Moonlight Magic

Chapter 24

After three hours of classes, surprisingly all of them with Chloe, I plonked down onto the outdoor bench near the quiet back of the library. I've had enough staring and didn't appreciate the continuation of it all the way through break. I appreciated the cool night air caressing my face.
"I get I'm the new girl but what's with the stalker atmosphere," I sighed.
Anna joined me on the bench. "Nobody transfers in the middle of the year. Cremlim's not an easy school to get into you know. This is a prestigious school of sorts and the preliminary requirements are quite high. For you to be able to get in at this time of the year, you'd either have to be super smart slash skilled or were highly recommended by someone with a high status in the supernatural community."
No wonder the students here regarded me so highly. Things were made worse when the spells I uttered actually worked. 'Superb!', 'Excellent!', 'Wonderful' along with the 'oohs' and 'aahs' were around me for the whole night so far. I kept believing it was a stroke of luck and the next night I was going to perform poorly. But casting just felt natural. Maybe it was my heritage speaking.
"Question, how'd Chloe get in?" I laughed. I wasn't trying to be mean but Chloe; she's not the brightest of the bunch. Her attempts at Maths and Sorcery were at best slightly below average.
"Pfft! She started as a first year so they had no choice but to let her stay on," Anna replied.
"Shut up!" Chloe huffed, standing in front of us.
Anna waved her right hand at Chloe, dismissing her outburst and returned to our previous topic. "I can think of another reason for the attention, Becky. For the boys.. that is." Anna snickered while glancing at Soran, who was obviously trying too hard to keep some distance between us.
"Well, it's not new," I shrugged. "But I have to admit, guys like Soran are adorable, aren't they?" I winked.
"I can't believe you just said that out loud," Chloe exclaimed. She was getting embarrassed herself.
"I am very well aware of my looks."
"Does this mean you've dated a lot of guys then?" Anna's eyes sparkled with interest as she leaned in closer. I wouldn't have thought her to be one into this topic. Her usual uncaring air had dissipated.
"Not really. I got a load of admirers but the ones that I actually chose to go out with, I at least made sure they weren't jerks. But then I always ended up being the dumper."
"You heartless slut!" cried Chloe, giggling as well.
"I never slept with them," I defended. Soran was fire engine red and looked away. Feeling the awkwardness level rising, I quickly changed the subject. "I noticed earlier that not everyone here's pure blooded are they?"
Anna slurped away the last of her juice box before answering. "Of course not. Didn't I tell you before? There are half bloods. You included."
"But then how would they choose between what area they study in?"
"Half bloods aren't equally of each race," Soran answered. He seemed much more relaxed than before and more confident. He's surprisingly intelligent, despite his habit of being late in which Chloe informed me about while he was not around. "Usually, one is more dominant than the other. Sort of like genes in the DNA. The stronger power would be easier to work with than the weaker one and that's what decides what mixed supernaturals specialise in."
"Therefore, the more powerful race would be shown by a brighter or deeper shade of colour in the aura," Chloe added.
"Are you able to see auras yet?" Anna asked.
"No. I don't know how."
"It's something that is at first innate and then improved with practice," Anna said. "I thought being around this many magic users would have triggered something in you."
"That is strange," Soran agreed. Astonishingly, the guy has yet to suspect anything. I was sure even he found it strange that a random girl suddenly joined this school. Well not that the girls knew the entire story. They just thought I had some classified family issues while living in the mundane world.
"Give it more time," Chloe chimed in, encouragingly.
I didn't understand how I was able to summon that spell before when escaping from my parents and the spells in class while I couldn't even see auras which was supposed to be instinctive.
"Why don't you try meditating. I heard it can help focus your mind. Maybe then it'll make it easier for you to see auras," Anna advised.
"Or go see Ophilia. She might have some tips," Chloe contributed.
I leaned back and gazed up at the twinkling stars. A half moon peeked out from behind a veil of smoky clouds. I felt drawn in by it. Its light wasn't as bright as it would have been if it was full but it seemed the most beautiful thing in that moment; as if it was the only thing that truly mattered. I felt all my worries fade. I wanted the ability to fly up there and just.. touch it.
"You feel it don't you?" I vaguely heard someone speak but all I saw was the moon. I suddenly felt hands shaking me. "Hey, hey snap out of it! Don't make me slap you, I'm itching to do it and I will. You know I will."
I blinked and focused back on my surroundings. "Woah," I breathed. "I.. What happened?"
"If you're that tuned in to just half a moon, it's just more proof that you have awoken," Anna said, once again sitting beside me.
"I thought I was born with whatever magic I was supposed to have."
"You haven't been training to manipulate your powers though, have you? Let's just say that in a way the magic had stayed dormant or having them temporarily sealed away could have the same effect," Anna informed me. "By the way, were you able to follow in class?"
"Are you kidding?!" Chloe cut in, "She's a natural! You can even call her a prodigy, given the fact that she's been cut off from magic in the human world."
"Wait, you managed to pull water out of thin air, harden it to perfectly shaped, pointed icicles when you've only just recently touched base with magic?" Soran babbled.
I looked away sheepishly. "Yeah.." I admitted. "But I'm still new at it and I'll need your help. You won't mind, right?"
He blinked. "Of course not."
"Hey, what about me? I'm a sorceress you know," protested Chloe.
Anna chucked her empty juice box at the sorceress. "Unless you can miraculously bump up your grades and surpass Soran here even by a little, forget it. You'll just make a mess of things when you barely know your stuff." Chloe had a sulky expression on her face.
Trying to rectify the situation, Soran said, "I wouldn't go so far. I'm not the top of the class like Ivan." I winced. He just made things worse.
Chloe glared at the poor boy. "Thanks, Soran. I'm no Ivan or you but you don't need to gloat like that. I just thought I could help." Soran flinched. Chloe was about to dig into him some more when the bell rang and saved us all.
"Alright, period four's up. What do you have?" Anna asked me. A quick glimpse at my timetable told me I had Necromancy next. This was the only class that I was unsure about.
"Necromancy. Got any warning for what I should expect?"
The three of them all went completely still. This couldn't be good.
"To be totally honest, I know next to nothing about Necromancy, except rumours so I can't tell you what to expect," Anna finally spoke again.
"I take back what I said to you before. If you think Bridget and her posse is bad -not that you did- necromancers are even more unpredictable," Chloe said.
For some reason, I felt a little annoyed at her words. "You know I might turn out to be a necromancer even when my aura's a murky mess."
"Just be careful, Becky," was Anna's last warning before they disappeared, off to their next class.
Following the map printed on the other side of my timetable, I walked towards and entered the building that housed all the Necromancy classrooms. Closing in on my destination, useless nerves started kicking in.
I'd just have to somehow manage to catch or deflect -but most likely dodge- whatever they throw at me.