Visiting Day
Celine took a deep breath and walked onward, toward the massive fortress of a building that housed the most dangerous criminals of the Boiling Isles. And unlike when Belos was in charge, this time that statement was true. Under the coven heads who had opposed Belos, the Conformatorium had been repurposed as a prison for genuinely dangerous criminals instead of the harmless or nearly-so "misfits" that had once filled its cells.
Criminals such as several of the other former coven heads, who had supported Belos during the Day of Unity.
"Celine, are you alright?" her mother, Losna, asked. Her carnivorous flower palisman, Venus, had her roots wrapped around Losna's bicep as they crossed the bridge to the intimidating structure.
"I'm fine," Celine said, though her voice betrayed her. "Just … nervous, I suppose." She fidgeted with her hands, covered up in her preferred style by her sleeves. She was dressed in a sunny yellow dress and a lavender vest, with black flats, while her mother wore a blue dress bound with a green sash and brown heels.
"About the Conformatorium?" Losna prompted. "Or the person inside it?"
"Both," Celine admitted, her stomach slowly twisting as they drew closer.
Her palisman, Hart, popped out of her purse and bound up her arm and to her shoulder to rub his side against her cheek, his antlers gently grazing her. She smiled wanly and scratched his back.
"Let's do this," she said, her single eye glimmering with determination.
After a rigorous set of security checks manned by specialized watchmen called sentinels — each one armed with a staff of their own, a double-bandolier of potion vials across their chest, a uniform of grey witch's wool, and disaffected scowls — they were escorted by a Tusken demon guard with a fiery orange fang and a donkey palisman capping his staff into the bowels of the facility.
Celine kept her eye hard as they passed gibbering and leering prisoners who actually looked dangerous, all dressed in identical brown sleeveless shirts and loose trousers with leather slippers. Cuffs on their wrists were designed by Alador Blight to prevent casting magic, with shocking deterrents. The bars of the cells had been filled in with shatterproof glass pocked with holes for air.
Finally, after three more, thankfully quicker, checkpoints they reached the maximum security wing. So far, the wing had only three inhabitants, all of them considered dangerous enough to handle a score of watchmen alone. The three former coven heads who had openly supported Belos during the Day of Unity.
Pythus Mawe, the "all-seeing" former Head Oracle, who was outfitted with a harness around his head that would prevent him seeing the future and his lower wrists manacled to his upper. He sat on his cot reading a book, his expression one of dour surrender.
Cicero Nikolai, the former Head Alchemist, whose lab mask had been replaced with a plate of metal bound by leather to prevent his harmful breath from helping him to escape. He looked up from a deck of cards at their passing and nodded acknowledgement before returning to his game.
Finally, the one they had come to see … Cernunnas, the former Head Healer, who sat at her desk with a chess set. Her headdress and visor were gone to reveal her horns and yellow irises. Her usually stern expression was touched by sorrow and despair, the deep creases under her eyes more prominent than ever, even though her incarceration must have been less taxing. And without her headdress, one could see the yellow discoloration at the base of her horns from years of accumulated stress.
"Cernunnas," the guard called gruffly, clapping the butt of his staff twice on the cobblestones of the floor, "your visitors are here." He then stepped back to give an illusion of privacy, though his eyes did not leave any of them.
Cenunnas looked toward the front of the cell and stood in surprise. She gawked at her sister and niece for a double heartbeat before slowly approaching, eyes flicking to the sentinel to make sure he would not interfere. She pressed her hands to the glass between bars and just seemed to … soak in their presences.
"Losna, Celine …" she whispered, eyes shining. "You- You came."
"Of course we did," Celine said sadly.
"Did you think we wouldn't?" Losna asked, her tone brittle.
"I wasn't ready to hope, I suppose," Cernnunas admitted. She blinked a few times and began to trace a spell circle before it fizzled out and Cernunnas shouted in pain from her cuffs shocking her. The guard clapped the butt of his staff once.
"First warning," he said firmly.
"Yes, of course," Cernunnas replied. "Foolish of me." She took a fortifying breath and moved to reset her chessboard manually. "Foolish to think old habits can die so easily," she muttered. Then she fixed a smile on her face and pushed the desk closer to the bars. "Care for a game?"
Celine looked to her mother, who nodded, and smiled at her aunt. "I'd love a game," she said brightly. She looked around for a chair before shrugging and trying to get a look at her aunt's board.
"Miss, step away from the bars," the guard said. Celine looked at him with faint hurt, but did as instructed. Then the guard reached up and flipped a switch that raised a table on her side of the glass and bars, with a matching table on Cernunnas's side. He slid a chair to the table and motioned for Celine to sit, providing a chair for Losna as well. He even provided a piece of parchment and a pencil for Celine, already inked with a chessboard's grid pattern.
"Thank you," Celine said. The Tuskan nodded and resumed his watch, eyes peeled for anything suspicious.
"Would you like to go first or second?" Cernunnas asked.
"Knight to C-3," Celine replied with a smile, altering her chart to match.
They played for two matches, Cernunnas winning one but on the ropes in the second. Had they been home, she might have joked that Celine was using her Oracle magic to cheat — which she sometimes did at Cernunnas's behest to practice her skills. But given where they were, in maximum security of the Conformatorium, it might be dangerous to make such a joke. Not to mention it would only draw attention to the fact.
All the while, Losna said nothing to her sister. She sat in her chair and alternated between watching the game and watching Cernnunas herself, eyes hard and untrusting all the while.
Cernunnas stared at her board so hard it might burn a hole in the wood, her lips pressed tight in concentration. She pressed her knuckles to her lips, eyes tracking back and forth … until she huffed a laugh and knocked over her king. "Well played, Niece," she said warmly.
"Thanks, Aunt Cerry," Celine said sweetly.
"Time's almost up," the guard said.
Celine looked at him in surprise before regarding her aunt. She tried to smile for reassurance, but it came out sad. "Is there anything I can send you, Aunt Cerry?"
"No, Celine," she said with the same sad smile. "Just keep studying hard, hmm?"
"Okay."
The far door opened and a Devilish demon, a stocky man with reddish skin and light-orange hair cut short, as well as three silvery eyes. He marched up and saluted to the other sentinel. "Miss," he addressed Celine, "if you would come with me, please."
"What?" Celine asked. "But-" She blinked at her mother putting a hand on her arm.
"Go on, Celine," Losna said gently. "I need to speak with your aunt alone."
Celine looked wonderingly at her mother before nodding, smiling and waving to Cernunnas, and letting the second guard escort her. When the door to the wing had closed with a faint boom, Losna's motherly smile melted into angered concern. She turned and addressed her sister and asked without a shred of emotion, "Have they spoken to you about your release?"
"I was one of the last dissenters," Cernunnas said. "It swayed the court to give a chance at early release with good behavior."
"Last dissenters," Losna echoed. "You mean after Celine talked you down. She told us all about that."
"You know that Celine has always had a special place in my heart," Cernunnas said. "Ever since she was born."
"After you delivered her," Losna amended, a faint smile flickering across her lips before they settled back into a neutral line. "How much did you know?"
"Know?" Cernunnas asked.
"Don't play dumb, big sister," Losna said, real anger finally leaking into her voice. "It didn't work when we were kids and it won't work now." Her hands tightened into fists. "How much did you know?"
Cernunnas was silent for a time. It really was obvious what her little sister was asking. How much had she known … about the Day of Unity? Had she known about the magic drain? The fusion of worlds? The aftereffects, both upon the populace of the Isles and inevitably upon two societies if it had gone through?
"I knew about the draining aspect," she admitted. "And about the merging of realms." She wilted a little. "I reasoned that some would almost certainly die in the process."
Losna's eyes widened, one eye twitching. "You knew it all?"
"I did not know about Belos being human," Cernunnas added. "Nor about the Collector or his deal with her. But-" She paused and lowered her eyes. "Yes, I knew. Belos showed all of us a vision of the after." She snorted. "Or perhaps what he envisioned as the after."
"You knew Belos would be invading another realm and you just went along with it," Losna said. "He told us that we would unite with the Titan, so we at least have some excuse. But you?" She bared her teeth and gestured at the other cells. "All of you! You just accepted such a terrible thing?!"
"What could I have done, Losna?" Cernunnas asked, her voice stony. "Belos was the Emperor, the Titan's voice. Had I wanted to resist his plan, what could I have done?"
Losna looked at her sister with wide eyes, the gears almost visibly turning in her head, and she narrowed her eyes. "Why did you not want to resist it?" she asked.
Cernunnas swallowed, something in her sister's question striking her as different. The real question was different than what was asked … and her answer could have serious consequences.
"Do you remember when Celine fell through the ice?" she asked. It was rhetorical, obviously. None of them could have forgotten. "That was why. Belos promised a utopia, a place where children would not be in danger like that again." Cernunnas took a shuddering breath. "I did it for her, Losna. For all of you."
Losna stared at Cernunnas in silence for a long minute, her expression unreadable. "I believe you," she said.
"What does this mean?" Cernunnas asked, her deep voice fragile as she clung to a physician's practiced calm.
"It means," Losna said, visibly keeping herself calm, "that Celine may keep visiting you." Her eyes hardened. "After she learns the truth." She turned away and gestured to the guard, who nodded and escorted her out. "Until then, Cernunnas."
Cernunnas watched her sister leave for the brief time she could see her, then stepped back and collapsed onto her bunk. Celine would know …? She felt her throat burn and, for the first time in years, tears rolled down her cheeks.
Celine watched the sun set from the top of the Bonesborough library, her knees to her chest and her back to the large black dome that capped the great building. She tried to lose herself into a trance, just as she had been trained at school to better accept visions and premonitions … but it wasn't working. Her head was too full.
When they had gotten home, her mom had sat her down and explained everything that Aunt Cerry had told her. Everything from knowing about the purpose of the Day of Unity and having reasoned it's potential disaster … to the reason she had stood by it.
Her. Celine was the reason.
She shivered at the memory of falling through the ice so many years ago. Of the terrible cold that had invaded her body like razor blades to snuff out her life. It was the single most terrifying moment of her life, even more than the basilisk attack, the invasion of Hexside, or the battle at the Skull. A child's trauma that had had time to mold her.
To this day, she wouldn't go out into the ice without reinforcing it with her own magic.
On one hand, it was horrible to realize that she had been the reason for Aunt Cerry to follow Belos's plan. Her own terror at almost losing Celine had pushed her to blindly follow such a thing, even knowing what would certainly happen after. A dark protectiveness that could lead to harm.
On the other, Aunt Cerry cared enough about Celine to wade through horror to make sure she and so many other children were safe from the dangers of the future. She refused to believe that Aunt Cerry had anticipated that children would be targeted as well. She had called her aunt after the Hexside invasion, and the woman had been furious at such an action.
Or was that an act? Could … could her Aunt Cerry have spearheaded her own attack on a school and hidden it from everyone? Celine knew for a fact that the other schools had evaded the Emperor's Coven's attempts at student branding, but …
"Room for one more?"
Celine startled and looked up to find Bo Sook smiling down at her as she balanced on the narrow ledge between the dome and the edge of the roof. She carefully settled down before offering a boiling sea-salt eye-scream bar, the violet sweet-and-salty treat glistening in the orange light as it began to melt. She took the eye-scream bar and began to lick it, the familiar taste helping to settle her emotions.
"Where's Cat?" Celine asked.
"Tryouts for Emerald Entrail reserves," Bo giggled. The girls laughed together — particularly at the thought of Boscha's reaction to another Banshee trying out for the Entrails — and ate their frozen treats as they watched the sun touch the line of buildings on the city horizon.
"How'd you find me?" Celine asked tonelessly.
"You visited your aunt, right?" Bo asked, and Celine nodded. She had never spoken of her relation to a coven head growing up, her parents insisting that it would be safer that way. They also probably wanted her to make real friends and not just those hoping for favor from a head witch family. It had happened before. But Bo had figured it out on her own about a year ago and had never treated her differently. "I knew you'd be up here," Bo continued and took a large bite. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"No," Celine said though her voice wobbled as the storm of emotions in her chest rose up and tears pooled in her eyes. She looked at Bo, who smiled at her with simple, honest, friendly support. "Yes," Celine admitted, her voice breaking and she hugged Bo tight, tears finally falling.
So she talked about it.
She talked about the visit and her chess game with Aunt Cerry. She talked about what her mom had told her about their private talk. She talked about her conflicted feelings about the situation and her aunt. Bo sat and quietly listened, even when her eye scream was long gone. By the time she was done, the sun had set and the library was closed.
"Wow," Bo surmised. "That's rough, buddy."
Celine chuckled and brushed her sleeved knuckles over her eyes. "Yeah. Rough."
Bo pursed her lips as she thought about everything Celine had told her. She couldn't imagine what it would be like to have a beloved family member having supported the Day of Unity so strongly. Her moms had always been kind of ambivalent to it, assuming it would happen without going out of their way to support it.
"I think the big question here," Bo said, "is how this affects you and your aunt."
"What do you mean?" Celine asked, perking up from resting her chin on her knees.
"You aunt knew a lot about what would happen," Bo said, "but she also didn't know a lot. Based on what she did know, and how honest she was with your mom, I guess your choice is whether to cut her out of your life or not."
"Cut her out …?" Celine asked aloud, her voice small. She tried to consider that, but her stomach twisted at the attempt. Her Aunt Cerry had been there for every birthday, every vacation, and every stumble in her life. She'd tenderly healed Celine's scraped knees, helped her study, and even helped her parents give her The Talk.
"I don't want to," Celine admitted. "Aunt Cerry made a big mistake, but she's not a terrible person."
"So what are you going to do?" Bo asked curiously.
Celine gazed at the faint image of the stars above as she thought about it.
"Cernunnas," a sentinel called. "Face the far wall and place your hands behind your head."
Cernunnas looked up from her desk in confusion before rising and oding just as the guard said. The guard, a Shroomcap demon with a blue cap, entered and secured Cernunnas's wrists behind her back before escorting her down several hallways and into a large, empty room full of metal tables and chairs secured to the stone floor. The guard unbound Cernnunas's wrists and looped a chain through a ring in the table's center to keep her secured.
Just as soon as she had been secured, an armored door on the far end of the room buzzed and opened to reveal Celine escorted by another sentinel. Cernunnas gasped and tried to stand on sheer habit, but gentle pressure from her guard had her back in her seat.
"Hi, Aunt Cerry," Celine said with a small smile.
"Child, what are you doing here?" Cernunnas asked. "How are you here? The regulations-"
"I have a really good friend who knows a respected watchman," Celine explained. "He was happy to write a letter of recommendation for visits without the glass." She showed her aunt what she had been carrying in her hands: a chess set. "Care for a game?"
Cernunnas looked at Celine with wide eyes and a wobbly smile. "Yes, Celine," she said, her voice breathy as she held back tears. "Yes, I would very much like a game."
Celine sat and began to set up the board. "So has anything happened since I saw you last?" she asked brightly.
"Just more of the usual," Cernunnas groaned with a smile. "So who is this 'good friend' of yours?"
As aunt and niece chatted and played, the two guards glanced at each other with calm looks. Good behavior, indeed …
Lo and behold, the tenth Tale! This is one I've been looking forward to, even though I had little idea of how it would go down until I was actively writing it. Celine has such potential as a character, and I really like writing her!
*Tusken demons are like Red, Green, and Blue Fang(s) from "Elsewhere and Elsewhen."
*The sentinel having a donkey palisman is a reference to donkeys often being used as guard animals for livestock.
*I had originally planned to have Celine and Losna have time with Cernunnas in a private meeting room with Cernunnas's hands chained to the table, but it occurred to me that head witches in maximum security might have far tighter restrictions. They cannot leave their cells except for an hour of time outside in a secured area and never take their magic-dampening restraints off.
*The devilish demon is a male member of Ms. De Ville's (the Illusion teacher) species.
*The boiling sea-salt ice cream and the spot on a roof is a reference to the Kingdom Hearts franchise, where Roxas, Axel, and Xion would hang out and eat sea salt ice cream. My gosh I love that series, as well as referencing it!
*Bo's surname comes from the showrunner she was named after: Bosook "Bo" Coburn. I actually thought that was funny.
*As said in "Masks," Bo and Celine took Grom pictures together with Boscha, indicating their canon friendship.
As always, I hope this was a fun chapter! Leave a review if you like! And may your own works be fun to read and to write!