"Oh, honey... are you alright?"
A kindly voice broke Susie out of her trance, and she quickly looked to to see
Magistrix Fen-Breath staring down at her with a concerned expression on her wrinkled face. The redhead shrunk back a bit, clutching her pet tightly. The hag was a new addition to the school faculty, and there were persistant rumours about her eating students who strayed too far from their dormitories. "Um..." she started, looking away nervously. "I'm okay... Sombody said something mean, that's all..."
The hag frowned. "I'm sorry. Is it something you'd like to talk about?"
Susie felt a pang of anxiety in her chest, and she slowly stood up. She didn't
want to believe the rumours about the Magistrix were true, but... what if they were? Could she refuse the teacher without getting into trouble? The girl looked at her feet silently, prompting the professor to rest an oversized hand on her shoulder. "Come on. I have hot chocolate in my office, if you'd like."
Caving at this, Susie would quietly follow the Magistrix. She stroked Cracker's head gently, hoping to calm him down somewhat. The orratilla's behavior was becoming erratic- frequently she'd catch him biting at his nails, or grinding his jaw as if he was trying to chew something.
"He's getting desperate.," she thought as the two entered the door to the Professor's office.
"I need to find some gold soon, or else we'll have a repeat of what happened with Priscilla this morning." The Magistrix's office was surprisingly homey- a sharp contrast from her monsterous appearance. Her colorfully painted desk was home to a row of plush toys, and was surrounded by soft chairs and beanbags. A central fireplace lit the room, gently illuminating the watercolor paintings that lined the walls. The hag gestured to the chairs. "Please, sit. I'll put the water on." Susie obliged, sinking deep into into the cushions of a blue recliner. "Now, first things first," the Professor said cheerily as she returned with a steaming mug of hot cocoa "Who's your new friend? He's very cute."
"Oh!" Susie exclaimed, the tension beginning to leave her shoulders. She held up her new pet and gently placed him on the desk, where he began sniffing curiously at an inkwell. "This is Crackers! He's an orratilla, my patron gave him to me yesterday!" She beamed, happy that somebody was finally taking an interest. "He's one of the gold ones too! They're really rare!"
"Really?" Professor Fen-Breath said. She reached down to pet Crackers, only for the rodent to pull away shyly. "That was awfully generous of your patron. She must have heard about-" She stopped herself, as if thinking better of what she was about to say. "You have one of the Whitechalks, yes?"
Susie nodded, taking a sip of her drink. "Mistress Juniper, yeah." The girl paused to take the inkwell away from Crackers, who had been trying unsucessfully to get
into.it. "Ahaha, sorry. I still need to get the right kind of metal for him to eat, so he's been stressed all day..."
The professor sat down, tilting her head quizzically as the rodent scampered around the desk. "Hm. I see." She looked back at Susie. "Now then, you said somebody hurt your feelings? Was it the Chatterjee boy again?"
Susie shook her head. "N-no. It was one of the boys who hangs out with Plutonious... I don't know his name. I thought Pluto could maybe lend me some gold coins to give to Crackers, but the guy wouldn't even let me talk to him..." She looked away uncomfortably. "He said it was because I'm Verdan..."
Fen-Breath blinked in surprise. "My. That's... quite the reason." Once again she tried to stroke Crackers' fur, but the rodent scurried to the other side of the desk. "I suppose it's not entirely surprising. Wyrdwood doesn't get many students from your province. There are bound to be some who use that as an excuse to bully." She gave the girl an understanding smile. "It's best you you just ignore them. If you try your hardest, they'll come around."
Susie smiled nervously. "Um... thanks." she said after a moments pause, uncertainty audible in her voice. "I, ah, feel better about it now." Truthfully the girl didn't think it was very good advice- but saying that to the hag's face seemed like a bad idea. It'd be better to just change the subject. "I'm still worried about Crackers, though. I don't have the money to feed him, and I don't know who could lend it to me..."
The girl looked up at the teacher innocently, but was met with a concerned expression. "Susie... I'm sure your patron meant
well by giving you this gift, but..." The hag paused, as if trying to find the correct words to use. "I think it would be best for the animal if you gave him to somebody with the resources to properly care for him."
The redhead blinked, heart skipping a beat. "But... but we're
mages!" she said, shaking her head in disbelief. "We turn things into animals all the time in class! Why can't you teach me to, like, turn a rock into gold or something?"
"Oh, Susie... I'm afraid that's just not possible for me." Maggie said sadly. "The magic to do it certainly is, of course- magic can do
anything- but the act of transmuting material into gold is illegal in this province." She smiled weakly. "There's simply no way to go about it without breaking the law, and I
can't do that for you."
Susie felt as if her heart had been frozen. "But- but that's stupid! There's really nothing I can do?" she stammered, picking up the orratilla as if she thought it was about to be snatched from her. "T-there's no way around the law?" She shook her head. "Can't you just... y'know... magic it into existance? Without the transmutation?"
The Magistrix sighed. "Susie, we went over this in class. Gewert's Second Law of Transmutation is..."
She trailed off, waiting for the girl to finish her sentance. Susie looked down at her feet. "Right.. You can't create something from nothing..." She looked back at the Magistrix, lower lip trembling. "It's just... it's just not
fair! Look at him! Look!" She held up the orratilla, who was in the middle of chewing his own fingers. "He needs help
now!"
Professor Fen-Breath nodded, smiling kindly. "Yes, I can see that. Tell you what- I'd be more than happy to give you some coins to tide him over while you work on finding new arrangments for him." Susie gave her a relieved smile as she pulled a small coin purse from her robe pocket. "Let me just- ah, hang on..."
Using a single, overseized finger, the hag rummaged through the bag. For a while she struggled to pull anything out, and she'd eventually dump all of it's contents onto the desk. Susie instantly recoiled- there were a myriad of spell regents among the coins, including giant toenail, live spiders, and what looked to be a chunk of stew meat. "Now, I should have some shiins in here
some-"
"EEEEEEEEEEEK!"
Susie let out a terrified shriek, retreating to the back of the room. She pointed a shaking finger at the assortment of ingredients, eyes nearly bulging out of her head. "Wh-what i-is that?!" she squeaked, squeezing the now terrified Crackers tightly. "W-w-w-what is it and
why is it moving?!"
"Why is it moving." the hag mouthed wordlessly, looking utterly baffled by the girl's sudden reaction. She looked down at the contents of her bag, squinting her yellow eyes in confusion. "Susie, I'm not sure what you- oh!" Letting out a bemused laugh, she picked up the chunk of flesh. It pulsated rhythmically in her hand, making an unsettling squelching sound as it did so. "Did you mean
this?" she asked. "It's just a reanimated heart, dear- nothing to be afraid of!"
"R-reanimated?" Susie repeated, voice getting progressively higher as she slowly edged towards the door. "W-
why is it reanimated?"
The Magistrix gave her best attempt at a comforting smile, but on her monsterous face it made her look rather sinester. "Oh, it's just part of my upperclassmen curriculem." she laughed dismissively. "We're going over Thanati-style necromancy next week and, well,
you know how those islanders can be. 'Still-beating heart of a virgin girl' in
every ritual!"
She laughed as if she'd told a particularly funny joke, but Susie's face was now frozen in a state of panic.
"V-virgin girl? But.. but I'm..." she thought as she got ever closer to the exit, a horrible realization suddenly clicking in her head.
"All that stuff people said about her... I-I gotta get out of here!" Before the professor could say any more, Susie made a mad dash for the door. Thankfully it was unlocked, and the redhead was soon bolting down the hall. "Wait! It's not what you think!" the hag called after her. "It's ethically sourced! I have a friend who-"
But it was too late. The professor was soon out of earshot, and Susie wouldn't slow down until she reached the Central Hall...