by Blythe Baker
“This is the school over here,” she said, gesturing to one of the enormous blue trees. “And over there is where most of the spell weavers who live here in the Hollow keep residences.” Her fingers moved between two different trees in the distance. “There’s another place for the library, one of the few magical libraries left in the entire world, which is why it’s as enormous as it is. Oh, and over here is the council hall, which is where we’re headed.”
My eyes fell on another tree that looked slightly different than the rest. The bark of the blue tree appeared to be inlaid with shining silver. It seemed to pulse and flow like slow-moving rivers of liquid glass up the tree toward the leaves. There was also a series of steps made from intertwining roots of the tree, leading up to a perfect round door built into the bark.
There were a lot of people standing out in front of it, talking and laughing. I saw a few men, but most were women. Bliss had told me that male spell weavers were rare, so it didn’t really surprise me.
A fountain stood at the base of the stairs, bubbling merrily, the water a vibrant lavender color instead of blue. As we drew nearer to it, I caught a sweet scent, and immediately my mind went to a beach on a summer afternoon, the scent of sunscreen mingling with the salty spray from the ocean.
“What does it smell like for you?” Bliss asked, grinning at me.
“Like the beach,” I said. “Why, is it different for you?”
She nodded. “It smells like a field of sunflowers to me, and the heavy heat of summer.” She looked down at Athena. “Ask her what it smells like for her.”
We stopped and allowed Athena to sniff at the air, too.
Winter, Athena said, her black nose twitching as she pointed it directly upward toward the gently splashing water. Winter in the dead of night, with crisp snow and the stars bright overhead.
“That’s beautiful, Athena,” I said, and relayed what she said to Bliss. “Why is it so different for all of us?” I asked.
“It’s a spell in the water that makes the person encountering it remember the most peaceful thing in their mind, a memory so soothing that it calms the senses. It’s a means of keeping level heads inside the council hall,” Bliss said.
“That would lose its effectiveness eventually, wouldn’t it?” I asked.
Bliss shook her head. “What soothes you most might be different tomorrow,” Bliss said. “Though the sunflower scent is really pretty common for me to smell. There’s one of these fountains inside the school, too.”
“Wow,” I said, staring into the sparkling water as it bounced off the surface below.
“Come on,” Bliss said. “Zara is probably in her office.”
We moved between small groups of people talking, most of whom were easily twice our age. One or two gave us a brief glance before returning to their conversations.
Athena spoke, staring off into one of the groups. There are familiars here.
I followed her directed look and saw a woman with a copper and black monkey resting on her shoulder, and a man standing not too far back from her with a wolf lying at his feet, its sharp blue eyes following Athena as we walked.
I was glad, though, that no one said anything to me as we went along. Of course no one would recognize me, but I hoped that everyone would have just ignored me like they probably ignored all new possible apprentices. The last thing I wanted to do here was to stand out.
We walked inside the giant circular door and into a lobby that was somehow filled with the warm sunlight. There hadn’t been any windows on the outside of the tree.
“Enchantments,” Bliss said, seeing me staring in question at the windows. “I can actually almost pull that one off, believe it or not.”
She grinned at me. She wasn’t all that skilled as a spell weaver yet, and I knew how proud she must have been of herself to have learned something else.
There was a long, tall hallway that lead from the center of the room outward to other parts of the tree, and in the very center of the space, there was a marble dais of some sort. Perfectly round, perfectly smooth, and completely empty.
But as we walked further into the cavernous, brightly lit room, I soon realized what it was there for.
There was a rushing sound, and I looked up to see a group of three or four women dressed in the same kind of tunics that Bliss and I wore floating slowly down through the air toward the ground.
“It’s like they’re on an invisible elevator…” I said, watching as they all landed smoothly on the dais.
“That’s basically it, yeah,” Bliss said. “The apprentices all have to take the stairs, though, since we aren’t ready to learn that kind of wind magic yet.” I detected a note of hurt in her voice as we walked past the dais toward the hall.
We headed down it, and the brilliant white ceiling seemed to glow as if lit from behind. Doors lined both sides of the walls, and golden plaques affixed to each read a different name; Samuels, Rock, Towwer, Grant.
Bliss came to a stop in front of one that read, Whitewater. She raised a hand and gently knocked on the door with her knuckles.
“Come in,” said a muffled voice on the opposite side.
Bliss shot me a bright smile before pushing the door inward.
Inside was an office that seemed like it belonged in a museum. Everything looked as if it had been stolen directly out of the 18th century. Every surface had gilded edges, was smooth and round, and plush. The carpet underneath our feet looked as if it had been restored, likely with magic, and was stunning with shades of blue, red, and gold.
Another one of those enchanted windows looked out over the forest, bases of the blue trees filling most of the view, and patches of sunlight scattered across the forest floor.
The woman seated at the desk looked up. She had hair that was long, straight, and starkly white with the slightest hint of pink in it. Her eyes were almond shaped, the outside corners pulled upward, and bright gold. The ends of her ears, which were protruding from underneath her sheet of hair, were pointed, as well.
Her momentary expression of curiosity quickly shifted to understanding as she stood, pointing a slender finger across the desk at Bliss. “What in the world are you thinking?” she asked. She had a slight accent. French, perhaps? I couldn’t quite tell.
“Okay, don’t freak out,” Bliss said, holding her hands up in defense. “I just wanted you to meet her. You said that it was okay, and that the council would meet with her – ”
The woman’s golden eyes narrowed as she glared at Bliss. “I said they would discuss it, and yet you bring her here without my express permission?”
“Okay, I’m sorry,” Bliss said. She glanced over her shoulder at me.
The woman behind the desk looked like she was teetering between a full explosion and fizzling out. Then, as her shoulders slumped and the air deflated out of her, it seemed that she chose the latter option. She turned her golden eyes on me. “Marianne, I presume?” she asked, not unkindly.
I nodded. “Yes, ma’am. Marianne Huffler.”
The woman glanced down at Athena. “And a familiar, too?”
“Athena,” I said.
The woman pointed to herself, laying a graceful hand across the chest of her white and gold trimmed tunic. “I am Zara Whitewater, spell weaver and psychic.”
My eyes widened. “I haven’t met a psychic yet,” I said. “Does that mean you can read my mind?”
“Not all the time, no,” Zara said. “I have to cast a specific spell to do it, and only after I gain your permission, of course.”
My heart skipped; even though she looked me directly in the eye when she said that, it made me wonder if she’d ever had to use that spell without someone’s permission…and if she somehow ended up reading my mind…
Well, then my secret would be out, wouldn’t it?
“I have been told that you recently moved back to Faerywood Falls?” Zara asked, bringing her hands together behind her back as she made her way to the window. She walked with such grace that it looked a
lmost as if she was gliding across the antique carpets.
“Um…yeah,” I said. “Since late spring.”
Zara nodded. “Did you return because you felt drawn here again? Bliss told me that your adoptive mother found you here when you were an infant.”
I shot Bliss a hard look. That may have been too much information…but there was no way that Zara could figure out I was a faery just from that information…right?
“Yeah,” I said. “And she took me home to a small town in Missouri where I lived my whole life.”
“Did you begin exhibiting any magical traits while living out there?” Zara asked.
I glanced over at Bliss; Zara’s back was turned, and I gave her a pleading look. How should I answer that? It was a curse that drove me to pack up my life and move to Faerywood Falls.
Just be as honest as you can, Athena said, sensing my unease. Say yes, since the curse really is a result of magic.
Zara turned and looked at me, her face blank, her eyes full of a deep wisdom that I couldn’t even hope to comprehend. “Don’t be afraid. I’m simply trying to evaluate your gift. It will be helpful when we take you to meet the council.”
I swallowed hard. “I…guess I did,” I said. “Some weird things started to happen in my life.”
“Weird things?” Zara asked, her delicate brows coming together. “What sort of weird things?”
“Relationship stuff, mostly…” I said. “They ended badly.”
“I see,” Zara said.
“And then my mother told me that I was adopted, and that I’d been born here. And she told me that I should come back, and try to figure out what was happening to me,” I said. “She seemed to have some understanding of the Gifted and magic, because that’s what she told me to come back and seek.”
“And she herself is not Gifted, I take it?” Zara asked.
I shook my head. “No…at least, not as far as I know.”
“Very well,” Zara said. She walked around her desk to stand in front of me. With a single, gentle wave of her hand, a bright flash of green light filled the room. When it cleared a moment later, a wand lay stretched out on Zara’s palm. She held it out to me. “Take this, and let me see what sort of magical abilities you have.”
My hands began to sweat as I stared down at the wand. It looked more substantial than the one that Bliss had used to open the doorway to the Hollow.
“Go ahead and take it, and I’ll teach you some simple spells to try,” Zara said, pushing her hand toward me.
Hesitantly, I reached out and picked up the wand. In my fingers, it didn’t feel any different than an ordinary twig. I held it straight in the air, my hand clenched tightly around it.
“Have you done any magic at all since coming to Faerywood Falls?” Zara asked.
“A little. Mostly by accident,” I said as I thought back on stealing the beast speaking ability, taking Mrs. Bickford’s gift, and how I’d accidentally sung the spell song that I’d heard Ruth Cunningham singing.
“That’s normal,” Zara said. “Alright. Are you ready?”
I nodded.
“Alright. Repeat after me. Lowrenta.”
“Lowrenta,” I said, staring at the wand.
The end of the wand began to glow with a warm, orange light. A beam of orange smoke drifted out from it, heading toward the ceiling like a miniature campfire. I could feel the smallest amount of heat radiating off it.
“Very good,” Zara said. “And brighter than most I test. Alright, let’s move onto the next one. Do you know how to cancel the flow of magic within yourself?” she asked.
“I…think so,” I said. I closed my eyes and reached deep within me, past my heart, my soul, my feelings…and plunged my conscious mind beneath the tide of magic that surged through my core.
Inside, I could feel the slight tendril of magic being pulled away from the well within me. I reached out with my mind, and brushed it away as if it were smoke from an extinguished candle.
The light at the end of the wand disappeared, along with the plume of orange smoke.
“Very good,” Zara said, a slight smile appearing on her pretty, calm face. “That’s a skill that normally takes a great deal longer to master. You’re further ahead than a lot of novices I meet. Alright, let’s do another. Repeat after me again, please. Terraleaforn.”
“Terraleaforn,” I said.
There was a small potted plant on the corner of Zara’s desk, filled with what looked like a young ivy plant. A great light that was much softer than the spell before fluttered out of my wand, as fine and as gentle as falling snow, and settled on the ivy. The leaves began to glow where the magic touched them, and the stems began to grow so fast that it looked as if some invisible hand was pulling it out of the pot.
I quickly severed that magic tendril as well, and the light on the end of the wand disappeared.
“That’s…quite a bit more potent than I would have expected,” Zara said, reaching down and caressing the leaves with her fingers. “Well done, Marianne.”
I smiled. Though I couldn’t exactly take credit for the compliment, since the gift wasn’t originally mine, it felt good to see that I could actually do something that felt right for once. It wasn’t falling apart in front of me.
Even Bliss seemed impressed, staring down at the tiny plant. “I couldn’t do that spell for like…two years,” she said, gaping at me.
I shrugged.
“You must be quite gifted in nature magic,” Zara said. “Here, let’s try one that’s a little more difficult, then.”
She walked to one of her shelves and lifted a crystal globe from a wooden stand. When she turned, I saw a rose floating inside of it, perfectly preserved. Except it looked like it hadn’t fully bloomed yet.
“Let’s try this one,” she said. “Aspertia.”
“Aspertia,” I said, pointing the wand at the rose.
A pale, pink light drifted out of the wand, almost like a wave, until it kissed the edge of the crystal.
The rose began to swell and open, all of its petals opening wide to the sunlight pouring into the enchanted window.
“That should do it,” Zara said in a soft voice.
I cut ties with the magic, and the rose stopped opening. It was now at its peak, beautiful and full of rich, red color.
Zara looked up at me, and there was a glint in her eyes. “Well…it certainly seems you have talent. It’s been some time since I’ve had the pleasure of meeting such a talented spell weaver. The last novice I can remember that was as talented as you was Silvia Griffin, the late weaver who sat on the council of eleven…”
I resisted the urge to look over my shoulder at Bliss.
“It is curious how you seem to have so much talent, yet it lay dormant for so long…” Zara said, gently taking the wand from my hand. It disappeared into nothingness a moment later.
“I don’t know why that is,” I said, and that was almost the complete truth. I had no idea how these things kept happening. I didn’t understand what it meant to be a faery, other than I knew that I was capable of holding more than one gift at a time. And it seemed almost as if I could possibly hold them all at once if I chose to. “It just…happens, I guess.”
“That’s quite interesting…” Zara said, delicately touching her chin, her gaze suddenly distant.
“Oh!” Bliss exclaimed, staring out into the hall. “Lady Yurl, please wait just a moment.”
Zara snapped out of her reverie as Bliss dashed out the door. Her gaze darkened as it followed Bliss from the room, and she followed after her.
I looked down at Athena.
That must be a no-no, Athena said.
“Is that one of the council members?” I asked in a low voice.
Not sure. We should go see, Athena said. Well done, by the way. You’re a natural.
I chewed on my lip. “Yeah, but is it really me? Or just the gift I took?” I asked.
We stepped out into the hall after Bliss and Zara, and found Bliss standing in fro
nt of a short, thin woman with a pale blue robe on. The front was adorned with an image of a pearly white crescent moon, surrounded by eleven gleaming silver stars.
“…and she’s here right now, and Zara has already said that she obviously has the gift, so – ”
“Bliss,” Zara said in a scolding tone. “Lady Yurl, I’m terribly sorry for my protégé’s impertinence. This is a matter that we can discuss later, as I’m sure that you’re on your way to something important – ”
“No, it’s quite alright,” Lady Yurl said. “We do have a few moments before our next meeting of business. As long as we have quorum, then I see no harm in accepting another apprentice. But if you wish for her to be seen, then we must hurry.”
“Great!” Bliss said, and she wheeled around, her eyes falling on me. “Come on, Marianne. The council’s going to see you!”
4
The council hall for the meeting of the council of eleven was in the same building where Zara’s office was located. It was up a floor, and Zara kindly agreed to walk with Bliss, Athena and I instead of taking the magical elevator.
“Now, just be yourself, okay?” Bliss said, brushing off some dust from the sleeves of my tunic as we stood waiting outside a pair of giant doors that were made from a wood so dark it looked purple. A pair of silver bells hung to either side, still and waiting. “Everyone is going to love you.”
“What do I say?” I asked. I’d never been in this kind of situation before, standing in front of what must be like some sort of court room or something akin to it. “I haven’t spoken in front of people since the eleventh grade,” I said.
“You’ll do fine,” Zara said. “I’m coming in with you. The best thing you can do is just remain quiet until you are asked a question, and be as honest as you can be, because there are spells that prevent lies within those walls.”
I swallowed hard. I looked at Bliss.
What if they ask me if I’m a faery? I thought.
Why would they ask that? Athena asked.
I turned and looked down at her.
