Trans Witch: College of Secrets Read online

  "It's a different concept. The spell on your bracelet uses light and misdirection, this uses matter, as Murdock said. If I had enough of it, and some practice, I could make an illusion you could touch. A nearly solid phantasm. Those are tricky."

  Lily watched as the tiny glitter Hannah standing on the bench grew to two, then three feet high, the glitter becoming sparser as it expanded. The glitter swirled faster and faster until Lily could not make out individual flakes, becoming a glowing semi-transparent, three-dimensional image of Hannah.

  And then, the image solidified, opaque, and solid-looking. Lily gasped.

  "Go ahead, touch it," said Cameron, their voice a little strained as they stared at their creation. "But do it quick, I can't hold this long."

  Lily reached out a finger towards the half-sized Hannah on the table, her movements slow and cautious, as though she might be shocked by touching it.

  Her finger poked into mini-Hannah's tummy. It was exactly like touching flesh; warm to the touch, the solid illusion only betrayed its difference from reality by its size.

  As she withdrew her finger, the image exploded into a million flakes of glitter. Cameron held up a finger and stirred the air counterclockwise, and the glitter funneled into the six bowls. When Lily peeked in, they each held only one color once more.

  "I don't believe it," she breathed.

  Cameron smiled. "Not everyone can do that. Do you want to know the secret?"

  Lily nodded.

  "Everything you learn here at SOAM is about technical skill, using your mind to guide your magic. But what they don't tell you is, if you put your heart into it, like I do my art, you can transcend technical skill. It's something I learned from Professor Penny."

  "She told you that? It sounds like her. She's a hopeless romantic at heart."

  Cameron looked at her and shook their head. "Not just heart, as in lovey-dovey crap. Heart as in soul. Putting yourself into it. Your feelings, your essence. Not everyone can tap into that so easily. Here. You try again, but this time, really put your heart into it!"

  Lily frowned, but then she stared at the center of the bowls and thought of nothing. She let her mind wander where it would. The first thing to come to mind began to form out of orange glitter flakes in the center of the bowls; her cat Monty sat there, in monochrome orange, his tail swishing behind him.

  "Good," murmured Cameron. "Now give him some more color. Reach deeper; how do you feel about this cat?"

  Lily remembered Monty tromping on her when she woke up in the morning, head-butting her nose with his cold, wet nose, reminding her it was time for breakfast. She thought of his rumbling purr as she petted him. Love welled up in her, thinking of how Monty had done his best to comfort her with Penny missing—

  Cameron's voice came to her as if from far away. "Claudia! Slow down!"

  Lily focused her eyes on what she had created. Instead of a tiny orange glitter Monty, she had a fully animated see-through Monty, now orange and yellow and brown, with a pink nose, trotting around in a circle. In the center of the circle stood a slender pillar of animated green flames.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Not daring to make a sound, Lily watched as the small illusion of Monty trotted around the circle until he sat facing outward. He pawed at an invisible wall, as though he wanted to be fed or petted. And then, after a few more motions of his paw, a shiny copper-colored coin popped out of nowhere, landing next to Monty like a manhole cover.

  Clapping from all around Lily snapped her back to reality, and the green flames, little Monty, and the penny from nowhere all disappeared in a puff of glitter, which fell onto the tabletop.

  Lily blinked and looked around as several classmates and Professor Murdock stood over the lab bench, eyes wide.

  "Well folks, we have ourselves a ringer," said Murdock with a slight smile. "And here, I thought it was your first day."

  Lily thought about protesting that it was her first day but decided she'd had more attention on her than she cared for already. "I'm a quick study," she said.

  Murdock motioned for her to follow him with a crooked finger. Lily glanced at Cameron, who shrugged, then she followed the Phantasms professor down to the bottom of the classroom, to his podium.

  "Okay, who are you, and what are you up to?" asked Murdock, his arms crossed across his chest, face unreadable.

  "Well, I'm Penny Shelley's niece—"

  Murdock shook his head. "Uh uh. Nice try, but I'm not buying that. You're wearing an illusion and some enchantments. Did you think I wouldn't notice? I'm the expert on illusions at SOAM."

  Lily sighed. "Look, I need to do this. I'm her wife. Penny's, I mean. I'm undercover to see what I can find out about how she disappeared. Please don't say anything to the Administration!"

  Murdock chewed his lip and stared at her for a long while before replying. "I saw what you did up there. That's not just simple phantasmal magic. That can't be taught. There's more to you, isn't there?"

  "I don't know what you mean. I didn't even know I had magic until yesterday! I didn't know my wife taught at a wizard's college, right under my nose, either. And now that I have a glimmer of hope of finding more clues about what happened to Penny? Don't take that away from me, please?"

  "Did Cam make you that bracelet? It's impressive. Looks like they had help, though." Murdock sighed and his guarded expression softened a bit. "Look, I don't know who you really are, but if you're crossing the Administration, I don't want any part of it. But I'll tell you this; Dean Wheeler is probably the only other wizard at SOAM who could see through that disguise of yours. She has glasses that see through pretty much any phantasm. She wears them around her neck like reading glasses. If she's looking for you, you'll get caught. I'm not going down with you though."

  Panic began to rise in Lily. "Please don't turn me in. I need this, Professor Murdock. I need to find her."

  Murdock shook his head. "I'm going to pretend I didn't notice your disguise. But you'd better leave while I clean up your glitter mess back there."

  "I'm here with Cam—"

  "Yes, yes, they may be excused too. Just go. Now."

  Lily glanced up at Cameron, who nodded and picked up their bags and joined her at the door. She took her purse and they exited into the Phantasms building hallway.

  "That was pretty rad," said Cameron. "Do you know what it meant?"

  "Meant? I don't know, it's just what came to mind."

  "You mean you meant to make green fire and a cat that pulled a penny out of nowhere?"

  Lily shrugged. "No. Just sometimes when I let my mind wander, images like that come to me. Sometimes they make more sense later, like dreams."

  Cameron stopped walking in the middle of the hallway.

  Lily stopped and turned to look at Cameron. "What?"

  "I can't tell you here," he said. "Let's go back to Drake, where we can have some privacy."

  She nodded and followed him out into the illusory courtyard, and into a tower of a building. Lily was reminded of the Moraine Student Union.

  Inside, she found herself in a spacious foyer, with several portal archways and many tall windows. Each window appeared to look out upon a different landscape; here a forest, there a city, and still another looked out upon a twilit desert scene.

  "Those look like giant monitors with webcams displaying on them," said Lily.

  "Yeah, except they're phantasms. But it's just as tacky. I don't like it at all. Here, through this red archway," they said. As they led Lily through the middle of the room. "Are you okay holding my hand for a moment?"

  Lily nodded. "Not a problem. Thank you for asking."

  Cameron shrugged. "Consent is a thing."

  Lily took their offered hand and they stepped forward into the archway together.

  On the other side of the portal, Cameron let go of her hand. They stood in a vestibule with no obvious exit other than the way they'd come in. A lush oriental rug covered the wooden flooring, a
nd a writing desk stood in front of them; on it sat a rotary Bell landline phone just like one in the household Lily had grown up in. The walls to either side held several massive portraits of rather serious-looking men and women in stereotypical wizards' robes.

  Lily asked, "Okay, what now?"

  "Hang on." Cameron picked up the phone and dialed a four-digit number with the rotary dial. They then spoke aloud, saying, "Cameron Davis and guest."

  As Cameron replaced the receiver upon its hook, Lily had the strangest sensation of shrinking. Then, she noticed the walls elongating, and the ceiling receding.

  "Don't worry," said Cameron. "It's just an elevator, of sorts."

  "I figured that one out all by myself," said Lily.

  The apex of a doorway to the left soon rose above the floor level. Lily became concerned as the flickering of enormous flames could be seen through the ever-enlarging doorway.

  "Cam, I think the place is on fire!"

  "Nah. It's just the wallpaper."

  "You're saying that it's okay for the wallpaper to be on fire?"

  They shook their head. "Nah. The freshmen got to decorate the common room for Halloween. Freshmen are the worst. I know, because I was the worst when I was a freshman."

  "It looks like we're descending into Hell itself," said Lily.

  "That's the idea. They think it's clever, but it's been done before. Of course, my first year, we made the wallpaper look like outer space, and had illusionary comets and meteors streaking past every which way. Very distracting if you're trying to study or having an actual conversation."

  "I guess I shouldn't be surprised since Drake is the Facet of illusions," said Lily.

  "Bright girl, you're catching on," said Cameron, leading her through the doorway into Hell.

  "Do you have to be so snide all the time?"

  "No, I don't have to. It's a personality choice."

  Lily sighed.

  "I don't mean anything personal by it. I'm snarky with everyone."

  "I'm sure you are."

  It turned out that the walls depicted the flames of Hell, complete with occasional imps and dancing devils with pitchforks. The rest of the room held more rugs scattered about, with what seemed to be glass furniture. Students lounged on glass couches, their books and laptops seemed to hover upon entirely glass tables. Glass standing lamps, topped with frosted glass globes, provided more constant light than the flaming wallpaper.

  Lily had to chuckle as she noticed a wall that had a fireplace embedded within the animated flames. An actual fire burned inside, seeming much humbled by the person-sized flames dancing around the rest of the room's perimeter. Above the hearth, a copper triangle within a circle held an embossed plate depicting the Facet's namesake dragon, in the same pose as on the SOAM heraldry she'd seen elsewhere.

  "Don't just stare like a noob, let's go," said Cameron.

  "Shouldn't I talk to some people, or snoop around, or something?"

  Cameron shrugged. "I guess if you think it'll help. Here's Shanice, she's pretty safe."

  "I know you didn't just call me, 'safe', Cam!" exclaimed an elegant young woman in an orange dress, lounging in a transparent armchair. "Everybody knows I'm trouble with a capital T!"

  Lily smiled and extended a hand. "I can tell! I love your smile, Shanice. I'm Claudia. I'm new."

  Shanice grinned and took Lily's hand with a warm, friendly squeeze. "You're new, all right, if you don't know better!"

  "If I don't know better than what?"

  "See? You don't know what you don't know!" laughed Shanice. "Now I know Cam's a busy body, but you can't be another one of Cam's girlfriends!"

  Cameron protested. "Hey! Why couldn't she be?"

  Shanice chuckled. "Cause I know you. You got enough goin' on as it is. And this lady here seems like she's got better sense than that!"

  Lily laughed despite herself. "I'm definitely not Cam's girlfriend. But don't knock Hannah. She has plenty of good sense."

  "Girl, have you seen that pink scrub brush on top of her head? And you say she's got good sense?" Shanice winked at Lily.

  "Aw, be nice, Hannah likes you, for some reason," said Cameron.

  "See? Just shows what sense she got!" laughed Shanice. To Lily, she said, "What are you doin' with Cam here? They's alright, but you don't gotta meet me if you're lookin' for trouble!"

  Lily took a breath, then said, "Well, I'm Penny Shelley's niece—"

  Shanice frowned. "Now why you gotta go lyin' to me, just as we were gettin' to be friends?"

  Lily blinked.

  "Better come clean with Shanice. She has her ways," said Cameron.

  Lily paused, then said, "Those ways sound a bit like divination, hmm?"

  Shanice's eyes narrowed. "Say it louder, hon. Some of the folks over by the fireplace didn't hear ya."

  "I didn't say it that loud," said Lily. "But Cam said something about talking in private. I'll tell you the truth if we can all go there together."

  Shanice hopped up out of the chair and picked up a laptop and a couple of books off of the table in front of her. "Hot night at Cam's, gonna have two babes in their room!"

  "Won't be the first time," said Cameron, walking toward one of the doors across the room without looking to see if either of the others followed. Shanice gave Lily an up-and-down glance but otherwise ignored her as they followed Cameron.

  Cameron led them down a hallway whose walls had no flames upon them, much to Lily's relief. They stood before a plain wooden door and opened it to let the women inside.

  The small single dorm room held artwork of all sorts; along with a few watercolor paintings on the walls, Lily marveled at three-dimensional animated sculptures similar to the glitter phantasms they'd made earlier, along with a convincing sky illusion on the ceiling. Cameron took the desk chair and gestured for Lily and Shanice to sit on the edge of the bed. The two exchanged a look, then sat next to each other. After a moment, Shanice scooted away from Lily until she sat on the very corner of the single bed.

  "Look, I'm sorry about saying that out loud, Shanice," said Lily, knitting her fingers together in her lap. She looked at Shanice. "Guess I panicked, since you saw through my cover story. I hope I didn't put you in any danger."

  Shanice shrugged. "Guess most people know lies don't fly around me. Y'all just seem so nice, and then you go and tell me a fib like I'm an idiot."

  "Everyone else bought it," said Cameron.

  "Then 'everybody else' is idiots, not me!" growled Shanice.

  "Not everybody," murmured Lily. "Murdock saw through the illusion. Guess we should've seen that coming, him being a Phantasms professor and all."

  Cameron sighed. "Yeah, probably. Can't scam a scammer."

  "He said something else," said Lily. "Dean Wheeler's got magical glasses that see through any illusion. Keeps 'em on her at all times. This disguise isn't going to hold up for long."

  "Why you gotta be in disguise in the first place?" asked Shanice, putting her hands on top of her head, elbows out, as though to focus her thoughts.

  "Well, I just don't think the Administration would let me wander around freely, asking questions about how Penny disappeared. And the more I hear about it, the more I think that was a good call because I'm starting to think they must be behind her disappearance, no matter how fake-nice Wheeler plays with me."

  "She didn't sound so nice in class earlier," said Cameron, lowering their voice and scooting their desk chair a little closer to their friends.

  Lily frowned, then asked Shanice, "Okay, so you do have some kind of divinatory talent? No one can lie to you? Have you ever gotten in trouble for that?"

  Shanice grimaced. "Yeah. First-year. Bucher tried to tell me a book I wanted to check out was already out. I told her, 'you know it isn't!' and the bitch sent me to Wheeler. The Dean had Sample and Hartman with her when I came in, and they asked me a bunch of questions. I knew I'd done somethin' wrong, but didn't know what, so I played it up t
hat I'd gotten a look at Bucher's computer screen."

  "So, you lied to them?" said Lily, crossing her arms in front of her.

  Shanice put out her hands, palms up. "What could I do? I know what happens if they don't like your answers. They expel you, take away your powers, wipe your memory of SOAM, and toss you out on your ass! I need this place too much. I love being magical, you know?"

  Lily sighed and relaxed. "So, I'd better not let on about my daydreams."

  "What daydreams?" asked Shanice, eyes wary.

  "I've always had these little daydreams. They don't usually make sense at the time, but later, they seem to mean something. Maybe I'll daydream about an ATM spewing twenties at my sister, and that night, she'll tell me she got a raise. One time, I dreamed that our cat Monty had a chicken living inside him, pecking at his guts, so we took him to the vet, and it turned out he'd scammed a bone from a chicken wing from the trash a few days before. The poor guy needed surgery, but he could have died if I hadn't acted on that daydream."

  Shanice stared at Lily for a long time. "Girl, you gotta come to the planetarium, tonight."

  "You mean the old abandoned Moraine Planetarium?" asked Lily and Cameron at the same time.

  She nodded. "Yeah. People like you and me meet there every so often to talk about divination. Professor Penny joined us last time before she disappeared. We call our club the Fourth Facet. It's locked off from the public outside, so you gotta take the steam tunnels to get there. The password is 'Leviathan'. Don't tell no one, or we're all screwed."

  Chapter Fifteen

  Lily sat up straight. "Leviathan? Shanice, what else do you know about Penny's disappearance?"

  "All I know is, you're right to suspect the Administration. When Sample brought Bucher in to replace your wife to teach Metaphysical Logic, she said Professor Penny'd left SOAM. He was lyin', girl. Somethin's rotten. Also, Bucher don't know crap about Metaphysical Logic, she just reads out of the book."

  "I'll be there tonight," said Lily. "Though I don't know the way."

  Cameron shook their head. "It's too dangerous. Don't do it."