Lunch is the one meal that I have with my friends. Well, not all of my friends. A few days, I tend to sit with Logan and his crew, which has become my crew, and the rest of the time, I eat with my fellow witch friends. As for dinner, sometimes I'll eat with one of my friends in the various other disciplines of magic. Sometimes, I eat alone. I've been too much of a coward to call up Kayden to see if he'll eat with me, but on a few occasions, he just happens to be in the mood for a later dinner, and he'll sit with us or me, and I have to say that he's still easy on the eyes, still easy to talk to, to tease, and still the one guy Valerie wants me to ask out. Call me old-fashioned or just plain scared, but I am not going to ask him out.
This time, for lunch, I’m sitting with Logan, Calli, Dalinda the elf, Doland the dwarf, Wold and Belb, both goblins, Ziala the gorgon, and even Synine, the female lamia Logan has a crush on.
Logan isn’t sitting next to Synine, though. He’s across from me and between Ziala and Wold. Belb and Dalinda sit on either side of me.
“The ball is coming up.” Doland eyes Dalinda. “I would love to quest with you.”
“You’ll never be nominated,” she says.
Quest?
Belb stands. “I don’t like the ball,” he announces, and he walks off with his tray.
“What’s his deal?” Wold asks me.
“I… I don’t know.”
“He probably doesn’t think he stands a chance of making the team,” Logan suggests.
Team?
“Hey, everyone. What are you all talking about?” Kayden sits next to me, claiming Belb’s vacant spot. He’s much larger than the small goblin, and our thighs touch. I try to scoot over to give him more room, but there isn’t any to be had. He doesn’t seem to realize how close we are. Maybe it doesn’t affect him, but my heart is racing, and I’m worried the vegetables I just ate gave me bad breath, and am I turning into boy-crazy Valerie? Ugh.
“The ball,” Synine explains in her soft voice, her forked tongue flicking out of her mouth.
“Okay, truth time.” I hold up my hand and hope no one will think I’m an idiot. “What’s the big deal about the ball? No dancing but a quest? Teams? To do what?”
“Three teams are created, one for each year,” Logan starts.
"The king and queen of each grade get to pick out the rest of the team members," Kayden adds.
“The quest,” Doland says eagerly, “is simple enough but also perilous.”
Dalinda sighs and shakes her head, rolling her eyes. Even those mundane gestures seem almost formal and regal when she does them. “Each team is assigned an evil paranormal creature to track down.”
"That sounds a little dangerous for the first-year team," I say, poking at the last bit of food on my plate.
Kayden laughs. “All of the teams have the help of a professor of course.”
“Why? Because there had been an incident one year?” I ask suspiciously.
No one answers, but their diverted gazes are answer enough.
I swallow hard. This sounds perilous but also amazing, and I’m motivated all the more to train and study and do whatever I can to hopefully be picked for the team. No way do I have a chance at being named the queen, or are the “royal” couple nominated and voted on? Either way, queendom is not in my future. I’ll just have to keep my head down and work hard and do my best. Hopefully, the king or queen will notice my efforts and pick me because, honestly, I’ll be devastated if I’m not chosen.
Unfortunately, my mentors and master don’t seem to want me to worry about my extra classwork with my tutors and my friends to try to improve my chances of being picked. Several of them are giving so much homework and papers and reports that I'm going to bed super late trying to get everything done and have no choice but to shorten my tutoring sessions. I hate to do it, but they're feeling the crunch of work too, so I think they're relieved, if I'm being honest. I've apologized for taking them away from their studies, but not one of them seems to mind, thankfully. The only one I can't really get a read on is Darius. For arcane magic being all about the mind, he sure has his closed off to everyone else. Actually, that’s probably incredibly important for an arcane witch. Our mind is our biggest strength, and if anyone could get into our minds and tamper with us, implanting thoughts or even just reading our minds, that could prove detrimental.
And then Mentor Le Rogue assigns us a project that makes me want to cry.
“For every discipline of magic you have shown even a minuscule of talent for you, you must work on a project in which you will be able to show them all at once. You can either work on a potion that casts your enchantment, for example, or create a spell that shows off your alchemy. In some way or fashion, you must unite your powers entirely.”
What? How in the world can she possibly think I’ll be able to do that? She might not realize, but I’ve been able to do a little bit of nine of the ten. Spells, for whatever reason, just do not happen for me. I don’t mean that they don’t happen as I want. No, no, nothing happens at all. Nothing at all. It’s infuriating, honestly, and Medeia finds it comical how upset I get. Which isn’t cool. Okay, maybe a little. Some of my rants have been kinda ridiculous and explosive.
"Most of you, I know, only have an affinity for one single discipline of magic. You do not need to worry about that. Instead, you must create your own spell, your own potion, your own entity within your magical ability, and it must be unique and never before accomplished.”
“Never before?” Valentina asks. “But how can we possibly know every single potion or spell that has already been done throughout history?”
I’ve been avoiding the witch of a witch as much as I possibly can. Maybe it’s my nerves over the assignment, but I speak up before the mentor can.
“If you go to the library, there are a ton of books and scrolls there that can help you learn about what’s come before.”
Mentor Le Rogue nods and steeples her fingers as she almost bows. “Precisely so, Mirella. If you manage to befriend Hata, the librarian, perhaps she will even be willing to assist you. Ignorance will not help your cause, Valentina, or anyone else for this matter.”
Valentina glowers at me, her features twisting and turning dark, and I wince. I shouldn’t have said anything and let the mentor handle the witch. Great. I’ve been flying by under the radar, and now, who knows what she’ll do?
Maybe I’m being paranoid. After all, Valentina hasn’t done anything to try to get me into more trouble, and I can’t even be sure that she intended for me to get into trouble. She disappeared, yes, and made me be the only one to take the blame, but that’s honestly the worst thing she did. Is it possible I’ve been avoiding her unnecessarily?
I glance back her way. She’s still glowering at me. Yeah, maybe I’m not imagining things.
Oberon raises his hand. “Um… mysticism is a little difficult.”
“Mysticism may be dying, but that does not mean that every avenue of it has been explored to the point of exhaustion. There is always more to explore within the occult.”
Oberon sits back in his seat. He catches my gaze and shrugs.
“Can we work with others?” Mistral asks. She’s a whiz at transmutation, the one I’ve been working with, but she also has a little mysticism too.
“No. This is an individual project. Seeking advice or even speaking to another about your project is strictly prohibited. These projects are to be completed in two week’s time, before the ball commences. For that duration, you have the option to come to class or to use that time to work on your project. Now, if there aren’t any more questions…”
My mind is a blur. This sounds like a killer project. No way can I hide the fact that I have multiple disciplines of magic, even ones the mentor might not realize. I do not want to receive a failing grade just because I try to sneak on by and skip adding one.
At the end of class, Valentina halts beside me as I gather my notes. “Good luck working on your project,” she snaps. “Being on probation must suck right about now.”
I stand up. We’re about the same height. Even though I’m not a violent person, those are fighting words if I ever heard them.
“Oh, Mirella?” Mentor Le Rogue calls from the front of the classroom. “Your probation is hereby lifted, but do not make any more careless decisions.”
“Trust me. I know who to trust and who not to,” I tell the mentor without looking away from Valentina.
The witchy witch flashes me a smile that irks me to no end as she sweeps on by and out of the room.
“Ignore her,” Mistral says.
I smile wanly at my friend. “I guess we’re gonna have to stop meeting up some nights.”
“Nah, we can. Just can’t be about magic, that’s all. But, ah…” She eyes me up and down as we leave the classroom. “You’re gonna have your hands full with this one, aren’t you?”
“Yeah.” I expel a breath forcefully.
“You know… if you hadn’t been experimenting, you never would’ve realized just how much magic you have within you. This assignment could’ve been that much easier on you.”
“Yeah, because arcane, elemental, and necromancy are simple enough themselves,” I point out dryly.
“Necromancy.” She shivers. “You never told me what you brought back.”
“A fish. Nothing major.”
“Still. That’s hardcore.”
“Yeah, well, imagine trying to figure out something that hasn’t been brought back before,” I say.
“It doesn’t have to be original. It just has to be in conjunction with all the others.”
“Go big or go home,” I mutter.
Mistral grins. “I’ll catch you later.”
What in the world am I going to do for this assignment?