Knight of the Black Rose

by Nissa Gordon

  Reed walked over to the far side and grabbed two chairs, then he carried them back over and put them on either side of Lucy making Jess more over and she wasn't at all happy about it pulling her things with her. Then they filled each other in on the basics of what they knew, still keeping a few things back, not wanting to completely lose their upper hand.

  Chapter Nineteen

  There was silence with the suns hanging low in the sky, late afternoon as the last of the students in a sea of white robes walked off of the path of the road and across the grass towards the large stone circle in front of the forest, taking a position behind the one in front of them leaving a couple of feet between each other. There was a space in the circle that had been left open where the teachers stood on either side, leading a path towards the forest.

  Silence clung to the students as they waited, not even moving, just waiting.

  The ground suddenly quaked and the trees of the forest visibly shifted, then they stood still once more for five seconds, until they began to shake their branches violently throwing off the last of the dying leaves of the season. A figure dressed in white walked out of the forest, her long white hooded robe covering her face and every each of her body trailing behind her on the leaf cover ground, though none of them were caught in the fabric. She walked silently along the path that the teachers had created and then into the stone circle of the students, stopping in the centre, and then just stood there.

  After a whole minute, she slowly lifted her hands the fabric sliding back slightly revelling bare skin, before she pulled back her hood over her long purple and silver hair; she had a soft round face, quite pretty and looked as though she was in her twenties. Again she stood there with her eyes still closed waiting, before she slowly opened them, purple with a hint of silver.

  She looked straight ahead, not staring at anyone or making eye contact, just staring as though she was alone and not being watched by several hundred students; she waited until the last of the trees behind them stopped moving and complete silence fell over the again.

  "Silence and stillness," the woman said clearly enough for all to hear, but did not shout, as though her voice was carried to all on the air. "Our Guardian’s sleep, having lost their burden. The gateway in which they protect stands unguarded, so guarded we must be, of those with the false faces. Tonight the gateways are weakness, we must be strong of heart to protect ourselves from intrusion. We all have our own light to protect ourselves as the light of the world sleeps along with the guardians, and our other mistress takes her seat above. Tonight...the gateways are weakened, and the mistress of the night must look away."

  She pulled a candle out of her robe, it was a foot long and dark silver; she held it in front of herself in her left hand, and then waited in silence for those in the circle to pull their own candles out. Everyone in the circle held a candle in their left hand, all the same size, but different colours.

  "Our light will burn until the sun rises once more, freeing the mistress of the night of this solemn duty. She weeps for us, hoping that our lights will be enough to hold back, that which might take advantage of her weakness." She slowly turned clockwise to face the forest and the path that she had walked. "Our path,"

  Slowly the ground lit up creating foot prints where she had walked, following back out of the circle and into the forest.

  "With the ever lasting glow, protect us Luna of the night. Alight our shields."

  Her candle wick ignited into a glowing vibrate flame, that sent a shock wave back out of the circle until every candle was lit.

  "Our shields will protect us until the sun rises once more." She slowly knelt on the ground holding the candle in both hands. "Safe by our places of rest. Now to celebrate the works of our guardians."

  The stones glowed brightly in the circle and along the path of the teachers, and then everyone slowly began to break apart stepping out of the circle with their candles in hand.

  "That's it?" a boy asked suddenly behind Lucy making Jess jump.

  Lucy and Jess turned around to see who it was, and found that it was Nathan's new friend Harry, who took every chance to ask them questions about everything.

  "I did tell you," Nathan told him as he smiled at Lucy. "Hi,"

  "Hey Nate," Lucy said smiling back.

  "I was expecting more," Harry said disappointedly.

  "You mean actual ghosts?" Jess asked smirking at him. "I don't think so, that's what the circle was for...along with the candles,"

  "And if anything did happen, Lucy here could have protected us," Nathan teased her.

  "This is serious, and is not to be joked about," the woman said suddenly appearing before them.

  "Damn!" someone shouted startled by her sudden appearance.

  "How did she do that?" another asked.

  "I'm sorry...I didn't mean any offence," Nathan said embarrassedly.

  "I'm sorry also," Lucy added bowing slightly.

  The woman looked straight at her, as though trying to see something. "Why this joke?"

  "Luna...it's my name," Lucy told her quickly. "I was born under a full moon...actually under one, outside and everything,"

  The woman smiled slightly at her. "It has been quite sometime since our Goddess has walked among us in a mortal form, perhaps she may look upon you to host her; Luna," Then she was gone once more, back in the circle knelt on the ground holding her candle.

  "That was weird," Nathan said.

  "You're so not a Goddess," Jess said linking Lucy's arm as they walked back with the others. "Not that I would mind of course, only if you didn't tell me,"

  "Gods and Goddess', you people actually believe in them?" Harry asked amused.

  "We believe in higher beings yes," Lucy answered without looking back at him, as Nathan took up walking next to her and Harry joined him.

  "Higher beings?" Harry asked.

  "Being's that are older than us, evolved more...you know, onto the next level," Lucy explained the best that she could, seeing that she had never had to explain it to anyone before. "This was all covered in class the other day, I mean that was if you were listening,"

  "I guess I just didn't realise, how serious you lot all took this," Harry said.

  Travis turned around suddenly from in front of them making them all stop. "We got a Tel’lanerian Priestess, so yeah, we believe. And just so you know, humans believe as well. It isn't just us..." He pointed out to the road that they were all walking back to, that was now lit with candles, and on the either side of the road were shimmering figures in ghostly forms. "One believes, in what he can see,"

  Harry stared open mouthed as Nathan nudged him along.

  "Just stay on the road, and don't cross the line of candles," Travis told him, and then turned to Lucy and bowed to her. "My Goddess,"

  "Funny," Lucy said smirking and blushing slightly as others looked over at them.

  They stepped back onto the road in-between the candles not disturbing them, everyone walking between the same gap and down the road, as it split to take them back to either side of the estates, students split off going their separate ways as they all had to go back to their rooms before meeting up in the main hall.

  "Do we have to stay in these clothes?" Harry asked behind them pulling at his white robes, and making sure that he stayed safely in the middle of two people and nowhere near the edge of the road.

  Several ghosts slowly approached, two men in their late thirties dressed in uniforms and their faces scared in black on the right; they approached the road as though trying to cross it but didn't get far as the candles acted like a barrier, it flickered where they hit like they had walked into something solid.

  "You can change when you get back," Nathan told him.

  "Are we safe? I mean, they can't get through can they?" Harry asked nervously.

  "Not unless you remove one of the candles," Lucy told him over her shoulder. "The school will be surrounded as well; the candles will lay outside of the trees while they sleep,"

  "
You know that I really don't believe that they're real," Harry told her, and the flame of his candle dimmed.

  Lucy looked over her shoulder at him and smiled. "Oh, don't worry, everyone knows that you don't believe,"

  "Why did he even bother to come out here?" Liam said annoyed, up front with Travis and Reed.

  "He was probably afraid that he was going to miss something," Travis said.

  Libby turned around next to Selena. "I had no idea what to expect either, even after they told us. And to be honest, I wasn't going to stay back there all on my own. I think I would have been more afraid if I had and all the tree's around the school suddenly started moving and I had no idea why,"

  "Yes, but you were honest about your reasons," Selena told her.

  "You know, I still can't get over that your Seth's little sister," Travis said staring at her. "You're nothing alike,"

  "Do you even know anything about my brother?" Selena asked him.

  Travis looked at his friends and then back at Selena, apparently that answered that question, and they let it slide for now as they made their way back to the estate, around the outside of the Firmasca stadium.

  "What would happen if they got in?" Harry asked as they were finally approached the surrounding forest; everyone close by stopped and looked at him as though he was crazy. "Would they be able to hurt us?"

  "There are some spirits that are strong enough to harm the living," Reed told him. "Some that are even strong enough to possess another tonight,"

  "The only ones allowed on the school grounds tonight are already inside the shield," Liam told him.

  "There's still ghost inside there?" Harry asked horrified.

  Again everyone was looking at him as though he was crazy, but just carried on walking as Nathan tried to get him moving again.

  "I already explained all of this," Nathan told him.

  "I don't think you explained it properly." Harry shot back at him.

  Nathan didn't say anything on the matter, just walked back in silence entering the surrounding tree's; everything was so still and quiet except for the foot steps of the students.

  After a couple of minutes Harry broke the silence as he hated the silence just as much as he hated walking beside the ghosts. "Why did we come this way anyway?"

  "Because...err..." Nathan said embarrassedly.

  "Because we don't get to talk that often, with having only one subject together," Lucy answered for him; Nathan smiled at her glad that she had answered for him.

  "Oh...well...err...okay..." Harry stammered as though unsure what to say, his candle still flickering dimly compared to everyone else’s around him which burnt brightly.

  Lucy had separated with Nathan at the hanger, and went back to her dorm with the others so that they could put their candles in their bedrooms; then they were supposed to meet the lads outside of their dorm along with the ones who hadn't got out with them.

  "Oh, my god!" Jasper shouted as they walked over. "They were moving!"

  "And you lot, all in white carrying candles...you do know how weird you all looked right?" Duncan told them.

  "I don't look weird," Methos said annoyed straightening his robes.

  Lucy twirled the bottom on her robes and dress flaring out. "I like it, it's pretty,"

  "They moved!" Jasper shouted again.

  Troy slowly came up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder making him jump. "What moved?"

  "What the hell!" Jasper shouted as the girls laughed and moved off, leading the way over to the main hall. "The tree's, the tree's moved. Is that normal?"

  "Wasn't anyone paying attention in history?" Selena asked annoyed.

  "I guess not," Lucy answered.

  "It's normal," Will told him, as Jasper glared at Troy who just smiled friendlily back at him.

  "Hey wait up!" Holly shouted behind them, as she ran over with her sister; they were both still in their matching dresses. "You almost left without us,"

  "Sorry," Lucy said as they caught up with them.

  Jasper and Duncan and the others who didn't go, were told everything that happened as they walked over in the crowds of students who were also slowly making their way over to the hall, which only took a couple of minutes. What took the longest was actually getting into the hall itself through the side entrances.

  There were hundreds of students, most of them still in their white robes, dresses or suits talking with friends or finding somewhere to sit on their table, the rest of the students who hadn’t attended the ritual were in their normal clothes. The hall itself had floating candles above the tables in circles every couple of meters, then high above them all was one large circle glowing in all the colours of the estates; beside from the candles the hall was bare, not even anything on the tables as they approached.

  Jasper and Duncan looked around disappointedly as they followed the others over to their table at the front, and then everyone taking their seats on either side; as did everyone else in the hall.

  Professor Odin stood and waited for everyone to sit and settle, before he spoke. "Good evening to you all. I hope that our new first years enjoyed their first slumber of the guardians, I'm sure that you'll never look at a tree in the same way again. I want to thank you all for understanding our traditions and belief's, as we accept all belief's of each of you. Tonight, we celebrate our guardians, letting them rest while we protect them,"

  Odin waved his hand and the candles above the tables rose higher above them all and the torches went out suddenly, but there was still enough light with the amount of the candles in the air. With another wave of his hand pumpkins fell onto the tables through-out the hall startling everyone, they rolled around, gathering up smaller forms, until small pumpkin figures stood atop the tables and candles lit inside of them. Music suddenly started to play from somewhere above them and then pumpkins began to dance rising up slightly into the air. Food suddenly appeared on the tables, along with bowls of sweets and candies of all kinds; they filled their plates and glasses eagerly.

  "Now...that's cool..." Duncan said as he grabbed a handful of sweets.

  "Do you think we'll be allowed to take some back to the room?" Jasper asked.

  "Probably, we're allowed from the other food hall," Troy answered.

  The floor shifted suddenly, shaking slightly making everyone stop eating and look around wondering what was going on, but at first no one could see anything, and then there were several screams from different tables; even Libby screamed as she jumped out of her seat, and then climbed on it. They all looked over to see what was going on, but they didn't really need to move, as it was happening everywhere; skeleton's were climbing out of the ground. Pulling themselves up, as though the spot where they climbed wasn't solid; then once they were fully through and standing they shook themselves out and then started to dance.

  "They're not going to hurt us?" Libby asked still on top of her chair.

  "That was better than the pumpkins," Troy said laughing. "You should have seen the look on your face,"

  "You were just as scared," Lucy shot at him.

  "No I weren't," Troy said defensively.

  "Then why are you half stood up as though you were going to run away?" Lucy asked smirking at him.

  Troy looked around the table as he sat down properly again, as everyone laughed, even Libby calmed down as she got down off her chair and sat back down, nervously looking over her shoulder at the skeleton couple dancing close by.

  "Well that Harry thought they were going to rise the dead...I bet he was freaking out," Will said amused.

  "Don't you think he asked a lot of questions?" Lucy asked.

  "Isn't he from a non-magical family though?" Libby asked. "I had a lot questions,"

  Lucy wasn't convinced though, but decided to drop it for now and concentrated on her food instead and watched the animated dancing, quite impressed with how they had done it and wondered if she would ever be that good one day.

  Troy walked slowly up the stairs of their dorm carrying t
hree bags of sweets, that he had filled before he had left the hall, with Will and Alex who were coming up behind him also carrying a couple of bags each; they had left the girls outside to go to their own rooms, and now they were going to crawl into bed.

  "So do you think all of this is weird?" Will asked Alex.

  "Nope...mum's a witch, and she's always believed in all of this...it's just dad," Alex told him.