by Melody Rose
Read it and weep, is what I wanted to say, but I didn’t want to try my luck. Since Abelard was too busy to step in to protect me, and now that Serafina ran the show, I didn’t want to be dragged into her office. If there was some possibility that the hall monitor was one of her pet students, I didn’t want to be painted as insubordinate or a bully. I plastered on my best socially acceptable smile and handed him my specially notarized form.
“Just have to do your job, right?” I asked. “I get it. Well, anyway, here’s what you’re looking for. I didn’t sneak out or come in here without permission. That would be pretty difficult without the charmed code to get past the door! In fact, I’m not really sure how you got in here. Maybe I should be the one asking questions?”
My last question was cheeky and in good fun, but that’s not how the hall monitor saw it. He snatched the paper from me, eyed me suspiciously, and shoved it back in my hands.
“How… unusual,” he drawled. “It’s no small matter to share company with dragons. I don’t know how some lamb’s blood barely initiated in Lemurian culture would be trusted with this matter, but Abelard can be quite eccentric, yes? One can never be sure what comes over him.”
I narrowed my eyes. So much for politeness. I wasn’t going to pretend to just roll over and take that slur. I didn’t do anything to deserve this treatment. I was literally just following orders. Wasn’t that a mark of a good Bouclier mage?
“Okay, well, bye,” I said coldly. He finally took the hint and turned on his heel, marching out as though he were some really important soldier.
I grumbled and walked over to where the door stood, swiping my hand up and creating my own intermediate barrier spell. If I couldn’t control whether or not the gateway completely shut, then I’d at least treat myself to some privacy. As the opaque ward rippled behind me, I returned to the dragons to wrap up my independent study class with my six new dragon friends, who all were so energized by their meals that they didn’t want to settle back to sleep and tried to lure me to stay.
I locked eyes with each of them to communicate that I was genuinely sad to part ways. Aurelius added onto my messages, nuzzling the scaled creatures with gusto. I couldn’t help myself and did one last round of goodbyes, kissing every dragon on the forehead. Then I waved before turning in the general direction of the exit, suggesting I really did have to go.
“Alright, friends,” I announced, “I don’t want this to come to an end, but I’ve already got the hall monitor troops on my case, apparently! I still have one more class today, and it’s an advanced one. It’d definitely not work out in my favor to skip it.”
The dragons all whinnied in disappointment, like giant horses deprived of their sugar cubes. Well, all of them except Zesy, the “Champion of the Dragons.” Her eyes gleamed with regret, but she still remained incredibly noble and poised. I got the sense that she hadn’t had a lot of company since maybe Theo was a little boy. Somehow, I even picked up on the possibility that maybe dragons weren’t meant to languish around with just each other. Their hearts seemed to ache for companionship with mages, and yet they simply couldn’t find the ones to trust.
As I thought over all this, Zesy prowled over to me and lowered her massive head over my measly human one. She gave one stately roar that shot my hair back like a gust of wind, then used two talons to pluck off a violet scale from her puffed out chest. The honorary queen of the lot didn’t even so much as wince.
I understood what she was driving at and laid out my palm, ready to accept the scintillating token. As she put it in my hand, I closed my fingers over it, the rare magic hot on my skin and already coursing through my veins.
I bowed down in appreciation, then pocketed the gorgeous talisman. I watched in awe as my school robe briefly transformed into the most extraordinary scale mail, glimmering with every shade of purple imaginable. I would’ve been proud for it to be my permanent uniform, but unfortunately, the constellation of scales disappeared, and I was back in my starry ensemble. I used to be very proud of how my robe evolved over time, but it was hard to compete with the majesty of draconic royalty.
“Bye, everyone!” I cried out. “Love you all!”
Maybe it was jumping the gun a bit, but I really meant it. It was so easy for my heart to open up to each and everyone one of these dragons. I felt as though this was an impromptu reunion, and they were long-lost relatives. With one sweep of my arm and a blown kiss, I sprinted out with Aurelius, whose spring appeared to return to his step.
21
Joan
With just about two minutes to spare, I hustled over to my Aura Reading and Deity Alignment class. Seeing that this course had pretty strict prerequisites when it came to empathy and intuition, I had to possess at least a decent awareness of time to qualify for it. That’s why even thirty seconds of tardiness would just make me look like a jerk in the professor’s eyes. I picked up my pace even more, racing my heart out to grab a seat before I was shut out.
That’s when I ran smack dab into the back of some mage going in the same direction. I was worried that I was going to get lassoed into some stupid fight, but luckily I had nothing to worry about.
“Hey, Joan!” Nate said in his usual outgoing way after turning to face me. “Kind of weird to see you running out of time for class! With your intuition, you’re always punctual as clockwork. Me, I’m so overextended with all these team training, it surprises I haven’t been expelled for truancy…”
“And I bet all this talking in halls helps, too!” I winked and ribbed him.
He blushed and rubbed the back of his neck. Without needing any other explanation, he matched my pace and followed me to Professor Delphi’s room.
While we were both in our mad dash to not get chewed out by our exacting professor, I caught a glimpse of Irk and Yavo in my periphery. Their eyes were wide as saucers, as though some trouble weighed them down. I really wanted to stop and chat, but I used any extra opportunity I had for that with Nate. I made a note to myself to check in with them as soon as I could, but my heart broke a little that I essentially had to bail on them. It seemed that my third year at Bouclier had gotten so intense that we never really caught up.
Still, I wanted to grow leaps and bounds as a witch, especially if Serafina or whoever had it out for me. This class had so far been really helpful in decoding mages’ energy and intentions, so it wasn’t one I could dream of missing even a second of. I also didn’t need any more rules lawyering or pesky hall monitors getting in my way, so I had to play it safe as best as I could. Maybe I wasn’t the valedictorian like Becks, but no one could claim I was a bad student if they were trying to get rid of me.
Nate and I glided into class not a moment too soon and quietly found our seats. I guessed that our intuition wasn’t faulty and that we didn’t offend Professor Delphi because she didn’t give us a single lecture. Granted, she did raise a slender eyebrow, but it was paired with a smirk. That calmed my slightly edgy spirit down. We were in the clear.
“Good evening, class,” the snowy-haired sorceress lyrically greeted us. “I am so glad to see that everyone has made it, and better yet, all that are present are alert and willing to commit to today’s lessons. Isn’t that so, Joan?”
“Yes, Professor Delphi!” I said softly but with certainty. I didn’t want to start off the day with hesitation.
She laced her long, slender fingers together and nodded. The elegant professor totally bought it and didn’t give me any additional hassling. Instead, she stepped away from the bronze, three-legged cauldron where she always began her lessons. I figured this area was essential for her ritual because she’d stand in front of it as it wafted out strange jade vapors. We were all also under strict rules not to go anywhere near it. Professor Delphi had explained to us that it was an ancient, matrilineal heirloom that only she was granted access to.
On top of that, she said we’d be struck with a lifelong curse if we even tried to lay a finger on it. Our instructor said this with a hint of humor in her vo
ice, though. I could never tell if she was just really protective of her stuff and wanted to scare us. Still, I wasn’t going to take my chances.
“Now then,” she began as she stroked the peacock feathers that dangled from her colorless locks. “Today, we will learn the sacred art of setting, keeping, and reading intentions. For you to properly decipher the motivations of others, you must be fully attuned with your own aims.”
My heart beat quickly as she spoke about where we’d focus our will today. I was glad to attend today since I was tired of being unsure of what others wanted from me. What they wanted to do to me, even. It almost felt like divine timing to stumble upon this lesson today.
Professor Delphi placed a hand on her chest for dramatic effect. She locked eyes with her audience, and suddenly, her turquoise aura transformed into a fearful scarlet. We all knew that she was in complete charge of her class, a space she had lovingly transformed to look almost exactly like a marble temple. There was a greater point she was trying to make with this color-changing charade. She stared at me for what felt like a mixture between a second and eternity.
“If you should ever find yourself in danger,” she warned with wearied wisdom as she scanned the rest of the class, “it is not the time for ethically clean magic and truth-telling, believe you me. Those who are intent on harming you will not play fairly, so you shouldn’t trouble yourself with this either. You will need to be clever, and you will need to be covert.”
Professor Delphi looked up at the vaulted ceiling, held up by tier columns. Suddenly, it dissipated by a starry night sky. A constellation of Theia, the goddess of visions, bejeweled the darkness with blue and golden light.
“To aid you in confusing your foes, you will want to blend your illusionary magic with a deity who will truly protect you,” she sang out. “One who you can channel in your time of need. Now is the time in your paths when you should deliberate over the wisest choice. Deities are keen to deception like hounds to blood, so this is no laughing matter. Call out to a patron who truly resonates with you. Your chances of victory will be greater, even in your most dire challenges.”
As Professor Delphi was knee deep in her cautionary tale, Nate hissed into my ear. “Hey, do you know if Becks is single?” He sounded way more curious about that than whatever our instructor was on about.
Was he really in the right class? What wickedly weird timing this guy had. I wrinkled my forehead, trying to concentrate on my professor without totally giving him the cold shoulder. I mean, not only did I think he was a generally good person, but Theo really wanted to recruit him for our investigation of Serafina.
“Um…” I considered my words carefully. I wanted to give the star athlete the information he wanted without blabbing too much. Professor Delphi was used to a stolen conversation here and there, but she was bound to freak if we got too chatty. What she really wanted was a sacred space where everyone paid rapt attention, but she knew that was unrealistic with a bunch of young, restless mages.
If Becks were here, the girl would probably be jealous I was whispering with the man of her dreams. Of course, she’d know I wasn’t trying anything because I was totally devoted to my friendship with her and my romance with Theo. As it stood, she wasn’t enrolled in this class. She scoffed at it as too “woo” even for Lemuria. What would she want me to tell Nate? That she was head over heels for him? Probably not, because she would’ve gotten off on the chase. It would spoil the fun if I spilled all her secrets.
“She’s not seeing anyone exclusively, if that’s what you mean,” I answered. “Anyway, we have to focus here. You can ask her for yourself and see where her head’s at when we come to help out the team at practice. Now, pay attention, dude!”
Nate shook his head, a little ashamed, like a puppy who’d been hit on the snout with a newspaper. “Oh, yeah, yeah!” he promised. “Don’t let me be a distraction!”
I definitely didn’t and turned back to Professor Delphi, intent on learning the secrets of aura illusions and patron deities.
22
Joan
Becks and I walked to the arena, a mountainous training ground that was designed to create plenty of opportunities for cover and epic hikes to test the will of athletes, we wondered if we were even in the right place. It almost looked as though we crashed trail running for the elderly. Everyone appeared like death warmed over, slumped against a rocky ledge. Bows and arrows were scattered all around them, but they didn’t look like they had any intention of picking them up.
“Uh… Arcane Archery?” Becks put her hands on her hips. “Really good technique, everyone.”
They all used what little energy they had left to groan. I figured the team was either annoyed at her dry joke, or they already felt bad and didn’t want an extra heaping of guilt. I was honestly really anxious over the state of all the athlete mages. The official Arcane Combat and Contests tournament was only days away, and if they didn’t get their act together, Bouclier would have no chance of placing in the finals during the realm-wide Apollonian Festival.
I decided to go in a more practical, less comical direction. “What’s going on, Nate? Arcane Archery is going to need a lot of dexterity and quick thinking, so I’ll do my best to whip up a meal with the right buffer charms. Can you tell me why everyone is so worn out?”
Nate was just as fatigued as everyone else, sitting with his legs spread out and his arms dangling over each knee. He barely managed to muster the effort to pick his head up and look me in the face. I was especially worried since he didn’t have that trademark gleam in his eyes.
“It’s the weirdest thing,” the once cheery jock answered, his voice strained. “Since yesterday, we’ve all been tormented with the worst nightmares every hour leading up to this training session. If you can even call them those. Whatever they are, not a single one of us could get any real sleep.”
Kyo, the fox-kin, flopped his amber and ivory tail sadly. “Nightmares? Seems like an understatement to me. It seemed like we were haunted by demons that crawled right from the bowels of the abyss. My stomach doesn’t churn easily, but damn, these visions were just sadistic.”
Fey, the elfin beauty known for her indomitable boldness, was the next to hop on the misery train. “Do we need to clobber some opponents? Is some other academy responsible for hexing all of us? They should get disqualified for the rest of their athletic careers if that’s the case!”
Robbi, one of the newest recruits who came to Bouclier on an archery and scouting scholarship, lazily kicked a rock. “We’re abyss-roasted toast if we can’t pull it together. After all of the clues that we’ve decoded from each weekly scroll, it’s obvious that Arcane Archery is going to be a headlining event. We need to be able to train for it!”
I lowered myself down to where everyone was slumped so I could level with them. It seemed condescending to be hovering over them like some helicopter parent.
“You all have cause for concern,” I admitted. “And it’s not all in your head. Someone, either an entity or a conspirator, is messing with all of your minds and infecting your consciousness. After all that I’ve been through, I’m confident of that.”
I turned to Becks and pointed to my eyelid. “Becks, remove the glamour spell. Show them the truth. They need to know.”
My best friend sat next to me, cross-legged and deeply uncomfortable. She squirmed and stared anxiously, as though to ask me if I really knew what I was getting myself into. I was aware that I’d be exposing a secret that would threaten to alienate people. What I also felt, however, was that they’d all know what was at stake since I had proof that demons could already invade Lemuria.
“Alright, if you say so. You know I’ve got your back…” Becks avoided looking at everyone and put her palm on the top of my head. She then performed her incantation softly. “Dissipez le glamour de cette honnête femme. Dispel this honest woman’s glamour.”
If everyone had enough energy, there probably would’ve been a collective gasp. Instead, all the athlete mag
es just sat there quietly, their jaws open in disbelief. Every set of eyes was transfixed by the infernal mark on my eyelid, a hellish script that every Lemurian was taught to shun since childhood. No good would come from mages who crossed paths with a demon, as very few, if any were able to survive. It was rumored that the symbols that the living walked away with meant the spellcaster was somehow indebted to the demon or their summoner. If that wasn’t exactly the case, then maybe some abyssal residue would taint them for the rest of their lives.
I come in peace! I thought as they examined me with suspicious curiosity. I inhaled and exhaled to calm my nerves, then took out the velvet pouch that Theo had charmed. It was a truly special creation that radiated an aura of purity, its ward against evil clear to those with even mild intuition.
“Look,” I confessed. “I don’t have all the answers. What I can tell you is that one day, I was trying to take Aurelius out for a simple walk to get him adjusted to boggarts. The circle of eternal death had nothing to offer, completely empty. It was totally weird. So I just kept going…”
Even in their sleepiness, everyone listened with full attention, hungering for an explanation.
I continued, “And finally, there was a whole tribe of lunar faeries, and everyone knows that’s a bad sign. I thought maybe we’d finally encountered a high-level boggart. Maybe that was the only one that was evoked to trigger Aurelius since he’s pretty brave. Except another mage had the same problem with his own familiar, Bast. Couldn’t find any boggart either. Instead, we got way more than we bargained for, and a high-level demon suddenly emerged.”
“Bast? Isn’t that the bat of that brooding recluse, Damian?” Fey asked. “Well, he is pretty cute even though he’s a bit angsty. It makes sense to train before a Familiar Hunting class, and I don’t think he’d have any business dealings with the infernal. The one class he really puts effort into attending is Spirit Communication, and he seems to care about earning the trust of ghosts. That requires a ton of empathy.”
