Chapter Seven

 

After the Meeting

 

Outside the campus, Annaleah felt herself coming back to herself. The trees reached out toward the sky, lush and beautiful. She breathed in their scent, letting the power of nature restore her.

After a few more calming, fortifying breaths, Annaleah took her cellphone from an outer pocket of her purse, and speed dialed Seth. A few rings later, she heard the call connect and instantly felt better.

"Saint Annaleah!" He said cheerfully, "How did it go?"

"I’m not really sure," She told him. "I mean, he wasn't outright rude or mean to me or anything like that. In fact, he gave me a book to read to give me a heads up on our first class on Monday." Annaleah felt a knot begin to wind through her stomach, as she recalled the uncomfortable situation with the professor only moments ago. What would the first class be like, she wondered? Though she was excited to be in her dream job at the university, she also dreaded being under the control of his powerful energies.

"Well, that’s wonderful, sounds like you got through to him. So why is it you sound upset, and why are you unsure as to whether or not it went well?" he asked.

Being a student of occultism I almost want to say he has some sort of bewitchment going on.” She told him.

“Even though it made me uncomfortable to look him in the eyes I found myself wanting to do just that, even if it was just to assert that I was his equal. Yet, when I did, I found myself saying what I needed to say, but…” Annaleah was beginning to get flustered again, not knowing what to say. Had the professor done that to her too?

Annaleah took the phone from her ear and held it out from her, as she tried to find the right words.

Taking another breath, Annaleah brought the phone back to her ear.

“Sorry about that Seth, but this situation has really discombobulated me. It was as if politeness was at extreme odds to the energy he was giving off, it totally confused me.”

“It’s alright Annaleah. I brought your lunch home for you. Meet me at your house and you can talk to both me and Uncle John.”

“Okay, I’m on my way home right now. See you in a few minutes.”

Annaleah ended the call and returned her cellphone to her purse as she tried to better understand what had happened between her and the professor. He was a teacher of World Religions, which meant that he would have had to study a bit of mysticism and the occult here and there. He had already shown he had more knowledge than she had thought, given the way that he had impregnated the energy of the room. Maybe he had done some sort of spell, or at least had warded his home against people he didn't want there. That had to be it, wards were known to work that way. His home was his sacred space, and if she had made him feel that she had violated his space, then the ward would have acted to make her feel as uncomfortable as possible so that she would leave. What of his eyes then? She had never heard of anyone warding their eyes before. The warding of his home made sense, but it was something more than that. It was something that she had never come across before, and she planned to find out what it was.

After her talk with Seth and Uncle John, she planned on doing some reading. Maybe it was time to do a spell of her own. Though she was not altogether lacking in confidence now, she still felt like a small girl when she was around Professor Bainbridge, so she decided to look for another sort of spell. Perhaps she needed to do a deep cleansing from his energy, and then surround herself in a protective bubble of white light.

Reaching inside her shirt, she lifted the small silver pentacle that hung on a silver chain and brought it to her lips. “Mother, Maiden and Crone, be with me. Help me find the answers which I seek.” She whispered these words very softly, more said inside her own head than out loud. She had met enigmatic people before, but this professor was something entirely different.

A small voice inside her whispered to her quietly, but firmly, “Be careful, Annaleah, you could be playing with fire. Watch yourself.”