Chatoyant College Book 8: From the Earth

Chapter 24: Gases

Kira and Corrie spent the rest of the class—almost an hour—trading air magic and trying to test it. At first Corrie couldn't tell the difference between Kira's creation of regular air, oxygen, and ozone, but after testing each three times, she could discern subtle differences. She didn't think she'd be able to tell without guidance which was which, but it was a start.

Kira could tell the difference between Corrie's attempts, too, which made her feel more confident that she was actually doing something differently. She commented to Kira, "This could actually be really useful. I don't know about ozone or carbon dioxide, but creating oxygen could be really helpful for, like, somebody with asthma."

Kira nodded. "I'm going to try to come up with other gases that might be useful to create, too." She grinned suddenly. "Nitrous oxide. That would be a fun one."

Corrie laughed. "It would make you popular at parties!"

"Excellent point. Then I'm definitely going to try it! I wonder if I can get some testing kits from my chem class. That would be useful. I'll have to see if Professor Lal is okay with it."

"Is that what you're doing? Chemistry?"

Kira shrugged. "Not sure. Something like that, I guess. Maybe combining magic and chemistry—that's certainly sounding interesting about now. What about you?"

Corrie shook her head. "I have no idea. I'll probably major in magic. Don't know what I'll do after that, though."

"I'm sure the professors will help you figure out something to do with it, once they see what you're best at."

The clicking of heels announced Professor Lal's approach. "How are you doing, girls?"

"Great!" said Kira, grinning. "That is, we can both tell we're creating different kinds of air. I can tell when Corrie creates regular air, and whether it's a mixture or not, but nothing more specific."

"I can only tell that Kira's doing three different things," said Corrie.

"That's fine," said the professor. "Let me test what you're doing. Kira, why don't you go first?"

Kira nodded, held up her hand, and presumably, did her magic. Professor Lal held her hand in the air, nodded three times, and finally pronounced, "Very good. Ordinary air, oxygen, and ozone. Corrie?"

Corrie, though nervous, held up her hand and tried the same—except that she did carbon dioxide instead of ozone, since ozone seemed a strange thing to create in the classroom. At least the carbon dioxide would go out the window and get absorbed by the trees. Or she hoped so.

Professor Lal pronounced her very good as well, and correctly identified the three gases, which was a relief; Corrie really hadn't been certain she was doing it right. The professor then walked to the front of the class and clapped her hands for attention. "A word, class," she said as the class quieted. "Friday's lesson will need to take place out of doors. Please dress warmly, but be aware you will need to have your hands free. You are now dismissed."

"What was that about, in the back of the room?" Dawn asked as she, Corrie, and Roe met up to leave the room.

"Apparently Kira and I are awesome at air magic. We had to do some extra practice so we didn't get bored."

"Damn," said Roe. "You're just awesome at everything, aren't you?"

"Of course I am!" Corrie grinned. "But seriously, I don't know why I'm apparently so good at magic. Elemental magic, anyway..."

"What do you mean?" asked Roe. "You're probably really good at all the other kinds of magic, too, you just haven't tried them yet."

"Actually, I did try the trance thing, from the book. It didn't work out so well. Dawn, have you tried that yet?"

Dawn shook her head. "Sorry. I haven't had a chance. I haven't even read as far as you have. I've got a lot of other work to do."

"Do you think you could be good at magic because of... you know, your dad?" Roe asked in a quiet voice, as though Corrie's father was a big secret.

Well, he sort of was a big secret. She hadn't known about him for most of her life. And it was true that most of the rest of the school wasn't supposed to even know about the existence of werewolves. "I don't know," she said. "I did think of it, but Charlie says none of the other werewolves have tried magic."

"Charlie doesn't know everything," said Dawn. "I think you're going to have to talk to your dad yourself."

Corrie grimaced. "Yeah, I know."

"That can't be too bad," said Roe. "I mean, I know you don't know him that well..."

"It's not too bad," Corrie said. She thought back to the last time they'd spent time together, an extremely awkward brunch shortly after she'd broken up with Byron. This would probably be better. "Just awkward. But you're right. I'm going to have to do it."