by Bob Dattolo
“Renee, one of the freshmen, tried to put a spell on her. She stopped it somehow and talked to the girl, but Dawson, a wolf shifter in her dozenal, decided he wanted to put Ceri in her place.”
“What happened?”
Steph smiled again. “He grabbed her and hit her a bunch of times, breaking most of her face, as far as I can tell, then she busted him with a slap that broke I don’t even know what. Then she body slammed him onto the table and stabbed him with a bunch of silverware and stuck him to the wood. She bent the handles so that he couldn’t just pull out.”
“Jesus Christ…seriously?”
I nodded. “The spoons were the hardest to get through.”
“Holy shit, I didn’t realize you used spoons too!” Tom looked to be enjoying it now for some reason.
Shrugging, I tried not to hide away. “I used what was at hand.”
Our teacher smiled wider. “That’s good thinking. Fantastic thinking, actually.” She waved up. “All right, everyone get ready. Focus on basic floor work for now and I’ll meet with Ceri to judge some things.”
The others stood and began stripping, storing their clothes in cubby holes I hadn’t seen when I came in. In about 30 seconds, I was the only one left dressed. This is just horrific. Granted, I was naked a whole lot since yesterday after dinner, but really? In a classroom too?
Ms. Darvel patted me on the shoulder. “Come on, you can do it. I saw you last night and you were fine. This is the same thing.”
I couldn’t look at anyone as I stripped, and the movement of blood to my face made me nearly fall over. She waited patiently until I got it under control before nodding her head to the side, where I joined her.
“All right, we both know you didn’t do well on your test.”
“Ya think? I don’t know the first thing about defending against someone.”
She cocked her head at me. “You may think that, yet you’ve beaten some pretty strong opposition since yesterday. Connor is a very strong shifter and has solid mage skills. Lacie is a strong wolf as well. Did she use any of her ice powers on you yesterday?”
I shrugged. “Not that I noticed?”
“Okay, but you still beat her. Connor is a weaker wolf, but you beat him. Dawson is younger, but he’s pretty powerful, at least as powerful as Lacie is, from what I’ve seen. Can you explain what he did to you and how you reacted?”
I walked her through being grabbed and his hits, then my reaction. She was chuckling towards the end. “Yeah, that’ll take the fight out of most anyone, I think. Even a mage would be hard-pressed to cast some sort of spell through the amount of pain he was probably in. Tell me about how you handled the spell from Renee?”
Walking her through that was pretty quick as well. She squinted at me a little when I described pulling at Renee’s power, but then let it go.
“Honestly, I’m not sure how to start you on this. You handled some pretty heavy hitters yesterday, although it sounds like you don’t really know how you did it.”
“Sounds like? I don’t know at all.”
“All right. We’ll start with basic fighting, then. It can’t hurt. You’ll learn how to harness your magic in magics class, so hold off for that for now. We’ll go with just normal fighting.” She looked me up and down. “You’ll want to get used to being like this. Defense is always taught naked. There’s a reason for that. You need to get used to fighting when you’re vulnerable. Shifters aren’t when we’re like this, but most of the rest are. If you can fight like this, you can fight clothed. Plus, it gets you used to handling other people. If you can’t fight properly when someone’s penis is in your face, the first shifter guy is going to mess you up in a fight.”
Then my teacher began walking me through some basic fighting moves and had me practice them while, all around me, my classmates continued their workouts with each other. Not a one of them seemed to have a problem with all the skin.
By the end of class, I realized I know absolutely nothing about fighting. That earned me a book from our teacher, with the instructions to read it and memorize as much as possible. It also earned me a slap on the bu...ass as I got dressed again. “I expect good things from you in this class. You get a week before you have to demonstrate the basic moves to me. Get learning them!”
Lovely.
What can I say about the next class, magical species? The less, the better. A new instructor, Mrs. Nielson, joined Mr. Mitchum for the class and promptly blew my mind with the variety of supernaturals out there. I had no clue. I pretty much still have no clue. I do have a huge book, though. Thankfully, we’re not expected to be experts on each species, just be able to identify them, their skills and abilities, and some general knowledge on them. That being said, I’m more than two years behind, since I barely know the criteria for a norm.
Our last class, magic, was enlightening. Unexpectedly, this class is broken up, with our shifters splitting off from the mages. Rachel moved off with the shifters, leaving the six of us mages together. Our professor is Mr. Reynolds, a tall and thin guy that radiates power, almost like Director Fitzsimmons. He studied each of us as we entered, and his voice was deep and rich when he spoke.
“Greetings everyone. I see that we have a new student today.” He nodded towards me, so I returned it, unsure what else I should do. “I am Mr. Reynolds. I will be your magics instructor. I understand from Headmaster Burnes, that you are new to being a supernatural?”
“Uhh, yes…sir?”
He nodded back again. “I’m sure there is a story there, but I do not need to know it, necessarily. This course is a little different from the others that you have. In this course, you will be learning more about magic. The rest of your classmates have years of experience with their magic and being trained by their families, so they came in with at least a rudimentary knowledge of some of the skills that are available to mages.” Skills?
He seemed to read my mind, because he smiled and nodded. “Indeed, skills. Mages tend to specialize based on their strengths, and most follow standard protocols, for lack of a better word. In this course we will touch on potions, evocation, or summoning, charm creation, charm use, mental magic, and ritual magic. There are subsets within each major skill, but we will only touch them briefly. There is one other skill of magic, that of necromancy, but we will not touch it during this class.” My classmates hissed, as if being presented with absolute evil. “Indeed, necromancy has bad connotations for most mages and other supernaturals. It is a perversion of nature to most of us.” He let that sink in before nodding. “Additionally, these topics are necessarily limited to human branches of magic. Fey magic is different, as are demon or angel magic. There is some carry-over, but it is very, very rare.” Another pause.
“All right, we have been working with evocation, or summoning, as I mentioned earlier.” He pointed at each of my classmates in turn, “Armand specializes in potions mostly, but has a strong leaning towards evocation as well. Nick also specializes in potions. Zach has not identified his strengths yet. Christine specializes in evocation, specifically fire. Carl specializes in energy, which is an offshoot of evocation and mental. It’s very rare for a mage to not be able to perform at some level within a given skill, it’s just that their individual power works best in certain circumstances.” He nodded at the others. “You all have an idea of where we left off yesterday. I would like each of you to summon a contained breeze. We don’t want an F5 tornado, just a light breeze. Let’s see if any of you can do that today. I’ll be working with Ceri directly for now.”
They all pulled out their books and notebooks, but I didn’t get a chance to see what they were planning to do as he motioned me towards the front of the room. I grabbed everything I brought and followed him, sitting in the indicated chair at a large table. He took the chair on the opposite side and watched me settle myself. “It’s wonderful to meet you at last, Ceri.”
My smile was tentative. There’s something about him that’s off, but I can’t place it. “Thank you? I’m kind
of freaked out to be here, honestly.”
He nodded. “I quite understand. I’ve spoken with others in the faculty about you, so there’s no need to walk through everything again. I also reviewed what took place during your placement testing for magic. You have to know that’s unparalleled, correct?”
My shrug wasn’t quite a verbal response, so I added, “That’s the impression I got? But I don’t know what it means. All of this is so new that I don’t even have a decent place to start judging anything.”
Another nod from him. “Understandable. And…I’ve been to your room today, along with the other faculty members.” That made me blush, which he caught. “No need to be embarrassed. The spell you created is simply magnificent. I’ve heard of a spell similar to it, but have never known anyone else that would be able to perform it. It’s high level, and I believe you cast it without knowing what you were doing?”
“I…yeah? I wasn’t even really sure I was doing magic. The others on my floor could tell that I was doing something, and they’ve made comments about feeling magic from me, but I’m not really sure how I do any of it.”
He studied me closely. “You’re in an odd position here, which I’m sure you realize. Magical skills tend to run in families, yet I’m to understand that you do not know what your parents’ skills might have been?”
“No. I didn’t even know they could do magic until the FBI told me. I was told that we were norms my entire life.”
“Fascinating. And also immaterial. The fact of the matter is that you’re here now, so it will just take trial and error to identify where you should focus. Not that it matters, either. I have known mages through the years that excelled at mental magic, yet preferred potions. For whatever reason, they enjoyed the process of making potions. Or others that had a strength in potions, but preferred charms. Just because you’re inherently good at something doesn’t mean you need to focus there.”
He waited to see if I’d interject, then continued when I didn’t. “Tell me, what do you know of the skills?”
Fingering my book didn’t do much for me to pass on information. “I know they exist, that’s about it other than the little bits I’ve heard since coming here yesterday.”
“I’ll give you a little bit of information, which you may have already heard. In no particular order, we have ritual magic. This is magic that requires very precise steps to accomplish the results. The goal can range from changing the weather to good luck to love to almost anything. This is the type of magic that involved casting a circle, in some instances other more detailed diagrams, candles, that sort of thing. Prior to supernaturals being out and about, this is most often viewed by norms as evil magic. It is not, but that was the image most had.”
“Evocation, or summoning, which is what we are learning right now, is being able to evoke the power of something, typically an element. That is not always the case, but that is most common. A breeze. Fire. Ice. Rock, for harder skin in a fight. That sort of thing. This is not the type of magic that would change the color of your walls or make someone fall in love with you, but it has its uses. Some very powerful uses, too.”
“Potions is self-evident, I believe. It is making something, typically a liquid, although it can be a paste as well. This is classic witchcraft from a norm perspective, although it does not call on the power of the devil or any juvenile thing like that. The potions can have a variety of effects, although they always impact the person to consume the potion. Greater strength, flight, the range is quite broad. There is a wonderful market for potions out there, and the sellers are policed, because some spells can be dangerous, as you can imagine. The length of time that the spell is in effect depends on the maker, so that drives price.”
“Mental magic is what norms would consider wizardry, based on old fantasy books. The ability to cast magic with a few words, maybe a gesture, or with a thought. This is the hardest magical skill because it requires that someone be very powerful as well as intensely focused. Loss of focus will change the spell or stop it from being made at all. This is the broadest skill from an impact standpoint because someone with strong mental abilities can essentially mirror almost everything else that you can do with the other spells.” He waved his hand and a puff of fire formed above his open palm. “My skill lies in mental, as you can see. Not that others with weaker abilities in mental couldn’t do the same, but this is an easy way to show you what I mean.”
He let the fire disappear. “Charm creation and charm use go hand-in-hand, at least for the most part. They’re the most popular from a business perspective. A talented creator can imbue almost any spell into an item. When that is done, the spell can be cast on the user or someone else. It’s a very, very lucrative career, and is also policed heavily. A talented user could cast a death spell into a ring and the wearer could kill with a thought. On the other hand, health spells sell exceedingly well, as do other, simpler things, like luck. For the most part, as a society we tend to stay away from the truly dangerous spells, since no one wants to find out a deranged norm gets his hands on a spell that destroys buildings with just a thought.”
I sucked in a breath. “Oh…wow, I never thought of that!”
He nodded. “Indeed. There were some incidents early on when we came out where the mages were not diligent, but we stopped it as soon as we could. It can create huge messes, so most mages think through what they’re creating for that very reason. That, or create restrictions on who can use an item. If you can do that, you can charge even more for a charm.”
He paused, so I had to ask. “You also mentioned necromancy? Why do people hate that?”
He glanced to the others in the room before focusing back on me. “I had a feeling you would ask about that.” He inhaled and shook his head. “Necromancy is magic of the dead. Norms and other magic users have an unhealthy fear of it, so those with the skills have been systematically wiped out. In general, the skill gives the mage the ability to summon the dead. Spirits. Zombies. It can make them nearly unstoppable in battle because dead soldiers are notoriously hard to kill with conventional weapons, while most spells bounce off of them. Not that all necromancers used their power in such a manner, but the fear is still there.”
That made sense. “Okay, what about demons and angels? Or fey?”
He smiled wide. “They’re altogether different. The fey have inherent magic that follows their will. They can use all of the skills that humans have, but their results are stronger, typically. As for angels and demons? Their magic is God-sent, if you will.”
“God-sent? Surely not the demons?!”
He nodded. “Even there. You see, demons are basically angels, it’s just that their focus on Earth is towards the baser side of things. On Earth and in hell. Their magic is mostly the same, but again, the focus is different. They do not need to use skills the way we do, although I’ve heard of them both creating charms before, although rarely. Truth be told, you’ll probably never meet an angel. I’ve only ever heard of a handful of them on Earth, not that they can’t appear without us knowing, but they typically just pop in and then disappear again.”
“What about demons?”
“They’re different. Those that come to Earth spend a lot of time here, living mostly like humans. Or mages, really.”
“Will I meet one of them?”
He squinted at me. “In all likelihood? At some point, yes. Most strong mages meet up with one at some time or another. Although not one-on-one, for the most part.”
“Have you ever met one?”
“Dozens of times. They’re fiercely powerful, but they’re not the font of evil norms believe them to be.”
“Oookay.” I’m not sure I can believe that.
“Don’t worry, you’re still young.” He shuffled some paperwork on the other side of the table. “Now, on to evocation.” His squint made it look like he wanted to look right through me. “Tell me, can you feel your magic inside of you?”
I rubbed my stomach. “I’m not sure? I guess so, bu
t I don’t even know what I should be feeling for. It’s more like I can feel it moving at times. Or when something happens that I’m not quite controlling.”
He waved that away. “That’s very common, although not typically in someone that is 16. That’s something we all deal with when we’re young. You’re just a few years later than most.” He leaned back from the table and grabbed something from the desk behind him that I couldn’t make out, turning back and putting a small candle on the table. “Now, typically, when we start out with evocation, we have students light a candle. It’s basic, and a skill that is amazingly useful. Once you can summon enough flame to light a candle you can light fires to stay warm or cook food, defend yourself against some species out there, or anything else where fire would be beneficial. Some mages have an affinity for fire, being able to coat themselves in it, although most do not. It’s still just fire that will hurt them, even if they did summon it.”
He nudged the candle towards me. “Now, here’s how we typically start with the very young. As I said, you’re far older, but that’s immaterial. For our purposes, this is a good starting point. Your other classmates are beyond this, but I have a feeling you’ll catch up quickly.” He focused on the wick. “For children, we try to get them to feel inside of themselves to where their magic lies. Once they can do that, they need to picture it pulling in to a central point until they feel heat buildup from the pressure. Then, once they have that, they need to transfer that heat to the wick until it ignites. Now, obviously, that’s a gross understatement of what really happens, but that is how most students pick up on it. The actual implementation is up to the mage. For me, I never picked up on it well using that set of steps. I worked better going straight for the wick and then imagining it lighting up.” The wick lit up and fluttered for a moment before he pinched it, putting it out. “How you do it is up to you, but the basics are the basics for a reason. If you fail enough times we will get an idea of how best to proceed. You will light this wick at some point, just don’t be upset if it takes you far longer than you expect.”