Sherry took a deep breath and then released it. “Now, what is your father’s name and where does your father work?” Butterfly opened up her cell phone, ignoring all the missed calls from her parents, and opened the contacts page. Sherry looked at it, nodding, and then looked at Elinane. “I need spotting at the entry to Butterfly’s father’s office in a place called the Plaza of the Americas.” Elinane nodded and disappeared.
She stood up, taking Butterfly by the elbow and standing her up as well. She glanced around and saw that they were starting to gather an audience, some with cell phones out, taking videos. “We have to go now. We will start with your father. We can’t have your photo end up on some missing children’s page and have the police looking for you. We have to explain exactly what happened and what is going to happen; and from what you tell me, your father is the one to talk to.” For the first time all day, Butterfly began to feel encouraged. A small smile finally appeared on her face.
Sherry gave her a grin. “That’s better.” She paused, and then continued. “Well, that’s good. Elinane is at the plaza, and she says your father is in his office, on the phone.” Sherry gave Butterfly a mischievous grin. “I bet he’s talking about you. Why don’t we go pay him a visit? Now, hang on, young lady. We are about to travel like you have never seen before.” She turned her head as if listening to something only she could hear, then reached out and ripped open a portal. Butterfly gasped as she saw her father, phone in hand, staring up from his desk, at her through the portal. A shove in the back and she darted through the portal, Sherry following closely behind.
He was quicker on the uptake than Butterfly was. “Who the hell are you?” he demanded, pointing at Sherry. Then he turned to Butterfly. “And what the hell did you think you were doing, young lady?” he shouted, pointing at Butterfly, totally ignoring their unorthodox entrance to his office.
Butterfly instinctively ducked back stepping partly behind Sherry. Sherry, just looked at Joseph Lane for a moment; then, pointing at him simply said, “Silence.” Joseph’s tirade stopped in mid-syllable. He gaped at Sherry, grabbing at his throat. He looked around his desk, grabbed his coffee cup and took a drink, and tried to speak again, only to find he was still unable to utter a sound. Sherry gave him a half-smile, and, pulling out the chair in front of the desk, sat down, gazing at the now frightened man sitting across from her. At a motion from Sherry, Butterfly quickly sat in the adjacent chair.
“Now, Mr. Lane, we are going to have a discussion,” Sherry began. “Rather, I am going to talk, you are going to listen, and when Butterfly and I are finished, then, and only then, we will talk together, calmly and quietly. And, no,” Sherry said, pointing over her shoulder at Lane’s secretary who had a phone in her hand. “Don’t bother calling security. That would just be a bother and it won’t change anything. Now, go sit down and don’t bother us again!”The secretary dropped the phone, turned, and, with a shocked look on her face, went and sat down at her desk, sitting completely immobile, staring straight ahead.
Sherry turned back to Joseph. “My name is Sherry Martin, and I am who the internet and news media calls ‘The Witch of New Orleans’. You can look me up on the internet and see the videos, and see the school that I’ve established.”
“Now, as to what has happened today, one of your daughter’s classmates, the leader of a gang in what passes for a school you send Butterfly to, tried to kill your daughter in the school hallway.” Lane’s eyes widened at that, and he turned to stare at Butterfly, who nodded affirmatively. “She defended herself. Afraid of what would happen next, she fled. I was able to locate her before she hurt anyone or herself accidentally. You see, your daughter is a mage, a magician if you will. And I don’t mean a charlatan dealing in misdirection. I mean a young woman with a lot of actual power; power that can heal, power that can kill. And the thing about the power is that, without training, she can even kill herself accidentally, as well as any around her.”
Sherry looked down for a moment, then back at Joseph Lane. “I know that this is hard for you to understand, especially since you clearly don’t believe in the power, in magic. But, your daughter is definitely capable of doing big things in the future. It is my job to train her to use the power for good, to use it properly, and to use it without accidentally hurting someone. As I mentioned earlier, I, along with others, have established what is best described as a boarding school.” She held up her hand. “No, there’s no fee. We are endowed and will continue to function on the basis of our income streams and endowment. However, Butterfly will be coming with me, and there will be no argument.”
“You are going to say that I am kidnapping your daughter. That can be argued, but since she both wants to be trained. . .” Sherry stopped abruptly and turned to Butterfly. “I’m sorry. I forgot to ask you. Do you want to go to this school and be trained?”
Butterfly just giggled. Here her whole life was being turned upside down. She wanted out of the school she was in, she wanted away from her parents. The offer was being dangled in front of her like a carrot, and here she was being asked if she really wanted this. “Oh, God, YES!” she practically shouted. Joseph Lane’s shoulders drooped at the enthusiastic answer.
Sherry turned back to Lane. “All right. That’s settled. She wants to go and be trained. She has the potential to become one of the leaders as the world changes, as it faces the fact that the power that the world calls magic is back. How far she goes, what she ends up doing…well, that is ultimately up to her, but we will give her the chance.” Sherry leaned forward and looked straight into Joseph Lane’s eyes. “And that means the both of us, as well as her mother. Now, time for questions.”
With a wave of her hand, the power that held Joseph Lane’s vocal cords still vanished. He shook his head, cleared his throat a couple of times, grabbed the coffee cup and took another deep gulp, and then angrily faced the two across his desk. “What give you the right…” he began, stopping when Sherry held up her hand.
“Really, Joseph. You are an important person at this bank. You give orders and expect them to be obeyed. You are used to power.” Sherry held her hand open, and a ball of fire appeared, hovering above her palm. At a thought, it moved towards Joseph, stopping a couple of feet in front of him. His eyes staring at the ball in fright, he pushed his chair back from the desk. “This, my friend, is real power. If I so desired, I could crush this desk with a single thought. I could rip open the vault on this bank, or simply walk through all the walls and empty the vault and no one, and I mean no one could stop me. This is real power, not the false power you have which is dependent on those above you who have granted you the power you have.”
Butterfly put her hand on Sherry’s arm. “Please, Sherry. This isn’t necessary.”
Sherry sighed. “You’re right. I just get angry at people who mistreat children, especially their own.” The ball of fire disappeared. “Now, Joseph. Here is the situation. If I don’t train her, she will accidentally injure or kill someone, quite possibly you or your wife given your family situation. She is effectively a loaded, unlocked weapon pointed at those around her. She absolutely has to have the training, for her safety, for your safety, and for those around her.”
“So, what is your answer, Joseph? Are you going to argue about this, or are you going to agree, and handle telling your wife about what has happened?” Sherry asked quietly.
Joseph looked across at his daughter, possibly really looking at her for the first time in a long time. Instead of the small child he had once loved, there was a tall, strong young woman who had just defended herself against a gang. And he also realized that she had told him and her mother time and time again about what was going on in that school and he had ignored her pleas. He glanced down at his desk, at all the notes and phone messages. He sighed. Things had to change. He turned to his computer and in moments, had written a letter of permission to attend the school, and giving Sherry full guardianship over Butterfly until she turned eighteen. The now-unfrozen secretary notarize
d it, and handed it to Sherry.
Butterfly clambered around the desk and hugged her father. “Thanks, dad. It’ll be fine.”
He nodded back, tears forming in the corner of his eyes. “I do love you, you know. I didn’t always show it, but I do.”
Butterfly nodded back. Then, walking around the desk, she joined hands with Sherry as she opened a portal to the front door of Butterfly’s home, to pack and leave for New Orleans.
That afternoon, Butterfly found herself sitting on the front veranda of what could have passed as the backdrop for Gone with the Wind. The large plantation home west of New Orleans, on River Road and backing onto the Mississippi had been converted to a school for girls over a hundred years ago, and had flourished until World War II and the changes that had taken place.
Looking out over the yard, she was having a hard time accepting what she was seeing. Beneath the tall oaks and flowering magnolia trees, a black Pegasus walked among them, headed towards a white one standing with a colt. Off to the side of the building, elves were working alongside humans to set up what appeared to be a housing project. And then there were the odors; the sweet smell of magnolia and honeysuckle mixed with the mouth-watering smells of home cooking. It was totally alien to the noise and smells of gasoline and asphalt of downtown Dallas that she was used to.
As she sat there taking everything in, an older dark-skinned woman came out, followed by a young woman, apparently in her early twenties, with golden hair, clad in a workout bra and shorts, very muscular and who walked almost as if she was prowling. They walked up to Butterfly, who jumped to her feet. Reaching out her hand, the woman gently took Butterfly’s in hers. “Hi. I’m Mary Lagrone, and I am in charge of the household operations here, and that includes housing, dining, and, well, everything except teaching you how to handle your powers. You haven’t been told your room number yet, have you?”
Butterfly shook her head.
“You have been assigned to room 217, left wing. Now, I imagine that you have read a bunch of fantasy novels where they stick a bunch of girls together with a head girl, and so forth, the Harry Potter stuff. Right?”
Butterfly just nodded.
“Those are based on British boarding schools. This is not that sort of school. The reason being that we are teaching people from youngsters to, well, as old as find that they have the ability to channel the power.”
“Also,” she continued, “not everyone, as you can see, is truly human or even slightly human. We have to be able to accommodate everyone. Finally, we don’t want the sort of issues that such living arrangements can create.” She turned to the young woman standing beside her. “This is Lynda Pence, your roommate. She’s been around pretty much since we opened the facility. You have been assigned to room with her, at least for now, and she has been given the job of getting you acclimated to the school.
“As to your room; it’s a room like a college dorm. There are two beds, separate closets, desks, etc, with an individual bathroom for the two of you. If you find you are not compatible, both of you will come talk to me, and don’t let whatever is going on between you get out of hand. Now, I will leave you two together to get acquainted. Supper is at six, served family style. So, Lynda, if you’ll show Butterfly around, I have things to do.”
Lynda reached out and gave Butterfly a quick hug. Stepping back, she dropped her hands and smiled at her. “I imagine this is quite the, well, culture shock?”
Butterfly nodded, and then turned and motioned at all the beings in view. “I…well, I had no idea. I mean, I saw some videos, but, this…I mean…they are real.”
Lynda looked out across the yard, and, nodding, turned to Butterfly. “I was given the brief on how you came to be here.” She shook her head. “Yes, you had a hard time but you have no idea about the others.” She turned back towards the yard and motioned out towards the others. “The elves, the Pegasus,” she sighed and continued, “along with so many others, were trapped in between worlds, neither asleep nor awake, trapped in a gray nothingness, barely aware of passing time. Then Sherry Martin came and ripped open the seal that had closed off magic from this world, and, bam! They woke up in this time, in a world that is totally alien to what they left.”
She glanced over at Butterfly. “Think about the Stone Age villages they find in the Amazon, in the islands. Those are people still living as they did for thousands of years and then here come modern humans in planes, trucks, with their modern conveniences. The culture shock is horrible.” She looked back at those in the yard. “And it is just as bad or more so for these people. And yes, the non-humans such as the Pegasus are as much a people as we are, just as intelligent, just as willing to love, and, yes, to hate as we are.” She shook her head sadly. “And so many had to hide, creeping through the night, scavenging just to survive. Some were even killed before they could get here.”
Lynda’s eyes seemed to focus on something Butterfly couldn’t see. “In my case, I had a boyfriend. I was training for a marathon. I had just finished law school. Sherry didn’t mean any harm when she released the magic on the world. I know she simply hastened the event by a few days, but I still miss what I lost.”
She turned to face Butterfly, and stepped back. “Unlike you, the magic didn’t give me real powers to change things, to be able to do what you will be able to do some day. It treated me, along with others, differently. Look at me, please.” Butterfly turned and looked at Lynda and gasped as Lydia started to change. Her body began to warp before Butterfly’s eyes, going from a normal, although tall and muscular, woman to what would appear to be an anime version of a combination of a woman and a mountain lion. The eyes became feline; the teeth became fangs; the muscles became more pronounced; and she became covered with a tawny fur the same color as her hair. Butterfly looked at her, more amazed than anything. As Lynda stood there, the reason for wearing the workout clothes was apparent; the body changes would rip normal clothing apart.
Lynda put her arms out to the side. “Well, now you know what I am, a shapeshifter. Can you stand to room with me? I’d rather you know now than find out later.”
Butterfly looked at her, astonished at the change, and then smiled. For the first time, Butterfly didn’t feel like an outcast. There were others who were dealing with issues like she was. “Lynda, you’re beautiful.” She began giggling. “I think I am going to love being here, to be here with you and all these others.” With that, she stepped forward and hugged Lynda, feeling the fur against her skin. As Lynda hugged her back, Butterfly could feel a contented purr.
The days turned into months and the summer passed. Butterfly took her GED and got her diploma. While she was eligible to go off to college, she decided to go to finish her college degree online since she was already a junior. As to her powers, she still had so much to learn, not only about her power, but how it would affect her body.
The good thing was that Sherry and the others who were overseeing the school were bringing in so many different teachers, and so many different disciplines. One was George Running Bear, a Shoshone shaman, who had learned how to use the small amount of magic leaking past the seals, and was teaching his people’s ways of magic, which were nature-based.
Then there was Manile, an elven sorceress. She was teaching the students how to blend the power with potions. Butterfly was quickly shown that it wasn’t that the plants had any real powers beyond the normal plant-based powers humans already knew about. Rather, the plants would become avatars for what was being infused into the potion. Valerian root and lavender, each of which normally aid in sleep, could be blended with an influx of power to create a sleeping potion, with the strength varying as to how much power was infused into the potion, not the plants themselves. They just allowed the power to be anchored in the potion.
And then, there were others such as Jenny Andrews and Elaine McKenzie, who were involved and instructing those with a healing aptitude a form of healing that combined modern medicine with the use of their power to heal. Butterfly had been amo
ng several who had observed an operation in a New Orleans hospital, along with a significant number of the surgical staff, as Jenny carefully removed what was once considered to be an inoperable brain tumor from an eleven-year-old child. Butterfly was amazed at the control Jenny had, and was elated at the success of the operation, but medicine didn’t call to her like it did others at the school.
One of the most important teachers was Rafe McMahan, Sherry’s consort. A very strong magician in his own right, his powers ran to the mental, and he taught a weekly class about how to influence others, how to read minds, and so forth. He was both scary and, yet, comforting to be around. Butterfly could see how he and Sherry actually fit together, especially when they were together in the school.
The training that Butterfly found herself excelling in was in the use of the power for what would be considered military uses; the offensive and defensive uses of power. The first time she worked with the elven shaman instructors, they were astonished at her power at such a young age. Normally, the power grew as you matured, but she had a strength exceeding some of their most accomplished shamans. Perhaps it was her ability to multi-task, but she was quickly throwing up shields while actively attacking a target within a couple of weeks of beginning her training.
In the evenings, she would walk the grounds, looking up at the stars, thinking about what had brought her to this place, this ‘college’, where she could be herself. And yet, she was vividly aware of the security guards working the grounds. She’d been told that were sensors set along the far property lines where the brush was thick, while armed guards walked both the levee of the Mississippi at the back of the property and along the road. Occasionally, someone would try to sneak in or fly a drone over to see what was happening, and that would result in a very strong response. So far, no weapons had been discharged, but she wasn’t fooled.
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