Molly had decided not to delete all of her apps. She just deleted a few; the ones she knew she didn’t need and that weren’t important to her. The few that she kept, she would delete down the road. She wasn’t ready to throw them away when she had already been taken away from home. She couldn’t give up all the things that gave her comfort. That wouldn’t be fair.
She stared at the sound giving app, the one that made noises come to life, trying to convince herself not to use it to put herself to sleep. She was fighting with the choice of either giving away another pixel of her soul to fall asleep quickly—something that she had done over and over again that obviously hadn’t hurt her soul too badly because she was still here—or trying to fall asleep the harder and more natural way and risk the spirit sprites coming back to give her no peace for another night.
She had tried to go up to the Spirit Magick One teacher during class earlier that day to ask about the spirit sprites and how to protect herself, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. No one else had approached the teacher; no one was talking about anything that had happened to them the night before so maybe no one else was affected. She didn’t want to go alone and seem weird. She also didn’t want to stay after class after everyone had left and make people think she had a problem, or worse, be late to her next class on her first day. Not when there was a chance that the spirit sprites might leave her alone tonight. She always had tomorrow to try again if they came back. She could ask then. But not on her first day.
Blood swelled to her pumping heart at the thought of the little creatures coming in anytime soon. That prompted her to start the app that always brought her sweet dreams and let the magickal rain pitter-patter all over her skin.
***
Molly was not standing on the pavement in her dream anymore but on ice. Purple ice, threatening to break, calling for her to fall into its depths. She was cold, shivering, too frightened to move until the ice shattered, water coming up around her as she was dragged through it. The shards cut her face. The freezing water hugged her close as she tried to scream. She was paralyzed. She couldn’t breathe. The only thing she felt in the freezing, numbing liquid were warm tears in her eyes.
Something was holding her under. Something was holding her still.
She was drowning.
Her lungs burned. Her eyelids closed as the purple world began to turn black…
But then her lungs burst open, and she gasped.
She was back in her room. A spirit sprite was there, looking at her.
But something else was there too. She couldn’t see it before it grabbed her again, gripping around both her arms.
She was shoved back under again.
Straight back into the icy water that was trying to kill her.
Something was trying to take her over. Something in the outside world. Something was dragging her here.
But she could kick through the water this time.
Whatever had her before had less of a hold. She tried to swim up before everything went black, but she was met by a solid sheet of ice forming over her.
She pounded her hand against it, her body screaming. She ran out of air just as her hand broke through. The plate of ice was thinning, weakening, along with the grasp of the thing holding her.
She grabbed onto the edges of the ice as it slipped away from her, slicing into her skin.
And then she woke up.
A spirit sprite was driving its fingers into her arms. There was shuffling on the floor beside her bed and then a token of some kind in that spot: a bronze coin with a twisted, knotted wind in its middle.
The spirit sprite dug its fingers in deeper. Molly screamed, grabbed the creature’s spindly arms, and yanked its fingers out. She shoved the creature away from her.
The token was gone just as her door slammed shut.
***
She had no idea what had happened. She didn’t know if another spirit sprite had been in there with her and had somehow tried to take her over. But that night, she had not slept again.
Another thought crept into her mind the moment she picked up her phone.
Did that happen because she sold another pixel of her soul?
She wanted to text Kren and ask him, but after she had used another app that night when she was told not to, she knew she couldn’t. She wanted to see if it happened again when she didn’t use the app to make sure she wasn’t getting herself in trouble for anything. But none of it made sense. The only times she had ever gone to the place of ice was when a spirit had almost taken over her body, which started happening before she ever had a phone.
She didn’t want to risk going to that place again, but the only thing she could think to do was wait another night to see if it happened again. She didn’t want to look like an idiot and didn’t want anyone to know she had used an app for a minor thing like falling asleep. She also didn’t want to make Kren angry and for him to think he couldn’t trust her.
But she would ask for help with the spirit sprites today like she had promised herself she would do the day before. The ache in her arm and wrists still throbbed, reminding her that she needed to do something about this.
She decided to skip breakfast to see if her Spirit Magick One teacher Mrs. Sleck was in her classroom.
A small wave of relief washed over her when she saw that the classroom door was open and that Mrs. Sleck was sitting at her desk eating a glazed donut.
Molly invited herself inside.
Some of the classrooms Molly had been in the day before had been interesting, but Molly had found Mrs. Sleck’s classroom the most curious. It had spiritual magick posters all over the walls, symbols carved from metals and different types of wood hanging off-center in various spots, and then the non-magickal schools’ alphabet that Molly was familiar with along with others in different languages lined on wallpaper cradling the ceiling.
“Can’t you see I’m eating? It’s not class time,” Mrs. Sleck snapped, turning her head away from Molly to not give Molly any attention. The blue dye at the ends of her curls bounced, while the grey dye in the middle stayed flat. She was maybe in her thirties, and was built in a way that had made Molly think she had children. But someone in class yesterday had asked her if she did, and she said no. There were also no pictures of children on her desk, only of a man that Molly assumed to be her husband smiling out at the world next to a man-shaped candle. This was presumably a representation of the god she worshiped, although after class with her yesterday and viewing her bit of craziness, the thought of it being her husband had crossed Molly’s mind.
“I’m in your 1:30 class,” Molly said. “I’m sorry I’m bothering you during your break time. I just had a question about the spirit sprites.”
Mrs. Sleck’s green eyes rotated slowly to stare at her as one widened and the other grew smaller. She knew that Rexa and Val would not have liked her, but Molly felt fondly of her, even if she was slightly unfriendly now.
“You see them? Already? If you’re in my 1:30, you have to be a first year.” Mrs. Sleck stood up, abandoning her donut to come around her desk. She wore a blue tulle dress with many ruffles falling in layers. “You don’t look like you grew up around magick. Oh! Did an older year tell you?”
“No…. I see them. They’ve been hurting me.”
“Hurting you?” Mrs. Sleck let out a laugh. “They only steal and pry. They don’t cause any harm.”
Molly stood still as Mrs. Sleck grabbed her by both shoulders and moved her to a more open space before she let go and walked around her in a circle. “I remember you. You had an extra hard time in class yesterday. You could barely get your soul to come out to do a slight ejection to look at yourself. However, that was a hard lesson. I admit that.”
Molly felt her face turning red.
Mrs. Sleck stopped behind her. “Are you going to tell me why?” she asked.
The question made Molly jump. She didn’t know if Mrs. Sleck was referring to why she could see the spirit sprites or why expelling a part of her soul hadn’t worked, although the answer was the same for both. Did she really have any choice but to tell the her? Would she tell anyone else? Would Mrs. Sleck be willing to help her if she knew?
“I… I am a… an… empty vessel,” she stammered out.
Mrs. Sleck grabbed her arms with warm, sweaty hands. Her green eyes bore into Molly’s. “You’re an empty vessel? How do you know?”
“I… I was told…”
“Oh. Wow. What bad luck, child!” Mrs. Sleck bit her lip. “I’m so sorry. That was insensitive of me. That makes sense why they are hurting you, then. I can teach you a glue spell and how to ban them from touching you for brief periods of time.”
Mrs. Sleck went to the other side of the room where there was a big table.
“Come here. Come here before breakfast is over.” Her teacher beckoned her with a wave of her hand.
Molly rushed over and stared at the Spirit Magick One book on the desk.
“Glue spells are very quick and easy. They will stop the spirit sprites from stealing your things, but you can only unglue your own glue spells unless you’re a teacher and more of an expert. Complications.” Mrs. Sleck waved her hand, dismissing what she was saying before she put her hand over the grey textbook. She looked at Molly. “You can’t do a glue spell on the doors either. No spells can be done on them for safety reasons. The spirit sprites will always be able to get into the rooms, but since you are more prone to being practically bitten by them—” she wheezed a laugh at her joke that made Molly squirm, “—Well, certain ones live mainly on certain floors. They are territorial. I can teach you to ban the ones on your floor so if they come into your room they will leave you alone, and you can sleep.” She seemed to be eyeing the dark circles under Molly’s eyes.
Molly nodded, biting the inside of her cheek.
“Glue magick combines spirit magick and symbol magick. You want to make the soul stick. To do that, you need to give it a reason to. You draw this symbol.”
Molly watched as Mrs. Sleck traced a squiggly line down the middle of the book with her right hand, adorned with a gaudy plastic purple ring. “It’s that easy, although I didn’t do the other basic step. You need to slightly call to its soul and mesh your want for it to make a permanent bond to something, while drawing the line. It will take some time, but soon you’ll find it as quick as signing a name.” Mrs. Sleck drew the squiggly line straight down the middle of the book then turned to Molly, motioning for her to try to pick the book up.
Molly grabbed at the edges of the book to lift it from the desk, but even the pages wouldn’t release from themselves.
“To unglue it you do it the opposite way.” Mrs. Sleck did it, then waved her hand for Molly to try again. Molly was surprised to see that she could lift the book. It didn’t feel like it was set in stone.
“Now you try.”
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Taking a deep breath, Molly concentrated on wanting the book to stay in its place as she drew a squiggly line down the book’s center. Mrs. Sleck poked at the book, and it budged.
“Again.”
“But what did I—”
“You need to feel the want. You need to have the right incentive.”
Molly breathed again. When she drew the line this time, she felt her want seep into the book like melted glue, trying to keep it shut. But it moved again when Mrs. Sleck touched it.
Mrs. Sleck had her try again and again until, finally, Molly felt the warming of her soul inside her hand as if it were melting the soul of the book and convincing it to stay in place. When Mrs. Sleck tried to move it, it wouldn’t budge.
“Good. Now want it to lift. Take it away. And if you get any pages stuck, you will take this book with you, work on it the rest of the day, and bring it back once all the pages are unstuck.”
Molly tried to do it. She drew the line backward, sliding her finger up the soft plastic casing of the book until it got to the top wanting it all to unstick, for the soul to form back together and be tightly bound again, not be loose and reform separately through the pages.
Mrs. Sleck prodded at the book and smiled with one side of her mouth when she saw that the book had moved, but then she scrunched her nose when she picked it up and tried flipping through the pages to see that some of them would not turn or budge.
She pushed the book into Molly’s chest then walked to a desk.
“Come on, come on, barely any time now.”
Molly followed after her.
“Banning something as simple as a spirit sprite is easy too. They are meant to cause mischief, so your own incentive will be strong to keep them away. Because they are hurting you, you will have a strong incentive that I’m sure you will feel deep within your soul. They also don’t have the magick or wits to fight against the ban. When a spirit sprite approaches you, you think in your mind how much you want it to be gone, then you call to your god, goddess, or whoever—” she eyed Molly again, “—And if there is no one, that’s fine too. You then draw this symbol with your spiritual essence.”
She drew the symbol in the air. Molly thought it looked like a lock from the invisible lines she traced. “We will be talking about spiritual essences in class later today and how to draw your spiritual essence out at least a little to work some magick, so you should be able to make the banning work after today.”
Molly was confident that she would be able to since she had drawn her spirit out before at Kren’s house. It was just that asking her spirit to come out all the way was hard for her. Some students had released an entire arm or leg in spirit form from themselves. Some had released their whole body as they had sat slumped in a chair.
Mrs. Sleck made Molly draw the symbol a few times to ensure she got it right.
“All set. Off you go,” Mrs. Sleck smiled, pushing Molly to the door.
“But I have another question.”
Annoyed, Mrs. Sleck crossed her arms but then smiled. She was a conundrum.
“I need you to help me learn how to protect myself. Since I’m an empty vessel, sometimes spirits try to take me over, and I…and I almost lose myself.”
She didn’t want to tell Mrs. Sleck what had happened last night.
Mrs. Sleck’s face fell, but she did not uncross her arms. “I’m sorry, girl, but I can’t do that. Not yet. I can when you’re ready, though.”
“Ready?”
“I can’t teach you how to protect yourself because you have no foundation for your learning yet. Protecting yourself in the way you are thinking will only get you hurt. Spirits are not like spirit sprites, where you can just ban them. They are more complicated. You’re not yet ready to tackle that. You’ve only been in school for one day. You could get hurt, and then that would be on me! The school is the safest place you can be, though. You’ll be fine here until you learn some basics. Then we’ll figure out a time slot in your next schedule if you really need me to help you learn.”
Before Molly knew it, she was being pushed out the door, which was then shut behind her. When she checked her phone, it was 7:55. She still had twenty minutes until her first class. The thought of getting breakfast skimmed past her mind until the book in her hand reminded her that she had left the two books for her other classes back upstairs. That was perfect since she could then drop off the Spirit Magick One book while picking up the other two.
Ugh. She was so annoyed. She had started online classes last night before she went to bed, and the work wasn’t too hard, but it was time-consuming. If she had to do that again tonight, she wouldn’t have much time to get the pages in the book she was holding unglued, especially if she had any homework from her History and Transformation of the Magick World class like last night.
There was not enough time in the day.
On top of that, Mrs. Sleck, the teacher she hoped would help her, refused until she knew more. When would she know enough? And how could she possibly gauge that?
Molly headed up to her room to put her book away. She decided to visit the library later when she had time to find her own ways to protect herself. Then she would rush through her online schooling tonight to unglue her book completely and practice banning the spirit sprites when she got the chance. She just hoped that her History and Transformation of the Magick World class at the end of the day didn’t give her as much homework as it had the day before. Although that could have been because she was behind and had to catch up.
She had tried to get Derrin, who had been in that class with her, to meet up and do their work together since they had arrived at the school the same day and he had a mountain of work too, but he had still refused to talk to her.
It had been an interesting class, at least. They had discussed technology names who had transformed the world, many of which Molly hadn’t known because they were on the magickal side, except for Lily’s last name. Molly had caught that. Apparently, in the class, they were to start discussions closer to the period they were living in now and then work back in time. A major thing she had learned was that the magickal community called the period when technology showed the world that magick was real the All-Seeing Time. That time brought about topics that Molly felt uncomfortable with, like the protests when humans thought their rights were being taken away, religious communities that rose up, and many jobs and systems in the magickal and non-magickal world that were lost.
It was interesting hearing from the magickal perspective on how the world had changed and how the non-magickal and magickal communities were working to find ways to live together.
***
Molly’s phone vibrated.
Ova: Where are you?
Molly: Heading to the library during break. Sorry!
Ova: Don’t be. Hope you like it!
Molly was heading against the tide of students going in the direction of their rooms or the outside. It was after Symbols One. She had to lean against the wall so the mass of students could get past her. She was near a door that had been left ajar and was surprised to hear squealing coming out of the room.
The boy she had run into yesterday, Namu, was inside it with a teacher who had long black hair. There was a creature squirming and screaming in a medium-sized cage sitting on a desk. It looked like a chinchilla, but had a yellow duck bill and duck feet. The most alarming thing about the scene was that the sounds coming out of the creature were not ones a duck would ever make.
“Focus harder,” the teacher, who had his back to her, demanded.
The boy was focused. His eyes were closed. It looked as though he were drawing the spirit out of the creature with his hands raised above it. No, not a spirit; it was two spirits. He was drawing two spirits out: one of a duck, that Molly could clearly see outlined in a translucent green soul, and one of a chinchilla outlined in pink.
“That’s it. Good,” the teacher encouraged. Then the teacher slapped a slab of marble onto something that the cage was sitting on.
In a flash, the single creature became two sleeping animals in one cage. The boy held the two spirits separate from each other as the teacher ran to the other side of the room to grab another cage. He then scooped the duck out of the first cage and placed it inside the second.
“Okay,” the teacher breathed.
The boy let the spirits go, and Molly watched as they sprang back down into their rightful bodies. The creatures stayed asleep, their breathing deeper than before.
Molly tore herself away from the scene, not wanting them to know she had been watching, and then ran to the library. She had no idea what she had seen. Was it separating two combined souls? But how?
And that creature… that poor creature before they had helped it…
Was that something that could happen to her or someone else if she tried to do magick beyond her means of control and understanding? She wanted to find the spirit magick section and educate herself. Then maybe she could get someone to teach her how to protect herself. Maybe if Mrs. Sleck wouldn’t help her, the teacher she had just seen would, or that boy. If not, she would have to text Kren and beg him to come back and teach her something or persuade him to ask someone else to.
The library was a big open room that she could not see the end of, placed after the hall of classes and the restrooms. It contained hundreds of freestanding bookshelves lined up in rows. It was overwhelming and she did not know where to start, so she walked outside the library to the library office she had seen when she first arrived to ask for help.
Before she reached the enclosed glass library office that looked much like the technology room upstairs, she found empty desks filling the library, some with computers and some without. A tall woman with many dark braids was bent over, helping a student at a desk. She wore a vibrant navy and light blue striped romper that clung to her thin shoulders with a little yellow sunflower pinned to her right shoulder. She looked exhausted as she stood tall like a goddess staring down at the boy she was helping.
Molly drifted over to ask for her help just as the student, who had a book opened on the desk, read a sentence out loud with broken words as he scanned the page with his finger. Molly could not hold back a gasp when she saw a spout of water rise from the page over the student’s finger to nuzzle it for a moment before returning to the page.
The student, with big bright eyes, turned to the woman, who was smiling.
“See,” the woman whispered. “Isn’t that scary at all. I don’t know why Mr. Young insisted on making such a chaotic show in the classroom with a live display much bigger than that, but tell him to warn you next time before he does and send you to me. If he doesn’t listen, I’ll have a talk with him.”
The young boy, who had to have been about ten, nodded, closed the book, and ran off. The woman nearly stumbled and grabbed hold of the chair when she saw Molly and straightened herself.
“Yes, dear?” she asked, her kind light brown eyes turning to Molly.
“Are… are you the librarian?”
“Well, yes, dear, I am. My name is Mrs. Yitter. Anything I can help you with?”
“I’m looking for the section on spirit magick, but… it’s my first time here. I don’t want to waste any time.”
Mrs. Yitter smiled. “I completely understand. It can be overwhelming. All you need to do is tap three times at the start of each connected row and think about which section you need. That section will glow brightly for a moment only for you.” She pointed to the side of her head. “If you have any problems, just come back and get me.”
“Thank you,” Molly whispered, then whisked herself away, not wanting to disturb the tired librarian any longer.
She went to the first row after the desks and tapped three times, thinking about the section she needed. When nothing lit up, she went to the next row of dark wooden shelves and tapped again. Then again, and again, until finally, something in the back ate away the shadows indicating that it was the row she needed.
The books surrounding her varied in size, age, mustiness, griminess, and color. Some looked ancient, while others looked brand new. The names of the sections appeared along the bottom of the wooden shelves. She walked past some labeled as locations, some as time eras, and then one labeled as fiction and non-fiction non-magickal. She wondered if there was any organization to the shelves at all.
Finally, at the end, she found the spirit magick section, taking up about twelve shelves.
She scanned the bindings, some with words and some without, and put her fingers against an old one with faded black letters that read Spiritual Guidance in a Helping Hand. Then she heard a familiar voice behind her.
“Hey! Molly.”
Molly’s arm jerked. Her finger missed pulling out the book she had been about to as she turned to see Ova smiling with an adult standing beside her.
“Fancy seeing you here,” Ova continued until her happiness flipped to a look of worry. “I promise I didn’t follow you. I just came to see Mrs. Heard since you were busy during break. She literally works right over there sometimes.” Ova pointed around the corner, and Molly stepped back to peek out. There was a big round purple rug on the floor with bookshelves forming a half-circle containing some kind of special selection.
Mrs. Heard reached out her hand for Molly to take and shook it a little too vigorously with a wide smile. “Please call me Celta. I am the religious coordinator.”
Oh. That would explain why Ova was with her.
Celta wore a bright yellow top that complimented her dark skin. The outfit reminded Molly of a sunflower.
“She is a married to the librarian, Mrs. Yitter!” Ova squealed, then shut her mouth with her two hands before giggling. “Sorry, Celta excites me in general. She also went to Opendrest! She liked it there way better.”
Opendrest? One of the other schools?
Celta laughed. “Well, yes. Who wouldn’t!? That school is filled more music and art. Something this place needs.” Her brown-hazel eyes twinkled.
“But if you and Mrs. Heard are married—” the sunflower on Mrs. Heard’s romper came to mind, “Why do you have different last names?”
Slapping her leg, Celta laughed again and pointed directly at Molly, “Trust me. I tried to get her to change it. I said either way I would go. But she didn’t want anyone getting confused.” She rolled her eyes.
“Because they work together,” Ova chimed in. “If you ever have any questions on religion, she is the one to ask. She’s here to help students with research, finding things to pray with, or finding who to follow if you are lost. She follows Guan Yin and Oshun.”
Molly then noticed the two necklaces hanging from Celta’s neck. One was a circular golden portrait on a golden chain with what looked like a goddess, and another of a green jade figure encased in gold.
“Yes! Please do! When I was in school long ago, I HATED how everyone fought about different religions. After growing up in a bustling city where everyone followed one religion, I had expected things to be different when I went to magickal school. But of course not! I’m here to make that change.”
Ova nodded proudly. “Also, you can ask her about the other schools, too.”
“Opendrest is one of the three, right?” Molly asked.
“One of the three, yes,” Celta said. “What is your name?”
“Oh! Molly,” Ova stammered, obviously embarrassed that she hadn’t introduced her friend correctly.
“Listen here, Molly. This school and all the others are about acceptance. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, deserves peace in religion or just peace in general. One day, our world will make it there. Non-magickal and magickal religions are all good. We are just trying to teach that we don’t want anyone falling into the bad side of things that could hurt them,” Celta said, winking at her.
It was comforting to know how keen some of the staff were on acceptance. It made Molly feel safe and like she might be accepted one day.
She looked back to the spirit magick section and felt a pit open in her stomach. She still did not feel safe enough, though, to tell Ova about being an empty vessel. Also, what if there was a bad choice regarding religion and this school? Ova had seemed less than accepting earlier regarding Lily and their beliefs. So where would that land her?
When she looked back, Molly saw that Celta had gone, but Ova was still standing there studying her. “Do you want me to leave you alone? Or do you want me to show you some of the religious books?”
Molly could see the slight hint of a smile playing at Ova’s lips.
“I’ll follow you,” Molly answered.