Chapter 3.2
“--are you still doing here? I said, get UP!”
Hands pulled me up to my feet, and I blinked my eyes open to see the librarian scowling in front of me. The back of her hand tapped against the side of my face, as though attempting to wake me.
Scowling, I said, “Release me this instant! Do you know who I --” My words stopped as the pitch of my voice reminded me of my current situation. Thankfully the woman released me to my feet regardless, and I blearily rubbed my face.
“The library is closed. Get lost, demon. And who is your master? I believe I ought to have a word with them.”
My eyes widened momentarily, before I muttered out, “I’m a student.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Oh, then why don’t we have a word with your Housemistress?” she said.
I protested, but she firmly insisted, and I soon found myself being dragged down the hall with her fingers pinching one of my pointy ears.
The hallways were dark and quiet, with most students already in their rooms and likely studying or asleep. I’d stayed out past the evening curfew, something which was in place because too many students frequently got up to no good after dark. A few minutes of making our way through the halls and we arrived at Esme’s office. The librarian knocked, and I was somewhat surprised to find that Esme was still up as the door opened.
“What have you done now, demon?” the old woman said as she looked the two of us over.
“I found her sleeping among a pile of books on the floor of my library. She’d better hope she didn’t ruin them.”
Esme took a long moment to stare at me before replying, “Thank you, Gertrude, I’ll take care of things from here if you don’t mind.”
The librarian gave her a scowl. “What are you doing letting a demon run around the school unsupervised, Esme? And what’s this nonsense she’s spouting about her being a student?”
Esme looked at the librarian consideringly. “I’ll fill you in later. Most of the staff already know about her. It has to do with a magical accident.”
A moment passed as the librarian stared between the two of us. “Fine,” she said curtly. “Then I’ll let you see to her punishment. Have a good night, Esme.”
The Housemistress bade the librarian farewell and took a moment to look me over. I stared down at the floor in silence, trying my best not to make things worse for myself.
“It appears that Yulia has at least cleaned you up some.” Her fingers tapped along the old wooden door. “I’m tempted to take you into my office and tan your hide for interrupting me and staying out past the curfew. Yet, I can’t be bothered to punish you every time you make an infraction like this, not with how frequent I expect they’re going to be.”
I glanced up into the old woman’s eyes as she stared at me coldly. Grabbing the sleeve of my dress, she said “Come,” and began pulling me toward my and Yulia’s room. Upon reaching the door, she knocked, loudly, and we waited.
A bleary-eyed Yulia opened the door to greet us. Her eyes narrowed as she looked me over, and a bolt of fear struck down my back.
“Yulia,” the housemistress said coldly. “It would seem that you didn’t quite understand me last night when I put this demon into your care.” The cold hand of Esme gripped my shoulder, making me wince. “So let me put things in simpler terms for you.” From her sleeve, as though it had been there all along, she pulled out a rolled-up piece of parchment and presented it to the girl. “She’s your responsibility. I’m expecting that you will take into proper consideration what that means. The next time someone comes to me with a complaint about her, it will be you who shall be punished for it. Understood?”
Yulia bowed to her and said, “Of course, Housemistress. Please forgive my mistake.” She stood back up straight, and after a moment of hesitation, took the parchment out of Esme’s hand.
I felt a pulse of magic run through me, and it took but a moment for me to realize what had just happened. The Housemistress had just transferred my contract over to Yulia. She’d been able to do it far easier than I’d expected, and I wondered if I’d apparently missed something when we’d been creating it. Internally, I winced at my lack of knowledge on magical contracts. It was coming back to bite me in the ass. If I’d taken the time to study it beforehand, or at least paid more attention when we’d been making it, perhaps I could have had a say in whether my contract could be transferred and on what terms. Now all I had was what Esme had put together for me, which was turning out to be much worse for me than I’d originally realized. What else had I overlooked in it that would come back to bite me, I wondered?
Seeming satisfied, Esme nodded. “See that this doesn’t happen again. Goodnight, Yulia.”
The old woman turned and left. Yulia’s eyes flicked over to me as the old woman went out of sight. Another shiver went down my spine.
“I believe that I’ve been far too lenient with you,” she said simply, betraying no emotions.
I managed a scowl. Magical contract or not, I wasn’t going down without a fight. “I don’t need you controlling me. I can handle my own business.”
She shook her head in disagreement. “No, if nothing else, this evening has proven you need someone taking care of you. In just one day, you’ve managed to wake me up from sleep, make me look incompetent to both the housemistress and school staff, and break the school curfew. I’ve mentioned already that your actions reflect on me.” She unrolled the parchment still in her hand and began looking it over. “That’s going to be even more true going forward. You’re contractually my responsibility now. Any trouble you cause will be my trouble. I take my reputation here very seriously.” The glance she shot my way held a bite.
“I can take care of myself. The curfew is a silly rule anyways. No one follows it. You just have to not get caught.”
Ignoring me, she demanded, “What exactly did you get yourself into this evening?”
“I just fell asleep in the library,” I said as I crossed my arms.
“You --” she shook her head and let out a sigh. “Well, as ridiculous as that is, at least it’s not as bad as I was imagining. Still, you’ve thrown an unnecessary, if minor, stain on my reputation here and interrupted my sleep.”
Her fingers tapped along her arm. I eyed her, wondering what she was thinking. She may have ended up the holder of my contract, but that didn’t mean she owned me. No matter what she thought, I wasn’t going to let her do as she pleased with me. I likely only had one chance to be able to take her on. If I could get to her and physically take her down before she was able to cast any spells, I’d have a chance.
“It’s important to be well-rested,” she continued in a lecturing tone as she moved forward, “Otherwise one finds themself unable to be focused and productive the next day. As you’ve ruined my sleep for the night, I believe your punishment should reflect this lesson.”
I lunged forward toward her, intending to tackle her to the ground and take her wand before she could use it on me, along with my contract. To my surprise, with a quick turn to her side, she managed to easily dodge my attack. With an arm and leg, she tripped me, bringing me forcefully to the ground. A hand grabbed onto my left arm, twisting it back behind me as she pressed my face into the floor.
“You’ve learned nothing from this school, have you?” she accused. As I attempted to shift and push my way out of her grip, she tightened her hold of me. “This would be easy to get out of for anyone who’d taken any classes in defending themself.”
“You don’t need to be able to physically fight if you’re good enough at magic.” I managed to grunt out. It was a statement I very much believed true. If you could disable someone through magic, you didn’t need to ever lay a finger on them. That’s what true power was, to utterly dominate someone with the simple twitch of a wand. What use was being able to throw a punch against a true master of the magical arts?
Yulia scoffed. “And what good has magic done for you now, demon? By your very own doing, you’ve rendered yourself magically powerless. Let this be another lesson for you. Magic fails and can be overpowered. Without it, you have nothing but your intelligence and physical abilities when you encounter danger or a challenge. You should use all the resources you have available to you in order to become strong and succeed. All you’ve done is limit yourself further.”
With a final shove of my face against the floor, she pulled me up as I scowled at her words. A large part of me hated how much sense she was making. I’d never imagined that my magic would ever fail me. Without it, I was effectively useless combatively. This was continuously more evident when I couldn’t break out of her hold, even standing up. I stayed silent as she pushed me forward toward her closet. She opened it up and pressed me up against the wall as she grabbed something.
“I don’t need my magic to punish you.” Her eyes met mine with the look of a viper preparing to devour a meal.