Matilda sat down heavily on her chair. Before she could even begin to think about all she had to do today, Eric popped in with a cup of coffee. He gave her a knowing smile as he gracefully put down the coffee cup in front of her.

There was a sweet biscuit on the saucer underneath. Matilda had made it very clear that he was not to give her any more sweets. She had enough trouble reducing her weight already. Yet, today, it was exactly what she needed. Neither she nor Eric made any comment about it. He was on his way out again so fast she barely had time to thank him.

Breathing in the strong aroma of freshly made coffee made her feel better already. It was her second cup of the day, but the first hardly counted. The liquid that she made at home barely qualified as coffee next to the divine taste Eric produced. A good secretary made all the difference in the world. And Eric wasn’t just good, he was great.

She hadn’t managed to get much sleep after the emergency call in the middle of the night. An uninvited guest, which turned out to be a refuge of sorts. Even knowing it was handled, she still had trouble finding sleep afterwards.

The schedule for the day had been changed to accommodate for the new arrival. Eric had helpfully re-scheduled some less important meetings, allowing her a solid hour to interview the girl. He had also arranged for the girl to fill out an electronic survey as soon as she woke up, which gave Matilda something to base her preparations on.

She was only a few lines into the answers from the survey when the bell-chime from her phone signaled a message from her secretary: ‘Victor Hudsley wishes to speak with you.’

Unscheduled, but hardly unsurprising. The man had left her a very explicit message after escorting the girl, and his shift just ended. She asked Eric to let him in.

“This is unacceptable,” Victor half-shouted as he burst into the room. “Daniel is a loose cannon.”

She appreciated his restraint in not resorting to swear words in front of her. He had probably gotten some time to cool down, though he was still visibly agitated.

“Take a seat and explain,” she motioned to the chair in front of her desk.

“Daniel, that bloody idiot, almost killed the newcomer while we were escorting her.”

“I read your message. You wrote that he gave her a full dose of his nightmare. I am happy she survived it.”

“No thanks to him. You got to do something about him!”

“What do you propose?”

“Throw him out. It’s a huge risk to have a guy like him on the staff.”

“I agree it’s far from ideal. Unfortunately, he is also our best combatant among the security, which makes me uneasy with the idea of letting him go. We don’t have anyone that can easily replace him, if there should be another such episode…”

“I … I know, I know. You’re right. We need someone like him, I just wished he could properly follow orders. Fu… I mean, Darn.”

“At the very least, I will give him a clear message that his behavior was unacceptable, and reduce his paycheck for this month. However, that may also be all I can do.”

“Knowing him, he will ignore the message, but the reduced pay will give him pause. I just wish…”

“I know. Unfortunately, I have a full schedule ahead. We will have to speak more later.”

“Right, of course. Sorry. I’ll see myself out.”

With that out of the way, Matilda returned to the survey. There were several interesting answers there. She wrote down a few follow-up questions in her notebook.

"Eric? Can you check if professor Hemsworth is available around ten? I believe I only need about fifteen minutes or so."

"Certainly. Do you need me to arrange some security for the interview, too?"

Matilda hadn't thought of that. She rarely did. But it was true there could be… physical challenges with some children. Usually boys, but not always.

"Yes, that's probably a good idea. Not Victor, though, he's too emotionally invested."

"How about Molly? Female, doesn't carry visible weapons?"

"Excellent idea as usual, Eric. See if she's on duty."

"I have already scheduled her for the meeting."

"Are you telling me you made the decision because you know better than me what I need?"

"Your words, not mine."

"Well, I wouldn't have said them if they weren't true. Why, how would I manage without you?'

"What can I say? It takes talent to be as fabulous as me."

She laughed. These small word exchanges really lightened up her day.

"Is there anything else you require of me before I go?"

"Actually, yes. Can you see if you can borrow a violin?"

"A regular sized one, or a ¾?"

"I… don't know?"

"I'll see what I can find."

The next hour was filled with paperwork, discussion with a teacher and other minor tasks. It was abruptly interrupted when Eric forwarded an urgent message from the Consortium. They were asking for permission to enter the academy grounds to search for a girl, Mina, last name unknown. So, now she knew who was after Mina. But why? She asked Eric to deny the request, saying they would not allow their passage until they knew the reason for their interest in Mina.

Five minutes before the scheduled meeting, Eric arrived and placed tea cups, cups, saucers and a small plate with biscuits on her desk. Matilda's mouth watered at the sight of the sweet treat.

"They have mint fillings, so you don’t need to be tempted," he informed her before leaving the room again.

Mint! Who was the horrible person that decided to put mint in biscuits? Or anywhere else for that matter. She briefly considered eating the biscuit without the filling, but they would probably still taste bad. Bleh.

Eric informed her that her guest had arrived. Molly entered with Mina, allowing Matilda to see her for the first time. She had been informed that the girl was dark-skinned, but not that she was a bit pudgy. It was something she could immediately emphasize with. After all, she had been varying degrees of corpulent all her life.

Mina politely greeted Matilda with a bow. A good first impression, for sure. Matilda offered her a seat. Molly took a position in the background.

"I am Matilda Sanders, headmistress of Family Academy," she introduced herself.

"How many similarities are there between you and Dumbledore?"

Matilda didn't mind the playful tone, quite the opposite. Interviews like these could be dreadful, particularly with interviewees that hardly opened their mouths. It was a new experience to not have any parents or guardians present.

"I’m afraid I lack the long, beautiful beard. On the bright side, I don't have to deal with any crazy powerful megalomaniac wizard, at least not yet."

"How about a pet phoenix? Happen to have one?"

"I had to settle for a pet dragon instead. It’s on the coat of arms right over there."

“Let me know if you happen to have a spare dragon. It’d be cool to own one.”

At this moment, like if on cue, Eric entered the room with a freshly brewed kettle of tea. He filled up each cup, offering sugar or milk. Mina helped herself to a biscuit. There appeared to be at least one person in the world that enjoyed mint biscuits.

“So, from what I understand, you seek admittance and refuge. Let’s start with the last one.”

Mina smiled nervously. Matilda went on.

“I would have asked you to tell me who you are fleeing from. Only, I got a message less than an hour ago that the Consortium wants to come here to look for you. Or at least someone whose name is Mina. I can safely assume that’s you, right?”

She nodded. The nervousness wasn’t gone, but it was partially pushed away by determination.

“It is true; the Consortium is after me. I want to make a deal with you.”

“Oh?”

“To be honest, I don’t know exactly what the Consortium wants with me. I believe it is because I know everything a man named Martin Schneider Kinsley witnessed. He is dead now, but I know everything he experienced.”

Mina was talking extremely confidently for someone merely eleven years old. It was a complete tonal shift from her earlier playfulness, but not exactly out of character. Maybe she was just mature enough to know when to switch gears.

“My proposed deal is; I tell you everything I know, and you allow me to stay and shield me from the Consortium.”

Matilda smiled. So young, so daring. She couldn’t help liking the girl.

“That’s a bold suggestion, young lady. What prevents me from making a deal and breaking it later?”

“Two reasons. First, I don’t think you’re the type of person to do such a thing. If you were, you wouldn’t have floated the possibility at all, you would simply have made the deal and silently backstabbed me with no fuzz.”

A bold conclusion, but not a wrong one. Mina went on: “Second, if you decide to do so anyway, I’m going to haunt your conscience for the rest of your days.”

“Oh, my, that’s a threat and a half.” Matilda snickered. “You have quite the convincing argument. It wasn’t strictly necessary though, as I had already decided to shield you from the Consortium, regardless of what you told me.”

“Really?”

“Mina, I didn’t become a respected headmistress by being ruthless. I became one by caring about the children I am responsible for. There will always be some who are more challenging than others. Rather than throw them away and focus only on the ‘good’ students, I want to give everyone a chance to succeed.”

She removed her glasses to polish them.

“Granted, your case is a bit different from most other ‘problem students’, as your problems, at least at first glance, seem largely external. That won’t prevent me from helping you, too.”

“But I’m not your student, at least not yet. Unless…?”

“Yes, I’ve already decided to accept your application.”

“Wow, that’s … extremely nice of you. I expected the process to be a lot harder.”

“It’s not official yet. But I have made the decision, and I’ll see it through. Even if I have to step on some toes to do it.”

“I am really super grateful. Do you still want to hear what Martin witnessed?”

“Yes, absolutely. I also want to record the conversation for later reference. Is that okay with you?”

Mina gave her permission. Eric produced a laptop with a microphone. Matilda was really not very technically savvy, so she just trusted him to fix everything. He left the two of them alone to talk.

Once everything was set up, Mina shared a harrowing tale of the fate and, ultimately, death of this Martin Kinsley. It was a tale far too gruesome for a girl as young as Mina to listen to, much less retell. She seemed remarkably distant to it, though, as if she was re-telling the plot of a book rather than a real-life tragedy.

It certainly sounded like the Consortium was responsible, considering Martin had personally witnessed one of their agents at the scene. Unless he was also working for a different group? A possibility, but not a very likely one. She needed to discuss this with her confidants.

The confusing part was how Mina got to learn all this information. A witch imparted the knowledge straight to her mind, supplanting all her previous knowledge of her life. Mina suggested she may not have existed before that, but that was nonsense. Matilda had never heard of a witch or other type of mage capable of creating life. It was much more likely that the witch had taken her from her previous life and wiped clean all her memories. That still made her a frighteningly powerful mage.

Maybe it was possible to use modern methods to track down Mina’s real family? That would present a moral conundrum, assuming they found her family or the people she grew up with. The girl lacked even a trace memory of her life before the incident with the witch. Right now, her family was probably searching for her, and fearing the worst. But the truth would arguably be even harsher than they expected; their girl would still be alive, but completely incapable of remembering them. Perhaps she would even be a completely different person. They would have to live with a complete stranger in their daughter’s body, which could easily lead to them resenting her. As for Mina, she would have to live up to the expectations of people she had no connection to.

Hm. Quite the dilemma. Not a decision to make rashly, and perhaps not even a decision Mina should be allowed to make. It might be better not to inform her, even if they found her old family. Perhaps not even search for it. She decided not to close the door on the prospect, either, so she got Mina’s fingerprints and a DNA sample, with her permission.

Matilda stopped the recording.

“I think it’s best that you don’t speak of this even to any student. Nor should you mention that you have the memories of another man. If you need to talk about it, my door is open to you. If I’m not available, my secretary Eric will put you in contact with someone who we can trust.”

The girl nodded.

“On to a different topic. I have some questions about some of the answers you filled out in the survey.”

They went through the survey and the questions Matilda had noted. Mina answered all the questions truthfully, at least from what Matilda could determine. There was no hesitation or body language that hinted that she needed to come up with a lie or hide something. Either she was telling the truth as far as she knew it, or she was an extremely experienced liar. Matilda leaned towards the former conclusion.

Her knowledge was all over the place. She could tell Mina knew a lot more than her about certain historical events, while she barely remembered others when prompted. There was no easy correlation between the better known ones and what she remembered. She had at least a middle-school level knowledge of chemistry and mathematics, while her geography was sorely lacking. It would prove quite the challenge to place her in a class that could properly challenge her on the topics she didn’t know while also not boring her to death on other topics.

Finally, they arrived at the last answer in the survey.

“Under hobbies, you wrote that you play the violin.” Matilda presented the violin case Eric had prepared. “Perhaps you can give us a demonstration, if you don’t mind?”

Mina’s eyes practically lit up. To call her eager was an understatement. She expertly opened the violin case and picked up the violin and the bow, inspecting both. The violin had been used by a lot of children and suffered both scratches and falls, and the strings had been replaced multiple times. It didn’t seem to bother her. She spent some time checking each string and adjusting the screws accordingly.

Satisfied, she stood up and put the violin on her shoulder. She began playing a soft and somewhat sad tune, which Matilda faintly recognized but couldn’t place. There was the occasional mistake here and there, but in general she played much better than one could expect any eleven-year old to pull off.

Half-way through the performance, the door opened with an annoying creek. Professor Hemsworth tip-toed in and waited in the background, not to disturb the music. Eric also entered and just listened to the music with his eyes closed.

After the soft tune was finished, Mina switched gears and played a much more aggressive melody. Matilda recognized it as something from Vivaldi’s four seasons. This was obviously a lot more challenging, and contained a lot more mistakes. It did retract slightly from the performance, but it was still a praiseworthy attempt. Maybe a bit above her skill level, but admirable that she reached upwards. Mina’s face conveyed her frustration with the mistakes she made.

When she finished, all of her audience clapped. She smiled and bowed like an experienced performer, rather than become flustered. Another riddle regarding her background. Not only had she learned to play expertly, she already had practice in front of an audience.

“I am impressed,” Matilda praised honestly. Mina just nodded as she returned the violin and the bow to the case.

“While you were playing, Professor Hemsworth arrived. As you noted, a sensor confirmed that you were awakened. He is here to help you figure out more about your awakened talent.”

At the cue, Harold stepped forward. He splendidly defied the ‘professor’ stereotype with his elaborate jewelry and earrings. The most impressive part was how he managed to carry around so much glittering metal without appearing tacky or look like a rapper. Much of it because of the intricacy of goldcraft, inspired by Mayan motiffs. Something she only knew because she had previously asked him about it. He had quite the intricate knowledge about their culture.

"I regret not getting to hear the entire 'Gabriel's Oboe'," Harold lamented, "I had forgotten how beautiful it is."

So that was the name of the melody.

"I will do my best to gauge your powers. Do you have any idea what your talent may be?"

Mina shook her head.

"In that case, just relax. Focus on yourself."

Harold held his palms towards her and closed his eyes.

"Now focus on me."

Eric quietly disappeared out of the room again. Harold continued the exercise, repeatedly asking her to change focus. The desk, the air, Molly, an imagined bird outside the window, back to herself and so on. Then he asked her to think of something that made her angry, sad, jealous and other feelings. Next was objects and concepts, ranging from ice cream to home. The last one seemed to leave her a bit confused.

It took close to ten minutes before he reached a conclusion.

"It's quite subtle, but I can with certainty say that you are affecting the people around you. I can't easily pinpoint the effect, but I can eliminate some possibilities. You don’t seem to be affecting my senses, at least not in the traditional five senses. I can exclude several of the directly harmful powers like poisoning and metabolism transfer."

"What is that?" Mina asked.

"A group of powers that can take resources from someone else. Think of them as psychic vampires. There are people that can age you while they grow younger themselves, though thankfully it's a slow and rare process."

He motioned to her.

"The way you unconsciously use your powers are undirected. In other words, you affect everyone around you no matter who you focus on. It's possible that you can be more selective with proper training."

He thought for a moment.

"I can not exclude ESP. You may be picking up more information about people around you than others can. If you awakened early, you may not even be aware that this is supernatural.”

Mina looked thoughtful. “I believe I am pretty good at gauging people’s feelings towards me. More so than what most others seem to be capable of.”

“That may be your talent,” Harold nodded, “or at least part of your talent. Let us arrange a meeting later, and I’ll give you some exercises you can use to test out your hypothesis.”

“When you say ‘part of my talent, do you mean I may have several powers?”

“It’s absolutely possible. Though I may need to clarify a distinction. It’s not uncommon to have several powers that are all strongly linked to each other. For example, someone with superior strength might be much tougher than normal. Someone that can understand people despite language barriers are often good at making themselves understood, too. People with completely unrelated powers are much, much rarer. For example, someone who is both super strong and can understand any language.”

He glanced at his watch. “As much as I love to talk about this subject, I’m afraid I’m required elsewhere right now. Please excuse me.”

Matilda nodded. “The meeting dragged on longer than I anticipated. Still, it was all very interesting. Let me be the first one to welcome you as a student at Dawnhill Academy.”