“It’s stunning, like I knew it would be; my mother went here, but her telling me about it and seeing it for myself are so different. Granted, all I’ve seen so far is some of the Manor House, and what I could see walking from there to here. How about you? Marsh said you got here ten days ago… so what do you think?” she asks, standing up. “I'm going to grab some water. Want one?”
I stand with her, “Sure, we can sit in the kitchen and wait on Marsh.” I sit at the island, while she goes to the fridge and gets two waters out and comes around to sit next to me. “It's been nice, actually. It’s beautiful here, especially since the weather is so much cooler than back home. The food in the dinning hall is fucking bomb, but I haven’t really interacted much with the other students. Most started showing up yesterday and the day before, so we've been stressed getting ready for our power assessment, instead of socializing.”
She nods understandingly. Her reply is so rushed, it's hard to keep up with her rapid-fire pace. “I can’t wait to try the food! I’ve heard it’s amazing. My assessment is tomorrow, and I’m super nervous. My mom is an air witch, and my dads are fire and water witches. What were you?” She gasps suddenly, her hand flying to her heart as though startled. “I’m sorry, that was rude of me to ask!”
I panic slightly, not sure how much I should reveal, since Marsh and I didn’t discuss what we would tell people. I pick up my water and take a slow sip while I reach out to Marsh through our link.
Marsh! Are we telling people what kind of witches we are? We didn’t plan on it, but Malise just asked.
Well, the professor said that all the other instructors and staff would know, so I suppose there isn’t any point in hiding it. I’ll be there in a second.
“I’m really sorry if that came out wrong. I swear I wasn’t trying to offend you,” Malise says sheepishly. “I’ve been told I talk without thinking most of the time.”
Marsh comes around the corner towel drying his hair. “You didn’t offend us, we just weren’t sure what to tell people. Just so you’re prepared for the aftermath, your results don’t stay private, unfortunately for us. To answer your question, we are Nexus witches.”
Her face goes slack with disbelief. “Are you serious? Like the old queen of Astrexus?”
“You know about Astrexus?” I ask, surprised.
She nods. “Yeah, my grandparents live next to us, and they are from Astrexus and came here a couple years after the war. My uncle was a baby and was too small to travel to the gate when the fighting first started, so they had to wait till he was older.”
“Do you know much about what happened?” Marsh asks, pulling out the chair to my left.
“According to my nanny and paps, the queen of Astrexus, Lillianna, was an amazing leader before the war broke out. She was fair, kind, and truly did her best to take care of all the people of her realm. In the royal line, each generation has twins, and one of the twins is picked to be king or queen while the other is chosen to be high priest or priestess. The twin not chosen as the ruler is next in line to rule if anything happens, until another set of twins is born. It doesn’t matter which sibling the twins come from, or how many older siblings there are.” She pauses and takes a drink of her water, giving us a minute to process everything. This is crazy. What are the chances of us being twins given the lore she’s revealing about the royal family? Fuck, I hope we are just some distant cousins.
She sets her water down. “Sorry, my allergies are kicking my ass. I’m from Maine and all the pollen here has my throat dry as hell. As I was saying, no matter what, of the next set of twins born to either the ruling twin or the high priest, one is always chosen by the gods as the next Queen or King. Well Queen Lillianna’s twin brother Logan wasn’t happy being sidelined, but he knew he couldn’t outright murder his sister, so he slowly started making waves amongst the people. He would do little things to make Queen Lilly look like she was going crazy. I’m sure you both know that a lot of witches have more than one partner. Some get lucky and find their true circle members,others find the person or people that just fit, but aren't a true match. The queen had the most members of any known circle with five, but it's super rare to have so many. Most circles have the core and at least three. Logan only had two, which my nanny said was a huge reason he was so jealous.”
This is the craziest shit I’ve ever heard.My mind is racing; I can barely follow along with the impromptu history lesson. Through our bond I can feel the confusion and horror coming from Marsh, too.
“After a couple decades of the back and forth of Logan trying to make her people lose faith, followed by Queen Lilly trying to fix the damage, something happened to make him lose his mind, until he snapped. He began to think that if something happened to her, then he would end up king, since he was the heir. At that point, no one had seen the queen in months; everyone was told she was traveling the realm, or some other excuse to explain her absence, so when there was a grand ball announced, everyone was thrilled to finally see her again. There was a big declaration that Queen Lilly was supposed to make, except she never got the chance. After the dinner when she was walking up to her throne to make the announcement, Logan-who was walking next to her since his seat was on the dais below hers-took out a knife and stabbed her through the heart. One of her circle members was a powerful healer, but even he couldn't save her. While everyone in attendance was standing there in shock and confusion, Logan went and sat on her throne, declaring himself King. Fifteen minutes to the second after he killed his sister, he died just as suddenly. My paps said Logan’s chest started bleeding in the same exact spot that he’d stabbed his sister. According to him, there is a prophecy about the twins in the royal family and if one was to harm the other they would suffer the same fate. What's really crazy is Logan was exactly fifteen minutes younger than Queen Lilly.”
Well, fuck me. What kind of crazy shit is this? Royal twins? One killing the other? A prophecy?
August Fifteen - Morning
The annoying scream coming from my alarm wakes me up way too early, to remind me that the first day of school is today. I set my alarm for about an hour sooner than I’d normally need to be awake, so I know I only have myself to blame. I sink back down into the softness of my bed, watching the orange glow of the sunrise dance across the walls. My life has already changed so much since coming here, especially after finding out about my magic and the possibility we are related to the royal line.
Marsh and I decided we weren’t going to tell our dad about it until we find out more. We just told him the basics on the phone call we had. The professor was right, the news did travel pretty fast. No one seemed to really know how to handle the news of our magic. We are still waiting to find out what the school wants to do about our power assessments. Flopping over on my back, I go over my classes that are on a block schedule:
Monday and Wednesday I have History of Magic from 9-10am, Botany 10:30-11:30, lunch 12:00-1:00 Latin 1:30-2:30, and Elemental Magic 3:00-4:00. Typically, I’d have my corespecific classes Monday and Wednesday 4:20-5:20pm but since the school isn’t sure how to handle that, nothing is scheduled yet. Tuesdays and Thursdays will be English from 9-10am, Potions 10:30-11:30, lunch 12-1:00, Zoology of Familiars 1:30-2:30, and Mental Shielding 3:00-4:00.
No one has class on Fridays, since they give you the whole day to work on homework and projects. So honestly, the schedule isn’t too bad, and I’m actually excited for today. I’m still feeling super anxious about having to go to classes with so many new people, especially because mine and Marsh’s classes are pretty much flipped, so I won’t have him with me other than lunch and the elemental and mental magic classes. It will be the most time we’ve spent apart, but I’ve spent a lot of time with Malise and it’s going well. She is amazing and fits in great with me and my brother. We got into a routine the past few days where we would go eat in the dining hall and explore the grounds together but we have also spent a lot of time in our dorm room, playing card games, watching movies and just spending time relaxing before classes start.
My second alarm starts blasting, jolting me out of my thoughts. I grab my phone to silence it, not wanting to wake Marsh or Malise. It’s seven thirty, and I’ve been just laying here daydreaming for about half an hour. I really could have gotten up at eight and still had plenty of time to eat, take my meds, and everything else before class but at least this way I won’t feel like I’ll end up late. Dragging myself out of my bed I decide I’m going to take a hot bath to soothe my nerves, shooting off a text to Marsh to let him know before he gets up. He’ll most likely sleep until the last minute, though, since he was up late. He never sleeps well the night before the first day of school. It’s the only real sign of anxiety he ever shows.
I take my time and shave everything. Even though I just did a couple days ago, it’s starting to get prickly again. Who knows?Maybe I’ll actually end up getting lucky thanks to all this self-care. After I get out of the tub I put lotion everywhere, and slap on my normal make up; mascara, SPF moisturizer, and some tinted lip gloss. I actually like not covering up my freckles, so I rarely do foundation.
It’s also site change day so I go through the routine of changing both my sensors, putting my dexcom on the back of my left hip, and my omnipod on the right side of my stomach. My matching stickers for these are a cute cartoon bear. After that, I start packing my bag, making sure I have plenty of snacks and juice, as well as the books I need for today's classes. After double and triple-checking I have what I need, I pull on my favorite pair of ripped jeans, Bad Omens t-shirt, and white Doc Martens. I leave my curly hair down and wild, but grab a hair-tie for later, just in case.
My chest is starting to feel fluttery with nerves again despite the bath; I’m anxious about what's to come but there is also this simmering sensation under my skin like the tides are changing and I’m just along for the ride.
By the time I get out to the kitchen, Malise and Marsh are sitting at the bar. “Good morning Mags! I made you an omelet, just how you like it, with bacon and cheese.” Marsh pushes a plate and cup towards me, which I accept happily as my stomach chooses that moment to give an appreciative rumble. The plate not only has an omelet but also a sliced banana and toast with peanut butter. He poured me Sunny D to wash it all down with, which is one of my favorites.
“Thanks, Bubba, it looks great! I was starving.” I take a bite of the omelet, and as always, it's fantastic. If there is one thing my brother can do, it’s cook. Hungrily devouring my breakfast, I take in his appearance, concerned if he got enough sleep. He’s dressed in black jeans and a red short sleeve henley with black Converse. At some point, he also reshaved the sides of his redhair so the curls on top are styled in a short curly mohawk. “Are y’all ready for the first day?”
Malise gets up from her chair to take her dishes to the dishwasher. “You know, I think I actually am. I know we get taught basic magic in the lower grades but I am so excited to finally learn more about divination, and my air magic.” Her bouncy personality is infectious. She’s like a mix of Enid and Wednesday from the show. Her dress is a pink and black checkered print, layered over fishnets with embroidered spiders and platform boots. With her long black hair up in space buns, she looks like an adorable emo Barbie.
Marsh is packing up his bag on the counter, doing a last-minute double check that he has everything, like he always does. “Honestly? I’m excited too, though I would be more so if they had figured out what we are supposed to do about our Nexus witch classes. I still don’t understand what's so difficult about it. I’m sure there are instructors who can teach at least some aspects of it.” He still seems nervous, and I know normally he puts on a brave face in front of me. However, I know he always gets like this before we start anything new, second guessing everything. It doesn’t help that we didn’t really go out and meet any of our classmates since we wanted to give the news of our magic time to settle and were worried about how other people would react. I’m sure once he actually gets to class and meets people, he’ll flourish like he always has.
