by Oxford, Rain
“Is Len okay?” one of the students asked Remy before entering.
“He’s fine. I’m sure it’s just the flu.”
Once everyone was seated, the fake fire died and Remy went to the front of the room. As she did, the darkened windows grew lighter, as if the sun was coming out. “The fire was an illusion.” She picked up a green apple off her desk and tossed it between her hands as she spoke. “Illusions like this one can be used in defense, to attack, as a distraction, or even to escape a situation.”
“Isn’t illusion like mass hypnosis? My sister is a C-Five and she said it’s basically the same.”
“Illusion is not the same, no.” She put the apple down and sat on her desk. “They can both rely heavily on suggestion and they both come down to a test of wills. All of you should have taken a class on focusing and visualization, in which you learned that the way you perceive something is based on not only your five senses, but also your own personal experiences.
“For example, there are some people who have a certain expression which can be considered happy or angry, depending on who is looking at them. Let’s say Len and Darwin both see this person, and the person actually resembles Len’s brother and Darwin’s father. Because Len’s brother is perpetually angry, he will see this expression and know instantly, without a shadow of a doubt, that this stranger is angry. His brain will process the resemblance to the stranger to his brother and connect the dots. At the same time, Darwin will see this person and know without any hesitation or doubt that the man is happy, since his own father is typically a happy person.
“Even without knowing a person, you can predict their reaction. Who can tell me what kind of apple I like?”
Almost everyone in class raise their hand. “Ashton?” she called.
“Green,” Ashton answered.
“Why do you think that?”
“Because you have a green apple on your desk.”
“No, it’s a trick question!” Nathan interrupted. “She didn’t eat the green apple. Maybe that’s the illusion, because she doesn’t like them, so she didn’t eat it!” There were murmurs as students tried to figure out which theory made more sense.
“Nathan, you’re half right. Who said I like apples?” she asked. Silence fell. “I asked which apple I like, but I didn’t say I liked apples at all. You just assumed I liked apples because I limited your options to specific apples. But I never said those were the only options. Now for the second part of the question.” She stood and pointed to her desk, where there were now two apples. “Which is real and which is the illusion?”
After a few minutes, a student asked, “Are they both real?”
“Are they both illusions?” another countered.
“You were playing with the left one, so the right one should be fake.”
“Or that was a trick.”
“Or she thought we would think it’s a trick and it’s actually the real one.”
“My brain hurts!”
“And that is where you tricked by your own brain,” Remy said. “You were all sure it was real when you first saw it. Now, you don’t know whether it was real or not. You cannot even be sure the desk I’m sitting on is real.”
There was a light knock on the door and then Jackson walked in with a stack of papers. “Professor Langril wanted me to deliver these to you… at this exact time… for some reason.”
She thanked him, took them from him, and set them on the table without looking at them. As soon as he shut the door, she asked, “What color were his shoes?” After some debate, the consensus was that he wore brown boots, since several students thought he always wore brown boots. “What color was his shirt? What about his pants?” That answer came much quicker, almost with relief that it was an easier question. “What color was his jacket?”
Students thought for a moment. “It was blue, I think,” Nathan said.
“No, it was black. I know it was black.”
“You’re an idiot! It was definitely blue!” Dre argued.
As the class argued over his jacket, Darwin leaned in to whisper to me. “He wasn’t wearing a jacket, was he?”
I shook my head. After letting the class go on for another ten minutes, Remy revealed that there was in fact no jacket. With her point about the power of suggestion made, she moved on to the lesson.
“You all learned to visualize something, such as an apple, so strongly that you could see it, feel it, smell it, and even taste it. Today, you are going to visualize fire so strongly that everyone else can see it too. Pair up. If you can’t create fire yet, partner with someone who can. Each pair needs one box, two candles, and the appropriate correspondences.”
The correspondences were in the closet for the students to fight over, the thick candles were in a box on her desk, and the boxes were stacked behind her desk. The boxes were about a foot wide, a foot deep, and two feet long. Dividing the box in the middle was a two-sided mirror. Darwin gathered our correspondences while I set up the rest of it.
Darwin brought back a bottle of basil, a bottle of cinnamon, an amber necklace, an outlandishly fake wand with rubies in its brass handle, and a large silver triangle which he set facing downward from our position. “The downward triangle is for water,” I said.
“That’s the balance because water is contrary to fire.”
“Everyone should have a box with a two-sided mirror. Place one candle in the middle of each side of your box. You will take turns on this. Sit across from each other on the far ends of the box so that the mirror reflects your candles and each of you see what looks like two candles. Decide who goes first and that person will light one candle. Do that now. With your magic, Carrie,” she said as Carrie pulled out a match.
Darwin laughed, but I knew he was really laughing at me for all the times I used a lighter.
I imagined the heat of fire, as I had quite a lot of practice doing this. It was more difficult to focus the heat into a wick than a larger torch, but it only took a couple of seconds for a flame to erupt.
“Good,” Remy said once everyone was done. “Now, blow it out and do it again. As you do, imagine the reflected candle doesn’t go out.” She waved her hand and the windows and skylight darkened until only the smallest amount of light seeped through. “Repeat this exercise until you can see it with absolute certainty.”
I imagined the reflected flame remaining lit as I blew out the candle. I repeated this process five times before the light of the candles was really burned into my eyes so that when I blew it out, there were twin spots of white light in the dark box.
“Woah,” Darwin said when I lit the candle for the eighth time.
I blew it out and imagined the reflected candle still lit. Remington appeared beside me, slid the mirror out of its groove, and set it aside.
“Still holding the image?” she asked gently.
Remy was right next to me, her face lit with the soft glow of imaginary light… it felt very intimate. The fact that I knew how she felt pressed against me didn’t help.
“Do it again,” she said.
“Huh?” I asked.
“Light the candle.”
“Oh, that.”
“As you light it, you should imagine the second one lighting, just like the reflected one did. If it doesn’t, blow it out and light it again until it does.” She walked away.
It took ten minutes to refocus. I lost count of how many times I tried the activity before I could really see the second candle light with mine. With each time after that, the visualization was stronger.
“Hey, it’s working!” Darwin said excitedly.
“You can see the second one lit?”
“Yeah.” He waved his finger through my imaginary fire and I saw it flickering the way I knew it should.
Remy was back at my side. “Good. Now, keep doing it, except don’t pour your heat into your candle. With practice, the second candle will light because you will visualize it, but it won’t be actual fire. With practice, you can do it without actuall
y making fire.”
I practiced for another half an hour before this worked. I would focus on lighting the candle, but hold off on the actual lighting of it, while simultaneously imagining the second one lighting. Of course, I actually lit the second one with fire a couple of times, but that wasn’t difficult to stop.
When I had it down, I opened a link between me and Darwin so he could feel what I was doing. “Do you want to try? You’ve used my powers before.”
“In an emergency situation only. Besides, I was using your powers through you, not doing it myself.”
“It’s not as powerful as the amulet, though. If something goes wrong, I’d rather it go wrong here than with the amulet,” I reasoned. After a few minutes, he nodded. I slipped the mirror back into place. I felt him trying to light the fire. Instead of using my memories of fire, he somehow made it scientific and mathematical by recalling temperatures, chemical reactions, and incidences involving acid.
Whereas I would imagine a child getting their finger burned by a firework, he would imagine a man’s flesh melting off by accidentally putting his hand down on the wrong spot in a lab. I imagined the heat of a woman’s skin, while he imagined dissecting a lab rat.
The guy knew some really creepy shit.
The candle lit… and a loud explosion made me jump out of my skin. Sparks and hot wax rained over everyone. I thought someone set off a sparkler until the windows lightened and I could see what was going on. Nathan’s candle had exploded, showering most of us with melted wax, and in the candle’s place was sparkly silver confetti.
Most of the class laughed and cheered, but our concentration was broken. Thankfully, Remy let us leave early. When everyone was gone, I closed the door behind them and turned back to Remy. “Are you okay?”
She gave me a half-hearted smile. “I’m always okay.”
* * *
I was heading to my next class when Addie found me. “Dr. Martin is looking for you. He said it was important.”
“Thanks.”
“Has Henry said anything?” she asked before I got to the end of the hall.
“About this being your last semester?” I asked. She nodded. “Sorry. He hasn’t. Of course, he doesn’t like to talk about things that upset him. That could be why.”
“I was thinking about asking Headmaster Hunt if he needed another teacher.”
“Just because of Henry?” Again, she nodded. “Is he worth sticking around for knowing what your relationship entails?”
“If he loves me, even if it’s only three days a month, it’s better than not at all. If I leave, he’ll forget about me in a few days. I need something from him, even a little hint that I’m not just a convenience to him. Anything at all.”
“He chose you. That’s all I can tell you. He doesn’t tell Darwin or me what’s on his mind any more than he tells you. I’ll see you later.” I didn’t run into anyone else on the way to the infirmary, but I knew as soon as I opened the door to the underground floor that I wasn’t going to like what I found.
Dr. Martin was in the infirmary, looking through an ancient microscope. Len, Kristen, and Conner, three wizards I had classes with, were unconscious and sweating profusely. “What’s the verdict?” I asked.
He shook his head and turned to me. “Not good. The eggs were contaminated, but it wasn’t with a poison. The five students who fainted were the victims of a sleeping draft in the eggs. It was virtually harmless and wore off in an hour. That was what Lenard had tried to say; he hadn’t eaten the eggs. He hadn’t actually eaten anything because he woke up sick. I also tested their blood and haven’t yet identified any virus or bacteria that could be causing this.”
“Have you tried any treatments?”
“Potions. I’m not a medical doctor; more of a chemist who knows potions and studied anatomy and physiology. They’re not developing any new symptoms, but they are getting worse. The only thing that seems to be wrong is extremely high fevers.”
“Do we need to call another doctor?”
“I’ve already tried. There are limited doctors in the paranormal community who know anything more than me, and all of them are too busy to help.”
“What about healing with magic?”
“There is no cure-all spell. Healing an injury or poisoning is easy, but illnesses are an entirely different matter. Anything I try could make them worse if I’m wrong, and the clues I’m getting are not helping. None of their organs are getting singled out, which is odd. I had them on oxygen and they actually got worse faster with it. I’ve sent for Logan; if he doesn’t know what to do, he knows who will.
“Good.”
I helped Dr. Martin lay out ingredients for more potions until the door opened and Hunt entered. Apparently, it had been his off time, because he was wearing a business shirt and pants without his wizard robes and his hair was slightly messed up, as if he had been napping. “Who was first and what were the first symptoms?” he asked.
“Lenard was the first to get sick. He was nauseated, sweating, shivering, and disorientated.”
Hunt put his hand on Len’s head and checked him over. He may not have been a doctor, but he knew a racing heart and burning forehead was bad. “And you tried calling in more doctors?” he asked, turning to Dr. Martin, who nodded.
The doctor opened his mouth to speak at the same time Len opened his eyes… and attacked. It wasn’t with a knife or magic, the guy just lunged at the headmaster. Startled by the move, Hunt went down and Len’s hands were on his throat before I could even get to them. I was able to pull Len off, as he wasn’t a big guy, but he kicked and thrashed like his life depended on it, all the while screaming something unintelligible. Just before I lost my grip, Dr. Martin injected him with a sedative, which was effective immediately.
Hunt stood and tried to get out of Dr. Martin’s way. In doing so, he backed up to Kristen’s bed and didn’t see her sit up. Without making a sound, she grabbed Hunt’s arm and bit him. Hunt jerked his arm away from her, but he wasn’t willing to hurt his student even when she attacked him. Dr. Martin gave her a sedative right as she was struggling to get off the bed.
Hunt motioned with his hand, she froze in midair rather than collapsing on the floor, and then he picked her up and set her on the bed.
“There you go; you have a new symptom,” I said to Dr. Martin. For the second time, something small and bright red moved in the corner of my eye, but it was gone by the time I turned my head.
“I need to clean that,” the doctor said, indicating Hunt’s arm. Blood was seeping through his shirt.
“I can take care of it.”
“Whether this is airborne or not, you could have it now. At the very least, you need to let me know if you feel sick at all.”
Hunt nodded. “I will. Their parents should be informed, but do not send them home until we are sure this is not contagious and that they will not attack their families. Also, keep a sedative handy.”
“I’m going to see if I can track down exactly where they were, who they were with, and what they were doing when they got sick,” I said. Hunt nodded and left.
* * *
I skipped my afternoon classes to retrace the students’ steps. Len was sick when he woke, so I found one of his roommates.
“I just thought he was hung over,” Jake said. He was irritated that I was interrupting his lunch, but was concerned enough about his roommate to answer anyway. “He was out late Monday and Tuesday night celebrating being back at the school.”
“Why was he celebrating being back? I thought Len studied every chance he got and there really wasn’t a question.”
“Yeah, but he wasn’t gonna be able to come back. His ma needed help around their shop. Hunt visited with him and hired his ma some help out of his own pocket so that Len could come back. There was a dozen or so of us chillin’ out at the pool on Monday and he suggested a bit of a party.”
“How long did this party last and when did it start?”
“We got an early dinner, so it p
robably started ‘bout five-thirty. At eight or so, we all went in, but not Len.”
“That’s not a very late party.”
“No, but that was when someone dropped a bunch of dry ice in the pool, so we left because we didn’t want to get blamed. I think Len went with a chick. I mean, he said when he got back that he didn’t do anything, but he was drunk so we didn’t believe him.”
“Did you see her?”
“Brown hair, average height, cute, but she was a bloodsucker, so not my type. I figured she wanted a suck and he wanted a blow.”
“How did you know she was a vampire?”
“She had fangs. They left when the rest of us did, but he didn’t come back ‘til about midnight. He was fine then, but still drunk.”
“So he drank more?”
He shrugged. “He said he hadn’t, but he must have. He didn’t even ‘member bein’ out that late.”
“Was there a party on Tuesday as well?”
“No, but he said he was going to the library, and we assumed he was gettin’ more beer. We were asleep by the time he got back in and he was sick when we woke up.
“Can you give me a list of who was at the party on Monday?” I asked. He listed the students, which I wrote in my notebook. Afterwards, I thanked him and left. Kristen and Conner had both been at the pool, and they were both seen talking to a female vampire, even though those two didn’t go with her. One other student who spoke with her there was Mack.
At dinner, I looked for Mack, but no one knew where he was. That last anyone heard from him was when he told one of his roommates he left his jacket in Professor Langril’s classroom and had to go get it. The classroom was empty of both Mack and a jacket.
By the time I returned to the dining room, Darwin and Henry were sitting in their usual spots. I got my food and sat down, but Henry and I both waited until Darwin tasted his before eating, since he was apparently the only one who could detect when the food had been tampered with.
