1.2. Seeking…

Sometimes I wonder if I’m the only one at Bogarts seeking something else. I’m in the common room of the Hearth Tower where all those specializing in a similar speciality are housed. They split us up by floor. The newbies (like me) are on the first floor. I’m staring at four women in front of me and I suddenly feel as if I’m the only one left standing alone on the beach while everyone else plays in the water.

I’m here for a reason. To be able to broaden my mind so I can travel to other realms and find someone I lost along the way. Looking at these women, were they only here for their studies?

Were any of them seeking something else?

“Anybody want a drink?” I call from the kitchen in the center of the common area. I set five glasses in front of me and looked around the room as a resounding ‘YES’ shouted at me from multiple directions.

I didn’t want to be in my head the entire night.

Four women were strewn across the carpeted floor. Two were sitting in front of small round mirrors that floated in the air above their laps, carefully applying their makeup. Another was lacing up a corset on herself. The last was sauntering over to me with a sneaky grin on her face. Her hand trailed across my shoulders as she curled around me. I held the bottle of tequila in my hand slightly out of her reach.

“Oh you think you’re hot shit now that you passed your first test, hmmm?” She teased. Her teeth were stark white against her black lipstick.

“Yarael,” I rolled my eyes but couldn’t stop myself from smiling. “Stop flirting with me. You sure that aphrodisiac didn’t work on you?”

Yarael threw her head back with a sharp laugh. Long, black, straight hair flew over her bare, pale shoulders. The black fabric she was wearing could barely be described as a tank, but I dare not say ‘top’. “If I ever find anything as attractive as a burrito at Taco Bell, you’ll be the first to know.” She shrugged. “Actually. You’d probably be it.”

My breath caught in my throat. My stupid cheeks flamed up but before I could think of a witty comeback, one of the women applying her makeup let out a loud, dramatic groan.

The gilded mirror fell into her lap and she threw her hands in the air. A purple line slightly out of place over her waterline made her left eye look like it had been punched. “Yarael! Help me put on my eyeliner!”

I took that moment to appreciate Yarael’s black, thick winged eyeliner. The way it narrowed into the middle of her eyes and flared out towards her temples. It was immaculate.

“Tell Elida to hurry up with the drinks and I will.” She threw back.

I realized then I was still holding the unopened tequila bottle. Quickly, I spun around to the fridge and grabbed the lime juice I had squeezed earlier (honestly preparing for this night), a bottle of Cointreau, and set them on the island counter.

One of my favorite things about sharing a tower with other first pins at Bogarts was that we were all grouped by our interests. So ‘kitchen witches’, ‘death-inclined,’ and ‘fire mages’ were set in one tower. Our talents complement one another in so many ways. But the best thing about this tower? The fact that the kitchen was at the center of everything.

I just started my journey here (we kind of all did) and already I’ve walked in on Sophie and Tayla sparking fires in the large fireplace behind me. Sophie was trying to see her fortune in the embers while Tayla was trying to see if she could create a fire spirit on her own. I’ve seen bones and skulls scattered across this very island counter as Yarael tried her hand at bleaching bones. The smell was atrocious! And Celaya! My stomach is already rumbling at the thought of her late night sweets waking me up in the middle of the night!

Our rooms were on the first floor due to our rank in the school. So we got the pleasure of hearing the second pins above us stomping and screaming at all hours of the day. But you couldn’t leave your room or the tower without first passing by this kitchen.

I threw in a few drizzles of the strawberry syrup I’ve been tinkering with lately. I’m trying to see which style of syrup, oleo saccharum, or infusion would last the longest out of the fridge. You never know when you won't have access to refrigeration and a good strawberry syrup can transform the flavor profile of a drink or tincture. So there are about six different bottles of a strawberry mixture underneath the island counter in front of me. Some of them look kind of questionable.

I should probably toss some of these…

“Elida!”

I quickly shook the mixture and split it between four glasses. “Pushy, pushy!” I tsked.

Yarael took two glasses in each hand—”server in my mundane life,” she explained when I opened my mouth to protest—and passed them to the girls sitting on the floor. She sat in front of Tayla, the blonde fire mage nearly in tears at the smudged eyeliner at the corner of her tear duct.

“Drink and chill.” Yarael pinched the eyeliner stick out of Tayla’s fingers and dapped the makeup off her eyes.

“Is that what you’re wearing?” Celaya to Sophie asked as she teased her dirty blonde hair in the back.

Sophie, white hair rolled in curls and an eye mask under both eyes, was quickly taking off her shirt and tossing it onto a lone couch in the corner. Her polka dot bra exposed, she looked through a large tote bag. “I brought options.” She turned to the group with a blue dress pressed against her chest. “What do we think?”

Tayla pursed her lips. “What are the choices?”

Sophie sighed and dumped the entire tote bag onto the floor. Multiple shirts, dresses, and skirts crumpled onto one another.

Yarael shook her head. “She wasn’t lying.”

Sophie picked up a pink v-neck and dropped the dress. “Too slutty?”

Celaya, who was prepping her face with moisturizer in the other floating handheld mirror, pressed her back against Tayla’s. She used the mirror to look at Sophie’s shirt. “You’d need boobs to make that slutty.”

Tayla sputtered. Yarael clicked her tongue against her teeth with the eyeliner pen paused in the air. “Hold still!”

I sipped on another margarita I had made behind the counter.

Celaya gasped when she saw me. “Bad luck!”

“Oops!” I set the drink down quickly. “I forgot—”

“Cheers, girls!” Celaya raised her glass and the rest of the women followed suit. Once they shouted cheers we all took a sip.

Celaya nodded back to me. “Now you can drink freely. Never take the first drink alone!”

Tayla nodded as Yarael took a big swig of her margarita. “The first sip is how you end the night. Take it alone, you end the night alone.” As if it was the law.

“Are you changing?” Yarael called to me over her shoulder.

I looked at my outfit. A black cropped tee and dark jeans. Nothing too complicated. “I wore this to class. Is it not good enough for tonight?”

Celaya tried on a black strapless dress and twirled for the room to gauge. “It’s the first Academy party of the year! All the houses will be there. Every student from first pins to sixth. It’s your first impression! You gotta look good.”

Yarael made some final adjustments to Tayla’s eyeliner. “It’s a resume builder.”

“Can you do my eyeliner next?” Celaya dabbed foundation across her cheeks. “I want to try a different look! Tay, can we match colors?”

Tayla beamed. “Of course!” She looked around the room. “We should all match! Like a club thing!” She reached for a sparkling powder and started to dap it over her collarbone and shoulders.

“Another round?” I raised my glass before finishing it.

Everyone quickly finished their drinks. I walked around the room to gather the glasses. The question hit me again.

Was I the only one here for something more?

As I walked back to the kitchen island I weighed asking the crowd. I didn’t want to ruin the fun energy, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

When Yarael moved to sit in front of Celaya, Tayla walked towards Sophie and helped her lace the back of a lace corset.

“Suck in!” She barked with a rough tug.

I poured the drinks and passed them back around. “Does anyone care if they don't get the same glass?”

“If we get sick, we get sick.” Tayla shrugged. She spun Sophie around to look at the outfit. She shook her head. “Too much.”

Sophie groaned and grabbed her chest. “If I had tits this wouldn’t be so hard!”

“I know some other things that would be hard,” Celaya grinned as Yarael started to draw a small line at her waterline.

Tayla unlaced the corset. Sophie put her hands on her hips and turned her head towards me. “Find a potion that will make my boobs grow.”

I laughed. “I’m sure there are physically altering potions. But I doubt they last a lifetime.”

“I’ll take it every day.”

Tayla smiled. “Like a supplement!”

“Oh, it’s a supplement all right!” Celaya kept grinning.

Yarael pulled the eyeliner back. A scowl tearing at her black lipstick. “If you keep this up I’m leaving you with only one eye finished. Hold still.”

Sophie raised her glass. “Drink, you bitches. I need it!” She threw the glass back and emptied it in two gulps before the rest of us finished our first sip.

Tayla coughed. “Whoa, this one is strong! What is this tequila with a shot of strawberry?” She looked at the glass. “Can a girl get a rim or something?”

Celaya opened her mouth but closed it when Yarael’s sharp eyes cut her off.

Sophie picked up a blue dress and placed it against herself. She looked at Tayla who was rummaging through the pile of other clothes. “Anything good?”

Tayla frowned. “We aren’t the same size.”

“For me to wear,” Sophie argued as I gave her a top off. I walked around the room with a fresh glass and filled everyone’s drinks. Tayla looked at hers suspiciously.

I finished the small sip that was left in the glass and placed it back on the kitchen island. I looked through the bottom of the glass.

I couldn’t keep it in any longer. The words spinning and spinning.  Getting louder with every minute. It just came out of me like word vomit. “Is anyone actually here for something else? Like…Not schoolwork or a degree?”

Yarael finished Celaya’s eyeliner as Celaya turned her head to look at me. Yarael rolled her eyes and turned to me as well.

“What an odd question.” Yarael shook her head. “Do you have a secret agenda?”

As Sophie took her blue dress off and took the black skirt Tayla handed her from the pile on the floor, she gasped. “Are you a spy, Elida?”

Tayla smiled wide. “Ooh! Here to get all of Bogart’s secrets and write a book about it! Exposing us all!”

I laughed lightly. “No no…I just…Sometimes I feel like everyone….” I busied my hands with making another drink and avoiding their gazes. “Is fulfilled with going to class. Becoming a master in their speciality. And me…I feel…Almost like a fraud. Truthfully, I’m here to build my exposure and tolerance to magic. So I can travel realms and find someone.” I shrugged as I poured another strawberry margarita into my cup. “I think it’s interesting to learn these things, but I don’t have any aspirations to use my specialization to make a living or anything like everyone else here.”

I finally looked up. All eight eyes stared holes into me. I feared the glass would break underneath the weight of their gazes.

Tayla finished her drink and hissed. “Ugh that’s strong. I’m only here to learn to make a fire spirit of my own.” She opened her palm and a small ball of flame appeared. She made a fist and the fire snuffed itself out. “I can’t learn that without mastering the basics. I don’t know what class or professor or book I find will help me. It’s never been done by a fire mage. But that’s why I’m going to be the first.” She shrugged.

Sophie tucked a white top into the waistband of the skirt. “A real, sentient spirit? For what?”

Tayla shrugged. “So I’ll never be alone.”

The force of her vulnerability pushed Sophie to speak. “I’m trying to master fire divination. So I can change my fate. A fire mage showed me an awful future. Blood, death, pain. I don’t want that. But fire divination is technically forbidden. So…I’m hoping to learn something or someone who can help me master the technique.”

Yarael grinned. “Sounds like a great future to me. Do you think that person is here at Bogarts?”

Sophie pursed her lips and touched one of the rollers in her hair. “Maybe in Wytchfyre. I need to do at least three years here to be able to travel to other schools. That’s going to be the first place I go.”

Yarael whistled. “Wytchfyre is intense. They practice a lot of the old ways. Blood magic, too. Maybe we can go together.”

Celaya finally turned back to her floating mirror and started to dab her cheeks with blush. “I need an accreditation from a good school to become an apprentice at any magical bakery. I don’t know what realm I want to settle in. But I know I want to create pastries that make people feel good—”

“—and fatten them up—” I teased.

Celaya laughed. “The mundane can’t offer me that. That’s why I’m here.” She nodded to Yarael. “You next.”

Yarael looked around the room. “It’s not obvious? Only at a magic academy can I play with bones and death and bring things back to life without being imprisoned. Do I know what I want to do with that? Nah. But it’s the only thing I’m passionate about. Why waste my time doing anything else?”

“What’s their name?” Sophie asked me before she finished her drink. “The person you want to find?”

I took another sip as I recalled her stiff handwriting in the margins of a book I randomly found one day. Her name written out flashed before me as I answered. “Esti Meade.” I felt myself smile as I spoke her name out loud. “She’s an elf and a reaaaallly good cook.” I smiled wider at Celaya. “You’d really like her!” I suddenly felt self conscious. On display. “We met briefly…But…I’d like to find her again.”

“The universe is vast,” Yarael warned.

Tayla swooned and clasped her hands to her chest. “Sooooo romantic!”

Celaya raised her glass. “A drink to Esti, then!”

Sophie waved her empty glass in the air. “Wait, wait! I need another!”

Tayla sprung to her feet. “Me too!” She took hers and Sophie’s glass to the counter where I stood.

Yarael and Celaya finished their glasses and walked to the counter as well. Sophie followed behind them. As I quickly made another batch of margaritas it finally occurred to me.

We were all seekers. Each one of us was seeking something. Not just me.

As I refilled everyone’s cup, Yarael snickered. “We are going to be too drunk to leave this tower.”

“Speaks for yourself!” Tayla slurred as she tapped her glass against Yarael’s.

“To us!” I raised my glass in the air. “And the goals we seek. I believe in every single one of us.”

“Hell yeah!” Sophie cried as we brought our cups together.

Suddenly, I didn’t feel so out of place. In the company of seekers I was merely another one.

Which I supposed answered the question I had earlier…