Rise of the Night Witch

Chapter 4.1 - Trick or Treat

My head hurt. I used caffeine as my base liquid and mandrake as my symbolic herb for the insomnia potion. That way, I participated in lessons at the Academy while Dad was sleeping. Didn't make me any less tired.

My astral soul floated through maroon Unseelie forests. One night before Halloween, the spirits allowed passage into the Kingdom of Autumn, Winter, and Death. It wasn't like Seelie. Purple clouds as dark as wine flowed and churned in the sky, casting dark shadows over the gnarly, dew-strewn oaks and spruces. Instead of dryads or unicorns, boogeymen skittered in the shrubs and moving trees peeked in my direction.

Dozens of robed apprentice spirits gathered around a bonfire in a clearing. Since Professor Andrew Wiggs fought Halloween ghosts with his Hunters, the rodmaker Marco Aguilar taught combat magic instead.

It felt so real. I felt everything I touched, even though I was a soul. Being a mixture of a human's essence and life energy, souls could reach places our bodies couldn't. Maybe you heard of astral projection or out-of-body experiences before. We apprentices couldn't do this, but we had assistive technology and our teachers' help. Using our True Names, they tethered our consciousness to ectoplasmic avatars like those our Magia Phone apps produced while our bodies lay in our beds. A bit like VR goggles, tbh.

I moved through crowds of apprentices as if they were flesh and blood until I spotted Aguilar in the middle. Some apprentices sneered at him. Others feigned politeness but traded ugly rumors about the werewolf behind his back. Our substitute teacher wasn't bothered. His face was as crinkled as his cassock, but under the bonfire's flames, his intimidating wolfish grin kept the class silent.

"Tonight," he began, "is the night between the 30th and 31st of October, the night before All Hallows' Eve. This holiday has different meanings to different people, be they Christians, pagans, or secularists. To the Irish, it was the day when the Veil between the world of the living and the dead weakened. To us Catholics, it reminds us of the reality of Heaven and Hell. Professor Wiggs introduced you to important Otherworlders and how to respond during this course! Your textbook has an entire chapter dedicated to Halloween monsters and I hope everyone has read it."

Oh, yeah. The Wind Hunt,  the Sluagh, and basically any kind of ghost should be expected.

"I must ask, who of you has encountered an Otherworlder before or knows someone who did?" Aguilar asked.

His gaze briefly lingered on me, joined by the gaze of several apprentices in my vicinity. Besides me, four students lifted their hands, Jaclyn among them.

"Well, it's technically my boyfriend who does monster slaying, but from how I understood the question, that counts, too," she said.

"It does," Aguilar said. "Worry not, tonight everyone can fight monsters in a controlled environment. Let's play a game!"

Besides the bonfire, he had a basket of sweets taken straight from Amadeo's Mansion; lollipops, gingerbread, and candy. Lots of candy. He wanted to play trick-or-treat.

"You will form groups of three!" Aguilar explained. "Each group receives a basket! Your task will be to carry the baskets safely through the forests and fight any candy ghosts you encounter! Make sure not everyone in your group has the same talents as this teaches you to synergize!"

I combed through the crowds. Jaclyn, June, and May smiled as they picked up a basket together. Good for them. Mark's group also reached full capacity. The Cunning Folk Academy lacked a talking hat sorting us into houses, but it had cliques. People with the same talent picked the same elective courses and had more time to socialize with each other. Maybe it was because people disliked Professor Manaba, but there weren't many potion and transfiguration people.