Chapter 17

Tom noticed Cecelia as he passed with Ray and Jesse on his arms and his entourage following.

He saw the look of disgust on her face as she recognised who he was with. He let his eyes drift over the people still in the canteen and gauged their reactions. Several people were envious, a few were disgusted, some, mostly males, gave him smiles of encouragement, most were unperturbed.

That was all fine as far as Tom was concerned. He was a little worried about how he would perform with two blokes in the room but decided that since they were hermaphrodites, he would get over his hang-ups.

As they walked to the Shields dorm, Tom said, “Do you think it will be okay if I keep my room too? I tend to like a quiet place when I study, and that is my top priority.”

Jesse said, “How about for tonight you and I go to your room, and we see if I can change you first. At the end of each day, you can pick who you take next and where you wish to sleep.”

Tom shrugged, “Seems like a plan, it will probably work best if we play it by ear as I don’t even know my study schedule.”

They all looked at him in surprise. Then Ray said, “Oh, that makes sense if you haven’t been tested yet, but they know what you wish to achieve.”

“He will probably have to do, Basic Magic, Anatomy, Herbology, Human Biology and then First-year Human Systems Reconstructions,” Jesse said.

“Have any of you done these courses?” Tom asked with great interest as they walked up the tunnel to his dorm.

“Yes, we all have. But Jesse gets the best scores and is way ahead of us. We are mostly consolidating our diagnostic component this year, and two elective subjects, so we can finalise our doctorates.”

“Damn, now I know why Monte dropped me off in this time zone,” Tom said without thinking.

The girls stopped him. “What do you mean by this time zone?” Jesse asked.

Tom grinned, “Well, I was born the third of January, nineteen-ninety-four and I recently turned twenty-six years old in my timeline. I went on an unplanned holiday a week after my birthday in the year twenty-twenty. So far, I’ve been away for a week, and this is my third, time jump.”

“First, I had to rescue a baby on Earth and then get her immediate help to keep her alive. Monte took me to the Moon a year into the future from now. Then Monte brought me here so I could learn how to fix all of her injuries.”

“I only have a limited time to do that because I think there is something else that I have to do before I can go back to help her. I just get this feeling when it’s time to leave a place.”

Ray looked at Tom hard and then said, “He is telling the truth. He is a time traveller. That is so rad.”

Jesse got him walking again. “So, what are the main injuries that you need to treat?” The lift doors opened, and they all got in to go to the third floor.

Once the doors closed, Tom said, “Lorena was stolen by a dingo, so she received a lot of rips and tears around her head and neck and face. Because her skin was shredded, the scars are going to hamper her movements, and I don’t want her picked on because her head and face are scarred.”

“Oh, that is just so sweet. So, we need to mostly concentrate on teaching you skin, muscle and possibly ligament repair spells,” Ray theorised.

“He still needs to get the basic magic skills down pat to improve his fine motor skills,” Matte stated. “Realistically, he should also learn to do surgery without magic too.”

“Yeah, the more he practices, the better. Since you’re planning on being a surgeon, you should help him with the spells for finer control, Matte, and we should get him some lab time to do dissections. We might need to do lunchtime top-ups for him too, how sad for us,” Sage offered.

“Yes, a deplorable state of affairs,” Matte chuckled.

The lift opened, and Jesse led Tom to their room, so he knew how to find them if he needed them. She then let Tom take her back to his room. It took Tom all of about two seconds to realise that Jesse didn’t want seductive.

He did get to admire her skill at fellation and then her skill at bronc riding. She also learnt that Tom had to add the missionary position to get off the second time. She didn’t remember the last bit once he pulled magic.

Tom let her sleep while he showered. He got in about four hours himself before he left her a note and went in search of coffee and toast. Once fortified, he sat down to finish reading the Primer and to do some experimenting. He had just about memorised all of the information in it.

When he saw his friends come downstairs, he had his second breakfast with them.

Tom sat in the auditorium in anticipation of his first day at magic school.

He looked at the teaching staff and wondered who would be assigned to him. He did like that they were a rainbow of races. Sage had told him at breakfast that while some people practised racial discrimination, it wasn’t done by the majority.

It was also more prominent with the Earthlings than the native races from Utopia. Lee had even started screening the Earthlings more diligently before letting them come to Harmony. She had very strict controls on Earthlings going to Utopia.

Tom’s new friends also told him that Lee came down hard on those she found doing it. They would find themselves shipped home to Utopia or Earth depending on where they come from.

Matte explained that Therians copped it the worst, mostly because they scared people. It was their ability to impersonate others, that people were most fearful of. They also had a bad rep for being assassins in the past.

Tom had frowned at this statement and even stopped eating. “Does that include magicians since I believe glamours are fairly easy to do?”

“Yes, to some extent. However, other magical people can often see the magical aura of a glamour even if they can’t see through it. Can you do one?” Sage asked with interest.

Tom smiled, “It was one of the first spells I tried. Some girls on the Fortune took a fancy to me, and I got stuck in a corridor with them coming down it, so I changed my face to look like Captain Esky. It must have worked because they all greeted me as the Captain.”

“Show us,” Franky demanded. So, Tom did.

“That is an excellent likeness, you even got his sexy smile down pat. How long had you had your items?” Ray asked as she checked Tom over.