by Elon Vidal
Good thing Dawn didn’t intend to get caught. She was more worried about getting the potion right than the consequences of doing so.
“We could try,” she laughed, not quite believing that she was really considering this.
She should have thought of it before!
“Try what?” Maggie asked as she appeared again.
“You need a bell,” Dawn sighed.
“What are we trying?” Maggie repeated, ignoring Dawn’s exasperated tone.
“To make a love potion.”
“Oh goodie! Is it for Elijah?”
“What? No! What is it with you two and Elijah? It’s for mom and dad.”
Maggie giggled, “Me thinks thou protest too much, young lady.”
Dawn turned to her brother, “Forget it. We are making a potion that can make ghosts disappear for good.”
With that, Maggie disappeared again leaving an echo of her laughter behind.
THREE
D awn dragged herself to the kitchen after a long night of researching the perfect ingredients for a love potion. Different books had different methods, and she wanted one that didn’t involve ingredients that were too difficult to get. Her efforts hadn’t been in vain though and for that, she was glad.
Now she just needed to get some coffee in her hands so she could start working on her video submission. Her mother was already in the kitchen and Dawn wondered how she managed to keep such hours and still look so put together. She hadn’t heard her come in the previous night which meant that she had been working late again.
“Good morning,” she said with a yawn, then stopped to consider what was wrong with the scenario.
Even before her mother opened her mouth, Dawn knew that something was wrong.
Dawn had inherited Isabel’s medium height, slim build and pale skin. That is where the similarities ended, though, which was such a shame because she would have done anything to get her mother's soft, blonde hair. Her mother wasn’t too fond of Dawn’s purple dye and the more she had complained about it, the more Dawn had wanted to keep it.
"Mom, what's wrong?"
"What do you mean?"
"You are pacing," she pointed out the obvious.
"Nothing, I'm just tired. That’s all."
“Tired people don’t pace so early in the morning, they sleep in.”
Fairies were terrible at doing anything that went against their good nature and lying was one of those things. Dawn raised a brow to say try again, and her mother quickly folded.
"I've been summoned to appear before the Council," Isabel finally confessed.
Dawn's heart skipped a beat, no wonder her mother seemed anxious. The Enlightened only summoned people when they either did something wrong or something really big was going on.
"Any idea why?"
Her mother wrung her hands and started pacing again. "I think it's something to do with the eclipse. Something about it just felt wrong, but I don't know for sure."
"Mom, you know everything there is to know about magic and weather patterns. If there really is something wrong, they probably just need your help."
“But why me? There are others much older and more experienced than I am.”
“None of them practice earth magic like you do. If Nature would listen to anyone then it’s definitely you. Who knows, maybe you could finally get that promotion you wanted.”
The pep talk worked and her mother gave her a small smile as she visibly relaxed. “I suppose you are right.”
“You could finally begin working on your endangered species program full time. You’ve wanted that for ages.”
“I’d rather not get my hopes up. They probably just want to ask a few questions, and I’m afraid that I don’t have many answers.”
Dawn drew a chair and sat down. “Define many, is there something about the eclipse that we should know about?”
Like why the thing with the dirt had happened? She didn’t ask that though, and she wondered if anyone else had experienced such a weird thing during the eclipse. Nature was unusual that way, and maybe it didn’t really mean anything since nothing bad had happened. Dawn suspected it had just been a combination of Elijah using his magic while the sun was covered. Warlocks, like all magical creatures, drew energy from the sun and there was no telling what even a minor block to that energy could do to their powers.
“I don’t know. Everything seemed normal, besides the fact that it just came from nowhere. There isn’t a being powerful enough to cause an eclipse. The sun is a large ball of light energy, and you would have to be Ra to control it.”
“Maybe Ra has come back to claim what’s his and we are all doomed to become zombies when he takes the sun away. Or maybe it was Rahu,” Dawn joked, remembering the scary stories her grandfather had told her as a kid about the demon who swallowed the sun and caused eclipses. There were no such things as demons though, maybe not in the human interpretation of the word.
Isabel laughed and tapped Dawn’s nose, “That mind of yours is always busy.”
“It’s a hard job but someone has to do it.”
“And we all thank you for your tremendous sacrifice, Miss Dawn.”
“Oh please, no thanks needed. I do it because I care for the people.”
Her mother shook her head and finally began making breakfast with the help of a little magic.
“So big day on tomorrow. Have you decided what you are going to do about the First Guard?”
“I’m still not going, but I will pass through school to wish Elijah good luck. We kind of had a fight about it yesterday because he wants me to do both.”
“Don’t take this the wrong way but just hear me out, okay?” her mother stopped what she was doing and faced her.
Dawn already knew what was coming, but it was too late. Her mind was made up.
“Being given the opportunity to try out for the First Guard is a great honor that comes once in a lifetime. You have a great destiny ahead of you, Dawn, I can just feel it.”
Dawn agreed with her mother, just not on the side she would fulfil that destiny from.
“Thanks mom, I’ll make you proud no matter what I choose, okay?”
“You always do, sweetheart.”
Dawn hoped that statement would ring true when she finally announced that she was leaving magic for good. Could one even do that?
Monday came with a lot of excitement and nerves, but Dawn was ready. She regretted not spending the rest of the weekend helping Elijah train, but they had both needed the time apart to cool off. She had finally given in and texted him the previous night, and now she was dropping by to wish him luck.
The center was busier than usual, with a lot of anticipation hanging in the air. Everywhere Dawn turned there was someone talking about the eclipse and what it might mean. Dawn wasn't too concerned. It’s the moon casting a shadow, right? And if it wasn’t, the Council would fix it soon enough anyway. That’s what they did. Her phone vibrated with Elijah's text message, letting her know where to find him.
She was relieved that he had given up on sending her spell messages, because it always took her thrice as long to respond. Making enough smoke to send a message was hard work for her, and she didn't really see the point because her phone was just as fast as a spell. Warlocks just loved showing off!
She made her way down the main hallway of the training center, trying to soak in the aura of the place for the last time. Pretty soon, she would be starting her apprenticeship at EOS and finally start doing something that she was good at. The one thing that she enjoyed about being half Fae was her ability to connect with plants, especially flowers. The work being done at Ecological Oriented Systems was groundbreaking, and Dawn wanted to be a part of that. She had long since given up the dream that her magic would ever be good enough to make any meaningful contribution to the magical community, but her botanical knowledge was good enough for the human world. She would miss this place though, and the few friends she had made here.
Speaking of friend
s, the one who leaned in was certainly going at the bottom of her Christmas list this year.
"Well, well; look who decided to join us," Anna-Maria smirked as Dawn finally looked up. "I thought you'd run off to your little program."
Anna hyphen Maria had always made fun Dawn and they were enemies of sort. The young witch really was that, a witch. Which meant her best friend had to have her back. It was kindergarten all over again, but she didn't care. She expected a bit of loyalty.
Elijah looked at Dawn with a guilty smile, and she raised a brow at him while ignoring Anna-Maria. She believed that her manners had been lost somewhere in that distance between her first names. Which was such a shame really because in any other scenario they would have been really great friends. They both had the same taste in fashion and they both liked Elijah, although in different ways. Anna-Maria probably wanted to marry him when she got older and Dawn had known him long enough to think of him as a brother. Her mom actually had a picture of the two of them in diapers, and they had been raised pretty much together.
"Can we go?" she said to Elijah, who quickly grabbed his bag and backed away from Anna-Maria.
"We were in the middle of a conversation," she declared, narrowing her eyes at Dawn.
"You can talk to him all you want after I'm gone to my little program. At least you have a shot at First Guard now that I’m not competing."
Anna-Maria gasped and Elijah grabbed Dawn by her backpack, removing her from danger.
“Oh-kay, and that is our cue to leave.”
He only let her go once they were both out of harm’s way, and they went to the Rec room, which was empty right now because everyone was busy preparing for the fight later.
“I swear I will smack all the magic out of that girl someday,” muttered Dawn between her teeth.
“Whoa there, Bruce Lee. Let’s just calm down and think positive thoughts, okay?”
Dawn took a breath and pointed at her friend, who raised both his hands as a peace offering even before he knew what she was going to say. “And you, are you friends with Anna-Maria now?”
“She was just asking me to the graduation ball, and judging from your facial expression right now I’m assuming I should say no?”
Dawn rolled her eyes, “You can do whatever you want. Just know that I only hold grudges for a lifetime.”
Elijah laughed and took a seat facing her. “Wow. That’s not a long time or anything.”
Dawn shrugged. “It’s the least I could do. Now enough about Anna, tell me what’s going on with the eclipse thing. I’m surprised we are even still talking about that.”
“No one really knows, but all the teachers seem to think it is some kind of a big deal which is making everyone nervous. And there has been a big meeting scheduled with various experts from different departments. I heard my father talking about the meeting, the Council has summoned the Djinn."
"So, it's that serious?"
The Djinn were keepers of the Sacred Texts, and no one had any reason to open those unless something really big was going on. The Enlightened were the highest point of reference on any magical matters, and if they were asking for help from the Djinn then it was definitely something really bad. Dawn had never met a Djinn in person, but she'd heard that they were not exactly invited for tea parties by anyone in the magic community. Everyone just tried to avoid them at all costs.
"I think so," Elijah replied. "I have never seen my grandfather worried before, but he was definitely on edge this morning."
Dawn almost laughed at that; the old warlock had never shown emotion in all the years that she had known him. She supposed it was part of his job description as one of the seats on the Council, the Enlightened were not exactly the smiling kind of beings.
"I'm sure everything will be fine, they have the best minds seated on the Council. There is not a problem in the world they can't solve, except figuring out how to give Halflings better powers."
Dawn added a wink to show that she was just joking. Elijah tended to get that guilty face whenever her powers, or lack thereof, were mentioned. Despite being best friends, the two of them couldn't be further apart in their destinies. Elijah came from what humans would probably consider royalty with their obsession with social hierarchy. His bloodline was full of powerful warlocks and most of them had sat on the Council throughout history. They literally studied spells written by Elijah's ancestors, and several wings in the school had his family's name.
Dawn was the exact opposite. Her father was human and in a social grading system she would be considered at the bottom of the food chain. Halflings made great warriors but had lousy magic abilities. She had always thought all Halflings could fight really well because they had some inner desire to prove everyone wrong. Her mother claimed their human side made them more fearless than fullbloods because they experienced both worlds. The reason didn’t matter now, though, since Dawn was leaving it all behind.
"I hope you are right, something just doesn’t feel right, you know,” Elijah said. “Like everyone is on edge, waiting for something terrible to happen."
"I felt it too for a while but that was probably because it took us all by surprise. It was just an eclipse, Elijah. Those are usually pretty natural last time I checked."
Even as she said it, she knew that she didn’t fully. No one makes that much fuss about a shadow, more so if it’s unexpected. But her disbelief was either her being optimistic or her having to prioritize how much drama she would have to take in. She was one interview away from getting the job of her dreams, and she didn't want a magical crisis ruining that.
"Maybe you are right, everyone is probably just anxious about nothing. It's been a long time since we've had any excitement around here after all, the Council is probably just being cautious."
“I’m glad I won’t have to deal with that anymore, can’t say I’ll miss any of this.”
Elijah scoffed. “You say it as if you can just cut all ties with magic when your mother literally has some of the strongest Fae magic around.”
She didn’t need to be reminded of that, just the thought of it made her realize how futile her plans might be and she didn’t like it. Maybe she could move in with her father and try to live a normal life as possible, but then again, she would miss having Nathan around all the time. The emotions hit her hard, and she felt overwhelmed for a second. Was she really doing the right thing? Becoming an adult who had to make big decisions really sucked.
"Dawn, your hands," Elijah said as he took a step back, pulling her out of her thoughts.
She looked down at her hands and they were glowing, just like they had in her dream. A scream got caught in her throat as she backed away. Yet the hands were hers and she couldn’t run away from them. She then figured she didn’t want to harm Elijah. The light was warm, and it formed a chord as it started winding itself around her arms.
Dawn looked up at Elijah in panic. "Please make it stop!"
"I don't know what that is! Let me go and get help."
"No don't leave me!" She protested, not wanting to be alone when the light took over.
She hoped that she was dreaming again, but this felt too real.
"I'm getting help," Elijah said firmly, disappearing before Dawn could protest again.
He was right, they needed someone who could actually do something to help and not just stand there. Dawn held her hands away from her body as the light moved up a little.
Dawn shook her head as tears started to fill her eyes. She could barely remember spells on a good day, when she wasn’t panicking, and a weird light wasn’t trying to take over her body. She closed her eyes and tried to sense it. She wasn’t feeling any discomfort. If anything, she felt a sense of calmness wash over her. She was torn between fighting it and letting it be. She remembered belly breathing. The inner pulse was really threatening.
All the panic left her body in an instant, and before she could do anything else with these new feelings, everything went black.
FOUR
D awn opened her eyes to a bright light, and she briefly wondered if she was dead. If so, the Afterlife smelled like strong detergent and someone really had to work on the lighting situation. No wonder Maggie liked it better on earth. If this was the treatment she was getting then she was definitely going back.
“Oh thank goodness! She’s awake!” her mother exclaimed, a chair scrapping against the floor just before Dawn felt a hand on her face.
“Get her some water,” another familiar voice said from somewhere in the room.
“I think the light is bothering her,” her brother’s voice joined the conversation. “She’s awake.”
The light went away, thankfully, and she opened her eyes. Three pairs of eyes were trained on her. She recognized them.
“Great, I thought I died for a second,” she said, her voice coming out as a hoarse whisper that she hadn’t fully intended.