Wisteria

Chapter III

The drive to school would have been silent if not for the sound of the radio blaring the hits of the 80s. My dad, brother, and I didn't talk much. it just wasn't our thing.

At least, we didn't talk much.

I was looked out my window at the snowy pines and tried to tune out the sounds of the radio in our truck. Then I saw something peculiar. There was a robin in a passing tree. At first it didn't register in my mind, then it hit me.

What the heck was a robin doing here in the middle of December?

I looked back and the robin had disappeared. Maybe I just imagined it. I had a tendency for seeing things that weren't really there...

Then I saw it again.

There they were this time, two robins side by side in a tree. Then I noticed something even stranger. They were looking at me.

Not just like that cute little animal thing where they bob their heads around and happen to make eye contact, oh no. They were staring at me.

I had to make sure I wasn't crazy.

"Hey Dad, there's two robins in a tree up there."

"No, no, no. That's impossible."

"Look."

He turned his head just slightly toward the left and almost swerved into the ditch, but he managed to just pull over on the opposite side of the icy roads.

"What in the name of..."

Then it happened. A huge pack of over a thousand robins came down from nowhere. They surrounded the vehicle, and I don't know how, but opened the doors.

They flew inside and formed a solid wall of fauna between me and the front two seats which contained my father and brother. Then one of them, which appeared to be the leader, spoke to me.

Oh fun, now animals speak.

"Quelia Fent,"--and knew my name-- "where have you been?"

If I speak back, my family will think I'm crazy, but by now, I'm sure that I'm not just imagining this.

"I've just been here" I said nervously. I wasn't sure what I was afraid of, but something told me that this bird could potentially have a punishment in store.

"With the boranges?" the songbird asked offensively.
Ummmmm..."Yes?"
"Why do you not asni?"
"What?"

With that, the bird must have concluded its business. It nodded it's minute head, as much as a robin could nod, and the bird wall broke apart and flew away. Finally, the bird that had spoken landed on both of my family members' heads, and flew off.

My dad restarted the truck and continued on the drive to school without a word.

"What do you suppose that was?" I said after a few seconds.

"What are you talking about again?" my brother said.

🌀🌀🌀

At school I tried to forget about everything that happened on the way there. I sat down at a table in the cafeteria and munched on some cereal I was eating as my second breakfast.

I looked into the library that was separated from the lunch room only by a glass wall. There was girl in there sitting at a table with long, dead straight, jet-black hair. She looked to be in about tenth grade, two years older than me, and consumed by the book she was looking at. Don't get me wrong, she wasn't reading it, just looking at the cover. but her stare was so captivated that she appeared to be reading it straight through the cardboard.

My eyes shifted to the book. Deep crimson and navy blue with a symbol on the front that looked like an eye collapsed in a box.

And you'd think she was having a staring contest with it.

I couldn't take it anymore. I had to know what this was about, I got up and power walked straight into the library, leaving my half-eaten cereal at the table.

I marched up to the table the girl was sitting at and as cool as I could said, "What are you reading?"

She looked up and smiled.

She was definitely taller than me, I could tell when she was sitting down. Her thickly and throughly made-up eyes watched me as if waiting to see what I would do.

"So," she said almost curiously, "this is the famous Quelia."

She noticed the tension in my muscles at the sound of my name and smiled again like a sibling does when they hid something of yours.

I put on a brave face and said with as much courage as I could muster, "How do you know me?"

She smiled again like she was pulling something over on me.
"Because you're the reason I'm here."

We stood there looking at each other for a minute or so before I asked the question that had been all but burning a hole in my skull, "Who are you?"

"I am Cenchessa Cabald, and I'll be accompanying you on your way to Wisteria Manor."

Oh. Yeah, that.

Even my thoughts were becoming sarcastic...

"Uhhmmm, I have to get to English class soooo..."
"Oh right, you were borange raised"

Come on, will someone tell me what's going on...

"Mistress Pevill said you might be reluctant to come along."

I snapped.

"Will you tell me what's going on?!"

"Wisteria Manor is a lovely institution that helps young ryles like you learn to control and use your abilities for good."

Her smirk remained.

I sighed in exasperation.
Well that's helpful...

"Continue." I said expectantly.

"Look." She stood up and pointed out the library window at a maple tree with no leaves and branches covered in snow. And robins. "The robins are the messengers of the ryles and the symbol of Wisteria. You heard one speak today, that was Mistress Pevill."

"So you take orders from a bird?"
I raised one eyebrow.

At this point, Cenchessa gave me one of those glares that says louder than any words Shut up and let me talk.

"Mistress Pevill can take the form of anything living, but any ryle can communicate with robins. So bringing you a message would be easiest as a robin."

I knew better than to interrupt again so I just shot her a confused look to show how lost I was.

She made an unexplainably annoyed sound that was somewhere between a groan and a growl. She started pacing the library, deserted other than us. "Boranges" she mumbled. Then Cenchessa placed so much strain on every word in her next sentence that I was genuinely concerned that she would explode.

"You. Are. A. Ryle."

"What. Does. That. Mean." I mimicked her serious tone.

She rolled her eyes.

"Just come with."
"Where?"
"Wisteria Manor, we've been over this."

She reached out to link arms with me. I saw it but found myself not even thinking of escape. She linked arms with me and pulled a blue marble out of the front pocket of her black hoodie. She dropped it and on impact with the century-old tiles it turned to smoke and suddenly I was falling. I squeezed my eyes shut until my feet found solid ground.

My knees crumbled and the next thing I knew, I was lying in a heap on hard pavement.

Pavement?

I opened my eyes and what was once a small old-fashioned library was now endless expanses of grass lined with far-off trees, with a strip of asphalt down the middle that distantly led to a small hanger.

Cenchessa grabbed my hand and pulled me up.

"Where are we?"
"St. Anismae Airport. Destination: Wisteria Manor. Sink in yet?"