Author: claredragonfly

Chatoyant College, Chatoyant College Book 14: Ghost Stories

Chatoyant College Book 14: Chapter 17: See Her Coming

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The next person to be called asked, “Are you sure there aren’t any vampires on campus? Couldn’t they come here if they wanted to?”

Professor Lal assured them that while vampires could, in theory, enter campus, it had never been a problem in the four hundred years that the college had been in operation, and that vampires had proper respect for and fear of faeries. She then assured another person that the vast majority of faeries in and around campus were on the side of humanity and would help protect the students against those faeries who were not. Then she had to assure someone else that the risk of a werewolf attack was extremely minimal.

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Chatoyant College Book 14: Chapter 16: Magic People

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The picture had changed to that of an ordinary, smiling young man, and then it changed again, to an older woman with silver hair. In the picture her calm expression turned to a smile, and two of her front teeth lengthened into fangs.

Corrie’s eyes widened and she glanced at Roe, who was frowning and watching the screen. She could have guessed… faeries and werewolves both existed, so why not vampires? But it seemed strange that, with all the supernatural experience she and her friends had had, they should have completely avoided learning about vampires until now.

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Chatoyant College, Chatoyant College Book 14: Ghost Stories

Chatoyant College Book 14: Chapter 15: The Best Way to Defend Yourself

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Lal waved her hand, and a projector screen lowered. The lights dimmed, an image appearing on the screen. Corrie smiled, remembering how impressive it had seemed when she went to her first magic class and Professor Lal had made things happen without touching them.

“Faeries can look like almost anything, though we generally have a humanoid base,” Lal said, moving to stand beside the screen. It showed a picture of a young woman and, beside her, a creature with gills and huge, blue, shining eyes. The picture changed, showing a young man, then the same man with his head turned to the side, showing a delicately lacy ear.

“Do not think I am giving you the full range of faerie appearance,” Professor Lal said. “These are merely examples. The point is, we can look like many things, and we can all hide our true appearances with glamour, so that we look like ordinary humans if we choose.”

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Chatoyant College, Chatoyant College Book 14: Ghost Stories

Chatoyant College Book 14: Chapter 14: How to Protect Yourself

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Saturday, August 26

Corrie, Edie, and Dawn arrived early to the magic building that morning, wanting to make sure they could get to their assigned rooms easily. After all, if everyone on campus was required to attend one of these classes, it would be a huge crowd.

To Corrie’s disappointment, the class list pointed them each to a different classroom. She and Edie were each in one of the big amphitheater-style classrooms, and Dawn was in the same one where they’d had trance class last semester. Corrie was on the top floor, so she waved goodbye first to Dawn and then to Edie as she trudged up to the classroom.

It was only about a quarter full when she got there, so she was able to find a seat in the front row, near the far side of the room. Professor Lal was standing at the front of the class, talking quietly to a couple of students Corrie didn’t recognize. No one seemed to be intimidated by Professor Lal, but she was in her usual glamour, and maybe they didn’t remember that she was a faerie.

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Chatoyant College, Chatoyant College Book 14: Ghost Stories

Chatoyant College Book 14: Chapter 13: Questions

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Mardalan went through the rest of the class; Dawn learned that the pink-haired girl’s name was Celeste and the guy who had been arguing with her was Rick. After everyone except Dawn, Mardalan paused to write something down on the list. Dawn hoped it was something inoffensive about each person’s appearance so that she could remember their names—and also that it wouldn’t change later in the semester and confuse Mardalan.

“That’s everything we need for today,” Mardalan finally said. “For Monday’s class, I will supply basic cords, but if you have any string you think you might like to use for your spells, please do bring it. We cannot waste any time.” She stared at them for a moment, the class staring back, before she said, “Class dismissed.”

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Chatoyant College, Chatoyant College Book 14: Ghost Stories

Chatoyant College Book 14: Chapter 12: Human-Looking

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Annie cringed, but when Mardalan walked away, she began to hand out the syllabi. Dawn glanced over hers. It was a single piece of paper, printed back and front, with a complete list of the dates the class would meet that semester. Each class had a topic assigned to it, and they were divided into four sections: Knot Magic, Candle Magic, Potions, and Spiritualism. That was pretty close to what Dawn remembered reading in the course catalog.

“This is the introductory Ritual Magic class,” Mardalan said, standing with her hands behind her back like a kid reciting a story. “You will have the opportunity to take the more advanced Ritual Magic class in future semesters. You have all taken the introductory magic class, so you understand the basics. We will explore types of magic that are similar to witchcraft and classical necromancy.”

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Chatoyant College, Chatoyant College Book 14: Ghost Stories

Chatoyant College Book 14: Chapter 11: Glamour

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There was a confused mutter in the class. Dawn was still staring at Mardalan. “Dawn?” came Annie’s voice.

Dawn moved in front of Annie. She didn’t think Mardalan was here to kidnap her again—kidnapping humans to play in her little orchestra no longer seemed to be an interest of Mardalan’s, and she would be stupid to do it in the magic building, where all the other magic teachers and plenty of skilled magic students could easily catch her—but she knew it couldn’t be fun for Annie to see Mardalan at the front of the class.

Mardalan raised her eyebrows at Dawn. “Greetings, Ritual Magic class,” she said calmly. “Dawn, please sit down.”

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Chatoyant College Book 14: Chapter 10: The New Teacher

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Friday, August 25

Dawn squeezed her eyes shut against the sun streaming in, wondering if she had really made the right choice of bed location in her new dorm room. She couldn’t be sorry about sharing a room with Corrie and Edie—not unless one of them found a reason to make her sorry—but maybe she should have asked for the other corner of the room.

She wanted to groan out loud, which wouldn’t have bothered Naomi, her old roommate—but it would probably disturb Edie or Corrie, so she managed to hold it in. Instead, she blinked hard, sitting up and pushing the hair out of her face.

Corrie was already gone, so Dawn knew it was not as early in the morning as it felt. It was probably at least seven. Edie, on the other side of the room, was still asleep, as far as Dawn could tell. She was lucky; it was still dark in her corner.

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Chatoyant College, Chatoyant College Book 14: Ghost Stories

Chatoyant College Book 14: Chapter 9: Crushing

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“This is a good start,” Ginny said at last. “As your homework, I want you to continue with this exercise through the tarot. Tonight, find the Magician card and write down a few impressions of it from your chosen deck. Then choose another random card, put it next to the Magician, and write down the impressions you get from that. Continue tomorrow with the High Priestess, and so on until we have class again on Tuesday. Any questions?”

The class was quiet until Derwen suddenly lifted her head. “Uh, how do we know what the order of the cards is?”

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Chatoyant College, Chatoyant College Book 14: Ghost Stories

Chatoyant College Book 14: Chapter 8: Freedom

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After everyone was seated again, Ginny picked up a deck of her own from the packs scattered on her desk. “All right, now I’d like each of you to locate the Fool in your deck. That’s the first trump, or Major Arcana card, numbered zero—in case you’ve forgotten the list from your Intro to Magic class. If your deck has never been opened before, it will be the first card, or the first after one or two explanation cards.”

Corrie looked down at her deck. She didn’t know whether her grandmother had put the cards in any order. She carefully slid them out of the box and looked at the first card. It was a familiar woman dressed in stars she’d seen so many times in her life—the Empress. She smiled and started flipping through until she found the Fool, a man staring at the sky with a stick over his shoulder. This card was relatively crisp and new.

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