‘Okay, well, you summarise that for us, and we’ll read the easy version.’
Krystal giggled. ‘Thanks. You’ve no idea how much I love summarising opaque writing.’
18th Day of Snowfall.
Charlotte poked her head around the door of Krystal and Trudy’s room. ‘Girls’ night out, girls?’
Perhaps the answer should not have surprised her given that Krystal was lying on her bed with a towel draped over her face, but Charlotte’s brain often operated a split second behind her mouth. ‘Uh, not really,’ Krystal said, her voice a little muffled.
Trudy gave Charlotte a weary sort of smile. ‘She had a bit of a tough day at the shop.’
‘Seems like the entire first year suddenly discovered that Cragscales’ sells books,’ Krystal mumbled. ‘None of them knew what they were looking for. Ancestors grant me the boon that they all came today, because if the same happens next week, I’m going to murder someone.’
‘It’s the place to do it.’
‘Yeah, I could hide bodies in the stacks and no one would find them for years.’
‘So, that’s a no to clubbing and drinking?’ Charlotte asked. ‘I’ve got Mona and Xan on the team, and Flis, of course–’
‘And if Flis is going, so is Jesse,’ Krystal said. ‘If you want to go along, Trudy, I won’t stop you. The thought of hanging around tipsy men in some club is just filling me with dread.’
‘I’m good,’ Trudy said. ‘I’m going to take care of my poor, exhausted friend.’
‘Oh, well, that’s still five of–’ Charlotte began.
‘Uh, Charley?’ Ramona’s voice came from the corridor outside.
‘Hey, Mona,’ Charlotte replied, turning. ‘Krys is beat, so they’re staying here, but–’
‘Yeah, uh, I was just coming to tell you… Xan’s ready, but I’ve got a headache coming on. I’m not sure a loud club is going to help…’
‘Oh. Okay, well… That’s still four of us, I guess…’
~~~
An hour later, Krystal was still lying on her bed, but there were six people in the room with her and she had roused enough to take the towel off her face. The four remaining misfits had gone out, failed to decide on somewhere to go, and had bought snacks and an illicit bottle of wine at a late shop to bring back to the hall. Drinking in the rooms was one of those things which was not really allowed, but you could get away with it so long as no one found out about it.
‘Today was surreal,’ Krystal said. ‘Did a notice go up or something? I mean, I’ve seen a few of the girls from the school in there. Most of them ignored me unless they were desperate. Today they were swarming the place. Cragscales was gleeful, until he remembered he’d have to call to get resupplies. He hates talking to textbook suppliers.’
‘Anything specific being sold a lot?’ Trudy asked.
‘Elements was sold out by the end of the day. What’ve they been using until now? We sold a lot of Numbers for the Magically Inclined.’
‘That’s a good one,’ Jesse said. ‘Someone else should get a copy because that’ll be coming up more and more in the lower class.’
‘I’ll get one,’ Trudy said. ‘I’ve got the budget left for a couple of books and since I’m pushing to get myself caught up with Krys, I’ll need the maths.’
‘That sounds like it might be good for me too,’ Ramona said.
‘If you both want a copy, I’ll see about reserving a couple, unless Cragscales has restocked by next week,’ Krystal said. ‘A few people asked about Thoughts on the Nature of Magic. There are a couple of copies in stock, but I warned them it was pretty dense stuff. You know, mine is an old, second-hand copy one of the nuns found, but I’d swear the modern printings are even more impenetrable. It’s like they lost something when they reworked the typesetting. Anyway, we sold one copy to an indigo who insisted that she could handle it.’
‘Who?’ Felicia asked.
‘Uh, Priscilla Tallesine.’
‘Ah, yes, she’s got talent, but not much in the way of brainpower to go with it. It’s just like her to think she could handle something like that. She’s almost as stubborn as I am.’
‘I don’t think she’s ever said a word to me before today. Today she was practically fawning over me.’
‘I told you,’ Trudy said. ‘I warned you this would happen.’
‘Huh?’
‘You getting top in your exams. I told you you’d end up being popular.’
‘They were the same in the lab,’ Felicia pointed out. ‘Trudy’s right, you’re popular. I wouldn’t worry too much, however. I’m sure they just want you for your brains.’
‘Don’t we all?’ Charlotte asked, grinning.
‘Nope,’ Trudy replied. ‘With me, it’s all physical. I just want her for her body.’
‘Oh, thanks, Trudy,’ Krystal said. ‘Though you do realise that the brain is kind of integral to the body.’
‘Yeah, well, if I’ve got to have the brain along too, I guess I can cope.’
19th Day of Snowfall.
Krystal lay in Trudy’s arms feeling warm, contented, and sated. Royalday mornings were something special now that she worked on Silverdays. Trudy seemed to feel the same way since she had woken Krystal with soft caresses which had grown far more urgent and insistent once Krystal had stirred from her sleep.
‘Last night was a little weird,’ Trudy said into the warm silence.
‘How?’ Krystal asked. ‘We didn’t want to go out so we ended up hanging around in here. It seemed kind of organic to me. A natural progression.’
‘Yeah, but Xanthe told me that Ramona was pretty keen to go out. I mean, you saw how she was dressed.’
‘Ramona always dresses like she’s going to a club, unless she’s in uniform. She likes to entertain. I think she’s a bit of a party dragon.’
‘Uh-huh, so how come she suddenly decided not to go? I mean suddenly. Xanthe said she was enthusiastic when she walked out of their room, and then she came to our room and she had a headache coming on. You notice any signs of a headache once we were settled in here?’
Krystal frowned. ‘No, not really.’
‘So, Cragscales said she was nervous of men and, when I thought about it, you said something about not wanting to face a crowd of boys. She could have heard that on the way down the corridor.’
‘She could… There’s definitely something up with that girl. I wish she’d tell us what it is, but we can’t force it out of her.’
‘No, but we can keep an eye on her. She’s hurting over something. Anyway, we should get up or we’ll miss breakfast.’
Krystal tightened her grip on her lover and snuggled in. ‘Five more minutes. We can stay here for five more minutes. I like cuddling up to you.’
Sighing, Trudy kissed Krystal’s forehead. ‘I like it too. Five more minutes won’t hurt, but if we miss breakfast, you’re buying when we have to go out of the school.’
‘I can live with that.’
20th Day of Snowfall.
In the lobby of Nightsky Hall, there was an area devoted to pigeonholes for each room where mail was delivered. The little box reserved for room fifty-nine had seen very little use. In fact, the one thing which had appeared in it during the last term was a note to Krystal saying that her membership of the school’s book club had been rescinded.
Still, Krystal made a habit of checking the box every evening after lectures. It was a futile habit, but she kept at it. When she saw another note in the box, Krystal did wonder why she kept looking. Nothing good had ever come of notes in the pigeonhole before. But it was there and, when she pulled it out, she saw her name on the folded-over paper. It looked a lot like the same notepaper the book club had used the first time too. What could they possibly want now?
~~~
‘We all got them,’ Charlotte said. ‘Well, the three of us who got kicked out of clubs last term did.’ The misfits were gathered, as usual, for the evening meal in the refectory and Krystal had mentioned her note.
‘Huh.’ Krystal shook her head. ‘Well, they’re asking if I’ll attend next week’s meeting in the library to confirm everything, but it’s on Silverday. Making money for books is more important than a club about books. I’m not entirely sure I want to join a club that kicked me out over some rumours anyway.’
Charlotte nodded. ‘They’ve asked me to come in for another try-out this week. They’re making out that a spot opened and they’re calling back the dragons who didn’t make the cut last time. I’ve half a mind to do it, ace it, and then tell them to go stuff themselves.’
‘The main reason you came here is the aerobatics team,’ Krystal pointed out.
‘And they turned out to be a bunch of stick-ups. I can fly any time I want… almost. I don’t need them to tell me how I’m doing.’
‘I think I’ll see what kind of plot they can give me,’ Jesse said. ‘If I get in now, I can probably still do something good with it before spring and I do love working outdoors.’
‘And your room is starting to look a little like your Tangleroots,’ Felicia said. ‘Perhaps some of the plants in there could be moved into your new plot.’
‘I would need to treat them. Moving from a warm room to cold earth would hurt them if I don’t work a little magic, but there are some there I’d planned to have outside, yes.’
‘That enormous creeper that I think is trying to eat me?’
Jesse giggled. ‘He just wants to be friendly. If I have a wall he can climb up, then he’ll go out, yes.’
‘Good. If it just wants to be friendly, I’m not sure I want to know how friendly it wants to be. And I’d point out that using a male pronoun for it does not make me more comfortable.’
Jesse giggled again. ‘Of course he’s male. Why, those creepers have been known to, um, penetrate concrete rafts to get to light.’
‘Well, he’s not going to penetrate me!’ Felicia stated, and then she cringed when her friends burst into laughter and several faces nearby turned to look at her. ‘Maybe I said that a little too loud…’
22nd Day of Snowfall.
Ramona was considerably less well-versed in water magic than she was in fire magic. Then again, she was hardly the only one. There were a few blue dragons around who were rather pleased with their progress, and there was Krystal working quickly from her knowledge of magical theory, but most people were having a little trouble getting the water conjurations to work. As for the control spells…
Krystal glanced around as Felicia let out a squeak of protest and Jesse failed entirely to stop herself from falling into a fit of giggles. The front of Felicia’s shirt was soaked through, her skirt was dripping, and there was a puddle on the floor at her feet. Occasionally, magic could decide to play some rather silly tricks when you did not quite formulate a spell right. Mallory Nightsky, the writer of Thoughts on the Nature of Magic, had written something like ‘magic can have a perverse sense of humour since its working is the working of the mind of the magus.’ As far as Krystal could figure, that meant that your subconscious could mess with your magic, if you were not careful about what you were doing.
‘Sorry, Flis,’ Jesse managed after a few of seconds. ‘I guess that got away from me.’
‘Never mind, darling,’ Felicia replied in a slightly strained tone. ‘I’ve always looked good in wet linen.’
‘You do,’ Jesse replied, adding a little throaty growl which Krystal was betting she hoped no one else would hear, ‘but it’s a good thing they told us to bring towels.’ She picked up a fluffy white school towel and handed it to Felicia.
‘Yes.’ Felicia began patting at her clothes and then gave up and just wrapped the towel around her chest. ‘I did wonder about that. The spell will fade in a few minutes anyway. My turn. Let us hope my version does not decide that you need a drenching.’
So, Jesse’s spell had failed and dumped the conjured water over Felicia, and the indigo had looked fairly good with her shirt glued to her skin. Was Jesse’s subconscious working tricks on her control spell? Krystal turned to watch as Ramona attempted the same conjuration and control effect, and hoped that the red harboured no secret desires to see any of her friends in wet linen.
Water fountained into the bowl they had waiting for it, swirling around the container. When there was enough to almost fill the bowl, the swirling sped up and the centre point began to rise until a spout of unsupported liquid was standing in the bowl, slightly wider at the top than the bottom. It was wobbling a little, but holding its shape, and Ramona grinned.
‘No one’s getting soaked here, I think,’ Ramona said.
‘Good,’ Krystal replied. ‘I think my shirt is thinner than Flis’s. Maybe you should let it back down into the bowl. We don’t want to tempt fate, do we?’
The spout of water wobbled a little more enthusiastically and Ramona nodded. ‘I think that’s a very wise thought.’ And the water began to slow, flowing back down to fill the bowl again.
‘Very good, Ramona Rose.’ Marin’s voice, as usual, came from behind them. Ramona jerked, almost jumping, and the last bit of the column dropped into the bowl, splashing water over the sides. ‘Except for that last part,’ Marin added, ‘but at least you won’t need a towel. You’ve completed the exercise already, Krystal Ward?’
‘Yes, Theodore Marin,’ Krystal replied. She picked up her notepad and handed it to him.
Marin glanced at the formulation she had used, barely a glance as though he already knew what he would see, and handed it back. ‘Precise and effective. I would have used the same symbology. Carry on.’ He turned and stepped away toward Felicia and Jesse. ‘Felicia Goldring… A small accident?’
Krystal looked at Ramona. The red was standing, more or less hunched over the bench as though examining her notepad, but her head was tilted such that she could not see down the benches to where Marin was standing. Krystal stepped closer. ‘Mona? Are you okay?’
‘Fine,’ Ramona replied quickly. Then her brow furrowed and she glanced quickly at Krystal. ‘I’m fine. Really. It’s just… He reminds me of… of someone I knew in Scarlin Cantervale.’
‘Oh. Not a good memory, I take it? This other dragon was an indigo?’
Ramona shook her head. ‘No… Theodore Marin doesn’t look like… like him. It’s the way he moves, speaks. It’s nothing. I’m fine. Really I am.’
Krystal looked at her friend for a long second. ‘Okay, well, let’s go on to the next task then.’
‘Sure. Let’s do that.’
Krystal turned back to her notes to formulate the next casting, but her mind was only half on the problem. Something bad had happened to Ramona Rose to make her travel across a stormy sea to escape it and she had not left it entirely behind. Somehow, Krystal had the feeling that finding out what had happened was important. It was just a matter of persuading Ramona to tell her.
24th Day of Snowfall.
‘No, seriously,’ Krystal said over the giggling. ‘Your subconscious mind can affect the way the spell comes out if you aren’t careful with the shaping.’ She leafed through her copy of Thoughts on the Nature of Magic in an attempt to find the passage. ‘I’ll find it in here in a minute.’ The subject of the lab ‘accidents’ had come up at the misfits club meeting and Krystal had decided that everyone needed to have Mallory Nightsky’s views explained to them.
‘So, Jesse secretly wanted to see Flis in a wet linen shirt, so that’s what happened?’ Charlotte asked, after steadying her breathing.
‘Yes.’
‘I wouldn’t say it was a secret desire,’ Jesse said. That just caused Felicia’s cheeks to turn redder than they were already.
‘Here it is,’ Krystal said, pointing at a page. ‘“Magic can appear to have as perverse and twisted a sense of humour as that of any dragon, for the nature of magic is to work the will of the magus upon the real world, via the imagined.” Uh, he means the astral plane there. We shape
magic on the astral plane and direct it onto our world. “Thus must the magus take great care in their shaping, lest the unconscious will take precedence over the conscious will.”’
‘Have you noticed how she gets this weird sort of voice on when she quotes from that book?’ Trudy asked. ‘Kind of old-time with a hint of lecturing schoolmistress.’
‘I do not!’
‘You do, darling,’ Felicia told Krystal. ‘I wouldn’t worry about it. It’s endearing. I’m not sure the theory holds entirely true. I’m sure my desire to soak Jesse was greater. She doesn’t wear a bra.’
‘Probably why it didn’t happen,’ Krystal countered. ‘Your desire to see it was balanced by your desire to avoid embarrassing Jesse.’ Felicia did not look entirely convinced. ‘Thankfully, Mona harbours no desire to see me in a wet shirt…’
‘It might’ve been amusing,’ Ramona said, smirking.
‘Mona just gets freaked out whenever Theodore Marin gets within a few feet of her,’ Krystal added.
Ramona opened her mouth, eyes widening, and then stopped, pulling her knees up and wrapping her arms around them. ‘I… don’t. Not exactly. He sneaks up on us and I get jumpy when he does that.’
‘You said he reminded you of someone from Scarlin Cantervale. I know you don’t really want to talk about it, Mona, but maybe we can help. Somehow.’
‘You can’t.’ Ramona frowned and seemed to reconsider. ‘Or you are already. Having you guys to hang out with helps. It does.’
‘But?’ Charlotte asked.
‘But…’ Ramona shook her head. ‘I’m not supposed to talk about it. They said I shouldn’t tell anyone that doesn’t already know. I shouldn’t…’
Trudy’s eyes narrowed. ‘Who said you shouldn’t tell anyone?’
‘The…’ Lowering her head, Ramona frowned. ‘This really can’t leave this room.’
‘We’re amazingly good at keeping secrets when we have to,’ Trudy said in a deadpan voice. ‘Seriously, the stuff we haven’t told you would make your hair stand on end.’
Misfit Witchcraft (Misfits Book 2) Page 4