On a Wednesday evening the following week, Rose sat in the library and read over Professor Laye's pamphlet for her.
He was very good about explaining things for the most part, but he still used some odd terms and words Rose didn't understand. For example, he referenced pocket dimensions as frequently as Professor Yūei. Rose could infer it was a small space, but she didn't really understand it: the concept was foreign to the girl.
So, she went to the library and looked up the things she didn't understand because she didn't want to feel like an idiot… which was depressingly easy when almost everyone else understood what was going on while she was the only one clueless.
Pocket dimensions were about exactly what Rose had assumed them to be: they were spaces created within spaces. Like someone could put a pocket dimension inside a marble, and the inside of the marble would turn into the size of an entire castle. Basically, it was a way of expanding space where there really shouldn't be any.
She also did some research into the school, surprised to find that it was brought over from the fae home world. It used to be Elder Sylvania's summer home before she donated it to be used as a Community school.
Rose learned there were four other schools, one of them even being in Atlantis.
While researching, it was almost impossible for Rose not to be sidetracked by the history of this school. Magic was so fascinating and learning about it only fueled Rose's thirst for more knowledge.
As Rose flipped through a book about the city of Atlantis, Chester and Keinan approached her. Chester cleared his throat and Rose looked up at the two, wondering what they were doing.
"Can—I mean, may I help you?"
Keinan held up a paper, and Rose noticed his normally messy hair looked twice as messier than usual. She had the urge to give him a brush but thought that might have been a bit rude.
"Want to help us with an experiment?"
Rose couldn't resist smiling back at that, recalling her experiments with Doctor Basileus. "Yeah. What's it about?"
Keinan handed her a letter that looked like a blueprint of some kind of weird plane. Its body was too fat, and the wings drawn on it were rounded. It looked more like a very obtuse bird.
"We're supposed to make a craft that can fly beside the castle."
"Like a proper plane with an engine?"
"Mother gave me some power runes that we'll use, but we gotta enchant it—and by that, I mean pick out which enchantments they gave us are the correct ones to use—and configure it ourselves. Problem is, we can't get high enough to measure the wind. We need to know how strong the winds will get," Chester explained, adjusting his cloak to make sure it stayed neat. "You can fly though, right?"
Rose nodded confidently since flying came natural to her. "Yeah. How do I measure the wind?"
"Meet us at the courtyard this Saturday," Chester instructed. "We'll bring the gear."
Rose gave a mock salute. "Okay, sounds like fun."
They both smiled at her. Keinan said, "Thank you. You're the only one we know among our year that can fly, and it's cheating if we ask someone from a higher year."
"Of course. Um," Rose hesitated, her interest partly piqued, "how are you going to enchant it? Isn't White Magic super hard?"
Chester twisted his black messenger bag over toward the front of his body and opened it up to show Rose its contents. Inside were a bunch of stones with seals drawn on them that glowed faintly.
"Keinan's mom enchanted a whole bunch of stuff for us. We only gotta pick the correct ones and apply them, which is something anyone can do. We won't use any of our magic, but simply release the magic in the stones."
Rose let out a soft 'ooo', immediately wondering if she could try enchanted rocks in potion experimenting. She hoped Doctor Basileus would ask for her help again. She felt like Doctor Frankenstein helping him, which was a lot of fun.
Maybe in the Community there actually is a job title for mad scientist? Rose thought that would be swell if that was the case, but then she remembered Keinan and Chester in front of her saying goodbye, so she pulled herself out of her thoughts to say goodbye to them in return.
...🌹...
That weekend, Rose had an early breakfast before she headed out to meet Chester and Keinan in one of the courtyards.
Both boys had many notebooks and pens scattered on the ground. Keinan sat crisscross on the ground, looking prepared to start taking notes at any moment. Chester remained standing up, holding an odd object. When Rose approached the duo, they both greeted her warmly.
"Are you ready?" Chester asked her.
She gave a firm nod before she summoned her wings and tail.
Rose stretched her wings around her and after only a brief moment of hesitation, she beat them hard against the ground. Immediately, she was launched up into the air, her feet dangling and a pleasant warmth flooding through her entire body. A smile curled her lips upwards and she looked down at Chester and Keinan.
"What do I do now?"
Chester tossed her a weird-looking black box. It had a lot of markings carved around it that Rose could only half-guess were runes.
Chester said, "Fly around the castle holding that. It'll take all the readings we need. Do five laps around for a solid average."
"Okay," Rose agreed, flapping her wings.
She flew further up, climbing high above the school grounds. She felt more wind as she flew up, but nowhere near as much as she thought she would. When she was high enough to be level with the tallest tower, she started to fly away from the school to reach the outer edge of the floating castle grounds.
She flew quickly across the fields of grass and flowers, adoring the feeling of the wind rushing over her wings and hair. More than once she had to scold herself for closing her eyes, since it was dangerous to fly blind. When she reached the end, she felt her stomach drop upon seeing the steep plunge at the very edge of the castle. She hesitantly moved further over the edge, peering down at the impossibly deep distance below. It looked like they were above the ocean, as only dark blue water could be seen below her and all the way up to the horizon.
Can I…? Rose wondered. She didn't think there were any rules against it, and she was right there. She had never seen the ocean before, and now that she had wings, surely—
A sense of trepidation filled the young girl.
What's wrong with a little peek? Rose thought to herself, then a grin stretched over her face and she dive-bombed over the edge of the castle grounds. She hurtled straight down, excitement and a sense of adventure spurring her on.
And then her entire form collided against a soft invisible wall that launched her straight back upwards. A yelp escaped the girl as she struggled to straighten out, but she fell back down onto the elastic invisible wall that once again launched her back up. This continued a few more times until Rose was sitting down on an invisible barrier and glaring sullenly at the ocean below her.
Of course there's a barrier around the school, Rose thought, feeling annoyed. But surely there's a way to leave it? I can't imagine there not being at least some kind of emergency exit.
But who would even know about such a thing? Rose couldn't ask one of the professors.
Oh, yes, Professor. I'd like to know how to leave. Why? So I can fly anywhere I want! No? Oh, too bad.
Rose rested on the barrier for another minute before she stood up. It felt wobbly underneath her feet, and she sunk into it like a trampoline. She bounced up and down a couple times before her wings lifted her back up and she returned to collecting the data for Keinan and Chester.
As she flew around the castle, though, she kept one hand stretched out above her head and touching the barrier. She had to tilt her body as she flew so that way her wings wouldn't collide into it while she touched it. She wanted a good feeling for how big it got so she didn't run into it again. It was smooth and cold to the touch, and it seemed to stretch for a quarter of a mile around the entire castle.
She noticed how the winds grew a bit fiercer closer to the barrier. Nothing was strong enough to cause an issue in her flight, but it was certainly a far cry from the gentle breezes that blew through the courtyard.
Did the barrier serve as a buffer against the wind? That would be a logical conclusion, but how was it doing so? Did it create drag and friction on the other side? Does it even slow the castle down, or does magic make the winds bend away from the barrier? How? What did magic look like under a microscope?
Questions popped up and wiggled in the back of Rose's mind. The library had always been decent enough to answer her questions, but would it have the answers to these? Or would it keep parts of the castle hidden for the sake of safety, so students couldn't find loopholes?
Rose knew herself well enough that if she was able to find a way to temporarily leave the castle and fly around, she'd probably do it, against school rules or not. It would stand to reason that certain parts of the castle be kept secret from students, so they couldn't do exactly that.
Which Rose thought was a shame because she really wanted to see the ocean, but she could understand it.
After five laps around the castle, Rose returned to Keinan and Chester, handing them back their box. Chester took it and poked it a few times, his sharp green eyes looking at the numbers it projected. "Huh. Says you stopped for a little bit, did something happen?"
Rose flushed. "I hit the barrier."
"The bubble?" Chester inquired. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Rose said confidently. "I wanted to see the ocean, though."
"You can ask a Professor to fly around the castle," Keinan said. "You can't go out by yourself because it's dangerous, but if you ask for permission, a professor will usually accompany you, or send a knight."
Rose's brow rose in surprise. "They let you leave?"
"It's not really leaving," Chester responded. "But we do have some bigger students that need more flying room than the castle can provide. Your knight is a thunderbird, so she's probably flown out of the castle a lot. Ask her about it."
"I will, thanks!"
Keinan waved her off. "No need to thank us. You really helped us out today. If for some reason she can't help you, let us know, okay?"
"Mn!" Rose agreed. "Ah, so what do you guys have to do now?"
"Now?" Chester repeated, a wicked grin on his face. "Now… we do math!"
"Urgh," Keinan moaned. "You're insane for liking math."
"You're insane for liking biology," Chester retorted. "To… the… library!"
"I'll, uh, leave you guys to it," Rose said, since she absolutely agreed with Keinan on disliking math.
She wasn't bad at it, but she didn't want to spend the rest of her day doing math when there was magic to study, or good adventure novels to read about. Or Sherlock Holmes to reread.
Both boys thanked her again before they gathered up their things and headed off to the library, Keinan with much more reluctance than Chester. Rose watched them leave for a bit, wondering what she should do for the rest of her weekend.
I still don't know all the hallways, Rose thought before nodding to herself. I really should learn where everything is so that way, I don't get lost and I want to give Professor Nigel his orb back.
With that in mind, Rose headed back into the castle and tried to navigate to certain destinations. There were still a couple of times she had to stop because one of the murals caught her attention and she couldn't resist looking at it for a few minutes. Her favorite picture so far was a stained-glass skylight of a magical night sky. There were planets, moons, shooting stars and nebulas. It was a multitude of colors, and when the sunlight hit it, the stars and moons glowed with an ethereal beauty.
I wonder if Neheburs have been to the moon, Rose wondered as she looked up at the window. Can dragons go into space?
She made a mental note to look up space-related things in the library the next time she went.
For the most part, that was how she spent her weekend (aside from doing homework, of course, because she enjoyed the praise Professor Nigel gave her last weekend for finishing her homework before playing). She ran into a few more students on her adventure to explore the dazzling castle, but no one joined her, which was fine.
She knew if Mr. Whiskers was there, he would have made an excellent partner.