A Sorceress on Earth: Spirits and Schools

By Jordan Alex Green

Dara has survived drug gangs and spirits in the middle of Los Angeles and has learned how to live in Southern California with Millie’s help. But now, Dara will have to survive threats greater than anything she could imagine.
In the foothills of Orange County, a haunted house has appeared, luring children into the grasp of a deadly spirit. In other places, forgotten cults find themselves energized as magic starts to return to the world.
But that won’t be Dara’s greatest challenge. For this world-lost mage is going to have to brave the terrors of the California State University System.
Book 3, Spirits and Schools, will force Dara to realize that not all of the challenges facing her in this new world are mystical...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jordan Alex Green
• Release date: Jan 18, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215413029

Book preview

A SORCERESS ON EARTH: SPIRITS AND SCHOOLS

Book II

By

Jordan Alex Green

Distributed by smashwords

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This is a work of fiction. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

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All rights are ©2022 Jordan Alex Green

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To My Family,

Born and Chosen

Chapter I

Dara frowned as she stared at the metal ring. It wasn’t platinum, not all of it, but…

I think I might be able to get away with using less platinum, Dara said. I can put a thin layer here. She ran her finger down the inner side of the ring. Then I charge the needle, and it won’t degrade. She shook her head. Maybe.

She glanced over at Millie. Dara had started early in the morning, before the full heat of the California day rendered the backyard uninhabitable. She’d finished a few statuettes and then worked on the compass, using the warding circle she’d created to make sure her magic didn’t attract any wandering spirits.

But the compass wasn’t cooperating.

Millie shook her head. Want me to get the pom-poms out and do a magic dance?

I don’t think that would help, Dara said. But at least I think we’re earning more money for the rent.

Yeah, and thanks a lot for that. Millie glanced over to where the new glass statues were sitting, ready to be boxed up. Some were multi-colored, while others were transparent, the sunlight shining through them. I owe you.

You’re letting me stay here, Dara said. And you didn’t throw me out when I blew up the parking lot.

And Hancock Park. But hey, what’s a little magical disaster between friends, and you needed a place to stay.

Right. Dara glanced over at the several foci she’d made. I’ve recharged my foci, but I have another idea to make certain nobody sees us if we’re doing something.

What?

I think I can do a wide-area sleep working. Dara held up one card, the enchanted writing gleaming in the sun. So that way we can—

Okay, time out, Millie said, holding her hands in a strange position. Wide area sleep working. How wide?

Um… Dara frowned. Well, I’ve never actually used it before, so it might vary a little?

Ah-huh. Millie shook her head. Dara, I want you to close your eyes and imagine something.

Dara put the focus down and folded her arms. What is it?

Rush hour on the freeway. Thousands of cars going hither and yon, and then Dara, the mighty sorceress, casts a spell—

Working.

Fine, working. But you cast it, and suddenly all those people driving death machines, or the kid doing thirty on his new bike, or the old person jogging down the road, or the guy on the escalator are gonna take an unscheduled nap. Do you see where this could go horribly wrong?

Dara frowned, staring down at the focus. It wouldn’t be that fast. I mean, not for everyone, probably. Almost certainly. I think?

"Right. What you’re describing is, in legal terms, a less-than-lethal weapon. Sure, it doesn’t kill people outright, but if you’re a mom with her baby in a tub and you happen to get hit with your night-night spell, nobody’s going to cut Dara the mighty mage any slack for the outcome she should have considered. Millie shook her head. Also, the cops aren’t gonna say that’s magic. They’re gonna say that it was some kind of chemical weapon. If you think the news is going crazy now…"

Dara swallowed. Maybe I should think about that working a little more before I use it.

Good idea. Now, about your magic compass?

Dara shook her head and gestured to the compass. "Even if this works, I’m not certain about its range, and I need to get all the gem shards. That’s the only way I could try to remake the gem and figure out how to open a way back home!"

And your thief?

If he’s alive, I can sic the archmages of the school on him. Dara stared at the half-completed compass. Ugh! How am I even going to evacuate the chamber?

Pardon?

The force on the gem will be tiny. I have to enchant the bearings to give the least possible resistance, but that means I also have to eliminate any air resistance by creating a vacuum, but I have no idea what ritual or working to use!

We have vacuum pumps here, Millie said. And people are doing hobby projects all the time. She glanced at the design Dara had created. But you don’t have any valves.

If I was back home, I wouldn’t need them, Dara said. She looked at the compass, her expression grumpy. Because someone would just cast a working, but even if I knew the working, I couldn’t because I’m not good enough to avoid contaminating the metal with my own magic!

Right, I’m not good with that kind of tech, but Mike is. Millie leaned back in her patio chair. So, what is the rest of your plan?

What?

You can’t just hide here while you make your magic compass of finding, or whatever you call it.

I’ll be keeping myself ready for any emergencies, Dara said.

Okay. What if there aren’t any?

Dara turned to Millie and folded her arms. I haven’t even been here for two weeks, and there have been three emergencies, if we count the incident in the desert.

What if you have a dry spell? What then? Sit and watch the idiot box? Browse the net?

I… Dara bit her lip. What do I do? The house was nice but other than Millie, there was nobody in it. Dara was actually finding herself missing the never-ending noise of the dorms. She was missing Carathia, for spirit’s sake! I’ll think of something.

That sounds lame, even to me. I might have an idea, though.

What?

College?

Dara blinked. College. Here.

Yeah, Fullerton’s less than a mile away, and I know some people. They owe me a big favor.

How big? Getting into college isn’t—

Saved their kid from making a life-ending mistake big, Millie said. Look, Dara, the thing is, you’re here, you can’t go back right away, so maybe… not hanging around all the time with a forty-something ex-attorney? She gestured at the statues. And don’t say you have to stay here and work all the time. You need about an hour to make enough to bring in the kind of money that will let me convince John to back off. You can’t make any more statues because you have to recharge your magic batteries, so you’re just sitting around.

Right! And what if I left and something happened? Dara said. Something I needed to handle right away, only I was… Dealing with