The Deceiver | The Magicians

Chapter 13

Thirteen | Welters

Mentor week was currently in full swing and the students were completely focused on impressing their potential mentors. Margo and Elliot had a not-so playful rivalry going on around who would win over Alice's Aunt Genji. Lilly was thankfully spared from the whole event by the fact that Eliza had already claimed her for mentoring. Their first training session was scheduled for the next morning and she found herself anxiously awaiting it. Quentin had been spending every waking moment searching for a magical cure for his father's cancer. Lilly had been assisting him in his search...or at least trying to. She found herself leaving the library much earlier than Quentin due to her need for sleep. Quentin had barely slept all week and Lilly was seriously considering dropping a sleeping potion in his red bull the next time they researched together. 

Lilly played with the hem of her blue and silver Welters uniform, listening to the loud cheers as the dark-haired knowledge student performed a complicated spell to win her square. Once he completed the spell, a patch of vibrant green grass replaced the tile. The boy's team and the stands erupted in cheers, much to the dismay of Kenna, Nick and the rest of their team. The two heads of the Illusionist house had approached her earlier in the week, after having heard through the grapevine there would be a Welters game. Each team was comprised of five members, Kenna, Nick, Lilly, Alex, and a second-year girl named Cali made up the Illusionist team. 

The object of the game, as explained thoroughly by Nick, was to capture as many squares as possible before your opponent. The players throw a ball across the board and land it on a square. Each square represented a location and a certain set of circumstances. The magicians playing must cast for those specific complications and complete the spell successfully in order to capture the square. The center square, was the most complicated of them all, it had only been completed a few times in the entire existence of the game. If either team were to capture this particular square, it would result in an automatic win. If they try and fail to capture the square they forfeit the game. Needless to say, players avoid throwing the ball on that square. 

The team's opponents had been posted that morning and to their dismay, they were playing against the Knowledge students. Lilly's friends in the Physical discipline were against the Herbalists, and Psychics against the Healers. They couldn't have asked for a more even match. Kenna had been praying for them to end up against the Healers, because apparently, they were pretty easy to beat. The Knowledge students however, would be a bit of a challenge. They were notorious for being insanely good at Welters, thanks to their problem-solving skills and affinity for casting complicated spells at the drop of a hat. 

Lilly's team must have had luck on their side because they hadn't missed a single square since starting. Unfortunately, the Knowledge students hadn't either and they were tied. The board was scattered with Blue and grey dressed students, each with the same determined face. The water squares were taken first as they were the easiest to cast for. They continued on through the game, Lilly managed to claim all four squares she landed on. One water square, two desert squares and one mountain square. 

A Knowledge student named Carlos, claimed the last free square on the board and thus began the power struggle. Once all the squares were taken, if there wasn't a clear winner, the players would have to cast against their opponents to claim their squares. Alex targeted the weakest link of the other team, easily out casting them and claiming one of the team's squares, putting the Illusionists one point ahead. If they could get five points ahead they would win. 

A first year Knowledge student went next, obviously aiming for Cali and accidentally landing on one of Kenna's squares. The boy's face went as white as a sheet when he saw the catlike smile she sent him. There wasn't much of a struggle there either and Kenna successfully protected her square. It took another twenty minutes of back and forth for the Illusionists to gain three more points. It was Lilly's turn once again and if she could claim one more square, they would win. Her teammates stared at her expectantly, Alex looked encouraging as friends should be, but Kenna gave her a 'you better win this' look that made her even more determined to beat her opponent.

The blonde sized up the other team, they would all be a challenge, but she felt confident that her casting would be adequate enough to beat them. She took a steadying breath before rolling the ball across the board and having it settle in one of the forest squares that belonged to the head Knowledge student, Harper, a third year and an extremely skilled one. She saw Nick facepalm out of the corner of her eye, but she was determined to beat this girl, no matter what it took. 

Lilly held her hands out in front of her, folding them together and twisting her fingers to match the required spell. It was a few seconds before she felt Harper fight back but it was as if a brick wall had come up to block her path. The blonde continued to work, taking in the added complications. Casting against an opponent felt like navigating a sailboat in the middle of a hurricane, not to mention there are razor sharp rocks every few feet. 

Harper seemed to be struggling just as much as Lilly, if she could just out last her then her team would win. Lilly could feel a weakness in the wall the Knowledge student had put up, but if she tried to go for it, Harper would easily feel the magic change direction and strengthen that section of her spell. Lilly, in true Illusionist fashion, decided to create a sort of magical smoke screen by sending a surge of energy at the very front of Harper's defensive spell. While the girl was protecting that section, Lilly, with barely any resistance was able to sneak her magic through the weakest point and overpower her opponent.

Harper's face scrunched in concentration as she struggled to send Lilly back, but the deed had already been done. Her defenses crumbled to dust and Lilly took control of the square. The crowd surged in excitement as Harper was magically forced off the square she was standing on. The blonde was tackled by her teammates who screeched into her ear, jumping up and down. They had won! 

The knowledge students looked extremely disappointed, but Lilly sent a smile towards the other team and a nod, which was gratefully returned by the captains. They were all ushered off the board and sent back into the locker rooms to get cleaned up while they reset the board. The Physicals and Herbalists were next and she was praying that her friends would win. 

"Lilly!" Margo came rushing over to her once they got to the locker room filled with the rest of the female team members. "Congrats kid I knew you had it in you. Have you by any chance seen our Fillory obsessed, nerdy mascot running around here? We're on in ten and the little t**t hasn't bothered to show up!"

Lilly had learned over the past four months of knowing Margo, that she was fiercely competitive. They had once gotten into a game of magical quarters at a party and Margo wouldn't let Lilly leave until she had beaten the blonde in at least one game. She went so far as to magically lock the door so she couldn't leave. So, Lilly knew that when she found Quentin, he was as good as dead.

"I Haven't seen Q all day. I hope he's ok, he's been a bit out of it since he found out about his dad." 

"I don't care if his entire family has cancer! He's late! If we don't have five players we forfeit! If I lose to a bunch of tree hugging cabbage patch kids I'm gonna rip his oddly shaped pumpkin head off his scrawny little twelve-year-old body!" Margo's eyes were burning like the gates of hell and Lilly felt the urge to turn and run in the other direction. 

"Check Professor Lipson's Classroom, he's been using it to study recently." Margo didn't need to be told twice. She was out the door and, on her way, before she even finished the sentence. Ten minutes later Margo, Elliot, Alice, and Kady were walking onto the Welters board, Quentin trailing behind. Margo probably gave him the tongue lashing of the century. 

The Herbalists had a rocky start with one of their team members failing to capture the square. Margo stuck the landing, easily performing a spell and claiming one of the desert squares. The other team recovered quickly, going on to successfully complete three squares. The Physicals stayed in the lead, each of them claiming their squares with no problem, until it came to Quentin's turn. 

"Quentin!" Margo yelled to get his attention. He was staring blankly straight ahead, completely unresponsive. "Quentin!" Still nothing, "Quentin!" She shrieked, finally gaining his attention, along with the entire stadium full of people. "Get your head out of your t**t and throw the damn globe!" The stands were silent as they all waited for him to summon the globe to his hand. His hands shook and the globe didn't budge. After a moment of awkward anticipation, Alice bent down and retrieved the ball, handing it to an embarrassed Quentin. Lilly hated to watch her friend struggle so much and wished he could take his place. 

Quentin lined up the trajectory of the globe, letting it roll across the board. The crowd erupted in gasps and the mentors whispered amongst themselves. Quentin's globe had landed smack in the middle of the board, right atop the dreaded metal square. His teammates looked at him like he was insane and Lilly was wondering the same thing right about now. Despite the odds being stacked against him, Quentin didn't flinch as he began to cast. He placed the tips of his fingers together in front of his face, curling them around each other and pulling apart. 

A tiny black dot formed between his fingers, morphing into a dark storm cloud as Quentin stepped onto the board. He walked straight ahead, not fumbling when the wind picked up and the storm cloud grew, filling the entire stadium ceiling. The storm cloud blocked every bit of light coming in through the windows and plunged the stadium into darkness. 

The people in the bleachers stood up to get a better view, everyone focused on what was forming in the rafters. The storm cloud had split apart to create what looked like a literal black hole. Lightning flashed threateningly and people took cover when the stacks of papers on the referee's tables blew around violently, slamming into people's faces. Lilly's team members hid under the seats to protect themselves from the flying objects. They all looked at the blonde like she was crazy, because instead of shying away from the spell, she stood rooted in place, clutching the metal bars separating the bleachers from the players. 

She couldn't look away from her friends on the board. The Herbalists had abandoned their squares in fear of the spell, but Lilly's friends on the Physicals team stood around Quentin, watching him perform the spell. 

"Q?" Elliot yelled above the roaring winds, "Are you controlling this?" He didn't respond. It was like he was under some sort of trace. He stopped once he stood on the metal square, letting the black hole get larger. 

"Do something!" Margo screamed holding her hair down in place. The people in the stands were becoming increasingly panicked and some were starting to yell in fear. Lilly had started to move down towards the board but stopped once she saw Alice standing beside Quentin, casting a second spell. A blue strip of light formed between her hands, disappearing in a flash and cutting through the storm cloud. Quentin's spell dispersed, allowing the sunlight to return. The papers that had blown violently around floated gently back to the ground. 

The spectators were silent, crawling out from wherever they took cover and staring awestruck at the board. Every single square had been cleared. Quentin had actually done it. He won the entire game with one spell. 

"Holy s**t he actually did it." Nick spoke in disbelief from beside her.

"Yeah he did." 

➻➻➻➻

"There she is! That's our girl!" Alex yelled as soon as she stepped into the castle. She was welcomed by the heavy beat of blasted music and Jake Connors doing a keg stand. The Illusionists were celebrating like there was no tomorrow. Alex handed her a giant shot glass full of tequila. 

"Lil-ly, Lil-ly, Lil-ly." The entire castle chanted her name until she downed the alcohol. "Whooo!" They all cheered before turning back to whatever they were doing.

"You have to take a shot before you're allowed into the party apparently. Nick and Kenna's rules." The red head explained, leading her over to the table of booze. She mixed herself a cosmopolitan, pouring in generous amounts of vodka as taught by Elliot then adding a bit of a magical twist by casting a flavor enhancing spell over the ice. "Where'd you learn to do that?" 

"Elliot." Lilly told him, "Where else?" He tilted his head in a 'good point' gesture, before pouring himself another drink. "This stuff could get a horse drunk."

"Sign me up!" The two friends spent most of the party together, getting pulled into various drinking games. The Illusionists had basically converted the castle into a rave. Enchanted strobe lights and endless alcohol. One of the third years had acquired a load of magical drugs from an herbalist friend of hers so people were a bit crazier than usual. Lilly stayed away from those, perfectly happy getting drunk. At some point one of the first-year guys fell of the invisible staircase and was too shitfaced to even care. 

"I'm glad you're kicking back a bit." Alex said, sprawled out on one of the many window seats in the main tower, his legs draped over Lilly's. "You've been so on edge lately. I've missed hanging out with you. I know Dani does too." He hiccupped, taking another long swig from the bottle of whiskey they swiped from the table.

She agreed, it was nice to spend some time with Alex and her Illusionist friends. Since everything with the beast happened, she found herself gravitating more towards her Physical friends because of their shared experience of almost being murdered. She'd been spending a lot of time with Quentin and sometimes even Penny, practicing their Occlumency. It wasn't that she didn't want to hang out with Alex and Dani, it was just that she was so consumed with protecting herself from the beast that she hadn't had time for a break. 

"I miss you guys too. I just had so much going on that I think I forgot how to even breathe." The music was softer up where they were sitting but they could still hear every word clearly and there was definitely moaning coming from the door to their left. However, despite the classic party noises, the little bench felt much more secluded than it actually was and Lilly watched the ocean waves crash against the rocks below.

"Hey Lil?" Alex slurred his words a bit but the tone was much more serious as he whispered to her. 

"Yeah?"

"Say there's this girl." He started, pulling his legs into his chest. "And she's super smart and funny and really beautiful, like, the most beautiful girl I've ever seen. She can be kind of mean sometimes and is probably the scariest woman I've ever met, but it doesn't really matter cause she's perfect anyway." Lilly listened intently to his words. His eyes filled with joy when he talked about this girl and a lazy smile spread across his lips. "How would you ask her out? Like, I don't even know if she likes me, but I really like her."

"I don't know if I'm the best person to ask about this Al. Dani has more experience asking out girls."

"No! I can't ask Dani cause she'd make fun of me. She thinks I'm too sensitive." That did sound like something Dani would do. The blonde sighed, looking at her friend, who desperately wanted this girl to like him back. 

"Well, I guess you should just ask her straight out." Lilly felt awkward giving relationship advice. She had only been in one serious relationship in high school which ended with the guy cheating on her with the captain of the cheer squad. It was as if he pulled the idea straight from a movie. "If she says no and doesn't like you back then she isn't the one for you."

"God, I don't know why I'm acting like such a wuss. I'm usually pretty smooth with girls, but this one, she's something special. I tried all my usual lines and tactics of getting her to like me but she just sees right through it all."

"Then don't use any of your usual ideas. Just be authentic, be you." He nodded numbly and Lilly wondered if either of them would remember this conversation in the morning. Somehow the two managed to make it all the way up to Lilly's room, not bothering to change into any pajamas. The two flopped onto the bed still sipping the bottle of alcohol.

Lilly loved the feeling of letting loose for a bit. She didn't do it very often. Of course she partied in high school and college, but as she got older she became more concerned with behaving to impress her mother, rather than acting out to get attention. It's not like either tactic worked out for her. Somewhere along the way, it seems, she forgot to have fun.