by Rain Oxford
“Of course. Public school libraries have fiction books.”
“I’m glad you agree. Mr. Fahrenkopf was the previous deputy headmaster, and he refused to let me order anything fiction.”
“Well, you’re the librarian, and reading is important. You’ll have to discuss it with the accountant, but I’ll leave the book decision-making up to you.” She stood and was about to excuse herself when it occurred to me that it was Remington’s decision to make. “Actually, when you know what books you want to order, send me a list.”
She smiled. “Thanks, Deputy Headmaster.”
“I prefer my name, or vice principal. I’m still not used to the British lingo, even with my old roommates.”
“We aren’t really based on a British system,” she explained. “Although Logan Hunt was born in England, the schools adapt worldwide customs. Most of the students here are American. There is a lot more diversity at the university.”
* * *
It was a vision I was experiencing, not a dream. I was seeing through someone’s eyes, but their thoughts were closed to me. I saw the person open a door and it looked like a thin man’s hand. He stepped into one of the bedrooms of the Center, which was dark, but not empty. Two people were clearly having sex in the bed.
“What the hell?” the man whose eyes I was seeing through said. A young, redheaded woman gasped and shot out of the bed, taking the sheet with her. “My brother? You slept with my brother?”
“I can explain,” the woman said.
Instead of listening to her, the man shut the door and went upstairs to the roof deck, where he overlooked the campus. After ten minutes, the door opened and the redheaded woman joined him. He looked at her. She was fully dressed and even had her purse.
“How long have you been cheating on me?”
“A year.”
“Is that child mine?”
She touched her stomach. “Possibly, but I don’t think so.”
He paused for a moment. “I don’t care that it’s not my child. I want to be in his life.”
He started to turn away when she drew a knife from her purse and stabbed him in the chest. As she did, I glimpsed a butterfly tattoo on her wrist.
The vision ended and gave way to normal dreams.
Chapter 3
Sunday, August 14
Students began arriving on Saturday and an outdoor assembly was held on Sunday afternoon. A wooden stage had been set up on the lawn in front of the Center. Nearly two hundred kids were seated in plastic folding chairs in around the stage. All of the teachers and staff were on the stage, excluding kitchen staff and custodial workers. Remington approached the microphone.
“Welcome, students and staff. For those of you who don’t know me, I am Remington Hunt, the new headmistress of this school. I was previously a professor of illusion magic at Quintessence. There will be some changes, but every change will be imposed to benefit the students and staff. We will have an assembly later today with individual age groups to introduce teachers, but I would like to introduce you to the three deputy headmasters. “Mr. Yuun governs the students from age five to nine. Mr. Murphy is the deputy headmaster for students ten to thirteen. Finally, we have Mr. Sanders, the deputy headmaster of students from fourteen to seventeen years old.”
“Classes will begin tomorrow morning at nine. You should have found your schedules, maps, and handbooks in your rooms. Read the handbooks, because if you break the rules, you will be held accountable. I look forward to getting to know you all. We are going to take a five minute break and then start with the assembly for ages five to nine. Students ten and up, and staff who do not work in the North can leave for now.” With that, she walked away from the stand.
* * *
As I was finishing dinner, Remy approached me. “I want you to meet a few students in particular.”
I put my dishes in the sink and followed her out of the Center and into the West. The door opened to the living room, which was designed just like the Center with brick and stone walls, a grand staircase, and a large fireplace. However, instead of elegant furniture, it contained modern, well-worn couches, round study tables, and writing supplies. Two dozen students were lounging around, reading their books or discussing their classes.
Remy and I went through to the dining room, where there were five rectangular tables. “These don’t seat a hundred students,” I commented.
“No, there is another dining room, and they’re allowed to eat in their rooms. It makes it harder to find certain students. Part of your duties includes roaming the halls of the East if you have spare time. You are invited to walk into any classroom and check things out. The teachers will welcome it, because they can use you for examples or set you up with an errand or two.”
Remy and I walked through the dining room and the first student who drew my attention was a thin, fifteen-year-old girl with bright blue hair and pierced black cat ears. She only had on a royal blue babydoll dress. “How does someone shift with a piercing?” I asked.
Remy noticed who I was looking at. “That’s Willow Starglow. Her mother is a forest fae and her father is a black leopard. She’s a throwback and can’t shift or retract her feline ears. She can communicate with animals, similar to your mind reading ability.”
“I can see how she would have a problem in public school.”
“That is Cy, a wizard,” Remy said, gesturing to a boy who was sitting at a table alone with three massive books between him and his plate of food. He was five-six and thin with light brown hair and light blue eyes. “He’s brilliant, like Darwin, but with a much better attitude.”
I noticed another teenager who was dressed head-to-toe in white. He had platinum blond hair, very light blue eyes, and a pale complexion. An athletically-built teen of the same age hovered over him worriedly. He was five-seven with dark auburn hair and chocolate-brown eyes. “What about them?”
“Lindsey is a Tasmanian tiger with pretty much every phobia there is, which isn’t a surprise.”
“Why?”
“Tasmanian tigers are widely considered extinct. His mother says it’s not true, but at the very least, they’re extremely rare, and he’s the only known Tasmanian tiger shifter. In his mind, the only person on earth who isn’t riddled with viruses, bacteria, and parasites is his best friend, Oliver.”
I watched as Oliver pulled a sealed sanitizing wipe out of Lindsey’s bag, open it, and then clean a spot of the table and a seat for Lindsey. Lindsey sat and Oliver walked away to dispose of the wipe.
“You will be dealing with him sometimes. Students and staff are warned not to touch him.”
“Like with Darwin?”
“No, he doesn’t feel pain; he is just extremely germ-phobic. Don’t take his panic attacks lightly. He isn’t out for attention or sympathy. If his episodes aren’t handled correctly, he could be in a bad state for days.”
I nodded. “I’ll watch out for it.”
“Then there is Kita.” The gangly sixteen-year-old girl she pointed out had light and dark brown hair and black eyes.
“A hyena shifter,” I said. I knew one other hyena shifter and he had the same unusual hair pattern.
“Yes, she’s a hyena shifter and has aggression issues. She’ll shift and attack other students no matter how much she’s punished for it. She doesn’t think before acting when she gets angry, and what sets her off is unpredictable.”
“How harshly do you want me to handle fights if I do witness one?”
“As you read in the handbook, no fighting is tolerated. The children obviously can’t be dealt with the same as adults at the university. Stop the fight as quickly as possible without hurting them physically or mentally. Your particular strengths would be extremely useful here.”
“You want me to control their minds?”
“To stop a fight? Absolutely. I trust you not to abuse your power, or I wouldn’t have hired you.”
* * *
Once again, I was having another vision in my dream. This time,
the person whose eyes I was seeing through was dizzy— either drunk, drugged, or poisoned, but I couldn’t make out any thoughts, like the previous vision dream.
I saw two men in a normal house, arguing. One was frantic and furious while the older man held his hands up in defense. “What happened to your wife wasn’t my fault. I couldn’t have predicted the---”
“What happened to her?” the frantic man shrieked. “You killed her!” He reached out as if to push the older man and fire formed in midair.
The older man shouted with fear. “What are you?”
“You’ll pay for killing her!” The fire shot out and engulfed the older man.
The vision ended and gave way to normal dreams.
* * *
Monday, August 15
On Monday morning, I was heading to my office when I encountered a crowd of students. The tension told me what was going on before my magic had a chance. To my surprise, however, it wasn’t two students at the center of the crowd. Instead, I found Ms. Baumwirt and Ms. Holland about to start throwing down, surrounded by their students.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“I spent all week making my classroom perfect, and this morning, I came in to find that she had taken all of my desks!” Ms. Baumwirt said.
“That’s ridiculous!” Ms. Holland argued. “She threw all of her desks in my room just so she could have a fit.”
Ms. Baumwirt opened her mouth to argue, but I put my hand up and she closed her mouth. “In what way would it benefit Ms. Holland to take your desks?”
“To mess with me.”
“Do you mess with each other often?”
“No.”
“The only one this is benefitting is the students who don’t want to go to class. Obviously, neither of you set this up. It was probably a prank by some former students of yours. I would suggest ignoring it, having your students help you put your rooms right, and warding your classroom at night. But, I’m new here, so that’s only a suggestion.” With that, I left and continued on my way to the office.
* * *
Wednesday, August 17
For the first couple of days, there wasn’t any point in checking out classes, because they were all doing introduction lessons and activities. I started getting disciplinary notices on the first day, but most of them were attendance issues.
On Wednesday, I decided to check in on a couple of classes. First, I went to Ms. Bounds’s Level 2 Home Economics. I knocked and was invited in. There were ten metal and wood cabinets against the wall and two dozen plastic storage containers in the back. Against the far wall was a teacher’s desk, which was piled high with paper and utensils. Five round tables took up most of the room. Each table was covered with potion ingredients. There were two students to a table.
Ms. Bounds smiled at me as I opened the door. “Hello, Mr. Sanders. It’s nice to see you. We are making a healing potion. Would you like to help?”
“Sure, although I don’t know which healing potion you’re making. There are a number of them.”
“We don’t have to learn them all, do we,” a student asked.
“No,” Ms. Bounds answered. “Some are better at healing from poisons, some are better at healing illnesses, some are better at healing injuries, and some are better at healing venom. What you’re going to learn today is a potion to disinfect and heal general, superficial wounds. You should still wash out and bandage a wound, but this will help.”
“Why do we need to learn it when there is a doctor here?”
“Because you’re not going to spend your entire lives at the school.”
“If I become a teacher, I can.”
“Suck-up much?” a girl teased.
“Shut up.”
I worked with the students to create a potion, which was enjoyable, and I got to learn a little about the students. Potion classes were one of my favorite at Quintessence, but that was because of Langril. Here, it was just chemistry/cooking with a little magic.
* * *
Thursday, August 18
On Thursday morning, Darwin and Henry were talking about their classes when Ms. Holland interrupted to ask me to sub for her first and second class. “You don’t have to know anything specifically about history. Just keep them from killing each other and teach them something you know about paranormal history.”
“Sure. I can cover it.”
An hour later, ten confused kids entered the classroom. “Did Ms. Holland die already?” a girl asked.
“No. Why?”
“We heard a lot of people died at Quintessence.”
“No one is dying here. I’m just subbing for this morning. Get in your seat.” When everyone settled down, I asked, “Is everyone here?”
“G.D. isn’t here. He’s probably oversleeping.”
“Alright. Let’s talk about… what do you want to know about history?”
There was a long pause before all the students started talking at once. Several of them wanted to know about voodoo, so we started with that. Then a lot of them wanted to know about the history of the castle of Quintessence, which I happened to know more about than any of the teachers, since I had the journals and books of its original owner.
“The castle was built by a German man named Heinrich Baldauf.” Before I could say anything else, the door opened and another boy came in. “You’re late for class.”
Halfway to his desk, he stopped and faced me. “A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.”
“You know what? Fair enough.”
He got in his seat and I continued explaining the history of the school, leaving out the gory details, the tower, and the facts about Langril being a demon who tricked Baldauf.
“Why does the university teach elemental magic and this school doesn’t?” G.D. asked.
“This school is all about controlling your power. The university is all about learning to use your power to the best of your abilities.”
“Elemental magic is the simplest magic, though.”
“The objective of elemental magic is not teaching you to control the elements. That is more like an indicator that you know what you’re doing.”
“Then why do they teach elemental magic?”
“The elements are characteristics of you, and you use magic by drawing on those characteristics. For example, water is love and trust. Thus, you must feel love and trust in order to use water magic, which includes healing, divination, and---”
“I thought divination was air.”
“It is that as well. A lot of them overlap. What determines whether the divination is water or air is your intention.”
“That sounds boring.”
I smirked. “That’s what I thought at first. I had a lot of anger and didn’t trust anyone. I didn’t go to the children’s school or learn how to control my magic before I attended Quintessence. Since you’re learning how to control your own emotions here, you’ll be ahead of where I was.”
* * *
I was heading to dinner and the East was supposed to be empty of students, so when I heard strange sounds in a classroom, I stopped. My instincts weren’t warning me of a problem. I opened the door and I was at a loss for words.
There were thirteen teenage girls sitting in a circle on the floor with creepy dolls, old books, and candles surrounding them. They were sitting around a magic circle with a pentagram that looked like it was painted in blood. They all simultaneously stopped chanting in Latin and turned their heads to look at me.
“What are you doing?”
“Worshiping the Lightbringer,” they all said as one.
“Okay.” I shut the door.
* * *
Friday, August 19
I felt Darwin pushing open a link between us. “There’s a fight outside my classroom.”
I groaned, but I didn’t waste time getting to the dispute in question. I found three African wild dogs circling a teenager who was on fire. The boy wasn’t screaming or thrashing, so
I knew it was either an illusion or harmless to him.
I pushed my power into the minds of the dogs. “Shift.”
They shifted into two boys and a girl. Everyone averted their eyes and an older teen handed them all bathrobes. The flames engulfing the boy were doused, which was a huge relief. The boy was five-two and slim with strawberry-blond hair and celadon-green eyes. I had seen Sam around and knew he was an orphan, but I didn’t know what he was. Judging by his ability to set himself on fire, I pegged him for a fae.
“What’s going on here?” I asked.
“They attacked me!” Sam said.
“You don’t belong here!” one of the dog shifters said. All three of them were athletically built with medium-brown eyes and brown, blond, and black mixed hair. Like hyena shifters, African wild dog shifters tended to have hair that matched their animal’s fur. When I saw that there was a family of African wild dog shifters in the school, I did some research on their nature.
“You’re Debbie, right?”
“You can’t give me detention! He is a danger to all of us and he should have his powers taken away!”
Sam opened his mouth, but when I waved my hand, he shut it. “You want him dead?” I asked.
Debbie and her brothers blanched. “No, of course not,” Branson said.
“We just want him out,” Baron agreed.
“You said you want his magic to be taken away. That means death.”
The three shifters looked properly regretful. “We’re sorry,” Debbie said. “We’re just tired of him holding the class back and getting us in trouble. He can’t do anything right and he keeps setting everything on fire.”
“I can’t help it!” Sam said.
“That’s the point! You’re a throwback and should be in special classes!”
“Stop,” I ordered. “Shifting and attacking a student is not acceptable. If he endangers you, tell a teacher and they will deal with it. You absolutely have the right to protect yourself and your family, but when you gang up on someone, you are in the wrong. Sam, come with me.”
