Chatoyant College Book 7: Upon What Soil

Chapter 51: Magical Pranks

"You know about the craft fair," Corrie said, fighting to keep her voice calm even as her heart sped up, hammering in her chest like she was running. Could Professor Lal have forgotten about that? That wouldn't be normal—would it? Had Brandon done some other kind of magic that had made her forget about it? "The one this afternoon. We talked about it in class."

"The explosion," Roe said when Professor Lal continued to frown. "Remember? I had a vision about something exploding in glitter. Tricia said it was probably the craft fair, and she was right."

Professor Lal's face relaxed. "Oh, yes, I remember that now."

Corrie's shoulders slumped and she let out a long breath, relieved that it was somewhat cleared up, at least. She realized she'd been squeezing Edie's hand and relaxed her grip. "Sorry," she whispered.

Edie smiled. "It's okay," she whispered back.

"I'm sorry," Professor Lal was continuing. "It's just that something else came up after that class and since the craft fair discussion didn't seem very important, it didn't really stick in my mind. And to be perfectly honest, when you live as long as I do, you need to be a bit picky about what goes in your memory."

"That makes sense," said Roe, raising her eyebrows and nodding.

"But I thought the craft fair was perfectly mundane," the professor said, looking around at the group. "Tricia said she thought she knew who it would be causing the explosion."

"She did," said Roe with a sigh.

"It turns out he's a faerie," said Dawn. "He's calling himself Brandon, but he's a big guy, tall, with blue skin and totally white eyes. I don't know if the exploding glitter was magic, but there was definitely some kind of magic going on at the craft fair."

Professor Lal frowned again. Corrie felt a sense of dread. It seemed like every new piece of information just made things worse. "What did you see or sense? I know exactly who you mean, and he has promised to stop the magical pranks. I wouldn't put it past him to break a promise, but he isn't going to like the punishment."

"We didn't see anything while we were there," said Corrie. "But everything we bought at the fair—at least everything we tested—seems to be magical, or at least magic-affected, in some way."

"Ah. What specifically have you noticed?"

"Two of us bought dolls," Corrie said, with a glance at Roe, who was clearly not looking at the rest of them at that moment. "We think they're affecting the people they look like, or maybe the other way around. I got one that looks like me and I tripped over nothing. When I got back to my room I found the doll had fallen down."

"And Brandon made these dolls?" Professor Lal asked.

"No, it was someone else, but her table was near his."

"And I bought a cloth bag," Edie said. "It turned a piece of thread I put in it to the same color and fabric as the bag. It didn't do anything to the other stuff I put in there, though."

Professor Lal smiled faintly. "I admire your spirit of experimentation. Is that all?"

"That's everything," said Corrie. "Though Troy ordered a bag to be made later, and we're a little concerned about whether that will be affected."

"Most likely," said the professor.

"So you know why this is happening?" asked Dawn.

"I believe I do," said Professor Lal. "This confirms a theory I've had for some time, actually, so thank you, girls. It would seem that anything sold or purchased on this campus is affected by its magical field. I don't know whether the market is affected by the magical field or perhaps the other way around, but I'm determined to find out now."

Corrie looked at Edie. "The posters!" they both said at the same time.

"Posters?" asked the professor.

"Oh!" said Annie. "Is that all? I guess that explains it. Um... a few of us have posters that we bought at the poster sale in the beginning of the year. They've been acting weird. Mine gave me kind of weird dreams, and Corrie... you'd better explain yours, I guess."

Corrie nodded. "It's a mood poster. I think it might have been affecting my mood. Either that or the sticker was moving on its own when my mood changed."

"Interesting. If it's the former, you should probably stop using it. As a matter of fact, would you girls mind if I took a look at the posters to study them?"

"You can have mine," Annie said, sounding happy to be rid of it.

"Sure. I'll bring them to class on Monday, I guess," Corrie said. "I did have another poster that wasn't affecting anything. We thought it might have something to do with keeping the posters over our beds, so I switched them, but I don't remember any weird dreams or anything."

"If it hasn't affected you yet it probably won't be worth me studying it," said Professor Lal, "but you may certainly bring it if you'd like. Do any of the rest of you have posters?"

"Troy does have one," Roe said. "But he didn't say it's been doing anything weird."

"I got one off-campus yesterday," said Edie. "I guess I don't have to worry about it now."

Corrie sighed. "It's good to have that cleared up. It was really weird."