An Odd Sort of Magic

Chapter Six

Jayan stood up, got dressed, and followed Arianna out to the dining hall. Most of the students were still asleep. Arianna explained how it was crucial that members were ready early in order to get to work quickly.

After a quick breakfast, Jayan and Arianna met up with the rest of the team in the meditation room. Jayan had spent a lot of time in the room when she had first come.  It was where she had read Vanessa’s thoughts, and discovered the plot to attack the normal magic casters.

“Okay,” Jasmine said, “here’s the deal. Ms. Shelling spends her morning in her quarters. At roughly eight o’clock, she meets with Vanessa, and some of her more powerful charges. We need to find out what they do during these meetings. We only managed to spy on one, but now we have you.”

Everyone looked at Jayan. “What do you expect me to do,” Jayan asked, “we don’t even know what my power is.”

“That doesn’t matter just yet,” Beta said, “Vanessa says you’re clever, and that’s what is important.”

“Okay, so who’s going to spy on the meeting?” Jayan asked.

“Well, Beta is obviously going,” Jasmine said, “she’s our main spy. You are going to go with her, and Drew is coming too.”

“If you touch my hand, I can make both of you invisible too,” Beta explained to Jayan, “but you still need to be careful. We don’t know what abilities the people at the meeting might have.”

Jayan nodded, “okay. Let’s do this!”

“We’ll be working on recruiting with Kiya,” Arianna said to Jayan, “I’ll see you later.”

The two groups split up. “Ms. Shelling’s room is this way,” Beta whispered, “grab my hand.”

Jayan reached out and took it. Drew put his hand on Beta’s wrist. Beta slipped her hand into her pocket and brought out the rock. Instantly, all three of them disappeared from view.

“Awesome,” breathed Jayan. It was so cool. The trio started to move down the hall, trying not to trip over each other.

“It gets easier the more you do it,” Drew muttered to Jayan.

Looking at him, or rather the space where she figured he was, Jayan felt kind of warm. Having Drew around really calmed her down. He seemed to exactly what to say and do to make Jayan feel more comfortable.

That thought alone didn’t make her feel so comfortable. Jayan hadn’t had a crush before. She couldn’t actually like Drew, could she?

A crash and a sharp pain brought her back to reality. She had tripped over a small table with a lamp on it. Why it was in the hall was a mystery to Jayan, but Beta cursed at the sound.

“We’re too close to the meeting to be making any noise,” she hissed. Beta wasn’t the kind of person to get harsh, so Jayan figured the girl was just scared.

“Opening the door without being noticed is the one part we can’t figure out how to do,” Drew whispered to Jayan, “think you can help us figure out how?”

“Um,” Jayan bit her lip, thinking.  If they just opened the door, they would be spotted. Well, not really spotted but something to that extent. They couldn’t walk through walls or anything like that. From all angles, the problem seemed insoluble.

Then it hit her. “What if someone inside opened it for us?” she asked.

Jayan heard the rustle of hair as Beta shook her head, “if they open a door and no one’s here, they’ll be able to tell it’s a trick.”

“Not if they do find someone here,” Jayan argued, “think about it. If one of us knocks on the door, then runs away before they person can see their face, we get inside.”

“I don’t know,” Beta said, “it’s kind of risky. What if whoever runs gets caught? Ms. Shelling would know about the Underground.”

“Isn’t everything we do risky?” Jayan reasoned, “If you don’t do something because there is a possibility that something bad could happen, then you might miss something.”

“Fine,” Beta still looked troubled, “we’ll go with your plan. But who’s going to do the running?”

“I will,” Drew volunteered, “I’m probably the most expendable.” He let go of Beta. Jayan did the same, and shot him a look.

He raised his hands in surrender, “I just mean that you won’t need me in there because I don’t know my power.”

Beta put her hand on Jayan’s shoulder, “he’s right Jayan.”

Grudgingly, Jayan grabbed Beta’s hand again. Drew strode confidently up to the door, and knocked loudly. The quiet voices stopped, and the door handle turned.

Just as the door opened, Drew ran. The boy who opened the door shot a glance at Ms. Shelling, and then ran after him. Jayan and Beta slipped into the room just as   Ms. Shelling went to close the door.

Inside, Jayan glanced around the room. There weren’t that many people there, about five boys, maybe four girls, Vanessa, and Ms. Shelling. Vanessa probably figured that there were now a couple of invisible people in the room, but she made no move to call us out, or even look around.