Kind of a phobia.” Professor Wolf-Park patted Leanne’s arm. “Facing a fear is one of the best ways to overcome it. Miss Kimber, I believe this union was meant to be. You, strengthened against your fear of spiders. This little one, cared for by a dedicated and gifted student.” “But Professor--” “No buts needed. Leanne, I’m sorry, but all of the other creatures have been assigned. The assignment is underway, and I can’t change it. Besides,” he added, “I really do think this is for the betterment of both of you.” Sensing that the conversation was over, Leanne sighed and looked again at her spider. It did seem to be paying attention to her. “Well, seems we’re stuck together,” she murmured as she turned to leave. She didn’t at all care what Wolf-Park said: her caring for this spider for the rest of the semester was not going to be a good thing. She stared sullenly at the fuzzy little thing as she reached her room and set the jar back down onto her nightstand. Images of Sam flashed back into her head-- followed by a long-ago memory of her father, furious, yelling at her mother, the two of them framed by a shelf of mason jars, as a small Leanne hid behind a door, peeking out at them-- Leanne bit her lip and tried to shake the memory away. She didn’t have time for this; her next class started in five minutes. She was so rattled and distracted, however, that Professor Rawl, who usually didn’t scold his students much, twice called her out for daydreaming. In Riley’s class next period-- which was spent going over the difference between true mind magicians, who could control the thoughts of others, and psychics, who could merely read the thoughts of others-- she could barely focus. That image of her arguing parents bloomed in her head like a dandelion in spring; no matter how hard she tried to push it away, it sprouted over and over again. By the time her final class let out at ten to four, Leanne’s head hurt, and her stomach was twisted into knots. Why hadn’t Professor Wolf-Park just let her swap the stupid spider for something else? So what if all of the other animals had already been assigned? Surely he had something else he could give her! Anything else. The more she thought about it, the more aggravated she became. She was all for positive thinking, but when a student came to you telling you that they had a phobia of the pet that was going to be situated inches from their head each night, you listened to them. You didn’t beam and smile and tell them that it would be ‘bettering’. What did that mean, bettering? It was a freaking spider. It wasn’t like being in Leanne’s custody would suddenly make it have a personal reawakening and discover itself in a whole new way. By dinnertime, she was fuming, and her friends immediately picked up on her mood, with Icon asking her, “What’s the matter, Lee?” “Professor Wolf-Park,” she mumbled, stabbing at a rubbery piece of chicken on her plate. “I told him I wanted a different animal. He refused. He’s such a jerk.” “That’s not very nice,” Pixie said with a frown. “I like him quite a lot. I’m in his Basics of Healing class, you know. And he’s already nearly positive that I’ve got healing magic in me. He thinks it’s only a matter of weeks before I’ll be able to heal something for real. He’s very helpful and kind. He helped me learn this difficult technique we were working on. ” “I like him, too,” Azzie said. “As for the spider-- it can’t be all bad, Lee. Just give it a chance. Don’t take your frustrations out on it. It’s not the spider’s fault that Professor Wolf-Park won’t let you change creatures, after all.” Leanne let out a disgruntled sigh. “I guess... But it still doesn’t seem fair.” The conversation didn’t make her feel that much better throughout that day. She still sulked around her room that night as she did her homework, doing her best not to look at the spider. If she had her way, she wouldn’t want anything to do with it. Just send it off and never see it again. Unfortunately, she didn’t really have a choice in the matter. As she dumped a cricket into the spider’s jar before immediately closing it and turning away, she found herself wishing that she could have taken anything else but the Creatures class. Over the new few days, though, she did find herself hating the spider a little bit less. Looking at its jar didn’t automatically evoke a flurry of disconcerting, vague memories… or if it did, she became more adept at swallowing them down, repressing them. She didn’t like the thing in the slightest, but maybe she didn’t wholly loathe it, either. And Azzie was right: it wasn’t the spider’s fault that Professor Wolf-Park wouldn’t let her get a different creature for the project. Plus, she had more important things to do than spend her time waxing and brooding about a tiny little arachnid. She was giving this dumb spider more energy than it was worth. “What am I gonna do with you?” she murmured to it one morning as she sat on the edge of her bed, pulling on her shoes. The spider, which had been still, scampered across the jar, again as if it were staring at her. Leanne stared back. “A she,” she said. “Professor Wolf-Park said you were a she, didn’t he? Funny how that goes. I always wanted a girl dog growing up, you know. A puppy. I wanted to call her Zoe. Of course we weren’t allowed any pets at Hearthvale, so I never got one.” She finished tying her shoe. “Just you. ...How ‘bout it? Would you like to be a Zoe?” she asked the spider. Leanne wasn’t sure whether the spider was really responding or not. It wasn’t like it could talk or anything. But it did tap its legs on the glass a few times as it stared at Leanne. “...Well, I’m not here for mind reading,” Leanne said, staring at the spider. “Okay then, Zoe it is.” Chapter FiveBefore Leanne knew it, over a month had passed since her arrival to Mistonarc. The chill of early autumn had set in, the days cool and the nights downright blustery. The trees that covered Mistonarc’s sprawling grounds had started to change, their leaves now a stunning array of bright oranges and russets and golds-- well, except for a thicket near the gates that had seen some students having fun with color magic. The leaves in that copse were a healthy mix of neon purple, lime green, and hot pink.
On account of the plunging temperatures, the Taming and Caring of Magical Creatures class was moved from its initial location in a fenced clearing outside the main building to a protected shed, which was musty and smelled a little bit like manure. Leanne was glad that all students had recently been issued uniform coats and scarves, because at least she could use them to cover her nose during lessons. Like most of her classes, the Taming and Caring of Magical Creatures had become a little easier as she adjusted to it, though her workload was still much greater than she had been used to at Entwaff. The two classes she continued to struggle most in were Magic of Life, Death, Mind, and the Soul, and Ancient Texts and Literature.
The former was challenging because the disagreeable Professor Riley had been going much more in depth about the nature of soul magic. Which, of course, had resulted in more unpleasant demonstrations and puzzling lectures. Riley described possession by a fate-changing magic as a very distinctive and unique experience, like no other feeling on the planet; the students who had been possessed thus far, which was about half of the class, agreed. But Leanne could not determine if they did so from fear or actual concurrment. In any case, she dreaded the day when it would be her turn to undergo possession by Riley’s strong magic.
Her other challenging class, Ancient Texts and Literature, was not all that complicated on its face, but the more the semester progressed, the more difficult the readings became. The dark-haired, imposing professor, Tiarl, had started her students on texts that were manageable, if esoteric and dense. Now, though, the books they’d been assigned were nearly incomprehensible if one didn’t allot several hours for measured poring… and several hours more for contemplation afterward. Tiarl called the readings “abstract”. Leanne just found them dizzying.
Leanne had also noticed that her roommate seemed constantly fatigued all of a sudden. Although Pixie often stayed up past a reasonable hour reading, she hadn’t appeared that tired in the weeks before. But on several occasions in the past week alone, Pixie had fallen asleep in her classes. Dark circles formed under her normally perky eyes. She became clumsy and slow to react, like she was pressing through life enshrouded in a fog.
At first Leanne tried to pass off the sudden wave of exhaustion as Pixie simply having difficulty adjusting to Mistonarc’s rigorous course load. Then one night after the girl literally fell asleep in her bowl of soup at supper, she conceded that it had to be more than that-- that something was definitely wrong with her roommate. She decided to have an intervention before Pixie hurt herself in her sleep-deprived state. A girl at Hearthvale who wasn’t happy about the workload had attempted a sleep strike a few years back (at least according to some of the older students, who admittedly weren’t stellar sources of information). Three days in, the girl had allegedly fallen down a staircase and had needed to see a healing mage on account of her resulting injuries. Leanne didn’t want Pixie to become the next girl to go stumbling down a flight of steps.
Deciding to have an intervention, however, didn’t necessarily correlate with Leanne actually mustering the courage to stage said intervention. For the next several days she waffled about it, the question coming to the tip of her tongue several times, ready to be posed, before she lost her nerve. But then at breakfast one morning, when she witnessed Pixie literally nodding off and then blinking herself back awake six times in ten minutes, Leanne decided that she just had to do it. Before Pixie did indeed become the next Mistonarc student to conk out whilst ascending a staircase.
“Why aren’t you sleeping?” she blurted out-- and then had to repeat herself four times before it registered in Pixie’s mind.
“Huh?”
“You seem really tired. Is something wrong?”
“Um, no,” Pixie said, but she was about as bad of a liar as Leanne had ever met; the words rang false. Pixie’s eyes shifted around the room, never meeting Leanne’s. There wasn’t a scrap of subtlety in her, and it didn’t take a psychic to know she was lying.
“Come on. You can tell me, you know.” When Pixie still hesitated, Leanne added, “I’m really worried about you.”
“Er,” Pixie said. “It’s just um… I think you’ve been having nightmares lately? Like, I’ve noticed them since the start of the term, and it was fine before because you only called out… occasionally. But lately it’s gotten worse. You thrash like crazy. And you… scream. Often. Several times a night. I fall back asleep easily enough afterwards, but I guess the interrupted sleep hasn’t been… restful?”
“Scream out?” Leanne asked. She felt like she ought to remember something like that. How could she have nightmares so severe and so often but recall nothing of them? Her stomach pinched. Almost automatically, that image of her parents arguing flickered through her mind, but she shoved it away.
“Yes, you scream out,” Pixie confirmed. Her cheeks were flushed red, as if she were embarrassed by having to bring up the topic. She wouldn’t look Leanne in the eye, instead staring down at her plate of food.
“Screaming out,” Leanne echoed. “What… what am I screaming for?”
“Um. Your… father. You’re screaming for your father.” She chewed on the inside of her lip, and in a voice barely louder than a whisper, added hesitantly, “You’re screaming for him to wake up. To please, please wake up. And um. I know it’s probably a little forward of me but I just… I just wonder. Do you know why you would um, why you’d be screaming for him to wake up?”
For a moment, Leanne couldn’t answer. She hadn’t even known this was happening until right now; it wasn’t like it was a long-standing problem for her. Or at least, she’d never heard Azzie complain, nor the other kids she’d roomed with over her years at Hearthvale. But her father… he’d died years ago in some sort of accident. An accident Leanne could barely remember. Heck, she barely even remembered her father at all. He lived in her mind in fleeting images and impressions: the way his blue eyes gleamed when he read her stories; how he’d cooked breakfast for her every morning while her mother was shut away, absorbed in her work; the high canter of his laughter as he tickled her. Why would she be screaming for him after all this time? What had changed? Leanne scoured her memories, trying to think of what she might have dreamed of last night, or any incidents about her father that would cause the screaming. However, she found herself getting a headache doing so, and the deeper she went, the more the pain worsened.
“...Lee?” Pixie inquired, breaking Leanne out of her thoughts.
“I don’t know,” Leanne finally admitted, shaking her head. “I’m sorry. You should’ve told me I was doing it sooner. I could have… I don’t know. Tried to stop it, I guess. I feel bad for keeping you up.”
“It’s okay,” Pixie said, finally looking up from her plate and meeting Leanne’s eyes. She smiled softly. “I know it’s not your fault. And I didn’t want to disrupt your sleep, too… might as well not have both of us tired.”
“Still… That doesn’t make what I’m doing okay. It can’t continue on like this if it’s gotten so severe that you haven’t been getting any sleep. Look, I’ll sleep out on the couch tonight. Then maybe you can rest.”
“Are you sure?” Pixie asked.
“Yes,” Leanne said confidently. “I don’t want to see you hurt yourself. It’s fine, really. I’ll just do that until I can figure something else out. And maybe… I don’t know, I’ll go to the infirmary or something. I think they’ve got a counselor on staff, right? Maybe I’ll set up an appointment.”
To be honest, Leanne wasn’t really that happy about not sleeping in her bed tonight… nor did she genuinely feel the urge to go see Mistonarc’s counselor. But that she was screaming so loudly at night that it was waking Pixie up worried her. Not enough to actively seek help-- what exactly would a counselor do about it anyway?-- but enough to set a swarm of butterflies loose in her stomach. She just hoped that moving to the couch would at least make it so Pixie could get some sleep… even if it wouldn’t fix the root of the issue.
Indeed, after she started sleeping on the couch, Pixie’s condition significantly improved. Within a few days, she was back to her normal self. She confessed that she could still slightly hear Leanne through the wall, but that it was much better than before. And much to Leanne’s relief, her roommate didn’t press her on the counselor issue, never asking if she’d truly set up an appointment. Leanne decided by time that Pixie felt better that she could manage sleeping on the couch every so often, and avoid the extra hassle with the counselor.
Before supper one evening the next week, Leanne found a cluster of students hovering around a poster that’d been tacked onto the school bulletin board outside the dining hall. The lot of them were practically buzzing, the girls more so than the boys, though all of them seemed excited. Curious, she tried to stand on her tiptoes to make out what was on the poster, but the crowd was too dense. When she noticed Hunter Frost, who was in her Alchemy class, break out from amongst the throng, she stopped him.
“What’s it say?” she asked.
“It’s an announcement for the Winter Solstice Festival,” he said with a shrug. “It’s on the day after finals. Apparently it’s kind of a big deal. Huge dance, everyone gets dressed up, all that stuff.”
“Oh,” Leanne said, a bit disappointed. She’d been hoping for something… grander, perhaps? Not to say she didn’t like the idea of a festival and dance, but she’d never been much into celebrations, likely a byproduct of growing up at Hearthvale. The headmistress, Miss Wilson, had always been far too exhausted simply caring for her charges to ever host a party or take the children to one of the village-run festivals… and Leanne had always been too unpopular at Entwaff to be invited to a party thrown by her peers.
Leanne’s lack of enthusiasm on the matter, however, seemed to be the exception as opposed to the rule. As she joined her friends at their usual table a few minutes later, all of them were chattering about the festival-- even Azzie.
“Oooh,” Azzie squealed, “it’s going to be great. My parents used to take me to all of the local festivals when I was little. There would always be color mages making the sky all pretty-- and illusionists performing the most wonderful tricks-- and the dancing! Oh, the dancing was the best!”
Alas, the joyful chatterings about the festival died down after dinner. It was still nearly three months away, after all, and in the meantime there was studying that had to be done for tomorrow’s exam in Introduction to Fate-Changing and Interpersonal Magic, which was a requirement for all first-year students. The course was normally one of Leanne’s mildest, but the topic they were being tested on tomorrow gave her headaches: the genetics and heritability principles of magic.
“Did we even start learning any of this stuff in primary school?” Leanne asked aloud to Pixie, Icon, and Azzie on the way back to their rooms.
“I think we touched on it at Entwaff,” Azzie replied. “But I also think that was about the time you had that awful flu. Even then, it wasn’t that much. Sometimes I think we missed learning a lot of non-magic knowledge by being in a mage school.”
“I’m really worried about it, too,” Pixie said. “I really didn’t expect any sort of subject like this. Once you start mashing non-magic science with magic properties, I start getting confused.”
“You know, me and my suitemates are going to get together and study for the test. Do you want to come with us?” Azzie offered.
“I think that’d be a good idea,” Pixie said. “I’ll come.”
“Count me in,” Icon said. “I’ve been trying so hard not to fail out of Riley’s torture-- er, um, class-- that I’ve kind of been slacking in Munroe’s.”
“Sure, I’ll come too,” Leanne said. “Except… Is Gilly going to be there? Because I really don’t want to study with her looking over my shoulder…”
“Oh, she said she was going to go... study... with Nova,” Azzie said, stifling a giggle. “We’ll be fine.”
Leanne sighed in relief. “Good. I’ve been meaning to see your room anyway. How about we all go collect our books and then meet up with you in a bit?”
**
The common room of Azzie’s suite looked mostly the same as Leanne’s, except some of the furniture had been rearranged and new pieces added. A collection of bright softness that one of the other students must have brought from home was set up in the center. It was a comfortable nest of sorts, built from a throw rug, several beanbags, and some overstuffed pillows. Azzie sat on the throw rug, and her suitemates had settled down onto two of the larger beanbags.
Leanne knew one of the suitemates, Alyssa, the unenthused owner of the fire snake from Magical Creatures. She smiled and waved when she saw Leanne. The other suitemate, Liz-- not to be confused with Leanne and Pixie’s own suitemate, Lizzie-- Leanne had never met before, but she seemed friendly enough. Both Alyssa and Liz had dark hair and were about the same height, but Alyssa sported brown eyes while Liz had grey ones. Icon arrived a few minutes after Leanne and Pixie, his room being the farthest away, all the way up on the tenth floor. He plunked down his heavy textbook and searched for a spot in the beanbag nest.
“Glad you all could make it,” Azzie greeted. “We should do big study sessions more often! Do you wanna see my room while everyone’s getting settled, Leanne? I’d love to show you these two posters that Liz and Alyssa gave me-- they are really cute and perfect. ”
“Okay,” Leanne said, nodding. “Maybe for a bit.”
Azzie smiled and led Leanne into her room. There wasn’t really that much to the room, other than the fact that the walls were blue as opposed to the usual grey. (“I thought I’d brighten up the place a bit with my magic!” Azzie said proudly. “We both agreed on this color… well, Gilly didn’t violently protest anyway. I don’t think she’d ever give me the satisfaction of actually agreeing with me outright.”) Most of the room’s decor was on Gilly’s side. While she didn’t have many posters, she’d tacked some photographs up on the wall, and had stuffed her cupboard with a dizzying array of knick-knacks and books-- mostly textbooks, but there were also some books on light magic tucked in. There was a washed out section of the wall opposing the bed, as if light frequently struck its surface.
Azzie’s side was a bit more drab; she just had her schoolbooks, some clothes strewn around, and a stuffed animal at the foot of her bed. Zippy, her lightning frog, hopped around on the headboard. The one dash of decoration hung above Azzie’s bed: a poster of a basket full of kittens, and directly next to it, a similarly sized poster of a cutesy faerie manipulating the water in a river.
“Aren’t the posters cute? It was so nice of Alyssa and Liz to give them to me! Oh-- Zippy says ‘hi!’” Azzie giving a voice to her pet wasn’t exactly odd. Even Leanne found herself talking to her contemptible spider on occasion. Still, Zoe remained on the nightstand back in Leanne’s suite, and was not generally allowed to explore the room freely. She hadn’t become that comfortable with the spider’s presence.
“They are cute, alright. Much brighter than Gilly’s side.”
“Thank you! I think everyone should be all set up now. C’mon, let’s go!”
The girls returned to the common area, and found the others fully settled into the comfortable nest. They were sprawled out in various positions, with notes and textbooks in their laps. All the beanbags were taken, so Azzie and Leanne took a seat on the throw rug.
“So. Magical genetics. Fun stuff, fun stuff,” Alyssa said once Leanne and Azzie were situated. Chewing on her lip, she sighed and added,
“Does it make sense to anyone here?”
She was greeted with partially raised hands, but not any solid answers.
“Well,” Liz said, staring down at her textbook. “I guess that… magic is hereditary, basically.” She furrowed her brow and looked up. “But then again, so are things like, I don’t know, skin color. But… I’ve always been pale, since I was born. But… magic isn’t like that. For example, even if I were an oracle like my mom is, then it’s not something I’d know right off the bat. Even though it’s hereditary, it would take time to show… unlike my skin color. So does that mean magic has to be in your blood and earned?” Liz groaned and pressed her head into her hands. “Ugh, this is so confusing.”
“I… I’m not sure, but I think you always have magic, whether you earn it or not. As long as it’s in your blood,” Icon said. “So it’s not earned, exactly.”
“But it has to be trained,” Pixie said. “You could be an oracle, but if you never received proper training, you wouldn’t be able to use the power. So it would be kind of dormant, I suppose. Is that right? I… I’m not sure if that’s right. ”
There was a long silence at this, as everyone flipped through their books. Leanne joined in on the searching, but she didn’t honestly know what she was looking for. All of the others seemed to come up with answers on the fly-- or at least logical guesses-- but this subject was one of the hardest parts of the class for her so far. It was like Azzie had said earlier: being educated in a mage schools had its advantages, but such institutions tended to skimp on a lot of the non-magic subjects. She could read and do basic math; she knew important world history and how to write an essay. But genetics? It had barely been touched on. She just hoped that she’d be able to absorb her friends’ knowledge and at least do adequately on the test.
“I think… yes, you need to be trained. But if you’re not trained, then your power can still come to the surface,” Azzie said. “Like, it’s in the blood, dormant, and for it to be used well, you need the training. But even if you don’t get the training, it’s still there.”
“Oh, yeah,” Alyssa said, pointing to a section in the book. “See, it says right here-- someone who doesn’t receive training might have their power come to the surface in a stressful situation. Except… only after a certain age, because before that it’s too undeveloped. Ugh, how does that make sense? How can it be too undeveloped when you’re young and also undeveloped when you’re older, and yet only when you’re older can it come to the surface…?”
“Whether or not you’re trained, I think the strength of the magic still develops as you hit puberty,” Icon said. “So it’s not undeveloped then, per se. Just... unrefined?”
“The potential is there no matter the training, then. I guess that makes sense,” Liz said.
“So maybe… I don’t know, a young child with pain magic in their blood gets into an argument, and even if they wanted to hurt the person, they couldn’t call on the pain magic. Because it’s not yet developed enough. But that same teenager, whether or not they’ve trained, gets into an argument with someone, and they really want to hurt them, and suddenly they’re using pain magic,” Alyssa said. She cracked a small smile. “Okay, finally this is making a lick of sense.”
“But how exactly is the magic inherited, anyway?” Leanne asked. “I mean, yeah, it’s in the blood. But… is it just random? Like… your parents are mages and so you end up a mage, but what you can do is just a matter of luck?” Her head was spinning.
“No, it’s… not random, I don’t think,” Azzie said, staring down at her book. “I mean, it’s based on your genes… Doesn’t it kind of depend on what your parents do?”
“Yeah, I think so,” said Alyssa. “My dad’s an illusionist, and Professor Munroe told me that I might end up having that ability. He said my aptitude tests were extremely promising.”
“Come to think of it,” Pixie said, “my mother heals. And so does my grandpa.”
Leanne looked up. She couldn’t remember what her parents had done. She knew they were mages, but she’d been too young while living with them to understand what powers they really possessed. Sometimes when the kids at Entwaff had talked about their parents’ skills, Leanne would grow curious and ask Miss Wilson about her mother and father. But Wilson had always just sighed and replied that she couldn’t keep track of every orphan’s lineage and familial affinities. Several times before, Leanne had racked her brain, trying to remember exactly what her parents had done, desperate for an answer, but she’d only found foggy, incomplete memories. Sitting in the beanbag fort now, she again tried to go fishing into her brain, but didn’t come up with any more definitive results.
“I don’t think that’s quite right,” Liz said after a few moments. “About kids being able to do what their parents can do. My mom’s an oracle, but she’s the only oracle in my family line since… About a hundred-something years, I think. And my aptitude tests said I have no chance of being an oracle.”
“Well, did they say what you can probably do?” Alyssa asked. “I mean, you didn’t get into Mistonarc because you’re just good at elemental magic.”
“Well, yeah…” Liz thought for a moment. “Professor Thunderbolt said I had a natural talent for poison. But my dad doesn’t have that either: he’s a psychic.”
“But that’s an interpersonal magic too,” Icon said. “Has your family normally shown a history of interpersonal magic?”
Liz was quiet for a moment as she thought, scratching her chin. “Actually, yeah. There aren’t a lot of my members of my family who don’t have some sort of interpersonal magic.”
“I guess that does have something to do with it,” Azzie said. “Like, interpersonal mages make interpersonal mages. Elemental mages make elemental mages. And fate-changers make fate-changers. Guess that’s why almost all of the famous fate-changers have powerful kids, too.”
“But wait, both of my parents are only elemental mages,” Icon said. “And all my ancestors have pretty much only been elemental mages. But I ended up in Riley’s class. I… I don’t think I have a fate-changing magic, even if Riley hasn’t kicked me out yet. But the aptitude exams had me at a nearly one-hundred percent probability of having at least an interpersonal affinity. I mean, I don’t know, maybe not, but no one’s really dismissing it. And I don’t think I would have gotten into this school if it weren’t most likely true.”
“And didn’t you once say that your roommate Jay’s dad isn’t even a mage?” Pixie added. “Yet Jay’s strong enough to end up here, at least.”
“But how could that be...?” Azzie asked aloud, pondering. “I mean, you get genes from both your parents, right? So if only Jay’s mom is a mage… then… then…” Her voice trailed off, and a silence washed over the room as everyone started to ponder Azzie’s question.
“...I think there might be mutations?” Alyssa finally said. She rapidly flipped through pages of the textbook before nodding and saying,
“Yep, there’s a mention of that right here, under the stuff about probabilities. Like, you get genes from both of your parents, but the way they combine is different. Or in the case of mutation, something happens during DNA replication that changes the sequence of nucleotides. I guess something about the new combination of genes can make you more powerful. Or make it so even a kid with only one mage parent ends up with fairly significant abilities.”
“I guess that makes… some sense,” Pixie said, frowning. “I mean, throughout history, there were a lot more elemental mages, and even interpersonal mages were pretty rare, and fate-changing was almost unheard of. I mean, it’s still pretty rare now, but not nearly as rare as it was before. So that has to mean that you can get a strong mage from a weaker one… or, like Jay, a decent mage who only has one magical parent.”
Some of the students nodded in agreement, as if it all made sense to them now. Leanne certainly understood everything more than she had before, but she still couldn’t entirely wrap her head around the idea.
“...Can I see if I’ve got this straight?” she asked. “So, magic is genetic, and you’re most likely to get an ability based on what your parents can do. ...But even if not, you probably get the same type. Like, elemental or interpersonal or fate-changing. But even that’s not guaranteed, and you can still have a kid end up with an affinity completely unrelated to the affinities that tend to run in their family?” She automatically winced, worried she’d got it wrong. Instead, she was met with nodding heads.
“Yeah, I think you got it,” Azzie said, smiling.
Leanne breathed out a sigh of relief. She was starting to be extremely glad she’d come to this study session. If she could answer that, then maybe she had a chance of passing the test tomorrow.
“...But wait, aren’t there probabilities we have to memorize?” Liz asked.
“Yeah, I think so,” Alyssa said. “Punnett squares, calculating probabilities of inheritance or whatever. Munroe said that was about 25% of our grade on the test.”
“We’d better practice that, then,” Liz said. “Why don’t we make punnett squares of our own families? See if we can calculate the probabilities of our abilities? It might help to make the concept make more sense.”
There was a chorus of agreement. Everyone grabbed some paper and began making their little squares. Leanne frowned as she looked at Azzie’s paper to see how to draw the square. Even if she managed to get the right idea, how could she make probabilities of what she had if she didn’t even know what her parents did? She remembered seeing her mother cook with fire and water magic on occasion, but she knew that there had to be more to it than that. And her dad would sometimes put on puppet shows using light and dark magic, but his powers had to go deeper than that, didn’t they? Unless… she was one of those kids whose genes had mutated, gifting her with greater powers than her parents. For all she knew, her mother and father were weak elemental mages. She stared down at her paper, unsure of where to even begin.
After a while, Azzie noticed that Leanne hadn’t done any of her work. “Hey… Lee? What’s wrong-- are you not getting it?”
“No, I’m fine, I just…” She hesitated, not quite wanting to announce to a room full of people, two of whom she didn’t know particularly well, that she didn’t even have the faintest idea what her parents could do. “You know, I’m… kind of tired. And my head’s just swimming. I think I’m going to go back to my room, if that’s okay.” She glanced over at Pixie. “I’ll feed Belthasar for you, if you’d like?”
“Sure, thank you,” Pixie said. “But are you sure you’re alright, Leanne?”
“Thanks, but I’m fine.” She forced a smile. “Just tired is all. See you guys later. Have fun with your squares.”
Without another word, Leanne grabbed her things and walked out of the room as quickly as possible, not looking back to see if anyone would try to object. Perhaps she was still having some trouble grasping the concepts, but her concerns about the test were pushed to the back of her mind. She knew objectively that she shouldn’t let thoughts about her past get to her, but this was easier said than done. Knowing your parents’ affinities-- that was something other people took for granted. Even Azzie. And yet for Leanne it was something mysterious and inaccessible.
She let out a sigh. She couldn’t wait for this section of the class to be over. She doubted she would even use knowledge of magic genetics in the future, and she didn’t like the uncertainties that it brought up about her heritage… especially since there was nothing she could do now to figure out what her parents did. And her own magic abilities would come to be revealed whether or not she held this knowledge.
It didn’t matter, she decided. The past was in the past. She’d just have one more day to do the test, and then she wouldn’t have to think about it for another moment. Chapter Six The next few days passed rather uneventfully, homework and classes rhythmically flowing with each other. Leanne was relieved but not outright pleased with the results of the Introduction to Fate-Changing and Interpersonal Magic exam on genetics: she had passed it, but only barely. Meanwhile, another student, Tia Yow, failed to make the cut in Professor Riley’s class. The bristly woman shouted orders for Tia leave the room at once after the girl committed the mortal sin of accidentally ripping off a large piece of her homework, and the shouts rattled the windows in their frames. Riley’s class now numbered only five, including Leanne. And, she noted with dread, she was now the only one in the class who had not yet come under the professor’s possession. After Riley made a biting comment about this at the end of the session in which Tia was booted, Leanne became all but positive that the next day would be her turn.
At breakfast the next morning, Leanne sat with her friends, but while they quickly polished off their meal, her eggs and bacon, now cold, sat on the plate untouched. Icon, who was sitting next to her, noticed Leanne’s lack of appetite.
“Hey Lee, you’re not sick or something, are you?” he asked. “You haven’t touched your breakfast.”
Leanne snapped out of staring at the plate. “I… no, I’m not sick, I’m fine. Well, not fine… just worried, I guess? Based on what Riley said to me yesterday, I’m pretty sure today will be my soul possession in her class.”
“Oh,” Icon said, giving her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. “Well, I’m sure you’ll be fine. Would be super hard to outdo my reaction, anyway. Compared to me, you’ll look like a champ.” He smiled self-deprecatingly.
“I just don’t like the idea of her having complete control over me,” Leanne replied. “I know
you guys think she’s just strict and that I overreact about her, but I’m sorry, she still gives me the creeps. And the way she keeps babbling about how unique and disconcerting the sensation is when you’re possessed-- I just…” Her voice trailed off.
“It is unique,” Icon agreed. “But it’s not bad, really. A little off-putting, sure. But hey, everyone else has gotten through it fine, haven’t they? I’m the only one who had a panic attack… I mean, except Colin Aster, but he never even got to the possession point, did he? And I’m sure he would have been fine with it if he hadn’t freaked out beforehand. So there’s no reason that you won’t be okay, Leanne. I’m sure of it.”
Leanne frowned. “I guess so. But… I just don’t know what to expect.”
“That’s the thing,” Icon said. “You really can’t expect it. Riley’s right when she goes on about how strange and novel the sensation is. But I promise you, it won’t be even remotely as bad as you’re thinking.” He added with a grin, “And who knows, maybe she’ll get mad and fail you before it even happens. Then you get an automatic study hall. How cool is that? ...I mean, don’t get me wrong, I don’t want her to kick you out. But I can’t be the only one who’s kind of jealous of Colin, Tia, and Tamar. While we’re slaving away being possessed and worked to the bone, they’re just doing homework for their other classes.” He sighed whimsically and then took a noisy bite of his (perfectly browned) toast.
“It would be nice…” Leanne admitted. “...But then if I do have a fate-changing power, I’ll have to work with her more anyway. And she hasn’t kicked me out yet…” Leanne sighed. “I don’t know… Maybe you’re right, and it won’t be so bad. I’m probably just overthinking it.”
In spite of Icon’s support, however, Leanne couldn’t quite shake away her anxieties. She finished her breakfast with a pit in her stomach, worries festering in her mind.
The rest of the day progressed slowly for her, and with the thought of her possession weighing heavily on her, she couldn’t quite concentrate in any of her morning classes, try though she might. Luckily, it wasn’t really a problem in her Alchemy class, which consisted of an easy day of brewing that ended up being let out an entire twenty minutes early after Imogen Wesley mixed up frog’s wort with toad’s wort, the latter of which was flammable and thus set her entire beaker ablaze. Extinguishing the fire so exhausted Thunderbolt that he instantly excused the rest of the class afterward.
However, Leanne’s lack of focus didn’t fly so easily under the radar in her next two classes. Professor Tiarl had to snap her back to attention twice, and in Taming and Caring of Magical Creatures, she completely screwed up one of the questions Professor Wolf-Park aimed towards her about spiders, of all things. Lunch seemed to move for her at a nearly funereal pace. Each minute felt as if it were ten. Even with Icon’s continuing support, and his offer to sneak a cookie from the dining hall into the classroom if Leanne needed it, her nerves didn’t improve.
She barely heard a word that Professor Rawl said during Responsibility as Magical Persons. She kept her eyes on the clock the entire time, dreading the arrival of 1:30pm, when fifth period would let out and she’d have to make her way to Riley’s class. She briefly considered ditching, but decided that this was probably not a good idea. She couldn’t be a coward, no matter how appealing that option was. If everyone else could undergo the possession and survive it-- even Icon, who was practically the most easily unnerved person she’d ever met-- then surely she could, too. Plus, she thought dourly, Gilly and Jacob Nova already had enough fodder to tease her about. She did not want to hear the barbs they’d come up with if word got back to them that she’d been so afraid of being possessed by Riley that she’d run off to hide.
Still, in the ten minute passing period between classes, Leanne’s anxiety was pushing its breaking point. She slipped in the girl’s lavatory across the hall from Riley’s classroom and splashed cold water onto her flushed, burning face. “You can do this,” she murmured to the girl in the mirror. “Stop acting like a crazy person. You’re fine, Lee. Totally fine.”
In the classroom, Leanne took a seat next to Icon, who flashed a reassuring smile at her and gestured at his bag, in which she assumed he had that pilfered cookie. She forced a smile back and took deep, calming breaths. She tried to ignore the way Riley seemed to be leering at her from the front of the room. Gosh, why didn’t anyone else see it, or feel the disconcerting vibes that emanated from the woman? Leanne had experienced many strict teachers throughout her life-- heck, even Tiarl at this very school was pretty darned strict. But it wasn’t Riley’s strictness that bothered Leanne. There was something else, something deeper, that no one, not even Leanne herself, could seem to pinpoint.
When the clock struck 1:40, Riley paced to the blackboard and picked up a piece of chalk. “Good afternoon,” she said as she started scritching on the board. “Today we will be going over the history of law with regards to utilization of mind and soul magic. Near the end of class, our student who has yet to experience what it’s like to be possessed by soul magic will have her turn.” She turned back around and stared at Leanne, as if daring her to run. When she didn’t, Riley said, “Ah, glad to see I don’t have another Colin Aster on my hands. Now, who can tell me the year that the first official doctrine regarding mind and soul magic was drafted?”
David Kozma, who among the five remaining students in the class was definitely the most eager to please, raised his hand. But Leanne’s heart was beating so fast and loud that she barely heard his answer. In fact, she barely heard anything at all that was discussed over the next forty-five minutes. Finally, when there was just fifteen minutes of class remaining, Riley concluded her lecture and beckoned Leanne to the front of the room.
“You’ll do great,” Icon whispered to her as she stood up and started towards the professor; she felt like a condemned prisoner walking to the gallows. She tried to take deep breaths. The last thing she wanted was to show anyone other than Icon that she was so nervous. Especially not Riley.
“Now,” Riley said when Leanne finished her approach, “I assume you know how this works, Miss Kimber. The possession will only last one to two minutes. You will have no control over your body, though your thoughts will remain your own. You will not be put into any danger. Are you ready?”
“Sure,” Leanne mumbled, staring down at the tops of her shoes.
“Then look into my eyes,” Riley said. To Leanne’s ears, it sounded like the death toll.
Slowly, Leanne brought her gaze up to Riley’s, meeting the professor’s dark pupils. The instant she did, a queer feeling rushed over her, battered her, like she was a buoy in an angry sea. She felt her arms lifting into the air, raised above her head, but try as she might, she couldn’t tug them back down. Unique, she thought to herself, Riley’s repeated words playing over in her head. The feeling is unique. Like nothing else.
Except… Somehow, it wasn’t. This oddness, this mixture of warmth and numbness and panic and anxiety and placidness, almost… she’d felt it before. As Riley manipulated her like a puppet, making her do laps around the classroom, a memory leapt into Leanne’s mind like a rabid dog taking hold of a bone. Suddenly, she was no longer in a classroom at Mistonarc Academy, but… elsewhere.
In her mind’s eyes, she saw herself as a child-- small, no more than two or three-- sitting in her mother’s lap. Ensnared in the woman’s embrace. A hug, maybe? But different somehow. And the same feeling that was permeating her now was overcoming her then, as her mother smiled and whispered to her, “Leanne. My sweet Leanne. Yes, you’re doing so well, baby. Just a little bit longer, okay?”
As quickly as that image came to her, it flew away, replaced by something far less pleasant. A wire cage, filthy and full of rats-- the rats’ bodies littered with scars and lesions-- her mother dipping a hand into the enclosure and all of the tiny animals skittering away, afraid of her grasp. One of the rats screaming in her mother’s grip as Kristy Kimber turned to her daughter and shouted, “How many times, Chet, do I have to tell you to keep Lee out of here when I’m working!”
And then-- that faded away too. The familiar old recollection of her parents arguing as she hid behind a door bloomed in its place, but that evaporated just as quickly as it’d come. Leanne was no longer even conscious of what Riley was doing with her body. The professor could have had her throw herself out the window, and Leanne wouldn’t have even noticed. She couldn’t notice, not when--
A woman. She remembered a woman now. She was petite, with dark eyes as large as saucers, and… a chain tether fastened around her ankle. A non-mage. Leanne wasn’t sure why she knew this, but she did. “Help,” the woman was gasping… gasping… and then. Then it wasn’t the woman anymore. She’d been replaced by someone else. A man, lying prone on his side, a trail of blood leaking from his nose. A little Leanne leaning over him, screaming for him to wake up. But he wouldn’t wake up. No matter how hard she shook him, no matter how many times she cried out for him-- “Daddy! DADDY!”-- he stayed in that position, his skin cold and ashen, his dead eyes gazing out at nothing.
The next thing Leanne was truly conscious of in the real world was the piercing sound of screaming. A loud, primeval screaming. It took her several moments to realize that the horrid sound was coming from her own lungs.
She blinked rapidly and looked around, and found herself lying on the floor of Riley’s classroom, near the back door. Her body ached, like she had been convulsing on the ground. She gasped for air and jolted upright. Everyone in the room was gaping at her, their mouths hanging open, their eyes wide. Leanne looked past her classmates at the front of the room, where Riley stood with her arms crossed. While everybody else seemed stunned, Riley… didn’t. The expression on her face was more amusement than anything.
Breathing heavily, Leanne staggered to her feet. She almost fell right back over, but managed to keep herself upright by gripping onto an empty desk. “I… I…” She couldn’t get any words out. As everyone continued staring at her, she turned towards the door. “I have to go,” she spluttered, and then flung herself outside.
She ran down the hallway as quickly as she could go, without caring where exactly she ended up. Her only destination was away. Despite her frantic sprinting, she didn’t get very far. She had gone down just two corridors before she found herself out of breath, not from the running, but from the weight of the memories on her mind and the lump in her throat. But she was out of that classroom. That was important. Without another moment of hesitation, she dashed into an adjacent hallway--one which she made certain was empty-- and crumpled to the ground, sobbing.
Her father… she’d alway thought it was an accident. That’s what she’d been told, all those years ago. But the look on his face, the blood coming down his nose… it couldn’t be. Could it?
“Lee? Leanne!” a voice cried from a distance. Icon. A part of Leanne wished that he wouldn’t be able to find her. Even if he was her friend, she wasn’t sure if she was fully willing to describe what had just happened. She barely even understood what had just happened.
But she couldn’t stifle her sobbing at all. A few moments later, Icon’s face appeared in the hallway. He walked over and sat down by Lee’s crumpled form. He tried to wrap an arm around her shoulder, but she shrugged out of his grasp. Undeterred, he tried again and again, refusing to let her worm away from him. Finally, she gave up and collapsed into his hold. For awhile, the two of them just sat there in silence as she sobbed and Icon held her.
Finally, though, he said to her, “So, I’m not the best with these kinds of things. Like, friend-type things. I- um- until I came here to Mistonarc, I really… didn’t have friends. But, um... I think that the general friend-approved thing to do right now is not to offer you that cookie in my bag, no matter how tempting an idea it is to me. Am I right on that?”
Through the tears, she forced a hollow laugh. “Yeah,” she snuffled. “You got that one right.”
“Okay, good.” He smiled at her. “Then, I suppose, the next friend-type thing to do would be to ask you if you’re okay. And I’m guessing the response would be ‘duh, no, Nico, of course I’m not okay’. So um, I’ll skip that. And just tell you that whatever happened to you in there, it didn’t look fun, and I’m very sorry, Leanne. I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”
She reached up and wiped at her eyes. “Thanks, Nico,” she said.
“You’re welcome,” he replied. Then: “So, um... I don’t want to be too forward or anything. But… if you wanted to share what happened in there, I’d be willing to listen. I-If not though… It’s okay, I understand.”
“Thanks for the offer,” she said. “But I don’t even really know what happened. So I… don’t think I can fully explain it.” She bit her lip. “D-did you see her, though? Riley?”
“See what about her?” Icon asked.
“Her face. Afterward. W-when I was screaming.”
“No,” he said. “I was looking at you. I was concerned for you.”
“She wasn’t. At all. She wasn’t even… disinterested or disaffected. No. I-It was more than that, Icon. She was… it was like she’d enjoyed it. L-like she was pleased with herself somehow.” She hiccuped. “I don’t k-know what happened to me. I really don’t. I think I lost more than just control of my body. And that woman was behind it. I… I don’t care if she says soul magic can’t impact your mind. It did, Icon. It did.”
“Um. I know you’re upset, Lee. I do. But… soul magic can’t impact your mind,” he said. “I mean, that’s not just um, something she made up, you know? It’s an established fact. Like a law of magic.”
“Then she must have done s-something else. She must have… She...” She tried to take a breath. “I… I can’t do this. I can’t see her face again. I don’t care about the magic anymore. I-I don’t care. Even if she doesn’t k-kick me out for running away, I’m dropping that course right now. I can’t go through that again.”
Nico seemed truly worried at this prospect. “But… you can’t just drop it, Lee. I mean, after you had such a violent reaction, there’s no way she’d ever possess you again.”
“This is Riley we’re t-talking about though. Why wouldn’t she drop me just for this?”
“Look, she didn’t treat this like she did with Colin. She didn’t announce your failure the second you ran away, Lee. So um, I think that means that maybe you have a chance. You’ve told me before, this is your best shot in your life. You just have a few more months under Riley’s nose, and then you’ll train under von Killix herself if you show the potential.”
“You… you didn’t see her face,” Leanne murmured. “She’s evil, Icon. I swear it.”
“Maybe,” he said. “But it’s already October, you know. Semester’s over in two months. Just two more months. Won’t it be worth it in the long run, Lee?” He grinned sheepishly and added, “Plus, without you in the class, who would I gripe to about Riley’s insanity?”
“You could talk to your roommate Jay,” she said, cracking her own smile. “When he’s not s-sobbing on the phone to his mother.”
“So um, that would be… never.” Icon laughed weakly.
Leanne sighed. Her tears had finally slowed from a waterfall to just a trickle. “I-I guess I’ll s-stay in the class,” she said. “Assuming Riley doesn’t decide to fail me out. B-but only to spare you from having to wrest the phone away from Jay so you can rant to him.”
Icon patted her on the back. “Heh… It’ll be worth it, Leanne. I really think so.”
Leanne knew Icon meant well, but she had a distinct feeling that he was wrong about Riley. That witch had to be up to something; it wouldn’t make any sense otherwise. She was sure that Riley would try to possess her again. That look on her face as Leanne was screaming almost guaranteed it. Maybe she was giving the class one more chance, but she wasn’t going to give that chance to Riley. She promised to herself that if Riley tried that trick on her ever again, she would drop out on the spot. Chapter Seven
Leanne opted not to go to her last class that day, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to concentrate, even after Icon’s attempts to calm her down. Before she returned to her suite, however, she asked Icon not to tell anyone else, including their other friends, about what had happened in Riley’s classroom. She figured that the new memories were hard enough to handle without more people knowing about her freak-out. And though she wasn’t delusional and conceded to herself that word would probably get around eventually, she would prefer that she and Icon not help fan that fire. She also asked Icon to tell Professor Munroe that she fell ill as an excuse to not go to his class. The moment Icon finally left her, Leanne immediately went back to her suite and shut herself in her room. Flopping down onto her bed, she buried her face into her pillow and screwed her eyes shut-- but the instant she did, those memories surged back into her head. The rats, the chained woman, her father’s body. The way that, despite Riley’s claims that the feeling of possession was unique, Leanne knew she’d felt it before, in her mother’s lap when she was just a little girl. Kristy’s silky words echoed in her head: “Just a little bit longer, okay?” A little bit longer for what? What was Kristy Kimber doing to her daughter? And did this mean that, despite Leanne’s lack of recollection about her parents’ magic, Kristy was a fate-changing mage? And if so, what could the woman do? Soul magic like Riley? Mind magic, a skill that Riley had recently determined David Kozma likely held? Or was it something else altogether? That she knew none of this sent a panicked feeling washing over Leanne once more. Trying not to slip back into an anxiety attack, Leanne turned over onto her side and opened her eyes. A few inches away on the nightstand, Zoe was polishing off the remains of a worm that Leanne had dropped into the jar a few days before. Leanne’s stomach churned; she flopped over again so that she faced the wall instead. Sleep came fitfully for Leanne that night, tormented by vivid scenes of horror, and she awoke screaming several times. Even though she was sleeping on the couch in the common room, the startled cries were enough to jolt awake not just Pixie, but also Elsie and Lizzie. The next morning Leanne was so tired from the experience and acutely aware of how much she'd kept her friends awake, that she skipped breakfast and barely made it into Alchemy on time. Leanne didn't see either Pixie or Azzie until Care of Magical Creatures rolled around. At the end of class, as they walked through the halls towards the dining hall to get lunch, Leanne felt Azzie watching her. Staring at the dark circles under her eyes, the exhausted pallor of her skin, the way she couldn’t go thirty seconds without fighting a yawn. “Um, Leanne, are you sure you've gotten these nightmares under control?” she said. “You look like you haven't slept in days. And Pixie told me about last night. How you were screaming so loud she and your suitemates could hear you through the walls?” Leanne shot a look at Pixie; her roommate’s own eyes instantly shot down to the floor, embarrassed. Sighing, Leanne said to Azzie, “It was just particularly bad last night. Stress, I guess. I’ll be fine.” “I’d call it more than ‘particularly bad’,” Pixie murmured, still not willing to dredge her gaze from the floor. “You have Elsie, Lizzie, and me worried sick, Leanne. Nightmares are one thing. The way you were screaming last night?” She shook her head. “It was worse than anything before, and before was already pretty bad. What about seeing a counselor, Lee? I thought you were you were going to do that weeks ago, when the nightmares first started. But then you never brought it up again.” “There's no need to be worried about me. Really, I'm sorry for keeping you awake, but last night was just a fluke. I’ll be better tonight, I know it,” Leanne said. “As for the counselor… I’ve just been so busy. Maybe I’ll look into it a bit more, alright? But really, it’s unnecessary, because I’m fine. Completely fine.” Neither of them looked convinced, but they didn’t say another word; they merely glanced at each other with furrowed brows as they arrived to the dining hall and grabbed their plates. Leanne stared very intently at the food and stabbed morsels onto her plate with little thought as to what she was taking. She hadn’t considered going to a counselor, really. At least, not recently. And though objectively she knew it wasn’t a terrible idea, she also knew there was nothing a counselor could say that would help her right now. She just needed more time to think about the newly unearthed memories in order to reconcile them… and talking with a counselor wasn’t going to help with that. And besides, she didn’t need any more evidence floating around about her breakdown. Things didn’t improve in the next few days, though. Time did nothing to dull the sting of the recollections. In fact, to Leanne, it felt like the opposite had occurred. Her screams gradually got louder over the next few days, and she began staying up more and more, both to avoid the nightmares and to avoid waking up her worried suitemates. Not to mention the fact that they would continue to shoot unwarranted advice her way; they couldn’t see what she was thinking, so their advice felt useless to her. She had further difficulty trying to stay up during her classes, and she found herself drifting off more often, but she tried desperately to keep herself awake; it wouldn’t do to fall asleep and scream in the middle of class, after all. The only icing on the cake was that at least the story about her panic attack during the possession hadn’t gotten around very far. Sure, she caught the rest of her classmates in Riley’s course shooting her sidelong glances at times, but as far as she knew, none of them had gone off whispering to their friends about the crazy Leanne Kimber and her most unusual reaction to being controlled by soul magic. There were always lots of pieces of juicy gossip floating around Mistonarc, but Leanne’s reaction didn’t seem to be one of them. … That is, until about a week later, when she sauntered into Alchemy one morning after yet another restless night’s sleep and was instantly set upon by Gilly Queen and Jacob Nova. It was a few minutes before the beginning of class, and Thunderbolt hadn’t yet arrived to the room, so Gilly and her dear friend apparently felt no need for a filter. “If it’s isn’t the great shrieking Kimber!” Gilly sneered. “Oh, Leanne, I’m so glad to see you. After all, Nova and I heard the most interesting thing about you last night, from our most treasured study partner, Tara Snow. You know Tara, right? She’s in your class with Professor Riley.” “Shut up, Gilly,” Leanne snapped. Her temple was throbbing, and she was so tired she could barely think straight. She was absolutely not-- not!-- in the mood for this kind of teasing. “So rude!” Nova said. “Interrupting Gilly in the middle of a story? Gosh, Kimber, that’s very inappropriate.” “ So inappropriate,” Gilly agreed. “Anyway, as I was saying. Tara Snow, she told me such a neat thing about you! And the way you went into total insanity mode after having soul magic performed on you. Screaming, flailing, running away. Know why I found it so interesting, Leanne?” “Shut. Up.” “No, no, that’s not why. I found it funny because well-- it proves to me everything I’ve been saying all along. About how you’re unstable! Genetics, you know. You’re predisposed to being a loon and breaking into random fits.” She smiled. “Like mommy, like daughter.” “We just hope you don’t lose it again and go on a murdering spree,” Nova added. “We’re very concerned. We’re thinking of talking to von Killix about it. You know, for the safety of all this school’s students… not just the crazy ones.” Leanne’s knee-jerk response was to utter the reply she always gave to Gilly and Nova when they began heckling her about her supposedly murderous mother: to deny it. To claim that Kristy Kimber would never, ever do such a thing. But as the words came to the tip of her tongue, that image of father-- dead, pale, and cold-- surged into her head. She shrugged the memory away, but the rejoinder evaporated with it. Mom is not a murderer, Lee, she said inwardly. But she couldn’t echo the thought aloud, instead just shaking her head at Gilly and Nova. Gilly opened her mouth, as if to keep taunting, but at that precise moment, Professor Thunderbolt ambled into the room, his cane clanking noisily against the tiled floor. “Good morning, good morning!” he called to his students. “We’ve a long day of brewing ahead of us, so break into your usual experiment groups, and let’s get going!” “We’ll talk later, Kimber,” Gilly said sweetly as the class began reassembling itself. “Or how about we don’t,” Leanne muttered back, but Gilly had already sashayed away, her long red hair swishing behind her as she walked off. If Leanne’s mood wasn’t sour enough at the outset of the day due to her weeklong festival of sleep deprivation, Gilly and Nova’s barbs did nothing to improve it. She silently fumed at them throughout Alchemy, and also at Tara Snow. Why, why, why had the girl felt the need to share Leanne’s fit with the biggest two jerks at the school? Vaguely, she recalled seeing Gilly and Nova hanging around with Tara before-- sitting together at lunch; walking together between classes-- but she’d never pegged the girl as outright hostile until now. Fantastic. A new person to add to the ‘cannot-be-trusted’ list, a mental catalog of which Professor Riley, Gilly Queen, and Jacob Nova already occupied the first three slots. She penciled in Tara Snow at number four. Since Gilly and Nova had allegedly only learned about the panic attack last night, Leanne figured there were probably still a few hours left before the entire school knew. Second period was in all likelihood safe, but by the time Taming and Caring of Magical Creatures let out, she already felt curious eyes bearing into her as she walked to the dining hall. “Why’s everyone staring at you?” Pixie asked, her brow furrowed. “Oh, no reason,” Leanne grumbled. “Though you and Azzie should probably hear it from me first: I may have had a little freak-out during Riley’s class last week. It wasn’t a big deal, so I wanted to keep it under wraps, but Tara told Gilly and Nova and now… well. Now I’m pretty sure the two of them exaggerated it by a tenfold, and it’s possible half the school thinks I’m crazy.” “Last week?” Azzie said. “Yes.” “Right around when you started having those even more terrible nightmares?” “Yes. But it’s not related. Really, it’s not.” “Are you sure?” Pixie asked. “Because if it is, Lee, then you know the source of the worsening nightmares, and maybe you can get some help so that--” “It’s not related. I’m positive,” Leanne lied as they reached the dining. “And really, I don’t want to talk about it anymore. Let’s just grab our food, okay?” “Just one more time, Lee: are you sure that you’re fine?” Azzie said, biting her lip. “Yes. I’m sure. I’m fine.” But she wasn’t fine. She’d hoped desperately that time and distance from the possession would fade the memories and images and thus lessen the nightmares, but it didn’t. If anything, it was if some terrible floodgate had been opened then and was now impossible to wrest back shut. New recollections popped into her head often, hitting her like freight trains each time. In addition to the caged, screaming rats, she remembered snakes with peeled skin, their pulled fangs lining a mahogany desk in a tidy little row. Her mother’s face literally red with anger as she yelled at Leanne’s father about his lack of support for her work. The way her father would hold her sometimes and beg her to be careful around Mommy when Mommy got into “one of her moods”. How Leanne would nestle into his hold, his broad arms warm around her. By the end of October, she was operating on a day by day basis as if floating through a thick fog. Her head always hurt; her already pale skin went almost ghost-like; she became so conscious of her nightly screaming fits that she sometimes crept off to sleep in the eighth floor’s study room down the hall from her suite. So that no one knew, she’d creep back into the suite slightly after dawn and muss up the sofa so that it looked slept on. This seemed to trick Pixie into thinking the nightmares had dulled, a fact which she then reported to Azzie and Icon. Icon was relieved, telling Leanne about how worried he’d been. Azzie, though, seemed unconvinced. She knew Leanne too well for empty words to sway her when the evidence so clearly told another tale. It was in the last few days of October that one morning Pixie broached the subject of Leanne attending a book club meeting with her. All semester she’d been trying to get Leanne to come to a session, the membership for which had bloomed to over a dozen members. But with Leanne’s surge of nightmares starting back when she’d been assigned the spider, Pixie had stopped pressing the matter with such frequency. Now, though, believing that Leanne was on the mend, she began to attack the topic with gusto once more. “Can’t you just come to one meeting?” she asked as the two girls got ready for the day-- Pixie buttoning up her shirt, Leanne using air magic to dry her wet-from-the-shower hair. “I’ve told you all along, I’ll think about it,” Leanne replied. “It’s just one meeting,” Pixie grumbled. “Come to one meeting, Lee, and I’ll never harass you about it again. Honestly, I think you really would enjoy it. At least give it a chance. Because when I’m worried or troubled, books always help to distract me. I know things have gotten a bit better than they were, but I also know they’ve still been a little... stressful. And I really think you’ll have fun. Everyone in the club is so friendly, too!” “Fine,” she said, her head already pounding far too badly to argue much longer with her persistent roommate. “I’ll give it a shot. What are you reading, anyway?” “ Chronicles of the Gemstone Gates! One of the better books we’ve read, though we’re only one chapter in. I like that it has all these different characters. The story takes place in this distant land, and there is this pain mage who is all angsty and stuff since he hurt people with his powers, and these gates hold back his powers but then his sister, who is very awesome, gets hurt…” Pixie had begun to speak at a rapid pace, and she trailed on for another half a minute before she realized she was rambling. “Oh, no. Did you get any word of that?” Leanne nodded tiredly, noting to herself with a degree of bemusement that Pixie seemed to show the same degree of passion for books that she imagined Gilly felt for something like oh, tormenting small children. Did she really want to attend this book club meeting? Absolutely not. But, she admitted to herself as she finished drying her hair and went on to swiping on some makeup so that she didn’t look entirely dead, Pixie was a good friend. She’d put up with Leanne’s screaming, her anxiety, every negative trait-- and had never said anything bad about it. Pixie was patient to a fault, and one of the genuinely nicest people Leanne had ever met before. Better than she deserved, honestly. So the least she could do was attend a single hour-long meeting of the book club. “So, will you come with me?” her roommate asked with a wide, hopeful smile. “Yes, I already told you I would.” Leanne sighed. “I know. But I wasn’t sure if it was ‘I’ll come this evening’ or ‘I will come when I have time, which may or may not be ever’. So if it’s tonight, then I will be happy to see you there! Oh, and you might want to read the first chapter of Gates. It’s a little wordy, so I’m not sure how good of a summary I gave. You can borrow my book.” Leanne nodded along, trying not to show her apathy. “Sure, I’ll read it. Thanks for offering it to me.” Pixie was grinning ear-to-ear now, genuinely excited. “It’s going to be great. You’ll love all the people there.” She glanced to clock. “But oh! We’ve got to get going if we want to get any bacon at breakfast.” She stuffed her feet into her shoes and went rummaging through her cluttered drawers, after a minute coming up with a dog-eared copy of Chronicles of the Gemstone Gates. Shoving it into Leanne’s hands she said, “Just give it back to me whenever. If you decide to join the book club permanently after tonight, you can get your own copy from the library!” Trying to ignore the wishful implications of Pixie’s statement, and hoping her roommate wouldn’t be too crushed when she likely didn’t end up permanently joining the book club, Leanne stuffed the book into her bag. Then, after putting on her own shoes, the two girls set off for the dining hall-- where they arrived just in time to snag the last servings of bacon (to the moans of their suitemate, Elsie Cien, who was behind them in line and was now stuck with the far-less-delicious sausage patties). As they headed towards the tables nibbling on their rightfully won strips of bacon, Leanne pondered what the book club would be like, and whether it would actually do anything to take her mind off of her memories. If they loomed so strongly even when she was asleep, would a room of people babbling about a novel really do the slightest thing? Not wanting to let down Pixie though, Leanne grudgingly took some time to read the book in question after classes let out for the day. Pixie was right; the first chapter was very wordy. Still, she found herself getting drawn into it, and wondering what would happen to the protagonist and his sister. Pain magic was one thing she was glad she didn’t have: the aptitude tests for it had spat out a big fat zero. Her reputation was bad enough without that little extra detail. This character though… She couldn’t help but sympathize with him. By the time supper rolled around, Leanne wasn’t completely dreading the meeting-- and also was no longer convinced that it would do nothing to distract her. She knew it wouldn’t magically erase the wicked images in her head, but if it dulled them for even an hour… that was something, wasn’t it? Because as it stood, the memories followed her everywhere, like ghosts. Popping up at the worst of times: in the middle of an exam in Ancient Texts; as she tried to handle a pain wolverine in Taming and Caring of Magical Creatures without getting bitten; when Professor Rawl called on her in Responsibility as Magic Persons and she was charged with reading aloud to the class a very dense document. So no, the book club wouldn’t be a cure-all. But if it did anything at all, she’d take it. Even if just for this one hour of one night. A few hours after supper (they all had to work on their homework first), Leanne walked with Pixie to the library, where the book club met twice a week. When they got there, they were met by Azzie and Icon as well as a few other members. She recognized Shira Tigress and Kay O’Hara, both of whom were in Ancient Texts and Literature with her and had founded the book club alongside Pixie and Icon. She was also familiar with Icon’s roommate, Jay Smalltop, of crying-to-his-mother fame. He sat at the fringes of the circle with a puckered look on his face, as if he were moments away from bursting into tears and fleeing the library. Icon cheerily whispered into Leanne’s ear that Jay only attended because his mother had informed him she wouldn’t let him drop out if he didn’t at least try to make friends first-- and Jay, who could absolutely could not lie to his beloved mom, thought that sitting silently during these meetings was the easiest route to being able to claim that indeed he was attempting to make friends. Pixie also introduced Leanne to a few upperclassmen. One of them, Draco Stephan, was a third year with mischievous eyes and highly developed invocation magic. He announced that the meeting’s refreshments would be “borrowed” from the Mistonarc kitchens, and proceeded to summon several bowls of snackable food. Another of the upperclassmen was Selm Starblood, a fourth year. An illusionist, Selm was already setting up ‘scenes’ to go along with the night’s discussion when Leanne and Pixie arrived. As new arrivals filtered into the library, Pixie eagerly introduced them to Leanne, and soon her head was spinning with new names and faces. But Pixie was right: they were all very nice people. And unlike most of the school since Gilly and Nova had set loose the story of Leanne’s freak-out, they actually didn’t seem to look at her like she was a complete and utter wreck. When everyone had arrived and gotten acquainted, discussion of the book began. They started with talk of the main characters, what people would do if they were in his position, and what kind of role his sister would potentially play in the story as it progressed. They also spent a good deal of time discussing the concept of “gates”: devices designed to restrict the magic of the user, which the protagonist submitted to willingly to cut off his pain powers. Everyone seemed to agree that the idea would have a lot of practical use, but there were some people who doubted that they would ever use them, even if they were in the main character’s shoes. Colin Aster, one of the Riley class rejects, also brought up the fact that such a device might be possible to create in reality, with the correct, precise application of sensory magic. “Maybe not actual gates,” he said. “But if you found some way to imbue an object with sensory-deprivation… and you had a powerful enough mage… it could work.” Over the course of the next hour, Leanne found herself the happiest she’d been since Riley’s possession-- if not even before then. The discussion was lively, and Selm’s illusions brought the book to life. When Pixie had invited Leanne this morning, she’d expected to be impatient and jittery throughout the meeting, longing for it to end. Instead, as the close drew near, Leanne found herself wishing it wouldn’t stop. Cripes, could it be-- could she really be having fun? Eventually, the discussion petered off, and all of the attendees started getting ready to leave. Everyone was told that they should try to read chapters two and three before the next meeting so that they can get the dialogue further under way. As the rest of the students filtered out except for Pixie, Icon, Shira, and Kay, who were remaining behind to clean up the snacks, Leanne found herself drifting towards the bookshelves. “What are you looking for, Lee?” Pixie called after her. “ Chronicles of the Gemstone Gates,” Leanne said with a soft smile. “Oooh!” Pixie squealed. “Does this mean that-- are you-- you’re going to come again?” “I’m not going to promise,” Leanne said. “But I had fun tonight. So… might as well have the book so I don’t have to keep borrowing yours if I decide to come to the next meeting, right?” Finding the slim hardcover book amongst thousands of other tomes took Leanne a solid five minutes, meaning that everyone else but the cleanup crew had long since dispersed. After waving goodbye to the four remaining people, she found herself alone as she began down the hallway towards her suite. The library was on the ground level of Mistonarc, near the main entrance, and was a solid hike from Leanne’s room. Clutching her book to her side, she began the trek up the stairs while letting out a yawn. As much as fun she’d had, it was getting close to bedtime. Dare she entertain the idea that instead of nightmares, tonight she’d dream of the Gemstone Gates? Up on the fifth floor, where the school’s main staircase ended and she had to switch to a smaller rear one, Leanne was practically fighting back a smile as she started down the hall. Then, as she rounded a corner, she almost found herself plowing into someone. Two people, in fact: Gilly and Nova. Her blood ran cold. All three of them jumped. “Well, didn’t expect to see you out this late, Kimber,” Gilly said after recovering. Leanne glared. Another bullying session from those two were the last things she had in mind to wrap up her night. For the love of all things, couldn’t she go more than a few hours without something bad happening to her? Couldn’t she have one night off from haunting memories and mean-spirited bullies? “You know, we never did get a chance to talk to you after class last week,” Nova said. “When Professor Thunderbolt interrupted our nice story.” “That was awfully rude of you, you know,” Gilly added. “We said we would talk to you later, but here you’ve been, carrying on as if we didn’t have any unfinished business. Pretty selfish of you, but still not as bad as your mom’s selfishness when she dumped you. But I wouldn’t put doing something like that past you. Really, it’s only a matter of time.” No. She was not doing this, not right now, in one of the fleeting moments where she was actually not-completely-miserable. She was not going to let Gilly and Nova ruin her good night. It was like Azzie had told her a million times: for them to bother her, she had to allow it. And tonight she would have none of their cruelty. Gritting her teeth, she forced a deep breath and then tried to shoulder past them. They just ended up grabbing her and pushing her back. Her book fell to the ground. But when she reached down to pick it back up, Nova was faster, snatching it into his grubby hands. She started to tell him to give it back, but before she could, he delved into more teasing, talking over her. “What’s this?” he cooed. “Aww, a novel? You reading a novel, Leanne? That’s so cute! I bet you’re in that book club with your freak roommate, huh?” “I guess that explains why you haven’t even tried to finish our conversation,” Gilly said, laughing. “Too busy reading fairytales and making friends with the nerds who like them! Typical Kimber, trying to fit in when she’s even more freaky than the rest of them. At least they don’t have murderous moms. Anyway, you can’t leave yet. I have something to tell you!” Oh great, Leanne thought. What could she possibly have to tell her that Leanne hadn’t already heard from them, aside from just more crudeness? “You know, something happened, and it gave me the best idea! You don’t believe me when I tell you your mom is a terrible person. And so I wondered, why? Why would you deny yourself the truth and deny the terribleness in your blood? Especially when practically everyone else already knows? Then I realized that you’re probably too busy wrapped up in your warm blankets of lies and hiding in your own little securities to ever even consider it. But you know, I can help you there. I can fix that.” Leanne clenched her fists and focused on the deep breathing. She was not going to give them the satisfaction of a response. If she couldn’t get around them, then let them say they want; they’d run out of stupidity eventually. Suddenly, though, Gilly grabbed her arm and Nova restrained her other arm. Leanne cried out. They’d never before turned to physical assault-- it had always just been their words that stung-- and she’d not expected it now. She tried to writhe out of their grip, but they held strong. “Let go of me,” she hissed. Gilly just smirked. “Now, now, mind your temper. I just figured I’d give you a taste of what your mom did to other people. As a public service, you know, so that you’re aware of what it feels like before you go on your own attacking spree.” As Gilly spoke, a searing, burning pain shot through Leanne and then raced all over her body. She cringed as each of her nerves felt like they were on fire. Tears pricked at the backs of her eyes, but she blinked them away, refusing to cry in front of Gilly and Nova. As the pain continued radiating, she kept trying to fight back, but got nowhere. At two against one, the odds wouldn’t have been in her favor even if she weren’t operating on weeks of terrible sleep deprivation. The pain continued for quite some time, but then as quickly as it started, it stopped. Gilly and Nova pushed her to the ground. As she landed, Nova threw the book on top of her. One of its sharp edges caught her chin, cutting it. “That’s just a sample!” Gilly chirped as Leanne reached a hand over the wound. “Of my pain magic. I’ve been developing it all semester, you know. I was so excited when I learned it was my affinity! It’s so useful! Of course, it’s not the same as dying. Even if I could kill though, I’m not going to stoop down to the level of a Kimber. But maybe, just maybe, I might be able to help you get over your denial and get you to accept that just because your mother birthed you doesn’t mean that she’s a good person.” “That is,” Nova added, “if you aren’t so dumb that you’ll try to ignore this, too.” “Yeah! Probably won’t realize it until after she’s already assaulted or killed someone, or would just write it off as ‘for the greater good’,” Gilly laughed before shooting Leanne a glare. “Well, I suggest you don’t, Kimber, because we’ll be here waiting to show you again.” Leanne suddenly found herself growling as she tucked the book underarm and shot to her feet. She already had enough to worry about with their verbal assaults. But Gilly having pain magic just made their presence even more unbearable. And after all she had gone through? And after she had finally managed to push the memories to the back of her mind for once, and after she had finally spent a night in which she was happy? Who did they think they were, trying to rob her of that? She didn’t care what delusions about her they had anymore. She didn’t care if Kristy Kimber was or wasn’t a murderer, or if she, Leanne, would follow in those possibly violent footsteps. It didn’t matter. None of it mattered! Gilly and Nova were going to stop this. Right. Now.She got straight in their faces and shouted, “Stop it, just STOP IT!” “That temper!” Nova laughed. “Gosh, Kimber, you’re not helping your ca--!” “SHUT UP!” Leanne shrieked. “ RIGHT NOW! Stop it, STOP IT! I just want everything to STOP!” Gilly and Nova looked stunned. And then… they continued to look stunned for longer than expected. Leanne waited for them to react, to see the expressions on their faces when they finally realized that she was not going down without a fight. That she wasn’t going to meekly return their nasty comments with calm, pathetic whimpers any longer. But their expressions never changed. Nor did they move a muscle. They didn’t even seem to be breathing; it was as if they’d been frozen in place. And like Gilly and Nova, the world around her seemed suddenly, entirely still. Chapter Eight
Leanne was unsure of what was happening. Why Gilly and Nova weren’t moving. This couldn’t be a trick they would do; they weren’t skilled enough to pull off something of this magnitude off. After staring at them for a few moments, she glanced up at the clock that hung on the wall a few feet ahead. It read 10:13. But one thing about its appearance alarmed her. The hand counting the seconds wasn’t moving. For a few moments, she just stared at it, waiting for that natural tick, for the hands to creep slowly towards 10:14. She counted the seconds to herself: One… Two… Three… But nothing. The hand stayed in place. Her heart drumming in her ears, she glanced back at her frozen classmates. “...Gilly?” Leanne said. “Nova?” Nothing. Leanne poked both of them, hard. “Hey, you two!” Still nothing. Leanne slapped Gilly… and it was almost like slapping concrete. The girl’s skin didn’t rebound. Her palm left no reddened imprint. She slapped Nova for good measure, but the same thing happened. They were like lead mannequins. “D-Do something already!” she shrieked, trying to shake them without success. “Anything!” She looked back at the clock. It was still frozen at 10:13 and twenty-six seconds. Her panic increasing with each moment, she glanced down at Chronicles of the Gemstone Gate, which was still tucked under her arm. Her pulse racing, she reared back and threw the book towards the clock. Or rather, she tried to. The moment it left her hand, it froze in mid-air, as if suspended there by an invisible string. “You’ve gotta be kidding me!” Leanne cried as she tried to take the book back. But she couldn’t move it. Somehow, it was stuck. “What am I supposed to DO?!” she screeched. Leanne looked down the hallway both ways. “HEY!” she shouted. “CAN ANYONE HEAR ME?!” Not even an echo returned to her ears. By this point, Leanne was extremely panicked. She did all she could; she tried to jump up to reach the clock on the wall, she tried running to each end of the hall to see if there was anyone else around, she tried kicking and hitting and slapping Gilly and Nova on the off chance that they would finally move. She even tried to open the nearest door to her, which led into an empty classroom, but the knob wouldn’t turn. In a fit of desperation, she next moved onto the windows that lined the fifth floor corridor, and with a choked breath, punched one of the panes. She was still half-expecting to be met with shattered glass embedding in her hand. But instead, there was nothing. The glass didn’t so much as ripple, and all she ended up with was an aching fist. Leanne couldn’t tell how long she was doing this. It could have been minutes, it could have been hours, it could have been even longer than that. But it was clear that nothing was happening. It was if the entire world save for Leanne had been frozen in a stasis. “...Isn’t there ANYONE?!” she shrieked again. “HELP ME ALREADY! PLEASE! Please…” Tears started to fill her eyes as she knelt towards the ground, shaking, trying to catch her breath. Trying, but failing. Her heart had never raced this fast before. Her palms had never been so sweaty, her face so flushed. “Someone, please,” she gasped as she crumpled to the floor, sobbing uncontrollably. “Please... just… help… I can’t stay like this..” Her head spun and her heart picked up pace. She felt that the both of them would burst “Why… Why can’t I get out of this? Will I... be here forever?” she spluttered betweens sobs. Suddenly, as the true significance of that question struck her, she felt numb. “I’m t-trapped! I’m… I’m trapped!” She let out a nearly maniacal laugh, her chest heaving. Trapped. She was literally trapped, as good as a lion in a cage. Gilly and Nova were frozen, the clock was frozen, she couldn’t even get out of this hallway on account of the stuck-solid doors. There was nothing, nothing, that she could do. What, was this some punishment for finally standing up to Gilly and Nova’s taunts? Had she mortally offended some deity by refusing to let them torment her? What kind of crock was this!? A sudden overwhelming anger blistered inside of her. She let out a raw, aching scream-- loud and long, from the gut. She screamed and screamed until her throat stung and her head throbbed and she could physically produce no more sound. And then, her eyes puffy from tears, she simply laid there, curled up in a tiny little ball, her knees dragged up to her chest. She waited in the timeless spell, the only sound that of her heart beating in her ears. She rocked back and forth on the ground, listening intently to the sound of her own pulse, until she felt too exhausted to even do that. Instead, she just lay there, eyes closed, tears silently trickling down her face as she proceeded to count out the time to infinity. SLAM!The sound of the book hitting the ground reverberated down the hallway, and struck brutally at Leanne’s ears. From above, she heard two surprised yelps. She wearily opened her eyes to see Gilly and Nova looking between Leanne and the book, eyes wide open. “...What the hell?” was all that Gilly said. Leanne didn’t even reply; no words could enter her lips. She’d been sure during the frozen time that she would have felt overjoyed at the sight of any movement, even if it was Gilly or Nova. But right now, she couldn’t even muster the slightest feeling of happiness. She tried to search for it, but she only felt… numb. Nova lifted a leg, as if about to kick Leanne, but Gilly held him back. “Let’s just go,” she said, taking his arm and dragging him away. “L-later, freak.” With that, Gilly and Nova hurried down the hall and turned the next corner out of sight, leaving Leanne alone. As their footsteps disappeared down the corridor, Leanne reached up and wiped the tears from her eyes, the dripping snot from her nose. She figured she should get up eventually and finish heading back towards her suite; she couldn’t stay prone on this cold floor forever. But… she couldn’t bring herself to move. It was like her muscles protested at the very thought of it. Instead, she stayed in the protective little ball and stared blankly up at the clock, watching the seconds hand tick, time crawl by. She was almost afraid to blink, lest the clock stop moving once more while her eyes were closed. Eventually, she heard someone coming down the hallway. She didn’t even care to tear her gaze away from the clock or attempt to reposition herself into a more normal pose. Whoever saw her, saw her. Half the school already thought she was unhinged, didn’t they, thanks to Gilly and Nova’s rumor-spreading? So what did it matter if another student saw her now, sprawled on the floor with bloodshot eyes, a cut on her chin, and a damp, reddened face? It couldn’t do her reputation any more harm. But it wasn’t a student who’d come across her at all, something Leanne became aware of when the person wordlessly leaned over her and placed a gentle hand on her arm. She looked at the fingers: long, pale, and wrinkled. The hand of an adult, not another teenager. She took a side glance at the face that entered her view, and found herself staring at Headmistress von Killix. “Come with me” was all that she said before von Killix knelt down and helped Leanne up. Leanne thought about protesting, wanting to just lay pathetically on the ground for as long as she pleased. But she didn’t have the energy to fight as von Killix brought her to her wobbling knees. She felt her arm being placed over von Killix’s shoulder, and then von Killix brought her own arm across Leanne’s back so that Leanne couldn’t just go slumping back down to the floor. She almost didn’t feel herself start walking, but the two of them began to walk at a steady, slow pace. As they turned a corner, they came across Pixie, a stack of books in hand. She paused at the sight of the two of them before walking closer. As she approached and was able to more easily distinguish Leanne’s features, a look of concern fell over her face. She opened her mouth wide to say something, but von Killix only gave her a look and shook her head. Pixie’s half-started word fell silent as they ambled past, and she merely stood there, watching them. Leanne didn’t know where she was going, or what von Killix was going to do with her. But at this point, she didn’t have the strength to care. ** Ten minutes later, Leanne found herself in von Killix’s cozy office on Mistonarc’s second level. During the daylight hours, the space would have boasted a nice view of the school’s expansive gardens, but now the curtains were drawn, the only light-source in the room a collection of candles that the headmistress had lit with fire magic. As Leanne sat on an old, threadbare chaise lounge with a cloth bandage stuck to the cut on her chin, still feeling as empty as a hollowed out log, von Killix loomed over a tea pot, fixing Leanne a mug. “Any sugar, Miss Kimber?” the headmistress asked cordially. When Leanne couldn’t muster even a single-word response, the woman sighed and said, “I’ll put in a spoonful for you.” Leanne didn’t notice how hard she was shaking until, whilst pressing the mug into her hands a few moments later, von Killix cautioned her to be careful not to spill the boiling hot tea. The second the headmistress turned back around to pour herself a cup, Leanne did just that, a big splash of it landing on her left hand. The skin instantly reddened and blistered, and she winced, but was too drained to so much as cry out. She simply stared at the burn, then unsteadily set the mug down on the side table beside her, untouched. When von Killix noticed the way Leanne had set aside the tea, she frowned but did not comment on it. Instead, she took a seat on a plush sofa across from the chaise and said to the girl, “Do you know what happened tonight, Miss Kimber?” Leanne took a long time to respond. Her throat was beyond sore from all of the screaming, and aside from that, she was too drained to think of many words. Headmistress von Killix gave Leanne time to compose herself, watching on with those hawk-like eyes, as the girl shut her own eyes and racked her swimming mind. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, she managed to murmur, “E-everything… stopped. A-all… at once.” She traced a finger over the burn mark. “It was.. l-like I was the only a-animate... thing left in the world.” “And you don’t know why it happened?” She shook her head. “No.” Headmistress von Killix sighed and gave Leanne a soft, sympathetic smile. “I do not claim to know you well, Miss Kimber,” she said. “But I do take time before each semester to look over the files of incoming students. Just to understand what sorts of pupils will be studying at my school. And if I’m remembering correctly, you’re from Petal Wood, yes?” “I am.” “The orphanage there, in particular.” Not understanding what this had to do with her current predicament, Leanne nodded. “Yes,” she said. “You did not know your parents well, then?” As if only to torture her, those terrible, recently unearthed memories flooded into her already dizzy mind. Her father’s embrace, her mother’s shouting, the way everything she thought she remembered seemed so suddenly under fire. Having to fight back a sad, dark laugh, she murmured to von Killix, “I suppose you could say that.” “I’m sorry to hear that, Miss Kimber. It is never right when a child doesn’t have the chance to get to know their mother and father.” She paused before adding, “I did know them, though. Both Chet and Kristy. They met here at Mistonarc, you know.” Leanne did not know that. She stared at von Killix with her mouth hanging open, unable to articulate a response. Her parents had met at Mistonarc? Her parents had gone to Mistonarc? Of course she’d always known it was a possibility… and especially with her recent memories of her mother seeming to use fate-changing magic on her young daughter, it would make sense. But that didn’t dull the shock of hearing such thing confirmed. “I do not purport to have been a close friend of either of them, of course,” von Killix continued. “I was the headmistress, they were but students. But they were both so talented that they’ve stuck around in my mind all these years. Your mother with her life and death magic, your father with his--” “Life and death magic?” Leanne instantly regretted interrupting, but she couldn’t help herself. Life and death magic? Her mother? No, that wasn’t-- that couldn’t-- that couldn’t be right. She would have known if her mother had possessed the rarest of the fate-changing magics… wouldn’t she? Especially with all of the newly unveiled recollections, the opened pandora’s box. Surely something of that magnitude would have been among the surge. Or… would it have been? Headmistress von Killix titled her head. “I’m sorry, Miss Kimber. I assumed you knew something so basic like that.” But it was as if a lightbulb had flicked on in her mind with this revelation, for her words had taken on an almost pitying note as she said, “You’ve no idea what either of them could do? Mother and father both?” “...No,” was all that Leanne could say. “I am very sorry to hear that. And I’m afraid this will come as a bit of a shock. While your mother had life and death magic, your father had another rare ability: time magic.” Leanne’s brain was reeling. Both of her parents had powerful magic? But, if her father had time magic, then that meant… Headmistress von Killix smiled softly. “Based on what you’ve told me, you’ve inherited his ability.” Leanne stared at her hands, eyeing the puckered burn. Time magic… it made sense, given what had happened tonight. And if both of her parents had possessed fate-changing magic… it all began to come together. Why her magic had been so strong, even from an early age. Why Professor Riley never kicked her out of her class despite her breakdown. Every unexplained thing suddenly came together, as if wrapped in shiny paper and plastered with a bow. Even still, that it made logical sense to Leanne didn’t mean she believed it. Time magic? She had time magic? Though not as rare as her mother’s purported life and death magic, it was nonetheless one of the rarer fate-changing abilities-- all of which were already rare in and of themselves. Her mind floated to Professor Munroe’s droning explanations of the fate-changing magics, their boons and drawbacks. “Time magic, it’s very dangerous. Why, I daresay even world-shattering if used improperly. Mind magic, soul magic, even life and death magic-- those are directed at people. But time magic? It’s directed at the environment itself… or at least, it traditionally is. You use it wrong, and the entire world can go crumbling at your feet.”Of course, Leanne had always felt that Professor Munroe was prone to a bit of exaggeration. But then again, considering what had happened in that hall… his grave warning didn’t seem too far off the mark. Her stomach flopped. She continued tracing her finger over the burn, almost cathartically. Time magic. Time magic! How could she have time magic? It seemed to be the kind of thing that only other people had, very far away people who were much greater and smarter and more responsible than she. Of course she’d always know there was a possibility that she had something strong in her blood. Hell, that she’d been accepted to Mistonarc at all practically guaranteed it. But time magic had never even been on her radar. She thought back to all of the aptitude tests-- the results that she and Azzie had spent long afternoons poring over during the summer-- had that even been there? She couldn’t remember now, but she swore it hadn’t. It hadn’t! Dear lord, this was like going to a healer for what you thought was a common cold and being told that you turning into a newt. Or maybe, she didn’t know, a fire-breathing dragon. “Miss Kimber?” Headmistress von Killix’s voice snapped Leanne out of her increasingly panicked thoughts. She stopped rubbing the burn and looked into the woman’s eyes. “Y-yes?” she stammered. “I know this must all be a shock to you, but I’d really recommend that you stay calm. This way we will have time to teach you how to control your powers so that you aren’t drained like this. And so something like what occurred tonight won’t accidentally happen again.” She took a sip of her tea. “Have some tea. It’ll help.” “No, thank you,” Leanne murmured. “I.. I don’t think I could keep it down. I just-- so I… my outburst. It stopped time. I mean… I remember reading about that, kind of, for my genetics test earlier this semester. But I… how did it start again? I mean, I didn’t do anything, so… did it wear off or…” “No,” von Killix replied. “It didn’t wear off. But untrained outbursts like the one you had tonight are tied to emotion. I imagine it lasted as long as you were panicking. I’m sure it was very draining, however; it would’ve stopped as soon as you’d calmed down or ran out of energy. Whichever came first.” “Oh. So I… how did you know? That I’d used it?” “There’s a system set up here on the grounds of Mistonarc,” von Killix explained. “As a safety mechanism, given that at any time we have a number of students potentially running around with very raw, powerful magic. It alerts me if a sudden large surge of unexpected, unsanctioned magic occurs anywhere on campus. So, a student deliberately using his or her power won’t trigger it. But outbursts like yours will inform me of the sort of magic and the caster’s location.” She smiled ruefully. “It’s come in handy over the years. Otherwise we might have had a lot of inexperienced teleporters ending up in locked bureaus and soul mages losing control of their own bodies.” “I… ok.” She was slowly but surely beginning to wrap her mind around the bombshell. “So… it’s dangerous. T-time magic is. Did I… when I… I didn’t hurt anyone, did I? Or… mess up the flow of, I don’t know, the world?” “No. The world is fine. You’re not yet powerful enough, nor skilled enough, to do something that could permanently harm the flow of time. But you can’t keep having untrained outbursts, if only for your own health. As I’m sure you’ve learned in your classes, untrained or uncontrolled outbursts of time magic-- or excessive use of it-- can result in a decreased lifespan. For now, the effect on your health is minimal, but it will add up the more you lose control. The best thing you can do from here on is learn to curtail it. Unfortunately, time magic is so rare that we don’t presently have any professors who possess it here at our school. Otherwise I would have you immediately begin private lessons with one. The best alternative, I think, is to have you under the tutelage of the professor at Mistonarc whose fate-changing magic is the most nuanced. They will not be able to help you with specific details regarding the time magic, but their theoretical knowledge in conjunction with basic lessons on control should be sufficient for now.” “O-okay,” Leanne said. “So that would be um…” Names of professors instantly swarmed her head. Professor Tiarl had teleportation magic, but that wasn’t fate-changing… nor was Wolf-Park’s healing and animal magic, and Professor Thunderbolt’s poison magic, and… she kept thinking. She knew of a professor called Johannsen, who primarily taught upper level courses and could shapeshift. Maybe Johannsen would be her tutor. Or even von Killix herself, with her weather magic, even though Leanne had heard that von Killix never, ever took first years under her wing. But maybe von Killix would bend the rule just this once? Because if not, that left… “Professor Riley,” von Killix said. ** It was after midnight when the door to Suite 829 creaked open, and a weary Leanne stepped in. She wasn’t expecting anyone else to be awake at this hour, not with classes starting in less than eight hours. She herself was hoping to just go directly to bed, even though she was acutely aware that her sleep would probably be plagued with even worse nightmares than usual. However, the first thing she saw when she entered the common room was Pixie and Azzie, both sitting on the couch with worried looks on their faces. When they saw Leanne, they each let out audible sighs of relief and jumped to their feet. “There you are!” Pixie exclaimed. “Pixie told me she saw you bleeding from the chin, and von Killix leading you off,” Azzie added. “We were so worried!” “What happened?” Pixie asked. Leanne only stared at them for a moment before trying to move past them. Even though they were her friends, the last thing she needed was to talk more. The headmistress had already spoken her ear off, and combined with the stress of today, she was just ready to ignore the world for the rest of the night. Explanations could come tomorrow. For now, she needed sleep, and badly. “Wait, Lee!” Pixie interjected as Leanne tried to duck into the bedroom. “Your hand!” Leanne only glanced at her burned hand before continuing to walk. “It’s nothing. I’m going to bed.” “At least let me try to heal it,” Pixie pleaded. “No,” Leanne grumbled. “You’re just going to mess up with the magic and have it run uncontrolled. Probably give yourself the burn, too. That’s what happens when healing magic goes wrong, you know.” “I’ve been practicing!” Pixie protested. She put a hand on Leanne’s shoulder. “Please, let me help you.” “I don’t need your help, Ellen,” Leanne snapped. “I’m tired, I’ve had a long day, and it’s just a stupid burn. Good nigh--” “Just give me a chance,” Pixie pleaded. “It won’t take long, I promise.” “Please,” Azzie pleaded. “Please, Lee. Just let her.” Leanne groaned. Pixie wasn’t going to give up, was she? Leanne figured it would probably be faster to just let her do the job and get it over with. Besides, she was in no shape to shove her away. “ Fine,” she spat. “Knock yourself out. But don’t go crying to me when you mess up and end up taking on the burn yourself, alright?” “I won’t,” Pixie said, sounding a little taken aback by Leanne’s nastiness. She gently took Leanne’s burned hand into her own, and a slight glow appeared over the wound. Leanne could feel Pixie’s hands shaking. Leanne did indeed begin to feel better, but with how numb she was, the change was barely noticeable. Not long later, the glow disappeared, revealing Leanne’s now completely healed hand, the skin milky and smooth. Pixie winced and pulled her hand away with a cry, examining the puckered red marks that now marked it. Leanne could only laugh hollowly. “See. Told you. Now you have the burn. Enjoy it.” Without waiting for another answer, Leanne stepped into the bedroom and slammed the door in Pixie and Azzie’s faces. Chapter Nine
That night, no nightmares haunted Leanne-- or if they did, she couldn’t remember them. She fell asleep quickly and snoozed right through her morning classes, finally awakening just after eleven. She was exhausted both physically and mentally, and it was the best sleep she had gotten in a while-- since she’d been assigned the spider at least, but possibly even before then. As she got dressed, the memories of what had happened last night danced in her head. She examined the spot on her hand where she had been burned the night before. With the burn gone, she could almost convince herself that it was all just a bad dream, but she knew it had been too real. The stricken faces of her roommate and best friend as she’d slammed the door in their faces was seared in her memory. It wasn’t any wonder that Pixie had neglected to wake up Leanne. Missing her morning classes was inconsequential. It wasn’t as if she could have focused in them anyway. But she knew that she would have to deal with the consequences of how she’d treated Azzie and Pixie last night. She dreaded going to lunch and facing them, but she would have to do it if she didn’t want to be hungry until supper at six. And it wasn’t like she could avoid her roommate and best friend forever. The longer she delayed apologizing, the thicker the bad blood would grow. She couldn’t be a coward; she had to swallow her pride and nerves and beg for their forgiveness as soon as possible. That didn’t make the prospect of doing so any less nerve-wracking, however. By the time she had gotten ready for the day and had entered the dining hall, it was ten minutes into the period. All of the other students had already fixed their plates and dispersed to the tables. Leanne found Azzie and Pixie at their usual table, seated with Icon. The two girls exchanged a cautious glance between them as they noticed Leanne approach; neither of them would meet her eye. Icon, who’d seemingly been filled in on Leanne’s erratic behavior, looked down at his copy of Chronicles, not certain how to act. As Leanne loitered there, waiting for her friends to acknowledge her, she realized that the burn she could have sworn was on Pixie’s hand last night had disappeared. Yet she was certain she hadn’t just imagined its existence. “Your burn,” she said softly as Pixie continued to ignore her. “It’s gone?” “Yes,” Pixie snapped. “Professor Wolf-Park healed it up this morning. Probably helped that I wasn’t screaming at him. Though, I got to say, I’m surprised you actually care now.” Pixie stabbed with an almost alarming amount of violence at the chicken breast on her plate. “After last night, I figured you well-- wouldn’t. You did a pretty good job of acting like a complete psychopathic jerk, in any case.” Leanne winced at Pixie’s harsh words. “I probably deserved that,” she admitted, even as her cheeks went red. “But um… yes. Yes, I care. And I’m really, really sorry about last night.” If Leanne had been expecting Pixie to instantly accept her apology, she’d been badly mistaken. Instead, Pixie shrugged apathetically and went on to stabbing at some broccoli florets. Leanne just stood there for a moment, unsure of what to say. She couldn’t blame Pixie for her behavior, but at the same time, she wasn’t sure what she could do. She knew she had to fix it somehow, but… well, she’d never really had to do this before. It wasn’t like she’d had very many friends throughout her life. Really, there’d only ever been Azzie, and the two of them rarely fought or offended each other… up until last night. “Do you… is it okay if I sit?” she asked, cutting through the silence. No one gave her a straight answer. Pixie continued stabbing the food on her plate. Azzie looked away, pretending that she didn’t hear the question. Icon was turning the pages of Chronicles at an unreasonable pace, far faster than Leanne knew he could have been actually reading. “Please, I… I just want to explain myself. If that’s okay. I understand if not, but…” Azzie sighed and scooted to make room. “Go ahead, Lee. I’m not going to pretend I’m not really upset with you right now, but if you say you can explain, then I’ll give you the chance.” Speaking more now to Pixie than Leanne, she added, “I’ve known you for six years, and I’ve never once seen you act like that. Ever. So I’m really still hoping that you’ve got a good reason for why you did what you did… even if I can’t think of one right now.” “I… I do, I… Well, no, it’s…” Leanne sat down. “I really shouldn’t have yelled at you like that. It’s just… Well, after the book club--which was really great, by the way--things got really rough. I didn’t mean to take it out on you guys.” “Rough?” Pixie echoed bitterly. “What’s that supposed to mean?” “I…” She wanted more than anything to not have to explain this right now. Saying it aloud felt wrong and weird, like admitting some dark and terrible secret. But she knew that she couldn’t wimp out now; if she did, her friends might never forgive her. Instead, she took a deep breath and said, “When I left the book club, I ran into Gilly and Nova, and they got under my skin again. They taunted me about my family. And they… Gilly decided to make an example of me. So she and Nova restrained me and… she used her pain magic on me.” “Gilly has pain magic?” Icon looked up from his book, alarmed. “Yes. And… that’s how she wanted to let me know. And then even when they were done, they just kept taunting me, and so I got really mad and yelled at them to stop, and… well…” “Well what?” Pixie asked. She was not assuaged, but her face was dark with worry. “Um. They did stop,” Leanne said. “And so did everything else. Literally, everything else. I uh… I… accidentally stopped time.” “You what?” Azzie asked, her fork clattering to her plate. Even Pixie stopped pretending to be thoroughly invested in her food. “How… how could you possible stop time?” Icon asked. “Unless…” “I’m a time mage, apparently.” She chewed on the inside corner of her lip. Everyone stared at her in shock. “A time mage,” Azzie repeated. “A time mage? But those are so rare. I mean, crazy rare.” “I know,” Leanne said. “I… still can’t exactly believe it myself.” “Okay,” Pixie said slowly. “So, you stopped time. What… what happened after that?” “I tried to start it again, I guess. But nothing I did helped to make time flow. I mean, I’d wanted them to stop, but… I hadn’t wanted everything to stop. And it took so long and I felt... I thought I was trapped in time. Forever. I, uh… I completely broke down. And it wasn’t until I completely wore myself out that time started again. And by then, I… I didn’t want to do anything.” Everyone was silent. “...But I saw the headmistress leading you away,” Pixie said finally. “She did. She was the first one to find me after Gilly and Nova left. Which they… did quickly. Guess they were weirded out. She took me to her office and basically explained I’m a time mage… and that my dad was one, too.” She considered telling them what she’d learned about her mother’s powers, too, but a niggling voice in the back of her head told her to skip this detail. She wasn’t exactly sure why, but for some reason she didn’t want that fact out in the open. She continued, “She told me that I had to take extra training to control my powers. Except I can’t learn with a time mage. Because Mistonarc doesn’t have one in their employment. I…” “You what?” Azzie asked. “...I have to have private lessons with Riley,” Leanne finished. Icon let out a soft but audible groan at this. “Oh man…” “I know.” Leanne sighed. “And so after all that… I just wanted to go to bed. And so when you guys stopped me, I… snapped at you. And I know I shouldn’t have. I really am glad you healed me, Pixie. I should’ve been more grateful. I’m just… I’m really sorry. I feel really bad about what I said. You guys didn’t deserve that. And I know my explanation won’t fix anything, or excuse anything. But I just… wanted to let you guys know why I acted like I did. If you don’t accept my apology, that’s fine. I understand. I wouldn’t blame you at all.” A collective hush fell upon the group, the prolonged silence only making Leanne feel even more anxious. She glanced down, not wanting to risk looking up to see someone’s piercing glare. “So um. Let me get this entirely straight,” Icon said eventually. “You were assaulted in the hallway, accidentally unleashed a fate-changing power, got stuck in a time freeze, and learned that you possess one of the rarest affinities there is. All in a matter of hours.” “Yes,” Leanne said. “I know it sounds insane, but I swear I’m not making it up and--” “I don’t think you’re making it up,” Icon interrupted. “I just. Am shocked that after going through all of that, the worst you did was say some mean things. I um. Probably would have punched some things. Or people. Or gone into an entirely catatonic state for the rest of oh, um. My life.” Okay, so Icon seemed to forgive her… but given that he hadn’t even been one of the people she’d slighted, she was more concerned about Pixie and Azzie. She watched as the two of them continued mulling, and was practically sweating buckets by the time one of them spoke. “I forgive you,” Pixie eventually said, quietly but evenly. “You really hurt my feelings last night, Lee. But at least you actually do seem sorry. And I understand why it happened.” “Me too,” Azzie agreed. “I’ve known you for way too long to let something like this ruin our friendship. Especially because I know that you would have never done something like that if you weren’t in an absolutely terrible state. And you can’t blame people for acting terrible when they’ve just gone through hell.” “Thank you,” Leanne said, a feeling of relief rushing over her. “But…” Pixie said. “I don’t want to go through that again. It’s… not very fun being screamed at by someone you consider a friend. Especially when you’re only trying to help them.” “I know. I don’t blame you,” Leanne said. “I promise that it won’t happen again.” ** When Leanne entered Riley’s classroom a few hours later, she was fighting back a feeling of dread-- one that didn’t dissipate any when the professor approached her and said that she’d spoken with von Killix. “Your additional lessons with me will begin at once,” Riley said. “An hour each day after last period, in this room.” As if she’d heard through the grapevine about Leanne ditching her earlier classes, the professor icily added, “Attendance is mandatory.” The worst part was that the entire rest of the class was already in the room when Riley announced this. Leanne nodded in response to Riley before taking her seat and staring at her desk, trying to avoid the stares that were being given to her by the remainder of the class. She particularly wanted to avoid Tara’s eye; she wasn’t looking forward to Tara spouting her mouth and spreading this particular rumor when Leanne was hoping to keep her newfound powers under wraps for a little while. Even though she figured that Gilly and Nova would probably eventually figure out what was going on and spread the rumor anyway. Riley’s class otherwise went as normal. Or at least, as normal as it could be for a Riley class. However, she couldn’t help but notice that Riley was particularly emphasizing the control of life and death magic, and kept staring at Leanne as she did so. Leanne focused intently on her notes, trying and failing to not think about what Riley was implying. Finally though, class ended, a small relief given that Leanne knew she only had another hour or so before she was forced to begin her so-called private lessons. Being in a classroom with Riley was bad enough, but the last thing she wanted was to be alone with her. Still, Leanne resigned herself to the fact that there was nothing she could do about it. Even enduring a whole day with Riley was better than being stuck with the world frozen in time again. When she entered her last class for the day, she heard whispering from the back of the room. She risked a glance over to the source of the noise to find Gilly and Nova having a hushed conversation with each other, occasionally looking up at Leanne. Leanne only shot them a dirty look at them before taking her seat and pulling out her notes. Her mind wasn’t even on her work, but it was better than having to deal with those two again. Eventually, the last bell for the class rang, and Leanne quickly left the classroom, headed back towards Riley’s room. She wasn’t sure how long of a window Riley would give before she expected Leanne back, and since Leanne didn’t particularly want to find out, she figured she ought to be as expedient as possible. As she started down the hall, she heard footsteps following her and looked back, hoping to see Icon. To her chagrin, it instead turned out to be Gilly and Nova. “Hey, Kimber, wait!” Gilly said. “Go away,” Leanne growled. “I don’t have time for you right now.” “If we’re right, I think you do,” Gilly said, as she and Nova went on either side of her. “Look, seriously Kimber, we’re here about what happened last night. We gave it a lot of thought afterward, trying to figure out what had just happened. And we came to just one conclusion: you did something with time.” “It’s the only thing that makes sense,” Nova added. “So. Tell us, Kimber: you a freaky time mage?” “...Th-that’s none of your business,” Leanne snapped. But the twitch of a frown and her hesitation betrayed her thoughts. “Pfft, none of our business. We were there,” Nova said. “Ha, you totally are!” Gilly sniggered. “It wouldn’t make any sense otherwise.” “Er, it’s, uh… illusions,” Leanne lied. “No, it isn’t,” Nova said. “Yeah it i--” “No, it isn’t,” Nova retorted. “Don’t argue illusions with an illusionist, idiot. Beginner illusionists can’t do something like that, especially when you clearly don’t even understand what you’re talking about. Didn’t you learn anything in our last class?” “Ha, with the way she was paying attention, I wouldn’t be surprised if she wasn’t passing at all,” Gilly chortled. “I’m doing just fine in the class,” Leanne muttered. “And I said go away.” “Not so fast,” Gilly said. “I think you owe us an explanation. Mainly, what the hell happened?” “I don’t owe you anything,” Leanne said through gritted teeth. “I think you can figure it out on your own.” Gilly let out a sigh and flicked her hair with her hand. “Well, I was really hoping you didn’t have some fate-changing magic, especially not time magic. Being a murderer’s daughter is bad enough by itself, but now who can stop you? For the sake of everyone, I hope our little lesson sunk in. ‘Cause if not, I won’t hesitate to do it again before you have a chance to cast your little spell and start a slaughter-fest.” Without another moment of hesitation, Leanne darted away from the two as fast as she could, not wanting to be victim of another one of Gilly’s torture sessions. By some small fortune, they didn’t give chase, and she managed to make it to Riley’s classroom without being strong-armed into experiencing Gilly’s pain magic another time. Leanne never thought she’d be relieved to see Carrie Riley, but at least under the strict professor’s nose, Gilly and Nova wouldn’t dare attempt anything. She was pleasantly surprised when she realized that she and Riley weren’t alone in the room. David Kozma sat at a desk near the front, flipping through a textbook. Leanne suddenly remembered Riley’s comments about her near certainty that Kozma was a mind mage. Did this mean that he, too, was receiving extra lessons? Before she could even ask, Riley confirmed her thoughts, telling Leanne that she and Kozma would be receiving the supplementary instruction together. And that it would likely be just them; she confided that the other students in class had no chance of joining them whatsoever. “Of course,” the woman noted, “mind magic and time magic are quite different from one another. But they’re both fate-changing skills that require the possessor to develop a strong sense of control.” She added with a condescending smile, “I daresay one of you already has a head-start in that regard.” Leanne gulped at the ominous line, but quickly set down her stuff so that they could get started. Really, all she wanted to do was find a way to not have to deal with her powers once and for all, and to not have to go through yesterday’s incident ever again. But she resigned herself to the fact that there was nothing she could do about it. The lesson wasn’t quite as brutal as Leanne thought, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t stressful. First, Riley asked her to try to focus on the time magic inside of her and really feel it. But no matter what, Leanne just couldn’t manage to attune to it; she could feel it, sort of, but it was like a separate being inside of her. Something completely foreign and unnatural. By the end of the lesson, it was clear just how much of a start David Kozma had. Though he informed Leanne that Riley had only confirmed his skill and started training him about a week and a half ago, Leanne felt downright inept compared to him. He seemed at ease with his affinity: he was it and it was him. Whereas Leanne more felt like her power was oh, a venomous snake that had bitten on to her hand and wouldn’t let go, and listened to nothing she said, and could possibly throw temper tantrums that would freeze the very fabric of time-- and yet somehow she was expected to contain and control it. It was not a part of her being, but some uncomfortable alien invader. When Riley finally dismissed the two students at a quarter after five, Leanne was beyond frustrated-- and she was pretty sure that, based on Riley’s scowl and increasingly impatient tone, the feeling was mutual. If Leanne wasn’t positive that Riley didn’t exactly have a choice in being her mentor, the girl was pretty sure she would have been punted out the door and told never to return. Instead, Riley simply informed her that she expected improvement by tomorrow. “Just practice controlling your emotions,” she ordered as Leanne and Kozma started out the door. “It isn’t that hard! Watch how David does it-- he controls the power, not the other way around. And if you can’t do even that, then you are going to be in for a world of trouble, Miss Kimber.” With Professor Riley’s scathing words echoing in her ears, Leanne took a deep breath and began towards her suite, trying not to let the professor’s disgust get under her skin. It was only day one, she told herself. What had Riley expected of her? She was new to this, brand new. Cripes it hadn’t even been a day! She was so engrossed in trying to comfort herself that she barely noticed David Kozma walking beside her until, on the staircase somewhere between the fifth and sixth floors, he said to her, “So. What level do you live on?” She snapped her heads towards him. “Oh. Um, I’m on eight.” “Nine,” he said with a sigh as he adjusted his silver-framed glasses. “At first it seemed kind of neat, being so high up-- I mean, the view from the windows is killer, and it’s pretty quiet. But some days I feel like I’ve gotten in a marathon before I even make it down to the dining hall for breakfast.” “Same,” she said. “Not to mention the fact that they don’t mention the first day that not all staircases lead to all levels. It took me a solid two weeks to not get lost constantly.” He laughed. “My second day here, I literally couldn’t find my way back to my room after classes. I think my roommate and I wandered the fifth floor for like, thirty minutes, before some third year took pity on us and literally led us up the rest of the way.” “At least you got lost after classes,” Leanne said. “And didn’t barge into your first course twelve minutes late. And then have the professor chew you out in front of the entire room.” “That would be worse,” Kozma agreed. “Though at least your first class wasn’t Riley’s. She probably would have thrown you out on the spot.” “Maybe,” Leanne said. “But really, would that have been such a bad thing? Would have spared me a lot of stress later.” “Aw, she’s not that bad. A little intense, yeah. But she knows her stuff.” “I guess,” Leanne conceded. “But she also knows how to be a complete witch about it.” “Yikes, that’s a little harsh. I take it you’re not happy about the after-school lessons, then?” “You could say that.” “I wasn’t too happy at first either,” he told her. “We already have so much homework and so little time to complete it all. But I’m glad for it now. It’s really helped me a lot. And I’m sure it’ll help you, too, Leanne.” They had now reached the eighth floor, and as Kozma continued upward, Leanne stepped out from the stairwell and into the corridor. “Bye,” she called after him with a short wave. “Bye!” he replied. “It was nice talking with you.” “Same,” she said. “See you tomorrow.” “Sounds good,” he said, waving back, and then they continued on their separate ways. At least if she had to have someone tutoring with her, it was someone fairly decent, Leanne decided as she headed towards her room. She hadn’t really paid much attention to Kozma in the past, but she figured she’d end up seeing more of him now. Maybe or maybe not enough to become close friends; it was too early to determine that. But she figured that he was at least someone with whom she could study… and walk with after Riley let them out, which would help to prevent Gilly and Nova incidents, given that Leanne was pretty sure neither of them spent their time lingering on the upper floors of Mistonarc. As Leanne opened the door to her room, she decided that maybe studying with Riley had some perks, after all. Chapter Ten
The next day during third period, Professor Wolf-Park asked Azzie to stay behind as he dismissed the rest of the class. Azzie exchanged a worried look with Leanne, but Leanne just smiled back at her friend, whispering to her, “Look at his face. He doesn’t seem mad. I doubt you’re in trouble.” “I hope not,” Azzie said. “I guess I’ll catch up with you and Pixie in the dining hall?” “Yep, I’ll grab you a brownie so they don’t run out.” In the dining hall, Leanne grabbed Azzie not one, but two brownies, and then settled at their usual table with Pixie and Icon. About fifteen minutes later, Azzie arrived, seeming very happy. She was beaming from ear to ear as she approached the table. In her cupped hands, she held Zippy, clutching him close to her heart. “Guess what,” she said. “Something really good happen?” Icon guessed. “So good that you had to run back and share it with Zippy, and bring him to lunch with you?” “Yes! You were right Leanne. I wasn’t in trouble. Professor Wolf-Park just wanted to confirm what I’ve suspected for a while: I have an animal affinity!” “Azzie, that’s great!” Leanne exclaimed. It wasn’t very surprising-- Azzie had been drawn to animals for as long as Leanne had known her-- but it was certainly happy news. “That’s really neat!” said Pixie. “Oh! So does that mean you could tell what what Zippy and Bel and Zoe and all the other animals are saying?” “I’m not quite there yet. But when I am, it will be great. Wolf-Park says I have the potential. I can feel how they feel.” She stroked her little frog’s head. “I can tell Zippy is happy, for example. That he was very excited when I went to my room and got him. But I can’t have an actual conversation with him yet.” Her already ear-to-ear smile stretched even more. “Soon, though. At least, that’s what Professor Wolf-Park said.” “I’m really happy for you, Azzie,” Icon said. He then glanced at Pixie-- confirmed healing mage-- and Leanne, and added wistfully, “I hope I figure out my power soon.” “I’m sure you will,” Azzie said. “It’s just… it’s a slow process, I think. At least, for most people it is. For example, I first talked to Professor Wolf-Park weeks ago about Zippy, and how I felt so connected with him. And at first I thought it was just normal, you know, to bond like that-- but after that I guess Professor Wolf-Park started watching me more closely, and how I interacted with the creatures during our lessons. And today, he finally decided I had the affinity and told me that it was my magic that helping me to bond with Zippy. He tested me by having me try to read the mental states of some other animal of his, which is something you just can’t do if you don’t have the affinity, and…” Azzie smiled gleefully. “I was able to do it!” “So it works on any animal?” Leanne said. “Yes. I mean, as we’ve been learning all semester, a mage with an animal affinity can communicate better with creatures they’ve established a relationship with in some way-- so I can read Zippy better than a random frog. But the more you develop the skill, the stronger it becomes overall, and you can at least basically communicate with any animal there is. Speaking of which… I thought it would be fun to try and read your pets, Pixie and Leanne.” “Oooh!” Pixie exclaimed. “That would be fun! I’ve always wanted to know what Bel’s feeling.” “Sure,” Leanne said, a hair less enthused. “I guess that’d be neat.” The more she reflected on it, though, the more she decided that maybe it would be useful beyond just Azzie playing around with her novel ability. After all, lately she’d noticed Zoe trying to get her attention more and more, but she had no idea why. She’d been cleaning the enclosure as per usual and had been giving Zoe enough food. But she’d also noticed that Zoe had been eating that food less often. Sometimes she would leave a cricket for Zoe before class, only to return to find it untouched. If Azzie had an affinity, then maybe she could at least get a general idea as to why the spider was suddenly acting strange... “Leanne?” Azzie said, cutting into Leanne’s thoughts. She jumped. “Yes?” “How does tonight sound? I can bring my Creatures homework to your suite, and we can all work on it together. You, me, and Pixie. Lizzie can join us too, if she wants.” With a grin, she added, “Oooh! Maybe I can read her squirrel!” “Sounds great,” Leanne said. “You know, I was actually going to talk to Wolf-Park soon about a problem I’ve been having with Zoe. But if you have the affinity, maybe you can answer it for me.” Leanne had never seen Azzie beam so broadly. “Oh, that’d be fantastic! I really hope I that I can help.” ** Leanne was dreading Riley’s class that afternoon, afraid that the professor would say something nasty to her about her general failure in yesterday’s after-school lessons. Mercifully, she just shot Leanne a critical glare before starting class. Leanne knew she wasn’t out of the woods yet, but at least she still had another few hours before she’d have to hear about her ineptness. And based on her experience yesterday, she was sure there would be lots to hear. The topic at hand today was how fate-changing magicians historically had a wide disparity in skill level, with some mages significantly more powerful than others. After handing out a list of fictional mind mages with a bullet-pointed list below each name with that mage’s alleged attributes, Riley then divided her five remaining students into two groups and told them to rank the mages in likely order of most to least powerful. “You need to be able to look at a basic set of features, and determine the power-- and thus danger-- of any mage at any given time,” she said. “This could be crucially important if you ever find yourself at the wrong end of a fate-changing magician’s wrath. For today, we’ll be using a list of so-called mind mages… but this lesson can apply across all of the fate-changing powers. Now, get to work.” Leanne, who had been sorted into a group with Tara Snow (joy of joys!) and a ginger-haired girl called Anthy Ivsin, stared down at the list. The work seemed simple enough at first, with certain characteristics clearly indicating more powerful mages. Obviously you wanted someone with impeccable control over his or her emotions, and subtle mannerisms so that it wasn’t clear they were possessing their target. But when it came down to actually ranking, things got tricky. Which held more weight: an even gaze or unflinching posture? Did coming from a long line of other mind mages really count for anything, or was it a red herring? Did it matter if someone had a charming personality or a caustic one-- and if that was the only difference between two mages, who could you say was objectively stronger? “She’s… she’s just trying to confuse us,” Anthy grumbled. “Maybe you’re just too dense to see the truth,” the lovely Tara snapped back. “I mean, clearly this guy--” she jabbed her finger at one of the names “-- is stronger than that guy. He has like, twice the positive characteristics. He’s in control, and charming, and is a fifth generation mind mage--” “What does it matter if his ancestors are mind mages?” Anthy interrupted. “Doesn’t make him any more powerful. Yeah, he’s charming and has control over his temper. But it also says he’s prone to anxious fits and can doubt himself. Those are really bad things.” “Gosh, you’re so annoying,” Tara moaned. “I can’t believe you’re still in this class.” “Well… well… I can’t believe you’re still in this class,” Anthy snapped back. When Riley announced that time was up a few minutes later and collected lists from both of the groups, Leanne was feeling none too optimistic, and Anthy and Tara were practically glowering at each other. Leanne glanced over at Icon and David, and found both of them looking equally as dour. Maybe Anthy was right: Riley was just trying to confuse them… a thought that seemed even more likely when the woman proceeded to read aloud each list and then tear into the students. She snarled at Leanne’s group, “What person possibly thought to rank ‘Lucas Smith’ at the second to bottom spot?” “Er. M-me,” Anthy sputtered. “I would ask you why,” Riley said. “But there would be no use. At this point in the semester, this assignment should have been a piece of cake, Miss Ivsin. These characteristics-- we’ve been talking about them all semester! What makes a good fate-changing mage, what doesn’t, how even a mage with incredibly strong magic in his blood would be useless without the proper character traits to go along with it.” Leanne tried her best to pretend that Riley’s gaze hadn’t drifted to her at this missive. “I… I’m sorry?” Anthy said. “Alas, Miss Ivsin, ‘sorry’ will no longer cut it. I now have two confirmed fate-changing magicians in this class, you know. And I find it unfair to them to be so constantly distracted by ineptness such as your own.” She stared down at the list, then back up at Anthy. “So. I think it would be best that we now part ways, yes?” “P-part ways?” Anthy squeaked. “Yes. I believe that’s the polite way of telling you to collect your things and get out.” “B-but…” “No buts. Out.” As a shocked Anthy swept her books into her bag and stood, Tara Snow let out an audible snigger, looking as amused as Gilly did during her taunting sessions. The girl was outright glowing as Anthy started towards the door. “Should have happened months ago,” Tara muttered with a grin. So distracted by watching Anthy’s final procession, Tara didn’t even notice when Professor Riley drifted over to her desk-- that is, until Riley loudly cleared her throat and said, “Is something amusing, Miss Snow?” Tara’s eyes snapped up at the looming woman, and her smile evaporated. “Um. No.” “So then I was completely imagining your immature comment and smile?” “Erm. I. No… but… I was just um…” “As I believe I was just saying to Miss Ivsin, I have two confirmed fate-changing magicians in this class. I have no patience left for time wasters, nor immature little girls such as yourself. So, since you find it so hilarious that your classmate has failed, I imagine it won’t be too much of a crushing blow when I fail you, as well.” “Fail me?” Tara gaped up at the professor in completely and utter shock. “But I-- I haven’t done anything! I mean, I’m the one who told Anthy that ‘Lucas Smith’ should be towards the top of the list, not the bottom, you know… so… I… you can’t fail me!” “I can, and I will. Get out.” As if on a tear now, she looked over at Icon and David Kozma. “Time wasters,” she repeated. “I’ve had it with time wasters. Mister Kozma is clearly not one-- nor, regrettably, is Miss Kimber. But what about you, Mister Carcassone? Are you a time waster?” “N-no?” Icon stammered. “You don’t sound very confident.” “I… um. I’m… not a time waster.” “You say that,” Riley said, “and yet not once this semester have I seen the vaguest indicator that you possess any of the fate-changing magics. Not even a glimmer. You’re a good student, Mister Carcassone, I do concede. But alas, good student simply doesn’t cut it anymore in this classroom. If I’m cleaning out the leeches, I can’t leave one behind just because he’s generally studious and polite.” Leanne, who had been watching the situation spiraling out of control with a strange mix of shock and, after Tara’s expulsion, delight, suddenly felt ill. Oh no. Riley couldn’t be kicking out Icon! Sure, her friend didn’t seem to have an ounce of fate-changing magic in his blood, but that didn’t mean he should be kicked to the curb, did it, for literally nothing? Anthy had been flailing a bit all semester, always on the fringe, the borderline. Tara Snow was a complete jerk who Leanne would be perfectly glad to never see again. But Icon? He didn’t deserve to be punted. But here it was, happening before her eyes, and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. She could only watch on as Icon put away his books and began out the room. She wished she could call out after him, but figured this would probably incite even more of the already-aggravated Riley’s wrath. So she stayed silent as he left, her stomach doing cartwheels. “And then there were two,” Riley announced once he and Tara were gone. “So, now that we have that squared away, let’s go over the correct rankings for these mages…” ** As Leanne walked out of Riley’s class that day, she was feeling more sullen than usual. Even though she wasn’t really that upset about some of the people getting kicked out of class, having Icon booted didn’t leave her with any friends in there. Even when things got to its worst in Riley’s class, she could always count on a supportive look from Icon, and she would reciprocate with a supportive look back whenever he was having trouble. She hadn’t noticed until now that she had kind of relied on him to keep herself together in that class. Sure, Kozma wasn’t bad; it was far better being stuck with him as the other student than say, Tara. But he wasn’t Icon. “It’s for the best, you know,” Kozma said, catching up to her and apparently noticing her broody demeanor. “This way, she can focus more on us, and we get more practice at our magic.” “I guess,” Leanne said glumly. “It just… it doesn’t seem fair, seeing them all kicked out like that, and for petty reasons. Especially Icon. He didn’t even do anything wrong.” “I know; I can’t say I’d like to be in their shoes. But maybe this way, she’ll be less stressed teaching us, now that she only has confirmed fate-changing mages in our class.” “...If only,” Leanne said. “Well, can’t do anything about it anyway,” Kozma said. “Hope the others are alright, though. Anyway, I wanted to ask: did you want to practice some more with me after supper tonight? I think the more we work at it, the better we’ll get-- and the less annoyed Riley will be at both of us.” “I can’t do it right after dinner; I was going to meet with my friend Azzie so that we could work on our Creatures homework,” Leanne said. “Ah, okay. Another time?” “Maybe tomorrow. Today’s just too busy for me.” By this time, Leanne and Kozma had made it to class. Kozma went to take his seat while Leanne scanned the room for Icon. It didn’t take her very long; she found him sitting in his chair patiently, reading his book for the class. He didn’t look too torn up, which sent a wave of relief flooding over her. With still a few minutes left before class time, Leanne set her stuff down at her desk and approached him. “Hey,” she said. “You okay?” Icon looked up. “Yeah, actually,” he said. “I think I’ve had it coming for a while, really. I’m actually surprised I lasted this long.” “You’re not upset?” “Really, I’m a little relieved,” he admitted. “I’ve been able to tell for a while that I don’t have any fate-changing magic, so the class wasn’t really doing anything for me. And time in study hall means more time to work on my other classes. They’re getting more intense now.” “Yeah, I suppose that’s true,” Leanne said. “I’m glad you’re okay.” “Are you, though?” Icon asked, looking up. “I know you don’t like Riley, and ever since she gave you a hard time…” Leanne paused. She could see where he was going with this. She remembered back to when she was possessed, and how she’d promised to stay in the class as long as he was there with her so that they could rant together. Now that he was gone, she couldn’t really rant to anyone except Kozma. Which she supposed could work, but to her, it just wasn’t the same. There was no way out now, though, she figured. She was a confirmed fate-changing mage who needed to learn control, and she didn’t have any other option for a teacher. Not until her second year, when she could try to train under von Killix. She didn’t like it… but what else could she do? “I’m okay,” Leanne said. “Not happy, but okay with it. It’s not like I can stop going, anyway. I mean, after what happened…” She stopped herself, not really wanting anyone else in the class to overhear about her time magic powers. It wasn’t like they were a huge secret that she could keep under wraps forever, and some people already knew, but not everyone. Not yet. And she wanted to keep it that way, at least for now. Besides, she could see Gilly and Nova entering and approaching their desks. Leanne looked back at Icon and gave an apologetic look. “I’m glad you’re taking it well. I’ll talk to you at dinner, okay?” she said, before hurrying back to her seat. Icon gave her a thumbs up before returning to his book. Lessons with Riley proved to be not quite as terrible as Leanne had been anticipating. The professor was in a good (for her) mood, apparently still delighting in her final failing spree. That’s not to say she was suddenly kindly and supportive, because she wasn’t. Her voice still had a bite to it, her instructions underscored with derision as she lamented Leanne’s lack of control. But all in all, it wasn’t nearly as bad as yesterday, and Leanne’s mood was actually not completely miserable as she made her way back to her suite afterward. “I think that’s the cheeriest I’ve ever seen her,” she commented to Kozma as they climbed up the stairs afterward. “Heh, yeah,” Kozma agreed, raking his fingers through his dark, gelled hair. “Guess getting rid of most of the class made her excited.” “A day for the history books, I suppose,” Leanne said. “Carrie Riley: not entirely nasty.” Her good mood continued on during dinner, and she and Icon were even able to laugh at the incident from earlier. It would have been hard to be gloomy at all, though, even if she’d wanted to, on account of Azzie’s gleeful anticipation for the creature-reading session that would ensue following the meal. Watching her best friend of six years gush and smile made Leane smile, too. During the years they’d known each other, the two had gone through a lot of grief side-by-side: the aftermath of Azzie’s parents’ deaths, which had been long and agonizing for the girl; being bullied at Entwaff and Hearthvale alike; being lonely and miserable and overlooked in general. So to see Azzie beaming, in her element, everything come together for her so wonderfully… it was amazing. It felt good. She realized as they headed back towards her and Pixie’s suite after supper that for the first time in a long time, she’d gone most of the day without those terrible images and memories dancing in her head. Now that she thought of them, of course they surfaced, but they weren’t entirely hard to shake away, either. In the suite, after exchanging pleasantries with Lizzie and Elcie, who were studying in the common area, Leanne and Pixie took Azzie into their bedroom to show Azzie the spider. Azzie took a seat on the bed as Leanne picked up the container; immediately, the spider rushed over and tapped at the glass, as if frantic. The dead cricket within the confines sat at the other end of the jar, ignored. “I don’t know what’s wrong with her,” Leanne said. “She just started acting like this one day. She’s not eating as much, I’m keeping the jar clean… I don’t know what’s wrong with her. Maybe you’ll be able to tell?” Leanne handed the jar over to Azzie. Azzie stared at the spider for some time before opening the jar and letting Zoe climb onto her arm. Azzie giggled. Even after nearly a month and a half of having the spider in her possession, Leanne couldn’t help but grimace. She always had to steel herself before interacting with the furry, leggy creature. “Energetic one, aren’t you?” Azzie chirped to it. She watched Zoe dancing on her arm for some time, occasionally switching arms so that the spider didn’t crawl where Azzie couldn’t see. After a while, a frown crept onto the girl’s pale face. “Hmm… how often have you been letting her out?” Azzie asked. “How long? ...Er, I… I let her out when I’m studying in my room,” Leanne said. “Mm, that’s not good enough,” Azzie said. “Spiders don’t like being confined. Especially not Zoe. She was ecstatic to get out, I can tell.” “But if I let her out, I might not be able to find her again,” Leanne said with a frown. “I think you’ll be fine as long as you keep her in this room,” Azzie said. “It’ll give her enough room to stretch her legs a bit. ...Oh, but wait.” Azzie transferred the spider to her hand and pointed her in the direction of the lizard cage, where Belthazar stared intently. Zoe seemed to shrink in place before darting up Azzie’s arm again. “Looks like she’s really afraid of Bel,” Azzie said. “And it must be close to Bel’s feeding time. Maybe you could talk to Pixie about keeping Bel in the other room while Zoe is out. Give the poor thing some peace of mind.” Leanne stared at Zoe. “But what about her not eating?” “I think that’s because of the stress,” Azzie said. “But even before then, spiders don’t need to eat that much. Just let her out more, and give her some time away from Bel, and I think she’ll start getting better. Speaking of Bel…” Azzie eased Zoe back into the jar and shut it, then walked over to the lizard’s cage. She spent the next few minutes cuddling the scaly little thing, and much to Pixie’s surprise, he didn’t even try to bite the girl with his namesake saw-teeth. A miracle in itself: he was a snappy little thing. Azzie proclaimed that Bel seemed pretty happy, and liked watching the spider-- “Probably a little too much,” she added with a laugh. As much fun as Azzie was having using her affinity to communicate with the pets, they all had homework that needed completing, and so soon they slipped back into the common room, taking Bel with them so that Zoe could move around. Azzie kept Bel in her hands the entire time they worked, seemingly perfectly at ease-- and before heading back to her own room a few hours later, she even managed to coax Lizzie Milone into letting her communicate with Lizzie’s hairless squirrel (“He seems content. Very content. You’re doing a good job with him, Lizzie!” she proclaimed). Leanne’s joy for her friend was boundless… but as she tried to fall asleep that night, she couldn’t pretend that she wasn’t just a little bit jealous. Why couldn’t her affinity be like that, so effortless and natural and enjoyable? It almost didn’t seem fair. All around her this semester, her peers had been discovering their affinities, and most of the students seemed to be embracing their newfound skills. Pixie delighted in her healing powers; Lizzie, who’d recently discovered that they could teleport, was positively tickled by the prospect of being able to make it down to the dining hall without first descending an endless stretch of stairs. Part of Leanne thought that this had to do with the class of powers: interpersonal skills were in a different league than fate-changing. But then she thought of David Kozma. Even he seemed comfortable with his powerful mind magic. Sure, he still could get a little flummoxed in their lessons with Riley, and he was far from an expert, but it was like the professor had snarled to Leanne the day before: he controlled his power, not the other way around. Though the terrible memories had been distant from Leanne that day, they returned to her in spades as she slept that night. She woke up screaming twice before giving up and skulking off to the eighth floor’s study room, where she wouldn’t disturb anyone. Alone in the drafty space, her head rested on the sofa’s threadbare arm, she could only sigh and hope that she became more at ease with her power soon… and that these nightmares wouldn’t render her useless before then. |
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Post by Avery on Jan 19, 2014 18:43:16 GMT -5
Chapter ElevenOutside, the trees had at last let go of their final leaves. The grass had gone brittle and yellow, and nary a day peaked above freezing. There was barely more than a month left in the semester, and classes, which had always been intense, had kicked into overdrive mode, so much so that Leanne found herself sometimes missing book club meetings (which was a shame, because she’d really grown to enjoy them). Tiarl presently had the students deciphering a nearly thousand-year-old text that within days of its assignment gave Leanne panic attacks when she just looked at it; in Magical Creatures, Wolf-Park had the students interacting with animals who could possibly maim them if anyone made a wrong move; and in Alchemy, Thunderbolt had them working with extremely potent herbs and formulas. Imogen Wesley, who’d already set a fire earlier in the semester, was now sporting a very charming, slightly burnt face that was conspicuously void of eyebrows. Unlike Riley, Thunderbolt didn’t enjoy failing his students, but he gravely informed Imogen that she was “one mild explosion away from being permanently barred from this lab, my dear girl!”
With twice as much time spent in Riley’s classroom, the workload was nearly dizzying… but it was like David Kozma had told Leanne a while back: the more time they spent working with the soul mage, the better both of them became at controlling their powers. David was to the point where he could subtly exert control over a person’s mind, a skill that Riley blithely had him perform on the failed-out students, whom she would invite back for a class here and there explicitly for this purpose. Leanne was grateful that it never seemed to occur to Riley to have him practice on her. Probably just because the professor all too clearly remembered her last reaction to being possessed, but still. She’d take it. Not to mention, she found a sort of morbid delight in watching Tara Snow having her mind played with like a child’s toy (a delight that was quickly tempered when Icon was the next subject, but she’d take her amusement where she could get it these days).
Watching David’s success made Leanne all the more desperate to harness her own power. Sure, she’d made progress, but she still didn’t quite have the level of control that Kozma did. So she remained nervous when, during her second week of November, Riley informed her during sixth period that today in the after-school lesson she would be tested on actually utilizing her powers in a broad sense, as opposed to simply doing control exercises. Previously, she had only done small things, like speeding up or slowing down a stopwatch, and staying calm under pressure. She didn’t know exactly what she would have to do, but knowing Riley, it would probably be something large… or at least larger than she was used to, or had successfully done before.
Icon was kind enough to escort her from seventh period to the additional session. As they walked, her said to her, “You’ve been practicing this for a while now. I’m sure you’ve made good improvements.”
“I don’t know,” Leanne muttered. “You haven’t seen me in there. I’ll have it going well for a while, and then I’ll suddenly mess up. I don’t know why she thinks I’ll be ready today.”
Icon patted Leanne’s back. “Just try to stay calm. I’m sure you’ll get it.”
Soon, they arrived to the classroom, and Icon gave Leanne a smile and a “good luck” before walking off; Leanne doubted that Riley would’ve let him stay even if he’d tried, but still she didn’t like watching him go. A few moments after he disappeared down the hall, Kozma, who’d ducked off to the restroom after seventh period, arrived. The two of them had a friendly rapport now, and Leanne felt a bit better with him there. No, it wasn’t the same as Icon, but it was also far better than being with Riley alone.
“You’ve got this, Leanne,” he informed her. “You’re going to do fantastic.”
They started out with some basic control and calming exercises, something for which Leanne was relieved and grateful. Given the intensity of what she figured Riley would soon have her doing, she decided she could use all of the help she could get.
Eventually, about fifteen minutes into the period, Riley called her up. “It’s time for you to do something… broader, Miss Kimber,” the professor said. “You can’t be afraid of your powers forever. I’ve been babying you, easing you along step-by-step, like a child. But I cannot continue doing so forever. It’s time you face your affinity head on, and in its full scope.”
Leanne could only nod slowly, afraid that if she spoke she’d start panicking. She could not panic. Not after so many lessons on emotional control. She stared down at her shoes and waited for Riley to continue speaking.
“Today, I want you to master what has brought you here in the first place,” Riley started. “You are going to stop time… and then restart it on your own.”
Leanne gulped. It had been weeks since the incident where her time magic powers had come to life, but the turmoil of the event still bothered her. In addition to the fractured images of her childhood, it had become a new nightmare for her to deal with. She knew that she would likely have to face it again eventually, but she’d always figured-- or at least hoped-- that this day would be far in the future. Next year, maybe, when she was studying under von Killix. Or maybe even after that. She should’ve guessed otherwise, should’ve realized that Riley would pick on her specific weakness.
“Now, I don’t want you sobbing by the end of it, so take your time to get started. And to make sure you’ve done it, I want you to take this with you.” Riley handed Leanne a ruler. “As I’m sure you already know, you can use any item on your person during the time stop. You will start on the other side of the room and freeze time. Then, while time is frozen, I want you to walk over to where David is sitting and set the ruler down. Obviously, it will not move, as it will freeze once it leaves your grip. Once you’ve released the ruler, walk back over to where you began and restart time. After you do, the ruler should clatter down, thus proving to me your success. Understand?”
Leanne gulped and nodded. She really didn’t want to continue with this. She wanted nothing more than to run out of the room and never look back, even though she knew that this was not a realistic course of action. And besides, she was aware of the fact that if she refused to try right now, she may have to face the time freeze again in a far less innocuous environment. Somewhere that she might not be prepared. Chickening out now would only hurt her in the long run. As she ran her fingers over the ruler in her hand, she glanced over at David; he was smiling at her. “You’ll do great,” he mouthed when he saw her looking. She smiled back at him and then started across the room, to the indicated starting point.
“Whenever you’re ready, Miss Kimber,” Riley intoned.
Leanne took deep breaths and closed her eyes, clutching the ruler as tight as she could. She repeated to herself over and over again that this would go well as both Icon and David Kozma had claimed. This was different than the last time she’d frozen time, she told herself. That time… it had been unexpected. A surprise. She hadn’t known what was happening, and so of course she’d been unable to control it. But she had weeks of practice in between then and now. Maybe she could control it better this time. At the very least, she’d see it coming. She wouldn’t panic the moment the world stopped around her. She gave herself a few minutes to breathe, and then willed the world around her to go still. Despite David and Icon’s reassurances, part of her didn’t expect it to work. Why would it, after all? She was still inept and jittery and inexperienced.
But then… she opened her eyes and looked around the room. And once she did, she couldn’t help but smile. Indeed, Professor Riley and David Kozma were frozen in place, both of them staring at her, unblinking. She glanced at the clock to find that the hand counting the seconds had stopped moving.
Well, she had started a time freeze, alright. But getting out was the problem, and the thing she was most nervous about. But she knew that before she could even attempt to do so, she had to follow Riley’s instructions. She walked over to Kozma, weaving between the desks. As she reached him, she placed her hand over his desk and let go of the ruler, letting it float in place.
As she started back towards the starting point, her insides began to writhe. Her memories from when she’d frozen time in the hallway flashed back to her. Those feelings of helplessness… of being trapped… of her resigning herself to being stuck forever, with no one to rescue her...
She tried to shake the thought out of her head. No. She could not let the recollections of that night rattle her now. She reminded herself that even then, she hadn’t been trapped forever. Just because she hadn’t known it at the time didn’t make it any less true. Even if it took her a while now, she could come back. If nothing else, she could exhaust herself again. But she didn’t want that.
She wanted control.
She approached the spot where she’d begun and attempted to focus, trying to push her nagging feelings back. Doubting thoughts wouldn’t help her now. She had to be cool and controlled, with a level head. “Control your power,” she said aloud to the frozen room. “Not the other way around.”
She shut her eyes and, as Riley had taught her, calmly envisioned time moving once more. She willed that image into reality, urging the desire seep out from her brain and into the actual world. She didn’t just picture the clock ticking onto the next second, but felt it, like it was a part of her, a phantom limb, a piece of her being. The clock would tick. She wanted it to tick, and so it would. She was in control, and so it would.
The sound of the ruler clattering on David’s desk sent Leanne’s eyes flying back open. A small yelp came from Kozma’s mouth before he chuckled, picking up the ruler.
“I think she did it,” he said.
“And so she did,” Riley said, sounding pleased. Sounding… more than pleased, really. Leanne doubted that Carrie Riley ever truly grinned, but there was a definite smile pulling at the corners of her lips. She seemed borderline giddy, like Azzie had after having her animal affinity confirmed. Perhaps she had… finally earned Riley’s respect?
“I… I did it!” Leanne shouted gleefully. “I finally did it!”
“Excellent work!” Riley declared. “We still need to work on a few more things, obviously, but this is definitely a good start. A very big step. I think you’ve got a chance of going far with your magic now, Miss Kimber.”
The session wasn’t quite over yet, but after working with each student for a few more minutes and then giving instructions for the next day’s lessons, Riley sent them off, telling them they’d earned the early dismissal. Leanne practically skipped back to her suite.
“Man, good job, Leanne!” Kozma said. “It’s great to see you so happy.”
“Thanks!” Leanne replied, grinning. “I’m not sure if I have things fully under control, but… just the fact that I was able to do it at all is just…!”
Leanne didn’t have much else to say, really. How many ways could you express your excitement? Leanne didn’t know. Nor did she care.
They waved goodbye on the eighth floor and then Leanne ran to her room. When she reached the suite, she swung open the door.
“Pixie! Guess what! I did it! I managed to stop--!”
She stopped short when she noticed Pixie and Icon sitting together on the common room couch, textbooks open in both of their laps, and Pixie’s head rested on Icon’s shoulder. When they saw Leanne, they both instantly straightened up. Leanne stared for a moment before laughing.
“Sorry, did I interrupt something?” she asked, grinning.
“Er, I, uh…” Icon started. “No. We were just um. S-studying.” He glanced down at the textbook. “F-for the exam we’ve got tomorrow in our Basics of Healing Class. So um. D-did you say you managed to…?”
“Yup!” Leanne beamed proudly. “I passed her test! She asked me to stop and restart time, and I did!”
“Oh, congrats!” Pixie said, smoothing her hair. “I knew you had it in you, Lee.”
“Anyway,” Leanne went on, “I’ll um. Leave you two to studying. I’m going to go into the bedroom and spend some time with Zoe out. Azzie was right: she’s been a lot less stressed since I began doing that.”
“Sounds great,” Icon said with a goofy grin. “We’ll just um. Yes, get back to s-studying.”
Back in the room, as Zoe skittered around on her bed, Leanne reflected on the afternoon’s events again. She felt like nothing could temper her excitement… though something was nagging at her mind. It took her a while to put her finger on it: Riley’s reaction. Her unusual excitement at Leanne’s success.
She thought back to the first time David had successfully manipulated the mind of a fellow student, searching her memory for Riley’s response then. She remembered the woman praising David for a moment before saying that next time she expected an even greater breadth of control. She’d been satisfied, sure, but… not happy. Not nearly grinning. So why the disparity now? Was it because she’d thought Leanne so hopeless that she had been truly bowled over by her success? Or was there something else going on?
As Zoe settled onto Leanne’s collarbone, the girl frowned and tried to push the thoughts away. So what if Riley was more pleased about her success than she’d been for David’s? It didn’t mean anything. All that mattered was the success, that she’d done it at all. Heck, maybe this would be a turning point… maybe Riley was finally starting to like her. And if that was indeed the case, then despite the ever-growing workload, perhaps the rest of the semester wouldn’t be so bad after all.
**
November 15th was a day that Leanne had been mildly dreading all semester. On the bright side of it, classes were all shortened, letting out at noon instead of the usual 3:50. It was the reason for this, though, that depressed Leanne: visiting day, the one afternoon each semester in which relatives of Mistonarc students were allowed to stop by and catch up with their loved ones. Leanne wasn’t normally a spoilsport; she understood that in life, most other people had families who loved them and wanted to see them. But that didn’t make it any hurt any less when everyone else, including Icon and Pixie, was buzzing about finally getting to see their mom or dad or little sister-- practically oozing delight-- and yet Leanne knew there would be no one coming for her. That there wasn’t a single person out in the world who would be making the trip to Mistonarc on her behalf.
Azzie, who also had nobody coming, seemed to notice Leanne’s sullen behavior throughout the day. So at lunch, she gave Leanne a knowing pat on the back and said, “Hey… maybe while the others are visiting, we can have some fun in your room. I could borrow my suitemates’ board games, and we can play for a bit together.” She forced a smile. “Who needs relatives when you can have Water Wars? Gosh, it’s been forever since I’ve played that-- I think not since Mallory Grossman destroyed Hearthvale’s copy back when we were twelve.”
“I thought you hated that game,” Leanne laughed, already feeling a little better. “You always complained when one of the others kids picked it. ‘Too much water magic-- why can’t we play something else-- I’d rather play Color Wheels’.”
“Absence makes the heart grow fonder?” Azzie suggested, sticking her tongue out at Leanne. “Beside, Liz only has that and Ladders of Light. I’d much rather deal with water magic than light magic. I see enough of that from Gilly.”
“Ha, point taken,” Leanne conceded. “If all else fails, maybe we could just invent something with our elemental magic.”
“Works for me!” Azzie said, grinning.
True to Azzie’s suggestion, they did end up back in Leanne’s room playing Water Wars as the rest of Mistonarc’s students met their families in the great hall. After the first half hour, the novelty of the game wore off and Azzie relived her hatred for it, so they ended up playing with Zoe and Zippy instead (though not at the same time) as they sat around gossiping. About an hour and a half in, Pixie returned to the room, looking rather happy.
“Lee!” she called. “There’s someone walking around the great hall, looking for you.”
Leanne blinked in surprise and looked at Azzie, completely confused. For a moment, she wasn’t even sure what to say.
“Are you sure they’re asking for me?” she asked.
“Positive,” Pixie replied.
“Did… did they say who they are?”
“She said her name was Rose Wilson.”
Leanne raised an eyebrow. “Rose Wilson?” she repeated. This only made her more confused; Rose Wilson, the headmistress of Hearthvale, had been a big authority figure in Leanne’s life. But Wilson had always been overwhelmed, needy children pulling her in a million directions at once, and she’d never really shown a special interest in Leanne . Or at least, not special enough to come visiting her at Mistonarc, a solid six hours away from the orphanage. It just didn’t make sense, especially considering the many other orphans who still needed her. Not only that, but why would Wilson come asking for her, but not Azzie? If anything, Leanne was pretty sure that Wilson had always preferred Azzie a little bit over her.
“Um… are you sure?” Leanne asked Pixie. “Like… Wilson? She definitely said she was Rose Wilson?”
“That’s what she told me,” Pixie said with a shrug. “And she also said that she wanted to see you as soon as possible.”
Leanne frowned. Okay, maybe there was an off chance that this was possible, but it seemed highly unlikely. Heck, beyond unlikely. “What does she look like?” she said.
“Uh…” Pixie thought for a moment. “Well, she was an older woman. I mean, not super old, but… in her forties, at least. She had really long, curly blond hair, going all the way down to her waist… green eyes… I couldn’t see much else from her figure; she was pretty covered up. It must be a little cold up here to outsiders.”
Leanne froze in place, her mouth gaping wide open. Azzie stared at both of them, now starting to look equally confused.
“Um… Rose Wilson doesn’t look like that,” Azzie said slowly. “Maybe she’s mistaken? Or… Leanne? Where are you going?”
During Pixie’s description, Leanne had slowly stood and started towards the door. As her head spun, she said to Azzie, “I’m… going to see her. I-it shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.” When Azzie started to get up as well, Leanne said, “No. The great hall’s all the way down on the ground floor, Azz, it’s such a hike-- no need for you to come with when it’s probably all a big mix-up. I’ll be back really soon, okay? Just stay here with Pixie.”
She couldn’t tell Azzie the real reason she didn’t want her to come. That would just raise more questions… and anyway… Leanne wasn’t entirely sure. Not yet, with only a broad description to go on. But as Pixie had been talking… images had bloomed in her head, recollections and…
She shook the thought away; she couldn’t get ahead of herself. Without another word, she shut the door behind her and began towards the great hall. She couldn’t muster the energy to look around as she walked; she couldn’t even think. Just walk towards the great hall, one foot after the other… one step at a time, one floor at a time…
It took her a long time to get there; it felt like an eternity to Leanne. Finally, she found herself at the great hall’s open doors, and she walked inside. The room was awash with activity, hundreds of students and their families clustered inside. She scanned the space, looking for the person who fit Pixie’s description… but with little initial success. She saw tons of people she knew-- Lizzie Milone and their father; Icon’s crying roommate, Jay, and his infamous mother; Shira from the book club with her parents and three small sisters-- but not the woman. The imposter Rose Wilson.
Then, she heard a voice coming from the classroom that adjoined the great hall. Normally the door between the two spaces was kept shut, but presently it was ajar. Leanne paused and turned towards the room. Was she imagining it? For a moment, she thought so. But then the voice called again, and this time Leanne could make out the words it spoke: “Sweetheart, in here.”
Her heart dropped into her stomach. Even as the logical voice in her head screamed at her to not peek through the door, she took a step towards it and peered through the crack. Inside, it was dark, with just a single lightbulb on overhead. She blinked to adjust her eyes… and once she did, she found herself staring at a woman dressed in a cloak.
“Come inside, sweetheart,” the woman said. She fit Pixie’s description exactly: long blonde hair that fell in cascading curls; green eyes, bright and alert; creamy skin just as pale as Leanne’s own.
As Leanne stood at the threshold between the great hall and the classroom, the woman extended her arms out towards the girl, taking a gentle hold of Leanne’s hand. Leanne didn’t resist as she was then pulled completely into the room, and the woman shut the door. She knew that perhaps she should fight back, refuse to meet in this isolated space. Demand that the cloaked woman speak with her out in the great hall like everyone else. But she was too shocked to bring herself to act.
So she just stood there, numb, as the woman enfolded her in a hug and murmured, “Oh Leanne, my sweet daughter. It’s so nice to finally see you again.” Chapter Twelve1Leanne couldn’t move. Too many thoughts were swirling in her head as her mother held her in a warm embrace. As a child, she had often imagined her mother finally returning to her, and them picking up their old lives together. But as she’d grown older, she’s begun to dismiss such thoughts as fanciful and unrealistic… and all of the things she’d recalled since beginning school at Mistonarc had made such notions especially absurd. And yet here Kristy Kimber was, her small hands patting Leanne’s hair. Her shining eyes staring lovingly at her daughter. Real, in the flesh, breathing and alive. “You’ve grown so much, my darling,” she said softly. “Look at you. Nearly fully grown. How I’ve missed you.” For a moment, Kristy’s words felt like a caress to Leanne’s ears. The sweet timbre of her voice, the warmth of her hands, the healthy glow of her milky skin. This was all of her childhood fantasies come to life, everything she’d so hoped for during her early years at Hearthvale. She stood there for a while, letting her mother stroke her, simply basking in Kristy’s presence. And then… And then everything came back to her. Every confusing, terrifying memory she’d uncovered in the past few months. Every taunt that had dripped from Gilly Queen’s lips. Every nightmare that had driven her to screams. She jerked out of Kristy’s grasp, as if she’d been burned, and took a step back. A feeling of anger washed over her, coupled with apprehension. As Kristy watched on with a furrowed brow, Leanne struggled to gather any words, finally managing to sputter, “W-what… what are you doing here, Mother?” “Visiting you, of course, sweetheart. What else would I be doing?” “Visiting me,” Leanne echoed. “After all this time?” As she spoke, images flicked through her mind at a nearly frantic pace: her parents arguing; her sitting on her mother’s lap, that unique feeling of possession permeating her; the woman in chains, the peeled, bloody snakes, the screaming rats in fetid cages… her father’s dead body on the floor, with the blood trickling out from his nose… “I wish I could have visited sooner,” Kristy said with a note of regret, blithely unaware of the terrible memories rocketing through Leanne’s head. “But… things have been complicated, my love. So very complicated.” She reached out to smooth Leanne’s hair, but Leanne flinched and took another step back. “Complicated how?” Leanne asked bitterly. “T-too complicated to visit me? To take care of me?” “I know you must hate me, dear,” Kristy said. “But please, don’t pass judgement yet. I… I have reasons, you know.” She glanced towards the desks a few feet away from them. “Please, allow me to explain myself; then I’m sure you’ll understand. Why don’t we sit, love? We’ll be so much more comfortable.” “How about you sit?” Leanne said. “I’m p-perfectly fine with standing.” Really, she just didn’t want to get any further from the door. From her possible escape if things went wrong… if the placid Kristy Kimber of right now morphed into the shouting, red-faced woman of her memories. Kristy gave a sad sigh as she sat herself down in a chair facing the door. “If you wish, my dear. You will always be welcome to sit if you change your mind.” After situating herself, Kristy let the room lapse into silence, waiting for Leanne to speak next and carry on the conversation. Part of Leanne wanted to turn around and flee from the room, and later pretend this whole thing had never happened. But after twelve years apart from her mother… she couldn’t just bring herself to leave. She needed answers. Explanations. Closure. If not about the terrifying memories, then at least about the basic things. Why, for example, she’d decided to leave Leanne at the orphanage. Was it a move of malice, as Gilly painted it? A total disregard for her daughter? Or had it been something more than that? What had been her reason? As the hush in the room became almost uncomfortable, Leanne asked this of Kristy. “Why did I leave you there?” her mother echoed. “Well, I first want you to know that it wasn’t a decision I came to easily, my sweet. I left you there out of necessity. I didn’t want to put you in danger-- and if I’d kept you with me, you would have been in such terrible danger.” “Danger from what?” Leanne said. “My work,” Kristy said vaguely. “It… wasn’t always very popular. I accumulated some enemies, terrible, terrible people who would stop at nothing to see me stopped. And who would not have blinked twice if you’d gotten hurt in the process. I couldn’t put you through that. Not my own daughter.” “What… what work?” Leanne asked. “My work is actually partly why I’ve come today,” Kristy said. “Beyond just wanting to visit you, of course. But before I get into that, I first want to square away any other lingering questions you might have, so that there remain no rotten feelings between us. So go ahead, my dear. Ask away.” Every time she’d played over this reunion scenario in her head, Leanne had come up with dozens of questions to ask her mother. But now that she found herself face-to-face with Kristy Kimber, she could barely think of anything. It was like some perverse form of stage fright; her mind wasn’t blank, but it was close. And the things she did want to ask-- for example, if Kristy had murdered Chet Kimber-- she couldn’t quite bring herself to ask. Not yet. How was one supposed to pose that kind of question, anyway? No phrasing Leanne could think of felt right. Eventually, she simply ended up asking, “Why did you pose as Rose Wilson?” Kristy was silent for a moment before she flashed a sweet smile. “It may be hard to believe after so many years, my love, but there are still people out there who would like to see harm come to me. I’ve grown accustomed to using the names of others… and I couldn’t just use any name, because I wanted it to be someone you knew. Otherwise, why would you want to meet with them? Rose Wilson seemed like the natural choice. I did not do it to deceive you, my dear. If I could have used my own name, I most surely would have, I promise you.” “Then… why are we here, and not in the great hall?” “For privacy, of course,” Kristy responded. “I knew there would be so many questions, and it’s so terribly loud out there in the great hall. I saw this little classroom and decided it would be perfect.” Leanne did concede that it was noisy outside, but she couldn’t help but wonder if there was something else. Still, a bigger question bugged her. “But… how did you know I went to Minstonarc at all? I mean… when you left me, I was four. I could barely use magic at all. There was no way to predict that I’d get accepted here twelve years later.” “My dear, I do have some friends. Those who have been helping me with my work. One of them told me that you were enrolled here. Needless to say, I was so happy for you when I heard the news.” “Friends?” Leanne latched on to this word. “Who are you friends with?” Kristy waved a dismissive hand. “Oh, no one you know, of course. But just people from Petal Wood who heard of your acceptance. I went here myself, you know. Your father, too. So you’re a legacy, sweetheart!” “I did know that, actually,” Leanne replied. Kristy briefly frowned at this, but seemed to catch herself. A neutral expression returned to her face as she said, “That’s wonderful! Well, everyone back in Petal Wood is very proud, my dear. So few children make it to Mistonarc each year that it’s always news when one does! Why, I think you’re the first from Petal Wood in a decade! Who knows, maybe it’ll be a decade more before there’s a second.” Leanne was the one to frown now. Not a lot of people from Petal Wood knew her. Fewer cared for her. Even if the news did spread, she doubted that her name would stick out in their minds. Then there was the way that Kristy said that one resident of Petal Wood had made it to Mistonarc. But that wasn’t true. Azzie had also been accepted this year. If her mother had truly heard of her enrollment from the residents of Petal Wood, then wouldn’t they have also cheerily mentioned that two hometown kids had made it? As if sensing Leanne’s increasing unease, Kristy broke into her thoughts with a loud, “So! Any other questions for me, love?” “Just… just one,” Leanne said, suddenly feeling a little queasy. “Um. So. You left me at the orphanage. Because Dad died. Right?” “Yes, that’s right, my dear. It was all very tragic, poor Chet.” She shook her head sadly. “It’s such a pity…” From Kristy’s tone, it was immensely clear that she hoped Leanne would leave off her question there and move on to another topic. And part of Leanne wanted to. It would be far easier that way. But she couldn’t. This might be her one chance to get answers, after all; she could not let Kristy stop her from receiving them. It might be the more pleasant course of action for now, but she’d regret it later. And Leanne already had enough regrets to deliberately add more to the list. That didn’t stop her voice from shaking, though, as she proceeded to say, “Okay. So then… um. How… how is it that he died? And I’ve been told that you’re a mage of life and death. Why didn’t you revive him, then? What stopped you?” “Well, first, dearie, you know how life and death magic works. To revive someone is extremely taxing on the mage-- I can’t throw away my own life for the sake of someone else, you know. Even for Chet, I’m afraid.” She clucked her tongue, then added, “But overall, I think that this might be a good time to explain to you my work, Leanne, and then I can fully answer the rest of your question later--” “No,” Leanne interrupted. “I’d rather like the complete answer to my question now. Tell me how he died, please.” “Don’t fret, sweetheart. I’ll get you your answer soon enough. But it’ll make more sense once I explain my work, I promise.” Then, before Leanne could protest, Kristy said, “So, you know that I am a magician of life and death, Leanne. I assume you’ve also been taught about the general… taboos… regarding the field. Primarily, that mages of life and death must be extremely careful with the utilization of their affinity. That we aren’t to muck around with certain things. You’ve been told these things, correct?” “Yes,” Leanne said, thinking back to Riley’s lessons on these things. All mages with fate-changing skills had certain, as Kristy put it, taboos about their powers-- things that weren’t necessarily illegal, and wouldn’t wind you up in Auerdale, the magician-run prison out in the gloomy northern village of Cutter’s Mill if broken, but nonetheless were frowned upon. Things like say, a mind mage exerting control over a friend to win an argument. Or a weather mage making it snow in the middle of summer just because he felt like it. But then there were the more serious things, things that weren’t just taboo-- and it could be a fine line between the two. Using mind magic on a shopkeeper to stop him from boring small talk? Taboo. Using mind magic to influence that shopkeeper to give you twice your rightful change? Illegal. And from Kristy’s sudden nervous gaze, the way she now refused to make any eye contact with her daughter, Leanne wasn’t entirely sure if her mother was actually referring to merely taboo things. “But there’s always one constant in life that bothers everyone,” Kristy continued. “A thing that always brings tragedy and sorrow… And yet one that no one has ever tried to stop this thing. The very idea of doing so roils magicians down to the core. As if suggesting it is ludicrous. And yet we look at its effect every day, and can’t help but ask ourselves why it has to happen. Even worse, within the magical community, we have the ability to change this thing. Not just for ourselves, either. But for the whole world, mages and non-mages alike. We could fix it, my love.” Leanne shifted uncomfortably. “What are you talking about?” “Death, my dear,” Kristy answered. “The tragedies must end. My goal is simple. I want to stop death.” Leanne was glad she hadn’t sat down, because she would have been jumping right out of her chair. “ What? Is that… is that even possible?” “It’s my life’s work, dear,” Kristy replied. “When I first learned that I had life and death powers, I understood the potential I had. The tears shed upon someone’s death, having to bury someone you love, having to live your life waiting for the moment of your death… I knew I had to try. There was no other way. I’ve been working ever since, trying to find a way to stop death. And with each passing year, I have come closer and closer to my goal. I am almost there, my sweet. Soon, no one in the world will have to die anymore.” Leanne could swear that there were tears pricking in her mother’s eyes-- which she quickly blinked away. “Of course, this has garnered me many enemies. Mages who do not see eye to eye with me. Who find my life’s work… inappropriate. Who do not care for the value of life. It is from them that I’ve been hiding. And it is because of them that I had to leave you at Hearthvale all those years ago.” “You… you didn’t answer my question.” This was the only thing that Leanne could bring herself to say. “About how Dad died.” She pressed a hand to her temple. “Your father… I loved your father deeply, my sweet. You must know that, first. And he was so supportive of my work, at least initially. But the closer I got, the less encouraging he became. He started to have… doubts… about my methods. Turned a blind eye to what we were doing. The whole picture of it. Our goal. He got violent, my dear-- why, I was terrified of him. And then one day… I came home to find him packing bags. Frantically, as if he’d hoped to be gone by the time I arrived. And he had you all dressed, shoes and coat and everything, waiting by the door. He was planning to take you from me, love. Steal you. Without so much as a goodbye.” Kristy put her head in her hands for a short moment before taking a deep breath. “He had my papers, too. An entire suitcase full of them. Experiment results… algorithms… everything I’d worked for. He told me he was planning to hand them over to the Petal Wood Police. That he’d let them sort out all the things I’d done. He was willing to send me to Auderdale, Leanne. Stop my life’s work. Deny the world its right to live. All because he was afraid of how close I was to success. ” She let out sad laugh, as if she couldn’t believe it even after all these years. “My love… there was no other way to stop him from his insanity. To deny the world’s greatest gift while taking mine. If there was any other way to stop him, I would’ve done it, I swear to you. But my dear… I’m afraid that his death was caused by me. I am so sorry to tell you this. But after hearing my side, you must understand that it was for the greater good of the world.” For the greater good. Leanne recalled the taunt rolling off of Gilly’s laughing tongue as she heard it come from her own mother’s mouth… and her blood ran cold as ice as she realized that Gilly’s barbs were true. They were all true. Her mother was a murderer. Killed her father and left the baby at the orphanage and ran. It was in Leanne’s blood, just as sure as her time magic. “Of course, everything went to hell after that,” Kristy continued as Leanne began to feel a little lightheaded; she leaned against the classroom wall to keep from falling. “I knew the Petal Wood Police would not understand why I did what I did. They would persecute me, Leanne. And if they’d come to the house… they would not have been able to make sense of some of the… other things. My research methods could be unorthodox, you see.” As Kristy spoke, images of the rats, the snakes, the spiders, the chained begging woman, exploded in Leanne’s mind. “I had to leave. And as much as it wounded me, I could not take you with me. It would have been too dangerous. Better for you to live a quiet life in the orphanage, and wait for the world to accept my success, than to risk your life as well.” “You… you killed him?” Leanne said. “You killed Dad?” She’d given up on standing now, and had slid down to the floor. Her breaths were jagged and uneven, and her hands were shaking hard. She thought back to all of Riley’s recent lessons on controlling one’s emotions, but none of the methods would work. She couldn’t slow her breathing. She couldn’t calm her racing mind. She couldn’t, couldn’t, couldn’t-- “I had to,” Kristy repeated firmly. “Sweetheart, please don’t look so distraught, it upsets me so. You haven’t heard the rest of the story--” “The rest?” Leanne shrilled. “There’s a rest? What, it wasn’t enough that you murdered Dad and dumped me at Hearthvale and then didn’t show up for twelve freaking years? There’s a rest?” As she screeched, all she could think of was: Gilly was right, Nova was right, they were all right, all of it was right! “My dear, I know you must be upset. I’m not surprised you don’t understand right away.” Kristy got out of her chair and walked over to Leanne, kneeling down to her level; she tried to brush a strand of hair of Leanne’s eyes, but the girl batted her away. “It hurt me terribly to have to do it, honey. So terribly. But you have to understand that I had no other choice. Because of Chet’s death, millions-- billions!-- of others will live. And you can help me reach that goal, Leanne. You can help make it so that no child ever mourns the death of a parent again… never has to grow up in an orphanage again…” Leanne sniffed as she glared. “What could I possibly do?” she asked, not trying to hide the barbs in her words. “What could any of this have to do with me?” “As I said earlier, using life and death magic… it wears on a mage,” Kristy explained. “Every time I use it, some of my own lifespan melts away. Disappears. I’m not an old woman, Leanne, and yet because of my work, my life is nearing its end. I look to be in my forties, but inside? Inside I’m much older. That is my sacrifice for the world. But I’m running out of time, Leanne.” Again she tried to stroke her daughter’s hair, and again Leanne pushed her away. “Well, I’m not a freaking life and death mage, so I can’t really help you there. Sorry,” Leanne snapped. “But my sweet, you can help me. And only you can help me. I don’t need you to be a mage of life or death… it’s your time magic that can help me complete the spell, and grant the world immortality.” “My time magic?” Leanne said. “How the hell do you know about my time magic?” “I’d always figured it was a strong possibility, my dear, due to your father’s powers. And when you were young I used my life magic to read into your life-source, your being. It could not provide me exact results-- not when you were so young-- but I could feel it, even then. That there was something strong in you. At your core.” And so explained Leanne’s memory of sitting in her mother’s lap, that feeling of possession by fate-changing magic overcoming her. Kristy went on, “I knew it might not be time magic, of course. But as I said, I have friends still, and once you arrived here and your power was confirmed, they let me know.” “Your friends in Petal Wood?” Leanne said. “Yes, of course.” “How… how would your friends in Petal Wood know about the power I discovered here?” “Because it was such big news,” Kristy said without skipping a beat. “Time mages are so rare, love. When one is confirmed, word of it spreads like wildfire. And once I heard of it, I was so pleased. Because I knew that finally I had my solution. My life’s work would not go to waste. My goal of granting the world immortality would not be but a faraway, unachievable dream. But in order for that to be so, I need to use your time magic, my love. To freeze my lifespan as it stands, so that I no longer age, inside or outside. Then I’ll be able to complete my research... and once that happens…” She grinned. “Why, once that happens, immortality will be everyone’s reality.” “I… freeze your lifespan? I can’t… I don’t know how to freeze your lifespan. Even if I wanted to.” “I know a method. I have spent years researching it. You can’t do it alone. But combined with my life magic, it should be little trouble to accomplish, theoretically. And my love, why would you not want to? Having grown up in an orphanage, I think that you more than most people would know the terror of death. The agony. The way a little child cries for his mother to come get him, but his mother is gone for good. Don’t you want to prevent that, Leanne?” “Of… of course I do,” Leanne said, though her words were laced with uncertainty. “But you’ve given me absolutely no reason to trust you. At all. And you say you’ve done research on this method. Yet you didn’t mention if it had been done successfully in the past. Which leads me to think it hasn’t been.” “My dear… No, it hasn’t been tested. Time mages aren’t very common, you see. Even fewer wish to help me. But I know that it will work. I’ve done studies on time magic as well as life and death magic. It’s completely possible to combine them, given the proper preparation. I concede, there could be… dangers. I, of course, would not want to lie to you, my sweet. But those dangers are mild. Especially when compared to the glorious results.” “...What kind of dangers?” Leanne asked warily. “I won’t lie to you, my dear. Time mages can also reduce their lifespan, either if they’re not careful, or if they do something extraordinary. And these measures, I confess, are quite extraordinary. But when we’ve accomplished our goals, it will be but a tiny setback for you. Especially because once I complete my research, I’ll then promptly make you immortal.” “You’ve still given me no reason to trust you,” Leanne pointed out. “Other than your word.” She bit her lip. “And why should I trust that word? After all, you’ve lied to me already.” “Lied to you? No, sweetheart, I haven’t lied to you.” “But you have,” Leanne said. “About why you told everyone today your name was Rose Wilson. I’m not a psychic, but I'm also not stupid, Mother. Most of the reason you claim to have murdered Dad is because the police would disapprove of your work. They’d come to the house, and be shocked by what they found. You then murdered Dad, and fled from the house… and I’m assuming eventually the police found it. Well, found him… and whatever else you didn’t want them to see. You didn’t say that your name was Rose Wilson because your ‘enemies’ are after you. You said it because you’re a wanted woman, Mom. Isn’t that right?” Leanne stared her mother straight in the eye, daring her to lie again. “Darling… In order for you to really understand, I couldn’t tell you the whole story right away. I did tell you eventually, didn’t I my dear? So it wasn’t really a lie. Just a… temporary withholding of the entire truth.” “Call it what you’d like,” Leanne said. “But I’ve still no reason to trust you. And that you didn’t deny what I just said implies to me that it’s true. That you are a wanted woman. So, tell me, Mother: what’s to stop me from walking out that door and turning you in right now? Screaming your name in the great hall?” Part of Leanne expected her desperate mother to grab onto her-- to physically restrain her in an effort to stop Leanne from fulfilling this threat. But Kristy Kimber didn’t. Instead, she just let out a sad, soft sigh. “Well, my love, nothing is stopping you. Nothing at all. If you wish to turn me in, then go do it. I would be most devastated, of course… all those lives--everyone in the world--sacrificed because you’re cross with me… but it’s well within your right to turn me in if you wish.” Leanne was silent for a moment, as she pondered the situation. What would happen, if she followed through with her pronouncement? If she stood up and walked out into the great hall and yelled that there was a wanted murderer in the room next door? Part of her would feel relief, surely. But… that wouldn’t be the only resulting emotion. Far from it. Finally, she spoke. “...I won’t turn you in,” she said. “But I still don’t see myself helping you. I don’t care what you say, Mother: I don’t trust you. At all.” “Perhaps not yet. But I will give you time. I can understand that you’re frustrated. You haven't seen me in years, after all, and you thought I just dumped you at that orphanage. I can understand that you’d be angry, and not quite willing to accept the grand responsibility. I’m not going to ask you to decide right now, darling. That would be completely unreasonable of me. Now, today is the 15th of November, correct? Given the large stakes at hand, and that the whole fate of the world rests on your decision, you’re going to need time to come to an understanding. I think a month should be plenty of time for you to reflect and deliberate. I will expect a letter from you by December 15th. In it, I want you to tell me your decision, what conclusions you’ve drawn, and we will go from there.” Kristy took a piece of paper out of her pocket and handed it to Leanne. “Here is the address where I want you to send the letter. And remember, my sweet: no matter what, you are my daughter, and I love you. I want you to help me badly. More than anything in the world. But if you choose not to in the end? I will respect that. It will pain me greatly, but if you express to me that you don’t wish to help… that you wish to be left alone… I will honor that request. But should you ever change your mind, I will always await another letter.” Leanne ran her fingers over the foisted paper and stared blankly at the address. It was for a post box in a mage town less than an hour away from Mistonarc. Gumley Ridge. Leanne had never been there, but she’d heard of it. Had this been where her mother was hiding for the past twelve years? In a rural village near Mistonarc? Or was that just a red herring in case Leanne reneged on her promise not to turn Kristy in, and went blathering to the authorities the moment they parted ways? Leanne had to remind herself that as little as she trusted her mother, Kristy probably returned the sentiment at least to some degree, despite her proclamations of loving Leanne so dearly. “I hope you will make the right decision, Leanne,” Kristy said as Leanne stuffed the paper into her pocket. She walked towards the door and put her hand on the knob before shining one last sweet smile at Leanne. “For the sake of the world, my pet, I really do hope.” 1Alternately entitled, Mother Knows Best Chapter ThirteenAfter her mother left her, Leanne stayed in the dim classroom for close to twenty minutes
as she struggled to digest all that had just occurred. The entire time, she half-expected that Kristy, regretful about leaving without having gotten a promise of assistance from Leanne, would fling herself back into the room, whispering more pleas and reassurances of her noble mission. But Kristy didn’t come back. Leanne was left alone with just her thoughts and that piece of paper, a whopper of a headache forming inside her.
By the time she arrived back to her suite, Azzie and Pixie were gone. Lizzie and Elsie were also out, and so the entire space was quiet and dark. Leanne made a beeline for her bed, flopping down onto it without so much as peeling back the comforter. She spent the rest of the day like that, clutching her pillow tightly, fighting the headache and unending thoughts that surged through her head. When Pixie finally showed up again just before supper, Leanne feigned illness and told her roommate to go without her.
“Um, okay,” Pixie said. “But-- that lady. You never came back, and so Azzie and I left but… we’re both wondering. Who was that lady, if she wasn’t Rose Wilson?”
“She was no one,” Leanne murmured. “I couldn’t find her. Then I suddenly started feeling sick, and so I ran to the nearest bathroom and… I couldn’t drag myself out of the stall for nearly an hour. That’s why I didn’t come back. Just go. I don’t want to make you sick, too.”
“Do you want me to bring you back anything from the dining hall?” Pixie asked. “Like soup?”
“No,” Leanne said. “I’ll probably just throw it back up.”
“Okay then. Well, I’ll check on you later, okay? To make sure you don’t need to head to the infirmary. Stay hydrated, okay?”
“I will.”
“Promise?” Pixie clearly didn’t believe her.
“Yes, yes, I promise. Now go before you get whatever I have. We can’t have the both of us sick, Pix. And before you even ask, no, you can’t try to heal me… whatever I have is nasty and I won’t risk it going wrong and having you inflicted with it.”
“...O-okay. But I-I can ask Professor Wolf-Park if he can--”
“No,” she said a little too quickly. “It-it’ll go away. Just go already.”
There was a moment of silence before she heard the door creak open, then shut again. Leanne breathed a sigh of relief. She felt a vague twinge of remorse for lying to her roommate, but… she couldn’t tell her the truth. The very thought of doing so sent a swell of panic surging through her. And it hadn’t been a complete lie, had it? It was mostly a fabrication, she knew, but there was a thread of truth woven throughout it: she did feel sick right now. Her stomach was flipping, her head was pounding, and her entire body ached. So her words to Pixie… they weren’t all so bad, were they? This was what Leanne tried to convince herself of as her conversation with Kristy played over in her mind for the umpteenth time in the past few hours.
Her mother had killed her father. Her mother had killed her father! Even after all those memories had surfaced, and doubts had begun to bloom in Leanne’s mind about Kristy Kimber… she still hadn’t ever really been able to seriously entertain the idea that Kristy had killed Chet. It was just so, so-- absurd. So insane! And having confirmation that it was true-- a confirmation from Kristy!-- made Leanne want to scream. And that was without even taking into consideration the other things Kristy had said. Her fantastical plans and insistence that Leanne could help her. That Leanne was the only one who could help her.
But Leanne couldn’t help her mother… could she? Kristy… no matter what she claimed, her plan was crazy. The strong taboo in the magical community about life and death mages seeking immortality was in place for a purpose: it just wasn’t supposed to be done. People, as sad as it was, were supposed to die eventually. Life wasn’t something that could be extended eternally. There was a reason, after all, that even mildly tampering with someone’s life-source led to a reduced lifespan on the mage’s part. Why all of the fate-changing magics had drastic built-in consequences-- for example, an inept soul magician could lose control of her own body; a thoughtless shapeshifter could get permanently stuck in a transformed state. And she who too often dabbled in the magics of life and death might be met, as Kristy was, with a vastly shortened lifespan. Leanne’s head drifted to one of Professor Munroe’s lectures on the topic back towards the start of the term: “To the fate-changing mage, it might seem unfair that his power comes with so many drawbacks. But it’s a balance thing. It ensures humility and carefulness. There will always be attempted abuses. But the consequences serve to limit these.”
And moral challenges aside, Leanne just didn’t trust her mother-- her words, her intentions, her real motivations. For cripes sake, she’d killed Chet Kimber! She’d killed him! Then abandoned Leanne for twelve years, returning only because she needed something. How could you put any faith in a person like that? How could you count on them to give you the whole picture? And if Kristy had killed Chet because he’d gotten in the way of her work… then why the hell should Leanne trust that the same fate might not befall her some day, if she got on her mother’s bad side?
And yet…
It was true was Kristy said: Leanne did know the pains of death far too keenly. The sobs of a young child whose parents were never coming back to him. The way a loved one’s untimely passing could be so crushing. She thought back to the way Azzie had been during her first few months at Hearthvale. Though some of the new arrivals to the orphanage were too young to wholly grasp the implications of their parents’ deaths (Leanne had been among them), Azzie was ten at the time. She was old enough to know what it meant for someone to die. For someone to be gone forever. She’d been inconsolable. Like she was moving through a thick, suffocating fog. And if what Kristy had told Leanne today was true… if Leanne’s help could prevent something like that from happening to another little girl, all future little girls… then would Leanne be downright evil to not to offer her assistance? If she had the power to stop a terrible suffering, and didn’t because Kristy Kimber wasn’t altogether morally innocent, then what did that say about her?
By the time Pixie returned to the room for the night at about ten o’ clock, Leanne was feeling even worse. She had to swear to her roommate a half dozen more times that she didn’t need to go to the infirmary and see a healer before Pixie would drop the topic… and still the girl didn’t seem at all convinced.
“I don’t say this in a mean way, of course, but you look terrible,” Pixie said as she stood over Leanne’s bed, staring down at her pale, chill-wracked body.
“Stop standing so close,” Leanne moaned. “You’ll catch what I have--”
“I don’t care if I catch it,” Pixie interrupted. “I’m going to be a healer, you know, so I have to get used to being around sick people. And I’m worried about you, Lee. You look like you’ve got the plague.”
“It’s just a bug,” Leanne repeated for what felt like the twentieth time. “I bet it’s one of those twenty-four hour things. I’ll probably be all better by tomorrow.”
“If it’s not, I’m taking you to the infirmary,” Pixie said firmly. “Even if I have to drag you.”
“Sounds great,” Leanne muttered, then turned towards the wall in an effort to end the conversation.
Seeming to get the hint, Pixie sighed and started getting ready for bed. Even after the girl settled into her own bed, though, Leanne could swear she felt Pixie’s worried eyes bearing into her from across the room, penetrating through the dark.
She finally drifted off into sleep at about midnight, and even for her, it was a fitful one, with a new roster of nightmares tacked on to the already weighty rotation. Normally after she’d awakened screaming a few times, she would go sleep elsewhere in an effort to stop bothering Pixie, but tonight she couldn’t make herself move. Her head felt so stuffy and heavy, her body so numb, that she was afraid if she stood up she’d collapse right back down… and then Pixie would make her go to the infirmary for sure. Instead, she just nestled under her covers and tried to level her breathing. Tried to push the terrible lingering images out of her foggy, racing mind…
At a quarter to seven, Pixie gently shook her awake and asked if she was feeling well enough to go to breakfast. Leanne gave an emphatic no.
“Let me take you to the infirmary then,” Pixie said.
“No. I don’t want to.”
“But last night you promised--”
“Give me the rest of the day,” Leanne murmured, rubbing her bloodshot eyes.
“I’ll… I’ll make you a deal,” Pixie said. “I’m going to bring you back an orange and a piece of toast from breakfast. If you eat them in front of me before I head to class, I won’t drag you to the infirmary… yet. But if you’re still looking as bad as you do now when I get out of classes this afternoon, then you’re going to the infirmary. No arguments. I’m not lying when I say I’ll force you there, Leanne. I’ll get Icon and Azzie and the three of us will literally carry you there if we have to. Okay?”
Leanne absolutely did not have the energy for an argument, so she forced a nod. “Fine. But… you don’t have to take care of me, you know. I don’t want you stressing yourself out because of me.”
“I know that I don’t have to,” Pixie said. “But I want to, Leanne. You’re my friend, and I care about you. You’re worth me stressing out. I know you’re probably… not used to people being really concerned about you, growing up where you did. But letting other people help you isn’t something to be ashamed of, Lee. You’re allowed to depend on others, sometimes. You don’t have to bear every burden of the world on your shoulders alone.”
With that, Pixie started out the room, her words sinking into Leanne’s stomach like a bucketful of stones. Though Leanne knew that Pixie was only talking in terms of her so-called ‘illness’, the message stung deeper than that. For the briefest of moments, she considered heaving herself out of bed and chasing after her roommate. Admitting the truth of what had happened yesterday afternoon, why she was really sprawled in bed with chills and a flip-flopping stomach. But just as the soon as the idea had entered her head, she shook it away. Pixie… she meant well. Leanne was positive that Pixie cared about her deeply, and really did mean it when she said that she wanted to take care of her. But Pixie came from a different world. She’d grown up with two loving parents, a mischievous younger brother whom she gushed about all the time. She’d spent her summers exploring the world’s greatest cities and attractions, both of the mage and non-mage variety. As evidenced by the vast collections of books she’d packed and taken with her to Mistonarc, she had never wanted for material things. Of course she had problems: everyone did. But… not like this. Not like what Leanne was dealing with now.
She just wouldn’t-- couldn’t-- understand. There was no way Pixie be able to help Leanne, even if she wanted her to.
A niggling voice in the back of Leanne’s head reminded her that there was still Azzie. Her best friend of six years, who knew the pain of loss, of emptiness. But all the same, Azzie was finally in her element. She was flourishing here at Mistonarc. She didn’t deserve to have all of Leanne’s angst and woes thrust upon her. That wouldn’t be fair to Azzie. Leanne cared about the white-haired girl’s happiness too much to want to worry her with such horrible, wide-reaching things. Pixie was right: Leanne didn’t have to bear every burden of the world on her shoulders. But some? Some burdens weren’t meant for sharing.
**
It took a lot of effort to choke down the dry toast and peeled orange Pixie brought back from the dining hall about forty-five minutes later, but afterward Leanne at least felt slightly less lightheaded. She figured in hindsight that skipping her meals probably wasn’t helping her mental state, but that didn’t stop her from not feeling hungry… nor from skipping lunch when the time came. The idea of being in the buzzing dining hall, surrounded by hundreds of her peers, made her feel downright panicked. She’d rather go without and stay in her room than face anyone’s stares.
Eventually though, she did leave her room; while she could put off eating for a while longer, she did have to go to the bathroom sometime. She mentally decided to make it quick, hoping she wouldn’t run into any students out in the hall. She was relieved when she found the bathroom empty, and after doing her business, she tried to avoid gazing at herself in the mirror as she washed her hands. She couldn’t even look at herself now. Seeing the golden locks, the eyes… It was like staring at a younger version of Kristy Kimber. She desperately wanted at that moment to be someone else; to not be stuck with this decision, with her abilities. To just live a normal life, free of this burden. But if not her… Who else?
Her solitude was cut short when, upon reentering the suite a few minutes later, she discovered that someone else had arrived in her absence. Two people in fact: her suitemate Lizzie, and then Anthy Ivsin, the ginger-haired girl who’d been among Riley’s last expulsions from Magic of Life, Death, Mind, and the Soul. They were sitting on the sofa in the common area, with a pair of high heels in Lizzie’s lap.
“I’m thinking… maybe a green dress,” Anthy was saying to Lizzie. “Something that complements your eyes.” When she saw Leanne, she exclaimed, “Oh! Hi.” As she noticed the girl’s ragtag appearance and the fact that she was still clad in pajamas, she furrowed her brow and asked, “Have you… have you not been to class today or…?”
Leanne could barely muster a wave. “Just sick,” she said shortly.
“Contagious?” Lizzie asked a bit too quickly. When Leanne looked taken aback, they added with flushed cheeks, “It’s just-- Anthy and I are going shopping tomorrow… and so we don’t want to get sick. Her mom’s coming by and taking us to town so that we can buy dresses for the Solstice Festival dance. Because if you wait too long then all the mage towns around here sell out and you’ve got to go into a non-magic city. It happened to my older sister one year. The festival is barely a month away, you know.”
“I’m not contagious,” Leanne murmured. “Have fun.”
“We will!” Anthy said. “I was so excited when Lizzie asked me…. told me that they were afraid that if they waited, someone else would snap me up.” She shot an adoring gaze in Lizzie’s direction. “Turns out Lizzie didn’t have anything to worry about.”
Leanne sighed. She wanted to be happy for them, but she couldn’t muster the energy. “Why aren’t you at lunch?” was all she managed to say in reply.
“Oh, Lizzie wanted to show me the heels for the outfit!” Anthy proclaimed, pointing to the shoes in Lizzie’s lap. “So that we know what we have to buy a match for tomorrow. They’re gorgeous, aren’t they? Lizzie is going to be the prettiest person at the dance.”
“Oh shut up,” Lizzie said, squirming a bit and blushing even harder. As if trying to deflect the conversation, they said to Leanne, “So. Has anyone asked you yet, Lee?”
Leanne paused. She wasn’t really in the mood for this kind of conversation. She had more important things to think about than who would ask her out to the dance. “...No, not yet,” she finally said.
“Aw, I’m sure you’ll be asked soon,” Anthy said. She added with a grin, “I know someone at least has eyes on you.”
“I doubt it,” Leanne said bluntly.
“I wouldn’t bet on that,” Anthy muttered with a wink. Leanne ignored the comment and started back towards her room. As she passed through the doorframe, Anthy called after her, “Wait! You’re not mad, are you? I was just joking, Leanne.”
Leanne towards back towards the two. “No, I’m not mad, Anthy. I’m just… sick and… have a lot on my mind, I guess.”
“A lot on your mind?” Lizzie frowned. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“No,” Leanne said. “I mean, it’s nothing much, really. Just stress about classes, you know.” She forced a grin… but as she did, a thought struck her: she was lying. Once again, she was lying. So effortlessly and lightly, as if it were second nature to her. Gilly’s taunts of the last few months echoed in her ears: you’re your mother’s daughter. Almost automatically, Leanne’s eyes darted to the dingy mirror that hung on the far wall of the common area-- and just as had happened in the bathroom minutes before, all she could see staring back at her was a younger, thinner version of Kristy Kimber’s face. Like mother, like daughter. You can’t escape your blood.
“Are you okay, Leanne?” Lizzie asked.
“Yes,” Leanne said. “I just… feeling nauseous, suddenly. I think I need to go lie down. H-have fun shopping tomorrow.”
And then, as sweat pooled at her brow, she shut the door and lobbed herself onto her bed. When the tears came a few moments later, she didn’t have the wherewithal to fight them back. She just hoped that Anthy and Lizzie couldn’t hear her through the wall, and was grateful when she heard them leaving a few minutes later. She couldn’t deal with any more concerned friends right now. She wanted-- needed-- to be alone, with just her memories and her thoughts.
**
Leanne’s isolation could only last so long. The few desperately needed hours she spent crying did not feel long enough when Pixie opened the door to their room shortly before suppertime. By this time, most of her tears had dried, but the last thing she wanted was to get up from her bed, or even move her head to see Pixie.
“Don’t tell me you’re still not feeling well?” Pixie asked as she set down her book bag.
Leanne decided not to even answer, hoping that not talking would count as not telling her she was not feeling well. And besides, as much as she felt the need to hide, she was, at the same time, tired of directly lying.
She didn’t even notice Pixie coming closer until she was right above her, trying to get a glimpse of her face. Leanne quickly turned the the other way, if not to hide her paleness, then to hide the redness of her eyes.
Pixie, however, was not fooled. “You can’t do this all day, Leanne. I hate seeing you like this, and... That’s it; I don’t care if this is short or not. I’m taking you to the infirmary. I’m not going to watch you languish like this anymore. And… and don’t bother to protest, because I don’t care if it makes you mad. Sometimes what’s best is unpleasant, but that’s a price I’m willing to pay.”
Pixie then tried to lift Leanne up by her arms, and Leanne did her best to resist. It was only when Pixie threatened to retrieve Icon and Azzie for back-up-- “and if they’re not enough, then I’m getting von Killix herself, you hear?”-- that Leanne muttered her surrender and stood of her own accord.
It was a long, bitter walk. Or at least, it was for Leanne. Pixie tried to give Leanne reassuring looks and words of encouragement every once in a while, but Leanne just turned away until Pixie decided to just stick with the affirming looks. Thankfully, they didn’t encounter many people along the way; those they did shot the two curious glances, but no one stopped to bother them.
Eventually, they found themselves at the infirmary, which was located on the ground level nearby to the Alchemy lab. It wasn’t long before a healer came to see Leanne, given the low level of activity in the facility. The healer was a portly woman in her mid-twenties, with a kind face framed with glasses and long, wheat-blonde hair. Though the plaque on her shirt said ‘Healer Rickson’, she told Leanne to call her Gracie and then asked for her name and what was bothering her tonight. When Leanne muttered a vague ‘Leanne Kimber, sick’, Pixie took it upon herself to give a detailed rundown.
“She’s been lethargic and nauseous,” the girl explained. “No appetite, terrible chills, and she’s been in bed all day.”
“I’m sure your friend is very glad you’ve come with her, dear,” Gracie said. “But normally I like to interact with my patients one-on-one. Why don’t you head to dinner? I promise I’ll take very good care of Leanne.”
Pixie didn’t seem happy to hear this, but she wasn’t about to argue. She gave Leanne a supportive smile. “I’ll see you later,” Pixie said before she shut the door. Leanne’s gaze didn’t follow Pixie for long before she went back to staring down at her shoes.
“So, dear,” Gracie said once Pixie was gone. “You don’t look very well-- that much is clear. Do you mind if I take your pulse and other vitals?”
Leanne said nothing, but held out her hand; she figured she may as well get this over with. Gracie took her hand, and Leanne felt some kind of magic run through her. Compared to other magics she’d felt-- Gilly’s pain magic, for example-- it wasn’t an altogether unpleasant feeling, though Leanne was still relieved when Gracie let go about a minute later.
“Your vitals seem to be stable,” she commented. “Regular pulse, blood pressure is normal, temperature is about 99 degrees. And I didn’t pick up any signs of infection or viral illness. It seems to me that whatever is bothering you, it isn’t physical.” Gracie leaned closer. “How long has this been going on?”
Leanne didn’t look up. “Just today,” she said shortly.
Gracie adjusted her glasses. “Was there anything that happened that you think might have caused this?”
“Just stress, I guess,” Leanne muttered, even as the word-- liar!-- flashed through her head as if projected on a marquee. As Gracie stared expectantly at her, as if waiting for more detail, she added, “My course load is pretty intense. A lot of late nights, you know.”
Gracie nodded. “This is common in Mistonarc. Especially for first years who are just finding their abilities. Do you already know yours?”
“Yes,” Leanne replied, grateful to be telling the truth for once… but that still didn’t stop her from divulging what she could. She hoped that Gracie wouldn’t ask.
Alas, it wasn’t to be. “And what affinity is it that you have, dear?”
“Um. Time magic.” Even after several weeks, and her recent success of freezing time purposefully, it still didn’t feel right coming from her mouth. And as Gracie nodded in response, clearly trying to hide her surprise, something occurred to Leanne: her mother’s words yesterday. About how fast the news of Leanne’s power had spread. Why, the girl thought to herself, if people back in Petal Wood know what I can do, doesn’t this healer who works at Mistonarc?
“Time magic,” Gracie echoed after she’d absorbed the news. “Well-- I can see why you’re stressed, dear. That must be a very complicated affinity to develop. And when is it that you found out you were a time magician?”
“October,” Leanne said.
“And then the stress has just been building since then until it finally became a bit too much yesterday?” Gracie asked.
“Yes.”
“And have you had any… symptoms… leading up to the episode in the past day? It might not even be things you recognize as symptoms, but that nonetheless tend to crop up when someone is under undue stress. For example, a decreased appetite, a general feeling of unease, nightmares…”
As Gracie continued ticking off symptoms, Leanne struggled to maintain a level expression. Cripes, this healer was more thorough than she’d been hoping. Even as Pixie had been dragging her down to the infirmary, Leanne had been praying that the healer would accept her self-diagnosis of ‘random bug’ and not prod too much. How much should she tell Gracie now? Not the whole picture, obviously. But… if she lied and said she’d had no signs up until yesterday, would Gracie know she was lying? The woman seemed extremely competent-- and clearly her healing magic was very well developed, based on everything she’d been able to glean just when checking Leanne’s vitals.
Leanne decided ultimately to give part of the picture-- enough, she hoped, to satisfy Gracie, but not enough to indicate what else deeper was going on. The real reason for her present condition. “...Nightmares,” she said. “S-sometimes I’ll… wake up in the middle of the night, yelling. It’s been bothering my roommate, so sometimes I’ll sleep in the common area…”
“And these nightmares began after you learned of your affinity?”
“Yes,” Leanne said. Back to the lying.
“And what are the nightmares about? Is there a common theme?”
“I don’t really remember them, honestly,” she lied through her teeth. And, anyway, at first that had been true, right? She hadn’t remembered those initial nightmares back near the start of the term; but the memories that flooded back to her in recent dreams were impossible to ignore. She recalled most of her recent nightmares vividly. They were seared into her brain, as if branded there by fire magic.
“Well,” Gracie said, “as I mentioned, it’s very common for Mistonarc students, especially those in their first year, to undergo a fair bit of stress, even to the point of detriment. Right now, it’s clear to me that you’re exhausted, that you’ve pushed your body to its breaking point. So here’s what I’d like to happen: right now, I’m going to give you some soup and a sleeping tonic. Just to get something in your belly and then ensure that you sleep well tonight. The tonic will help you for tonight and take the edge off so that you can rest, but I highly advise you see one of Mistonarc’s counselors, Tom Sundler. He’s a very kind man, and extremely skilled at his job. Whatever is troubling you, I am certain he can help out. The counseling office isn’t open right now, but I’d really like for you to make an appointment first thing in the morning, Leanne.”
Counseling. She recalled the idea being suggested to her, even before the incident when her time magic first appeared. She had balked, and since then, her nightmares had gotten worse. At the same time… Wouldn’t talking to the counselor about what happened with her mother be the same thing as ratting her out to the authorities? And even if she could hide the truth in places, what could this Tom Sundler really do? Was there anything that he’d suggest that she wouldn’t figure out on her own anyway? Maybe Gracie was right and he had a lot of experience-- but Leanne would bet that most of that experience had to do with stressed students who were freaking out about exams. Not students whose long-absent mothers had shown up, admitted to killing their fathers, and then cheerfully suggested that they help out with an illicit quest for immortality.
Leanne also realized, though, that if she brushed off Gracie’s suggestion, the healer might not let the topic go so easily. And since the burden of making an appointment was on Leanne’s shoulders anyway, and the kindly woman would never know if she followed through… Leanne sighed. One more lie for the history books?
“I’ll go,” she said, inwardly praying that this would be her last lie for a while. “I’ll make the appointment first thing tomorrow.”
Gracie smiled. “Good. Now, let me get you that soup and tonic. Please drink the tonic slowly so that you don’t conk out on your way back to your room, okay? It’ll take about a half hour to kick in. I’d recommend being in bed by then, because it hits pretty hard. Your sleep will be a very restful one tonight, dear. I promise you. No nightmares to wake you.”
Despite Gracie’s claims about the tonic’s potency, Leanne was dubious. But the woman was right: when it worked, it worked. It was when she was ascending the stairs back to the eighth floor that a sudden sleepy feeling washed over her. The pain in her head dulled; she felt her eyes flutter. By the time she made it back to the suite, she wanted nothing more than to lie down and let sleep claim her. As she kicked off her shoes and nestled under her blankets, she could only hope that Gracie’s other claim was true, and that no nightmares would visit her tonight. |
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Chapter One Artwork (by Icon):
Chapter Two Artwork (by Alyssa):
Chapter Three Artwork (by Nat):
Chapter Four Artwork (by Selm):
Chapter Five Artwork (by Celestial):
Chapter Six Artwork (by Lizica):
Chapter Seven Artwork (by Ginz):
Chapter Eight Artwork (by Tiger):
Chapter Nine Artwork (by Celestial):
Chapter Ten Artwork (by Cassie):
