by Nixon, Diana
“Dear Eileen! I congratulate you on being accepted to Sheffield. You are such a clever girl! With love. Mom and Dad”.
I smiled at this stupid signature, which was written on all of her cards. If you believe each of them, for me, at least, there were about a dozen fathers, whose names I could hardly remember. I don’t know why she liked to sign her cards this way. Maybe she just didn’t want to offend her husbands, or just created the illusion of a real family. Anyway, she was my favorite Catherine. Yes, just Catherine, as mother made her feel too old to me, and she didn’t seem that old.
This luxurious Mediterranean style white villa, where I live now, belongs to my grandmother, who, since my childhood has been the only family member within hundreds of miles of me. I have uncles, aunts and numerous cousins, but as I have already said, they all live too far away.
Stephanie Mitchell was a dark-haired green-eyed and rather svelte woman over sixty. She was a real commander by the nature. That’s why she could afford to travel a lot and to buy expensive gifts for her favorite and the only granddaughter, and not to worry about the fact that funds for all this luxury may not be enough. In her thirties, she became a widow and took control of a huge shipbuilding company that belonged to my grandfather Stuart Mitchell. According to her, they lived very happily, even though it wasn’t a long life together. Later her own life changed dramatically, that influenced the formation of her iron will and qualities of a real leader. She didn’t only prevent the collapse of her husband’s company, but also managed to achieve its prosperity.
Thanks to my grandmother I never knew what a lack was not only of money but also of the infinite love, which she seemed to have tried to endow me for my entire family. And she really succeeded. The only pity was that currently, she was traveling around the countries of South America, and I was alone, just like I always was and have been most of my life.
Leaving the stack of mail on the round table in the hallway, I went to my room, where morning chaos still reigned from packing and knocking over books onto the floor. I hated it when something wasn’t in the right place, but the preparation for the trip to Sheffield slightly shifted my priorities right now. Right in the middle of the room was a suitcase that I still needed to pack. That same pile of books on the history of ancient Greece was still spread out after the morning storm. I couldn’t decide which of these books may be useful to me at the university, so I decided to take them all. I planned to study architecture of ancient and modern civilizations, and this explained my choice of literature.
“How great it would be to spend the next five years somewhere far away from Norfield, and in the company of my best friend!” I thought excitedly. Of course, I loved our little town, but the prospect of an independent and adult life was quite alluring. Again, I remembered Amanda and decided finally to find out what the secret business was that she may have without me.
Her voice mail picked up after several rings, she wasn’t answering.
“Hello, you’ve tried Amanda Fairey. Unfortunately, at this moment I can’t make you happy and answer, so leave a message after the beep. I’ll be sure to call you back.”
I didn’t like it. At all.
Amanda used voice mail very rarely and, as a rule, that meant that she didn’t want to talk to someone. In this case, that someone seemed to be me.
A strange shiver ran down my spine at the thought that something really serious could have happened to her.
My premonition never cheated. But for the lack of opportunity to find out at the moment what all that secrecy could mean, I started to pack my clothes and belongings again.
Chapter 2. Dever (Christian)
For hundred thousandth time I gazed into the eyes of a girl in a photo. It was sent by Amanda, my beloved sister, who couldn’t understand my passion to print photos.
“You're behind the age, Christian! For nearly half a century, no one sends pictures via regular mail, everyone uses the Internet. Have you ever heard about such a thing?!” she exclaimed every time I asked her to send me some of her latest photos.
It’s my third year at Dever - a private, closed university in the Cumberland Mountains. It is closed, because of the fact that no ordinary people are allowed to study here. Students are invited to Dever when their time comes to learn what is hidden in the depths of each of them.
I received the invitation two years ago, just after graduating from high school, I was going to choose a University for further education. The invitation came the day of my eighteenth birthday. As it turns out, all the students are invited to Dever at eighteen years old. It’s believed that at this age they are ready to know the mysteries of the world, and know themselves.
Dever was founded many centuries ago by seven families, whose descendants still continue their education here. And I am one of them. I am Fairey, the descendant of one of the founding families. The same name has one of the local faculties. My faculty.
They say that Fairey was the first family, who proposed the idea of creating Dever. Now Fairey are the Keepers, in other words – those who keep and protects the secrets of the supernatural world from the world of humans. As for the faculty Fairey, today there are trained people who later become the Keepers, what in itself is quite difficult. First of all, to become a Keeper you must belong to the Fairey family. Secondly, you need to possess a well-developed intuition, so that in future to be able to identify at a glance the presence of unusual abilities of any human being. We treat our intuition not like other people, and we believe that it’s a harbinger of something supernatural, the first sign of the fact that a person has a special gift. And, thirdly, we must be in control of one of the natural powers – fire. Air, water and earth are peculiarities of other departments. In addition, the hallmark of Fairey, is the ability to control the spirit.
There are six more departments in Dever. Let’s say a few words about each of them. So, the first one is Feta - faculty for those who read people's fates. Meridin - faculty for the oneiromancers. Ventura - for those who can see into the future that has already been decided by someone. This differs Venturas from Fetas, who read only fate, but a person can change it, and this decision will be seen to any Ventura. One more department is Vero - a place teaching those who are able to distinguish truth from falsehood.
Embry is the most popular faculty of Dever. Those who study here have the gift to heal people. It’s popular because of the exclusion of other faculties it can always be chosen as additional training. For another thing, students of Embry know what herbs and other ingredients can be used in order to make something special. For example, they can easily prepare a drink of happiness (it’s difficult to say, however, how permanent this happiness will be), or the elixir of beauty (which is also, in my opinion, very questionable and risky). According to the description, I think it’s quite clear that most students of this faculty are girls.
And last, but definitely the most mysterious faculty - Wizardy. Its students could become only the best graduates from the previous six departments. This is sort of the highest level of education in Dever.
Wizardy students are taught to rule over magic.
So magic is a kind of ultimate dream for every one of us. Possessing magical powers you can heal without herbs or make a person forget everything so carefully protected by the Keepers. Generally speaking, to become a Wizardy means to become a master of your life.
How I wish I could already have at least some basic magical skills to find out, finally, what the hell is going on with me lately! And speaking of devilry, I mean something that no one here in Dever is able to explain to me. I see strange dreams which none of Meridin could interpret. I feel something, that I’ve never felt before - a mix of excitement, anticipation, fear, and something else. Neither Feta no Ventura can help me to understand these feelings. And certainly no one from Embry can make anything suitable to free me from these endless nightmares.
And yet...
There’s one more new sensation, which appeared when I started to look over t
he photos sent by Amanda. It’s weird and I’m confused. I can’t even find the right words to describe my feelings and it scares me.
For at least an hour already, I’ve been trying to get my sister on the phone, but there’s no answer. The line is constantly busy.
“The last attempt,” I said irritably, dialing her phone number.
“Finally! Amanda, I called you several times, but couldn’t get through to you!” I shouted, barely managing to restrain my anger.
“Actually, I can say the same about you, Christian!” she shouted back. “We need to talk. Immediately! Something strange is happening to Eileen…”
And then she just poured out on me completely incoherent stream of sentences, which I miraculously managed to understand. She was mumbling through her tears and I had to press my cell tighter to my ear to catch her words.
“And it's not all,” added Amanda, still sobbing. “I see those strange dreams too. It started last night, after all the guests had left, and I fell on the bed completely exhausted, barely having looked at the gifts. Thank you for the car, by the way, and yes, I read the card with the requirement of a decade of slavery.”
“I knew you would be delighted,” I chuckled, remembering the moment I signed that card. But now there was something more important to discuss with her. “Amanda, have you checked the mailbox yesterday or this morning?” I asked nervously.
“Christian, what do you think, what I was doing on my birthday? Checking mailbox? No. I had a lot of other things to do!” she cracked back.
I rolled my eyes and shook my head irritably.
“I wasn’t even expecting you to do that, so I asked the delivery service to put a card directly under the windshield of my gift. But still, could you check your mailbox now, please?” I added almost genteelly. Almost.
“Already doing!” she snapped. “And there is...”
Amanda didn’t finish the end of the sentence, and I knew why.
“Oh. My. God. Christian, they sent me an invitation!” she cried almost in terror. “It’s the same as the one you got two years ago!”
“Welcome to the club,” I said glumly, feeling my heart falling slowly to my feet.
Frankly, I hoped till the last moment, that Amanda will be able to get a normal education, without all the supernatural crap I still couldn’t get used to, and enjoy her life far away from Dever. But, surely, deep inside I knew that it was impossible. No, of course, you could refuse the invitation, and choose some different university. But the problem was that in other places, no one knows how to cope with prophetic dreams, or fire that may break out of your hands, quite unexpectedly for yourself; or explain why you see things that others don’t. In other words - there was no choice.
Being born Fairey, Amanda had a right to know about the existence of Dever. So when I received the invitation, Alexis had to tell her some words about it too. Not everything, of course. Alexis was our mentor and head of Dever. Because the way there couldn’t be known to any stranger, every student was personally escorted.
That’s why Alexis came to our house that day. The fact that our parents Patrick and Amelia Fairey knew about Dever and in due time were its students too, was quite an unexpected surprise for me and my sister. As it turned out, my father was a real local celebrity, not only because of being Wizardy, but also because he still was one of the teachers of our university! Of course, this explained a lot, starting from our always fabulous gifts and incredibly lush Christmas trees, to a brilliant talent of Amelia Fairey to treat every known disease.
My mom was Embry.
“Uh, Christian, there’s one more thing,” Amanda said hesitatingly. “Nora called Eileen Fairey. But her name is Clark…”
And that was a kind of news I’ve never expected to hear from my sister.
Her words thundered in my head, as if it was hit by something very heavy. I asked her twice about whether she heard Nora’s words correctly, and told her to go immediately to Eileen’s.
Then I hung up the phone and ran to Alexis’ office.
Chapter 3. The letter (Eileen)
It was so good to be back to a clean and tidy room again! After spending the rest of Sunday packing my luggage, I could finally afford to relax a bit and think about how to spend the last two days before leaving for Sheffield. Maybe I would have managed to invent something interesting, but for the doorbell. And judging by the persistent ringing, the prospective visitor was not very patient.
I was right. Opening the door, I found there Amanda, still holding her finger on the doorbell button.
“Hey, easier, my friend! This thing can still be useful to those who will live here when we leave,” I said smiling, taking her hand off the button.
Without even trying to bless me with the response, Amanda rushed into the living room and sat on the couch, nervously twitching her gorgeous tresses of dark brown hair.
“What happened to you?” I asked finally, sitting down beside her. “So you literally leave me after the meeting with Nora, do not answer the phone... Have you seen how many messages I’ve left?”
However, my further tirade wasn’t effective, because it seemed that Amanda just paid no heed to everything I had said. And her face, so familiar to me, talked about the fact that she couldn’t go as far as to tell me something.
“Come on Amanda, just spit it out. What’s on your mind?” I demanded, losing patience.
“Listen, Eileen, have you checked the mailbox today?” she asked uncertainly. Something was definitely wrong with her. Her hands were shaking visibly and her eyes were full of terror I had never seen on best friend’s face before.
“Of course, but I didn’t find anything new there,” I said, shrugging indifferently. “There was a postcard from Catherine and several letters from some of my grandma’s friends I guess. Why?”
“Where are those letters?” Amanda jumped from the couch.
“Over there, on the table,” I replied, frowning. I still didn’t get a thing of what was going on in my house. Without waiting for any other explanation, Amanda ran down the hall. Throwing away what she thought wasn’t necessary, she chose one letter, came back and handed it to me.
“Here, this is for you,” she said dryly.
I took a simple white envelope with no address of the sender. Only seeing the noticeably pale face of my friend, I opened it and began to read the letter.
“Miss Eileen Lillian Clark! We are glad to inform you that you have been accepted to the University of Dever. Congratulations! We are looking forward to your arrival. Everything you need can be found in the attached instructions to the letter. Best regards. Alexis Wilde.”
Even having reread the letter several times, I couldn’t understand what that Dever was, who was this Alexis Wilde, and most importantly - how she came to know about me?
I frowned, being even more confused be the weird letter and my friend’s stillness.
“What does it all mean, Amanda?” I asked her, wondering if she was even able to give me some intelligible answer. I really doubted that, actually. My friend was as white as a ghost.
“I don’t even know where to start, Eileen,” she fumbled finally, sitting next to me.
Can you imagine that just in a few seconds your life, all your plans for the future and all your dreams can fly away just because of some barely legible sentences of your best friend? And this is Amanda, a person constantly making fun of my favorite movies and books about the supernatural, who says with a very serious face, that I’m a person with just such abilities!
Shock, bewilderment, confusion, fear... All this and much more flow into my mind like an endless stream of water. I'm trying to catch snatches of the words still coming from Amanda, but the fog absorbs the tiny remnants of my mind, and I plunge into the darkness...
The last thing I remember is a frozen face of my friend, leaning over me.
...Someone's warm hand gently helped me up onto the couch, from which I apparently fell unconscious. I'm trying to open my eyes, but the fog is
still keeping my mind under control and I can’t understand what has happened to me.
“Eileen, dear, can you hear me?” asks an unfamiliar female voice. “Eileen, please, look at me. I am Alexis Wilde,” the voice adds.
Alexis? Somewhere deep in my mind I find a thread of familiar name and begin to remember - the letter, Dever, me, Amanda, then darkness, then the letter again... How many times being unconscious, I tried to connect in my head all of the senseless words of Amanda? Apparently, they seemed senseless only to me.
My friend’s familiar voice makes me go back to reality.
“Eileen, are you okay?” she asks in alarm. She touches my forehead with her palm and it feels like fire, burning on my cold skin. I flinch away from her hand.
“Yeah, seems like okay,” I say, coming round. “Just a slight headache,” I add, the room is still blurring in front of my eyes.
“It's not surprising!” Amanda exclaimed in exasperation. “Next time you decide to pass out, don’t try to rise from the couch! You would simplify my life a lot,” she said in her usual manner, but still with an uncertain smile on her face.
“The news about Dever was a real shock for you,” added the same strange voice.
“You must be Alexis,” I guessed.
“That's right, Eileen. I'm heading Dever. Amanda called her brother, as soon as you lost consciousness, and Christian told me about your condition. So I immediately came here.”
“Excuse me, what does it mean immediately? As far as I could understand, the University of Dever is hundreds of miles away from Norfield. Is it some kind of a teleportation?” not believing my own words, I asked.
“Not at all,” laughing, said Alexis. “I was already in Norfield, when Christian called, so the road to your house took a little time. Since the letters with invitations were sent to you and Amanda a few days ago, I managed to arrive here almost simultaneously with their delivery. The fact is that we have to accompany all of our students on their way to Dever, that's why I'm here.”