Chatoyant College Book 9: Sundered

Chapter 138: Solutions

Thankfully, Professor Lal was still in that evening; she had mentioned in class that she would be extending her office hours in this last week before final exams in case anyone wanted to get in more supervised practice or borrow any materials for practicing on their own. When they got there, they found Kira looking through the tarot decks to pick one to take with her.

"Hey, guys," said Kira when she saw them. "Do you want to borrow tarot decks too? I think I've decided which one I want. They're all yours."

"It's okay," said Corrie, glancing at her friends to make sure than none of them did want to borrow a tarot deck. "We just wanted to ask Professor Lal something, but we'll wait until you're done."

"I've got it," said Kira. She picked a deck off of the shelf and put it in her bag. "Thanks, Professor Lal. See you next week at the exam."

"You're welcome, Kira," said Professor Lal. She waited for the other student to leave before shutting her office door and turning to the girls with raised eyebrows. "Since Edie and Sarah are among you, I am assuming that this visit is not about preparing for your final exam."

"No," said Corrie. "It's about the knife."

"The cops called Corrie to tell her that Paul had confessed," said Dawn. "So it came up in conversation, and it turns out that Ev—Sarah actually saw Belara and Feloc give Paul the knife."

"You did?" said Professor Lal, surprise in her voice as she turned to Derwen.

Derwen nodded. "I completely forgot to tell you guys about it—though I didn't know it had anything to do with Corrie and Dawn."

"And we forgot to ask her about it," said Corrie. "It's not her fault."

"I understand," said Professor Lal. "Derwen, what do you know about the knife?"

Derwen shook her head ruefully. "Not much, I'm afraid. Just that they gave it to the guy so he could get his girlfriend back. I assume that Belara's poison was used in it, but I don't know what else might have been involved. It couldn't have just been Belara's poison if it cut off Dawn's Sight, right?"

"It seems unlikely," agreed the professor. "Let's go and speak with Ginny. Perhaps she's discovered something more about the knife."

They had to wait for Professor Agnew to finish working with a student who was worried about his own exams, but when she saw Professor Lal she seemed to speed things up a little. Once he had left, she nodded to the group. "Is this about that magical knife, Lal?"

"It is," said Professor Lal. "We've finally learned that it definitely did come from Belara and Feloc. Have you learned anything interesting about it?"

"No," said Professor Agnew. "But if it does come from Belara in part, that should help me work out what else is in it." She opened a drawer in her desk and pulled out a package wrapped in blue silk. She laid it on top of a book on her desk and carefully unwrapped the silk fabric to show that it was the knife. "Are we certain?"

"Pretty certain," said Derwen. "I saw Belara and Feloc give it to him."

Ginny—Corrie remembered that she had asked the students to call her that—held her hand over the knife and closed her eyes in concentration. "If I assume that it is definitely Belara's poison, and Mardalan was not involved... hmm. I think I can work it out, but not just this moment."

"They were also working fairly closely with a faun called Siffyd," said Edie. "And there were other faeries that seemed to follow their orders. One of them was called Aglast."

"I don't know if they were that involved," said Corrie. "Mardalan didn't seem to punish them. Not the way she punished Feloc and Siffyd, anyway."

"I'll keep Siffyd in mind, then," said Ginny with a nod.

"Do you think you'll be able to reverse engineer it?" Dawn asked. "Fix my arm?"

"I should," said Ginny. She frowned at Dawn. "Is it that much of a burden? I wouldn't think that you would encounter faeries with only your left arm."

Dawn grimaced. "No, I guess not. But it still feels weird, just knowing that my Sight doesn't work there. And I guess it makes me nervous that it could still spread."

"That's not an unreasonable fear," Ginny admitted. "I promise I will do my best to find a way to fix it. If I can narrow down exactly what magic is involved, I think I will be able to. That probably won't be until next semester, though, because I'm rather busy right now."

Dawn nodded. "I understand. I'm pretty busy too. And I doubt I will encounter any faeries at all while I'm home on break."

"Let us hope so," said Professor Lal. "Well, I'm glad that's resolved for now. Do you girls need anything to prepare for your exam? I won't be seeing you again before it, as you have that extra study day before finals rather than having class on Friday."

"Should we try talking to Feloc and Siffyd?" Corrie asked. "Maybe next time Belinda comes? We might be able to get them to tell us what they did with the knife."

"I don't want you doing that unless it's absolutely necessary," said Ginny. "It's dangerous enough simply being near them. Even Mardalan might not like it if she heard you trying to find out about the knife."

"That's true," said Roe. "Let's play it safe as long as we can."

"That's okay with me," said Dawn. "And I really should be studying. I have a lot of exams coming up."

"Thanks for your help," said Corrie. Ginny just smiled and sent them on their way.