“Well,” Conrad adds, “try not to burn the place down this time.”
“That was only once,” I counter, loving how my leather trousers complete my witchy look. Jacob tells me the handful of Society kids he’s teaching think I’m a vampire. Stories of me sleeping in the day and moving at impossible speed fill his classroom, making me want to drop by to release a flurry of Ameedis: vampiric birds to reinforce the myth. Jacob doesn’t think that’s a good idea; I tell him he’s lost his sense of humour
“We enter unseen and strike if necessary,” Conrad suggests, reigniting his balls of fire within the glittering curtain of protection, keeping us out of sight as we near the region resting in a quarry, buildings bursting out in every direction. Some of the buildings hang horizontally, rooted into the face of the quarry and suspended by magical forces.
Families live in the buildings and walk around in the rooms as they would any house … the only difference being when they leave through the front door, they need a flight charm to stop them crashing to their death. There’s a charm for everything in the S.P.M.A. and if you know the incantation, you can make a flower attach to your arm, spinning like a propellor to guide you safely to your destination.
As Society families go about their business, floating to and from their houses, Conrad and I stick to more traditional travel, walking through the busy region towards a place the weary and wise frequent: Poridian Parlour. It’s a big, white building that’s shaped like a palace, dominating the quarry
Each room draws a different crowd: one for tea and cake and another for the more competitive minded immersed in board games. The grandest room is for private gatherings, full of professors obsessing over formulas for new charms. Joseph is likely to be in the tea rooms, drawn to his mysterious contact once more, probably engaged in a game with the odds stacked against him.
We step through the busy entrance of Poridian Parlour, heading for the tea rooms and a potential duel with the evening witch.
4
Unfinished Business
We spot Joseph in the furthest corner of the tearooms, sitting with his back to us — reinforcing the sense he doesn’t want to be seen. The busy room, decorated by tables full of tempting cakes, makes it hard to work out who his companion is, but I’m already sure it’s Alice Aradel. Our Williynx maintain their tiny forms, fluttering through the air nearby.
As we ease our way past the crowded tables of witches and wizard, I spot the disfigured face keeping Joseph company. Disfigurement is a common trick used by Society members who want to go unnoticed. The combination of two Society remedies — Laudlum and Srynx Serum — causes purple veins to bulge in your neck and face, making you almost unrecognisable.
The disfigurement charm doesn’t disguise Alice Aradel well enough, the evening witch sensing her chosen meeting point isn’t as safe as she originally thought. Her thin, pale hands are a giveaway along with the heavy red lipstick she always wears. Thinner than I remember, she still emanates menace — the very vindictiveness that’s caught a harmless wizard like Joseph in her web.
“It’s her,” Conrad whispers as we near, the glittering interior of our invisibility charm deactivated just at the right moment … close enough to be in striking range whilst narrowing Alice Aradel’s potential escape routes. She notices our presence too late, engrossed in whatever Joseph has brought for her to view … magical artefacts probably unlikely to be of the harmless kind.
Whatever she’s put Joseph up to is about to be revealed before an evening witch gets her comeuppance. The steel artefacts on the circular table are gathered up by Joseph at the sight of Alice Aradel’s changing expression. He pulls his worn, black cloak tighter in a sign of unease, turning to face two familiar figures staring closing in on him.
“Morning, Joseph,” Conrad offers, ensuring the blue fireballs swirling around his hands are in full view.
The eccentric wizard grips his leather satchel closer to his body, stuttering a nervous response. “Morning, Master Kusp. A pleasant surprise to bump into you.”
Some older wizards keep up the ‘Master’ / ‘Miss’ greeting for some reason, probably their passive-aggressive way of hinting their dislike of under age members in the Society. Tough I say, because these two underage wizards saved their universe from destruction while they were scrambling for cover.
“You seemed in a bit of hurry this morning,” I add, keeping Alice Aradel in my peripheral vision. She’s clearly reaching for something in the pocket of her red coat. Hopefully, it’s not a move to activate a charm — the one false move I need to render her powerless and on the way to a slime-covered cell in The Velynx.
“I … I was in a hurry, Miss Grayling,” Joseph offers in reply, his thinning black hair and ripped black gown reminding me of how fragile he is. I keep this in mind as Conrad lifts his right hand in a warning shot to Alice Aradel.
“We were just wondering what your sudden interest in The Shallows is, Joseph?” I add, my all-black attire of leather trousers and cropped top designed to show the war wounds marking my arms and stomach — fine scars acting as a reminder of my skill in tracking down malevs. Alice Aradel knows this only too well, once siding with a wizard with designs on destruction: Erent Koll.
Koll and his army came up against a significant Society force, including thousands of sleeping soldiers, sky urchins and giants from Sad Souls. As well as endless magic, the S.P.M.A. has might, crushing Koll and his evil army to keep things on an evil keel.
Since then, things have been fairly smooth in our secret universe, but there are always those drawn to the darker side of things and Alice Aradel is one of these
