Trust is something that's hard to build but easy to lose. Events unfold including but not limited to: A hallway getting redecorated. (in a rather cool way) And Hannah plays charades with an excitable imp.

“Lets go”

Sarah’s eyebrow popped up but she didn’t put the car in gear.
“Nice hair.. little tense are we?”

I growled at her and slammed my fist into my leg to resist the sudden urge to hit her.
“Get me out of here now, before I turn your car into a swimming pool and find several people to drown in it”

Sarah’s smile slipped and she turned the key quickly making the engine roar.

“Jesus, that bad?”
I glared at her again and huffed to myself.

Yes, it HAS been that bad.
Did the uniform I’m wearing not tip her off in some small way?
The fact that I had to sprint from the house to avoid Mum AND John’s interference?

It’s been two days since my drowsy face-off with John at our front door.
Ever since then he’s been like a persistent squirrel, every time I think the coast is clear he just appears from nowhere and starts chittering away!

Mum thinks it’s, Oh so funny, naturally.
She’s been finding reasons for me to get out of the house and I can just TELL she’s trying to get me nearer to John.

She made me take the trash out last night.
I wasn’t even done with the first bag before he was there, standing casually against our mailbox with his stupid smirk on his face.

She made me go down to the resort to pick up a takeaway because ‘she didn’t fancy cooking’.
I managed to get to the crossroads safely and then THERE he was!

The bastard was waiting for me!

I tried flat out ignoring him but that didn’t work.
If anything it only encouraged him to carry on talking about whatever popped into his head.
Then.. THEN when we got into the shop and I made my order he added on some food for himself, hit my arm with a mild stunning charm so he could pay for it all first!
The whole walk back home he seemed so disgustingly smug about it.

I thought I’d be free when I got to the front door but mum had other ideas.

When her first attempt to invite him in failed, it seems he’s learnt to not try my blood wards again at least, she decided that we should have dinner on the balcony instead!
Without a thought she sent him around back to wait for us.
The moment he was out of sight she was rushing me through the front door and told me in no uncertain terms that I should go change into something fancier.

I SWEAR I almost decided to just say to HELL with it all at that point!

To add insult to injury, I woke up this morning and mum, very carefully, explained to me that Jeans and a T-shirt are NOT acceptable clothing to wear to my first ‘induction day’ at the ‘Gladstone institute for the gifted’.
It JUST so happens that she had a nice outfit all prepared for me though.
Can you guess what it is?

Chunky Mary Jane shoes maybe?
Knee-high white socks?
A stupid fussy white blouse!
A blue/green Tartan bloody SKIRT!

She got me to wear the DAMN SCHOOL UNIFORM!
I swear to the powers, if John saw me in my mad-dash from the house to the car I’m going to kill someone.. slowly!

Why did I have to tell her I was going to Gladstones?!

I didn’t even get to pick the fake school name!
It turns out the Hub already has a school/college tuition program in place under the Gladstone name.
They have a website and everything!

It shocked the hell out of me I can tell you, mum came bouncing into my room yesterday going on about how much fun I’ll have at their special events, they even run a summer camp!
Luckily I’m a few weeks too late to be shipped off for THAT little slice of hell but the glint in mums eye says that I need a new cover story by next year or I’m going to be one VERY unhappy camper.

Needless to say, I’m NOT in the mood for Sarah’s teasing.
I’m tense.
I’m grumpy.
I still feel a little ill and I’ve had just about ENOUGH of everyone!

We drove into town in silence.
She didn’t even try to put the radio on.
I think, she thought I might open up at some point during the ride.

Not likely!

The last few days feel like they have been personally crafted to drive me insane.
Meanwhile she’s been living the high life!
I bet she spent the last few days lazing about the house, doing whatever she wanted and dragging Tor along for the ride.

I MISS THAT!
I used to have that!

I’m an adult damn it!

It feels like every minute I spend in this new body with mum I’m losing more independence.
If I don’t get some stress relief soon I’m gonna do something everyone around me is going to regret!

On top of EVERYTHING else, I’m worried about what’s going to happen today..

I’ve got my meeting with the ‘Awakened mage support’ people.
I’ve worked in the Hub for years and I didn’t even know their department EXISTED.
The fact that I’ve not even heard their name in passing should be suspicious.

The fact that I’m an ACTUAL awakened mage, and I have been for YEARS, makes it downright worrying.

Sarah pulled us into a free parking spot on the street behind the Hub’s entrance way with a sigh.
“Okay..”
She turned to face me with a look of determination on her face.
“What did mum do now?”

I snorted and gave my stupid tartan skirt a slight tug downwards instead of answering.

“Com’ on Han. We don’t keep secrets. Twins don’t lie to each other, that’s the rule.”
My temper flared again.
“Well we’re not bloody TWINS anymore are we!”
Sarah leaned slightly away from me with wide eyes, I was too worked up to stop now though.
“YOU made that point perfectly clear. I’m the LITTLE SISTER now, I’m not equal anymore in your eyes! Your just like mum you’re treating me like a little kid!”
My breath was coming in short, sharp bursts.

Sarah looked hurt but I don’t CARE!

She’s just like everyone else.
Everyone wants me to be this little, perfect Arista midget CHILD!

Mum is loving it.
Sarah finds it funny.
Aunt Lily likes me better.
Uncle Jim has gotten all defensive of me.

Even JOHN likes me better like this!
Admittedly that’s mostly because he’s got his past-life as Max making him stupid and getting him to treat me like I’m the real Arista or something but he was my best friend DAMN IT!

I’ve got no friends left!

Felicia is scared of me.
John is stalking me.
Sarah is treating me like a child.

I’m afraid to go to Fena’s shop in case she hates me too!

“I’ll get the bus back”
I struggled out of the car as quickly as possible.
Sarah reached her hand out to me but I slammed the door shut and stalked off to the Hub entrance without a thought.

Everything’s so messed up.

I’m a mess.
Two days ago I thought I’d finally gotten a handle on this stuff but I’m not even close.
All the past-incarnations being back under some kind of control is helping, sure, but it’s not fixed everything!
Now I’ve had time to get used to the feeling of not having my head stuffed full of mixed feelings I can see that there’s more than just that going on.

It’s my magic, it’s GOT to be my magic.

I’m twitchy.
I’m grouchy.
Everyone and everything is just so annoying!
I’ve got so much magic inside me I can’t sit still!
I can’t think straight.
I need.. I need help..
I need a RELEASE!

I feel lousy because I used too much blood magic but that’s a physical problem.
I ran out of blood before I ran out of magic!
Do you know how messed up that is?.. of course you don’t..
It’s SCARY.
I shouldn’t have this much power in me.
I shouldn’t have wild magic in me at all!

My feet carried me to the entrance way.
It still looks run down with a blue-glowing space where the door should be.
Normally I’d stop to examine it a bit more but at the moment all its doing is annoying me even more by being yet ANOTHER weird thing in my life.

Without a pause I stomped through the blue space and came out in the Hub’s reception.

The moment I appeared the reception area went deathly silent.
All eyes were fixed on me.
People had paused mid-step to watch me with fear.
At her desk Felicia scrunched down in her chair and tried to avoid eye-contact with me.

I flexed my fingers.
I could feel magic flowing along my skin just from the movement, it’s getting so bad I can feel my skin pulse from all the built up power.

My feet took me to the desk.
Felicia looked like she wished she could be ANYWHERE but here right now.

“Where’s awakened mage support?”
I’m not in the mood for pleasantries.
Her reaction to me is just annoying me even more.

“uh.. I’ll buzz someone to lead you there..”
My eyes settled on hers and she trailed off with a little worried squeak.

She quickly ducked down and typed something on her computer.

It felt like no-one in the reception or the hallway behind it dared to breathe throughout the long minute it took for my guide to turn up.

When it did, I let out a frustrated sigh.
She’s summoned a bloody IMP to lead me around!

..No, it’s fine.. deep breaths..

I can deal with a fae on top of everything else today, its fine.
Imps are normally innocent little things.
It won’t be afraid of me like everyone else seems to be, in theory at least.
I’m not convinced of that fact, judging by the wide awe-filled look in its bulbous little eyes.

It held out a little clawed, red hand for me to take.
With a deep sigh I tried to let some of my anger go and gently took its hand.

I’m angry at life, at the people around me and myself.
This little guy doesn’t deserve any of that, it helps that I’ve always had a soft spot for Imps.
They get a bad rap.
A lot of people mix them up with goblins who are the REAL nasty little buggers.

This one in particular is bright red with leathery little wings, a pointy tail and spindly limbs coming from his little potato-like body.

Imp’s are normally about knee high on me, probably a little taller in comparison with my new smaller legs.
This little guy must be young, he’s barely up to my new knees in height.

Well.. I say little ‘guy’, honestly I have no idea of its gender.

With Imps gender tends to be more of a choice.
They don’t have genitals or anything and in all truth, I think they find humanities obsession with giving them genders and names amusing.
He looks like a little ‘guy’ to me so until he corrects me I’ll run with that.

He flapped his little wings a few times so I didn’t have to stretch down so much to grasp his hand and started leading me off into the maze of hallways within the Hub.

For the first few turns I could feel myself gearing up for another bout of rage.
Everyone we came across in the halls took one look at me and threw themselves back against the nearest wall until I passed them.
I think my little guide noticed their reactions and how it was effecting me because, by the third corridor, we ended up taking a left onto a completely empty hallway.

At first I figured it might have just been a coincidence but by the fifth corridor that we found deserted I could tell he was doing it for my sake.
..bless him..

For a moment I pulled us up short.
He turned to look at me curiously.
The moment he saw the smile on my face he gave me a pointy-toothed grin back.

It was almost cute, if you ignored all the demon-y parts of his general appearance.

Imps are kind of childish, even the older ones.
They love human attention.
Something about us paying attention to them makes them all giggly and happy.

“I’ve noticed what you’re doing little one.”
His grin dipped nervously and he tried to stub his toe innocently, it might have worked better if he wasn’t floating in mid-air.
“I just wanted to say thanks. I’ve not been having the best of weeks and I really appreciate the effort you went to for me..”

I’m pretty sure he’s blushing.
It’s hard to tell, with his natural skin color being bright red, but his chubby little cheeks seem a bit brighter to my eyes.

I rose my hand up and gently brought it down to pat his head.
His bulbous little eyes squinted down happily and he rubbed his head against my hand.
I couldn’t help but laugh slightly.
He looks like an affectionate puppy the way he does that..

When I moved my hand away from his head he tried to follow it.
In the end he got the message and flapped back up to eye level with me.

“Un-drekoo, yab-da bii san-ya.”
His high pitched voice sounded like a string of excited guinea pig squeals to me.

I know a fair few languages but the fae are surprisingly cagey about teaching outsiders their ones for some reason.
He seemed to realise that I didn’t understand him pretty quickly.

He started waving his hands excitedly instead.

“Un-drekoo”
His little clawed hand pointed at his own chest.

“uh.. you?”
That’s the first thing that came to mind.
I’ve never been good at charades.

He shook his head and tried again.

“Un-drekoo”
He pointed at his chest and then waved his arms out in a big circle.

“..you all?”
..I’m a little lost..

He drooped in the air and put his hand to his face to show frustration.

“Sorry, it’s not my fault you won’t just speak English. You obviously understand ME”
He folded his arms and gave me a slightly offended look.

“Un-drekoo, a-vas den-obo share-vas un-dente vix-us”
My eyebrow popped up suspiciously.
That’s a lot of words, I hope he doesn’t expect me to understand any of that?

With a glance at me he waved his hands dismissively as if what he’d just said wasn’t important.

..heh.. IMP-ortant..
No, focus!
The cute little imp is talking.. sort of.

“Un-vasi”
He pointed at me and puffed his chest up, walking on thin air like a stereotypical macho man.
“Un-drekoo”
He pointed at himself and touched his wings.

I considered it for a second.

“Un-vasi?”
I pointed at myself.
He nodded.
“Human?”
He nodded harder and grinned at me.

“Un-drekoo means Imp? You’re an Un-drekoo?”
He did a happy little mid-air hop and nodded again.

“Okay, progress.”
I smiled proudly and he grinned with his pointy little teeth in return.

“Yab-da”
He pretended to nervously rub his foot on the ‘floor’, then blew me an air-kiss.
“..Kiss?.. Love? H-“
He frantically nodded and waved a little.
“Love?”
He nodded again and grinned at me proudly.

“The imps love..”

“bii”
I frowned at him.
He frowned back thoughtfully.

After a moment he flapped a little harder and quickly grabbed the tips of his wings to give a surprisingly well done curtsy to me.

“Curtsy?.. no.. manners?.. no.. uh..”
What else could he mean?

For a moment I heard mum’s annoyed voice telling me off for my behaviour.
“..Lady?”
He clapped his clawed hands together and nodded happily.

“The imps love lady..”

“san-ya”
With wide innocent eyes he drew his finger across his neck and drooped his head with his tongue hanging out.
I felt a cold chill go down my spine.

“The imps.. love lady.. death..?”
He flapped excitedly and nodded.
With a swoop he dive-bombed me and spread himself out across my chest with his arms stretched wide as if he was trying to give me a hug.

I was too stunned to argue with him.

..Why did I even bother?..
With the way this week has been going I shouldn’t be surprised that even the, seemingly nice, little fae would say something like that.

Damn it!
This is the last straw!

The little imp seemed to notice my bubbling emotions.
He flapped his wings hard and launched himself backwards, away from me.

I can’t hold it in anymore..
I thought I’d finally found something, someone who was just being nice to me for the sake of it and he calls me a disgusting title like that!

My magic, so eager to be used lately, surged forth and with a strained grunt the empty hallway became my own personal ice-cavern.
I let out a calming breath that misted in the cold air around us.

That. Felt. AWESOME..

The little imp shifted his eyes around in fascination at the ice on the walls, floor and ceiling.
"Bii san-ya, tu-vesen iblay-daluna dente?"
He squinted at me for a moment, then shook his head and let off a surprisingly human sounding nervous laugh.
"Bii san-ya, tu-ves hojin-tada. Nof-alplan sevi je-kar fur-daluna"

I squinted at him in warning.
I don’t like having someone say things about me without knowing what it means.
I feel better for having actually released some of the built up magic inside me but I’m still not in the best of moods..

“We should get out of here before someone comes by, I really don’t need any more attention right now.”
The little imp nodded to me and reached his hand out for me to hold.
With careful steps I managed to get within reach.

My footing seemed surprisingly stable, considering I’m walking on ice.
I’ve never been this good on ice before.
Maybe it’s the Mary Janes?
Do girls shoes have extra grip or something?

Behind us I could hear some human voices getting slowly louder.

The little imp frantically tugged my arm forward.
I didn’t need a translation for that one.
We started with me taking one step at a time but as we progressed up the hallway I managed to walk, progressed to a light jog and on the home stretch broke into a run.

My feet didn’t slip once.
It can’t just be the shoes.
There must be some magic involved, probably related to my ice magic.

I wonder if that’s a magical trait I’ve never heard of before?
You would think someone would have mentioned it.. then again, I never thought to try walking on fire or something when I had my fire element.

Why can’t magic just be simple for once?!

We paused against the wall, just out of sight from the now ice-filled corridor.
Behind us I could hear someone talking.
A moment later there was a startled yelp and the sound of someone hitting the floor hard.
I felt a flash of guilt but I suppressed it as quickly as possible.
The imp had no such problem, he let off a string of chirping little giggles.

In the face of his amusement I felt a bit better.
It’s not MY fault my magic’s screwed up.
If I didn’t have this stupid meeting to get to I could be researching ways to FIX that problem too.
So really they brought this kind of thing on themselves.

It’s bad that I’m already resenting this meeting, isn’t it?

It’s the storyteller’s fault, because of the brand he put on me, I’ve not got a choice in being here.
Having a choice right about now would make me feel a LOT better about the situation in general..

“Lead on little guy, I can’t be late for this meeting.. sadly”
The imp gave me an apologetic look and took my hand to lead me through a few more corridors.

We only passed one other human along the way but she seemed a bit lost in her thoughts and didn’t even notice us.
Eventually we came to a stop outside a door, it looked as blank as all the others in the hub do but the imp seemed certain that it was the right one.

“Thanks for the tour little guy. Do you have a name?”
He blushed so brightly I could see it clearly this time, even through his bright red skin.
His little head shook nervously and he gave me a hopeful look.
“You want me to name you?”
He grinned his sharp little teeth and nodded frantically.

I’ve never been good at naming stuff, that’s normally Sarah’s department.

I squinted at him for a second.
My first instinct was to call him Darren but I think that’s just something wrong with my head, I always seem to default to that name.

“How do you say ‘guide’ in your language?”
He rolled his eyes at me.
"Un-vees-pla porte grap-la"

I blinked at him a few times in shock.
“All that.. really?”

He nodded and shrugged his shoulders.

“uh.. how about ‘little one’?”
He shot me a slightly annoyed look and huffed.
“Un-vees-pla porte-la”

I squinted at him hard.
“That’s pretty close to the last one..”
He shrugged and tried to look innocent.

“Well I dunno.. how do you say Darren?.. just out of curiosity..”
He seemed to think hard this time.
“Fii-lex”

I nodded to myself.
I should trust my instincts more often.

“..Felix, I like it.”
He opened his mouth to say something but closed it and shrugged his wings instead.

I smiled at him a little which made him smile back automatically.

Slowly my hand came up to pat his head again.
He brightened up at that and rubbed himself into my hand happily.

"Hip-pal jur-bak sad-in Bii San-ya"

He waved his own hand goodbye to me and shot off down the hallway, weaving a little from side to side.
Just before he turned the corner someone crossed his path.
He dive-bombed them with a high pitched laugh leaving them sprawled out on the floor in surprise.
I tried to not laugh but the look on the guys face when he realised what almost hit him WAS pretty funny.

“..Thanks Felix..”
With a regretful sigh I turned to face my newest challenge.

..This is gonna suck..

======

I pushed the door open and let out a relieved breath when I spotted a sign stuck to the inside wall that read ‘Awakened Mage Support’.
Something about the sign bothered me at first but I couldn’t quite figure out what.
After a moment I shrugged it off and made my way in.

Unlike most of the larger rooms in the hub, this one had been sectioned off into smaller rooms.

It looked surprisingly logical and sane too.
Most rooms in the Hub tend to become a bit.. eccentric after a while.
I can’t tell if it’s a conscious thing or not but the room owners tend to either change the room to suit a theme or just go crazy with colors.
Kar.. HE told me that the current pet theory goes that the ‘bleak unending white’ of the Hub’s hallways make people want to add color and personality to the spaces they actually CAN give some to.
It makes sense to me so that became my personal theory pretty quickly too.

This room just looks like a pretty standard non-magical office.
It kind of reminds me of the guidance counselor’s office in my old school honestly..

The walls are all a cheap looking crème color with motivational posters dotted around the place and a few noticeboards up full of pinned notes or leaflets on them.
The doors all have a little window in them made of that weird, no quite glass, stuff that’s designed to let light through but distorts things too much for anyone to see what’s going on inside that you see in schools.

It felt surprisingly comfortable to be in here.
It’s the first time I’ve been to somewhere in the Hub that’s looked even halfway sane.

Sitting calmly at a desk in front of the door I’d just stepped through, with a gentle slightly curious smile on her face, was a rather overweight older lady in a bright pink wool cardigan.
The poster over her shoulder was of a kitten hanging from a washing line carrying the tag ‘Hang in there baby!’.
For some reason it felt like she would be the one to have put that poster up..

When I made eye contact with her, rather large, cats-eye glasses she smiled at me brightly.

“Hello sweetie, how can I help you? Not lost I hope?”
Her voice was elderly, obviously, but it suited her.
She sounded how I imagine a favourite grandmother might sound when talking to one of their many children’s children.

Normally, being so obviously talked down to like a kid would set me off at the moment, but I felt oddly calm about it now.
She struck me as the type of person who would speak that way to anyone even SLIGHTLY below her own age range anyway.
She obviously didn’t mean anything by it, her pleasant smile put me at ease on that fact at least.

“uh..hi.. I’ve got an appointment with an awakened mage support rep?”
She nodded and smiled at me encouragingly, I couldn’t stop myself from blushing.
“I’m a little early, I made good time through the halls..”

My hands came down to fiddle nervously with the hem of my stupid tartan skirt.
After a moment I mentally slapped myself and dropped it.
I don’t know where that came from, I feel really awkward all of a sudden.

“Take a seat dear, I’ll tell Trudy that you’re here”

Despite all attempts to the contrary, I blushed and quickly shuffled over to one of the stiff little plastic chairs against the wall instead of answering her.

The old lady gave me another smile and picked up a phone handset from her desk.
I blinked owlishly at it for a second.
No-one bothers with technology in the Hub.

When you try to put cables and such into the halls they tend to disappear within an hour.
Nothing beyond the ‘default look’ remains in the halls for long usually.

It takes a LOT of magical power to stop that effect, even then things like the scratch marks on the doors have to be re-done every once in a while because they start fading away.
That’s why Felicia’s job is so important, her ancestor somehow managed to lay the cables and systems in place for her times version of ‘modern technology’ to work throughout the Hub.

Seeing a pretty normal looking telephone in the Hub feels just plain odd.
They must have their phone system LITERALLY just for the rooms they have marked out within this office..
That’s.. weird?

The rooms relatively large, most Hub rooms are really, but they can’t have divided it into more than four or five offices at best.

“Trudy, a lovely young girl is here to see you.. ah, silly me I forgot to ask”
The old lady turned in her seat and gave me a wide smile.
“What’s your name sweetie?”

I flinched at being addressed like that so casually and rubbed my hands together in my lap.
For some reason I feel really nervous at the moment.
“uh.. H.. Hannah?”

She gave me another warm smile and turned back to the phone again.
“She said her name’s Hannah, Trudy.. oh yes, she’s in an absolutely darling school uniform, I think she’s just come from the Christian private school up the road if I’ve not missed my guess.”

I cringed and ran my hands over the stupid tartan skirt again.
I KNEW this thing was gonna cause me trouble..
This is the last time I let mum push me into the bloody thing!

I’ll fake wearing it with an illusion until I’m out of her sight next time if I have to!

“oh.. that’s weird..”
The old lady looked at me over the rim of her glasses curiously.
“hmm..”
She squinted at me a little.

Eventually she seemed to see whatever she was looking for and turned back to the phone.
“Try looking under the name Arista, Trudy. The poor dear, no wonder she changed it..”
I gasped and pushed back into the chair a bit more in worry.

Not another one!

The old lady turned back to me but her smile had, if anything, gotten a bit warmer.
“Don’t worry sweetie, AMS aims to help, we learnt a long time ago to not judge someone because of who they will awaken to be.”

Her head twitched and a look of almost annoyance crossed her face momentarily.
“’AMS aims to help’ is a perfectly nice catchphrase, Trudy.. don’t be such a stick in the mud.”

The person on the other end of the line, apparently called Trudy went off on a long speech of some kind.

The old lady glanced over at me and smiled lightly.
After a moment longer she rolled her eyes and sighed loudly.
“We can talk about this in the break room at lunch Trudy, it’s hardly important right now, is it?”
She listened a while longer and puffed her cheeks up with air.

I wanted to laugh a little, she looked like Sarah does when she’s a few steps away from pouting..
Just.. you know.. older and wider.. with a pink cardigan..

“There’s nothing wrong with having some fun while you work Trudy.”
Her tone shifted back to the ‘grandmotherly’ one she’d used when I first came in.
“Now, be a good girl and come collect your next appointment before the poor dear starves to death.. she looks far too skinny as it is”

My cheeks burned in embarrassment.

That’s the second old person this week to say I’m too skinny now!
The first one being that old doctor back in the Bolivian hospital.
.. I hate this new body..

The old lady hung up the phone and smiled pleasantly at me.
“She’s on her way out Hannah dear.”

I felt a small spark of happiness inside that she called me Hannah.
She’s the first person who knows about Arista that’s done that, aside from Sarah.

Speaking of Sarah.. I really need to apologise to her later.

I shouldn’t have snapped at her like that.
She doesn’t know what kind of indignities I’ve been put through over the last few days..
With a cooler head I can see that she meant well.
I flew off the handle because I was primed and ready for a fight with SOMEONE..
She just happened to be the one nearest to me at the time.

My hand reached down to grab my phone but came up empty.
Oh yeah.. the skirt..

..stupid school uniform..

Not that it would help actually, I can’t remember the last time I saw my phone.
I think I used it to book us a flight across the border in Bolivia when me and Tor were rushing out to the tomb to fight ‘el diablo’.

I’ll have to do the summoning ritual later and draw it back to me.
Leaving something THAT magically advanced out there, for anyone to get their hands on, could be dangerous.
Especially when it’s enchanted with my blood runes on it!

Luckily one of the features I designed my phones enchantments with was a kind of ‘homing pigeon’ rune.
Once I activate it, remotely with a sympathetic ritual, anyone who comes into contact with the phone will have the burning desire to return it to me in some way.

I have a post-box set up for dead-drops of information and things I need but can’t legally be seen in possession of.
The box is miles away in Medford so I’ll have to find a free day and do some creative warping to visit it when I can, but odds are, my phone will be in there when I check.

“Hannah?”
My head shot up.. and up a little more.

“Wow..”
The tall.. really tall.. black woman smiled at me warmly.

She seemed out of place in her skirt-suit.
For some reason it feels like she should be wearing a Greek Stola dress, with thick armor plating and some kind of wide sword on her back.

She had the muscle tone and posture of a true Amazon warrior at least.. either that or an old Norse goddess..
It just feels like she should be out fighting off idiot males who dared to try and claim her.. not stuck in this little place, doing paperwork in a tailored business suit..

I shook my head quickly and blushed at her amused look.
..Where did that all come from?..

She stretched a hand out for me to shake.
Her face smoothed out into a wide welcoming smile when I took it and gave it an awkward squeeze before letting go.

“Hi Hannah, I’m Trudy. I’ll be your rep while you get settled into the AMS program, come back to my office”
She waved me up from my chair and started walking down the little hallway between the divided offices.

I quickly followed her, fidgeting with my skirt a little nervously.
I feel even more out of place in this thing when faced with her.

She’s so.. big.
Not just in actual size either, her shear presence seems to have filled the room since the moment she entered it.
In comparison, I look like I’m skipping out from school.

I FINISHED SCHOOL SIX YEARS AGO DAMN IT!

“Penny for your thoughts?”
I jerked my head up and looked at Trudy.
She smiled at me reassuringly.

“Don’t worry, we’re pretty casual around here. As much as the phrase annoys me, Rosemary is right, Awakened Mage Support ARE here to help you as best we can.”

She brought her hand up and ran it through her short pixy-cut, dark hair nervously.
“Honestly, we don’t get much work usually. A little Hub like Klamath falls doesn’t tend to get THAT many mages permanently living in the area, let alone awakened ones.”

My mouth felt a little dry but I coughed it out and spoke anyway.
“How many are around at the moment?”

Trudy paused and looked thoughtful.
“About a hundred mages, only two awakened ones currently.. don’t worry, they both tend to keep to themselves mostly.”
She smiled warmly.
“Dizzy is a laugh if you get the chance to meet her but..”
She stopped for a moment, she seemed to be judging her words carefully.
“..not to sound harsh or anything.. but try to avoid Johnny. He had some problems with his awakening and he can be a bit.. intense.”

I snorted in agreement without a thought.
She sent me an odd look in exchange.
“You’ve met him?”

I almost laughed at the irony of that question.

“He’s currently living across the street from me.”
Trudy flinched a little.
“oh…”
Her eyes went a little wider suddenly
“Ohhh.. I wondered why the name ‘Arista’ sounded so familiar..”
I flinched this time.

Is she going to be like everyone else?

After a moment to gather herself she looked at me curiosity.
“It’s funny, you’re not at all like how he described you..”

My cheeks flushed and I scowled darkly.
“I’m not her. He thinks I’m Arista and he won’t leave me alone. It.. it’s driving me CRAZY!”
My hands balled into fists.
I could already feel water slowly dribbling out of them from the diverted ice magic.

“Hey, hey, hey..”
Trudy turned around and knelt down so we were at the same eye level.
It annoyed me a little that she was so much taller than me, even if you take away a few inches for her shoes.
She’s got to be over six foot easily, Six-five at worst.

That’s far too tall for a woman who works in an office!

“Hey..”
She nudged my face up with her finger.
The moment her hand touched my chin she pulled it away with a hiss.
“..wow..”
She seemed a little stunned for a moment.
Her eyes were locked on her finger in amazement.

Finally her eyes rolled back up to me with a considering look on her face.

“Come with me, your magic is.. you need some stress relief, I know just the place.”
I opened my mouth to argue but closed it quickly.

Some stress relief would be VERY welcome right about now..

She turned right and led us to a small box corridor between the office spaces.
Her head turned slightly toward me and she smiled conspiratorially.
“I’d appreciate it if you don’t mention this to HR. They’d have a fit if they knew about this place but sometimes you just need to let off some steam, right?”

I nodded and my lips twitched into a weak smile.

Of course I knew what it was like to need to let off steam.
I used to do it literally, now I turn corridors into ice-caves instead.

She reached the door at the end of the hallway and opened it.
I could feel the difference from here.
The door is magical.. I’ve felt this type before.

It’s like the door on the yacht that led us into Dante’s base.

“An expanded room?”
She looked over at me with surprise and smiled a little.
“It used to be our storage cupboard but.. well, it gets kind of boring around here most of the time so I started tinkering and..”

She blushed a little and quickly tried to shift attention away from herself with a nervous laugh.

“It’s fully isolated from the rest of the Hub. It’s more of an expanded space then a real pocket dimension, like those shopping bags they sell at the uptown market in Eugene. The ones with the expansion enchantment on them, so their bigger on the inside.”
I nodded and let her lead me inside.

I’ve never seen one of those bags in person but I understand the theory behind them already.
It’s a tricky little spell to pull off.
It takes some pretty good timing and a fair amount of power to get the initial spell in place and then a lot of time for it to settle in enough to truly become ‘enchanted’.
That’s why the bag’s cost so much.

Any half-whit new mage could expand the inside of a bag, and five minutes later when the initial charge runs out they would have a torn bag with a pool of dropped items around them for their troubles.

That’s the difference between someone who knows magic and a specialist enchanter.
Time, knowledge and pure skill.
Glancing around the surprisingly large room, I had to nod to myself approvingly.

I doubt I could have done better with the space she started from.
The ceiling’s pretty high.
I’d be tempted to put in a few more floors going up but maybe she has a reason for not doing that?

“This is really impressive, what runic language did you use?”

She blinked a few times in surprise and her smile spread even wider.
“Fancy yourself an enchanter, do you? I’ll warn you it’s a hard job, a lot of un-awakened mages can’t handle the workload”
She seemed a bit smug at admitting that fact.

I can understand why.
If she’s not had her awakening then this really IS impressive.

I’d never be able to pull something like this off without the background knowledge I picked up from all of Arista’s incarnations.
They gave me the kick-start I needed to learn enchanting myself.
They made studying a lot easier too, it felt more like revision then actually learning at times.

“I’m an enchanter by nature. My past-incarnations have a thing for sympathetic magic.”
Trudy’s eyebrows shot up in surprise.
“You know about your past-incarnations already? I was wondering why you were here to see me, I normally end up with doing damage control for the new awakenings and helping the locals out when they mess up in some way..”

I perked up an eyebrow in response.

Doesn’t anyone talk to anyone else around here?
Surely she got some kind of message about me.

Not that I’m proud of it or anything but having ‘Arista’ awaken is kind of a big deal usually.
In the memories I have where her incarnations came into contact with some kind of formal magical government, most people tend to lose their minds a bit at first.
Everyone’s so excited to meet Arista.. they used to be at least..
For a while her incarnations started flying under the radar more often than not.
Now everyone’s treating me like I’m a bomb ready to go off..
I’ve got no idea what changed in the meantime.

“I’m already awakened?”

Trudy flinched a little and blinked rapidly at me.
“no way..”
I frowned at her this time.
“yes way.. its not even my first awakening”
I don’t know why but for some reason that felt like important information I should tell her right now.

Her mouth gaped at me.
For a moment there was a flash of fear in her eyes.

I felt my frustration flare again.
So THAT’s why she was being nice to me.. she didn’t think I was Arista.

‘Didn’t’ being the key phrase now..

“How are you.. you said your name was Hannah?”
I glared at her and she shrunk back away from me.

It probably looked kind of funny from an outside point of view.
This statuesque, athletic woman shying away from a teenager in a stupid school uniform.

“My name IS Hannah. Just ‘coz I awakened doesn’t mean I’m going to automatically think of myself as her ya know..”
She straightened up a little and seemed to be considering that.

“You have a point, Dizzy’s like that, it’s rare though. I’ve never heard of such an..”
She seemed to consider her words again.
“You have a long lineage of past-incarnations, usually one of them becomes dominant in cases like yours..”

I smirked to myself a little.

I have a fair amount of experience with that kind of thing.
I beat them all into silence the first time.
Now I’ve found a workaround, of sorts at least.

“I’m just weird like that.”

Trudy smiled back at me.
“Okay, I can see that.. if even half the stories I’ve heard about Arista over the years are true I’m pretty convinced you’re not her..”

My smirk slipped a little.

“.. her reputation precedes me again..”
It was meant it to be a mutter to myself but Trudy seems to have good hearing.
She put her hand on my shoulder and gave me a warm smile.

“Come on, let’s have some fun and burn off some magic.”
I returned the smile and glanced around us.

She’s got some kind of targeting range set up on the far side.
If I’m not mistaken there’s a rack of Icarus wings over in the far corner behind us too.

That must be why she left the ceiling in here as high as she has.

“What do you want to do first?”
I glanced between the two and settled on the targeting range first.
I need to burn magic, the wings would be fun and I might have a go later if we have time but magic takes priority.

Trudy followed my eyes and smiled a little.

She reached over to the wall behind her and tapped something on it.
The targets shuffled themselves around, a few of them tucked back into the side-walls and the remaining three expanded to about ten times their original size.

My eyebrow perked up again in interest.
Nice work.. very nice work..

She’s pretty imaginative with her enchantments it seems.
I wonder what she uses as an etching medium?
I can already guess, by how fast that signal moved to the triggers for all of her separate enchantments on the targets, that it’s not blood magic.

Blood magic is like old magic in some ways.
It’s slower to form and cast itself but as a trade-off blood magic enchantments tend to give you more ‘bang for your buck’ in most situations.

“Take your pick and give it a blast. I’ve not met a spell yet that my targets couldn’t repair themselves from afterwards.”

Ohhh… that sounds like a CHALLENGE!
I pushed the sleeves of my blouse up a little past my wrists and set my feet carefully.

“Brace yourself Trudy, you ain’t seen nothing yet..”
She seemed momentarily worried but with a glance back at the targets she got some confidence back.

She must have put a lot of work into them to be that sure of herself..
I’ll not go ALL out on them then, I don’t want to break her toys so casually.
..That would just be mean..

“I’m an ice mage now. I’ve got a weak diversion on it currently but it’s not helping much, it doesn’t take much of an active push from me to override it completely.”
I turned my head slightly and shot her a cocky look.
“Which would you prefer? Water or Ice?”

She grinned back at me and shrugged a little.
“I HAVE always had a thing for winter..”

..Ice it is..

I pushed into my core.
I barely needed to approach it and my magic was already jumping to be used.

The magic running through my lines started following the string of magic I pulled from my core.
It felt amazing to drain off so much power all at once.

I have to be careful, if I hold it in one spot for too long I’m likely to hurt myself.
My hands used to get burned a lot if I held a spell for too long, I dread to think what internal damage that could happen if I flash-froze my hand because I held on for too long!

My breath came out in a thick fog of condensed water.

My skin was singing with power.
I could feel little tendrils of it breaking away from my flesh and waving carelessly in the air around me.

Trudy had taken several steps away from me.
She reached out to the wall beside her and tapped something.
A near invisible wall of power formed up between me and her.

..Now why didn’t I think of that?..

If nothing else I’m going to have to keep contact with her after all this, just to have someone I can talk to about enchanting with.
She might actually be able to keep up with me..

My magic rolled around my body in one bubbling wave.
I’m pretty sure if I had any form of mage sight on at the moment, I’d be blinded by the corona of power my body is giving off.

Without a word I cupped both hands to my chest and pushed them forward.

A burst of frozen blue power washed across the room in a tidal wave.
I sunk to my knees and panted hard.

That… felt… AWESOME…

My knees are weak.
It felt almost orgasmic when I pushed it all out like that.
I’ve never let off that much magic at once.
I’ve never HAD that much magic TO let off before!

It’s intoxicating.. I could get addicted to this very easily.
Why have I never let magic out like this before?
..It felt SO GOOD..

My head slowly moved up to look forward again.

I feel hollow, so deliciously empty..
It feels like I barely have any magic left at all!

It won’t last, I can already feel more magic pouring in to replace what I just lost.

At the rate I’m going I’ll have barely a minute before I’m at, what I consider to be my ‘maximum power’ level again.
Hopefully it will stop there or at least slow down a bit, otherwise I’m going back to feeling overly saturated with magic within half an hour!

My bleary eyes finally settled on the room in front of me.
.. oh… that’s why I don’t do this more often..

The football stadium sized room around us had turned into a giant ice cave.
Snow was falling down around me.

Thick icicles hung from the ceiling in deadly looking spires of hard ice.
The floor was built up into wide ramp-like snow banks on either side.
I couldn’t even SEE the targets anymore they’re so completely encased in a wall of solid ice!

.. did I really do all that?..

“..wow..”
I jumped a little at Trudy’s voice.
My hand instinctively came up and a blast of water shot in her direction.

The water came out like the hose on a fire-engine.
It missed her by the smallest of margins and splashed against the far wall with a roar of running water.
I quickly cut off the power but it didn’t help much.
A puddle had settled in that corner now, which was quickly becoming a mini-pond, in size at least.

“Sorry, using that much magic made me twitchy..”
She gave me an understanding look but didn’t stay focused on me.
Her eyes drifted around her ‘little’ stress-relief room in awe.

I focused inwards, on my body and groaned.
I think I’ve worked out why I’ve been having so many problems with built up magic lately..

The magic to cast that massive torrent of water a second ago barely touched my still refilling magic reserves.
Hell, it barely took a single lines worth of power to do the whole thing!

No wonder I’ve been building up so much magic.
Making ice from sheer magic alone takes a lot more power than a more ‘basic’ element like fire, wind, earth or water.

I’ve been trying to bleed off my excess magic spikes from when I lose control with an inferior spell!

It’s like trying to empty a river by scooping out a hand full of water at a time.
Even worse, some stupid bastards gone and dammed up one end of the river so it can’t just flow out the other side.

I’m a locus point remember, my magic’s not normal to start with!

I don’t have a set amount of magic I can generate in a day.
I constantly draw in power from the very AIR around me.
Normally it just flows out the other side without a fuss but now..

It’s got to be that stupid brand storyteller put on me!

He said it would stop me casting too many big spells.
On a normal mage that’s EXACTLY what this ‘dam’ would do.

Having a dam at the end of your magical ‘river’ to a normal mage, who barely gets a trickle through it anyway, would end up diluting their magic down over time to a point where their control is nearly non-existent.
Every bit of controlled magic they tried to push through their system would be like peeing in their ‘magical river’, sure at first it would seem potent and you could probably see it go down the lines pretty well but the more their river got stopped up, the more diluted the ‘pee’ would get until you can’t even tell it’s there!

I had enough trouble trying to follow my lines with my body saturated in magic like this and my lines are practically GLOWING with power.
A normal mage would barely be able to find the right lines to start with, without help, let alone follow them all the way to the end!
This brand would be like cutting their power down to a point where doing the same level of magic as a basic, non-awakened, mage was a struggle..

“Hannah?”
I jerked my head out of my stunned thoughts.

This brand is SICK.
It’s worse than the one that I got from Max’s old magic, that one’s an annoyance but at least it isn’t designed to basically cripple my magic!

“Hannah, are you okay?”

My eyes settled on her for a second.
I felt numb.
The storyteller is a twisted man..

..He said that they give these brands to ALL awakened mages like this?..

My eyes trained on her for a second.
She flinched back from me.
She’s scared.. good, she should be.

With a push of my already re-filled magical core I ran all eight lines I needed for a truth spell.

She didn’t have time to react before I’d finished casting it.
It’s so much easier to do when my lines aren’t flooded with power and wild magic.

“Look into my eyes and speak truth.”
I didn’t need the words but it felt good to watch her flinch back from them.
She couldn’t resist the urge to make eye contact with me.

“What do you know of the brand placed upon awakened mages by the Hub?”
Her body locked up, she tried to pull her head away but she won’t be able to.

It’s my magic against hers.
She’s millions of years too young to fight my magic in any meaningful way.

“What brands? There’s no brands put on awakened mages!”

Doubt seeped into my head.
She can’t lie while like this..

She really knows nothing..
It’s her JOB to work with the awakened mages.. how can she not know about the brands?..

I turned around, not even bothering to maintain eye contact.
I don’t need it when the spell is THIS overpowered.
She won’t be able to move until I release it.

“What do you call this then?”
With a yank I pulled my blouse loose from my skirt and showed her my back.

She gasped and struggled slightly against my hold on her.

“That’s.. there's two brands on your skin. One is South American in origin, I recognise the symbols but not the intent. The other..”
Her eyes cut upwards and stared at me.
I stared back at her with determination.

Slowly tears formed in her eyes.

“You poor girl, who did this? This is some bastardised version of the old Japanese wedding brands, their designed to make sure powerful female mages are kept under the strict control of their husbands..”

My control slipped.
The spell ended in seconds.
Trudy collapsed to her knees with heaving breaths.
For a moment I thought she was going to throw up but her head rose to look at me instead.

Her tears hadn’t stopped.

“Who did THIS! What kind of sick fu-”
She cut herself off but I could tell what she was about to say anyway.

It must be the uniform, does she think I don’t know what swearing is?

“Who did this to you Hannah?”
Her voice was cold.
It seemed almost colder than all the ice magic I was just throwing around.

The tone of her voice sent a chill down my spine as she stood to her full height.

She towered over me and for just a moment I could see her again.
Dressed in her stola with the armor plating and a huge sword strapped to her back.

She looked down at me with eyes that have seen more than just war, more than just loss.
Her eyes had seen the fall of empires..
The deaths of millions..

I could feel it!

In the blink of an eye she was back in her skirt-suit.
I blinked frantically but she didn’t change again.

Was that in my head?.. It seemed so real..

“Hannah, who did this? Tell me. I’ll help you find him and we can break the binding.. right after I break HIM..”
Her lips curled up in disgust and she almost seemed to be radiating her outrage into the air around us.

I felt warmer just being near her..

I caught the tell-tale signs of fire magic build up on her.
Her skirt-suit was smouldering in certain places.
She must be a fire elemental!

For her to be chucking out this much power as an un-awakened mage though..
.. wow is she PISSED!..

“HANNAH!”
I jumped and stared up to her in fear.

“I don’t know!”
She deflated a bit at my answer.
“He didn’t give me a name. I was in decontamination and some idiot set the alarms off, before I was let out of it, my box was intercepted.”
Her shoulders sank even more and her tears started falling again.

I watched as one progressed down her cheek and fizzed out into steam before it could hit the floor.
She’s still angry.
She’s smouldering on the inside.

I used to get like that sometimes too.

“He was in a big macho office somewhere in the Hub. He said a lot of stuff, taunted me then set something off in the box that branded me.. he.. he said you do it to all awakened mages..”
My shoulders shook a little.

He lied to me!

I don’t know why I’m so surprised, but I am.
Did he lie about everything else too?
..I don’t know what to believe anymore..

I’m not in the right emotional state to deal with this right now!

With a primal roar I twisted away from her and threw my hands out at the far wall of ice.
Javelin like spikes of ice formed up between my fingers, flying out as a mass of death to lodge themselves deep in the far ice wall.
When one round left my side another would form up to take its place.

“AHHHH!”
It felt so good to be empty before.
It felt so good to just let it go and scream now!

I felt her come up to my side more then saw her.
Her magic was warm, it curled around the waves of power I was throwing off like a soft embrace.

“ARAHH!”
Trudy let off a war-cry of rage and threw her own hands forward.
Flame-throwers worth of fire poured out from her open palms and melted deep troughs in the thick floor ice in front of her.

We both stood there screaming until our throats hurt.

Trudy’s flames died out after almost a minute of pressure.
That’s pretty impressive considering she’s un-awakened.

My ice spikes didn’t stop.
If anything I sped up how fast I was making them.
I made them thicker.
I made them harder.
I made them sharper.

I added every extra step I could think of to make them use up more magic but it wasn’t working!
As fast as I was emptying my body of magic, more of it came pouring in from the saturated environment around us.

I don’t know how long I stood there but eventually Trudy came up behind me and wrapped me in her arms.
The ice javelins I’d just been making fell to the floor half-formed and my knees went with them.
Only Trudy’s arms kept me from landing on the cold floor below.

“We’ll get him Hannah.. we will get the bastard that did this to you and he will PAY!”

I could feel it again.
I’m convinced she means every word of that statement.
Her magic doesn’t lie.
I can feel it rolling protectively over my body, trying to wrap me in a protective shell of her strength.

It won’t work.
She can’t suppress my magic, even if she pushes herself beyond her limits.
The difference in our power levels is just TOO wide of a gap for her to cover.

..I appreciated her trying though..

“Let’s get out of here, I need to start chasing him as fast as possible.”
I didn’t have it left in me to argue.
I just let her gentle movements pull me towards the door.
My eyes drifted blearily down to my feet.
They caught on one detail along the way down and I let out a snorting giggle.

“My skirts ruined..”

It was, the hem is frayed.
Patches of it are singed, others are worn as if they’ve been exposed to the elements for too long.

Our magic did that.
My magic and Trudy’s..

I wouldn’t be surprised if my blouse and socks are ruined too, her suit is probably pretty bad as well.

Hopefully my shoes are okay.
I’m starting to like these Mary Janes, their comfortable.

“Down you go”
I didn’t protest as Trudy eased me into one of the plastic chairs in the old-
In Rosemary’s reception area.
She’s nice. I should remember her name at least..

Trudy walked over to Rosemary who was watching us with wide eyes.

I don’t know what she said but I felt a bit stunned as I watched the change come over the receptionist’s soft, grandmotherly face.
The years seemed to melt off her as her shoulders pulled back tightly and her face tightened in anger.

The sleeves of her pink cardigan started smoking.
They didn’t pay it any mind.

“I’ll get right on it. The paper-trail shouldn’t be too hard to follow”
Her eyes were like hard diamonds, they matched her voice now.

She looked over at me and her look softened just a little.

“Don’t worry Hannah sweetie, leave everything to us..”
Her sweet old lady voice was back, it made me feel calmer along with her smile.

Moments later she slipped back into the cold growl she’d somehow acquired, seemingly out of nowhere.
“..the male will rue the day he drew the attention of the AMS!”

For just a second I could see it.

She was younger, thinner but by no means skinny.
She had a winged helmet on her head, armor perfectly moulded to her breasts in the brightest shade of gold.
Her hands were clutching a spear tightly in her white knuckles..

“Valkyrja..”
The word slipped out of mouth in an awed hush.

The moment broke and she became the pudgy old lady again but I could see it now.
The Valkyrja.. The Valkries.. Holy CRAP these two..

Their MYTHS!

They’re not even awakened!
They CAN’T know about it, but for just a moment I could see it..
Something beyond normal sight showed me what they had hidden at their cores.. and it’s amazing..

Trudy.
She’s an Amazon warrior.
I don’t know how I know it but I can FEEL it.
At least one of her past lives is an Amazon, another one might even be like Rosemary..

Rosemary.. what a name for her?

Imagine one of the Valkyr flying out to battle on her steed, cape floating in the breeze and death at her hands with a name like ‘Rosemary’?!
It would be funny if it wasn’t downright terrifying!

I just showed two of history’s most profound man-hating, tribal warrior, bad-ass women that a man put a messed up marriage brand on me!

I hope your proud of yourself Storyteller..
If I were you I’d be busy kissing my ass goodbye right about now!

“Team AMS, to battle!”
My eyes flew up to stare at Rosemary in awe.

She’d stood up from her desk and dramatically pointed her hand at the door while saying it too.

Trudy didn’t look amused in the slightest.
“Don’t.. ever do that again..”

Rosemary pouted, in a look which really shouldn’t suit a woman of her age, and nudged Trudy a little with one thick arm.

“Oh come on you old prude, live a little.”

I watched them both in shock as Rosemary fled the room with Trudy following close on her heels, muttering something about not being old.

“uh.. guys?”
The only answer I received was the slam of the room’s front door.

“o..kay.. then..”
I glanced around the room one more time and stood up, trying to brush off some of the new wear and tear from my skirt in the process.

“I’ll just.. go then?.. I guess?..”
No-one told me not to, so I took that as acceptance and shrugged to myself.

Just think, when I first came in here I thought this was going to be the only SANE office I’d find in the Hub.. I hope magic doesn’t make people crazy naturally..

I guess, who am I to talk?

I have a small villages worth of voices in my mindscape, that I’m probably going to listen to if they have any good points to make..
I’m twenty-four years old, going on sixteen, wearing a ruined knock-off catholic school girl outfit..

..At this point I think we can agree that ‘crazy’ is an subjective term, in my life..