The Duo and the Witch

On a plane over the Atlantic, a few hours ago

“Damn, I am tired,” Rita complained as she tried to stretch in the tight space of the economic class seat allotted to her. She tried to make some room by pushing the **** mass of flesh sleeping beside her. “Damn stupid asshole, he has slept before I could make him seat somewhere else.”

Her last few hours kept getting worse and worse, and it annoyed her to no end. Not only had her father denied her request to add John Newman to her pet collection, he was also punishing her for skipping school.

Sending her back on a red-eye mundane flight on a cheap seat was just the beginning of her punishment. She was only allowed to use any kind of teleportation service to go to Springfield when she arrived in New York, and only because he wanted her to arrive at school on time.

To make things worse, he did not trust her to go back to school right away, so he sent one of his bodyguards with her, who was now snoring on the seat next to her and taking up all of the armrest space between them. Choosing the window seat was a decision that she now regretted, she was trapped till he woke up or until the end of the flight.

“How can anyone sleep in this condition?” she complained.

Her frustration had risen enough that she kicked the seat in front of her, prompting an angry-looking woman to stand and look back at her. Rita noticed that the seat next to her was empty, so she quickly formed a plan.

“Come over and throw yourself on top of the guy next to me,” she whispered the orders to the woman not caring if she would hurt herself in the process.

Her victim quickly came around and did exactly what she was ordered to, successfully waking Rita’s plus one on the flight.

“I am sorry,” she apologized red-faced. “I must have tripped on something on the aisle.” And just as quickly as she fulfilled the orders, she vanished back to her seat. “How the hell did I end up there?” Rita heard her ask herself.

Before he could get back to sleep, Rita then ordered the now semi-conscious bodyguard to sit on the empty seat in front of him.

“Ahh,” Rita exclaimed, happy with the bigger space. “Much better!”

As per her usual, she did not care about what was happening to her victims on the seats in front of her. All she cared about was that she could now fall asleep

At Ashcroft Academy’s main hallway

“Mr. Newman, it looks like Miss MacKenzie has finally told you about herself,” Mrs. Wentworth stated while blocking the duo’s path. “I was kind of disappointed you didn’t figure it out yourself when I had sent you to Scotland. I expected more from you.”

“That’s not fair. If your pet cat hadn’t rushed me out of there, I would have had a chance to do so, Ma’am,” John answered back, after finally putting one and two together. “It’s not like MacKenzie is an uncommon family name there.”

“I see. Maybe next time don’t just assume something without looking into it some more,” the teacher told him, shooting down his reasoning. “You could have easily asked around if anyone in that inn knew your friends. You had plenty of time... and enough coin.” Thus turning her win into a learning experience for her student.

“How did you know I had plenty of time?” John asked, still having some fight in him.

“What? Did you really think that Katia was sleeping the whole time?” she shot him down once again.

John’s silence was all she needed to know that he didn’t have a comeback for her.

“I do hope you learned something from this small lesson, Mr. Newman.” Mrs. Wentworth looked at him the same way most teachers look at their students when they’re hoping they are getting through to them. “Now let’s get going, we have matters to settle before classes start.” She then proceeded to start moving through the crowd of students that had begun to form around their lockers; some moved out of the way the moment they noticed they were blocking her path.

“Yes, Ma’am,” a defeated John replied and joined her with Amelia. “We were just on our way to your classroom.”

“Oh?” The teacher suddenly stopped and then turned towards them. “I didn’t remember inviting Miss MacKenzie to join us.”

“Mrs. Wentworth, are you assuming that I won’t discuss with Amelia about whatever will happen in your office?” he answered back, not taking his eyes from hers.

“Well, come then, don’t waste my time any longer than you have,” Mrs. Wentworth said then started walking again through the crowd. She had smiled after turning from them, somewhat surprised that her student had recuperated so quickly from being beaten in the previous discussion and not just simply cowered. It’s not every day that someone with her amount of experience was proved wrong by someone as young as him.

“You were a big help,” John whispered the complaint to the redhead moments after his bluff had worked. “You just stood there watching.”

“I am sorry, John,” Amelia replied, “but she was right.” She then smiled at him. “At least you quickly put that lesson into good use; I guess Gaia thinks so too.”

Achievement Unlocked - Stun the Unstunnable.
Your quick thinking has stunned your teacher. You weren’t even born yet, last time someone had accomplished such a feat.
+1 Wis

Happy with his achievement, John dismissed the window and followed his teacher into her office barrier.

You have entered a barrier owned by someone much stronger than you.
You must defeat said owner - good luck with that - or be granted permission to be able to exit.

“Have a seat, you two,” she told the duo as she sat on her chair. “Before we discuss your reward, I must warn you both. It has come to my attention that someone is planning on making a move on a person of my interest.”

“Is it Vanessa?” Amelia asked, quite interested.

“Vanessa Hawthorne?” John asked back wondering why the bimbo was of any importance to someone like Mrs. Wenworth.

“As Miss MacKenzie already knows, Vanessa Hawthorne is off-limits,” the teacher started explaining to him as if she read his mind; with her usual serious expression, she continued, “You are forbidden to do any physical or psychological harm to her. You don’t need to know why, just that I will not allow it. From her experience, Miss MacKenzie can tell you later what happens if you disobey me in this issue.”

“Och, come on,” Amelia complained. “It was just a little bit of vengeance for the things she did to John.”

“What did you do?” John asked her.

“It was nothing, really,” she answered while trying to hold her laughter. “I hacked once or four times into the academy’s computer system and lowered her grade so she would get suspended from the cheer squad.”

“That was you?” John asked again, quite surprised.

“Aye,” she smiled at him, “she had it coming. But Mrs. No Fun made me change it back every time.” That last remark prompted a grunt and an angry expression from the teacher.

“Anyway, the person of interest is not Miss Hawthorne, it’s her father,” she said getting back on track to what she wanted to tell the duo.

“Who’s targeting him?” Amelia asked. “Anyone I know?”

“Yes and no,” Mrs. Wentworth answered. “You do know his daughter: Miss Rita Alexander. What you don’t know is that his family belongs to the Abyss.”

“Wait, what?” The stunned Scot tried to process what she just heard. “Rita Alexander is from the Abyss?”

“Yes, she is,” the teacher sighed, knowing quite well where this was heading; at least she knew that she could dissuade the Scot from doing anything too foolish with what she was about to learn. “So far she has been able to conceal her powers from you. Not even the Golden Rose knows of this.

“Why was I not told about this before? Why...” Amelia continued to ask.

“Miss MacKenzie,” the teacher stopped any further questioning, “your clan and I might have a collaboration agreement in some Abyssal issues, knowledge of the comings and goings in this academy is not part of it.

“Besides, she has not done anything that warranted any attention from any Abyss member here. She was not stupid enough to target you, but the same can’t be said about Mr. Newman.”

“What did she do to me?” John asked even more interested in what his teacher had to say.

“After your friend’s parents had died,” Mrs. Wentworth began to answer, “she wanted to hurt her even more. With her powers, she managed to raise your fear level and help Miss Hawthorne destroy your relationship.

“Before you ask, you were nothing but a means to an end. You being mundane back then only made it easier for her, even though it was quite risky.”

“That…” Amelia stopped herself before she swore in front of her teacher, then a question hit her. “Wait a minute, Mrs. Wentworth, did her family have any part in my parent’s ****?” asked a now very serious and angry Amelia.

“Not likely,” the teacher answered. “Until a few minutes ago, her father was an entity of the Abyss whose affairs were of no concern to me. She only targeted John because of personal issues between you and her.”

“That’s not good enough,” Amelia exclaimed while punching her teacher’s desk, surprising John.

“Miss MacKenzie, your behavior is unacceptable,” the teacher protested while rising from her chair. “Control your anger. If there was any evidence of their part in your parent’s ****, I would have found it by now.”

“I am sorry,” Amelia apologized; she still didn’t show any sign of being able to control her anger.

“Let me make myself clear, and this warning I give to both of you,” the teacher continued to berate her while adding John to the mix. “I prohibit you from taking any action against the girl. I will not condone any fighting between Abyss members at this academy, not even inside a barrier. Do not give the sanctimonious Order any reason to meddle in my affairs any more than they do; it’s bad enough that their princess frequents this academy.”

“Fine, I will not touch her,” Amelia caved in, but still felt the need to add, “Not unless I have to defend myself.”

“Fair enough,” the teacher agreed, sat back down, and finally turned to John. “Now, Mr. Newman, to your reward. I have three items for you to choose from.”

John and Amelia watched intently as the teacher took one item after the other from her desk drawer and placed them on top of her table in the following order: a golden ring, dark blue quill pen, and a dagger that seemed to be made of steel.

After she placed the last item, John tried to use observe on each one of them, getting no more information than what his eyes could tell him.

“Are you blocking my abilities?” John asked his teacher, surprised by what she did.

“Yes, I am,” Mrs. Wentworth answered while smiling. “You’re an experienced gamer, Mr. Newman. You should be used to not knowing everything while having to make a possible game-changing decision. You have to make your decision based on what you see and what you know.”

“So, another lesson then?” he asked; the only answer she gave him was continuing to smile.

Hmm, let me see, John started his decision process. All of them look like pretty normal items. He picked up the ring, weighed it, and rubbed it with his right thumb; not sensing a metallic smell on his finger, he figured that in all likelihood it was made of gold. Still, I can’t tell if it has any magical properties. Do any of them have any magical properties?

“Mr. Newman, I’d like for you to decide today,” the teacher disrupted his slow thought process to rush his decision. “I have a class to teach.”

Right, it seems I am tackling this the wrong way, he decided to change his thought process. What am I missing? It then struck him to ask the right question. What use do I have for any of these items? If the ring is just a normal ring, all I could do with it is sell it. Same for the dagger, as it is too short for me to use it.

The quill is the strangest of all, even though I don’t have any foreseeable use for it, I have never seen a quill like this. Why is it dark blue? It could be of some use if...

“Mr. Newman!” the teacher disrupted his thought process once again.

“Fine, I choose the quill,” he said and picked it up.

“Very good, Mr. Newman,” the teacher quickly stored away the other items. “You can now find out what you have chosen.”

John used observe on the quill.

Well, that would have been very useful a few days ago, he thought and then stored it in his inventory.

“May I see what the other items can do?” John asked.

“No,” the teacher answered, “what good would it do? Anyway, you two should leave, now!”