Amora had woken up with a jolt because she had had a nightmare where she saw Lesley die in seventy different ways, all by those shifting demons that had killed Louisa. She had tried to wake up but it seemed like she was tied in some sort of dream warp that kept happening over and over again. Now, she was awake and she was sweating profusely even when cool breeze entered her room. She reached for her back pack and took out her phone to stare at the home screen which was the picture of herself, Louisa and Lesley on her birthday. She stared at the screen as hot tears began to fall from her eyes. She could only hope Lesley was doing alright and maybe one day she would be able to forgive her for leaving her behind.
Amora could hear water movements coming from outside. She stood up and walked to the window, slowly adjusting the blinds, the cool breeze of the night hit her face. The moon was full and she felt some sense of connection with the full moon. The reflection of the moon in the stream behind her was what caught her eye. She had never looked out her window since she arrived and here she was staring at flowing water behind her window. She tried to trace where the mouth of the stream was but found that it came from a rocky fountain. The sight was enchanting as she could see fireflies dancing around or so she thought.
She saw a figure walk to the stream and from the looks of the figure, the person was female and she began to take off her clothes to take a bath in the stream. Amora withdrew her head into her room and laid on her bed. A soft song, just the one she had heard in her dream of the baby in a cot just some nights ago before she found herself in this mystical land, began to play in her head, sounding more and more familiar to her. She could feel a sense of connection and peace of mind as the song continued to play in her head. She began to hum softly to the song, slowly falling back to sleep, this time , a dreamless one.
Amora woke up again at dawn, but this time to the violent sound of Lady Sereia's knocking on her door telling her to get up and start preparing her things for her first day at the learning halls. Amora grumbled at the fact that she had to wake up early not only in her human realm, but also in this plac
e. She started the preparation with a few workouts and a peep out to see the stream as the sun was rising and it was the most enchanting sight with small flower bushes around it. She had a quick bath in the weird bathhouse and was ready for breakfast in no time. She noticed that the house Daeva reverenced their matriarch Grandma Eluid Daeva so much that they had to wait for her to come sit at the table before starting the meal. Amora thought it to be an absurd and unnecessary thing to do. She also noticed that the table extended anytime anyone joins the table, and they usually sat in hierarchy of parents and children, while she sat close to Grandma Daeva. The same spot beside Easton, was empty again and she wondered who was supposed to be seated there.
"Perhaps it's his late wife" She thought to herself as she ate her strange but deliciously satisfying breakfast. She left the table back to her room to dress up properly. She wore her usual cropped hoodie and joggers. Amora noticed that the birthmark of interlocked diamonds on her lower back to waist was more obvious now like she inked it. It had always been there but it was faint like the regular everyday birthmark you'd see on anyone, but hers looked like it was tatted again for it was bold.
"Hmmmm! Pretty strange" she said as she looked at herself in the mirror. She was still checking herself out when Bloom came in, breezing in with scents of flowers around her. Bloom was wearing a green long sleeved gown. The gown was long and had golden threaded necklines and hem lines. Her hair which wasn't it's original pink color but slightly yellowed, fell to her back in lazy curls.
"Do you just love green clothes?" Amora asked her when she saw her waltz in carrying a brown leather sling bag that Amora just decided was Bloom's school bag. "I love all colors but green is the most loved" Bloom smiled as she twirled for Amora to see her gown. " I can see you are without your cape" Amora was packing jotter and pen for her first day in the said mystical school.
"Your hair, it's yellow" Amora noted the weird color of Bloom's hair.
" Oh, I helped a dying sunflower get back" Bloom started talking about how her day had started from her home. Amora didn't know how to stop Bloom from talking, Bloom yaked on and on , which made Amora slightly pissed but happy , because she thought of Lesley who would always talk about her realm detector.
"What's a cauldron test?" Amora asked Bloom amidst her chattering. Bloom swallowed her last statement and stared at Amora with a guilty look.
"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" Amora asked as she tied up her shoelaces. She sat on the bed and waited patiently for Bloom to answer her question.
" Well" Bloom started to speak with a really high pitched voice. Amora knew that kind of voice , she knew it as the lying voice. Lesley used it anytime she wanted to lie about something. "Hey Bloomie, don't even try lying to me alright? I know you were about to do that" Amora wore a frown that scared Bloom a little bit.
"Alright Alright, I'll tell you but you have to swear not to act on angry impulse" . Amora made a swear with her pinky finger and then Bloom began to talk.
"The cauldron test is uh, a kind of spell that proves the authenticity of something or someone. You know when someone brings a fake object or is an imposter, the cauldron test is used to prove that." Bloom stopped for a while to look at Amora's facial expression but found nothing but blankness there.
"So they thought I was pretending to be one of them? What the heck?! My mother died and I ran off , finding this place , leaving my friend behind and all they think is I'm fake? Jeez! I knew it was something they put in that honey drink" Amora spoke calm angry words which was a surprise to her. The song she had heard in her head was still playing and somehow, it was calming her raging nerves down and she was talking as calmly as ever.
"Honey mead" Bloom corrected.
"Yeah whatever, my point is, I never chose to be here, I really do want to find what brought me here, my mother's killers and go back to my world, have a nice graduation and enjoy college life with my best friend"
"I'm really sorry Amora, but you see, the house Daeva have had three tricky Goblins disguise under the identity just to loot the family of their wealth and the last one was the worst. He tried to shrink the house and make it the most prized of his doll house collections. Please don't be mad, it makes me sad and legend says when you are angry on the first day of going to your learning hall, your day will be jinxed with the inability to learn and you'll be angrier before the day ends"
Amora had a sarcastic laugh to what Bloom had just said. " Listen to me Bloom, I am very much used to being angry, I express myself better when I am angry and for some weird reason I seem to be calm" Amora said, brushing her hair with a brush she had found in the room.
"Your Chambers looks quite plain Mora, you haven't designed it yet? The grey color is so not full of life" Bloom changed the topic as she dropped her compliment on Amora's room which was truly plain. "Er,well, I was thinking maybe we could visit the grand square and get some paint and other things" Amora replied. Bloom stared at her like she was talking nonsense.
"We don't use paint or should I say we don't actually paint our Chambers?" Bloom had her annoying cheerful smile on now. "How then did you color yours? Besides this room looks bigger than I saw it last night" Amora was beginning to think that the house Daeva was really weird. "You know I think, it should be called Daeva Manor not house Daeva, considering the weird things in it, the floating chairs and tables, growing room, dancing mop sticks and all" She added.
"We use our inner energy to manifest our chambers into what we desire. I manifested a rose swing to my chambers" Bloom explained but Amora wasn't getting what she meant.
"Every Mystian has the ability to manifest their chamber looks and you are a Mystian, so you can manifest your chamber into what you want it to look like" she added.
"Bloom, Ulanni, it's time to leave for the halls now" That was Grandma Daeva's voice calling out to them from downstairs.
The two girls grabbed their things and left the room. " You really need to get new clothes" Grandma Daeva said when she saw what Amora was wearing.
"There's nothing wrong with my outfit, these are pure designers and I won't trade them to dress up like dweebs" Amora said to the lady who didn't understand what designers and dweebs meant.
"This is Mister Gilly Anemone, Bloom's father, he'll be taking you to the halls and helping you get enrolled" the older lady said.
"Greetings Sir" Amora greeted. She noticed that Bloom had taken her father's features except the hair. Gilly's hair was a dark green and that made her wonder if the people here had really weird hair colors. Bloom's hair had returned to it's original pink color now.
" Greetings to you too Ulanni, I must say you look so much like Lady Aura and I'm charmed to finally meet you" the man said. Amora returned the warm smile to him.
" My carriage is outside girls, we should leave now" he said. Grandma Daeva hugged and kissed Amora telling her to be on her best behavior and make new friends and most importantly, focus on unlocking her fire elemental abilities.
The carriage, wooden, but covered in flowers, was drawn by two white horses. The ride to school was rather chatty as father and daughter filled her in on what to expect at the halls.
" How do you feel Ulanni?" The man asked.
" Uh, I honestly do not know how I feel" She replied with a sigh.
..........
The learning hall was a huge brick building that still looked like a castle instead of a school. It had a rocky fountain in front of it and the sigil in embedded in it's walls was an owl. Different people walked in and out of the hall wearing clothes that Amora considered as really archaic. Parents dropped their wards with horses and carriages carrying their family sigils. Amora knew the students were whispering about her outfit and could clearly tell she was from house Daeva due to the birthmark on her lower back which was visible because she was wearing a cropped hoodie. Amora heard a twinkling sound and then a smallish woman appeared in front of them, startling her.
"Greetings Mister Anemone" The lady greeted. " Greetings to you too Siggy, this is Ulanni Daeva and here is a note from Grandma Daeva" He handed the lady a small paper that had some writings on it. The woman looked at Amora and Bloom and then smiled at Amora.
"Hello Ulanni, welcome to Vadina and welcome to the learning halls, I'm sure we'll brush you up in no time. Come with me, the Mistress of the hall will see you now" The lady said to Amora.
"Bye papa" Bloom said to her father who walked back to the carriage.
Bloom was ordered to stay outside while Amora was led into the chambers of the said Mistress of the halls. The chamber had shelves of books here and there, a large wooden table and two chairs. The small woman asked Amora to sit while she waited to be attended to by the halls mistress. Amora sat patiently, busying herself with redrawing some runes she saw on the wall, down into her notebook. A woman with blue skin and black hair entered the chamber, she was wearing a grey colored gown and she had piercing green eyes.
Amora couldn't take her eyes off the blue woman who made her way to her seat, Amora then knew that she was the Hall's mistress.
"And you must be Ulanni Daeva" The lady finally spoke. "Uh, um, yes yes I guess" Amora stuttered still staring at the lady's blue skin. The lady noticed that Amora kept staring at her skin's color and then decided to thrill her by making the blue skin disappear and her skin looked just normal.
"You seem to be distracted Ulanni, and your grandma says in her message that your energy is blocked" The woman spoke with an air of strictness and care that made Amora feel comfortable and nervous at the same time.
"I really don't know if I have any magical energy to begin with" She responded.
"Very well then, you'll be joining your age grade in their lessons but I'll have to make half your lessons to be taken at the beginners hall" The lady said and handed Amora a scroll that had all of her lessons written on it, with this ,she dismissed Amora.
Amora stepped out of the chambers, into the hallway and saw Bloom who now had green hair trying to stop a flower in a pot from dancing.
"Let me guess, you did something to that plant and now it's dancing and your hair turned green" Amora said with a laugh.
"You got it Mora and now I've got to stop it from moving before any tutor sees it. We aren't supposed to use our powers within the walls without the presence of a tutor" Bloom explained as her hands and eyes kept glowing and suddenly, the plant stopped dancing just a few seconds before a tutor wearing a silvery armour passed.
"That was close" Said Amora as soon as the man was out of sight. "He is the defense tutor for our age grade" Bloom said. Amora explained all that the Mistress had said to her in the chambers.
"Why is the Mistress blue?"Amora asked.
"Well, she's a halfling, you know just like your cousin Linetta and Lady Olette" Bloom stated. "What are halflings?"
" They are either half vadinian half elf, half vadinian half pixie, or half vadinian half fairy. Some people from here, fall in love with pixies, elves, fairies and they do meet to procreate, giving rise to halflings. They are called halflings because they get half of each parents powers but never full. The Mistress is half pixie and pixies are blue so, her skin turns blue sometimes" She explained to Amora who couldn't believe what she was hearing,she had always thought pixies, elves and fairies to be smaller but the other day with Alebelly, she had seen the fairyman increase his size.
"Linetta and Lady Olette are half fairies, although Lady Olette's mother was like us and her father was the fairy, Lady Olette has the fairy powers of nature and sometimes high manifestation but Linetta doesn't have those, she rather has wings that appear and disappear and witch powers. Unlike usual fairies who always have their wings on, Linetta can make hers appear and disappear" Bloom explained further.
They continued walking farther into the learning halls and Amora could hear other people whispering about her outfit but didn't mind it. She saw a group of redheaded females who wore similar gowns but with different colors .
"Those are the fire elementals of our age grade, like you, they are from noble families and are so full of themselves, well you are not full of yourself"
They walked on and Amora saw a group of some other Mystians who had silvery and greyish hair mingling with some other Mystians, but only of them caught her eyes and he was the one in the middle, he appeared to be the leader of the pack. His silver hair was long enough to touch his shoulders in lazy curls and his sharp blue eyes met with hers. For a moment, Amora thought her heart skipped a beat for this gorgeous specimen in front of her, immediately her head began to compare this silverhaired guy and Darren.
"Hello, twinkle twinkle Amora star" Bloom snapped her fingers in front of her, bringing her out of her silly thoughts.
"Who is that?" She asked Bloom as she stole glances at the guy. For a moment, she thought he had smiled at her but she turned around to see that he was smiling at one of the red headed girls they had passed down the halls.
"Oh you mean him over there?" Bloom pointed at the guy's direction. Amora noticed that Bloom was also drooling on this particular person.
"Woah! Little Miss Bloomie woomie has a crush" she joked.
"What does that mean?" Bloom asked.
"Well, it's a term that means liking someone from afar without getting the nerves to walk up to them".
"Well, yes I guess you can say that, I and my best friend had a bad split because she went ahead to kiss him even when she knew I was hoping to be with him" Bloom said sadly.
"Ooh I'm so sorry about that" Amora truly felt sorry for Bloom, knowing how hard it was for her to be away from her own best friend but definitely not because of some boy.
"He's Aenon Asturias, water elemental and please don't tell me you have eyes for him too" Bloom sounded like she was begging Amora not to like him.
"Oh no, I was only uh, curious about him, that's all" Amora quickly lied.
" All water elementals are seductive, quick warning" Bloom said as she dragged Amora off to their first class, which was potions. Amora felt nervous, but made up her mind to blend in and also learn in this weird education system.