Another View of the Magisterium's First Semester

I am still not used to the boringness factor of being a mage. I mean, Magister Apprentice. Fucking hell, it is annoying how picky people can be about that sort of shit. I honestly sometimes think going to a real college would’ve been a shit ton more interesting than the Villa, because even with the mystical bull going on, it’s still basically 8AM classes and quizzes, for the most part. Honestly, I can also do without my asshole of a suitemate. No, no, just because he’s got a stick up his ass big enough to make a staff out of when it comes to making noise in our dorms doesn’t make him an asshole. I remind myself about that every time he rolls in my room all, “Shush, I’m trying to study”-like. I also am pretty sure he’s just doing that so he and Ali can make googly-eyes at one another. I get back onto my computer, starting up my models for quantum mechanics, when Ali makes an explosion behind me. “Goddamn it, oh enigmatic they,” I complain quietly.

Through the bathroom, my dearest suitemate complains much less quietly, yelling out, “Yo Ike, keep it down a tad!”

I open my side’s door and say, “Wasn’t me this time.”

He, of course, as usual, takes this as an opportunity to come into my room and flirt with Alina. I go back to my computer models. I’m one of two people in Amanda’s quantum physics class, which, if we are all being completely honest, is basically just learning enough to her out with her dissertation. I’m pretty sure she’s teaching it specifically so we can be extra eyes for her work once she’s finished it. Not that it matters much her reasoning, I’m constantly fascinated by the implications of the mystic access we use being just manipulations of an as yet unknown quantum field. I hear Ali say to Jase, “From them,” and I know it’s my cue to groan loudly. Unfortunately, given the issues my program is having determining theoretical valuations based on different access techniques, my groan is slightly too loud.

“It seems Ike disapproves of my presence,” Jase replies to my groan, “In the future, it would be much appreciated if you refrained from explosion, Alina.” He heads back towards his room and grabs a coat, flinging it over his shoulder very inefficiently.

“Where are you headed?” I ask, mostly to be polite. He does share my bathroom, after all.

“Out for a smoke. Or several. I need to study for Em Tee, you know?” I appreciate his honesty. He’s getting high, so he can get some grasp of the interconnectivity of the universe that theory requires people to have. After a moment, he adds, “If you guys want to join and help, you can meet me at Wah Ho, in like, thirty or so?”

“Not likely,” I say shaking my head. Ali is, though. I can tell. He walks out the door and I turn to Ali. “You’re planning on meeting up with your boyfriend, aren’t you?”

Ali blushes and looks down at her notebook. “He’s not my boyfriend. And what if he’s listening.”

“His mind in in the Weed woods. Your secret’s safe,” Nat jokes.

I smile at Nat. “It’s like you read my mind.” After a moment and a smirk, I add, “Now you should get out of my head, I need to do really hard math.”

“Not studying for the Theory test?” Ali asks, “Because you really should, I think.”

I give Ali my most judgmental look. “You’re only saying that because you want to go to Waffle house and have an intensely romantic-and-sexual-tension-fueled study session with you know who. Or am I wrong, oh enigmatic they?” Ali once again blushes. I turn to Nat. “They grow up so fast, Nat.”

“Especially when they are so enigmatic,” Nat jokes. “Now, you need a chaperone for your date, so no funny-business happens.”

“It’s not a date,” Ali insists.

“Methinks, the enigmatic they doth protest too much,” I rib with an intense grin, “Unfortunately, this model needs to be finished yesterday, so I’m busy.”

Nat shakes her head as well. “I can’t go,” she says with a chuckle, “I need to read chapter seven of my sacrificial magic textbook by tomorrow. It’s an eight AM, so I can’t just put off until morning.”

Ali sighs. “Fine, I’ll just go alone,” she says.

“You won’t getting any studying done,” posits Nat.

“More importantly, he won’t,” I add, “And he actually needs to study.”

Ali looks at me, then at Nat. “So, which of you is going?”

I turn back to my modeling program. Nat pauses, then says, “I got an idea.” She pulls out her phone and texts someone. “There,” she adds, “You’ve got a chaperone now.”

“Who?” I ask. I think I know who, one person owes Nat a whole lot of favors, but he’s an idiot who’s more into Ali than even Jase is. That will not end well, I muse mentally.

There’s knock on the door. “It’s open,” I shout.

It isn’t Phillipe, thank god. “Hey,” says Therese, obviously not particularly pleased with this course of events. What the heck did Nat do for her that she is willing to deal with the googly-eyes for a whole evening of studying. “I’m here to make sure you and Jason actually study this evening, evidently.”

“Depending on how bad it is, this’ll make us even,” Nat tells her.

Therese glares at Nat. “It better,” she says. Then, after Ali grabs a coat, the two of them head out.

“You read that chapter a week ago, Nat,” I say once I know they’re out of earshot.

She shrugs. “Yeah, but I didn’t want to deal with those two. Your model isn’t due until the midterm.”

“You think I wanted to fucking deal with that shit?” I ask a smile on my face. “What’s the plan?”

Nat shrugs. “No idea, but I’ll be headed back to my room. Don’t want to interrupt whatever you’ve got planned,” she says.

I smile at her, knowingly. Of course, I have stuff planned. I love to do craziness. Tonight, however, most of the stuff I have planned involves napping. That, and a blood ritual. For the last week or so, I have had this itching feeling growing across the back of my neck. Now, to most, this may just be some sort of sickness, but I recognize the itch. It’s the same itch I got when my parents started using scrying spells to watch me when I was with dates in high school. I am not about to let someone watch me again.

I haven’t officially learned this spell, yet. It is supposedly far advanced from my current level of understanding. And that is completely true. I don’t really understand how the fuck it works, specifically or theoretically, but that doesn’t really matter for actually doing the spell. Just ask Jase. He doesn’t understand how any mystical shit works, as far as I can tell, but he’s still real good at it. I learned this spell back when my parents used to watch me, and magic isn’t one of those skills you forget easily.

Pulling out my knife from its special box under the bed, I carefully stab through each of my palms, leaving a half-inch slit in the front and back of each hand. Muttering under my breath the words of a controlled bleeding incantation, I press my palms each on the walls at the four corners of the room. A thin line of blood is left on each wall of each corner, at the same height. Grasping the knife in both my hands, I say a different incantation from the bleeding one. My hands are ignited in flame, consuming the knife in righteous fire, or unholy fire. I don’t remember which one the book says this is. Taking the flame-consumed knife, I slide it into my neck, right where my vocal cords are. The pain is intense, as it often is in complex, blood rituals. I can’t breathe. I keep pushing the blade in, soon my hands are inside my neck, with it, then my arms. My face starts to turn blue. Once the hands and blade are out the other side, I yank it back to in front of my face. Finally, the air flows once again into my lungs and I take a deep breath. Turning the blade towards the ground, I slam it downwards, a cold-fire circle resonating out from it, around the room, begin contained by the slits of blood on the walls. With the fires came a roar, one that can only be heard only within the room. The roar quiets, the fires fade, and only the light green echoes flow around from bloodstain to bloodstain. Looking in my mirror, i sigh. No wound shows up on my neck, but I’ll need to wear gloves for a couple days. The scars on the hands heal quickly enough, but they are going to need to be hidden. I’m still the middle of the road student, after all. I can’t show everyone that I know complex blood rituals. With a chuckle, I look out my window at the courtyard. People are playing around down there. Having fun. I almost wish I could be down there with them. But I am doing something more important up here.

Pulling up my mystical inhabitance map, I project it onto my whiteboard. I have the two towns that are known towers circled already. The covens’ regions are in colors corresponding to their likelihood of defection. I don’t care that I’m only an apprentice. The first thing Amanda, my advisor, told all three of us was that, if we want to succeed here, we have to plan for what we will do once we’ve graduated. She probably means jobs, the real world, influence, that sort of thing. But that isn’t what I’m interested in doing. I’m going to grow this small corner of the Magisterium into something to be feared. Which means I need to plan where I want to be Great Maestro over. My current mapping holds Chicago as the ideal location for expansion, given the problems my algorithm projects that the covens in the region will have in one generation, combining the rapid expansion of the technological world and many of those coven’s refusals to adapt. Another solid choice would be moving south, into the Georgia area, to offer them a way out of their consistent wars and fighting. New England and the Mississippi mouth are too loyal to move into without a strong powerbase established prior, and as good as the DC office would be, there is no way Ali isn’t going to get it. It is the oldest of the two in the New World, the one most eager for expansion, and the current seat of the Grand Maestro. Unless I want to be just another Great Maestro for a long while, it will be best for me to move and establish Villae elsewhere.

I smile as I settle down into bed. Casually, I toss an iron nail, and whistle it down accurately to poke the off button on my computer’s projector. Then, with another flick of my wrist, it soars across the room to turn off my light switch. Finally, I shut my hand and press it to my chest, and the nail flies right back into the box at my bedside. Taking off my shirt and pants, I curl up into a ball on top of my sheets and fall asleep almost instantly.

#fantasy #fiction #firstperson #InTheKNight #urbanfantasy #story #modernity #nsfw