That evening at dinner, I sat with my new friends and we shared stories of our first classes. Hiroko had her telepathy notebook open in front of her and was reviewing the laws and ethics we had written down. Sterling was telling the twins and me about her earlier class â spell-writing.
âI always thought writing your own spells was, like, illegal or something now, âcause there was this thing my mom used to rant about, years back, something about people getting in trouble for trying to write their own spells,' she was saying. âSo I asked Aubrey about it, and he told me that all new spells that are written need to be approved by White Elm before they can be performed and put into practice, and what they teach us here about writing spells is a council-approved method, and that everything we write will be reviewed by one of them before we can use it.' She picked at her nail-polish. âAubrey's kinda hot, too, actually, but he's got nothing on Renatus.'
âI had sword-fighting practice this morning,' Kendra said cheerfully. âTian studies martial arts and sword combat. He was saying that swords and knives are typical weapons and tools for witches and that it can be useful to know how to use them for more than magical purposes.' She grinned. âIt's so much more fun here than I expected.'
âYeah, I thought there'd be a lot of hardcore study and examinations and whatnot,' Sophia agreed, swirling her peas around her plate, wistfully gazing in another direction with her crystalline eyes out of focus. âI expected some kind of urgency, I suppose. This is a much more comfortable pace.'
âThis place is absolutely awesome,' Kendra added, stealing a lamb chop from her twin's plate.
âIt is a beautiful location,' Hiroko agreed, looking up from her notes. âI have never been so far away from home as here before. It was far to displace. Ireland is very different to Japan.'
âIs it more difficult to displace over large distances than within a smaller vicinity?' I asked her. She nodded.
âYes, it becomes harder to, uhhâ¦pinâ¦' She hesitated, searching for a word. âHarder to get it right.'
âPinpoint?' I suggested, and Hiroko nodded.
âYes, exactly,' she said, blushing slightly. âIt becomes harder to
pinpoint
an exact location when the distance is greater. When my father and I arrived yesterday, we were very lucky to arrive so close to our intended destination. We knew the general location and knew we could expect to find ourselves anywhere within a one kilometre radius of this property.'
âI can't wait to start learning stuff like that,' Sterling said enviously. âDisplacement and healing and all that.'
âI had a healing lesson this morning, with Lady Miranda,' Sophia said. âShe's so amazing. There was a newborn foal from a farm not far from here that had deformed ankles â it wasn't going to be able to walk properly, left alone. And she fixed it. We didn't do much more than transfer positive energy from ourselves to one another and take notes about ethics and laws and stuff like that. I can't wait to have a go at it myself.'
âSoph has always been really good at that sort of thing,' Kendra said, now stealing potatoes from her sister's plate, having finished the lamb chop. Sophia was still staring absently in another direction, but lowered her fork over the third potato when Kendra attempted to relieve her of it.
âReally?' I asked, amused by their behaviour.
â
Natural ability
, our mom keeps saying,' Kendra continued, digging into the potatoes she had already taken. Once she had swallowed, she continued, âWe used to have a mouse, when we were about ten, and it managed to get its foot trapped in its little running wheel thing. Its foot and toes were all demented and stuff.' She twisted the fingers of one hand around in a way that was obviously meant to convey a mouse's broken and mangled foot. âSoph picked it up and held it, and didâ¦well, something, and she healed it.'
Sophia didn't appear to be listening, and it was to my surprise that she nodded in response. Some more people entered the dining hall right then; some students, some White Elm. Sterling's attention was riveted when Renatus entered, followed closely by a small fan group of female students. These three girls were some of the oldest here, and they were practically falling over themselves to keep up with Renatus's quick strides as they flashed bright, flirtatious smiles and all tried to talk to him at once.
I watched, along with most of the students in the dining room, as Renatus strode up to the White Elm table, followed by his admirers. He stopped, and turned to face them â blatant annoyance was, I thought, an easy expression to read, even on an unfamiliar face. The girls either could not recognise it, or chose not to, because they kept smiling, though they stopped talking now.
âThat's all
very
nice.' Renatus's low voice carried to where I sat with my friends. âPerhaps now you'd like to find a seat and have your evening meal?'
The girls, beaming, turned and hurried towards the buffet table, giggling and whispering frantically to one another. Sterling looked outraged.
âThey shouldn't be bothering someone like him!' she hissed across the table to me. âHe's the headmaster! He's obviously been working hard all day, and he wasn't at lunch â it might've been all day since he's had a break to eat anything. And all they're doing by following him and badgering him with questions is prolonging his wait for his dinner.'
The twins and I laughed, and Xanthe, who had not said much since we'd started dinner, now spoke up.
âYou're very defensive of our headmaster, considering he's a person you've never actually spoken to,' she commented slyly.
âHe might be an ass, once you get to know him,' Kendra agreed.
âHe may not be very nice,' Hiroko said, having apparently not understood Kendra. The Canadian kindly explained to her, in an aside, what an ass was.
âHe might be gay,' Sophia added quickly.
âHe could be a total creep,' I suggested, but Sophia's comment was the best, being the only possibility that would mean Sterling could
never
have him.
âHe can't be gay, there's no way,' Sterling disagreed confidently. âI have a very good gaydar. He's definitely batting for the side I need him to be.'
We all laughed as she continued, âAnd there's no way he's a creep or an ass or whatever, I can just
tell
. Look at him. He's
beautiful
.'
I did as she said, and knew that she was right â Renatus was a prime example of physical human beauty â but I knew as well as the next person that external beauty had very little to do with internal beauty.
âMaybe he knows it, too,' I said, turning back to Sterling. âRemember what Emmanuelle said yesterday? Maybe she was alluding to something. You reckon he's not into lads, but he could still be in love with himself.'
âMightn't be any room in his life for you,' Kendra teased, but Sterling was too busy laughing at my comment to hear her.
â
Lads
,' she giggled, trying not to choke on her mouthful. She managed to swallow. âAristea, you say so many things that are just
so cute
. I
adore
your accent.'
This time I didn't laugh, though I did smile pleasantly. The girl was in Irelandâ¦what did she expect the locals to sound like?
âThat cutie's looking at you again, Ken,' Sophia said softly, staring into the distance once more. Her sister casually turned a little to itch a spot on her back, and stole a glance over her shoulder. I resisted the urge to look as well, not wanting to give the act away.
âAre you sure?' Kendra asked, her voice doubtful as she turned back to her dinner. âHe glanced up when I looked, but he wasn't staring or anything.'
âHe has been,' Sophia responded, finally turning her attention to her dinner plate, which, after Kendra's raids, was somewhat empty.
âDoes anyone know yet what classes we have in the morning?' Hiroko asked, looking mainly at me. I shook my head.
âWe should check after tea,' I suggested. âAnd we should probably write down the entire week while we're there.'
Just as I had suggested, the six of us finished our meals and visited the library. Very few people were here (most were still finishing up dinner) so we had an easy time reaching the noticeboard and finding our names amongst the lists of subjects, days and times.
âI have scrying on Thursday morning!' I exclaimed, leaning close to the noticeboard to read the details. âLevel 3 Scrying, with Qasim. Hey, Xanthe, you're in my class!'
She looked up from her handwritten timetable to give me a vague smile, although it was not a particularly warm or excited smile. I turned back to the noticeboard. Well,
I
was excited about the prospect of learning to scry.
âThe rest of us have scrying tomorrow afternoon,' Kendra commented. âLevel 2. You two must be more advanced than us.'
I wondered whether there had been a mistake â I certainly had no prior knowledge of scrying, nor any experience. Maybe enthusiasm made up for lack of talent.
Later that night I wrote to Angela, telling her about all the subjects I had and everything I was learning. I told her about my new friends, and how different they were from me and from each other. I withheld a smirk as I wrote about Sterling and the fascination with Renatus that she shared with half the female students in this school. I left the letter on my nightstand, uncertain as to how to go about sending it, and went to sleep.
When I awoke the next morning from another refreshing, dreamless sleep, I was surprised to discover that I hadn't slept in. The other three girls were just starting to wake up, too. Apparently the breakfast bell had just sounded.
There was something very magical about this place, and it could have been due to any number of things. I was sleeping better than I had been in years. My dream had left me alone for two whole nights.
Throughout the day, I tried my best to concentrate as Anouk spoke about the history of the White Elm and its purpose in her warm, purring Russian accent, as Aubrey explained the ins and outs of spell-writing, and as Elijah dictated the laws surrounding displacement. I knew it was important, all of it, and I made sure I took notes in case I needed to reflect on these lessons, but my mind was very firmly stuck on Thursday morning's scrying lesson. It didn't help at all that while I was carefully writing out law after displacement law, Hiroko, Sterling and the twins were all in their own scrying lesson, learning the beginnings of everything I had ever wanted to know.
One might even go so far as to refer to this phenomenon as “unfair”.
At dinner I drilled the other girls on their scrying lesson, desperate to know everything they had learnt.
âIt wasn't that exciting, to be honest,' Sterling said in a bored voice, as she scooped a meatball out of her spaghetti with her fork. âWe wrote a whole lot more laws and ethics and stuff, and then did some visualisation exercises. It wasn't much different from our other classes. And Qasim's too old to check out.'
âThat's all you did?' I asked Hiroko as she sat beside me, trying to quell my disappointment.
âYes, it was very basic, but as with everything I am sure we will begin more difficult tasks later on once we have a grasp of the regulations,' she said encouragingly. âYour class may be more involved than ours was.'
âI'm excited to start divination with Susannah,' Kendra said. âSoph makes it sound boring but I'm pretty sure my class will be much more exciting. I'm in Level 3.'
âI've been reading the timetables that are up in the library, and I can't see Renatus's name beside any subject,' Sterling commented in a slightly concerned voice. âI don't think he's teaching a subject.'
âLike you said yesterday,' Kendra pointed out, âhe's the headmaster, and probably extremely busy already without the added stress of organising his own class.'
âWhat do you suppose he's got to do?' Sterling asked after a moment of thinking. âI'm sure he is very busy, but it's not as though he's writing school newsletters or signing class reports, is it?'
âUsual White Elm business, I'd assume,' Sophia suggested without a lot of interest. She turned to me and firmly changed the subject. âThat cutie that keeps checking Kenny out was in our class today, in scrying. He came over and talked to us.'
âHis name's Addison and he's Australian,' Kendra continued with sparkling eyes. âHis accent is gorgeous.'
Hiroko and I willingly joined in this conversation, lest Sterling captured our attentions and started on Renatus again.
By seventeen, most girls have been in some kind of relationship, serious or otherwise. I was probably sitting very firmly in the late bloomer category. I'd never been involved with anyone; never had a real boyfriend. I attended primary school with the mortal children but never attended mortal high school so I missed out on all that. When I was young I liked a boy in my neighbourhood called Shane, who was a year older than me. His family were sorcerers as well, and his parents were friends with mine. When I was eight I told my parents I was going to marry Shane when we grew up, because he kissed me at the park. We stayed friends until he started high school and I didn't. He made new friends and we started to drift apart. I hadn't seen him since my parents' and Aidan's funerals.
I'd never really had any particular interest in any particular individual (other than Orlando Bloom, but he doesn't count because you can't count celebrity crushes) and it had never really concerned me, either.
Kendra, it seemed, was much more boy-savvy than myself, or least that was the impression I got as she talked. It was probably right to expect that every girl here was more experienced with the male species than I was.
Oh, well. There were worse things in life than not needing a boyfriend to function.