The weeks that followed passed uneventful; Deen and Katy practiced, went to classes, and did their homework. Katy had her first Imbolic celebration, it was quite interesting, it was all about new beginnings, and they cleansed everything, their rooms, their classrooms, their tools, everything and then had a big celebratory feast.
Katy also had gone to her first Eleball game, it was Water versus Air. It was an awfully close match, but in the end Water won. Katy and Deen filled their time talking about the game, and what they were going to do on break. And as Deen had predicted Katy had appeared to excel in every subject, Katy now could cover her whole body in fire, and do all the spells they learned this term wordlessly.
Deen and Katy had even practiced some other spells further along in their book and in books in the library and they hardly spoke in English anymore, their favorite so far was Russian, but they always mixed it up.
Deen was doing well, but struggled in History and Symbols, he said they were the most boring classes ever. He decided to stick with Symbols though because his father had taken the class and was told it could be useful when he was a Guardian.
Katy, of course, helped him where she could, even though some of the time she understood his Symbol assignments better than he did, she knew he could do better, he chose not to. However, with her own work to do she didn’t always have the time to help him as much as she would have normally or push him as hard as he needed.
Before they knew it, they were taking their end of term exams and getting ready to leave for their two-week break. They had practiced sending letters to each other so they could keep up with each other’s happenings during break, but Deen said mostly he will use his owl, but it was fun to send notes in class. But they got in trouble one weekend in February for sending notes during class and had to serve a detention, they stopped doing it during classes after that. They had way too much to do to spend their Saturdays in detention.
On the morning of March Sixteenth, they got their grades, but before they could look at them the day turned out to be more interesting than they could have imagined it would be.
Katy had just finished helping Deen pack and they decided to walk down to the dining hall for breakfast before looking at their grades. They were walking down to get breakfast when something bright hit her in the face. The last thing she saw was a flash of yellow of light and heard Deen call her name.
Katy came too about an hour later; she was laying on a bed in the hospital wing of the school. When she opened her eyes, she saw Deen, Antonio and Tony as they stared down at her from the foot of the bed.
“She is awake!” Deen jumped up and ran to the side of the bed.
Katy sat up and looked around. “What happened?” Katy could feel some bandages on the side of her face.
“We don’t know we were hoping you could inform us about what had occurred.” Tony spoke up as he started to pace at the foot of the bed.
“I only remember something hitting me in the face, a flash of yellow light and Deen yelling my name. Then waking up here.”
Before anymore could be said Headmaster O’Cuinn walked in. “Hello Antonio, may I have a word with you, please.”
Antonio got up and walked to the corner with him. What they did not know was Katy had taught herself a spell that would allow her to hear them, and quickly flicked her hand toward the headmaster and Antonio.
“I have spoken with Richard and he does not want anything to do with her.” The headmaster said, though he was shaking his head, one could hear the relief in his voice.
“Solomon was always selfish, and uncaring. I am sure he has practiced the Black Arts though we cannot prove it. I am not surprised in the least. He allowed his own daughter to live on the streets her whole life, and alone for the last three years. Did he at least sign away his rights?” Antonio shook his head in disbelief, anger radiated from him.
“Yes, you and Sandra have been granted guardianship. But there will still have to be a full trial and custody battle.”
“Why? Solomon does not want her. Sandra and I are more than fit to raise her.”
“Wesley Solomon, his brother, is going for custody.”
“He Can’t! His past! He…” Katy swore she saw a spark of fire come from his hands.
“I know, I know, please calm down. That past is why you get to take her home. The trial will not be until the New Year. There are so many other things the Elders must hear and decided upon. A custody case is not a high priority at this time.” Antonio looked like he was going to say something, but the Headmaster cut him off. “Well, I will let you get back to Katy. I am still investigating Deen’s incident and I will be looking highly into Katy’s as well.”
“Oeric, why didn’t you request…” Antonio did not get to finish his question.
“That is not important right now, we have more pressing concerns. Now I know you are mad at me about certain things but one day things will come to light and you will understand the whys.” Headmaster O’Cuinn stated and then swept out of the room.
Katy stayed silent, she did not know what that conversation meant except her father didn’t care about her, didn’t want her. And she knew they had to be talking about her father. She wanted to know what was wrong with her. Nobody seemed to want her. Maybe the MacCathmhaoils were just being nice because she was in the Fire house. What if she had been in the Earth house or Air house? She looked around to see if she could find some answers, but nobody seemed to be paying attention to her. They all waited for Antonio to explain what the Headmaster had wanted.
“Well, I am going to check with Nurse Rice and see if we can take you home.” Antonio stated.
“Dad, what did the Headmaster want?” Tony asked, he had a feeling it was about the monster of a biological father of Katy’s.
“Nothing, just checking to see if Katy knew what happened,” Antonio answered then walked away.
“Hmmm…” Tony started to say something but was interrupted by Deen.
“Brilliant, Katy, first me at the beginning of the term and now you, both happened in the Fire dorm too.” Deen slumped down into the chair beside Katy’s bed, and pulled out a sugar wand.
Katy wanted to tell Deen what she had overheard but couldn’t do so with Tony standing there. “So, did you take a look at your grades Deen?” Katy asked, changing topics.
“Yep, History I got a P in, Symbols I got an S, but I got G’s in almost everything else so that is good. I even got an E in Languages.”
Katy smiled at him. “Too bad about the P in History, but the rest are great! Will your parents be mad about the P? That is great about the E!”
“Nah, if those G’s are on there, they will ignore one little P. Thankfully I didn’t get any U’s or H’s. They would have grounded me forever!”
Katy had learned in her second week about the grading system, when she got an E back on her vampire essay. Deen explained E is the top grade for Excellent. G’s are for Good, S for Satisfactory, P for Poor (but it is still a passing grade) U for Unsatisfactory and H for Horrible. “Yeah, but still a P!”
“I don’t know how you can actually pay attention in History. All he does is give us tons of notes and talks in a monotone. Just thinking about it makes me want to sleep.”
“Well, one of us has to pay attention, so we don’t get H’s.” Katy said. She wondered what she had gotten, she had not had a chance to look at her grades, and the plane would be leave at noon and she really did not want to open them in front of the whole year.
“Oh, Katy, while you were out, I ran up to your dorm and grabbed your grades. I see you haven’t looked at them yet.” Tony stated as he handed her, her envelope. “I also packed Starlight up and prepared her for the plane ride home, you just need to grab her when you leave and whatever else you need.”
“Thanks Tony!” Katy took the envelope and just looked at it for moment and turned it over and over in her hands. This was it, in her mind this would tell her if she was really meant for this world. Katy opened it, and looked down for a moment at the paper, before Deen snatched it out of her hands, as Katy allowed relief to wash through her.
“Yep, just like I thought, all E’s. You are a genius. Thankfully, I met you and am your best friend, that way I am not the dumb one of our year. That seems to be going to Oscar. I heard him tell Rory that he got all P’s and even a U.” Deen said as he handed Katy back her report card.
“Good job Katy, not a lot of people get E’s their first term out.” Tony said with a smile. “We will have to have a celebration meal. I am just going to send word to mom, she wanted to know what grades you got, but we were waiting until you opened the report card before telling her.” Tony walked out of the room.
At last Deen and Katy were alone. Katy took that moment to tell Deen what she overheard and told him about her fears.
“Don’t let the stuff with your father mess with your head Katy; it is his loss that he doesn’t want you. It is better for you to stay with Professor MacCathmhaoil and his family anyway, they want you or they wouldn’t have applied for guardianship. Sounds like they are going to fight for you too, those are not easy battles to win if you are not blood family. The Elders can be old fashion about family. I didn’t know your father was a Solomon.” He said it like it was a bad thing.
“I didn’t either; I guessed I thought he would be a Fitz like me.” Katy said as she stopped to think why she did not carry her father’s last name. “What is about the Solomons that I don’t know. You know you said it like it was a bad thing.”
“Maybe your mom left him before you were born, and she gave you her maiden name or maybe your parents were not married.” Deen thought out loud. He looked like he did not want to tell Katy the secret people had been keeping from her.
“Tell me Deen, what is it that everybody knows about my father that they don’t want me to know.” Katy said in a no-nonsense tone.
“There are rumors he is evil. His brother Wesley Solomon is, spent time in our prison system. He was in the worst one too, he was in Dastardly. That is our worst prison. He spent like five years there for the Black Magic he did. They couldn’t prove he killed anybody that is why he is out now. Rumor is Richard Solomon is just as evil, and Riley that is the oldest son, he is a sixth year here, is following in his footsteps. There are two more, boys, don’t know their names they are twins, but I bet they are as evil as Riley.”
“Maybe, I wish I knew why he didn’t want me, my father that is, and why an evil warlock would want me. You don’t think there is something wrong with me, that I am bad?” Katy asked in a frightened tone, worried.
“Look, there is nothing wrong with you, back when you were in the normal world it was fate they didn’t choose you when you were in the orphanage, if they had you would have been living with normal people. And magical people tend to go to our own orphanage to adopt, and since you were living in the normal world no magical person would have found you. And about you being bad… don’t make me laugh! You help us all; you are always doing one thing or another for all of us in the dorm. Well, not the girls but they are stuck up anyways and are not smart enough to ask for help.”
“They seemed to find me when Tony came to get me for school.” Katy let the other comments sink in, she wanted to believe Deen was right that there was no evil in her, but if her father was evil would that mean she would have a disposition to be evil? And what had happened to her mother, was she good or evil? Katy had her mother for only a few years, Katy thought she was great, but she never told her about this world. Their true world. Their home. Why? What had he mother ran from?
“Yeah, your name goes down when you are born, I don’t know how, but they know when a magical person is born, even if they are normal born. It is strange. But the trace doesn’t go on you until you are ready to come to school, right before you turn eleven, and they found you just days after you turned eleven. They use the trace to find the magical person in case they are normal born, if you grew up in the magical world, then the trace goes on for twenty-four hours, then off again. They just send you your first letter. After they find you the trace falls off, so once they send you your letter. If you were normal born, they would send someone from the school to explain to the parents, and let them know what is going on, kind of like how they sent Tony to get you. They don’t have to send you anymore letters, as at the end of term in December they will give you your new book and supply lists. So, don’t worry so much Katy, you take things way to serious. Don’t get me wrong you are my best friend, and you are way cool, but you take things way to seriously for an eleven-year-old. I mean we all grow up a little too soon, we have a power we have a responsibility to learn and control. But really Katy you must loosen up. And nobody knows much about your mom, other than she was in Earth here. Sorry, but you are not blocking. It must be the injury.” Deen explained a little more about their world.
“Nah, I was blocking Tony and Antonio, I usually don’t block around you, mostly because I will tell you what I am thinking anyways. Maybe you are right, but if you have noticed not a single kid acts like a kid in this school. And Tony didn’t come and get me until like two weeks later!”
“Of course not! We can’t really act like normal kids; we have a lot to learn before we are adults. We live longer, we get to do more things, we get to live in a world they can only imagine, so what if we don’t get to run around all the time, watch T.V. or hang out at the mall, we have got it good, better than them I think. That is cool by the way you don’t block me, too bad about the spells on the classrooms or maybe I would have done better in History. That is strange, maybe they didn’t know you were on the street? You stayed put right? After you got the letter?”
“That is cheating! I would not have allowed that. And yeah, I stayed put, and the envelope said The Street.” Katy, of course, thought this world was better than the one she lived in for eleven years, but if witches and warlocks were supposed to have longer life spans, why did her mother die?
“Of course, you wouldn’t, you are totally anal.” Deen said with a laugh and grabbed another sugar wand out of his bag. “Maybe they thought you had someone and waited until after Christmas?” He said with a more serious tone.
“Maybe, Tony was shocked I was alone.”
“See there you go!” Deen said and leaned back in the chair and continued to snack on the sugar wands.
“Okay Katy Lily, Nurse Rice said you are free to go, but I think it is only because Sandra is a medicine woman.” Antonio stated as he walked back to bed. “I will run up and get your bag. Have you got everything packed?”
“I just need to grab Starlight and put a couple of books in my bag.” Katy answered.
“Okay, I will do that. You and Deen can run down to the dining hall and get something to eat. We have a long trip home.”
“Okay.” Katy and Deen waited until Antonio walked out.
Katy got out of bed and took out her wand; she transfigured a mirror out of the chuck of sugar wand Deen had left. They had not learned to manifest things out of thin air yet.
“Katy I was eating that! Stop showing off!” Deen looked at her like she had taken something important from him.
“There are more, over on Nurse Rice’s desk, go grab one she won’t mind. And I am not showing off, I needed a mirror.”
Deen went over to the desk and took a sugar wand, but he grumbled all the way. “I know you are not showing off, you only do the advanced stuff when it is just me and you, but that was a sugar wand, ruined!”
Katy turned and looked at him “it will not be sacrificed in vain.” Katy said while she pulled the gauze from her face. There was a small wound, but it was almost healed. Katy wondered why it was taking so long. It had only taken moments to fix Deen’s leg. “Deen, why is the wound taking so long to heal?”
Deen walked back over and took a look. “Don’t know, I heard Antonio and Nurse Rice talking about black magic and how wounds caused by them take longer to heal and may leave a scar. Brilliant, Katy, that would be awesome. A scar! And look it is shaped like a flame; it is right next to your eye!”
“I don’t know if I would like a scar, they don’t look so good on girls. They look much better on boys.” Katy said as she looked in the mirror at the wound it did look like a small flame at the corner of her eye. Katy transformed the mirror back to the chunk of sugar wand and threw it away.
Deen and Katy did not say much as they went down to the dining hall, and it was nearly empty when they entered. They sat in their corner and had some breakfast in almost silence.
“Katy, you are not still hung up on what you heard are you?” Deen asked as they walked to the library after breakfast, to return their books, Deen had them in his bag.
“No, I was just wondering why someone would want to hurt us Deen.”
“Maybe it was an accident.” But this time Deen was not convinced and it was heard in his voice.
“Black magic hit me Deen, and who knows what they threw at you. We are lucky.” Katy placed the books on the librarian’s desk and walked the shelves and looked for something to take with her on vacation.
“Katy, why do you need another book? You are going to read everything and have nothing left to read!” Deen said as Katy walked the aisles, Deen was hoped that something caught Katy’s eye quickly. He did not like being in the library longer then he needed to as the librarian was mean. And he swore she could read everybody’s minds.
“Deen, I want to know everything there is about our world, you have lived in it your whole life, and I have had three months.”
“Yeah, sure, but you already know more than I do! I mean I know you have been sneaking around this castle at night. I just want to know how you haven’t gotten caught.”
“Shh… The librarian is over there. And I think she can read all of our minds; I block everybody in here for a reason.” Katy said and pointed to a shelf a few feet away. “And I have offered many times to take you with me, remember when you caught me a few weeks ago?”
“Yeah, but I don’t want to waste my weekend in detention.”
“You just wait, I am working on that invisibility spell, and I think I almost have it, I can make our books disappear.” Katy said as she grabbed a book from the shelf, Turning into an Animal.
“Yeah, sure if you prefect that then sure I will go with you. But it is kind of hard to test on people without the professors knowing.” Deen said as Katy checked out her book.
“Hmm…” Katy said her nose already in the book. Katy had decided that she wanted to know everything. She felt she might need it, sooner rather than later.
Kris Charles - Author 