First of all, major apologies. I could apologize from now till kingdom come and I still wouldn't be able to express how sorry I am. I got drowned in work and wasn't able to deal with it, as a result this suffered. Badly. I'm so happy that there are still people looking out for this though.
And I know this chapter is a bit sub-standard to what I normally put out but I've been delaying for so long that if I left it for any longer then it would suffer again.
Sorry...
Black Witch
Driven to hopelessness by grief, Alyssa Flumina, a skilled witch and potions master, is pulled into the past by one of her potions and into the arms of an equally desperate Ciel. But desperation and vengeance are a dangerous combo, especially when a contract with a demon is in the mix.
~Victoria Super Omnes~
Chapter 27
I turned to my book and made a bit of a show of gathering my pages which were as wayward as my thoughts at the moment.
"So what do you want to start with?" I asked, chewing on the end of my quill. A bad habit I'd picked up in school when I was nervous.
"As I said, I'm very curious to find out more about you," Sebastian said, grinning slightly.
The chewing grew more intense but I nodded. "Like what?" I asked nervously.
"I am curious to know what you were like as a child," he said, sounding thoughtful.
I let out a nervous giggle. Honestly, I had been expecting him to interrogate me on the secrets of magic and how the wizarding world worked. Not my childhood.
"That's all you want to know?" I asked, still in mild disbelief.
He smirked. "For now," he replied with his mysterious smirk. I stuck my tongue out at him then sat back.
"Well... I don't know if you'll believe this but when I was little I was a real girly girl," I said.
His eyebrows rose. "You? The girl who once helped Finnian organize his entire cricket collection."
I nodded. "Yep. I was a total girl. I couldn't stand bugs or animals or getting dirty at all. I was always cooped up inside with my mother."
"Your mother?"
A soft smile made its way onto my face as I remembered my mother. The way she looked, the way she smelled when she would hold me tight in her arms...
"Yes... my father used to travel a lot and mother and I would be left in the house so I spent a majority of my childhood with her. She didn't like to go out much and she loved to put me in dresses and things like that so I guess that's where all my girlyness came from."
"That doesn't sound like something you 'grow out' of," Sebastian said, looking me over as though I was about to paint his nails some garish shade of pink.
"You're right. It isn't. But I was kind of forced out of it when my grandfather came to stay with us for a few years. He was my father's father and a very skilled potion's master," I explained. "He had been doing some research at the time and stayed at out manor because he could 'get better research done'." I smiled and rolled my eyes. "That was his excuse but I knew he stayed for the maids' cooking."
"Is that who you learned your potions skills from?" he queried.
I nodded affirmative. "He taught me almost everything I know and he's the reason I became such a skilled potions master myself. He always taught me to push the limits of anything I did. To never accept that the end was really the end."
"Is that why you experiment so much?" he dead panned.
"I'm inquisitive by nature!" I said, feigning hurt. "You can't blame me if I want to crack open a few skulls just to see what really makes things tick. And if a few things explode here or there along the way, well so be it. All casualties in the name of science!"
Sebastian looked highly un-impressed. "Science in magic? Doesn't that go against the whole point of magic?"
"Not really," I said. "While magic may not adhere to human's understanding of the laws of nature, it has its own set of laws and limits which cannot be overcome."
"Such as...?"
"Such as, no matter how powerful a witch or wizard may be, it is absolutely impossible to create something out of nothing," I said.
"I've seen you do it on hundreds of occasions," Sebastian retorted.
I shook my head. "A majority of the conjuring I do isn't because I'm creating it out of thin air... more like I'm summoning what I want in the manner I desire. It's like when I conjure furniture or something of the like. The spell makes a general search for the item I desire and then summons the ideal, or at least most suitable, version of what I need."
"Sounds too complicated to me," Sebastian said. "As a matter of fact, you can stop with the science of magic for now. It's taking out all the fun in watching you work," he said, suddenly looking pouty.
"Are you pouting?" I asked, leaning forward.
"No," was his reply, but right there, on the downward tug of his lips and in the infinitesimal jut of his jaw, was the slightest of pouts.
"That's adorable," I cooed, poking his cheek.
He delicately knocked my hand away, looking irritated. "Next question, are there schools for witches?"
I smiled and sat back in my seat once more. "A few. Mostly parents go for home schooling because its easier and they want to have control over what their children learn but some do send their children to various boarding schools where they get a broader spectrum of knowledge."
"And what of yourself?" Sebastian asked.
"What about me?"
"Were you home schooled?"
I bit my lip and glanced away for a moment. "For the most part... yes... But during the years I was undercover for the Flumina family, the Harrisons sent me away to a boarding school for most of the year so they wouldn't have to deal with me all year round..." Unconsciously my hands tightened their grip in my skirt. Remembering those years... those few peaceful times before...
A sharp squeeze on my hand yanked me out of my reverie. I looked up and there was Sebastian, fixing me with his intense gaze.
"What happens after school?" he asked quietly, urging me away from my darker memories.
I smiled gratefully and intertwined my fingers with his, taking comfort in his familiar warmth.
"There's no real standard for wizard jobs. In the human world a kid can easily say he wants to grow up to be a lawyer or policeman but the magical community tends to be a lot looser about it. Most wizards are either self employed or work at the guilds or Sanctum," I explained.
"Sanctum? Guilds?" He repeated, looking confused.
"Okay, so remember how I said there's no real hierarchy in the magical community?"
He nodded. "But with no rulers what prevents witches or wizards from simply using their magic to take over non-magical beings?"
"Well that's where the Sanctum comes in. The Sanctum exists as the body which prevents the magical community from ever coming into contact with. Humans. Generally most of the magical community wants nothing to do with humans but there are always those rare few who believe that magical beings are superior in some way. The Sanctum has the authority to be judge, juror and even executioner to those who have broken wizarding laws."
"Laws such as...?" He queried.
"We're never to do magic in front of humans or draw attention to the magical community in any way. Especially on a large scale," I explained.
"Them aren't you always breaking that rule with Ciel?" Sebastian smirked.
"Small scale. That's doesn't count," I dismissed with a smirk.
"I see, a rule breaker then," he smirked, tightening his grip on my fingers.
The corner of my lip quirked slightly. "It wouldn't be the first time," I said softly.
The grim slid off his face immediately.
"Alyssa, I-"
"No, I already promised that I wasn't going to let the memories of that time rule me anymore," I said, squeezing his hand with a smile. "Besides," I continued. "That rule is more for the sake of formality than anything else. Over the years there have been hundreds of witches or wizards who have revealed magic to humans. The Sanctum only steps in if they feel that magic is taking a great toll on the human world or garnering too much attention to our world."
"I see..." He sat back and thought for a moment. "But who created the Sanctum? Are they elected? Inherited? How did they become the absolute authority?"
"Well it was kind of out of necessity and afterwards because of public approval. The first time a powerful wizard tried for a global takeover, the strongest witches and wizards came together to take him down. Thus the first Sanctum was born. After that wizards defeat, they were going to disband but the majority of the wizarding population was against it and rallied hard for them to stay together, which they did in the end, and became our 'governing' body. You could say it's really thanks to the people that the Sanctum even exists. So now, new members are picked ever few decades or so from the strongest and wisest witches or wizards of the generation."
"Do you have to be nobility?" He asked.
I shook my head. "You just have to be outstanding in some way. When I left, my generation of the Sanctum had 6 wizards and 5 witches, some nobles and some not, and there was one who used to be an elder of the Flumina family."
He whistled. "Sounds... intriguing..." He leant back and crossed his arms, thinking.
"Any more questions?" I prompted.
"One..." he said after a while.
My eyebrow rose. I had been expecting a lot more questions.
"Which is...?" I asked, leaning forward.
"Why are you here?" he queried, raising an eyebrow.
"Haven't I told you this already?" I sighed, shaking my head.
"Yes yes, you've told me all about that silly potion," he said, waving my question aside. "But why are you still here? I'm certain that, considering all you've been through in your time, you could very well just warn your family in this timeline not to interfere with the Sanctum."
"And risk erasing myself from existence?" I queried with a snort. "Not a chance. I was depressed, not suicidal." Then I took a deep breath and sighed.
"And I know what you're trying to say," I told him. "It would have been easier to just stop them. They would have believed me too you know... Fluminas just... recognise each other. I don't even think I would have minded being wiped out of existence. It would have been better than that pain..."
My hands folded themselves into tight fists. "But at the same time... I just felt that I would be cheating myself out of all the growth I'd been forced to do. When I think about the person I am now, versus the person I was before... well... I can't help but like me more now. And I wouldn't have been this way if it weren't for everything I'd had to survive..."
I could feel Sebastian's eyes on me. Critical.
I scoffed. "I know. Real selfish huh. Only thinking about myself..."
"It is..." and he was silent for a moment. "But I suppose that's all part in being human." His hands closed around mine and I looked up into his face, more earnest than I'd ever seen it before. "And that's okay sometimes..."
I let the words sink in. A short chuckle slipped past my lips. "Sometimes... huh?"
He smirked. "Only sometimes."
~VICTORIA SUPER OMNES~
Like I said in my intro, I can't express how sorry I am. Currently I'm in the science stream of lower 6th (equivalent to 12th grade in America) however the work we're doing is basically pre-med level therefore the work load is also just as whopping. I got so swamped these first two terms that I put everything else on the back burner. Even now I still have worked backed up. Sigh...
I'm trying. Really I am. I can't officially promise regular updates like before, but I'll try my damnest to keep to some sort of schedule.
I am wallowing in sorrow and anxiety at the moment.
Sorry my readers...
-Rayne
