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BELLA
In my first class, I sat beside Anya in the back row of the sunny lecture hall.
Cori was in a different lecture this morning.
After a quick breakfast, Anya and I had made it to the classroom a few minutes early, and even had our pick of seats, which was a relief after all the stares in the dining hall.
There was no bell, but once everyone else filed in and found a seat, Professor Sora began speaking at length about a section of the library called Forfeiture.
She was a tiny old white lady, who reminded me of the little old woman who owned Tweetie Bird in the old Bugs Bunny cartoons.
She spoke softly and pushed her misbehaving glasses up her nose after each sentence, as if she were chatting about the weather with her bridge club, rather than sharing magical knowledge.
Of course the other students had the advantage of actually having been to the library itself, and it seemed like a continuation of yesterday’s lesson, so it was a little hard for me to follow.
But from the beginning of the lecture, it sounded to me like the Forfeiture section must involve magical punishments.
Most of the class was studiously taking notes, except for the black girl with the puffy ponytail who sat right in front of me. She had her notebook open, but hadn’t bothered to jot down a single term.
I decided it was better to be safe, so I wrote as much as I could, even though it all looked like gibberish to me. After almost three hours, my hand was starting to cramp, and even the professor was starting to slow down a bit.
“Is there any object worth the loss of a witch’s control?” Professor Sora asked in her soft voice.
It was obviously a rhetorical question, but I found myself wanting to scream,My brother. My brother’s happiness would be worth it.
“Of course there isn’t,” she said, nodding to herself. “But when we perform magic without discipline, that is exactly what we do. We give up control.”
She peered out at us over her glasses before pushing them up the bridge of her nose again.
“How does discipline help us?” she asked. “Anyone?”
Everyone raised their hands but me.
“Anya,” she said, pointing to my companion.
“So that we don’t lose control,” Anya said.
“Quite true,” Professor Sora said. “Can anyone else be more specific? Nuria?”
“So that we can choose the price we pay for our magic,” a white girl with a long black braid answered.
“Yes, but more than that,” Professor Sora said. “Justine?”
“It’s so that we can choose our price and pay it in advance,” said a girl with short red hair. “So that we have total control over our magic.”
“Very good, dear,” Professor Sora said. “Very good. I think that’s a good stopping place for today.”
As the other students began to gather their things, the girl in front of me said something under her breath and touched her empty notebook. I watched in wonder as the pages filled with rows of perfectly ordered notes.
“Cool,” I breathed, before I had time to think about how lame it sounded.
“Such a showoff, Nina,” Anya added.
“Work smarter, Corbin,” Nina remarked with a sly wink as she headed out the door.
Everyone filed out, but Anya and I hung back until they were gone.
“What does that mean, to pay a price?” I asked.
