The class passed calmly after that. Mercury and Raoul sat and watched as Ms. Cole taught the others to communicate with their familiars, wrote down all the names they had given them, and helped them with the reverse-summoning spell that sent them back to the Otherworld. "Next time I'm showing you how to summon them normally," she said. "That's it for now, see you tomorrow."
They all started walking towards the exit, but just as Mercury and Raoul got up and started to follow them Ms. Cole called them back. "You two, wait a minute!" she shouted across the gym, so loudly that they jumped. "Come back here for a sec."
Exchanging a puzzled glance, they turned around and made their way back to her.
"Actually," Ms. Cole said as they were halfway across the gym, "hold on. I'll just talk to the girl."
Mercury's heart skipped a beat. "M-Me?"
Her alone? Talking with a teacher...alone? She was screwed, she was screwed, she was screwed!
Raoul looked back and forth between them, looking as if he was torn between arguing and leaving. Mercury wanted to cling to his sleeve and ask him to stay, but Ms. Cole's sharp eyes were still fixed on them both, and she didn't have the courage to utter a single word that could make her angry. "Um..."
Raoul hesitated again, then he gave a slight smile, placing his hand on Mercury's shoulder. "Good luck, Mercy," he said. "I'm gonna wait at the door."
"No need." Ms. Cole marched up to him and stared him straight in the eyes; she was almost as tall as he was. "You go on to class. This could take some time."
"Okay?" With a confused shrug Raoul nodded, squeezed Mercury's shoulder again, and walked back across the gym towards the door. "Catch ya later, Mercy!"
It fell shut behind him with an echoing boom, and Mercury was left alone with her teacher.
Silence.
Mercury twiddled her fingers, trying to avoid Ms. Cole's gaze but fully aware it was there, fixed on her with an icy stare. Her body felt hot and cold at the same time. She should say something. Something that didn't make her sound like the idiot troublemaker she had acted like earlier...something that made her seem mature...something...
"I, um..." She swallowed. "What...I mean...why did...no, I mean..."
Once again she had no idea what she was saying, no idea what she was supposed to say. The few words that did make sense in her head came out mangled and jumbled, a confusing, unintelligible mess that no one could take seriously. Her hands felt even clammier. Her stomach was in knots. What was she doing? Why was she like this? Why was she always like this?
"First of all," Ms. Cole declared coolly, "you're never doing any stunt like this again."
Mercury stared at the ground and nodded. She wouldn't keep this promise, she knew that already. She couldn't, physically. How was she supposed to learn how to control her powers without at least one more disaster like this?
"If you do it again after all," Ms. Cole continued, "that means detention. Or worse, if you're in somebody else's class."
The cold, furious face of Ms. Solstice appeared in Mercury's mind, and she shuddered. If her next accident was with her around...
"And right now you're going to the principal's office and explaining the situation to him, got it?"
Mercury's head snapped up. Her insides froze up. "But–"
"But nothing! You think I'd let you get away with disturbing the class and bullying the other kids?" Ms. Cole crossed her arms, and her bright, metallic eyes seemed sharper than ever. "Maybe you grew up as an outlaw, but in our community we got zero tolerance for troublemakers like you!"
Mercury balled up her fists. There it was again. Their community. Like she was some sort of savage that didn't belong there. I'm not a monkey! she wanted to snap, but her tongue was glued in place in her mouth. Her hands trembled. Why couldn't they all just cut her some slack? It wasn't like she wanted to keep messing up and making herself look like an idiot in front of everyone!
"But...but my class," she mumbled quietly.
"I'm telling your next teacher why you're not there." Ms. Cole made a dismissive gesture, and Mercury shuddered as she realized her reputation would be ruined for one more of her teachers. "Now go! I still got a class too."
Biting back all words of protest still burning furiously on her tongue, Mercury turned around and walked out of the gym.
~ ~ ~
"Come in," said a familiar voice behind the door.
Mercury took a deep breath and stepped into the room she had been standing outside for a good five minutes, trying to work up the courage to knock. Her eyes flitted around. This office still looked the same as it had when she had astral-projected in here to talk to Mr. Blake, except that it was still flooded with sunlight this time, and the number of bizarre instruments had increased along with the number of odd-looking books on the shelf.
"E-Excuse me," Mercury said to the back of the desk chair, feeling herself turn pink again. "Ms. Cole sent me, um..."
"Ah, Miss Day." The chair swiveled around just enough to reveal Mr. Blake sitting in it with his feet on the desk, shoes and everything. "I've been expecting you."
Mercury blinked at him, taken aback. "Um...what?"
"I already heard what happened," Blake said casually, as if he was talking about a bunch of instructions and not a serious case of accidental bullying. "Ms. Cole told me."
Mercury inadvertently took a step back, swallowing hard. That was bad. That was very bad.
"How?" she managed to rasp out.
Blake simply held up a shiny silver cell phone. "Mundane ways of communication," he said. "Can't be underestimated. Anyway, take a seat, Miss Day."
Mercury continued to stare at him in confusion. Between all these unfamiliar-looking things she had no idea where to sit down without accidentally breaking something precious.
The principal gave her a mildly puzzled look, then understanding dawned on his face, and he cleared his throat. "Right, sorry. Hold on." He pressed a button, and the wall with the windows moved back several feet, revealing a minimalistic black leather couch that looked a little out of place between all the strange goods around it.
"Living space expansion. Bigger on the inside," he explained to a baffled Mercury. "Pretty advanced piece of magic, screws with physics. Don't try it at home." He gestured to the couch. "Anyway, sit down."
Mercury did as she was told, staring stiffly into her reflection in a large, intricate-looking mirror on the opposite end of the room. Her heartbeat was pounding in her ears. If she had to sit down, this lecture was going to be really long, wasn't it? She was doomed–
"You all right?"
Mercury choked on air. Was her hearing playing tricks on her? Was this another illusion?
Catching her baffled expression, Blake snorted, taking his feet off the desk and swiveling fully around to face her. "I'm asking," he explained, "because creating illusions like this is exhausting stuff and you're not used to it. So, everything okay?"
Mercury nodded numbly.
"Excellent." Blake adjusted his tie and gave her a proud smile. "Congrats on those illusions, by the way."
"Con–?!" If it hadn't been attached to her head, Mercury would have had to pick her jaw off the floor by now. "A-Are you–? I'm sorry, I–"
"I'm not being sarcastic. Not everybody can do illusions like this. 'Specially at your age. Good job," the principal said with an acknowledgingly raised eyebrow. "You'll become a fine illusionist someday."
Mercury's face went hot. "Thank you," she somehow managed to say.
Then her brain caught up with the whole conversation again, and she nearly jumped off the couch. "Hold on...am I not in trouble?"
"Trouble? No." Blake raised his other eyebrow. "D'you think Alexandria sent you to this school's master illusionist for trouble?"
Mercury gaped at him in blank disbelief, processing his words.
"Master...?!" she repeated, stunned and incredulous. "Master...illusionist?"
"Self-taught professional. There's no better person in this school to give you advice."
A weight fell off Mercury's shoulders. She breathed in relief, slumping back on the couch, a shaky laugh making its way on her face as her heartbeat leveled out and her hands stopped shaking. "So Ms. Cole sent me here for advice?"
"Advice and a scolding. Oh right, I'm supposed to scold you." Blake cleared his throat and put on a frown. "What you did was very bad and if you do it again you'll be in big trouble, you can't go around scaring other students like that. Scolding over, back to business."
He stood up, tapping the mirror and making it fog up as colorful shapes appeared on its surface. "What you're experiencing," he said, "is a classic case of power incontinence. We use a magical energy network to raise the amount of it on the school grounds so you kids don't have to keep relying on other people's moods to do magic." The shapes moved around to form an overview of the school building and a network of red lines and dots threading all through it. "Basically, this place has more magic in the air, so if you can't control your powers you suddenly start witching up big things when they used to be little."
Mercury stared at the map, then at her own hands. That made sense. No matter what she had accidentally conjured up before coming to this school, it had never been as big or realistic or lasting as her illusions here.
"Okay," she said. "But, um...how do I stop it?"
Blake tapped the mirror again, and the map disappeared. "There's only one way," he remarked. "Learn to control your powers, I guess."
Very useful, Mercury thought. Wasn't that exactly what she was already trying to do?
"For that," Blake continued as if he had read her thoughts, "you need to practice a lot. Try to create illusions that are as tiny and detailed as possible. Try to copy little things you see in front of you, for example. Especially if you're feeling strong emotions. Oh, and most importantly..." He turned to look straight at Mercury, dark eyes boring into hers. "Unless you're practicing, don't picture anything in your head."
Mercury straightened up. "What?"
"Don't picture anything. Keep your mind blank. No pictures in your head. Better no sounds either." Blake made a deceptively simple gesture. "You can't create an illusion if you don't picture it first."
Well, that was impossible.
Mercury didn't have to think twice about it. This would never work. She had no idea how to do it. For all her life she had always pictured everything in her head in minute detail, how on earth was she supposed to stop now? How could she shake off what had long become her main way of thinking?
But she couldn't say any of that to the principal. He was saying all this like he firmly believed her to pull it off, and she didn't know how to break it to him that it was completely impossible. He might think she was just weak-willed or lazy or a coward, and that was the last thing she wanted. It seemed like she had few enough people on her side as things were.
So she put up a fake smile and nodded like she had perfectly understood every word. "Thank you. I think I know what to do."
She didn't. But she would try anyway. After all, how much of a choice did she have?
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