Eva hummed for a moment. “Right now, I can’t actually blink. Or I could, but it would be very dangerous,” she said with a gloved finger tapping against the leather band around her eyes. “I lost a leg once while trying to blink into the same spot as a glass coffee table that I didn’t see.”
Gasps rose up amongst the students. A few of them leaned under their desks in an attempt to glean a glance at her legs. Unfortunately, Eva had pants on today, rather than her usual skirt.
Irene shook her head at their antics, though she made a note to check out Eva’s legs the next time she wore a skirt.
Eva turned her head around the class as if she were looking at them. “Well, I got better,” she said with a frown. “Regarding your original question, I asked my mentor to teach me when I was nine. It was two years before I could blink at all. Even then, it was only a few inches at a time and incredibly exhausting. The exhaustion lessened and the distance increased over time. Slowly at first. At last Halloween, I’m sure I could have blinked between thirty and fifty feet, several times in a row without becoming exhausted.”
“And you likely worked several hours a day on practicing?”
Eva simply nodded her head.
“Blinking is not an easily acquired skill. Many adults can’t do it at all. That’s mostly due to the time one must put into practicing it.
“Yet with practice, it is clearly possible.” Her gaze swept over the room.
Irene didn’t think her gaze could turn any more serious, but somehow Professor Baxter managed.
“Do not attempt it on your own. Learning to blink is a dangerous task; you all just heard that Miss Eva lost a leg and that is a rather light injury–especially as she was able to reattach it. There will be a time and a place for learning if you so choose later in your education. Unsupervised, you’ll likely wind up dead.”
There were several nervous glances around the room. Some not so nervous as well, Jordan notably. Irene had a bad feeling about his smile.
“Blinking is one of the few order and chaos spells that does not require near absurd amounts of magic to power. This makes it usable in faster paced situations such as combat. Most order and chaos magic is used in warding, the application of spells to a location, and enchanting, the application of spells to an object.
“By weaving order and chaos magic in with each other or more mundane elements, you can achieve a frankly staggering amount of spells. Many new spells are discovered on a relatively frequent basis. Unfortunately, many of those spells are worthless practically. Good for nothing more than nudging a co-researcher and saying, ‘hey look. Isn’t that neat.”
While a handful of the students chuckled, Professor Baxter reached underneath her lectern and pulled out a box.
An odd box. It had a top, a bottom, and two chrome walls. The front and back were completely open.
A dull red light emanated from somewhere around the center, reflecting off the insides.
“This is a sample ward.” She reached into the box and held her hand steady for all of two seconds. With a sharp breath, Professor Baxter pulled her hand out and clutched it to her chest. “Using order and fire, it creates intense feelings of pain, designed as an area deterrent. All psychological, no physical damage whatsoever.”
Professor Baxter held her hand up, showing both her palm and the back of her hand as evidence.
“You might notice that I called this a ward despite it being clearly an enchantment.” She lifted up and rotated the box around. “Notice how the effect stays with the box, not a location.
“When inventing wards, they generally start out as enchantments. It is far easier to experiment on a small, portable subject rather than something building sized.”
“We aren’t here to discuss the pedantry of proper terminology. Not today at least. Open your books to page one-one-zero-three-seven. We’ll be looking at more specific applications of order magic today.”
Irene sat up straight as the lesson turned to something of more personal interest to her. She doubted they would get in the thick of things during the lesson; order and chaos magic were taught only in the later years of schooling. Still, nothing would stop her from taking as many notes as she could today.
Chapter 005
Zoe Baxter snapped shut the book in her hands.
It was all worthless.
She had put a halt to her demonology studies–taking the terminology from Devon–to work on helping one of her new students.
No matter how many books she read on the subjects of diseases, debilitations, and illness, none of them had any answers. She’d been up and down every book and hadn’t even been able to come up with similar cases, let alone a cure.
Zoe was starting to get worried that she would have to delve into far more abstruse tomes to find any hint.
The girl’s father mentioned that they had never before come across anything that might lend a clue. With the power of Brakket Academy Library behind her, Zoe thought she might be able to find something.
She even roped Lisa into helping despite her being the nurse to the Rickenbacker dorms while Miss Finnell resided within the Gillet. She had absolutely nothing against Nurse East. He was a good medical professional and an adequate potioneer, but Eirin tended to be a tad loony at times.
So far, Lisa had found nothing. It didn’t help that Lisa hadn’t examined the girl on account of Miss Finnell vanishing for the entirety of the summer months. Despite arriving on the flight for orientation, she went back home to her father to spend some more time with him before school started in full.
She neglected to mention how she returned home.
Zoe sighed as she stood up. The book in her hand dropped back to between–Zoe would return it to the library later. She walked around her desk and came to a stop in front of her transparent office door.
First year students filed into her classroom one after another. They were always such fun to watch. Freshmen going to their first class displayed the largest range of emotions. Some came in eager, others nervous. One particular red-headed boy showed off an air of cockiness usually reserved for those with parents who trained them before school started.
Zoe doubted that young Mr. Beans had such training.
The door to Zoe’s classroom sat at the back of the room. As such, few noticed when Des and her adopted brother Hugo entered the room hand-in-hand. The class’ obliviousness did not last long. The two walked straight to the front of the room and took a seat nearest to Zoe’s lectern.
Hugo simply sat. His eyes unfocused as he stared straight ahead.
Des, on the other hand, seemed fairly chipper. With a smile on her face, she pulled out a book and immediately put her nose in it.
Then the whispers began.
The rest of the class had been conversing normally up to that point. Now they pointed and half covered their mouths as they spoke among the small cliques that formed over the summer.
Zoe expected this and had given due warning to both Des and her father. Both simply nodded and had a small solemn look–not that Doctor Finnell lost his wide smile–which gave Zoe the feeling that it happened at some previous school. They both agreed to have Des attend despite that.
Still, it annoyed her to see others so blatantly disrespecting their fellow students.
Zoe almost entered the room. The bell would be ringing shortly and she liked to start the year off with a bang. Or a bolt, as the case was.
Two students approaching the front desk gave her pause.
Part of Zoe hoped that they were going to be nice, polite, and perhaps even become friends.
The taunting looks on the two girls’ faces made Zoe think otherwise.
Yet Zoe stayed her hand. She’d wait and watch how it played out.