“Focus up, fellas.” Jamius clapped his hands to get the attention of his eight copies walking alongside him; each drifted back into formation with their eyes fixed on a book and doing their best to ignore their desperate urge to chat with the other students in the lobby. He’d taken out his braids since the last time I’d seen him, allowing for a more natural afro.
Name: Jamius Watson
Branch: Alteration (Duplication)
It was nice to see Jamius take my advice on expanding his comprehension through his copies. He’d gone an extra step, ensuring they each read and retained intel on all the Cerberus Guild protocols, industry standards, and enchanter stats. When Jamius reabsorbed his duplicates, he retained the knowledgeand information they acquired without him, meaning he could amplify his learning intake so long as he could make his copies cooperate. We’d never made it that far in class, so I rather liked seeing him pull it off now.
One by one, his copies handed Jamius a book and exploded into nothingness. As the crowd thinned, I saw a fiery redhead making her way inside.
“Hey, guys,” Melanie waved her hand, adding a flair of fire in the process.
Name: Melanie Dawson
Branch: Primal (Fire)
“You see that, Mr. Frost?” Melanie asked, noting how smooth her control over flames had become.
“It’s Enchanter Frosty,” Gael corrected.
“Oopsie,” Melanie said. “Did you see that Enchanter Fro—”
“Melanie, don’t waste words on basic nobodies.” Layla raised her clawed hand, then gestured as if to shoo me from her presence. “Not all enchanters are equal, and you should honestly only speak to those on track to be successful. Not the pity hires.”
Name: Layla Smythe
Branch: Bestial (Therianthropy)
She didn’t wear her typical oversized academy blazer and tiny skirt. Instead, Layla wore a form-fitting bubblegum pink dress with black lacing. Melanie’s mind wandered to the price tag, indicating Layla’s accessories for the dress cost more than half her wardrobe. In truth, Layla had gone all out for today,convincing her parents to purchase her a customized designer augmentation wardrobe.
Augmented clothing lines allowed witches who shifted their physical form, much like Layla, not to rip apart their outfits. It magically changed with them. But Layla couldn’t wear some basic bitch outfit. No, she needed the best designers to work with enchantments meant to create their augmentation clothing lines. She literally hired her own clothing line from the elites.
Layla stood for a few more seconds alone in the lobby area with Melanie until a handful of girls from Gemini arrived. Layla eyed each of the girls up and down in attendance, ensuring all put their best on today. Somehow, in her mind, they were there to make a good impression that’d properly reflect Layla. Okay, that I didn’t miss. With a smug smirk of satisfaction, Layla turned on her heel and led the way as the group followed behind her like some gang of popularity.
I allowed my telepathy to drift outside and away from the noisy cluster of so many teens inside the lobby.
Two of my students nearly bumped into each other as they arrived from opposite directions.
“Whoops,” Tara said, twirling around Katherine.
The pair laughed and paused for a breath neither had taken since rushing to the guild.
Katherine brushed a hand through her recently straightened, long, dark brown hair. She did her best to keep it presentable, but ended up having to fly to Cerberus Guild since she spent so much of her morning getting ready. Everything took more time than expected, from her make-up to her sapphire blue heels, which she already regretted thanks to the pinch of her toes, all the way to her dress that she’d picked out of quite possibly ahundred outfits this morning. Katherine wanted this morning to be perfect.
“You brought your familiar?” she asked.
Tara nodded. “I think she’s close to leaving her cocoon and didn’t want her to be stuck at home all day if that happened.”
I smirked, eyes flitting toward Gael, which made him quirk his pierced brow in confusion and curiosity until my expression shifted into a scowl, and he returned to his conversation with the others.
While I didn’t know everything my students had been up to over the summer, I did know the main components, which involved Gael rescuing a caterpillar that inched its way toward Tara from the clutches of King Clucks’ beak. Even without knowing, Gael sensed the magic stirring in the tiny hungry insect, and somehow, he convinced Tara to keep a watchful eye over the bug until her link blossomed a few days later, and she awakened yet another branch.
Name: Tara Whitlock
Branch: Ward (Sealing)
Branch: Cosmic (Shadows)
Branch: Arcane (Intangibility)
