History test, Monday

She looked at the note scrawled in her own hand, an aid to assist her struggling memory at times. It all started back on that fateful day though she remembered none of what occurred though she would ... whether or not that transferred over to her long term memory was another matter though.

She was going through her notes and memos to herself and had barely read the one saying that Linda was coming over today at 6 to study for the test. 6, it was nearly that now, where had the time gone? There came a knock upon the door, and of course it was the green haired girl, Linda.

Her long hair was cascaded over her left shoulder masking half her face. Clutched in her right hand was her back containing her history books, extra pencils and pens along with her notebook where she scrawled down her notes from class.

"Hi, I know I'm a bit early but I was in the area, just got back from Debbie's and was only up a flight of stairs so I was in the area. Shall we begin or should I come back later?"

It had been a rough day for Ishtar, she could barely remember anything at all. If she didn't have her note book with her, the blue haired student would be wandering aimless down the hall. Fortunately she had her notebook. No matter how confused or lost she was, she could always read her notebook and see what she was suppose to be doing.

Apparently she was to meet a friend to study for a test apparently at six. Well, that would leave plenty of time for.....there was a knock suddenly at the door. The young woman turned towards her clock, which had clearly listed it was six o'clock. It is already six? When did that happen?

Ishtar quickly ran her hand through her hair. One moment, please! The young lady wanted to give herself once over. She looked like she was at least dressed for company, wearing her white sundress themed with red roses. She had to admit it looked pretty good on her. The young woman turned to open the door, to see a pretty green haired girl whose hair masked half her face. Linda it is good to see you again. No, no please come in. I like to get started right away, I think any extra time we have to study would be pretty helpful.

"Great," she said as she entered into the dorm room, her eyes glancing around to take in the surroundings though she set her bag down on a chair near a bookshelf and began to unzip it to take her things out of it. She paused, eyes resting on something as she unpacked her things.

She had been reading some of the titles there. The worn and beaten fictional work The Necronomicon had rested there with other books. Nothing by LeVay that she saw with a quick scan though her eyes fell upon a few treasties that had been familiar. One by the famous alchemist Nicolas Kleamel. Another she recognized her hand going to the thick grimoire as she pulled it off of the shelf.

"My god, I rember this book by Bernelli. They still print it?"

By Bernelli? Ishtar looked over to see Linda pulling down a book from her shelf. It was a shelf contain her books from her occult club days back at her old school. Oh that. No, they don't print those anymore. I lucked out and found it at an old bookstore back in the States. It is a bit older than it looks. I am surprised you recognized anything on that shelf. Apparently her green haired friend was full of surprises today.

"Are you kidding? I use to read all of his stuff." She was flipping through pages looking mostly at the diagrams and symbols. "It was a great start but I graduated to Torneao's stuff after a couple of months, his theories about controlling things worked though we've, my coven I was in at the time, only tried our hand against smaller stuff just to be safe. Imps and stuff like that. This is like a blast from the past."

Really Imps? Ishtar made a low whistling noise as she was generally impressed. I can't remember summoning anything like that. What was that like, to control an imp? What were you able to do with it. The blue haired student couldn't remember about her old cult. To pull off something like that would be impressive. I bet it was pretty fun to do something like that.

"Scary, at least the first few times you do it. They're rather lowly servants but you get the feel of walking a razor's edge with them. You don't want to do anything that might be construed as wrong and want to make sure you get everything right.

"Imps lie a lot and are mischievous so you've got to keep that in mind though with the binding spells we placed on them ensure that they don't do anything unexpected. We normally used them to spy on other students though once we had one pulling pranks on one girl, she was a bitch and we saw it as a form of pay back.

"So, you never tried your hand at conjuring anything? What about illusions? He goes into many details about that?"

At this stage Aegir had scaled up the side of the building. With the aim of checking in upon Ishtar and what she was doing with her plays he was pleasantly surprised to sense a second mind here.

Oh me? Well I can't remember actually conjuring anything. However I can cast some illusions. They don't have too much substance and it takes a great deal of mana for me to perform them, but I can definitely do them well enough to make them sound and look real. Ishtar thought about her friend a bit. Linda do you know any illusion spells, it would be great to practice with some one. To come across someone who knew magic, much less know more than she did. This was a great opportunity to learn much more than history.

"Illusions, yeah I can do some, not too great with them but they were the gateway to conjuring things. I guess the whole belief was that you had to control mastery of your environment before attempting to master conjured creatures. One of the reasons why we never tried anything big but ... ooooohhhhhhhh this looks easy enough and if we mess it up there's little in the way of backlash.

"An awakening spells, let's see, it opens the sense, blah blah blah, oh, ok, those that partake of the ritual can glimpse the surface thoughts of others and can generate more convincing illusions as a result seeing that you's know how to alter them to make the target believe what you want.

"There are a few girls here that practice ... Kanoe, Claire, Pia ... just to name a few but I never clicked with any of them and as a result haven't tried my hand at magic in a considerable amount of time."

Ishtar was stunned there were so many magic users on campus. The blue haired girl knew that Kanoe was a witch from a prior encounter. But that Pia and Claire were too, the young woman would have to write the names down later so she could contact them. It was amazing that so many students of the magical arts were so close. Wow, I didn't know there so many. But I am here, if you would like to practice some magic with me, I would be more than interested. For example how hard was to do an awaking spell?

"Oh and Komiko too, I think she dabbles a little with Pia in that realm, I'm uncertain though I keep to myself for the most part and haven't gotten in on any particular group but it usually takes me awhile to form bonds, it's not exactly as if I can go up to them and say ' hi I'm Phebe, want to cast spells sometime?'

"But this here Awakening spell seems easy enough and doesn't require much ... a prism or crystal, got that, and candles, got that I would hope and a drop of blood from the awakened person or persons, check.

"I'd be happy to practice something with you," she walked over to her a bit closer now. "Do you want to look over things before hand?"

Um, I think I have some of that, Linda. Ishtar smiled at her green haired friend as she looked around her room. She was so excited she total forgot about the history test. The young woman quickly found some candles she had been saving. Now I just have to figure out where I might have prisim. She went over to her closet and checked in a box that she kept some odd knick-knacks. Here we go, I think we have everything we need. I have to admit I am pretty excited.

Aegir was beneath their window now, sensing them in the room beyond. He picked up on their surface thoughts and what they intended on doing as he contemplated his next move. He pondered matters briefly as he dug through memories or what he could of memories finding some repressed. Things that Ishtar couldn't remember where juicer than Phebe's past, this was something he could work with and while he could restore such memories with ease he did not, not yet, for maling such discoveries where far more interesting. Besides, someone made her forget just as he blanked out a portion of their initial meeting.

Ishtar didn't hunt for a prism for long. Even as she uncovered one Phebe showed her one, for she had the portion of one attached to a necklace that she wore. But everything was gathered save for a way to harvest their blood.

"Do you got a knife or a letter opener or something that we can prick ourselves with?"

A knife or a letter opener? No I don't have either of those. Safety had always been important at the school. Anything that could remotely be used as a weapon had been confiscated long before a student had even made it to dorms. In fact, Ishtar could vaguely recall fellow students getting in trouble for even taking knives out of the cafeteria. And the punishments seemed to be severe.

However, there were other solutions available. I do have another idea though. Ishtar went over to her desk and pulled out a sewing kit. Sewing kits were important on the island, as for some reason, the blue haired girl outfits were always getting ripped in some way. I do have a needle would this work?

"Yes, that would work, I was going to recommend a sewing needle or a pin if you didn't have the first. We don't need to make a sacrifice or spill a bucket of blood, only a drop while do.

"Alright, the book says to set up the candles in a ring, get the candles." She waited until this was done before turning to the east after getting a second to get her barings with the assumption that the sun rose in the east, set in the west and thus this way towards the door was east.

"Now the initiator speaks the incantation to the east, I'll read if you like, I've got some practice in these things. We'd have to get the candles lit first then get to the spell."