Chatoyant College Book 2: Initiates

Chapter 47: Explanations

They arrived at the fifth floor a few minutes later. Dawn knocked gently on Roe and Talia's door and waited. After a few moments, Roe opened the door and raised her eyebrows at them. "Come to apologize?"

"Uh, no," Dawn said. "We wanted to try to explain more."

Roe crossed her arms. "You're going to tell me Professor Lal is some kind of wish-granting fantasy creature?"

"What?" Dawn said in confusion. "That's not it at all." She tried to figure out how to explain what they meant to Roe, but before she could, Edie was talking.

"That's not what we mean when we say faeries. These are more like the ones in old stories--folk stories." She glanced down the hallway at someone who had just come out of the bathroom and was walking down the hall. Thankfully, it wasn't Talia. "Look, can we come inside to talk about this?"

"I guess so," said Roe. She stepped aside so they could come in, then closed the door, but didn't sit down. The only light on was her desk lamp, so it was dim in the room. However, she did look less angry and more simply puzzled. "You weren't with them before, Edie. You always seemed more sensible to me. Do you really believe this?"

Edie smiled reluctantly. "I didn't at first. I had a hard time. But I had to believe it when we went to the woods to rescue Annie from the faeries and they almost got me, too. We were hoping to convince you so you wouldn't have to learn the hard way too."

Roe shook her head, but didn't argue this time. Instead she looked around at the three of them. "Why are you even telling me this?"

"You did ask what was going on," Corrie said.

Dawn nodded. "And we thought knowing more about what goes on at this school would help you understand your visions. Actually, that reminds me--when you saw Professor Lal in the vision, what did you see?"

"Huh?" Roe looked up at the ceiling, trying to remember. "I just saw her, I guess. What do you mean?"

"Well, I've seen her real appearance--what her faerie self looks like--and it's different from what she looks like to you. I guess your visions show what you would see if you were there."

"And that's another reason we have to tell you about it," Edie said. "The vision you told us about just came true."

Roe stared at them, her mouth open, unable to speak for a minute. "What? Are you sure?"

"I'm positive," said Dawn. "I was in the same position you put me in, and it was me, Edie, Corrie, another guy, and Professor Lal. Edie would probably be dead now if it weren't for Professor Lal."

Roe seemed to be having a hard time to process that information. "Who was the other guy?" she asked weakly.

"Someone I thought was a friend," said Edie. "But he was a faerie. We knew him as Marlin."

"I'm, uh... sorry I wasn't there to help," Roe said.

"You wouldn't have been able to do anything anyway," Corrie said.

Roe walked over to her bed and sat down. "And you're saying Professor Lal and Professor Strega are faeries too? And faeries are trying to kill people?"

"Not them," said Dawn hastily. "Well, definitely not Professor Lal--like I said, she saved Edie's life. I don't know about Professor Strega. But if she was going to kill you, I'm sure she would have already."

"Oh, that's really comforting," said Roe with a shaky laugh. "Um, you said something about a four-leaf clover being important?"

Corrie held it up. "Dawn has the Sight, which lets her see through faerie glamour, but the rest of us need a little more help. This is one of the things that will work."

"Could I borrow it for a while? In class on Monday?"

"No problem," said Corrie, nodding. "So I guess you believe us now."

"Well, something is going on. I should have believed you earlier. This is a magic school, after all."

"I have a feeling that we're going to run into a lot more things that we don't understand over the next four years," said Edie.

"I'm sure we will!" said Roe. She sat up a little straighter. "So, I never really got to tell you about what I've learned from Professor Strega. Most of it is stuff I can't explain, but I do have a better recollection of the vision I had on Tuesday, and I think I'll be able to remember visions much better in the future. She said I'm lucky because mine are straightforward, not symbolic; I don't get any context, but I see what's actually going to happen, not metaphors."

"In stories, prophesies are usually what would happen if nothing changes," said Corrie. "Is it the same with your visions?"

"I asked Professor Strega about that, actually. She said there's no way to tell until one of my visions actually comes to pass."

"It did," said Dawn, thinking, "but I guess we still don't know if we could have changed it, since we didn't know what was actually going to happen until it did."

"Right," said Roe. "But maybe next time it will be different. And if nothing else the visions can help us prepare."

The door opened behind Dawn. She turned. It was Talia, with wet curls and wearing pajamas. She smiled when she saw them. "Oh, hi. Talking about Roe's visions again?"

"Yeah," said Dawn. "But we should go--I actually promised Rico I'd talk to him when I got back and I'd better let him know I'm okay."

"Sure," said Roe. "See you guys later." They said goodbye and left the room.

"I think I need sleep," said Corrie, who did in fact look like she was having a hard time keeping her eyes open. "I'll see you in the morning, Dawn."

"I think I'm going to read something nice and soothing for a few hours," Edie said.

Dawn grinned. "I'll definitely be there in the morning--I want to hear about how the party went!"