Kroff gets right into the lesson, kicking off with tag locks and how we can use someone’s hair, nail clippings or even their blood to create a link between them and magic. At first it sounds disgusting. The thought of carrying around someone’s nail clippings – no thank you! But as he continues to explain its many uses, I find myself growing increasingly fascinated.
‘So, if I were attempting a difficult spell, I could use this person’s tag lock to draw energy from if I needed it?’ an Opal girl asks from the front of the class.
‘Correct. Of course, that is not what we will be doing this morning, as that requires each person to be very skilled in spell magic. Not to mention taking too much of one’s own energy can be life threatening, and none of you have that control inside of you yet. So, instead, I will be teaching you all to create a simple protection tag lock.’
‘How many kinds of tag locks are there?’ the same girl asks.
‘It depends on what your intention is. Your tag lock doesn’t have to be connected to a person, it could be an animal or a place, like your home. You could, for instance, take a stone from the wall of your house and bind a protection spell to it through that link. They are also used for scrying, which I’m sure some of you will be learning about soon in your Divination lessons.’
He goes on to answer a few more questions about tag locks before he walks around the room with a pair of scissors and a bundle of thread. He sets them down on the table between pairs. The thread Xavier and I get is royal blue.
‘Sir?’ I ask, hesitantly. ‘What are the scissors for?’
He looks back at me as he’s mid-way through pulling a ball of thread on a student’s desk. ‘Your hair, Miss Nocthare.’
I try not to gape down at the shiny pair of scissors. My hands find the end of my braid hanging over my shoulder.
Kroff carries on, explaining that the most important thing about tag locks is remembering our ethical responsibilities. If someone trusts you with a piece of themselves, there needs to be a great amount of care and respect for that individual.
He tells us to make sure the person we are partnered with is someone we trust. If it’s not, or we’re sitting beside someone we don’t know, we can make it for ourselves.
‘I trust you,’ I tell Xavier, and it might be the most honest thing I’ve ever said.
He smiles softly. ‘I trust you too.’
Kroff claps his hands, an order to get to work. I snip off about an inch from the end of my braid then adjust the hair band up. Xavier turns to me and asks me to find a spot that won’t look like a chunk is missing.
I feel bad cutting his hair, it’s so floppy and soft, but I find a thick section at the back and snip off about the same amount as I did for my own hair. We begin to weave the hair into the thread to make a bracelet.
As we’re sitting together, knee to knee, I glance around quickly to make sure no one is listening before finally asking Xavier my pressing question.
‘So, I have a favour to ask you, and I need you to understand that it’s abigfavour, and I wouldn’t ask if I wasn’t desperate.’
‘Whatever it is, I’ll do it. Unless it’s carrying around your piss or toenails in a jar.’ He lifts his bracelet, if it can even be called one; it’s barely held together. ‘I’m not doing that.’
I snort. ‘No, nothing like that.Yet.’
He shudders. ‘Go on, what is it?’
‘I need you to get me into the restricted area of the library in Agate.’
Xavier drops his ball of thread. I reach out and catch it for him before depositing it back on his lap and continuing to thread my bracelet, trying not to make us look suspicious.
‘If it’s too much to ask, just—’
‘No, it’s not that, it’s just …’ he looks around. ‘What is it for?’
‘My brother,’ I whisper. Then dive into what Lillian told me in my room and how I found myself in the Grand Hall, wondering what the magic he supposedly used was for. If I can find out what spell was being cast, then maybe things will start to make a little more sense.
‘When and how are you wanting to do this?’ he asks, handing me his bracelet to tie off at the end after I successfully finished mine.
‘I was thinking we could go down there while everyone is celebrating Imber Stellarum.’ In my head, the plan makes sense. ‘Everyone will be busy with the celebration. There shouldn’t be anyone down in the library at the time. We get in and get out as fast as possible and between the two of us we can spread out and look for information faster than with only one set of eyes.’
Xavier hums in thought. ‘That could work. The main ceremony will be outside in between the Training Centre and the cliff side. If we skip it, that should give us at least an hour to get down there and look around before everyone starts to come back.’
‘An hour, do you think that’s enough time?’
‘Maybe,’ he says before his eyes travel past me, to the empty seat where the third member of our trio usually sits. ‘Though three sets of eyes might be better.’
