Rote was popular amongst the student body at EU. He was friendly, clever, and had been performing magic tricks since he was a child. Now he did little sleight of hand illusions for friends and passers by while studying advanced mathematics. For the most part the Fae ignored him. He was smart about wards and charms, kept salt and iron on him in innocuous looking ways. And wore a silver ring on his pinky just to make people wonder if he ever looked through it. But perhaps his most well-known trait was the large, heavy solid iron bangles he wore on each wrist. Gold bangles might be more traditional in his family, but iron was more useful here. And he was a pragmatist.
His girlfriend in second year was Smoke, a practicing witch that kept herself to little magics and happily gave anyone who came looking for protection any help she could. By her second year, there were already thirty or so students that visited her regularly and wore her distinctive tatted charms proudly. Smoke’s Students was a bit of a joking term but less so than one might think.
But the real trouble started when a girl who was clearly not entirely human collapsed on Smoke’s door. Smoke brought the girl in, and went to call the campus medical office, but the girl stopped her. “Please, no one else. I need your help.” The witch nodded. She didn’t think it wise, but respect for one’s choices was part of who she was.
“What happened, and what do you need of me?”
A Different Sort of Magic
Published
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