DISCARDED: The Ones The World Did Not Need

Thirteen

Even in the nine known types of magic, some spells are considered obscured.

Enid woke up to a bright light at the edge of the room. Racheal crouched over some books with an intensity of a matador watching a bull before he attacks.

"You're home."

Racheal looked up and frowned.
"You're over working yourself."

"Sorry mum," Enid said rolling her eyes and getting out of bed. She sat beside Racheal and peered at what she was reading.

It was a leather bounded book without a title.

"What's that?"

"A bunch of extinct magic spells nobody cares about thrown into one book. There's nothing about essence magic though; you might actually be the first person ever to have it, cuz if Hyde doesn't know about it, there's a good chance it never existed."

Enid remembered the first time she met Hyde.
She was 7 and was still not used to not seeing Racheal for long periods so she waited in front of the shop every evening staring at the distance for her.

On a particular day, Hyde had been with Racheal on her way back. Mrs Ingram had needed some supplies and the market was a few streets away from Avery's cottage.

"Well, this is my stop," Racheal said as soon as they got to the cottage.

"Raaaaaaacheal!" Enid tackled her in a breath seizing hug.

"I guess you missed me huh?" She asked carrying her.

When she turned back to Hyde, he was wearing an expression she had never seen on him before. His eyes glowed purple; widened with a mix of surprise and confusion.

"What the hell; her soul is as black as tar."
There was calmness in his voice despite his surprise.
Racheal instinctively tightened her grip on Enid.

After a few excruciatingly slow seconds passed, Hyde walked closer and looked at Enid straight in the eyes. His surprise had turned to curiosity.

"You're one of a kind, aren't you kid?"

Enid turned to Racheal, and then to him.

"I think so, yeah."

Hyde turned to Racheal

"You can stop squeezing the life out of the kid, I'm not going to kidnap her."

"Racheal who's this? He's cool!" Enid said wiggling from Racheal's grasp and urging Hyde to carry her, which he did.

"Are you Racheal's boyfriend?"

"This annoying kid? Not a chance."
Enid seemed to find the fact that Hyde called Racheal a child funny.

"What's your name? Do you have any magic?" She asked after she had her fill of laughter.

"Hyde at your service and I'm an enhancer," Hyde said putting her down and patting her head.

"That's just like Micah!"

Enid proceeded to talk Hyde's ear off about a person he did not know.

"That's enough Enid, Hyde has somewhere to go."

"Will you come again? Racheal talks a lot about you. She says you're super smart."

Racheal pried Enid off Hyde and ran into the house with a beet red face.

Enid smilled in nostalgia.

"How is Hyde doing?" Enid asked, resting her head on her palm suggestively.

Racheal looked up from her book and groaned when she saw her face.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Oh nothing, just asking of your crush."
"Please Enid, neither of us are children," Racheal said closing the book she was reading, subtlety avoiding eye contact.

"I'm sorry miss grown up, I meant I was just asking of your potential love interest."

"Hyde is not my potential love interest, if anything he's my teacher."

"Boring!" Enid exclaimed and laid flat on the bed.

A few seconds passed.

"He's being summoned to the castle in the North."

Enid looked at Racheal with the corner of her eyes from where she laid.
Over the years, Racheal had gotten better at hiding what she was feeling but she still couldn't keep it out if her eyes.
She felt troubled and anxious.

"They've been requesting for him to join the institute of magical defense for a while now; he can't keep refusing or they might resort to other tactics. "

Enid thought of Micah and how he'd been doing.

"You know, I have a mind to join the IMD when I'm old enough."

Racheal stared at her on disbelief.

"You're joking," she said even though she knew she wasn't. She had that glint in her eyes.
"They're going to find out about your magic! Do you really want to put yourself in that kind of risk?"

"Absolutely!" Enid grinned.