The Ghost Friend: Marn Magical Academy Book 3 E-Book

Stacey Keystone

• Herausgeber: Stacey Keystone
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

Amy Morad has now found her family. She needs to get used to it, as well as Martinus Novak, who claims to be her fiancé. All of that while studying at the Marn Magical Academy.

New semester, new challenges. She will need to help her friend, figure out her magical abilities, and survive from those who want to harm her.

Book 3 of the Marn Magical Academy series, which will take you through Amy's adventures as she finds love and friendship.

Leseprobe

The Ghost Friend

Marn Magical Academy Book 3

Stacey Keystone

Ellauri Press

Copyright © 2020 Stacey Keystone

All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the publisher is an infringement of the copyright law.

ISBN: 9798708135315

Published by Ellauri Press 2020

Contents

Books by Stacey Keystone:

Newsletter

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Epilogue

Books by Stacey Keystone:

About the Author

Books by Stacey Keystone:

Alchemist series:

THE APPRENTICE’S PATHALCHEMICAL MAGIC

Marn Magical Academy series:

THE GHOST SCHOOLTHE GHOST BRIDETHE GHOST FRIEND

Newsletter

Click on the list to sign up for Stacey’s mailing list.

https://stacekeystone.com/subscribe

1

The sofa was soft. The fireplace was filling the room with warm, red light and cracking noises. My voice was hoarse.

"And the dragon told the king:

It is time for me to go. The time of dragons has gone. I hope you learned how to be a wise ruler.

Thus, the last dragon left, to worlds unknown, never to be seen. But the king remembered his advice and ruled wisely until he died.

The end."

I closed the book and tried to set it aside — but there was nowhere to put it. Nigel, the youngest of my cousins, was sitting on my lap, while Davyn was leaning on my right shoulder, following the text as I read, pointing with my finger.

While Nigel, being three, wasn't too heavy, he still had a good thirty pounds in him. And Davyn, almost six, as he would tell you, was quite a scrawny little boy, so his head on my shoulder wasn't too much.

No, what made me feel squeezed was the young man sitting on my left, his arm behind my back, firmly holding my waist as he, also, leaned on me. Or rather, the sofa, but there was very little space between his head and my free shoulder.

I just put the book on his lap. He adjusted his position slightly and leaned to put it back on the coffee table, next to the pile of the other books I just read.

"Can't you read this book now, auntie Amy?" Leila asked, handing me her book. It was thicker than the other books I'd read before.

But then, Leila was seven, and the books she liked were longer than the stories her little brothers liked.

I was feeling trapped.

"Ask Uncle Marty," I said, elbowing said man. "Or we can listen to you read. I know you do great. Your tutors compliment you a lot."

Leila, who didn't fit into the tightly octopus-like entanglement, raised her nose and looked at us from her seven-year-old towering height, as she stood in front of us. She was too old to sit on somebody's lap, her face said, while her eyes expressed jealousy. And her attempts to sit on the sofa's armrest ended with her slipping to the floor, so she now pretended she had been sitting on the floor because she wanted to.

It was clear who she blamed for this situation.

There was only one person who, in Leila's opinion, did not belong here. And she never missed a chance to express that feeling.

"He's not my uncle," she said. "I don't like how Mr. Novak reads. And I like how you read. Please? It's a hard book. It has many words I don't know."

I elbowed Marty. He should be the one solving this. He was the one with a large extended family. I have no idea how to handle the petty jealousies and sibling rivalries a large family will inevitably beget.

I was an only child for most of my life, and recently, an orphan.

I've only been part of an extended family for two months now. Before, it was just mother and me.

"While I agree that Amy is better at reading than me," Marty said, "she's tired. She already read four books today. If you don't want me, we can ask your mother."

But Leila was having none of it. She would not be reasoned with by a man she disliked.

Her sympathy for me did not extend to my fiancé, Martinus Novak.

While I shouldn't let this grow bigger than it is, I was quite happy at being liked. It was the first time in my life somebody wanted to spend time with me. Mother had been way too busy making a living as a single mother and was too tired during the brief moments of rest she got.

Having a seven-year-old girl and an eighteen-year-old young man fight for my attention was… weird. But in a nice way.

"She wouldn't be tired if you didn't take her out today," she said. "After she spent the morning at work. Why don't you leave her alone? You'll see her once you go back to school, and we can only have her for the holidays."

While I couldn't turn to see his face, pinned down as I was, I could hear the amusement in Marty's voice.

"You will still have her in the evenings," he said. "And it's not like we get to be together during class time. We're supposed to study, you know?"

As if that argument could convince Leila.

"But you can study together," she said. "I also want to study with aunt Amy."

"But aunt Amy needs my help," Marty said. "Or she'll fail her classes. And you don't want to shame your family name like that, do you?"

Leila considered that argument.

While she was only seven, she was raised in a powerful, aristocratic family. She had been taught about honor and duty all her life, and she was conscious of her family names' responsibilities.

For a seven-year-old, that is.

"I can help aunt Amy," she then decided. "I'm very good at magic. All my tutors say so. We don't need you."

Before Marty pointed at the absurdity of it all, I took sides.

I elbowed him again, freeing my waist of his hand.

"Move," I said, pushing him towards the very edge of the sofa. I then waived my hand at Leila. "Sit between us. I'll help you with the hard words, and if there's a word we both don't know, he can help us."

She seemed satisfied with that solution, which involved winning over her rival, and she happily jumped onto the sofa, pushing Marty to the very edge. He looked at me with reproach, but moved aside, unable to fight us both.

The book was, indeed, hard. To my shame, it contained many words I wasn't familiar with, having grown up on Earth, a non-magical world. Every day I spend on Marn, I learn new things.

When Cloris came to take the kids to sleep, I could finally stand up, stretch my arms, and breathe deeply.

Being loved so much was nice, but it could also be quite suffocating.

"I don't know why you spoil them so much," Marty grumbled.

"It's nice to have a family," I said.

While uncle Azzie, his wife Cloris, and Pops treated me warmly, it couldn't compare with the admiration and adoration my cousins showered me in. For the adults, I was a child. For the kids, I was the big sister, the link between them and their much older parents, the adult they could play with and talk with. My total ineptitude in all matters magical meant that they could also feel good about themselves by teaching me what they knew.

Of course, I always asked questions to Marty or Yllana, my friend, because the kids could be outrageously funny (and wrong) in their explanations. If I based my understanding of the world on what they told me, I would behave like a child.

"While I'm glad you enjoy it so much," Marty said, "the holidays are almost over, and we've only been out twice. Including today. And we're starting classes next week. Maybe if you worked less, you could have more time for both your family and me."

I looked at him, raising my eyebrow. He pretended not to understand, his expectant gaze fixed upon me.

"Erynn needs me," I said, referring to the baby I was taking care of.

My first job when I came into this world was to take care of her at night, so her mother could get some sleep. Spending time with her awakened my magical gift, and I Healed her without even realizing what I was doing. I couldn't quit my job. What would happen to Erynn if I stopped helping her develop her ethereal body? She could burn from inside from excess magical energy. Or worse…

I shuddered, thinking of all the things that could happen to a child with problems in their magic formation.

I read a book recently, a thick, illustrated book with clear, concise, and dry language.

When Marty found me in the library, after Grandpa called him, worried that I didn't respond to calls through my vizor, he had to unbend my fingers one by one, as I gripped to the book with all my strength, as if it was the only thing holding me from madness.

He closed it and placed it on the table and handed me a handkerchief.

"Why did you have to read it?" he asked. "I told you not to read it. Look how upset you are. Now, now, stop —"

I hugged him by the waist and started crying again, all the tears I had inside me pouring into a river. I made a mess of his shirt, and even the magically water-resistant mascara run down, creating a black spot. I don't even want to think how I must have looked.

He put his arms on my shoulders, patting my head gently, as I used his chest as a handkerchief.

"Next time you'll know," he said, taking out his pocket square and drying my face. It was slippery and didn't work very well, because it wasn't supposed to be used for this. But the handkerchief was in such a sorry state, even touching it was disgusting, much less using it on my face. "That I don't tell you not to read something for no reason. It's not like there's anything you can do, Amy."

"But I can," I said, looking up at him, my voice hoarse from all the crying. "I can help. I don't know how — but I might be able to help. And that's why I must."

He tried to tell me it wasn't my responsibility, that it wasn't my duty to do so, but I remained relentless. If I had this gift, then I had to use it. I couldn't live in a world where children were exploding from the inside — and do nothing about it.

"We talked about this," I said.

We had. Not only that time, but many times after that, when he tried to convince me to just live my life — as if I could do something like that.

"It's not that I don't respect your choice," he said. "But Amy… you're barely managing, and we're on holiday. What will you do when we restart classes? I don't want to see you collapse."

"That's my business," I said, shrugging. "I've handled worse before. Maybe I can go back to the distance department. That would add to my time."

"Not really," Marty said. "You can't learn the spells we'll be learning now in the distance department. Only control and magical energy management can be taught this way. For anything more than this, you need to be present. And if you want to learn how to use that skill of yours, you must go to the in-person classes. Besides, not letting your mind rest is not sustainable."

"I'll manage," I repeated what I said before, for the hundredth time.

"Alright," Marty said, for the first time, with a calculating look in his eyes. "But promise me something."

"What?" I would not promise him anything if I didn't know what it was.

"That, when you do collapse, you'll slow down," Marty said. "As soon as you end up in the hospital because of this, that's it. You listen to me and reduce your workload."

I looked at him with suspicion. The proposal was reasonable. Which meant there was something else there.

"And you won't bother me anymore, and you'll let me make my own decisions?" I asked.

"Sure," he said, although, by his frown, I could see he didn't like it much.

"Three months," I said.

"What?" he said, blinking at the non sequitur.

"If I collapse, I listen to you for three months," I had to put a time limit on it. I hoped not to lose this bet, but, if I did, at least it wouldn't mean giving Marty the control over my schedule for life.

"A year," he said.

"Six months," I said. "And no more."

"Deal," he agreed, and extended his hand to me, which I shook.

I smelled a rat. He agreed way too quickly.

But there was nothing I could point at, so I smiled and shook his hand.

2

The beige silk slip was light, almost weightless. That, and the fact it was way too pajama-like, made me feel rather uncomfortable in the big changing room, as seamstresses bustled around me, taking this or that measurement.

"Why do I have to get a corset, again?" I asked Yllana, my friend, who was sitting on the sofa, paging through a magazine, while I stood there, in the middle of the room.

"Because you need one," she said and patted herself. "I wear one. Everybody wears one. While you might prefer bras, you can't wear fashionable dresses without a corset. They just won't look good on you."

"But I don't want to be squeezed like a sausage," I complained. "Or have problems breathing. I want to run if I need to."

With all the problems I had, I needed the mobility.

"Wearing a corset shouldn't mean tight lacing," Yllana said, shrugging. "You won't have problems breathing, that is, if you don't squeeze yourself like some people do. It will just remove all the creases and folds. And besides, if you have problems running, it won't be because of the corset. It will be because of the heels or wide skirts. Those are a bigger problem for running than corsets."

"I don't want to wear those, either," I said.

"I understand," Yllana said, nodding. "But choose one. You can only get away with ignoring one of those items. If running is a priority, I recommend ditching the heels. It's not like you need them, as tall as you are."

At 5'5'' I wasn't very tall, but not petite, either. Not on Earth, not in Marn. I was exactly average. Yllana, on the other hand, was on the smaller side. Which is why she thought I was tall.

"I've ignored two so far," I said, "and it's been fine. I didn't wear heels to the ball, nor a corset."

"You just came to Marn, you were just introduced as a member of the Morad family," Yllana said. "They could forgive you the eccentricity since you didn't know better. Now, though, you have to dress like the rest of us."

Wearing heels, as bad as it is, sounded better than wearing a corset. I prefer discomfort in my feet to an inability to breathe. Besides, I can always ditch the shoes if I need to run. Ditching the corset would be harder. That's what I told Yllana.

"For goodness' sake, Amy, just try it," she said, setting the magazine aside, exasperated. I had probably rattled her too much today, with my constant complaints. "Your entire idea of corsets seems to come from rumors and fear-mongering. Corsets aren't that bad. Many women live just fine with them. Besides, yours will be custom made, with the lightest material, molded to your figure. You'll see it's much more comfortable than it seems. You can always change your opinion after you get one made."

Yllana was my first (and so far, only) friend in Marn. She was also my guide to the local culture, helping me get used to it all. And I was being a total jerk to her.

"I'm sorry, Yllana," I said, sitting by her side, adjusting my slip so the skirt wouldn't leave my thighs too exposed. "I'm just uncomfortable. And worried. There are so many things on my mind right now. It's hard."

"I have things on my mind, too," Yllana said.

"About the new semester?" I asked.

She nodded.

Yllana was attending the distance department in the magical academy, in her ethereal form, while her body slept. This was the only format available to scholarship students. Her family could afford the payment, but they weren't too happy with her learning magic. She was so far managing to keep it secret from them, although her brother was getting suspicious of her.

"We're starting on Monday," she said. "And my family is looking for a husband for me."

"I thought it wasn't so easy for higher mages," I said. "And you needed to pass a compatibility test."

"Sure," Yllana said, nodding. "But most people don't just go out and kiss a guy to see if he's compatible. It doesn't work like that. Before we do that, they perform many calculations to find suitable candidates, and then we meet to see how it works. Only after a long enough period of courtship do we test for compatibility. Your situation with Martinus is highly unusual."

"But you will still come to the classes, right?" I asked. "Since they're at night for you, you can still come?"

Yllana lived in a different time zone.

"Yes," Yllana said. "But it will be much harder to study. I won't be able to sneak in some study time."

"Why don't you just tell them you want to study?" I asked. "If money is the problem…"

She shook her head.

"No," she said. "Money isn't the problem. But my family has enough influence to kick me out of the academy."

"Your brother didn't seem so bad," I said.

She nodded with a faint smile.

"If it was only Teyo I had to deal with, I could convince him," she said. "But my parents are a tougher nut to crack. They're very conservative. They wouldn't understand why I want to work when they can offer me this safe, worry-free life."

I extended my hand to hers, trying to console her.

"I can't help you with that," I said. "Since I never had issues with my mother. But if you ever need my help, I'm here for you. I'm sorry I've been a lousy friend lately. I had so much on my mind, I forgot about your problems."

"Oh, don't worry about that," Yllana said, waving her hand dismissively. "You are already helping me a lot. My mother thinks you're a good influence, being engaged so quickly and all that. She hopes you might rub it on me. Being able to go out for a bit is already helpful enough."

She straightened, squaring her shoulders, and smiled.

"Now, I don't think just one model will be enough," she said, and pulled me up, examining me again. "We should order several, so you can give it a fair shot." She called one seamstress with a gesture, and opened the catalog, pointing at several models. "How about this one for daily wear?"

I grumbled, but Yllana was implacable. In the end, I folded, allowing her to dress me as she wished.

With all the money I now had, I could afford to buy stuff I wouldn't use to please a friend.

While most of the people studying at the Academy lived in the dorms, I would continue living at Morad House.

Since I joined the family recently, my connection to the house, and the family magic, was too tenuous. I had to spend the nights there, or it could fade. Pops got special permission for me to live away and use the portal daily.

Being awarded a special status for my family name was uncomfortable. I was used to hating people like that, and now I was one of them.

It still seemed wrong.

There were so many things where I got special privileges: despite barely passing, they allowed me to continue with my studies, while some of my fellow distance department students got kicked out with much better grades. I wasn't on a scholarship anymore, paying the full rate, but it still felt like I was getting special treatment because of money.

The change from the distance to the face-to-face classes was also very smooth. Money just makes everything easier.

I was also informed by Marty that, as his fiancée, I could visit his dorm bedroom with no problem, despite the usual prohibition of bringing female guests (that time I came in my ethereal form didn't count, since I wasn't present in body). By the wide, suggestive smile on his face, I could see he wasn't talking about having tea in his bedroom or something like that.

That special privilege I could do without, although I think they afforded it to all engaged or married couples (it's not like there were that many in the Academy, as far as I know).

Maybe because last semester I was still attending in ghost form, and this semester I was going in full body form, but the first morning before class became rather more emotive than usual.

Instead of going back to my bedroom and jumping there, I headed out after breakfast. To my surprise, everybody followed me.

"Eh…" I said, as the kids, uncle Azzie, his wife Cloris, and Pops accompanied me outside. "You guys don't have to worry about me. I know how to use the portal now."

"We know," Pops said. "But we just wanted to accompany you on your first day."

"Are you coming to the Academy?" I asked.

I wouldn't mind, but it would be kind of pointless. Maybe the kids could take a look. But there were only forty minutes until my first class started.

I was trying to come earlier today, so I wouldn't need to run around. It would be hard to do it without looking like a mess, especially now that I wasn't in ghost form anymore.

"Oh, no, just helping you to the portal," Pops said.

"I'll be coming for lunch," I said. "It's not like I'm going for a long time."

"We'll wait for you," Cloris smiled. "Just tell us if you're running late. Or if your fiancé takes you out."

It felt… unnecessary. Wasteful. Pointless.

Heartwarming.

Is this what having a family means?

After I adjusted the settings for the portal, uncle Azzie checked them, making sure I did everything correctly. Then I looked around, waved my hand at them, as the kids waved their hands widely, everybody wishing me to have a nice day.

I was only going for five hours.

But it was nice they cared.

The moment I stepped out of the portal, I looked around, getting familiar with the area.

It was the first time I was outside the Academy's building. When I attended it in ghost form, we were limited to the main building's grounds.

The portal stone was in the middle of a plaza, surrounded by statues, fountains, and flowerpots, with a wide, central path that led directly to a large building. I assumed that was the Academy.

I started walking toward it, with the layers of petticoats swooshing around me, slowing me down. Everybody told me that hoop skirts are better for creating the voluminous look that was so fashionable here, but I preferred to wear many layers of skirts to those weird bone structures. Besides, it's weird to sit in them.

At least layers of skirts were something I was familiar with. I once saw representation by the ballet school back on Earth. I knew that people used to wear silly clothing back on Earth too, but I'd never met anybody who did that nowadays.

I'd rather be considered unfashionable by others than consider myself a freak by my own standards.

It's good that I came early, because it took me much longer to walk, dressed as I was, than it would take me in my ghost form. But then, I'm not even sure how moving with your ethereal body works in practice. I know I moved, but I didn't really understand how it worked.

At least I wouldn't have to look for the classroom. As soon as I stepped into the Main Hall, I saw Marty, with his friends.

"There you are," he said, coming towards me to hug me. I freed myself quickly, not wanting to be a public spectacle, but he kept me by his side, his hand on my shoulder. That's where the boning of the hoop skirt would be useful in providing a buffer.

"Stop that, Marty," I said, elbowing him.

I wasn't entirely comfortable with us being a public couple. In fact, I wasn't entirely comfortable being a couple, period.

Yes, I'd given up on fighting the magic that seemed to pull us together. I had agreed to be engaged with him and eventually marry him.

Some day. In five years.

That was plenty of time to get used to it.

I'd never had a boyfriend before, and it was hard to get used to it. I'd rather take it slowly, while Marty seemed to go at lightning speed.

I was also his first girlfriend. Maybe that's what made him so eager. And awkward.

"You still call him that?" Zethe Zawada, one of Martinus' friends, asked me.

We didn't like each other much. But then, I didn't like most of Marty's friends.

"Call whom what?" I asked.

"Call him Marty," Zethe said, nodding at Martinus. "He doesn't like it. Hasn't he told you to drop it yet?"

I looked at Marty… Martinus. He never said anything about it. I only ever started calling him the second time he saved me, when I started liking him.

He shrugged when confronted by my questioning gaze.

"I don't mind when you call me that," he said. Then turning at his friends. "But you guys still can't call me that."

"Why?" Zethe asked, in a slightly higher-pitch, annoying tone. "Why can she call you that, and we can't?"

"Because there are certain things you can only call somebody you're in a relationship with," Marty said. "Or would you like me to call you 'darling', or 'pumpkin', as I call Amy?"

Zethe shook his head, his face expressing fear. I can imagine the teasing he would get if Marty called him 'pumpkin'.

"For the record," I said, "I don't like 'pumpkin' either. You must come up with something else."

"What about 'babe'?" Marty asked.

"That's even worse," I said.

"And what about 'doll'?" Marty continued, as we started going toward the classroom. By the glint of his eyes, I could see he was teasing me. Each endearment was worse than the previous one.

"Nope," I said.

He continued, while I said no with more and more frustration.

In the end, when we reached the classroom dorm, tired of the enumeration (and the chuckles from his friends), I turned to face him.

"You can stop," I said. "I know what you should say. I'd like you to call me 'My queen'".

His friends burst out laughing, while I could see by the devious gleam in Marty's eye that this wasn't over.

3

The Magical Structures class was even harder than last semester, and the math was getting beyond my abilities. But at least I wasn't struggling as much as the previous semester. The course was harder, but I knew more.

While I had to study like crazy just to pass the course (with a D), at least now I could kind of get the gist of the lecture. Still, that only meant I could take notes, now that I understood the symbols for magic. It's not like I understood what I was scribbling down.

There was no time for chitchat during the lecture, so I only got to greet Yllana at the beginning of the lecture, as we both bent ourselves over the notes, trying to catch everything Professor Strasser was saying.

Marty and his friends were sitting behind us, as had become his habit. But he didn't pay much attention to me during the lecture. He wasn't the best student for nothing.

But when the lecture ended, he bent over the back of my chair, and looked directly over my shoulder into my notebook, looking at what I'd written.

"Would you like to go over the lecture this afternoon, my queen?" he suggested, whispering into my ear. "We could meet at the library."

So he would not drop it.

"Ah," I said. "I can't meet you alone in the library. Pops and Azzie said I can't be with you alone. Ever. We're only supposed to be in public places or accompanied by a chaperone."

"But they were OK with it before," Marty said, frowning.

"That was when I was in ghost form," I said.

"I see," Marty replied. Then he looked at Yllana, who was standing in the corridor, waiting for me to pick up my things before we headed to the next class.

"I have to go back home after class," she said quickly. "Afraid I can't help you."

He then looked at his friends.

"Pops won't count them as chaperones," I said, joining Yllana and walking toward the door.

That was true.

Besides, I wasn't sure I liked his friends.

Scratch that, I don't like his friends.

He joined me, walking beside me, while his friends lagged behind, probably listening in to our conversation. They were huge gossips.

"Don't worry," I said, patting his shoulder. "Emere helps me. She's good, you know. And sometimes Aegisthus comes, too."

Since I started coming to sit with the baby during the day, they would pop in as I sat with my books, the baby sleeping (she always slept very well in my presence, to compensate, I guess). Sometimes they would even sit with me and help me.

They were very nice people. Working for them was pleasant, even with all the money I had eliminating the need to work for a living.

"Are you accompanied by a chaperone when you're with Aegisthus?" Marty asked.

"Not always," I said. "But it's not like he would do anything in front of the baby. Besides, there's nothing between us. And remember, I used to live in the same house with him."

Aegisthus Kaffale, the law enforcement Captain who helped me get my first job, was always very nice to me. But there was nothing between us.

"That," Marty said, "doesn't make it better, my queen. Would Mr. Morad approve if I had lived with you?"

"Which Mr. Morad?" I asked.

"Your father," Marty said.

While he knew the truth, that I was the daughter of a man that had been kicked out of the Morad family, officially, my grandpa was my father. My family didn't want to have anything to do with him, so they made up a story about how I was Pops' daughter instead of granddaughter.

"No, Pops wouldn't approve," I replied. "But you're courting me. It's different."

"We're engaged, my queen," Marty said. "That should be enough to calm his fears."

"We haven't announced it officially yet," I said. "And the engagement contract hasn't been signed."