Seventeen Stones

by Vanessa Wells

  Professor Fain nodded. “I would add that though his law is accurate in the median level of creation, it gets a bit dicey on the simplest and most complex ranges of the subject. That’s why it should be a theory instead of a law…but Vincent Chipotle had a great publicist.” The chimes sounded as he made his final point. “Next class I want a real world application of Butler’s Creation Classification System!” The students moaned as one. Some stopped to write down the assignment, others plodded out. Mia finished jotting it down in her notebook when he urged them to hurry up. “You can’t make the professor late for Charms!”

  Professor Fain was a perfectly adequate charms teacher. If Mia had the impression that he held charms as the less valuable skill set, she couldn’t blame him for that. After all, hadn’t the headmistress herself said that transfiguration and creation were the most important to the City? “…and that is how you turn bread and water into tea and cakes. Now if all of you would try it…” It was a simple charm and Mia managed a spice cake with chocolate frosting. She’d been trying for cream cheese icing, but the chocolate was surprisingly good. The cake was consumed and the rest of the class was spent chatting while they cleaned up.

  Professor Fain was debating Mia’s interpretation of the ‘cleansing’ riots four hundred years before. “I’m not saying it wasn’t barbaric, but you can understand why the wand wielders didn’t want anyone without magic to be allowed into society. Can you imagine your daughter marrying someone like that?”

  Mia nodded. “Yes I can, if he were a good man. Money and position are very nice, but they aren’t everything.” He laughed. “There speaks someone who has always had money.” She knew there was a valid argument, but she couldn’t find it before the chimes rang to end the day.

  “I want a sheet of parchment about how transfigurative charms differ from plain transfiguration by next class!” Mia groaned as she gathered up her books. “How about one sentence? Transfiguration has more flexibility but takes more power.” Vivian wrapped her arm around Mia’s waist and beamed. “Have I mentioned today how glad I am that you are my friend?” The professor laughed and shooed them toward the dorm.

  Mia had never acquired a taste for the library tearoom, so she spent less time in the library than she would have imagined. She normally checked the books out and left, since the study in the dorm room was so cozy and comfortable, and the kitchens were always willing to make the girls a tea tray.

  Lizzy and Beth were writing a piece of music for Composition, an advanced music class that Mia would probably never take. Sarah seemed to be researching at least six papers at once, picking up first one book, then another, making notes on three different pads of parchment and muttering to herself. Her advanced Research class was fascinating, but it entailed more work than Mia’s class. She hadn’t had time to take it. She almost regretted it. She wished that she could trade music and transfiguration for Advanced History.

  Mia and Ella were putting together a working model of a pegasus for Animal Husbandry. Mia had just finished transfiguring the last of the bones when Vivian returned with the tea tray.

  “All right. It’s time for a break. This tray is loaded down with a special surprise. Maggie sent us a pile of jam tarts that she’s making for tomorrow’s dinner, and they’re still warm!” Even Sarah (who could ignore her body’s basic needs when wrapped up in a project) jumped up and grabbed a warm tart and a hot cup of tea.

  “Oh!” Mia said with delight. “I can’t imagine why cooking isn’t an acknowledged area of magical power! If these were any better we wouldn’t be able to eat them, they’d be art!” Vivian grinned. “Speak for yourself, I could eat them.” She bit into the flaky crust and threw herself onto the sofa. “Mmmm.”

  The tarts were quickly decimated, leaving only a few lonely crumbs and an empty plate to testify that they had once been a mighty pile of pastry. The teapot was emptied, and Mia went downstairs to refill it, but she couldn’t wrangle any more tarts out of the cook. “Nah, ya shouldn’t have so much sugar before bed. How about a nice bowl of roasted almonds instead?” Mia was forced to agree.

  Vivian grinned when she returned without another plate of tarts. “You know the only reason she let me have the first pile is that she was so pleased with how they had turned out and she wanted someone else to taste them. I just happened by at the right moment.” Vivian had a tendency to do that.

  Ella had glued all the bones together by the time Mia returned and they decided to work on other homework while the glue dried. “I’d hate to mess it up” Ella said with a frown. “I never want to try to put together all those little bones ever again.” Mia grinned. “At least they don’t have 26 bones in their hooves, the way we do with each hand.” Ella threw a pillow and hit her in the back of the head.

  Mia began yet another tricky essay for Theory, showing the practical application for the formula that proved that spells loose potency the further they move from the caster. She was citing a project she would have loved to have done with magic instead of math, measuring the angles of the planets for Astronomy.

  Vivian was working on an essay that Professor Ambrose had assigned. Everyone else had finished it two days ago. Vivian had taken out the assignment each day, looked at it faithfully, and then found something else to do. She wasn’t exactly bad at Alchemy, but it wasn’t a subject where one could let their mind wander. Vivian was quite capable of juggling all of the gossip at the college and most of what was going on down n the City without ever mixing up the facts, but her penchant for nosing around left her too distracted to worry about little things like the subjects she was supposed to be at college learning.

  The chimes rang out eleven o’clock, and the girls put away their homework and rushed to get ready for bed. Sarah was walking around, trying to get ready with her book in front of her nose, bumping heedlessly into things without seeming to notice. She finally finished the book, sighed, and rubbed her eyes, as if only just noticing that she was tired and her eyes were bloodshot. Mia handed her the bottle of potion that took the red out, and she used it before she sat down on the bed and fell asleep with her shoes on.

  Beth looked over at the snoozing girl. “She’s working too hard. Even on rest days she spends a few hours with her parents and then comes back up here and hits the books.” Lizzy walked over and pulled off Sarah’s slippers. “It looks like they’re hitting back.” She pulled out her wand and tucked Sarah into to bed with an annoyed flick.

  Mia was braiding her damp hair. “We’re all working hard, but we’ll be able to rest during Mid-Winter break. Then we won’t do anything all day except have fun, and dance away the nights!” She began to dance around the room in her voluminous night dress. Ella, Lizzy and Beth giggled while Vivian joined her. She spun until she was dizzy, and fell into bed. Mia yawned and pulled the covers over her, not bothering with the curtains.

  Chapter Nine

  Sarah, Ella, Vivian and Mia trudged to Transfiguration the next morning. The work at this level wasn’t that hard. Transfiguration was a standard class for even the least talented wand wielder. It didn’t get really tricky until the class moved into animals. Human transfiguration was the most difficult type taught at the college. You wanted to be very certain that that if you transfigured a person that the spell was perfect. There were two types of human transfiguration: unbreakable and time-sensitive.

  Unbreakable transfiguration was the punishment for any violent crime. Eighty wand wielders worked in the judiciary system, doing nothing but turning those judged guilty into their sentenced forms. A murderer would spend the rest of his life as a rabbit or squirrel; a man who seriously injured another might end up as a turtle. The offenders were never turned into an animal that could harm humans, and never transfigured into meat animals. The only punishment more feared was banishment. Lesser crimes were normally sentenced to reparations: judges decided how much was owed to whom in those cases.

  Time-sensitive transfiguration allowed a person to transfigure themselves or someone else for a job
. Forms gained potency over time so a person was never allowed to stay in a form for over a few hours. Automatic reversals were built into the spells as a safe guard. Transfiguring yourself into another human was punishable by banishment. Transfiguration would fool the illusion-breaking charms that were standard on important documents, allowing a person to access the property of the victim.

  Mia had seen workers transfigured into apes while they were building the steel framework of a building as the girls passed toward the marketplace. It was absolutely frightening to watch the men swing from bar to bar, lifting and standing on one foot while they held the beams in place. Other men used welding charms to secure the beams. The girls had watched in fascinated awe, but Mia didn’t feel any inclination to watch it again…ever.

  They hadn’t covered any of that in Marshal’s class of course. He still had them plodding along, changing apples to oranges. Ten minutes into class one of the seven remaining girls ran out of the room, stifling sobs. Marshall had savaged her homework in front of the class, ridiculing a single poor phrase in the paper. Mia was seething. He was stomping up and down the room, frothing at the mouth and looking a bit mad.

  His rant was reaching a crescendo and everyone was looking determinedly at their desks when Mia accidentally caught his eye. She was so angry at his illogical attitude that she didn’t look down. She stared at him and let him see on her face exactly what she thought of him. He looked away and she picked up her book in disgust.

  He continued his vitriolic rant until the class stopped paying attention. Most of them were staring blankly into space, obviously not taking in a word he was sputtering. Sarah caught Mia’s eye. She nodded to the dark cup that lived on the professor’s desk. A muttered spell, a quick wand movement and Sarah slipped her wand into the special pocket in her skirt without anyone but Mia being any wiser. She tried to catch Sarah’s attention, but she was looking ahead with a blank, innocent expression on her face. The professor ended his rant and thundered to his desk. He picked up the cup and took a long swig without even glancing at it. Marshal sputtered and hacked and spewed green slime all over the first row of students. Mia, who was three rows back, breathed a sigh of relief. She’d been afraid that Sarah was going to poison him.

  Marshall started screaming, the green slime mixing with white foam at the corner of his mouth in the most unappealing way. “When I find who did this, you’ll wish you’d never been born you little…” The whites of his eyes were bloodshot and his face was snarling. “You!” Mia looked up and saw a long, grimy fingernail pointing at her. “You come with me.” He grabbed her arm and frog marched her out towards the headmistress’ office. The trip was short, and Mia was profoundly glad of it. Not only was he spewing an endless stream of vitriol the entire time they were walking, he also smelled like something that had been dead for three days during the middle of summer. Not even the brisk fall breeze eliminated the smell entirely.

  They approached the tower. Marshall knocked impatiently, was rude to the footman, and pushed his way into the headmistress’ private study. During all that time he’d never let go of the bruising grip on Mia’s arm. Headmistress Villanova raised a delicate brow at the intrusion. She was sitting at her desk, surrounded by three communication mirrors and a crystal bowl filled with water. There were piles of parchment all over the desk, each at least a foot high.

  “Headmistress.” Marshal spat the word. “One of the students transfigured the tea in my mug into slime. This” he said as he pushed Mia forward “is the most likely culprit. I insist that you scan her mind immediately so that we can punish the little brat before dinner.” The headmistress pulled out a golden pocket watch and sighed. “Very well professor, I will scan the student. But we have very little time. I’m expecting several members of council on the mirrors in less than three minutes, and one of them is Greatlord Strathorne.” Marshall paled at the mention of the Greatlord’s name and Mia wondered what the other man had done to get that sort of reaction out of the professor. The headmistress clicked her watch shut and walked toward Mia.

  She stood her ground, unsure of what the headmistress meant by scanning, but pretty certain that she would not enjoy the process. The headmistress pulled off a black kid glove and took Mia’s bare fingers in her own. Then she looked deeply into Mia’s eyes. “Did you transfigure the tea?” She shook her head, not trusting her voice. The headmistress dropped her hand and pulled on the glove. “The child didn’t do it Professor.” Mia glanced at the headmistress; she was sure that she saw a glint of humor in her eye. She was suddenly convinced that the headmistress knew that Mia could tell them who had turned Marshall’s tea to slime. She was also positive that the headmistress wasn’t going to mention that fact to the irate Professor.

  He glared at them both. “Very well. Someone in the class did transfigure my tea. I’ll hold the whole lot of them until after your meeting and you can…” But the headmistress was holding up her hand. “I’m afraid not Professor. I have a meeting with the Magus this evening after this mirror call. I’ll be gone for two days to discuss a special project he has in mind for some of the students. I could scan the class when I return, but you know as well as I do that by then the guilty party will have undoubtedly taken ooris root to prevent mind reading. I’m afraid that you will simply have to handle this yourself.”

  She walked back to her desk. Her voice was crisp to the point of cold when she added “Oh and by the way, you might have the urge to punish the entire class to find the culprit, but I would advise against that. More than one of your students are related to Greatlords and Ladies, and I do not wish to deal with the pressure that they could and would apply if you did something of the sort.” He fumed, but took her nod for the dismissal it was.

  Mia quickly disengaged herself from the seething professor. The chimes sounded and her friends poured out of the building. Sarah was carrying Mia’s bag. “Oh Mia! I’m so sorry! I was so shocked I didn’t know what to do until he left. Did you tell the headmistress the whole story?” Sarah, to her credit, seemed very ready to just admit to the whole thing, but Mia talked her out of it. “No, no. It’s fine. I have a plan. I just need to get over to the library tonight.”

  After dinner, the girls rushed to the library. “Here we are, ooris root. It’s a perennial flower used mostly for decorative purposes. The root is used in liquid or powdered form to prevent penetration of the mind.” Mia frowned. “A tablespoon of it will keep the mind free from penetration for a week. The side effects of a single dose are minimal: excessive giggling and a reaction to mince pies. Well, mid-winter is months off so we should be safe enough on that point…I just don’t know two things.”

  Vivian leaned across the table, with her cheek resting in one hand, as if she was bored. “You’re doing better than me. I don’t have the dizziest notion of what you’re babbling about.” Mia laughed. “I want to dose the entire school with the ooris root tomorrow at breakfast. When Marshal checks, not only will he not be able to read our minds, he won’t be able to read anyone’s mind.” The brilliance of the plan dawned on the other girls quickly. “So what part of the plan are you having problems with?” Lizzy asked with a significant look at her sister.

  Mia shut the book. “I don’t know how to get roughly a thousand tablespoons of the liquid before breakfast and I don’t know how to sneak it into the food.” Vivian grinned and hopped out of her seat. “Oh, is that all?”

  ***

  Sarah’s mother was perhaps surprised the next morning when three hundred potted flowers were delivered to her town-home, especially since they were rather wilted specimens. That was probably due to the fact that about half the root was missing from each plant. Then again, Lady Anne was a talented wand wielder who was extremely well connected about town. She kept a close eye on everything concerning the college since they were the current guardians of her precious child. She also knew Sarah (and Sarah’s temper) very well. She might have known exactly why so much ooris root was suddenly necessary. Whatever the case, she sigh
ed and quietly had the plants sent to the family estate.

  Vivian returned from an early morning foray into the boy’s kitchens. “Done” she said with an impish grin. “One of the nicer boys poured the whole vial into the tea for me.” Beth ran upstairs about the same time. “The ooris root mixture is in the cinnamon bun icing. Make sure you grab one.” The ooris root did not add to the taste of either the beverage or the buns, thus guaranteeing that no one overdosed on the extract.

  Marshal stalked around the school the next day with a harried-looking wand wielder trailing behind him, randomly stopping students and demanding they allow their minds to be read. Marshal himself had no talent for piercing the minds of others, so he had to rely on someone else for the task. He also had no memory for faces so he was accosting students who weren’t even taking his classes. Several mischievous second year boys were casually passing by the pair every few minutes and allowing the overworked wand wielder to try (without success) to read their minds.

  Most of the other students weren’t taking the proposed invasion of their privacy with as sanguine an attitude. Martin Ainsley was leaning against an oak tree and making dire predictions about what his mother would say about this imposition when he told her. A group of third year girls had flatly refused his attempts to read their minds. They had taken Mental Defense the year before, so it wasn’t hard to keep the other wand wielder from accessing their minds. Sarah walked by and casually submitted to the wand wielder’s attempt to read her mind. “The look on his face was priceless! I almost couldn’t keep from laughing. I was holding my breath, so I wouldn’t have to smell Marshall. I feel terrible for the poor wand wielder who had to help him.”