Category: Chatoyant College Book 14: Ghost Stories

Chatoyant College, Chatoyant College Book 14: Ghost Stories

Chatoyant College Book 14: Chapter 12: Human-Looking

claredragonfly

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.”

Continue reading “Chatoyant College Book 14: Chapter 12: Human-Looking” →

Chatoyant College, Chatoyant College Book 14: Ghost Stories

Chatoyant College Book 14: Chapter 11: Glamour

claredragonfly

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.”

Continue reading “Chatoyant College Book 14: Chapter 11: Glamour” →

Chatoyant College, Chatoyant College Book 14: Ghost Stories, Uncategorized

Chatoyant College Book 14: Chapter 10: The New Teacher

claredragonfly

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.

Continue reading “Chatoyant College Book 14: Chapter 10: The New Teacher” →

Chatoyant College, Chatoyant College Book 14: Ghost Stories

Chatoyant College Book 14: Chapter 9: Crushing

claredragonfly

“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?”

Continue reading “Chatoyant College Book 14: Chapter 9: Crushing” →

Chatoyant College, Chatoyant College Book 14: Ghost Stories

Chatoyant College Book 14: Chapter 8: Freedom

claredragonfly

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.

Continue reading “Chatoyant College Book 14: Chapter 8: Freedom” →

Chatoyant College, Chatoyant College Book 14: Ghost Stories

Chatoyant College Book 14: Chapter 7: Tarot Decks

claredragonfly

Corrie gave a farewell wave to Edie and Troy as she headed for her second class of the day, Divination, which was right after Literary Analysis. She was excited to learn divination; she was sure Professor Lal had barely scratched the surface in their Intro to Magic class last year. This class was supposed to focus on tarot, pendulum, and astrology, which seemed like they could take a lot more than a single semester.

She was also curious to see who would be teaching the class. When she’d signed up, Professor Strega had been listed, but she’d left the school—or she could have changed her mind at the last minute, of course. So Corrie was expecting either Professor Strega or a brand-new teacher. There had been a teacher she didn’t recognize, Professor Cantrell, at the assembly at the end of last semester; maybe she was the new magic teacher.

Continue reading “Chatoyant College Book 14: Chapter 7: Tarot Decks” →

Chatoyant College, Chatoyant College Book 14: Ghost Stories

Chatoyant College Book 14: Chapter 6: Which Yet Survive

claredragonfly

Thursday, August 24

Edie silently cursed her alarm as she flung her arm out of bed to turn it off. Then she cursed her past self, which had decided to sign up for a nine AM class. It was just too early to be awake.

Of course, when she sat up, blinking the sleep out of her eyes, she saw that Corrie was already up, dressed, and vigorously toweling off her short blonde hair. “Morning,” Corrie said brightly. “It’s nice to be back on campus for my morning run.”

“Must be better than the city,” Edie said. Or tried to say. It mostly came out as a grumble.

Continue reading “Chatoyant College Book 14: Chapter 6: Which Yet Survive” →

Chatoyant College Book 14: Ghost Stories

Chatoyant College Book 14: Chapter 5: Mandatory

claredragonfly

Dawn led the way back to the three-person dorm room she was now sharing with Edie and Corrie. She couldn’t help grinning a little as she and her friends climbed the stairs and then she unlocked the door to the corner room. Sure, it would have been nice to have a single room that she could have Rico in at any time, but she could always find ways to spend time with Rico. The fact that she was sharing space with her two closest friends was more important.

Besides, she knew she could count on them to both be cleaner and communicate better than her roommate last year, Naomi.

She went to her desk and turned on her computer while the others followed her in. Rico sat down on her bed. Corrie dug out her computer while Edie turned hers on as well. Annie and Roe hovered over Edie.

Continue reading “Chatoyant College Book 14: Chapter 5: Mandatory” →

Chatoyant College, Chatoyant College Book 14: Ghost Stories

Chatoyant College Book 14: Chapter 4: Reassurances

claredragonfly

“Hey, Corrie,” Belinda said, waving and laughing. “You brought a whole escort just for me?”

Corrie laughed and waved back. “These are my closest friends. You know Edie.” She gestured at each of her friends as she said their names. “These are Dawn, Roe, Annie, and Rico.”

“Hi,” Belinda said, waving again at them all. “Do they all know about, uh… how we know each other?”

Corrie nodded. “Yeah, they know about my dad.”

Continue reading “Chatoyant College Book 14: Chapter 4: Reassurances” →

Chatoyant College, Chatoyant College Book 14: Ghost Stories

Chatoyant College Book 14: Chapter 3: Return to Gilkey

claredragonfly

They passed a number of other people moving in as they headed down the stairs and out the door. Corrie, Edie, and Dawn waved and said hi to Shannon, the girl who had shown them her dorm last year in a bid to get them to move into Sayer. Roe greeted an Asian girl Corrie vaguely recognized as Lin, who’d been in Intro to Magic with them. And they walked past Chris, who had been one of the friends of Leila, Edie’s faerie ex-girlfriend. They didn’t speak to her. Corrie wasn’t sure how she and Edie felt about each other now, but it probably wasn’t good, considering their complicated history.

Continue reading “Chatoyant College Book 14: Chapter 3: Return to Gilkey” →