18th of Inandyl - 3rd Velron

  With our mock exams over, I take a slow morning, waking when my body bids me to. I am greeted by Chou with a happy trill and Cira with a palpably excited grin on her face. I wipe the sleep from my eyes and mutter my good morrows to them both groggily, still not wanting to fully face the day yet.

  Cira places her hands on mine, taking them as if to pull me out of bed. “I’ve been waiting so patiently for you to get up!”

  Chou interjects in the space between Cira’s speech and breath. “Not patiently! You said you could not wait for Serea to become conscious!”

  Cira continues as if not hearing Chou. “We haven’t a moment to lose!” She tugs on my hands again to encourage me to get up.

  “Wha–” I stammer unintelligently, “What for?” I let her pull me into a sitting position but no farther.

  Cira gives a throaty, exasperated noise and Chou flutters over to me in alarm, perching on my shoulder. “Uhg! ‘What for?’” She mocks my dumbfounded question. “Only the most anticipated event of the year! The Masquerade is tonight and we have to go get. Our. Masks!” Cira accentuates the last three words by tugging on me at each syllable before she stands up.

  Abandoning my hands to dance around in the common space between our beds, excitable, manic sounds escape her. “Oooo! I have waited so long for this day so get your body moving, Crowfoot! Up and at ‘em!”

  She suddenly grips my comforter and rips it off me and my bed in one swift jerk. I scream in shock, not just from the sudden chill of the morning air against my thin nightclothes, but the surprise of Cira’s erratic behavior.

  Cira is nonplussed with my discomfort, however, and continues her tirade emphatically. “I know exactly where we need to go so all we need to do is get there. Now get dressed!”

  It doesn’t take me long to get dressed and ready with Cira “motivating” me, which is exactly what she calls going through my wardrobe and throwing clothes at me to put on. Then Cira, myself, and Chou on my shoulder leave our room, Cira leading me by the hand into the Sanctum.

  We pass by excited chattering faces in the halls and commons of the Sanctum which we call home and I am impressed by the sudden shift in energy that the finalization of exams has brought, quite literally, overnight. Where once there was an air of dread and foreboding, has now been replaced with joyous sounds of laughter, comradery, and the same palpable excitement that Cira woke me with.

  I notice some scribes carrying plain white boxes or box shaped parcels wrapped in a brown paper and tied with different colored strings, but strangely, none are opened. “What are all the boxes for?” I ask as we leave the commons, venturing out on to campus.

  “Their masks, of course.” She trudges along at a fast clip, dragging me with her long stride.

  “But why aren’t they opened?” I huff, practically running beside her, taking three steps to her one.

  She scoffs. “Has no one explained the Masquerade to you, Serea?”

  A flush of embarrassment flashes on my cheeks. “Not really.” I state mildly, though I wasn’t totally unaware of the event that has been whispered about, primarily by Munsa, these last few weeks. I paid those things as much mind as the rest of what Munsa says, which means I ignored most of it. From what I can recall, it just sounds like a fancy party and having never attended one, I hadn’t planned on attending this one.

  Cira gives an apologetic sigh. “I guess that is kind of my fault, too.” She start slowly. “The Enchanted Masquerade is a time honored tradition at the Midnight Court. It is a formal ball with a very specific dress code in which each person in attendance must wear an enchanted mask. The mask will not only hide your face, but can change any part of your appearance, your clothing, your scent, and even your aura!”

  All too quickly, we reach the main building and even though I feel like I have sprinted all the way here, Cira shows no hints of stopping.

  “That doesn’t make much sense,” I complain to her as we start up one of the long winding staircases. “But you said this was for a party. If you can’t tell who is who, how are we supposed to have fun with our friends?”

  Cira just rolls her eyes at me. “Where is your sense of adventure, Serea? Not knowing is the whole point! Even all the faculty will be in costume at this party! You don’t have to worry about who you are talking to, you can just be yourself.”

  I nod slowly to Cira as if I understand. I know Cira well enough now that it wouldn’t do any good to tell her that I’m always myself and I don’t need a silly mask to do that. So I stay silent as we close the distance to our destination; Magistrate Y. Nightshade’s office.

  Upon seeing the open office door, Cira pulls me along with a sudden burst of speed. “Come on! There’s not even a line!” Cira giggles as she bounds for the door with her long legs while I desperately try to keep up. When we finally come to a halt in the office, I catch my breath, hands on my knees, heaving all the while. I spare a glare for Cira, who is not even winded.

  Magistrate Nightshade’s office is still the pinnacle of organization and cleanliness. Mistress Yevvena, herself, emulates this in her stately blue and white robes, which billows as she stands and approaches us from her desk by the large window on the opposite side of the room.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Ah,” She starts in her usual, gentle melodic voice. “More scribes have come for their masks, I see.” Her welcoming smile takes us in with a keen glint in her eye, but all I can do is nod through labored breaths.

  “Yes, please!” Cira answers enthusiastically.

  Mistress Yevvena’s smile widens at Cira’s eagerness and, nodding for us to follow, glides to a side room I had not noticed before. “This way then.”

  She leads us to a cramped closet filled with nothing but boxes wrapped in the same, brown paper and colorful ribbons that I saw other scribes with. It is a small space with three rows of boxes stacked on top of one another at least six high, sometimes more, and ten deep. With all of these and the four of us, including Chou of course, the space seems even smaller still.

  Mistress Yevvena turns to Cira, telling her to come forward and think about all she has faced in this term and all she hopes to accomplish in this and the years to come at the Court, and beyond. Once Cira’s excitement has abated, the Magistrate deems her ready, muttering an unfamiliar incantation while waving a dowsing rod over Cira’s head. Where did she pull that from…, I wonder as I watch the spell take form over and around Cira in a yellow-gold hue.

  The color dissipates slowly as it settles on Cira’s head and shoulders like a dusting of snow in the Shiver. They illuminate on her in tiny sparkling droplets where they settle before they are slowly absorbed into her skin and clothing alike. After a brief moment, a softly glowing orb of condensed yellow-gold energy suddenly appears in the space on Cira’s forehead between her eyes. It hovers there for a moment before a beam of light extends from the orb to the leftmost stack of boxes.

  I gasp and I hear Chou at my ear do something similar. Cira does not have the same, hesitant reaction as us. Instead she lunges toward the pile, obviously having waited for this moment so long, and searches for the box with a matching yellow-gold hue. It isn’t long before she brings out a softly glowing box, the triumph and awe plain on her face as the energy slowly evaporates into the air.

  The Magistrate gives a soft chuckle at Cira’s enthusiasm. “Very good, Ciradyl. Enjoy this night. You deserve it after all your hard work.” She then turns to me as Cira moves past me and Chou to give me room in the close quarters.

  I look at them both dumbfounded and Cira gives me a little push toward Magistrate Nightshade. “Come, come, Seretra. Don’t be shy.” Mistress Yevvena coos at me in her soft, slurring tones. In truth, I am still not certain that I even want to go. What would I do at a ball anyway?

  It’s not like I was ever invited to social events growing up around Tranmere. Especially not after angering the tiny princess, Liddy, who seemed to make it a personal goal to keep me far and away from any of the other kids around our age. I don’t know how to dance, or make small talk, or even know what else it is people do at balls!

  But I see the excitement in Cira’s eyes and I know this is something she is truly invested in. How can I say no to such an earnest desire for me to share this experience with her, even if we won’t know what the other will look like. In response, I step forward to where Cira had stood just moments before and glance up to the dark and beautiful face of Mistress Yevvena.

  Her comforting smile is infectious and I can’t help but mirror the expression, if shyly. “What a lovely familiar you have.” She intones, gesturing to Chou on my shoulder.

  “...familiar?” I ask, confused, “Is that what she is?”

  “If she is not then I would have many questions for you both!” Her tone is still light hearted, but there is a hint of sarcasm to it. “What is her name?”

  “Chou.” I state plainly, but try to keep the worried edge out of my voice. As if in greeting, Chou gives a happy trill while fluttering straight in the air and floats lazily back down to sit on my head.

  “It is nice to meet you too, Chou. Will you come perch on me while I perform my little spell?” She asks politely, addressing Chou directly.

  “Breeeee!” Chou flutters once more in excitement, launching off of my head and up to the Magistrates shoulder.

  The Magistrate then takes out the dowsing rod from one of her wide billowy sleeves and tells me to think of all the same things she asked Cira to ponder.

  I close my eyes and think of all the people I have met and all the classes I have taken. Cira, Munsa, Wen, Vesa, Fara, and all the professors I have learned from along the way. And Calas, of course. I think of all the creatures I’ve fought and all the knowledge I have gained; the Beast of the Eldwood and I guess Greyson might be counted as a creature. I still really wonder what happened between him and Calas last year. I think of all the secrets I have told and all the secrets that have yet to be revealed. It is a sobering thought and the voice of what I think to be the Morrighan comes to mind; a haunting cacophony of vibrations with meaning that shakes my very bones.

  I shiver as can almost feel that familiar sensation, but instead I hear the unfamiliar incantation in the calming murmurs of Mistress Yevvena. It is surprising to me that the light sprinkling of mana on my skin actually does feel like snow. It tingles as it melts into my skin. I swear I can feel it being absorbed by and coursing through my body like lightning through the clouds to a central place on my forehead.

  The energy consolidating there is like something physical in the space between my eyes. There is a brief moment of discomfort and at first I think something might have gone wrong, but I know from witnessing this spell, that it is just incorporeal energy. I feel it twitch, like a tug on a rope and suddenly I am aware of something connected to me.

  Only then do I open my eyes to find a purple huen beam of light, not a yellow-gold one, radiating to a pile of boxes on the rightmost aisle. I follow the beam down the line to the very back of the closet space and have to move several stacked in the column before finding the box with the same purple aura. As I pick it up, I dust it off as it looks like it has been back here, largely untouched, for a very long time.

  Package retrieved, I walk back to the others, the spell’s energy dissipating and fading from me. I feel it leave my body like a sigh. When I glance up with my prize, Mistress Yevvena has an odd, puzzled expression as Chou flutters over to me.

  She lands softly on my nondescript, brown paper wrapped package with black and white string tied in a bow. Her winds flutter there in place in an excited rhythm and I give her a smile before turning the same smile to Magistrate Nightshade. Maybe it will help put her mind at ease from whatever has unnerved her so suddenly.

  She nods gracefully to me, seemingly coming back to herself. “Please enjoy yourself tonight, Seretra.” Her voice, while still soft and lulling, has an odd twinge to it that I cannot place and I return her nod as we exit the tiny space.

  Cira and I bid her goodbye, Chou giving her a spiraling trill, before we make our way back to the Sanctum. When I woke this morning, I was not too keen on the idea of going to this event, but after finding this box of mystery in my hands, my enthusiasm now matches Cira’s as I feel like another kind of magical journey has begun. This one feels fun, for once!