Jordan stepped to the side to give a student extra space to pass, offering a brief but friendly nod. Jessie pulled her tail closer, though it hadn't been in anyone's way.

"So... who are we going to meet?" Jordan asked, hoping to distract Jessie from the students passing by. Her friend had never been completely comfortable in crowded spaces.

"Violet is her name, she's... a bit different." Jessie flicked her tail, searching for words. "You can get a little bit of Auntie vibes off her... minus the magic. She actually worked for Auntie for a while."

"Really religious?" Jordan asked, remembering how Auntie would drop scripture quotes into casual conversation, even if she hadn't given a proper sermon since Jordan was tiny.

Jessie laughed. "Definitely not. What I meant is she's a plotter—a person who likes to attach strings to people. She's not malicious, but everything she does you get the feeling she has some sort of agenda and wants to use you for something."

"Yeah, sounds like Auntie," Jordan agreed, though she mostly remembered Auntie's blunt comments at family gatherings rather than any complex plots. The few magic lessons she'd had with her hadn't revealed much about that side of her character.

Jessie stopped in front of a door. "Here we are," she said as she knocked.

"Enter," a female voice responded.

They stepped into the office, and Jordan found herself studying the woman behind the desk with interest. Her violet hair was striking enough, but what really caught Jordan's attention was how little she wore above the waist compared to most humans, and the unusual amount of thick fur clustered around her chest. Unlike Jessie, whose fur concentrated around her legs, Violet's fur pattern was distinctly different from any human or partial Jordan had met. She noticed Jessie's carefully neutral expression - clearly used to her colleague's appearance but still not entirely comfortable with it.

"Jessica!" Violet rose with a polished grace nothing like Auntie's casual manner. "So nice of you to drop by!" She moved around to greet them, her gaze taking in Jordan's appearance in the familiar pattern of new acquaintances - noting her light violet coat, braided yellow mane, the jewelry at her neck and ears, and finally settling on her book-and-heart cutie mark. "And you brought a friend. Jordan Gillmore, I presume? Your light violet coat complements your mark beautifully. I’m quite find of the color.”

"That's me," Jordan replied, resisting the urge to touch her the jewelry. At least Violet wasn't making a production out of the formal observation like some humans did.

"Wonderful to meet you! Love what you've done with your makeup. Please, take a seat, both of you," Violet instructed as she sat back down in her own chair. "What brings you to my office today?"

Jordan settled into one of the offered chairs while Jessie took the other. Her friend pointed at Jordan, tail wrapping around the chair leg. "Jordan here is trying to get a leg up on applying to our college. She had to recently drop out because—"

"Because she took control of Wabash Manor and her college back in Rock Hill was a teensy bit too far away, am I right?" Violet interjected.

Jordan blinked at the interruption. "Uh, yeah, that's right."

"Try to limit how often you interject 'um' into sentences. It makes you seem less confident," Violet advised, her tone polished where Auntie would have just told her to spit it out. "I know a good bit about you. When Sunset Blessing decided she was taking off to Equestria, I took an interest in who was going to end up taking her place at Wabash—I wanted to know if I was trading one handler for another, not that I ever objected to being one of Miss Blessing's aides."

Jordan wondered just how much research Violet had actually done. Probably all public records and whatever glimpses she'd gotten during her occasional work for Auntie. Not that it mattered - the really important things about Wabash weren't in any records.

"Oh, I guess I can understand why you might want to do that," Jordan replied. "I'm not really interested in continuing my auntie's stuff, so you don't need to worry about me trying to direct... whatever it is that you have going on."

Violet chuckled. "I didn't expect you to, given what I learned about you. You are looking for a little help getting admitted into the college before you apply—a personal recommendation from me?"

“Yes, ma’am,” Jordan answered.

"Well, having the mistress of Wabash Manor at our school would certainly be noteworthy," Violet mused, her tone suggesting she'd rehearsed this conversation. "I believe you previously were an English Major with a secondary education minor, is that correct?"

"Yes, ma'am," Jordan answered quickly. "I plan on keeping that."

"English falls under my purview, but secondary education is a whole other area. I'm on good terms with that dean, so I can certainly put in a few good words with them, along with the admissions office," Violet replied. "However, being just an English teacher seems such a humble role for someone who commands Wabash Manor. It seems like you could do so much more."

"All I've ever wanted was to be an English teacher," Jordan asserted. She'd had enough of people assuming she must have grander ambitions just because she'd inherited Wabash.

Violet nodded. "A commendable goal, and I'm glad you have a strong sense of who you are and don't let anything unsettle that. However... have you considered how your new acquisition might put a potential damper on your career goals? Most middle and high schools may be extremely wary of hiring an educator who hails from Wabash Manor... it has a reputation."

Jordan had already thought about this more than she cared to admit. "Well, I hope that will go away now that Auntie is gone," she said.

"Hoping is great, but I tend not to trust in anything that wasn't engineered," Violet replied, leaning forward slightly. "However, maybe you could change the reputation while still fulfilling your dreams. Have you considered you are sitting on a prime location for a school?"

Jordan blinked. "Wabash? As a school?" The idea was both intriguing and concerning - Andrea would definitely object, though not for the security reasons she'd actually cite. "Isn't it a little small?"

"Small is another term for exclusive," Violet replied, clearly warming to her topic. "And Miss Portsmith may have a lot to say about what goes on there now, but she ultimately has to conform to your wishes—I believe there is some sort of age clause about that in your inheritance contract that gives you full authority after you turn twenty-one."

Jordan sat back, considering. Violet had certainly done her research on the public records, though she obviously didn't know about the real security concerns. Still, the idea wasn't completely impossible. The main house was separate from the sealed areas, and the library did contain plenty of Auntie's safe spellbooks, even if they were disguised with titles like "Paint Drying Techniques of the Mid-19th Century" and "A Comprehensive Study of Doorknob Designs."

Having her own school might actually work. Magic would be the draw for attracting students - everyone assumed Wabash held Auntie's magical knowledge, and they weren't exactly wrong. All she'd have to do was advertise teaching Sunset Blessing's techniques and she'd have thousands of applications. She could probably charge significant tuition too. The main house's library did have plenty of legitimate magical knowledge, even if finding anything meant wading through titles that would put an insomniac to sleep. Plus teaching basic liberal arts would give her the chance to do what she actually wanted - teach English literature.

"I'd still need to get my degree first," Jordan said carefully, keeping her tone neutral. "And I couldn't even consider starting to put in the groundwork for something like that until after I'm twenty-one." When she'd have actual authority to make these decisions, and Andrea would have to do more than just glare disapprovingly at every change.

"Of course... although... I could lay some groundwork for you before that point," Violet offered, her voice honey-smooth. "Opening a new school is no small task. It can take years to set up."

"And what do you get out of it?" Jessie asked sharply. Jordan appreciated her friend's directness - she'd been wondering the same thing.

Violet chuckled. "Oh, it should be clear. I get influence, and I get to be a talent scout for a magic school. It's my opportunity to give all the oddballs a chance to become great."

"You really are like Auntie," Jordan observed. "You're out to find everyone who has been overlooked as weird and utilize their talent that everyone else dismissed." Though from what she remembered of family gatherings, Auntie had been far more blunt about it, often calling people 'delightfully strange' to their faces.

Violet held up a finger. "Not quite. I'm not out to use them, just give them a leg up. Call it a personal mission to spite the world that treated me like a freak for years. I hate seeing anyone made to feel ashamed of who and what they are, especially when they have plenty to offer the world. I may not be a mage, and I don't know the first thing about spellcasting, but what I do have is an eye for anyone who is special and a desire to build that up."

"If you don't know the first thing about magic, how can you talent scout it?" Jordan asked. She wondered how much of Auntie's actual magical work Violet had even seen during her time at Wabash.

"I may not know these things, but I'm familiar enough with it to see when someone is doing something not normal," Violet replied, using air quotes with her fingers to stress the last two words. "I can find the deviants, it's up to you to figure out how to help them utilize being different. You aren't the kind of person I'm typically passionate about working with—you're depressingly normal, but you've potentially got the keys to the kingdom for lots of people who deserve their chance. So, I'm willing to give you my full support." She paused, smoothing her chest fur in what seemed to be a habitual gesture. "I'm not Sunset Blessing. I appreciate and admire her for seeing value where others did not, including my value, but I'm not out to be her. I don't have any hidden agenda. Everything is on full glorious display with me. You can trust me."

Jordan looked at Jessie for some sense of what she thought. Her friend gave her a stiff nod - not exactly enthusiasm, but not a warning either.

Looking back at Violet, Jordan chose her words carefully. "Okay... I'm willing to explore the possibility. It is going to take a huge amount of negotiating and figuring out to get it past Andrea, but I'm willing to look into it." And a lot of careful planning about what parts of Wabash would be accessible and what would stay firmly off-limits, but that wasn't something she could mention. "In the meantime, I need a degree. No one is coming to a school where the founder doesn't even have a degree."

"True enough," Violet replied. "How about we go have a chat together with the Education School Dean and then the admissions department? Let me work my magic, and I'll have you accepted in no time."

Okay... that was good. Having the two deans plus Jessie on her side going into admissions was good. She really had no clue if what Violet wanted her to do with Wabash was viable, but that was a problem for another year. The whole idea would need careful consideration - what could actually be taught, what areas could be opened to students, how to handle Andrea's security concerns without revealing why they were so serious. Right now, her primary concern was getting re-enrolled in college and on with her degree again. Anything else could wait.

Author's Note

This chapter originally had a long second section. I wasn't really happy with it and am currently revising the second section as its own chapter. The furst section I was satisfied with, so I decided to release it on its own.