‘You are clearly not gutter trash, Trudy Black,’ Felicia replied without a pause. ‘Whether Krystal Ward’s manners are rubbing off on you, or you’re from the better classes of Greystone, I know not, but you are obviously a cut above the rest. And let us not forget that anyone who recognises me for who I am would likely view me as no better than you. Quite possibly, they would view me in a far worse light.’
‘If the reports I’ve heard are true, most of the upper classes would place Krys above you in social rankings.’
‘That’s…’ Felicia sagged more and another tear rolled down her cheek. ‘That’s quite correct, they would.’
‘I don’t get it,’ Krystal said. ‘I don’t want to be hurtful, but what could your mother have possibly done to cause all this?’
Felicia looked up at her and then sighed. ‘I might as well get this all out in the open. Rather that than you hear it in pieces. I’m sure it will sound worse that way.’ She looked down again and paused, apparently to consider where to start. ‘My father has had his dalliances over the years. We all knew. Me, my mother, and the staff. No one outside the family, however, and if my mother ever took a lover, she was even more discreet about it than Papa. I haven’t spoken to her; she won’t let anyone see her except her maid. That’s probably just as well since the rest of the staff are… Well, three have resigned already and a lot of the others will go before this is done. According to her maid, Mama met some man at a charity event and just couldn’t resist him. It’s not like her. She loves Papa, but this man seems to have…’
‘Maybe she was just fed up with the stuff your father was getting up to,’ Trudy suggested.
Giving a shrug, Felicia went on. ‘He took her to some private club.’ She waved a dismissive hand. ‘You hear about such things. Not every dragon in the upper circles of society is as well-mannered in private as they are in public. Some seek diversions of a… more lewd nature than might be found in polite society.’
‘She was in an orgy.’
‘The first time she went, it was a masked orgy,’ Felicia replied. ‘The second time, she was unmasked and there were only men in the room with her, all of them masked. Her maid does not believe she knew anyone was taking photographs, but someone was. None of the men are identifiable, but Mama is quite clearly pictured in some… extremely compromising positions.’ Her voice developed a hard edge. ‘Charity was kind enough to show me a couple of the photographs which had, somehow, come into her possession. They were quite damning.’
There was silence for a second. ‘Being bullied sucks, doesn’t it?’ Charlotte said, not quite ready to let Felicia off without a few wounds.
‘I am quite aware of how bullying affects the victims, Charlotte Cloudborn. Why do you think I go to such effort to ensure that I am the one person no one dares to bully?’
‘Until now,’ Trudy said.
Felicia crumbled forward, her face in her hands. ‘Until now.’
Krystal sighed. ‘I’m sorry, Charley, but I don’t think we can be mean to her. She’s in the same boat as us now. She’s a misfit, and us misfits have to stick together.’
‘We’ll see,’ Charlotte said. ‘We’ll see how she goes. And you can start by calling me Charley, Felicia Goldring. Only my mother calls me Charlotte.’
Felicia looked up and managed about half a smile. ‘It’s Flis. I’m not exactly sure we’re friends, but my friends call me Flis.’
7th Day of Harvest.
Felicia was still wearing her dark glasses when they got to lectures the following morning. This was to hide her puffy eyes; Charlotte had complained about the sobbing noises from Felicia’s side of the room keeping her awake, though Charlotte did admit that Felicia had been trying to be quiet about it.
Theodore Marin’s gaze crossed the room once again and Krystal saw a raised eyebrow when he discovered that Felicia was now sitting beside Krystal and Jesse. Charity and the others had also noticed the new seating arrangement, and Krystal was expecting something to come of that before the day was out.
‘Let’s settle down, ladies,’ Marin said as he crossed to the lectern. ‘We have a lot to get through this morning.’
‘He always says that,’ Felicia said softly.
‘He’s always right,’ Krystal replied.
‘True. I must admit, these classes have been harder than I expected.’
‘Don’t worry. You’re a misfit now.’
Felicia gave Krystal a quizzical look, but Marin was opening up by drawing some sort of complex symbology on the board and she had no time to ask anything else.
~~~
‘You see, girls? You can always be sure that the scum of society will gather together if you give it a little time.’
The voice was Charity’s and Felicia cringed at the sound of it. Krystal, however, turned from her lunch and glared at Charity. Charity just grinned maliciously back.
‘Watch out, girls. The necromancer might curse us with–’
‘You’d know more about that sort of thing than I would, Charity Darkmoon,’ Krystal said.
Charity’s smile faltered. ‘What?’
‘Carrying around a name like that? They say the fruit never falls far from the tree and the Darkmoons are only known for two things.’ Krystal flashed a small smile. ‘Disloyalty to their friends and necromancy.’
Pulling herself up straight, Charity snapped, ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’ She marched off away from the group, however, followed by her train of toadies.
Krystal watched them for a second and then turned back to her meal, pausing only to bump fists with Trudy, who was grinning like a madwoman.
‘You, uh, know my father’s a Darkmoon, right?’ Felicia asked.
‘Yes,’ Krystal replied, ‘and I’d no more believe he was a necromancer than I believe Charity is. Whatever anyone says, I don’t believe the sins of the parents should fall upon the shoulders of their children. However, I’m perfectly willing to use her family history if it gets her off our backs. And, to be honest, your father tried to cause trouble here for me over that stupid necromancy allegation so I’m not really inclined to tread softly around him about it. Or around you, for that matter. You made that bed and you’re going to have to lie in it.’
‘Um, I suppose that’s fair. You made some cryptic remark earlier about not worrying about the classes being hard?’
‘Oh yes,’ Jesse said. ‘Yellowday is st-study day.’
‘We get together in our room,’ Trudy said. ‘Mine and Krys’s, that is. Us less well-educated types go through our homework problem so we can ask questions of Krys and Jesse, and Krys helps Jesse understand whatever she’s having trouble with.’
‘Who helps Krys?’ Felicia asked.
‘Jesse,’ Krystal replied. ‘If I’m having problems with something, we bounce it off each other until we think we have it. Now we can do the same with you. Three heads will be better than two.’
‘N-not that Krys usually needs any other heads,’ Jesse said, smiling softly. ‘She’s very good.’
‘I’d got that,’ Felicia replied. ‘I mean, even when you were on my list of people I’d never talk to given another choice, I’d have admitted that you seemed to have a gift for magic.’ Krystal just shrugged. ‘I mean, no one else knew that correspondence thing, right back at the start of term.’
‘And I kind of wish I hadn’t,’ Krystal said. ‘Still, knowing and studying necromancy, or information about necromancy, isn’t illegal. If you do anything with the knowledge… Then they hang you until you strangle to death and they burn the corpse without proper rites. I don’t suppose you considered that when you were spreading those rumours?’
‘No,’ Felicia admitted, ‘but I knew you weren’t really a necromancer. Ancestors! They’d have had you on a gibbet that very day if there was evidence of necromancy. And it takes years to learn to create zombies. It’s not like you can just pick up a book and know what to do, is it?’
Krystal looked at her. ‘Well…’
&
nbsp; ‘It isn’t, is it?’
‘Kind of depends upon the book.’
~~~
‘So, this is the mysterious Thoughts on the Nature of Magic?’ Felicia said, leafing carefully through the old, leather-bound volume.
‘Yes,’ Krystal said, ‘and you’ll find some necromancy in there, but it’s mostly general theory stuff. Mallory Nightsky was not noted for his use of necromantic magic, though he lived a long time ago and they may have been less inclined to worry over some things than we are now. The correspondence I mentioned is in the appendix at the back on astronomical correspondences. It’s treated no differently to any of the other ones.’
‘I suppose it isn’t. Not really.’
‘I’d have thought you’d have seen that book before,’ Trudy said from where she was sitting with Charlotte and Xanthe on the floor. ‘Didn’t Theodore Marin set some study from it the week before last? He told Krys and Jesse to read one of the chapters.’
Felicia frowned. ‘He didn’t tell us to. Maybe what he was lecturing on that week was covered by that chapter. Which was it?’
‘Chapter two,’ Krystal supplied, and Felicia found the right page and started reading.
‘Oh, ancestors! Yes, I remember this. I barely grasped half of what he was saying.’
Krystal grinned. ‘Sounds like a good place to start then. We’ll go over that with you and then we can move on to this week’s incomprehensible lectures. To be honest, I don’t think he’s the best lecturer in the world.’
‘I know I’ve had far better tutors, but I suppose it’s not the same as working one-to-one. One must make allowances for that.’
‘No, it’s not, and yes, we must. I still think someone else would explain things better. Let’s see what you didn’t get about thaumolytic energy interactions.’
8th Day of Harvest.
There was a knock on the door of Krystal and Trudy’s room, and then it opened before they could say anything and Charlotte stuck her head in. ‘Good, you’re both decent. We’re going out. Tonight. To a club or a bar… or an ancestor’s cursed strip club! We’re going out. I cannot stand another few hours of Flis lying on her bed, moping. And I’m not going to get started on the crying, and the sobbing, and–’
‘You said you weren’t going to start on that,’ Krystal pointed out.
Charlotte frowned at her. ‘We are going out. I’ve even got Xan and Jesse to come.’
‘I guess we could go out,’ Trudy said. ‘Just so long as we don’t have to get dressed up. Mostly because I don’t really have anything to wear.’
‘I don’t think we need to–’
‘Oh no, I can’t go out with them dressed like that,’ Felicia said, appearing beside Charlotte. As far as Krystal could tell, she had not actually seen them before saying that, but… ‘Come with me, you two. I think my clothes should fit you well enough. I’m quite sure I have something suitable.’
‘But–’ Krystal began.
‘Come!’
‘I think we’d better go,’ Trudy said.
‘I guess we should,’ Krystal agreed.
~~~
Jesse and Xanthe had escaped playing dress-up because Felicia was far taller than both of them, and Charlotte had managed to avoid it because she had glared at Felicia until she stopped suggesting options. Unfortunately for Krystal and Trudy, while neither of them had Felicia’s bust, they were about the same height and build. Trudy discovered that she even had a slightly bigger ribcage so her chest filled out the dresses better than might have been expected.
So, the girls had set off into the city with Trudy wearing a pink dress which did not quite go with her red high-heeled sandals, but did look good on her, and Krystal in a tank dress made of what Felicia had described as a gold fabric, but Krystal thought was beige and brown. In her normal form, Krystal’s breasts were not as large as in her dracoform and a good cup size smaller than Felicia’s, quite firm and rounded but still smaller, which meant that she was constantly worried the low neckline would slip further and reveal her nipples and the neckline was too low to get away with a bra. Then again, maybe the thing was designed to look the same on Felicia since the indigo’s own choice of dress was a black leather minidress with a collar, but with a large opening at the front to show off her cleavage. She also had matching thigh-high boots and an apparent desire to spend a lot of time as close to Jesse as decorum allowed.
The timid green had found a two-layered, poncho-style top to wear with a dark-grey cloth under white lace. It hung from her pointed breasts and gave that tantalising idea that it might just slip or lift in the breeze to reveal more. She was also in shorts that had that ‘designer scuffed’ feel to them and running shoes. Quite visible, just above her right hip, was one of her tattoos: some sort of fantastic bird done in a slightly magical ink which gave the image a metallic, shimmering appearance. Felicia seemed rather entranced, and Jesse appeared to be entirely oblivious to that.
Felicia suggested several clubs which Trudy rejected because ‘the cover charge is too high,’ though she told Krystal that Felicia was probably not taking her new reputation into account: if Felicia was recognised, none of the clubs she suggested would let them in. They eventually went with something far more lowbrow not far from Silverlight Street; none of them were going to go back to Naga’s. The new place was called Twilight Glitter and it was decorated in an eclectic combination of bright lights and chrome, and dark cloth and shadows. The dance floor was bright enough that you almost needed sunglasses, but the booths and tables around it were quite dimly lit, affording the patrons a degree of anonymity, which was probably a good thing given Felicia’s current problems.
Having got the first round of drinks in, Felicia positioned herself between Jesse and Krystal. Krystal was, probably, the one girl out of the group who seemed willing to give Felicia the benefit of the doubt, so the choice there was obvious. Jesse, however, seemed to be getting a lot of attention from the indigo, which the green was not entirely comfortable with, but she seemed to be coping.
‘You think Flis has a bit of a thing for Jesse?’ Krystal asked Trudy. She kept her voice low, under the music, and leaned in close to Trudy’s ear, which no one seemed to think was odd at all.
‘Maybe,’ Trudy replied. ‘But Jesse’s as oblivious as usual.’
‘Huh?’
‘You haven’t noticed? Jesse wears clothes that show a lot of skin quite often. She never wears a bra under her school shirt. She also never seems to notice when anyone notices her. I think she’s so used to plants, she just can’t see dragons. Or see what dragons think of her anyway.’
Twilight Glitter had another unique feature, at least for a relatively lowbrow establishment: every hour or so, the dance floor would clear and a pair of professional dancers would enter in outfits so coated in glitter it was sometimes difficult to see what was happening. It was, Krystal noticed, a clever ploy since the bar did a lot of business during the exhibition dances.
And after two exhibitions, Felicia was on her sixth glass of wine and was noticeably tipsy. No one was stopping her at this point for the simple reason that the girl had been moping around the hall all week, aside from the day she had spent discovering that her family was falling apart. Okay, so she might regret everything in the morning, but for now she seemed to be fairly happy.
‘You know,’ Felicia said cheerfully, ‘I really have no idea why you’re all so nice to me.’ The indigo was far too well brought up to slur her speech when she was merely tipsy.
‘We’re morons,’ Charlotte replied.
Felicia seemed to be oblivious to whatever that implied. ‘You’re clearly not. You wouldn’t be in the Celestina School of Magic if you were anything less than competent. Krys is really smart and she tried to help me even when I was treating her badly.’
‘I never did understand why you tried to do that spell Theodore Marin set for us,’ Krystal replied. ‘I’m fairly sure you’re smart enough to realise you’re not that good.’
‘Yes, bu
t I’m also stubborn. Papa didn’t want me joining the school, but I persuaded him. I shouted and screamed, charmed and cajoled, threatened and blustered, and he gave in eventually.’ Felicia’s smile faltered for a second and she took a gulp of her wine. ‘I always get what I want and if someone says I can’t do something I think I should be able to do, well, I go ahead and do it anyway.’
‘Even if doing so could kill you?’
‘Like I said, I’m stubborn.’ Felicia gave a shrug. ‘It’s a character flaw. We’ve all got them. Except possibly for Jesse.’
‘I have character flaws,’ Jesse replied, looking around with widened eyes. ‘I’m n-not good with strangers. N-not good at all.’
‘That,’ Felicia replied with a slightly drunken grin, ‘is just endearing.’
‘That,’ Trudy whispered into Krystal’s ear, ‘is just nauseating.’
Krystal turned her head to whisper back. ‘You had to get drunk before you decided to see what my nipples tasted like.’
‘I was not as cute about it.’
‘I wonder whether Flis is going to get what she wants tonight?’
‘Only time will tell…’
9th Day of Harvest.
Breakfast was served later on a Royalday than the rest of the week, which was a good thing for Felicia and Jesse, who hurried into the refectory fifteen minutes before it closed and then joined the others who were mostly watching Charlotte stuff food into her face in preparation for a lengthy flight session.
There were some giggles as Felicia sat down with a groan. She was back in her dark glasses.
‘Suffering a little, Flis?’ Trudy asked.
‘That’s right,’ Felicia replied rather equitably, ‘mock the afflicted. So, I drank a little too much last night…’
‘A little?’
‘A little more than a little. I regret nothing!’ Felicia picked up one of the slices of dry toast she had got from the counter, looking at it as though it might bite.
‘Nothing at all?’ Xanthe asked.
‘Nothing. And as soon as I can persuade myself to eat something, I’m sure I’ll be right as rain.’
Misfit Magic (Misfits Book 1) Page 16
