A Throwback Witch

by Holly Ice

  The headmaster stood, and the room quietened until I heard the howl of wind battering the walls.

  ‘Another term begins today.’ McKee walked the stage, a few steps in front of the strange symbols. ‘Which means it’s time to match our new arrivals, old faces and new, to their familiars.’ He gestured to our seats.

  Thumping feet and loud hoots came from both sides of the large hall. Even some of the people sitting with us applauded. They must ken what was going on here.

  Kaylee, sitting beside me, was a wee bit pale, her foot tapping the floor. It surprised me. I didn’t think that girl had any nerves.

  ‘Are you okay?’ I asked.

  Her gaze didn’t move from the stage. ‘I will be once I see this happen.’

  ‘I feel the same.’

  ‘I couldn’t tell. You sit there all calm like this means nothing.’

  ‘Better at hiding it, I guess.’ That and what was the point in worrying? What happened, happened. And if I didn’t like what happened here, I was running out the door before they dragged me on stage.

  Kaylee cringed. ‘I was throwing up in the bathroom.’

  ‘You’re that nervous? Why?’ Maybe I misjudged her. A know-it-all people pleaser didn’t have that level of nerves.

  ‘I’m going to meet my familiar. The book says they follow us everywhere, like a piece of our soul. What if I don’t like them?’

  ‘I don’t think you can dislike your own guide.’

  ‘But what if I do? What if they’re horrible? What if they’re useless?’

  I didn’t have an answer for her, so I turned back to the stage, where McKee was finishing this year’s academic pep talk.

  ‘Now, let’s get on to the good bit, shall we?’ He raised a corked jar of syrupy black liquid from a collection to the side of the stage. ‘As many of you know, we need this potion for the initiation ceremony. It draws your familiar out of you for the first time. It also helps you and other witches see them, and talk with them. Without taking a potion once a week, familiars can only be spectres in your life. You can’t see them, speak to them, hear them, and they can’t amplify your magic. Without this, intentional magic is shut off to you.’

  So, the plan was to drink the weird liquid. That didn’t have trust problems attached at all. It better not taste like feet. Though seeing others’ familiars might be kind of cool. At least then I’d be able to identify who was a witch and who wasn’t.

  ‘Once you’ve drunk the potion, you will step into the circle and your familiar will appear for the first time.’ His eyes twinkled as he looked over us new students. ‘The spell around the circle will ensure your familiar appears in its true form. This form shows your elemental strengths to aid us in teaching you, but the spell will also allow the new students who haven’t yet taken their potions to watch the ceremony.’

  Basically, they wanted to see what we were made of. I supposed knowing our strengths made sense, for the sake of where to place us in lessons and how to tutor us, but I sensed it was more than that, too, and that put me on edge.

  ‘I think it’s best that I show you how this works,’ McKee said, with a quick smile. ‘We’ll go in alphabetical order. First up is Sian Ackley.’ He swept his hand to acknowledge her.

  Sian jumped to her feet and climbed the stairs to the stage, almost bouncing from one step to another. She beamed at the crowd. She had to ken what was going on to be so excited, but at least that meant the first guinea pig wasn’t scared shitless.

  ‘Are you ready to meet your familiar?’ McKee asked.

  Sian held out her hand.

  McKee passed the flask over and laughed when she snatched it from him. ‘We like a bit of enthusiasm!’

  The crowd chuckled.

  Sian drank the entire potion with only a slight grimace. She then stepped inside the black powder circle, careful not to smudge any of the symbols.

  A line of teachers joined hands behind her and formed a semi-circle. Focused and almost unblinking, they chanted in a strange language, increasing in pitch and volume until a bright white light with subtle rainbow colours flew across the symbols and the circle, hiding Sian from view.

  My heart pounded. I blinked against the blinding light. Was she okay?

  As quickly as the light appeared, it disappeared, leaving the untouched black powder, and Sian. She watched a new, glowing ball.

  The teachers dropped hands to watch with the rest of us. One pulled out a pocket-sized notebook and pen.

  Slowly, slowly, the rounded form morphed into a body, and four legs, then a reptilian head, and claws. It was a lizard, maybe a gecko, with mottled orange-and-black scales and rounded black eyes.

  The glowing light dulled. Sian held out her hands, and the familiar dropped into them. She tilted her head as if she was talking to it, though her mouth didn’t move. And the slight frown between her eyes was curious. Was it about something it said or the form it took?

  The teacher with the pocketbook scrawled a note onto his pad.

  ‘Excellent!’ McKee took a jacket with a dragon patch on the sleeve from a helper on the right of the stage. ‘Sian, please accept your jacket for Animalis house and take your seat among your peers.’

  As soon as she left the circle, her familiar, now on her jacketed shoulder, poofed out of sight, the spell no longer affecting her, and no longer letting me watch on.

  The left side of the room cheered and clapped. Sian stepped off the stage to join them, a space already being made for her in one of the centre rows next to a waving guy. He looked a lot like her, so he was probably a relative. My guess about her being born to a witch family had been right.

  And that set the tone for the next dozen or so names, until we got to Angus MacDuff.

  Like the first girl, Angus didn’t hesitate. He strode onto the stage and downed the potion. Then he leapt into the circle, the teachers hurrying into their chant to keep up with him.

  After the flash of light, he stared down the glowing orb as it took a long body, with two legs, and two arms. It was soon recognisable as a young woman with flaming-red hair. She looked like him. Something around the slim nose and pointy chin.

  McKee’s loud slow clap interrupted the silence of the students waiting and started thunderous applause from the right side of the room. They finally had a student to call their own, and I now understood why they were so outnumbered. This was the first person in the last thirteen to have a human familiar. And once again, the pocketbook teacher was scrawling a note. He had a smile that hadn’t been present for any of the Animalis students. But why prefer one form over another?

  ‘Angus, please join Cognata.’ McKee passed Angus his patched jacket.

  The lad snatched it and jumped off the stage. His house embraced him with loud back claps and questions about who his familiar might be.

  ‘Who she might be?’ Kaylee asked. ‘What does that even mean?’

  Mel, who’d sat further along our row, heard the question. ‘Aether chooses the guide it thinks most complements the witch, but familiars that take a human form are almost always a relation, and usually a fairly recent one.’

  That explained why the woman had looked similar to the boy.

  ‘So they’d never be someone we’d dislike?’ Kaylee asked.

  Mel’s lips pinched. ‘Not unless that’s what you need. Your familiar will challenge you, whatever form or personality aether chooses. They’re not here to be your friend.’

  Yes, that may be something Kaylee needed to learn. She was so keen to please she was willing to accept whatever demands her parents made. She’d agreed to join and participate in more things than I think one person could fit into a week and still sleep for more than five hours.

  ‘Why are there so many more Cognata than Animalis?’ I asked.

  Mel smiled. ‘Good question. The short story is that it’s up for debate. But witches in Cognata almost always come from long lines of witches with very little human blood in their recent ancestry.’

  ‘Is there an adva
ntage to having one over the other?’ Kaylee asked, her cheeks rosier now. Perhaps the nerves settled.

  ‘Cognata witches have more power with spirit and are often stronger all around. Animalis are more specialised, but we each have our strengths.’ Mel turned back to the stage.

  Our row emptied fast. Only eleven of us remained.

  ‘The next initiate is Bianca Nash,’ McKee said.

  Crap.

  ‘Go on,’ Mel said.

  I didn’t need encouragement. I needed everyone to stop staring.

  Focusing on my shoes, I climbed the stairs and grabbed the potion from McKee before he asked how I felt. I wanted this over with.

  I popped off the stopper and swallowed the syrupy liquid. Its sharpness cleared my nose. I tapped my tongue on the roof of my mouth, but the taste lingered, hardly covered by the cloying sweetener they’d added.

  ‘Are you ready to meet your familiar?’ McKee asked.

  I raised an eyebrow but didn’t give him the snappy comment I wanted to. That’d only bring even more attention. Instead, I stepped into the black circle and waited for the rush of light to spring up around me.

  After some shuffling and a rising chant from the teachers, I was near blinded by the bright rainbow of colour. And I was still blinking away the aftershocks when the glowing orb appeared in front of me. Damn it. I should have closed my eyes. Now I’d first see my familiar with black and coloured dots over my vision.

  The glowing orb lengthened, and I held my breath as it gained two legs. It looked human. But I didn’t come from a long line of witches. I didn’t even know my closest witch ancestor. Unless… did this mean my father was a witch? Had he been a part of this world? Hell, was he here?

  My familiar hovered in that ambiguous form. It stayed there far longer than the others did. Like it stalled.

  Whispers crossed the hall, and I gritted my teeth. Why did my familiar have to be the awkward one?

  ‘Come on, hurry up,’ I muttered.

  And then its legs thinned to be far too slim for a human’s, its arms grew too wide, and it shrunk to around the size of a human head, darkening to show blue-black feathers and a sharp beak, with intelligent, gleaming eyes. It was a raven.

  McKee cleared his throat and held out a dragon patched jacket.

  I took it and looked up at a smattering applause from Animalis house.

  Then I stepped out of the circle and almost jumped back at my new vision of the hall. Familiars, human or animal, accompanied everyone except the newbies who hadn’t had their ceremony yet. Now that I saw them, it was overwhelming how much movement filled the hall. A whole new world I’d had no idea existed.

  Shaking my head, I pulled on the jacket and sent a wee smile to Kaylee.

  And then I left the stage, my raven flying by my shoulder.

  No one waved for me to join them, but I didn’t expect that. I found an empty seat on the end of an aisle towards the back.

  Everyone in front should be watching the stage, but one dark-haired guy twisted around to stare at me. Shane. I looked to his eyes but found he wasn’t staring at me. He was staring at my familiar.

  ‘What?’ I mouthed.

  Shane’s lips twitched, but he faced the front.

  It had taken much longer for my familiar to take its form, almost like it was pushing itself out of the amorphous orb bit by bit. Did that mean I was less powerful, that my magic had diluted enough that, even with the potion, my familiar might find it hard to guide me? Did that make me even more of a freak to him?

  I wondered if my raven had a name, if it could talk, like the other girl’s familiar.

  Done staring?

  That was you? I squinted at the bird’s beady eyes.

  The raven flapped its wings and settled on my shoulder. It’s not your mind playing tricks on you.

  Brilliant. He was sarcastic. Well, at least that matched the way I worked. Can you tell me much about the witch world?

  Some. What did you wish to know?

  I wasn’t born into this. Everything is new to me.

  Yes, that is a challenge.

  I rolled my eyes. This raven didn’t seem to want to give information off his own back. Though perhaps that’s how they worked. It wasn’t like the introductory tome covered the intricacies of all this. Huge as it was, it was the basics.

  We watched the remaining students get sorted into their houses. Three joined the right side of the room, and twenty or so joined my new house, including myself. That put the ratios in a wee better stead, but not by much.

  As a Spenser, Kaylee was almost the last, but I couldn’t see nerves in her confident stride.

  She swallowed the potion and scrunched her nose, then stepped inside the magic circle.

  The teachers gathered around, joined hands, and chanted their spell.

  The same blinding light shot up, then drew back to reveal the orb-like form before her. Her familiar.

  Like mine first had, its body lengthened, and two legs shot out, then two arms, a head. And unlike my familiar, this one fully formed into a person. She was Asian, with dark hair and a navy, robe-like dress. Perhaps Japanese?

  Kaylee’s eyes sparkled in the bright stage lights. She mouthed a ‘wow’. After that, the look between them intensified. They were probably getting to know each other.

  Will she ken who the familiar is to her, how they may be related?

  Probably not.

  No? Why not?

  Human familiars are not allowed to tell their personal history to their witches, only to offer guidance in the witch’s own path. And she didn’t come from a witch family, so she is unlikely to know the ancestor already.

  So what, she has to work out who they are for herself?

  If she thinks that is important to her path, yes.

  The last student was sorted into my new house to a raucous applause which I quietly joined in with.

  Then a helper brushed away the black pentagram and symbols as if they were nothing more than dust.

  McKee opened his arms wide. ‘Welcome, new students. I hope you like your new houses and, for the throwback witches among you, I hope you enjoy learning more about your magical heritage. Classes begin after breakfast. Please be on time. Let’s have a good start to the new term. Thank you.’

  He stepped back to join the other teachers. I took it from their hushed conversation and the students rising around me that it was time to leave.

  I joined the queue out the doors. Then I stepped aside in the foyer to study my schedule.

  My first class was a compulsory one, and more than welcome: Introduction to Magic. After maybe a gallon of coffee and some toast, I’d grab my bag and school stuff, and find out what I could expect from my magic. After all, I still hadn’t seen it yet.

  Chapter 6

  Despite the headmaster’s warning, I was late for Introduction to Magic. My hands were twitchy, my eyes flicking from corner to corner, for anyone slow enough to ask for directions. But it seemed like people sped past rather than talk to me.

  ‘Where the hell is this staircase? The map says it’s right here!’ I jabbed the spot on my map like that might make it materialise. Why was this map a simple floor plan anyway? Shouldn’t there be more detailed directions when the map didn’t make sense?

  A student with a Cognata patch veered wide around me, chuckling.

  ‘You could stop laughing and tell me where to look.’

  ‘And you could use your brain, Animalis.’ She stuck her nose in the air and waltzed into a classroom. The closed door felt like a slap.

  I scrunched the map into my pocket. Maybe I should go back to my room.

  Look to your left.

  I glanced at the raven, waddling behind me. My left? There’s nothing there. Nothing but a large bookcase and bookending statues of strange creatures with claws and sabre teeth. If I didn’t know about the magical world, I might have thought them some kind of gargoyle.

  The bookcase is a door.

  Of course it bloody is! No on
e in their right mind thinks it’s a normal bloody bookcase!

  I found the hidden hinge on its right side, and a subtle handle on the left. It opened with a slight pull to reveal a spiral staircase lit by electric lanterns. The stairs must climb up one of the towers. How the hell was I supposed to work that one out? And how had everyone else found it? I was the only one waiting like a numpty outside the hidden door.

  My thighs and knees ached as I pushed upstairs.

  I wanted the only classroom on the top floor. I twisted the doorknob, but it didn’t budge.

  Do they want me to get into this lesson, or not?

  Other hand.

  That time, the door creaked open. Right. The bracelet. I took it back. My familiar wasn’t all sarcasm. He offered help. After a good thirty minutes of me being lost and ridiculed. He had to have been laughing his feathers off.

  The teacher was an older man with a shaved head, wispy grey beard, and bushy black eyebrows. ‘Bianca Nash, I assume?’ He pointed at the only spare seat, front and centre.

  I settled into it under his glare, and the eyes of most the class.

  Then I set my bag under the table and took out a notebook and pen, trying to make as little noise as possible, when a familiar scurried across the teacher’s desk. It was small and furry with a long neck and tiny ears. A weasel? Maybe? What did that say? Did that even say anything at all about his character, or his magic?

  ‘Now that we’re all here,’ the teacher said, ‘my name is Rufus Daniels. Like most the teachers at Wildes Witch Academy, I’m happy to be addressed by my first name. None of you are children anymore.’ He smiled then, the lingering dislike over my late arrival dissipating. ‘Today we’ll be covering the absolute basics of a witch’s magic to get the throwback witches up to speed, but this class will move through the basics within the first few weeks of term, so don’t get complacent. Understood?’

  A few students nodded.

  I ducked my head. The less he noticed me after my late arrival, the better. I was just here to soak up knowledge. Like he said, they were only going over the basics for throwbacks like me. The least I could do was keep up.