Page 33 of Bonds of Magic
The two of them looked at each other for a long time, neither one blinking. They seemed to have forgotten I was even there, and I had the urge to back away from them slowly and see if I could get out of the room without them noticing.
Finally, Rekha tossed her head and said, “Fine. Whatever.” She turned to me. “Meet me in the first library at the start of Fifth Hour. And you’d better be ready to work. I don’t fail at anything, and I don’t intend to start with you.”
***
Professor Ramos, another Historian, was covering Haven Selection while Professor Romero recuperated. We were still meeting in the library, but it didn’t feel as cozy without Romero’s warm presence.
That afternoon, Professor Ramos stepped in front of our group and clapped her hands together loudly to get our attention.
“Alright, quiet down, quiet down.” She waved her hands like she was trying to calm a gaggle of geese. “Today, Professor Karve of Hearth will be joining us. As this lecture series represents one of your best chances to learn about the havens at Vesperwood, I expect you’ll all pay strict attention. Got that?”
She sounded like she’d be more at home in a gymnasium than a library. That thought brought Noah to mind. I was still mulling over what had happened the night before. I had a thousand more questions for him, but we didn’t have another lesson for four more nights, and it wasn’t like I’d get any alone time with him in Combat.
“You’ll probably have lots of questions,” Ramos went on, “and there will be time for some of them at the end. But you may want to jot down questions for your interviews as well.”
That snapped me back to attention.
“What’s with the interviews?” I hissed at Felix. “I thought the applications were like, paper-based.”
“You’re supposed to interview with your top three havens,” he whispered back. “None of them are obligated to accept your application, but they all have to allow interviews with whoever asks.”
“But what happens during them? What’s Ramos talking about with questions?”
“The interviews aren’t just a way for your haven choices to get to know you. They’re also so you can get to know them, and see if you really want to apply. You can do a million research papers, but if you don’t actually like the individual haven at Vesperwood, you might not want to join.”
“But mostly, the interviews are one more way for faculty to judge you,” Ash put in brightly from Felix’s other side. “Sounds fun, right?”
“And so, without further ado,” Ramos said, “please welcome Professor Manish Karve.”
She put her hands together to clap, so the class followed suit, though it felt a little funny. Professor Karve stepped out from behind one of the bookcases theatrically and did a little bow. It felt like watching a two-hundred year old magician step onto stage.
He nodded in acknowledgement of our applause, then brought one hand to his neck to straighten the little blue bowtie that sat there. He wore a three-piece suit with a blue pocket square and a tiny red carnation. A pair of pince nez glasses perched on his nose, and he was completely bald except for two tufts of hair that sprouted from behind his ears on either side of his head.
His hands were thin and bony as he held them out to make shushing motions at us. I wondered when the last time was that he’d eaten—or seen the sun.
“Thank you, thank you,” he said, smiling beneficently at us. “Oh, I am very pleased to be with you young people here today. What a joy you are to us. What hope you bring for the future of witchkind. You are the lifeblood of Vesperwood, truly.”
“I bet you fifty bucks he’s not thinking of the paranormal students when he says that,” Ash grumbled under his breath.
“You don’t have fifty bucks,” Felix murmured.
“Yeah, why do you think I want to bet for it?”
Felix rolled his eyes.
“I’m here today to talk to you about the ancient and venerable haven that is Hearth,” Professor Karve said, his voice thin but full of pride. “Our origins go back to the fifteenth century in Europe and farther back in Asia and other parts of the world. We have been behind much of the mechanical development that propelled witchkind and humankind alike into the future. There are even those who say it was a witch who showed Herr Gutenberg the key to creating his printing press, or—” he paused here to tap one long finger against his nose “—that Gutenberg was a witch himself.” He smiled again. “Perhaps we’ll leave that to the Historians to sort out.”
He began to pace as he talked. “Some may see Hearth as stodgy and traditional, but Hands are always working to create new, useful items and spells that increase a witch’s magical capacity, or simply improve the conditions of everyday life. Rather than being hidebound and conventional, we seek to follow the spiritof innovation wherever she may lead. Within Hearth, there are multiple concentrations that allow…”
He continued to talk about the various subsections of Hearth, but I found it hard to concentrate. The internal divisions hardly mattered to me, when I couldn’t do magic in the first place. Besides, my brain had returned to picking apart everything Noah told me the night before.
He said he’d been in a fight and almost died, but instead he’d lost his ability to dream. Did the loss happen on its own, because he was so close to dying? Or was the ability taken away from him by whoever he was fighting?
He said he wished he’d died instead. Was losing the ability to dream really so bad for an incubus? Was it painful? Would I feel the same way, if I could somehow find a way to get rid of my own ability?
The way he’d said it,I wish I’d died that day. I could understand feeling that way right after a fight. But did he really still feel that way now? Was there really nothing in his life worth living for?
“...the bowels of the earth to identify and extract ores that cannot be seen from the surface,” Karve said, catching my attention and bringing it back to the present. “Truly one of the most impressive senior theses I have seen in years. I brought the prototype with me, of course, and if you’ll give me a moment, we can do a brief presentation.”
