"Back to the topic," Ms. Cole went on, completely ignoring what had happened inside this very gym only a few minutes ago, "the first thing I'll be teaching you is something every mage needs to learn. Do you all know what a familiar is?"

Raoul raised his hand. "A spirit animal?"

"...No." Ms. Cole gave him an irritated look and swept her gaze over the class as Raoul gave a mock pout. "Who does know– yeah, over there?" She pointed to a small, mousy-haired person of indefinable gender at the back of the gym. "What's your name, kid?"

"Riley," said the kid. Their voice was quiet and timid and nearly impossible to understand, their messy hair swallowing half the sound. "Uhm...It's a spirit that embodies our magic, right?"

Ms. Cole nodded. "That's better. Yeah, Riley's right, that's the essence of a familiar. It takes the form of an animal or a mythical creature, and depending on what it is you can use it for all kinds of stuff. Some of them can even fight for you. But first of all you have to find and name it."

She paced across the gym and pulled out a mobile blackboard on wheels, grabbing a piece of chalk and starting to scribble on it the old-fashioned mundane way as she spoke. "You'll recognize it when you see it," she went on. "You'll also know what to name it. Its size represents the size of your powers, and its age can show your potential. For example, if you've got a small cub of a big animal for a familiar you're still a beginner but have huge innate powers." She underlined something on the board. "It grows with your magic, and it can't die till you do. Oh, and never make the mistake of straying too far away from it if it's in our world. You can and will suffer."

"Why?" a girl piped in. "What happens?"

"You don't die, but you'll wish you did. Let's leave it at that." Ms. Cole stopped scribbling for a moment as the others gulped and exchanged baffled looks. "Anyway, first of all you have to summon it anyway. And since it's a spirit, you have to find it in the Otherworld."

Mercury perked up. The Otherworld...For her, that sounded doable. She had managed to find her way out of it before, after all. But was that still an appropriate freshman task? She knew how dangerous it was better than anyone, after all she had experienced it firsthand!

But Ms. Cole stepped away from the board, revealing a list of notes and a picture that looked faintly like an explanation for that.

"Now," she said, "as you kids know, the Otherworld's not the candy store. You're not going in there without precautions. Here." She cut a rip through the air, opening a hole in the fabric of reality and pulling out what looked like a box full of watches. "These are navigators. They point the way to the exit, and when you start getting lost they pick it up and sound an alarm. You can also press the button on them if you're in trouble, and it sends me your location and I'll come and get you. Don't press it for fun, got it?" She narrowed her eyes. "Only if there's a serious problem."

Even Raoul looked offended. "Hey, I'm not gonna pull that when somebody else might be in real trouble! I'm not an animal."

"Good," Ms. Cole answered with a raised eyebrow. "Then everybody get one. Make sure they fit tight, you don't wanna drop them."

Everyone crowded around the box, trying to get their hands on a particularly new and shiny-looking navigator. Mercury stayed behind Raoul. The others in the class kept their distance from them both, although she noticed the looks.

"Hey, maybe your familiar's gonna be that big-ass monster you thought up," one of the boys said with a sneer.

"Yeah," Riley added from behind him. "And it eats Dark Mages for breakfast."

Mercury clenched her fists but said nothing. Raoul's hand was on her shoulder again, a calming, comforting weight. "Leave it, Mercy."

Mercury nodded, and a second later the boy and Riley both walked into an invisible wall. Rubbing their foreheads, they looked around, stepped forward, and walked smack into the wall again. They turned and tried to walk around it, but something caught around their feet and they both tripped and fell over.

Raoul watched them struggle with a perfectly blank face, his eyes unsympathetic. "Oops."

"Excuse me."

They both wheeled around. Georgiana was standing behind them, navigator already fixed around her wrist, her hand raised and her eyes set on Ms. Cole.

"These two are trying to bully the others."

Ms. Cole turned around, taking in the scene in a split second before staring down at both Mercury and Raoul with a scowl. Her arms were crossed, but she no longer looked laid-back and calm. There was annoyance smoldering in her eyes, irritation, as she crossed the distance between them with three long, infuriated strides.

"So," she said, "got ourselves a bunch of troublemakers here, huh?"

Mercury inadvertently took a step back and almost collided with Raoul. "T-That's not–"

"It's true!" the boy shouted from the ground. "We weren't even talking about them and they got mad and did this! All we said was that this illusion thingy looked like a Light Mage weapon–"

Mercury swallowed her rising panic. "That's not what you said!"

"And now they're trying to make us the bad guys here!" The boy pointed an accusing hand. "These Light Mages are all the same entitled pieces of shit! You think we pushed you guys around and made up that scary-ass illusion?"

Ms. Cole said nothing. Her eyes narrowed even more.

"Th–The illusion was an accident!" Mercury stuttered out, desperately looking back and forth between the boys and Ms. Cole, then at the rest of the class in the feeble hopes that someone, anyone would speak up for her. People only stared, and her hands grew clammy. "I can't control my magic, I just said so earlier!"

"An easy lie for someone who crossed the Otherworld by herself."

Mercury whipped towards Georgiana, who returned her gaze with calm, unfeeling eyes. Anger was slowly starting to replace her fear, bubbling and boiling and ready to spill over the edges in a white-hot eruption. "That's a whole different story, and you know it!"

Something flickered over the edge of her vision. Misty, shadowy forms burst out of nowhere, taking the shape of gray hands, creeping, creeping, creeping all around Georgiana and the boy and Riley. More and more appeared out of thin air, more, wrapping all around them, encompassing their fields of vision, growing, growing–

No!

Mercury grabbed the nearest hand, yanking it back as it dissolved into mist. "No," she yelled. "No! I'm sorry, that was never– I just–"

She had ruined it. She had ruined everything. She had messed it all up, lost her last chance...no one would be able to believe her now...what had she been doing? Why had her powers– why now?

"Alright, that's enough."

Mercury froze as Ms. Cole stepped back into her field of vision, cutting out the shadowy hands and making them disappear. She didn't have to look at her teacher's steely bright eyes to know that she was absolutely, definitely doomed.

Ms. Cole eyed her and Raoul with a cool, steely glare, her eyes still narrowed like those of an annoyed predator. "You two," she said, pointing. "Hands off the navigators, you're not going anywhere near the Otherworld today. Sit on the side and watch. And one more stunt like that and I'm sending you both to the principal, got it?"

Mercury nodded without meeting her gaze. Next to her Raoul yawned and made a vague noise of agreement. They both turned and started making their way to the bench, surrounded by the horror-struck stares of their classmates and the triumphant looks of Riley, Georgiana and the boy.

She had ruined this class. Not just for her, but for Raoul.

No...Georgiana had ruined it.

Mercury turned and shot her a glare, but Georgiana anticipated it. She shot it back, colder than before, and stepped close to her, whispering so quietly that only the two of them could hear.

"You think you can walk into our space and spread fear like this, do you?" she hissed. "A true descendant of the Light Mages. But I will never bow down to you. And whatever happens, whatever you try– I will stop you."

Mercury wished she could have said something back, but all words had left her mind as Georgiana turned and marched away.