The flow of thoughts came to a halt as both faeries noticed Ceres swaying her way towards them, bracelets jingling and purple hair bouncing with each step of her sandalled feet. With a flick of her wrist she pulled out the chair Lyra had been sitting on and swept onto it in a blur of patched material.

“You two looked mighty quiet over ‘ere,” she said with a wink of a shining emerald eye, “Don’tcha tell me you’re reading each others thoughts or summit,”

“As there was nothing for us to discuss, no discussion was necessary,” replied Faye, “Yet you seem suspicious of our motives,”

Ceres leant back in her chair and surveyed the table. “Not even any food?” she said, “You girls sure are a weird couple! Startin’ think those rumours I’ve bin ‘earing might be true…”

“Rumours?” asked Phantasia.

“Please back all accusations up with sufficient evidence,” added Faye.

Ceres grinned and pulled a ball of ripe fruit from her knapsack. Her eyes wandered from one faerie to the other as she took a bite, savouring each chew as if drawing out the revelation.

Her thoughts are impenetrable, said Faye.

Aura’s as protected as ever, replied Phantasia, wait; I think she’s on to us!

“You girls gotta lot of guts sticking out like ya do,” said Ceres, “You didn’t oughta get complacent jus’ ’cause Godhand ain’t around much more, ya know? Those creeps’ll be back before ya know it, and a pair like you are gonna be right on top of their hit list,” She took another bite out of her apple as the faeries continued to look on in audio silence.

She is attempting to goad us into reacting, said Faye; I would likely presume that there is something about us that she wishes to know.

No ideas what?

“You are deviating from your original point,” said Faye to Ceres, “Please inform us of the rumours you have heard, and what makes you believe them to be true,”

Ceres placed the fruit on the table, then lazed back in the chair with legs parted and arms draped across her lap. “They say you’re witches,” she said with a wink, “Witches who control the elements. Now—” she leant in, eyes rolling to check the corners of the room for eavesdroppers, “—You gotta watch what yer doin’. Things round ‘ere’ll just get more dangerous if you two keep on showing yerselves up and makin’ people question who ya really are. Keep a low profile fer a while, ‘kay?”

“Unless you give us a reasonable explanation for your request, I see no reason to follow it,” said Faye, “The rumours you speak of have no basis in the reality our fellow students accept,”

Ceres began to chew on her lip, long nails drumming on the table as she closed her eyes in contemplation. As she did so, Faye’s thoughts burst into Phantasia’s head like a desperate shout.

Analyse her aura!

Without further instruction, Phantasia pushed her sight beyond its everyday limitations and for a brief moment her vision of the physical world was replaced by the psychedelic world of shifting auras and mana streams. There was Ceres, her aura fluttering like feathers, and next to her, no larger than Phantasia’s thumb, an astral projection, its ethereal body curled like an ‘s’ with what resembled an antlered horse head. In that smallest of moments Phantasia could see its mental connection to Ceres, and warped her sight back to the mundane world before her intrusion could be detected.

She’s talking to someone through a projection, she said to Faye, I’ve seen one like it before. It told me not to interfere with the illusion magic!

Chapter 44
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