Chapter 3: The lessons start.

After classes, I go running towards the second floor corridor of the east dormitory, where Croix's room is, and I wait for her at the entrance fidgeting impatiently. I'm practically jumping in excitement! I have a good feeling about this. With Croix's help I'll get better at magic and become the best witch that's ever set foot in this school!... Or at least stop failing at practically every subject. That would be great too.

"Croix! Croix!" I yell when I spot her, walking behind her roommates, who are both talking between them. I, however, don't wait for her to arrive to her room and instead run past the other two girls and stop in front of Croix, beaming at her. "Croix, I've been searching for you all day! Here's your robot!" I say, practically shoving the toy in her only good hand, with which she's barely able to hold it. "What are you going to teach me today? Will I be turning into a dragon? Or maybe fighting one? Oh! What about riding one? That would be pretty cool!"

She blinks a couple of times, trying to make sense of what I just said before chuckling and shaking her head in disbelief.

"What on Earth made you think our first lesson would have anything to do with dragons?" She says amused.

"Uhm…" I trail off, not understanding my own logic either. "I just… thought it would be fun?"

"Alright." She sighs, still smiling. "Since I see you're lacking basic understanding of, well, everything, I suppose we shall start from the very beginning."

"Okay?" I raise an eyebrow. "And what would that be?"

"Let's go to a more secluded place. Perhaps the fields? I know a very nice spot where we can study undisturbed."

"Sure. Sounds nice." I shrug. It's better than the library, that's for sure.

"Ahem." One of Croix's roommates interrupts us, making us both look at her as I rub the back of my neck sheepishly, having totally forgotten they were there. "Hey Croix, aren't you going to introduce us to your new friend?" The girl with short olive hair I encountered the other day speaks, wearing an amused expression.

"She's not my friend!" Croix immediately protests.

"That's right! I'm her slave." I clarify, because surely a prodigy like her wouldn't want people to think she's friends with a troublemaker like myself.

"What?! No!" Croix blushes, averting her gaze before mumbling out something resembling an explanation. "We're just… she just…" She pinches the bridge of her nose, taking in a deep breath as she attempts to regain her composure. "I'm tutoring her, and she's helping me out in return."

"So I'm not your slave?" I ask confused. I thought that was the deal.

"That was only a joke! Jeez." She pouts, looking away from me.

A joke? Huh. I guess that makes sense.

"So I take that you did find her the other day?" Her roommate asks, probably deciding it was better to ignore the weirdness of it all.

"I did! Thank you… uh…" I pause, remembering I don't know her name.

"Miriam." She answers, smiling kindly. "It's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too! I'm Chariot." I then turn to the other girl, who has asiatic features, tan skin, long black hair and brown eyes. "And you are…?"

"Hitsume." She answers, also wearing a friendly smile. "It's a pleasure. Honestly, it's so good finally seeing Croix making some friends."

"She's not my friend!" Croix protests once more. And though her words are very much true, they still hurt a bit. But then again, I tell myself, just because we're not friends now, it doesn't mean we can't be in the future… If she improves her attitude, that is.

"Then why are you helping her and not the dozens of girls that asked you before?" Miriam counters, raising an eyebrow.

"That is none of your concern!" Croix snarls before turning around and starting to walk down the hall. "Come on, Chariot."

"Aren't you going to retrieve your books? They're still in our room, you know?" Hitsume says. At this, Croix pauses and turns around to glare at her teammates before walking again towards her room.


Just as Croix had said, we soon find ourselves sitting at the shadow of a three in a secluded area near the sports fields. No one really comes around here; its a little clearing just a few meters into the forest, so it's nice and quiet. The atmosphere is quite pleasant, since the tree shelters us from the fierce rays of sun and the wind that blows from the south isn't too cold or too hot, providing us with a very relaxing breeze that carries the scent of freshly-cut grass and flowers. Over all, a very nice spot to study, though I wouldn't mind having a nap here. Or a picnic.

Croix (well, I, because she can't carry anything) brought a history book, as well as her notes from last year, and is now flipping through the pages, looking for the best place to start. I just stay silent, watching her and thinking about what her roommates said.

So… from their conversation I inferred two things: one, she doesn't have any friends. And two… many have asked for her help and yet she's only every agreed to tutor me. I bet it was all because I saw her secret lab and she figured I wouldn't tell the teachers if she helped me, but still, she's been nice I guess, and yesterday we were getting along somewhat. And I also don't have any friends, so maybe we could be friends? Eventually? I think I'd like that. I don't want to just stop seeing her after her hand heals and I get better at magic! Even if I don't know her, I think it would be very sad to go back to our friendless lives after this.

"Chariot?" Croix calls my name, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"Y-yes?" I ask, slightly startled.

"I think it would be better if you first told me what you do know about magic, so I know where to start."

"Oh, right! Well…" I pause, blushing when I realize I don't really have much I can tell her. Aside from what we've seen in classes this past week. "Uh… I suppose I know about the Ley Lines, which carry magic all around the world, and the Sorcerer's Stones that take and emit that energy, allowing us to use it." I pause, putting a finger on my chin as I try to recall something else. "Also, each person has magic energy inside themselves, which when conducted through a wand or a broom can interact with the magic from the Ley Lines and… do stuff." Yeah, no better way to describe magic.

"Eh… I suppose that's correct." Croix shrugs. "But do you know why we now need a Sorcerer's Stone to use magic? It certainly wasn't like that in the past."

"Because…" I pause, searching through my memories for something to give me the answer. Maybe one of the books back at home? No. They're all full of spells and potion recipes, and also a few about magic plants and creatures, a couple on magic languages, also some about familiars, but… No. Nothing about magic history. And I fell asleep the other day precisely during that class. Great.

"Because magic is dying." Croix says when it's obvious I can't answer her question. I just stare at her for a few seconds, trying to process her words.

"W-what?" I squeak out, looking intently at her face, trying to find any sign that she's lying, but I find none.

"That's right. Magic is rapidly disappearing from the world." She confirms what she just said. "It has been for nearly fifteen centuries. Perhaps more."

"What happened?" I ask, concerned that the thing I've dreamed with for my whole life is suddenly going to just banish. How can I be a witch if there's no magic anymore?!

"Have you ever heard of the Nine Olde Witches?"

My stomach twists at her question, and I feel my palms get sweaty as I look away and answer as calmly as possible.

"Even I am not that ignorant." I huff. "They were the ones who founded the school."

"And?" She prompts, raising an eyebrow.

"And…" I pause, looking around as if the threes and the grass could give me the answers. "And they… uh… did many other things?"

Croix just gives me a deadpan stare before searching for a page on the book and then thrusting it at me. In it, I see there's a picture of nine different hats, under which there's an inscription in lunar runes.

"They restored magic to the world after the Great Era of Magic ended, and then sealed the Grand Triskelion in the Arcturus Forest to ensure magic wouldn't disappear again." She explains.

"I-I see." I gulp, hearing her speak with such fervor and enthusiasm about that, though honestly I only understood half of what she said. I wonder what she'd think if she knew my little secret.

"Do you, really?" She asks with a smug smile. "Then tell me what is the Grand Triskallion?"

"It's a… a thing that the Nine sealed at some forest?" I answer sheepishly.

"It's the world-altering magic, you dummy!" She laughs. "Once part of the legendary tree, Yggdrasil, which connected the stars with the Earth and allowed people to use magic without any sort of restriction." She pauses long enough to switch the page to another one that has a drawing of an enormous three covering practically half of the planet. "The Grand Triskallion only possesses a small fragment of the magic of Yggdrasil, but it's still supposed to be strong enough to grant any wish to the one who obtains it."

"A wish? That sounds cool!" I exclaim with enthusiasm, after all, this history lesson is more akin to reading a fairytale.

"Of course that's what you'd get from all I said." She rolls her eyes, but still chuckles and continues talking. "Yes, a wish." She then flips some more pages and stops when finding another drawing, this time of some sort of scepter with seven round gems ingrained all through its body. "However, to obtain it, you must first unlock seven ancient spells by using the Claiomh Solais, an ancient rod said to belong to Woodward herself."

"Woodward?" I tilt my head curiously.

"Seriously?" She deadpans. "You don't even know who Woodward is?" When I shake my head no, blushing brightly in embarrassment, as it seems this is yet another important thing about magic that everyone knows except me, she just chuckles. "Okay, I don't know why I'm even surprised. Didn't your parents teach you anything?"

I feel a slight pang of pain inside my chest at her words, as she just reminded me of the reason I'm so behind everyone else. In Luna Nova everyone is from a magic family, and so they're taught ever since they're little the history, traditions and methods of magic. That would have also been the case with me, but…

"They're dead."

"Oh." Croix smile vanishes instantly and she looks to the side, fidgeting in discomfort.

"My aunt raised me, but she isn't a witch, so everything I know, I had to learn it on my own." I continue explaining. "Though, I have to admit, I focused more on the practice than the theory."

"Well that… uh… that explains a lot." Croix coughs awkwardly, probably because I made her uncomfortable by coming out with such personal information. But I don't regret it. After all, if she's going to teach me she needs to know why I'm so behind everyone.

"Yeah…" I trail off, unsure of what to say to dispel this silence that suddenly fell between us.

"So." Croix says after a few seconds, startling me a little. "Seeing that you're more lacking on the theoretical field than I expected, which is saying a lot, I believe I need some time to prepare, so I can teach you without confusing you even more. Meanwhile… do you want to practice some spells? I believe it would be wise to test how much energy you can use at a time."

"Uhm… sure." I shrug. It sounds better than sitting here in awkward silence anyways.


Croix and I are now standing near the tree under which we've left our books. I've got my wand ready and I'm facing a rock. Not too large, and not too small. Just a regular chair-sized boulder that's about ten meters away from me. And yet, even though we haven't even started, it feels like the rock is winning.

"Okay… so, the spell I'm going to teach you is usually forbidden." Croix says.

"That's a good start." I joke, but she just gives me a pointed look and I decide it's better not to interrupt her again.

"As such, it's not taught at schools, and you'll probably never use it while you're a student." She continues explaining. "However, since it's basically just a blast of raw magical power, it will allow us to roughly see how much magic you have inside you."

"Alright, let's do it!" I exclaim, getting my wand out of the sash and extending it out of it's wooden handle.

"First of all, your stance…" Croix says as she approaches me, looking up and down my body as if intently examining my posture. "It has to be steadier. Open your legs." I do as she says, separating my legs so that they are about a foot apart. At this, she nods in approval. "Alright. Now your arm…" She takes my hand with her left one, and I can't help noticing it's warm, though perhaps also a bit too calloused because of her work with machines. "Raise it so that it's at the height of your eyes; that'll make it easier for you to aim. Good, now… your elbow." She lets go of my hand and proceeds to position my elbow. "It has to be more separated of your body, so that you'll have more mobility." Once that's done, she takes a step back and eyes me from various angles, tilting her head to assess my posture. "Yes. Yes, that's good enough, I suppose."

"Alright. What's the spell then?" I'm barely able to refrain myself from jumping up and down in excitement, least I end up messing up my stance.

"Mur-o-wa." Croix pronounces, carefully enunciating every syllable, so that I'm able to perfectly get the correct pronunciation.

"Mur…"

"Wait." She hastily cuts me off before I can finish pronouncing the spell. "You have to aim first." She explains, pointing to the rock. "And you have to concentrate on the energy inside your body, pouring as much as you can into the spell."

"Alright." I carefully point the tip of my wand towards the boulder, unsure of how close to it will the spell land, and spending quite some time trying to get it perfectly aligned.

"As it usually is with magic, the aim doesn't have to be perfect, but you have to have your objective very clear for the spell to land on it." Croix continues when she sees me struggling. "It's not a gun, after all." She chuckles.

"Right." I blush. Then, I close my eyes and concentrate on pouring energy into my wand. I feel it flow through my veins, like a river of fire just under the surface of my skin, and I'm careful to take as much as I can from it. Of course, not all of it is available at a time, but I can still take a good bunch and make it run out of my body through the magical conductor that is the wooden and metal wand of the school. "Murowa!" I shout after opening my eyes and focusing on the boulder.

Instantly, the magic that was inside me comes out in an impressive burst that lands on my objective… and before I can react, there's a big explosion that shakes the ground making me fall, and makes my ears ring as a great cloud of smoke and dust raises from the ground. I close my eyes and raise my arms in a defensive manner, expecting the worse… but after a few seconds of just waiting in dread anticipation, hearing as pieces of rocks fall all around me, I realize that, despite my racing heart, I'm mostly unscathed, and I dare opening my eyes only a small crack.

Croix is standing in front of me in a defensive posture, holding her wand on her left hand, from which a sphere of pink energy is emitted, surrounding the both of us in a way that makes me assume it was because of it that neither of us got hurt. I sigh in relief, but just as soon as I do that, the dome disappears and Croix's wand falls to the ground, before the lilac-haired witch does the same, crying in pain.

"Croix?" I ask panicked as I rush to her, kneeling at her side and looking for any sort of injury, but I just see her clutching her right arm tightly as she clenches her teeth with her eyebrows knitted in a pained expression. Instantly, I realize what happened. I'd thought she literally couldn't use magic, but by the looks of it, it just hurts her a lot. "Oh, no! I just made you use magic. I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to… I'm so stupid, I'm sorry!" I feel tears prick at the corner of my eyes, as I'm just a horrible walking disaster that makes people suffer whenever I use magic, even though my intentions are the exact opposite. Honestly, I think I should come with a hazard warning.

"N-no. It's okay." She rasps out, making an effort to open her eyes and give me a pained smile. "It's my fault. I didn't realize you could be so powerful."

"Eh?" I tilt my head in confusion. She's not mad? She got hurt because of me!

"Normally the spell would have simply pulverized the boulder, not caused an explosion." She chuckles, but then grimaces as her arm (no doubt) starts hurting again. Still, she puts on a brave façade, smiling even when in her tense shoulders and paling face I can see she's still in pain. "I don't know why, but I just assumed your problem was lack of power, yet it seems to be the excess of it." She then shakes her head in amusement. "Just how ancient is your family anyways?"

"Uh…" I trail off, unsure if I should be sharing this information with her or, well, anyone. Sure, my roommates and my teachers know, but only because Holbrooke considered it was important to tell them, but with Croix… I just don't want her to treat me any different, or to think I'm special just because of my ancestry. But then again, if I'd told her sooner, this wouldn't have happened, and she wouldn't be in pain. She's agreed to tutor me too, even after refusing so many other girls before me, so the least I can do is be completely honest with her.

"Uhm…" I blush and deviate my gaze as I rub the back of my neck in a sheepish way. "About… fifteen centuries." I finally admit in a small voice.

"What?!" She exclaims, staring owlishly at me, the pain in her arm completely forgotten. "But the only known families that are that old are…"

"I-I… yeah." I mumble awkwardly. She doesn't have to finish the sentence for me to get what she meant to say.

"You descend from one of the Nine Olde Witches?! Are you serious?!" Her shrieks make me flinch. I think she's starting to freak out. Ugh. This is why I didn't want her to know!

"I-it's not that big of a deal!" I stammer. "I mean, honestly, we're not even 100% sure since most of my ancestors died during the witch hunts, and the survivors changed their last name. With how bad I am at magic it's more probable that this is just some stupid rumor or something!"

"You don't even know how magic inheritance works, do you?" She asks, raising an eyebrow. When I just shake my head and blush even brighter, she continues talking. "We're all born with a certain amount of magic inside ourselves, but as we use it the amount increases." She pauses, looking pointedly at me. "Once we have children, our magic is passed down, growing slightly with each generation of witches, depending on how much magic the mother used." She sighs and turns to look at the hole that's now where the boulder once was. "That's why, the more ancient a family is, the more powerful its members are."

"S-so you're saying…"

"I'm saying, Chariot du Nord, that you just freaking caused an explosion that almost killed us because your family has been accumulating power for fifteen centuries." She laughs, like even she can't quite believe what she's saying. "I would certainly consider that proof enough that you are indeed a descendant from one of the Nine."

"I-I see…" I gulp, slightly overwhelmed. "Please don't tell anyone!"

"Why not? You'd be like a celebrity here." She watches me in amusement.

"Because they'd start treating me differently, and they'd want to be my friends just because of my family, and expect me to excel at everything!" I practically whine, giving her my best puppy dog eyes I can muster as I put my hands in a begging position. "Please, please, please! Can this be our secret?"

"Huh, so my slave is asking a favor from me? And after almost killing me, no less." She says in a teasing tone, smirking devilishly. "But I guess I'll be benevolent this time and let it slide for now."

"Okay?" I say, slightly confused. "So you'll keep my secret?"

"What secret? I already forgot about it." She winks, and it takes me a couple of seconds to understand what that means.

"Oh, thank you!" I scream as I practically launch myself in her direction to give her a big hug full of gratefulness… only for her to move out of the way and make me fall to the ground, where I end up scratching my chin and hands. "Ow." I whimper.

"Come on, Chariot. Let's continue the lesson. I think we should still have enough time to work on your control… only with something less dangerous." She says as she gets up from the ground and dusts off her uniform. I just glare at her from my position still lying on the ground. How dare she dodge my hug?! "Perhaps an illumination spell? I bet even you wouldn't be able to screw that up."

"Hey!" I exclaim, offended as I get up with a jump and pout at her.

"Come on, get your wand ready. There's not much time left." She just chuckles, clearly amused by my reaction, and I can't help but forgive her for her rudeness. Sure, she's a little rough around the edges, but she's been incredibly patient and understanding, even before knowing who I'm descendant of. And she didn't even get mad when I almost killed us and forced her to use magic. So… I guess I can forgive her for being rather obnoxious and teasing at times. If I'm being honest with myself, I don't even mind it much, because there's no malice in how she makes fun of me.

Anyways, where was that stupid wand? I guess it's time to continue with the lesson.


Thanks for reading!

And thanks to my beta reader moonwatcher13.