Wednesday 20 December 2017, Glastonbury, England

The winter holidays arrived, the girls were going to have a short break from school classes, with this it would be practically two weeks, where they would be in Luna Nova, where they will all be able to see each other again after four months that they had been away for the most part.
Until then nobody noticed the disguise that Margaret was using with Nelson, which is very strange, but scary at the same time, for the fact that she had not done anything until then to give progress to the plan that she had been thinking of doing, at least not explicitly, in a short time not even suspicions came, they just went on with their lives as usual.
On the way Diana and Hellene looked through the window of the car that was passing by the road with all the luggage, strangely even Laura and Bernadette were going to spend that time with their daughters, also because of that discovery, but also because usually they stay to spend at least Christmas with the family.

Soon the car was arriving at the outskirts of Luna Nova, the two sisters were breathing deeply, just thinking about everything good that had happened, especially the older one that is remembering everything that happened with Akko.
When they arrive with the car, the four get out of there, already being noticeable the expectation of all, much by the notice of the youngest in the whatsapp
group contacting them to meet to review and not even two seconds after the daughter of platinum hair got out of the car and immediately comes running with everything, Atsuko receiving her with a warm hug for that day so cold.

" Diana! " Kagari said excitedly.

" Oh Akko, how nice to see you again... I'm so happy to see you here " Cavendish replied back and then cuddling her friend.

" I missed you a lot too, so how are you? All this time you're still the same skinny girl as always heh " said the Japanese girl joking with the Scottish lass.

" You know that four months won't change much in me, the only thing is there, but apart from that I'm missing all of you," said the blue-eyed one to all the others.

" We'll help you carry your stuff, we'll take it up to your room " Said the crimson-eyed one calling out to the girls.

But no one went to help, only the brownish herself who went to remove the bags, but they were many, soon with Laura's help the older daughter's luggage was being removed, it wasn't much, but enough for her to take to her room with her friend's help.
The two went through the hallways holding those bags, watching how Luna Nova was still the same, soon they arrived at the blue team's room, where by there were Hannah and Barbara watching Pretty Little Liars by Netflix, giving even a pause when noticing that her friend arrived.

" Diana! " They both say as they get up and run for a hug.

Atsuko helps with the rest of the bags, taking them to Diana's room, where things are being organized, listening to the conversation of the three girls in a relaxed way, and with the pair barely noticing the presence of the Japanese girl there, doing things in the greatest tranquility, but this would only be a matter of time for the bomb to explode.

" What are you doing here? Diana? Are you still with that girl? " England said in a provocative tone.

" She's my friend too, you should just accept it now, she doesn't have to be just your friend, come on, you're going to be a fucking arsehole just because I'm friends with your colleague? " Kagari said at the time.

" That's not the problem, it's that you're getting too close to our Diana, you're making quite a scene, I don't forget what happened that day, and Diana doesn't deserve someone of your level, seriously, she's a classy girl... " The brown-haired English girl is soon interrupted by her colleague.

" Talk a bit more and I'll stick my hand in your face Hannah, fucking class, it was this reputation and class shit that put my aunt in jail, it was this shit that killed my grandmother, if people were free to be who they are I wouldn't lose my grandmother, my aunt wouldn't be a fucking criminal, why don't you stop being a boring starched and accept Akko, or I'll get out of here " Said the Scot in a very loud and clear tone, leaving the two of them very quiet.

" I just don't want any trouble, I'm good people, I just want to be friendly, there's no need for us to be so much at odds with each other," said the Japanese woman.

" Look Akko, I don't know if they listen to you or not, but come on, the others must be waiting for us," Cavendish said.

The two girls had nothing more to say, after being lectured by their friend, who went back outside, where it was very cold, to the point where steam came out of her mouth every time she opened her mouth to speak a miserable word. They
were all there, Amanda, Marianne, Lotte, Sucy, Constanze, Jasminka, as well as Ursula and Croix.

" Now that you two have finally arrived, come with us, we have to settle something " Ursula said in a very serious tone.

All of them are walking following the two, even Laura and Bernadette, who had already packed their bags, through the corridors of Luna Nova, it was also possible to see that Nelson was passing by there, watching everything from far away.
Margareth is walking slowly in a discreet way following them, until the directorate room, that was where they all entered, and there also Saori and Morgana were waiting, what the disguised witch was soon making a point of changing into a mouse, entering through the pipes to listen everything from far away, going well in the hiding. Then Laura uses a spell to inhibit the sounds so they can start the meeting.

" You know why we are here don't you? Well we already have a news of an event that happened last month, I hope you have trained hard as witches, because from now on we will have some missions of exploration of Luna Nova that will involve you using magic " McLaren said.

" The seal of wisdom has already been broken, Diana was the sealed witch, now we just need to find the other witches who are with the other seals, which will either be complicated, or may be right in front of our noses " Bernadette said.

" Only there is still a danger in breaking the seals of these girls " Ursula said with her hair turning back to red.

" We have the risk of releasing Margaret Ford in the process, she could be a huge pain in the ass and could complicate our journey a bit, so let's be careful not to cause that," Croix said.

" Why don't we blow her face off? We are many, we have the numerical advantage, this witch is strong, but she is not many, together we can be strong enough so that she won't bother us " Amanda said.

" You have no idea what the power of Margaret Ford is, do you? Me, my wife, my friends April, Rosemary, Scarlet, Eleanora, Naomi, we were one of the most talented witches of our time and we didn't even tickle that damn thing and we almost got killed trying to go further, if it wasn't for Rose's gun that caused a damage to her and made her run away leaving us alive, but she only wanted us to be dead today," said the redhead in a very serious tone.

" Just to seal her was a huge job and for that the seals were on three girls that we still have to find out who it is, at least the first one is Diana, now we just need to know the others " Chariot said.

" I already know how we can find out, the sealed girls are like me, they had trouble using magic all this time, did any of you suffer to use magic or do you still suffer, even after all these months? " Diana said, which already showed a kind of guilty expression on the part of her own mothers.

At that time only two girls raised their hands, they were precisely Amanda and Akko, both still had extreme difficulties to perform whatever the spell was, which was soon already joining the idea that they might be the witches who are with the seal, at the same time Margareth was getting a smile on her face.

" (So the descendant of my Diana, the one with the slanted eyes and this tomboy are the sealed ones? I'll need to think of an ideal plan now, I think I already know even who I can attract to my side, this one with orange hair seems easy enough to be corrupted, the Cavendish one looks like she won't give in for anything and that might put the plan down, the other one is her friend, from what I've been told she's all set on Chariot and from what I see Ursula is actually one of the bitches responsible for my seal).

" I'm having a hard time since I learned magic in hiding from Marianne and Hellene, there seems to be a barrier stopping me, am I really one of those sealed witches? " Akko said.

" That's what it felt like too, like my magic hadn't been awakened, but soon I was able to release the seal within me and now I feel like a much better witch," Cavendish said confidently.

" It could be just a slowness in awakening the magic, there are witches that take even years for that to happen, this seal thing is really very complicated, there could be witches with a fake seal too, but just in case we will think about the possibilities " McLaren mother said trying to mask a little.

" I have this difficulty too, like magic isn't for me, so much so that I've given up, seriously, I thought I was going to go flying around on a broomstick, but all I see is it rolling around with Cons and Jas, right in my face, while I'm here on the ground, this whole thing sucks, I swear if I'm the sealed witch I'll find sense in it, but I also get mad " O'Neill said.

" (Perfect! That's the situation I needed, now I just have to pretend to be the good witch with her, using this persona of mine that I'm passing on to make her awaken the magic, it'll be fun to play a little game like that, her by my side, already helping me to get close to opening the seal).

" So what are we waiting for, let's release the seal of these girls? My seal was easy to open, I only needed to control myself, think of something that made me feel good, empty my head, and there was my magic awakening, you can get it that way too," Diana said.

" Ah I think it's better that we try this another day, today is a day of celebration, we all managed to arrive well and see each other on this date, we can start this attempt tomorrow, it will be better don't you think? " said the older redhead.

" Look, it's fine with me, I don't want to kill myself using magic to avoid anything, because the light here keeps blinking, and it's a pain to do that, when I force it too much it seems that the body wants to kill me, so I'm relieved that we won't try now," said the American in a relaxed way.

" Okay, I think we'd better give this a break, let's have a celebration, since we seem to owe it to ourselves," Diana shrugged.

With that all the eight girls were leaving the boardroom after this discussion, going to the green team's room, to have a celebration party, which Amanda had prepared for this day after being informed of the coming of Diana and Akko, the two most expected visitors, for the return of the group.
The adults were already looking at each other, with a bit of guilt between them.

" You can't hide it for long, they will find out about the truth," Bernadette said with her arms crossed.

" Only now is not the safest moment, we have to gain their trust, at least for Claiomh Solais' plan to progress, this is too delicate a mission for us to have to... " Laura said until she was interrupted by her wife.

" Tell the truth? Laura it's better to gain trust honestly than in a way like this, we're just manipulating the girls to get on our side, we're not that different from genuinely evil people, like even Margaret, we have to think about it a bit," Cavendish said in a more serious tone.

" And what do you have as a suggestion? " McLaren asks.

" Tell the truth " said the redhead's wife in a loud and clear tone.

" Look Bernadette, I know you value truth and trust, but as we have to do it in a democratic way, let's have a vote, who here of you votes to tell the truth, raise your hand and who prefers to hold back a little, leave your hands down " said Croix.

At this time only Chariot and Bernadette raised their hands, what even caused a little shock to see that the red haired one was also with the idea of revealing the whole truth behind the seals to all the girls, a lot of this was due to what ended up happening at the end of the summer.
Margaret was still watching everything and was getting even more excited with all this news, it came as a jolt to her, with the most varied ideas she could think of.

" (This is even better, they sealed the girls to be able to seal me, this is like a full plate for my manipulation, it will be perfect to corrupt these girls, I can literally put the three to my side now, I just need to think a little more on how to do it, but I already know that this will be solved little by little, now I have the knife and the cheese in my hand, I just need to put this into practice and I'll soon have the Claiomh Solais in hands).

The older girls then separate going each one in a corner, Margareth takes the opportunity to also leave the boardroom, going to the room where Nelson used to stay, disguising as much as she could of her plans so much that in the room itself there was nothing related to this plan, at least not on the face, in the more there was only the plan left well hidden, so that no one would know what was happening when they entered the room.
In the green team's room, the eight girls were taking the time to relax, playing videogames, eating some snacks, everything to also forget a little of the tension that is this burden of carrying magic on their backs.

" Ahhh, I hate this whole journey a bit, at first I loved it, but now with this training and my magic being all cut up I feel useless, I feel like I'm wasting my time, I'll never fly the broom in a cool way like the others " Amanda said.

" Patience, O'Neill, you are too hasty, you have to clear your head, I know that soon you will awaken this seal within you and so we will be able to unlock the Claiomh Solais, we will be able to start the journey of the seven words," replied Diana.

" I just know that this is even clearer in my head, if I'm one of the sealed witches, it makes a huge sense now to have suffered so much while I saw everyone else doing so well with magic and look I trained, I was just afraid the lights would go out for good," Akko said.

" With me the whole house went out for a while, but the light comes back on, you just need to go in the way that is most concentrated possible, without too much hurry, keeping calm in your head, the most important thing of all is concentration and so the magic will come out " Said Cavendish who was waving her wand from side to side.

" For you it's easy, you're the daughter of two witches, you're a witch by blood, besides that you live in a house where they train magic all the time, especially after school, here we didn't always have magic training, only once or once a week when Croix and Chariot made us a training, the rest of the days I don't even have that time, besides I have things to do, I don't even know how related I am, I only know that my grandmother was someone relevant, so relevant that she cogitated to abandon me when my parents died" O'Neill said.

" I don't even live here in Luna Nova, but I must have taken as many magic classes as you can count on your fingers, I had the hardest time, even though I'm the daughter of two women I'm not a witch, none of my mothers are witches and have origins with witch families, besides I could only show up once in a while at the trainings, because of my grades, I could only go if my grades and assignments were done... Ahhhh " said Kagari.

" This isn't a competition for who suffers more, we will manage to awaken your magic, let's leave that aside, let's enjoy the party," said Hellene, getting in the middle.

The three soon make a point of listening to the younger Cavendish, which they go on to each go their separate ways, the older one went to read some books, the American one went to play Call Of Duty, as did the Japanese one, just so that they come to forget all the tension.

The long"awaited winter holidays have arrived in Luna Nova, still carrying a huge tension because of this witch situation, even worse with what Margaret has been plotting under the covers the whole time, to manipulate the whole situation in her favour, so that she can get her hands on the powers of the so legendary Claiomh Solais.

See you, Holiday witches...