The Outcast

“Come on! I want a seat at the front!” Dia exclaimed six days later, on a bright morning.

The rest of the week had gone by without anything else occurring. Lily had spent her time going through basic spell books and practising a few of them with Dia. Dia, it turned out, was not kidding about her liking the practical side of things; she would get incredibly bored when it came to the reading and theory of the spells, but she jumped into practice immediately. This led to things in their room exploding or flying randomly across the room, but that just brought laughter to both girls’ lips.

It was very strange to laugh so easily with another person. But Dia made it so easy. She was so open and so bright that Lily soon got caught up in it. Dia’s mistakes also made it so that Lily felt less self-conscious trying out the spells as well.

After those few days, Dia seemed to have decided that she was comfortable and that Lily was officially her friend in this school. And now, she bounced the end of Lily’s bed excitedly, causing the two cats to growl in warning while Lily whined in protest.

“The sun’s only just coming out!” Lily grumbled.

“Yeah, but we can get to class early and get good seats!” Dia insisted, now taking hold of Lily’s left foot through the covers and shook it. It was an idea that Lily didn’t really like. To be sat right under the nose of a fully-grown witch who would be able to watch her at such a close range, she was sure they would see through her sooner or later.

But she doubted she’d win the debate, so Lily just let out a small groan before pushing herself up from her pillow to look at her roommate. Dia was already dressed in a lace skirt that looked more like a tutu and a long-sleeved shirt which was tucked into that. The shirt had a purple Spiocus that moved around, the sewed pattern moving easily over the grey base colour of the shirt.

In this week alone, Lily was amazed at the creativity of the magic Dia could use. She could create such fun clothing from mere scraps from the local town, and the shoes she had made for Lily were so much more comfortable than the first pair she had. Lily still didn’t like shoes though, and she couldn’t help but glare down at them slightly in distaste once she was washed and dressed. How witches could just wander around with their feet and toes cramped away in these tight bound casings, she didn’t know.

She followed Dia down to the canteen for breakfast, leaving the cats to fall back to sleep on the bed now becoming drenched in the morning sunlight. Both Oscar and Kiki were falling into a more normal set of cat behaviours easily; they slept a lot more and they wandered in and out through the open window. The purple wisteria plant vines were thick enough to allow the cats to clamber up and jump down from.

Lily missed their company, but she knew that if they were constantly by her feet they would raise a lot of questions. The companions of witches didn’t seem quite as intricately bound to the soul of their witch as fairies experienced.

They had a quick breakfast, mostly because Dia kept hurrying Lily and Lily was too nervous of her first lessons to have much appetite. So, after a couple of slices of heated bread which Dia called toast, they headed out of the canteen and back to the room where they had registered to pick up their timetables for lessons. The creepy black creature was the only thing in there, and it scrambled across the table and cabinets in a very awkward fashion, as though its slimy-looking limbs were not working properly. It trilled and growled to itself while moving, taking a few moments to realise someone had entered. When it did, Lily felt her palm heat up as those beady black eyes looked at them. It was like the brand on her palm was being analysed. The creature scampered across the main six piles of paper until it stood by the pile second to the right. Its fifth limb took hold of two of the papers and held them out to the girls.

“Awesome! Thanks!” Dia stepped closer and took the papers, handing one to Lily before scanning her own. “Please tell me we have the same; you got Distortion with Warlock Mayai and Tinctures with Sorceress Panga this morning?”

Lily nodded.

“Cool.” Dia grabbed hold of her wrist to drag her out of the room and up the main flight of stairs to the second floor where the first lesson was meant to be. The corridors were long and filled with rooms, though Lily couldn’t figure out what they would all be used for.

Relying on Dia to lead her the right way, Lily looked over the lesson plan in her hand. Monday had Distortion and Tisane lessons in the morning with Flying and a free period in the afternoon. Tuesday was free in the morning with Elixirs and Maceration in the afternoon. Wednesday morning was dedicated to Creature Handling, while the afternoon had Enchantments following a free period. Thursdays had a second flying lesson after a free period first thing and a whole four-hour afternoon of Tinctures. Finally, Fridays had Transmutation first thing through to lunch, then Charms and one final free period.

“There’s a lot of free periods.” She observed, not really expecting a response. But of course, Dia would always take up the opportunity to speak.

“Yep! Though don’t go thinking that those are to relax! I heard a neighbour talking and they said that they had to use all those free periods to practice spells and to go over theory just to keep up with the pace.”

Lily frowned at the paper. That would not leave her much time to look around for information she was here to find.

“Oh! Here we are!” Dia exclaimed, pulling Lily’s thoughts back to reality before they could begin to make her worry again.

The classroom inside was, of course, nothing like Lily had ever experienced. There were desks and chairs all facing forward to look at a desk at the front where the teacher must sit, Lily assumed. It was a very cold and lifeless area to work in. But she was still dragged to the table at the front by the left wall and didn’t argue while sitting down with her wand on the desk in easy reach. As she sat down, the paper appeared in front of her alongside an inkwell and quill.

Slowly the rest of the class shuffled in, some looking as excited as Dia, others looking bored already.

Finally, the teacher entered. He was a gangly man with a serious look on his sharp-featured face. Warlock Mayai came to stop by the desk and turned around, turning up to make sure his brown hair was still smoothly brushed to the side. Immediately, Lily felt very nervous as his eyes scowled around the room to look over all those who were attending.

“Good morning.” His voice was low and almost monotonous “I’m Warlock Mayai, you will have me for two of your classes this twelve-month semester, and one class in the following semester. Today, though, I will be going over the basic rules of spell work so that you are all brought up to the same speed as one another.”

“Oh, joy.” A voice whispered behind Lily, though she didn’t look around to see who the female voice belonged to. It was a familiar voice, which only made Lily less willing to turn around.

Warlock Mayai didn’t seem to have noticed the whisper though and had instead turned to the board to write down some points.

“The five basic rules were put together by Master Baird and Crone Starrett three centuries back after experimenting with as many kinds of magic routes they could think of…” His voice was already boring. Lily had never really done well in her lessons back home, but none had sounded this blank when they talked. It was like listening to a textbook read aloud by something that had no soul.

The Baird and Starrett rules in a nutshell were: something cannot be created from nothing, a substance or object cannot be vanished into non-existence, spells do not work properly without incantation, and spells cannot create true love nor create true life.

“The only things that look like they are summoned out of thin air, are light and water.” Warlock Mayai was continuing as quills scratched to note his words down. Dia was already bored and doodling on her sheet. “That is, of course, because light and water exist around us and the magic simply pulls it in from the surroundings so that we can use them.”

Lily had never had to write for her lessons in the past, so she wrote down what he said in small snippets to make sure she kept up.

“This use of light and water will be the basis for visual distortion which will be the first half of this distortion component in your learning. So, first up is to make sure you all are able to create both light and water at will.”

Lily gulped; she knew she could create both happily without any incantations. She would have to keep herself from willing either into existence with her usual methods.

“Today will be on the spell Luxina for light; next week we will tackle the water spell Ominoa.” He continued without worrying to stop and see if anyone had anything to say. “The incantation for both is simple, but to actually draw in enough light and water from the surroundings to be multiplied and utilised is a difficult feat. So, we will begin with you putting your quills down and picking up your wands until you’ve got the first incantation down.”

Even though it was a two-hour lesson, the majority of it was spent with all students staring down at their wands muttering the incantation over and over again.

“Luxi!” Dia was half shouting now, only gaining a small glow at the end of the wand. Lily wasn’t doing any better, in fact, she was struggling to make the magic happen without relying on her fairy derived magic.

“You guys are pathetic,” That voice behind her sounded again, and this time Lily did glance around. It was the same beautiful girl with long layered light brown hair that had knocked her books down in the corridor.

“Don’t be a Liche!” Dia snapped back at her.

“I’m not, just telling the truth” The girl drawled “Can’t even make the basics work.” Unlike them, she had a bright shine of line coming from the end of her wand and it didn’t seem to waver even as she let her focus shift more to them than the spell.

“Tch.” Dia grumbled, turning her back on the girl and looking down at her own wand, trying again to try and prove herself to be better than that. It didn’t work.

Lily shook her head. “Ignore her, we’ll get there.”

“How can you just ignore that?” Dia half snarled, though all she received was a small shrug from Lily. It was easy to not comment back to someone like the girl behind them, it was just another River Barrett from home. Lily had long since stopped arguing against these things and had long since started believing the words. This time, however, she was comforted by the fact that she could have created a much larger and brighter ball of light if she had been able to use her usual methods. She was just struggling to adapt it to witch-style magic.

By the end of the lesson, there hadn’t been much improvement and Dia was in a thoroughly bad mood. Lily walked along beside her, feeling exhausted by the day already, but was glad that the girl decided to get a seat towards the back of the second class of the morning. This classroom was on the ground floor, at the far left of the building and the interior was wider with more spacious seats. Each seat had a small table just off to the side of it which had paper and quill waiting, but what was more interesting to Lily was the deep-set metal bowls.

Tisanes must have been something to do with potions and those bowls must be for mixing whatever Tisanes were.

Sorceress Panga was already in the classroom and waiting at the front, fidgeting her hands almost nervously. Despite the shy aura, Lily suspected she would feel more comfortable under the gaze of this lady than she had done under Warlock Mayai’s eye previously.

Dia sat beside her with her arms crossed, clearly not looking forward to more basics in case she couldn’t get them right again. Thankfully, Lily noticed the sour-voiced female was not in her class this time.

“Hey there, mind if I sit?” Another familiar voice made her jump and she looked up, a small flush playing on her cheeks as she met those glittering green eyes. Finnigan Byrne was smiling down at her and Dia, another male waiting beside him to take the fourth seat.

“Um.” Lily started before looking at Dia who was smirking openly at her.

“Of course, you can!” Dia exclaimed, reaching past to hold out her hand to the two boys. “I’m Dia Blythe, Lily’s roommate.”

“So, you’re the chatty one of the two, huh?” Finn chuckled, shaking Dia’s hand. “I’m Finn, this is my roommate Rainer, though I call him Ray whether he likes it or not.”

“Rainer’s my last name, but I don’t think I’m going to fight the nickname with him raving on.” Rainer rolled his eyes but grinned in a manner that suggested he didn’t really mind while shaking Dia’s hand as well. He shared a slightly awkward wave with Lily but didn’t comment.

“I told him about you,” Finn explained as though that was normal “So he knows you’re shy.”

An awkward smile pulled on her lips. What was Lily meant to say to that? A thanks of some kind? Or was he mocking her in some way that she didn’t understand?

“How have you been?” He asked as the rest of the class settled themselves down.

“Erm… I’ve been ok.” Lily couldn’t keep herself from smiling a little at the genuine look in his eyes. “Though, the class is starting.”

“Ah, a teacher’s pet too.” Rainer chuckled, running his fingers through his long black fringe. “You always did like the bright ones.”

“Hush up!” Finn smacked his friend lightly, but Lily simply let out a small sigh. As if someone like Finn would ever like her, and she would likely prove in this lesson that she was hardly bright.

She flushed as she realised the thoughts she was having. There was no chance of anything occurring, he was a witch and she was a fairy. And he was a Byrne! A descendant of the one who started this school to make sure they were able to fight and kill Lily’s kind! She had to keep some distance otherwise he might figure out what she was up to.

“Good morning everyone!” Sorceress Panga was saying “Welcome to Tisanes. For those who aren’t aware of this brand of potion-making, Tisanes are potions used to cure most effects of Tinctures and Philtres which you will also be learning during your time here. Tinctures have a positive mental effect on the drinker, while Philtres have a negative mental effect.”

“Wonder if a tincture could make us quicker learners” Dia whispered to Lily who couldn’t help but chuckle.

“That’d be useful. But we’d have to learn to make it first.”

“Damn. That’s true.”

The two girls exchanged amused looks before looking back towards Sorceress Panga who was discussing the more in-depth differences between Tinctures and Philtres. It seemed this would be an introductory lesson that involved no practical and just theory of the uses and differences of the three types of potions which Sorceress Panga would be teaching them over their time here.

By the end of the lesson, Lily was convinced that their first morning of lessons every week would be a chore to get through. Warlock Mayai was boring as anything to listen to, and Sorceress Panga seemed to take far too long to explain anything.

“I thought this was going to be great,” sighed Dia as they left, raising a lazy wave to Finn and Rainer as they walked off. Lily missed the smile that Finn flashed her way because her eyes were trained on the ground.

“I wonder if flying will be any easier,” Lily’s voice was as quiet as always, but within a week Dia seemed to have developed a habit of listening out for it.

“Probably not! We have to learn how to make the objects fly before we can even learn how to fly them!” She sounded exasperated. “I think we’ll be spending all of our free periods trying to get the incantations to work properly.”

“At least we can practice during the free periods and in the room if we practice together?” Was that hope in Lily’s voice? She knew she needed to look around, but she also needed not to get kicked out for being useless at magic.

Dia looked delighted at the suggestion, perking up immediately. “Yeah! We’ll practice so much we’ll be top of the class!”

Lily nodded.

“Let’s get our energy up for the afternoon!” And once again, Lily found her elbow taken hold of, Dia dragging her into a faster pace towards the canteen so they could get a larger lunch.

She knew it was wrong to think it, but there was something very enjoyable about Dia Blythe’s company.

The afternoon was a lot more fun. Warlock Parvoz was a youthful man with incredibly short brown hair that couldn’t be styled. He had a bright smile as he stood out waiting for them in the front greens.

“Come on, all of you! We’ll get started as soon as you are all lined up here!” He clapped his hands together happily.

“It’s a good thing it’s a nice day,” Dia mumbled receiving a small nod of agreement from Lily. “It won’t be soon enough though I suppose. Will we have to come out here even when it’s cold and raining, do you reckon?”

Lily looked up at the sky and shrugged softly “I would imagine so? We can’t really fly around inside.”

Dia laughed brightly. “Now that would be fun! Though, knowing me I’d probably break a window or something.”

They laughed together until the rest of the class filtered out of the building and lined up before the male who waited patiently. At long last, they were all there and Warlock Parvoz seemed to bounce a little on the spot as he began the lesson.

“Flying!” He began, “It’s a fantastic feeling when you manage to get the right piece of equipment for you and you’re up in the air with smooth grace.”

Lily felt a pang of pain in her chest that she was greatly familiar with. The pain that she had every time she looked at the other fairies flying around while her feet were planted solidly on the floor. This time though, there was a feeling that she had never felt before that mingled with it. What was that? It was a strange warming feeling that seemed to cuddle her from the inside. It gave her heart a very light feeling while at the same time causing it to beat heavily inside her chest.

Hope. Nerves. Excitement.

If she could pull this off, would she really be able to see what it was like to fly?

“Now, obviously, unlike Fairies and Draconian, we are not natural flyers. However, over time we have come up with methods to use different equipment to successfully fly.” Warlock Parvoz was saying “The most commonly used are brooms, footwear, cloaks, rugs, and boards. Others have been used but balance and manoeuvrability on them were found to be incredibly awkward.”

Walking over to a large bag by the side of them all, he picked it up and walked along the row of students getting them to place their hands inside and pull out something from it. Lily did as she was told, opening her hand to find a small pair of boots in them. Beside her, Dia was holding a tiny cloak in burgundy colour. They exchanged quizzical looks, neither knowing what they were meant to do with something so small.

Parvoz was soon explaining, thankfully. With a flick of his wand and a muttered incantation, the objects held in everyone’s hand grew to their proper size. “We will be practising how to apply flying spells to the objects you have picked out. Then we will learn how to fly with all types until you discover which one you are most comfortable with.”

“Now, the incantation for the Volantratio spell is ’Volantra’,” Warlock Parvoz continued happily. “It’s performed with a clockwise twist of the hand during the last syllable of the incantation. Like this… Volantra!” At the precise moment of the ‘tra’ in the word, he twisted his wrist to the right. The curved board in front of him shuddered and then rose in front of him to hover in mid-air.

A ripple of excitement moved through the class. Apparently, flying was something that interested many who couldn’t fly naturally, Lily thought.

“Right, now it might take a while for you all to get this, but once you’ve got a spell to stick permanently, you’ll feel much better about the idea of letting it carry you a long way off the ground.” He chuckled “I’ve fallen out the air on a badly enchanted rug and broke my legs, so I wouldn’t recommend rushing into the air.”

The class rippled with laughter, but it was probably a good warning that came with a personal touch, unlike the textbook warnings that you could read.

The incantation was not an easy one to pull off, as expected, but now that Lily wasn’t concentrating so hard on not using fairy magic, she found it easy to focus herself. Or perhaps it was due to her sheer wish to fly that made her mind clear perfectly for this; not worried about what anyone in the class was doing.

“Volantra.” She twisted her wrist as she spoke clearly, and on her fifth attempt, the boots hovered up into the air in front of her.

“Whoa! Nice one Lil!” Dia sounded incredibly impressed to her side. Lily grinned, for the first time, towards someone other than her family. She could never have explained the warmth she felt having someone outside her family beside her getting excited over her efforts.

“Thanks” She smiled almost shyly, though she couldn’t stop her own smile as the auburn-haired witch bounced in a giddy fashion.

“You gotta tell me how you did it though!” Dia was saying, as her cloak had fluttered around on the floor as though the wind was failing to pick it up.

“I just…” Lily paused, what did she do? “I just didn’t think about anything except the spell, I suppose?” Well, that was a lame explanation. Obviously, Dia thought so too as she laughed a little.

“Well, that’s helpful.” She teased.

“Sorry, I’m not good at explaining things.”

“No, but I suppose a week ago you weren’t into the whole talking thing, so I’ll hedge my bets you’ll be good at teaching me by the end of the year here.”

Lily blinked in surprise at the cheeky grin she was faced with. She’d never felt the sickening feeling of guilt claw at her chest like a vicious monster. It twisted her gut to think that this girl had been so willing to be friends with her and was even planning to still be friends with her by the end of the learning here. Would she still think that way if she knew what Lily was, and what she was here for?

Squashing that feeling back, sealing it behind an emotional and mental wall, Lily attempted a small smile. “I’ll do my best.”

Thankfully, Dia either didn’t notice the hesitation in Lily or had just put it down to her shy nature. Lily continued to try and help Dia, and by the end of the two-hour lesson, the cloak was hovering smoothly in front of her.

“Fantastic work!” Warlock Parvoz exclaimed with a clap of his hands. They all lowered their wands from the things they had hovering. “I’ll monitor these and see how long they remain in the air for. We will probably do more of this practice later in the week, just to be safe, but it looks like this will be a class of talent this year!”

As they walked away, Dia grinned brightly, practically skipping at the fact she had managed to get her cloak flying properly. “You’ll help me figure out the Luxina spell too!”

“I still can’t do it, though…” Lily mumbled.

“I’m sure if you find the right book and we practice all free periods, you’ll have some pointers.” Dia’s encouragement really had a wondrous effect, and before Lily could think more into it she had nodded and found her feet leading her to the library again.