The Outcast

The room inside was spacious, with decent sized single beds placed foot to foot at the end of the room leaving a large space that held a pair of comfortable chairs in front of writing desks. Either side was the mirror image of the other, except the left side of the room had a mahogany door which opened out into a washroom which was glorious to behold.

Dia kept dragging Lily around for the rest of that afternoon. She said that they were exploring the school but that seemed to involve poking her head into every door she came to and then telling Lily what resided inside. Lily was more interested in looking around at where everything was and trying to commit it to memory. Oscar and Kiki had gone for a wander now they were inside the school, perhaps it was because they had deemed that something cats would be more than likely to do or maybe they had followed the rats lead as the three had stayed inside the dorm room. Witch companions appeared to be a lot more alike to their wild counterparts.

Both had noticed that others walking out of the registration room were carrying bags with them. It occurred to Lily then that she must have seemed strange arriving without any possessions and was grateful to her luck that she seemed to have bumped into the only witch who also didn’t have any. Dia didn’t mention it, didn’t ask Lily as to why she hadn’t had anything. But Lily figured that it was because she didn’t want the same question directed back at her.

The dynamic of Dia babbling and Lily listening in a polite silence seemed to form between them quickly. Dia talked about all sorts of things, about how she wanted to learn how to use magic without her wand because her whole family had been able to, about what her rats were like and how old they were; it seemed that Witches had the same companion ritual at the same age as Fairies did. Lily wondered if that was something that dated back to when they lived aside one another. Dia talked over dinner about her favourite foods, and she wondered aloud if the food itself that had been served to them by magically-moving utensils at the end of the canteen hall had been created by magic or if there was a kitchen hidden somewhere. Lily had nothing to contribute but the way she looked at Dia made it obvious she was listening with a curiosity that didn’t seem to be fading any time soon.

Lily had decided that the more knowledge she could get the better, and if Dia was so willing to talk then Lily didn’t think there would be any reason to stop her.

The following morning, Lily had gotten up at the crack of dawn, too nervous of this whole situation to sleep properly.

“Kiki and I are going to spend the day really wandering around, seeing if we can check out the other dorms or rooms to see if there’s anyone talking about anything big.” Oscar whispered to her as he sat on the side of her bath. Kiki remained outside so she could meow loudly if Dia woke up so Oscar could stop talking out loud.

“Ok.” Lily nodded, enjoying the warmth of the water. Back in the fairy kingdom they never got the heat of their water up this high and frankly, it was beautiful. “I was thinking I’d pop to the library and see if there is any information about this place, so I don’t raise too many questions.”

“Good idea; Dia seems easy to fool but others might get suspicious when you know nothing about witches” Oscar agreed as he lay down and pawed the surface of the water. After a moment, he added, “Are you doing ok, Lil?”

Her green eyes turned to the large cat and a small smile pulled on her lips at Oscar’s sign of care. “I’m so scared. I thought this was just going to be a group of witches being trained, not a proper school that I’m going to have to try and convince hundreds of people I’m not an imposter!” Her voice trembled as she spoke her thoughts out loud. “I can’t even fit into the race I’m born into, how am I meant to fit into something like this?”

Oscar sighed and walked around the edge of the smooth bath until he was at the side where Lily’s head rested. He bent down to nuzzle her wet hair. “You were better than any of the others back home” He purred while licking the temple of her head. “You could do things they couldn’t imagine with your magic, and look, you even developed a mixture of magic that changed your look for half a day at a time!! If anyone CAN do this, it’s you.”

“But…”

“No buts, Lil. I know you don’t believe in yourself, but Ki and I do. We’ve watched you for the last five years, and we plan on watching you for many more.” Lily turned her head to kiss Oscar’s nose.

She didn’t know what to say to that, she didn’t believe him, but she knew better not to argue with him. So, she fell into a comfortable silence letting her head flop to the side and rest on his side.

Oscar didn’t urge her to move soon, he let Lily soothe and calm in the water which did not go cold. She could have spent hours there. But within the hour Lily was out of that water, dressed, and stood in the library glancing around wondering where she should even start. From the amount Dia seemed to know about this place, Lily figured she should start with the school information first.

The library was a huge domed room with three floors, the two higher floors had bookcases lining the walls while the ground floor had four aisles of deep mahogany bookcases. Lily took a full walk through the library, gazing at the sections. The ground floor had sections for: history, structure spells, flying enchantments, flying theory, mythical creatures care and use, ancient legends. The first floor was dedicated to spell-work and the top floor was potions.

Returning to the ground floor, Lily made her way along the far-left aisle which had history books lining the bookcase along the wall. There were all sorts of books; History of humans. The divergence of the human genomes. Magical Revolution: An Expanse of Jobs. The Great Magic War. Finally, Lily came to a smaller section on the historical architecture and creation of the school. She picked up a few of those books and walked across to one of the study tables at the end of the room where long windows let streaks of morning gold wash over the chairs.

The first book, Building Quintegia, just told her how the building was made. What magic was used to build the structure, what magic was woven into the stone around the fencing wall and what was used to keep the water hot and the flames alight. Maybe it wasn’t what she was looking for, but Lily couldn’t help but be fascinated by everything she read. The flames had come from a specific type of small dragon and magic had been used to engrave that flame into the walls of the school. According to the book, this had been the last of those dragons to have been seen in five millennia.

The second book told her something similar just written and compiled by a different author. But the third book, Quintegia: The Art of Learning, described much more that would be useful to Lily now.

‘Named for its founder, Quintina Byrne, Quintegia has in time become one of the greatest schools for witchcraft. It has turned out the highest achievers throughout history with many noted and celebrated people rising to high standings in society. The school itself remains to this day a place both of learning, and of fundamental culture structure.’

The start of the book wasn’t the most interesting of reads, the introductory first chapter spoke about the wonders and glory of the school. Other chapters talked about the greatest warriors and the most intelligent that had passed through there. However, it was the chapters on the structure of the school that Lily focused on. It explained that the main lessons revolved around four main topics; spells, potions, creature care, and flying. Lily noted as she scanned the kinds of things usually taught that most of it was not stuff that could be used to fight in a war against Fairies.

Lily then turned to a chapter on the dormitory houses out the back.

‘Six dormitories exist, they are located out the back of the main school building in rows along the fence walls. Three on the left are the girls’ dorms, three on the right are for boys. Each house is named for the different colours of the species Spiocus. Purple Spiocus, Red Spiocus, and Black Spiocus represent the girls’ dormitories, while the Blue Spiocus, Yellow Spiocus, and Green Spiocus represent the boys’ dormitories.’

Lily blinked down at it; this creature called a Spiocus was still not something she understood. Getting back to her feet she walked to the aisle filled with books on mythical creatures, scanning a few until she found Spiocus in the index of one book named Spirit Creatures of Modern Times.

Sitting back down she skimmed the pages until she reached a description;

‘Small spirit-like creatures that float through walls and cause jokes and pranks. They love to cause mischief and are often responsible for accidents. They can be tamed, but only by someone who will give them plenty of chances to reap havoc throughout their lives. Their general characteristics are small bodies and huge flapping ears with rippling spirit colours surrounding them like fur. They have long tails that propel them through the air away from the scenes they cause, and their faces are covered with masks that represent the innocence level of their potential jokes.’

Lily’s green eyes danced over the drawings that were found flicking and glowing over the edges of the page around the writing. They were just like the Spiocus that had glowed on her palm except they were more intricate in detail and somehow much more beautiful. Closing the book and placing it to the side to take back to the dormitory with her later, Lily turned back to the original books.

The information about the dormitories continued on to explain that each dorm had its own mythical creature as a mascot and that a stone carving of these creatures stands before the door of the dorm house and will only move aside when someone approaches it with the glow of the right brand on their palm. These statues were originally brought in to prevent any uninvited visitors. The brand on the palm was brought in later so that no words or keys needed to be used as, often during exam periods, students would be laden in books and would struggle to get to any keys or door handles.

‘The dormitory houses soon gained casual names: Moreq, Canton, Trean, Nocto, Ales, and Macella, in relation to the chosen mascots. The mascots of the dormitories were chosen to be six legends which matched up with the six colours of the Spiocus colours.’

Blinking down at the page before her, Lily focused on the word ‘Macella’. Her stomach twisted with unease and she quickly got up once again to find a book that would explain and describe six legendary creatures spoken of throughout the world. Sure enough, upon skipping through the pages, she found one with the heading ‘Macellavir’ and she couldn’t suppress a shudder. It couldn’t be written here. It was a tale told to Fairy children to keep them in the kingdom boundaries. It wasn’t… it couldn’t be real.

’A two-legged beast which stomps through the undergrowth of woods and forests looking for lost souls to feed on. No one quite knows what it looks like, but it is said to have a dragon skull over its face to keep the true form from being shown, and rot and moss grow over its skeletal body making it look more like a rotting tree when it stands unmoving.

It has a specific taste for human descended races. However, there are no documented reports of this creature to ever have existed. It is likely that this was simply a legend that started with humans and followed the generations down the races’ evolutions.’

The words that reassured her that this was still just a legend made Lily sigh heavily in relief. So, the mascots were just make-believe legends. Thank all that was powerful in the world. Leaning back in her chair, Lily blinked up at the ceiling trying to calm her rapidly beating heart. At least she wasn’t in that dormitory, if she had to look up at the stone replica of a Macellavir that she had feared all her childhood, she wasn’t sure she would be able to keep it together.

After a moment or two, she turned her attention back to the book, flicking through to find the other five legends. Cantonitrua was the legend used for the yellow dormitory; it was apparently some kind of large dog-like creature with yellow straggled fur and a forked tail that all carried electrical charges. The red dormitory was linked to the Alesrex, the fabled King of the Dragons which was said to resemble a lion/dragon hybrid. The book described that it had grey scales covering its body, tail, and legs, but there was a deep red mane of fur that framed its rounded face that sported two pairs of different coloured eyes. Trean, or the Green Spiocus dormitory, was named for the three-headed snake legend, Treanguis, while the blue dormitory was named after the skeletal manta ray that swam through the night skies named Noctosseus.

Finally, she found the legend which stood outside her new dormitory in the form of a statue. The horse creature was rumoured to be the winged horse which death can be seen riding through scenes of tragic wars. It looked like an ancient unicorn that had gone very wrong, its colours weren’t portrayed on the stone statue, but the tail, mane, and eyes had all taken on a glowing purple colour over what would have been a silver mane and golden honest eyes in a normal unicorn.

Lily took the book on legends and myths to the canteen with her while she had a late breakfast. The canteen was open almost all day, with a couple of hour breaks while they changed up the menu between the three meals. It didn’t appear to need staff, the food refilled itself and the utensils served up to anyone who came over with a plate or bowl. There were so many kinds of food to choose from, food that Lily had never seen before. Meat. The meat was a new one. Fairies didn’t eat meat up in their kingdom. They survived with vegetables, fruit and dairy made from the milk of a Fugacapra; a winged goat which they bred specifically. So, Lily discovered meat for the first time that morning, and if she was honest, she wasn’t sure about the salty taste that came with whatever meat it was. The diet of Witches was richer in taste and sauces though, there were spices and herbs that Lily had never come across.

The afternoon found Lily back in the library, each time she read something new it sparked up another tangent of thought which she wanted to read into.

By the time she left later that evening, Lily had piled into her arms as much as she could carry; three bulky books and four smaller ones. They were mostly about the school history and the creatures, but one of the larger books went through the basics of spell work.

Walking out of the library, she took to walking through the small corridors towards the exit to the dormitories. Turning the corner onto the hallway with the exit, Lily felt something crash into her shoulder and knock her a little, sending the books in her arms tumbling to the floor with dull thuds.

“Put some shoes on freak, maybe you’ll be able to get out of the way quicker!” A scathing female voice caused Lily’s eyes to glance down at her feet, only realising now that she had forgotten to put those shoes on. Turning her green eyes to the female who was walking past her, Lily could only take note of her overall image. She was a beautiful girl with long layered light brown hair which swayed as she walked. She wore a long black robe with a belt tied around the middle to accentuate her body shape, and from the brief look of her face, she wore an expression that showed she thought herself much higher than someone who didn’t wear shoes in school.

The first impression made Lily think of River Barrett. Great, another one like that. Well, she thought as she crouched down to collect up the books, at least it wasn’t anything new to deal with.

“Hey, you alright there?”

Lily jumped a little as a new voice sounded behind her and someone stepped beside her crouched down. Her breath caught in her throat at the close proximity she found the male in. She could see every strand of stubble on his square jaw, and the green of his eyes seemed to glitter in the evening sun that peaked through the windows of the hallway.

“Um…” She stammered. As of yet, she hadn’t spoken to anyone today considering the library books were checked out by an ink quill that acted alone.

The male chuckled softly, “Smooth. Here, let me help.” Without waiting for any more response, he reached out a strong arm and picked up the three larger books before Lily could reach for them.

“Thank you,” Lily whispered quietly as she scrambled to grab the four other books and get back to her feet. She could feel his eyes watching her from where he still crouched but Lily couldn’t force herself to look at his face. She wasn’t sure why, but somehow, she was scared that from this close, someone would be able to see through her.

“My pleasure.” Finally, he had pushed himself to his feet, Lily’s books still held against his chest. “How about I walk you the rest of the way?”

That offer caused Lily’s eyes to snap up and blink at the male who was about a head taller than her. His hair was incredibly short on the sides, but the top was messy and brushed slightly to the left giving him a messy fringe. However, it was the kind smile that really took her aback. Even when Jared had helped her back home, he had always rushed off to avoid the vicious backlash from his mother. So, the bright kind smile that she was faced with now was something incredibly new.

The young man had started to walk down the corridor and Lily had no choice but to jog to catch up with him.

“You, erm, you don’t have to do this” She stammered.

“I want to,” he smiled again, as though trying to reassure her. “I thought the lack of shoes was cute, and that girl knocking you was a liche move.” Lily felt her cheeks heating in a flush at that; she had never been referred to as cute for anything she did outside of her family. She opened her mouth to reply but couldn’t find any words, so she shut her mouth again. “So… you got a name?” The guy asked tentatively, opening the door and holding it open with his foot for her to pass through.

“Liliana.”

“Well, nice to meet you, Liliana. I’m Finnigan, but everyone calls me Finn.” As Dia had, this Finnigan didn’t seem to mind that Lily didn’t say much. “Which dorm are you in? I’m in Nocto or rather, the Blue Spiocus dorm.”

“I’m in the purple one. Moreq?” Was she remembering the casual names of the dormitories correctly?

“Oh, nice! The winged death unicorn; that statue definitely looks the coolest out of all of them. Ours doesn’t quite work, it’s just a weird skeleton.”

“Well, it is a flying skeleton of a manta ray.” Lily started after what she had read that day “Though, how does it move out of the way?”

The Morequcor stepped out of the way as a horse would, she would assume the Cantonitrua, the Macellavir, and the Alesrex would step aside in a similar way, and that the Treanguis slithered like a snake, but she couldn’t imagine how a manta ray skeleton would move.

“They were pretty clever about that,” Finnigan replied, seeming to be very happy about the fact Lily had actually asked something rather than just giving him another short answer. “The statue was carved as part of the front wall, so it basically swims over the door and then back off it as the students with the brand get close enough. Yeah, it’s pretty cool to see.” He added, noticing the raised eyebrows on Lily’s face.

“I can imagine.″ She glanced over to the dormitory with the manta ray skeleton over it.

“One day I’ll show you?” Finnigan asked.

“Oh. No, that’s ok.” Lily said quickly, her cheeks growing darker as she reached to take the large books from Finnigan. “Thank you for these.” With that, she bustled off to the stone Morequcor which stepped out of her way with nothing but a small glow of its eyes responding to the brand on her palm.

She didn’t breathe easy until she walked back into her room and let herself rest back against the door behind her. Lily had never spoken to someone for that long, and she didn’t even know how to handle something like that.

“Whoa! Lessons haven’t even started Lil?”

Lily almost dropped the books again at the voice of her roommate. She was not used to this whole ‘not being alone’ thing!

“Makes sense that you were quiet, you’re a bookwyrm!” Dia chimed with a laugh as she watched Lily walk over to the desk to put the books down. “Not a bad thing, mind! You can help me out; I’m not a reader per se, I’m much more into practical stuff. Found anything interesting in them?”

Lily didn’t answer. Instead, she was staring down at her bed with confusion. There was a pile of mostly black clothing folded there.

“Erm… where did they…?” She started.

“Oh,” Dia flushed a little and rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly “I just thought because you didn’t bring bags like me, that you could do with some clothes as well. I went back into town to get some material to turn into clothes.”

Lily picked up the top piece of clothing and let it unfold in her grasp. It was a long-sleeved shirt with a simple design on the front of a black cat in front of a midnight fog.

“I didn’t know what you liked…”

“It’s amazing,” Lily whispered, feeling oddly emotional “Thank you.”

Dia grinned. “My pleasure! I made you some better shoes too, I noticed you’d left yours behind this morning so thought you’d want some more comfortable ones.” She motioned to the area under Lily’s desk and she saw that there were four pairs of shoes of different styles underneath.

“I just… forgot the shoes this morning” Lily admitted as she sat down on the chair beside her desk. “And I got mocked for it on the way back.”

“Uncool!” Dia exclaimed before pushing Lily to recount the story of the day. This girl really was quite pushy, but it seemed to pry more words from Lily than anyone outside her family had done previously.

Once she had recounted the day, Dia had decided that she didn’t like the brown-haired girl, but she seemed more focused on the messy-haired guy that had helped Lily.

“Finnigan? As in Finnigan Byrne?” She demanded.

“Erm, maybe? I didn’t ask his last name. Why?”

“Byrne! As in, a descendant of the founder of this place, Quintina Byrne?! Damn!” Dia looked like she wanted to laugh “You get in good with someone like that and this school will be smooth sailing for you! Was he cute?”

The question stunned Lily who simply blinked at her roommate. “What?”

“Come on, dish. Was he cute?” Dia asked again. Girl talk had never ever been something Lily had imagined herself being involved in. And she hadn’t even thought about it when she had looked at Finnigan briefly; nor did she know what was deemed as attractive in the witch world.

“Erm, I dunno. I mean, I suppose his eyes were quite pretty” She said thinking hard about his image “They seemed to sparkle?”

“Ooooh!” Dia squealed a little causing Lily’s eyebrow to raise “Sounds like you liked what you saw!”

Lily flushed dark, feeling incredibly uncomfortable with a notion such as that. Dia seemed to take the flush as confirmation and spent the rest of the evening teasing Lily until they finally were tired enough to go to bed.

Lying there, Lily did think about Finnigan, but not in the way she had been teased for. If he truly was the descendant of the woman who had founded this school, Lily should keep her distance from him. If he was connected to any high ups, he would be a very dangerous person for her to have around. No matter how kind he had been. No matter how bright his smile had been.

Lily surely could not risk it.