OvidLemma

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Chapter Five: Alma Mater

"I don't think she's breathing."

"She's clearly breathing, Miranda. Her chest is moving up and down."

My eyes fluttered open and I looked up to see two forty-something joggers crouched over me, concern playing across their faces. "What happened?" I asked. I gasped and brought my hand to my mouth - my voice was a lot higher than it had been of late. And my hands were slim and smooth with pink, perfectly-trimmed nails.

"Sweetie, are you all right?" the shorter one asked.

I nodded uncertainly and let the two women help me to my feet. In my heels, the shorter of the two was eye-level with me, probably close to 5'1". They shared a look and returned their attention to me. "Do you remember what happened? Should we call 9-1-1?" The taller one asked. She unzipped her little backpack and reached for her phone.

"I'm me… and I'm alive," I said. I laughed out loud, and my laugh was a silver song. "I'm me and I'm alive!" A mantra that Ambrose Nicht might have used. I did a little dance with exactly the right amount of jiggling - I had my body back! The shorter woman snapped a covert picture of me with her phone - I'd actually gotten that a lot in Sacramento, too. People assumed I was a celebrity for some reason, even though I couldn't think of one I resembled. "Um… sorry if this weird to ask… but I think I blacked out and have no idea what I did with my phone. Can I borrow yours? I need to message… my mom. I need to message my mom."

They seemed to buy my hesitation as a symptom of my blackout (a blackout that I'd actually experienced - not far from the truth). And I looked like somebody who might need her mom to pick her up. So it passed the sniff test. She unlocked her phone and handed it over. I tapped in Ambrose Nicht's personal number and messaged him:

--halepha-sigmus

--Welcome, traveler. Who is this? he messaged back a minute later.

--The student Lily told you about. When/where can we meet?

Noon and in his forty-third floor suite it was. I handed the jogger's phone back and thanked them both before continuing toward downtown. I immediately regretted not asking for their largesse and getting a rideshare - my strappy little stilettos were close to 4", so hiking through the hilly streets of San Fran was going to be a chore. I was still in the exact same outfit I'd left St. Circe's in before waking up as Martin Warner - the green dress with the floral print, the bouncing mass of corkscrew curls, the strappy heels, the lacy green-cream bra, and the error 404 thong left somewhere in a mansion in the middle of the rainforest. And my clutch was gone, and Lily's ring was gone, with them went any of the things that might get me back home.

"Hey, do you need a ride?" This was after exactly two blocks of walking. This wasn't an unusual occurrence, either.

"Could you?" I flashed a hopeful smile. "I'm going to Union Square."

"Perfect, I'm going to the financial district. Hop on in."

A note to those concerned: yes, I know it's inadvisable to get into a car with strange men, especially if you're small and pretty. But it's also a lot more inadvisable to invite a witch into your car, and hardly anybody frets about that. As with strange men offering rides, most of us witches mean well, but some of us don't. You have been warned.

I hopped in and we chatted. Tom was a rideshare driver, but he was happy to transport a pretty girl for nothing but the cost of conversation. I told him a bit about my job at SyphoPharm, which I'd had for about four weeks, and which I could probably still have once I got my current situation dealt with... which, if the Gangling Men were actively pursuing me, might take a while. Actually, I told Tom I was a pharma rep, because that was more believable than Junior Alchemist as a job description.

"A pharm rep? Cool!" Tom chuckled and took a sidelong glance at me. My dress gave him plenty to glance at. "Got any, uh, samples?"

I shrugged. "Lost my purse. Sorry... oh! Actually..." I squirmed a finger into my bra and fished out two little white pills. "These were for my friend and me, but we didn't end up using them."

At the stoplight, I handed them over. Tom gave them a suspicious glance: two pills, round, white, about the size of baby aspirin. "What is it?"

"Instant hangover cure in five minutes, guaranteed.  None of the other stuff on the market does jack shit, but these are basically magic (*they were literally magic, but I wasn't allowed to say that). We're also marketing them for opiate withdrawal."

"Holy shit... I can keep these?"

I nodded. "Use them wisely and invest in SyphoPharm. Oh... looks like this is my stop!"

Tom pulled to the curb and jogged around to open my door. "Hey, Natalie, can I get your number?"

"Sure! But I don't have my phone on me right now, obvs. No purse, no pockets."

So I gave him Martin's phone number, which was the only phone number I had. For all I knew, that phone was still sitting in Dr. Justicar's office or in the park. The park where, as Martin, I'd collapsed just a few days before. And it struck me, and not for the first time, that as a guy I'd have definitely described by current behavior toward Tom as flirty when I just wanted to be friendly. I wondered if Natalia Cadence Storm was destined to leave a trail of disappointed suitors in her wake - a bitch if you're nice and a bitch if you're mean, the double standard is no fucking joke. Thanks, society.

I stepped into Nicht Tower and had nothing for the security guy to check, nor any ID to prove who I was. Fortunately, a quick gesture to my tattoos proved my bona fides. While the ungifted can't see their motion at all, the winding, many-dimensional shift in the patterns is immediately obvious to anybody with more than a scintilla of talent. It's a pretty good calling card for witchitude and also lets me know which people around me are kindred talents. Having passed muster, I took the elevator up to the 43rd floor suite, a great circular room overlooking all of San Francisco. From the penthouse, you could see the whole city - the Pacific, Oakland, the Golden Gate Bridge, and so on, the view marred only by the handful of taller buildings. I believe Nicht Tower is the eighth tallest in the city, but Ambrose is looking to upgrade.

I clacked out into the penthouse and took a moment to locate the warlock sitting cross-legged in front of a giant screen full of Python code. He seemed to be meditating rather than coding, bearded, long-haired, and dressed in a blue silk kimono. He'd clearly been cribbing notes from Alan Watts.

"Yes?"

I took a few steps forward. "Mister Nicht, hi. I'm Lily's student?"

"You don't sound very sure of it," he stated, eyes easing open, amber-eyed attention turning my way. His accent was, somehow, even more British than Liam's. "She implied that the student would be male, miss…"

"Bryce. Natalie Bryce. And that situation's been, uh, resolved." I  said.

"Clearly. So I take it you aren't here to attune your focus?"

"I'd love to," I said, and not dishonestly. "I'll take a rain check if you'll oblige me. Right now, I'd just like to get home. I need a transport ritual that will get me back to St. Circe's."

Nicht sighed and rose from his spot on the floor, stalking across the room in his kimono like a guru jaguar. He reached into a window - clearly a bit of confabulation enchantment - and pulled a book out of the San Francisco skyline. "I'd like to sketch those tattoos sometime," he stated without much apparent pervitude. "You know, Natalie, the pale men have a price on your head. Not money, mind you, but artifices that no money can buy. And I'll admit I was tempted. Were I a less deliberative man, I might have taken the bounty and risked the wrath of Bethany Lily... alas, I am too attached to my life and sanity. I'll expect this book back within the week. If you can discern the technique, a timely return should be accomplished easily enough."

I shot him an odd look. In my experience, rituals didn't take a whole lot of trial and error to get right. Even Jordan got most things right on her third or fourth try, and that difficulty was partly on account of her dyslexia. And I didn't care to be indebted to any witch or warlock, not even one on a first-name basis with Lily. "Can't I just learn it here?"

Nicht cocked his head. "Show me."

I hiked up my dress a bit to sit cross-legged (when in Rome) and plopped the book on my lap, flipping through the pages until I found Ryte For Magickal Travel… clearly, it was a pretty old book.

Oftimes, the simple dyad will not take thee to thy destination, for thou needst some token of that place upon thee. Absent these, this Ryte shall steer thee to a place of strong memorie. Place thy nix-stones in the correct formation, shown belowe, and within it place a token of thy own esteem. It need not be of much value. With this token in hand, trace thou the dyad: halepha-sigmus, then astra, symbol of the star, and then the dyad in reverse, sigmus-halepha, five symbols in all. Then cast thy token amid the Circle. Be thee warned: only a magister of great esteem shall complete this correctly.

Honestly, five symbols and a slightly more-elaborated circle was pretty easy. I've heard it said that anything more than two symbols long becomes exponentially more difficult, but if you pay careful attention to the rotation, it's all just memorization. I closed the book and handed it back to Ambrose Nicht.

"You've got all that?" he asked.

I shrugged. "Sure. Can I borrow twelve black stones?" Seven for the outer circle and five for the inner, according to the book's pattern.

Nicht padded over to one of his potted bonsai trees and counted out twelve small, smooth potting stones, pouring them into my outstretched hands. My hands were small enough that it took both of them cupped together to get all twelve. The warlock gestured toward his elevator, which chimed open at the command. "Bag that bunch and let's you and I take a stroll to the ley, Miss Bryce."

From Nicht Tower, we walked to the Yerba Buena Gardens - in cities, you'll often find ley lines along parks and other green spaces. Whether the greenage attracts the magical lines or vice-versa, I cannot say. Being both creative and analytical, architects and city planners are often at least slightly-attuned to magical energies, so perhaps it's a mixture of both. It was a short enough walk that my feet could take it, even in party heels. We were most of the way there when Ambrose Nicht nudged me and whispered into my ear.

"Quickly, Natalie. A hair, if you will."

I didn't quite trust Nicht… maybe I still don't… but a hair is a small enough bit of sacrifice to spot an opponent (unless it's a special hair, as Doctor Sauvage once found out - nobody puts Natalie in the corner). I plucked a hair out and handed it over. He quickly tied it into some sort of ornate knot and, with a gesture, summoned a pigeon to his shoulder, tame as can be. He looped the hair around its neck and shooed the animal off.

"What was that about?" I asked.

He gestured down the street - there, a trio of Gangling Men puzzled over a warlock's compass. A compass, presumably, attuned to me. Nicht had just created a fake Natalie signal to throw the thing off-kilter. But a hair on a pigeon wasn't going to last for more than a few minutes, so I hurried across the street and Ambrose Nicht strode after me.

"You cannot let them catch you," he said. "They won't make the same mistake twice, and I cannot help but think there's a reason to have offered such a substantial reward. In fact, I'm convinced of it. It will do no witch nor warlock any good to see you undone by the pale men, and so you must proceed with great caution when in the open like this, and fight like hell if they ever get close. Only a proper sanctuary will prevent them from finding you."

"I understand. Thank you for the help - I'm going to come back for focus training, and I'll even let you sketch my tattoos. After it's safe." Though, I feared, it might never be safe.

Nicht made a slight bow, his dark eyes never leaving mine. "Wonderful to hear, Miss Bryce… but I suspect our pigeon has less than two minutes of 'Natalie time', so let's get to the ritual."

"Right." I scrounged the stones out of the little reusable grocery bag he'd given me and laid them along the side of the park path, right next to a chunk of granite that served as a standing stone. Seven outer stones, five inner, and a personal token… I plucked a rose-gold strand from my little lock of pastel-pink hair and wound it into a copy of the knot that Nicht had just made, easy-peasy. When I showed it to him, his eyes bugged out, but he pretended to keep his composure and I let him maintain that dignity. I traced out the five symbols, also easy as you please, recalled my 'strong memorie', and tossed my hair into the circle, where it puffed away with a little flash of flame.

"Amazing," Nicht said.

"Thanks, Ambrose."

+++++

The sun jumped forward three hours in the sky to late afternoon, and the temperature dipped by about five degrees - summer at St. Circe's was pretty reliably eighty degrees all day long and perhaps ten degrees cooler at night, and perhaps a bit cooler during scheduled thunderstorms - all the benefit of magical climatology. I suppose my memory hadn't specified which campus entrance to jump in at, so I was at the little western trail out behind the track and the conservatory. I let out a victorious whoop - I was at St. Circe's!

I got some attention from the Junior girls as I passed. Anybody who'd been there more than a few months knew exactly who I was, as I'd developed quite the reputation during my nine months at the school. Though Lily and Sauvage were credited with reforming the St. Circe's mission, it had been a change that Dr. Sauvage was utterly opposed to, and even Lily probably wouldn't have done much toward without my nettling intervention. That's me: Natalie Bryce, mover and shaker. I entered the administration building and strode into Lily's office.

"Hi, Harmony," I said. I knew Harmony Yeung from chorus - we'd been Dr. Clay's 'harmony and cadence', and I guess Harmony still was. She still had close to another year at St. Circe's. It looked like Lily had chosen her to be a student assistant - Simone was her chief assistant, but she was only there part-time, as she had classes and such to deal with, too.

"Natalie? Um… you can't just…"

I walked right up to Lily's door and knocked. I heard voices, the shuffle of papers, some of them going into Lily's secure cabinet (therefore, she was probably meeting somebody about a student), and then Lily's head popped out, a look of annoyance playing across her little arched eyebrows. "Harmony, I'm… Natalie? Natalie!"

She brought me into her version of an amazon death hug which, given that she was much bigger than me but not a Cassie-class athlete, meant I got lifted off my feet but could still breathe just fine. She plopped me back down and looked back, grinning sheepishly at Ms. Azucar, still sitting in Lily's office and looking on with a smirk.

"Good of you to visit us, Natalie," Ms. Azucar said affably.

Lily looked me up and down, tears brimming in her eyes. "I didn't think it would work so fast! It hasn't even been a day."

"It kind of got jump-started," I said, and I told Lily (and Harmony and Ms. Azucar - why not?) about what had befallen me at the hands (literally) of Lucian Bryce earlier in the day… and what had happened to me in the immediate aftermath.

"Natalie… if you did something unwise, perhaps now isn't the time…"

"I don't know what happened. I pushed through the curse, went witch super saiyan, and blanko. For all I know, the fucker ran away… though I think that maybe he didn't… I'd rather not relive the whole thing at the moment if you don't mind."

"Of course, dear. Can you meet up with me here around six fifteen-ish? We can discuss it in private then?"

"Sure… I'm going to go tell Cassie and Simone I'm okay. I'll get them between classes."

Lily hugged me again. "That sounds just fine. It's good to see you back to your old new self, Natalie."

I beamed back at her. "I'm me again!"

Off I went, across the St. Circe's main green, across its little stone-paved walkways lined with manicured topiaries, past the greenest grass and most colorful flowerbeds magic can produce. Butterflies and bees flitted between flowers, and students strolled in the sunlight, wandering back in pairs and in groups from their afternoon classes. It felt utterly bizarre to be there as a non-student, clad in a non-uniform with no rules restricting me beyond what the staff might physically or magically enforce.

I couldn't open the door to the Advanced girls' dormitory - it was keyed to recognize the individual students through a magical means that would take a little puzzling to figure out. But I knew that a few of the Advanced girls had done it, so it couldn't be too hard. But I didn't need to puzzle through it - at that moment, a pair of Advanced girls who (unfortunately) I knew pretty well wandered up to the door: Asha Pierce and Marie von Schurr. Marie had been my roommate and erstwhile antagonist when I was with the Advanced girls, and Asha was pretty much Simone's arch-nemesis. Incidentally, I knew Marie's True Name, which made her pretty much defenseless against my magic.

"Uh-uh, I don't think so," Asha said when I moved to follow them in. "You're not an Advanced girl, so you cannot enter our dormitory, school rules."

"I have Lily's permission," I said.

"Well the co-Headmistress can tell me herself if she wants me to make an exception. Now, if…"

With a little wiggle of my fingers, Marie's broad and well-muscled frame pulled Asha out of the doorway and I walked right in. "Thank you, Marie," I said, though she hadn't done it of her own volition.

"She made me do it," Marie huffed.

"Come back here, little!" Asha called after me, but all she got from me was a middle finger.

I made my way to Cassie's room, where she was curled up with Helena, her current roommate, going over a math book. I felt a pang of jealousy seeing them like that, but I quelled it - she was just tutoring the girl in calculus, as I had once done with her. Nothing unseemly about that. It was Cassie being Cassie - being nice to a girl who, until recently, had been a 'little' compelled to wear pastels and frills and to get a physical thrill out of girly things, entirely against her own volition. We'd straightened that out - well, Helena was very much not straight and, though I don't doubt that she got a thrill out of being curled up with Cassie, my girlfriend would platonically cuddle with pretty much anyone. Her confident closeness was something that I loved about her.

"Don't mind me," I said, unable to suppress my grin.

Cassie shrieked, Helena rolled away, clutching at her ears, and I soon found myself smothered with kisses and struggling to breathe in her patent-pending amazon death hug. She remembered about breathing and plopped me down right across the threshold of her room.

"You're you!" Cassie did a little dance. "I was so scared!"

"I'm me! And so was I!" And, truth told, I still was a bit scared - I was definitely a wanted woman now.

"I'm, um… thanks for the help, Cass. I'm gonna go study out in the lounge," Helena said. On her way out, she crouched and pecked me on the cheek. "Good to see you, Nat. You've got to check out my pipes later. Shit is on point." Helena had aspirations to music stardom, and a little tweaking with her student plan had helped her along, singing-wise, though she'd still need to put in her practice. Helena turned back and winked before closing the door behind her.

Cassie rushed to her dresser and started rummaging around. "Omigod, Natalie, Helena said I could borrow some of the things that she and Emi use, and… okay, I've been really looking forward to this…"

"Slow down, Cass," I said. "I want to clear the air first."

Cassie's ebullient expression evaporated, and I felt terrible about it. But I'd feel even worse if I left what I needed to say unsaid.

"I… okay, I'm just going to say it. I was really hurt the other day when I could hear you and Liam and Magnus going at it and I got left out. I cried, Cassie… like, for an hour."

"What?" Cassie closed half the distance between us, a pair of fuzzy handcuffs dangling from her fingers, confusion playing across her face. "Natalie, I don't need your permission to get frisky with the boys."

"Of course you don't," I said. "That's not what I meant. I'm not like that - you can love whoever you want, as long as you also love me. That's all I want... and I felt really unloved when you didn't ask me to join in…"

The handcuffs dropped from her fingertips. "But you weren't you, Natalie… you were some dude who I didn't even know… would you even want to join us like that?"

"No, probably not." I shrugged. "But I wasn't 'some dude'. I was me, and I felt really alone and unloved, and I thought I might be stuck like that… you should have invited me."

"Fuck," Cassie sighed. She sat herself against the side of her bed. "I should have invited you. I totally wasn't thinking about what a shitty, traumatic time you were having, and I wasn't thinking that you could hear us… which you'd have to have been dead not to… fuck. I fucked up. I... are we breaking up?"

"What?" I made a strangled, nervous laugh. I started crying. "Cassie, no. Unless you want to…"

She was crying, too. "No! What? No, Nat. How could you even think that? I was a little weirded out. I was an insensitive bitch…"

I paced over to her and sat myself on her lap, wiping her tears with my thumb. "You're not a bitch. You're sixteen, you're in a four-person relationship and, if that wasn't complicated enough, we're goddamn witches. I just want to know that, when magic does its weird thing, we'll be there for one another."

"Almost seventeen," Cassie said. She held me close, though not death-grip close, and kissed the top of my head. "I'll be seventeen in two weeks. So I'm expecting a very grown-up birthday party from my grown-up girlfriend. Of course we'll be there for one another… for a long time, I hope."

"I hope so, too."

Cassie stood up, lifting my whole body along with her without so much as a grunt of effort. She placed me on my feet and sniffed at my hair. "You smell like party and the outside. As your fashionista and social advisor, I'm prescribing one shower… long, hot, and with copious assistance."

OvidLemma

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