Chapter 2 - The Fire Maiden

When Mary walked into the Council Hall after so many months, countless pairs of curious eyes followed her, which didn’t help assuage her discomfort at all, but the fact that her classmates welcomed her effusively lightened up the burden a bit. She found a chair and sat down at the end of the first row, trying as hard as she could to fade into the background, a task not easily achieved. The dressing standards had been relaxed significantly, but her hair, now so long that it reached down to her waist, still remained the distinctive blond dot in a sea of black tresses.

Lucille walked to the podium smiling and waited for the room to grow quiet.

“Today I stand before you, deeply humbled by your trust, to mark the beginning of the school year, a privilege I share through time with all the principals that came before me. There is no greater, more personal gift, as I celebrate the courage of so many generations of Scholars who kept knowledge alive in the face of fear and prejudice, than to see their ideals brought into the light. Today the Scholars’ Line is restored to its purpose, which is to inspire the accomplishment of great things, some of which we can’t even dream of yet. It will be an extraordinary journey for all of us, this leap into the future, and a steep learning curve at times. It will require all of our efforts, especially from those of us who are honored to serve in Council, and letting go of many preconceived notions, to make this transition as smooth as possible.

The girls already know the teachers who are joining us remotely today, but for the sake of the rest of our group we would like to ask the members of the science team to introduce themselves and their areas of expertise before going through the structure of instruction.”

“Where is Rosemary?” Mrs. Gentry whispered to Giselle, and her question boomed like thunder through the relatively quiet room. “Sorry, dear!” she corrected herself. “That’s the best I can do on my indoor voice.”

“She’s at the rock mound, collecting and logging the evidence,” Giselle replied, one eye on the tablet in her lap, trying not to miss the digital conversation she was engaged in.

“Is that hard?” Mrs. Gentry tried not to show too much interest, but completely taken by the speed with which Giselle was manipulating the strange object.

“Not too hard,” Giselle replied without stopping the elaborate finger dance on the surface of the glass. Mrs. Gentry remembered her initial question.

“Why on earth would she go to the rock mound? Didn’t anybody tell her that we made up the artifacts?” she asked, perplexed.

“It would be hard for her not to know, given recent events,” Giselle finished what she was doing and turned all her attention to Mrs. Gentry. “I…aahm…was appointed technical liaison,” she apologized, her voice almost a whisper.

“What’s that?” Mrs. Gentry replied in a decibel range that was normal for her, an order of magnitude louder.

“I’m…supposed to bring the Council up to speed on the use of electronic devices,” Giselle blushed, looking down.

“You mean I’m going to have to learn how to compel a black mirror?” Mrs. Gentry burst with laughter at the fine ironies of  Council rule.

“It’s not…” Giselle started to protest. 

“I know, dear. I’m joking,” Mrs. Gentry finally settled down. 

The two noticed that the smooth flow of the presentation had ceased and the shuffle of chairs in the room indicated the participants were taking a break. Mary glided by them almost unnoticed, with the soft and silent movements of a cat.

“That girl is something else, showing up right next to you without any warning, it’s like being haunted by a ghost sometimes, so help me!” Mrs. Gentry mumbled displeased that the girl’s presence had taken her by surprise again. 

“Why, Mrs. Gentry!” Giselle giggled at her predicament. “You of all people! You know there are no such things as ghosts!”

“You’ll have your wisdom and I’ll have mine!” Mrs. Gentry replied, morose.

Mary exchanged a few words with the one in the mirror before the room went silent again, for the second part of the presentation.

“It’s going to be a heck of a challenge to get used to all of this,” Mrs. Gentry frowned, yet unconvinced to take that leap of faith into a new way of life.

“A steep learning curve, for sure,” Giselle acquiesced. 

As the presentation resumed, Caleb mentioned casually that the team had promised Mary she could come visit, and if she made the trip right now she would only miss a couple of days at the beginning of the school year. Since Lucille had no objection to the trip in principle, Mary got up, advanced to the center of the room, opened a door into thin air and disappeared, only to show up a moment later on the other side of the screen, all grins and waving at the audience.

The Council Hall froze in disbelief. Mrs. Gentry and Giselle looked at each other for a moment and then Giselle composed herself and commented.

“As I said, steep learning curve.”