Petra Price and the Last Dragon: Chapter 13
First chapter of the new year~ I'm plugging along. :D
I've done a little bit of art, found here. In this piece you can see basic representations of Petra, Hilton, Marnie, and Budgerigar.
This story is also posted here on FictionPress.com.
Description: Petra Price was a perfectly ordinary girl until she got sent away to Rosebury Academy, a school that would teach her all about magic. It's a brand new life, with new friends and a new power to be harnessed. An enemy is soon revealed. What will Petra do?
Petra's first instinct was to go get Mister Glover. She told Marnie to stand guard in case Cecelia woke up and prayed to whatever might be listening that it wouldn't come to that. Marnie looked on edge at the very prospect of the situation. Petra wondered if she'd be able to do anything more than scream and pass out if Cecelia showed herself.
Petra warned the other girls away from the hallway by telling them there was some kind of rodent loose down near their rooms. Ivy squealed and all three girls picked their feet up off the floor, apparently buying the story. She said she was going to find a teacher to take care of the situation and they wished her a speedy return.
“That was lucky...” she said quietly to herself when the door was closed safely behind her. She had never seen any kind of animal loose in the school other than Margie, and that hadn't been a very big problem at all.
Petra's luck kept on going. Mister Glover was still awake and working in his office, a steaming cup of coffee sitting on his desk next to the papers he was grading. He gestured for her to come in and take a seat, but she only just stepped inside the door. They wouldn't be staying very long once she'd said her piece.
“Cecelia's here and asleep in my bed, for reasons I wouldn't be able to tell you.”
“Perhaps it was 'just right,'” Mister Glover quipped as he grabbed his wand and made to come with her back to the dorms.
“Pardon?” she queried.
He shrugged and locked the door to his office, “Nothing, just some old fairy tale I found in the library when I was looking through some books.
Petra was just a step behind Mister Glover. She followed him until he turned the wrong way.
“The dorms are this way, sir,” she said, though she was fairly certain he knew his way around the school as well as anybody else did.
“Miss Blake's quarters are this way. There's an intruder in the school, I think it wise we inform our Principal.”
After a few minutes, Petra had her favorite teacher persuaded out of that notion. They could inform Miss Blake of what was happening in her school once they were indeed certain that something was happening, and why bother Miss Blake in her off hours if it was something they could handle themselves. Mister Glover didn't seem quite convinced, but he followed Petra to the dorms without protest.
They got a very warm reception from the three girls in the common area on Petra's floor.
“Mister Glover! Did you bring a trap?” Beryl Adams asked, looking around fretfully.
“Trap?” Mister Glover was mystified.
“Mister Glover doesn't need a trap to catch a rodent, Beryl. He's got a wand, after all. I would have done it myself, but I don't know anything near enough to a spell for catching animals.”
Mister Glover quirked a brow at Petra as they joined Marnie in the corridor. She simply shrugged.
“Wait here for a minute, I'm going to go get the boys. She won't be able to do much damage if she wakes up with half a dozen wands pointed at her.” Petra requested of Mister Glover and Marnie after confirming with her friend that nothing had gone on while she was making her trip to the teacher's office.
Martin was quick to answer the door. Apparently he still hadn't become used to sleeping regularly. It was lucky for Hilton and the other boys that Martin had been given his own room and had also become quite good at silencing spells.
Martin's lips moved but no sound came out. He gave a flick of his wand and tried again, “Petra! Is something wrong?”
“It's a bit of an emergency.” Petra pushed against the invisible blockade that kept her out of the boys' common area. The air was squishy and elastic and quite good at its job of making sure she stayed at bay. Martin wasn't long collecting Budgerigar and Hilton and they were on their way. The boys met no resistance at the door to Petra's floor since there was a teacher on deck.
Saffron Puckle and the other girls were still keeping weary eyes on the floor, though it was starting to look like they would love nothing more than to go to bed. Petra hoped for their sakes that the business about Cecelia didn't cause much of a kerfuffle or take too very long.
Beryl Adams cast a questioning look at Petra as she trouped by with the boys in tow.
Petra shrugged, “It's a really big rat.” This caused both Ivy and Beryl to squeal.
“Cecelia's in my room,” Petra whispered quietly to the boys once they reached the hall, “I thought we should have as many people on guard as possible, since she's likely up to something. It seems pretty strange, but she's sleeping in my bed.”
Five students and one teacher entered Petra's room as quietly as possible. Petra waited until they had all taken position around Cecelia's sleeping form before she prodded the girl to a wakeful state with the end of her wand.
Cecelia stretched comfortable and yawned before her eyes fluttered open. Upon witnessing the predicament she found herself in, the girl's eyes grew very round.
Her mouth worked soundlessly for a long few moments, like she was trying to form words but they just wouldn't escape from her lips. Petra could guess what was wrong with her, having just witnessed something similar with her friend. Cecelia finally gestured at her throat, gazing at them pleadingly. Martin gave a flick of his wand while the rest of them kept their wands at the ready.
She gave a little spluttering cough before holding up her hands in a show of surrender, “Don't shoot! I'm not who you think I am.” She looked ready to cry, hands trembling. It was then that Petra noticed the wand on her bedside table and took possession of it before the other girl remembered it was there.
“You're not Cecelia Craft? If that's the truth, you bear an uncanny resemblance to her.”
“Oh, in a manner of speaking.” Cecelia scrubbed at her face with delicate hands. “I am Cecelia Craft, but I'm not the Cecelia Craft that you've met before. It's really a very long story, I'd be glad to tell it to you if you'd hear me out.”
“Perhaps such a discussion would be found more agreeable in the atmosphere of my office,” Mister Glover offered.
Petra joined Mister Glover and Cecelia in Mister Glover's office, even though he made Petra's friends go off to bed. She was more directly involved with the situation, he said, seeing as Cecelia had been found in her room. He had given the boys orders to tell the other girls it was safe to go into their rooms before taking both Cecelia and Petra by the arm. Before Petra knew what was happening, the three of them were in his office.
It wasn't quite as hard to believe as she would think that this girl wasn't the Cecelia she had met. The girl who lived in the mansion surrounded by a mysterious forest seemed unflappable and haughty, while the girl Petra had found in her bed was clearly shaken up.
Mister Glover conjured up a cup of tea for Cecelia. It rattled in the girl's hands when she took a sip. She placed it lightly on the teacher's desk and seemed to be trying to steel herself.
“I don't know how much you know about me or my family. It's sufficient to say that they weren't very demonstrative when it came to affection. I was a lonely, isolated child whom was never doted upon.” Cecelia sipped her tea once more, her nerves having been soothed by the hot refreshment and the open ears of Mister Glover and Petra.
“I wanted nothing more than a true friend, someone to share my hopes and dreams with. My only companions were chosen for me, I never got on with any one of them for too long. One day it came to me, the very perfect companion would be someone who was just like me. My father's advanced magic books were hard to understand, but I kept trying and trying until I apparently got it right. She looked like me, she sounded like me.”
“She took your life.” Petra's quiet statement hung in the air for a long moment.
“Yes,” Cecelia replied, “She was more pliant to my father's wishes. They all knew she wasn't me and they didn't care. They stopped short of getting rid of me completely, but they might as well have done it. That awful girl, a creation of my own childish notions, turned me invisible. I was made to be her servant.”
Petra watched Cecelia finish off her tea. It brought an image to mind of the tea service being wheeled into the mansion's sitting room the day they had been to visit.
“You were there at the mansion that day we went to see you, or really your double.”
“You'd freed me along with her when you broke the spell that contained her in that room here at the school. I carried on as I always had until you came. I followed you back to the school. I didn't have any reason to continue serving her. I used to be forced by a curse, but my parents are gone now and the curse went with them. I just didn't have the courage to act alone, and then I saw you. I thought if only I could break the invisibility spell that I'd be able to get help from you.”
“You've succeeded on that front, at least.” Mister Glover smiled encouragingly.
“If only you could have said something sooner.” Petra gave the girl's shoulder a pat, “We would have done anything in our power.”
“As you witnessed earlier, I was mute as well as invisible.” Cecelia blushed a little, “I must confess, I was the one causing all the trouble a bit ago. I stole some things from your classrooms to make a wand, so I could try to undo the spells myself. In the end it was a lot of trouble for nothing. My salvation came indirectly from you, Miss Price. I went into your room while you were all gone. I recognized the genie that came back with you from the forest, I thought you might have left his bottle laying around.”
Petra frowned a little, “He's just a regular boy now.”
“Oh, he is? Well, I'm happy for him certainly. If I'd been able to get my hands on a genie's bottle, I'd hoped I'd be able to somehow wish for my freedom. It was the magic cast on the door of your room that did it. I didn't know until I'd stepped in and saw my reflection in the mirror on your wall. It had been so long.”
Mister Glover quirked a brow in Petra's direction. She had propped herself against the edge of his desk while Cecelia had told them her tale.
“That's not something you've covered in any of your classes,” his glance was appraising, “I must say, I'm quite impressed with your initiative.”
“I thought it best to stay put, and I guess I was so relieved at almost being back to my old self that I fell asleep. You know the rest.” Cecelia glanced between them.
“It is quite the interesting story, and certainly plausible from what I now understand. We knew the other Cecelia by only her first name until recently. She abducted Martin when the students were on their way home for the break. He's the now former genie that you recognized. He put two and two together and told Petra all he knew, then she was so kind to get in touch with me.” Mister Glover propped his chin in his hands, giving Cecelia the same appraising look he'd just been focusing on Petra moments before, “I want to believe you, but there's no way I can confirm your story.”
“There might be something I could do,” Petra volunteered.
She had gone over the truth spell so many times with her friends that she could remember it in its entirety. She drew out her wand and pointed it at Cecelia. The other girl didn't so much as flinch, apparently trusting Petra to do her no harm.
“Fair warning, the book I got this from wasn't very clear on the specifics. I don't know for sure what will happen, just the end result.” With that, Petra recited the spell.
A ball of light blossomed from the end of her wand, and it seemed to have an occupant. Petra couldn't make out the tiny figure at all for the light that surrounded it except for tiny wings that expanded beyond that light.
“Wait a moment,” Mister Glover went over to a bookcase and reached into it, his arm going further than the shelf should have allowed. He was holding a book when he pulled his arm out again. He rapidly flipped pages before scanning a few. Finally, he looked up, “Goodness Miss Price, you've summoned a pixie!”
Petra glanced to her teacher as the pixie perched on the end of her wand, “Is that bad?”
Mister Glover gave a little shake of his head, “Not particularly, no. I'm just surprised at how much you've been learning outside of class. I'd almost wish for all my students to take such an interest, but then who knows what kind of magical mayhem we'd be in for. It's just lucky for all of us that no one's thought to look up some of the spells used for pranks and jokes, though I suppose you will now.”
There was a tiny, squeaking cough issued from the glowing figure of the pixie. Once it had the attention of the room's three occupants, it began to speak.
“If you all don't mind, I've not got all day. While this certainly is a novel experience, seeing as none of your folk have summoned me or mine in some years, I do have a life to get back to. If you'll please just tell me what it is you want.”
“Of course! I'm sorry, I don't want to keep you longer than I have to,” Petra squinted at the pixie as she spoke to it, trying to make out even a silhouette of its true form. “If it's not too much trouble, I'd really like to know if our friend Cecelia here has been telling the truth.”
Wordlessly, the pixie flew to Cecelia. After staring at her for a good minute and just when she started to flush under its scrutiny, it surprised them all by flying right into her head. Cecelia responded by letting out a startled little scream. It wasn't long before the pixie withdrew from her.
“My dear, have you been honest with these people?”
“Completely!” Cecelia nodded for emphasis.
“There you have it. I assume there's no need for a reversal?”
Petra stared blankly at the pixie, not sure what it meant. Mister Glover stepped in for her, “No, that is all. Thank you for your time.”
With that, the pixie shrank back into the tip of Petra's wand and soon there was no sign that it had ever been there.
“Strange little creature, acting so important.” Mister Glover said, just a moment after the pixie had left them, “It didn't really have anywhere to go, you know. It was entirely a creation of your magic. I helped you out a bit by telling you you'd summoned a pixie, and then it became something like what your subconscious mind would imagine a pixie to be like.”
Petra turned a bashful grin in Cecelia's direction, “Sorry. I didn't know it was going to be like that. Are you quite alright?”
Cecelia nodded slowly, “Fine, thank you, but what did it mean about a reversal?”
Petra shrugged. Mister Glover again had to fill in for her, “From what I've read just now, usually the conjured pixie will go back into the mind of the spell's subject and erase the memory of its being there. Since it came to life right in front of you, it assumed we weren't trying to be sneaky.”
Things seemed to be aligning just right for Petra and the other inhabitants of Rosebury Academy. The fake Cecelia was turning out to be rather ineffectual. If ever she forced their hands against her, they now had Martin and the real Cecelia to help them fend her off.
Petra also knew how the truth spell would work when they got around to trying it on Miss Blake.
“I assume you'll be staying with us, then?” Petra asked Cecelia.
“Gladly,” was the girl's reply.
I've done a little bit of art, found here. In this piece you can see basic representations of Petra, Hilton, Marnie, and Budgerigar.
This story is also posted here on FictionPress.com.
Description: Petra Price was a perfectly ordinary girl until she got sent away to Rosebury Academy, a school that would teach her all about magic. It's a brand new life, with new friends and a new power to be harnessed. An enemy is soon revealed. What will Petra do?
Petra's first instinct was to go get Mister Glover. She told Marnie to stand guard in case Cecelia woke up and prayed to whatever might be listening that it wouldn't come to that. Marnie looked on edge at the very prospect of the situation. Petra wondered if she'd be able to do anything more than scream and pass out if Cecelia showed herself.
Petra warned the other girls away from the hallway by telling them there was some kind of rodent loose down near their rooms. Ivy squealed and all three girls picked their feet up off the floor, apparently buying the story. She said she was going to find a teacher to take care of the situation and they wished her a speedy return.
“That was lucky...” she said quietly to herself when the door was closed safely behind her. She had never seen any kind of animal loose in the school other than Margie, and that hadn't been a very big problem at all.
Petra's luck kept on going. Mister Glover was still awake and working in his office, a steaming cup of coffee sitting on his desk next to the papers he was grading. He gestured for her to come in and take a seat, but she only just stepped inside the door. They wouldn't be staying very long once she'd said her piece.
“Cecelia's here and asleep in my bed, for reasons I wouldn't be able to tell you.”
“Perhaps it was 'just right,'” Mister Glover quipped as he grabbed his wand and made to come with her back to the dorms.
“Pardon?” she queried.
He shrugged and locked the door to his office, “Nothing, just some old fairy tale I found in the library when I was looking through some books.
Petra was just a step behind Mister Glover. She followed him until he turned the wrong way.
“The dorms are this way, sir,” she said, though she was fairly certain he knew his way around the school as well as anybody else did.
“Miss Blake's quarters are this way. There's an intruder in the school, I think it wise we inform our Principal.”
After a few minutes, Petra had her favorite teacher persuaded out of that notion. They could inform Miss Blake of what was happening in her school once they were indeed certain that something was happening, and why bother Miss Blake in her off hours if it was something they could handle themselves. Mister Glover didn't seem quite convinced, but he followed Petra to the dorms without protest.
They got a very warm reception from the three girls in the common area on Petra's floor.
“Mister Glover! Did you bring a trap?” Beryl Adams asked, looking around fretfully.
“Trap?” Mister Glover was mystified.
“Mister Glover doesn't need a trap to catch a rodent, Beryl. He's got a wand, after all. I would have done it myself, but I don't know anything near enough to a spell for catching animals.”
Mister Glover quirked a brow at Petra as they joined Marnie in the corridor. She simply shrugged.
“Wait here for a minute, I'm going to go get the boys. She won't be able to do much damage if she wakes up with half a dozen wands pointed at her.” Petra requested of Mister Glover and Marnie after confirming with her friend that nothing had gone on while she was making her trip to the teacher's office.
Martin was quick to answer the door. Apparently he still hadn't become used to sleeping regularly. It was lucky for Hilton and the other boys that Martin had been given his own room and had also become quite good at silencing spells.
Martin's lips moved but no sound came out. He gave a flick of his wand and tried again, “Petra! Is something wrong?”
“It's a bit of an emergency.” Petra pushed against the invisible blockade that kept her out of the boys' common area. The air was squishy and elastic and quite good at its job of making sure she stayed at bay. Martin wasn't long collecting Budgerigar and Hilton and they were on their way. The boys met no resistance at the door to Petra's floor since there was a teacher on deck.
Saffron Puckle and the other girls were still keeping weary eyes on the floor, though it was starting to look like they would love nothing more than to go to bed. Petra hoped for their sakes that the business about Cecelia didn't cause much of a kerfuffle or take too very long.
Beryl Adams cast a questioning look at Petra as she trouped by with the boys in tow.
Petra shrugged, “It's a really big rat.” This caused both Ivy and Beryl to squeal.
“Cecelia's in my room,” Petra whispered quietly to the boys once they reached the hall, “I thought we should have as many people on guard as possible, since she's likely up to something. It seems pretty strange, but she's sleeping in my bed.”
Five students and one teacher entered Petra's room as quietly as possible. Petra waited until they had all taken position around Cecelia's sleeping form before she prodded the girl to a wakeful state with the end of her wand.
Cecelia stretched comfortable and yawned before her eyes fluttered open. Upon witnessing the predicament she found herself in, the girl's eyes grew very round.
Her mouth worked soundlessly for a long few moments, like she was trying to form words but they just wouldn't escape from her lips. Petra could guess what was wrong with her, having just witnessed something similar with her friend. Cecelia finally gestured at her throat, gazing at them pleadingly. Martin gave a flick of his wand while the rest of them kept their wands at the ready.
She gave a little spluttering cough before holding up her hands in a show of surrender, “Don't shoot! I'm not who you think I am.” She looked ready to cry, hands trembling. It was then that Petra noticed the wand on her bedside table and took possession of it before the other girl remembered it was there.
“You're not Cecelia Craft? If that's the truth, you bear an uncanny resemblance to her.”
“Oh, in a manner of speaking.” Cecelia scrubbed at her face with delicate hands. “I am Cecelia Craft, but I'm not the Cecelia Craft that you've met before. It's really a very long story, I'd be glad to tell it to you if you'd hear me out.”
“Perhaps such a discussion would be found more agreeable in the atmosphere of my office,” Mister Glover offered.
Petra joined Mister Glover and Cecelia in Mister Glover's office, even though he made Petra's friends go off to bed. She was more directly involved with the situation, he said, seeing as Cecelia had been found in her room. He had given the boys orders to tell the other girls it was safe to go into their rooms before taking both Cecelia and Petra by the arm. Before Petra knew what was happening, the three of them were in his office.
It wasn't quite as hard to believe as she would think that this girl wasn't the Cecelia she had met. The girl who lived in the mansion surrounded by a mysterious forest seemed unflappable and haughty, while the girl Petra had found in her bed was clearly shaken up.
Mister Glover conjured up a cup of tea for Cecelia. It rattled in the girl's hands when she took a sip. She placed it lightly on the teacher's desk and seemed to be trying to steel herself.
“I don't know how much you know about me or my family. It's sufficient to say that they weren't very demonstrative when it came to affection. I was a lonely, isolated child whom was never doted upon.” Cecelia sipped her tea once more, her nerves having been soothed by the hot refreshment and the open ears of Mister Glover and Petra.
“I wanted nothing more than a true friend, someone to share my hopes and dreams with. My only companions were chosen for me, I never got on with any one of them for too long. One day it came to me, the very perfect companion would be someone who was just like me. My father's advanced magic books were hard to understand, but I kept trying and trying until I apparently got it right. She looked like me, she sounded like me.”
“She took your life.” Petra's quiet statement hung in the air for a long moment.
“Yes,” Cecelia replied, “She was more pliant to my father's wishes. They all knew she wasn't me and they didn't care. They stopped short of getting rid of me completely, but they might as well have done it. That awful girl, a creation of my own childish notions, turned me invisible. I was made to be her servant.”
Petra watched Cecelia finish off her tea. It brought an image to mind of the tea service being wheeled into the mansion's sitting room the day they had been to visit.
“You were there at the mansion that day we went to see you, or really your double.”
“You'd freed me along with her when you broke the spell that contained her in that room here at the school. I carried on as I always had until you came. I followed you back to the school. I didn't have any reason to continue serving her. I used to be forced by a curse, but my parents are gone now and the curse went with them. I just didn't have the courage to act alone, and then I saw you. I thought if only I could break the invisibility spell that I'd be able to get help from you.”
“You've succeeded on that front, at least.” Mister Glover smiled encouragingly.
“If only you could have said something sooner.” Petra gave the girl's shoulder a pat, “We would have done anything in our power.”
“As you witnessed earlier, I was mute as well as invisible.” Cecelia blushed a little, “I must confess, I was the one causing all the trouble a bit ago. I stole some things from your classrooms to make a wand, so I could try to undo the spells myself. In the end it was a lot of trouble for nothing. My salvation came indirectly from you, Miss Price. I went into your room while you were all gone. I recognized the genie that came back with you from the forest, I thought you might have left his bottle laying around.”
Petra frowned a little, “He's just a regular boy now.”
“Oh, he is? Well, I'm happy for him certainly. If I'd been able to get my hands on a genie's bottle, I'd hoped I'd be able to somehow wish for my freedom. It was the magic cast on the door of your room that did it. I didn't know until I'd stepped in and saw my reflection in the mirror on your wall. It had been so long.”
Mister Glover quirked a brow in Petra's direction. She had propped herself against the edge of his desk while Cecelia had told them her tale.
“That's not something you've covered in any of your classes,” his glance was appraising, “I must say, I'm quite impressed with your initiative.”
“I thought it best to stay put, and I guess I was so relieved at almost being back to my old self that I fell asleep. You know the rest.” Cecelia glanced between them.
“It is quite the interesting story, and certainly plausible from what I now understand. We knew the other Cecelia by only her first name until recently. She abducted Martin when the students were on their way home for the break. He's the now former genie that you recognized. He put two and two together and told Petra all he knew, then she was so kind to get in touch with me.” Mister Glover propped his chin in his hands, giving Cecelia the same appraising look he'd just been focusing on Petra moments before, “I want to believe you, but there's no way I can confirm your story.”
“There might be something I could do,” Petra volunteered.
She had gone over the truth spell so many times with her friends that she could remember it in its entirety. She drew out her wand and pointed it at Cecelia. The other girl didn't so much as flinch, apparently trusting Petra to do her no harm.
“Fair warning, the book I got this from wasn't very clear on the specifics. I don't know for sure what will happen, just the end result.” With that, Petra recited the spell.
A ball of light blossomed from the end of her wand, and it seemed to have an occupant. Petra couldn't make out the tiny figure at all for the light that surrounded it except for tiny wings that expanded beyond that light.
“Wait a moment,” Mister Glover went over to a bookcase and reached into it, his arm going further than the shelf should have allowed. He was holding a book when he pulled his arm out again. He rapidly flipped pages before scanning a few. Finally, he looked up, “Goodness Miss Price, you've summoned a pixie!”
Petra glanced to her teacher as the pixie perched on the end of her wand, “Is that bad?”
Mister Glover gave a little shake of his head, “Not particularly, no. I'm just surprised at how much you've been learning outside of class. I'd almost wish for all my students to take such an interest, but then who knows what kind of magical mayhem we'd be in for. It's just lucky for all of us that no one's thought to look up some of the spells used for pranks and jokes, though I suppose you will now.”
There was a tiny, squeaking cough issued from the glowing figure of the pixie. Once it had the attention of the room's three occupants, it began to speak.
“If you all don't mind, I've not got all day. While this certainly is a novel experience, seeing as none of your folk have summoned me or mine in some years, I do have a life to get back to. If you'll please just tell me what it is you want.”
“Of course! I'm sorry, I don't want to keep you longer than I have to,” Petra squinted at the pixie as she spoke to it, trying to make out even a silhouette of its true form. “If it's not too much trouble, I'd really like to know if our friend Cecelia here has been telling the truth.”
Wordlessly, the pixie flew to Cecelia. After staring at her for a good minute and just when she started to flush under its scrutiny, it surprised them all by flying right into her head. Cecelia responded by letting out a startled little scream. It wasn't long before the pixie withdrew from her.
“My dear, have you been honest with these people?”
“Completely!” Cecelia nodded for emphasis.
“There you have it. I assume there's no need for a reversal?”
Petra stared blankly at the pixie, not sure what it meant. Mister Glover stepped in for her, “No, that is all. Thank you for your time.”
With that, the pixie shrank back into the tip of Petra's wand and soon there was no sign that it had ever been there.
“Strange little creature, acting so important.” Mister Glover said, just a moment after the pixie had left them, “It didn't really have anywhere to go, you know. It was entirely a creation of your magic. I helped you out a bit by telling you you'd summoned a pixie, and then it became something like what your subconscious mind would imagine a pixie to be like.”
Petra turned a bashful grin in Cecelia's direction, “Sorry. I didn't know it was going to be like that. Are you quite alright?”
Cecelia nodded slowly, “Fine, thank you, but what did it mean about a reversal?”
Petra shrugged. Mister Glover again had to fill in for her, “From what I've read just now, usually the conjured pixie will go back into the mind of the spell's subject and erase the memory of its being there. Since it came to life right in front of you, it assumed we weren't trying to be sneaky.”
Things seemed to be aligning just right for Petra and the other inhabitants of Rosebury Academy. The fake Cecelia was turning out to be rather ineffectual. If ever she forced their hands against her, they now had Martin and the real Cecelia to help them fend her off.
Petra also knew how the truth spell would work when they got around to trying it on Miss Blake.
“I assume you'll be staying with us, then?” Petra asked Cecelia.
“Gladly,” was the girl's reply.