You Ain't Never Had a Friend Like Me

Starlight Academy was really cool in that it housed students from preschool to grad school. It was really quite an interesting crowd, and when you paired that with the fact that almost all of these students were vampires, ghosts, cyborgs, zombies, fae, elves, aliens, spatial anomaly, or any other manner of supernatural being, things started to get crazy.

Walking back from her power training classes, Matilda passed by most of the buildings in the college, and so got plenty of chance to see all sorts of things. She could have always cut across the lawn and gotten back to the dorms a lot quicker, but this way was far more interesting, and it helped her to unwind and ease her mind as she reflected on her training.

Today had been a disappointment. After the fiasco with her attempted demon summoning, Tilly was still struggling with the act of cramming information into her tiny skull. Some Wizards could do it effortlessly, with as many as twenty spells, all at once. Matilda had needed to cheat by enchanting items and brewing potions with similar effects, but a true master of the arcane arts could do it all with their will alone. Yet, try as she might, she couldn’t quite get herself to cram any more spells into her head. She felt like a cup that was overflowing, or a balloon, ready to burst.

She was flipping through a flimsy, leather-bound book as she was walking, titled Catalog Dæmoniorum. Inside, sigils and illustrations depicted all sorts of things that could kill you in all sorts of ways. Wish-granting demons, those who would trade your soul for power, those who could give you eternal life if only you sacrificed your firstborn. Standard fare.

She was looking for a new source of insight. As her last attempt had been a disaster, and attacking her studies with brute force seemed to be ineffectual, she had resorted to this. As if a warning had been sent down from the heavens themselves, a gust of wind suddenly caught her, sending random pages from the ancient text flying through the air, carpeting the ground in ancient sigils of long-forgotten demons and outsiders.

”Zounds!”

As she had been saying, Starlight Academy was really cool in that when you drop your papers, there’s a pretty good chance someone will appear out of nowhere and magic them back together for you. Her arms clasped around the papers, quickly rearranging them and stuffing them back into her book, before dropping it into her leather pack with a dull thud. She moved with speed and efficiency, partly because she was concerned for the constitution of the pages, and partly because she was embarrassed of the contents. For Matilda’s pride, this was the equivalent of getting caught cheating on a test in a subject one held a doctorate in.

Still, Tilly had some humor left in her. ”You’ve never met my grandmas, then.” She grinned, a flicker of mischief in her eyes. Sure, grandma Blackstone would probably object to the summoning of demons for personal gain, but grandma Dierich would definitely understand. ”Thank you, by the way.” She added hastily, not wanting to be rude.

As she slung the backpack back over her shoulder, she fixed her hat anxiously, her expression apologetic. ”I’m just, uh, looking at those. My interest is purely academic.” She explained, lying through her teeth pretty badly. She wasn’t too good at this. She seemed to realize this, and decided it was better to just minimize the damage. ”Though the idea of flirting with that sorta power is undeniably interesting. Sometimes I wish I could have a taste of what they could give me. I definitely don’t wanna tango with demons, though.” She said darkly, remembering the last time she’d done so. ”I’m Tilly, by the way. Are you a practitioner?” She asked, looking dumbly up to the tree and offering a hand to shake.

She seemed pretty cool about the whole demon summoning thing. She hardly cared about the moral dubiousness of her studies, and said as much. Matilda’s smile was growing, more and more, just from general growing levels of comfort, even though the woman hadn’t said much of anything besides helping her and assuring her she’d not be tattling on her.

Then, something seemed to change. A noticeable shift in her demeanor occurred, and as she drifted down towards Tilly, her smile faltered a bit, growing just a hair more nervous. Not at the floating, she’d seen plenty of that from Diego since she’d gotten here, but more just the strange, knowing smile. The woman introduced herself as Loreli, or Lori. Then, that teapot appeared, and Matilda understood why she’d been smiling.

”Woah.” She said simply, her eyes growing wide. ”Like the one in Buffy or the one in Aladdin?” She asked stupidly, still a little dumbfounded.

The fact that Loralei hadn’t said which sort of genie she was might have caused Matilda some distress if she wasn’t being so gosh darn nice about it. What could she say? Matilda was a sucker for a kind stranger and their offers of power. That was practically how she’d become a wizard, after all. She might have defended Buffy and its appeal if she weren’t so dumbfounded at the actual Djinn that was offering her… Was she offering her wishes?

So Loralei was the type of Djinn that could choose to whom she grants her wishes. And it sounded an awful lot like she was willing to do the same for Matilda…
”Wow.” She said again, dumbly.

”...What limitations?” She’d ask, trying to make it seem as though it were an innocent thing. ”I’m sure ‘Three more wishes’ is out of the question.”