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Anna
“This is so unfair,” she moaned, slamming more clothing into her bag.
Courtney sighed and flopped back onto her bed. “You’re joking right? Girl, you should be lucky that they didn’t go with a more corporal punishment. I mean, with this there’s still a chance you could actually pass and become an Apprentice!”
Anna glared at her friend. “This is a sick joke, Court. Think about this. I do not get to return until I finish this test. Which is likely to be the rest of my life. Spent up here, in the snow, in miserable conditions. I’m going to die of pneumonia before I hit thirty. I guarantee it.”
“Well, now you’re just being over-dramatic. You chose this path. Now you have to deal with it. I love you to pieces, girl, but nobody did this to you except you.”
“And Damien,” she pointed out.
“Oh no. You don’t go blaming this on him. You fell for him, and you make the choice to continue to see him, and then to not see him.”
“Yeah,” she said tiredly. “But you should have heard Master Loiner go off to Circe. I have never heard such language before in my life. She made me cry, you know, in front of the entire Coven.”
“What did you honestly expect was going to happen?” Courtney wanted to know. “Like, seriously, did you think the two of you were just going to magically get away with breaking the rules, never getting caught?”
“Um.” Anna didn’t have an answer to that one.
“They had no choice but to punish you. You beat up a Master!” Courtney snickered. “Which by the way was super fun and awesome to watch because that bitch deserved it, and hot damn. You should have seen you go, Anna! Fists of fury over here. I’m never going to get on your bad side again!”
Anna sighed and sat down. “Thanks. I think. I won’t lie, it felt good to give her what she deserves, but I just wish I’d had a bit more control. I’d still rather be here, with you, doing things this way, instead of being exiled.”
“So just prove them wrong,” Courtney said, sitting up. “Go out there, study the shit out of the portal like you do everything else in your life, better than any of us, and shut the damn thing down. If anyone is actually suited to doing this, it’s you,” Courtney said forcefully. “That’s no word of a lie.”
“You really think so?”
Courtney nodded. “Something tells me this isn’t a raw-power solution. It’s a brainy solution. Someone with smarts is needed, who will think it through, not try to overpower it. That someone is you.”
“You know there are smarter people than me here, right? Like, the Coven isn’t made up of idiots.”
“Maybe,” Courtney agreed. “But they did come up with the stupid rule to stop us from being around the dragons unless we’re young or old. Like they fear all us fertile women are going to go get pregnant or something.”
The two laughed.
“Thank you,” Anna said, going over to hug her longtime friend. “I’m going to miss you, you know.”
Courtney shrugged. “The others going with you, they won’t be there permanent. I’d bet most of my non-existent fortune that the next group that goes out will include yours truly. Courtesy of being your friend.”
“Yeah. I wonder how Genna is taking this?” Courtney asked.
“What do you mean?”
Courtney sat up straight. “You haven’t heard? She’s one of the others assigned to go with you.”
Anna shook her head. “No, I’ve been a bit busy, I hadn’t heard that. Why?”
“Again, we’re your friends. Everyone knows that. They probably figured if they sent me first time around, it would be far too obvious that they were “punishing” you instead of giving you a test, since I was there when it happened.”
“’Cause it’s not obvious at all,” Anna snorted. “But you’re probably right. Poor girl, I’m going to have to find a way to make it up to her. To both of you.”
Courtney waved her hand. “Life here is getting a bit dull anyways. I’m ready to spice it up. Maybe I’ll go find Damien while you’re gone.”
Anna just glared as her friend laughed, holding up her hands.
“I kid, I kid. You know I wouldn’t do that.”
“I know. But you’d have to find him first,” she muttered, returning to packing her things.
“Find him?”
“Yeah. He hasn’t come to our rendezvous since, and nobody seems to know where he is either.”
“You’ve asked?” Courtney seemed surprised.
“Altair seems to think I’m okay,” she said, naming one of the other storm dragons. “I thought he hated us, but he’s passed messages along for me before. But this time, he says he has no idea where Damien is. That the dragons are quietly looking for him too.”
“He’s missing?”
“Or he just doesn’t want to see me anymore,” Anna said. “Which makes a lot more sense. He got his fill. Had his way with me, and now he’s ready to just move on from there.”
“Are you sure about that?” Courtney asked uneasily. “I don’t know, Anna.”
“I have no idea, but if I ever see him again, I swear I’m going to blast him so hard,” she growled, clenching her fists angrily. On the near wall, her staff rattled slightly as her magic reached out to her companion, sensing her readiness to use its power.
Courtney got up and came to sit next to her. “Easy. Easy. Come on, you know it’s probably nothing like that.”
“It could just as easily be that too though, and you know it,” Anna countered. “After all, men are like that. They just want the...the...booty, and then they’re gone.”
“They want the booty?” Courtney repeated.
“That was a terrible analogy, but you know what I mean!” she said, throwing up her hands in frustration.
By this point, Courtney was snickering loudly, on the brink of full-blown laughter.
“Ahoy, me matey! I am here to plunder yon booty!” Courtney called in her best pirate voice, before throwing herself at Anna, howling with laughter as she hung from the irate witch. “Oh, come on, that was funny!”
“Maybe,” Anna admitted, chuckling a little. “But despite poor word choice, you know what I meant.”
“Did I? I mean, I don’t know, you never provided much details. Did Damien, um, plunder your booty?” Courtney giggled some more as Anna glared at her.
“For your information no. My booty is still, um...”
“Afloat?” Courtney suggested. “It has not as of yet been punctured by the large cannons of the enemy?”
Anna groaned and fell back on the bed. “Okay. That’s enough out of you. I should be going anyway; the others are waiting for me.”
Courtney sobered. “It’ll be okay. Genna will be there with you, and then I’m sure I’ll be there next. We can do this, Anna. We’ll find a way to shut that damn portal. You just keep it together and do what you do best.”
“What’s that?”
Courtney wrapped her up in a hug. “Prove everyone wrong about you.”
