The Witch's Daughter

Chapter 3

Annabelle and I scanned the crowded cafeteria, looking for an open table. "Over there looks like a good place to sit." She said, pointing across the hall.

"Okay," I said, not caring that much wear we sat.

Before we got to the table, a dark haired boy slid into one of the seats. There were still plenty of seats open at the table, so we plopped our trays next to his and sat down. "Hello, I am Annabelle Winterfield, and this is my friend and roommate Elynora Wellcroft."

I was flattered that she had called me her friend. Maybe fitting in wouldn't be so hard with Annabelle to guide me.

The boy's brown eyes flickered from Annabelle, to me, and then to the floor. "What's your name?" Asked Annabelle.

"Cecil," he whispered, looking back at Annabelle, just loud enough that I could hear but Annabelle was too far away.

"What's that?" Annabelle asked.

"He said his name was Cecil." I told her. Cecil was obviously very shy, but he probably just needed to warm up to people.  I asked him a few more questions and eventually he started warming up.  We ended up talking about school and what we thought classes would be like.  Suddenly, my locket started to heat up, and it got really hot.  "Where's the bathroom?" I asked, trying to sound casual.

"I think it's over there," said Cecil, pointing go the hallway.  I thanked him, and walked there as fast as I could without seeming to suspicous. 

Lucky for me no one was in the bathroom when I got there.  I took of my locket and held it by the chain, which was still a normal temperature.  There was a hole in my shirt where the locket had burned through it.  My skin was red, but it could have been more damaged.  The locket now had lime green smoke coming out of the two halves where it was closed.

I was getting scared.  I had to get the thing open, but how was I supposed to do that when it looked like it was about to burn my fingers off?  I turned on the faucet, put the stopper in, and made sure the water was cold.  Then I put the locket into the chilly water and turned the faucet off.  It seemed to be cooling down. I tried touching the locket, but it was still incredibly hot.  The green smoke was still coming out, and it was hard to see.  Somehow I knew that I needed to open that locket, and soon. 

The water started boiling.  I turned the faucet back on, and drained the water.  The locket had cooled down a little.  With the locket still in the sink, I opened it up. 

The locket immediately stopped producing the smoke and heat and to my suprise, a curled slip of paper fell out.  I picked it up before it could get wet and looked at it.  There was only a string of numbers: 1 8 2 9 .

What was that supposed to mean? At that point I had way more questions than answers. It didn't seem like the locket my mother had given me was a good luck charm. I thought about everything I knew about good luck charms. They were supposed to reflect bad energy away from the wearer. I had watched my mother make one of the charms to sell at the market before. She made a regular piece of jewelry and had it sit in a special type of powder over night. Most people didn't even believe the charms worked because there was no good way to prove it. That offended most witches because of course they knew their good luck charms worked perfectly.

I put the paper back in my locket and walked back to the dining hall trying to appear casual and confident. I was shaking like crazy, and I tried to take a few deep breaths to calm down. As I sat back down at the table, my mind was still thinking about what had happened. This was definitely not something I could ignore, like the flower incident earlier.

Why would my mother give me the locket? Her exact words were 'For good luck' I hadn't asked her about it or opened the locket because I was busy packing and I didn't want anything to do with magic once I got to The Academy.  If I had opened it when I got it, it would've had the weird paper in it.  That didn't add up.  My mother would have explained the paper.  Most people might think my mother had made a mistake.  But I knew for certain that my mother did not make mistakes.  It was a fact.  Witches are always careful.  With the gift of magic comes a certain responsibility,  and witches do not take that responsibility lightly.  There is no room for mistakes in witchcraft. 

I had deduced that my mother had not put the paper in the locket.  I still didn't know exactly what it was for or why my mother gave it to me in the first place.  I was still sure she gave it to me to help me, but how was burning a hole in my shirt helpful in any way?

"Elynora! Are you okay? You've been awfully quiet" Annabelle asked.

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine.  I just spaced out for a bit," I said.

"Does that happen a lot?" Annabelle inquired. 

"Not really.  I just have a lot on my mind a the moment with school starting and everything." This was sort of true.  Things had been getting weird when school started.

"So as I was saying, do you two think magic actually exists?  I've never seen real magic before but I like to think it exists.  It sounds amazing." Said Annabelle. 

"I bet science could easily explain magic," said Cecil, "that's why I love science.  It can explain anything."

"Magic is pretty weird." I said.  "I'm not sure anything can explain it."

"So you've seen magic before!" Said Annabelle.

"Um, yeah.  There are a few witches where I live."  I didn't mention that my mother was a witch, that was unimportant. 

Cecil and Annabelle questioned me about magic as we ate.  I told them about what witches could do and how they cast spells.  I even told them about my houses camouflage spell, but without telling them it was my house.  They seemed genuinely interested in magic, not at all like the people in my village.  That was interesting.    I wondered what my other classmates thought of magic.