“While I may keep order here at Avalon Girl’s Academy, the power I wield is insignificant compared to what Mistress Black wields. Her considerable longevity and array of powers allow her some impressive leeway with the high-end communities of both human and demihumes. The regular humans are given a document they must sign before they are allowed entry; a document that says they may not leave the school in the same condition that they entered.” Fianna began her explanation.

My heart missed a eat when she said that last part. Her inflection on “may not leave” made it clear that it wasn’t optional.

“It’s not all bad, some of us wind up with a better perception of our world.” Elise chimed in, not wanting to let FIanna’s words make me too afraid… or so I assumed.

“Elise is one of the few humans who come out of this school with a better understanding of life around her, she’s also one of the few students who got in on merit instead of money. Her very nature and unnatural charisma propelled her to be the first Head Girl appointed in their first year. What makes this more unusual is that normally a Head Girl is in her position until she graduates or… something terrible happens that draws her away from her duties. Elise managed to unseat her predecessor through popular demand, another first in the history of Avalon Girl’s Academy. She’ll keep you on the right path after I graduate.” Fianna detoured from her initial explanation.

That all sounded really impressive, and if it were not for the serious nature of the conversation we were going over I’d have let it distract me.

“Ok, that’s all well and good, but can we get back to the girl with the lost memories? I’m really confused!” I said.

“Very well. The girl in question is named Evangeline Sinclair, heiress to her mother’s 4.3 billion dollar fortune and the company that goes with it. She… isn’t the most well liked person on campus, and she got worse when she saw her roommate Khani Honey-Guide in her vespid form. As one of the two Head Girls at the time, I made the call and had Mistress Black use her abilities. Elise was in training at the time and so couldn’t counter my choice. After a brief stint in the infirmary, Ms. Sinclair returned to the student body believing she’d had a nightmare and acting like she had prior to the incident. For better or for worse, she was back in the mix and we hoped there would be no further issues. So far, that’s been the case.” Fianna said.

It took me a moment to process everything, and thankfully Fianna and Elise were quiet while I sat there contemplating everything.

“Okay, I think I understand everything so far, but… it does bring up a question. You said that the one girl, honey whatever, she couldn’t return to her glamour form. How does that happen? What do you do to get back to your glamour form? I know I’ve never been conscious of my own glamour, let alone know I had one, so how do I put it back if it’s removed?” I asked, looking Fianna in the eyes, her glasses having slid down her nose a little.

“I was hoping to go over that with you tomorrow, but I guess now is as good a time as any other. Elise, if you wouldn’t mind locking the door? I would hate for someone to walk in on Lauren here… in the nude, in a sense.” Fianna said, grinning a little at the end.

Elise locked the door and took a seat on the edge of Fianna’s desk, a slight look of displeasure crossed Fianna’s face momentarily but then flashed back to her neutral expression.

“Alright Lauren, first we have to dispel your glamour. This is a little easier said than done, especially since neither myself nor Elise have the ability to force your glamour to dissipate. The only creature I know of with that skill is… well… you, if legends are true. There are likely others, but I don’t know what they are. For the time being, I’ll need you to focus. Imagine your face, that same image you see in the mirror every morning when you wake and get cleaned up.” Fianna began.

I closed my eyes and made a mental sketch of my face, then I made a sketch of my body from that, adding a hook to the edges of the face… like a mask that connected behind the head.

“Now, if you have that image, go ahead and imagine taking your face off of… your face. That sounded odd, yes, but that’s what you need to do. Your face is a mask, remove it.” Fianna said, slightly uncertain at first but then gaining confidence at the end.

I took the face sketch and had my mental body remove the face, the image burst forth with a rainbow of color stemming from the edges and then it settled. My sketch body held the mask in one… purple-ish hand, the skin on the body turning the same purple color, the eyes becoming solid blue orbs, my hair going from copper to shocking silver. I could see a set of wings sprouting from my back, and my ears grew pointed, and with that my features became sharp and cold.

I opened my eyes, and I could feel the atmosphere in the room shifting dramatically. Fianna looked on with a mixture of lust and surprise, a look I wasn’t certain I disliked on her face. Elise, on the other hand, looked like she was barely keeping herself from jumping on me. Scooted back in my chair a little, and then I noticed my hand was that same shade of greyish-purple the mental sketch had turned. The nails on it were pitch black and sharpened to a point, the fingers were elongated and nimble in appearance.

“Goddess, I forgot how attractive you fae become when you completely drop your glamour. I just want to tackle her and…” Elise started to say and then shivered, almost like… anticipation?

“Oh no, that particular desire stems from the kind of fae Lauren is. The Leanan Sidhe are creatures who ooze desire, similar to succubi or incubi, but they drive humans to insanity instead of killing them. I’d avoid touching her if I was you Elise, you’ll become a thrall.” Fianna said, opening a drawer on her side of the desk. Pulling out a hand mirror she passed it across the desk toward me.

I picked it up and gazed into the pane. I saw the image of my mental sketch, but with a few minor differences. Under each eye there was a thin but long triangle of red, stretching from the top of the cheek to about even with the top of the upper lip. I also saw my teeth, all were sharp and needle like… and behind them was a forked tongue that looked almost reptilian. I also saw a trace of green stemming from the side of the face and curving up to where the eyebrow would be on each side.

I was both afraid of the creature I had become, but I also felt more at home in this form. It was like taking off your bra at the end of a long day, it was an out-of-brassiere experience but with my whole body.

“Lauren, if you’re quite finished admiring yourself, let’s go over getting you back into your glamour.” Fianna said, clearing her throat and looking away from me. Her face was very red, so I figured she must be having some impure thoughts as well.

“Do I just put the mental mask back on? Or do I need to re-shape the body sketch?” I asked, trying to be helpful.

“If you reapply the mask you should slowly return to your glamour form.” Fianna said, nodding.

I did as I was told and could almost feel a tightening sensation as my body began to reshape itself to who I was… or more accurately, who I thought I was. Eventually the feeling bled into the background, like white noise when you’re out and about, and I could tell I was back to being Lauren Sidhe, human.

Elise breathed out, sounding like she had just run a marathon. “I’m going to need to change now… Fianna, I would get a new desk if I was you. That was just a little too intense for the average Jane.”

Fianna looked appalled and flustered, and I couldn’t blame her.

“You didn’t tell me what she could do, you should be glad it’s just a small spot! I was about ready to-“ Elise started to rant.

“Elise, please stop. I really don’t want to hear about you going ‘sploosh’ on Fianna’s desk.” I said quickly.

Elise took that as her cue to duck out.

“You Americans. It’s like you relish spreading information that the rest of us… is that a spot?” Fianna started to make a comment and then saw the darkened spot on her desk corner.

“Where is Elise from specifically?” I asked, looking about frantically for a cloth or tissues or something to help Fianna clean up.

“She’s from Minnesota, that’s rather close to your own home, correct?” Fianna said, pulling from another drawer a large bottle of disinfectant wipes.

“Couple states over actually. She borders Canada, I border the ocean.” I replied.

“I can’t be too hard on her for this, it’s not like she was in control of her libido just then. You do make a mess of just about everyone’s hormones. I’m glad the earrings don’t let latent abilities through, that would be a mess. Plus I’d not be able to get you all to myself if you were ‘on’ for that time.”

“So do fae have some kind of resistance to that… charm?” I was curious, maybe there was some hope.

“Only a little. If I hadn’t been prepared for you to transform, I imagine I’d be much like Elise was just now. The difference is I wouldn’t become a thrall to you, I’d just be uncharacteristically aroused for a few hours.” Fianna spoke the last part quietly, as if she was trying to avoid admitting it aloud.

Something about this whole episode sparked a question that I felt really dumb for not asking before.

“Hey, Fianna, who exactly made these earrings? They’d need some kind of knowledge of the glamour and magic enough to deactivate it. That’s got to be a heavyweight, right?”

Fianna looked at me in surprise. “I thought you’d… Oh, that’s one hell of a secret to not tell your daughter.”

I was lost, “Fianna! English, please!”

“Lauren, your mother pioneered this technology in tandem with a man named Horace Myrddyn. Horace was in his early fifties at the time, and he had a son named Tyler. Tyler Myrddyn and Lea Sidhe vanished about six months after they unveiled these to the supernatural community. Tyler was thought to have died in a plane crash, Lea seemed to have disappeared into the aether. Your… revelation this afternoon, that your father was a magus, that answered so many questions about their disappearance. Goddess, what I wouldn’t give to have just ten minutes with your dad to ask some more…” Fianna looked like she’d just been given a golden egg.

“Well, he was asking about winter break… maybe a meeting of the families wouldn’t be too much of a stretch.” I said, scooting my chair closer to the desk again.

Fianna’s eyes grew wide. “A Myrddyn in Ireland, dining with the Unseelie… what a spectacle. I’ll have to get the schedule, find a point in that two week period we have off, and arrange for the airline to get him.”

“And Emrys. If you grab dad, you need to grab Emrys too. He’s just coming into his abilities dad said, so I don’t think it’d be safe to leave him by himself.” I chimed in.

Fianna nodded. She kept muttering “Myrddyns in the home of the fae…” over and over for a few minutes, looking so blown away by the offer.

I took her lack of engaging conversation as a moment to recollect myself. My mind needed to reorganize the huge amount of information it had just received, as well as figure out how to tell dad he would be the guest of honor for a bunch of fae without spilling the surprise.

“Lauren, you said your brother’s name was ‘Emrys,’ did you not? That’s a funny little thing, Emrys Myrddyn is backwards. The original, the tales of Merlin, called him Myrddin Emrys. Your family must love hiding in plain sight.” Fianna chuckled, realization striking me seconds after she said it.

“Are you implying… what I think you’re implying?”

“That you stem both from the fae seductress and the original Merlin? Why yes, I believe I am implying your incredible heritage.” Fianna said, grinning smugly as what I thought I knew about myself was brought crashing down around my ankles.