Chatoyant College Book 2: Initiates

Chapter 45: Pins and Needles

All in a rush, Dawn realized what her deja vu feeling was. This was Roe's vision. She was standing exactly how Roe had told her to stand, and here she was, with Corrie, Edie, Professor Lal, and the boy Roe couldn't identify. Now she knew exactly why Roe couldn't get any details about him: he didn't have any details to find. With a shudder, she let her arms drop. "Professor Lal!" she called. "What are you doing here?" She didn't know whether or not to trust her magic professor, but she couldn't believe Professor Strega's warning entirely now that she knew she, too, was a faerie; besides, the danger from Roe's vision was obviously coming from Marlin, not Professor Lal.

The professor ignored her and walked past her until she was standing less than a foot away from Marlin. She didn't try to touch him, just glared at him. Corrie, staring, took a step back, and Dawn realized she was seeing Professor Lal's true form for the first time. Well, there was nothing she could do now. Professor Lal was talking to Marlin, her voice full of fury. "So it's been you all this time? I've been watching, asking for your help, and you've simply lied to me?"

"Step away, Lal," he said with surprising calm. "This is not your fight."

"These are my students. This is my school. That makes it my fight." With no more warning than that, she threw out her arm and a flash of light seemed to explode between Edie and Marlin, forcing them apart. The faerie stumbled back; Edie rocked on her feet but seemed rooted to the spot. Quickly, Professor Lal ran to Marlin and pinned his arms to his sides. She was taller than him and evidently stronger. "I curse you as you have cursed," she said, staring into the depthless eyes of the creature in front of her. He struggled against her grip, but his misty flesh solidified into stone, much more quickly than Edie's had. In moments Professor Lal was holding nothing but a statue.

In the silence that descended, Dawn heard sniffing and realized that Edie was crying. She rushed to her friend's side and stared in horror. Edie was holding up her right arm with her left arm. The right arm had turned to stone from just below the elbow to the ends of the fingers. Not only was she partly turned to stone, it had been done by someone she had considered a friend; no wonder she was crying.

"It's all right," said Professor Lal softly. Dawn looked up, startled; she had come close while Dawn was focusing on Edie's arm. Corrie was still standing back, looking dazed. Professor Lal's black eyes didn't betray any emotion, but she took Edie's stone arm gently into her hands. "I can heal this. When I turned his magic back on him I learned how it works." She looked down at the arm for a long moment while Edie's shaking subsided, then stroked the stone gently with her left hand while her right hand held it up. The stone shimmered in the wake of her fingers and turned back into flesh.

Edie gasped and shook her arm convulsively. "I'm sorry, did I hurt you?" Professor Lal asked quickly, concern obvious in her voice.

Edie shook her head and swallowed. "Just pins and needles. I guess that was inevitable."

The professor smiled. "Yes, that's good. It means the blood is flowing."

Edie began to massage her arm with her other hand. Dawn took a few steps toward Corrie. "It's all right," she called softly. "It's Professor Lal. She healed Edie's arm."

"Oh," said Corrie. She walked over to Dawn and put the hand that wasn't holding onto the clover on her shoulder, leaning on her. "I guess I wasn't prepared to see what she really looked like."

Professor Lal turned her head sharply and stepped towards them. "What's this? Do you have the Sight as well, Corrie?" Corrie shook her head and held up the clover. Professor Lal raised her eyebrows. "Clever. How did you know?"

"We didn't," Dawn explained. "We were talking to Professor Strega, Corrie found the four-leaf clover, and Professor Strega... well, she sort of ran away. So I figured it was what we were looking for, a way besides iron to see past glamour."

"Ah." Professor Lal smiled slightly. "You girls may be too clever for your own good. Iron only works when the glamour is specifically directed against the person holding it. My glamour, and Professor Strega's, are simply disguises to allow us to function in society, or at least Chatoyant College society." She hesitated, then said, "Looking through a natural hole in a stone will work the same way as the clover. I only tell you because you already know so much that knowing more will make no difference, and you deserve ways to protect yourselves."

"Thank you, Professor," said Edie, who had let her arm drop to her side and was no longer grimacing, though her voice was still thick from crying. "It feels normal again. Thank you... for everything."