Fairies of all shapes and sizes scurried across the well-maintained courtyards. The sweeping halls, which were once an impregnable fortress of despair and Fomorians, were full of love, laughter and childish gossip. Teachers and students waved to one another as they organised materials for the next period. A bell toiled from the bell tower. A stampede of students left their classrooms to hurry to the next classroom. It was a roulette between the primary staff– Shirley Kingsley, Lilith Kingsley and Oxley Kingsley. Occasionally Headmaster Arthur Sheehan taught students, young and old, about the proper care and handling of Nightmares; a humble life for the hero he was in his youth.
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“IT’S A FIGHT!” Someone shouted.
Students and teachers alike, hurried to the window, pressed against the glass to watch.
Down in the courtyard, at the edge of the cobblestones was Genevieve in her pink dress. Her arms were folded. She glared at a hooded figure in the gateway as the bridge was raised. The hooded figure was short. It was impossible to tell if the hooded figure was male or female at a distance.
“State your business!” Genevieve shouted.
The message of the stranger’s arrival came to her by a letter affixed to the leg of a Nyx, not to Sheehan. Which confused her.
The hooded figure recognised Genevieve’s voice and ran towards her.
“It’s really you! I don’t believe it.” The hooded figure said. The stranger was female. “Genevieve?”
Genevieve threw her arms around the figure. The figure’s hood fell to reveal a raven-haired woman. The students sighed and shuffled to class. They had hoped to see Genevieve fight someone.
“Suki?!”
“Gen! What happened?”
“What happened to me? What happened to you?”
The last Genevieve saw of Suki was a coach thundering across the marsh and off the bridge. Suki screamed for someone to save her. Her tiny fists pounding against the glass. The coach broke apart as it hit the water. Genevieve was frozen in shock, surrounded by the corpses of the Ebony Knights and Bishops as she helplessly supported Eden’s limp body in her arms and then…the fire that haunted her nightmares.
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“Oh you mean this?” Suki ran her fingers through her raven hair, “Don’t you remember when the cauldron blew up? Half of my hair fell out. I hacked the rest of it off.”
Worse could have happened than this dappled scar on her face. Genevieve thought with a sigh of relief. Students were always sent to the infirmary whenever their charms backfired. If anyone could kill themselves with a simple charm, it would be Suki. Suki was appalling with mana as a child.
“Keep your Sigil hidden.” Genevieve whispered. “Tell me what you’ve been doing with yourself.”
Suki caught a glimpse of her sister’s Sigil as Genevieve moved aside. It had changed from an Ebony Pawn to an Ivory Pawn. Suki had a Sigil in the exact same place.
“After all of…that…” Suki gulped. “Is Eden still?-”
“Alive? Yes. He’s safe and free. Thanks to Arthur.”
“Arthur? Ha! You did end up with a wrinkly old man after all.” Suki snickered. “Father would be delighted to hear that. Even from a disappointment like me.”
“No!” Genevieve was disgusted that Suki suggested such a thing. “Arthur Sheehan.”
“I guess it is true what they say about Sheehan.”
“What have the Fomorians been saying about him?”
“It’s not just the Fomorians. It’s the Fianna too.”166Please respect copyright.PENANAKJZ2mwL2vH
“How would you know what the Fianna think?” Genevieve quirked a brow upwards.166Please respect copyright.PENANAPWXz061FTW
“I’ve been travelling.” Suki shrugged.166Please respect copyright.PENANAgJN4pbKewc
“Please continue.”166Please respect copyright.PENANAoQiJp2iNba
“That he is the most powerful man in the realm. A real swell guy. A grandpa type. Which is strange since people like him usually don’t live very long. Whatever. Can I see Eden?”
“Eden is on hall monitoring duty at the moment.”
“He’s helping people?” After what the Fomorians did to him? Suki could still hear his screams.
“He mostly keeps to himself.” Whenever she looked at him, Genevieve remembered the way Eden’s flesh and bones dissolved. The Bishops shouting curses as the child writhed in pain. Vita Loquitur may not have been able to bleed, but that did not mean that they could not feel pain.
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“I need a shower. I smell like bog water. We can talk later.” Suki grumbled, yawning loudly.
Her whole body ached from countless nights without sleep. She was soaked with mud and marsh water from her trek to the castle. Unlike the other castles that were fortified by sheer cliff faces or legions of soldiers, the beauty of the marsh masked horrors that grown men ran from. Like the dreaded Will-O-Wisps. Fairies, in the forms of balls of light. Attracted by extreme sorrow and anger. Elliot had tried to drink himself to death when his wife died. Genevieve remembered singing all night to keep the Will-O-Wisps from whisking herself and her father away. By day she would use charms to restore her ragged voice for the next night. A lady did not need to speak. That was what her father had told her. Today, there was not a Will-O-Wisp to be seen in the marsh. Sheehan’s diverse students and faculty radiated nothing but happiness.
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Genevieve showed Suki to a spare room and then went to see the Headmaster about enrolling Suki. Sheehan had a right to know that another Fomorian Pawn had returned to kill him. It had always been a task and a half to get Suki to speak and now Suki would be overwhelmed by the changes and lash out at someone. Granted, the changes in their lives had never been positive. When Suki was left to drown in the moat, the castle was run down. Their late mother’s flowers devolved into weeds and choked out every other plant. Finally, even the weeds wilted and died like the chance the sisters had of living normal lives. Or so they were told by the Fomorians.
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Meanwhile, in Arthur Sheehan’s office, the elderly silver haired human sat behind his desk with a quill in one hand. He penned an important letter to both of his co-founders. When he first stumbled into this world, two Silver Tongue women befriended him and travelled with him until they found dreams of their own to pursue. Every once in a while, Sheehan sent them and their children a cordial letter and a sum of stirle and gilda to let Amanda Chikyū and Esmeralda Valentine’s children know that he was thinking of them.
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