Stars Rise

XV. Frost

Another day, another trip through the mirror. Fog's mirror-self checked her motivations for entering Oz today, and her mind gave up glimpses of sub-par marks in red pen circled on the tops of recent history class assignments and tests. All the way from an A- to a C+.

Her intention that day was to practice memory enhancement spells, and her mirror self concluded that she had used her own discernment to come to a solution to her study problems that fell in line with her personal code of ethics. It also certainly couldn't harm anyone in Oz.

All Frost could see in the mirror world were the mean angelic faces of the previous partners she'd had in mind-reading class. The girls who thought mean, bullying messages to her — on purpose. Their heads swam through her head like collectible trading cards.

Now that she knew what everyone thought of her, and that it wasn't good, she wanted something more. She wanted to crack through Divine's concealment and raid her mind for weaknesses and humiliation.

Not knowing what she might find there, she didn't have a plan yet as to what she might do to Divine once she got inside. Her mirror self, discerning that to this point Frost had no intention of harming Divine or anyone else within, allowed her to pass inside.

The twins greeted Prospero at the host stand, where he would wait on days when a new student was coming. Fog had started the habit of quoting Shakespeare's The Tempest at Prospero every time she entered Oz, as a private joke with the wizard who took his name from that play. Today she said, "To be your fellow you may deny me, but I'll be your servant whether you will or no."

Frost rolled her eyes, but Prospero laughed heartily like he always did.

On the way down the metal stairs to the bar, Fog begged her sister, "Come to memory spell class first."

Tripping down the steps behind her, Frost teased, "What, you need me to hold your hand?"

"Let's pretend it's that." Fog's Converse sneakers hit the basement concrete and she pulled her sister along just by launching off mid-conversation. They moved through the bar like two horses keeping pace. "Yes, I need you," she went on. "I also feel that you spend all your time practicing mind-reading, which is a spell you're already good at. It would benefit you to branch out. Who knows, maybe you're a whiz at memory spells, too."

Frost projected a silent message to her twin as they passed into a tunnel. She spoke into her sister's mind: Or maybe you want to prove you're better than me at everything else.

The entry bottleneck to memory spell class created a queue, giving Frost time to see, as they slowed and fell in line, the hurt look from Fog.

"What?" said Frost, but Fog gave no answer as they moved into the cavern of a classroom. This one had real desks, if old as dirt, with wooden chairs attached to desktops, the kind from antique schoolhouses.

As if trying to heal the wound, Fog put a finger to her temple, the sign indicating permission to enter. The surprisingly boring teacher code-named Sauron gave an uninteresting opening lecture while Fog, in the private thought message to her sister, made a more valiant attempt at hyping up the class.

In Frost's head, she said: This is going to be cool. Memory spells will allow us to restore memories that have faded. They will help you out in school. So much of what we learn fades as time passes between when you formed a memory and when you last retrieved it. With a spell, you can improve recall, turn short-term memory into long-term, and rebuild past scenes until you can picture a moment from a decade before as if it happened a minute ago.

Half-listening to the direct message from Fog's mind to hers, Frost also listened to Sauron's lecture because one aspect of memory magic caught her ear. The old man in the black robes had said, "New students must first master the improvement, enhancement, and restoration of memories before they can be taught the second lesson: memory removal.