November 2, 2019

Nina jolted awake, finding herself in a cold sweat—or what she thought was sweat. It smelled suspiciously like lake water…

Nina got up out of bed, grabbing a towel and a change of clothes with her out of the Thunderbird common room and through the halls. She made her way to where the girls' lavatory was located, leaving a trail of wet footprints behind her.

A fifth-year student whom Nina didn't recognize stepped out of the lavatory and was ready to leave when she gave a puzzled look at Nina who was dripping wet and looked crazy.

"Good morning," said Nina, flashing a passive-aggressive smile.

Nina stomped with squishy steps into the lavatory: a beautiful marble restroom with stalls separated by walls and sliding doors. A new stall expanded at the end of the restroom especially for Nina and she impatiently slammed her door shut after going in.

There was a toilet, a faucet, and a shower made of marble with gold detailing along with a mirrored medicine cabinet full of toiletries. Nina stepped into the shower, washed away the icky residue—and the tension from dying in her dream—from her body.

She returned to her dorm room significantly less stressed than when she left. Nina walked in to see Erin had already woken up, doing morning stretches while listening to "There You Go" by P!nk.

"It happened again," moaned Nina.

"Chris was being a pussy?" said Erin, gently removing her satin hair bonnet.

"No, I had a dream and—" said Nina.

Before Nina could tell Erin about her dream, she felt a heavy mass fall on her feet, making her and Erin scream.

"What the hell…?" yelled Nina until she regained her cool.

"It's just Sagwa," said Erin.

Nina looked down at the small, Siamese cat. Sagwa had a pink collar around her neck with a flower-shaped name tag attached. The cat purred as she slinked her chubby body around, rubbing her furry head against Nina's legs.

"How did she get here?" asked Nina. "Chris is gonna freak out when he sees her."

"I don't know," said Erin before turning to her Google Home Mini. "Hey, Google—pause."

The music stopped with Erin's command. Nina rolled her eyes playfully.

"It's like magic," said Nina in unison with Erin, quoting one of Erin's oft-used phrases.

"Oh," exclaimed Erin, suddenly remembering something. "I totally forgot we have a field trip to Salem today. I can't wait to see what No-Majs think of witches."

"We already know what they think," said Nina. "They think we look pretty great roasted over a fire."

Nina pulled out an assortment of differently sized combs and hair products from her bedside table drawer.

"We can talk about my dream, later, I guess," said Nina. "And we can take the furball back to Chris."

After they did their hair and dressed up in their school robes, Nina and Erin took the winding stairs down to the fifth floor just in time to see Chris leaving the Horned Serpent common room.

"Looking for this?" asked Erin with Sagwa swaddled in her arms.

"Sagwa!" said Chris, his face lit up with excitement. "I've been looking for her since last night."

Chris pet his cute cat adoringly, earning a light purr from her. Nina looked at the cat inquisitively.

"Keep an eye on her," said Nina as Erin handed Sagwa to Chris. "She could be some kind of evil spy or something."

"That only happens in Harry Potter movies," joked Erin.

"Oh, right," said Nina. "Are you and Jason gonna go on the field trip to Salem as well?"

"Yup," replied Chris. "It's gonna be… interesting."

Later on the bus ride to Salem, the students were all taking in the sights of their ride down the quaint streets with historic houses. Nina and Erin sat with their friend Duchess Thorburn, a fourth-year Thunderbird with a honey complexion and long, black hair in love locs.

"Not to be rude," said Duchess with her Trinidadian accent. "But you look kind of pale, Nina."

"Yeah, I know," groaned Nina. "I haven't been sleeping well the past couple of days."

"You have the Voodoo class with Professor Beauchamp on Wednesday, right?" asked Duchess. "I think she knows how to deal with that sort of thing."

"Ooh," said Erin. "We should go together. I hate not knowing anyone in a new class."

"That's why we're always together," giggled Nina.

At the front of the bus, Professor Elizabeth Cromwell, a raven-haired beauty of Wampanoag descent who teaches History of Magic, stood up. She turned to face the students, holding onto nearby seats to keep herself balanced.

"Settle down, everyone," said Professor Cromwell. "In a few moments, we'll have arrived in Salem. As you may know, this city is famous for killing witches, so please be on your best behavior."

Nina got her grimoire from her backpack and turned to the new page she added when she was still in the classroom. It had an illustration of a stereotypical witch with a pointy hat and broomstick flying over puritanical New England.

"Oh, come on," said Jason, sitting between Chris and his other friend Adam.

"They haven't done that in ages," said Adam.

"Listen to the professor, white boy," said Erin, making Adam chuckle nervously. "They may have stopped killing witches centuries ago, but they most definitely continued killing other people for the way they were born, and don't even get me started on enslavement."

Several students winced at this comment. They were clearly uncomfortable and not ready for this conversation.

"Erin," said Professor Harris, unhappy with his daughter's hostile tone.

"I said what I said," shrugged Erin.

"To be fair," said Chris. "Witches and wizards don't have the best track record either. Does Voldemort sound familiar to you?"

"And here we are," said Professor Cromwell.

The school bus pulled up against a sidewalk next to the bustling park in a line of school buses. Across the street from the park was an imposing bronze figure settled on a pedestal. It was the statue of Roger Conant, settler of Salem, situated in front of the Salem Witch Museum. All the students walked out of the bus one by one onto the sidewalk.

"Single-file line, everyone," said Professor Harris.

"Hey," said Chris as he approached the girls with Jason and Adam in tow. "Who invited your dad anyway, Erin?"

"I'm a chaperone," said Professor Harris. "So watch it."

He was standing much closer to them than they thought he was. Chris gulped nervously.

"Yes, sir," said Jason, giving Chris a disapproving look.

Erin poked at Professor Harris, trying her best to tickle her father to lighten up the mood.

"He's not like a regular chaperone," said Erin. "He's a cool chaperone."

"The coolest," said Nina with a cheeky smile.

Professors Cromwell and Harris led the students inside Witch City Mall, lined with small merchandise stores, restaurants, and a comic book store among other things. Normally, when the students went into the No-Maj world in their school robes, they would get weird looks, but in Salem everyone was dressed as their favorite witch or wizard, so they fit right in.

After that, they all went to a mall pizzeria with funky graffiti designs on its walls. Half the students sat on the long booth wall bench and the other half sat on chairs pulled up to their tables. Nina and Erin went to the table where Jason and Chris were seated. A large pan of hot pepperoni pizza with sizzling cheese and a fluffy crust was sitting on the table next to a side of crispy, curly fries. Nina and Erin settled themselves into metallic chairs across from Jason and Chris.

"The food's here," said Chris excitedly.

"These pizzas have the best crust," said Erin.

"Well," said Nina. "Now that we're all here, let me tell you guys about my dream."

Nina explained the whole nightmare to them, from the carousel of thestrals to Erin getting whisked away into the sky.

"That's how it ended?" said Erin, cracking up. "I was flown away by a stupid bird?"

"Shh," said Nina, afraid that Erin's laughing would disturb the other patrons. "Yes. I'm scared that something's going to happen to you during tonight's, uh, 'mission,' I guess you could call it."

"We just need to be prepared," said Jason. "And Erin should be fine. Describe the place your dream was in."

Nina went into detail about her dream's scenery, an island of magnificent beauty.

"It could be a lot of places," said Jason. "But to me it sounds like something from the Middle Ages in Ireland or something. I'll do research on which famous evil witch or wizard lived around that time."

Hearing Jason getting ready for the adventure ahead gave Nina some sense of security.

Professors Cromwell and Harris rounded up the students once again, leading them out of the mall and onto the cobblestone streets of Salem until they arrived in front of the statue of Roger Conant. Before them was an imposing, Gothic structure.

"This is the Salem Witch Museum," said Professor Cromwell to the students. "I know that it can be a little disturbing seeing what the No-Maj population has done to our kind, but please, try to keep your emotions in check."

"I'll keep these No-Majs in check," said Erin under her breath.

Nina giggled while the professors and the other students tried their best to ignore Erin's ongoing rebelliousness. They all entered the Salem Witch Museum, taking their seats as the life-size dioramas showing scenes of early European settlers in distress lit up. The entire room fell quiet as the story began. The voice of an ominous sounding man with a British accent relayed the story of Mrs. Putnam, a woman affected by the deaths of some family members.

"Mrs. Putnam considered turning away from her God," said the announcer. "Trying to contact the dead through forbidden means."

Nina's face turned red at the mention of communicating with ghosts. Nina wanted nothing more than to forget about her predicament at least for a little while, but it seemed she kept getting reminded of it.

The voice described the meetings that took place in the house of Samuel Parris, a Puritan minister. Many young girls, including the daughter of Mrs. Putnam, gathered there to pass the time during the winter.

"The center of these meetings was old Tituba," said the narrator. "A black woman whom Parris had brought back as his servant from Barbados. To amuse the girls, Tituba told them stories or showed them tricks and scraps of magic, some of which had probably come over with her ancestors on the slave ships from Africa."

"Last time I checked," said Erin. "Those European girls were not forced to learn magic. It was their own damn fault for letting it get out of control, but of course they're going to blame the black woman."

"Did he say Africa?" said Nina. "Tituba wasn't black. She was indigenous South American, like me. They can't even do racism right?"

Nina and Erin left feeling angrier than when they went in but joined their classmates when they spotted food stands in the park across the street. They scurried over and ordered snacks like unicorn churros, shaved ice, and popcorn. Upon seeing a group of No-Majs dressed as Hogwarts students, Nina and her friends visibly recoiled in horror.

"This is the most ghetto charity event I've been to in my life," said Jason.

"And that's on period," added Erin.

"You know what?" said Nina. "They deserve to know the truth."

Despite Chris trying to hold Nina back, she walked over to the group of No-Maj "students."

"I see you guys are fans of Harry Potter," said Nina, to the nods of these young fans. "Cool, then I'll let you in on a little secret: Harry Potter is a real person, but he looks nothing like Daniel Radcliffe. He saved the UK from a wizard supremacist so that magical and non-magical beings of all kinds could live their lives happily, but J. K. Rowling took his story, pretended she made it up on her own, published it in the No-Maj—sorry, 'Muggle' world, and became a billionaire without giving a single cent to the 'boy who lived.'"

All the Ilvermorny students around Nina, including herself, held their collective breath. Then the little Harry Potter fans began laughing, which the Ilvermorny students joined in on to seem normal.

"You must be crazy if you think we're falling for that," said one of the fans.

"I thought you liked Harry Potter," said Jason to Nina.

The little fans' eyes lit up when they heard Jason's accent.

"Are you British?" asked a little red-headed fan.

"There's this place called Australia," said Jason. "Look it up."

"That's enough," said Professor Harris. "It's time to leave."

Nina and her friends caught up with their Ilvermorny classmates as they boarded the buses. The ride back to school was bumpy. The noise of all the students chatting mixed into a cacophony. Jason and Chris sat with Adam on the left and across the aisle from them were Nina and Erin with Duchess again.

"Although they're still misinformed about us," said Jason. "I did notice that people were rooting for the witches around town."

"It gives me hope that we could make real progress towards better relations between wizards and No-Majs someday," added Chris.

"Don't fool yourselves," said Nina. "They like fictional witches. The second they meet a real witch, they'll be itching to start a fire."

As they arrived at the entrance of the Ilvermorny campus, the field trip finally came to an end as the students got off their buses and returned to the bustle of the school day.

Nina, Erin and Duchess walked together to their Introduction to Santería class. Cowrie shell necklaces were hanging from strings on the ceiling and little wooden statuettes of gods and goddesses sat on bookshelves around the classroom. The three girls sat in very comfortable, deep-red armchairs in front of long, blacktop desks. The teacher was Professor Claudia Castro, a Cuban woman with a light-brown skin tone and loosely curled brown hair.

"In today's lesson," said Professor Castro with an air of mystery. "We will be divining to invoke the orisha, Yemaya. Your spell kits are on your desks, so take a look at them."

On Erin's desk was the spell kit of the day: the parchment for her grimoire, a sea-green candle, a pocketful of herbs, and a conch-shell wand. The parchment had a watercolor illustration of a water goddess. She had afro hair made of seaweed, dark-blue skin, and a long, white dress that billowed like fabric underwater. Erin placed the parchment into her grimoire, and with a warm yellow glow, it attached to the spine as though it were just another page of the book.

Duchess raised her hand to catch Professor Castro's attention. Duchess took the Professor's nod as a cue to ask her question.

"Aren't most spirits that are invoked by magic… well… evil?" asked Duchess.

"That's a slight misconception," said Professor Castro. "Yemaya is a friendly spirit. This is why I am allowing you to contact her. But of course, just like living people, there are spirits who are not so friendly who might try to take advantage of your attempt to interact with them."

Erin motioned Nina to come closer to her, making sure that she was quiet enough so others couldn't hear.

"We know all about nasty spirits, don't we?" said Erin, teasing Nina who stuck her tongue out in return.

"Would anyone like to volunteer?" said Professor Castro.

"I would," said Erin, raising her hand.

"Good," said Professor Castro. "Now, burn your candle and with your conch wand in hand, repeat after me: 'Yo te doy lo que recibí; mi cuerpo, mi mente, mi fe para ti.'"

"You're really quizzing me on my Spanish," said Erin. "Hopefully, Nina taught me well. Incendio."

A small flame burst from the tip of Erin's wand, effectively lighting the blue candle. Then she took her conch wand in her hand and made tiny circles around the parchment

"Yo te doy lo que recibí," said Erin with her eyes closed. "Mi cuerpo, mi mente, mi fe… para ti."

Erin felt her soul open up. It was as if her insides parted to make way for a new host. Her mind was now in the spirit world and she could neither see nor hear anything, but she could sense a multitude of beings surrounding her. One in particular was vicious and charging straight at her like a bull. Erin braced for impact, but a gentle spirit pushed the vicious one away and entered her body.

Erin was no longer herself. Yemaya was in control of her body now. Erin was not afraid, though. It felt like home.

"The pale one from history has been set free," said Yemaya's voice through Erin. "The one with a soul as white as evil itself is returned and will bring death and destruction in his wake. I give you the gift of clarity to fight his wickedness."

Erin started choking as copious amounts of sea water expelled from her mouth. It washed over her desk and she was left trying to catch her breath once it stopped. Yemaya left Erin's body and Erin returned to the corporeal world. Everyone, including the teacher, stared at her in horror. Erin wiped her mouth and cleared her throat.

"She was probably talking about some makeup I lost," she said nonchalantly. "Clarity will help me find it."

Nina looked at Erin as she sought to find the meaning behind her uncharacteristically sage words. The class resumed as normal, or as normal as could be after this whole ordeal.

After school, Jason told the others who he thought the next evil witch was: Morgan le Fay. He discovered her only weakness was the sword Excalibur, but it needed to be infused with extra magical force to work on witches.

The hands of time struck twelve and so befell the Witching Hour upon Ilvermorny. Nina, Jason, Erin and Chris surreptitiously snuck out of their dorms to meet at the familiar spot on the wall in the hall. Jason tapped the wall as he memorized the sequence and it split open, presenting them with the large, dark room with a bridge leading to the hub.

"You're all here," said Merlin. "How is life treating you?"

"Terribly," said Nina.

Merlin was taken aback by Nina's candor, but Chris just shrugged in response.

"We had an interesting field trip today," informed Chris.

"Oh," responded Merlin. "I see... well, as always, make sure to be vigilant on your quest."

"Wouldn't have it any other way," said Jason. "All right, guys. Here we go."

The four students stepped on the second glowing platform from the left, and the world around them flashed before their eyes.

They descended through the floor and felt their feet touch grassy ground. They all surveyed their surroundings and Nina knew she was back in the land of her nightmare. Treetops cast a dreamy shadow, the plant life was imbued with a dewy film of moisture, there was a light mist permeating the air. There was the familiar lake in the center where she drowned while Erin was carried away by a flying buzzard. That was when Nina heard Erin scream.

"Help!" shouted Erin. "A bird's got me!"

"Erin!" shouted Nina, whipping around only to see Erin laughing just a few feet behind her.

"You thought I would get eaten by a goddamn bird?" said Erin in between laughs.

"So the prophecy is true," said a withered, old man's voice.

The four students were caught off guard by an elderly, bearded man wearing blue robes. He instantly reminded them of someone.

"Merlin?" said Nina. "Is that you?"

"Just how old are you?" said Erin.

"Never mind that," said Merlin, ignoring the question. "We are in need of your help. Follow me."

Merlin led them to a camp close to the lake. There was a group of men in rags seated around a campfire. A handsome, blond man stood at the head of the group, leading a discussion on the plans of a future attack.

"Young people," said Merlin. "I would like you to meet Arthur."

"As in King Arthur?" asked Erin. "Shouldn't you look a little more… kingly?"

"It is true," said Arthur. "I'm afraid I appear before you as no more than a peasant due to my malevolent sister Morgana's doing."

"Morgana," echoed Jason. "You mean Morgan le Fay?"

Arthur winced at the sound of that name, finding Jason's careless tone disconcerting.

"Don't use the title that monster gave herself," said Arthur.

"Arthur," said Merlin. "I believe these young people are the heroes foretold by the prophecy."

At this information, Arthur looked the four students up and down—they looked very unassuming.

"I'll take your word for it, Merlin," he said. "We'll need all the help we can get. Do the four of you have any plans?"

"We should go for an ambush," said Jason, naturally taking the lead. "Do you know what she's doing today?"

"Morgana's going to a foreign nation via carriage for a meeting with another ruler," said Arthur. "Do you suggest we attack her then?"

"Exactly," said Jason.

Later that afternoon in the castle of Avalon was Morgana, or Morgan le Fay: a fair woman with long, blond hair. She stepped into her white carriage led by a horse rider. He drove her carriage through a rarely used rode through thick bushes and trees. Arthur, his army, and the four kids were in the bushes hiding. Then, Arthur rushed out.

"Charge!" he shouted.

His men came out of the woodwork and Morgana's horse rider hopped off the carriage and pulled her out, for he was a spy from Arthur's court. He pulled out his sword and pointed it at Morgana's throat.

"Unhand me, you cretin!" shouted Morgana. "Furnunculus!"

The horse rider began screaming in pain as his skin bubbled, his body being covered in painful, pustulous boils.

"The plague!" shouted Arthur and his soldiers, hastily backing away.

"Finite Incantatem!" shouted Chris.

The horse rider's boils dissipated but he fell unconscious from the initial shock. The other soldiers swung at Morgana, but she flung each one away like rag dolls with a swipe of her arm. As this was happening, the four students along with Merling converged their magic unto Arthur's Excalibur.

Morgana knew the severe implication of this, fearing the prophecy to be true. She made haste and assumed the form of a buzzard. As a buzzard, Morgana soared straight at Erin, but Erin retaliated by whipping her wand at the evil witch.

"Petrificus Totalus!" shouted Erin.

Buzzard-Morgana's whole body was rendered immoble, frozen in place by the spell Erin had just cast. She plummeted down slowly.

"Now's your chance, Arthur!" said Jason.

Arthur stabbed Buzzard-Morgana through the breast. Suddenly, Morgana's buzzard body rippled and morphed back into her human form. Arthur, Merlin, and the four students watched with bated breath as Morgana's body lay motionless on the floor.

The sight of this scene was too much for the four students. Chris resisted the urge to throw up while all the others looked away in horror. Her body faded away, leaving only a lone Wizard Card on the ground. Jason shakily picked it up. Arthur approached the four students.

"You have aided me in regaining my kingship," said Arthur. "For that I thank you."

"Yeah, let's just get this over with," said Nina before turning to Merlin. "And we have a lot of talking to do later."

"I understand," said Merlin unquestioningly.

All four kids walked back to the lake and felt their weight suddenly drop. They were floating in the air and found themselves back in the hub. Now two of the platforms had reclaimed Wizard Cards on them while the rest remained dormant as the Witching Hour came to a close. Merlin's much older, ghostly face greeted them.

"I see you've defeated the evil," said Merlin, noticing their distressed faces. "What is it that you wanted to talk about?"

Chris turned away while Nina stepped forward.

"We saw Morgan le Fay die," said Nina. "And we were partially responsible for it. The first witch was easy because she just blew up, but we saw Morgan le Fay get stabbed and die slowly. I can't help but feel like I'm a murderer and a traitor because she was a witch like me. That would make me no better than those Salem witch hunters."

"It wasn't real, Nina," said Merlin. "These spirits already died long ago. And you must remember that these magic users were evil and that their memory was revived by a bigger evil whose purpose we have yet to know. You are only returning things back to the way they were, nothing more."

A somber silence filled the air.

"Let's go to sleep," said Chris. "I'm exhausted."

With that being said, the four students wordlessly returned to their respective dorm rooms, all sharing the same trouble in falling asleep. They couldn't get the image of Morgan le Fay's maimed body out of their heads. At one point during the night, Nina felt her mind give way.

She opened her eyes and saw nothing but a dark, endless sky. Nina felt her feet dangling and the wind gently pushing against her from every side. Then she looked down to see a vast expanse of a beautiful, blue ocean. The moon's light was reflecting off the ocean like dancing sapphire. Nina was high in the air with seemingly nothing to hold her.

"I'm falling!" she shouted haphazardly.

While flailing her arms around, she felt a seat belt press against her midsection and a seat appeared underneath her.

"Oh," sighed Nina. "Thank God."

She looked down at her seat, noticing that it was more of a bench. Then she saw that there was another to her left and right and saw three more above her. It was like a giant, floating auditorium.

Down on the ocean, a small landmass came into view out of the horizon. Nina's vehicle came closer and closer to it until she was floating just above it—a tropical island littered with palm trees. On it was a volcano that looked dangerously active.

The stars in the sky collected to form bizarre shapes. They were mysterious runes of a nature Nina had never seen before. They appeared as if they were only inches away right in front of her. Nina reached her arm out to grab one but her seat belt snapped and she went tumbling down through the air.

She was falling closer and closer to the island in the middle of the vast ocean. Nina landed on a thin tree in such a way that her stomach was impaled by the top. Her body remained static as her mind blacked out completely.