Lilith played with the knob on the dresser door. “My aunt is Headmistress of Calami. Sidonia Sinclair. She is the reason I could transfer from Dragunreach and enter Lynoria at all. I earned my place here, though,” Lilith finished, her voice hard.
Seren nodded. “I know you did, Lilith. I likely wouldn’t have made it through the final task if not for you. You’ll hear no argument from me.”
Lilith chewed the inside of her cheek and seemed to come to a decision. “You can call me Lily. All my friends do.”
Seren felt a thrill run through her at the word “friend.” Besides her sister, who didn’t count, she had never had a friend.
“I’m still just Seren.”
A disembodied voice sounded through the castle. “The autumnal equinox will begin shortly. All students are to be dressed in their black uniform and ready at the grand entrance by sunset.”
Seren glanced out of the window and saw the sun was low in the sky, a burnished gold already overtaking the brilliant blue of the day.
“What’s the autumnal equinox?” Seren asked, she walked over to the wardrobe where Lily stood and took out a uniform identical to the one Lily was also holding. The other three dresses provided were dark green.
“What do you mean?” Lilith asked as she undressed.
Seren turned from her and unbuttoned the dress, the faint scent of freshly washed linen wafting from it. “I’m not from a witching bloodline,” her face warmed when she heard Lily stop shuffling around and knew her friend was staring at her.
“You’re one of the rarities my aunt told me about?” Lily asked, her voice hushed.
Seren didn’t answer. She had never been as comfortable with the term as Bella. When the legionnaires had explained what it meant, she had brushed it off, but Bella had taken it to mean she needed to be the best at magic to prove she was worthy of it.
Seren focused on dressing in her new outfit. She had scowled when the imposing woman with the cane told her pants were unacceptable.
“Your sister never wrote home and told you?” Lily asked.
Seren shrugged, perhaps Bella had, but she didn’t read those early letters, thick with excitement about her sister’s abandonment of her to come to Calami.
“The witches bring in the spring and autumn equinoxes and the wizards welcome the winter and summer solstices. We harness our collective power to usher a new season into being,” Lily explained. “Have you ever felt the call? Like something is speaking to your very soul during this time of the year?”
Seren turned and smiled, recalling the thrill of sneaking out in the dead of night and the joy of dancing with Bella under the pale light of the moon. They would grip each other's hands and spin, the air alive with their laughter until they felt so dizzy that they collapsed into the field of wildflowers next to their cottage.
The memory was bittersweet. She refused to answer the call after the passing of their father, not wanting to dance in the field while Bella was away at school. She swallowed hard at the thought of her sister. It had been an entire year since she had seen Bella. Her grief at her father’s death and her sister’s abandonment soon turned to blind anger, and now Bella would know exactly how she felt. Her sister couldn’t hide any longer now that Seren was here.
Lily smiled back, unaware of the dark path Seren’s thoughts had taken her. “That is the power of the equinox.”
Seren straightened the sleeve of the uniform she was to wear as a Calami witch. A long dress buttoned to the base of her neck, designed to hide any hint of the female form underneath.
Lily dressed in an identical outfit, down to the practical black boots peeking out from the hem. “It’s not fair that I look like a flat-chested child in this uniform, and you look like that.”
Seren hadn’t noticed the difference between them until Lilith pointed it out. The dress did curve to her form in a way that Lily’s did not, but she had always been curvier. Bella complained similarly as they grew up.
“All students to the grand entrance.” The booming voice sounded again, this time accompanied by a deep reverberating gong from the clock tower.
Purple eyes met black, and both widened as Lily grabbed Seren’s hand, dragging her out of the door and into the hallway.
They joined the other Hatchlings at the grand entrance. The air filled with a mixture of anticipation and awe. They stood in a long wide hallway with massive carved doors set at each end, one set Seren knew led out of the castle. The doors behind her, though, were still a mystery. On one side of them, a sweeping staircase beckoned them upward, while the other gleamed with rows of stained glass that glowed in the light. The high domed ceilings amplified the sound of the women's voices, echoing as the other years joined them. Seren watched for the golden gleam of Bella’s hair, but could not distinguish one blonde witch from another.
A swooshing noise sounded overhead, and a cool burst of air ruffled all the women's hair, shrieks of delight going up as decorative masks floated from the ceiling.
“What was that?” Seren asked Lily, but the other witch shrugged as she took a mask and passed it to Seren.
An older witch behind them leaned forward. “Wind sprites. We call them vestus. They do most of the kitchen work, the cleaning, and laundry.”
Seren could appreciate that. Her room might be small, but the tradeoff of not having to cook, clean, or do laundry seemed well worth it.
A hush fell over the students as a masked woman appeared at the top of the white marble staircase. She wore an ornate tignon and a full-sleeved robe cinched at the waist with a thick piece of woven fabric. Her presence was palpable, authority rolling off of her in waves. A bell pealed overhead.
