Chapter 97 - A Lead

I stood up to assert dominance, careful to not look at the paradoxical apple too close. It was fine if I didn't concentrate on it—then my brain just assumed that since it was blue, it was, well, of the right kinds of blue. The illusion shattered when I looked at it directly, so I didn't. When I looked the gathered witches over, I saw that neither did they.

"Well," I started carefully gathering my words, "I thought it would be obvious. I simply turned the apple blue by putting said aspect into it."

"But…" Alexandra paused and, after a moment of contemplation, closed her mouth and nodded. "Of course! This is a very unorthodox approach to something like this, but it's also very interesting. I see you have been practicing on your own, and it did your skills a great deal of good." She gave me a praising smile before turning to glance at the guest witches with unmistakable pride.

I sat back down and looked at her, wondering if she really understood what I was talking about. There was still enough confusion on the faces of a good half of the people to see that they didn't. Before they could assault me with questions, I said, "Thank you, Alexandra. It's really very simple, but I'm still new enough to magic for tricks like these to be exciting just because it's magic. I just moved some aspects around, and something miraculous happened—isn't it amazing?"

"Indeed, indeed." Alexandra nodded with a sage look. "It's good to be young and to enjoy everything the world can offer for the first time."

I hummed in agreement, smiling. Though I was looking at her at the moment, that expression was aimed not at Alexandra, but at myself. Well, at Alexandra too, somewhat. She played along with me perfectly.

"Ah, I see now what you did here, Diana," the bearded Goliath—this could easily turn into his nickname like that, since I forgot what his name was by now—nodded with a look of understanding in his eyes. "Very impressive for a new witch."

"You manipulated everything so swiftly I didn't even see you move. That was cool!" another guest witch said.

"Yeah! Can you show us one more time, please? I'd really love to look at your spell closer."

And like that, the gates were open and more and more questions, praise and calls for an encore were thrown at me. It wasn't something I was used for, but I grinned and bore it like a champ, even though I really wanted to leave this place and these people at the moment. Sadly, I had more questions to ask first, and that meant sitting at least for long enough until this part with introductions would be over.

To my silent and much more geninune gratitude, soon enough Alexandra called everyone to silence and offered other people to demonstrate their own magic tricks. That ensured more bragging, but it was also an interesting display on its own, and I watched with rapt interest.

Alexandra herself showed her splitting trick to cut an apple—not my blue one—in pieces, to everyone's mild applause (I imagined that spell wasn't a new one). Another witch from my coven made a paper plane fly all around the room by heating and cooling the surrounding air, which gathered much more applause, including that from Alexandra herself. Making things move around in general seemed like something witches liked to practice with, which was understandable—it wasn't something easy to do with magic.

To do with any precision, at least.

Gradually, the discussions began to split and turn into other topics, and the atmosphere returned to the relaxed and friendly one I remembered from the last gathering. Beer was opened, and then it was every bit like a frat party, except with magicians. Before they could go too far into the partying mindset, though, I called for everyone's attention.

It wasn't easy, but with Alexandra's help, I managed. I stood with my palms on the table and looked at the people who stared back at me with "what now?" expressions. Maybe not that annoyed, but still. I clicked my tongue.

"Listen, I have something to ask everyone. I heard from someone that there's a new vampire in the city, and that she is dangerous. As in, batshit-insane dangerous. I've heard that she was the one after that explosion that was on news last week. Her name is Christina. She has blue eyes, brown hair in curls and overall looks like a model. If you see her, please tell to me and everyone where it was, so we can stay away from her."

The Twilight Coven witch gasped. "Brown curls? Like copper-brown, right? And eyes not just blue, but almost grey."

My eyes snapped to her. "Yes, that's her!" I realised how excited I sounded and tried to turn it into concern. "Have you seen her? Where? What she was doing?"

To my relief, no one suspected anything. An alarmed murmur ran amongst the gathered people, but it seemed to be more about the possible danger of Christina, than about my motives for searching her or my sources of information.

"She was… leading some guy with her. I think she was hunting. It was after sunset, and I was going home after working overtime, and when I waited for a bus, she just passed me by. And I thought then, that it was kinda strange, because I was sure that the vamp who lived in that place was a man…" The girl pursed her lips, visibly uncomfortable with everything that she saw. "Is she really that bad?"

A picture cleared in my head. I gave the Twilight witch an encouraging smile. "Don't worry too much. You know how it is. Vampires don't care for us as long as we stay low." Not true in my case, but most of the gathered witches seemed to agree. "Please, tell us where that was. And maybe you should try to avoid walking around after sunset until… until things clear out. I mean, I sure hope they will. It's not every day vampires start blasting each other up."