Introduction Incantation

@"Kait" @"Poptart" @"ReD"

The room provided for Alice's class was tolerable. Arched ceilings and stone walls were scarce in this age, but here gave a delightful reverberation to the tapping of Alice's tiny heels. Tall windows on one side offered plenty of light, but lacked the security desired for the child’s practice. A basement vault would be preferable for serious work, but this would do for Alice’s new initiates.

There is time until your students have been commanded to arrive. How shall we prepare?

Alice placed her leather business case atop the intricately carved wooden desk at the front of the room, keeping her plush tiger tucked under her arm. "Shall we get Mr. Pudding ready?" She flipped the latches of her case. Today it held writing instruments, a china bowl full of blood pudding, eight tallow candles, and many copies of Alice's notes on core magickal principles and symbolic systems. She took the candles and a shard of charcoal mixed with burnt remains of a stag’s bones.

Voldegra steadied the child's hand as she drew a perfect circle on the floor beside her desk. Alice set the candles on the ring and gently put Mr. Pudding down in the center. His white underside was turned up, revealing a diagram stitched into his false fur with scarlet thread.

Alice looked at the floor. She did not trust its cleanliness enough to kneel. Her suit was pristine and she would would not soil her skirt by kneeling on unfamiliar ground. Alice stood before the plush tiger in his circle and spoke the words of her spell. "Vocationem meam audi, Gaforgamarl. Viam in mundum do ut me serveas. Garforgamarl, meum mandatum fac."

Then she waited.

A motion at the edge of Alice's vision caught her notice. Her head turned a little, and she saw what Voldegra concluded must be a student. Alice felt something wrong as she glanced over to the back of the room, something out of place with him. She did not know what, and this distracted her.

Gaforgamarl must have taken her distraction as an opportunity. The candles lit and flared, a low growl rose from Mr. Pudding. The plush tiger rolled over and claws of bone sprouted from the stitching of his toes.

Alice sighed. Her stare turned back to Mr. Pudding. "In hunc mundus te tuli. A hunc mundo te remittere possum. Me pari." Though her command was spoken softly, Voldegra felt her will crush down against Gaforgamarl's burning hunger. The cloth body fell limp once more and the claws vanished.

The child picked up her toy and set him on her desk. She then pulled a sheet of paper scribed with names from her business case, then looked to the student who interrupted her summoning. He had arrived early. This pleased her, but another look revealed what was wrong with him. He was not in uniform.

Alice's face contorted slightly in distaste. Alice, uniform violations are no grave offense. Do not let Gaforgamarl eat him. She considered, then looked back at the name sheet in her hand. "Who are you?"

So this was the student who was not truly Alice's student. This lessened Alice's desire to see him eaten, if only because his status made him less beholden to her needs. "Yes. Your name is on my list for today."

Alice reached for the note papers in her case. A snarl came from her tiger as her arm came close, but the toy did not move. She pulled out sheets until she had a complete set and walked to the not student's seat. The pages she handed him were covered arcane symbols, ritual diagrams, and magickal terminology, with yet more words attempting to describe them. "I am teaching theory more than practice. I would be surprised if you could work practical magick at all by the end of the term. My students will have the chance to try, but I don't require success."

Voldegra was less interested in the not student's performance than his name. Ask for me Alice. "Also, are you in fact a faerie horse?"

This not student confused Voldegra. Alice was also confused, but unlike Voldegra she had a clear notion of what to do about the not student who was running this way and that through her class room. "Gaforgamarl, illum hominem retine, sed ne laedi."

Mr. Pudding leapt from the desk with a gurgling roar, swelling from small enough to fit in Alice's arms to the size of hunting hound as he flew. Hooked talons erupted from his paws and grabbed for any loose clothing they could cling to as the possessed toy fell toward the not student's back.

Trusting that Mr. Pudding would prevent the not student from leaving class before it had even begun, Alice turned to the student at the door. This one is known to us. She is the Chloe demon child I have told you of.

Alice put on a polite smile of the sort she greeted other children her age with. Not so sweet as the smiles she gave her toys, but not so cold as those she gave her parents and their many ignorant fellows. "Chloe. I'm pleased to meet you. Shi Mei won't be taking lessons from me, but I was glad to see that you will."