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“Magic. It’s kind of a loaded term, isn’t it? You hear that, and you think all sorts of things it could mean. The power to do, in a word, anything you can imagine. But is it really? The fact of the matter is, no power has even been without limits, and even in the annals of history, when mages were everywhere, there were very definite limits on what they can do. Now, more than ever, we need to understand those limits. Pay attention, this WILL be on the test.”

Professor Nami emphasized this last sentence hard, stomping her foot to get the attention of her students, most of whom were partially zoned out. She sighed, fidgeting with the end of her headscarf. Her students had quickly learned that she usually did that when she was feeling flustered, and most of them endeavored to pay more attention.

“I know a lot of you just signed up for History of Magic for the easy credit, but do me the credit of at least looking like you’re engaging,” she said, sighing. “Now, can anyone tell me the two distinct types of mages? Aya?”

Aya looked up from her when she heard her name being spoken. She was of Japanese-American descent, the only one of such in her class, and as such, the unkind considered her something of a stereotype. But she paid them no mind. Was it so bad that she wanted to do well in her classes? She reviewed her notes and cleared her throat. “There’s natural mages, those born with an innate knack for magic, and so-called ‘channeler’ mages, who gain their power from an external source.”

“That’s correct,” said Professor Nami. “I’m glad somebody’s been reading the coursework. Now, natural mages are exceedingly rare in the modern era. Nobody’s exactly sure why. A popular misconception is that the prevalence of science and technology has led to the decline of magic, but there’s never been any proof of that, given that you can’t exactly quantify science.” She picked up a pen off her desk and glanced at it. “Hmm, my science detector says that there’s 6% more science in this room than there was yesterday, how strange.”

This got a laugh from the class.

“But, whatever the reason, natural mages are exceptionally rare,” said Professor Nami. “Thus, if you do meet a mage, they are almost certainly a channeler, so much so that the term ‘channeler’ has fallen out of favor. Can anyone tell me the most common source of magic that channeler use? Colleen?”

Colleen let out a yelp as she was called, the pale-skinned redhead hiding herself behind her textbook. “Um,” she said, adjusting her thick spectacles, “The m-most common source of magic, both from a historical perspective and in modern times is, um, er…. the binding of spirits?’

“Correct again,” said Professor Nami. “And who can tell me what a ‘spirit’ is in this context? Shani?”

It took Shani a few seconds to realize she was being addressed. She was tall and skinny with light bronze skin and perpetually-sleepy features. It took her a few more seconds to process the question. “Spirits are, like… little living bits of energy that you find in stuff like plants and mountains and rain and, like… forces of stuff.”

“Eloquently put, Shani,” said Professor Nami, sighing and fidgeting. “To put it more clearly, spirits are the living essences of natural forces. Alive but not sapient, they can be bound to an object, called a focus, or, if you’re really serious about magic, to your body.” She picked up her pen again, twirling it. “My pen, for instance, has a spirit of light bound to it, and it can do this.” She clicked it and waved her pen through the air, and right in front of her, her signature materialized in bright, glowing letters, which sparkled for a moment before dissipating.

“Now, one more for all the marbles,” said the professor. “Can anyone tell me the most common method of binding spirits? Darcy?”

Darcy straightened up as best she could. As the shortest person in the class, this took some effort. She was of mixed heritage, quite dark-skinned, and wore her hair in tight dreads. “Spirits are most commonly bound through rituals to coax them into the object or body you wish to gain their abilities. These typically involve a number of steps meant to draw them in, through, um...” She hesitated. “...through something, professor, sorry. I didn’t read ahead that far.”

“That’s okay, Darcy,” said the professor, nodding. “Rituals are made to create what’s called an aura. Everything has an aura, and some are stronger than others. Certain actions, elements, and sigils combined in just the right way can alter the aura of an object, and done in the right way, this can draw a spirit to it, where it can be bound.”

The professor stood in front of her blackboard and began to write something out. “If you want to really understand the history of magic, you have to get some hands-on experience with it. If you’ll all look in the back of your syllabus, you’ll see a basic ritual described in it. I want you to group up, and each group will work together to perform a basic object binding and bring in the results.”

Then she turned back around, slamming her hands onto her desk. “Do not - I repeat - do not attempt to bind a spirit into anyone’s body. That’s advanced magic, and there are so, so many ways in which that can go wrong. Basic object binding. Use something small, like a stone or a bauble, something big enough to fit into your palm. Do it well, and it will be worth a full credit point for each member of the group. And on that note…”

She looked the class over one more time. “You four are in a group together, since you seem to have collectively paid the most attention and I want to see what comes of that. The rest of you, form up however you want.”

“Class dismissed.”

The four of them met in the library after class, seated around a table, none of them willing to make the first move. None of them had done much in the way of interacting with each-other. Colleen and Darcy were nervously eying the others, Shani was playing a game on her phone, and Aya was impatiently drumming her fingers on the table.

It was Aya who broke the silence first.

“How hard can this be, really?” she said, holding up the slightly dusty book she’d pick up. “We’re in this class for a reason, right? I want to understand magic better, because when it’s understood, it can be used, and there’s so many ways it could make people’s lives easier! What about you all?”

“My grandmother was a witch,” said Darcy, her voice soft. “She helped people. Made medicine and charms and things. I guess I wanted to follow in her footsteps, if only in a small way.”

Colleen blushed, her freckles standing out. “I just thought it sounded neat,” she said.

Shani shrugged. “There was no waiting list and no eight AM classes,” she said, not looking up.

“Look, whatever our reasons, we all want to do well, right?” said Aya. Colleen and Darcy nodded. Shani shrugged again.

“I read up on Professor Nami,” Aya continued. “She used to be a professional mage who exterminated aberrations for a living.”

“Abbywhats?” said Colleen, cocking her head.

“Bad spirits,” said Darcy. “You know, crazy spirits that possess objects or animals when a binding goes wrong and then go on rampages?”

“Oh,” said Colleen. “My family always just called them nasties. You don’t see as many of them these days.”

“We’re not going going to call them ‘nasties,’” said Aya, complete with air quotes.

“Didn’t that frat boy get attacked by a nasty that got into a blackberry bush last month?” said Shani. “It was pretty hilarious.”

“In any case,” said Aya, “we need to go above and beyond if we want to really impress Professor Nami. Something from the school library just won’t cut it. We’re going to perform a binding that will really get her attention.”

“Great, awesome, wow,” said Shani, finally putting her phone down. “And how do you propose we do that?”

“I might be able to help with that,” said Darcy. “My grandmother left me some old books about spirits. She never used them much. Said that they were dangerous. But she never got rid of them, either. We might be able to find something useful.”

“Is that safe, then?” said Colleen. “I mean, we’re just freshmen…”

“No guts, no glory,” said Aya, grinning. “There’s got to be something great in there!”

“But just in case, let’s do it somewhere far away from anyone that can get hurt,” added Darcy quickly.

“We could use the old MacDougal building,” said Shani. “Nobody goes there anymore except to smoke weed.”

“How do you know that?” asked Darcy.

“I go there to smoke weed,” said Shani, picking up her phone again.

“It’s settled, then,” said Aya, ignoring her. “We’ll meet at the MacDougal building at six. Darcy, bring your grandmother’s books. I’ll get the supplies we’ll need for the binding. Colleen, bring snacks. And Shani?”

“Mm?”

“Just don’t show up high.”

“No promises.”

~*~

The MacDougal building was something of an infamous eyesore on campus, designed back in the 70s and existing in the strange and tacky place found in the boundary between art deco and art nouveau. There were talks about tearing it down or renovating it going on for the better part of a decade, but they never went anywhere. And so, there it sat.

The four girls had set up shop in an old lecture hall, pushing an old desk aside to make space on the floor, where Aya had drawn a chalk circle. She was currently thumbing through one of the books that Darcy had brought, a thick, ancient thing that smelled slightly of mildew.

“Wow,” said Aya, turning page after page. “There’s entries here on how to bind the spirit of a storm. This is some serious stuff.”

“Seriously dangerous stuff,” said Colleen, as she nervously nibbled at a piece of licorice. “Are we sure this is a good idea?”

“Nah,” said Shani, shrugging. “Let’s do it anyway though, I wanna see what happens.”

“Aha!” said Aya. “I’ve got it! We’ll bind an elemental!”

“An elemental?” said Darcy. “Are you sure? Grandma always said that elementals could be fickle...:”

“No, this’ll be great,” said Aya, nodding. “See, this ritual says that we make an offering to the four Greater Elementals, and if the offer is strong enough, the spirits will compete until only the strongest accepts the binding. This will be fantastic!”

Picking up the chalk again, Aya began to copy down the sigils in the book. She couldn’t quite make out some of them, but others were oddly familiar.

“Right, we need an object representing each of the elements for this,” said Aya, pulling out a compass and adding four smaller circles in each of the cardinal directions. “Turn out your pockets and let’s see what we can do.”

Earth was easy. A piece of brick was placed in the eastern circle. In the north, a half-finished bottle of water was placed. In the west, a pocket fan that Colleen had produced. (“I overheat easily, okay?”) And finally, in the southern circle went Shani’s zippo. (“What? If it doesn’t work, I might as well enjoy my evening.”)

“And since this is a book of witch’s rituals, we need something representing a strong feminine aspect,” said Aya. “Where are we going to get something like that?”

“I’ve got a pack of tampons?” suggested Darcy, digging into her bag. Aya sighed.

“I suppose that will have to do,” said Aya, accepting the pack and placing it in the center of the circle. “And finally, the object for the binding.” From her bag, she pulled out a cluster of clear quartz crystals, about the size of her fist.

“Where did you get that?” said Colleen, leaning in close to examine the crystal. “Is it a family heirloom? A relic of some lost civilization?”

“New age store down on fifth avenue, actually,” said Aya, looking a little sheepish. “Look, crystals are supposed to be good for binding, okay? Nothing specifies a particular kind. Everyone get into position, okay?”

Still holding onto the crystal, Aya stood right behind the northern circle, with Shani across from her and Colleen and Darcy to either side.

“Right then,” said Aya. “Everybody stay quiet, okay? I’m going to invoke the ritual.”

With that, she held the Crystal above her head with one hand and held the book in the other, and started to chant under her breath, speaking the words of power that were before her.

“How long is it supposed to take?” whispered Shani. “I have to pee.”

“Shh!” said Darcy. “Look, something’s happening!”

The crystal began to glow with a pale white light, and Aya’s chanting grew louder and louder. Her eyes glazed over, but the chanting continued. The light grew brighter and brighter, so bright that it was hard to look at, and beneath their feet, the ground began to vibrate.

“Aya, is this supposed to be happening?” said Colleen, rubbing her fingers together nervously. “This feels weird!”

“I don’t know!” said Aya, “But I can feel something! The spirits… they’re here! I can feel their presence! It’s so strong!”

The whole room was full of the light of the crystal, and the objects representing the elements began to slowly hover, until they were at eye-level with the girls. Then, a voice rang out. Or rather, several voices speaking in unison.

WE HAVE HEARD YOUR CALL AND WE ANSWER, O BLESSED ONES!

“Blessed?” said Darcy. “What is it talking about? I thought spirits couldn’t take!”

YOU COME TO US HERE, IN THIS PLACE OF POWER, the voice continued, AND CALL OUT TO US NOW, IN THIS TIME OF GREAT NEED. IT HAS BEEN SO LONG, BUT OUR STRENGTH IS NEEDED AGAIN. AND THUS, WE GRANT YOU OUR GIFTS. KEEP OUR ESSENCE SAFE WITHIN YOU, PROTECT IT, NURTURE IT, AND WE, IN TURN, WILL LEND YOU OUR POWER. SPEAK THE WORD OF BINDING, PRIESTESS, AND THE PACT WILL BE SEALED.

“Don’t do it, Aya!” said Colleen. “You don’t know what this is! It could be dangerous!”

But Aya was completely enthralled, eyes wide. “I accept the pact!” she called out.

IT IS DONE.

And with that, the four objects disintegrated into motes of light, and the light surrounded each girl’s body, swirling around and around, until the swirls focused in at a central point around each of their stomachs, and like a whirlpool, the energy flowed into them.

And the whole world went white.

~*~

It was Sunday morning by the time the first of them came to. Aya woke up with her vision blurry, her head throbbing, her body aching, and her mouth tasting like batteries. Groaning, she pulled herself upright and almost fell right over again. She was still in the MacNamera building, and there was sunlight on her face.

“God, I feel so… weird,” she said, stumbling around as she tried to get her bearings. She started to pat herself down, making sure she had everything important still attached. Two arms, two legs, all fingers and toes accounted for. So far, so good. Then she started to run her hands down her body… and stopped when she felt resistance in her midsection. She blinked several times, forcing her vision to come together, and saw what her hands felt. Her belly had domed outward, its surface strangely firm, almost as if she was…

“WHAT THE FUCK?!” she cried, looking around at the room, where the rest of the girls were coming to. And each and every one of them shared a similar affliction, all carrying a newly-rounded belly.

There was no mistaking it. It looked like they were all pregnant.

Darcy was the first one to come to. She poked at her newfound bump, her face paling. “This isn’t happening,” she said. “This is a bad dream! I’m too young to be a mom!”

“Aya, what did you do?” yelped Colleen. “What happened? You did the ritual and then I heard this weird voice and then we all blacked out! Is it morning?”

Shani, of course, was the last down the line. She pulled herself into a sitting position and gave her new belly a pat.

“Well,” she said, “fuck.”

“Alright, nobody panic,” said Aya, trying to heed her own advice. “There has to be a reason of this! We can’t have all gotten six months pregnant in the space of one night! This has to be something-”

“I can feel it moving!” yelped Colleen, putting both hands on her belly. “I felt a kick!”

Aya stopped in her tracks, putting a hand on herself. If she relaxed and concentrated, she could feel something. Whether it was a kick or not was yet to be determined.

“Okay,” she said. “Let’s be real here. I fucked up and I don’t know what happened.”

“I think I might,” said Shani, who was still seated, idly rubbing herself. “The prof said that people could bind spirits to their bodies, yeah?” Everyone gave her a blank look.

“Hey, I wanted to pass too, I paid attention,” she said, narrowing her eyes. “So, for whatever reason, Aya fucked up the ritual and instead of the spirits going into her stupid crystal, they went into our bodies. And somehow knocked us up.”

Aya opened her mouth to respond, but trailed off. “That… actually makes sense,” she said, rubbing her forehead. As she did, something caught her eye. On her right wrist was a small glyph, about the size of a quarter. It looked like a stylized fish within a water droplet. It looked familiar, but she had better things to worry about.

“I think we need to go talk to Professor Nami,” said Aya. “If anyone can fix this, she can.”

“It’s Sunday,” said Shani. “Where are we going to find her? We don’t know where she lives.”

“Um,” said Darcy. “She volunteers at the library some weekends, helping sort the old archives. She might be there. Or if she’s not, someone might know how to reach her.”

“It’s better than nothing,” said Aya, shrugging. “Come on, let’s go.”

“What, we’re just going to walk around like this?” said Colleen. “What will people think?”

“Did anyone bring a change of clothes?” said Aya, looking down at herself. Her belly had outgrown her shirt considerably. Thank God for yoga pants. “And even if you did, somehow I doubt they would fit.”

“I mean, it’s Sunday morning,” said Shani. “Most of the students are going to be sleeping off hangovers. So what if a few people see us? The prof’ll undo this, and if anyone says they saw anything, we lie our butts off. What are they gonna do?”

The others chewed on this for a moment.

“I don’t see any better options,” said Darcy. “Come on, we need to get moving. I don’t know what’s going to happen next with this!”

~*~

Shani had been wrong about one thing. The campus was absolutely packed. There was some kind of art walk going on, and various students were manning booths and showing off their pieces. But the upside of this was that there were lots of more interesting things to look at then four pregnant students. They hardly stood out when people had things like an art student welding lawnmower parts into humanoid shapes or covering themselves in paint and humping a giant canvas.

“Come on,” said Aya, shoving her way through the crowds. The library is this way.

“Hurry up,” said Shani, who was uncomfortably fidgeting. Her face looked flushed. “I hate crowds. Everyone’s too close. And I’m hungry.”

“Priorities, people!” snapped Aya, as she wiped her brow. She wasn’t feeling so hot either, but everything else could wait.

“Um, girls?” said Colleen, who had stopped in her tracks. “Do you hear something?”

“Just a whole lot of art happening,” said Darcy, who had paused to watch some kind of avant-garde music performancing involving a dour young man sobbing into the wrong end of a saxophone. “Why?”

“Something feels… off,” said Colleen, shivering. “Something on the wind.”

Darcy stopped for a moment, then she closed her eyes. “I… I can feel it too,” she said. “Like a vibration running through the ground.”

“Whatever it is can wait!” said Aya, getting increasingly annoyed. “We need to get to-”

She was cut off by a scream piercing the air. Aya turned to see a crowd of students fleeing from one of the exhibits, some kind o pottery display, but something was very wrong. A shape was lurching toward the students, human-shaped but very inhuman, seemingly made entirely out of shards of broken pottery. It shambled towards the students, swinging a huge lump of unbaked clay with a number of pointed shards protruding from it.

Colleen let out a shriek. “It’s nasty!” she shouted. “We have to run!”

“Just get out of its way,” said Aya, pulling Colleen back. “Aberrations are completely mindless! We should be fine until someone can get here and dispel-”

Suddenly, the pottery man stopped. It turned its faceless head to face the four of them, ignoring everyone else. Then it let out a sound like a flowerpot being smashed and charged straight for them.

“It’s very mindfully coming for us!” shouted Darcy, as she took off running. “What’s even happening?! I don’t understand!”

Aya didn’t understand either. She had been studying magic ever since high school, but she’d never had any firsthand experience with it. And now, an animate mound of angry magic was coming straight for her, intending to do who knows what.

She felt that feeling in her belly, like something inside of it was moving, and the words she had heard last night echoed in her mind.

Keep us safe… and we will lend you our power…

Aya’s glance darted over to her wrist. The glyph was faintly glowing. And Aya could feel something, like… a sense she hadn’t been previously aware of. And she could sense…

Water.

She looked over and saw a nearby fountain. Working on instinct, she whipped her arm around, and the water… moved, gushing out towards the monster, impeding its progress. Aya concentrated, and the stream grew stronger, pushing against it with the force of a fire hose, knocking off bits of pottery.

“Aya, look out!” shouted Colleen. Aya turned and looked, only to see a second aberration approaching her, this one comprised of scrap metal. Mostly, she couldn’t help but notice, lawnmower parts, and it made horrible grinding sounds with every step it took. She wanted to push it away too, but she had no idea how she was controlling the stream of water, and was afraid it would stop.

The problem took care of itself when the soil beneath its feet seemed to liquify, sinking it into the ground. As she sunk, she saw Darcy behind it, kneeling down with both hands pressed into the dirt.

“What are you doing?” Aya shouted.

“Stopping the nasty!” Darcy replied. “I’ll worry about how later!”

Aya nodded, pushing harder at her own monster. The water was slowing it down, but not stopping it. Something whooshed past Aya’s head, and she looked up to see Colleen hovering over her, waving through the air.

“Hey, you big lumpy lump of… lump!” she shouted. “Look up here!”

The nasty turned and looked, though a bit sluggishly, as the water soaked into the clay holding it together.

“Yeah, that’s right!” said Colleen, zooming over it, ts eyeless gaze following her. “I’ve got it distracted, do something!”

“Oi, kill the waterworks!” said Shani. “I think I got this!”

Aya was going to say that she didn’t know how, but somehow, she did. The stream of water stopped, and Shani stepped forward, holding her lighter. She snapped it to life, and a huge gout of flame poured out of it, engulfing the aberration. It crackled and hissed as the flame rapidly dried it out, and when the flame subsided, its movements were even more sluggish and stilted, as the half-baked clay hardened.

“Bitchin’,” said Shani, snapping her fingers with a little puff of flame as she gave her belly a pat with a free hand. “If these little parasites are doing this, I kinda want to keep ‘em now.”

“Don’t be silly,” said Aya. “We can’t keep-”

She was cut off as the metal aberration broke free from the ground and lunged for her, and heard herself screaming as a sharp blade was thrust into her face… and stopped.

When Aya looked back up, the metal man was crumbling into its component parks. Professor Nami was standing over it, holding a short iron rod with runes engraved onto it, rapidly chanting under her breath in Arabic. In moments, the form was completely de-animated.

“Professor?” said Darcy, who was standing, stunned, behind it. “What are you-”

“Hold on,” she said, approaching the pottery aberration, which was still making an effort to attack her. She tapped it with the rod and began to chant again, and it, too, started to break apart. Colleen landed gracefully beside Aya as she watched the spectacle.

“Holy heck,” said Colleen. “I had no idea that Professor Nami was so cool! She just took those nasties right out!”

“We’re not calling them-” started Aya, but Shani elbowed her in the side.

“Pick your battles, girl,” she said. “Nobody has the time to scream ‘Oh no, look out, it’s an aberration’.”

Aya sighed. With the… nasties both dispelled, Professor Nami tucked her rod into a holster on her hip, then turned to face the four girls, arms folded across her chest.

“You girls have got a lot of explaining to do,” she said sternly. “My office. Now.”

~*~

Since this whole mess had been Aya’s idea, it was Aya who was tasked with recapping the events of the previous night, and she did, not leaving out a single detail. Professor Nami listened and brewed up a pot of tea as she did so, not saying a word.

“...and then we woke up like this,” said Aya, giving her belly a poke. “We were coming to find you when the aberrations attacked us.”

“Just call them nasties, it’s a lot faster,” said Professor Nami. Aya glowered at Shani, who said nothing, but flashed a smug smile as she flicked a tiny flame between her fingers.

The professor took a deep breath. “Girls,” she said, “you have stumbled into something far heavier than a passing grade. Did you know that tonight was the night of the new moon? If you did, you probably didn’t realize it meant anything. More importantly, did you realize that the MacNamera building was located right on the center of a leyline?”

“A what now?” said Darcy.

“A leyline is like a current of spiritual energy,” said Aya. “Spirits are a lot more responsive the closer you are to one.”

“And to top it all off,” continued Professor Nami, as she held up Darcy’s book, “you really have no idea what you were in possession of, did you?”

“It’s just an old book,” said Darcy defensively. “I didn’t think it was anything special. I wasn’t even sure it would work.”

“Oh, it worked alright,” said Professor Nami. “Hold out your wrists, would you?”

Each of the girls did so, and sure enough, each of them had a different brand on it. Professor Nami opened up the book, and opened up to illustrations of the four glyphs, depicting what looked like a fish in a water drop, a lizard in a flame, a butterfly in a cloud, and a mole in a stone.

“You each bound a spirit to your bodies,” said Professor Nami. “To your wombs, to be precise, the center of your spiritual power. This alone would give you exceptional magic abilities. But not just any spirits. You’ve each bound an aspect of the Great Elementals to yourselves.” She tapped each of the glyphs. “Undine. Salamander. Sylph. Gnome. That power is within each of you.”

She snapped the book shut. The girls were all dumbstruck, frozen in place. Except for Shani, who currently holding her zippo against her palm, amused by how the flame didn’t seem to be hurting her.

“That’s all well and good,” said Shani, breaking the silence. “So how do we get the little fuckers out?”

Professor Nami sighed. “You may not be able to,” she said. “This is powerful magic. It’s already taken root without your body. You may have noticed your bodies starting to change in some small ways. That’s only going to get worse as the spirits take hold. For the time being… you’re stuck with this.”

Aya couldn’t take it anymore. She let out a scream.

“I just wanted to get a good grade!” she yelled. Colleen shrank back, giving her a tentative pat on the shoulder.

“It’ll be… okay?” she said. “It will be okay, won’t it, professor?”

“Actually,” said the professor, “It may very well be. You all are in a unique situation. Nobody’s successfully done a binding like this in years. We could very well advance the study of magic in-”

“We’re not going to be anyone’s guinea pigs,” snapped Darcy, pounding a fist onto Professor Nami’s desk, causing everything on it to jump. “These… spirits, whatever they are, we said they’d keep them safe! We may not have asked for this, but we made a promise!”

“Y-yeah, what she said!” said Colleen. Aya hesitated for a moment, then nodded. Shani just shrugged.

“Nothing like that, girls,” said Professor Nami, shaking her head. “But there is something you girls might be able to help me with. Those nasties we saw outside? There have been a lot more such attacks lately. And the number of people qualified to deal with them is getting smaller and smaller.”

Aya cocked her head. “Wait,” she said, “you want us to… help you fight nasties?”

“Understand where they’re coming from, at least,” said Professor Nami. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that you girls were able to do this now, of all times. Something is changing in the flows of magic. I could really use your help. And in return, I’ll teach you how to be mages. Real mages.”

Colleen’s eyes lit up at that idea. “Oh wow,” she said. “That sounds so cool! Count me in!”

“Not like I had anything better to do,” said Shani. “I’ll still get credit for this, right?”

“Count me in,” said Darcy. “Grandma’s gonna flip when she hears about this!”

Finally, all eyes were on Aya. She blushed.

“We’re all in this together, right?” she said, nodding.

“Excellent,” said Professor Nami, giving the girls a smile. “Go home and get some rest, girls. And come see me in the morning, before class. We’ve got a lot to discuss.”

~*~

Elsewhere, not far from the campus, a woman sat in near-total darkness, looking down at what would look, to the untrained eye, like a game board, with several carved crystals strewn about it. And the state of the board was, to this woman, very interesting.

For the past several years, the movements had been subtle. Slow. Too slow. She had come close to giving up. But last night, the night of the new moon, something had changed. There had been a big shift.

Smiling to herself, the woman placed four new pieces onto the board.

“What an interesting development,” she said out loud. “And here I thought that this game might have been over before it started. But it seems that now we have some new players. Won’t this be fun?”

She let out a playful chuckle as she idly began to stroke her very swollen belly.

Oh, yes. The two of them would be having all sorts of fun.

Description
“Magic. It’s kind of a loaded term, isn’t it? You hear that, and you think all sorts of things it could mean. The power to do, in a word, anything you can imagine. But is it really? The fact of the matter is, no power has even been without limits, and even in the annals of history, when mages were everywhere, there were very definite limits on what they can do. Now, more than ever, we need to understand those limits. Pay attention, this WILL be on the test.”

Professor Nami emphasized this last sentence hard, stomping her foot to get the attention of her students, most of whom were partially zoned out. She sighed, fidgeting with the end of her headscarf. Her students had quickly learned that she usually did that when she was feeling flustered, and most of them endeavored to pay more attention.

“I know a lot of you just signed up for History of Magic for the easy credit, but do me the credit of at least looking like you’re engaging,” she said, sighing. “Now, can anyone tell me the two distinct types of mages? Aya?”

Aya looked up from her when she heard her name being spoken. She was of Japanese-American descent, the only one of such in her class, and as such, the unkind considered her something of a stereotype. But she paid them no mind. Was it so bad that she wanted to do well in her classes? She reviewed her notes and cleared her throat. “There’s natural mages, those born with an innate knack for magic, and so-called ‘channeler’ mages, who gain their power from an external source.”

“That’s correct,” said Professor Nami. “I’m glad somebody’s been reading the coursework. Now, natural mages are exceedingly rare in the modern era. Nobody’s exactly sure why. A popular misconception is that the prevalence of science and technology has led to the decline of magic, but there’s never been any proof of that, given that you can’t exactly quantify science.” She picked up a pen off her desk and glanced at it. “Hmm, my science detector says that there’s 6% more science in this room than there was yesterday, how strange.”

This got a laugh from the class.

“But, whatever the reason, natural mages are exceptionally rare,” said Professor Nami. “Thus, if you do meet a mage, they are almost certainly a channeler, so much so that the term ‘channeler’ has fallen out of favor. Can anyone tell me the most common source of magic that channeler use? Colleen?”

Colleen let out a yelp as she was called, the pale-skinned redhead hiding herself behind her textbook. “Um,” she said, adjusting her thick spectacles, “The m-most common source of magic, both from a historical perspective and in modern times is, um, er…. the binding of spirits?’

“Correct again,” said Professor Nami. “And who can tell me what a ‘spirit’ is in this context? Shani?”

It took Shani a few seconds to realize she was being addressed. She was tall and skinny with light bronze skin and perpetually-sleepy features. It took her a few more seconds to process the question. “Spirits are, like… little living bits of energy that you find in stuff like plants and mountains and rain and, like… forces of stuff.”

“Eloquently put, Shani,” said Professor Nami, sighing and fidgeting. “To put it more clearly, spirits are the living essences of natural forces. Alive but not sapient, they can be bound to an object, called a focus, or, if you’re really serious about magic, to your body.” She picked up her pen again, twirling it. “My pen, for instance, has a spirit of light bound to it, and it can do this.” She clicked it and waved her pen through the air, and right in front of her, her signature materialized in bright, glowing letters, which sparkled for a moment before dissipating.

“Now, one more for all the marbles,” said the professor. “Can anyone tell me the most common method of binding spirits? Darcy?”

Darcy straightened up as best she could. As the shortest person in the class, this took some effort. She was of mixed heritage, quite dark-skinned, and wore her hair in tight dreads. “Spirits are most commonly bound through rituals to coax them into the object or body you wish to gain their abilities. These typically involve a number of steps meant to draw them in, through, um...” She hesitated. “...through something, professor, sorry. I didn’t read ahead that far.”

“That’s okay, Darcy,” said the professor, nodding. “Rituals are made to create what’s called an aura. Everything has an aura, and some are stronger than others. Certain actions, elements, and sigils combined in just the right way can alter the aura of an object, and done in the right way, this can draw a spirit to it, where it can be bound.”

The professor stood in front of her blackboard and began to write something out. “If you want to really understand the history of magic, you have to get some hands-on experience with it. If you’ll all look in the back of your syllabus, you’ll see a basic ritual described in it. I want you to group up, and each group will work together to perform a basic object binding and bring in the results.”

Then she turned back around, slamming her hands onto her desk. “Do not - I repeat - do not attempt to bind a spirit into anyone’s body. That’s advanced magic, and there are so, so many ways in which that can go wrong. Basic object binding. Use something small, like a stone or a bauble, something big enough to fit into your palm. Do it well, and it will be worth a full credit point for each member of the group. And on that note…”

She looked the class over one more time. “You four are in a group together, since you seem to have collectively paid the most attention and I want to see what comes of that. The rest of you, form up however you want.”

“Class dismissed.”

The four of them met in the library after class, seated around a table, none of them willing to make the first move. None of them had done much in the way of interacting with each-other. Colleen and Darcy were nervously eying the others, Shani was playing a game on her phone, and Aya was impatiently drumming her fingers on the table.

It was Aya who broke the silence first.

“How hard can this be, really?” she said, holding up the slightly dusty book she’d pick up. “We’re in this class for a reason, right? I want to understand magic better, because when it’s understood, it can be used, and there’s so many ways it could make people’s lives easier! What about you all?”

“My grandmother was a witch,” said Darcy, her voice soft. “She helped people. Made medicine and charms and things. I guess I wanted to follow in her footsteps, if only in a small way.”

Colleen blushed, her freckles standing out. “I just thought it sounded neat,” she said.

Shani shrugged. “There was no waiting list and no eight AM classes,” she said, not looking up.

“Look, whatever our reasons, we all want to do well, right?” said Aya. Colleen and Darcy nodded. Shani shrugged again.

“I read up on Professor Nami,” Aya continued. “She used to be a professional mage who exterminated aberrations for a living.”

“Abbywhats?” said Colleen, cocking her head.

“Bad spirits,” said Darcy. “You know, crazy spirits that possess objects or animals when a binding goes wrong and then go on rampages?”

“Oh,” said Colleen. “My family always just called them nasties. You don’t see as many of them these days.”

“We’re not going going to call them ‘nasties,’” said Aya, complete with air quotes.

“Didn’t that frat boy get attacked by a nasty that got into a blackberry bush last month?” said Shani. “It was pretty hilarious.”

“In any case,” said Aya, “we need to go above and beyond if we want to really impress Professor Nami. Something from the school library just won’t cut it. We’re going to perform a binding that will really get her attention.”

“Great, awesome, wow,” said Shani, finally putting her phone down. “And how do you propose we do that?”

“I might be able to help with that,” said Darcy. “My grandmother left me some old books about spirits. She never used them much. Said that they were dangerous. But she never got rid of them, either. We might be able to find something useful.”

“Is that safe, then?” said Colleen. “I mean, we’re just freshmen…”

“No guts, no glory,” said Aya, grinning. “There’s got to be something great in there!”

“But just in case, let’s do it somewhere far away from anyone that can get hurt,” added Darcy quickly.

“We could use the old MacDougal building,” said Shani. “Nobody goes there anymore except to smoke weed.”

“How do you know that?” asked Darcy.

“I go there to smoke weed,” said Shani, picking up her phone again.

“It’s settled, then,” said Aya, ignoring her. “We’ll meet at the MacDougal building at six. Darcy, bring your grandmother’s books. I’ll get the supplies we’ll need for the binding. Colleen, bring snacks. And Shani?”

“Mm?”

“Just don’t show up high.”

“No promises.”

~*~

The MacDougal building was something of an infamous eyesore on campus, designed back in the 70s and existing in the strange and tacky place found in the boundary between art deco and art nouveau. There were talks about tearing it down or renovating it going on for the better part of a decade, but they never went anywhere. And so, there it sat.

The four girls had set up shop in an old lecture hall, pushing an old desk aside to make space on the floor, where Aya had drawn a chalk circle. She was currently thumbing through one of the books that Darcy had brought, a thick, ancient thing that smelled slightly of mildew.

“Wow,” said Aya, turning page after page. “There’s entries here on how to bind the spirit of a storm. This is some serious stuff.”

“Seriously dangerous stuff,” said Colleen, as she nervously nibbled at a piece of licorice. “Are we sure this is a good idea?”

“Nah,” said Shani, shrugging. “Let’s do it anyway though, I wanna see what happens.”

“Aha!” said Aya. “I’ve got it! We’ll bind an elemental!”

“An elemental?” said Darcy. “Are you sure? Grandma always said that elementals could be fickle...:”

“No, this’ll be great,” said Aya, nodding. “See, this ritual says that we make an offering to the four Greater Elementals, and if the offer is strong enough, the spirits will compete until only the strongest accepts the binding. This will be fantastic!”

Picking up the chalk again, Aya began to copy down the sigils in the book. She couldn’t quite make out some of them, but others were oddly familiar.

“Right, we need an object representing each of the elements for this,” said Aya, pulling out a compass and adding four smaller circles in each of the cardinal directions. “Turn out your pockets and let’s see what we can do.”

Earth was easy. A piece of brick was placed in the eastern circle. In the north, a half-finished bottle of water was placed. In the west, a pocket fan that Colleen had produced. (“I overheat easily, okay?”) And finally, in the southern circle went Shani’s zippo. (“What? If it doesn’t work, I might as well enjoy my evening.”)

“And since this is a book of witch’s rituals, we need something representing a strong feminine aspect,” said Aya. “Where are we going to get something like that?”

“I’ve got a pack of tampons?” suggested Darcy, digging into her bag. Aya sighed.

“I suppose that will have to do,” said Aya, accepting the pack and placing it in the center of the circle. “And finally, the object for the binding.” From her bag, she pulled out a cluster of clear quartz crystals, about the size of her fist.

“Where did you get that?” said Colleen, leaning in close to examine the crystal. “Is it a family heirloom? A relic of some lost civilization?”

“New age store down on fifth avenue, actually,” said Aya, looking a little sheepish. “Look, crystals are supposed to be good for binding, okay? Nothing specifies a particular kind. Everyone get into position, okay?”

Still holding onto the crystal, Aya stood right behind the northern circle, with Shani across from her and Colleen and Darcy to either side.

“Right then,” said Aya. “Everybody stay quiet, okay? I’m going to invoke the ritual.”

With that, she held the Crystal above her head with one hand and held the book in the other, and started to chant under her breath, speaking the words of power that were before her.

“How long is it supposed to take?” whispered Shani. “I have to pee.”

“Shh!” said Darcy. “Look, something’s happening!”

The crystal began to glow with a pale white light, and Aya’s chanting grew louder and louder. Her eyes glazed over, but the chanting continued. The light grew brighter and brighter, so bright that it was hard to look at, and beneath their feet, the ground began to vibrate.

“Aya, is this supposed to be happening?” said Colleen, rubbing her fingers together nervously. “This feels weird!”

“I don’t know!” said Aya, “But I can feel something! The spirits… they’re here! I can feel their presence! It’s so strong!”

The whole room was full of the light of the crystal, and the objects representing the elements began to slowly hover, until they were at eye-level with the girls. Then, a voice rang out. Or rather, several voices speaking in unison.

WE HAVE HEARD YOUR CALL AND WE ANSWER, O BLESSED ONES!

“Blessed?” said Darcy. “What is it talking about? I thought spirits couldn’t take!”

YOU COME TO US HERE, IN THIS PLACE OF POWER, the voice continued, AND CALL OUT TO US NOW, IN THIS TIME OF GREAT NEED. IT HAS BEEN SO LONG, BUT OUR STRENGTH IS NEEDED AGAIN. AND THUS, WE GRANT YOU OUR GIFTS. KEEP OUR ESSENCE SAFE WITHIN YOU, PROTECT IT, NURTURE IT, AND WE, IN TURN, WILL LEND YOU OUR POWER. SPEAK THE WORD OF BINDING, PRIESTESS, AND THE PACT WILL BE SEALED.

“Don’t do it, Aya!” said Colleen. “You don’t know what this is! It could be dangerous!”

But Aya was completely enthralled, eyes wide. “I accept the pact!” she called out.

IT IS DONE.

And with that, the four objects disintegrated into motes of light, and the light surrounded each girl’s body, swirling around and around, until the swirls focused in at a central point around each of their stomachs, and like a whirlpool, the energy flowed into them.

And the whole world went white.

~*~

It was Sunday morning by the time the first of them came to. Aya woke up with her vision blurry, her head throbbing, her body aching, and her mouth tasting like batteries. Groaning, she pulled herself upright and almost fell right over again. She was still in the MacNamera building, and there was sunlight on her face.

“God, I feel so… weird,” she said, stumbling around as she tried to get her bearings. She started to pat herself down, making sure she had everything important still attached. Two arms, two legs, all fingers and toes accounted for. So far, so good. Then she started to run her hands down her body… and stopped when she felt resistance in her midsection. She blinked several times, forcing her vision to come together, and saw what her hands felt. Her belly had domed outward, its surface strangely firm, almost as if she was…

“WHAT THE FUCK?!” she cried, looking around at the room, where the rest of the girls were coming to. And each and every one of them shared a similar affliction, all carrying a newly-rounded belly.

There was no mistaking it. It looked like they were all pregnant.

Darcy was the first one to come to. She poked at her newfound bump, her face paling. “This isn’t happening,” she said. “This is a bad dream! I’m too young to be a mom!”

“Aya, what did you do?” yelped Colleen. “What happened? You did the ritual and then I heard this weird voice and then we all blacked out! Is it morning?”

Shani, of course, was the last down the line. She pulled herself into a sitting position and gave her new belly a pat.

“Well,” she said, “fuck.”

“Alright, nobody panic,” said Aya, trying to heed her own advice. “There has to be a reason of this! We can’t have all gotten six months pregnant in the space of one night! This has to be something-”

“I can feel it moving!” yelped Colleen, putting both hands on her belly. “I felt a kick!”

Aya stopped in her tracks, putting a hand on herself. If she relaxed and concentrated, she could feel something. Whether it was a kick or not was yet to be determined.

“Okay,” she said. “Let’s be real here. I fucked up and I don’t know what happened.”

“I think I might,” said Shani, who was still seated, idly rubbing herself. “The prof said that people could bind spirits to their bodies, yeah?” Everyone gave her a blank look.

“Hey, I wanted to pass too, I paid attention,” she said, narrowing her eyes. “So, for whatever reason, Aya fucked up the ritual and instead of the spirits going into her stupid crystal, they went into our bodies. And somehow knocked us up.”

Aya opened her mouth to respond, but trailed off. “That… actually makes sense,” she said, rubbing her forehead. As she did, something caught her eye. On her right wrist was a small glyph, about the size of a quarter. It looked like a stylized fish within a water droplet. It looked familiar, but she had better things to worry about.

“I think we need to go talk to Professor Nami,” said Aya. “If anyone can fix this, she can.”

“It’s Sunday,” said Shani. “Where are we going to find her? We don’t know where she lives.”

“Um,” said Darcy. “She volunteers at the library some weekends, helping sort the old archives. She might be there. Or if she’s not, someone might know how to reach her.”

“It’s better than nothing,” said Aya, shrugging. “Come on, let’s go.”

“What, we’re just going to walk around like this?” said Colleen. “What will people think?”

“Did anyone bring a change of clothes?” said Aya, looking down at herself. Her belly had outgrown her shirt considerably. Thank God for yoga pants. “And even if you did, somehow I doubt they would fit.”

“I mean, it’s Sunday morning,” said Shani. “Most of the students are going to be sleeping off hangovers. So what if a few people see us? The prof’ll undo this, and if anyone says they saw anything, we lie our butts off. What are they gonna do?”

The others chewed on this for a moment.

“I don’t see any better options,” said Darcy. “Come on, we need to get moving. I don’t know what’s going to happen next with this!”

~*~

Shani had been wrong about one thing. The campus was absolutely packed. There was some kind of art walk going on, and various students were manning booths and showing off their pieces. But the upside of this was that there were lots of more interesting things to look at then four pregnant students. They hardly stood out when people had things like an art student welding lawnmower parts into humanoid shapes or covering themselves in paint and humping a giant canvas.

“Come on,” said Aya, shoving her way through the crowds. The library is this way.

“Hurry up,” said Shani, who was uncomfortably fidgeting. Her face looked flushed. “I hate crowds. Everyone’s too close. And I’m hungry.”

“Priorities, people!” snapped Aya, as she wiped her brow. She wasn’t feeling so hot either, but everything else could wait.

“Um, girls?” said Colleen, who had stopped in her tracks. “Do you hear something?”

“Just a whole lot of art happening,” said Darcy, who had paused to watch some kind of avant-garde music performancing involving a dour young man sobbing into the wrong end of a saxophone. “Why?”

“Something feels… off,” said Colleen, shivering. “Something on the wind.”

Darcy stopped for a moment, then she closed her eyes. “I… I can feel it too,” she said. “Like a vibration running through the ground.”

“Whatever it is can wait!” said Aya, getting increasingly annoyed. “We need to get to-”

She was cut off by a scream piercing the air. Aya turned to see a crowd of students fleeing from one of the exhibits, some kind o pottery display, but something was very wrong. A shape was lurching toward the students, human-shaped but very inhuman, seemingly made entirely out of shards of broken pottery. It shambled towards the students, swinging a huge lump of unbaked clay with a number of pointed shards protruding from it.

Colleen let out a shriek. “It’s nasty!” she shouted. “We have to run!”

“Just get out of its way,” said Aya, pulling Colleen back. “Aberrations are completely mindless! We should be fine until someone can get here and dispel-”

Suddenly, the pottery man stopped. It turned its faceless head to face the four of them, ignoring everyone else. Then it let out a sound like a flowerpot being smashed and charged straight for them.

“It’s very mindfully coming for us!” shouted Darcy, as she took off running. “What’s even happening?! I don’t understand!”

Aya didn’t understand either. She had been studying magic ever since high school, but she’d never had any firsthand experience with it. And now, an animate mound of angry magic was coming straight for her, intending to do who knows what.

She felt that feeling in her belly, like something inside of it was moving, and the words she had heard last night echoed in her mind.

Keep us safe… and we will lend you our power…

Aya’s glance darted over to her wrist. The glyph was faintly glowing. And Aya could feel something, like… a sense she hadn’t been previously aware of. And she could sense…

Water.

She looked over and saw a nearby fountain. Working on instinct, she whipped her arm around, and the water… moved, gushing out towards the monster, impeding its progress. Aya concentrated, and the stream grew stronger, pushing against it with the force of a fire hose, knocking off bits of pottery.

“Aya, look out!” shouted Colleen. Aya turned and looked, only to see a second aberration approaching her, this one comprised of scrap metal. Mostly, she couldn’t help but notice, lawnmower parts, and it made horrible grinding sounds with every step it took. She wanted to push it away too, but she had no idea how she was controlling the stream of water, and was afraid it would stop.

The problem took care of itself when the soil beneath its feet seemed to liquify, sinking it into the ground. As she sunk, she saw Darcy behind it, kneeling down with both hands pressed into the dirt.

“What are you doing?” Aya shouted.

“Stopping the nasty!” Darcy replied. “I’ll worry about how later!”

Aya nodded, pushing harder at her own monster. The water was slowing it down, but not stopping it. Something whooshed past Aya’s head, and she looked up to see Colleen hovering over her, waving through the air.

“Hey, you big lumpy lump of… lump!” she shouted. “Look up here!”

The nasty turned and looked, though a bit sluggishly, as the water soaked into the clay holding it together.

“Yeah, that’s right!” said Colleen, zooming over it, ts eyeless gaze following her. “I’ve got it distracted, do something!”

“Oi, kill the waterworks!” said Shani. “I think I got this!”

Aya was going to say that she didn’t know how, but somehow, she did. The stream of water stopped, and Shani stepped forward, holding her lighter. She snapped it to life, and a huge gout of flame poured out of it, engulfing the aberration. It crackled and hissed as the flame rapidly dried it out, and when the flame subsided, its movements were even more sluggish and stilted, as the half-baked clay hardened.

“Bitchin’,” said Shani, snapping her fingers with a little puff of flame as she gave her belly a pat with a free hand. “If these little parasites are doing this, I kinda want to keep ‘em now.”

“Don’t be silly,” said Aya. “We can’t keep-”

She was cut off as the metal aberration broke free from the ground and lunged for her, and heard herself screaming as a sharp blade was thrust into her face… and stopped.

When Aya looked back up, the metal man was crumbling into its component parks. Professor Nami was standing over it, holding a short iron rod with runes engraved onto it, rapidly chanting under her breath in Arabic. In moments, the form was completely de-animated.

“Professor?” said Darcy, who was standing, stunned, behind it. “What are you-”

“Hold on,” she said, approaching the pottery aberration, which was still making an effort to attack her. She tapped it with the rod and began to chant again, and it, too, started to break apart. Colleen landed gracefully beside Aya as she watched the spectacle.

“Holy heck,” said Colleen. “I had no idea that Professor Nami was so cool! She just took those nasties right out!”

“We’re not calling them-” started Aya, but Shani elbowed her in the side.

“Pick your battles, girl,” she said. “Nobody has the time to scream ‘Oh no, look out, it’s an aberration’.”

Aya sighed. With the… nasties both dispelled, Professor Nami tucked her rod into a holster on her hip, then turned to face the four girls, arms folded across her chest.

“You girls have got a lot of explaining to do,” she said sternly. “My office. Now.”

~*~

Since this whole mess had been Aya’s idea, it was Aya who was tasked with recapping the events of the previous night, and she did, not leaving out a single detail. Professor Nami listened and brewed up a pot of tea as she did so, not saying a word.

“...and then we woke up like this,” said Aya, giving her belly a poke. “We were coming to find you when the aberrations attacked us.”

“Just call them nasties, it’s a lot faster,” said Professor Nami. Aya glowered at Shani, who said nothing, but flashed a smug smile as she flicked a tiny flame between her fingers.

The professor took a deep breath. “Girls,” she said, “you have stumbled into something far heavier than a passing grade. Did you know that tonight was the night of the new moon? If you did, you probably didn’t realize it meant anything. More importantly, did you realize that the MacNamera building was located right on the center of a leyline?”

“A what now?” said Darcy.

“A leyline is like a current of spiritual energy,” said Aya. “Spirits are a lot more responsive the closer you are to one.”

“And to top it all off,” continued Professor Nami, as she held up Darcy’s book, “you really have no idea what you were in possession of, did you?”

“It’s just an old book,” said Darcy defensively. “I didn’t think it was anything special. I wasn’t even sure it would work.”

“Oh, it worked alright,” said Professor Nami. “Hold out your wrists, would you?”

Each of the girls did so, and sure enough, each of them had a different brand on it. Professor Nami opened up the book, and opened up to illustrations of the four glyphs, depicting what looked like a fish in a water drop, a lizard in a flame, a butterfly in a cloud, and a mole in a stone.

“You each bound a spirit to your bodies,” said Professor Nami. “To your wombs, to be precise, the center of your spiritual power. This alone would give you exceptional magic abilities. But not just any spirits. You’ve each bound an aspect of the Great Elementals to yourselves.” She tapped each of the glyphs. “Undine. Salamander. Sylph. Gnome. That power is within each of you.”

She snapped the book shut. The girls were all dumbstruck, frozen in place. Except for Shani, who currently holding her zippo against her palm, amused by how the flame didn’t seem to be hurting her.

“That’s all well and good,” said Shani, breaking the silence. “So how do we get the little fuckers out?”

Professor Nami sighed. “You may not be able to,” she said. “This is powerful magic. It’s already taken root without your body. You may have noticed your bodies starting to change in some small ways. That’s only going to get worse as the spirits take hold. For the time being… you’re stuck with this.”

Aya couldn’t take it anymore. She let out a scream.

“I just wanted to get a good grade!” she yelled. Colleen shrank back, giving her a tentative pat on the shoulder.

“It’ll be… okay?” she said. “It will be okay, won’t it, professor?”

“Actually,” said the professor, “It may very well be. You all are in a unique situation. Nobody’s successfully done a binding like this in years. We could very well advance the study of magic in-”

“We’re not going to be anyone’s guinea pigs,” snapped Darcy, pounding a fist onto Professor Nami’s desk, causing everything on it to jump. “These… spirits, whatever they are, we said they’d keep them safe! We may not have asked for this, but we made a promise!”

“Y-yeah, what she said!” said Colleen. Aya hesitated for a moment, then nodded. Shani just shrugged.

“Nothing like that, girls,” said Professor Nami, shaking her head. “But there is something you girls might be able to help me with. Those nasties we saw outside? There have been a lot more such attacks lately. And the number of people qualified to deal with them is getting smaller and smaller.”

Aya cocked her head. “Wait,” she said, “you want us to… help you fight nasties?”

“Understand where they’re coming from, at least,” said Professor Nami. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that you girls were able to do this now, of all times. Something is changing in the flows of magic. I could really use your help. And in return, I’ll teach you how to be mages. Real mages.”

Colleen’s eyes lit up at that idea. “Oh wow,” she said. “That sounds so cool! Count me in!”

“Not like I had anything better to do,” said Shani. “I’ll still get credit for this, right?”

“Count me in,” said Darcy. “Grandma’s gonna flip when she hears about this!”

Finally, all eyes were on Aya. She blushed.

“We’re all in this together, right?” she said, nodding.

“Excellent,” said Professor Nami, giving the girls a smile. “Go home and get some rest, girls. And come see me in the morning, before class. We’ve got a lot to discuss.”

~*~

Elsewhere, not far from the campus, a woman sat in near-total darkness, looking down at what would look, to the untrained eye, like a game board, with several carved crystals strewn about it. And the state of the board was, to this woman, very interesting.

For the past several years, the movements had been subtle. Slow. Too slow. She had come close to giving up. But last night, the night of the new moon, something had changed. There had been a big shift.

Smiling to herself, the woman placed four new pieces onto the board.

“What an interesting development,” she said out loud. “And here I thought that this game might have been over before it started. But it seems that now we have some new players. Won’t this be fun?”

She let out a playful chuckle as she idly began to stroke her very swollen belly.

Oh, yes. The two of them would be having all sorts of fun.