Chatoyant College Book 8: From the Earth

Chapter 10: Ambient Magic

"What is it?" Dawn asked immediately, reaching for the origami dragon as Professor Lal handed them back the things they'd brought her to inspect. It was, happily, quite intact, not even a wing bent, but her fingers tingled slightly when she touched it. She looked it over again, but it didn't look magical. Not that she would be able to tell.

"It's not something we did, is it?" asked Corrie, adjusting the posters in the crook of her arm.

Professor Lal pursed her lips. (That didn't bode well.) "It's something you were involved with," she said at last. "But I can say for certain that it isn't your fault."

Dawn looked at Corrie. That still didn't sound good. "Did you fix this stuff?" she asked.

"I took the extra magic out, yes. Except for the dragon, because I didn't know what that was doing; now that I have a theory, I think it could be useful, if it continues to work."

Dawn sighed. "Okay. I'm looking forward to the explanation."

Professor Lal glanced around for a moment, then turned back to them and spoke. "It's Feloc and Belara. Now that one source of rivalry, in Mardalan, is eliminated, they are working together and something they are doing is increasing the amount of magic in the campus itself. I am not clear on why they would wish to do this; the only way that I know of to increase the magic in the campus is to take the magic from the forest areas, the faeries' territory. The only reason I can think of is to do exactly this, increase the effects of the magic on things that are purchased on campus, but I have no idea what their motivation would be for that. Normally they do not care about what happens on the campus itself."

Dawn had so many questions she didn't know where to start. Luckily, Corrie seemed to know. After a pause during which they could still barely hear the buzz of conversation on the other side of the door, Corrie said, "What makes you think it's them? I'm pretty sure the poster was affecting me even before Mardalan got stabbed. They couldn't have done anything that quickly, could they?"

"I'm afraid they could. And it's my hope that the poster was not affecting you quite so strongly before Mardalan was injured—nor Annie's affecting her. I'm afraid the poster would have to be taken permanently off-campus, or the ambient magic on campus entirely negated, in order for the poster to stop affecting your emotions."

"Did you find out for sure if that's what it's doing?" Corrie asked with a glance at the poster in her arms.

"It is indeed. I would suggest that you either leave a sticker at the representation of an emotion you are fond of, or develop a system for using it to regulate the emotions you wish to have. It will not affect your emotions quite so strongly, however, so you need not worry about leaving it on an inappropriate emotion, like happiness when you are attending a funeral." Professor Lal smirked. Dawn wondered if that was her approximation of humor.

"But how do you know for sure that it's them?" Dawn asked. That seemed like the next logical question. "I mean... I know you're sort of friends with them."

"I have been able to sense the increase in magic and trace it to its source. None of the sycophants who live with them have the power or the knowledge to do something like this, so it must be those two. Additionally, I have observed that the two of them have put aside their usual rivalry. Neither of them tried to kill the other once."

Dawn glanced at her two friends, raising her eyebrows. She didn't even want to ask about that. Roe asked the next question. "If there's ambient magic on the campus... does that affect the magic we do in class?"

The professor nodded. "Normally this is something I would explain to the class at the end of the semester, but there is no reason you shouldn't know now. It will be noticeably more difficult for you to do magic when you are not on campus. Some people may not be able to do magic at all when they have left the ambient magic of the campus. Basically, it increases the magic available to you."

"Did you do that on purpose?" Dawn asked. "Or, I guess, the people who founded Chatoyant College."

"I do not know. The ambient magic has been here as long as I have, but it is possible that it is as much a side effect of the magic classes as a reason for it. Perhaps the magic field was already here when Chatoyant College was founded and that is the reason for its location. Either way, it is convenient."