I don't own any of the characters, all belong to Deborah Harkness and the All Souls series
Diana POV-
I'd heard the stories, but still doubted whether or not it could be true. However, after the events of the past few years, I was willing to believe it was a possibility.
Long ago, there were more than just the three creatures. I'd heard Ysabeau and Phillippe tell enough stories to know that this much was true. Centaurs, griffins, even unicorns- all used to be as real as you and me. One of the old creatures were the Well Maidens- Celtic women who were guardians of the portals to the otherworld. They were beautiful, fierce, and had one foot in each world. They weren't exactly witches, but were gifted with premonition, and some could communicate with those on the other side. They had an uncanny ability to sense the gender and birthdate of unborn babies, and children were instinctively drawn to them. It ran in families, and mothers would know that their daughter had been chosen when her hair started turning silver as a teenager. When you have so much life and death in your veins, it has to come out somewhere. But, as is the case with most creatures, someone grew fearful of their power. Their decline has been blamed on various groups, but the blame usually settles on human men. Regardless, the Well Maidens had been gone for a millenia.
At least, that's what I had always been told. And was what I believed, until the first day of the spring semester.
In a huge lecture hall, I rarely notice individual students. Unless they're asleep, talking, or otherwise being disruptive, their faces all blur together. But I immediately noticed this one. The threads that surrounded her were… different. They floated around her like water, and danced in waves. The colors, which normally shone at various shades of the rainbow, were all muted greens and blues. She walked in, head down, and took a seat in the corner of the second row. Her long, dark hair fell over her face in waves as she bent forward to pull out a notebook and pen- also a greenish blue. A celtic cross dangled from a silver chain on her neck, catching the light from the windows.
I shrugged it off, and went back to preparing the lecture. I was teaching a graduate course aimed at helping students get their footing and find their research specialty. It was a general course, and this year it fell to me to teach.
I felt a few daemon eyes on me as the class began to fill, either very good news- as they usually added brilliant ideas to any discussion, or it could mean that I was in for a very rowdy semester with numerous interruptions and distractions. There was one witch, three rows back and in the center of the room. A mousy blonde who seemed to be literally shaking in her seat- probably terrified at the thought that her professor was currently holding the vampire's seat on the congregation. I felt each of their eyes as they darted around the room, landing on me for a few seconds before looking around and searching for a friend or familiar face.
I looked back to the girl with the blue threads, and saw that they were now floating up above her head, still bobbing and waving like seaweed in the ocean. Her name card read "Allie O'Grady" in a perfect flowing cursive. I'd heard my colleagues mention that name. She was apparently brilliant, with a gift for analytical writing that they hadn't been seen in years. She was also apparently quiet, preferring to observe rather than participate, and had never once gone to any department functions or office hours. I knew from the chatter in the office that it was driving the department insane. This girl could have any award or scholarship she wanted, but she never applied for any of them.
As far as I could tell, she hadn't looked up once. Preferring instead to stare at her notebook or study her hands. Odd, I thought. Most students were completely engrossed in their phones before (and during) a lecture. I was still staring at the blue threads, trying to figure out why hers were so different, when she finally looked up. Her blue eyes were piercing, and stood out against her dark hair. When they landed on me, it felt like little drops of rain hitting my face. Not the coolness of a vampire, the kiss of a demon, or the prickle of a witch. And definitely not the dull nothingness of a human.
This girl was something else entirely.