By the time I reached the tower and climbed the stairs to the Guildmaster offices, my rage had burnt out and I was feeling sick with worry instead. What if they kicked me out? I wasn’t ready for the fate that awaited me at home. What if they took away my Runestones? There was no way I could convince my father to send me more money for “class supplies” again so soon. I was already sure he suspected me of spending his gold on dresses and jewellery. He kept hinting at it in his letters, proving once again that he knew nothing about me. Please don’t kick me out. I can’t bear to go back.

My hand trembled as I opened the door from the stairwell landing to the reception area for the student related Guildmasters.

“Bitch.” A voice muttered.

My head whipped around to find a boy hunched in a seat near the door I had opened, his fists clenched and eyes glaring at the floor.

“Excuse me?” I tried to make my tone sound like righteous indignation, but a lack of sleep followed by vomiting made it come out as an irritated rasp.

“Huh?” His head jerked up but he didn’t turn towards me. Instead, he stared through the bird’s nest of his hair to the apprentice lounging at the reception desk reading a book.

I raised an eyebrow in annoyance. How did he not realise it was me who was speaking to him? I took a few deliberately loud steps over to his chair and tapped my foot until he looked my way.

“I said, excuse me.”

He smiled at me, a goofy kind of confused grin.

“Oh, hello.”

I rolled my eyes. Fine then, play dumb. I wasn’t in the mood.

“Do you know me?” I demanded.

He cocked his head to the side, perplexed grin still in place.

“Should I know you?”

“Well you called me a bitch, so I assumed that meant you knew me.” My hands were on my hips as I threw this accusation at him.

“So, you’re a bitch?”

“What?”

“You responded to bitch. Is that a common occurrence?”

Who the hell was this guy? My head began throbbing again and my eye felt dangerously close to twitching. Also, why was he barefoot?

“Look. I did not come up here to be insulted by someone I don’t even know. I was summoned by the Guildmistress, so if you don’t actually have anything to say to me, please just be quiet.”

I threw myself into the seat furthest away from him and buried my head in my hands. Never had I had such an intense desire to strangle a complete stranger.

Silence descended on the room and I tried to get my mind back on facing Guildmistress Ada. I heard him take a deep breath and mentally braced for impact.

“I was talking about the bitch mouth of Mister Ponce, the hallway hero.”

Was I supposed to understand a word of that? I opened my mouth to reply, but honestly couldn’t think of where to go after that. Who was Mister Ponce? Actually, a better question: who was this guy? He looked older than me, but not by too much, so probably a student. But then, he wasn’t wearing anything that even remotely resembled a uniform. Not even shoes apparently. Maybe he was here to beg the Guildmasters for charity, and his poor mind just wasn’t quite what it should be.

I focused on him again to find that he was looking at the space just above my head. I looked up, but saw nothing. When I glanced back, he was staring at the ceiling instead. The poor thing was definitely addled in some way. My annoyance began to fade at the conclusion of this odd encounter. He couldn’t help what he said if his mind wasn’t right. I hoped, whatever he was here for, the Guild could help. Also that I would never run into him again.

“Sierra Rivergold!”

A door across from the one I had entered flung open, and Guildmistress Ada stepped out. Her posture was perfection. My mother would give anything to see me walk across a room like that.

I bowed my head briefly.

“You summoned me, Guildmistress.”

The sick feeling in my stomach was back. Please don’t kick me out.

“I did.” She confirmed. “Please come in.” He gaze shifted to the witless boy, who was hunched in his chair again. She pointed to him. “You too.”

Then she turned and walked back into the room, fully expecting to be obeyed.

The boy and I didn’t waste any time. It seemed we both knew what was good for us, and that was whatever the Guildmistress wanted. We both hurried towards the door, me ending up behind him.

He dusted off his shoulders as we walked, and I choked as my face slammed right into a giant puff of…

“Cinnamon?” I coughed.

He turned to me, a beaming smile on his face.

“Yes! Don’t you love it?”

“Ack, no.” I wanted the taste out of my mouth. When I was little, my younger sister coated my pillow in the horrid stuff and it had got in my eyes, nose, and mouth. Ever since then I couldn’t stand even the smallest amount of it. I had choked so much back then that I couldn’t breathe.

I waved my arms in front of my face, trying to disperse the floating spice as well as my memory of that terrible night.

“I hate the stuff.”

I pushed past him into the room, entirely done with his nonsense. I had to bite my tongue hard when I thought I heard him mutter something that sounded like, “but bitches love cinnamon.”

You can’t murder someone in front of a Guildmistress, Si. Let it go.

I plastered my best upper class smile on my face, and resolutely ignored him.

“First, you.” The Guildmistress’ voice boomed as she pointed to the boy again.

He sighed loudly and trudged over to her.

“The cone of silence?” He grumbled, looking like my youngest cousin when he was moments away from throwing a tantrum.

Instead of answering, the Guildmistress just handed him what appeared to be an upside-down bowl with a giant orange feather sticking out of it. He shuffled over to a stool in the corner of the room and sat down. Then he placed the bowl on his head, so the feather was sticking straight upwards, and settled on glaring at the woman.

Weird. Just plain weird.

Guildmistress Ada glided over to stare down at him, a slight smirk on her lips. She lifted her skirt just enough that the hem no longer brushed the floor, and pressed her toe to a ring of Runes carved into the floorboards surrounding his stool. Seriously, did nobody wear shoes anymore? The ring of linked Runes began to glow as her magic entered it, the myriad interlocking colours reminding me of an opal. I longed to run over there and inspect them all, but held my curiosity in check. She didn’t need another reason to be upset with me.

“There,” she nodded her satisfaction, before turning her solemn gaze on me. I swallowed as my heart began to speed up.

“Now, Sierra,” she started. “He can no longer hear us, so just pretend he isn’t here at all.”

What? I definitely wanted a look at those runes.

“Yes, Guildmistress.”

“We have important matters to discuss. Please take a seat.”

Oh no.

I sat down.

Please don’t kick me out.

“It has come to my attention that you are practising magic above your year level without proper supervision. Do you deny this?”

I stared down at my hands. Don’t cry.

“No, Guildmistress.”

Please don’t kick me out.

“You should know this is very dangerous.”

“Yes, Guildmistress.”

I looked up and to the side, willing the tears not to fall. I met the intense gaze of the boy in his feather hat. He was staring straight at me without blinking. His mouth opened when he caught my eyes.

“Meow!”

He slammed his lips together.

Meow?

Guildmistress Ada began to laugh.

“Do you like that little feature of my spell?”

“Pardon?” I was so confused. Surely this entire day was just a weird dream brought on by an overdose of scorchbark and lack of sleep. I promised my body I would treat it better from now on.

She giggled. Um...what?

“Whenever he tries to speak, the silencing spell transforms his voice into a cat. Isn’t it delightful?”

Yep, definitely all a crazy dream.

Though if it wasn’t, my curiosity was even more piqued about those runes.

I had been silent for too long. My lack of response removed the smile from her face. The boy was still staring at me from his corner, lips now fused together, but eyes wide and focused. She cleared her throat.

“Anyway, back to business. You are expressly forbidden from practising any magic that you have not been taught in class. Do you understand?”

She’s not kicking me out.

“Sierra?”

My mouth was hanging open.

“Yes. I understand!”

“You will also have your library visits monitored to ensure you are only using books related to your studies.”

Damn.

I tried not to pout. I think it worked.

The boy still hadn’t blinked.

Seeing as surely this was still a drug-induced dream, I decided to try my luck.

“Guildmistress.” I stammered. Great start, Si. “Would it be possible for me to take some advanced classes? I promise I would work extremely hard to-“

“Out of the question.” She cut me off.

“But I…”

“When you were admitted, your parents signed a form specifically forbidding you from deviating from the basic lesson sequence. This includes moving through it any faster that the allotted five years.”

Of course they signed that.

This time I couldn’t stop the tears.

“It is very unusual for anyone to be allowed access to advanced classes. Do not feel bad Miss Rivergold.” She stood up and awkwardly patted me on the head three times.

I tried to stop, but it didn’t work. I was still exhausted, my mouth was dry but still tasted like puke, and all my dreams were crashing down around me.

“You will also need to hand in your Runestones.”

That did it. I was definitely crying, but more in the way where you repeatedly gasp for air while your brain tries to climb through your eyeballs and escape reality. I had spent so many sleepless nights on those stones, now all for nothing!

That damn boy was still staring at me.

“What do you want?” I screamed at him.

Guildmistress Ada looked shocked. Did she forget he was there, or was she not used to having devastated, screaming girls in her office?

Either way, her attention shifted to him and she snapped her fingers. The Runes surrounding him faded as I continued to choke on my own emotions. I would never be able to have the life I wanted.

“Agate, your punishment will continue later. For now, you will escort Sierra back to the Second-year dormitories so that she can get some rest.”

Agate?

“Ah, sure.” He replied, glancing at me.

“Sierra,” the Guildmistress tapped me once more on the head. “Go and get some rest. If you need any further assistance with this, you may come back and see me.”

I was dismissed. The boy, Agate, hovered nearby but didn’t touch me. I wobbled to my feet and the hiccoughs started. They continued all the way down the spiral staircase and out into the twilight.

Agate kept glancing around like he was trying to find someone. When they didn’t appear, he nodded to himself.

“Psst.”

I frowned at him.

“Psst.”

I had stopped struggling for air, but the hiccoughs continued. My head had begun to throb again. What on earth could this whack job want? Did he even realise he still had that ridiculous feather bowl on his head?

“Ah, yes?”

Please let this be an end to the madness. Let him ask if I can make it home on my own, so he can sneak off and do whatever it was that crazy people did at night.

“So you want to get into advanced classes huh?”

“How did you…” I stopped dead.

He winked at me.

“Mum sits me in that corner all the time. Ever since I was little.” He grinned. “Joke’s on her though, I now read lips. Forgot about the cat noises. Awkward.”

I realised my mouth was hanging open, but couldn’t seem to get my body to close it. I hiccoughed loudly into the street.

“Anyway,” he continued, lowering his voice to a whisper. “If you want to learn some advanced stuff, I might be able to help you out.”

None of this made any sense. Agate the meowing feather-head randomly appears at my Guildmaster scolding, just in time to offer me access to advanced classes. I was never drinking scorchbark again.

He placed one finger on each of my shoulders and began to nudge me in the direction of the Second-year dorms.

All of that wasn’t even the strangest detail my mind had concocted. Just thinking about it made me giggle. Then laugh out loud. It was a dream anyway, so why not?

He frowned at me.

“Are you ok? You seem crazy.”

My laughter was definitely hysterical now, bordering on maniacal. He thought I was the crazy one! I wondered what would happen to me when I woke up from this hallucination.

“Surely she can’t be your mother!”

Agate grinned and nodded, the orange feather bobbing around in the moonlight.

Seriously, once I woke up, Kixi’s face would be priceless when I told her about this insane dream.