Chapter eleven: Alice
A twist. Third popper. Fourteenth popper, warped slightly. Eleventh popper, transition into an Incorporate Bond spell. Pause: transition into Koyosegi's ward. Deep breath. Fingers twisting painfully into the Paralysis spell.
Fuck.
The magic she has been building explodes outward, contained only by Martin's elegant hand movement and the shimmering wards that he had thought to put in place before their training session.
Alice groans, and drops her stance.
"Now class," Martin say genially, "Do you see where Ms Quinn went wrong there?"
Quentin shakes his head, eyes down. Their relationship hasn't really recovered from Brakebills South, and Alice feels a pang of loss. Everything has been so hectic ever since Eliot that she and Q never really got around to talking. Now, months later she feels like it's too late, like she's been trapped in a fucking limbo of emotions and relationships that she doesn't have time for. Not when she's trying to steal from a god, break an ancient and unknown binding spell, and learn battle magic at the same time.
Julia is watching her hand movements intently, and Kady is sat back studying her nails nonchalantly. No doubt Kady's been able to do most of the battle magic they're learning for years.
Margo isn't here, probably off blowing things up. Annoyingly she's already mastered the paralysis spell having taken to battle magic alarmingly well and often blows off Battle Magic 101 to make things explode with Todd who doesn't seem to mind being her punching bag: Alice isn't sure whether that's a literal or metaphorical description as Margo's Healing spells have also become much better recently. Alice hasn't dared point out who Todd superficially resembles, but she knows that she isn't the only one to have noticed. Honestly these days it doesn't take long for Margo to blow up at any of them: the only person she has any patience for is Penny, ambushing him whenever she sees him and demanding detailed reports on whatever he's seen.
Penny though… he refuses to talk to anyone about Fillory and Eliot apart from Martin and Dean Fogg. To anyone else asking about Eliot, he just gives a dead eyes stare. Reassures them that he isn't dead yet. That doesn't stop Margo from pushing.
In fact, Alice hasn't seen Penny in days. Whenever he's mentally on Earth he's either being called on to act as transport as the only person able to currently exit the wards, tiredly shovelling down food under Kady's steely eye, or being interrogated by Martin. Sometimes though, Alice finds notes in the library in a surprisingly neat hands, details and observations about the Circumstances in Fillory, careful calculations so that they have the best chance of using their magic in a foreign dimension.
Julia always looks sad and vaguely disapproving when she sees them and immediately marches off…somewhere.
(Alice will never admit this, but she's walked in on them once. Three bodies piled together on the couch in the Cottage, Penny pinned down by Julia and Kady slumped over both of them, as if the weight of their bodies will make him stop and rest for once)
"Well since no one is answering, I suppose it falls upon me to spoon fee you the answers. Ms Quinn, why did you think that Koyosegi's ward was the right spell to perform before attempting the Paralysis spell?"
Alice blinks tiredly.
"Koyosegi's is protective," she replies slowly, "It makes sense to cast it beforehand: if the paralysis spell doesn't work then it's another layer of protection. The paralysis spell takes a long time to cast because some of us," and she's definitely not bitter, "don't have an extra finger on each hand."
Martin raises an eyebrow.
"With an extra fifty years or so of intense study, I have no doubt that you too could gain an extra finger or two," he replies mildly, "Indeed I have no doubt that you are talented enough to give yourself an additional limb. However, until that happy day I'm afraid that you'll have to made do you ten fingers as magicians have been doing for hundreds if not thousands of years before you."
"No," he continues striding forward, "The reason that you're not succeeding is that you don't have enough audacity. When I created this spell to immobilise gods themselves, do you think that I was worrying about back-ups, and contingency plans in case it failed? No. I bit my whole self into it, I threw myself into the casting. You can't have anything else taking your attention, you can't be planning two steps ahead while casting. You have to be in the moment. Only once you've felt and used your emotions can you begin to take them and hone them into a weapon. Once you get past that initial mental block you'll find that you can fall into the right mindset more easily, and eventually it won't take long to cast at all." A pause. "And of course, the extra fingers don't hurt."
Alice wants to punch him in his smarmy face. Weeks of this condescending bullshit have taken their toll, especially since it seems that their teacher doesn't especially want to be there himself.
She whirls around: "Aren't you going to say anything!" she shrieks at her friends.
Kady snorts.
"No. He's right," she says, "You do think too much. All of you do."
She twists her fingers in the opening position of the spell, and Alice can feel something shiver inside her…
"Oh very good Kady," Martin says approvingly, "A bit more practise and you'll have a very credible spell."
Alice wants to scream. She knows that Kady has the most experience in Battle Magic out of all the Physical Kids, and that she's paid heavily for that ability, but annoyance isn't rational. Alice Quinn has been the top of the class since before she could walk! She and Charlie used to whisper spells together after school, making her toys dance around the room. Her parents used to show them off at parties for fuck's sake and she's never given anything less than a flawless performance.
Something rises in her, hurt and anger, and helplessness and she lashes out, hand movements jerky with rage.
Martin's head jerks back, and a line of blood appears down his cheek.
Alice stops, panting. Shit shit shit shit. She's never lost control like this before.
Martin takes a pristine handkerchief out of his pocket, and slowly wipes his face clean of blood.
He nods once.
"Well, it's a step in the right direction at least," he says.
"Class dismissed. I suspect that we're about to be interrupted in any case."
"No I think that they should stay for this," Penny says from where he's appeared unnoticed in the corner of the room. "In fact," he disappears reappearing a moment later with a sweaty Margo, "I think that we should all be here for this."
"What the fuck!" Margo says, making a sharp motion with her hand. Penny backs up slightly, hands up: "Hey, just trying to get some straight answers form Dumbledore here. I figured you'd want to be present for them."
Margo huffs.
"Fine," she says striding over to Quentin. She raises an imperious eyebrow, and when he fails to move, practically shoves him off his chair before claiming it herself. Quentin doesn't protest and Julia, rolling her eyes, slides off her own chair and goes to sit on the floor next to him. Alice steals Julia's chair: this looks interesting.
"Ah, story time at the preschool I take it?" Martin says. "And what, Mr Adiyodi is to be the subject of today's fairytale?"
Penny looks him straight in the eyes.
"Your sister," he says, "Jane Chatwin. Apparently first High Queen of Fillory."
Quentin makes a small sound of excitement. Alice ignores it.
Martin looks disconcerted for the first time. Alice is surprised how vulnerable he looks, even without the smears of drying blood decorating his forehead.
"Why," Martin swallows heavily, "Why would we need to talk about Ja- about my sister? I assure you that she's been dead longer than you've been alive."
Penny holds up a hand.
"About this tall? Redhead, mid-thirties. Has the same matching jewellery as you and Eliot-"
Martin is twisting his wrists in his hands, and Alice notices the gold bracelets for the first time: were those always there?
"-annoyingly enigmatic?" Penny finishes.
"I take it that you've been brushing up on your ancient Fillorian history," Martin says heavily.
"Ancient history? No man, I got it straight from the source. Jane says hi by the way."
Martin's lips are tightly clenched. His wrists are bleeding where the bracelets are being pulled at with more and more force.
"She also told me to say that she loves you," Penny adds casually as if every word isn't another piece of ammunition used to chip away at the older man's shields.
"Impossible," Martin says, "she's dead. I know that for a fact. Not even clever Jane could survive-"
He stops talking. Stares at his hands as if they belong to someone else. Then he turns and deliberately leaves the room, shutting the door behind him delicately.
"Dude, you totally scared off our teacher," Quentin says.
"Yeah, I didn't think that he was actually going to man up and tell us anything useful," Penny snorts. He turns to the others.
Alice almost gasps. His eyes… they're dull and bleak, like he's lost all hope in the world. Like someone's shattered his careful douchebaggery dragged him into caring against his will.
"Right," he says, serious, "No more playing around. We need to talk about Eliot. And then we need to get him out of that hellhole as quickly as possible."