Characters: Rowan and Sibyl
Setting: Sonnier common room, Thursday
Rating: SFW
Summary: Sibyl has another spell and Rowan gets a warning.


She didn’t really know why, but Sibyl had a really bad feeling that something was going to happen. It wouldn’t be the first, or the last, time she had that nagging worry. Every time she went to distract herself, she found it creeping up again. Even reading one of her favourite books didn’t help.

Sibyl eventually got restless enough in her own room and decided that a walk, or at least some social interaction, to help get her mind off of it for a while. She was already dreading sleep. It wasn’t too long of a walk down into the common room and the dormitory on a whole was a little quiet. It didn’t make for a promising excursion outside.

To her surprise, and pleasure, she came down to find Rowan sitting on the couch. It was one of the states that Sibyl was most used to seeing her in. Her head was down and her legs were folded up on the cushions as she practically cozied up with her book. Sibyl wished she had any luck becoming as absorbed as Rowan was.

The need to talk to someone brought Sibyl over to the couch, where she invited herself to sit beside the younger girl. “What are you reading?”


After everything that had been going on around the campus, Rowan had decided that any time she wasn’t with the people that she loved to be with, or in class, she would be keeping her mind pleasantly occupied with reading. There were many books in her possession that offered her a nice escape from what was actually happening in real life.

This book, for example. It was made up of shorter stories than the others in the series, a compilation of things from different times and places from the main set of novels, but there was one story in there that she could read over and over again, getting lost in the writing and the scenery, as well as the feelings that they evoked in her. It was at a point of fluff in the story, a section without any real plot moving forward, that Rowan noticed that there was someone coming over and sitting beside her.

“Oh! Hey Sibyl! This... is Dreams Made Flesh by Anne Bishop. Follow up and filler stuff from her regular series. Which is excellent, if you haven’t read it yet.”

She had been sitting on the couch with her knees tucked up under her, but now that she had company, she angled her body a little bit to be able to have a conversation with Sibyl. Now that there was someone to talk to, she also folded the book, remembering the page number and her place easily (page 162, paragraph 2), she showed the cover to her friend. “So what brings you down here?”


For a moment, Sibyl sat there with her bottom lip in between her teeth. Anne Bishop sounded familiar and she was searching the name in her mind. “The Black Jewel Trilogy? That’s her, right?” She could have sworn that was the series. Well, she would obviously find out.

At Rowan’s question, the redhead shrugged. “Looking for signs of human life, mostly. And I was... bored.” The last word ended up coming out as an obvious cover for another word. Sibyl had suddenly stopped herself from mentioning that she was looking for a distraction, when she could plainly see Rowan was doing the same thing. Though, probably not for the same reasons.


“Yes! That’s her! This is some stories that take place before, during, and after when the trilogy is set. You know it, huh?” Always happy to talk about books, Rowan’s face brightened a bit as she spoke. “I can lend this to you if you like? I must have read this like, 50 times already if I’ve read it once.”

She heard that the word was probably not the one that Sibyl had meant, and her expression grew faintly curious, though she decided not to press. Rowan had a sense that she was looking to either not be alone, or to get her mind off of something else, and whatever that was she didn’t want to be the one to bring up something that Sibyl didn’t want to talk about and was looking to get away from. “Yeah, I was kind of bored too. Didn’t want to be in my room anymore, though, and thought I would sit down here where I could pretend to be social at the same time.” The last was said with a smile.


Sibyl glanced at the book in Rowan’s hands and she gave a little shrug. “It’s up to you. I’d be more than interested to read it, but it’s your book.” She would also have it back to Rowan within a couple days, considering how fast she read. Borrowed books always went onto the top of the ‘to read’ list so she’d made sure to get them back to their owners quickly.

“Well, sitting curled up with a book isn’t very good as far as pretending goes. Most people would end up leaving you alone.” Though that did say something for herself, since she had made herself comfortable beside her friend. “Unless you’re me. Apparently.”


“Well, you can absolutely have it. I may know it all by heart by now anyway. Here!” She offered the book to Sibyl. “Give it back whenever. I trust you.” She smiled at her friend and turned a little more to face the redhead.

Rowan had to laugh a little at the comment. “I.. .kind of figured that the people who were my friends would come and interrupt me, and the people who weren’t would leave me alone. It was kind of a win-win? Either I got to read, or I got to talk to someone I wanted to talk to. I... guess I have the kind of friends that I know will interrupt me?” She grinned. She couldn’t help it. “Anyway, I’m happy you did. I don’t get to see or talk to you that often...”


“Thank you,” Sibyl said with a smile as she took the offered book, glancing down at the title. She turned the book over and let her thumb move over some of the pages before she set it down on her lap and returned her attention to Rowan.

Then, she nodded. “Then yes, it works out for you.” She scooted back onto the couch a little and let herself lean back, now that conversation was welcome for the moment and Rowan wasn’t trying to get back to her book. Though she was sure there was another somewhere. “I know. That has to be fixed. I’ve just been doing a lot of reading. Finished off the last of the books I got for my birthday last week. So, what have you been up to?”


“No problem.” She too leaned back into the couch as it became apparent (and happily so) that Sibyl meant to stay for a while. Her head faced her friend, and as she spoke her eyes wandered around, like she was remembering things that had happened by looking around the room.

“We should go hang out sometime. Maybe watch a movie or something. Me? Lets see... break was really amazing. Hung out with a bunch of people, saw Keegan a lot, took my apparating course after my birthday... and thanks again for the owl and necklace, by the way. I love them both.” She tucked her hair behind her ears as she thought a little more.

“Went to Meka’s Cinco de Mayo party... hung out with mom and dad a bit, helped dad weed and put in some annuals in the front of the house... came back here.” That was where it stopped. Because that’s where the majority of the fun in her life had stopped. Addy, then Leon... “Looking forward to seeing my parents again this weekend though. How about you? What other than reading is going on in the life of Sibyl?”


Sibyl nodded. “We definitely should.” There was no real question to that. She liked being out and she liked being out with friends even more. Despite her enjoyment of being out and about, she rarely ended up going off campus unless it was during some school break.

She let out a little sigh as she thought about it, biting her lower lip for a moment. “Spent one weekend at Akio’s with his family, read, walked around the city, and went to Meka’s party, though I didn’t end up being too social. Other than that, it’s pretty much the same old, same old.”


Rowan too was not often off campus, unless it was to the Rue to get supplies for something, or to pick up something magic-related. She rarely ventured to the Muggle portion of the city. Being able to go and hang out with Sibyl somewhere would be a nice opportunity.

“Well it sounds like nothing bad happened over break for you. Which is always a good thing, in my book.” She gave her friend a smile, and then sighed ever so slightly. “I wish it was like that the rest of the time, you know? Anyway.” She let the smile slip from one side of her mouth so that the expression was more wry than happy, though it wasn’t like it was unhappy either. Just a little more on the thoughtful side of things.


“Yea. Nothing going on is better than bad things going on,” that much was for certain. It seemed like there was a real damper on the school since that student’s death was announced right after break ended. It was a cruel thing to bring the students back to reality.

Sibyl looked down into her lap for a moment, wondering for a moment what that thoughtful look was for. But she didn’t bother to ask. Instead she went to give her friend a light pat on the hand, just to be a little comforting. Whether or not it was needed, she didn’t know.

Nor did she have the time to really think about it. As soon as her hand touched Rowan’s, Sibyl felt that all too familiar tugging at the back of her consciousness. Something was about to come through. Her eyes went to Rowan’s, wide with dread and a soft, “Uh oh.”


“Definitely is.” The pat to her hand brought more of a happy expression back into Rowan’s features. She was looking at Sibyl still, so she saw the change in the other girl’s expression when it happened. It frightened Rowan a little to see Sibyl looking like that, and for no reason that she could really fathom. Frightened her more than a little.

“What ‘uh oh’? What...” her eyes narrowed as she looked at her friend. “Are you alright?” She didn’t know what could have possibly happened in the space of a few seconds to make her look the way she did. Rowan silently hoped that it was because she had just remembered she left a hot plate on in her room, or something as easy as that to fix.


Mentally, Sibyl started the mantra of ‘not now’ and it continued until she pushed the book off her lap, when she could feel that this was coming and there would be no stopping it. It didn’t feel as strong as the last, at New Years, but it wasn’t going to be deterred by any wishing that it would go away.

“Pen and paper. Quickly.” These things really had to start coming when she was around Akio; he knew exactly what to do. The hand that was on Rowan’s lifted, almost waiting to collect the items she asked for. Sibyl’s eyes were beginning to glaze a little bit as she stared off at the space just past Rowan’s nose.


The book fell to the floor, and Rowan’s expression became very worried indeed. Was she having a seizure? Was she getting sick? What on earth was going on with Sib? The request for pen and paper left Rowan confused as anything, but... with Sibyl’s eyes looking the way they did, and her hand lifting like that, Rowan was going to do what she asked.

Opening her bag which was by her feet, Rowan quietly muttered the summoning charms for her journal and a pen. As they landed in her hands, she placed the pen in Sibyl’s outstretched one, and opened the journal to the back where the blank pages were. Wordlessly, she put that in Sibyl’s lap. “Anything else?” She was at a complete loss, and curious as a bag full of kittens. What was going on here?


Sibyl’s hand gripped the pen as soon as it was in her hand, and her other moved to the open book on her lap. Without another word she turned forward again with her gaze staring out just past her knees.

Once the pen hit the top corner of the page it began to move. A series of small loops were formed, again and again until they began to take on a different form. Although Sibyl wasn’t looking at the page and wasn’t moving at all other than the hand with the pen, recognize-able letters could be recognized.

There were no spaces, no punctuation, and the pen never left the page when she moved to a new line. By the time the pen came to an abrupt halt after it dissolved again into loops, there was one statement on the page in Sybil’s lap: Do not let her stray she will find the hive.


She was honestly more concerned for Sibyl than for what she was doing or writing. Her eyes were on the girl’s face for the most part. If she was at all honest with herself, and she was, she knew that she was fascinated to some degree by what she was seeing. How is she doing this? Where is this coming from? Divinatory trance? Automatic writing? What was going on here?

It was only after Rowan was certain that Sibyl wasn’t going to pass out or anything that she looked down at what was on the paper in the redhead’s lap. Do not... what? This made no sense to Rowan, at least not in the immediate sense. There was nothing there that triggered a memory of anything in her, no recognition. So she assumed for the moment that it was meant for Sibyl.

If this is what this was, of course. It could be something else entirely, too, and Rowan was aware of that.

Rowan waited, searching Sibyl’s face, for a sign that her friend was coming back to her from... wherever it was that she had gone in the first place. “Sibyl? Are... you ok? Do you need... water or something?” Curiosity aside, Rowan was concerned for her fellow student and friend, first and foremost.


It was a long time before Sibyl was in control of herself enough to respond to Rowan. For a couple minutes Sibyl simply sat there with a blank look on her face, her hands resting limply on top of the notebook in her lap. After those few minutes, she blinked herself back into the common room.

She glanced at Rowan and saw that look of concern. From that look alone she knew her spell had freaked out her friend, at the very least. Her eyes then turned to the notebook before her to see the words that were formed amidst the loops and lines. She didn't understand what that could even possibly mean, but she couldn't help but react to it with disgust and fear.

Sibyl put the notebook aside as fast as she could manage, letting the pen drop onto it as well. She stood while her face took on a reddish hue of embarrassment, snatching the book up that she was going to borrow. "I... um..." There wasn't anything she could do to really pass that writing spell off as nothing. It was impossible. So the next best thing was to attempt a retreat.

"I need to go. I'm sorry," was about all Sibyl managed to get out before she turned and hurried out of the common room.


Sufficiently confused at this point, and completely distracted by what had just happened, Rowan looked back down to her notebook where Sibyl had written... whatever that was. Even though she was concerned for Sibyl and for what had happened to her just a few moments before, her mind was whirling around, working out those words and what they could possibly mean.

Find the hive.... find the hive... bees? I mean, that’s really the obvious answer there, but there are other things that could be considered hives, I suppose. And who is ‘her’? Is it me? Or... was it a warning directed from... something or someone not of this plane about Sibyl herself? Could that be her? Should I not let her wander? But... what even... I don’t really know... what hive? And if it’s about Sibyl... or me... why would we even wander? I don’t go off now since there’s all those monsters, just to my spot and back. Sibyl doesn’t really strike me as the type to just go wandering around... unless she’s in a trance? Maybe I should watch out for her...

Looking up from the notebook that was on the couch, Rowan saw Sibyl’s retreating form. She half stood and tried to get out something that would make Sibyl pause, but... the words didn’t come out. Mutely watching her go, the concern came back onto her face as she thought, What just happened here?