The End of Her Life

Jayne closed the door behind her, the centerpiece of the room was a long table. It’d comfortably seat eight people, three on each long side and one at each end. But you might squeeze in two more if you didn’t give anyone on the sides elbow room. The surface was black but the sides were an exposed wood grain with sharp edges. It looked cheap, out of place for Ashfield Academy. The walls were painted a cerulean blue from the top until they reached shoulder height for the chairs. There the walls were divided with a strip of brass around the whole room and below that the wall was solid black. The floor was a dark laminate wood and appeared spotless. The lights were something Jayne had never seen, instead of the typical fluorescent bulbs, two brass oil lanterns hung from the ceiling. To top it off she didn’t even see a single electrical outlet in the room at all.

The ceiling itself was another oddity. It was painted cerulean as well but had a grand symmetrical design from one end of the room to the other. Something about it felt familiar. A faint voice somewhere in the back of her mind, like a whisper across a crowded room, “protection”. The redhead tried to dismiss the thought and instead focused her attention on the woman who called her here.

“Sit,” instructed Headmistress Mallor. Jayne didn’t hesitate in taking the closest seat which happened to be the opposite end of the table from the older woman. Beatrice closed the manilla folder she had been studying and set her hands down on the table, fingers folded together. She stared at Jayne as if to weigh her worth. After an uncomfortable silence, she rose from her seat, took her half-rimmed glasses off, and set them on top of that same folder. She walked to Jayne counterclockwise around the table before sitting on it next to her student, folding one leg over the other and resting her hands in her lap. She wore a pair of black high-heeled pumps over black sheer leggings that disappeared under her dress.

Jayne wasn’t sure if this was supposed to be more, or less intimidating than staring at her from across the table.

“I won’t lie to you, Miss Bronwen. You’ve been the source of a great deal of consternation for me today. That said, you’re still a student here and since you live on campus, ultimately my responsibility. If not for that I probably would’ve fed you to the wolves by now,” Beatrice smirked at a joke only she understood while Jayne blanched. “Starting today, life as you knew it is over. You did something that has apparently kicked the hornets' nest, and as uncomfortable as you are now, I assure you this is the preferable option to me turning you over to said hornets...”

Jayne suddenly felt very small, she could hear the sound of her own heart ringing in her ears, “Ma’am, I...I... I don’t...” the headmistress suddenly set her hand on the stuttering student’s shoulder. “Do relax.. I’ve yet to have any of my students die of a heart attack and I’ve no desire to start today,” Beatrice gave Jayne a reassuring smile, a surprising amount of warmth in her voice despite the woman’s dark humor.

“Now. You’re going to give me your account of everything that has happened today, I require you to be honest to the best of your ability. Leave nothing out. Otherwise protecting you is going to be a great deal harder.”

Jayne looked down at the table so she didn’t have to look Miss Mallor in the eyes as she began with her experience in the locker room...

Some minutes later as she was about to come to the part about being saved by Tasya there came a knock on the door. “Headmistress, they’re here” Jayne recognized the voice of the secretary, Miss Talbot, she sounded distressed.

Jayne looked up in surprise wondering who else was coming, were these the people that wanted to take her away? There was no way out even she could run. This room had no windows.

“Tell them they may have a seat outside, we’re not ready yet,” Beatrice said as casually as though she were talking about some other students. “Y-yes Headmistress,” the secretary replied hesitantly.

As Jayne was about to resume her story when there came very loud indignant “WHAT?!” from somewhere down the hall. But there were no further interruptions. She swallowed and began again, cheeks reddening as she started to talk about what Tasya and her had done together. For her part, Miss Mallor only arched an eyebrow but said nothing as she continued.

“There was this dream and...I... I... can’t tell you what happened,” the redhead shivered, “I actually can’t...” Jayne had remembered the odd crow-woman vividly. Not like one of her typical dreams where she would forget most of the details almost immediately after waking up. She wanted to describe it to the headmistress, to tell her about Pump-A-Rump as embarrassing as that name would be for her to say aloud to such an authority figure. But every time she tried the words caught in her throat. When she tried to **** them she winced in pain as her head hurt and she heard tinnitus like ringing in her ears.

Beatrice had a brief look of concern before her face returned to its regular intensity, she took Jayne by the chin to **** her to look her in the eyes, “tell me truthfully child, you do not remember this dream, you won't tell me about this dream, or you are physically unable to tell me?”

Fortunately for Jayne, the ringing had subsided enough for her to answer, “unable. I’m sorry... I don’t understand.” The distress both at her own mouth refusing to comply with her and the fear that Miss Mallor wouldn’t believe her played across her face clear as day. But Beatrice had to be sure. Holding her student by the chin still, her eyes seemed to stare through Jayne as if peering into her.

“Huh,” a highly uncharacteristic sound came from the headmistress, “it’s alright. I believe you,” she said calmly, “what next?”

While Jayne wasn’t able to mention that the letter and envelope she woke up next to were gifts, she was able to mention their existence. Though she had the same issue trying to recount what the letter actually said, she was able to recount the unusual smell and beautiful cursive handwriting. She told her about the ring, showing she still wore it even now.

When it came to the unusual page, she struggled for a different reason. She had no desire to remember that vision or the voices, she shook but managed to continue, sparing a glance at the strange room once again as she finished and her tears began to flow.

Beatrice Mallor looked struck. No surprise, or pain. Only an expression of resigned indignity. She found herself holding the tearful young woman comforting her as a mother would. She shushed her quietly and stroked her long red hair. It all made sense to her now... it wasn’t the vision Jayne had described, no that sounded only mildly worse than a Saturday night cable horror movie. It was the violent stress of what learning a spell that way had done to her mind... trying to, let alone successfully reading what she had described was enough to drive most hardened mages insane if not kill or cripple them. Yet here this eighteen-year-old girl had just, for lack of a better word, absorbed eldritch knowledge.

It made sense, in so far why the Watch was upset about their seers... if they had been scrying at the time Jayne’s mind was being... rewritten. They might be mad, or dead. What Jayne had experienced can’t be undone. No more than a butterfly may return to being a caterpillar. The most pressing concerns were to find a teacher for Jayne, and find out where the page she had read came from.

From nowhere in particular a box of tissues appeared at the far end of the table, a wastebasket on the ground nearby as well. The headmistress got Jayne to look up, “feeling better?” She nodded meekly. “Now, let's go sit back up over there. You can clean up a bit. When this is over, I promise to find someone who will help you make sense of it. Ok?” Jayne nodded once more, “thank you, ma’am.”

The two went to sit together at the end of the table opposite the door. Jayne had dried her eyes and cleaned her nose. The wastebasket was noticeably more full of used tissues now. Beatrice casually tapped her capped pen against her dress, all signs of the girl's tears faded as she wasn’t looking. ‘A simple spell... one Jayne might learn fairly soon’ Beatrice thought, ‘once she accepts the world as she knew it was a lie.’

“Miss Talbot, you may send them in” despite being so far from the door and not raising her voice, her secretary heard her and responded immediately, “yes ma’am.”

“Miss Bronwen, I appreciate your honesty, and you have my apology regarding what happened to you with Miss Greer and her,” Beatrice suppressed an invective, “friends in the locker room. You have my word, they’ll be punished.” Jayne smiled at the thought of some justice for the lot of them, some of the color having returned to her face.

The door to the room opened once again. In stepped two people.

The first wore a school uniform, she stood about 5’11” with dark hair cut short, with no danger of it getting anywhere in her face. Her skin was a rich tawny. She looked about the room briefly before her ochre eyes settled on Jayne, who was at present the object of her anger. Around her neck she wore a small silver pendant, it was a crescent moon shaped exactly like the one on Jayne’s ring, except it had an elaborate straight sword over the top of it. The blade laid diagonally, the hilt on the bottom left of the moon, and the point on the top right. To Jayne, she wasn’t even half as intimidating as Miss Mallor.

The second to enter was shorter at 5’6” and had platinum blond hair to the point it was nearly white. Her eyes however were covered by a silver visor of some sort, it was almost a parody of crown with the way it peaked towards the center of her forehead. She wore a simple gray sleeveless dress with a silver belt made in rounded segments... It had no trouble staying on her hips. The woman was surprisingly voluptuous with an hourglass figure.

“Maria Lucero, Keeper Cecilia,” Beatrice greeted them in turn, “sit.”