A Second Generation Whateley Academy Story

Where there's Smoke There's Fire

by

Astrodragon

 

Part Three

 

Sunday evening, 23rd October, Bianca and Morgana's room

"So, you didn't get any detention either?"

I gestured nonchalantly at Bianca. "For what? All we did was do our best to stay away from that nutjob and his goons, but they kept tracking and attacking us."

"So what exactly did happen to you two?"

I turned to Laura, who gave the unconcerned shrug of a teenager who was perfectly happy to let someone else answer Bianca's question. Well, it's not like it was a secret.

"Well, after Cherry got everything completely confused with her smoke bombs, it went something like this...

Cherry Bomb’s smoke cloud and the confusion - a more polite phrase than 'complete chaos' - her explosions had caused were doing a fairly good job of hiding the two girls from the flock of armoured goons. Sadly that also meant that they couldn't actually work out where they were going. Morgana had managed to keep a hold on Laura's arm, but that just meant they were getting lost together rather than separately. Sadly an exemplar's memory didn't help when you had no idea about the layout of Berlin. Worse, it was obvious they'd got separated from the other girls. While they'd been told to head back to the bus, neither girl was ready to abandon their friends just yet. In any case, neither of them was certain how to find the bus from their current location.

"We need to stop and call them, and then we can use the GPS on our phones to get back together and get out of here." Laura panted. The running - and the issues with the smoke - weren't doing the blue girls breathing or stamina any favours. Morgana nodded, looking around to check no one was close before pulling her companion behind a badly-parked SUV, seemingly abandoned when things had started. It wasn't what anyone would have said was good, or even adequate, cover, but it was all they had.

"Have we managed to lose them?"

Morgana took a quick look around at her companion's question. "I don't know. What worries me is that I could swear they were following us. Why would they do that?"

Laura managed not to go into her devisor trance at the plaintive question. "A couple of them had helmets with visors. Tracking aids, maybe thermal imaging. The smoke wouldn't help us against those."

Morgana grunted in annoyance. "That makes sense. Still doesn't answer why, though - what's so special about a few girls that they'd want to chase us down? Surely there are easier hostages if that's what they need?"

Laura just gave her friend the look of someone who had no idea, before the girls' momentary break was rudely interrupted.

Morgana muttered some very rude words under her breath as she saw a couple of the henchmen calmly walk out of an alley on the other side of the street. She'd hoped the random alleys and streets they'd dashed through had got them away, but not only was it obvious that hadn't worked, but the two goons were heading straight for them. Which was worrying enough, what was a lot worse was that one of them was raising his gun to point straight at them. The girl didn't recognise the type of weapon, but it was big and had two barrels, that was enough to make her concerned. The girls had already seen them fire what looked like some sort of plasma bolt, seemingly just to scare people, but this particular minion seemed to have an additional extra. This goon was obviously an overachiever for whom just one plasma gun wasn't enough. Beside her, Laura made a small squeaking noise as she too realised they were a target. Morgana didn't stop to try and run - the angle meant the SUV wasn't concealing them, and he looked about to shoot - so she grabbed Laura into her arms, spinning around to put her back to the men as she changed form, Laura gasping again as the wash of heat brushed over her. Morgana really hoped she was tough enough to handle whatever they were using, she hadn't had time in all the chaos to power up the protective ward she'd brought. Even as she did that, the man brought his gun into line and fired. Morgana was expecting some sort of plasma, and while a plasma burst wasn't exactly fire, she figured she could handle the non-thermal part of the damage. Which explained her shock when instead of a reasonably quiet and decorous energy beam, the gun hammered like a road drill as it pounded a dozen heavy calibre rounds at them. Half of which hit her in the back.

The noise and the way Morgana staggered under the impact stopped Laura's instinctive attempt to wriggle free of the unexpected grab, her eyes widening in shock as her friend cursed fluently, keeping a hold on her as she rolled to finally get some cover from the SUV.

"Damn, that's going to leave bruises!"

Laura was still trying to catch up. "You're hurt? I thought you were bulletproof?"

Morgana was struggling to get something out of her jacket pocket while trying to keep in cover and see what the men were up to all at the same time. It wasn't easy, and she finally had to let go of Laura while she dug a small wallet out. Laura was lying down trying to stay hidden while looking under the SUV to keep an eye on the goons, or at least on their legs.

"I'm fairly bulletproof, but that thing hurt! What's he packing, an elephant gun?"

"Hey, girls? Now don't make us come and get you, come out all nice and quiet and we won't hurt you."

Laura blinked, then gave her friend a wide-eyed look. "They're joking, right? Not hurt us after they shot you!"

Morgana nodded as she opened the wallet."Yeah, it does make me sorta want to not trust them, you know?" She pulled out a piece of paper. "Laura? I don't suppose this would be a good time for you to zap them?"

Laura blushed. "Er... well, it would if my gun would reach them." The look on Morgana's face forced her to continue reluctantly. "It only has a range of a few metres..."

That got her an eye roll of fairly epic proportions. "Wonderful. Keep an eye on them, I need a few seconds for this."

Laura opened her mouth to ask why, then realised maybe this wasn't the best time, as her companion held the paper in her hands, staring down on it as she frowned in concentration. Whatever Morgana was doing didn't take more than some seconds, but it seemed like a lot longer to Laura.

Morgana looked at the paper critically, then passed it over. "Here, tuck this away somewhere where it's safe." She gave a wry smile at the obvious look of 'What the hell is this all about' on Laura's face. "It's a protection spell, It should protect you against their weapons, at least for a while."

Laura looked at it and decided that this wasn't the time or place to question it. "How much protection?"

Her friend shrugged. "No idea without knowing how powerful those guns are. But it should keep you safe for a while, while we get out of here."

The delay had been enough the wear out the goons not-terribly-impressive patience.

"Too bad, now it's going to go hard on you."

Laura's voice was half squeak, half whisper. "They're coming!"

Morgana just gave a feral grin. "Oh good, then they'll be nice and close. Like within a couple of metres, right?"

Laura widened her eyes, then grinned back as she yanked the neuraliser out of her bag. "Hopefully, yes."

"Good, we'll probably need it."

With that, she leaped over the car hood, to find one of the men only a few feet in front of her. She couldn't tell if she'd surprised him, he was one of the goons with the fancy visor covering half his face, but the way he stopped dead hopefully meant she had. Given that he and his mate had just tried to perforate her, she wasn't feeling very charitable towards him, as she grabbed the back of his helmet and rammed him hard against the SUV - hard enough his helmet split open as he collapsed to the floor, leaving a large dent in the SUV. His companion raised his twin-barrelled gun again, but she had no intention of letting him use it. She was still holding the now-unconscious victim of her first attack and tossed him straight at his friend. She half-wondered if he'd actually shoot his fellow-minion for her - after all, they did that all the time in the movies - but instead he tried to step back and away and fend him off all at the same time, all of which meant he just got tangled up. She stepped forward, fire flickering around her claws, but the "Mine!" from behind her made her pause as Laura's gun made a snappy-crackle sound and he jerked before slumping bonelessly to the floor.

Morgana kicked him hard with her foot - just in case.

"Hmph! Don't you have any faith in my gun?"

She turned to the grinning Laura. "Yeah, but it never hurts to make sure. Now, we could keep running, but if these goons were following us, they could be after the others as well."

"Yeah, we should go and find them, they might need our help."

"Come on then, let's see what trouble Bianca has got into this time."

The next pair of men had been pretty easy for them; they'd surprised them from behind, and after Morgana had shredded the first one's armour vest with her claws, following up with a blow hard enough that you could hear the wet snap of ribs breaking under his body armour quite clearly, the second had been so busy trying to work out if he should shoot and run or just run from the clearly enraged dragongirl snarling in his face that he was a sitting duck for Laura's gun which put both of them out of action for quite a while.

"Things are starting to look up."

Laura gave her dragonfriend a look that could only be described as highly dubious. "We aren't supposed to be fighting, we're supposed to be running away!"

"We are running away, it's just that these goons are in the way of our escape route, right?"

Laura muttered something about not being sure Security would see it that way, but any further discussion as to just how violent an escape was allowed to be was forestalled by them hearing the sound of fighting from a few streets away. Since no one was shooting, it seemed likely this was the errant couple they'd been searching for rather than the local police. Morgana listened for a moment, then tilted her head in the direction of the noise, Laura nodded firmly, and the two set off.

It was only as they turned the corner they realised that yes, Bianca and Tinker were fighting the boss, but there were a couple of henchmen guarding the action. And right in their way. The men were on their guard, scanning the space the two would need to move through if they were to come to the help of their friend, and Morgana motioned to Laura to crouch down behind a car.

"You've got an idea? They're still out of range of my gun."

Morgana nodded at Laura's whisper. "Yeah. I'm going to use some magic, if it works it will flash blind them and we can take them out."

"Oh! Like you did in BMA?"

"Something like that, yeah, so get ready for a flash." Morgana moved her hand in odd gestures, watching the faint lines of magic build up into her familiar light spell. Laura just watched, not sure what Morgana was doing exactly with what looked some painful finger-wiggling, but ready to shoot when she got a chance. It only took a few seconds, although to Laura it seemed a lot longer, until her friend stood up, and waved enthusiastically to the two men.

"Hi, guys! Looking for us?"

The shout did as she expected, both men turned to look at her as she grinned, and poured a lot of essence into the prepared spell as she triggered it. She was giving it all the spell could take, and a brilliant blue-white flash lit up the whole street as well as the two men in a brilliant strobe of light. Bright enough that both men cried out, one of them falling to his knees in shock as he rubbed his eyes. Unfortunately, the second guy was the other minion with a visor, and while he shook his head for a moment, it presumably had some sort of flash protection. Morgana was already charging him - whether the spell worked or not, she knew she'd have to close, and fire flared around her hands as she closed the distance fast.

Not as fast as needed, though, as he managed to get a plasma shot off at her, hitting her in the side. As she'd hoped, a lot of the energy was thermal, and that she could handle nicely, although the non-thermal part of the energy made her muscles try to spasm slightly. Didn't do her t-shirt much good either, she could see the flames along the charred line out of the corner of her eye as she finally reached him. He instinctively tried to put his gun between himself and the charging demoness, and Morgana grinned and slashed her flaming claws through the weapon. Given that she also sliced through the power cell, it explained why the gun exploded, sending her back and the man staggering into the wall behind him, beating frantically at the burning front of his combat gear. Recovering, she bounced back forward and slammed a foot into his chest, slamming him back against the wall as he slithered down it into an unconscious heap.

Laura had been unharmed by the explosion, although she'd noticed with detached interest the fractal flicker of energy that formed a hemisphere between it and her - Morgana's spell, she assumed. The other man had staggered upright, although seeing how he was still rubbing his eyes she figured he still couldn't see anything, so gave him a good high-power shot from her neuraliser to make sure.

The sound of combat was still obvious from the next street over, as Morgana turned to her friend. "OK, let's go and see how they're getting on. And stay behind me, just in case." Seeing as how Morgana was patting her now rather singed and disreputable clothing to put out the last flames, Laura opened her mouth for a snarky comment, then closed it again. Later, now wasn't the time to annoy your tank.

"Well, the rest you know, we caught up with you in time for the ending. I'm sorry we couldn't get there sooner, Bianca."

Bianca shrugged. "Doesn't sound like it could be helped. We weren't exactly ready to get jumped like that.

Morgana frowned. "I'm beginning to think like we should have been. Despite what Security tried to get us to believe, I don't think it was accidental."

"You know, that Boss did say loudly it was all just an accident."

Both Morgana and Bianca rolled their eyes at that. "Oh come on, Laura! Worst Acting Ever!"

Laura opened her mouth but realised Morgana was right. "OK, so if it wasn't accidental, why?"

Morgana looked around, then started to tick points off on her fingers.

"OK, if it wasn't an accident then it was aimed at one - or more than one - of us. Now Tinker doesn't have any enemies we know about, and certainly none who'd set up a hit squad like that. Cherry got into some trouble last year, but why leave it till now to suddenly make a move, and this time I agree with Security dismissing it. Laura, we know you have issues with your Dad, but I can't see him paying a mercenary to put a hit out on you, right?"

Laura nodded. "No, it's way too extreme. As long as I stay out of sight and he doesn't have to admit he's my father, he's ignoring me."

"Right. So that leaves the two obvious targets, Bianca and myself. We both have people interested in us for different reasons. But I think given the nature of the attack, it was aimed at Bianca."

Bianca gave her friend a look. "Reasons? I mean, we know you have people trying to catch up with you."

"It was the type of attack. You're quite right, the Cult would love to get hold of me, but assuming they'd found out where I was, I don't think they'd have done it like that. First, they want me alive - so sending goons after me who obviously didn't care if they killed me doesn't make sense. Second, they'd know about my fire, so they'd have been a lot better prepared." She held up a hand before Bianca could make the obvious point. "Yes, I know his field gave him some protection, but Cherry's bomb still did some damage. He wasn't anywhere near fireproof to my levels, and the Cult would know that. Third, they are a magic Cult - while I could see them employing a mercenary as the front - and fall guy - they'd still have had some magic backup. And finally, they are a lot more ruthless. They'd have killed everyone in sight just to cause a distraction."

"Now..." the redhead gave Bianca a measuring look. "An attack by a mercenary with conventional backup, and the obvious intent to kill rather than capture - well, it looks to me a lot more like the sort of thing a mob hit would be like, right?"

Bianca shook her head in resignation. "OK, you shouldn't assume the sort of people who might be after me act like Hollywood. But... your conclusion is logical, I think you're right - it was me they were after."

Morgana grinned and cracked her knuckles. "So, what are we going to do about it?"

This time Bianca gave her friend her most severe look. "WE are going to do nothing about it, as you put it. Security knows about it all, so we just keep quiet and keep a low profile. The last thing we need is for whoever it was to widen the targets they are interested in."

Morgana thought about it for a moment, then relaxed a bit, to the relief of Laura who had been looking very worried. "OK, you're right, we should let things calm down and keep a low profile. But that doesn't mean we don't need to up our precautions."

Quite a while and a lot of sometimes-heated discussions later, the girls had hammered out a set of plans - or rather objectives. Morgana held up her notepad, now filled with comments, ideas, and a lot of crossed-out suggestions.

"OK, so this is what we have. First, the best way of keeping out of trouble is a low profile. If they don't see us, they can't target us. Second, we have a pretty good set of skills for close combat, but we're woefully lacking in any distance attacks. Laura, your zappy-gun is good, but you need something with a longer range, even if it's a lot simpler. Bianca and I need some longer-ranged spells, and probably something that doesn't involve magic to give us some flexibility." She grinned at Bianca. "Like a gun, perhaps? For you at least." She grinned as Bianca gave her the finger in response, and carried on down the list. "We all need better protection. Spells are some use, but a PFF as an alternative, and especially for Laura, is on the list. Armour would be good, but it's very obvious, and conflicts with the idea of keeping a low profile. What else?"

Laura put a hand up, to the amusement of the other two girls. "Communications. If we'd been able to co-ordinate, things would probably have gone a lot better."

"Yeah, that's a good point." Morgana thought for a moment. "Also some way of getting away easier or faster. Perhaps some spells or devices to confuse, distract, hide us? Like Cherry's smoke bombs."

Bianca was looking a bit worried. "That's a lot of things to sort out and buy, you know."

"Yeah, but we don't have to have it all by tomorrow. But at least we can start working on ideas." She turned to Laura. "Laura, I'm available any time to help you work on your PFF. You need one most, a warding spell needs a mage to activate it. Or maybe we should be looking at stuff from the Whateley Weapons Faire?"

Bianca jerked. "The Whateley WHAT!?" Laura just gave the dragongirl a slightly annoyed look. "And where did you find out about that? It's supposed to be a Workshop secret!"

Morgana just grinned. "Most of the guys in the Workshop are as good at keeping secrets as wet tissue paper is at stopping bullets. And it's not hard to get them to tell me things."

Laura rolled her eyes. "Yeah, it's those deep breathing exercises, isn't it?" to which her friend just grinned even wider.

"Hang on, there really is such a thing?"

"What, deep breathing exercises? Of course, they're real!"

Bianca glowered at Morgana's innocent tone of voice. "No, a WEAPON'S FAIRE!"

Laura nodded. "Yes, Bianca, it's real. It's a way for a lot of the Workshop to make some money selling gadgets - it's not just weapons, despite the name, a lot of other stuff gets sold as well. Of course, a lot of it isn't perfect yet, but it's cheap, and it could cover some of our needs. It's going to be held on the 19th, three weeks Saturday."

Monday 24th October, Magic Theory Class

I looked down at my notepad and sighed. Grimes was about to start, and a small dragon was curled up sleeping with his head resting on my book. I gave him a small prod in the stomach, to which he just wriggled a bit and blew a small puff of smoke without actually waking up. "Sorry, Smokey". This time I pulled my pad from under his head, which was followed by a sleepy dragon scowling at me for disturbing his mid-morning nap before he curled up even tighter and started to snore gently.

Bianca nudged me. "See, he's just like you at night. Including the snoring!"

I was about to comment sharply that I did not snore or, come to that, blow smoke! when Grimes tapped her desk. Oh well, I'd just have to get a retaliatory snark in later.

"Now, before we start today's lesson, I'm going to inform you about our mid-term exams."

Oh. I'd been wondering when we'd be hit by them.

"The exams will be split into two parts, theory and practical. Now the theory will be done on Thursday, and I will get your grades back to you on Monday by email. This exam will be 30% of your final term grade, so I suggest you take it seriously. The practical is rather different; because you all started with different levels of experience, we're looking at how well you've taken in the lessons and made progress on a personal basis, so instead of a general exam, we will be doing individual evaluations, and telling you how you are doing and what you need to work on during the second half of term. Because this will take some time, I and an assistant will be evaluating you during the practical sessions next week. Please make sure you don't have anything booked for the hour after the lesson as well because it won't all fit into the lesson time. I'll put up a list on Monday so you know when you'll be evaluated. Any questions?"

Well, yeah, I'd love to know what the actual exam questions were, but somehow I doubted that was the sort of question she had in mind. I did cast a surreptitious look around the class - I wanted to see who looked worried. I grinned to myself as I saw that none of our three favourite pains looked confident. They hadn't shown a good grasp of some of the coursework, and I was rather hoping they'd do badly. Maybe then they'd concentrate more on their lessons and less on us. One can but hope, but then again this was High School. The assessment sounded a bit worrying, I knew I'd had issues with stuff all term, and I hoped I wouldn't be marked down because of them. Ah well, it wasn't like I could cram for that, so I'd just have to keep my fingers crossed. I'd done well in Grime's occasional pop tests, so I wasn't too worried about the theory exam, but I still wanted to do well.

Grimes waited a minute for the murmurs to die down, before getting our attention again. "Now, this week we are starting on methods of divination. We'll be covering this all week, so just to inform you, it won't be part of the test."

So I started to make some notes as she went through some of the common methods. Crystal pendulums, mirrors and bowls of liquid, and cards. I wondered if the bowl I used to communicate with Thulia was tied to the bowl method of divination, I'd have to look that up after class. Bianca did nudge me and mutter "No tealeaves, she isn't going to give you Brits an advantage, is she." To which I just grinned.

Apparently, after being shown the usual methods, we would choose one which appealed to us to practice on. Maybe I should buy Bianca a few teabags, just in case that worked best for her?

Monday 24th October, afternoon after class, Grime's office

Bianca and I exchanged looks as we sat down in front of Grimes. She'd told us to come with her after class, and she hadn't given any indication of why. She sat down and gave us both a look.

"Now, before we start, you aren't in any trouble. This is a follow-up to what happened to you and your friends on Sunday."

Bianca shot me a quick look, then, with the air of someone about to delicately tip-toe into a possible minefield, asked the obvious question.

"What sort of a follow-up, ma'am?"

Grimes tapped some sheets of paper on her desk. "I want to go over what happened to you on Saturday - the magical aspects, to be precise. You're both in BMA, so I'm sure Sensei Tolman has covered the physical aspects with appropriate criticism." We both winced slightly, and Grimes's mouth twitched for a moment. "But you both used magic, so I want to go over what you did, and why, and then see what can be done to do things better if something similar happens in the future."

I wondered if Grimes was going to actually say something like "you know it's going to happen again", but I guess she wasn't supposed to, even if she was pretty much laying it out for us. It would have been nice to fantasise that Saturday was a one-off that wouldn't re-occur, but given that it was very likely a setup to get at least one of us, my money was on being prepared for the future.

So we described what magic we'd used, and when, and how it had worked, in detail. Grimes kept referring to the Security report and had a surprisingly sharp grasp on the use of magic in combat. So far, all the emphasis on our teaching had been that magic was a tool, not something to fight with - despite all the stories we'd read on magical superfights and such - but I was starting to think we just hadn't got that far in our classes yet. Personally, I could have gone without being one of the class overachievers in that part of the curriculum, and I was pretty sure Bianca would agree.

Finally, we got to the end, and Grimes nodded and looked down on the notes she'd been making.

"Good, now we know what you did, the next thing is to look at what can be done to improve. Now I don't think you did too much that was terribly wrong, but what's obvious is that neither of you has a good magical toolkit for this sort of encounter. Before I start, have you talked about it yourselves and given any thought to bettering yourselves?"

Bianca and I exchanged looks, and I made a 'you start' gesture. She sighed slightly then looked at Grimes. "I found my two main problems was no good way of storing and accessing my spell cards at speed, and not having an effective distance attack apart from some of my permanent spells. Once I'd used my inbuilt spells, it was all close contact, and that left me very vulnerable."

Grimes nodded and turned to me. "My biggest problem was a lack of anything that operated at range. I wasn't worried about getting in close, my physical abilities coped fine there, but if those thugs had thought to keep a distance it would have gone a lot worse. Also, my light attack doesn't work well against prepared opponents."

"Both reasonable analyses. So have you thought about what you can do to eliminate those weaknesses?"

Bianca looked a bit worried. "Ma'am, I'm stuck with my inbuilt spell set. The problem with the cards is that if I carry enough to have a good toolkit, I have problems in actually selecting and using them, especially in combat. I think I need to improve my ranged attacks."

"And you, Morgana?"

"I need some more distance spells, ma'am. Also, a better way to set up a protection spell in action. A safer way of getting close would help as well."

Grimes regarded us both thoughtfully. "Both correct, although there are a few more points. Both of you could use a better, active protection spell. Neither of you is invulnerable, especially you Bianca, and the best offensive spell in the world is useless if someone shoots you first. Second, you both need more things to do at a distance. Bianca, while your inbuilt spells are quick and easy to use, if someone knows about them they only have a limited number of things to negate. You should think about some ranged spells that are different from them. Also, spells that allow you to escape, or at worst buy you some time. It's not all about taking out your opponents."

"Ma'am, have you any suggestions?"

Grimes gave me her 'Oh no, I'm not going to do the work for you' look. "I think we need to do a few things to start. First, both of you work out some spells that would cover the things we've talked about, and find a number that will work for you. Bianca, you need to either find a way to organise your spell slips better or perhaps look at a smaller subset for this sort of situation. Morgana, you need to keep working on your casting for a wider range of effects. Both of you need better protection - Morgana, a single spell slip is useful, but of limited use in a longer fight. Now a permanent protection ward is likely beyond your skill right now, and they are expensive in essence and money. But there are some alternatives, not as good but more capable than a single-use one, take a look at some of the available options. Finally, both of you should consider the use of a wand or two, to supplement your preferred methods."

We must have both gulped at all that, this was looking like quite a load. She chuckled at our expressions.

"No, I don't expect you to have it all done and worked out in a few days! This is something you should look at as a long term study. I'd like you both to look at the options I've suggested, and come back next week with a list of what you think will work. I will discuss them with you, and also see how the more difficult parts can be done incrementally."

We both nodded as we got up. Well, that was going to use up a bit more of our free time, but it was obviously important to us. And having Grimes help in going through it and, hopefully, helping us would make our efforts a lot more effective. I wondered if Laura would be getting similar help from her Lab teachers?

Tuesday 25th October, Lunchtime, Tia's Car

Tia had waited patiently while her friend had walked around, making small coos of appreciation as she admired her car and doing just about everything short of stroking it, before quietly asking her about the colour change.

"Oh, yeah. That was why I came, wasn't it?"

Tia rolled her eyes at the innocence Morgana was attempting to project. "Yeah, it was."

I finally stopped wasting time and rummaged in my bag for the stuff I'd need. "Did you get a photo of the colour you wanted?"

Tia nodded, offering me a picture of a bright red sports car. Not the same model as hers, but the colour was striking.

I took it and gave it a close look. "Thanks. I can adjust it a bit while we set it up, but it's a lot easier to start from something close."

"Is it OK if I watch?"

I grinned. "Why is it people think mages need to do everything in secret? Sure you can watch."

I'd pre-prepared everything I needed for this, as I took a small DVD case out of my bag and extracted the spell slip. Quite a complicated one, I wanted to allow some fine-tuning of the colour, as well as being able to be recharged a few times before it wore out. I put the picture Tia had given me on the hood, then laid the spell slip over it.

"OK, please be quiet while I set it all up, if you distract me I'll have to start again."

Tia nodded and took a few steps back, as I cracked my knuckles and started to make the necessary gestures over the slip, dark purple curls of essence tracing over it and making the pattern start to glow to my sight. I carefully uttered the mnemonic phrases that were part of the spell, and in a minute the first part was done. I took a moment to relax, then slid the picture out so the slip was in direct contact with the car, before carefully gathering some essence, and touching the tip of a claw to the spell. A heat-haze-like shimmer ran over the car, and the colour changed, deepening from a rather unpleasant pink to a rich scarlet.

"Yay me!"

Tia was looking on with wide eyes. "Wow! Is that it?"

I gave the car and slip a critical look. "Nearly. Is the colour OK? I can change it a bit now, but once I've done that it will be fixed, and I'd have to re-cast the whole spell to change it again."

Tia nodded and carefully examined her car. "Can you make it a slightly deeper red?"

"I think so." I'd made the spell so it allowed a bit of colour change from the starting value, just in case, allowing me to change the basic RGBL values that specified the colour. Very carefully I adjusted the red and luminance values, keeping an eye on Tia. She watched carefully, then held her hand up. "That's perfect!"

I nodded and made the final motions to freeze the spell.

"There we are, all done!"

Tia looked as if she was going to touch the spellslip, then pulled her hand back quickly. "Uh...how do I use it?"

I grinned. "It's easy - and don't worry, you can touch the slip." I picked it up, holding it away from the car. After a few seconds, the paint seemed to glow for a moment then resumed its pink shade.

"OK, for the spell to work, this slip needs to be in contact with the car. When it's removed, the illusion fades in a few seconds and it goes back to its original colour. With me so far?"

Tia nodded, a look of concentration on her face, so I continued. "It can be anywhere, as long as there's contact - somewhere like the glove compartment will work fine. Now, you don't want it on all the time - it's like batteries, it has a finite life and the less you use it the longer it will last." I held up the DVD case I'd brought, opening it to show her. "This is lined with silk, so when it's inside it won't work - you can just keep it in the car until you want it." I put the slip in the box and put it onto the car. "See, nothing. Now take it out and pop it in the glove compartment."

Tia took the case - a bit gingerly as if it was likely to suddenly explode without warning, as if! - and tried it a few times. When she took the slip out and put it in the car, the colour shifted again to the new red, bringing a wide smile to her face. "Wow! That is so cool, and I love the new colour."

I grinned. "It should last a while - depends how much you use it. When it starts to fade, you'll see it taking longer for the colour to change. When that happens let me know and I'll charge it up again for you."

She nodded, still admiring her no-long-pink sports car. "Can you keep doing that?"

I hmmd, making a maybe yes/no movement with my hand. "Several times. It's not really permanent, that's rather more complicated and expensive, but the spell can be recharged several times before the slip degrades. Unless you're using it all the time, by the time that happens I'll be able to make you a much longer-lasting effect."

She put the slip back into its case. "I'd better leave it its old colour when it's in the garage, otherwise people might wonder."

"Makes sense. Now, about my fee...blood, soul, or a really fast ride in it?"

Tia giggled. "We already agree on a ride! We'll just have to find a good time, I owe you a proper speed experience!"

"Looking forward to it! I'd suggest this weekend, but we're busy with the band thing, so I'll leave it up to you. Whenever's good.

Tuesday 25th October, 7 pm, Doyle medical centre

I hadn't given too much thought about how they'd teach a class on healing, but to start I'd been teamed up with Dawn. That looked OK, we knew each other, and while she was already gaining skill as a healer - after all, she had a natural talent for it - she didn't seem too worried about having to help a newbie like me. Apparently, these classes were to learn the practical aspects of the training - the book learning we were expected to do on our own, and Dawn had told me they just did short tests every few weeks to check we'd been keeping up.

I'd wondered just what practical work we'd get to do - after all, unless they were a lot more foolish than I expected, they surely weren't going to let us practice on real patients. So I decided to ask Dawn.

"Oh, of course, we aren't allowed to practice on actual people! Even if they were only students."

I looked at the innocent expression on her face with deep mistrust. "OK - so how do we practice then?"

She just grinned and led me over to a shelf at the side of the room. Then she grabbed one of the containers - should I be worried it was labeled arm? And making odd burbling noises? - and carried it back to the table we'd been designated to use. Then she set it down and pressed a switch that resulted in some internal covers of some sort sliding back to reveal what was inside. Which looked remarkably like an arm, connected to some wires and tubes at the end. Charming, a refugee from a zombie movie.

I looked at it closely; it looked just like a real, healthy arm - not shriveled or preserved.

"OK, Dawn, I'll bite. What is this thing?"

She grinned and gave the top of the case a proprietary pat. "Actually, it's just what it says on the tin, it's an arm." I must have looked more than a little dubious because she continued. "It's grown from cells, just the arm. The case has life support for it, so it stays living - well, for a certain value of living, I guess." She grabbed a towel from under the bench and laid it down, then did something to what I assumed was the life support for the detached limb and carefully lifted it out and laid it on the towel, tubes, and wires trailing back to the container.

"We have a number of these, both limbs and some organs. This is how we practice surgical heals. They don't have nerves - well, actually they do, but they aren't connected to anything - so they are really just pieces of flesh. But we can cut them as if they were real, then practice diagnosing and fixing the damage. For some of the more complicated things, we can attach the support system to a computer to monitor in real-time what you're doing to it, but we won't need that until you've mastered the basics. Neat, huh?"

I was still looking at the limb a trifle dubiously - it reminded me just a little too much of one of Penny Dreadful's creepy cast-offs - then nodded reluctantly. "I suppose it is..."

"Look on it this way, Morgana. Yeah, this is a bit, well, odd, but the alternative would be to use animals for our training. So this is a lot better."

Tuesday 25th October, early evening, Faculty meeting room

Robert Turner looked at Mr. August. "So, we have a request for a decision on" he looked down at his notes "An off-campus trip to take part in a band competition?"

Mr. August nodded. "Yes. Occasionally we are offered an opportunity to participate in these inter-school events, and normally the decision is simple, but for this trip, there's a possible complication which I felt should be discussed first. It concerns some of the students taking part in the trip. One of the band members is Cally, and because she's a freshman and a new singer, and after the upsetting events she's been involved in, she's asked if some of her friends can go along as support."

Robert nodded. "Is the concern about her, or her friends?"

"Both. I don't think Calliope will be a problem, after all that happened was under a rather extreme provocation, which is hardly likely to happen in the band, and having some of her friends there will provide significant moral support which will help ease her mind. We actually allow for a few extra bodies anyway for things like setting up, tech support and so on - the competition allows 15 band members and assistants from each school, and our group would be less than that, so no problem there. Having some supporters along is usually a good thing, it tends to reduce the tension in the new band members when performing off Whateley for the first time."

Robert cocked an eyebrow. "And... safety in numbers, just in case?" as he asked the obvious but unspoken question.

August nodded. "But there may be a problem with two of these students. Calliope's support group would include both Bianca St. Clair and Morgana Jones."

"Both of whom were involved in the incident in Boston last weekend." Robert acknowledged with a deep frown.

"Morgana is part of the tech support crew, so it would be somewhat inconvenient if she didn't come. What I'm concerned about, and think we should discuss, is the possibility of any further action against them, bearing in mind that one of both of them seemed to be the targets in Berlin."

"That makes sense." Robert turned to James Tyson, who'd drawn the short straw today for representing Security "What's security's take on this?"

Tyson looked down at his pad and tapped it for a moment. "OK. We're still making enquiries as to what the real aim of the attack was. We've debriefed the students, and they think that Bianca was the real target. While I don't want to make a decision until we get the results of our investigation, our initial feeling is that they are correct. So the question is, should we allow Bianca out again so soon?"

Robert frowned. "We don't know it was deliberate, and I'm rather reluctant to keep her locked up here just in case. How risky would it be to let her go on this trip?"

" I don't think it's a real risk, as long as we take some sensible precautions. While keeping her here would protect her, she has to go out sooner or later. And I'm still concerned that the fact she was going on a shopping trip may have leaked from the school, either accidentally or with malice. Mr. August did ask us about this earlier, so I've put together a plan of action. First, we have Bianca let her friends and acquaintances know that unhappily she isn't going. That way, no one is likely to start putting a plan together. The bus leaves on Friday, after classes. We slip her on with the other kids under an illusion spell - with the normal confusion, it's not likely to be spotted. Then we have her seen on Campus that evening and at breakfast on Saturday."

"Another illusion?"

Tyson nodded. "On one of our people. The aim is to not give any possible hostile time to put anything together - a group of 15 students plus teachers isn't likely to be worried by the sort of thing that can be thrown together in a few hours. There is also a possibility that we might shake something loose, which is why we're doing this rigmarole, although it's a small possibility, to be honest. I would prefer Mr. August to be accompanied by a second teacher, just in case. Preferably someone good at looking after themselves."

"So who do we get as a second chaperone?"

"Well, it's an Art department trip. So one of their teachers would be appropriate."

"Logical. Who were you thinking of?"

Mr. August grinned. "Well, as this meeting is nominally to discuss an Arts trip, I did invite the Imp to attend. But she seems to have been delayed. But I'm sure she wouldn't mind us suggesting her."

That deadpan remark brought a wave of smiles and chuckles rippling around the table.

"I'm sorry I'm late, did I miss the start of the meeting?"

Robert looked up to see the Imp casually breezing in through the door, projecting the attitude of someone who's been delayed by unavoidable and important business of cosmic importance. He was hardly surprised at her tardiness, it was an open secret that The Imp wasn't the biggest fan of faculty meetings. He made sure no hint of his amusement at what was about to happen registered, as he answered her calmly."Oh, no problem, Imp. We were just getting around to discussing the details of your trip this weekend."

The Imp nodded, then froze as she took in the words. "Trip? What trip??"

This time butter wouldn't have melted in Roberts's mouth. "Why, the band trip to the competition on Friday. We decided that for added security a second teacher would be sensible, and the vote was unanimous with just one abstention. I'm sure you'll do a professional job as always."

The Imp looked around at the barely-concealed grins, then sighed and finally took her place at the table. "This is to pay me back for being late, isn't it?"

Robert looked more serious this time. "Actually, given that there are a couple of students going who've been the target of an external attack, you would be an excellent choice of a chaperone. If anyone is foolish enough to target a group of Whateley students, your special skills would offer a high chance of spotting it and nipping it in the bud."

"Damn. OK, tell me what the situation is and what I'm in for." She turned to Mr. August. "And don't think after the last band trip you looked after I won't bring my better earplugs along!"

Wednesday 26th October, evening, London

"Good evening to you, Master Olrun."

Olrun gave Nephandus a rather dyspeptic look as he sat down.

"I hope it's good in that you have some progress to report? So far we've not seen much in return for your rather exorbitant fees."

"Actually I do have some rather interesting progress to report."

That brightened Olrun up noticeably. Nephandus wondered cynically if he was more interested in progressing the project or avoiding taking the blame for his admittedly-considerable fees, but as long as he got paid it mattered little to him.

"Now, you remember in our last report we had some rather odd data concerning the appearance of a second demon on the island?"

Olrun gave him an 'of course I did, do you think I'm stupid' look. Nephandus simply ignored it and carried on smoothly. "We think we have a working hypothesis as to what was really going on, and as a result have a proposal for a plan of action to advance our knowledge of the project."

That statement definitely got his paymaster's attention.

"Now, there were several elements of the story that didn't make sense. Why was the second demon not constrained as a demon, and why lock her up and torture her, when she would presumably have been summoned with a binding that would make all that unnecessary. It's always possible the two guards we recovered were lying, or simply incorrect, but they had no reason to lie, especially under drugs, and the details were consistent and in keeping with the other data we had.

However, there is a solution that fits the data we have and explains it. We assumed that the experiment did not work, or that it was in multiple parts, with a second demon being required for the next phase. But if we assume the experiment did work, then a new analysis explains the discrepancies we found."

He raised his hand as Olrun started to interject. "Please, allow me to finish. Consider this scenario. Abraxus contacts a demon who agrees to create a linkage with his test subject. The demon sets certain requirements, hence the search for a test subject outside of the cult due to the narrowness of those requirements. One is found, and the experiment takes place. This all matches with what we know of the early parts of the experiment.

Now let us assume the experiment worked, and the test subject is now connected to the Plane of Fire as intended. We know that past attempts to do this have ended in failure and the death of the subject, however, what if, as part of the connection, the demon changed the boy into this female copy of the demon? The change may well have been required for the subject to survive, although I admit this is conjecture. However it does explain the later treatment of the 'demoness', There was no need to use the normal methods to restrain or control a demon because the subject wasn't a demon, they just looked like one. So imprisoning them conventionally would work. The confinement and torture make sense in order to persuade the subject to work for the cult. This tends to confirm the success of the experiment, since if it had failed Abraxus would merely have terminated the boy and looked for a new candidate."

Olrun sat considering this for some minutes. "While this theory does seem to cover the pertinent points, it is very much conjecture at this point. Can you prove it?"

Nephandus looked at the man. "Not directly - at least not yet. As you say, it is built on a synthesis of the available, limited, facts. However, it is the only solution we have that seems to explain all that appears to have gone on."

"We need a way of confirming these suppositions."

Nephandus nodded and took some papers from his briefcase. "We agree, and we've made some suggestions for operations to do so. If, as we suspect, the demoness has a working link to Fire, obviously we'll need to recover her and persuade her to work for your Cult. In order to do this - and, incidentally, confirm our suppositions - we first need to find her."

"And can I assume you know how to do that?"

"Not directly, but there are several things we can do to narrow the search down. While there has been no indication of this person in public, we assume that when AEGIS raided the island, she was either killed during the raid or taken by AEGIS. If she was only recently connected to the Fire Plane, she wouldn't have the skill or knowledge to escape on her own, and if a member of the cult had escaped with her, I'm sure you would have found out about it by now. So we start with the records of the AEGIS raid. These are far less heavily protected than many of their records as they use them to train their people for just these sorts of raids. Getting hold of this data will show if she survived, and then we can dig further to find what has happened to her. Once we know this, collecting her becomes a simple matter of acquisition"

"Would she not still be held by AEGIS? That would mean raiding one of their locations to retrieve her, which would not be a trivial task."

"Possibly, although we will know more after the initial enquiries. There are two likely possibilities; first, as you said, she is in AEGIS custody, either being researched, trained, or kept secret or possibly a mix of all three. In that case, we need to find out exactly what her situation is, and what options are available for a forced extraction."

"And the second possibility?"

"She may not have been of use to AEGIS, she could have been untrainable, or not wished to cooperate in any designs they had for her. In that case, it would seem likely they would have placed her anonymously with a family or school. Given her appearance, a normal family wouldn't work, so the most likely case is her being sent to one of the boarding schools maintained for children with GSD and similar malformities. In this case, extraction becomes far simpler, and it might even be possible to arrange it without the use of force."

Olrun waved a hand. "I don't care about using force to acquire the girl. Your analysis does make sense, and if we're lucky we only have to break her out of a school, hardly a difficult proposition. Very well, I authorise you to recover the needed information from AEGIS, and once you have that we can proceed."

"Of course. We may well need access to better-protected records than just the mission, I assume you will cover the cost of using an expendable cut-out?"

Olrun looked annoyed but nodded. "The Raid data first, no need for the additional expense if it isn't warranted."

Nephandus collected his notes, sliding them into his briefcase as he stood. "Very well, we will proceed at once. We should have the Raid data by next week at the latest, after that we will wait on your permission to continue. I suggest we meet again this time next week."

"Yes, that would be acceptable." Olrun stood himself, rubbing his hands together. "At last we seem to be making some progress."

Wednesday 26th October, evening, Venus clubroom

"Well, we have the figures for the wholesale take-up of this years Winter Calendar, and the sales are looking pretty good right now. Assuming no big change, we're looking at 9% up on last year."

There were general murmurs of approval from around the table.

"Now, with that all done, we need to start looking at the next group shoots. That's the Spring GSD, and the Summer Bikini Special. We need to get the shoots done and collated by early January, so the first issue is to find some new girls to replace last year's Seniors."

"Do we have a theme for this years GSD Calendar?"

"Not yet, after we get an idea of who we have available, we'll look at that again."

"OK, so who do we have from this year's new students that show promise?"

Materielle tapped her pad as she started to show the best prospects on the projection screen.

"We haven't contacted any of these yet, some of them we don't think will work, but we should choose the best candidates for further consideration before making a formal invitation.

Now first" - she brought up a picture of a svelte rabbit-girl - "Tia Del Bosque. She's a bunny-girl, so money in the bank as far as our calendar shoot goes, but there are several issues we need to consider. First is all the publicity she got in the summer about her being forcibly changed from a boy by that devisor. It's all out there, so the suggestion is we use it and leverage it as part of her exotic appeal."

"That's going to be hard, to put the right spin on that."

"I know, but if it works it could be a big seller. The second issue is that she has some sort of deal going on with Playboy" - she waited a minute for the grins and comments at the obvious connection went around the table - "so we need to find out exactly what that is and how we can work with it. Again, it's a mixed bag of issues - it might make using her impossible, or it might get us some extra publicity. If she's interested, we'll probably need to have some formal discussions with Playboy."

"Now next we did think of this girl" - the screen displayed a short, cute girl, blue skin and hair - "she is a possibility if we want to do something Smurf-related, which someone suggested" - she looked around the group, but no-one seemed overly interested in taking ownership of a smurf fetish - "but it's marginal. I suggest we put her on the possible, but not yet list."

"Isn't she the devisor who was responsible for that chocolate fiasco?"

Materielle nodded. "Oh yes. Probably another reason for not contacting her, we don't want anyone to think we'd need that sort of chemical assistance for our girls. And while she is a lovely colour, she's human apart from that, so we'd need to try and make her a bit more exotic. She's one of the lab nerds, so a girl geek is one of our possible options, but I'd like to wait on that until we see who our prospects are and if we decide to have a theme for the calendar."

"Yeah, I guess we shouldn't look at Trash Panda either, she was in on that mess-up as well."

There was some discussion among the girls before Perfume moved onto the next picture.

"Now, this is Dawn-Renee. As you can see, she's a satyress, nice body, and that gold fur works well for her."

Meow Mix looked puzzled. "A satyress? I thought satyrs were all male?"

"You're just hopeful!"

There was a general round of laughter as the girl blushed before Materielle finally came to her rescue.

"Yes, in legend there are no female satyrs, But that's a bonus for us, not only is she exotic, but she's unusual, so a bigger draw. I'd recommend we mark her as a potential candidate." There was a general agreement from the group, so she carried on.

"If we're looking at girls with animal-like attributes, how about Ratel?"

Everyone around the table gazed at LimeLight, either in fear, astonishment, or surprise - or a mix of all three emotions

"Are you CRAZY?!"

LimeLight smirked. "Hey, it was just an idea!"

"Yeah, well so is jumping into a volcano, that doesn't mean it's a good idea!"

Materielle tapped the table. "OK, back to some more sane suggestions. How about Avsel? She's growing a unicorn horn, so another exotic mythical type."

Meow Mix shook her head with a frown. "I'm not sure about her. She's shy, and her culture might be an issue for her as well. "

"Hmm. Perhaps you could have a discreet talk with her, see if it's worth following up?"

"Sure, I can do that."

"Sadly we don't have many GSD-exemplars this year who also have decent bodies, but we do have a few more to consider.

"Now this girl has possibilities." She showed a picture of a lithe girl in a swimsuit, with long, dripping-wet hair showing off a nice pair of horns and fairly pointed ears. "This is Morgana Jones. As you can see, she's not as well endowed as our usual girls, but she does have that athletic girl vibe going well. She calls herself Dragonsfyre, and she's running a Dragon theme - horns, claws, fangs, that sort of thing. It would be better if she had wings or a tail, but she is a fire manifestor, so we can possibly build on that. She's also 16 next spring, so we might be able to use her for a bit more than we can some of the younger girls."

"Isn't she the one holding the record for most costume malfunctions so far this year?"

"Yes, she is. They don't seem to have worried her that much, so she'd likely be fine with less-covered shots."

"Now, again in the mythical creature class, we haves Lesley York, Faollass. She's a wolf-girl, so we can play off that and probably a werewolf-type theme as well. One idea I'm thinking about is a 'fierce but lovely fantasy creature' idea, with some of the girls we're looking at. There were some GSD girls some years back who had a very good myth/demon/fantasy look going, the Furies I think they called themselves. It was pretty popular."

There was a general murmuring of interest in her idea, as she brought up the last candidate

The final picture showed a dark-skinned girl with a set of small snakes writing cutely where hair would normally be. "This is Ekene, she's basically a medusa-girl. So we can use her as a scary-exotic model."

"Are those snakes safe? I mean..."

"Yeah, as long as you don't annoy her; she hasn't been going around biting people, after all. Just stay well away from them if they worry you that much. Of course, we might need to sort out her makeup separately, I don't know how well snakes take to makeup."

Wednesday 26th October, evening, Morgana and Bianca's room

I was deep in the middle of work when Bianca strolled in. She took one look at the heap of open books and scribbled notes on my table and raised an eyebrow. "I thought you were ahead on homework with the Band Trip coming up?"

I leaned back and stretched my neck popping. "I am. This isn't exactly homework. Well, not regular homework anyway."

She dropped her bag on her bed and came across to look over my shoulder. "So what is it?"

"Remember when we talked about upgrading out holdouts and stuff? Well, the obvious first thing is to improve our protection, and until Laura gets her PFG to work without incinerating everyone except me, that means a magical shield. So I've been looking into what the options are for my costume."

She pursed her lips thoughtfully. "OK, that makes sense. How's it looking?"

"Well, some good, some not so good. Those simple ones we were taught aren't terribly effective - they stop stuff for a short while, then run out of power and burn up. Obviously we want something better, and with more stopping power. Now the one I did for Laura last weekend is better, but it's still a one-use deal, it's just more flexible and has more stopping power."

She gave me the 'OK, so what are you leading up to' look. I grinned and tried not to go into lecture mode too blatantly.

"OK, the problems fall into two categories - stopping power and how long it lasts, and how permanent the spell is. Stopping power and lasting are pretty much tied together, it's a question of how much power the spell can put out, and how much it can store. You've already started working on your new coat, after all?"

"Yeah, if I'm going to use it as I want to, a protection spell is pretty much top on my list of things to do to it. And you know I already started working on it."

"That's what I thought. Anyway, stopping power and power storage are tied up in the usual manner for spells - more complex, larger, and better materials. Unless you're trying to specifically stop some of the more exotic things, there are ones in the book that should work - the next step up from the one I made last, and if you put it on the back of the costume, you can make it bigger." I waved a couple of pages of notes and calculations at her. "That looks like it should give good protection for a while. Of course, the bigger the attack it stops, the faster it will run down, but hopefully, it should last through a typical fight."

Bianca looked thoughtful. "OK, that seems reasonably straightforward, so what's the catch?"

"Well, the problem is how long the spell diagram itself holds up and lasts. Ideally, it should be permanent, but doing that is both hard and very expensive, and it can still get damaged and then needs replacing. Making something that should survive several uses is a lot easier, and a lot less exotic materials are needed. When it comes down to it, it's the power throughput - each time you use it, it pulls power through it and there is a slight deterioration. After a while it becomes useless, and you need to do a new one."

"So what sort of damage to your bank account are we talking about?"

I showed her another page, for a permanent and a lasting spell matrix. She winced visibly at the figures for time and material cost for the permanent one.

"I think I'll stick with what I've started so far, that's a LOT cheaper!"

"I was hoping to put one of these on my costume, but I really don't think I can justify the cost of a permanent one, and that's assuming it all goes right the first time! Remember, Grimes told us the main reason we won't be taught about permanent enchantments yet is the cost and effort, and the probable waste until we get more skilled. So I'm thinking of good protection that will last for a while."

"How long is a while?"

I shrugged. "How long is a piece of string? It's dependent on how much and how hard it's used. The good news is you can redo them - you have to remove the old one, and redo it, but your coat should last through a few iterations. After all, we aren't looking at getting into fights all the time, right? So, if it lasts through, oh, three or four fights, that's good for us."

She ran her finger over some of my calculations. "So this one you've underlined is the one you're thinking on for yourself?"

"Yeah, it seems to be the best compromise between cost in time and materials and effectiveness. Oh, there is one other problem."

She sighed. "Of course there is."

I gave her a grin. "OK, obviously as it draws down its stored essence when used, it needs to be repowered later. That's one of the main reasons for the more exotic materials because doing that causes wear as well. But unless you want to go for one of the really good perma-spells, you can't just feed it essence on the fly, you need to cast a tailored recharge spell, which will take a bit of time and suck up your essence. So it's not really that suitable for doing in combat."

"Yeah, I already found that out. Still, as you said, we aren't going out looking for fights all the time, so that doesn't sound too bad a limitation."

"That's my feeling too. But I should be able to put one on that would have lasted through that fight on Sunday, I think that's a reasonable starting benchmark. Something to stop physical and energy damage, that would last through your fight on Sunday, longer really to give a buffer. At least it's a not-unreasonable guesstimate"

"You're going to work that all out for yourself?"

I grinned. "Of course I am, it will be fun!" She rolled her eyes at my definition of fun, but let me continue."I know you have your own spells that you're using on your coat, but you can have all my notes. If you don't want to copy mine, you can probably use a lot of the calculations on materials and constructions with a slightly different spell. Oh, and yes, it will be better if you use those blood inks, as it's a personal protection spell, it ties it in more directly and efficiently." I frowned. "I need to talk to Grimes about doing that, she told me not to use my blood yet, I want to know why. And I'm sure Thulia can tell me why it might be a problem."

"That would be helpful. I've made a start on my coat, I need something as soon as possible just in case, but having an upgrade planned for the next iteration won't hurt."

"Hmmm. Well, we're busy this weekend, I can get the calculations and stuff sorted next week. Say about a week. Then you can shock your minders with the cost of an upgrade!

Thursday 27th October, morning, Magic Theory

Well, the test hadn't been terrible, and at least we'd all finished it before Grimes had told us to stop. She walked around and collected the papers while we tried to relax a bit now it was all over.

"So how did the test go for you guys?"

None of our group looked too worried, indeed Noelle was looking quite happily confident. Oddly it was AJ who looked more worried, but then, while he had a good basis in the Art from his mother, he wasn't the most dedicated student. Mind, he'd been skating along happily on his existing training, so that wasn't going to be a problem until we worked our way past that.

"Well, if they make you take stuff again, AJ, don't worry, I'll look after Smokey."

That just got me a dirty look from AJ and a rather hopeful one from Smokey.

For once Bianca was the one trying to cheer everyone up. "Look, it's just a mid-term, and the questions weren't terrible. I'm more worried about this assessment next week, I've no idea how that's going to work."

Personally I wasn't too worried, the exam had been easier than I'd feared. But like Bianca, I did wonder what Grimes would say about my skills next week. Having to redo a lot of the stuff I'd practiced due to my recent changes hadn't exactly helped my progress, and I was still envious of Bianca's skills with written spells.

We all looked up as Grimes tapped her desk.

"One last thing. As I'm sure you all know, it's Samhain on Monday. There will be an open ritual to celebrate it, in the Wiccan tradition, starting at 11 pm. I realise that only a few of you follow that tradition, but everyone is welcome if they wish to experience it. If you wish to come, let me know on Monday morning and I'll give you a curfew exemption for it."

That sounded interesting, although I didn't think I'd go. Religion just wasn't my thing. As we were leaving, I wondered if what Thulia was up to at Samhain had anything to do with that? She'd mentioned she had some 'duties' - which she hadn't gone into - to do then, but I had no idea if it was some sort of ceremony, or just stuff it was easier to do at Samhain.

Thursday 27th October, 4 pm, after Magic Practical class

"You coming to the workroom, Morgana?"

I shook my head. "Not today, Noelle. I want to have a word with Grimes about some stuff, and then I have to go help Laura make sure we have all the band's gear checked and packed up ready for the trip tomorrow."

Noelle made a face. "You're so lucky, I wish I could go with you."

I patted her on the shoulder. "I know, but you still have those Avatar issues. But hey, you're improving, so maybe next time you can come."

She nodded, still looking a bit unhappy, then headed off for out lab while I waited for Grimes to finish up.

"Ms. Grimes? Could I talk to you about something?"

She looked at me, then around the room, which was still emptying slowly.

"Would private be better, Morgana?"

I nodded, and after a final check that no one else seemed interested in talking to her, stood up and gestured to me to follow to her office.

"So, Morgana, I hope this isn't anything serious?"

"Uh, no ma'am, I don't think so. But I'd rather talk about it in private." She made a 'well, get on with it' gesture, so I carried on. "It's to do with the application of protection spells, mainly, though it will have some other applications. It says in the books that using your own blood as part of the inks and so on when you inscribe a spell can make them more powerful or longer-lasting, and would be helpful in a protection spell that would be protecting me."

She nodded. "Ah yes. That's quite true. So I suppose you want to ask me more about you using your blood, as I warned you not to do that yet a little while ago."

"Yes ma'am. You didn't explain why I shouldn't, so I wondered if you could tell me more and if it would be OK to use in a protection spell."

She sat back in her chair and looked at me thoughtfully. "Well, mainly what is unusual with your blood is that because of the way your body collects essence, in particular fire essence, your blood can be considered magically active. While this is not an entirely accurate statement, when using it we can consider you a magical creature."

I tried not to squeak. "Magical creature? Me?!"

She gave me a reassuring smile - well, as reassuring as one could be for a lady channelling Morticia Adam's appearance. "It's not quite like that, Morgana. It's not like you are enchanted, or anything like that. It's just that this particular characteristic is normal in magical creatures, so the effects of your blood are more similar to theirs than to a baseline human."

I must have still looked worried - after all, it was almost sounding like I was even less human than I'd thought, as she carried on.

"Now, the standard books describe how to incorporate a human's blood in their spells. The uses of an enchanted creature's blood are similar in many respects, but they tend to have particular characteristics depending on their origin and what type of essence they are associated with. In your case, of course, Fire."

"So is it still a no for using my blood, ma'am?"

She looked at me thoughtfully for a minute. "Hmmm. I think I'll say a provisional yes, as long as you promise to take some precautions."

Well, that sounded guardedly optimistic. "Of course, ma'am."

"Let me see. First, I assume you've read up on using your blood if it were normal?" I nodded, and she gave a small smile before continuing. "Good. Now before you start any experimentation, first check for the use of magical creatures - an overview on them in general, then look specifically at Fire-oriented creatures. Once you've done that, it should give you an idea of any differences in your results. Before you actually start on protection spells, I'd like you to try a few of the basic simple spell diagrams, both with and without your blood, and see if there are differences. Once you've covered all that, come and see me and we will go through the results and see if there are any problems."

I thought that all through then nodded. It did seem a sensible approach, and while it would take a little while, I should be able to have a chat with Thulia after Samhain and see if she had anything she could tell me. Maybe not, her style of magic wasn't the same as the one we were being taught, but there were similarities. Couldn't hurt, anyway. And I was pretty sure she counted as a magical creature!

"I understand, ma'am. I'll get on with the reading and setting some tests up, and let you know when I have something to show you."

"That's fine, Morgana. And don't worry too much, I suspect there won't be any serious issue, but when you're dealing with a Fire orientation it's wise to take a bit of care. We aren't all fireproof, after all!"

Thursday 27th October, evening, Band Practice room

I ticked off another piece of equipment on the list and looked over to Laura. "Just three more pieces to open and check, then we can box them up and we're pretty much done."

Laura pouted a bit. "I don't why we need to open everything up and check that any gageteer stuff isn't obvious. I mean, it's all normal tech."

I rolled my eyes at her. "Because it isn't all normal, some of it is pretty advanced, let alone stuff a school band would have. It's not like we're sponsored by NASA or something. And there's always the chance we may have to open something up to fix it, we don't want any advanced tech showing."

"It's a shame though. Some of the devisor stuff is so cool with the bands' acts." She opened a box and started taking stuff out. "OK, this one's simple, it's just our tools and stuff."

I walked over and nodded, taking a long list from the top of the stuff in the case. "We need to check this is all here, just in case we do need it."

Laura gave the pile a poke. "It's weird remembering how to use such old-fashioned tools."

"You've got spoiled with all the toys you have in the Lab."

"Yeah, I guess I have. Anyway, let's get this finished so we can clear up. Mr. August said to leave it here, they'll pick it up tomorrow and load it in the coach. So you get out of the heavy lifting."

I responded with sophisticated wit, namely sticking my tongue out at my blue friend.

Laura grinned and patted me on the shoulder. "Don't worry, I'll help. Since they managed to find some money for tech support, I won't have to leave the band to your ham-fisted approach to fixing stuff."

I gave her a long-suffering look. "You know, I'm as nearly good as you at fixing this sort of stuff! You'll just go into a devisor trance instead of actually fixing the problem!"

This time I was the recipient of a dark blue tongue sticking out at me.

I'd gone back to my room after we'd finished the equipment checks, I had homework to do. I was finishing up the last of this weeks homework - I didn't want anything waiting to be done when we got back from the concert - when Bianca finally rolled in. I smiled, got up, and made a small production of examining her closely.

"OK, just what are you looking at?"

I grinned. "Just checking for hickeys..."

She gave me a look, then sat down on her bed. "Just wait till your GF visits."

I smiled. "Well, you were the one who demanded all the details when I met her before."

She stuck her nose up a bit and sniffed. "Just making sure nothing happened between you and a demoness, that's all. A girl can't be too careful."

I snorted. "Chance would have been a fine thing. Don't worry, I'm not going to tell anyone if you do get hickeys."

She didn't look entirely convinced, then gave an enquiring look at the plastic costume bag lying across my bed. "New clothes?"

"Not really, it's my costume for the Halloween dance on Monday."

"Oh, so you finally decided who to go as?"

"Look, it didn't take me that long to decide!" She gave me an 'oh yes you did!' stare until I gave in. "OK, so I did, sue me. I'm going as Maleficent."

"She thought for a moment, and nodded."Yeah, I can see that."

I shrugged. "I have the horns, I may as well use them. I got makeup and a fake staff as well." Then I decided to strike back before she pointed out just how long I'd dithered over a costume.

"And how about you? Still thinking of a vampire of some sort?"

She shrugged. "Yeah, it's not too hard, and it's not as if either of us were cosplay junkies or had loads of free time to make up costume, is it."

I gave my homework a look and nodded. "True that."

Friday 28th October, Breakfast at Crystal Hall

I settled down with a rather larger than usual meal, ignoring the looks I was getting. Firstly my appetite was finally back to normal - for me - and secondly, I wasn't going to get lunch, I had an appointment with Dr. Bellows.

The main conversation wasn't about my piled plate, but about Erica's new look. Earlier in the week, when we'd been talking about the Band concert a lot of us were going to in order to support Cally, Vic had pointed out that the Nazi broadcast we'd all seen had been a public broadcast, and a lot of the kids at the concert would have seen it. Given how close Erica looked to her mother - at least to people who didn't know her well - it was quite possible that someone would make the connection, which would lead to all sorts of problems. So the obvious solution was for Erica to try a disguise - after all, it wasn't as if some of the others going had to, and pretty much all of us were using contact lenses.

So for the first time, we saw the new, brunette, Erica. Actually, it was a fairly good look, except for her very pale skin. There had already been several comments about how well the Goth look suited her, all of which had been met with a glare from Erica, who quite obviously had no interest in becoming a Goth poster girl. Still...

"You know, Erica, at least the new look should make some of your classes easier."

Erica looked at me with a puzzled frown. "How will it help that?"

I grinned even wider. "Well, you aren't a dumb blond anymore, are you?"

That got me a breakfast roll bounced off my head, but the snickers from the rest of the group made it worthwhile.

Fortunately, Erica’s ire at me was distracted by Bianca arriving, along with her story of not being allowed to go to the Concert due to Security ruling it out. That led to a lot of complaints about how over-the-top Security was being, with a shrug from Bianca along with an apology to Cally that she wouldn't be there to support her. Commiserations were the order of the meal, even though Laura and I had been briefed about the deception plan earlier in the week, we had to act sympathetic. I'd already arranged with Bianca to pick up her bag and take it with me, to make it easier for her to slip on the bus.

Friday 28th October, Lunchtime, Dr. Bellow's Office

I gulped down the last of the energy bar I'd been chewing on before knocking on Dr. Bellow's door. With everything else going on this week, I'd had to give up my lunch break for my weekly appointment, and had grabbed a handful of the high-calorie bars they stocked for energisers. Still, I wasn't planning on any heavy magic use today, so missing lunch wasn't critical anyway. Just as well, while the bars weren't the worst I'd ever eaten, they weren't exactly wonderful either.

"Hello, Morgana."

"Hi, Doc. Sorry to screw up your lunch hour like this."

He smiled. "Don't worry, they send me over a meal so I don't starve. Now, take a seat and tell me how things have been going."

I sat as instructed and then sighed. "Well, the nightmares are getting less frequent, which is a good thing, right?"

He nodded. "The ones caused by the demon?"

I shivered slightly. "Yeah. I mean, I know it's gone and all, but I don't think my dreams are quite convinced yet. But I only had three this week, and one of them wasn't too terrible."

He looked at me thoughtfully. "I see. And how about your ones about confinement?"

Confinement. That was a polite way of referring to the nightmares I had of being chained up in a torture cell. "Well, I had one on Monday, but they seem to be getting a lot less frequent now. And the sleeping pills they gave me help, at least I can get back to sleep afterward."

He made a couple of notes on his pad. "I think we'll keep you on the sleeping pills for a few more weeks, you need your sleep." He gave me a questioning look. "I see you've been adding more to your schedule?"

I blushed slightly. "Yeah, I really think I need to learn some healing. I know it's another couple of evenings, but it will be so useful."

"You don't think you're trying to do too much?"

I shook my head firmly. "No, Doc, I'm fine."

He gave me a look and made another note.

"And how about your experience in Berlin on Sunday? Any issues from that?"

I shook my head. "Actually, Doc, none. To be honest, after all that's been happening to me, having to fight a few thugs was, well, refreshingly normal! Not that I want to make a habit of it, you understand."

"I think that's a good idea, Morgana. Any fight can have serious, if not fatal, consequences."

"I realise that Doc, I'm not ignoring that. Just that it was" - I searched around for an appropriate phrase - "the sort of threat that you see all the time on TV. Sorry, it's a bit hard to explain really."

"Don't worry, Morgana, I think I know what you mean."

Dr. Bellows looked thoughtfully as his door closed behind the girl, then turned back to add some more notes to his pad.

Morgana Jones, session 28th October 2016. While Morgana reports a decreasing number of nightmares, I am still rather concerned about them. Her recent experience has boosted the number of traumatic events, and we need to check that they do indeed reduce in frequency and intensity. Hopefully, the rest of the term will be much more peaceful for her, which will help.

Secondly, I am worried about the amount of time she is spending on her studies. I think she is concentrating so hard on them to distract herself from her mental problems. While this is hardly unsurprising in her circumstances, and concentrating on work is better than a number of the alternatives, we need to make sure she doesn’t end up doing nothing but work. She needs social interaction, especially as both the events causing her problems involved isolation.

He thought for a bit before adding another paragraph.

Note to Ms. Grimes. While I understand the issues you had regarding her spending time with Thulia, as long as the recommended precautions are taken, I see it as in general a good thing for Morgana, in that it will distract her from working so hard. I realise that any relationship between the two is hardly conventional, and so I am requesting you keep an eye on them and let me know if there seem to be any unusual pressure on or actions by Morgana as a result of their time together. If this does happen, we will need to reassess the situation immediately.

Friday 28th October, afternoon, Caitlin's workshop

"So, Caitlin, how did the amulet go?"

Caitlin waved a hand at the piece of silvery jewellery sitting on one of her worktables. "All done but for the charging. I'll do that on Sunday at the New Moon."

Grimes raised her eyebrows. "What, no problems or issues with a demon-controlling amulet."

Caitlin gave her one of her looks. "You know very well it's not that complicated, especially with access to Thulia's blood."

Grimes looked smug. "I never doubted your skills for a moment, Caitlin."

That just got her another dark look from the Artificer, who was well aware Grimes was just carrying on their longstanding ritual of annoying each other when the opportunity arose.

"Actually... there was something odd."

Grimes straightened up. "Odd? Odd in what way?"

"Not odd in the sense of dangerous, odd in the sense of, well odd."

"Caitlin, we're dealing with an amulet to keep a demon in check at Whateley. I think I need to know exactly how it's odd? Will it affect its operation in any way?"

Caitlin walked over to the amulet, picking it up and giving it a look. "It's nothing that will affect the way it works. The spell is targeted and tasked for Thulia, since I used her blood to attune it to her, the limitations it imposes will work perfectly. That isn't the issue. What I found while I was making it, though, is - well, I'm pretty sure Thulia isn't a demon. Or to be more exact, not entirely a demon."

Grimes was looking very thoughtful. "Can you put it in words, Caitlin? I need to know if everything is OK before we allow Thulia to visit."

"It's - well, it is hard to put into words, it was more the feelings I had when I made the amulet. If I'd just been making an amulet for a generic demon, I wouldn't have noticed anything. But for this one, I tied it into her blood, to make it more efficient and work better. So I got some - feedback, I guess - as I constructed it. Now it doesn't tell me anything definite about Thulia - not enough blood, and we agreed to use it in a specific way - but I did get impressions about the sort of thing she is. And while there is definitely some demon in there, there's a lot of other stuff as well. A lot of fire - well, that was hardly a surprise - but other things as well. Not enough for me to identify them, and it's all mixed up - the main thing I was concentrating on was the demon bit."

"Caitlin, if she isn't a demon - or is only partly a demon - will the amulet still work?"

Caitlin gave a nonchalant shrug. "Of course it will still work - I attuned it to her, it will work fine on her. I'm just curious now as to exactly what she is. There was an edge to the demon part of her, I'm not certain but I think there's some sex demon in there."

"Oh, dear."

Caitlin turned to face Grimes. "You think that's a problem?"

"I'm honestly not sure. Thulia and Morgana seem to have a close relationship, now you have me worried Morgana is being influenced by a sex demon. She is only a teenager, after all."

Caitlin mulled that over. "I don't trust demons, you know that. But when they came to donate the blood, I didn't pick up any obvious signs of her controlling Morgana. And I did look, just in case."

"If she's an experienced Succubus - or Incubus - she could have very subtle hooks in the girl."

"That's true - but one of the feelings I did get was that Thulia is young. Of course, young in demon terms might not be young by ours. But again, I wasn't specifically looking for that, so I can't honestly be certain."

Grimes sighed deeply. "It almost makes me wish she was just a simple demon, it would be a lot less confusing!"

"So what are you going to do about it?"

Grimes stared at Caitlin for a moment. "What are we going to do about it, you mean?"

Caitlin just looked innocent. "Me? I'm just a simple craftsman" - that got a snort of disbelief from Grimes - "while you are the head of the Magic Department. It's your call."

Grimes stared off into the distance. "When it comes down to it, yes it is. I can see several possible actions. First, we could just forbid Thulia to visit. There are two problems with that, we agreed as part of a bargain to allow it, once the amulet was done, and in any case, I don't think it will work as intended."

"Surely you don't think she can get through the school wards? At least without us knowing."

"It's not that, it's Morgana. She's been applying herself to the Art diligently, and she's very smart. Give her motivation, and she'll find a way to summon Thulia outside the wards, and then where are we? That was one of my reasons for agreeing to the visit deal, at least then we know when she's here and that she's constrained. Morgana is quite sensible - for a teenager - and she'll follow reasonable and sensible rules. The second option is to let her come, with the amulet on, and keep a very careful eye on them."

Caitlin gave her an exasperated look. "Why am I suddenly getting the feeling you're going to ask me to do that?"

"Because you agreed to keep an eye on them on her initial visits?" Caitlin's reaction was the deep sigh of the heavily-put-upon.

Grines was still thinking aloud. "If we got more of her blood, could you get a better idea of what she is?"

"Hmm. Two problems with that. Yes, a good-sized sample would allow us to get a much better idea of what she is. Come to that, so would knowing her True Name. Can't see her falling for giving us either, though."

"It would be a bit much to ask for. But I can't see any way of fulfilling our side of the bargain except by letting her visit."

"You know, you may be overthinking this."

Grimes looked over at Caitlin. "I am?"

Caitlin nodded, "First since the amulet is attuned to her, so whatever she is it will work as intended. So no funny otherplanar powers. Second - we could always cheat!"

"Cheat? Cheat how?"

Caitlin gave Grimes a huge shit-eating grin. "Ask her of course!"

Grimes blinked. "You know...insane as that sounds - even coming from you" - Caitlin's grin got even wider - "It might work. At least, it won't hurt to try, and knowing more about her would help Morgana, seeing how she's connected to her, so it's an honest approach. Although I'm tempted to get you to ask her, just in case?"

"Just in case?"

"You're fireproof, remember?"

 

To Be Continued In Part 4