The girls have been antsy all week.
Clef had told them they wouldn't have a lesson that week until Saturday because it was going to be a Very Important day for them.
They knew they still had a few years until their Rites, so it wasn't that kind of Important, but they knew something was different.
Something was coming.
Something was going to happen.
And they were excited.
Their classmates were excited for a different reason; it was Halloween, after all, and there was candy to be had, pranks to be pulled, and scares to be experienced.
"What are you going to be for Halloween, Umi?" one of their classmates had asked.
Umi had smiled and just answered, "A witch."
No one understood why Hikaru and Fuu laughed.
When school finally let out on Friday, they rushed to Hikaru's house–hers was the closest to the part of town that Clef's apartment was at–and spent all night locked in Hikaru's room, laughing.
They weren't casting, they'd promised Clef they wouldn't, but their fingers itched with the urge of it. So who could blame them for just using it for little things–like making Hikaru's toys dance for them, or letting Hikari speak for ten minutes?
It wasn't casting, they reasoned, it just was.
The next day, they were up early to gather the things Clef had told them to bring–crow feathers, a few gems of their choice, their rain water jars, and their own laughter bottled–and left for his apartment as soon as breakfast was finished.
"Where are you three off to?" Kakeru had asked, yelling to them from the doorstep.
"Another world!" Hikaru had yelled back, to the laughter of the other two.
On the bus to Clef's apartment, they had huddled in the back of the bus, and watched the people come and go.
Hikaru was the one who noticed it first–She had gasped and nudged Fuu to look at the woman leaning against the window to their right, murmuring, "She has wings!"
Umi and Fuu both looked and, sure enough, sprouting from the woman's back were a pair of long, translucent wings that reminded them of a dragonfly's. Her skin was tinted blue, and a pair of pointed teeth jutted out from her lower jaw.
There were others that came and went; Fair Folk, Werefolk–all of them came and went and the girls couldn't help but stare.
When the others would notice–and it was hard not to notice–they would study the girls for a moment and, seeing whatever it was that identified them as Touched, would smile at them and wink.
The girls just grinned back.
They reached the building just before lunch, and Lafarga was at the entrance, waiting for them. They grinned at him and he just nodded and wished them a Happy Halloween.
Caldina was in the hall with Ascot, trying to teach him the Monster Mash, only to change it to the Time Warp when the girls arrived.
Umi immediately joined in, keeping up with Caldina expertly. Ascot stood with Fuu and Hikaru and watched, smiling bigger than they'd seen him.
"Happy Halloween," Ascot commented.
All four girls sang back, "Happy Halloween!"
Persea was standing in her doorway, a bowl of candy ready for the girls as they passed on their way to Clef. Hikaru grabbed an undignified handful, Fuu only took a couple of pieces, and Umi respectfully declined. Persea gave her a small gemstone instead, and Umi squealed in excitement.
Everyone was practically bouncing off the walls in excitement, and the girls didn't understand why.
Not yet anyway.
They knocked on Clef's door–a habit they had to be trained into, after Hikaru had brazenly charged in one day and was almost brained by a flying book that Clef had been using for a spell–and waited.
After only a moment, the door flew open and there was Clef, smiling at them.
Until this moment, the girls had never seen Clef smile.
"Happy Halloween, girls!" He greeted enthusiastically. His hair was a mess, his clothes were a bit disheveled, and his eyes were bright in either excitement or mania, they had no way to know.
On any other day, they would've been confused and wary of his excitement, but not today.
Hikaru bounced into the apartment, followed by Fuu and Umi as all three replied, "Happy Halloween!"
They sat dutifully at the table, even as they fidgeted in their chairs, still feeling the charged energy of the entire complex, and waited for him to start the lesson.
They placed their materials on the table, expecting him to instruct them in what they would use the items for, but he only waved his hand at them dismissively, "Not yet, not yet, we're saving that for tonight."
The girls looked at each other in confusion, but put the items away. Clef showed them tricks and used his magic for similar things as they'd done last night in Hikaru's room. They showed him their own tricks–Hikaru and the fireworks she could shoot from her fingertips, Umi and the water figures she could make dance on the kitchen table, Fuu and the singing flowers–and he laughed.
They made Clef laugh.
They had never seen Clef laugh before.
As the daylight faded, the others converged on Clef's apartment–Emeraude, Zagato, Lantis, Alcyone, Caldina, Persea, Ascot, Ferio, even Lafarga–and Clef kept grinning as they all talked and laughed and danced and casted.
And then, just as the sun started to disappear over the horizon, they all felt the change in the air. The laughter faded, and they all slowed and looked to Clef.
Clef was still grinning, but there was a knowing look in his eyes now as he pressed his palms together, then, very quietly, he said, "It's time."
The magic users in the room nodded–even the girls, though they didn't know what they were agreeing to–and gathered their coats and bags.
They were headed to the woods. The girls didn't know how they knew, but they did, and they knew that this was a sacred moment. Ferio and Lafarga trailed behind the group, Lafarga staying vigilant for something–he never said what he was always looking out for, but he always was. Ferio, still young and unsure of what he was meant to be to the rest of the group, stayed close to Lafarga, mimicking his vigilance, even though he was as lost about what he was looking out for as the girls.
None of them said a word as they walked for what seemed like forever until they finally reached a clearing. The older members of the party fanned out to take their positions around the perimeter of the field, the girls being pointed along by Emeraude's smiling and gesturing but not saying a word, as Clef stood in the center. In an instant, a fire was roaring in front of him. Those around the field sat, and waited.
Clef spoke.
"I have been alive for longer than I would wish on anyone." He began, staring into the fire, "I have seen our kind hunted, I have seen our kind tortured, I have seen us killed."
Fuu, Persea, Ascot, and Emeraude lowered their heads in reverence for those lost before them. Umi, Caldina, and Lantis got a determined set in their jaws, angry at the loss, though Umi was too young to feel it as the others did. Hikaru, Zagato, and Alcyone stared into the fire with Clef, seeing what Clef had seen in the flames.
"I had lost hope that any of us would find one another again, or that we would be safe if we did." Clef continued, before turning his eyes from the flames to smile at the group around him, "But here you are. On one of our most holy nights. Ready to celebrate in the Old Ways–ways I haven't seen in decades. So tonight, for our lost, for our found, and for our future–let us celebrate."
The people who lived outside the forest would tell each other about the lights and the sounds that came from the forest that night, but none of them would know what it was about. Even as a trail of fifteen people wondered out, all grinning and laughing together.