I stared at my reflection in the mirror adjusting my black tie for probably the tenth time.

“God, you’re just going to class, not a wedding. You don’t need to spend this long on your appearance,” Silvian called from behind me.

I turned to glare at him. “It’s my first class ever here! I want to look my best!”

Silvian rolled his eyes. “Yeah, well if we don’t leave now we’re going to be late so hurry your scrawny little ass and move it.”

“Just five more seconds,” I said, adjusted a few more hairs on my head.

“Alright well I’m leaving.”

I gave my appearance one more look over in the mirror before going to follow. Silvian was only a little way down the hallway when I caught up with him. He was clearly walking at a slower pace so I could keep up with him.

“So,” I said, practically bouncing with excitement.

Silvian looked to me, arching a brow. “So?”

“So we have our class in the alchemic arts first? Right!”

Silvian rolled his eyes. “Yes, obviously, you looked over the schedule like 50 times last night.”

“I know! I know! I just don’t want to mess anything up! I’m so excited!”

“Why? I could do that class in my sleep. Professor Drokav is boring as hell.”

I grinned at him. “That’s what you think.”

“What?”

“Nothing!” I snickered. Silvian would see soon enough that Drokav was secretly working for the Dark One.

“The only good thing about the class is that Owen Thorn is absolute shit at it,” Silvian said with a smirk. “I don’t know if words can even describe the wonderful and truly magical experience it is to watch him fail at something.”

“God do you have to be such a dick,” I said, rolling my eyes.

We entered into Professor Drokav’s classroom, a cavern, dungeon esque room that looked like it came straight out of Doctor Frankenstein's lab. There were several stations set up, each with an arrangement herbs and items already lain out. Most notably each station appeared to have a mandrake root at it.

Most of the students were already in pairs and groups of three. Silvian B lined right towards one of the empty stations and pulled out a pair of goggles, pulling them over his eyes. Normally I would have asked why he was wearing them but luckily, thanks to my knowledge of Owen Thorn trivia, I already knew the full backstory. Silvian had been gifted in the alchemic arts from a young age and once when he was untrained and first experimenting with it he nearly took out an eye. His mother had bought him the goggles as protection and he wore them any time he performed alchemic magic. The goggles became even more important to him after his mother passed away.

It might have been from the fact that I didn’t question the goggles or perhaps it was the way I was looking at him but Silvian glanced to me, giving a little sigh.

“You already know, don’t you?” He said, his voice unusually quiet.

I nodded. “Uh...yeah. Sorry, I know you might not want people knowing about your personal life and stuff without you ever telling them-”

“It’s okay,” he interrupted. “It’s not like you can turn your powers off.”

“Yeah...they can be a blessing and a curse.” Saying that made me sound like some withered wise man who had seen all the knowledge of the universe and not just a teenager who knew the backstory behind his goggles because they sold replicas of them in literally EVERY Hot Topic in my area.

I could see Owen and Morgana sifting through their ingredients a few stations behind us. I tried my best to not look in their direction. I knew if I did I wouldn’t be able to stop staring at him.

Silvian cast Owen a narrowed glance now. “Hey Thorn,” he called, a slightly snear to his voice, “excited to fail this class for the third time this year?”

Owen’s eye twitched slightly (something I knew well from the books was an early sign of his annoyance). He opened his mouth to respond but Morgana interrupted, speaking for him.

“Shut the fuck up Greygate,” she snapped, offering him her middle finger.

Silvian let out a little huff, turning back to our own ingredients, arms crossed. “Assholes,” he muttered under his breath.

“Uh, dude, I think you started it,” I helpfully pointed out.

Silvian shot me a little glare. “You’re supposed to be on my side.”

“Who the hell ever decided that?”

Silvian didn’t respond, simply grimacing. I sighed heavily. When I used to fantasize about being in an Owen Thorn book I don’t think I ever pictured myself stuck in the roll of the villain’s friend. Glad I was taking on a minor character role, even when I wasn’t in my real life.

Professor Drokav finally entered the classroom. I honestly couldn’t believe there were people who were surprised when he was revealed as a villain in the last book. It’s was so obvious, I mean seriously, just look at the guy! The mismatched eyes, the black, white streaked hair combed all the way back, OH and that stupid little beard. The dude practically screamed HELLO I AM A VILLAIN IN THIS SERIES.

Drokav now knitted his fingers together behind his back and paced slowly between the length of stations. “Welcome,” he said, “to your final year of alchemic studies.” This brought a few cheers from a couple students which were immediately silenced by a death glare from Drokav. “This year we’ll be working on some of the most difficult and advanced forms of the alchemic arts, the first and foremost being animation.” Silvian had grown completely still beside me when Drokav mentioned animation spells and was watching him intently now.

Drokav continued, still pacing all the while. “Now, as most of you know, animation is in the same alchemic category as necromancy and I assure you this is the only necromancy spell we will ever learn in this class. Necromancy is extremely dangerous and should only be performed by wizards who have trained for decades to perfect it. Even then there are still limits. As you all know, under no circumstance should any wizard ever try to bring back the dead. Today we will be learning only the most basic of animation and even this I expect to take at least several classes to perfect. Now then, let us begin the lesson.”

Professor Drokav then went on to explain the entire process of the spell we would be doing and (I’m not going to lie) it totally went in ear and out the other. I had no fucking idea how to follow the wild list of instructions he was sounding off. A few other students were casting each other uneasy looks as well and looked equally confused. Of course, I was even more fucked than them since I had never even taken this class before. I think Drokav was talking about the process of making the mandrake root walk across a table? I’m honestly not even entirely sure. They skipped over this section in the 7th Owen Thorn book and I could certainly see why. This shit was boring and complicated as fuck. Finally Drokav finished, giving us a nod to begin. The moment he did a scroll unrolled at each of our stations with the instructions he had just gone over. This might have been helpful except Drokav had written the entire thing in a cursive so small and tight it looked like a doctor’s handwriting.

I looked to Silvian now, “So I don’t really get any of this…”

“Don’t worry, I’ll do the work. Just do what I tell you to do.” He wasn’t even looking at me when he spoke, already beginning to sort through the items on the table. He slid me a pile of violets and a bone handled knife. “Can you start cutting these up?”

I nodded and did as he asked. Silvian’s hands made quick work, cutting, stirring and mixing with a pression that seemed almost inhuman. I would just barely finish cutting an item when he would hand me something else. He then would proceed to measure the cut ingredients before grinding them up and adding them to a small steaming vial. The more time passed, the further ahead I realized we were in the process then everyone else in the class. I had no idea what Morgana and Owen did to their mandrake root but at one point it just straight up exploded, charing both of their faces and hair. This earned a wicked cackle from Silvian and another middle finger from Morgana.

As the class drew to a close Silvian finally looked to me for the first time since we had started working. “It’s almost done. Pass me the knife,” he said. I reached for the one I had been cutting with. Silvian shook his head. “No, the smaller one, we need to make a precise cut.” I rolled my eyes but handed it to him anyway. God I felt like Igor to Silvian’s fucking Frankenstein. Silvian leaned close, hitting a button on his goggles that added three magnifying glass like lenses to his right eye. Carefully he cut a square out of the mandrake root, carving out a small cavern inside before he carefully poured the contents of the vial into it. Immediately his hand shot up, grabbing the attention of profesor Drokav who made his way over to us.

“Yes? What is it Greygate?”

“Professor,” Silvian said, “I think we are ready to perform the animation spell.”

Drokav chuckled. “Greygate, I know you’re one of my most gifted students in the alchemic arts but this usually takes even the brightest students multiple classes before they can-”

Without even letting him finish Silvian removed his wand and gave it a little flick, whispering the word “anə-māt.” The contents inside the mandrake root began to bubble and slowly but surely the mandrake rose, took two clumsy steps and then fell returning once more to it’s motionless state.

Drokav’s eyes grew wide. “Amazing! I’ve never seen a student get a mandrake walking on the first day! Congratulations mister Greygate.” Drokav’s gaze drifted around the room, lingering especially long on Owen, Morgana and their charred mandrake. “Let mister Greygate’s performance today be an example to all of us.”

-----

As we left Drokav’s room and made out way to our next class, despite the praise he had just received, Silvian’s gaze was dark.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. “You look super pissed.”

“I could have done better,” Silvian muttered, running a hand through his dark hair. “Hell, I should have done better.”

I blinked, confused. “What are you talking about? You did the best in the class and from the look on professor Drokav’s face, possibly the best ever.”

“It’s only because I’ve been practicing on my own,” Silvian said cooly.

My eyes widened. “What? But isn’t that kind of magic really dangerous? I thought it was illegal to practice it without a professor present until we graduate.”

Silvian didn’t even look at me. “Your point?”

I would have thought more on what Silvian said but we had already arrived at our next class.