Chapter Fourteen
Model Student

“Now, can anyone tell me what magic is?” Miss Fall asked, clasping her hands in front of her. “I know we all know the storybook version, where it’s all glittery lights and magic and fairies, but there is, of course, more to it than that. Would anyone like to have a go?”

She looked around the classroom expectantly, like she was just going to breeze past the ‘we need you to save the world’ right into a lesson on theory. Emily looked around to see if anyone else was confused, but it looked like the promise of magic was enough to have drawn people’s immediate attention. Even Simon was back on his wicker perch, paying rapt attention. The look on Miss Melody’s face was one of glad relief when Jenna raised a hand.

“It’s energy, isn’t it?” Jenna said, slightly hesitantly. Emily cocked her head. That much seemed obvious, right? But Miss Falls nodded, encouraging Jenna to continue. “Magic,” the girl said in that sort of mechanical tone of voice people get when they try to recite something verbatim that they read somewhere, “is a renewable but finite energy source that covers the world.” She blinked a few times, like she was surprised at her own ability to remember it. “Like a blanket!”

“Maybe she should have a teddy bear instead of a Familiar, Ned,” the cat behind them said to his red-haired friend. 

“And a pacifier instead of a wand,” Ned replied with a chuckle. The two snickered, although Jenna luckily didn’t seem to have heard it. Emily’s hearing was better as a cat, but it wasn’t always a blessing. Jenna was easily fifteen. Okay, maybe fourteen.

Miss Falls’ face broke into a proud grin. “Very good, Miss Towers,” she said, “although a blanket isn’t entirely accurate. But you’re absolutely right on everything else. Magic is energy. It’s all around us, it flows through us when we use it, and it is, like you said, finite. Finite here means that there’s only a certain amount of magic in the world. Some people, like Witches, Warlocks and Wizards, can receive that magic.” 

If everyone hadn’t been watching her so intently, it might have gone unnoticed. But they were, and Emily and several others gasped when the flower in Miss Melody’s hair began to glow. The teacher raised both hands and a slice of water appeared in the air. Just a floating cube of liquid, hanging there. 

“Magic covers the world. A bit more like a shallow pool than a blanket, really. And some of us…” She pointed at the bottom of the cube and a little bit of water began to spill through an invisible hole, into an invisible bottle. “Some of us can store it. And use it.” She smiled. “We’re very lucky. But we can’t do much. Not on our own, anyway. You see, there’s also people, like you Familiars, who can’t store and use magic, but you act a little bit —” She pointed and the hole through which the water flowed widened. “— like a funnel. And it even lets the Warlock store a little bit more magic.” She reached up and touched the flower in her hair. “And then your focus allows you to use your magic.”

“Miss,” the red-haired boy said, “are you saying Familiars make our hole wider so we can fill up more easily?” Several boys in the class started to snigger. Emily turned around and frowned at him. 

“You know,” Miss Falls continued without looking at him, “I used to do this explanation using batteries and so on as an example, but I realized that it was all a bit too technical for some people to understand. And this way, the class clown very quickly identifies himself so I know who to make an example out of.” Her voice was sweet, like honey in a flytrap. “Step forward please. Ned Jensen, isn’t it?”

The red-haired and now also red-faced boy got up from behind his desk. His Familiar, the parrot boy Emily had seen at the table, looked a little anxious, hopping left and right on the perch, but didn’t follow. 

“Mister Jensen, thank you so much for volunteering,” she said, with the same bubbly and upbeat voice. Now that he was in front of the class, standing next to the teacher, the boy’s bravado seemed to have melted like snow. “Now, I would like everyone to do their very best to pretend like Mister Jensen’s head is a hollow container. Just nothing inside.” Her smile never left her face while she pretended not to hear the snickering coming from the back row. “Don’t worry, it’s just a thought experiment,” she added. “Now, because he hasn’t trained very well, there isn’t much room in there for anything.” More chuckling, and even Emily had to keep from laughing. The red-haired boy looked like he wanted to crawl under the floorboards to die. 

“I’m not surprised,” Emily heard Simon mumble, and he suppressed another giggle. 

“So even if he relaxes, as he has put it very helpfully himself, his hole, it would take a long time for the space between his ears to fill up with anything useful,” Miss Falls continued. “And, because he doesn’t have a Focus yet, he wouldn’t be able to get it out either. So, to make sure Mister Simon doesn’t end up like a kind of human appendix, we make sure to pair him up with a Familiar,” she said, pointing at the parrot, “and a Focus. So he can take in, process, and accurately expel magic.” She paused for a moment. It was like everyone in the room held their breath for a moment while they all thought the same thing. Miss Falls smiled like a princess in a picture book. “Like a colon,” she said. Emily burst out laughing, and so did several others. “You can go sit down now,” she said to the now beet-red boy as laughter took a minute to die down. Jenna was wiping tears from her eyes, and Simon was still gasping for air. 

Miss Falls continued to explain some more of the minutiae, elaborating on how exactly the pairings worked and why Familiars took the shape they did, but Emily had heard most of this before already. He looked around and saw everyone paying absolute attention now. That was one way to get around an overly technical explanation, he thought, and had a newfound respect for Miss Falls, who had come off as a kind of floaty kindergarten teacher up until that point. 

“Finally,” she said, conjuring up images of dry riverbeds in the air, “magic is finite. There’s only so much in the air around us. When you use it, it takes a minute to find its way back into the world. The space around you can become completely drained, and then, no matter how good your connection to your Familiar is, you won’t be able to use any magic outside of what you’ve already got stored. That’s why it’s important to be mindful of how much you’re using. Your Familiar will be able, with training, to learn to see magic around you, and together you can avoid drying up.” She scrunched up her nose. “It’s a very unpleasant sensation. Like getting dehydrated, but worse.”

Jenna raised her hand again. Miss Falls nodded at her. “Why is it easier for younger people to use magic?” she asked. 

“Good question,” the teacher said. “The short answer is that, the older you get, the more you get… ‘gummed up’. Unused magic slowly starts to stick around. That’s why magic users tend to live longer than most people, but also why your magical reserves get smaller and smaller as you get older.”

Emily’s tail flicked left and right as she remembered something Charlie had said. “Does that have anything to do with why Familiars get picked up when they do?”

“You’re referring to Afterlife Social Services,” Miss Falls said. “And yes, although that’s something we’ll get into more in your second year. When a Wizard dies, a lot of their magic is released back into the world. But not all of it, and especially not when it’s all coagulated inside of them like that. So every generation, there’s a little less magic than there used to be.” She gave him a reassuring smile. “But that’s nothing to worry about. There’s more than enough to go around for a very long time still.”

“You save Familiars because you don’t want to lose that magic.” the boy-cat behind him said with the air of someone who feels they have it figured out. “Very practical.”

“Not quite,” Miss Falls said. “When someone is about to die, they already start releasing stored magic. People like our very own Ms. Charlie Ferman detect that little burst, and head onto the scene as quickly as possible.” She smiled. “We save you because we can. Not because it’s pragmatic.” Emily nodded. That fit a lot better with the Charlie he knew. “Now, unless there’s any questions, I think we’re close to finishing up your initiation.” She looked around, and when nobody raised their hand, she began an explanation of Foci and how to find yours. 

Emily knew this part wasn’t really for him, and a quick glance at Jenna told her the girl was clearly paying attention, so he relaxed, looking over at Simon, who was curled up and upside down, looking back at him. “What?” he whispered. He hoped he wasn’t audible, but the classroom was filled with the noise of pens, coughs and Miss Falls’ voice.

“So… Emily, huh?” Simon whispered back, his whiskers twitching. Emily looked at Jenna and Simon’s own Wizard, but both of them were too busy taking notes to pay attention to their Familiars talking to each other. 

“She saw that the cat was a girl and I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable,” he said. “Girl voice, girl body, girl name just makes sense.” 

“Uh huh,” Simon said. “As long as you’re not going to pretend to be someone you’re not. He yawned, stuck out his tongue, and smacked his lips a few times. “I like you just the way you are.”

“I’m still gonna be me,” Emily said, rolling his eyes. “When I’m in my, like, human shape, I’ll be back to being Jonathan.”

“So while you’re like this you’re a girl?” Simon asked, raising his eyebrows. Emily sputtered in protest.

“Wh… no, of course not,” he stammered. “That’s not how that works. It just kinda makes more sense this way. Besides, I don’t want to upset Jenna, she’s really sweet and I don’t want her getting hurt or disappointed.”

“You’re way too sweet for your own good, ‘Emily’,” Simon yawned, “but whatever you say. I’m glad you’re connecting so well with your mage.”

“How’s yours?” Emily asked, happy to change the subject. Simon grinned just as he was being scratched under the chin. 

“He’s alright,” Simon said, chuckling, then raised his voice loud enough to be heard by the boy. “Benjamin, say hi.”

“Hey,” Benjamin said, reaching over to shake Emily’s hand. As a cat, Emily had never shaken a hand before. She’d seen a dog giving a paw before, but she’d also never been on the receiving end of that. She stuck out a paw. Benjamin shook it, and Emily felt very silly. “Ben Burrows,” the boy said. “Good to meet a friend of Simon’s.” He went back to writing. 

“He seems nice,” Emily said. “Jenna’s very nice.” He looked over his shoulder. The girl had her tongue between her lips, her eyebrows furrowed in concentration, while she focused on writing down what the teacher was saying as best as possible. It was probably a good idea not to disturb her too much.

“For your first day,” Miss Falls said to the larger class at whole, raising her voice a bit to make everyone pay attention, “I won’t give you a lot of homework. Warlocks, Wizards and Witches, I want all of you to think about your Focus. What you want it to be, what you want it to look like. We’ll be working on making you one soon.” She looked at the various animals looking at her. “As for you Familiars,” she said, “all of you will be given a kind of test to take to your dormitories tonight. Don’t worry, it won’t be graded. But the idea will be that you fill it out to the best of your ability, without help, so we know what classes to sign you up for.” As she spoke, she handed everyone a stack of pages. There were easily two dozen pages, stapled together. It was a whole booklet. “You have until the end of the week to fill these out. There’s no shame in not knowing any of the answers. Just do your best, okay?”

The collective groan from the class was all the confirmation she needed, but Emily still had a question. He looked at the papers, and then at his paws. “Um,” he said, “how do I pick this up?”

“We’ll get you a backpack,” Jenna said. “It’ll be so cute.” Emily meowed in protest, much to Jenna’s delight.

Elamimax

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