“To send your luggage to your room. Place your bags on this platform and touch your room key on this green button,” a staff member said to my right while lifting luggage onto a five-foot-wide platform.
After they touched the room key to the luggage, it vanished.
Suddenly my duffle felt heavy. Why not let magic help?
I did as instructed and my luggage also disappeared. The staff promised it would arrive in my room. I was nervous but at least I didn’t have to lug it around anymore.
As I stepped away to let other’s drop off their luggage, faculty with wands and robes stood near people with purple lanyards, ready to assist any students who needed it.
My stomach fluttered, but this time it wasn’t anything mystical. It was only nerves.
Every soul in this castle was here to learn how to control their new powers. But more than that, for many of us, this was a new start.
I was sixteen when I got pregnant. And ever since then, my life became about Piper—taking her to dance, making lunches, braiding hair, sleepovers, heartbreaks, soccer, homework, rinse, wash, and repeat.
I loved being a mom, even as a single mom. All thanks to the high school heartthrob, Lucas, being a turd.
But it only took a week after Piper settled in at college for me to realize I had no life or identity beyond being her mom. The empty nesters at the bank told me it would happen, but I ignored their warnings. That was a month ago, and I still felt lost without the purpose of taking care of someone else.
I needed to rediscover myself and who I want to be now.
Every person in this foyer had a life before magic. Maybe some were like me; maybe people had glorious lives, or bad ones. Some, like Imogene and her crew, had lived an entire lifetime already. At McKenzie Institute, we got a second, or third, or fiftieth chance to be who we wanted.
My stomach growled loudly, a quick reminder that I needed food and rest.
This castle was my home for the next eight months. I’d have plenty of time to bask in its magnificence.
“Don’t worry, stomach, we’re almost ready.”
Nearby, a faculty member shot a white light into the air and told everyone interested in the feast to follow the light.
Like moths to a flame, we students followed the ball of light down the long hallway to two twelve-foot-tall, open wooden doors.
A woman with blue hair pushed all in her path out of the way, including me. “Thank the heavens. I thought we’d never get to eat,” she muttered over her shoulder.
The feast was grand and magical… like everything in this castle appeared to be. The dining hall roared with life. Blue mist sparkled in the vaulted ceilings, giving the two crystal chandeliers an iridescent shimmer. The floor to ceiling window at the end allowed dining students to see a lake in the near distance—a walk I already planned to make once I knew my way around.
“What a feast!” the blue haired woman said. Then, she thanked a staff member before racing to the nearest stretch of long tables with mountains of dining options.
Guess she was starving too.
“The food is replenishing. Please, have as much as you like,” the staff member said to the rest of us, and then walked back down the hall to the foyer to lead in more people.
“Heck, yeah. Look at those burgers.” A body rushed past me, and I chose to wait until most of our small group had left before moving. I never liked being in the middle of a crowd, everyone touching like a herd of cows in a corral.
A line formed at each of the six tables, and as soon as serving bowls and platters emptied, fresh food popped into existence. The thought immediately made me frown.
On my right, a man with a long gray beard whispered not so quietly to his other neighbor, “I hope they are using that magic to help starvation outside these walls, Sheamus, or we have to go full French on their asses.”
My lips tightened, as did my stomach. When Piper was five, I’d gotten fired from my job as a hotel concierge, and Lucas stopped paying child support. I dropped fifteen pounds because I had to make sure Piper had enough food. Times were tough until I scored a job at the bank.
I was lucky, and everything worked out. Many in my town, in the world, weren’t so lucky.
A red-haired man, who must be Sheamus, with a similar length beard leaned closer to him. “I heard Mr. McKenzie partnered with witches from Nathuria to take care of our world’s problems like hunger, water, and shelter.”
Even though the lines had opened up for plates, my curiosity got the best of me. I stayed to listen to Sheamus and his friend’s interesting conversation.
“I read on a blog that there’s a duplication spell they can use, but the trick is making sure they don’t overdo it. Eventually everything will circle back to waste, we need structures and systems that can handle it all.”
