A Second Generation Whateley Academy Story

Where there's Smoke There's Fire

by

Astrodragon

 

Part Four

 

Monday 31st October, Magic Lab, second period.

Given the occasion, our group - and I suspected most of the others - had been speculating about the result of our mid-terms. While we weren't nearly as bad as some of the others, the only one who was completely relaxed about it all was Smokey, who had taken over his usual position on the desk and gone to sleep. Sometimes I envied his approach to life.

Our chatter was halted when all of our phones *bleeped* imperiously at us. Looking down, it was as expected the results of our tests. I tried to make myself believe I wasn't nervous as I opened the attachment, but then totally blew my attempt at 'calm, cool, not caring really' as I yipped in pleasure at the A staring at me. Well, I was certain I hadn't done badly, but an A was what I'd been hoping for.

The rest of our group didn't seem too worried, so of course, we compared the results. Noelle had also got an A, and Bianca and A.J. had got B's. Which was all cool.

"So, the two workaholics got an A then?" Bianca took the sting out of her comment with a big grin, which only got wider when Noelle blushed a deep red.

I just pretended it wasn't anything out of the ordinary, but Noelle was still embarrassed.

"Well, while I was in Hawthorne I couldn't do the practicals, so I spent a lot of time on the books."

Bianca nodded. "That's fair." Then she jerked her thumb at me. "and little miss workaholic here reads the books for fun!"

"Hey, I don't! It's just that magic is interesting..." I looked at the three smirks. "I'm not a workaholic! Am I??"

Bianca patted me on the arm. "Yes, when it comes to magic, you are most definitely a workaholic. You need to find a hobby." I opened my mouth and she overrode the start of my protest. "And magic does NOT count as a hobby! Hey, you could actually spend some time with Laura in the Labs actually working on a project, rather than just mooching more of that hideous devisor sludge by wiggling your ass at the boys!"

I gave her a look. Bianca wasn't much worse than me, just that she spent a lot of time on her rune magic, most of which wasn't in the syllabus and so not helpful for the exams. Of course, some of the stuff I'd been doing to contact and summon Thulia hadn't been in the curriculum either. And I did not 'wiggle my ass'. It wasn't necessary with those lab boys...

"Well, I guess that's done with until Thursday." A.J. Looked philosophical, but we already knew that while he had a good grounding in magic from his Mom that had given him a good start, he wasn't the most dedicated student.

I looked around, curious to see how some of the other groups were reacting. Most of them seemed not terribly worried, and a few had grins that showed they'd done well. I was pleased to see the three assholes - sorry, Chained Melody and her friends - were looking unhappy. Serves them right if they'd done poorly, if they spent less time gossiping and slandering during class, they do better in the course work.

Noelle looked up. "We all have our practical exam on Thursday?" There was a series of nods. "I don't think I'll do well, I'm so far behind you all."

"Hey, Noelle, don't worry so much! Grimes told us it's about how much we've improved, not just how much we know. She's a fair teacher, she knows you started on the practical stuff late. And you're really good at the essence manipulation stuff."

She shrugged, still not looking happy, as we saw Grimes come in and took our seats. "Well, those exercises were all I was allowed to do before you started me off."

Grimes tapped on her desk and waited for us all to pay attention.

"Now, last week we covered the use of certain common methods of divination. This week we will be looking at a set of spells that tie in with these, the use of wards and spells to avoid detection. In the practical sessions, we will be trying these on both mundane forms of detection, and against some of the divination methods you've been taught. For this, I suggest at first you use whichever method of divination you found worked best for you, and see how effective it is."

I gave Bianca a look. She wasn't looking comfortable."Worried about your privacy and 'don't notice me' spells?"

She nodded. "If some of the people here" she shot a vindictive glance at Chained melody - "learn to get through or degrade my privacy spells, it won't be good."

I nodded. "Well, once we start the basics using the spells in the books, we can do some testing in private against your spells if you want. That way we can see what works best, and if you need to change or improve some of them." She gave me a grateful look, and I just grinned. "Hey, I'm being selfish here, I like my privacy as well!"

Monday 30th October, Gravedigger's Room, lunchtime

 

Gravedigger sat going through the report he'd got from Scry, making notes as he went. He'd got the report yesterday, but his initial reading of it had been disappointing, and he wanted to go through it carefully in private and see what he should do next.

His original hope had been that he'd get some proof that DragonsFyre was a demon, or at least part demon, but it was obvious from the report that she had disguised that far too well for it to be confirmed easily. Still, there were some points that looked like they could lead to a better chance of confirming his theory.

While digging deeply into a student's background was more difficult now than before the Calliope fiasco, it was still possible, it just required more care and less brute force. Having come to a good working relationship with one of the less ethical security guards had helped as well. The first interesting point was that DragonsFyre's background only went back to a few weeks before she arrived at Whateley. This was hardly unheard of, but what interested him was that the usual reasons - trouble with the authorities, a public outing, and so on, weren't present. The search had indicated that wherever her trail went, they had no interest in looking down such a dangerous rabbit hole. But they had checked and couldn't find any obvious event that would tie in with a need to bury her background so efficiently. Which, he felt, could easily be explained by her being of demonic origin, and the British authorities wanting to cover that up. Exactly why they would have done that was still a mystery, but a government could find a lot of use for a demon, especially one kept a secret.

A detailed investigation of her once she'd arrived had been marked down as 'inconclusive'. She was marked down for counselling on the grounds of PTSD, but the details of why were unavailable, and the only real incident had been when she was attacked early in the term. He made a few more notes; it seemed highly unlikely a demon would have PTSD, but maybe the counselling was more to help her blend in, and give an excuse for anything caused by a demon's notorious temper.

For an ordinary student on the magic track, she did seem to have had more than the usual attention from Ms. Grimes. The most recent incident had attracted even more interest from the Mystic Arts department. While they were a lot more difficult to investigate than most departments - they had a very old fashioned idea that paper records were still a useful form of storage - Doyle was a much easier nut to crack, as long as one didn't need to get into the confidential student medical records. DragonsFyre had undergone a quite public burnout at one of the ranges. While that did happen, and she'd gone to Doyle as would be expected, it was what happened after that didn't fit the normal pattern.

Instead of staying in Doyle until fully recovered or, as sometimes occurred, going to Hawthorne for a while due to power issues caused by the burnout, she'd been the subject of what seemed to be a full-scale inquiry by Mystic Arts. Including a meeting with some 'outside experts' who couldn't be identified. However, some searching had revealed that at the same time as one Kayda Franks, an ex-student who seemed to be an expert in demons and GOO, had been around. He didn't think this was a co-incidence, the presence of a demon expert would have been fully in keeping with DragonsFyre being at least of part-demon origin. Again the Doyle records were interesting. After these meetings, the girl had been sent back to Doyle with new injuries, which she hadn't acquired as a result of her burnout. So what exactly had been going on?

Some days later she'd been back in circulation, though with what seemed to be some residual scars, and no further actions by the school seemed to have taken place. He tapped his pen thoughtfully against his fingers. He couldn't give an exact reason, but something was very fishy about the whole thing. He was beginning to refine his theory somewhat. What if the girl was reallly possessed by a demon, rather than actually being one, and the burnout and subsequent actions had been because of this. Maybe there had been issues with the possession, requiring it to be redone or strengthened? That would explain the presence of Kayda Franks. The girl was a mutant; he needed to look into whether an Avatar could host an actual demon. That would fit the pattern quite well; she would be an avatar, with her powers given by the demon filling her hallow, and her listed power testing being a fraud. Or she might just be possessed, hosting a demon without the Avatar ability being involved. Or she could still be of demonic origin. He needed to refine his investigation to determine which of these was the case, his subsequent actions would need a solid starting point.

He frowned down at his notes. It looked like he'd exhausted the conventional searching capability. Well, that had just been his starting point, first eliminate the simple solutions. Now he'd need to get some help from a group he'd have preferred not to, but it was the obvious next step. The problem with the Goobers was that they were, well, odd. And he had no leverage over them, so even if they did find out something they might not tell him. But right now it was his best option. The other thing he could do was to keep one of his ghosts shadowing DragonsFyre out of classes. He couldn't do this all the time; when she was working in the Mystic Arts building she was shielded, and that Mafiosa roommate of hers had their room quite well warded - another thing that was suspicious.

Well, best get started, he had a feeling that while the results were negative, he was actually making progress towards his true aim. He could find one of the Goobers and talk to them sometime in the next couple of days.

Tuesday 1st November, after classes, the Quad.

 

Shades and Beatdown were sitting at one of the tables, idly watching the student traffic. Not as much as earlier in the year, but they rather enjoyed the occasional look of trepidation that came that way, it gave them ideas as to who would be a good target.

*crack*

Shades sighed and looked at his friend, who was happily breaking walnuts between his fingers and popping the edible parts into his mouth. "I don't suppose you can do that a bit more noisily?"

Beatdown just grinned. "Dunno, I supposed I could try."

Shades shook his head. "Well, now we're here, I was thinking about our plans for Glyph."

Beatdown nodded - he'd expected that, one of the reasons they hung out here was that it made overhearing them more difficult.

"So how are your gifts going down?"

Shade frowned. "Not as well as I'd hoped, but I'm sure persistence will pay off. But I did have an idea to help our long-term goals."

"Oh? What are they?"

Shade settled himself more comfortably. "Well, while me getting romantically involved with her is a good goal, we need to get you into a good position too. So I was thinking... she'll need a close and trusted bodyguard, and that would fit you well. So while I carry on with my program, I think we need to start on getting you into that sort of position, so that when we graduate you'll be there ready for the real job."

Beatdown rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "That's a good idea, but what about that dragongirl she's rooming with? I thought she was her current muscle?"

"Yeah, but she'd not very good. I've been checking up, and she isn't much of a brick. I think she's just there right now because making her roomie a minion was so simple. Now what we need to do is to show her how much better you are."

Beatdown nodded, and opened his mouth, only to be pre-empted by his friend. "No, not by beating her up! Sure, that would show Glyph she needs a better protector, but beating up her current one might not be the best idea. No, I had something more interesting in mind."

"Go on then, what's the brilliant idea?"

"You romance her." Beatdown blinked as he continued. "Think about it. She's a girl, she doesn't have a boyfriend. OK, she has some GSD, so she's probably shy about that, but her body isn't at all bad. So perfect for a confident boy to make some moves on her, just tell her stuff like her GSD doesn't matter, she's still beautiful, all that sort of guff. Once she's your girlfriend, you can ease her out by pointing out that you're there, and much tougher, and she'll fall in with that rather than losing her boyfriend. Then you slip into the vacancy."

Beatdown sat and thought about it for a couple of minutes. "Hmmm. It's not the worst idea you've ever had. I think we should work on it, but I like the idea. As you said, she's a bit of a monster girl, but she does have a great body. I can live with that."

Wednesday 2nd November, London

 

"As requested, we have recovered the data of the A.E.G.I.S. raid on the Cult's island base. As we expected, it was relatively easy to get hold of. The costs for the hackers we used have been appended to this week's report.

Master Olrun looked at the cost Nephandus had appended to the report and grimaced. This operation was costing a lot more than he'd originally envisaged, but he'd invested too much both in money and influence to stop now. "And what were the results?"

"They confirmed a considerable amount of what we were speculating on last week. As we hoped to find, a girl was indeed rescued from the island after the raid. She was in need of immediate medical attention, and since not all of their medical reports are held under deep security we were able to access some information on her. In particular, her photograph."

Master Olrun looked carefully at the photograph Nephandus was showing him. "Interesting. Yes, she certainly agrees with all the other reports of what she looked like."

"As we still have access to the mercenaries we recovered, we checked with them. They both confirm her as the girl they were holding captive after the first demon left."

Olrun nodded. "I don't like leaving them around as a potential loose end. I wish to have them delivered to us, we will make sure any information they have remains with us alone."

Nephandus shrugged. He knew what the mercenaries' fate would be in Olrun's hands, and given their records he wasn't concerned about their ultimate fate. He did wish Olrun wasn't so keen to wrap up loose ends; one could never be quite certain you'd extracted all the information, and it was much easier to interrogate a live mercenary than a dead one. Still, Olrun was paying the bills.

"To continue. As far as we can tell, she was released from their medical facility around ten days after the raid so at least we know she was healthy at that point. However, we haven't yet had time to find out where she is now. Since we now have solid data on her appearance, this should be only a matter of time while we investigate the likely places they might have sent her to, and also travel data in case she was sent somewhere unexpected, or by a diversionary route. Our hackers estimate about a week - they tell me it's not a particularly difficult task, but there is a lot of data and sources to go through, and unless you want to pay a premium for them to concentrate fully on this task...?"

Olrun shook his head in reply. The standard costs were quite high enough already, and he couldn't see how saving a few days would help at this point.

"No, a week should be adequate. Once we know where she is, we can discuss a retrieval operation. We may decide to do this ourselves, depending on the circumstances."

Nephandus nodded. "As you wish. We can of course arrange a recovery operation, but until we know from where we won't be able to give you a cost estimate. Unless you have any other needs, I suggest this time next week, where we should be in a position to take the recovery matter properly in hand."

Wednesday 2nd Nov, evening, Magic Lab

 

I was sitting at the worktop in our lab, carefully inscribing the final lines of my spell diagram with a Dremel. The belt buckle I was using was quite intricate, with a rather lovely dragon in scarlet on a gold background on the front - which of course was my excuse for using it on my belt. The hidden reason was that it was also large enough to allow me to scribe a decently sized spell pattern on the reverse. I gave the lines a critical look before wiping off the last of the metal dust, then measured the lines carefully to make sure it was all correct.

"What are you making?

"Oh, Hi Bianca. A holdout, in case I need it." I held up the buckle to show her.

"Pretty. What does it do?"

"Shield. I figured having one just in case something happens would be useful, especially after all those lectures we got after Berlin."

She nodded. "I'm surprised it's so small."

I nodded and tapped my laptop, letting it display some diagrams. "Yeah, it's a lot smaller than the one you're putting on your coat, I know, but it does have the advantage of being always available. And if something happens, I can pass it on to someone like Laura in an emergency."

She was looking at the notes on the screen, frowning at diagrams and the lines of equations. "You've been using maths again, haven't you?"

I grinned. "Well, I had to work on it a bit because of the size." She made a 'so, go on' gesture, so I decided to give her the whole lecture.

"Well, I did some research. While these things are magic, not tech, they do have commonalities with things like batteries - after all, they are both storing energy. So, like a battery, a larger one can store more essence. And again, a high quality - and expensive! - one can store more. But I didn't want to spend a lot, especially if I got it wrong, so while it's a bit better than your coat, it won't hold as much essence."

She frowned. "So doesn't that mean it won't protect as well?"

I made a 'sorta yes, sorta no' gesture. "Well, as you can see from my notes" - she looked at the lines of equations, and made a face - "you can tune these things a bit. I did lower the protection a little from the level you're setting on your coat - I figured I could afford to take a bit more damage - but mainly the spell is tuned to run hot. Your coat should be able to be recharged quite a few times, this one won't. At the rate it will draw down essence while it's operating, it's only going to be good for a couple of uses, then I'll have to make a new one. It will basically have burnt out under the stress of such a high draw rate. The price to pay for it being small but relatively cheap."

"You don't think that will be a problem?"

I shook my head. "It's not to take me through multiple fights - I'll be working on a larger one on my costume to do that when I start to put it together - it's just in case I get ambushed like last week. So lasting one or two fights should be fine. And when Laura finally gets the bugs out of her PFG, its helpfull strength in depth."

I patted the buckle. "Now I just have to fill in the lines and get it ready, I'm going to do that tonight." I made a face. "I don't want the inks and such out here where someone might get at them."

She nodded. "So you've finally used some of your own blood, haven't you?"

I nodded. "Yeah. I did check everything out like Grimes told me, but it looks safe for something like this. There do seem to be some issues, what with it being sorta inclined to fire magic, but they seem OK for a protection spell. The only thing I could find was that it could make it less effective against things like cold attacks, but given the added bonuses, I think I can live with that. Then tomorrow when it's all ready I can power it up - it will take quite a lot of essence, so I want to do that last thing at night - and I'll have it for the weekend. Just in case.

Maybe this was being a bit paranoid, but Bianca had shown that paranoia could be justified, and next time some crazed nutjob attacked me I wanted to have a bit more defence than just my skin available.

Thursday afternoon, Magic Practical class (Ms. Grimes' Office)

 

I'd got the first slot for Ms. Grime's practical evaluation, which was both good and bad. Good in that I wasn't trying to practice in the Lab while worrying about it coming up, bad in that I had no idea what it was going to involve. So I sat down and tried to look calm. She looked down at her notes, then at me.

"Now, Morgana. First I want to check how your essence control and retention is coming along, especially after the change in you. Then I'm going to have you demonstrate some standard spells and methods, and then we will go over what you've made. Once we've done all that, we will discuss your progress and see how best to guide it for the second half of the term. Do you have any questions?"

I thought, then shrugged mentally. It did seem pretty straightforward, and I was eager to know how well she thought I'd been doing. While getting tested was getting very stale - I'd been subject to a number of them during my rehabilitation from being demonically possessed - they hadn't told me how I was doing compared to anyone else.

So, she got out her little mystic doo-dads - sorry, her elegant and sophisticated spell testing equipment - and spent about half an hour with me going through my exercises, casting some simple spells using various methods, and explaining what I'd made for myself. Finally, she sat back and nodded.

"Good, Morgana. Now I suppose you want to know how you're doing?" Well, the expression on my face made that pretty obvious, yes.

"Now, first your exercises. You're doing quite well in these. Not as good as I'd hoped, but you've had to modify things after your recent incident, and you're adapting nicely. I think for these, just carry on as you've been doing, and I'll take a look at the end of the month."

I nodded and she continued.

"Now, your spell work is very good. I know you've spent time adjusting your spells to work properly with your dragonform, and the ones you've done this for are working correctly. You still have quite a few to work on, but that's just a matter of time. It seems as if you're going to be using an air-drawn spell diagram as your preferred mode, am I correct?"

"Yes ma'am. It seems to work well for me, I'm comfortable with it. Spell slips and such are useful to have as a backup, but I like the flexibility of being able to cast a non-prepared spell. And being able to see the lines as I draw them is a big help."

"Yes, I see that. You shouldn't ignore the other methods - you will find later that being able to use the most appropriate method is very helpful - but I agree, this seems to be the way you will be using, at least for a while. Now, as to your tools. You haven't made as many as I expected, but." - She paused to smile - "you have been spending time making some extracurricular items haven't you?"

OK, I admit I blushed. "Er, well, ma'am, they were necessary..."

Fortunately, Grimes didn't seem annoyed. "In retrospect, yes they were. And while some of what you did was quite sophisticated by first-year standards, you did them well and with the proper care and safety precautions. So I'll add those to your list of accomplishments."

I grinned. That was a lot better than I'd hoped for, actually.

"Now, as for the rest of the term. I don't see much need for change, although hopefully you won't be doing so much additional work, so I would like to see more prepared spells and devices. You have a good eye for detail, I want to see how it helps you with these things. Apart from that, you're making good progress."

Thursday 3rd Nov, late evening, Bianca and Morgana's room

 

I looked at my watch before opening the door. 9.30 pm. Then I stopped and smiled to myself. Hmm, Bianca had mentioned seeing Janine tonight. So instead of cheerfully barging in, as usual, I paused and knocked deliberately loudly. Then pressed my ear against the door to listen.

I grinned wider as I hear the sound of hurried movement for around ten seconds before I heard Bianca say "Come in." In what sounded suspiciously like a breathless tone of voice.

Well, that short warning had at least enabled Bianca to get in her chair while Janine sat on the bed. Of course, the way the blankets had been disturbed rather gave away what had been happening before I got there, and Janine looked a bit mussed, but it wasn't as if I minded. Janine was good for Bianca, after all the crap she'd had to deal with this term, a cute girlfriend would be good for her. Maybe she'd finally start to lighten up! At least I could hope so.

"Oh, hi girls! Studying?"

Both girls nodded furiously, and I managed to keep my face straight. "Janine, just thought you should know it's gone 9.30 if you need to get back to your cottage."

She squeaked and jumped up from the bed. "Oh, thanks Morgana, I'd forgotten the time." While she grabbed her coat, I gave Bianca a cynical look - yeah, I bet they'd forgotten the time - just to relish the look of embarrassment. Janine rather ruined Bianca's attempt to look innocent by giving her a not-really-innocent-at-all goodbye kiss before racing out the door.

I shook my head at my roomie. "Bianca? You don't need to pretend to me about the two of you. Really you don't. Janine is a nice girl, the two of you look good together. And if you want any personal time together, just let me know and I'll stay away."

She just looked embarrassed again. Good grief, even I wasn't this bad about relationships. "Bianca? Look, I don't mind! Honestly."

Friday 4th November, evening, Morgana and Bianca's room.

 

I was feeling nervous about something other than dire events as I talked to Thulia. Probably because in a few days she'd be visiting, and at last we'd be able to spend some time together. I was both looking forward to that and at the same time worried - what if when we spent time together it didn't go well??

Logically, I realised that the brief times we'd had had all gone as well as could be expected - or at least as well as they could given they were pretty much all involved with traumatic events - but my feelings weren't about logic, so I still worried. Thulia was important, I couldn't afford to screw things up between us. Considering that, I tried to keep everything light as we talked.

"Do you think my robe will be OK? I don't really understand how your clothing requirements work at Whateley."

I thought back to some of the robes she'd worn when we'd been in her workroom and got lost in thought for a moment remembering one of the more... interesting... ones. Which had looked amazing on her, but in retrospect maybe not the best one to be wandering around campus in. And while the one she'd worn for talking with Grimes and everyone hadn't been immodest - well, not really - I didn't know what the rest of the students would make of it. Not that people weren't used to some, shall we say, idiosyncratic clothing choices, like spandex. In some cases, pink spandex with added glitter, but I wasn't going to mention that to her, just in case. I was torn - part of me wanted to let people realise how amazing she looked, the other part was worried that some of the kids wouldn't exactly be polite about her choice of apparel. I didn't want her first visit to Whateley to be ruined by some of our resident idiots if I could help it. No matter what she wore, I foresaw the usual overly sexualised and idiotic comments from the usual horndogs.

"I'm not really sure. Hey, hang on a sec! How did you manage around London? Ceri told me you were wearing casual stuff when she met you in that cafe?"

She giggled. "To be accurate, I wasn't wearing that at all!" She must have seen the way that comment had given me some interesting thoughts, as she gave me a mock-frown and continued. "I wasn't wearing nothing! It was a spell. It's quite useful, it makes me blend in, makes people think I'm wearing the sort of clothes they'd expect."

"That sounds pretty cool, are you going to use that here?"

She shook her head. "I'd rather not, it has some problems. It takes a lot of essence, especially in a crowd, and it has problems in a small group - everyone will see something different, and if they talk they'll realise that. And it gives me a terrible headache after. Especially when I'm running a translation spell as well."

I blinked at that. I'd never really questioned the way Thulia spoke English so well, but I guess it wasn't likely to be her native tongue, so a translation spell would be logical. A question for another time, though.

"I guess it's a robe, then. I hope you won't be cold, it's getting chilly here now."

"Oh, but I never get cold!"

I sighed. "Yeah, I'm working on that for myself but it's not easy getting it right without being too hot or cold. And I still can't get it to handle coming in or out of the cold properly."

She smiled. "You'll get there, especially now that parasite isn't messing up your control."

I nodded, then suddenly had a thought. "Thulia, while you're here, why don't we get you some Earth clothes? There's a huge store on Campus, and you might enjoy the shopping?" Then I thought for a moment. "Uh... you do have shopping back home??"

I wasn't quite sure how she'd enjoy shopping, but while she was a terminal geek she was still very much a girl, so I figured she'd at least find the experience interesting.

Her eyes lit up at that - quite literally. "Ooh! That does sound fun, I've not done any shopping on Earth! I did think about it when I was in London, but it was so crowded, and I didn't know what to do. And yes, of course we have shopping! I want to see how yours is different!"

I grinned. "Then we'll do it, then!" Of course, I'd rather have spent our time together cuddled up in my room while I bribed Bianca to not be there, but realistically that wasn't going to happen, especially with Caitlin riding shotgun on us, so we might as well schedule in some less private things.

After I'd carefully packed the bowl back in its padded box, I thought a bit about what I might have let myself in for on Sunday. Namely clothes shopping with a girl. I wasn't exactly the best person for Thulia to ask for advice on that, I had enough issues buying for myself, and apart from the school uniform I'd usually cheated and gone for shirts and jeans. What she needed was advice from a real girl, or at least (this being Poe) someone who identified as a girl, unlike my reluctant admission to the ranks. So who to ask?

I ran several possible girls through my head, before realising that it would be far better to get someone who actually knew about Thulia to help, otherwise I'd be spending the time trying to explain away her misconceptions. Then I remembered I had just the girl next door to me. Laura had always been by far the most 'girly' of the changelings, someone who was happy at her change. Who better to help me explain shops and women's clothing to Thulia? I looked at my watch - a bit late, but like me, Laura wasn't an early-to-bed person, so I'd just see if she had some time to talk about it. Thinking about it, maybe I should ask a bit more about why she was so good at acting like a girl, even after four months a lot of it was still bothering me. Putting a good face on it was one thing, actually internalising it was something I still hadn't done, and part of me was very reluctant to do.

I slipped out into the corridor and tapped on Laura's door. I figured if she was busy doing something devisor-ish she wouldn't hear me anyway, so if she didn't respond I'd just ask her in the morning. I was in luck, there was a muffled 'what is it?' from inside. Laura was sitting at her desk, but as there weren't any bits of death ray scattered across it I figured I hadn't interrupted.

"Hi, Laura. Sorry to bother you so late, but I wondered if I could ask you a favour?"

She swung around in her chair, giving me a questioning look, then shrugged. "Sure, what is it?"

"Well, you see, Thulia is visiting tomorrow and..."

I was interrupted by her waggling her eyebrows at me. "Ah, that explains the lustful grin on your face then!"

That stopped me dead, and it took a moment to get back on track. "I do not...! er.. does it show?"

I got a smug look. "Yup. So, what's the favour? Do you want me to keep people away from your door in case you get too loud?

I tried to look more hopefully pleading, which just got me another snicker. "Well, she hasn't exactly got any, um, regular clothes. What she wears might attract a little too much attention, we're trying to keep a low profile."

Laura's grin just widened. "Oh, you mean what she's normally not wearing?"

I gave my blue friend a long-suffering look. Yes, she'd had me describe Thulia for her, and yes, I'd accidentally mentioned that she didn't always wear clothes, and her robes tended to be, well, rather revealing some of the time. That didn't mean she just walked around naked. Not that I'd have minded..."

I dragged that rather interesting mental image to one side. "Hush! Anyway, I thought that since you seem to be the best of us at, well, girly things, you might be prepared to help us do some clothes shopping at the store."

Laura had actually blushed lavender at this point, so I hesitated. I hadn't meant to offend her. "I'm sorry, Laura, I didn't mean to sound critical or anything."

She shook her head. "No, it's... OK. Yeah, I'd be glad to help."

I had to admit, I gave her a big grin. While I knew Thulia would probably love to get some of the local fashions, I'd been seriously worried about my pitiful fashion sense being up to the task. "Thanks, Laura, that's great!"

I'd half turned away, ready to leave, when I thought of something, paused, and turned back to her.

"Laura... if you don't mind me asking, why are you so good at being a girl?"

Laura winced obviously, and I hurriedly continued. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you."

She shook her head, then gestured to the other chair. "No, it's... it's just... mixed memories. Sit down, I might as well explain, Dr. Cody thinks it would help me if I can talk about it."

Wow, this was going a bit deeper than I had expected. So I sat down, still watching her. "It sounds like it's complicated?"

She nodded, wringing her hands together a little. "My ... that asshole ...," she shook her head " Sorry, I don't like to call him a parent. He was ... a total asshat to me.

I nodded, speaking quietly. "Your father?"

"He is NOT my father!" the blue girl snapped angrily. "Even if I, unfortunately, share some genes with him, he's not my father!"  Seeing my reaction, she took a deep breath to calm herself and carried on. "He favoured my jerk older brothers. They're twins. He liked them because he said they're tough, they're going to grow up to be rugged men worthy of taking over his business! They're going to be worthy heirs of the Thornton name!"

I was surprised how bitter she sounded, as she spat the words with venom. Especially coming from Laura, who was normally such a sweet girl. But something puzzled me.

"The business... Big Bobs Barbeque?" She looked surprised, so I carried on. "You have mentioned it a couple of times."

"He just ... didn't like me.  Made no secret of that. Mom tried to make up for his ... crap." She blushed lavender "Everyone called me a 'Mama's Boy'. My jerk brothers encouraged it at school, too."

I was uncertain what to say. She was hunched up a bit on her chair, looking both hurt and angry. "Uh... It doesn't sound like it was much fun?"

"No, it wasn't." She shrugged in a completely unconvincingly manner."I ... spent more time with Mom and with my little sister. I dunno, maybe I was ... a little less macho than he wanted."

I was beginning to get angry with her father myself. She was right, he sounded a real jerk. Still, maybe talking more would break her out of looking so upset?

"So... maybe because of all that, you wanted to be a girl?"

Laura gawked at me, then looked down, blushing so furiously her face was a deep lavender shade. "Maybe."  She gave a deep sigh. "That's what Dr. Cody suggested, too. He said maybe I'd almost always wanted to be a girl so my father and brothers wouldn't treat me like shit. So the jerks wouldn't be so mean to me."

I spoke carefully, trying to tiptoe through the obvious emotional minefield that had opened up in front of me. "I guess that makes sense, nobody wants to be treated like that."

She carried on almost as if she hadn't heard me. "My best friends in school ... were the girls.  Because the jerks made sure I wasn't welcome playing with the guys." She looked miserably down at the floor. "I guess maybe they were right. I am ... was ... a sissy-boy."

I kept my voice low, almost a whisper. I couldn't quite relate to her situation, being a girl had never been one of my aims before I'd been experimented on, but she hadn't been bothering anyone, why couldn't they at least have left her alone? "Maybe. But maybe you were just being you."

Laura was still obviously not convinced. "That's what Dr. Cody says.  That now I'm more comfortable because I don't have to prove anything to ... to them! " She shook her head with a forlorn, ironic snort. "I had a girlfriend, too … sort of. But then the jerks convinced her that I was becoming even more of a sissy. And that I was a filthy mutant.  She … dumped me.  They convinced all the girls that I was an evil menace. And they made sure I wasn't welcome " She paused, and I could tell she was fighting a battle against her hidden demons. " I just know I'm more comfortable.  Happier.  It's so much easier with Mom and Julie. And you guys.  I don't have to prove I'm ... man enough..."

I shook my head firmly. "Laura. You don't need to prove anything in that way. Really you don't. Even if you do stare at me an awful lot in the showers...."

She gave a small *eeeping* noise as my words broke her out of the funk she'd been settling into. "I don't..."

I just gave her a wide grin. "Oh yes you do!"

She couldn't meet my eyes, so I decided to show some mercy. In any case, I still had some questions.

"So... hanging out with the girls, is that why you're good at shopping and know about makeup and hair, that sort of stuff?"

"Mom always took me shopping all the time – clothes, makeup stuff – you know, girl stuff. For her and Julie.  And I spent a lot of time with Julie when she and her friends were doing their hair, starting to learn how to do makeup, and all that sort of thing.  So I guess that's why I know that stuff."

I think I surprised her with my heartfelt sigh of relief. "That's just what I need." She looked puzzled, so I carried on. "Look, while I've been taking those act-like-a-real-girl classes they've been giving us changelings, and I sort of understand the stuff, I haven't internalised it. I want to get some nice stuff for my girlfriend, that she'll like and will look good on her, and I'm scared that if I do it alone, I'll make a complete mess of it! I need someone like you!"

Sunday 6th November, Crystal Hall, Breakfast

 

It had been a rather tense morning so far. For the first time in ages, I'd woken up before my alarm clock, spending half an hour staring at the ceiling finding I was unable to get back to sleep. Then I'd staggered to the bathroom, only to realise to my embarrassment I'd forgotten my bathroom stuff and had to go back for it, which had got me a set of raised eyebrows from Bianca. I had managed to shower without a major mishap, but even lingering under a stream of near-boiling water hadn't relieved the stress. Logically I shouldn't have been worrying - I had the summoning ritual down now, I was going to finally get to spend some 'us' time with Thulia, which I'd been looking forward to for what seemed like a major part of a geological epoch. Nevertheless, I still worried - now it was just us, no major incidents or dragon-exploding situations to cope with, would she just find me boring and not want to stay? I knew she'd told me the exact opposite, but that hardly relieved my nerves.

Even walking over to breakfast had been a challenge; for once I was the grumpy one, not even the thought of the soon-to-be-consumed devisor coffee enough to break me out of my funk. I got my food on autopilot, hardly registering what I'd taken as I finally say down and looked gloomily at my plate. Not even waffles and bacon could break me out of my funk this morning.

I finally pushed my plate away. I hadn't finished my food, but I was really feeling the stress of getting ready for Thulia. Doing that did get me a worried look from Tanya.

"You OK, DF? You're not  eating all your breakfast"

 I sighed and started to get up. "No, I'm OK, just a bit anxious about today."

Bianca nodded. "Right, you have that summoning to do, don't you."

A few of the group looked at me in surprise. Hmm, had I not told everyone what I was planning today? Oh, right, no I hadn't, just that I'd be doing it sometime.

"You are going to let us all meet her, aren't you? After all that you've told us about her."

I nodded to Laura. "Yes, I was planning on bringing her here for dinner, show her what the food here is like."

"Right, then if she eats as much as you then I'd better warn the chefs."

"Erica, you're a fine one to talk!"

She just smirked as I started to leave. Only to get interrupted.

"So remember to prepare the goat properly before you sacrifice it."

I turned to give Bianca a look that promised later retribution for that oh-so-innocent comment. "You know damn well there are no goats involved!"

She just sat there looking smugly innocent. "Oh no, of course there aren't."

I appealed to the rest of the fascinated audience. "Come on, Grimes is keeping an eye on me! You don't think she'd sacrifice a goat?"

I'd forgotten what most people thought of the way she looked.

"Oh yes."

"Definitely."

"Probably two, just to make sure."

I gave the people around the table my best scowl, before marching off, followed by many quite audible snickers and at least one worried "She isn't really going to sacrifice a goat, is she??"

Sunday 6th November, Bianca and Morgana's room, later that morning.

 

I was dithering badly again. It was a good job Bianca wasn't here, she'd be getting her revenge on me for all the times I'd complained about how long she took to decide on things. My trouble was that I didn't have any real experience in getting ready for (what I hoped would be) a hot date, especially as a girl. The date I'd attempted a while ago with Vixen didn't count, I hadn't dressed up for that, probably because at the time I hadn't really had any idea of what sort of a date it was, and it had only been a movie at Poe. But this time it was with Thulia, and I wanted to look good for her. Even if I hadn't got a good idea on how to go about that. Hence the extended period of dithering.

So I was sitting there in my underwear - I'd got that far at least - looking at the closet in the hope inspiration would suddenly strike from nowhere when there was a knock on the door.

"You decent?"

I didn't even have time to say yes before the door opened to reveal Bianca, Laura, Erica and Cally.

"Oh good, you haven't made any wrong decisions yet!" I rather gaped at Laura, as she cheerfully continued "so don't worry, we're here to help! Aren't we Erica?"

Erica nodded. "Oh, definitely." Bianca and Cally just grinned.

How did that saying go? 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help you'? I was starting to feel as if I understood it.

"Uh.... really, girls, it's OK, I have everything under control..."

My weak protests made absolutely no impression on Laura and Erica, Laura casting a critical eye over me. "Now let me see... what sort of impression are you trying to give? Hot, sexy, homegirl... as it's you, innocent is obviously out."

"Hey! I can so do innocent!"

Erica snorted. "Morgana, you couldn't do innocent if your life depended on it." She turned to her co-examiner. "Let's see, they'll have to walk around campus, so maybe sexy and practical rather than anything too interesting?"

I considered running at this point, but it was a small room and I didn't have a clear path to the door. So I slumped and gestured feebly at my wardrobe. "I guess sexy... I want to make a good impression on Thulia."

Laura nodded. "What you wear won't affect the ritual you need to do, will it? Bianca told us about it."

"No, I can do it in pretty much anything."

"Good, then we can get creative!"

I saw the way they were looking at me and shuddered. This was why I'd sneaked off alone after breakfast.

A while later we'd come to a sort of compromise, in that they'd told me what to wear and I'd been beaten down into agreeing. I had managed to avoid a skirt, pointing out it was November now.

Once they'd seen the pair of tight leather pants I'd been hiding at the back of my wardrobe, Laura and Cally had been insistent on me wearing them. I'd tried to point out that I did need to use blood in the ritual, and it would be hard to get it out of my leather pants. That just got me the comment of 'well then don't spill any blood'.

Despite certain people - yes, Cally, I will have my revenge later! - saying how good I'd look in heels, I didn't own any, so I'd gone for a nice pair of low boots with a minimal heel. It wasn't like I was short enough to need extra height, and anyway Thulia and I were basically the same size. I'd never seen her wearing anything with a heel, so I didn't want to loom over her.

My initial suggestion of 'what's wrong with a t-shirt?' had been hammered flat instantly, resulting in the group going through my shirts, armed with a lot of critical comments. We'd finally gone for a silk shirt in purple, which was one of the things my sister had helped me buy in London, which looked nice and not too girly (something which Laura was still disappointed about). Accessories weren't hard, because I didn't own many, which led to more tutting from Laura and Cally and a promise extorted from me to buy some more. I had managed to slip my new dragon belt buckle onto my belt, Bianca giving a small smile - after all, she knew what it really was - with the excuse that it was a dragon statement. Obviously earrings were suggested, but I pointed out I didn't have piercings - why would I want to punch holes in my own ears?? - although I finally got bullied into wearing a gold necklace - again, a souvenir of my London shopping trip. I had the worrying thought that somehow they figured I'd agreed to have my ears pierced later. I hadn't done that, had I?? Laura did make a point of checking my watch for bugs, to general amusement, as after Bianca's little exercise the Spy Kids were being a bit more discrete.

"Are you just going to wear your hair in a braid?"

I looked at Laura. "Well, yes! It's practical, and before you ask, no I don't have any hair accessories." I waited till she opened her mouth, then cut her off. "Yes, I'll look at getting something, but not today!"

Cally eyes me thoughtfully. "We could always add a bow to the bottom of her braid?"

I finally gave Erica my most pleading look, and she came to my rescue. "Maybe not this time, it wouldn't be Morgana." I sighed with relief, before Bianca - yes, Bianca, I will remember this and plan my revenge! - pointed out I wasn't wearing makeup. This was more difficult for me to avoid, as Laura and Bianca in particular had been attending the changeling classes with me. Part of acting like a girl was makeup, and so I'd had to purchase at least the minimum, and they both knew it. The good thing about being an exemplar is that one doesn't need much makeup, and at first I hoped I'd got them to agree to just some lip gloss. Then Cally mentioned that some eye shadow or liner would make me look cool. By this point, I was not only running out of excuses, but the will to fight, so I just numbly agreed. Which meant sitting there while Cally applied some gold colours which she said would work well against my dark skin, and Erica and Bianca kibitzed the whole process.

Finally, they agreed that I looked good enough that I could be allowed to meet my girlfriend. OK, when I looked at the result in the mirror I found I did look pretty good, the hot but not outrageously sexy thing was working. If only I'd been able to get there with a wave of a wand or even wiggling my nose rather than the torture I'd just been put through I'd have been a lot happier.

"Do you need anything for this ritual?"

I shook my head at Erica and held up my shoulder bag. "Just my athame, it's in here." Then I looked at the time and gulped. "I need to go now, I'm supposed to summon her at noon."

There followed a final critical inspection of me before I was allowed to leave. With a final whisper from Laura. "Don't forget to arrange some shopping, I want to meet her! And you need stuff too!"

I was composed, I was calm, I managed not to cringe too openly.

Summoning Thulia, Magic Department Summoning area, Sunday afternoon.

 

I stood in the circle, holding Caitlin's amulet in my left hand as I finished the final preparations for summoning Thulia. The amulet felt heavy and solid for such a small thing, and I still resented the fact that Thulia would have to wear it. She seemed to be accepting of the need for it, so I'd kept my mouth shut.

Even so, I stabbed myself with my athame rather harder than I needed to in order to get the three drops of blood required to finish setting up the summoning, before starting to gesture and chant. I'd spent some time in the week going over the ritual again - while it had gone OK the first time, I want to get this perfect in my mind. It didn't take long before a shimmer of fire outlined a slender female form, and Thulia was standing before me again.

Despite being in the middle of the ritual, I paused to take her appearance in and admire her. I'd never seen the dress she wore before, and the way it showed off her body - even though it didn't quite reveal anything it shouldn't - made my mouth go dry. Wow. She must have noticed because she smiled with a small tinge of smug as she saw my reaction. I had to gather my wits and carry on, it took a moment.

"Thulia, by the blood we share that defines us both, I bind you to be released from this circle, first with the demand that you swear not to use any of your powers or abilities to leave the campus unless ordered by myself or one of the staff, until such time that we return here and dismiss you back to your own realm, or until the hour of midnight strikes here. Second" - I held up the amulet - "that while you are at Whateley you will wear this amulet at all times."

As before, she looked me in the eye and nodded slowly and formally as she made a gesture in the air in front of her.

"I so swear, Morgana Jones. And I hereby bind myself to your conditions." She followed this by piercing a fingertip with her athame and letting three drops of her blood drip to the floor. Traditionally, of course, she'd swear by her true name - or at least enough of it to bind her - but this way she didn't have to reveal it to Grimes. I replied with a formal nod of my own, then passed her the amulet. She gave it a long, careful look, then nodded and placed it around her neck.

"I accept your oath, and hereby release you from the summoning circle until such time as you are returned here to return to your home, or at the stroke of midnight here."

Then I reached down, cutting one of the sides of the triangle with my athame to release her.

Grimes and Caitlin had been watching closely while I did the summoning, Caitlin frowning as usual. At least they both had the generosity to give me a minute to hug her after I'd broken the triangle. It wasn't until I looked at them after that that I started to feel a bit apprehensive, the looks on their faces - Caitlin's in particular - were a little odd, closed off.

Grimes took a step forward. "Thulia, I trust the amulet is as expected?"

Thulia looked down at it for a moment, then nodded. "It is, Lady Grimes. Exactly as specified, I have no issues with it." She made a sort of small bow to Caitlin. "You do excellent work."

Caitlin just snorted. "Of course I do!" Then she gave Thulia a considering look. "However..."

I looked between the two women, confused. It almost sounded like there was some sort of problem with the amulet, and if there was, would that mean Thulia couldn't visit?

Grimes must have seen the expression on my face - I wasn't exactly trying to hide it, after all - and raised her hand to get our attention. "Caitlin, perhaps it would be more diplomatic if I explained?"

Caitlin just shrugged as if to say 'go ahead, you can do the work', ignoring the more than slight tinge of irony in the teacher's voice, as Grimes continued.

"Thulia, we do have a" she paused for a moment, finding the right words - "not a problem, exactly, but a question. It might well be personal, and so you may not want to answer. It would be very helpful to us if you would, but if not, our agreement still stands."

Thulia and I exchanged rather confused looks before she turned to Grimes again.

"I can't give you my answer until I know what your question is. If it's something I don't wish to answer, and it doesn't affect our agreement, you will understand if I refuse to answer you?"

Grimes nodded, obviously thinking a way of asking whatever the question was without causing too much offense. Taking enough time that Caitlin pushed forward.

"Let me, you'll only beat around the bush. Thulia, when I was making the amulet, I attuned it just to you. That makes it very efficient, and to do that I used the blood you let me have. Now I only used it as we agreed - my word is good - but when I was using it, I couldn't help but get some impressions of you from it."

Thulia looked surprised as if this was something she hadn't anticipated. "I'm not sure how much you could read of me from such a small amount of blood, especially if you were using it to make the amulet."

Caitlin gave a grin. "I can do a lot of things most people can't."

Thulia gave her a long, measuring look, then nodded. "Please, continue."

"OK. Well, one thing I noticed was that while you are part demon - sex demon, it tasted like, which was a bit of a surprise - it's not a large part of you. There's a lot of other stuff mixed in, and I couldn't identify it. And that made me curious as to what exactly you are."

Grimes was looking at her companion with a 'you just had to blurt it all straight out, didn't you?' expression on her face, then coughed. "Thulia, while Caitlin is being a little, well, blunt" - she cast Caitlin another look, which Caitlin just made a point of studiously ignoring - "what she says is true. While the amulet is attuned to you and will work as agreed, knowing more about you would help us immensely in the future. But, it is obviously a very personal question, which is why I understand if you don't wish to answer."

Thulia looked at Grimes, then at Caitlin, with a guarded expression. "Your supposition is correct, it is certainly a most personal question." She worried her lower lip a little, then turned to look at me. "But it is something I was going to explain to you, Morgana, you deserve to know."

She turned back to Grimes. "Two things. First, if I tell you, will you swear that it won't affect our agreement about my visits? And second, I would need you both to swear that what I say will remain secret between us unless I allow you to tell anyone else."

Grimes nodded and made a gesture. "I so swear to both conditions." She turned to Caitlin with a questioning look. Caitlin sighed deeply. "OK, I swear to both. My word as an artificer."

Thulia looked at them both for a long moment, then nodded before turning back to me. "Morgana, I was going to tell you about my background, but we never had an appropriate time. Now... will you forgive me if I tell your teachers as well, rather than telling you first?"

I have to admit, I gulped. Whatever Thulia was thinking of revealing sounded, well, rather ominous, and while it was flattering that she'd been going to tell me first, I didn't see how it could make me feel different about her. She'd told me she wasn't a demon, and I believed her, though having some demon in her background was worrying. I just had to have faith in her, so finally I looked her in the eyes and nodded. "I have faith in you, Thulia. Do what you think is best."

She grabbed me and hugged me, ignoring the eye roll from Caitlin as she whispered in my ear. "I promise, it's nothing evil. Just maybe unexpected. "

I finally gave into Caitlin's unsubtle impatience - the tapping of her foot on the floor was rather a giveaway - and released Thulia, as she looked at all three of us.

"Now. First, I have never lied to any of you about what I was." She gave us a slightly crooked smile. "Although I may have omitted some things which could have been misunderstood. As the Artificer has surmised, my heritage is... mixed. The demon trait you noticed is from Tanau, my great-grandmother."

I opened my mouth to say something, but she smiled. "Yes, I know I referred to her as my Grandmother, but ever since I was young she complained that calling her Great-Grandmother made her feel far too old, and we settled on Grandmother. She was a succubus before she retired."

"Retired? How the hell does a demon retire!?"

Thulia turned to Caitlin with a smile. "She fell in love with a human. I'm given to understand it's an occupational hazard for her kind."

OK, that particular bombshell was going to need some processing. No, a lot - I was starting to realise why she'd waited till we were together rather than dropping all this on me when we talked at night. Although - I looked at Thulia out of the corner of my eye - maybe that heritage was why she was so hot? Not that I was complaining in the slightest, you understand.

Grimes looked at Caitlin's somewhat outraged face and smiled. "Caitlin, you of all people should recognise that someone can take their own path regardless of their origin!"

Caitlin opened her mouth, then closed it, looking thoughtful for once, as Thulia continued.

"Obviously I have some human blood in my line as well, but for the rest - well, there is some fire spirit in the mix, but mainly I'm dragon."

There was complete silence for a minute, before my brain finally worked it all through. "Thulia... you're a dragon?"

She nodded, looking at me with a worried expression. "Yes. Does it bother you??"

I looked back, shaking my head..." It..."then I couldn't help it, I broke down into a fit of giggling, finally laughing so hard I bent over. The three of them looked at me, Thulia in particular with a very hurt expression. I finally got myself under control, clasping her arm to try and reassure her. "Thulia...I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing at me!"

She lust looked at me as if I was crazy, before exclaiming plaintively to the world "But what's so funny??"

"It's my name...when I had to choose a codename, everyone had kept referring to you as a demon, so I guess I assumed they knew what they were talking about. I didn't know any better then. But calling myself DemonsFyre seemed, well, remarkably stupid. But calling myself DragonsFyre seemed a good way of hiding that, and dragons are cool and amazing, I've always loved them. And now...I find my codename is accurate, not a ploy!"

Grimes was shaking her head, as much as saying 'teenagers!', while Caitlin was trying not to chuckle herself. Thulia still looked upset, so I gently took her head in my hands. "Thulia...darling...it doesn't matter to me what your heritage is - demon, human, dragon, whatever. I don't care. But...I think it's amazing you're a dragon. So thank you for telling me."

She smiled a little nervously at last. "You don't mind? But I'm not a pureblood...."

I shook her gently. "So what?  It's you I care about." I braced myself, knowing Grimes and Caitlin were listening, but some things just had to be said. "I love you, Thulia. Who your ancestors are doesn't matter, I love you."

She looked at me, then grabbed me and held me hard, nodding as tears ran down her cheeks. "Morgana? I love you too..."

Well, despite our audience, it was a moment we just held between ourselves as long as possible.It wasn't until I finally brushed her tears away with a smile that I heard a very deliberate cough from behind me. I turned to see both teachers smiling at us, and when I realised at what I blushed so deeply I must have looked as though I'd been dipped in blood.

Grimes just shook her head. "So. That does clear up a lot of things." She managed to pretend successfully that she hadn't just witnessed a very intimate moment between Thulia and myself, for which I was grateful. "There were inconsistencies about you, and they did worry me. It's my duty to keep the students here safe. But knowing now - yes, there will be some issues to work through, but thanks to your honesty it will be a lot simpler to handle them."

Thulia nodded, still trying to regain her composure. "So me being a dragon won't stop me visiting Morgana?"

Grimes shook her head. "No. First, I promised telling us wouldn't affect that, and second..well, it's a shame Ty West was one of the trustees who went missing." We must both have looked confused, as she chuckles. "He was a dragon."

I blinked. Loudly. "We have a dragon as a trustee!!?" Wow, Whateley just got weirder and weirder.

Thulia looked thoughtful. "It's a shame he's gone missing, I would have liked to have been able to talk to him."

"Sorry, Kid, he went m.i.a. before term started." Caitlin was giving Thulia a considering look. "Still... yeah, a dragon is a lot less of an issue than a demoness. Still an issue, mind, but not in the same way."

"Does that mean you aren't going to follow us around?" I obviously had a hopeful note in my voice, as she gave me one of her patented evil grins in reply. "Nope. You're still getting an escort until we are sure Thulia understands Whateley. And to make sure she doesn't have access to ketchup!" That last had me doing my best to stifle a snort of laughter, as Thulia just looked completely lost. All I could do was whisper "I'll explain it later."

We'd used the relative quiet of the Mystic Arts building to talk quietly as we made our way outside.

"Are you really sure you don't mind me not being a pureblood dragon?"

I gave her a look. "Of course I don't! Why, is there some sort of problem involved with that?"

She shrugged, looking a bit down. "Well, I got a lot of kids bitching at me for that back home. It's not considered respectable by the older, pure-bred dragon families you see."

I scowled. "That's pretty mean of them."

She shrugged. "It happens, it's school. Is it different here?"

I looked a bit guilty. "Well... to be honest, not really. It's about different things, obviously, but no, far too many kids are assholes."

"I thought as much. It seemed a pretty common topic in those animes about High School."

I blinked. "You watched anime as an information source?!"

She nodded cheerfully. "Oh yes! There was a lot of it..." then she saw the somewhat boggled expression on my face and looked worried herself. "was there something wrong with that?"

"Uh... not exactly wrong, darling, no. Just that it isn't terribly accurate, that's all." I didn't want to tell her the real reason for my hidden amusement, the idea that she was using anime as a sort of historical document source. Shades of Galaxy Quest!

She thought about that for a minute. "So we aren't likely to run into giant robots, or big explosions, and stuff?"

"Heh. Well, probably not. Although it's a bit more likely at Whateley than a normal High School."

"Oh, that's OK. I brought some weapons along, and these sandals are good for running in."

She looked so happy at her forward planning I really couldn't find any sensible reply to that!

Once we got out onto the Campus, Thulia slipped her arm into mine in a possessive manner I was more than happy to go along with. "So, what did you have in mind for us to do, now I'm finally here?"

I opened my mouth, then shot a quick look at Caitlin, who was ambling along behind us. Just how good was an artificer's hearing anyway? Her face didn't help, it gave absolutely nothing away.

"Well, I know how I'd like to spend our time..." I slipped my arm around her waist, then let it slide down to give her bottom a light squeeze. I wasn't quite sure if she'd be OK with that, but she pressed a bit closer against me and smiled. "mmmm, I could easily be persuaded..."

I sighed deeply. "But...we have an escort, remember?" I pointedly looked at Caitlin, who was still acting as if she was just wandering along behind us by random coincidence. Which was about as believable as Godzilla taking up urban renovation as a hobby.

She looked at Caitlin herself, then winked at me. "I'm sure she wouldn't mind."

This time I blushed deeply. "Ah... she is one of my teachers! And she's old!"

"True... maybe we should ask her if she could give us some pointers?"

I gulped, loud enough she heard and giggled again. "Oh, don't worry. I'm not going to force you into something you don't want to do in public." Then she leaned close to whisper. "But I'm more than ready to force you into things you do want to do in private!"

OK, so to hell with Caitlin's overview. I pulled her close, gazing into her face before I pressed my lips to hers in a long, deep kiss. She made a soft noise, then responded enthusiastically, her tongue slipping past my lips to move wetly against mine. I responded, and hardly noticed that she was cupping and squeezing my bottom while we kissed!

I rather lost track of time, only being brought back to the outside world by an emphatically loud cough from Caitlin. Oh. Well, maybe the hallway in the Magic department wasn't quite the place. But we had all day. From the feeling inside me, that kiss had certainly had an effect on me, and from the way that Thulia's nipples were visibly hard under her gown - I remembered she hadn't worn anything under her gowns in her workroom, and seemed to be continuing the habit here - it had made a similar effect on her.

I looked over at Caitlin with a scowl, and she rolled her eyes at me. OK, I could take the hint.

"Well, I thought maybe I'd walk you around, show you the place, and just get to spend time with you?" I looked down at the ground. "It's the first time I've been able to just be with you without something else going on, I thought it might be nice just to be like a normal couple."

She squeezed my hand. "As a couple? I like the sound of that... and yes, just being together with no disaster waiting to land on us is something I've longed for as well."

I grinned as I gestured grandly at the campus. "Then let me be your trusty native guide while you play tourist!"

I'd been enjoying just walking with Thulia, although the two of us had received quite a few looks of interest and confusion, the fact Caitlin was trailing behind us had clearly put off some casual 'conversations'. I'd been showing her a few of the Campus landmarks, but really it was just an excuse to walk along holding her. We were just passing Melville when I had a thought.

"Thulia, all your home world is pretty hot, isn't it?"

She looked at me curiously. "Well, mostly. I mean, it's the plane of fire, after all, it isn't what you'd call freezing. Why are you asking?"

"So... do you have any cold foods?"

That got me an even more confused look. "Cold foods? We don't always eat hot food, is that what you mean?"

I grinned. "Not quite." I turned us to head into Melville. "Do you know what Ice Cream is?"

She looked a bit more worried at that. "Uh... ice? Frozen water?" She shook her head. "We don't really do ice..."

"Trust me on this one."

The cafeteria area of Melville wasn't too busy, but then it was Sunday afternoon, as I sat Thulia down at one of the tables. She was still looking a trifle apprehensive, and as I found myself a seat I got a 'what are you up to now?' look from Caitlin, who had decided one of the walls needed her personal support. I just smiled innocently at her and waited for someone to come and take our order. After all, the Melville residents wouldn't dream of having to go and make their orders at the counter, this place had a waiting staff.

It only took a minute before one of the students acting as servers came over.

"Hi, can I get you and your" - she looked at Thulia and blinked - "sister something?"

I chuckled. "Yes, but Thulia isn't my sister."

She blushed slightly. "I'm sorry, you do look as if you might have been...so, what can I get you?"

I looked at Thulia again. "Trust me, OK?" Then turned to the girl. "Two portions of chocolate ice cream. Large ones."

She nodded and smiled.."Sure, be back in a minute."

Thulia was looking worried again, so I took her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "I think you'll like this. Don't worry if you don't, just leave it. Trust me, OK?" She nodded quietly, only looking away from me as the girl approached us with two large bowls.

Thulia imitated me as I picked up a spoon, but hesitated as I dug it into the ice cream and then into my mouth. She took a much smaller portion onto her own spoon, eyeing it dubiously, then slid it between her lips. There was quiet for a moment before her eyes opened wide.

"That's...oh, it's so weird! Cold and delicious!"

I just gave her a big grin and started in on my bowl. "I thought it would be new for you."

She nodded, and took a full spoonful, eating it slowly. "Yeah.. but in a good way!"

Our little exhibition had attracted the notice of our server, who was watching us talk with wide eyes. Then she sidled over to Caitlin, who'd been watching us with considerable amusement.

"She... she's acting like she's never had ice-cream before! Who hasn't had ice-cream??"

Caitlin thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Foreign student. From a very remote country."

"Oh." Granted, that flat statement hadn't really explained anything but somehow it seemed to satisfy the girl, as she watched us both consume two large bowls in true energiser fashion.

Thulia licked her lips and grinned. "My tongue is cold now!"

"Is that a problem?"

She shook her head fast. "Oh no, it's cold in a good way, and it still tastes like that..chocolate?"

I just grinned. "Well, then we should let you try something hot to warm your poor little tongue with!"

She grinned back and stuck said tongue out at me.

"So, what sort of coffee do you have at home?"

Thulia gave me a puzzled look. "We don't really have a lot of it. It doesn't grow well there, it's too hot, or the wrong sort of soil, or something like that I think. It's a fairly rare thing, though some people do drink it. I think they grow a little and import some from Earth. Why?"

I gave her a moderately appalled look. "They don't have coffee!!?"

She shook her head, still giving me that puzzled look as if to say 'what's so important about coffee?'.

OK, there were some things I really needed to educate my girlfriend about. So I took her arm, ignoring the expression on her face, and walked her over to the coffee bar. Of course there was a coffee bar, this was Melville.

"Now this prepares coffees. Devisor coffees." I gave her a measuring look. Devisor Espresso was a bit of an acquired taste, even for the lab rats, so... I considered, then punched some buttons on the machine. Thulia was watching me like a hawk - she'd realised that whatever I was doing was important, at least to me, even if she had no idea what it was. There was a gentle hissing and gurgling noise, as the machine deposited one large devisor mocha into a cup. I nodded in satisfaction, then took it and ushered her over to a table.

She eyed the steaming brew with a little suspicion, then took a careful sniff of the aroma, her eyes widening slightly. "Oh! It smells...interesting?"

I grinned. "Try it."

She looked at me and nodded, then took a large sip. Her eyes opened wide as she swallowed. "Oh my...!" Then she went through the rest of the cup's steaming contents fast. So fast that it was a good job heat didn't bother us. Finished, she stared down into the dregs at the bottom of the cup, an intense expression on her face as she addressed them in an awed whisper.

"Where have you BEEN all my life?!"

Sunday Afternoon, Whateley Shopping Mall, Shopping

 

"I need to give Laura a call."

Thulia nodded as I dug out my phone. "She's that devisor friend of yours, right?"

I nodded back as I got through to Laura. "Hi, Laura? Yeah, we're all ready to go shopping if you'd still like to join us?" There was a muted squee of excitement, and I grinned. "OK, we're just walking over from Melville, meet you outside the store."

Thulia looked at the phone as I slipped it back into my bag. "I really should look into getting one of those now I can visit Earth again."

"Yeah, they're pretty much a necessity. Anyway, Laura said she'd meet us at the store, so I guess we'd better be heading over."

Laura wasn't quite bouncing at the prospect of finally meeting my girlfriend, but it was a close thing.

"Laura, this is Thulia. My girlfriend."

Thulia smiled shyly and shook Laura's hand. "Hello Laura, it's nice to meet you at last. Morgana's talked about you."

Lauta grinned wide, "Hey, likewise. Morgana's talked a lot about you and some of the things you've been up to!"

Thulia winced very slightly as she glanced at me, but I shook my head in a 'not to worry' way, and she relaxed.

"Uh, Laura? Morgana said you  were blue...?"

Laura nodded. "Red flag day. Did she explain those?"

"Well, sort of. Like we had to try and be normal?"

"Yeah, typical Morgana explanation!" She ignored my outraged look. "Basically it means there are people around who either don't know that we are mutants, or have issues that the sight of someone with GSD couldn't handle. So the worse GSD cases stay out of sight, and I use makeup to cover up my skin colour." She poked her tongue out at me. "Some people get it easy, they just hide their horns and stuff!"

"Oh, I see. Like I did when I was in London, but I used magic that time."

"Yeah, some people get really weird and aggressive. Best not to take the chance, right? But why are we standing out here talking when there is shopping to be done?!"

Thulia had been suitably impressed when we got inside the store and she realised how large it actually was. We'd kept quiet before we'd entered the place, pretty much everyone had that same reaction, and we hadn't wanted to spoil it for her. After Thulia had finished ogling it, Caitlin had informed us she was going to let us get on with the clothes shopping while she did some stuff, she'd collect us again when we left.

Laura looked at the two of us, then at the section of the store dedicated to female clothing and accessories - one of the larger sections of the store - and rubbed her hands together. The expression of avaricious glee on her face didn't reassure me in the slightest.

"OK, now let's see. At the very minimum, we need to get Thulia some casual stuff for wearing here, right?" Laura gave a critical examination of Thulia's dress and nodded to herself. "Your dress is lovely, but maybe we should look for a few outfits that make the same statement while being less... exotic. More like normal around here. Oh, and Morgana? You too." I opened my mouth to protest, then shut it again as she glared at me. "I've seen the contents of your wardrobe, remember?"

Thulia was so obviously a lot happier in the whole 'shopping for clothes' thing than I was, but I cheered myself up that this would probably involve me seeing her in some hot outfits. Well, that would be a difficult job, but someone had to do it.

Laura cast her eyes over the pair of us, obviously thinking about something. "So, are you two the same size, or are there differences? Thulia, do you have a dragonform as well?"

Thulia nodded. "Yes, I have a dragonform - that is, if you're talking about Morgana's intermediate form right?" Laura nodded, so she thought again. "We're close to the same size and shape, but we aren't identical. Morgana isn't a clone of me, after all."

"Yeah, I can see that. There's a definite similarity to your looks, but obviously, you're not sisters. So we'll start by getting all your measurements, just to make sure." She pointed to the cube sitting to the side of the area. "In that."

Thulia walked over to it, examining it curiously. "How does it work?"

Laura grinned and patted its side proprietorially the way kids in the workshop did to any well-designed piece of tech. "Pretty simple. You go in, strip, and it will tell you to take various poses. While you're doing that, infra-red lasers will scan you, and when it's all done it has a record of your shape and size, and it will tell you exactly what size or fit of clothes you need. And puts all the data on a card for you. The systems here can read it, or you can load the data into your phone and list them if you're somewhere without a modern system."

Thulia smiled wide. "Oh, I like that! Especially as I don't understand how you define your sizes. Now, where shall we start?"

Laura gave me a look. "Well, she tends to slop around in jeans and a t-shirt whenever she can get away with it..."

"Hey! They're comfortable and easy to clean."

Laura's sniff made a statement about what she thought of my normal clothing choice. "Whatever. True, they are useful if you don't care how people see you, but they don't really make a statement." She gave me another superior look. "Unless the statement is 'I'm a slob'."

We'd started in the section I was at least familiar with, casual clothes. Despite Laura's assertions, things like jeans, t-shirts, and casual shirts were quite popular, and they had a wide assortment. I had pointed out to Laura that Thulia needed some things that she could wear without worrying about getting them messy, after all.

For her part, Thulia had been fascinated by the colourful designs on many of the t-shirts, explaining that this type of fashion wasn't something she was used to. She'd collected an armful, including a couple with lovely fantasy dragons on them. I'd looked at her and raised an eyebrow at those two, which had just made her grin and wink back. We'd also chosen some proper shirts - she'd told me she liked the way mine looked on me, causing Laura to smirk, and she approved of the feeling of silk. We'd also got her some jeans, a couple of attractive dress ones, and some casual, 'I don't care if I work in these and they get dirty' pairs.

"Thulia? I know you said you needed some things you could work in, so what do you usually wear to work?"

I coughed loudly at Laura's innocent question, having seen the sort of robe that Thulia preferred when using her equipment. Thulia just accepted the question at face value.

"Oh, usually just a robe." She gestured to her thigh. "Short ones don't get in the way, and they are easy to clean."

My friend didn't bat an eye, just looked back and forth between us a couple of times, then nodded with a knowing smile without saying a word. I'd always heard it said that girls are much more intuitive when it comes to reading expressions, and Laura was the girliest of the lot of us. That made me suspect that no matter how inscrutable I thought my expression was, she'd probably worked out from it how little Thulia tended to wear while working and that more than once I'd appreciated the view that had given me.

"Morgana? Why don't you go and have a look at some of the jewellery and accessories for a bit? I want to have a word with Thulia."

I gave her a suspicious look, but I couldn't think of a reason to say no, so in the end I nodded and walked off. It would give me the chance to see if there was something nice I could give Thulia as a gift.

Thulia gave Laura a slightly confused look. "So, what did you need to talk to me about that you didn't want Morgana to hear?"

Laura grinned, patting her on the arm. "You spotted that so quickly! I wanted to suggest a few outfits that you might like to surprise Morgana in. That dress is way hot - I wish I had the figure to wear it! - but I have a few ideas for outfits that would have the same effect, but not stand out quite so much." She cast an eye at Morgana's disappearing back. "And one or two things you might like to have her be the only one to see..."

The female clothing section included ample facilities for changing and trying on clothing in private, as Laura led an interested Thulia into a changing area, before dumping the armful of items she'd selected. "Now, let me see...try this one on.

A few minutes later Thulia came out of the booth for Laura's comments. "I do rather like the look."

Laura grinned, making Thulia turn to see her from all angles. "Oh yes, this will definitely work for you!" The outfit was in black leather, a bustier type top laced up the front - and showing enough skin to be interesting while not indecent, leaving her midriff and back bare - and a miniskirt in soft leather with a slit up one side. Thulia grinned and tilted her hip in a blatant pose, getting a return grin and a 'thumbs' up' gesture from Laura. "Trust me, Morgana will love the way you set this off." She got a wider grin from Thulia in return. "OK, take that off, we'll put it aside, I have something different I want you to try."

Laura waited a minute before slipping the next box in her pile past the curtain. "Now this one." There was a muffled 'OK'  and she grinned and waited.

"Um, Laura? Is this OK? I mean I know I don't understand your dress codes, not really, but isn't this a bit revealing?"

Laura pulled the curtain back to take a look. "Oh, it's supposed to be revealing! But this isn't something you'd wear in public, this is something for you to wear just for Morgana! In private..."

Thulia nodded, Laura noting with interest that despite her question, the girl didn't seem at all embarrassed, just uncertain. Certainly, the filmy negligee was anything but modest, just opaque enough to hint at all the interesting things barely hidden. "Mmmm, yes, you definitely need to buy this one!"

Since it was pretty obvious Laura had wanted me out of the way for a bit, I decided I might as well use the time to find a gift for Thulia. The shop had a rather nice little jewellery and accessories section, which I'd never really bothered to go through before, so I hoped I could find something suitable.

Of course, it would help if I had any idea of what Thulia liked. She'd never seemed to bother to wear much if any, adornments when we'd been in her lab, but then sensible people didn't dress up to use their equipment. Today, though, she'd really dressed up. I wasn't sure how many of the things she was wearing were just for show, or were magic, or both. At least one ring was doing something magical all the time, but that was the only thing currently showing working magic. However she wasn't wearing any neck ornament, so I thought a necklace might work.

Sometime later, I'd gone through the relevant section of the jewellery counters and had at last found something I hoped she'd like. A very lovely dragon, in gold with scarlet gemstones for eyes, on a substantial chain. I hoped she wouldn't think me giving her a dragon was rude or anything, but she'd bought some t-shirts with dragon designs, so I thought it would be OK. The price was rather high, but then it was gold, and luckily I was fine for funds right now - thanks, sis. So I got the girl looking after the section to put it in a box and gift wrap it. I was slightly amused to see that, Whateley being Whateley, she popped the box into a machine, pressed a few buttons, and it emerged in fancy wrapping. I could so have used one of those at Xmas! Then it was time to wander back and see what the two had been up to without me. Laura and Thulia seemed to be way too happy exploring clothing options for my peace of mind, but it was nice to see them getting along. I smiled to myself; one day I'd have to see if Laura could visit Thulia's workroom, I felt her inner geek would love to see her equipment, even if was magic-based rather than tech.

"I'm still not convinced about these bras. They don't feel comfortable."

Laura gave Thulia a somewhat exasperated look, and I just grinned to myself. I certainly wasn't going to tell Thulia she should wear a bra when she looked so hot without one.

"Thulia, they do serve a couple of important purposes. First, they help hide your nipples - especially when it's cold!  And second, they provide essential support. You don't want sagging boobs, surely?"

Thulia looked thoughtful. "Well, I get what you say about being cold" - she looked down at her chest for a moment - "but I never get cold. And my body provides enough support I don't need to worry about sag."

Laura bravely resisted the urge to facepalm, giving me a 'come on, help me out here!' look.

I sighed. "OK. Thulia, I get what you mean about the support bras, you don't need one. But some of the pretty ones, they are more for show, and a few of them did look really good on you."

She thought about that. "That's true, some of them were pretty and not so uncomfortable. I'll get a few, see how it goes. But in any case, they won't work for some outfits, I need to keep my back free."

Laura looked puzzled. "Ok, why exactly do you need to keep your back free."

"My wings, of course!"

Laura just stood there with her mouth open. "You have wings?!"

Thulia just nodded. "Of course I do, but Morgana said it was a red flag day, remember, and I should look as human as possible."

Laura, to her credit, recovered fast. "OK, well a few pretty bras then, for outfits where you aren't likely to need your wings? Maybe next time you're here and it's a green flag day we can look at some outfits and underwear that will work with them."

So we'd had to go back and look at fancy bras that Thulia thought would be comfortable. And of course, that meant matching panties. Which wasn't as bad as I'd feared, because she modeled some of the sets to show me what they looked like, and I was seriously impressed. I retained my self-control enough to stop actually drooling, at least.

She'd just slipped back behind the curtain to change when Laura sidled up to whisper.

"She's really lovely, isn't she?"

I nodded. "She's beautiful."

Laura grinned. "That too. You're a very lucky girl, Morgana!"

I tried - and failed - not to blush. "I know I am. Very lucky."

My companion grinned. "She's certainly a keeper. I hope Whateley doesn't scare her off, I'd like to see her again."

I shook my head and smiled. "She doesn't scare easily. So far, she seems fine with this madhouse."

Laura looked innocent. "Well, she puts up with you, so she must be crazy; I suppose after that Whateley doesn't seem too bad!"

"HEY!!"

We'd piled up what had turned out to be a surprising number of bags and boxes for Thulia, and had decided to go back to Poe to stash them for the time being. We'd collect them before Thulia had to go home, and in any case, she'd been interested in seeing where I lived. In the end, I'd resisted getting anything for myself, pointing out the time, although I had had to promise Laura that we'd do that another time. She'd pointed out, privately, that if Thulia was going to dress up for me, I should do the same. She did have a good point, and even though I still had reservations about trying to look like a pretty girl, for Thulia I'd make the effort. We'd picked up our escort again as we left the store - Caitlin had been hanging around, having decided she wasn't interested in watching us shop for clothes, and was again trailing us around.

Laura had been walking alongside us - Thulia had again claimed my arm, and I was more than happy to let her, something which Laura seemed to have found quite amusing for some reason - when she finally spoke up.

"Morgana?"

I turned to see the thoughtful expression on her face. "Yes?"

"Wings. If Thulia has wings, why don't you? I mean, you're sort of a copy of her, aren't you?"

I blinked, then thought about it myself. She had a definite point, even though I wasn't as much of a copy as she probably thought I was and looked at my girlfriend. "Thulia? Why don't I have wings? Didn't that get carried across when I changed?"

Thulia looked a bit guilty. "Oh! I should have told you about that, but we just haven't had the time."

I smiled and squeezed her hand. "Don't worry, things have been hectic. Is it a secret thing, or is it OK if Laura knows?"

"Oh, it's - well, not exactly a secret, but it is rather complicated, and I'd prefer it if the details were kept quiet." She looked at Laura, who looked serious. "I won't tell anyone."

"It's OK, Laura can be trusted." Thulia smiled at me and finally continued. "The simple version OK? The full details would be easier for me to explain back home in my workroom."

I exchanged a brief glance with Laura, who nodded. "Simple is fine, love." She gave me a big smile as I called her that, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Laura smirking slightly, but I ignored it.

"Let me see. Laura, Morgana isn't a copy of me as such, I used my DNA and other things to save her life when her manifestation was threatening to enter a burnout. That's why we look like we're related, but not identical. The wings..." - She paused as she obviously struggled to put something into simple words - "They are part of the body template, Morgana will be able to manifest them. But right now, after the issues she'd had, it affected how her energy channels developed, and recently there was a lot of damage I needed to heal. So when she's OK, I will be showing her how to use and develop her energies properly, and then she will be able to channel it to manifest her wings and some other changes. They do require her to channel more energy inside her, and more accurately and efficiently as well, so some preparation and practice will be needed." She turned to me looking rather apologetic. "I'm sorry, but after all the recent events, I didn't want to risk any more overstrain or damage until I could monitor you properly."

Thulia was polite enough to say some nice things about Poe cottage when we finally got there, but to be fair it wasn't terribly impressive. Our little party got a lot of looks. First, because Laura and Caitlin were trailing behind us, then a lot more as they took in the outfit Thulia was almost wearing. I put on my best smug look and preened, I couldn't help it, seeing the way they looked at Thulia on my arm made me happy.

"They're all looking at us, you know?"

I grinned at Thulia's whisper. "I know. It's you, they're admiring a beautiful girl."

She blushed, casting a quick look around. "I've never been watched like this before!"

I gave her arm a squeeze. "Well, if I have anything to do with it, you'd better get used to it because I want them all to see how lovely you are!"

She nodded and blushed again.

"So, this is the room Bianca and I share." I knocked on the door, getting a muffled "Come in" from my roomie. Bianca was on her feet and staring at Thulai as we stepped inside. "It's lovely to meet you in person at last, Thulia."

Thulia smiled and made one of those graceful gestures of hers. "And to meet you, Bianca. I hope we aren't intruding on you?"

Bianca smiled back and moved back to give us some room. "Of course you aren't." Then she saw Laura behind us, her head just visible over a stack of boxes. "You've been busy shopping, haven't you?"

I grinned. "Just a bit. I'm afraid Laura is a bad influence on Thulia!"

A muffled indignant squeak from behind the stack of boxes was Laura's response, and Bianca lost her initial stiffness and grinned.

I looked around and felt the need to aplologise. "I'm afraid our room is a bit small."

Thulia looked around, eyes examining the runes plastering a fair area of the walls. "It is a bit, don't you get cramped?"

"Well, we only really sleep and hang out in here. The rest of the cottage has areas as well, and we really dont spend that much time here."

She nodded, still examining Bianca's runes. "This is a lot of protective work. Is there such a need for them?"

I smirked a bit and Bianca had the grace to look a little embarrassed. "Well, I do have problems with people trying to spy on me, so I like to take precautions."

"Ah, I see. Yes, with so many people around it must be a problem for you."

Bianca shot me a smug 'see, she understands!' look, which I responded to by casually giving her the finger when Thulia wasn't watching. But her words did make me think on something.

"Thulia? 'So many people' ? It doesn't seem that crowded to me?"

She looked at us both, thinking, then bit her lip slightly. "I'm afraid it's a lot more people than I'm used to. Your world is much more heavily populated than mine is, I'm just not used to such crowds as I've seen here."

I blinked. "Oh dear, I hadn't realised that it would be such a shock to you?"

She smiled, then leaned in to kiss my cheek softly. "It's OK, really it is, it's just something I need to get used to. And you'll protect me, right?"

I gave her a look. "Hang on, I thought you were going to be protecting me!?"

She just grinned. "Aww, that's not nearly as much fun!"

I managed to get a glimpse of Bianca trying not to burst something holding in her laughter - I'd told her about what Thulia could do, and the idea of me having to protect her was, well, silly, and she knew it. There was only one thing to do. So I leaned in close enough only Thulia could hear my whisper. "Maybe I need to take you somewhere safe. Just the two of us. And tied you up so I can look after you safely..."

Well, that didn't quite work. She just nestled closer and murmured. "Mmmm, that sounds like fun! Maybe when we have fewer spectators..."

OK, move along from that topic, I could see a trap when it was staring me in the face.

Dinner time, Crystal Hall

 

One of the good things about dinner time on Sundays was that with no classes the eating times were spread out more and there wasn't a crush. Which was just as well. Thulia's outfit had caused more than a few stares, long looks and even one muffled 'wow'. I moved a bit closer to her, trying to make it obvious she was with me, and head off any attempts to get close to her. That got me a smile from her - I wasn't really trying to hide the fact I was being protective, and she didn't seem to mind in the slightest - and a muffled snicker from Laura behind us. It was only later I realised the irony of me being protective of Thulia, who was considerably more dangerous than I was. I was a little surprised at how close she stuck to me.

"Everything OK?"

She nodded. "I'm sorry, it's just that there are so many people!"

I hadn't thought about it, having gotten used to the crowds of hungry students infesting the Hall, but I guess it was quite a lot of new faces for her."

"I'm sorry..I never asked if you'd be OK with the crowds."

She shivered slightly and pressed a little closer. "It's just that I'm not used to being in so close with so many people. Earth has a lot more people than back home, we just don't get these sort of huge crowds."

I nodded, making sure I was if possible between her and any overly pushing kids. "Well, let's get you some food, and then go to our table; it will be less crowded there."

Thulia's eyes had widened when she looked over the range and amount of the food on offer. "Do you eat like this all the time?!"

I nodded. "Pretty much. Mind, we have a lot of students, and some of them do eat quite a lot." That remark got me another loud snicker, this time from Bianca. "It's self service, just put whatever you want on a plate." I started to load my own as a demonstration, and she gave another look and started to add food to her tray. In the end, a little more than I'd chosen; I wasn't sure if she actually needed more than me, or just wanted to try stuff, she had a pretty eclectic selection.

I had to dig out the chit Grimes had given me earlier to present to record Thulia's food, but at least I didn't hold the line of hungry students up by much. Then our little group headed upstairs to the M3 table, with Thulia trying to keep up while looking around at the scenery.

"This is a very impressive eating place."

I grinned. "It's ostentatious, that's what it is! But yeah, it is nice." I carefully guided her to our table, ignoring the looks we were getting from some of the other diners. So I was escorting a hot girl in a sexy outfit. And they weren't. Live with it, losers.

Most of M3 seemed to have 'accidentally' decided to have dinner at the same time as us. No doubt those texts Laura had sent earlier were a complete coincidence, of course. So as soon as we'd sat, I had to introduce Thulia to everyone. Erica, Cally, Vic, Jimmy, Tia, and Tanya in addition to the four of us who'd walked over from Poe. At least Caitlin had gone over to eat with the staff, once I'd promised to text her before we left. Thulia smiled a bit shyly as she greeted them all, only looking slightly surprised at Tia's ears. I did notice one of Bianca's anti-eavesdropping spell slips on the table, but decided not to notice it, Thulia was already looking slightly nervous about meeting the mob.

I did notice Thulia surreptitiously looking at me as I ate - I guessed to see what utensils I used and how I used them - before starting to taste the various things she'd laden her plates with. With some interest from the rest of M3, who were blatantly curious as to how she'd find the Crystal Hall's offerings. Judging from the sounds of interest and appreciation, she seemed to be enjoying her selection, though I did notice it was pretty meat-heavy; not the carnivore special some of the kids ate, but light on the green stuff.

"So, Thulia, what do you think of Whateley?"

Tanya was doing her best to make our guest comfortable with a welcoming smile and question. Thulia paused in her eating to look at her and think about her answer.

"It's - different. From what I'm used to. So many people! And a lot of them seem to be staring at me!"

That brought a few chuckles from the group. "Thulia, looking the way you do in that amazing dress, I'm surprised we don't have a queue of boys - and some girls - queuing up to get a better look at you!"

Erica smiled as she commented, hopefully turning it into more of a joke. Thulia still looked a bit worried, slipping a bit closer to me. "Oh dear. I'm just not used to getting so much attention from so many people!"

Cally patted her hand. "Don't worry, we'll make sure you don't get bothered! Of course, we are curious about you, I hope you don't mind that?"

Thulia shook her head shyly. "No, of course not. It's nice to meet you all in person, Morgana's told me about you but it isn't the same."

There was a burst of pixels as a small ferret, dressed in a reporter's outfit, appeared in front of her. "Is OK, Tavi will sort out all questions!"

Thulia started for a second, then bet forward to examine the apparition, curiosity clear on her face.

"Who is this?" No-one answered her, so she poked at the ferret, who squeaked and looked indignant. "No poke the free press!"

She blinked at the chuckles from around the table. "He's very odd for a familiar."

Jimmy coughed. "Ah, well, he isn't a familiar." He ignored the sotto voice comment of 'too bloody familiar if you ask me!' "He's a VI, a virtual intelligence. A pretty clever piece of software to help me, and he has a hardlight projector. Hence the bizarre outfits he appears in!"

Thulia smiled, examining Tavi closely. He preened and changed into a ferret wearing speedos and posing as for a bodybuilding contest, causing most of the table to wince perceptibly

. "I'm sorry, he does seem to have some of the aspects of a familiar. I've never seen a hardlight hologram before..."

While A.J. was a rare visitor to our table - he only usually stopped by if he needed to talk to myself or Bianca about our magic course - the sight of Thulia had clearly engaged his attention.

"Ah, good afternoon, ladies."

Well, it was pretty obvious he was looking for an introduction, and the curiosity obvious on his face indicated he was also hoping for an explanation of why Thulia looked like a close relative. I was about to introduce her when she exclaimed and stood up.

"Oh!" Then she started to speak in a language I had no familiarity with, except that it surprised me that some of the sounds came so easily to a human throat. It took me a second to realise she wasn't talking to A.J. but instead to his usual shoulder accessory, Smokey. Smokey was looking at her with big eyes, head cocked to one side but obviously not understanding what she was saying. She recognised this after a short time, stopping and looking at Smokey in confusion. Before turning to me for an explanation.

"He doesn't understand me?!"

Oh, I was beginning to understand now, although A.J. was still looking lost. "Thulia, Smokey isn't a real dragon, he just looks like one. He doesn't speak either, although he does snore a lot!" That last got me a small smoke puff of derision from Smokey.

"Oh." She examined Smokey more critically, which just made Smokey preen a little at the obvious attention, before smiling and reaching out to gently scritch him behind one ear. I grinned as Smokey leaned into it, eyes half-closed and completely ignoring his 'master', who was just watching with amusement. "He is lovely, though."

A.J. finally got bored watching his dragon getting scritched, as he cleared his throat and gave me a meaningful look. Oh, right, I still hadn't introduced Thulia, had I?

"A.J., this is Thulia. My girlfriend. Thulia, this is A.J., he's one of the people in our group in Magic class. He's mostly harmless." I made sure there was enough emphasis on 'girlfriend' to indicate I was very serious about that statement - while a nice boy in general, A.J. had made himself a bit of a reputation as a womaniser, and I didn't want any misunderstandings - and was relieved that he just gave a small nod.

 Thulia stopped her scritching  - getting an annoyed look from Smokey - to smile shyly at A.J. "Hi."

A.J. smiled back. "Welcome to Whateley, Thulia." He gave me an ironic glance. "Mostly harmless?" I just snickered in response.

Thulia and I had walked back to Poe, accompanied by Laura and Bianca. It was starting to get late, and we had to get Thulia's shopping and get back to the Mystic Arts department to send her home. I wasn't looking forward to that, but I knew it had to be done. And if I forgot, Caitlin was still there in the background to remind me.

Thulia squeezed my hand. "It's been a wonderful day. Thank you."

I smiled back. "It has. Just being able to walk around with you, be a normal couple...I just wish we didn't have to wait two weeks before we can be together again."

She nodded a little sadly. "I know, but we have to keep to the agreement, or they might not let me visit at all."

I frowned. "You know, I bet I could do something outside Whateley, that wouldn't be covered, would it?"

She gave me a troubled look. "Please don't, not yet. Summoning can be a dangerous thing to do, and, well, you aren't very experienced at it yet. Some very bad things can go wrong." She pulled me closer. "I'd rather wait two weeks than risk something happening to you!"

I gave her a lopsided smile. "I am a bit of a trouble magnet for you, aren't I?"

She gave a small laugh. "Well, yes, but I really don't mind! It's not as if what's gone on has been your fault." She looked a bit subdued. "Most of it has been my fault."

I shook my head, then leaned over and kissed her cheek. "Silly. You've saved me, more than once. But I promise I won't do something stupid that means you have to dig me out of a hole again."

She gave me a measuring look. "Well... just ask me before trying something risky?"

I nodded. "Does that mean you'll teach me how to do all those risky things properly?"

That got me an eye roll. "If that's what it takes, I'm not going to lose you like that!"

So we carried on walking, close together, and I ignored the semi-whispered comment from behind me of 'aww, aren't they just so cute and adorable together!'. Laura, I know where your Lab lives.

Far too soon we'd reached Poe, and as we walked up to my room, Caitlin gave us both a look. "I think I need to have a few words with Mrs. Horton. I'll be, oh, ten minutes or so. Wait for me in your room,  then I'll pick you up."

I gave her a surprised look, but she had her best inscrutable expression on, so I just nodded before she peeled off from the group. Then I turned to Bianca with a pleading look. "Bianca...um, would you mind...?"

She grinned wide. "Giving you too a few minutes alone in private? Of course I wouldn't mind! Just don't make too much noise!"

I blushed, and Thulia just looked extremely innocent. Thank you, Bianca, but really, just how much could we get up to in ten minutes?

Well, we got a bit more than ten minutes, which was spent with the two of us cuddled up on my bed very close together. And with we finding out that Thulia's sexy dress made her considerably more accessible than I'd realised at first look. We both knew we didn't have a long time, but it was deeply satisfying just to hold and caress her while we kissed.  Finally, there was a knock on the door.

"You two ready?"

I sat up, slowly, still looking into her eyes. "I'm not, but we have to..."

She smiled, and gently caressed my cheek. "This is just the start, right?"

"Oh yes!"

Then she grinned and pointed at my shirt. "Then you'd better do those buttons up while I get my stuff!"

I blushed again, doing as commanded and getting myself looking a bit less like my love had been playing with me, before opening the door for Caitlin. "Thanks, Caitlin. We'll be ready in a moment."

Mystic Arts Building, late evening.

It had been an odd walk back. Part of me was sad that today was ending, the other part was bouncing up and down at how well it had gone. Grimes was waiting for us when we got back to the summoning chamber.

"I'm glad to see you two girls are punctual. Did you have any problems?"

I answered for us both. "No, ma'am. Everything went well!" She nodded and pointed to the portal. "You know what to do."

"Yes ma'am. Uh, could I have a minute first?"

She looked at me, then at Thulia, and gave one of her 'almost but no I'm not admitting to it' little smiles. "Very well."

I turned to Thulia, taking the pile of boxes from her and putting them down for a moment, then pulling the small gift-wrapped package from my bag. "I got you something to remember today."

She smiled widely at me. "Oh Morgana, I won't need anything to remind me of this! She wrapped her arms around me and hugged me hard enough to damage a normal girl.

"Still, I wanted to give you something."  She nodded, "Can I open it now? Please?"

I chuckled and nodded, and a few seconds later her claws had made short work of the colourful wrapping. She opened the box inside, then *squeeed* as she saw the necklace. "Oh, it's beautiful!" She kissed me hard. "Thank you..."

I smiled and took hold of the chain. "Can I put it on you?"

She nodded hard. "Oh yes!" Then she pushed her long hair out of the way so I could slip it around her neck and fasten it. "There you go darling."

She looked down at it, then at me, her eyes looking suspiciously wet, then hugged me again. Long enough for it to be broken up by a loud cough from our watchers. I sighed, very reluctantly stepping back. "We have to send you home now."

She nodded. "I know. I'll call you tomorrow night, my love. " Hmm, hearing her say 'my love' to me still sent happy tingles down my spine, as I got ready to open the portal for her return.

 

To Be Continued