I cough slightly. “Hello. Can you direct me to the person in charge of scheduling?”
“If you had an issue with your schedule, you should’ve notified us as soon as you received it.” She doesn’t look up at me and continues whatever it is she’s doing on her tablet.
“I understand that, but it’s important—”
“Your schedule is important.” She places her tablet down, screen facing the desk as she eyes me. “Rosemary, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” I say, surprised that she recognizes me.
“You’re that troublemaker.”
“I am not!” I protest. If anything, that’s my sister, but I don’t say that aloud.
“Harrumph. Then trouble just follows you wherever you fly?”
“Basically.”
“That business with the thief and arsonist and then that murderer…” She shakes her head sadly. “If you think that your role in helping to apprehend these criminals will give you special privileges, you’re mistaken.”
“No, no, I don’t think that at all, and I certainly don’t expect that. It’s only, well, you see, I had to take the Magic of Music course twice because—”
“Professor Fern thought that you would benefit greatly from taking it again because you did not perform the first class to her satisfaction.” The fairy levels me a cool stare.
Fire and brimstone, is she the one in charge of the schedules? How does she know all of this off the top of her head?
I swallow hard. “My grade the first year—”
“Was acceptable, yes, but we are not only about grades here at Light Fae Academy. It is far better for a student to actually learn the magic and use it to the best of their abilities versus an arbitrary test score.”
I latch onto her word choice as if it is a safety net. "If the test scores are only arbitrary—"
“I did not say that,” she snaps. “You did not put all of your effort into that first year, so by that reasoning, you actually need to take a sixth course this year in order to graduate.”
My stomach twists and turns. The knots growing there hurt, but I refuse to back down.
“While I admit that maybe I could have tried harder that first year with the Magic of Music, I utilized that skill to perfect while dealing with… Thistle.”
I pause, recalling how scared I had been. Thistle wanted to create a mystery that we could solve together. He wanted us to be a couple, even though I made it clear I never saw him that way. Silly me, I thought we were only friends. Yes, I knew he had feelings for me, but they were dark and twisted feelings. It almost seemed as if he wanted me as a trophy or a possession, and when I found out he was the murderer and told him in no uncertain terms that we would never be together, he wound up attacking me, wanting me to be his next victim. Even fighting Spring hadn’t been as terrifying as the threat Thistle posed.
“The ability to sing and cause people to do what I want is similar enough to Mesmerization that I do not need to take that course,” I finish.
“It’s Mesmerization that you do not wish to take?” she asks in a flat tone.
“Yes.” I nod vigorously, trying to hide my eagerness. “I was thinking that maybe I could take Oneirokinesis instead.”
“Oneirokinesis,” she murmurs. “You wish to be able to infiltrate dreams instead of mesmerize a person? You think it is better to influence a person while they are at their most vulnerable versus when they are conscious?”
I open my mouth and then shut it. She has a point.
“I just think that Mesmerization won’t teach me as much as if I take a course in another subject altogether,” I say lamely. This feels like a losing battle.
“Perhaps you should take both Oneirokinesis and Mesmerization,” she says, reaching for her tablet again.
“If you don’t think Oneirokinesis is a good fit for me, what about telepathy?” I blurt out.
She eyes me. Her eyes are a clear color. You can’t see blood because they aren’t translucent, but a clear color that is unnerving and unsettling. It feels as if she can read my mind, and I check that the mental barriers my parents taught me when I was only two are still secure and solid. It’s a serious invasion of privacy to read another fairy’s mind without permission, and I don’t feel a presence in my mind, so maybe I’m just paranoid, but I don’t like the look she’s giving me.
“You seek to take a course that allows you to infiltrate the mind?” she asks.
“With permission!” I clarify.
“As well as one that allows you to infiltrate the unconscious mind.”
“Dreams are—”
“Dreams come from deep within us, a place where our minds can be free so that we can see our fears or our desires. Dreams, some would argue, are even more personal than our conscious mind. It strikes me as very interesting that you would seek these courses over Mesmerization. What about Mesmerization frightens you so?”
I hesitate. This answer will determine which course or courses I will take this year. I just know it.
“Mesmerization… It just… I don’t know. It reminds me of Thistle, I guess.”
She doesn’t blink, and I feel compelled to speak more.
"It's just that I wonder if he felt mesmerized by me. I don't know if it was lust or some crazy, mixed-up, twisted form of love, but he did all of those horrible things just so we would spend time together. He wanted me to fall in love with him, and he tried so hard, and if…" I swallow hard. "If he had taken Mesmerization, maybe he used it on his victims, or maybe he could have tried to use it on me. What if the wrong fairy learns that kind of magic and causes someone to do their bidding? Falling in love with a person
