Intro (L)

  The sound of sirens woke Lily up, which could only mean one thing. “Dammit.” She muttered. The siren alarm wasn’t supposed to scream unless she slept past the other two. First day, and she was already running late. Why had she thought it a good idea to get drunk the night before?

  Lily leapt out of bed, quickly getting dressed while making a mental inventory of what she would need to have at school.

  Cellphone? She grabbed it from her nightstand and threw it into her pocket. Wand? Where did she leave the damned thing? She found it on the kitchen counter, apparently, she had used it to grab the taller bottles in her pantry… oops. She was about to bolt out the door, when she remembered, she would definitely need to order something for breakfast, so she grabbed her take-out box from the living room.

  And with that, she left the house, without makeup, and her hair still a mess.

  Overground (L)

  Lily got inside the overground seconds before it closed its doors. Perhaps, she could arrive on time after all. She sat down to catch her breath after that sprint, thank the flames it was mostly empty.

  After catching her breath, she started rummaging through her bag, looking for her mirror. If possible, her hair looked even worse than before, and last night’s now smeared mascara made her look like a banshee. If somebody saw her like this… she quickly fetched for her wand in her boot. She had a brief moment of panic as it wasn’t in its usual spot until she remembered she′d stashed it in her jacket.

  Lily sighed in relief as she grabbed the familiar handle of her wand. She closed her eyes and focused, most people believed that spells were all about memory, but there was so much more to them. She steadied her breath and emptied her mind, readying her mind for the mental component the spell required, as she murmured the spell that would fix the disaster that her hair was, and another quick one to fix her makeup. Lily opened her eyes to be greeted by a more beautiful sight, it sure was good to have magic.

  Once the important matters were taken care of, she replaced her mirror again for her phone, she was feeling like a nice cup of coffee with just a drop of haste to get her going, and perhaps a sweet bagel to compliment it, when she heard a familiar giggle behind her.

  “You know?” said Wendy playfully. “One of these days that pretty wand of yours is?gonna?run out of power, and you’ll arrive at school with snakes on your hair, and air for a breakfast.”

  “Wendy! It’s been too long.” Lily said standing up to hug her friend

  “A day would’ve been too long, but I bet you barely missed me.”

  “Oh, don’t say that! Of course, I missed you!” Lily let go of her to look at her. “Who would follow me in my dumb escapades without you!” she laughed

  Wendy rolled her eyes. “Who indeed?”

  “What are you doing here? I’m always late, but it’s unlike you to be.”

  “Only freshmen need to be there for orientation, you will get lost without a guide to tell you where things are, you know?”

  “I wouldn’t worry about that; I’m looking at my guide right now.”

  “Lil… really?” Wendy said uncomfortably.

  “Oh, come on! I bet you ought to know everything there is to know, right?”

  “Not really. I know my way around, but-”

  “You probably know all the shortcuts, and who the cool professors are… you know, the stuff the guide wouldn’t tell me.”

  “But I need to get started on the-” she paused looking at her friend. “Fine. I’ll show you around. But if I get on a bad Magic Circle team, you will make my History essays the whole semester!”

  “You’ve got yourself a deal Ms. Thane.” She joked offering her hand

  “A pleasure as always, doing business with you, Ms. Rumsfeld.”

  They shook hands, as they always did. It was as if no time had passed at all.

  Orientation (M)

  “… and to your right, you can see the alchemy labs C. Though you don’t need to worry about those yet, those are for more advanced students.” Said the guide to her group.

  Michael listened to where all the buildings were located, though most of them were unimportant to him. Advanced Alchemy? No, thanks. it sounded as fun as History of Dreiberg, though at least he’d get a culture credit outta that.

  “Are there any student groups for freshm-?”

  “Oh, yes! Is hazing still a thing? Because my daughter should really stay away from that.” the speaker who had interrupted Michael. A dark-skinned woman with curly hair who looked way too young to have a daughter in the Magicka

  “Mom, please…” said another freshman, apparently her daughter, although they looked nothing alike. She had intense blue eyes, and short blond hair, which drew attention to her lightning-shaped earrings.

  “No worries.” said the guide recovering control of the group. “There are many clubs that you may consider joining in the university, including the different school teams which you may do tryouts for. As for the other question, while hazing is prohibited, some groups do…”

  Michael sighed. This orientation thing was certainly a pain; he wished it was a student’s only thing, for this was going terribly slow. It felt like every time the guide said anything interesting, one of the parents in the group would inevitably ask an unnecessary question that dragged it longer and longer. Are there any student groups? Questions about Hazing, Is it true about the rumors of ghosts wandering around school? Questions about curfew, Can freshmen join the RK team? Questions about security measures...

  Michael was about to yawn, when a cold shiver ran down his spine. He instantly turned to look if someone was messing with him, but instead, he saw what he was actually looking for: Guild Sign-ups. Looking at the group, someone had asked a question about getting extra credits, Michael knew that he had gotten all that he could from staying in orientation. He smiled, perhaps he could turn this day around after all.

  Reservation (W)

  “Mmh... this is like, really good!” said Wendy. Even though she had already had lunch, Lily insisted on getting her a cold brew of her own, it was sweet and activating, yet oddly soothing, giving her a clear mind. They had just exited the Overground and were now walking through the school grounds.

  “I knew you’d like it.” smiled Lily while drinking from her own cup, “it’s sweet and calm, just like you.”

  Wendy rolled her eyes. It was just like Lily, to guess rather than ask, and still nail it. “What did you say was in it anyways?”

  “It’s Caramel Macchiato with an ounce of Tranquil.”

  “An entire ounce?” she exclaimed, the calmness from the drink evaporating by her annoyance. “You know that 5 milliliters are often enough to create an effect, right?”

  “You probably know better than me. Still 1 ounce is the standard for actual drinks, people like getting a more lasting effect. you won’t get addicted by 1 sip, you know.”

  “Fine. Just, you know, never give someone a potion without their knowledge… it’s just wrong.”

  “Fine, mom.” she said sarcastically.

  “Anyways, so there’s the spellcasting labs, basically a place where you can try new spells with less collateral damage, in case anything goes wrong,” Wendy pointed at a green rectangular building 5 stories tall, “and that big building we’re going to is the Atrium.” The Atrium was a round building only 3 stories tall, it was brown and bone colors, “its official use is to give announcements and events… but usually is just where students hang out… it’s also a place where you can book labs, and buy ingredients… though you probably need none of those if you still want to mayor in just spells, right?”

  “Father has explained the importance of metamagic so I may need some after all…”

  “Well, you can buy ingredients for rituals right here.” she said as they entered it, as usual, the inside felt somehow bigger than it looked at first, she paused letting her friend see it before continuing her speech “Although I wouldn’t recommend it. Sure, it helps in a pinch, but they are way more expensive than if bought elsewhere… definitely only buy here if you need the materials for today, and you totally forgot to buy them yesterday or you left them at home…”

  “Personal experience?”

  “Yeah… used my entire allowance for the month.” Wendy said, getting in a line.

  “A whole month?” Lily exclaimed surprised. “What did you do the rest of the month?”

  “For starters I thought about reselling the materials I already had at home at a loss… but seniors will buy basic step potions rather than making them themselves, so I managed to make a small profit. Sometimes I brew some at home and sell them for some extra cash.”

  “I guess you can buy things without your old man knowing” Lily said reflexively, then paused looking at her friend with a mischievous grin “What are you up to?”

  “You always assume big ploys and ideas; I simply like going shopping without asking for permission”

  “Wendy, how can you have no big plans for the money other than a shopping trip?”

  “What’s wrong with it? You like shopping as much as I do.”

  “I sure do, but not with MY money.”

  Wendy rolled her eyes at her friend, then turned to find they were already next in line “Jan, hello! we’d like to book a potions lab for tonight, say, 8 onwards?”

  “Back on business Wendy I see…” the young man in the booth said, “and by we, you mean…” he said looking at Lily.

  “Oh, this is my friend, Lily Rumsfeld.” she said. “she’s my uhm…”

  “Protégé?” Lily asked

  “I was going to say assistant.”

  “Assistant? Guess I could go for beautiful assistant.” Lily added

  Wendy laughed, “Fine, the lab for Wendy Thane, and her beautiful assistant, Lily Rumsfeld from 8 on?”

  “Sure thing Wendy, you know I’m gonna need one, right?”

  “For you, always Jan.” she smiled as they turned to leave.

  “So, what was that for?” Lily asked her

  “Well, you want to see the campus, and this gets us permission to explore at night. Besides, I do want to brew some Gamma potions.”

  “Gamma? That’s not a Charbrod’s Coffee flavor, and what’s with the Draeken letters?”

  “The step potions have standardized names it helps with identifying them since you can’t say what they do.”

  “I see… so, tonight?”

  “Yeah. Now with that settled, maybe I can go to class now, by The Great Fire, I came a lot earlier than I needed to.”

  After Dark (M)

  Michael’s phone finally beeped, if he managed to go unnoticed the whole night, he was in.

  He took out his phone and opened the camera, ready to record. But first he fixed his hair, and clothes, he’d taken a nap in this cramped closet, so he looked a mess. It wasn’t much, but it was better, he clicked record.

  “Hello, hello, hello, Lux Draco, my name is Michael Stern, and this is my audition, to join the guild, I hid inside a materials closet, it is currently 10 at night, I intend to run around explore the school at night, and not get caught, I might pull a few pranks, and have some fun, starting… now!” he said as he opened the door. Michael felt dumb talking like that, but he thought it was necessary to show the guild he was fun and deserving of joining them.

  The sight that met him was underwhelming to say the least, he was on the third floor of the atrium, he had been lucky enough to find it entirely alone, a few hours ago in order to hide in, now the place not only was alone, but it felt alone, no sounds coming from the tables bellow where students stopped to talk or play cards in between classes, no footsteps of people rushing from class to class, even the birds were nowhere to be heard.

  “Now, I know, this may seem like this is empty, but it is actually full of possibilities, I will record later, letting you know what I do.”

  With that he clicked the record button to turn it off, and sighed, so what should he do? He should’ve thought about that earlier, how was he supposed to impress the guild leaders without a plan? How dumb could he really be?

  Perhaps after exploring the school some ideas would come to mind. Maybe dress up the major mascots? If only he had brought some clothes for that… perhaps some paint like potions he could possibly get from the labs. Would that get him into too much trouble if found?

  As he was walking towards the potions building to look for some ingredients, he heard glass breaking, followed by a loud boom.

  Potion Making (W)

  “So why exactly are you making those potions now? It’s the start of the term, no way anyone’s that lazy yet, normally laziness starts after the first exams.”

  “It’s not about laziness! It’s about cost of opportunity.” Wendy said defensively, “they know how to make starter potions, that’s Potion brewing 101, but instead they could better use their time to sleep, or date, or do homework.”

  “Spoken like a true businesswoman, I bet you could sell me one of those and I don’t even take that class.” laughed Lily

  “Shut up Rumsfeld.” she said laughing with her as she added dandelion dust into her cauldron and started a timer. She didn’t bother measuring, she had done that potion so many times, and she could instinctively measure the right amount that she needed

  “So when are we going to explore the place like you promised? All you’re doing is making the potions.”

  “I need a couple more minutes to finish the potions, then we can go explore, I reserved the lab all night, so we won’t get into trouble if we bump into anyone.”

  “How come there is a curfew, but you can still book the lab during the night?”

  “Some magic works different at night, or specifically at midnight, or at dawn or dusk… it’s a whole thing, so labs can be booked 24/7, curfew only applies if you don’t have anything booked.”

  “It seems like a very exploitable system, if you ask me.” Lily said while picking up and looking at different flasks on the lab, “you’re telling me there are no rules as long as we ask permission?”

  “The rule is that we ask for permission.” Wendy corrected, “we’re adults now, Lynxveil Magicka treats us as such.”

  “Huh… but what about…” Lily was interrupted by the sound of broken glass and an explosion. She immediately stood up with her hands visible, “it wasn’t me!” she shouted

  “By the flame! You’re like twelve” Wendy laughed, at her friend, over a decade knowing one another and she still behaved the same way “I know it wasn’t you”

  Lily shrugged, “What was that noise anyway?”

  “Someone in another lab must’ve broken something.” she rolled her eyes “probably a freshman who’s behind on his homework.”

  “It’s the first day, you’re either ahead or on par.”

  “True, I guess.”

  “We should check it out!”

  “What? Why would we do that?”

  “Well, I wanna know what happened.”

  “We know what happened, some idiot wasn’t careful and broke a flask or something.” Wendy said quietly

  “But only you had a reservation today.”

  “You don’t know that there was a big line today.”

  “He pulled a fresh notebook to write our reservation.”

  “Fine.” Wendy said an annoyed, it was impossible to dissuade Lily once she got her mind unto something, “let’s go look at it, and come back, these potions need to breathe for a while.” as she added copper to the potion.

  Investigation 1 (L)

  “It sounded around here,” said Lily, as she lead the way. Finally something interesting to do, potions were fine and all, but Lily was a woman of action. She needed to do something, and potion making was a lot of waiting around for her taste, and that thing Wendy had said about waiting for a specific time of the night? Nightmare fuel, thankfully she didn’t need to worry about that kind of stuff.

  Another explosion

  “Maybe we should turn back?” Wendy asked without much hope in her voice.

  “Still think it’s a freshman?” she smiled mischievously at her, “This just got fun, let’s go.”

  “Fun?” she said, “this just got dangerous!”

  Lily didn’t respond, “I think it comes from this way,” she turned the corner after descending the stairs, to where the sound had obviously come from, and what he saw was… disappointing.

  The lab, while a mess was empty, not a single soul moved around, Lily’s jog stopped abruptly.

  “Huh,” she muttered as she opened the door without waiting to see if Wendy was still following her.

  She paced through the dark lab calmly, she looked around, and saw the first signs of something weird going on

  “Lily! How did you enter? The labs are locked”

  Ok perhaps the second sign of something weird.

  “Look, it was coming from here.” Lily said ignoring Wendy’s question.

  Lily pointed towards a bunch of broken glass on the floor.

  “Is everyone ok?” a male voice shouted behind Wendy.

  For a moment Lily was about to blurt out an excuse, when she saw who was speaking. By the pitch of the voice, her first thought had been that it was a guard, but upon seeing him, it turned out to be a blond boy, he was tall and broad shouldered, and had a face of concern, as if a friend of his was in trouble instead of, well them.

  “We’re fine,” said Wendy. “We heard a noise and came to see… my name’s Wendy by the way.”

  “Oh, Michael, Pleasure.” he replied awkwardly

  “Lily.” she said reluctantly, “If you don’t mind me asking. What are you doing here?”

  “Well, I heard a noise, so I came to see what was going on…”

  “But what are you doing at school at this time,” she asked, “I thought there was no one else here at this time.”

  “Oh well…” he paused clearly thinking of an excuse

  “Anyways,” she interrupted his train of thought filing that out for later. “Wendy, come check this out, what kind of potion is this? Or what potion is it in process of being I should say,” the broken glass lay in a small puddle of some weird liquid, and a weird looking paste, while doing that, she took out her wand and concentrated on the light spell.

  The liquid was apparently a blueish hue, with the paste being a whitish orange.

  “No idea… it looks like a failed potion of some kind…” Wendy said getting closer “perhaps a mix, consistency shouldn’t vary in a single potion…”

  “Ehm… guys,” said the new guy

  “What?” she and Wendy both asked simultaneously.

  “Is… is that normal?” he asked uncertainly, as flasks flew slowly from the cabinet onto the table.

  “Well, that depends… are you using wild magic on them?” Lily stood wanting to take a better look, while still not getting closer.

  “Definitely not normal…” said Wendy as materials were added slowly to the potion, the Bunsen burner turning itself on.

  Michael moved his hand slowly, almost as if mimicking moving the materials himself, though a bit clumsily since he was using his left hand to attempt and grab the flask, though he grabbed it carefully, it shattered the moment he grabbed hold of it, other floating dusts and plants falling to the floor as well, as a shriek filled the air.

  “Now we leave.” said Lily as she dashed to the door, holding it open for the others to follow, but Michael stayed, as if petrified, until Wendy went and grabbed his arm to pull him out of it.

  “Lily? A little help please.” Wendy asked as if worried, she yanked on Michael’s hand to no avail, “he seems to be stuck somehow… we can’t just leave him here.”

  She grunted, but went to help anyways, “he’s so heavy!” she complained

  “I don’t think his weight is the problem Lil” Wendy replied, “it’s almost as if he was stuck on something solid… can you do a spell or something?”

  “I know 7 spells Wen, none of which are unsticking boys from air…” she moved to push him rather than pull, “now if he wanted a different hairstyle… I’m your girl, as such all I can do is keep pushing…” it was obvious that their combined strength was insufficient to move him, and the shriek was sure to get a guard's attention and get them in trouble. if only she could get some leverage… while Wendy continued pulling on Michael, Lily cleared the table opposite to them to get on top moving the breakables out of the way first, but before she could get on top of it, Michael suddenly fell from where he was standing, from Wendy’s pull, the trio was almost too stunned to react, but the shrieking had stopped, and a new flask floated in the air, getting a mix of metals and alcohol on it.

  “Let’s get outta here.” said Michael quickly getting on his feet, “before it changes its mind.” he said sprinting to the door, clearly ignoring his bloody hand as he opened the door for them to follow.

  The guard (M)

  Michael was still shaking from the experience, he’d run towards the sound like an idiot, the two women were a lot more in control of the situation. The shorter one, Lily, moved confidently with an air of confidence, as if she knew exactly what was happening, which was good, because Michael had no clue.

  She was about 5’4, with short black hair tied up into a ponytail, she wore jeans and a leather jacket, as well as boots almost up to her knee.

  Her friend, Wendy, was about 5’6, had auburn hair, she was wearing a lab coat over some jeans and a red blouse. “I really hope you know where you’re leading us Lil” she said

  “Know where we’re going? Of course, I do, we’re going, AWAY from whatever the hell that was.”

  Well, there goes that hope, thought Michael. Still, he couldn’t really fault her reasoning, so he followed.

  “Excuse me,” said a voice behind them dragging the syllables, Michael closed his eyes with a sigh, resigning himself to whatever punishment appropriate for trespassing at night.

  “Hello, Officer?” Lily said cheerfully, quickly placing herself between the guard and the two of them.

  The guard frowned at this, “Yes, there was quite a ruckus, wondering what you’re doing ‘ere.”

  “Yes sir!” she said immediately pulling a piece of paper from her purse and handing it to him, “we were at the lab upstairs, and got scared because of the ruckus you mentioned, we were just about to head home.”

  The guard glanced at the card he had been handed for about 3 seconds before returning it “fine, go ahead.” he waved his hand dismissing them, “Do you need escort to the dorms?” he asked hesitantly.

  “No, I actually live off-campus," she said

  The guard sighed in relief “Be careful, it’s late,” and he turned around.

  They were well outside of the Atrium when Michael finally relaxed, that was until he looked, left, and saw that Lily was looking intently at him.

  “So, I’m guessing you didn’t have a permit...”

  “Oh... thanks.” he said looking down.

  “Sure, but WHY were you at school at night?”

  “Oh, well, I was here on a dare” he said embarrassed

  Lily rolled her eyes as if disappointed “Of course you were"

  Morning talk (M)

  Michael was sitting at the atrium, the next day. The history professor had told him Try again tomorrow when he had arrived 3 minutes late to the class. Considering the time, he had arrived at his dorm last night, it was a miracle he’d arrived at all. Now if only he had any usable footage from last night, it would’ve been worth it, he would’ve been in a guild, but as things were, he had forgotten all about recording, the moment he’d gotten scared.

  He was interrupted in his self-pity by the sound of books hitting his table.

  “Michael, was it not?” said a familiar voice sitting across the table

  “Yeah, uh, Wendy, right?” He asked, confused, why would she want to come sit with him of all people?

  “And Lily, in case I’m not as memorable as my friend here,” she said jokingly sitting down beside him.

  “Yeah, I mean, no, of course I remember your name” he stumbled, “I’m just... well I didn’t see you.”

  “Of course, you remember, I’ve been told I’m quite unforgettable, mainly as an annoyance, but I’ll take it anyhow” she laughed, “so, I’ve already worked Wendy into this, but I don’t know you as well, so I have to ask, are you in?”

  “In what?”

  “Ghost sighting!” said Lily.

  “We talked it over, and it does appear to match the description, at least it does with the information we have... we had to take a couple liberties with the data, of course since neither one of us actually felt it” Wendy interjected, leaving the implication in the air.

  So that’s why they came over to him again, they wanted information on last night, and perhaps someone to keep watch too, that would give him an excuse to try again to get into a guild.

  “So, what’s it gonna take to convince you to come explore the school at night again? Would daring you work a second time?”

  “I’m in,” he said with more confidence than he felt, he still remembered that sense of cold, and lack of control...

  “Huh, I’m going to be honest, I was actually joking with the dare thing, but cool.” she pulled something from her pack, “now if you don’t mind, please your name here, and a signature here.” she said putting a piece of paper in front of him

  “What’s this? A waiver?”

  “Of course not, it’s a permission slip,” said Wendy

  “Apparently,” Lily whispered. “We can stay at night so long we ask permission”

  Investigation 2 (W)

  “Do you need to be doing that again?” Lily asked with a bored tone

  “Well last night it didn’t appear until after midnight” Wendy said as she added Oak root to the cauldron.

  “Not to mention it ruined your potion yesterday, so you need to make more right?” Lily said with a smug smile

  “Actually, I arrived early today to fix them”

  “So, you just never make a loss, do you?”

  “Not if I can help it.”

  “So, you two know each other long?” asked Michael.

  Both girls turned to look at Michael, he was standing near the exit not making noise, so they had kind of forgotten he was there, which was unusual, since Wendy rarely ignored cute boys in the same room as her.

  “Yeah, our parents are business partners, so we met while we were very young.” Wendy explained.

  “We do make quite a team, don’t we?”

  “Yeah, she always gets me into trouble... and what do I provide to the team again?”

  “Well, someone has to look out for me when I make the fun happen.”

  “Fun... sure.”

  “To be fair, you do seem to talk your way out of trouble” Michael said

  Scorch it she thought, she and Lily were prone to ignoring him, the poor guy, must feel so excluded.

  “So how about you...” she asked, then realized that made no sense “I mean... are you from around?” she added

  “Oh, yeah, I mean, no, I mean,” he frowned. “I am not from around; I’m actually staying at the dorms.”

  “Oh, where are you from?” She asked

  “New Graekya.” He said, “My parents saved up to send me to a good School, but I still hope I can get some kind of sports scholarship.”

  “I see, you do seem the type.” Lily said.

  “Thanks, I guess.” he replied.

  Wendy rolled her eyes, as much as Lily claimed to have a silver tongue, she could be quite brash sometimes, still, Michael didn’t seem to mind that much so she just let that drop.

  Investigation 2.1 (M)

  Michael kept pacing while Wendy worked, good idea to have brought something to do, as it was taking forever for anything to happen.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Still, he kept his phone recording in his shirt pocket, he’d have to edit it later... it’d be a hassle, but it’d be better than to forget about it again.

  If anything, at least it didn’t appear as if he was the most bored one in the room, Lily was fidgeting with expensive lab equipment, it gave him chills to think about how much he’d have to pay if he broke one of those.

  What was taking so long? He checked his watch, 11:50, almost.

  “Ehm guys... I mean, gals? Ehm...”

  “On with it,” said Lily

  “Should we be near the lab where it happened yesterday? is almost the witchin’ hour.”

  Lily beamed “FINALLY” she grabbed her wand and her purse ready to go. Wendy added a couple last ingredients to the potion she was brewing before finally getting out.

  “I had to reach a Full Step before pausing like that.” she explained

  They made their way to the other lab, it was empty, just like yesterday, and they waited...

  Morning Talk... Again (M)

  Moring rose in the Atrium; they had stayed all night in hopes of the ghost appearing later than the day before. It hadn’t.

  As he contemplated their failure at high speed through his phone, hoping to have missed something, he saw the first wave of students roll in for class.

  Ashes, it was probably time for him to go to his class, lest he be left out... again.

  He picked his bag up and nodded towards Wendy, who waved him goodbye as he got up, Lily snored with her head on the table.

  History Class (M)

  He arrived on time, the professor looked at him smugly as he entered the classroom, as if he’d proven a grand point by rejecting him the day before. As if being present with no sleep at all was somehow better than being 3 minutes late. Though right now he was too tired to argue, so he simply looked for an empty seat and waited for the class to begin.

  “Alright, so where did we leave off yesterday?”

  "We talked about the battle of Neathe, and the execution afterwards,” said a student two chairs to his left.

  “Why of course, the conquering forces made quick work of the Neathen army, later proceeding at executing the lords of the palace, as well as most of the staff. though their occupation lasted only a month, for they failed to consider a very trivial fact. The duke’s son was a renowned duelist, who fancied practicing three times a week in hopes of someday defeating his rival, as such, a ghost manifested on those days, like clockwork to continue his practice, much to the dismay of everyone in the training room.”

  The class gave that non-committal laugh you give to teachers to acknowledge their joke so that they may move on.

  Highschool never ends does it? He thought annoyed, the professor continued talking about the weird schedule of the sword practice, as if it would help him score a job in Sigil Dev or as a Forscrier knowing that this dead ghost used to practice the rapier on Trueday, and the longsword on Thundays... was the day of the week really important for ghosts?

  Further Research (L)

  Lily was not one to get herself beat by something so menial as a ghost... well, ghosting her.

  Was this where that expression came from? Should she have seen this coming?

  Lily stopped reading the article as she searched for the origin of the ghosting expression... wait, focus! She thought to herself, she should order a coffee or something, it was often harder to concentrate when she slept little. Wendy had left a couple minutes ago, apparently, she had a class of Zoimagy ethics, that sounded dreadful.

  In the meantime, Lily decided to search news articles about student deaths in the labs to no avail, would the school censor that sort of thing? Maybe.

  Perhaps it might be better to ask about the kind of activities the ghost seemed to be doing, she stood up to pursue this other route of research, as she stood up, she decided that a coffee actually sounded great right about now.

  She stood up as she made the order on her phone, she hadn′t brought her Take-out-box today, but there was one on the cafeteria, she could scan it and get it there.

  What to order? It was a hot day, so perhaps a frap... she decided to add a shot of Expreso and another one of stillness to get the edge off her. Would that ruin the flavor? She added a touch of mint to make sure it didn’t and selected the option to scan for a code as she got in the cafeteria, thankfully there wasn’t a line to use the take-out, she strode right into it and bumped into another student who apparently had similar ideas

  “Oh, I’m so sorry,” said the other student, she was wearing a lab coat tied to her waist over a green top and straight legged jeans “go ahead, I’ll take it after.”

  The woman had blond hair to just above her shoulder, and stark blue eyes, although it was hard to see them under her baggy eyes.

  “Thanks,” said Lily, “rough night?’ she quickly scanned the code and was rewarded by her frap appearing inside the box, which she took out

  “Rough couple of months you could say" the girl yawned as she scanned the code herself and was then rewarded by a plate of wings and fries, along with a soda

  “A bit too early for lunch, but who am I to judge. Want to talk about it?” Lily offered

  She started to shake her head, then stopped, “I guess I wouldn’t mind not eating alone for a change, thanks”

  “No probs, oh, I’m Lily by the way”

  “Echo.”

  Lily followed Echo towards the Atrium, where other students already sat on tables talking, or playing card games

  “You look kind of familiar Echo, have I seen you before?”

  “Well, you probably know me as the idiot who can’t get her dumb experiment to work for the whole last term.”

  “Oh, well I’m a freshman, so I wouldn’t know, I decided to take a sabbatical before attending Magicka.”

  “That’s so cool, I wish I could’ve taken one myself,” said Echo with a barely audible voice, her eyes watering as she continued, “but my parents are making enough of a sacrifice putting me through school as it is... and now I won’t be graduating in time.” she said, her voice cracking. “I’m such a terrible daughter” she sobbed

  Echo buried her head on her arms and knees as if to hide from the world

  “No, you aren’t, I’m sure you’re doing your best.” Lily tried to comfort her with a hug she wished she could somehow help her, but she had no idea how

  “You want to... talk about it? Or maybe ... I guess it’s too early for a drink.”

  "It’s just that... I bet everything last term on figuring out a new kind of potion... I thought I had it figured out... but no matter how much I stayed overnight every other day, I couldn’t get it to distill properly.”

  “I bet the wailing ghost didn’t help you concentrate.”

  “Ghost? I wish there was something to blame other than myself.”

  “Well. It’s not getting easier then, I guess”

  “I’m not trying again this term, I’ll do the exams like everyone else, I got behind while trying this other method, but I can still graduate in a year or two."

  “I see, well, it’s all going to be worth it in the end, Echo. The flame will keep on burning.” she said comfortingly

  “Thanks, sorry about... all of this, I just met you” Echo said

  “No worries, none at all”

  Further Research, the Researchening (W)

  Wendy was not a stranger to tiredness, so she pushed through her classes, even though two days with barely any sleep was pushing it a bit. Still, she soldiered on through her classes today, though Weddendays would be a slog even on a full night sleep. 2 hours of ethics, followed by an hour of History of Zoimagy, followed by a class of moral philosophy... She had planned her schedule so that she’d only have to suffer one day of boring classes. Not on Muneday so that it didn’t feel so bad after the weekend, not on Fireday, so that it didn’t kill the vibe... Weddenday was perfect for a struck day, she hadn’t counted on Lily keeping her awake with her weird ideas... As if she hadn’t known her for over a decade, Idiot.

  Last night had been a complete bust, while Lily probably assumed she was making more potions for selling, she’d actually been trying to figure out what kind of potion the ghost was brewing, it had some kind of alcohol base to it, she’d smelled that much, as for the other ingredients, no clue.

  She also had no clue what she’d do if she managed to recreate the consistency and color of it, would she try it herself? Definitely not, neither would she pay a freshman to try it, that'd be an awful thing to do on an unknown potion! Perhaps she could ask Professor Sphinx if she knew such a potion.

  Only Gamma and Sped out of the mid-step potions had an alcohol base, and it did look like a complex potion, but Sped was not a potion to be used as a base in and of itself, so it had to be Gamma based right?

  But Gamma was red, and the potion on the floor was blue, there was absolutely no way that it was the same, right?

  Such were her thoughts when a sweet but stern voice interrupted them “Ms. Thane, can I borrow you for a minute?”

  Wendy turned to see Vice-Principal Noceda standing behind her. VP Noceda was a tall woman in her 50’s with greying hair and half-moon glasses over her green eyes.

  She gulped “Of course Professor.” She followed her to her office, all the way thinking on what it must be about.

  “Am I in trouble Professor?” Wendy asked as soon as the door to the office was closed, unable to hold it any longer, VP Noceda just had an aura to her that commanded the room into silence, it was very intimidating, even though as far as she’d been told she was actually quite fair and easy to approach.

  “Should you be?” she asked curiously.

  “I don’t think so... but I’ve never been called to an office before.” She said nervously, and it was true, getting in trouble was usually Lily’s thing, how would Lily react to this? She might not be worried at all, she had a way of not getting cowed by other people’s aura′s, well, not actual auras...

  “Well, you’re not in trouble, I merely noticed a few things that I’d like to have a word about.” she pulled some documents from her drawer as she adjusted her lenses “First things first, says here that you were here on Muneday evening.”

  Was it about that? As far as she knew making and selling potions was allowed, at least she’d found no rule prohibiting it...

  “Now, Professor Sphinx speaks highly of you, so I’m almost sure you had nothing to do with it, but there seemed to have been a disturbance that day, so I was wondering if you knew anything about it.”

  Oh, “Disturbance? Oh yeah, there was a lot of noise, in a lab below, we decided it was better to leave, lest we get into trouble.”

  “A wise choice of course, very well then, I assume Ms. Rumsfeld, who, I don’t yet have the pleasure of meeting, was also with you and has no further information to provide on this matter?”

  “Probably not, she was indeed with me.”

  “Very well then, now, there is one other matter to discuss, you see, I couldn’t help but notice that you got classes in Potions of course, Sigils, and Alchemy already, but this term you also took on some classes in Zoimagy, and while we of course value greatly optimism and ambition here in Lynxveil, we also worry about our students′ wellbeing” the Vice-Principal looked at Wendy knowingly over her half-moon lenses “Three Grades is already quite a hard standard to strive for, adding a fourth might be pushing it. Is there any way that we might be of help? Perhaps a chat with a counselor, it is still early, and we might change your schedule if you feel like it...”

  "I know that 4 is too much, which is why I’m actually dropping Alchemy... it just wasn’t what I expected, I’m hoping Zoimagy to be more aligned with my interest.” Wendy said looking at her own feet

  “I see, well sometimes we make the wrong choices, that is nothing to be embarrassed about, better catch it now and not on graduation day, very well Ms. Thane, I believe that’d be all, thank you for your time”

  “Thank you, Professor Noceda” Wendy answered as she stood up to leave the office.

  The actual fucking clue I hope (W)

  Wendy exited the office feeling weak, it was embarrassing enough having her parents know she was changing her degree, she thought at least no one at school would actually notice if she simply stopped attending her alchemy classes, but apparently, they had.

  Now people would notice that she had gone into, or exited the VP’s office, and they would ask why, and Wendy was an awful liar, she would have to tell the truth, and then EVERYONE would know.

  Wendy breathed out deeply, it’d be as it’d be, she’d just have to accept it, it was a matter of time after all, even if her friends wouldn’t wonder they didn’t get the same classes this term, because setting up your class schedule with your desired classes was a nightmare, but two terms in a row? Yeah, that’d get suspicious really quick.

  Wendy stabilized her aura as she was taught to calm herself, an alchemist trick to getting the right enhancer onto a material to turn it into another. Lightning, she hated alchemy, but aura tricks were useful.

  Now if she could figure out what the Phantom’s potion was...what if it was a potion with an alchemical component? She still hadn’t seen in class how alchemical components interacted into potion making after all, it was said to be pretty complicated, that would explain the weirdness of the potion.

  Wendy changed directions towards Lily’s to tell her

  The Puzzle Ensembled (L)

  "So, you’re saying,” said Lily trying to remain calm “that we stayed here overnight for absolutely no reason?”

  “Well, we knew that already,” countered Wendy. “First for the fact we shouldn’t care about whatever this ghost deal’s is, and second because it didn’t show up at all.”

  “Yeah, but it didn’t show up because ghost follow patterns” said Michael before taking a bite of his sandwich, “So we should’ve assumed it only showed up on Munedays”

  “About that, there were absolutely no deaths on the labs for a while, besides, there was no ghost at all last semester” said Lily,

  “So, no sightings earlier than ours? Talk about bad luck” Wendy sighed “well, there goes our only lead, guess we better drop the whole thing”

  “You kidding? This just got more interesting! The ghost’s gotta be a thing that happened over the summer, and the fact there is no confirmed death means that it’s a cover up, right?” Exclaimed Michael

  “Michael, lower your voice, somebody might...” Lily was saying but was promptly interrupted.

  “Ghost?” said a random student passing by, Lily stared daggers at him “you guys saw the ghost yesterday? Wendy, did you see it?”

  Well, at least he knew someone here, didn’t randomly sit on their table out of nowhere

  “No, Jimmy, we saw him on Muneday” said the red headed girl with an annoyed look on her face,

  “Muneday but...”

  “Yesterday? Who saw him? Do you know? Ehm... Jimmy?” Lily asked enthusiastically

  “Ehm yeah, a small group, on the Introduction to Koiromancy class, just a bunch of Freshmen.” he said.

  “Do you know their names?” She insisted

  "Of course, not” he sneered “but if you want to ask them...” he raised his head to look “look, that girl, with the pink jacket, she was there” Jimmy pointed as he stood up to leave the table

  “That’s actually Rouge.” said Lily absently, looking at her. The girl in question, was a short haired blond petite woman, she was wearing the rouge jacket, on top of a white blouse and black jeans.

  “Well, no time like the present," she said standing up and heading toward the girl

  “Hi, I’m Lily” she said to the girl which gulped down the bite she was on

  “Oh, I’m Rose... Ehm I don’t want to join a club yet, sorry.”

  “Oh, no, I’m a freshman too!”

  “I don’t recall seeing you at orientation”

  “I skipped it!”

  “And you don’t get lost? This place is a maze.”

  “I got some other guide to help” she looked back at her table and waved “my friend got here before me, so she explained some stuff.”

  “Must be nice, I barely know anyone around here.” she looked longingly “I miss high school"

  “No, you don’t” Lily said

  “I... don’t?”

  “No, you think you miss high school, but you actually miss your friends, you don’t have an excuse to hang out anymore with them, so you don’t, but guess what?” she said smiling “you don’t need one, just give one of them a call, and you got yourself what you’re missing.”

  “Huh... I guess that kind of makes sense.”

  “of course, it does! So, what are you waiting for, call them”

  “Now?”

  “Yes! I mean, no, I forgot I came here for a reason, silly me” Lily laughed

  “So, you saw a ghost yesterday? We saw it on Muneday”

  “Oh,” she sounded disappointed. “Yeah, but it wasn’t really a ghost, at least it didn’t behave like one, it was probably an apparition.”

  “Oh, what’s the difference?” Lily asked curious

  “A ghost is a spirit with some troubles crossing over, an apparition is a remnant of conscience with an unfinished business.”

  “It just doesn’t sound as cool when I say an apparition ghosted me.”

  "Ghosted you? What do you mean?”

  “Well, we saw it on Muneday, so we went the next day to see it, but no show.”

  “I’m sure if a ghost knew you were waiting for them, they’d move their schedule around for you.” She laughed

  “They should’ve!”

  Both girls laughed, for a short while.

  “Anyways, it was a pleasure meeting you Rose, we should hang out sometime, I’ll stay in touch.” she stood up

  “You don’t have my number.”

  “But I know where you study,” she smirked. “But I guess we can do it the boring way too” she got out her phone and gave it to her, “it’s unlocked, call yourself if you want.”

  Puzzle pieces... Assemble (W)

  “So why are we here again?” Lily asked

  “Well, since our visit on Muneday got cut short, and on Trueday we just waited for the ghost. I thought, maybe we could explore a little today.”

  “Oh, I guess that could be fun,” Lily perked up at this, “I had forgotten that’s what we were doing here in the first place, so why are you still playing with potions then?”

  “Well, it’d be best to explore after the guards are gone, plus, I really want to know what the hell was that potion the ghost was brewing.”

  "By the Flame!” Lily stood up and got closer, “You’re actually getting involved in this without my pestering? That's great!”

  “I’m just curious, I’ve never seen a potion like that”.

  “So, what you’re saying, is that all I had to do to get you to actually care is throw a potion at you?”

  “What? Of course, not,” she said, “now hush, I have a weird idea..”

  “Right... so explain, please.”

  “Right, so this is a Gamma potion.”

  “What’s it do?”

  “Nothing, not by itself, but it is used in complex potions as a base, rather than using water or Ethanol,” of course it was more complex than that, but in general that was true, and that was good enough for Lily, who was probably not that interested in the intricacies of potion making.

  “However, it doesn’t really match the looks of the mystery potion, so I had a weird idea. Is it possible to Transmute a potion?” upon saying that Wendy concentrated in her aura, she hated Alchemy, there was so much nuance as to getting exactly the right composition and enough aura into whichever material you were transmuting, it was a pain, hopefully she got the right type of aura into it to make a change.

  Suddenly, the red potion she was holding went green

  “Wow, how’d you do that?”

  “Alchemy, I applied aura to a potion, and it changed. I had no idea potions were transmutable though.”

  “So, what does THAT do?” Lily said while peeking behind Wendy’s shoulder

  “How should I know?”

  “You created it!”

  “I didn’t know it’d work! I dropped out of alchemy for a reason!”

  “Well, it didn’t work anyways, it’s not blue” Lily pointed out

  “But it proved that it IS possible” she pointed out, a concept of alchemy was that it only worked on pure substances, Wendy had always assumed that a potion didn’t count as such, since there was no chemical reaction while brewing a potion, well, not if you did it right anyways.

  “This is massive, if this is another mid-step potion, who knows what kind of potions could there be to be discovered!”

  “Sure,” said her friend, “so it means that the ghost can do potions AND alchemy?”

  As if on cue, the cauldron to their left turned on,

  “Wo, did you do that?” Wendy asked, “because it’s not funny.” She stood up and put some distance between her and the cauldron.

  “Wendy... what lab did you book?”

  Cabinets leisurely opened and materials floated slowly through the room going near or into the cauldron.

  “Did I accidentally book the haunted lab?” she asked “you said it would show up on Muneday!”

  “I said Muneday for sure, I never said it wouldn’t show on Fireday”

  “Let’s get out of here!”

  “Wait let me record it for a bit,” said Lily

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, it might be useful, plus Michael wanted to record it so...”

  Through the camera Lily was able to see the outline of the ghost, it was that of a young woman, probably in her early 20’s, and even though it was just an outline, Lily could’ve sworn it had piercing green eyes.

  The apparition ignored them, if it could even perceive them.

  “I’ve seen her” Lily gasped

  “I know, it appeared on Muneday, we were both there” Wendy retreated slowly, hoping her friend would do the same sooner rather than later.

  “No, I mean, I’ve seen her alive.”

  “What like before she died?”

  “Not dead, I saw her Trueday.”

  “But it’s a ghost?”

  “Apparition... it’s a Cognitive remnant of unfinished business...” Lily recited as if from a textbook, meanwhile a gamma potion changed from its normal red, to blue

  “The fuck’s that supposed to mean?” Wendy asked

  “It means it doesn’t need to be dead” Lily stated dumbfounded

  Facing the Ghost Apparition (L)

  Dead or not, the apparition infused the potions making the blue, which Lily thought was totally unfair, since Wendy was finally getting proactive about this whole messing around and finding out bit, NOW the ghost showed up to interrupt the flow of the conversation. Rude.

  She looked at the ghost through her phone, for some reason it was easier seeing its features through the camera, and sure enough the ghost looked like the girl at the cafeteria. The ghost had a look of tiredness and concentration she hadn’t seen on Echo. It made Lily wonder how many times Echo had stood there, trying over and over to no avail, until that drive the ghost possessed was simply not there anymore.

  The ghost kept working beside them finished another set of the potion, and moved to place it to where they were working before, the robotic motion was suddenly interrupted as the flask it was holding collided with Wendy’s Cauldron making a soft clank noise and paused.

  For a moment everything stood still, as if the room itself was holding its breath, then the wailing began.

  Alright Lily thought to herself First step is not to panic she failed miserably at the first step. Second step, remember what you researched for dealing with this! … Ashes, she’d researched on ghosts, not apparitions... well, when all that failed all that remained was Step 3, improvise now THAT she’d never failed at

  She closed her eyes as a glass flask was thrown across the room, she emptied her mind, which was hard to do with all that noise, but this was no light spell, nor a spell she’d done a thousand times, there she thought as she was able to visualize the Loxus of the new spell, time seemed to slow as it always did at this step.

  Her Thought process was interrupted by being tackled.

  Lily reoriented herself as she heard the crash of a glass container being thrown where she was standing

  “Now can we leave?” asked Wendy hopefully, her friend was out of breath after having thrown her out of the way of the potion before.

  “No way! We'll get blamed for this! You booked the ghost lab; we need to make sure it’s not caught!”

  “What, but how? The noise will certainly attract Guards!”

  “Oh! Good idea, I know a silence spell!” Lily exclaimed, this time the Loxus unlocked quickly in her mind. She knew this spell, fairly well, as it was the one, she used it so that parties didn’t bother her neighbors,

  It was always like that, spells she did often barely showed her the Loxus, and automatically worked, but spells she was still learning... well, let’s just say she should’ve practiced that shield spell earlier.

  “Great, now no one can hear us scream.” Wendy remarked sarcastically

  “Oh, come on, the ghost hasn’t moved at all, so long as we hide behind this desk, we should be... ew what is that!”

  A pink liquid was wetting the floor, right behind Wendy who turned

  “Oh, that’s the Tranquil potion.” she said purposefully moving backwards, to avoid touching it, “try not to touch it, it works better if ingested but it still works if in contact with skin.”

  Thankfully Lily’s leather pants didn’t absorb liquids, otherwise she would’ve been affected already.

  They both crawled behind the other desk to avoid the spilled potion and the ghost

  “Right, we should be able to outwait it. It might continue to make trouble, but it should be contained.” eventually the screeching and throwing of bottles calmed down.

  "Is it gone?” Wendy asked

  Lily stood up to take a quick peek, but her legs gave out. “What the...” she said, but she could feel her words slugging,

  “The Tranquil... it’s volatile when cold”

  “Is it gonna blow up?” she asked calmly, unable to feel anxious about it

  “No, it just evaporates... you must’ve breathed it in while we were back there...”

  “I see... Lily tried to stand up again, now that she knew of her weakness, she could prepare accordingly to not fall, “I should... get started on fixing... stuff.”

  Once again, she brought up her wand and... What was she supposed to do? Right! A spell! Loxus appeared in her mind as she thought about it, and slowly she solved it. There, it wasn’t that hard, was it? Even with her mind muddied as it was, she was able cast spells so long she kept calm enough.

  The sounds of things crashing started again soon enough as lily say there was weird barrier between the ghost and the table... "oh... wrong spell... oops.” she said giggling, she’d used Tranquil before, this wasn’t like it.

  Once again Wendy tackled her while the ghostie flailed around like a drunk teen at some party.

  Wendy handed her a different thing, “Drink!” she yelled

  Lily did.

  Just dumb complaints (M)

  “But you said it wouldn’t show up until today.” Michael complained. Today was Muneday, the day the ghost was supposed to appear, and to think he’d spent the weekend relaxing and preparing himself for today while the girls were actually dealing with the ghost without him.

  “No, you said that it probably wouldn’t show up until Muneday.” Lily replied emphasizing those words to imply whose fault it’d really been.

  “Let’s not dwell on who said what,” interrupted Wendy, “we found a bunch of cool stuff yesterday, Lily says she knows who the apparition is, and I found something out about the potion the ghost was brewing.”

  “When did you actually get on board with this whole craziness,” Michael asked. “Last I checked you were the reluctant one.”

  “Oh, show her a potion and she’ll get excited.”

  “That’s not true! It’s not just a potion, it’s a whole new paradigm for of potion making, as far as I know, nobody has made a successful alchemized potion before.”

  “Like you did yesterday?”

  “No, that potion, as far as I know didn’t do anything. Therefore, it doesn’t count.”

  “Says who,” asked Lily

  “John D’Lammar, on Introduction to Potion making, states that a potion is a substance that creates a non-chemical reaction within a living being. So... him? And probably the ghost, otherwise she would’ve disappeared already.”

  “Fine, so it wasn’t technically a potion... should I go look for Echo?”

  “Echo?”

  “The not-a-ghost-person? Remember?”

  “Oh, can I go?”

  “Now who’s behaving like a child” Lily laughed “let’s go find her”

  “I also want to go,” Michael said making sure he wasn’t phrasing it as asking for permission, to avoid getting chastised like Wendy.

  “Fine, let’s all, go together, it won’t be weird at all,” whispered Lily sarcastically

  And so, they all went together, like a group of poorly coordinated ducks, towards an unsuspecting senior who probably had her own concerns and worries...

  “Hey, Echo” Lily said with a smile, walking towards a small group of students walking.

  “Hi, Ehm Lily, right?” she said, looking quite flustered, probably because she was getting approached by someone she met once, and two randos

  “Yeah, I’m Lily, this is Wendy, and that is Michael,” Lily said, without looking half as ashamed as he was feeling “Look, is there any way we can talk for a minute in private...”

  “What for?” Echo asked

  “Well, there is an... activity, that we would appreciate your help with, it is regarding your project.” Lily continued

  Echo looked at her friends as if suddenly she was the one making things uncomfortable

  “Sure, let’s go to the library, we can get a room there to chat,” Echo turned to her friends “Uhm see you guys on class, I just need to take care of a situation.”

  They all muttered their responses and the four of them headed on to the library

  “May I know... why?” Echo said on the way

  “Why what?”

  “Why everything!” Echo exclaimed, “why did you tell your two friends about the problem of a random person who you met once in a moment of hardship might I add, and why do you want to talk further into my shame of it, and why do you think any of this is ok?”

  “Look, let’s go to the room you mentioned... why are there rooms in the library in the first place?” Lily said changing the subject

  “So that you can get together to do team projects... ones that do not need a lab, of course”

  Michael thought about it for a moment, until something weird occurred to him “and... won’t people use the rooms, for... other activities?” he asked shyly

  Wendy stopped for a moment before adding, “well, sometimes people play games on them, but it’s got windows, so... just card games and stuff.”

  “Oh, ok.” he said, blushing.

  Without further words from anyone, they all headed to the library. Once they were inside the little room, Echo went

  “Alright, so what’s this about.” she said

  “Right so remember how you mentioned that you abandoned your experiment?” Lily started

  “Silly me, I almost forgot about my embarrassment and being a disappointment, if only there were people reminding me about it.” Echo replied sarcastically

  “Disappointment?” exclaimed Wendy “by failing to achieve in what, a year, what hasn’t been done in a thousand?”

  “A semester actually. I guess when you say it, like THAT, it doesn’t sound so bad...”

  Echo calmed down significantly after that “ok, fine... maybe I am not used to failing... I still don’t like being reminded of it, understandable or not.”

  Lily rolled her eyes “fine, so as I was saying... it appears that you may’ve left, what in the biz we call a ghost thingy.”

  “What?”

  “Ghost, still trying to do the potion” Michael said bluntly

  “But...”

  “Look, I know it’s weird... but we think, that if you stay tonight after hours at the lab... we might be able to... disperse the ghost?”

  “And why do we want to do that?” Echo asked

  “Well... because...” for all Lily had made fun of his motivations it didn’t seem like she had hers figured out...

  “Because if you succeed it’d be amazing! Besides, perhaps the ghost can help give you a clue you need?” Wendy exclaimed, interrupting her friend and prompting a mean look from people at the library.

  “What kind of insight would a ghost provide, besides, you don’t even know what I was working on.”

  “Full potion Transmutation, guessing you used a Gamma potion, I’m still unsure on what effect you wish to accomplish or what kind of aura did you provide for it...”

  Echo looked shocked. “How did you know that?”

  “Little Ghostie told me.” Wendy mocked, “but seriously what were you doing?”

  “Well, if you must know... I was exploring whether Orichalcums properties could somehow be replicated into a potion. So a ghost is continuing my work?”

  “Yeah, and it’s making a mess.”

  “Well, that I gotta see.” Echo exclaimed once again drawing upset looks from people in the library, one would’ve thought they could isolate the noise on a library, but apparently not. “The potion, not the mess, if I can get any insights on the process, I might still graduate in time.” she amended.

  Pre-Final Apparition (W)

  Wendy looked through Echo’s notes, they were far more complicated than what she was used to, not to mention her calligraphy let something to be desired, but more than that, it used alchemical notations she never learnt instead of their common names, it was a nightmare.

  “So, Orichalcum, it comes from copper, right?” she asked doubtful

  “Yes. Orichalcum is the most used alchemical material today, how can you not know that?”

  “Sorry, I failed my alchemy classes...” Wendy said embarrassed

  “Oh, sorry, I shouldn’t be so rude. You seem so knowledgeable about potions that I forgot you’re a freshman...”

  “Actually, this is my third term...” Wendy corrected her

  “Right...”

  “Anyways, we’ve seen the ghost twice now, it usually shows up until midnight... I have no idea why though...”

  “Funny, I always started at 9 sharp, and do the potion this way...” Echo started doing the standard process for creating a Gamma potion, it took her a lot longer to do so than Wendy would’ve liked, Wendy herself usually used approximations to the amounts of ingredients, potion making was a lot less finicky than chemistry, but Echo measured twice, placing beakers in the scale, before adding ingredients and measuring, she even removed a speck on one of the measurements before adding it to the cauldron. Wendy could’ve sworn she had a favorite beaker for a specific purpose, as if the place wasn’t full of them. When she was finally done, she closed her eyes, drank a bit of Tranquil Wendy had brewed earlier and concentrated until the potion changed from red to green.

  “Huh, when the ghost did it, it went blue, but yours went green, like mine” Wendy said getting closer, she had cleared some room because Echo liked having her stuff in a particular place.

  “So, you managed to replicate my entire process? In a week? It took me 2 months to land on Gamma for a base, you know”

  “Well, I already knew Gamma was the base to start with. By seeing the ghost do its thingy” Wendy explained “So what now?”

  “Well, this is as far as I got, the potion has no effect”

  “I mean yeah, but you modified a transition potion, right? Wouldn't that make a new transition potion?”

  “Sure, it could... but have you any idea how many things I’d have to try to get something done? In theory I should be able to create a full potion through alchemy, at least that is my thesis statement. By using an existing potion, it should be possible to transmute an entirely different...”

  Wendy tuned out as Echo recited some of her thesis, she wasn’t so sure about the use of a Step potion for that process, but Echo clearly knew a lot more about alchemy than she did, so she said nothing, even though a new mid-step potion was, in her opinion, far more important than just one new potion.

  "So, why a Gamma potion? Does it have to do with it having an alchemical component already?” she asked as soon as Echo was done rambling.

  “Not really” she said “but my aura wouldn’t take on Alpha or Beta potions”

  “Wouldn’t take?” she asked

  “Yeah, I just wasn’t able to give them enough aura, I tried different kinds, calm, angry, potion enhanced”

  "Wait, so potion effects matter for alchemy?” Wendy asked dismayed.

  “They do, Alchemy is fascinating, the study of how matter reacts to aura is just amazing”

  Flames, that’s why she dropped out of alchemy, too many variables, how was one supposed to remember all of that?

  “So, what kind of potions work for that?”

  “They all work the same, but we usually use Tranquil, because it affects your mental state less.”

  “Ok, let me fix some of those up, so we can try that again” At least that way she wouldn’t feel so out of her depth, why did it have to be an Alchemist ghost, couldn’t it be into Sigils or Tectolurgy?, she got everything she needed out before Echo even thought about offering help and started brewing

  Final Apparition Part 1 (M)

  Michael waited by the door, with his phone ready, he would get a good video, it was the last day to submit it, and he was certain he would get something interesting here, perhaps a show of bravery would impress them? He wasn’t sure what his contribution to the team was anymore, but nobody seemed to mind him being there, so he’d stay.

  It was almost midnight again, if they were right, the ghost would show up in no time, and then it’d be showtime.

  Anticipation filled the air when suddenly, the flasks started moving, Michael started the recording, soon enough things would start blowing up as they did the other night.

  But nothing happened, ingredients mixing just like the girls were mixing them before.

  “Well, that’s a little disappointing” said Lily who was standing next to him. A few minutes had passed, and while potions were still being made, they weren’t any more interesting than the potions Wendy and Echo were doing before, if you ignored the fact that nobody was making them.

  This was useless, if nothing happened then he wouldn’t get into a guild, if maybe he could...

  “it’s amazing” said Wendy, “the ghost seems way better at making the potions now, but what changed?”

  “Have you noticed the ghost moves very robotically” Lily asked

  “What do you mean, it moves just like me?”

  “No, you move naturally in the lab, this ghost moves as if she rehearsed a ton for this role... You know, mechanically”

  Well, if the ghost just moved without looking, perhaps...

  Michael walked nearer to the ghost, stumbling with the table, but hopefully making it look like an accident

  The ghost reached to grab a flask that wasn’t there.

  Final Apparition Part 2 (L)

  Lily watched as the chaos ensued, Michael had stumbled on the table, breaking a couple of flasks on top of it.

  Wendy probably would’ve been mad at that, but Lily understood, a boring ghost didn’t make for an engaging video, so he had to make something happen, she could respect that.

  That of course did mean that when the ghost tried to grab the flask that wasn’t where Echo had left it.

  A screech flew, as the ghost couldn’t continue its work, Lily had read that apparitions often acted erratically if they weren’t able to perform the task they intended to, some apparitions were more nitpicky about what being interrupted meant, regardless, once interrupted, Apparitions tended to begin throwing things until the interruption ceased.

  Thankfully most of the glass had fallen onto the floor so for a while, there was nothing to grab, so it just kind of waved its arms, giving them a couple seconds to react.

  Lily quickly focused and got her wall spell up in case stuff flew her direction, Wendy grabbed a couple ingredients that would be specifically dangerous if thrown, Michael stood up from where he had fallen,

  Only Echo stood motionless, mesmerized by the sight of herself, had anyone before been in a situation like this? Lily wondered, usually Ghost-like beings were reserved for the dead, so meeting your own was probably a rare occurrence. She thought about interfering, but... her curiosity wanted to see if she’d get the same weird reaction as Michael did a week ago...

  Echo reached to touch the apparition and suddenly they both froze.

  Final Apparition Part 3 (W)

  Wendy saw Echo stepping towards the apparition after it was too late for her to intervene, but somebody had to make sure it didn’t break the Tranquil potions again, Lilly'd been more of an awful mess on Fireday than they’d let on. Tranquil wasn’t supposed to behave that way.

  When Echo touched the Apparition, they both froze for a moment, all was still.

  A tear went down Echo’s cheek as the apparition fuzzed, then they separated.

  “What was that?” Wendy asked her as she approached, trying to get her to take cover

  “Me...” she said weakly “it was me”

  Wendy wanted to say something to help, but what can you say to something like that?

  Suddenly the ghost did something unexpected that it had never done before, it started walking.

  According to Lily, who very uncharacteristically of her, had done a ton of research, apparitions were supposed to repeat the same actions over and over, if undisturbed... and yet, this one walked over to the cabinet at the front of the room, to grab some more potion ingredients.

  Final Apparition Part 4 (L)

  Lily saw the ghost walking towards the ingredient cabinet, grabbing ingredients from it. She noticed the ghost looked less robotic now, somehow something had changed.

  At least it won’t go wild for the lack of ingredients again she thought as the ghost came back, from the cabinet, whatever this was at least it wasn’t violent or dangerous, though the thought of not knowing what would happen next filled her with excitement. What would it do now? Apparently what it would do, was arrive at the wrong station, and start working again. Disapointing, but the show must go on. She glanced at her friends, Michael was right beside her filming just like she was. While she wouldn’t be able to post this as a Story on her socials, because it’d be evidence, she still could show it off to a couple of friends, and sure as hell Michael would get into whatever the name of the guild he wanted was.

  Echo just laid on the floor, still shocked after the experience. Talk about somebody walking on your grave, the girl had actually touched her own ghost, what a weird thing that must be.

  She turned to look at Wendy who for some reason looked even paler than Echo, as she looked at the ghost mixing ingredients into the cauldron. She didn’t understand why, was Wendy so preoccupied, it seemed to know what it was doing, that was until she saw the bottles of Tranquil through the ghost. It was brewing the ghost potion on top of the Tranquil...

  She quickly placed her phone on a beaker, and switched it for her wand, she had to get the wrong ingredients out of range before they created a chemical reaction.

  The minor telekinesis spell was second nature to her, she concentrated on it barely seeing the Loxus at all, as she commanded beakers and Flasks to move on their own and into safety. At least she started doing so when the ghost turned to look at her. In her panic she dropped concentration on the spell and everything fell to the floor, glass shattering and ingredients and potions mixing as the ghost walked towards her.

  For all her bravado, she never actually thought she was in real danger, an apparition didn’t think it couldn’t be angry or wanted to hurt her, but what she saw right now was no mere apparition.

  Suddenly, Michael between the ghost and her, the ghost's hand took him instead. He screamed.

  Final Apparition Part 5 (W)

  Wendy snapped out of her lull, but didn’t know what to do, without thinking she grabbed a couple potions from the table and threw one of them at the ghost. Sadly, the beaker just flew through the ghost and crashed behind it. The ghost then turned and looked at Wendy. Fuck.

  The potions dripped on the floor as the ghost turned and walked towards Wendy.

  Wendy tried to move, but her legs gave out on her, the world started to blur,

  Suddenly Wendy understood the Tranquil potion wasn’t Tranquil at all... it had been transmuted, that’s why Lily had acted so weird three days ago, and it was why she herself was feeling this way.

  “Echo!” she yelled grabbing the Tranquil potion she had grabbed from the table earlier, “Transmute this one.”

  “But I’ve tried it already! The ghost is worse than before!”

  “Try to transmute the tranquil itself... thrust me...” she said sluggishly fighting the effects of the whatever it was

  Echo seemed doubtful, but then closed her eyes. And the potion changed to a darker shade of pink.

  The ghost dropped Michael instantly, the boy breathing hard after the experience. And the ghost quietly started to fade, until it was no longer there at all.

  Fallout (M)

  Michael sat alone on the atrium reviewing the footage, look kid, I’m sorry but auditions ended on fireday... you’ll have to wait. The guild had told him all this dumb work for nothing, an entire week in, three nights without sleep, and a history professor that hated him for being late later and here he was, still sitting by himself.

  Suddenly, laughter, and the sound of books hitting the table, as both Wendy and Lily sat down.

  “So, she’s going to write her report on what she’s calling a Potion of dizziness” Wendy said “get graduated and I’m getting a mention on her dissertation, on a field I’m not even majoring in, can you believe that? I’m not even minoring in alchemy, and I’m getting a mention in it, though it should help a bit with the potion side of things”

  “So, you’re not upset that she got all the glory? It was technically your discovery” Lily pointed out

  “I hate alchemy, I’m nowhere near graduating, and I still got to learn something that will help me major in potion making. Echo didn’t much care about making an intermediate potion, but the possibilities of it are incredible... I think I won’t have such a hard time in a year or two when that happens” she smiled satisfied.

  “Very well them so long you’re happy” Lily conceded “well then, I should probably go and meet my professors”

  “What do you mean meet them? It’s the second week” Michael interjected confused.

  “Yeah, well, we’ve been busy, haven’t we?” she said as she left, leaving most of her stuff behind.

  Michael couldn't believe that someone would simply blow off an entire week worth of classes, it was simply...

  Wendy started laughing “That’s so Lily” she said

  Michael couldn’t help but laugh with her, he’d only known her for a week, but after what had happened, he couldn’t help but agree, it was a Lily thing to do.

  “So, are you a Lux Draco now?” Wendy asked smiling “they must’ve liked the video after all that, right?”

  “The due date was on fireday” he replied simply

  “Sorry to hear that, after all we went through?”

  “Yeah well, I’ll try again later, it’s not a big deal” and as he said it, he realized that he felt it, he wasn’t alone anymore.