The Apprentice's Apprentice

Part 9

Warren rubbed the back of his neck after a moment. "Look, I'm sorry I didn't come greet you as soon as I got here but my master didn't tell me there was any more of us in town. And really, you might not have had to but it took me half a day to prepare the mind spell to get people to accept me here. I mean, the last thing I want to do is draw any attention by being the new guy, especially since I'm living with my master. I can only imagine what stupid crap people would start thinking about us."

Cora blinked. "Why would you-Wait, did you just say spell?"

He rolled his eyes. "Obviously. And while I don't have a weakness for mind it sure as hell isn't my speciality, so I'd appreciate it if you just played along."

"So you're what, a Harry Potter freak who thinks he's a wizard?"

"What? No! What are you..." he trailed off as he stared at her. His lips worked for a few seconds before he finally said, "You have no idea what I'm talking about, do you? You-You don't know anything about magic."

"Obviously. I don't know what you're on or if you're some kind of otherkin or something, but you're nuts."

"Holy shit!" Warren said, eyes wide as they ran all over her. "You're a Wild mage! I've only met other Line mages. I mean, I've heard of Wild mages but I've never actually met one."

Cora's eyebrows rose as she stood. Whatever was going on Warren had admitted that it wasn't in her head, that she wasn't crazy, and with that to hold tight to the rest didn't matter anymore. She was done with insanity. "Sorry, I'm not playing your magic game. You'd better go find someone else."

He stood as well, hurrying around the table so he stood beside her before Cora could move towards the door. "You don't believe me right now and that's fair. You don't know any of this and I guess this seems crazy to you, but I promise you, I'm not making this up. I'll need to talk to my master about you, to see what we should do. You-"

She shook her head and turned away from him. "Bye, bye Gandalf."

"Wait!" He caught her wrist before she'd taken more than a step away.

Cora whirled to face him as her whole body tensed, the distant memories of her karate classes coming to the fore. "Let me go."

Warren dropped her wrist but held her eyes with his. "Look, I get you not believing any of this, but I need you to play along with knowing me. And that's for your sake as much as it's for mine. I set a spell to make everyone here remember me by merging my memories from my old school with theirs and you're going to look like the crazy one if you don't act like you do as well. Just play along and I'll explain everything later. I promise."

With his expression so serious and his eyes steady on hers, it was hard for Cora to dismiss this as just Warren being crazy. Unless he was so nuts that he wholeheartedly believed in his delusions. But that didn't explain Zoe or Michael or anything else. It was beginning to feel like she was trapped in a dream. Or that everyone else was and she was the only one awake and seeing the truth about Warren. Still, he did have a point. As long as everyone else was acting like they knew him, she'd have to go along or look like the weirdo.

"Fine," she said. "But you're going to have to prove to me that you're not crazy." And that I'm not either, she thought. She wondered if this was going to turn out to have been a dream even as she knew it was far too real. Which led her back to one of them being nuts. Ignoring the faint pinpricks of fear along her back at the thought of her really being crazy like she'd thought, Cora turned her back on Warren and waved as she walked back towards the school.

"We'll talk again soon," he called after her.

Cora snorted slightly. Not if I have my way, she thought as the heavy metal door shut behind her.