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RAVENHURST 1ST YEAR CHAPTER ONE: ORIENTATION


Ravenhurst ST

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Kaitlin forgot about Snow White and her animal friends when she felt something staring at her, something in the woods. Suppressing a shiver of trepidation, Kaitlin's hands tightened on the rail, her amber eyes gleaming as she tried to discern what was watching her. She hadn't ever backed down from anything back home and she would be damned if she would here, magic and strangeness or no.

She wondered if she should break out her bow from the case attached to her rucksack, but stopped herself. She didn't even know what she was looking for and didn't want the others to think she was jumping at shadows. With magic being real, she wondered if mythological creatures were too, unicorns and griffons, bigfoots (bigfeets?) and goblins. Dragons.

Kaitlin nodded at Maria's comment about the chaperone, her brother Matthew, and at his arrival with Warren, but didn't take her narrowed eyes off the woods across the lake.

"Um, Maria, are there any dangers were should know about the woods?" Kaitlin asked, a hint of suspicion in her voice. "I run and climb - freerunning, really, you know, parkour? - regularly through the mountains and forests back home, so I know the dangers there. Are there like, bears or wolves, or... er, other things here?"

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Maria came out on the deck and looked out at the woods across the lake. "No, just the usual small things native to the area, squirrels, rabbits, birds, maybe foxes but i have never seen one. You do want to be careful if you go to deep there are barriers which are invisible to normal senses, you want to be care of running into them." She smile and gave Kaitlin a squeeze on the arm. "Wow!, that's pretty solid there."

Later after everyone settled into a room with Kaitlin and 3J ending up having to share after straws were drawn. They made a lists of things they needed and Matthew got the keys to the school van and they made the short drive to the nearest big town, Middlebury (pop 8496). Matthew drove them around to give them a look see and pointed out a fairly modern building with a sign declaring that it was a the local High School" Yo uwill be taking some of your classes there." which made everyone snap their attention to him as he drove on by.

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Kaitlin's cheeks reddened when Maria gave her bicep a squeeze, remarking at it's solidity despite the fact she wasn't even flexing. "I work out some - more than some, really," Kaitlin admitted with a proud yet self-conscious grin then gave Maria a nod. "I'll be careful when I go out for a morning or evening run, then."

While magic had helped, she had worked hard to earn her muscles. It was one of the only spells she had made that had worked as intended, not like the hair dye spell that had turned her hair blond and black, though she had grown to like it. She still shuddered at the thought of her first attempt - she had tried a sort of metamorphosis/transformation to get instant muscle gain and had ended up paralyzing herself for hours in crippling pain.

Her second attempt at the spell - Pain for Gain, she called it - multiplied the effects of working out and exercise, though it also multiplied the effort required. She didn't know what the precise multiplier was, but if she had to guess, over a year of hard bodybuilding and cardio had turned into the equivalent of five years or more of physical development. All without the deleterious effects of steroids or of working out at or before the onset of puberty.

She didn't know what she felt about sharing a room with someone else. She didn't have any siblings, so had always had a room to herself. 3J might be fat - she herself had always been wiry and athletic and now her bulk was all muscle - she was all stuck up or unthinkingly privileged like the other two girls. Hopefully, they would get along, or at least, not rub each other the wrong way.

Sitting in one of the rear seats of the minivan, Kaitlin pressed her face to the window, peering about the town. She'd been to a city before, but not often, and never out of state, and Middlebury was still nearly ten times the size of Dubois, Wyoming. It certainly lacked the rustic, frontier feel of her home town. When Matthew mentioned that they would be taking some classes at Middlebury High School, she sat up straight, the seatbelt pulling tight against a shoulder and between her breasts.

"What's wrong with a normal school?" Kaitlin retorted, reflexively taking the opposing view from the standoffish girl. "What kind of school did you go to before Ravenhurst? Besides, it's not like we need to go to a magic school to learn Math or Science or whatever."

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On 5/23/2017 at 9:20 AM, Ravenhurst ST said:

“Hi I'm Matthew, looks like we are going to be roomies with all the girls.” He smiles broadly looking a bit frog like and grabs Warrens bag and tosses it easily over his shoulder, “Come along then, it's a bit of a walk.”

"Don't care,"  Warren said softly.  He was still fuming from his confrontation with the Dean.  If Warren had one sin that haunted him, it was Pride.  Any slight against him, especially from authority figures and the young man felt the urge to defend himself immediately.

"Pardon?"  Mathew asked.

"Don't care," Warren said.  His deep voice was firm.  "Don't care who you are.  How far we're walking, and who we're rooming with.  And seriously, quit smiling, you look like an idiot.  They're just girls.  You act like you ain't seen a pair of tits before."

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Maria answered for Matt. “You don't have to go to the norm school if you don't want to but it's the only way to get your diploma unless you GED.”

Matthew took over the explanation, “Two day out of the week those of you who decide to go will be transported in early in the morning. The Staff will have put spells up that will make any of the norms who see and interact with you remember knowing you and the magic will fill in the holes in their memories with suitable information.”

“But don't worry, you don't have to worry about the story or what you say or tell them about yourself the magic will adapt.” Finishes Maria.

Everyone is kind of staring at the two of them, whether because of what they were telling them or because it was like only one person was talking.

Finally 3J raised her hand then quickly put it down when she realized what she was doing, and said,”But why?”

“Well, Ravenhurst doesn't have and normal Teachers, All we do there is sorcery. But if you intend to live and function with any kind of normalcy in the normal world after leaving Ravenhurst, you need to have the normal things other people have, like diplomas and collage degrees.” Said Matthew as he parked the van at a large Grocery Store with a big sign saying Hannaford Supermarket.

“And before you ask,” Maria took up Matts thought, “yes it is possible to fake all of those things with spells but the more you do the more complicated the sorcery becomes. Just like a lie,” She smiles at Warren, “ the more embellished and complicated the easier it is to mess it up.”

Everyone gets out of the van and Maria leads them to an ATM. She stands in front of the machine but doesn't pull out a card instead she holds her hands waist high and makes some very strange movements with her fingers after taking a deep breath, while doing the gestures she is mumbling as well then she punches some numbers and the machine spits out some cash about 200 dollars. She grabs the cash and turns to face the group, she looks at each of them standing there and then hands the cash to Siobhan with a big smile. “You take care of the money ok hun.

Now let's shop!”

 

 

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Kaitlin closely watched Maria perform the spell with interest, though not without feeling slightly uncomfortable as well. She supposed it wasn't really stealing - nobody was loosing money, the bank was insured, and anyway, banks made gazillions of dollars on other people's money - but she had been caught shoplifting when just a little girl, before she'd known was real, and only the gruff but kindly man who ran the only martial arts school in town stepping in on her behalf had stopped it from becoming something serious.

Samurai Joe of Samurai Joe's Jeet Kune Do had given her a job cleaning up the dojo, which had earned her a few extra bucks to help her dad with paying bills, mostly to buy food they couldn't just hunt, as well as giving her an outlet for her all her energy in learning Jeet Kune Do. She had found in him something like an old uncle she'd never had.

She returned Maria's broad grin with a scowl as the female half of their chaperones handed the money to Siobhan. She couldn't see how the rich girl could understand the value of money or what things cost, but contented herself with a sniff as she stalked over to the cart corral and pulled free a cart with a single sharp jerk.

After all, they'd be sharing a dorm for who knew how many years, it was better to keep the peace over something as minor as who held the money for food. But if Siobhan tried to buy something stupid like, who knew what, a free-range, grass-fed, organic pheasant or something, she was going to make her put it back. Having never had much money, Kaitlin knew how to stick to a budget, though she wished she'd had a chance to sniff out some coupons. 200 hundred dollars could have fed her and her dad for quite some time, if without treating themselves.

She'd see what she could do for her dorm-mates. But she really hoped she could hunt, especially after seeing what the 'sale' prices for meat were like here.

"Hey, at least they aren't trying to magic up food and letting us buy the real deal instead," Kaitlin commented in passing, planting one foot on the under-carriage of the cart and propelling herself with the other in sure, strong pushes, up the curb and into the supermarket.

Maybe spaghetti - not too expensive, can make a big pot of it and have leftovers for later... Where's the ground beef and pasta section in this place?

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On 5/27/2017 at 10:30 PM, Safyre Starr said:

"Weren't you just lecturing us about the dangers of relying on magic for everything?" Safyre asked dryly. "Does Ravenhurst not even have a bank account?"

Maria smiled that annoying smile now aiming it a Safyre, "Oh daring, I wasn't lecturing you on relying on sorcery, after all we're sorcerers, it's what we do.

I was lecturing you on building a lying record. The more you use sorcery to establish and maintain a false appearance to more complex it becomes until it takes on a life of it's own. Your from an old family I would have thought you would know that.

And yes Ravenhurst has an account the but it's magical the spell just lets us access it and transfers the money through."

"First years don't usually get access, but you browns might," added Matthew.

Maria giggles as Kaitlin rushes off to the carts. "Oh goody someone at least like to shop. Come on lets get some carts!"

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Siobhan looked down at the cash in her hand for a moment, almost looking confused. 

"You really didn't need to this." she said sincerely.

"It would be my pleasure to buy anything we want or need to eat. Honestly. I mean, we are going to have our studies and have to cook our own meals, so it might as well be things we will really like. You know?" she offered as she opened her tiny purse and pulled out her jet black card.

"Consider it my contribution to our group success, if you want." she added with a warm smile.

Siobhan looked around, almost wide eyed, as she walked in. Grocery shopping was some she very, rarely did, so it was always a fairly new experience for her.

"Do you think they have, like, organic, free range, grass-fed proteins? Like maybe pheasant?" she asked. 

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Kaitlin gave Siobhan a suspicious, narrow-eyed glance as she pushed her cart through the produce section. Did she just read my mind?! If you're reading my mind, stay the fuck out! she thought fiercely, imagining a vivid, vicious pummeling. She snorted in annoyance as she studied each apple before placing them in a plastic bag.

"If you want something like that, you're off hunting it yourself," she muttered with a scowl at the taller girl. Her scowl faded as they made their way through produce towards the bakery section. "Honestly, I can barely taste the difference in store-bought meat, though the grade does matter. But the best tasting meat is the meat you catch yourself."

The broad-shouldered girl resisted the urge to add anything that caught her fancy to her cart, considering the rich girl's offer to cover it all, instead adamantly keeping herself to budget given them by Maria, even if Siobhan was holding onto the actual cash too. In the meat section, she kept to the cheaper cuts of meat - they might be tougher, but cook or marinate them long enough and they would taste good and fall apart in your mouth. She had to see if she could find a pressure cooker at a second-hand store.

"No!" she protested when Warren tossed a pair of bags of Fudgee-Os into her cart. She grabbed them and shoved them back onto the shelf. "We don't need that garbage. Besides, cookies are easy enough to bake and cheap enough to make."

They clashed again when they got to the cereal aisle.

"Honey-nut Cheerios!"

"Count Chocula!"

"Cheerios!"

"Chocula!"

"Then get your own damn cart, Warren! And take your damn Fudgee-Os with you!" She tossed them with more force than was necessary against his chest, then stared at them and then back at her cart. "When the hell did you even get them back in there?"

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The smell of food cooking the sounds of laughter and tales being told filled the lake house that night as the  Brown group as they have been named settled in and bonded. Kaitlin and Siobhan cooked a pretty tasty feast that no one could complain about and they each shared a little bit about them selves before retiring for the night.

Some of them missed home, missed their own bed or the family or their pet dog or cat. And some of them slept peacefully without a care in the world.

 

Matthew and Maria showed the group to their class in the morning after breakfast before heading off to wherever and whatever fifth years did. the four girls and one boy who are the focus of our story found themselves in a smallish room furnished more as an upscale den than a classroom. The were no desks only very comfortable chairs and a couple of small sofas. No chalkboards and no computers. There was a section of bookshelves filled with many tomes, a coffee table placed in front of each sofa, a huge fireplace, unlit, and a coffee service with Tea, coffee, and water.

3J's eyes lit up when she saw the book shelves and immediately went to them and reached up to take down one with and intriguing title. She gave a yelp and snatched her hand back rapidly rubbing it after the volume had shocked her.

"You shouldn't pick things up around her until you know what they are and that you have permission, Miss James." came a voice from a door no one had seen.

The voice was husky had a midwest drawl and came from a tall man with short blonde hair, clean shaven except for a slight stylish shadow of stubble. He was handsome and had both a boyish  and mature look about him. He was about 40 or so but gave off a much younger vibe.

"Please take a seat on the couches, if you would. My name is Nathan Spenser, spelled with an 's' like the fictional detective, you can call me Nathan, Nate or just Spenser, but i prefer mister not be attached. I am your group mentor and primary instructor. You will have instruction as a group most days but will also have classes with the rest of the first years as well. Starting next week those of you who elect to continue your Norm education will have classes at Middlebury Highschool on Mondays, and Fridays.

The rest of the week will be dedicated to fundamentals of Sorcery if you make it past the first year you will be able to specialize but that's for later.

Now what I would like is for each of you one at a time to stand over here," he indicates a spot off to the right of the two sofas, " tell me your name, what you prefer to be called and show me some magic.

So who wants to go first?"

Spoiler

Spenser  Spenser.gif

 

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Kaitlin woke up before dawn and slipped out of the guesthouse-come-dorm-to-the-Browns using the window. The early morning air was crisp, dew painting all the foliage. She wove her hands in a series of pseudo-mystical mudra gestures and engaged in a series of breathing exercises as she cast her bodybuilding spell.

She felt the weight, the strain of the spell settle on her, in her, then went for a run around the small lake. She tried to estimate the distance as she broke her run at intervals for a series of pull-ups, pushups, and squats in a CrossFit Hero WOD (Workout of the Day), while keeping an eye on the terrain for places to climb and jump on or off of for a freerunning course.

Kaitlin got back to the guesthouse with her hair plastered to her head with sweat and her sweatshirt and sweatpants clinging to her body with her exertion. Her dorm-mates were just beginning to stir and she grabbed a change of clothes and slipped into the bathroom to grab a shower before they noticed her. Being an only child, she wasn't used to changing in front of others, and while her baggy clothes hadn't completely fooled the other Browns as to her build, she was still a little self-conscious about what they would think, especially after her workout with her muscles pumped and thick veins standing out in stark relief.

Still, the badly faded band-shirt with the flannel shirt over it didn't hide the breadth of her shoulders or the thickness of her arms and chest, and her patched, olive green cargo-pants were snug over her thighs. If people couldn't tell exactly how defined her was, she was clearly not overweight due to fat.

While the others got ready for the day, Kaitlin made pancakes, breakfast sausages, and hashbrowns for everyone, eating her own heaping plate and doing the dishes while the other ate. She didn't seem to mind doing it, though she didn't offer to make anything different if anyone else wanted something different. If they did, they could make it themselves.

In the classroom, Kaitlin was a little tentative about touching anything except for grabbing two bottles of water from the coffee service. It didn't look like any classroom she'd ever seen, except maybe in a cinematic version of Harvard or something. At Spenser's request, Kaitlin perched herself in one of the comfortable chairs, her legs crossed and hold a bottle of water in each hand balanced on her knees. She listened attentively to Spenser, not wanting to make a mistake on her first day of class.

Believing herself the most untutored in Magic, except for maybe Warren, Kaitlin thought one of the others would volunteer to go first, especially Safyre, who acted like she knew so much. But when no one stepped forward, Kaitlin put one of her bottles of water on a side table and kept the other then hopped to her feet. She wasn't embarrassed about how little she knew about Magic - that was why she was here after all, to learn.

"I'll go, Mister- uh, just Spenser," Kaitlin said with brusque confidence, her blond and black ponytail bouncing as she strode over to the spot Spenser had indicated, leaving her bottle of water on a table in passing. "My name is Kaitlin Vandussen, but most people back home called me Kat. As for magic, how about this?"

Kaitlin took several focusing breaths then shifted into a solid martial arts stance. She made a series of motions with her hands and fingers suggesting a series of directions or arrows ↓↘→ then extended her arms towards the water bottle bottle on the table, her wrists pressed together and her hands perpendicular to the floor and shouted, "Hadoken!"

A faint, translucent beam of bluish energy the width of her two hands flowed from her palms straight towards the water bottle. The beam of energy struck the water bottle, which was tumbled end over end, bounced off the back of a chair, went flipping through the air, then landed on the ground with a thump half way across the room and spun around for a bit before coming to a stop.

Kaitlin frowned a moment before giving Spenser an uncertain smile. It was totally stolen from a video game - one of the saloons in Dubois had a trio of standup arcade machines - and she had expected it to hit the bottle with a lot more direct force than that, but at least her spell hadn't failed. "Er, ta-da?"

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Safyre sat stolidly, her hand unconsciously wrapped around the amulet she wore; the spell focus. Half clinging to a life preserver, half wishing she could just yank it off and throw it away. This was really it...the moment she'd worked so hard for. It felt like walking over a pit of lava on a tightrope she could barely see. Was what was on the other side worth it?

Her jaw set. She would not back down now. This would not all be for nothing.

The chair under her creaked a little when she stood up; the wooden legs made an embarrassing scraping noise.

"Safyre Starr," she said simply, and lifted her hands. Focus.

With both hands she grasped 'nothing' between her thumbs and forefingers, directly beside one another. She pulled them apart, making a glowing line in between them. For a moment she studied the line...then reached out and began bending it. Folding it. Twisting it. The line spread and branched, becoming a geodesic made from trails of ethereal fire, wrapped around an area about the size of her fist. Inside she placed her pencil, which hovered weightlessly within, then snapped her fingers.

It collapsed inward and was gone, as was the pencil.

Safyre took a deep breath, then reached up to flick her finger at a different spot, as if knocking a pesky insect away. Immediately the geodesic blossomed out, still carrying the pencil. She plucked it out and tucked it behind her left ear as the warped space dissipated into a harmless shower of light.

She sat down.

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3J nervously pushed herself off the couch and stepped up to the same spot Safyre had just been. She was starting to sweat nervously before she said or did anything, but Spenser gave her a nod of encouragement so she set her bag on the table and dug out an old fashioned book about the size of a diary. The book was covered in a heavily faded red cloth although it looked more pink than red due to it's age. She looked out at everyone as she flipped the pages.

“This...this is a spell called Mirrors of Internal Reflection.”

With the book in one hand, she began weaving some jerky weird looking figures in the air and slowly a shape began to form. After a moment a semi transparent mirror in an old fashioned round frame floated in front of her the reflective surface facing away.

She looked around nervously then saw that Warren was showing a good amount of interest so she moved her hand and the mirror moved toward him he flinched back as the mirror lowered itself to the level of his face and reflected his image.

Before he could say anything the reflection opened its mouth.

“This is all so much bullshit they set this crap up...” the voice trailed off only to come back again a second later.

“I always thought fat girls had really big tits, hers don't look very big at all..”

Shocked at what the mirror revealed 3J's hand faltered and the mirror sailed right into Warren where it vanished in a shower of sparkles.

Red faced 3J started to close the book but Spenser held out his hand.

“Can I see your book?”

She looked at the book and the hand stretched out for it and reluctantly gave it over. She avoided meeting his eyes, anybodies eyes.

Spenser looked at the spell printed on the page surrounded by copious notes.

“You made these note, 3J?”

“No sir, they were in the book when I fou...acquired it.”

He nodded and handed it back. “Good job. Next”

3J quickly sat and crossed her arms covering her breasts as best she could. Inside she was furious with the stupid boy.

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Siobhan raised her hand and stood, smoothing out her skirt before stepping forward.

"Hi. I'm Siobhán Berrigan. Um. I do not really know any magic though. I mean, I thought that was why we are all here? To learn? Right?" she said, somewhat unsure of herself.

"I mean. I guess I can do some things, but they seem to be natural to me. Like, I am not like making gestures and incantations and stuff. Like, when my horse broke it's leg, and they were going to euthanize him, I somehow fixed his leg, good as new, just with my touch and, like, the warmth of my heart. I know it sounds corny, but that is the best way I can describe it. And I am pretty sure that I can cure sicknesses, diseases and other stuff too. At least it fixed a fever that my sibling had." she explained, pretty certain that the others did not believe her. 

She bit the side of her bottom lip cutely and then continued.

"And all my life animals have been friendly with me. I don't mean like, "Oh look. My dog likes you." I am talking about them like, I don't know, accepting me. They are not afraid of me, do not attack, are always friendly and even help me out and bring me stuff. Like this..." she said, reaching into her purse and opening a small coin purse to remove the large, blue-green seed.

"A very nice squirrel brought me this. I'm not sure what it is just yet though." she said, looking closely at the seed, biting the side of her bottom lip once more.

"But that does remind me. You see, even plants are the same way with me and I seem to understand them and, like, how to use them to do things. My family, way back when in Ireland, were all herbalists or apothecaries or holistic healers or whatever, and it is like some of it just got passed down somehow to me. I know. It's weird." she said, finishing with a sigh.

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Kaitlin glowered at Warren for his - or his reflections - thoughtless remarks, and folded her arms under breasts, her flannel shirt pulling tight across her shoulders and back. She hated assholes like that, as if their opinion about how a girl should be shaped mattered, let alone sharing it freely. True, she'd never been fat. First, because of how skinny and wiry she'd been, or how poor and for her second-hand clothing, then for all the muscle she'd packed on in the last year.

"If it makes you feel any better," Kaitlin said in a whisper that was meant to be heard, leaning from her chair towards 3J, "I've always thought the biggest dicks had the smallest ones."

Siobhan earned herself a scowl for another reason. To the overly athletic girl, it just seemed like Siobhan reeked of false modesty, even if didn't seem like she was acting. Super rich, dresses super nice, and then claiming she didn't know magic just before saying she was able to do all these things that sounded like magic to Kaitlin, like something in a Fairy Tale. Warmth of her heart, right! Vomit!

Kaitlin couldn't help but feel sudden urge to find one of Snow White Siobhan's animal friends and eat it, out of sheer principle. Game stew was great and warming on a chill night. But that was just being petty.

Part of the reason for it was because one of the main reasons Kaitlin wanted to learn magic was so she could help her dad and fix his leg that medicine couldn't seem to help with and here was Siobhan claiming she fix her horse's leg with just a touch. Itjust  seemed too easy in Kaitlin's eyes. To her, healing looked like a type of transformation and she had tried a direct transformation spell on herself before, just after learning she could do magic, and it hadn't gone well. It still gave her nightmares. She had learned you never got something for nothing, in magic or in life.

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Good job. Next.

The professor's words echoed in Safyre's ears over and over as she sat in her chair, arms straight at her sides, eyes burning holes in the room's back wall.

Good job. Next.

Good job.

For that? A mirror that invaded private thoughts and blared them around for everyone to see and hear? Good job? And it wasn't like he was giving everyone kudos. No, he singled out that one spell, that one student. The only one lamer had been Siobhan, who hadn't even tried to cast a spell! What the fuck was this bed-head haired ex-hippie even doing teaching? And now her entire future rested entirely on whether or not she could work out what kind of magic would impress him enough!

At least she wouldn't have to try to emulate Kaitlin's video game magic. Small comfort there. Where did you go though with a guy who thought Jane's spell was better than a tesseract transform that fit into the palm of a hand?

UGH. Fuck it. She'd gotten this far without any pats on the back! Maybe Jane needed constant coddling to keep herself going, but Safyre was made of stronger stuff. She would not let this class get in her way. Or anyone in it.

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Reluctantly Warren stood up but he didnt go to the head of the table or anything he just crossed his arms. "My name is Warren," he said putting as much disdain into his voice as possible, " I don't know how to do any of this sh.. stuff. Sorry." with that he just fell back onto the couch.

Spenser shrugged. "Ok that was pretty good all around,  a few things.

First of all, Kaitlin, your example is one of the most basic and common uses of force magic possible and the quickest way to get expelled. This type of spell falls into the category of Battle Magic. While advanced students will be taught some in their fourth and fifth years Battle Magic is forbidden to be practiced while you attend Ravenhurst. Any use of a spell which can directly harm another student will result in instant expulsion no excuses."

Warren smiles at Kaitlin and waves his fingers at her, bye bye.

"But don't worry it doesn't count for today." Spenser gives Warren the eyeball. "Every group has someone who does a spell like this on the first day we take the opportunity to explain the rule when it happens."

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Kaitlin gave Warren a hard look, her arms folded across her chest tensing, making hard biceps bulge and strain the sleeves of her shirts. She didn't need Battle Magic to beat the crap out of a boy or a man. She was stronger than most of them, knew how to fight, and wasn't afraid to do so in defense of herself or to make a point.

She shrugged her broad shoulders apologetically at Spenser. "I'm sorry, sir. I'll try to do better. But can I ask why?"

"Why what, Kaitlin?"

"Why is there a rule against Battle Magic?" Kaitlin asked. "I mean, the magic itself isn't bad, it's how you use it, right? Like, learning Martial Arts, it isn't bad in itself, but it can be used for bad things, or to defend yourself. And almost anything, spell or whatever, can be used as a weapon, if you try hard enough." Kaitlin pointed at Safyre with her chin without actually looking at the standoffish bitch. "Her spell, what if she made the pencil and fancy dome appear inside someone's head, does that turn her spell into a Battle Spell, making it not allowed?"

Kaitlin sighed, unfolding her arms and spread her hands. "I was just wondering why there's the rule against Battle Magic. Because of students wanting to get into 'Magic Duels' to showoff and see who's better, or does learning that type of Magic affect you in other ways, or.. or, I dunno what?"

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Spenser pursed his lips and looked out through the fancy windows. "Well, there are several reason, like you mention  duels and showing off, people can get hurt even killed. Magic can be very dangerous. It also can be addictive. That's one of the things we look for here in our first years. Magic is powerful, seductive, and for the unwary or weak willed it can be just as much of a trap as drugs or sex is for norms. Battle magic by it's very nature is dangerous, the most dangerous magic that most of you will ever encounter. And it is easy. You don't need a lot of skill or talent to be effective with battle magic but it is a trap. it is a powerful display and the more you do it the easier it becomes.

Think of it like driving a car. until you get your license, if you get caught driving you get in trouble.

Which leads me to the next point.

Magic isn't hard to do if you know what your doing, or if you know how to follow instructions.

The problem comes when you follow instructions and don't know what your doing. Magic is formulaic pretty much anyone can do a spell and it will work

3J has a fairly common magical primer with a few spells in it, we have many copies of the same book here at Ravenhurst it's used to teach simple spells. But someone has written lots of notes in 3J's book. 3J didn't under stand the notes. The spell isn't designed to do what it did for one it is usually needs a physical mirror and another is that as designed it is meant to reveal the internal thoughts of the caster to help them make decisions by showing various outcomes of a dilemma. Who ever made those notes changed the very nature of the spell but didn't explain it and I am sure 3J just thought that the notes were there to make it better."

For her part 3J head was hanging low and her face was almost as red as her hair with embarrassment.

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"Siobhan, you didn't try to do any magic. You gave us a nice story about the horse and how animals love you, but you didn't show me any magic." Spenser steps over to where Siobhan sits.

"Does it frighten you, the idea of magic? The thought that your different than the rest?

How about that seed? Why do you think a squirrel would bring you something like that?"

 

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"I did not try any because I do not know any, like I said. I thought that is why we are here." Siobhan said with a sigh, not particularly enjoying saying again that she didn't know how.

"I didn't have a family to teach me, or find a book of magical notes, or anything like that. One day, I helped my horse, fixing his leg with some ability I did not even know I had. Then these people showed up and talked to my parents about me coming here and they could not wait to ship me off. And then people explained to me what this was a place of magical learning. After what I had done, and how nature had always regarded me, I wasn't exactly skeptical, but it is not like one stayed behind to tutor me or something. And I am sure not going to try something as dangerous as magic, on my own, having no direction or clue what I am even doing." she explained. 

"The only way I can show what I can actually do is if we go outside or somebody breaks their arms or something. Other than that, I don't know how to do magic. I guess that means I am going to be in some remedial class or something." the blonde sighed, looking down at the ground and then at the seed in her hand. 

"And the seed.. I don't know. It is probably something special, like a gift they wanted to give me, or something dangerous that they thought I could better keep out of dangerous hands." Siobhan speculated and shrugged. 

Siobhan then remembered something. 

"Warren didn't try to do any magic either. So how come I'm getting in trouble for not knowing magic or whatever, but not him?" she asked. 

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"We aren't talking about Warren right now his turn will come. And you are not in any trouble Siobhan, I'm sorry if I made you think that you were." He motions for her to scoot over and sits beside her.

"Knowing magic is one thing yes and yes that is what we do here, we teach you the knowledge to be good sorcerers. But making magic is possible with out even knowing you are doing it. All you have to do is try. Do you have the seed with you?"

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"May I" Asked Spenser who took the seed when She nodded.

He examined it for several seconds.

"Ive never seen one like before. It must be special. That or the squirrel thought you were." He gives the seed back to Siobhan "Ill be interested to see what you do with it."

He pushes off the couch and stands and walks over in front of Warren.  "Like Siobhan said, Warren, you didn't do any magic either, you didn't even try." He turns away and walks back to where he had been standing before and faces the group as a whole.

"Sorcery is difficult but any of you can become powerful accomplished sorcerers, any of you. All you have to do is try.

Safyre made a beautiful piece of magic here today something that any sorcerer would be proud of let alone a first year on her first assignment. it was a very well done spell.

Now how many of you have herd of the game cats cradle?"

Everyone raised their hands after a moment or two.

"Good what most of you don't know is that the game was originally developed to teach Sorcerers the basic of what we call Technique.  Over on the table by the door," he points to a small table by the door which none of you had noticed before, "that box contains cats cradle strings each of you take one string and one of the lesson books. You all saw the way Safyre moved her fingers she was using Technique, all of you need to follow her example and learn the basics. starting tomorrow you will all meet here for one hour of instruction with me then you will attend regular classes with the rest of the groups.

Thats it for today. I will see you in the morning."

With no further words or giving anyone time to ask anything Spenser leaves through the door he had come in through.

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Safyre's ears and cheeks burned, and her anger whipsawed alarmingly through almost pathetic gratitude and overweening vindication. She clamped down as best she could, but she couldn't help letting a little smile out onto her face. She could do this. She was doing this.

He desperately needed some hair tips, but maybe the professor wasn't so bad after all.

She picked up a book...then hesitated and selected a string as well. She was past that point in her studies, but...well...why not?

 

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Kaitlin was surprised but not disappointed that it looked like their school day was over. She had expected more on their first day, more orientation or something, but that just meant they got to look around campus on their own. Kaitlin hopped out of her chair, slung her bag over her shoulder and strode over to the box.

She fished out one of the loops of strings, one coloured in earth tones of brown, green, and grey. She considered it for a moment, thinking it a stupid game, but on the other hand, her Hadouken spell had been a brute one that hadn't worked out the way she wanted while Safyre's spell had been fancy and impressive looking. She was proud of Pain for Gain, but it took hard work and time for the effects to show - it wasn't something that lent itself to cool demonstrations.

Kaitlin looped the string over a strong wrist then picked up the lesson book, leafing through it quickly just to get an idea of its layout, but really she was hesitating. Finally, she took a deep breath and turned to face Safyre. "So, uh, I really liked your spell," Kaitlin admitted, grudgingly if honestly. "If you have time sometime, could you show me how you move your fingers for a spell like that?"

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One thing keyboards do is build dexterity in your fingers.  Cat's Cradle was as old of a hobby for Warren as shuffling cards.  They were things he'd do when he was younger to pass the time in foster care or one of his several minor stints in juvenile detention.  He wasn't too thrilled about the mp3 recording that 3J had doctored to jumble a few of the things he'd said into her spell, but really, editing a recording took all of what?  Ten minutes and could be done in the bathroom on a tablet.  Myth Busters really needed him on the payroll, he'd have a field day with this place... although he didn't recall saying 'tits' out loud... eh, he must have.

To pass the time, and drown out the rest of the people around he got to work fiddling with the string.  Sure enough his fingers showed a measure of manual coordination and skill that would have made Kaitlin consider guys again or 3J wonder what the touch of a man could really be like... too bad she'd never know.  The more he focused the easier and swifter the string patters came.  This place was a joke, and the more he thought about how fake the place was, the swifter the the motions came to him.  Fueled by pure irritation there was a sudden "POP" like a small bubble in plastic baggie being smashed by a child's palm.

Startled, those present spun about and looked at where the sound had come from, back by the door, near where Spenser had exited the small metal trash can was smoking and tiny fire was quickly gaining in size...

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"Holy Shit!" exclaimed 3J as she saw the growing blaze in the trashcan, smoke billowing from it as if it were a 3 alarm the the flames really began to shoot out.

This wasn't some little trash can fire fueled by a few crumple sheets of paper it was a budding conflagration complete with jets of flames shooting up every few seconds each one higher than the last.

Pretty much everyone was frozen when 3J began shouting again. "Wait wait I know what to do!"

The chubby red head started digging through her bag as the flames shot higher and higher...

 

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Siobahn's beautiful blue eyes went wide at the sight of the fire in the trashcan.

"Ahh!" she squeaked unintentionally.

She flung her hands out toward the trashcan, sending a wave of chilled air across the room at it, which hit the can and extinguished the fire with a hiss, leaving the rim of the can coated with visible frost. She blinked and stared at the can, and then her hands, and back at the can before cautiously approaching the can, as if a monster were going to leap out at her, and peeked inside.

"What the..? How..? Huh?" she said, more to herself than anybody else, confused at what she just did.

 

Spoiler

Spontaneous spell: TN is 7, 3 sux needed.

9D10E7 => (6, ,6, 2, 4, 2, 8, 6, 4, 10) = (10's count as 2) => 3 sux

 

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For a perilous moment Safyre was looking back at Kaitlin, not quite knowing what to say.

And then the wastebin caught on fire. Startled, she'd turned to look at it, taking a reflexive step back. The flames were intense and eager...probably fueled as much by magic as anything mundane. Someone had gotten mad and didn't have control, was her guess.

"Hopeless."

Then she took her things and stalked out of the room before they accidentally shattered time or unleashed carnivorous bunyips or did some other thing she wanted no part of.

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Kaitlin was waiting expectantly for Safyre's answer - though mostly expecting a cutting remark - when something in the wastebasket suddenly caught fire. She stared like everyone else for a moment at the too rapidly rising flames before dashing towards the front door with swift, smooth loping strides and flinging it open.

But she had taken no more than three strides back, intending on punting the flaming wastebin right out the door with a strong, aimed kick, when Siobhan put out the fire with a blast of frost. Narrowing her amber eyes in suspicion, the athletic girl slowed her sprint with each step, coming to a stop, when she reached Siobhan and cautiously peeked into the wastebin, but in case there was still something smoldering and a remnant of magical napalm waiting to flare up or something.

Finding nothing untoward except for a lingering burnt scent, Kaitlin slid her gaze towards the bewildered girl. "Did you just say you didn't know any magic?" Kaitlin questioned in dry accusation. She nodded down at the wastebin, the frost already beginning to evaporate, the beads of water sliding down the sides. "Then what the hell was that?"

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"I don... Mr. Spencer... he said to try, so I saw the fire and thought it would be faster than anything else. I mean, the faster the fire is put out, the less danger there is to people and property, and I don't want anybody to get hurt. So I tried, like he encouraged, and... put it out. It was, like, I don't know, reflex I guess." she said to Kaitlin as her eyes drifted to the trashcan and then to her own hands.

"That is the first magic I have ever done. Honest!" Siobhan said, holding up a hand in a 'scouts honor' position.

"I mean, I guess the healing might be magic, but I just kind of do it. It's not like, an incantation or anything. I don't even need to really think about it. And the plant and animal stuff, I don't even do that. They just like me, or whatever." she explained.

After a momentary pause Siobhan asked, 

"Is that like.. I mean.. You do stuff like that a lot? Magic I mean. Like daily?" she asked.

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Kaitlin gave Siobhan a dubious look. The rich girl had cast that spell swiftly and easily, even reflexively as she said, and Kaitlin was supposed to believe she had never done magic before? Kaitlin used a particular spell nearly every day when she went on a run or worked out, but it felt like Siobhan used magic way more than she did.

"Stuff like that?" Kaitlin asked, gesturing at the waste-basket. "No, not me at least, and certainly not daily." Kaitlin glanced, frowning slightly when she saw that Safyre was gone without answering her request. "My magic, or the magic I use anyway is more... " She pursed her lips to one side, then the other, considering, "is more physical I guess, affecting me more than others. It just seems to make more sense to me. I'm not sure how I would make ice like that."

Kaitlin hefted up her bag and slung it over her shoulder. "But once you start using magic, it seems to get easier every time. Practice makes perfect I guess. Looks like we have the rest of the day to ourselves, so I'm gonna take a look around campus, see what's what and where what is. Anyone coming along?"

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"Seriously," the young man stood with a skeptical look on his face.  "You heard the 'pop' right?  That was an ignition, this place is playing you, all of you.  They use them in movies all the time."

"Then explain how she put it out?"  Kaitlin inquired, pointing to Siobhán.

"Dunno, I didn't see all that," he raised his hands where web of string was tightly woven between his finger.  "I was playing string.  Easy 'A'."

He set the string aside and leaned his chair.  "It's cute that all of you believe in this stuff, it is.  I'm sure there is a magical glade on campus where unicorns come to sip water from a sparkling pool whit sprites and pixies flutter about in harmony.  You can believe what you want, it's 2017, no judgments.  Come on though, think of the logistics involved with a place like this, how do you keep magic like what they are boasting a secret?  How are there not super villains running the streets whipping magic all around?  What, is Vin Diesel on their pay roll too?  He shows up and hunts the bad witches before they wake us up from our perfect lives?"

This is what happened when the logical mind collided with the illogical working of magic.  The stronger one tried to hold on to logic, the more stress their reasoning went through and eventually, poor Warren would either accept the truth, or crack.  And there had only been a few recorded cases of a Sorcerer cracking and it turning out as a blessing.  It was highly doubtful Warren had any real break through to discover through lunacy however.  "Guys," he paused, rolling his eyes.  "Ladies... wake up.  I'm not saying stop believing in whatever it is you think you can do, just stop swallowing every spoon full of bullshit these guys are feeding you."

He pointed to Safyre, "Or you will all end up like that, and I think we can all agree that ending like her is the last thing any of us want out of life."

"So, I'm not unreasonable."  Warren said, folding his arms.  "I'll accept this.  Every stinking bit of this bullshit, if someone will please, for the love of all that is holy, unholy and every nook and cranny in between... someone find some way of shutting her up."

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3J stopped digging while Warren was talking and she realized that the fire was out already. She felt stupid and embarrassed again

4 minutes ago, Revenant said:

"So, I'm not unreasonable."  Warren said, folding his arms.  "I'll accept this.  Every stinking bit of this bullshit, if someone will please, for the love of all that is holy, unholy and every nook and cranny in between... someone find some way of shutting her up."

"I can do that." She said simply.

Everyone left in the room, including Warren, looked at 3J, who was holding up another book.

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Kaitlin paused, curious as to what 3J had in mind, and not at all opposed to the snotty girl being brought down a peg or three. She leaned back against the door frame, fingers laced behind her head as she eyed the red-head's book with interest. She never had a spellbook of her own until just now. She'd looked at some of the occult books at the only book store in Dubois, but nothing there had rung true to her, though some of the Eastern  and Martial Art Philosophies had. With learning of the importance of fingerwork, Buddhist and Yogic mudras made a lot more sense to her now.

"This is just a prank, right?" Kaitlin clarified, wondering exactly what 3J intended - and possibly considering if it might go a bit wrong like her first spell. "Nothing more serious than that? They seemed pretty serious about what they considered Combat Magic and I don't want to be kicked out on the first day."

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3J rummaged through her bag and pulled out another book, this one a thin raged volume held together by rubberbands wrapped around its covers. Removing the bands she flipped through the pages.

"Yeah It's a spell from the witch trials time.

Here it is." SHe reads to herself paraphrasing as she goes along, " 'Silence the Poisonous Tongue', according to this it is a spell to make it so a witness can't testify by making them unable to speak. We will need some ingredients non of which looks harmful so it should be safe. But we do need something of the body of the one we are to silence."

She pauses and looks at her fellow classmates and the stares they are giving her. "what?"

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