School of Magic

Meeting

Rich opened the door and we came to an office with an oak desk neatly organised, a book shelf to my left covering the west side of the wall. Behind the desk was a large chair with velvet cushions on and sat on this chair was a man.
The man looked about 40 years old, his hair was graying, his face was beginning to show signs of age. He wore a suit with a navy tie. He looked up and beamed when he saw me.
“Ah, Violet, how good to meet you.” He said as he stood up, Leo led me to the desk and let go of my hand.
The Headmaster then took hold of my hand in both of his and eagerly shook my hand.
“You look  terrified.” He said with a small laugh.
“Drugged and kidnapped in the same night, waking up in a car full of strangers.” I said with a sarcastic tone in my voice.
“Makes perfect sense.” But you could see he was amused.
I didn’t answer.
“Please, take a seat, and you boys!” He said cheerfully as he sat back down. I carefully sat down, my body tense, ready to run if needed. I saw the guys sit on either side of me.
“Now then, you must have a lot of questions. Probably tones, but allow me speak and then you may ask questions.”
He waited for me to show some sign of understanding what he said, so I just nodded.
“This place is called Trinity School, this is a place for gifted people such as yourself. For non-humans.”
“I am hu-“
“Please allow me to finish.”
I waited.
“I know you think you are human dear, but you are not. Have you not noticed how easily you get along with animals? How you can almost tell what people are feeling? Your imagination is wilder than anyone elses? How vivid your dreams are? These are the tell tale signs that you are not human. You, are half angel.”
I didn’t say anything. This man is mad. Like, bonkers. He fell down the crazy tree, fell into a hole at the bottom and got spat back out before falling down the tree again. Continuously.
“I can see you are disbelieving, but allow me to prove to you. I am an elementist, see here.”
He opened his palms and in one hand was a ball of fire, in the other was a ball of water. Floating about half an inch above his palm.
“Leo is a demon.”
I turned to Leo and saw him stand up, two black wings sprouting out of his back.
“Leo will need to drink human blood once every two weeks, Kay is a Werewolf and also needs human blood every full moon. This establishment was built to save the humans. We don’t mean harm but we need human blood or our abilities could harm, shock or scare humans.”
Okay, that proves it. I’ve gone crazy.
“And being half angel means…”
“It means, well it depends on the human, but I’m guessing you’ll be able to get white wings and control an element as well as being in harmony with animals. Over time you will gain elegance, speed and heightened senses.”
“Which half of my…”
“Your mother.”
“But, she’s normal!”
“No she’s not. Think carefully. She’s too perfect, too knowing, her work takes her away for days at a time, seem curious?”
“Not really, no.”
“The only problem is, your mother refuses to tell us who your father is, so we just have to assume he is human.”
“He’s not.” I whispered. And I remembered my dream, well, what I thought was a dream. A man with black wings visits me once a year, asks me about my life, I have that dream once a year, our conversations are comfortable and he waits until I fall asleep. I used to wait every year for that dream, I couldn’t make myself dream about it, I would just wake up thinking it was a dream. The reason I didn’t think he was my father was  because I had someone in my life I thought was my father, married to my mum.
“What?” Said the Headmaster.
I softly explained.
“I see. Your father is very strong. The bond between Demons and their children is so strong it’s painful for the parents to not see their child. To visit you once a year must have been torture. I guess he was doing it for your mother. It tends to be frowned on for an Angel and a Demon, it was anyway, now  it’s okay, but in your mother’s day I guess it wasn’t.”
“Does this mean I get to see him more often?”
“Of course.”
He must have seen the happiness on my face. I didn’t understand why I wanted to see him so badly. Having a link so strong to your parents? It was strange.
“But…I have a dad…a human one…”
“He’s not real Violet.”
“Pardon?”
“Your mother created him, he is made out of clay and animated with magic, she thought it was unfair for you to live without a father.”
“I could have had a father!” I shouted “If she didn’t put her pride before her love!” I wanted to shout at my mother.
“If she knew I was coming here, why didn’t she just let me?”
“it would be better for your human siblings. They are adopted yes? They don’t see you as gone. There is a fake you in your place, we simply drugged them because we didn’t want to wake them during the exchange.”
“There is a false me…in my place?”
“I’m afraid so.”
I guess it made sense, so they didn’t worry, but I still felt sick in the pit of my stomach. It wouldn’t be ME that my siblings spoke to or loved. It would be a clay figure.
“Oh.”
“Well then.” Said the Headmaster “This changes things, we have to figure out if you are more Angel than Demon.”
“When? Why?”
“We need to know so we know what powers you possess.”
“Oh…”
“Do you mind doing it now?” He asked
“Um…yeah…okay.” I said uncertainly.
He beckoned for me to follow him, he led me back outside, where there were now hundreds of people from the ages of 10 to about 30. Well, that’s how old they looked.
“Are the people here actually the age they look? How long do we have to stay in school for?”
“Not everybody stops aging at the same time, we all stop aging, but at whatever age suits us, some at the age of 10, some at 20, some even at 50. You stay in school for as long as your mentor sees fit, it could be 2 years, it could be 50.”
“How old are you?” I said
“About 300, give or take.”
“And you?” I said turning to them.
“We’re as old as we look.” Explained Rich “I stopped aging about a month ago, you realize you’ve stopped aging because you have a dream that tells you. The other guys haven’t stopped aging yet, but according to the seers Leo will stop at 20, Kay at 27, Liam at 29, the seers think you will stop at 19.”
“They’ve already checked?” I asked as we came to the middle of some grass. I noticed people had stopped to watch us.
“Yup.”
“Okay.” The Headmaster said. “Now listen, for your wings to come out, you need to will them to. Think of a cloud…shut your eyes…that’s it…now, that cloud should be in a bright blue sky, okay, now, imagine an arrow piercing that cloud. Good. Do you feel it? It should tingle.”
“Will it hurt?” I asked, because already my back started to ache.
“It shouldn’t...”
And then I screamed and fell to my knees. Leo went to help but the Headmaster stopped him.
The pain was horrific, like someone dragging knifes down my back. I felt something pushing out of my skin.
“She’s bleeding!” Leo shouted
I could feel the hot, sticky blood pouring down my back. I heard my t-shirt rip as my wings finally freed themselves from my skin. I put my hands onto the floor and took deep breaths, my head bowed, all pain gone, but the thoughts of how much it hurt etched in my brain.
“You said…it wouldn’t…hurt.” I panted
“It wasn’t meant to.” The Headmaster said “But I understand why it did.”
“What?”
“Look at you wings, Leo, help her up.”
Leo helped me stand up, I shakily got up, I looked on either side of me and could not believe my eyes. I had wings. But that wasn’t the shocking bit.
I think the fact one was white and the other was black might’ve been the reason everyone was staring.