I just stared at her, waiting for her to tell me this was all a joke. I mean, it all had to be a joke right? Magic? There is just no way, no how. Also, whoever ran this school had to know who I was- I mean they sent me my letter of acceptance.
"It doesn't make sense Laura, they would have to know who I was in order for me to come here, and wouldn't they have just "killed" me then if they knew who I was?"
"I forget how much you don't know. We've all basically known who we are and our history since birth. Once every few hundred years a warlock will step out on his wife and have an illegitimate child but as soon as they are able they come to school here and learn. It's always the talk of the town for a few decades."
"Laura, you aren't answering my question." I was becoming impatient, every fiber of my being wanting to say she was lying, that this was some kind of hazing technique and at the end of all this shed burst into tears yelling "I GOT YOU!" but somewhere deep in my soul I knew that wasn't true, and she believed what she was telling me.
"Oh right, sorry. It's one of the first lessons we learn in history class, the tricky thing about magic is that it doesn't matter who your parents are, or where they fall in the rankings of society, you are either powerful or you're not, mother earth decides who is worthy to receive magic. Some offspring of the most powerful witches and warlocks only have an inkling of magic. We call them the Librarians."
"The librarians?"
"Yup, they've grown up in this world, most learning about the families, spells they'll be able to use once they come of age, defense classes, etc. But once their 18th birthday hits, and they barely get sick, you know the magic they possess is weak, so they take all of that knowledge and become the Librarians, the keepers of all our secrets, records, family lineages, basically everything you want to know because they don't have enough magic to use it for good or evil. Anyway, every year they gather together to perform a spell, a tracking spell, seeing if anyone out there has strong enough magic to come to the school, the spell has never given anyone a name before. Well, before you."
"Before me?"
She rolled her eyes, "are you just going to continue to repeat everything I say? Yes, before you, there hasn't been anyone. Anyway, they probably think you're the offspring of some ill-fated affair and the warlock didn't want to claim you...."
I felt the bile rise in my throat, I thought of all the letters that my mother sent. "But that is what happened, I am the offspring of an asshole who didn't want to take responsibility."
"Oh shit girl, I'm so sorry... I forgot, I didn't..." she looked at me.
"No it's fine, it isn't your fault." I couldn't make my eyes meet hers, I was ashamed, and everyone here at school would know that I was the bastard child that someone didn't care enough about to claim. "He could have given my mother a fake name though right? Maybe it wasn't Terry Jones after all."
"I mean, it's a possibility, but you have to have some wicked magic hiding under all angst for the Librarians to find you. I mean they've never found anyone before... so I can only assume."
"As far as I'm concerned, I don't have a father." I said, hate laced in my voice
"Unless you want the thrown, I'd say that too."
An awkward silence filled the room, I was trying to process everything she said, and I still wasn't sure I believed her.
"Can you show me magic?" I asked
She bit her lip and looked uncomfortable... "The last time I tried to do magic unsupervised I nearly split the arena in half. I'm not allowed to do magic right now without the guidance of a teacher."
"And that's why you got stuck with me... you aren't allowed to do magic."
"Correct, Olivia is going to be so mad I told you, I might get expelled." Her head hung low in shame
"How about I make you a deal, since I'm still not 100% sold on this whole magic thing, I won't tell her you told me. But you have to help me figure out who my dad is, if he actually was Terry Jones or someone else."
"Deal" she grinned wickedly, "This will be fun."
Somehow I doubted that was true.