at the Collegium, part 4

After supper, Karli makes her way to Goruin's study. She halts at the door and knocks hesitantly. Goruin's voice comes from inside the study, telling Karli to enter. She opens the door slowly, and enters the room.

"Now Karli," he says. "Earlier today you said that when you get angry, another girl takes over. Do you know who the girl is, or why she takes over?"

"I'm not sure," she says hesitantly. Unknowingly, she picks up a pencil and doodles absently on a blank piece of paper on the desk in front of her. "I never really get to see who she is. I just know that she's always there, ready to come out."

"Do you realize that this is not a normal thing Karli?" Goruin asks worriedly. "Something like this indicates that there is something wrong with you. Do your parents know about this?"

"No sir," she says. "She's only been coming recently. The first time was just before we reached Surinth."

"Did anything happen to you recently Karli?" Goruin asks, getting an idea. "To be more specific, right before, or during the trip from Gredine to Surinth?"

"Very well then," Goruin says. "Can you tell me anything else about this other girl?"

"Not really," Karli says. "Just that I don't think she likes me very much. I think she's mad at me. I don't know why."

"Thank you Karli," he says. "That will be all. You can go study if you want to now."

After Karli is gone from the room, the paper on which she had been doodling catches his eye. Instead of a meaningless scribble, which would be normal, he sees words. They are barely legible, and they look oddly formed. He picks up the paper and slowly makes out the words.

"N-O-T T-R-U-E," he reads. "Not true? What's not true? What didn't she tell me?"

The next morning after breakfast, Goruin sits in his study, writing a letter to Karli's mother. A faint knock sounds at his door, and he looks up. A faint looks of annoyance crosses his face, but he smoothes it out.

"Master Goruin?" Jaken's voice says from outside the door. "Could I talk to you?"

The door opens to reveal Jaken standing outside, a worried look on his face. Goruin gestures for the boy to come in and sit down. As he does so, Jaken glances around the room nervously.

"It's about Karli," Jaken says hesitantly. "When she started doing all that magic the other day you looked really worried about her. I just thought you might want to know this."

"Well," Jaken says. "Karli came to Surinth in my father's caravan. I never talked to her much because she was a princess and all, but... Well, about halfway through the trip she seemed to change. She wasn't like this at all when we started out."

"Well, she seemed really happy to be out of the city and going to the Collegium," Jaken says. "And she was a lot more outgoing. And she did magic all the time."

"Not that I know of," Jaken says. "But it was almost like it happened overnight. One day she was like she was at the beginning, and the next morning she was all withdrawn and almost as if she was depressed."

"Well, Jaken, if that was all you had to tell me, thank you," Goruin says. "I was just writing a letter to Karli's mother about her. I'm glad that you told me."

"You're welcome Master Goruin," Jaken says. "And now I'll be going. I have to get to my class."

Jaken then turns and walks out the door, leaving Goruin alone again in his study. He picks up his pen and starts tapping it absently against his chin, getting ink all over his chin in the process. Then, after thinking for a while, he begins to write a letter to Karli's mother. It reads:

Dear Karana,

I must admit I am not sure what to do with your daughter Karli. As you said, she is almost bursting with magical talent, but something seems to be wrong. But now, from what young Jaken Sashiki, the son of the leader of the caravan that she came with, I think that something happened to her on the way to Surinth. He claims that she changed almost over night from the girl that you described to me to the girl that I see everyday.

She acts almost depressed sometimes. She is extremely timid, and not very social. I can barely get her to talk to me most of the time. And, despite all her talent, she seems to be extremely clumsy magically. This of course is about the opposite of what you told me she was like

But then earlier today two of my students got in a fight, over her. She got very angry at them, and I got the sense that it had happened before. When I got over there, she had put them in magical bonds and was proceeding to extract an oath not to fight out of each of them. And then, after she passed the bonds on one of them to me, she went back to the way I was used to seeing her.

Then this evening I called her to my study to talk about the incident. She told me that it was like there was another her somewhere inside of her. She said that it was that other her that came out when she was angry, and that she didn't remember any of what the other her did. And she said that the first time it had ever happened was on the way here to Surinth.

I must say this disturbed me, especially since it was nothing like how you told me she was. And then Jaken came to talk to me. He said that she was different when the caravan left Gredine, but that one night she just seemed to change. I am wondering if something might have happened to her that night. What I do not know, and if you have any ideas I would be most grateful to hear of them.

Your former teacher, and current friend,

Goruin Crekerit

Having finished the letter, Goruin folds it up and seals it with wax. Before the wax hardens, he presses his own personal seal into the wax. Then he sets it in a basket on the outside of his door to be taken by the messenger the next day and ridden to the city of Gredine.