Power, Potions and Prejudice

Chapter 1: Welcome to the Party

As always, the party was perfect.

The people, the food, everything.

Anna was just about to open her presents. Her friends were finishing up a game of tag. The adults were chatting away in the kitchen. Empty pizza boxes littered the temporary tables set up in the middle of the room.

Erin looked at the huge cake on the dessert table. Anna's mom really had gone overboard again this year. Whipped chocolate icing. A misshapen whale. Silver sprinkles over top, the best kind. Thirteen unlit candles circling the happy whale.

It looked delicious. Erin took a quick glance to make sure no one was watching, no one was, they were all focused on the birthday girl. She dipped her finger into the icing at the back, taking a heavy scoop and sticking it in her mouth. She licked her finger clean, subtly wiping her hand off on her pink frilly dress.

It tasted just as good as it looked.

Anna had been at her own birthday party a month before. There had been thirteen candles on the cake then too, although it had been nothing this elaborate. Anna's family was well-connected within their magical community, so each of the couple dozen people there were either wizards, or knew the secret of magic's existence.

So they could have bubbles that exploded into miniature fireworks. The lamps were off, and the room was lit by an assortment of floating, glowing orbs. All yellow, Anna's favourite colour. Occasionally, they'd float down a little too low, just far enough that one of her friends could jump up and reach them, and they'd grab it and fling it across the room. More than one orb had gotten stuck in the streamers that way.

The whole day had been filled with small, magical tricks like those. Erin had been studying each casting closely, each one, each new spell, had utterly fascinated her. But even though they didn't need to hide in here, the adults had been doing only small spells. Nobody had changed the rain outside into a bright, sunny day so that they could play outside.

Back then, she hadn't understood the limits of magic. Or how the neighbors probably would take notice if all the rain just happened to avoid just their house. The mass of screaming children certainly would have drawn their attention. On the upside, having the party indoors meant that they could do even more magic, which Erin had been positively ecstatic about.

All that was over now. They'd be going home soon. Anna just had to open her gifts then... cake. Erin turned around. Just looking at all the desserts made her feel hungry again, despite the fact that her stomach was already stuffed with chessy, greasy pizza. She resisted the urge to sneak more icing off the cake.

The others had finally finished their game, and the present opening was beginning. Erin joined the crowd around her friend, sitting down on the floor with the other kids. The music went up a notch. Anna unwrapped her first present. A spell book. Her happy squeals filled the room.

Erin smiled and congratulated her.

As always, she was easily lulled into a false sense of security. Every time, she forgot what came next.

So she didn't run, scream, or shout at everyone to just 'get out'. Instead, she giggled. She watched eagerly as Anna opened more presents. She glanced longingly at the tasty cake.

Someone passed her the leather-bound spellbook. She flipped through it with rapt attention, marveling at the handwritten spells. They were all new to her, but the book had clearly seen better days. It had probably been in her family for generations.

Erin had been jealous, at the time, because her parents had only taught her the basics. She'd never gotten to even read a book this advanced. This single book contained easily ten times more spells, and there were symbols she didn't even recognize. She'd had to make her own spell book, painstakingly copying out symbols by hand.