Chapter Eleven #2
“A fully ascended demon is considered a high-tier threat as it feeds on more and more magic to sustain its demonic energy. The most important role guilds play is disrupting and banishing demonic energy before a fiend gathers and absorbs enough magic to transcend into a fully sentient demon. We’ve discussed how cities have become overrun in the past—”
“We should be talking about how it’s happening again,” Jamie interjected because of course he fucking did.
“Meaning?” I fought the snarl building in my throat as I attempted to allow a bit of civil discussion since nothing bubbling in his head seemed like it’d lead to a carefully crafted insult toward Tara.
“Just that Chicago’s currently crawling with demons. Next thing you know—”
“We’re not crawling with demons,” Gael blurted.
“Many high-tier demons have attacked the city. Sort of reminds me of that Sacramento v. Sirens lesson we had,” Jamie said, thoughts bordering on the student who’d referenced that lecture: Tara.
“They said Sacramento was so infested, it was more demon than witch by the time the military acted, which begs the question, how will—”
“It’s not the same,” Gael said, once again cutting Jamie off with a smile on his face which only increased the more Jamie sneered in response. “They didn’t have Enchanter Evergreen. ”
“Ba-bawk!”
“ I know he’s trying to change the conversation to guilds so he can talk shit about the Whitlocks. ”
“Cl-cl-cluck.”
“ Yeah, Tara says she doesn’t give a fuck about that, but I’m not going to let Jamie worm his way into any kind of conversation that gives him a voice against her. I’ll fuck him up. ”
My face flushed. Gael never vocalized it. Hell, most of his thoughts were so random and vulgar, it was difficult finding these deep, caring gems.
King Clucks crowed.
“We might have an Enchanter Evergreen”—Jamie’s eyes flitted past Tara, past Gael, and landed on me—“but even he couldn’t handle a devil.”
I quirked an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”
“ Oh, hell no. He’s not trying to talk shit about my boy, Evergreen. Mr. Frosty better step up for his man before I— ”
I squashed Gael’s thoughts.
“I simply mean, the demons which practically consumed Sacramento did so at the behest of a devil.” Jamie had a menacing expression, his eyes locked onto me in some effort to taunt or goad me, yet his thoughts remained hollow. “Or so they say. Who really knows, right?”
“Devils aren’t real,” Gael exclaimed. “They’re a total superstition. Some demons just look human-y depending on their classification, which you’d know if you did the reading.”
He folded his arms, proudly boasting and leaving out the part where he had, in fact, not done the reading but relied on Tara and King Clucks to fill him in on the previous lessons. I rolled my eyes, quelling his ego.
Admittedly, Gael’s timely interjection helped shake away Jamie’s haunting attitude and helped me realize his thoughts weren’t empty, but rather my telepathy continued fizzling out in bizarre intervals.
“Devils are real,” I said. “Possession happens. Demons have been known to take hold of a witch’s body.”
“Some people say really strong demons take everything you were and scoop it out.” Jamie leaned his desk, using telekinesis to tilt it closer to Tara’s. “They wear your face, a devil in disguise, without all the baggage of a broken mortal coil.”
“But that’s a much rarer instance.” I waved a hand, slamming Jamie’s desk back in place and rattling him in the same manner he intended to rattle Tara.
“So uncommon, in fact, it’s not something covered in our curriculum.
Those of you who wish to learn more about devils are welcome to take my Advanced Demonology course in your third year, but for the time being, let’s cover the basics of demon classifications. ”
With that, I kept the conversation from students to a minimum and did my best to cover the content I had planned for the day.
Once we returned to homeroom, I brought my students to the auxiliary gym, joining Chanelle’s class for practice. She had them all focused on training their root magics, the same as what I’d planned, but not in the fun make-a-game-out-of-it way.
“ Here I figured you were avoiding me, ” Chanelle thought.
“ And why oh why would I be avoiding you? ”
Chanelle’s eyes widened, momentarily startled I’d linked to her mind so seamlessly, something I’d never done before. An easy thing for me, even with my branch acting wonky. The only thing really affected was glimpsing Milo randomly and my inability to summon manifestations.
“ Calling in my favor. I need you to cover the Volunteer Program. ” Chanelle quickly recovered and rambled off a very long checklist of dos and don’ts for supervision.
“ A bit short notice. ” I glared.
“ Please, as if you’ve got better things to do. ” Chanelle eyed me up and down, judgment in what she considered grungy. “ We both know Enchanter Evergreen’s busy, so no late-night rendezvous. ”
“ Must you? ”
“ I must. ”
Their friendship was still irksome. Sometimes, the way Milo and Chanelle boxed thoughts of their conversations away when I was around, it felt like they were conspiring when together.
They probably were. Ways to make grumpy anti-social Dorian Frost more outgoing and emotionally involved.
I shuddered. Now, that was a scary thought.
Ignoring Chanelle, Milo, and all my thoughts, I addressed my homeroom.
“All right, let’s get working on some compatibility activities.
” Minds bubbled, and before a single person uttered a word, I cut them off.
“Yes, I know it’s not a huge percentile in the ranking system components, but it’s still a factor.
And a very important one every guild witch requires.
Mastering compatibility can make or break a mission.
It’s more than simply understanding how to work as a team or how a teammate’s magic works.
Compatibility is a skill that allows witches to channel each other’s frequencies and strengthen one another. ”
Given all the showboating that went into guilds, especially now that they’d all cut ties on working together, it was a skill these kids didn’t believe they needed.
Maybe not with the present response of the media, but it was an important skill and one I’d engrain into their heads whether it helped their odds at the Spring Showcase or not.
It’d help them survive this industry, which was all I cared about .
The fact Milo continued scouring for helpful and compatible magics throughout Cerberus Guild for his current case was proof of that.
“I’d also like to note that Mrs. Whitehurst runs a volunteer program that is an opportunity to help in other ranking percentiles. It’s a wonderful way to improve your casting proficiency and increase your compatibility.”
“We know that, Mr. Frosty,” Gael said alongside his rooster’s cluck.
“Yeah,” Katherine said. “You told us about the program last semester, same speech, except you added it’d help us impress the panel for our fledgling permits.”
“And look good for internships.” Gael rolled his eyes. “ Not that any are knocking on my door. ”
“Bawk!”
“ Yeah, I know it’s a third-year thingy. Just saying they could scout early. We’re badass. ”
Right. I’d forgotten. I was so wrapped in the void vision last semester, a lot of my lessons and discussions were sort of on auto-pilot.
Turned out many of my students had signed up for Chanelle’s program at some point.
Few made the time to attend regularly, yet it was impressive they’d taken it upon themselves.
“I actually love helping out,” Gael said.
“You spend the entire time flirting,” Tara said.
“I can’t help it if all the second- and third-year hotties can’t get enough of me and my cock.”
“Cl-cluck!”
“On that unfortunate note, can we begin?” I cleared my throat and gave them instructions on the lesson for the day.
As everyone went off to practice, Katherine smiled, making her way toward me. She carried the weighted blocks I’d inquired about .
“Next time, offer me a real challenge. It was fun scraping the root magics away. I just wish you’d have let me make them more accessible. They only register three types of branch magic, and I could’ve easily—”
“They only need to handle three types.” I eyed Tara, who worked alongside a resentful Kenzo and enthusiastic Caleb, awaiting Katherine’s arrival. “Thank you, Katherine.”
I let them all finish their practice before sending them off to their next class and pulling Tara aside.
“You’ve been improving at using your branches together.”
“I’ve got three branches and can use exactly one move.” Tara shrugged. “ Wouldn’t call that improvement. ”
I feigned a weak smile—less chipper, but at least I’d resisted a natural frown—and reached into my satchel for a set of four weighted blocks.
“Hopefully, this isn’t presumptuous, but I’ve been thinking about ways to enhance your growth in your branch magics.”
The irony of discussing ways to help her control her branches while my own continued evolving, leaving me no control or understanding of the new aspects.
“You don’t need to use these. Not if you don’t want to.
And if it feels like I’m overstepping, let me know.
” I held the blocks in one hand, all four stacked in my palm, while I traced the altered enchantment I had engraved for Tara.
“Lots of witches use support items, for training, for really whatever reason they need to access their branch. Or, in your case, branches. I didn’t want to advertise offering these to you, especially if you didn’t want to use them or found them unhelpful.
But they are helpful. I think. Probably. ”
“ Just fucking say it already. ” Tara’s cheeks burned bright red. “Sorry.”
“For what?” My expression didn’t shift.
“ He didn’t hear? Good. ” Tara smiled. “Nothing. Just thinking—overthinking, probably. ”
“You and me both.” I handed Tara the blocks.
Honestly, if I reacted to every single thing someone thought about me, I’d never function most days.
Whether my squirmy wordiness came from genuine anxiety or Tara, I pushed past it.
“They’re accessories usually specified for practicing root magics, but witches have them augmented all the time to specify particular branch casting or use different support tools more suited to their casting. ”
The blocks hovered above Tara’s fingertips, delicately twirling.
I’d given her the lowest weighted ones because her telekinesis wasn’t something I wanted her to focus on with these items, unlike Caleb, who’d amplified the max weight.
Still, she wiggled her fingertips like she was running them through her blonde locks as opposed to juggling the four support tools.
“I know you have the sphere which allows you to conjure all three branches simultaneously as a defensive support measure. I also know you’ve been working on ways to optimize and transition that into an offensive attack.”
“ Which is going awful according to Gael constantly professing the best offense is a good defense among other sports analogies. ” Tara rolled her eyes, briefly lost in her time spent with the most audacious person she knew. “Yep. One tiny step at a time.”
At this point, she had to know I’d heard that commentary. And while there was a lot of baggage to unpack in her taste in friendships, I was happy the self-appointed captain of cocks was helping her train.
“These weights are designed to handle any and all impact from root magics; however, a simple alteration of the enchantment, and now they’re capable of handling your branches.”
“How’d you have these specified to my branches?”
“You’re not the first person to use sealing, intangibility, or shadows—probably the first person to use them all together, but there are apparently easy-to-follow blueprints online.
” I left out the part where I’d offered Katherine extra credit for a class she already had an A in to alter the sigils.
She liked testing her own enchantment magic, and it was a lot quicker than filing for an official supplemental tool to support a student’s needs.
Basically, I was assisting two students with one casting project.
I explained how the enchanted blocks would assist Tara.
Sigils covered all six sides of the cubes, allowing them to properly absorb, contain, and reflect Tara’s three branch magics.
Due to her branch overlap, it was impossible for Tara to cast one of her branches independently.
Three powerful branches that unfortunately didn’t collaborate well with each other aside from a sphere Caleb had hypothesized last semester.
It’d be difficult pinpointing two of her branches onto the weighted blocks while exercising one in a different direction, but it wouldn’t be impossible.
If anyone could master this technique, Tara could.
Her proficiency with her root magics rivaled most second- and third-year students.
With these support tools, she could alternate channeling sealing or unsealing techniques, intangibility, and shadows interchangeably.
“Although it’s easy to theorize, you’re the one who has to put it into practice.”
Shadows coiled around the blocks covering a golden glow of her sealing magic that pinged along the sigils.
Tara took a step toward the auxiliary gym door, running her fingers intangibly through the metallic bar.
Simply amazing. In a few seconds, she’d already shifted the precision of two branches onto the items. The blocks collapsed onto the ground, all the channeled magic in the air quelled.
Tara knelt to pick them up, stuffing them into her book bag.
“Definitely something to work on,” she said. “ Later. ”
“Of course.”