by Chloe Garner
“Still,” Valerie said. “Do we have to go see?”
“The Pure think that these people should be stripped of their magic. The non-propagationists think they should be kept ignorant. The Council says that everyone has a right to their own magic, if they want it. I want you to look at the school that the Council endorses to train kids who have magic potential. Every other school under the Council is screening hard. This is the only one that a kid with no magic background can get into. The only one.”
Valerie looked over at Sasha once more, and the redhead shrugged.
“I want to go,” she said. “I want to see it.”
Valerie nodded.
“Then let’s do this.”
Her first class was with Sasha. The teacher took her information and directed her to an empty seat against a wall, and Sasha to another seat somewhere in the middle of the class.
The room was huge; there were at least fifty students there, and Susan hadn’t been wrong - they did appear to be working hard - but the teacher was talking about the spectrum of light and dark magic and how things fit on that scale the same way that Valerie’s worst history teachers had just put everything on a timeline and told them to memorize it.
She could just imagine how it would be driving Sasha crazy, the lack of background on how the different incantations, the different ingredients, the different sequences had ties to light or dark, and how those things were influenced by the way that you implemented them.
Even Valerie knew that, and she’d been doing this for all of five months.
She took notes, her eyes crossing as she tried to keep up with the blizzard of details, and then the class was over.
“Hey, I’m Lisa,” a girl said, standing and turning around to greet Valerie after the bell rang. “I can’t believe they’re still letting new people in.”
“Just got a late acceptance,” Valerie said. “I guess they got to me on the waiting list.”
Lisa nodded and sighed.
“People drop out all the time. This is so hard.”
“So can you actually do magic?” Valerie asked, and Lisa snorted, looking toward the teacher at the front desk and then back at Valerie.
“There are a few of the kids in here who can, but… No. They said the first day not to expect to be able to do anything with any of this until at least sophomore year. A bunch of my friends dropped out at the Christmas break because they decided they wanted to go back to regular school and just go to college and get a job. I mean… Yeah. Anyway. It’s not a big deal.”
“No,” Valerie said. “That’s a huge deal. After how hard it was to get in here, how could you just drop out?”
“I don’t know,” Lisa said. “They say half the class fails out between sophomore and junior year. Do you know that? If you can’t pass the test to go on, they fail you, and then where are you, you know? No diploma, can’t get in to a college, no transcript. They’re getting their GED and going looking for jobs. And a lot of them were really smart, you know?”
“Wow,” Valerie said. “I mean, I guess I never thought about it. I just wanted to get in so bad. I mean… magic.”
Lisa shrugged.
“Congratulations,” she said. “Just… I don’t know. I’m thinking about it, you know? You can only sit through the light-dark lectures for so long and you miss your math classes.”
Valerie shook her head.
“Never.”
Lisa laughed.
“What’s your next class?”
“History of Magic,” Valerie said, and Lisa rolled her eyes.
“Get ready to read. They assign so many books in that class, and I bet you have to catch up on all of them. Anyway. Are you in first, second, or third lunch?”
“Second,” Valerie said, and Lisa nodded.
“Me, too. Come find me, if you want. First day sucks.”
“Yeah,” Valerie said. “Thanks.”
She caught Sasha’s eye, but they were splitting up from there.
Valerie had no school supplies to speak of. Susan had given both of them a notebook and a pen, but that was it. She carried that to her next class, where she went and sat in the back and the teacher never looked at her. This class was even bigger, and no one spoke to her throughout it. The teacher spent the entire class going through slides on a projector, talking about the ancient history of magic. There was no mention of a war of any kind, no mention of the Council. Valerie once more took notes, but looking at them, they told her very little. The teacher handed her a reading list on her way out the door, and Valerie boggled at it.
Sure, she’d been reading a history of rocks not long ago, but this was dozens of books that she was supposed to have read last semester, and another two dozen for this semester.
She went on.
The incantations class was about verb conjugation and how conjugation tied itself to the outcome of a spell, but no one in the room was able to work magic yet, so everything was just in theory. Valerie added a list of conjugations to her notes.
Sasha was in her next class with her, a darkened lecture hall where they sat together and watched upperclassmen work through a complex, ritualistic spell that ultimately didn’t work. The teacher came onto the stage afterwards and talked through what they had done wrong. Sasha pushed her notebook over in front of Valerie and checked off the items as the teacher identified them.
Valerie found Lisa in the crowded lunch cafeteria and sat down with her tray of very public-school quality food.
Eat like this was her last meal for a while.
It was still a good rule.
“Oh, hey,” Lisa said, looking up. “How was it?”
Valerie shrugged.
“My head is spinning. I can’t keep up with any of this.”
Lisa gave her a sideways smile and nodded.
“It just keeps feeling like that. When you talk to some of the upperclassmen, they say that it does kind of snap into place at some point… Look, I’m sorry I was having a bad morning, this morning. I’ve been feeling bad ever since. It’s a great school, and it’s a great opportunity. I mean, how many other places do you get to learn about magic? I just… I had a bad day yesterday.”
“What happened?” Valerie asked.
“She failed a test,” the girl across the table said. “And she moped about it all night last night.”
“Shut up,” Lisa said. “I should have aced that. I studied so hard.”
“You studied the wrong chapter,” the girl across the table said. “How many times do I have to tell you?”
Lisa gave the girl a dark look, and she didn’t return her attention to Valerie for several minutes.
“I’m Valerie,” Valerie told the other girl.
“Wendy,” the girl answered. “First day?”
“First day,” Valerie agreed.
“Not really fair,” the girl said. “There’s no way for you to catch up at this point. They’re just setting you up to fail.”
“Well, I have to try,” Valerie said. “Do you have a favorite class?”
“Zoology,” Wendy said. “We get to take care of animals.”
Valerie frowned.
“Why?”
“Because,” Wendy said slowly. “It’s the introduction to the shifter class, if you have an aptitude, and I tested that I might be able to try for shifter.”
Valerie had never heard of that, not once, at Survival School.
“Oh,” she said.
“Don’t worry about it,” Lisa said. “Wendy’s been bragging that she might be able to be a shifter since like the first week of school. They’ll test you for it eventually.”
Valerie nodded slowly, remembering to eat everything on her tray that looked edible.
“This is all so crazy,” she said, and Lisa gave her a tight little nod, then went back to talking to the girl on the other side of her.
Valerie spent the rest of her lunch period listening to girls talk about their classes and the boys, then the bell rang and she was off to her n
ext class.
And her next.
And her next.
By the end of the day, she’d given up the pretext of taking notes, just sitting numbly through the lectures, then she stood outside, appreciating the fresh air no matter how cold it might have been. There were actually students leaving like they were going home, and Sasha walked out with a pair of girls, the three of them with their heads together.
Valerie watched the three of them walk past, then a car rolled up to the curb and honked. Sasha lifted her head, then spoke a farewell to the girls and went to get in. Valerie waited as the girls went on past, then she went and got in on the other side, throwing herself into a seat and putting her arm across her face.
“That was wretched,” she said. “My head hurts and I didn’t learn anything.”
“They’re in such a bad position,” Sasha said as Grant pulled the car away from the curb. “There’s no guarantee any of them will be able to actually use magic, and the school basically requires that they drop out of high school to come do this. Anyone with any academic strength at all is looking at throwing away a future to try to learn magic.”
Valerie nodded.
“I think the girl I talked to today was ready to quit.”
“They have a fifteen percent graduation rate,” Susan said.
“Fifteen,” Valerie said. “We watched upperclassmen try to do a cast that Sasha could do with her eyes closed, and it failed.
“They did so many things wrong,” Sasha said. “I mean, they weren’t even close enough for it to be dangerous.”
Susan sighed.
“I wish I could say that’s worse than I thought, but the feel I get from the graduates is that magic is kind of a cult myth, around there, and anyone who can consistently get hold of it is a big deal.”
“But it isn’t because of skill,” Sasha said. “They just are doing it wrong.”
“When you grow up in a culture of magic that thinks that it’s too hard and it’s all about luck, you don’t realize what you’re doing to sabotage yourself,” Grant said. “You could tell them, and they’d do the whole thing over, get everything you told them right, get a bunch of other stuff wrong, and then use that to prove to you that you have to get lucky for it to work, anyway.”
“But…” Sasha started, then crossed her arms. “I can’t believe that’s the best the Council can do.”
“It isn’t,” Susan said. “But at the same time, you have to ask yourself why they think they care, anyway. Why does the Council have a mandate to teach new students who know literally nothing about magic?”
“Thanks, mom,” Valerie said, and Susan looked over her shoulder at her.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “It was all in hopes that you wouldn’t ever have to deal with any of this.”
“Your mom’s point stands,” Grant said. “The Pure and the non-propagationists think that teaching magic to kids who don’t have it already is dangerous and wrong. The Council stuffs them in there as a token argument against that, but what are they actually doing?”
“Ruining their lives,” Sasha said. “They’re ruining their lives. There was a girl I was talking to, and if she could just get in at Survival School, I know she could figure it out and she could make it, but…”
“She doesn’t have the knowledge to get in at any of the real schools,” Susan said. “And I guarantee her family can’t afford the money.”
Sasha sighed, laying back against her seat and shaking her head.
“So what should they do? Just ignore that people want to learn about magic and pretend like it’s impossible?”
“I’m not suggesting anything of the kind,” Susan said. “Just that the Council is disingenuous in how they deal with the issue, while at least the Pure are direct.”
“And they kill people,” Valerie said. “I’d rather be on the side that cheats than the one that kills.”
“And I’d say that you’re right, if you have to pick a side.”
“But we do,” Sasha said. “There’s a war. You can’t just defect and argue that both of them are wrong. The Superiors are killing civilians.”
“They are,” Susan said. “And they’re winning because they’re better at magic.”
“Why?” Valerie asked. “Is it because dark magic is stronger than light magic?”
“Why wasn’t the school warded?” Sasha asked. “We shouldn’t have been able to just walk in.”
“Good question,” Grant said from the driver’s seat.
“It’s because no one cares about it,” Susan said. “Getting into Von Lauv is going to take a lot more work.”
Sasha looked back at the school they could no longer see and she sighed.
“It’s so sad,” she said. “A whole school full of them… Some of them could probably be really good.”
“The world is full of people with untapped magic potential,” Grant said. “Telling them that doesn’t improve their lives at all.”
“But magic makes you rich,” Valerie said, and Susan turned forward again.
“Yes, but it also makes you a target. Every single time.”
“Mom, I don’t want to go,” Hanson said as he sat in the car with her out front of school.
“You know that I went here?” Martha asked.
“I heard,” he said. “That’s how Val found out about you and then me.”
“I bet you volunteered it,” Martha said. “You hated doing it the whole time you knew what it was you were doing, and the second she gave you a window to come clean, I bet you did.”
“You’re supposed to teach me that lying is bad and trust is important,” Hanson said.
“Neither of those are true,” Martha said. “Why would I handicap you with them?”
“I want to stay with my friends,” Hanson said.
“You’ve known them for less than a week,” Martha said. “They aren’t your friends. And it isn’t your school. It was a sanctuary while I was doing my work for the Council, and now you’re with me again.”
“How do I know you aren’t going to leave me again?” Hanson asked.
“You don’t,” Martha told him. “I may yet. It depends on what the Council needs me to do. But for now we have a job, and if we can pull this off, you can write your ticket anywhere you like.”
“Or I could just stay,” Hanson said, and she started the car.
“No. You couldn’t. We are going, and that’s the only option you have right now.”
He hadn’t fought with her, but he’d felt the distance to the school behind him as it grew.
“You know you’ve only met her a couple of times,” Martha said after they’d been driving for about an hour. “Any feelings you have for her are completely untrustworthy.”
“Who?” Hanson asked, and she glanced at him.
“Sasha Mills. She’s probably cute. I remember Ivory was, too. But you don’t know her and she doesn’t know you, and you’re just infatuated with her. If you want my advice, and I know you probably don’t want to hear it right now, but if you want my advice, she’s not a good alliance. She’s not going to be involved in the war, and the Council already has friction with her mom. Ann Womack. She’s a good choice.”
“Have you met her?” Hanson asked.
“Obviously I haven’t,” Martha answered, and he nodded darkly.
“She’s not a good choice.”
“She’s connected,” Martha said. “And I bet she’s pretty. Isn’t she?”
“She is,” Hanson said. “But I don’t like her. I like Sasha.”
“She’s a healer,” Martha said. “Just like her mother. And she’s attached at the hip to Valerie Blake. Is that what you want? Your ex-best-friend’s best friend?”
“I like her,” Hanson said. “And I don’t want to talk about it. Where did you go?”
“Where they told me to,” Martha answered.
“And you couldn’t leave a note?”
“The minute you got caught, our cover was broken. I couldn’t risk lea
ving a note and having someone find it.”
“And you couldn’t have waited a few hours, or come to pick me up at school or anything?”
“I couldn’t have taken you with me,” Martha said. “You did fine on your own.”
“Ma,” he said. “What’s going on? I don’t like this.”
“Magic,” she said. “This is the world of magic. It’s complicated and I get that it’s scary sometimes, but I think you’re going to really like it once you get the hang of it. And I think you’re going to thrive.”
“I just want to go back to school,” he said.
“And the fact that you’re rooming with Ethan and Shack is a very good sign,” Martha went on. “I promise, I will do my very best to put you back there when we’re done, though the Council is going to have to find a special, special exemption for you, because you left. But. If we can track down the Blakes, we are going to have so much political capital to spend, son…”
“I don’t want your political capital,” Hanson said. “I don’t want to go hunt down my best friend.”
“Which is why I waited so many years to tell you that we were spying on her,” Martha said. “You really do care about her. It’s the best cover of all.”
“Ma,” he said loudly. She pulled the car off to the side of the road and looked at him.
“If you’re looking for an apology, you aren’t going to get one, son,” she said. “I’ve always looked out for you, tried to position you to take advantage of any opportunity that came up, and I did what was best. I don’t care if that’s not how you see it, because it doesn’t change what I did or why. Is that clear?”
“Where’s Dad?” he asked.
“Out,” she said, spinning the wheel to get back up onto the pavement and continuing on. “He doesn’t know anything. He’s been on assignment since before you went to the school the first time.”
“Is he magic, too?” Hanson asked. “They said that you both went to Survival School. Showed me a picture.”
“Then why are you asking me?” Martha countered. “You know he is.”
“What does he actually do?” Hanson asked.
“Your father loves you,” Martha said. “Wants to blow a giant hole in the world to make it a better place for you, so that’s what he does.”
