Elanor Goes Outside

The Memory Dome

I need to tell you about the first time I saw other magic students first, though. I remember we were about to walk out, but Maria's dad was talking in his language about something that caught my dad's attention. They had some agreement, and he signaled for us to walk with him somewhere else.

"I heard you kids were... unsatisfied with what these scholars showed you," my dad said, "so I – well, me and Mr. Morgenstern thought to show you the classrooms they didn't show you. I'm sorry I forgot about the schooling part of this trip Elanor," he said.

"It's ok," I told him. The castle looked a lot better in this light.

"Yeah, thanks for taking us this way Red," my mom said. "There's so much more life on these walls than the rest of the place. What is that flower, Jonas, I rarely see anything so simple."

"I'm glad you take that simplicity as something beautiful," Maria's dad said, now handling one of the thin, white flowers my mom was talking about that grew in the gardens next to the cobblestone we were walking on. "I was under the impression people new to our land would find majesty in the view of everything as you see in the other halls, yet—"

"Well, that's all well and good," my mom said, "but we've been seeing everything everywhere we go for years now, Jonas, and seeing the life up close like this-- I never knew it held so much character." Her voice got softer as I saw Maria's dad get less interested.

I know she could've sat there, looking at that plant for hours. I was taken by the view of the whole mountain then. I don't think I considered all the trees and flowers and plants clashing together as something to bask in. Not when I was supposed to be doing something else, at least. It was something not to do, though. Sitting down and seeing all the stuff out there. When I did, I thought to myself that I will do nothing. Which was inconvenient, since there was stuff to do.

"Oh, Elanor, there's someone else there. I don't recognize them, though. I think they might be one of the evil magicians," Maria said.

"Holy smokes, you were right!"

"Elanor!" my dad said. "Just because he might come from Ostroskiy doesn't mean he's a wild magician."

"When he makes that girl's hair change color like that, is that evil magic?" Maria's dad asked.

My dad looked back to the kid on the other side of the campus, who was near the classrooms and almost ran to him.

"I don't know how to deal with this Jaquelin," my dad said, "I don't want to be in trouble for someone else's kid."

"Heh. I think he's kinda funny. You'll all live," my mom told us, "He's some amateur spellcaster with some boring Eastern spells. I think that's Pleasure, by design it can't do anything to us."

"But it's the policy of spellcasters, Jaquelyn, they shouldn't start using magic with cheap, nefarious pranks."

"Yeah, I'm sure you'd never be around anyone who'd use their magic to get on someone else's nerves."

"Oh sure, you used to—"

"Yes, you're right, all in your sleep, to be more efficient with my ne'er-do-well trickery."

He sighed but followed my mom to the end of the hall. I didn't think we had anything else to do anyway, but the other people seemed to drag their feet.

The kids' parents showed up before he was able to do any more tricks, but Maria's dad still eyed them. The parents eyed him too, but he didn't seem aware they were judging him.