Ali Meeting with her First Year Advisees after Winter Break

Jase has already left for work and I’m dressed, dined, and ready for the day by the time Nat rolls herself out of bed. She can’t complain this time, I scheduled my meetings at a reasonable hour. Albeit the day prior to classes actually starting back up, but she was already planning on being on campus today. She has some last minute prep things to do, and a meeting about some theory nonsense with one of her advisees. As Nat makes her way to our living room, I offer up the remains of the pancakes I made with Jase this morning. She looks at me, all ready, and says, “I hate you,” with a smile on her face as she gathers up and eats the free and ready food. As she does, she adds, “Are you actually ready for your meetings?”

I sigh. I’m not. Not really. And she knows it. Jase spent the weekend over, which meant I spent the weekend happily not thinking about the Magisterium too much. Other than a phone call from a somewhat concerned Ike. “Honest? Jannick and Gina should be fine, they applied early enough for spots and should get at least one of the spots they were looking into. Sage is going to have her internship in line, but Vince and Heather? They could be all set and prepared or have nothing and be asking me for help, entirely depending on what mood they were in. And then there are the sophomores, who are all hopeless in their own unique ways, but the only one I have any confidence in being ready to declare their major is Talia, who will be either Man or Enhance.”

Nat, heading over to her room to get dressed, continues to talk louder now. “And what about the kiddos?” she asks, “Are they any better?”

I chuckle. “For this meeting?” I muse, "Definitely. Pia and Kevin both seem fairly aware and prepared for the Magisterium. If I had to bet, they each had prior knowledge despite them claiming nonaffiliation. Maybe a friend of their families or something similar. Ye-Jun less so, but he’s smart enough that he probably has figured it out by now.”

Nat comes out, wearing sweats and a hoodie. I look concerned at her, and she quickly explains, “Ideally, I’ll just be working and this is comfy. And when Benjamin shows up for the sole purpose of irritating me, he might have the social awareness to clue in on my need to get work done and presentable, and cut his rambling discussions of why one particular and minute aspect of theory must be wrong because he didn’t comprehend it as well as one of his less intelligent friends short.”

I nod. These last few years, Nat’s started to get more tired. Back when we were Apprentices, she dealt with her egomaniacal tutees with much more grace and ease. Now, it seems it’s starting to weigh on her. Not too much, not yet, but enough to be noticeable to those of us that knew her before. Jase has noticed it a few times. Therese hasn’t been here in a while and she noticed. Likely due to her spying on us, but still. “Okay, as long as you’re ready,” I offer.

She nods back. And the pair head down to their car, parked in the garage. Nat taking the wheel while I take up my notes to try to figure out how best to help my advisees, we head off towards the suburb that houses the offices, libraries, and dormitories that make up the local Villa. Driving against the rush hour traffic would, for most people, not be the same thing as driving without traffic. But for Nat, who seems to have the utmost confidence in herself and no real care about things like speed limits and other drivers, it makes all the difference. I’m not sure she used the brake for the entire drive, at least not until we made it to the more residential streets, instead weaving lane to lane whenever one started to slow in the distance. If I were paying more, or indeed any, attention to her driving, I’d likely be far more concerned. But I’m doing what I should have been doing this weekend instead of canoodling. Which keeps my mind distracted from my crazy best friend’s driving habits.

Nat pulls us into the parking lot of our offices. Before I head to the library, where my meetings are going to be, I want to check my emails and make sure I have the most up to date information. As I make it to my office door, I can hear Darren chatting with people. Probably one or two of his advisees. Heading in, he is in an informal meeting with Apprentices. One of his, some woman with raven hair. I vaguely recognize her from, I want to say, last semester’s Historical Accounts of Mystic Societies lecture course, Pauline or Paula or something like that. But my attention is on the other person present. Sean, one of my advisees.

“Really Sean?” I muse aloud as I head to my desk.

Darren looks up at me. “You could knock,” he jokes.

“I’ll get to you later, Darren,” I counter, then admit, “I mean, probably not today, I’ll be busy, but I’ll get around to it eventually.”

“It’s not, um,” Sean begins, nervous for some reason. Which is abnormal for him, so I must be doing something either very right or very wrong as an advisor.

The young woman shakes her head at her friend, then replies. “Sorry, Magister Paredes, but he was having a bit of a personal thing going on, and you’ve been in a stable relationship since, what, your first year of Apprenticeship? Only reason I came here is that he felt weird going to Darren on his own.”

I sigh. She’s right, probably. Doesn’t mean I have to like it. I look up at Darren, “Don’t give him bad advice just to make your show more interesting,” I state, causing my fellow Magister to chuckle. Then, to Sean, I add, “And remember we have a meeting in the library in about a half hour.”

“I know,” he says, “I’ll be there, though I don’t know why we need to do it.”

I give him a look and he turns away, adding, “I said I’d be there, right?” mostly to his friend. I check my email, and the only new thing that came in over the weekend was Sage, getting ahead of my inquisition by sending me a confirmation of their upcoming internship. Working at the new Canadian Villa with Ike’s ex. That’ll be interesting, I’ll have to ask Therese how it went come August.

As I leave, I add, “Remember to do some work on your thesis, Darren,” with a grin, and I don’t need to look back to feel his eyes roll. I head over to the library, where I’m meeting with the freshmen first in about ten minutes. I walk through the library, heading up to the third floor conference room that I prefer. As I walk, I notice that Ye-Jun and Pia are both already here, Pia with a few friends in a study room, and Ye-Jun reading a couple tomes in the Reference section. I head into the room, and start to pull out my papers. This meeting is the most complicated, and the easiest. Because, fundamentally, there isn’t much I can do to prepare for it. It’s mostly just me, sitting here, waiting for them to talk about their problems. Everything else, I can plot, and analyze and whatnot, but I don’t know what sort of things they might have issues with here.

Pia shows up first, then Ye-Jun. They sit down, looking around, quietly waiting for the third of their class. “So,” I begin, trying something to break the ice, “How was everyone’s winters?”

“Fine,” Ye-Jun replies, not taking the bait.

Pia doesn’t even go that far, merely shrugging. I sigh. “Look, I get it, you guys don’t know each other and barely know me. But we’re stuck together for the foreseeable future, so let’s at least try. At some point in these next three years, you’re going to need one another, and you might even need me.”

Ye-Jun sighs. “Okay, so I was studying. I feel like I’m behind on a bunch of the basics.”

Pia waves him off. “You’re not that far behind, don’t worry. It just feels that way to everyone because Maestro Ricchetti skips over a bunch of stuff and we just nod along.” I look at Pia. She looks guilty. “What, just because Ye-Jun shared doesn’t mean I have to. A girl’s got to have her secrets, you know.”

I shake my head. As I am, Kevin walks in. “Wow, what did you guys do to disappoint Magister Paredes.”

Ye-Jun shakes his head. Pia shrugs. Neither of them seem to like Kevin that much. “Alright, so, this meeting is mostly about you guys. You’ve been here a semester now, made it through alive. Ish.” I pause, hoping for a chuckle that doesn’t come, then continue, “So do you have any questions, things you want to talk about, things that you feel like you don’t understand or need help with in the next semester?”

There’s a slight silence hanging, before Kevin decides to make a joke. “Is eight in the morning always that early?” It’s not a very good joke.

I decide to take the question seriously, hopefully to encourage the others to have actual questions. “Honestly, it depends. If you consistently take classes then, you’ll get used to it fairly quickly. But if you only have one a year, and don’t change your schedule around to account for it, it will always feel even earlier than you think.”

Ye-Jun asks his own, more earnest question, “Is there any way to stay late in any of the libraries? My room isn’t the most conducive to studying.”

I nod. “I get that,” I say, “And I’m supposed to say no. It isn’t technically allowed. That said, the librarians here are just Magisters with a different career path. Just people. Talk to them, and some of them will be more than willing to help out, at least to give you some extra time.”

Pia leans in, “What about, how do I phrase this without feeling weird, the um itch. It feels like someone is watching us?”

I chuckle at that, yet another casual reminder of my own apprenticeship. Kevin and Pia both seem to assume that’s because I find it ridiculous. I correct that notion. “Oh, almost certainly someone is. If not someones.” Pia looks confused, so I elaborate. “You and Kevin came in more prepared than most, but claimed to be unaffiliated, so I would not be surprised if some of the Maestros are concerned you might have other allegiances. And that’s not counting the normal habits of people spying on the Apprentices in general. As well as your own classmates spying on you for practice, and for secrets. It’s why if you go and take an Illusion class, one of the first complex rituals they teach is ways to avoid scrying. Someone’s always watching, unless you make certain they’re not.”

“And that isn’t a bad thing?” Ye-Jun asks a valid question.

I shrug. “I suppose, but,” I think about how to phrase it, “I came up in the Magisterium’s youth programs. I then came out here where one of my fellow classmates was very curious and did a lot of scrying. Being watched was always just a part of my experience. The difference is in intent. For me, people were curious about what I was up to and how I was doing. For Kevin and Pia, at least the moment, it’s out of concern that they aren’t what they say they are. If anyone is watching you, it’s probably just interest in your private life or practice for the future. If you guys want me to, I can show you some quick and dirty ways to avoid the eyes. Swing by my office during office hours this week, I’ll have some rituals written out and ready for you.” They all look relieved at that thought. I smile, breathing, and await their next question, now that they seem to feel a bit more comfortable with me.