The next couple of days was school as normal. I'd forgotten what it was like to be in school. Because, you know, I can't remember anything about my former life, so of course I did.

I'd promised not to go places I wasn't supposed to without Seth, so my explorations have been somewhat curbed. I was being more cautious anyway. My magic open-any-door ring was still working right now, but that could stop at any moment. I really didn't want to get stuck on the wrong side of a door I couldn't open myself.

I had decided not to go wandering in the Wind Tower as Seth was practicing another new spell. This one was Stillness, of the air variety. Apparently there was another one for water, and probably more.

This spell stopped air from moving. It didn't stop a person from breathing, or from something moving through the air like a bug, but it did stop smoke from rising and was useful in containing poisonous gasses or nasty farts.

It was basically the opposite of Breeze. And when I compared the sigils and stuff for both spells? Nothing in common. I honestly expected to see something that would indicate wind, or air or something in both spells, that there would be some component that I could look at and say 'this means this and that means that, so this is how the spells work'. Nope. They were completely different.

Maybe when I've seen more spells I'll find something that lets me go 'Aha!' Until then, I can only keep memorizing them. One day, I'll be casting this shit myself.

I've had so much to memorize lately, and it's not like I can take notes. Memorize spell formulas. Memorize the alphabet. Memorizing words. Oh, speaking of that, I noticed a neat little cheat. If I sound out a word I'm reading in my head, my brain will translate it into English for me. So I don't actually need to learn the new language to understand it. But that doesn't help me with communicating with the kids. I'd need to be able to write in their language, and the translation doesn't go that way.

Just the thought of that made me growl a little bit.

"Easy, girl," Seth said, and scratched my head. I was riding on his shoulder as usual and we had just gotten to the Circle Tower. "Be nice today, please? No more trouble."

Oh come on kiddo. I never start shit that's not deserved. Or necessary. Or entertaining. Okay, I see where this is going. I'll try to be good. Maybe. I gave him a headbutt.

Seth just sighed. I don't think he was convinced of my sincerity. Which was fine, because I wasn't terribly sincere.

Seth looked around the classroom. I didn't know what he was looking for. Our little life project was in its pot on the shelves with everyone else's pots. The tables were filling up with the other students. And Arnold was over by the pots messing with shit.

I was about to hop down and head over to mess with his shit when Seth headed over himself.

I took a look at all the projects. It'd been two weeks now since planting, and about half of the pots had sprouted already. One girl's project was looking pretty full and lush already. Good for her.

And then there was Seth's pot.

"Aw, looks like your project isn't doing so good," Arnold said with a smile.

"It's early yet. It'll sprout soon," Seth said.

"I'm glad you're confident. How long do you figure it'll take at this point?"

"I don't know. I'll wait and see,"

"If you say so. I'm just trying to help you pass. You know, as a show of no hard feelings." Arnold just smiled and pushed past Seth. Rude bastard. As I recall, he'd killed all of Seth's seeds the first time around. Just because it was in a pot now didn't mean he wouldn't still sabotage the plant. I looked at the rest of the plants on the shelf and leaned in to see if my whiskers could pick up any magic.

There was just the slightest bit of mana in the pots that had sprouted. These were magic plants, but they hadn't accumulated much mana yet. The pots that hadn't sprouted yet felt no different than the table.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Then I took a closer gander at Seth's project. I could feel mana in the whole pot. Somebody, read 'Arnold', had been casting spells on it.

I looked at Seth and nodded at the pot and then Arnold.

"I figured," he said. He dug a finger down to the bottom of the pot and cast Detect Life on the seed down there. "It feels like it's still alive. But it has a different feel to it now. Can you get anything from it?"

I concentrated. I was getting pretty darn good at sensing mana if I do say so myself, and I was starting to get a feel for different mana types. I wasn't sure, but that asshole was still casting death spells on that seed. The seed didn't seem to mind so much though. Well, I suppose I shouldn't be at all alarmed that a magic seed isn't bothered by death magic. Maybe it's a death tree. Could there be zombie bushes in my future?

Eh, that's a later problem. I shrugged at Seth who sighed and studied the pot.

What could I do to protect Seth's project?

My magical repertoire was nonexistent, so it'd need to be something mundane. Glitter bombs? I have no idea how to get the supplies for something like that, or how I'd deliver the payload. Did they even have glitter here? Oh! What about magic glitter?

I entertained myself with the idea of magical glitter that you couldn't wash out of anything sticking to Arnold. Dude would sparkle in sunlight for the rest of his life.

Turns out Seth was pretty quick himself. He put a mark on his pot and swapped it with another student's. That poor schmuck was gonna lose their plant in the crossfire. Better them than Seth though. And it's not Seth's fault anyway, he's not the one doing the sabotage.

Instead of taking the seat he'd been in the last couple weeks, Seth grabbed the seat next to Selendrith. The guy that usually sat there made a little bit of a stink, but seats weren't assigned so, tough noogies.

And on with the lecture. The care and feeding of magic plants. The formula and schedule for fertilizing. How to feed it mana. How to bore a cat to death.

I was really regretting that promise not to wander off. Maybe if I just didn't leave the room? Maybe I could find some glitter. Or shiny dirt. I don't know, maybe there's unicorn manure here somewhere.

"Hey, do you think you could help me with something?" Seth asked Selendrith quietly.

"What do you need?" Selendrith answered. I noticed she didn't just agree. Smart girl.

"I think my plant is getting sabotaged. I need a way to either protect it from whatever is getting done to it, or stop it from happening to begin with."

"Why don't you just report who you think is doing it?"

"Because I don't have any proof he's doing it, and we're both on probation. If I'm not careful, I could make things worse."

"Do you know what you want to do?" Selendrith made sure none of the nearby students were paying them any attention. "A trap, a ward, or what?"

"The safest thing to do is just prevent anything from happening to the plant," Seth said. "But I think I'd rather he get slapped a bit for messing with things that aren't his."

"We'd need to set up a ward. The biggest problem with those is keeping them powered. You'd need to have something that can contain mana that the spell can use over time, otherwise the spell would only last a couple hours at most."

So, this is news to me but at the same time it made sense. For a spell to stick around, it needs fuel. I glanced up at the light strings on the ceiling. That means all those spells are cast on something that can hold mana. Like the horn that Seth's amulet is made out of. Speaking of which, Selendrith was wearing rings made of the same material. That did make me wonder if there was more left.

Eh, I couldn't use it right now anyway. But that whole fuel idea, and mana needs to come from somewhere got me to thinking. Do I have a source of mana?

Could this be why I can't cast spells? I don't actually have mana?

No. I'm sure I've got mana. I can feel it in my whiskers. I just don't know how to use it. And at the very worst, I'll wait until my horns grow in. Considering the power I can tell is in these amulets made from mama cat's horns, I'm going to have a crap ton of mana one day.

Selendrith and Seth talked about setting up a ward that would prevent any spells from affecting the protected object. The main problem they were discussing was that a protected pot would prevent Seth from casting spells on it too, and he'd have to redo the ward every time he did need to cast on it.

I dunno. I'm thinking maybe just let the seed eat the death spells. Zombie plants can't be that dangerous.

I had been as good as I could manage and now I was done with that. I hopped off the table and decided to take a look around for a little green snake that I knew should be in the room.

I found him in just a few minutes. He was sound asleep in the sun on a high windowsill. The little worm got there from the shelves nearby. And what was also on those shelves? More flower pots.

And what does a bored cat do when she finds a stack of flower pots above a sneaky little snake?

I didn't do anything to hurt the snake. And no one noticed that the little snake was trapped under one of the heavier pots either, because at the same time I was dropping one on the snake, I conveniently knocked over a different pot that made a ton of noise when it hit the floor.

I got in trouble. But it was a teeny tiny bit of trouble. And it was totally worth it to get a back at that sneaky snake, even if only a little bit. I knew that Arnold would find it. Eventually.