Glimmer

1. Some Explaining

-a little bit of mood music^
My life would look very strange to normal people. I mean castles in the middle of white suburbia? That's a sight. However, to everyone else, its just every other neighborhood. That's the glimmer of course, humans can't see past it.

Believe it or not, I, Genevieve Parker, technically count as a human too, only somewhere in the bloodline a hoe got knocked up by a wizard, so I can see past the glimmer. Here on the outskirts of modern day Richmond, Virginia, I don't only see the two castles hidden behind a mask of the suburbs, I live in one. Its called Ravenna Castle. There are huge stain glass windows everywhere, lightly colored tile under your feet, and libraries galore. My dad is actually the book keeper of the castle, so I have just about free range.

My family has apparently worked in this castles library for generations, so we're pretty tight knit with the royals themselves. You might be thinking to yourself right now, "Royals? In Richmond? Why? What's in Richmond for a royal family?" Well, before Richmond was called Richmond, even before Native Americans lived here, the land was full of marshes and swamps, a perfect habitat for fairies to settle (yes they exist lol.) So one day, the fairy King and Queen had a castle built for them, where they had kids, and those kids had kids, and so on down the line. Eventually, humans started settling here as well and it was peaceful until the early European settlers began killing fairies for healing potions. That's when every fairy gave themselves a glimmer that they could decide when to take off and allow humans to see them. Further down the line of history, it wasn't a crazy idea to have a fairy and a human married, so our current Royal family has some human in them too, but it doesn't make them any less worthy of their positions. Speaking of the current royals! I introduce to you, my best friend, Maethe.
(Pronounced May-th)
He's a Prince! Also he's gay, but since the writer of this book isn't a total douche, that's not his only character trait, nor is it the only plot point he'll be involved in. ;) Anyways, he's got grayish green eyes and very light brown hair that is close to the length of the average surfer dudes. He has naturally tanned skin, and it's a GORGEOUS shade. He's not the tallest being 5'11, but he's got a lot of time to grow considering we're only 17. He loves math and all kinds of sports, and he's so smart that I'd be in the fourth grade still without his help.

Me? Oh right. I'm Genevieve, but never call me that. Everyone I know calls me Jen. I'm 5'4 because being the exact height average is apparently what my body wanted. I'm African American and my hair is 4a (for anyone with straight hair, that's a curly scale, so like 2a is barely wavy and 4c are the tightest curls that exist.) My pronouns are she/her and I'm very much obsessed with being in a fight. I don't know why I want to be in one so badly, I'd never provoke a fight, but I'm SO ready to kick someone's ass if they make the mistake of going down that path. For now, my outlet is boxing, witch dueling, and sword fighting, we have extensive extra curricular activities in the castle.

I am a witch, however, not all with witch blood in them become witches, and not all normal humans can't become witches. That being said, I've had a really hard time trying to understand my capabilities. It's like I can just do the bare minimum of magic.

Next up, we have Rowenna Castle. Rowenna was once a sister castle to Ravenna, hence the similar names, but as time went on, they separated, and created a whole different kingdom and Royal family. I've heard so many stories of their cruelty, and it's very safe to say that Ravenna and Rowenna are now rival kingdoms. We each have our territories, and we can cross through one another's as long as there is no ill intent. However, if I went to kill the King, the second I step on their territory I'd suddenly be in a jail cell. We haven't had a war with them in many years, but tensions have been getting worse, I suppose that's why we have the ill intent spell.

Now that all of the weird stuff has been explained, our story gets serious... we open on a sunny, August day.