Healer Sealie looked worried about something. She was frowning deeply as she held my wrist softly. Her fingers over my veins as a pale blue light glowed from her hands.

  “Is something wrong?” I asked.

  “Good news, you are on track for healing from the spider bite. You’ll still need to take the medicine every day and stay on the vegetarian diet for the next week at least.”

  Okay. That wasn’t so bad. But was there bad news?

  “Your mana veins, on the other hand, aren’t recovering at a healthy rate. They’ve barely recovered.”

  “Is that bad?”

  “Have you been sleeping? Your weight has stayed the same so you must be eating. Have classes been that stressful?”

  I shook my head. “No trouble sleeping and classes have been all right. No stress there.”

  “Have you been getting along with your Towermates? Pixies aren’t the types to cause problems but-”

  “It’s not the Pixies,” I told her. Sure I had hidden in my room for most of the week as it was the only place in the Tower for peace and quiet.

  “Is there anything you haven’t told me because there is no mana in your body right now. Do you understand how serious that is?”

  I did. But a problem with my mana veins was new. It was likely connected to my lifelong problem. “I have always had issues with casting magic. I can’t cast. I’ve never consciously cast a spell in my life. I never cast anything before the spider attack.”

  I sat there in silence. Waiting for either the disbelief or disgust.

  She let go of my wrist. I shrank inwards onto myself.

  There was a horrifying few seconds of quiet from Healer Sealie. Not even a gasp of air.

  I trembled. My throat felt clogged. Don’t cry Serafina.

  “Has Lucinda ever had that checked out by a Healer before me? Do your parents know?”

  I swallowed and nodded. “They know. Mom tried to take me to Healers but they all said it was because of my father.”

  “Because he’s human,” she whispered. “So they never found anything?”

  I shook my head. “No, they never looked for an explanation.”

  The frown on her face deepened even more. “Here’s what we’re going to do. I am going to let you loose for today and I am going to have a talk with your parents. I want to run a few tests that we don’t normally run here. Until then I am going to write a note for your Spellcraft Professor telling him that the spider bite has inhibited your use of magic and you are under strict orders from me to not push yourself.”

  I nodded. “You think there’s something else going on?”

  “My twenty-seven years of experience tells me that there is something we don’t know yet. I don’t want to alarm you until I have an actual answer though.”

  The unknown was more alarming than anything else. “Is there anything you can tell me?”

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “Whatever this is that’s blocking your mana veins has nothing to do with your father. Whatever is happening to you is an outside force. In truth, I haven’t seen much like it before. I don’t want to speculate much until I run further tests. And don’t feel bad for telling them to go stuff it if anyone bothers you about your father.”

  Or better-just not tell anyone about him being human.

  “Now off you go. I’m sure you have better things to do than sit around here.”

  There was that history paper I had to work on. Might as well get that started.

  (*********)

  I was hiding in the library. Like a coward. But to be fair, getting anything done in the pink hell was near impossible. Seventy people talking over each other, no wonder no one else was taking an advanced class.

  The library was sterile and quiet. Peaceful and serene. Ideal for studying or working on homework. Or it was supposed to be.

  The history paper was coming along. A little. I had a whole paragraph. Which was more than I had that morning. One down, fourteen more to go. Which was not a lot to show for an hour of sitting here.

  Not that I had actually picked a topic. But faking a few opening sentences wasn’t that hard. It was the rest of this paper that was kicking my butt. And staring at the papers in front of me wasn’t getting me to the finish line any quicker. I still had three weeks left to finish this thing.

  I missed my headphones.

  I missed Iron Roses.

  Why was homework so much easier with music playing?

  On a whim, and because the library was empty enough that I was confident no one would hear it, I started humming one of Iron Roses songs. The first one I heard found one day while on YouTube looking for some new music. Hearts Of Steel. It was one of their slower songs, and had the most English in it compared to the others. The Russian half of the song was better. The heavy metal was relaxing. Though maybe it wasn’t supposed to be.

  I finished the song twice before deciding to pack this unproductive work session.

  (*********)

  I did, unfortunately, have to return to the sensory nightmare of Pixie Tower. Because no food or drink in the Library and I had medicine to take. Ugh.

  Thankfully, at one in the afternoon the Tower was empty. Or as close to empty as I had seen it this past week. Angelina was out doing…whatever she does on Sundays, and I had yet to really talk to anyone else.

  Which maybe I should fix. I do have three out of four classes with them. And probably will until winter break. But that was a later problem. Now I had tea to make.

  Off of the main common room in Pixie Tower there was a round wooden door, circular and small, that lead off into a small kitchenette with lots of table space. Not enough to cook anything substantial, but enough for people to have beverages and make something warm to drink.

  The medicine that Healer Sealie had prescribed was a light green herb mixture. I wasn’t sure the exact mix of the compound but I knew it had to be the single most bitter thing on the planet. Even after a tablespoon of honey and diluting it with a large cup of green tea it was pure misery in a glass.

  But if I ever wanted to eat normally again I had to take it.

  “I don’t think glaring at it will make it taste better.” Professor Dellik was suddenly behind me.

  After nearly jumping out of my skin I turned around to face him. “Hello Professor.”

  “I’ve told you, please call me Dellik.”

  “Was there something you wanted?” I asked him.

  “Just checking in. Do you have a moment to sit and talk with me? Don’t worry this isn’t about your schoolwork.”

  Saying ‘no’ would probably just cause me problems down the line, wouldn’t it? “Okay.” It was quiet and unenthusiastic. But if he was expecting cheery, he was talking to the wrong student forced into a pink uniform.

  I sat down at one of the long tables that looked like they were picked up at a thrift store after spending decades in the house of some eccentric grandmother whose idea of restoration was to paint it pastel pink. Or maybe someone cast a spell on doll furniture to make it person sized.

  Even the mugs had floral patterns on them.

  “Why don’t I start simple? How are you settling in here at Pixie Tower?”

  I wasn’t. “It’s all right.”

  “Angelina Farsee is worried. She seems to think you hate it here.”

  I kind of did. “It’s…” How was I supposed to even phrase this? “I don’t know. It has nothing to do with the people.” Which was mostly true. I couldn’t really pinpoint the exact issue. But I could feel in my bones that Pixie Tower wasn’t for me.

  “I’m not as worried,” he said.

  “Oh?”

  “You might not be spending time with your fellow Pixies. But you have been spending time with classmates, without anyone pushing you to do so.”

  I nearly sighed with relief. This wasn’t an intervention.

  “If I had reason to believe you weren’t spending time with anyone, willingly or not, then I would worry. But I know you talk with Miss Farsee and you get along with Russel Kingsley.”

  I let myself sigh audibly.

  “Each Tower has its upsides. But they also have their downsides. There’s nothing wrong with being comfortable elsewhere.”

  I wasn’t sure if everyone would agree with him.

  “I know Pixie Tower can be a lot for people. As much as I hate to admit it, we earned our reputation for being loud, obnoxious and far too eager.”

  So someone in this Tower was at least a little self-aware. Wonderful. “Is it an insult if I agree with you?” And I maybe shouldn’t have said that.

  He laughed, “I don’t mind. I was called much worse when I was Pixie Tower Representative back when I was a student here. I’ve heard all of it and then some.”

  “So you’re not upset or here to tell me I should try and be more like a Pixie?”

  “Gods no. You’d be miserable and it would go against all the things Pixie Tower stands for. If you weren’t allowed to be yourself here then I would have failed at being the head of this Tower at the most basic level.”

  “And what is Pixie Tower supposed to stand for?”

  He just smiled and said, “That’s not my place to tell you. That’s for you to find out while you’re here with us. Even if that’s only for the next few weeks.”

  “Are they still not sure about that?” How hard was it to just make a decision?

  “I’m not supposed to tell you this so keep it to yourself, but the committee in charge of that project is evenly split. From what I hear it’s up to Vivian Hearth to make the final choice, and she has remained undecided since that first day.”

  “Wonderful,” I groaned. “How hard of a decision can it be?”

  He shrugged uselessly. “Vivian is only worried about the safety of students.”

  “I hate being in limbo,” I told him as I drank the now cool tea mixture. Absolutely horrid taste. Ugh.

  “Just focus on your classes for now. I’ll let you know when I have updates.”

  We’ll see about that.