To say my week confined to my room was boring would be an understatement. All the nastiness that it had started with went away about day three, which was amazing. But not being allowed out was super irritating, and it led to a terrible case of online shopping. One day I was so bored I started to try an online course in yoga, but after Val walked and commenting that I looking like a fool, I decided not to pursue that any further.

It was about day five when a knock came on the door that wasn’t just Elise bringing more food. The girl was really nice about that too, kept sneaking me small comforts from the US part of the café. She also seemed to completely brush off the horrible first day’s events… except every time she looked at the floor where I had slumped…

Anyway, I went to answer the door in my PJs because it was like seven in the AM, and nobody should have to be awake at that time. Standing there were two girls of obviously Asian descent. One was tall, somewhat lanky, and had an apathetic look on her face, the shorter looked oddly familiar… Then it clicked, the shorter one was Mu Lin!

“Mu Lin, Ame, what brings you to my prison?” I asked, taking a guess that Mu Lin wouldn’t just bring any random girl with her to my room.

Mu Lin grinned and looked at Ame, “I told you she’d recognize me even without my draconic parts showing. And you thought she wouldn’t know it was you because she’s never seen your glamour.”

Ame smiled gently, almost melancholic in how it showed up and vanished.

“Would you two like to come in?” I asked, opening the door wide enough to grant them egress.

Mu Lin strutted in and all but jumped upon my unmade bed. Ame bowed slightly before entering and made her way over to one of the chairs at the desks. Val hadn’t returned yet from a tutoring session she had scheduled with another girl in her mathematics class, so I didn’t need to worry about waking her up as I sat on her bed.

“So, little jail bird, how are we feeling?” Mu Lin asked, looking mischievous.

“Well, I mean, I’ve recovered from the communist attack upon my innards.” I teased.

“If you don’t mind,” Ame began quietly before Mu Lin could respond, “we have to ask some questions as members of the disciplinary committee. After that we can banter about.”

Mu Lin nodded, looking a bit irked that she didn’t get a chance to play more with her words.

“I thought I’d pretty much summed up what happened when Fianna blew a gasket, but I’ll answer questions if it’ll clear things up.” I replied, looking between the two girls. It dawned on me, Ame must play the good cop to Mu Lin’s bad cop in this routine.

“Where were you on the night of the fifteenth?” Mu Lin jumped in jokingly, her smile coming back.

“What my partner means is, would you mind telling us what happened after you left Mu Lin’s custody?” Ame sighed, she looked resigned to Mu Lin’s antics.

“I ran like a mad woman to the tumbling room, Fianna kicked my behind a million and a half times, and then she and I went for crepes.” I said.

Ame nodded and Mu Lin took out a notebook and began scribbling. Ame then motioned for me to continue.

“After I left Fianna, I made my way to class, where in I was with Kryssia. She was acting oddly, and I figured there might be something with the earrings. When I managed to get her to take them off, she returned to her normal self.” I continued.

Ame looked thoughtful, “And it was at that time that you reached out to Elise and Fianna, is that correct?”

I nodded. Mu Lin scribbled some more and Ame bade me continue my retelling.

“After figuring out that the earrings were in some way tampered with, I met up with my roommate, Valerica. She confirmed that the earrings were for tracking a person or thing, and that they were causing some issues with the rest of the student body.” I said.

Ame raised a finger, “Was this then the point where the earrings were drawn toward you?”

I shook my head. “No, that didn’t happen for several hours. I asked Valerica to see if she couldn’t get some information about what or who the earrings were tracking. I updated Fianna on the happenings, and then went to classes again. You can confirm that with Shuri.” I said.

“Good to know. Please continue.” Ame said quietly, Mu Lin seemed to scribble even faster at this point.

“Okay, well… after class, I ran into Kryssia again. She was following the signal Valerica had designed and loaded into her crystal, but for whatever reason it went haywire. I received a copy of this same program to try using between classes, but mine never seemed to work.”

Ame held up a finger again, “That didn’t seem to strike you as a sign?”

Shaking my head I responded, “No. I hadn’t even really thought about it. I was a little distracted at that point as well, so it didn’t really raise any red flags. I also didn’t piece together that the search locations were all places I was already in. But I did eventually ask Valerica and Elise if there was a way to track if it was a person.”

Ame nodded her head, “I assume this… distraction was a discomfort?”

“Yeah, that’s one way to look at it. Anyway, I made my way into the café, where Val and Elise… I mean Valerica and Elise directed me to show. On my way there I received a message from Fianna that there had been no updates.” I continued without being promped.

“And it was here that Miss Dalca managed to make the earrings jump from their hosts and pelt you?” Ame asked, Mu Lin giggled but didn’t look up from her notepad.

“We’re jumping a bit, but yes. At that point Valerica had assumed the earrings would just point toward the person they were hunting, but something went wrong and the earrings all attacked me. This did however tell us what the earrings were supposed to find.” I said.

Ame relaxed, and Mu Lin stopped her scribbles.

“Has there been any news?” I asked.

“Lillian ad Fianna interrogated the workers who had brought in the tainted earrings, but none of them remember even being present at the time. Traces of magic and some inhaled narcotics were found on and in their systems, which makes Lillian believe this was an inside job. Beyond that, nothing.” Ame informed me.

“Do we even know why the earrings were looking for me? OR what was causing the personality changes in the other girls?” I asked.

Mu Lin snickered, and Ame looked away for a moment.

“What is it?” I asked.

“So… don’t be mad, but the earrings were designed to inflict upon the wearers a similar condition to your own. We assume that meant they were supposed to get some of your powers, but instead…” Ame started, hesitating to continue.

“Instead they got your PMS! How hysterical is that? Instead of getting a group of crazy girls with magical powers, you get a group of girls who are suffering La Cramp!” Mu Lin burst out, her inability to contain her laughter stung just a little bit.

I blinked a few time before saying anything else.

“So you mean to tell me, I just made all the students around me feel as miserable as I was? Daughter of a bastage!” I shouted, making up words at the end to get around censorship.

“Well, yeas, that does seem to be the case. We still don’t know exactly why they were looking for you though. We’re launching a sanctioned investigation into the company providing the jewellery.” Ame mumbled.

“What do you think Nansidhe-Lores wanted?” I asked, looking for even just a speculative answer.

Ame looked uncomfortably at Mu Lin, whose face echoed the uncertain tension.

“We think… Someone may try to kidnap you.”