Lauren led Abby to a large wooden building at the other side of the campus, which sat on a grassy hill that overlooked the rest of what might as well have been a small city. A lithe young woman hung up what looked to be bed sheets at a row of clotheslines off to the side. An impeccably maintained garden framed the border of the area, and wrapped around to the front of the building. Dozens of different kinds of flowers flooded the stretch, but Abby really didn’t know the names of any of them. The symphony of scents carried from the flowers to her nose immediately set her at ease.
“Willa, dear, how are you?” Lauren said, curly copper hair loosely telegraphing the breeze.
“I know ye aren’t bringin’ another stray cat ta me. Yer lastun nearly burned ‘is room, an’ ‘imself down,” Willa said, in a rapid accent Abby guessed was Scottish or Irish, without turning around to face them. She kept going about hanging up the sheets. Abby was amazed at the speed the woman was able to work, barely able to keep up with her hands as she whipped the sheets from a basket, cast them across the waiting line, and then pinned them into place with clips she appeared to keep in her stark, straight black hair. She was tall, maybe a head or so more than Abby, and looked to be in her early twenties, but Abby couldn’t be sure.
“Abigail, I’d like to introduce you to Willa Anderson. She’s a Keeper here at the Academy for Elementalists. They take care of housing, food, and other necessities for our students who live at the Academy, rather than commute.” Headmistress Corvinus, as Abby had learned she should call Lauren, said.
“Wait, live here? You mean I can stay here?!” Abigail didn’t even try to hide the excitement in her voice.
The Headmistress smiled that same comforting smile. “Surely you didn’t think we’d have you living on the streets? How would you be able to focus on your studies without a sound roof over head, and a full stomach?”
As if on cue, Abby’s stomach audibly growled, causing her to blush in embarrassment.
Suddenly, Willa stood next to Abby, bright green eyes examining her closely. “Oh, poor dear. When last did ye eat?”
Abby smiled weakly “Yesterday morning, I think?”
“You think? Three keep me!” Willa sighed and shook her head, then pointed to the Headmistress. “You an’ I will handle the I’s and T’s later.” She looked back to Abby and pulled her towards the building’s front door. “Right now, let’s get ye fed an’ cleaned up. Where did Lauren find ye, a trash heap? ‘fraid them rags are a lost cause. Well get ye set in somethin’ decent.”
Like a loose leaf tossed about in a storm, Abby was pushed and pulled around the halls of the building. The walls and doors around her whipped past as the tempest of a woman swept her in a furious cyclone. Abruptly, she was stripped of her clothes, and thrown in a large bathing chamber. She yelped in surprise, feeling helplessly exposed.
“Oh, t’won’t bite ye. That spring has been washin’ sore an’ tired bodies for millennia. Wash up with ‘em buckets there an’ soak. Just relax for a spot, an’ I’ll be back.” Willa said. Abby turned her head around to say thank you, but by the time she did, Willa was already bounding through the door to the chamber. She was amazed by the speed and purpose with which the woman could move. She found herself somewhat unconvinced that humans could move like that.
Through the blanket of steam that filled the room, the chamber looked to be divided into two sections, one with stools and buckets, and the other half with a large pool. A communal bath of sorts? It looked as though she was alone, which somewhat set her at ease. Even thinking about someone seeing her like this, so vulnerable and uncertain, made her cheeks burn.
She saw what looked to be a fogged-up mirror next to her and wiped some of the condensation from the cool surface. A wretched, soiled face looked back at her. Its features were unfamiliar at first, but then she depressingly admitted that it was her own face. Those plain brown eyes were definitely hers, as was that mess of tangled black hair. It had been probably a month since she had been able to bathe, even longer since she had seen herself in a mirror. She nodded to herself, setting her mind to the task at hand. Where she came from, if you had a chance to bathe, you took it. Usually, though, she’d have a knife or something to chase off… others. But that had been whisked away with her clothes.
She washed away much of the caked-on dirt and grime with a bucket of water from the pool. Well, one was far from enough, it probably took at least seven to clear away the worst of it. A bar of soap she found helped clear her poor skin of even more, and even help her hair start to feel, well, like hair again.
As clean as she could manage, she dipped her scrawny body into the pool. The water was impressively warm, cutting through her skin to soothe her aches. A ledge in the wall allowed her to sit in the pool with the water coming up to her chin. She sighed in relief as she laid her head back on the smooth stone wall that held the water in.
For the first time since… well a long time, she actually let herself relax. No cutthroats peeking at her from around the corner, plotting God knows what. No desperate creatures looking to steal away what little nothing she had. All that mattered in that moment was the warmth of the water. She felt much more exhausted than she would have expected, but it was probably just because she was hungry. Again, with almost uncanny timing, her stomach growled. It wasn’t an unfamiliar sound to her.
After a while, she felt she had stayed in the pool for far too long, and she got out of the pool. As she got up, she saw what looked to be a pair of towels, and something else lay next to it, beside the door where she came into the chamber. She wrapped one around her body, and the other around her head, and then examined the other article. It looked to be some kind of robe. She didn’t remember any of these sitting there before.
Suddenly Willa came bursting from the door, and started, obviously not expecting Abby to be out of the bath yet. “Three keep me, pet, suppose there were a lass under all that soot after all.”
Abby blushed and lowered her eyes as Willa led her out of the bathing chamber to what must have been a dressing room of sorts. She hadn’t noticed it before, though she hadn’t been able to notice much of anything in the whirlwind that took her to the bathing chamber. Willa looked her over, muttering to herself.
“Miss Willa?” Abigail started.
Willa visibly flinched, waving in the air as though she were shooing away a fly in her face. “Just Willa, lass. Just Willa.”
Abby nodded, hesitating as the other woman unwrapped the towel from around her head, and started carefully going through her hair with a comb. “Right, Willa... That pool, how is it heated?”
“That un’s a natural ‘ot spring, of course.” Willa said.
“So, not with magic?”
Willa snorted. “Oh, no need. ‘sides, using magic for somethin’ like that t’would be a waste.”
“A waste?” Abigail winced as the comb came to a stubborn tangle.
“Could do with a haircut, poor dear,” she said, muttering to herself. “Magic is difficult, of course. Using magic for somethin’ as frivolous as heating a bath is like baking an entire loaf of bread to only take a single bite.”
“Really? I guess that makes sense...”
Willa kept working at Abby’s hair while Abigail thought to herself. Though uneasy about being touched, she had to admit that feeling the other woman’s skilled hands at work was rather comforting. Then something came to her.
“Willa, what did you mean by the Headmistress bringing you stray cats?” she asked.
She heard the other woman sigh, but she didn’t stop her work. “Suppose I did say that. Lauren is…” Willa cleared her throat. “Well, she has a soft spot for the wayward, the abandoned, or those who ‘ave nowhere else to turn. They probably remind her of herself, since she was once so lost herself. But, that’s a story for her to tell, not me.”
“I think I understand…” And Abby did. Something in the Headmistress’s eyes lit up when she realized wasn’t a student. Now that look was starting to make sense.
“Suffice it to say that she isn’t the only one who only truly found herself when she came here.” Willa said before falling silent.
After a long while of careful combing, Willa sighed and stepped away. “Done what I can for now. I’ll have to give you a cut after you’ve had somethin’ to eat. You’ll have to live with short hair for a while, I’m afraid, pet.”
After Willa had gotten Abigail in the robe, she led her to another part of the building, though this time at nearly normal human walking speed. They came to what must have been the kitchen. Smooth stone counters flanked a stove set, and an old brick oven. The opposite wall held a large fireplace with a lazily smoldering fire, as well as several shelves that held plates, pans, and various other instruments and utensils. A large pot sat at the stove, which Willa dashed over to tend to, lifting the lid and stirring the contents with a large ladle.
Abby stood awkwardly in the door as her nose caught a wonderful array of scents, both familiar and far from. Her empty stomach roared in response, no longer content with simply growling. Whatever Willa was cooking smelled marvelous.
“Come sit, child,” she said before grabbing a bowl, scooping out some of what appeared to be stew out of the pot, and placing the bowl on one of the tables with a single stool.
Abigail sat down and eagerly grabbed at the bowl, shoveling down the contents as fast as she could. Willa just watched, either in horror, or amazement, Abby couldn’t say. She picked up the bowl, and licked it, trying to get every bit of the stew she possibly could, before setting the bowl down again. Then, as if finally catching up with her, the taste of the stew came to her in a rush. Beef and root vegetables danced about on her taste buds with an overwhelming wave of savory spices and salt proudly carrying the entire assembly of flavors. She couldn’t even begin to try and describe it out loud. It easily had to be the most luxurious meal she had eaten since…
Willa just chuckled. Abby must have made some dumb expression when she finally was able to taste what she had so ravenously consumed. “Suppose you’d like more?”
“I can have more?”
“O’ course you can, pet.” At that, Willa grabbed the bowl and filled it again with stew, before handing it to Abby again.
“Where did the good Headmistress fish yet out of, anyway?” Willa asked as she put the lid back on the well-worn pot.
“Well,” Abigail started, unsure of exactly what to say. “She didn’t, I guess. Lau—I mean, Headmistress Corvinus found me this morning after I snuck in through a door a couple of students used.”
Willa froze and turned her head around at a seemingly impossible angle. “Snuck in? Why not use your admission key?”
“I don’t have one…” Abby said reluctantly.
“Ye…” Willa started. “Dinna ‘ave a key?”
Abby just shook her head in response.
“The Three Goddess must have let ye in… but why?”
Abigail shrugged. “I don’t really know; I don’t even know who The Three are...”
“Dinnae know The Three? Child, do ye even know where ye are?”
Abby, again, just shook her head in response.
“Ye know nothin’ of this place? Avalon, the Academy? Do ye even know about Magic?” Willa said, slipping over to Abby, an astonished look on her face.
“No, not really. Well, I’ve heard stories about Avalon, you know, King Arthur and all.” Abby lowered her eyes, the intense, inquisitive look in Willa’s eyes difficult for her to bear. “And Magic, well, I’ve never seen anything like what happened with that sphere. I’ve seen street ‘magicians’, but everyone knows they are fake.”
Willa took a step back, dumbfounded, then locked eyes with Abby. “You used the sphere, did you? You passed the test? The first time you tried it?!”
“Right, yes. I could hardly believe my eyes.” Abigail cocked her head to the side. “Why? Doesn’t everyone?”
“By the Three…” Willa breathed, a look of utter bewilderment on her pale porcelain features. “No wonder you asked how the spring was heated. All of it is new to ye”
She then locked eyes with Abby. “Listen, child. This place, all of it, is a place of learning about the Arcane, the powers that make up the universe.”
“Like science?”
Willa shook her head. “Science only investigates and explains what it can see and touch. Magic is something deeper, something that cannae be explained, only understood, the hidden threads that hold our world together, and shaped her in her earliest days. Magic is everythin’, and nothin’, and all living things have a connection to it.”
“All living things?” Abby asked.
“O’ course. Everythin’ in existence is connected to magic, but life ‘as a special relationship with magic. It can shape magic in advantageous ways. It is how so many creatures are capable of otherwise inexplicable feats an’ abilities.”
Abigail thought for a moment, then asked, “So if living things can use magic… why don’t people? Why doesn’t everyone use it?”
“Some do and will never realize it. They put a kind of pressure on their environment, but it is so subtle so as to be unnoticeable, or cause them exhaustion.” Willa then came to sit at the table with Abby, pulling up a stool from some unseen corner. “But most just aren’t aware and may never be. We call them Latent. Few others choose not to use, or to forget magic. They are usually referred to as Recused.”
“Choose? Why would someone choose something like that?”
Willa smiled weakly. “’fraid I dinnae understand it myself, dear.”
Abby considered what she had heard. It seemed so simple now. “So, most people will never realize their connection… is it kind of like how people can have talents they never knew? How some people are naturals at playing an instrument, or something like that?”
“A keen ‘un, aren’t you, pet?” Willa smirked and nodded. “If’n you’ve never tried somethin’, you’ll never know if you ‘ave an affinity with it. Most people will never see real magic, at least in a way they could understand it, so they will never ‘ave that push to try an’ tap into it themselves. It also dinnae help that magic is incredibly difficult to use and control.”
“But some can without even knowing they can?” Abby asked.
“Exactly right. Some have a natural, reflexive, instinctive control that is usually awakened by some kind of traumatic event, or from a transcendent level of mastery of a craft or skill. We call ‘em Reflexives. In fact, the first magic users were metal workers who started to realize they could control their forges and without even touchin’ ‘em, pushin’ ‘em hotter and burnin’ longer ‘an they’d be able to do normally. Eventually that reflexive control became somethin’ they were conscious of, and they eventually were called here.” Willa gestured around with her arms. “We call it Avalon now, but it has had countless names throughout the ages. I’m sure you’ve heard the name Atlantis, or some other lost continent or island.”
Abby nodded her head, deep in thought about what she had heard. Somehow none of this truly surprised her. It just seemed to make sense. She hadn’t known she could do what she did with the sphere until she had done it. Which made her think of another question. “Why are you surprised about me passing the sphere test?”
Willa’s eyes snapped back to Abigail, they were harder again. A bit of that disbelief painted on her face. “Child, very, very few pass that test on their first attempt. In fact, I believe the last ‘un who did was Headmistress Corvinus herself. Most study for at least a year, some even more’n that, practicing with a sphere before they pass.”
“What does the test mean? Why is it special?” Abby asked.
“The test determines your future at the Academy. Ye see, not all students learn the same way, or can do the same things. There’s three major kinds of magic, which some call Affinities, and each needs a very different approach to teaching. This divides the academy into Factions made up of those with similar affinities. Ye must have tested as an Elementalist, if’n ye are here and Lauren brought you.” Willa suddenly shook her head, as if snapped out of a trance. “But enough of that, dear. Ye need to eat, then we’ll see about what room to put ye in.”
Abby grabbed at the bowl of stew, now likely cold, before hesitating. “Is… is it really alright for me to have this, any of this?”
Willa looked as though she had been struck. “Why would it not be, pet?”
“It’s just…” suddenly Abby’s vision grew blurry, tears welling up as her cheeks flushed hot in embarrassment. She lowered her eyes to the table.
And then she felt a pair of arms wrap around her. “Oh lass, life hasn’t been kind to ye has it?” Willa whispered as she tightened her embrace.
Abigail could only shake her head in response.
“That ends today. Ye are under my care now.” Willa said softly.
With that, Abigail couldn’t stop herself from crying. It all seemed too good to be true. She was sure that she’d wake up, and be right back in the same slum, begging for scraps, and fighting to keep the others from taking what little nothing she had. The other woman gently rubbed her back as she sobbed, murmuring “there, there now.”
As she slowly regained her composure, the older woman turned Abby’s face to look at her. “We’ll talk about everythin’ later. For now, eat as much as you’d like.”
It was the most wonderful words Abby thought she’d ever heard.
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