Magic and Mayhem by Sara Bourgeois

Author:Sara Bourgeois [Bourgeois, Sara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-04-18T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 23

They followed the Willamette River south. Traffic was light after rush hour. Lil brought the car up to frightening speed on the open road. The drive should have taken nearly an hour. Lil’s lead foot halved the time.

She pulled into a lot off of East Thirteenth Avenue. Jen saw the big yellow O on the façade of the business building. Green and yellow predominated the wardrobe of students heading to class. Jen looked down at herself. She would fit right in. The year she had spent away from the UO melted away as she stepped from the car.

“Memories,” she sang to herself.

Susan Campbell Hall stood next to the art museum. She and Lil hurried along the pedestrian walkways through the rain. While Jen knew the building from seeing it, she had never taken classes here. It sat between her favorite campus statue, The Pioneer Mother, outside the museum and the Knight Library. Georgian Revival architecture matched the surrounding halls. Once inside, she noted a sign indicating the Philosophy Department was on the second floor. Lil headed away from the stairs.

“Where are you going?”

“Kelly’s office is in the basement.”

An unmarked door opened on a dusty staircase. Lil marched down in her usual fashion—as if she owned the place. The doorway on the landing opened up into what looked like an archive rather than an office. Central was a desk with a small woman seated.

“Still remember my office hours, Lilith,” she said without looking up.

“Just looking for some intel.”

“Partnered up with an alum. Good choice. I’m Professor Mandela.”

“Jen Clemmons,” she shook hands.

“Please sit,” the professor said. “I don’t remember you in any of my classes.”

“Art major,” Lil rolled her eyes.

Jen scowled at her.

“What sort of esoteric knowledge are you after this time, Lilith?” Mandela got to the point.

“The Pentethereal Hermetic Order of Anubis. You know them?”

Mandela tapped a pen on her desk, thinking for a moment. “Is that the Sapphire Society? Let me get some reference.”

The basement room was chock-a-block with stacks, most of the spines were unmarked. Perhaps student theses, Jen thought. Still, it only took Professor Mandela a moment to return with two bound documents. She flipped through the pages. “Ah, yes. Founded by Alexander the Great, Julius Cesar, Cleopatra, Genghis Kahn.”

“Really?” Jen said.

“Well, their reported reincarnations, actually,” the professor chuckled with a wink. “Let’s see, magical, occult, esoterica, primarily focused on reincarnation, naturally. Oh, here are some even more interesting names than the former incarnations. Benjamin Franklin, Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, and the Marquis de Puysègur.”

“Ben Franklin, the inventor of the guillotine, and a French marquis had something in common?” Lil asked.

“Sounds like the start of some obscure academic joke, doesn’t it? Indeed. Animal magnetism,” Professor Kelly said. “Another member, for a short time before the end of his life, was Franz Mesmer, of course.”

“Of course…” Lil nodded and stared into space.

“After Mesmer’s exile and death, they changed their name to the Sapphire Society. Animal magnetism had been disproven, at least, according to the times. Mesmerism, better known as hypnotism, is still with us.

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