I wrote this while mildly inebriated. Let me know if you spot a mistake. Also, this fic (starting from Pawn to Queen) is 220 pages in the word document I keep it in, which is wild to me. That's so long! And with each edit, it gets longer.

Chapter 4

"Alright, Maddie," Sabrina started once we had both sat down in the small office. Her bright, blue eyes stared straight at me unflinchingly, and for a moment I thought she knew a lot more about me than was previously shared by the other teachers.

"I'd like to formally welcome you to the Academy again. Everyone here is glad you were able to make it," she continued, flicking a well manicured hand over her shoulder to knock back some of her white blonde hair, "Eleanor and Mason have been doing their best to look after you since the vampire expedited your awakening. Also, I feel like it's about time you're told that this portion of the program isn't really for you. We already know you're a sight witch. Now, you just need to be told what that means, sound good?" My eyes widened at what she was saying, because honestly that was a lot to take in. Mason was assigned to look after me? Were we even really friends then? That was probably the least of my worries at the moment though.

"Uh... yeah, I guess so," I responded, feeling more than a little bit overwhelmed. Sabrina bobbed her head at the affirmative answer, shuffling through some of the manila folders on her desk before pulling one out that was marked with my name on the tab. Her free hand tapped against the grain of the desk as she flipped through the folder and pulled something out.

"So, the thing about sight witches is they're very rare. There are only three in America right now, including yourself," Sabrina started with a thoughtful tone, "They're also very strong witches, some of the strongest. So, when you were attacked, to protect your spirit, your magic unsealed itself. However, a sudden awakening is very dangerous for witches. Here in the school you're going to be safe from your uncontrolled magic, but outside you won't be. So we have to ask you to stay on campus for the duration of your stay." Sabrina was probably trying to explain this as simply as possible without getting into all the details just yet, and something about the explanation kind of just clicked for me. It was my magic going out of control. I had magic? As much as I wanted to be excited, it all seemed a bit scary too.

"Do you have any questions yet?" Sabrina asked patiently. I thought for a moment before nodding slightly. I actually had a lot of questions, but I figured I should ask one of them first.

"What's a sight witch?" Sabrina smiled as if she was expecting the question.

"Your familial line comes from a long line of divining fae," Sabrina started, pulling out a slip of paper that showed a fairly sparse family tree with mine and my mom's names on it, "Sight witches are more powerful than diving witches because of their fae blood. Not only do they have the ability to divine the future, but they're also deeply connected to the fae magics, such as seeing supernatural beings true forms when they're hiding them and visions of the spirit realm. They also are capable of preventing others from spying on them with magic because they can, well, see everything." I blinked. Oh. So that was why Eleanor told me not to dismiss her because that was a thing I could do.

"Now, since I know what your next question will likely be, I'll tell you what fae are," Sabrina continued on with a knowing glance, "They are, simply put, faeries. They're exactly what you're thinking too. People with transparent wings that live in flowers and such, but they come in all sizes too though. They can be human sized as well, it's a personal preference for them. They mostly don't interact with humans and the like though, keeping to their forests. You probably won't ever meet one." So faeries were definitely real then, and I was related to them. That was definitely a bit crazy, though I supposed it explained a bit of my mom's unusual beliefs and practices. It was probably something that was passed down for generations, and now something I too would be doing a bit of. It was a bit odd to think about.

"Ok, so now that you've got some ideas about all of that," Sabrina said clapping her hands together enthusiastically, "Let's measure your magic levels." She pulled out a large crystal ball out of a drawer.

"Put your hands on this please," she instructed me. I hesitantly placed my hands on the cool, transparent crystal, and as far as I could tell, nothing was happening. However, Sabrina made a noise of surprise and wrote something down on her notepad.

"You're a lot further along in the awakening process than I expected," Sabrina commented suddenly, more to herself than me. However it certainly made me wonder the way she said it.

"What do you mean?" I asked after a moment, not sure if I was even supposed to broach the subject. Sabrina tapped a pink nail against her lips for a moment in thought.

"Just that you'll probably have to take some one-on-one lessons with Eleanor, and that you might need to come back during the school year," Sabrina replied slowly, jotting down some more notes on her pad, "Just depends on how much progress you make with your control. It's honestly amazing that you're even still sane. You've had to have a lot of magical outbursts with this much magic coming from you." Sabrina gestured vaguely around me like magic sat around me in a blanketing aura or something. Maybe it did.

"Huh?" I breathed, not really sure what else I could even say to that. I mean, she was right. There was a lot of odd reality bending and stuff, and I was half convinced I was schizophrenic before I found out about the magical school. However I hadn't completely lost it. I had somehow managed to stay anchored to reality which was thanks to Willow and Jacob's efforts in no small part. I felt certain that if I didn't have them always checking in on me, I might've really lost it.

"Nothing... It's just," Sabrina stopped herself, furrowing her brows for a moment, "Well, good job." I blinked back my surprise at her praise.

"Thanks?" I replied, still feeling more than a little bit bewildered. Sabrina smiled slightly back at me.

"No problem. Also, I'm sorry we didn't reach out sooner," she said, patting my hand gently before standing, "Shall we head back?" I nodded at her, feeling like I had actually already learned a lot about myself already. Sabrina led me back to the classroom, her heels clicking loudly against the tiled floors. I wondered what their final magic test held in store for me.

When I sat back down where I had been before, Shelly was back and William was gone. Shelly smiled at me in greeting.

"How did your interview go?" she asked cheerily.

"It was... enlightening," I responded after a beat. I was honestly still digesting everything that Sabrina had told me. I didn't know about a lot of this stuff like William and Shelly already did. It seemed like it was pretty common for most of them to grow up in families that were very aware of what they and their children were. I wondered if my mom just didn't know because of how weak our bloodline was, even if she had still known a bit of the practices and traditions.

"Oh? That's great! I remember you saying you didn't know what you were. Did you find out?" Shelly asked. Her big, brown eyes shined with curiosity. Clearly the divining I had done earlier with the block had gotten her excited about my magic.

"Oh, um..." I paused for a moment, wondering if I should even tell her before deciding since I had no one else to tell, I might as well tell my roommate, "Sabrina said I'm a Sight Witch." Shelly's eyes went round with surprise, and she didn't say anything for a moment. She was clearly looking at me with new eyes as if seeing me for the first time.

"Wow," she breathed, fanning herself lightly, "Seriously?" I was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable with the way she was gawking at me. I looked around to see a portion of the classroom had turned to look at me as well, obviously having overheard our conversation. I bit my lip, thinking I probably should've waited to tell her later.

I swallowed tightly glancing around at all of the people staring at me, "I guess that's a bigger deal than I thought, huh?"

"You really didn't know?" Shelly asked in surprise. Apparently I was going to have to suffer through some newfound fame now that I'd accidentally let my entire class know I was a sight witch. So much for flying under the radar, I guess. Though I had a feeling the cat would've come out of the bag eventually.

I sighed, falling head first against my desk. I couldn't wait for the day to be over.

Thanks for reading! Consider leaving a review.

- Minatu

P.S. I'm almost finished editing the Pawn. It's gotten a few changes, and I'm still working out the kinks to the new Rook chapter.