POV Narrator:
Thursday, 2 April 2020, Dublin, Ireland
As in Luna Nova was preparing for the quarantine, with Akko practically forcing herself to isolate herself to avoid getting sick by the boss who practically uses the students as a weapon. In Dublin the situation is different, the schools closed in the pandemic and the solution was to adapt everything to distance learning, with the students having to do the classes at home, which in Victoria McLaren Witchcraft Academy, even received laptops to be able to study with tranquility and for the students who did not have, would be able to have the condition of studying with the rest of the class, since they would have the Webcam and as one of the requirements of the study was just that. Holly and Brooke were already preparing themselves for another normal day of class waking up very early that day.
POV Brooke:
I wake up another day here at Mrs. Jordan's house, it's been a while since those Daryl events, I'm already completing one year studying, but now this, will I never leave the first year? By the nine lesbian witches, I'm starting to think it's going to be like that, well at least they gave us the chance with distance learning, I get up and start to do my basic hygiene, it seems that the shaved part of my hair is already growing back, time to give it a shortening again, I turn on the hair machine and start to pass it in a very superficial way while I keep my hair pinned up, then I finish it with a streak.
"Pretty" I say blinking at myself in the mirror.
After being ready for the day I leave the room, go down the stairs, kind of sliding, arriving at the kitchen where the food was ready, there were April and Megan, the two already eating what I make sure to sit with them.
"Good morning" I tell them, as always quite cheerful, I love staying here.
"Lively today by de looks of it, how 'ave de distance learning classes been, complicated yet?" said Mrs Jordan.
"Look I'm lucky I don't do dese things, I graduated a while ago, now I'm doing distance learning and gee I can't keep track" Megan said.
"I even have difficulty too, but nothing that will hinder me, I can still concentrate a little, mainly because many things I'm relearning, only now that new things are coming, it sucks that I have to repeat the year, and now there's this" I tell them a little upset and frustrated.
"You'll get through dis Brooke, dere's no need to worry, it's just dings dat 'ave changed, as a matter of fact, I saw dat you even shaved de side of your hair, it's wonderful, I love de line you did" April said.
"Thanks, I still keep it as a form of resistance, my father tried to shave my head the day he found out everything, I ended up with a scratch and decided to shave part of the side at once, this way I show him that he can't hurt me anymore, besides I look much more beautiful like this, it gives me confidence, Mirage herself loves this cut" I tell them.
"Oh, so even dis 'as a story behind it, dat's cool, oh Brooke, if your father comes to bother us we'll send him running, just like we did with Croix's parents," said Megan.
"Hm, he doesn't care about me, the last thing he wants to know is to see me around, he has a huge disgust of me, look I've already provoked him a few times when my mother separated from him and I was showing him pictures of how I was getting, he got furious and said things like that he has no more son, that I died for him, that I'm a disgrace to the family, that I'll end with the family line because I'm gay, things like that" I say shrugging and even laughing a little and I see a scared face of Megan.
"Yeah Brooke, you really 'ave been through a lot, I remember some of de dings you told me, it still scares me how you say dat shrugging and laughing, even Croix wasn't dat full of 'er, it took 'er years to recover from de trauma" Mrs Jordan said as she went to eat and I go smiling.
The food was delicious, I love a good waffer, also the chocolate milk that Mrs. Jordan makes, the milk helps a lot, since I came here I gained a considerable body, she helped me with a follow up with Dr. Ulster, besides the exercises, well soon the classes will start and I can't study on an empty stomach, I can't wait to see
what's going to be so interesting today, today is the history class with Ms. Aiofe and then there will be English class with Ms. Tanya, nothing so complicated, I am already well studied in these two things.
"Today after school will you want to work with me on our game?" Mrs Jordan asks and I nod my head in agreement.
"I dink I'm going to go out to de market after school, leave a list of what to get, since I'm de girl leaving home from 'ere, I wonder howAunt Laura must be dere, dere are two old people dere, it must be de greatest danger, I've seen de news lately and dis Covid ding leaves de old people pretty debilitated" Megan said.
"Dat is why we 'ave to leave de elderly at home and take de risk, but also with all due care, wear a mask, keep clean, keep a distance, after all de risk 'as to be reduced, if de hospitals fill up it will be an extremely complicated situation, I don't know why Luna Nova 'as not made an exception for distance learning, although dey would still make an excuse about de time zone, since dey 'ave students from all over de world" April said.
I was already finishing eating, gee this is really good, now it's time to go to my room, I take myself from the table, wave to April and Megan, then I go up the stairs, they really have been treating me with the best affection they can, I'm grateful to have been taken here by them, I go up the stairs, arriving until the top floor in my room, I open the door and then I go entering, besides leaving the sign of "In class" so that nobody disturb me, only in an emergency, I also take my earphone with kitty ears and I'm putting it, I already see that the call will begin in five minutes with the teacher's warning, then I enter in the meet.
"Brooke!" Gab said as she saw me come in.
"Hi people, I'm home" I tell everyone.
"I love your kitten ear headset, then tell me where you bought it" Gab said.
"I send the link to you in your Whatsapp, I bought it on the internet, I already have the headphone for a good few years, I just do not know if they deliver here in Ireland, since I still lived in England when I bought, at the time it was about 55 pounds, it ensures isolation and also has a bass that you hear the vibration of the bass in some sounds, it's very nice, besides that to play FPS this little beauty here is the best, I hear footsteps with tranquility" I say to her.
"I love it, a bit expensive this headset, but it must be worth it" she said.
Then we were kind of listening to the other conversations, as the teacher was arriving, she said she would call in five minutes, so I'm just listening to the other conversations and as always Alan is making jokes, he's really funny, we laugh at him showing us some random things in the images, even showing the chroma key, I knew that the back was not a real background, he even pretended to be on a beach haha. Soon the teacher Aiofe arrives, now the class is about to start.
"Alright class, you're all here now, so I'm going to start roll call, Alan!" said the teacher.
"Present!" He said.
"Brooke!" I'm second on the call.
"Present!" I answer the teacher.
The call is happening, it's weird and bizarre to be like that by the computer, I keep thinking it's the biggest school roleplay, as if I were playing GTA RP in a way to pretend to be a student, I don't know why, but anyway, I'm curious to what will be the subject of today's class, the teacher said it will be a part of the history of civic struggle and human rights, that's what I really want to see.
"Well now that you're all present let's start today's class, we stopped at the 18th century, after the fights of the 17th century to retake Luna Nova and expel The Council we already know that the witch hunters came to weaken a lot, also because witch hunting was no longer as lucrative as another business that started to explode not in Europe, but outside Europe, the slave trade, this called the attention of the biggest witch hunters who changed to another branch, in this also changed the acceptance of the population with that since they saw that it wasn't working to accuse anyone of witch" Explains the teacher.
"And then the hunt ended when?" Question Gab.
"1699, with the Blackwell Berger agreement, when the supreme leader of the witches council negotiated with one of the king's ministers at the time and it was declared that the hunting would be forbidden between mundane and witches and that the witches would dictate their own laws and that they would have the control of them, but of course Mildred Berger at the time came up with the thing that would come to be the main attention of the 18th century, the witches hunting didn't end, who started to hunt were other witches, The witches caught were taken to the church that paid Mildred for each one that was caught and captured, then it was in this that began the biggest fight of this century, the rights of homosexuality among witches and also what started what they call the golden age of magic, little do the witches of Luna Nova know that this golden age was the most repressive with LGBT witches that at the time were only seen as homosexuals, regardless of their orientation" said the teacher and this is interesting.
"Woah, I remember how this part is very exalted in Luna Nova, the teacher there tells about Jennifer Campbell's heroism and talks about how Mildred Berger was reviled by rebel witches, I knew it didn't smell good that" I tell the teacher.
"If it weren't for these rebels we wouldn't be here today and that's why we'll start telling the story of the leader of these rebels today, as you are already in the context you can already imagine how complicated it was to live in such a world, but it was thanks to her that things didn't get worse, our school received her name not by chance, Victoria McLaren, she is one of the least esteemed witches in the history of the great witches of Luna Nova, of the council and even in the colleges, because they think she is a rebel" said the teacher.
"Ahhhhhhhh, we're finally going to meet the woman the school is named after, how nice" Gab said.
"Mrs McLaren talks a lot about her, you can see the admiration McLaren have for this Victoria, I just heard from them how she was the wronged revolutionary of this story" I say surprised.
"So without further ado let us begin, on August 10 1732, here in Dublin, Victoria McLaren was born, the result of a consanguineous relationship between Henry McLaren and Roberta McLaren, she was born with an anomaly in her body that did not allow her hand to grow five fingers, so she only had four on both hands, but otherwise she was in very good health, she just did not expect that in eight years her situation would get much worse with a massacre" Soon Alan raises his hand.
"Teacher, what is consanguineous?" We even keep quiet because it's not something I wanted to talk about.
"Consanguineous is when a person with kinship is related to each other in a romantic or sexual way, you already understood what it is, but coming back here besides Victoria they also had Julia who was born on the 5th of December 1737, she was mentally affected more by this consanguineous relationship, Julia was mentally unstable, but coming back here, we come to the year 1740, the massacre of the Williams over the McLaren, it was the retribution for what happened a century ago in 1640, in retaliation they killed all the McLaren, but a maid of the family managed to escape with Victoria and Julia, They escaped to England, but were pursued still by one of the murderous Williams, but they were saved when they arrived there and were protected by the hands of Jennifer Campbell, the same Jennifer that is so exalted in Luna Nova, she is a descendant of Sarah Campbell and Diana Cavendish I, the heroines that freed Luna Nova from The Council, as you know they were a couple, Jennifer saved them both from a certain death, when Victoria and Julia were already running away alone, after the murderess had killed their maid. In this Jennifer takes them to a new place where they could be protected, by going to the city of Glastobury and already with the objective of rebuilding the place, that's right, they went to Luna Nova, Jennifer already had a plan in mind and with the help of the great-grandmothers she would do it, the rebuilding of the academy of Luna Nova, which is the big moment for the witches in 1743, it was reopened and there was Victoria as a student even though she was only 11 years old, and also another Williams that Jennifer saved after she was kicked out of her home, this during an investigation of hers, Esther, she found in 1741, abandoned on the street and in the worst conditions, making sure to take Luna Nova too, that was Victoria's complicated childhood" Said the teacher.
"Wow, she's not even 11 and she's been through all this, what about Jennifer?" I ask the teacher.
"You've probably already heard her story in Luna Nova, but I'll soon tell you, today is Victoria's day, we have to understand each of the pieces to fully understand what were the times of "golden age of magic", coming back here we get to Luna Nova, there was already a standard, students with 15/16 years in the first year, Victoria and Esther were exceptions, those who stood out, especially Victoria, she was the best student by far in the three years, graduating with only 14 years old, she was already ahead of students 4 years older, it caused envy and even a little bit of conflict because they thought she was the favorite of the headmaster Jennifer, but soon they could settle the score, on July 14, 1750, Mildred Berger in an attempt to promote hunting, she decides to choose to make a tournament of combat between witches to see who would be the best, the reward would be nothing more, nothing less than the annulment of all laws, the winner could not be
arrested for any crime of magic, with the exception of murder, she just did not expect that Victoria at 17 years old would beat all the strongest witches in the world, this with Esther in third place and being annulled from the law of homosexuality that was the third place prize, the two took advantage and got married and nothing Mildred could do, It was one of the biggest buckets of cold water, but Victoria had already connected with Berger's plan, she used this as a ploy to gain her trust and be a hunter and also the leader's advisor, to get even more funds, this because she already had Jennifer's help, what starts here the other phase of Victoria's life" Said the teacher and raised her hand in surprise.
"Wow Victoria really was an amazing witch, and what was Luna Nova like in that time? This Jennifer doesn't seem as bad as I thought she was, Luna Nova's teacher inflates her ego like a goddess practically, but she never mentioned that side of her"
"In that time Luna Nova was very different, in fact in the same year Jennifer also made a sort of witch Olympics, an event every 5 years between the students of Luna Nova and other witch academies to see who was the most talented witch and witch academy in the world, Jennifer was more progressive than Miranda Holbrook, which no one tells in the story, but back here, in that time Victoria took on three main identities, the supreme leader's advisor, she moved the sticks and the paperwork, when witches were captured she took them to the church, the slayer, she founded a group of slayers called "The Fertility Stone" where her sister Julia got involved and there was where the youngest's cruelty began to germinate, they were by far the most feared slayer group in all of Britain and Ireland, with five slayers, Martha Jordan, Natalie Tyrrell, Esther Williams, Julia McLaren and Victoria herself, finally Victoria's last identity, the masked Saoirse, a strange masked woman who would raid the lair of witch hunters and free the captured ones, taking them to a place Victoria made on Mildred's back, where today is Loperèc in France, Near there was Terre Sapphique, the hidden and secret city that Victoria built as a sanctuary for LGBT witches, Mildred thought it was a monastery of correction, but it was actually a city where all the captured homosexual witches lived and the city grew bigger and bigger, but soon Victoria was seeing that she didn't want to be in that fight, so she needed to start a revolution, and she did, with the help of four of Luna Nova's students, Diana Cavendish II, Maria Du Nord, Lorraine Morris and Gwendolyn Benson, she passed herself off as Saoirse and created a group with the girls who had just graduated from Luna Nova, creating herself the five masquerades, Victoria decided to put an end to her own group of witch hunters and with that she went attacking one by one of her allies, arriving until Julia, the most cruel of them, There the two sisters got into a standoff and Julia became Victoria's enemy, only Esther of the witch hunters continued with Victoria, they were all kind of a polypulse, yes they all dated each other, but coming back, Victoria's focus was in Terre Sapphique and you can imagine what will happen" said the teacher and I raise my hand.
"I couldn't help noticing, there are family surnames here, I know some of them, especially the name Diana Cavendish, you already mentioned the first one, but the second one I didn't know it was from that time" I say in surprise.
"Diana Cavendish II is great-great-granddaughter of Diana Cavendish I, these last names are today names of witchcraft academies and also some of them have relevance today as the Jordan and Du Nord, but coming back here, Mildred didn't let it be cheap, she allied with Julia to face Victoria and attack the city of Terre Sapphique capturing everyone, only that Berger didn't expect one thing, Victoria armed all her commune and the city was already prepared for the coming of an attack at any moment, besides Julia also didn't like Mildred's face, She deceived Berger saying that she would make a city in the same mold of her sister to have more reinforcements and attack, pretending to be nice, but in reality Julia's Homoland was very dictatorial, Julia only accepted what she saw as "pure homosexuals", The 13 February 1760, Mildred with the witches' council army, Victoria with the commune's army, Julia with Homoland's army, at the beginning it seemed that Mildred was winning, but she didn't expect that her reinforcements would turn against herself, Julia's troops helped to crush the troops of the witches council, what was no doubt, Mildred was defeated, she would be spared by Victoria, but Julia didn't spare and executed the witch right there, after that she went away with resentment to Victoria she preferred to keep the peace between the places, since Victoria's focus was another, with Mildred's murder the council leadership would enter in a period of 10 years of regency, In this period the laws were kept, but the hunting started to die down, with the efforts of the witch fights opposing the witches, until in 1770, the elections for the position of supreme leader began, two witches were nominated and ran for the position, Jennifer Campbell and Victoria McLaren, each one with their own ideas in mind, the result we already know what it was, at that time there were no democratic elections for the position, nor never was in fact, the decision is always made by the council, that by almost unanimous vote Jennifer rose to the post of leader, Victoria's hands were tied, but she got the post of advisor to the supreme leader and that's when things got a little better, with the prohibition of the total witch hunt in 1771 and the stone in the coffin that came 9 years later with a text all made by Victoria of the rights of homosexual witches, after years that she kept appealing to Jennifer to approve, she got it, the Homosexual act of 1780, a law that is in force until today, it guarantees homosexual marriage, paternity recognition,
guarantees the guardianship of witch mothers and the right of adoption, criminalizes witches who preach homophobia, equalizes the age of consent between sexualities, besides many others that nobody knows, like the right of gender swap recognition, something that nobody would think at the time, but as Victoria has seen many trans witches she wanted to guarantee that right too, something that expanded more with her descendants, especially Elisabeth McLaren, but other than that, Victoria was expelled after the law was passed, because Jennifer thought it wouldn't represent well to have her, what she was living the rest of her life in Dublin with her family, going to work around here helping the local witches, building witch schools, even being a teacher and headmaster herself, promoting magic in Ireland, besides being one of the ones who saved us from the great famine, she actively helped our population as she could, So much so that Ireland is the only country that recognizes the heroism of a witch, and even she was the only witch to be stamped on money, present on the notes of the Irish pounds between 1923 until the coming of the Euro, if I were to talk about the things she did for our people would give a whole class, she is a national heroine and only here in Ireland she is recognized as a great witch, while in other countries of the world she is just one more, some witches even consider her a traitor. Victoria died on September 11, 1901, at the age of 169, leaving a message to all witches that they can continue their efforts to revolutionize magic" said the teacher and gee this summary of Victoria was wonderful.
"That's why you like her so much" I say impressed.
"It's good to see that an English student like you is listening to Victoria's story, she should be more exalted, what she did was great but she never got the recognition she deserved, if it wasn't for Victoria Ireland wouldn't exist today, we would have an even smaller population, until today we haven't recovered from the great famine, but there's still more, now let's go deeper into that time, let's meet the other personality, Mildred Berger, who has been a leader since the time of the recovery of Luna Nova" said the teacher.
I honestly loved Victoria's story, she went through a lot to get where she is now, a great witch, even my Irish blood is feeling bigger with this, I didn't know these things, my father who is also intolerant has already said that the woman was a heroine, this after saying that she was a depraved for being openly homosexual
With the end of the class...
"Very well now I've explained a summary of Mildred, she was quite insecure and very much circumvented the laws of magic by staying young, that's why she stayed in power for so long" The teacher said.
"God damn it, this being normalised at the time scares me" I say shocked.
"Miranda Holbrook has been headmaster of Luna Nova for 110 years and she was already 46 years old when she was appointed, I know witches live longer than mundane humans, but someone like her at 156 years old is a bit too suspicious, Victoria at the same age was already with white hair and wrinkles, she could barely walk and lived in a wheelchair, look what she looked like at 150 years old" said the teacher showing a photo.
"Wow, she looked like a 100-year-old lady at that age" I say in surprise.
"She looks like my 103-year-old great-grandmother and she's not even a witch, she can't walk any more, she has to stay in her wheelchair, but she's still in a good mood" Alan said.
"The more powerful the witch, the later is the aging, but when it comes, it comes for everyone and it comes with everything, Victoria was the most powerful witch of the 18th century, this is more than proved when she won a combat tournament, but also during Mildred's last moments, when she defeated Berger, she was definitely no small thing, so much so that this was her at 140, still standing and in good spirits, old age struck with everything at 150 and yet she lived almost 170 years, she outlived Jennifer who had died at 121" Said the teacher and soon Alan raised his hand.
"Teacher who was the witch who lived the longest in history?" Alan asks.
"According to the history books, it was Woodward, she lived until she was 247 years old, that was the maximum a witch ever got, she was the most powerful of the nine witches her wife Beatrix died at 243 years old not far behind Woodward, but there may be witches that lived longer than that, but we would never know, many powerful witches have existed in the world, nowadays the oldest is Miranda Holbrook with 156 years old, but she looks like an old lady of 70, good for today is the end of this class, next week you will know who was Jennifer Campbell" Said the teacher and I am anxious to know more.
We nodded to the teacher and went one by one out of the call, I really loved Victoria's story, I think I'll want to know more from Mrs. McLaren she must know straight from the source, I'm going down the stairs, going to the kitchen, I want to eat some food, I'm really hungry here, when I got to the kitchen there was Megan too.
"Oh your class is over too?" She said going to get some cookies.
"Today was kind of cool, I loved meeting Victoria McLaren" I tell her.
"I 'eard Victoria's name" April said walking from the living room to the kitchen and together we ate and talked.
"Yes, today we had a class with her theme, I thought it was really cool, I didn't know she was so important to you" I sad to April.
"She is a national symbol, de most important witch in Ireland, I dink 'ere must be de only country in de world where a witch is a national icon, to de point that we 'ave statues of 'er, because you can't deny Victoria's greatness, even being a witch of four feet 8 inches tall, she did dings beyond 'er small height" said Mrs Jordan.
"That's a McLaren thing, but another thing I found interesting was the Martha Jordan thing, I didn't know you guys had that background" I say surprised.
"Yes, Martha was one of de huntresses, kind of forced, she did it to save 'er sister Violet from being captured, being 'eld hostage by Julia so much dat she was kept in a collar, dat woman was cruel, on one side we 'ave Victoria who was one of de most benevolent witches, on de other side we 'ave cruelty, Julia was mentally unstable, she tortured and did horrible dings dat just talking would set off a trigger of something dat never happened to you, well anyway, Martha was soon freed by Victoria, she even fought alongside 'er in Terre Sapphique, then she came back to Ireland and with Victoria and Esther dey were making advances in Ireland, until the 18th century 'ere was a joke when it came to witches, we were de place with de worst schools of witchcraft, dere were only two, after Victoria died 'ere had 337, today it's down to 191, but dat's because you know how de decline was and also the famine, but at de time, 'ere 'ad more schools of witchcraft than in England which is always said to be de centre of witchcraft, practically 35% of the
population was magical, de witchcraft schools dedn't teach only magic, dey were normal schools too and dat's why dere are still so many alive, I tell you, if it wasn't for Victoria, magic would be dead today, she made dis small island be one of de main centres of magic in de world" explains Mrs. Jordan and it's really fucking awesome.
POV Narrator:
Different from the classes in Luna Nova, things are more at a distance needing to use computers for the classes, but that even so the classes didn't stop being interesting, mainly because of the way the teacher can explain and summarized way how was the past and how was the time of Victoria McLaren, in a very summarized way what were those times, about one of the most important witches in the history of magic.
See you, irish witches...