Chapter Text
I jumped up, catching the low bar. Gaining momentum, I flipped around the bar in a perfect bent pike. I spun around again and caught myself in a handstand.
Drop, spin, straddle, snap, release, flip, catch the high bar. And don’t forget to point your toes.
I drew in a breath and let the muscle memory take over as I spun around the bar again. I gathered my momentum and released.
This is why I loved gymnastics so much. The energy, the rush, the strength and precision needed to execute each move, it was its own kind of magic. I reached out for the bar, unfolding from my flip, and…
Slipped.
I landed flat on my back, the air forced out of my chest in one big rush. A few of my fellow team members winced sympathetically from their own gym equipment.
“Muscle memory…” I grumbled.
I held my arms up in a half-hearted salute as Airen, my coach, walked up to me and clapped sarcastically.
“You’re distracted today.” He held his arm out to help me up.
I took it, rocking backwards and standing. I stretched out each limb to make sure I wasn’t hurt. I was still a bit winded, but I’d make it out of the gym without any new bruises.
“Am not.”
He just raised his eyebrow.
“It was the bar’s fault.”
“It was the bar’s fault you’re nervous about your application to Alfea?”
I froze halfway over to my water bottle, “How do you know I applied?”
“Lucky guess. All the team can talk about this week is acceptance letters to this or that school. Besides, my sister told me she sent your application form for you.”
Busted.
Angelica Sorretti, Guardian Witch of Storm Systems, Council Member, and apparent blabbermouth, had generously offered to get me a form, and I agreed after I made her promise not to tell my aunt. I guess I forgot to make her promise not to tell anyone at all.
I scowled into my water bottle.
“There’s no chance you won’t get in, you know. Princess privileges and all that.” He came up next to me and gave me a friendly punch on the shoulder.
“Yeah, well, there’s a difference between being accepted and being allowed to go.”
“Dude, haven’t you told your aunt you applied?”
I mocked a royal messenger stance, using my bottle as a fake scroll, “Her Majesty, Queen Regent Euphinia, has decreed that Princess Merreid of Callisto, due to her lack of mastery and control of elementary fairy magic, is not prepared to enter a higher education.” I bowed dramatically to finish off my statement.
“Shit, Mira. She really said that to you?”
I sighed, “No, of course not. Not to my face, at least. She wants the best for me and all that, but she thinks I’m not ready yet. Not until I can transform at least, and I’m still a long way off from that. I still take magic suppressants, for Storm’s sake! Ever heard of a fairy that takes magic suppressants?”
He scoffed and raked back his spiky frost-white hair, “Half the first years haven’t transformed yet, either.”
“Like you said, princess privileges. I have a reputation to maintain.”
We both turned towards the sound of approaching footsteps. My sister waved at a few of my teammates as she walked up to us, her lavender palazzo pants starkly contrasting the brightly colored gym equipment.
“Oh, Storms. I’m not late, am I?” I looked around for the clock.
“Don’t worry, I’m early. I wanted to see the routine you’ve been working on,” She smiled warmly, “Hi Airen!”
He nodded, “Your Majesty.”
My sister pointed at him scoldingly, “You know I’m not the queen yet, Airen. It’s still just Kiara.”
He nodded deeper, almost bowing, “As you say, Crown Princess Kiara.”
My sister just shook her head in exasperation, but I could see the smile in her eyes. I rolled mine.
“One more go on the bars? I’ll be done after that.”
Kiara nodded, “For the competition coming up, right?”
“In about two weeks, yeah. Magix City.” Airen gestured for me to begin my routine.
I chalked my hands up and went to my starting mark.
This time, I landed it perfectly.
✭✭✭
Tea time is my favorite part of the week. Once a week, my sister and I get a couple hours all to ourselves for “Official Royal Mandatory Princess Sister Tea Time” as we named it, back when I was 5 and she was 7. Since then, it’s evolved beyond just having tea together in the parlor. Sometimes I’d paint and she’d read to me, sometimes we’d actually sit and drink tea in the greenhouse. On more stressful weeks, we’d go for runs as far as we could get from the palace. No matter the activity, it was always just the two of us.
Today, we took our mugs of tea out for a walk through the forest. It was the middle of the windy season, but luckily the skies were calm. The storm domes that protected the palace and the city below were down for the day, letting us walk freely out of the palace grounds.
“You’ve sent in your Alfea application?”
Cutting right to the chase, I see.
“Yeah, a couple of days ago. You’re still not telling Auntie Fin, right?” I glanced at Kiara.
“Not my place,” She shrugged, “You'll have to tell her eventually, though.”
I tilted my head up to look at the sky through the towering trees, “Duh, I can’t exactly just sneak off to school for most of the year without her knowing. But I don’t want to tell her yet, not until I know if I’m actually in or not. I don’t want to make a big deal if it doesn’t even happen.”
She hummed in agreement, and I turned to look at her. She looked entirely in her element out here in the forest, her deep amethyst hair shining in the dappled sunlight. She took after our mother, straight dark hair, soft blue eyes, pale, lightly freckled skin, whereas I look more like our father with my blue-violet eyes, tan skin, and sunrise pink hair. Not that either of us knows our parents outside of royal portraits. They died when I was just a baby and Kiara was barely old enough to talk. They were heroes, but that doesn’t make them any less dead.
“Race you to the lake!”
Kiara frowned, “You hate the lake.”
“I hate swimming in the lake. Besides, you love it.” I grinned and took off.
“I’m not spilling my tea for this!” She called after me.
Despite her protests, she passed me halfway to the lake (and maybe because I let her), years of etiquette lessons keeping her from spilling a drop.
“I win,” She grinned, stepping out of her shoes and into the gentle waves of the lake. I stayed a couple of paces back from the water, taking both of our mugs and setting them down on the pebble beach.
“Well, congratulations,” I snarked, “As your reward, you get to tell me what’s been bothering you. You’ve had that little crease in your eyebrows since we left the palace.”
“Conjure us a picnic blanket first.”
“Nice change of subject.” I crossed my arms.
She crossed hers right back, “I’m serious. You want to go to fairy school, you have to do fairy magic.”
“Fine, then you have to talk to me.” I rolled my eyes and turned to a spot of beach on my right. Holding my arms up, I concentrated on what I wanted to appear, summoning the magic inside me. While not the easiest spell, it certainly wasn’t supposed to be difficult, even for beginner fairies. I’d have to do all kinds of other kinds of spells at Alfea. Illusions, potions, metamorphology…
I snapped back to attention, but the magic faded with my concentration. All I had conjured was a sad puff of sparkles.
“One more try, you know you can do it.” She encouraged.
I groaned deep in my throat, but I held out my hands to try again.
I tried to pretend I was back in my room, simply working on another painting. Visualizing each brushstroke, every color I’d mix, keeping my mind focused on the task long enough to…
Pop!
Make a picnic blanket appear.
Kiara side-hugged me and sat down on the blanket, saluting me with her mug, “Knew you could do it.”
I smiled and sat down across from her, nudging her knee, “Talk.”
Her smile fell.
“It’s not really even that big of a deal, I just,” She sighed, “With you applying to Alfea, I keep thinking about what it would’ve been like to go to a sorcery college.”
“You would hate it. You’d have to do homework.”
She snorted softly, “I would. But, at the same time, I don’t know that I would. Having private tutors and a super-powerful sorceress as an aunt, I’m certainly not lacking in education…”
“But it’s not the same.”
“It’s not the same.”
We lapsed into silence, listening to the birds sing and the soft lapping of waves.
“You like history, you could go to the Historian College here. You won’t even have to leave Callisto. Hells, you barely even have to leave the palace!”
Callisto was home to the largest library in the Magic Dimension. The entire structure was carved into a cliff face, the valley below housing the closest thing to a major city on the planet, and forest on the upper land. It takes nearly an hour to walk end to end, and it would take multiple lifetimes to read every book in it, but Kiara and I are still trying. The palace was built right on top of it, with several of the towers acting as the dormitories for the Archival Historian College of Callisto.
“It’s still not the same as an off-world sorcery college, but consider it… getting to know your citizens. You might even make some friends.”
She scoffed, “I have friends.”
I raised my eyebrow at her. “The librarians don’t count.”
“I wonder what they’d have to say about ‘not counting.’”
“They’d say you need to get out more.”
Kiara looked down at her lap. Neither of us got to leave the palace grounds very much, her even less than me. At least I had my gymnastics competitions.
“Sorry, that came out mean.”
“You’re right, though. I’ve been gathering up the courage to ask Auntie Fin for a little more freedom, you know, as the future queen and all.” She smiled, a determined gleam once again in her eyes.
“And I’m sure she’ll grant you some. You know how she is, she’s probably forgotten the outside world even exists.”
She snorted, “True. Now come on, we should head back. You’re not getting out of tutoring that easily.”
I groaned dramatically as I dragged myself to my feet.
“Race you back?”
“Don’t you dare.” She stood and hooked her arm through mine as we walked back to the palace.
✭✭✭
“Sorry I’m late, Miss Shelvey!”
I took a seat at my usual desk in the otherwise empty classroom. I was barely a minute late, but Helene Shelvey, my fairy magic tutor, was a stickler for punctuality. And etiquette. And overall perfection.
She sniffed, eyes not leaving her book for a few extended seconds. She placed a bookmark in between the pages and snapped it shut with finality.
“Last week, we worked on object enchantments. I thought this week we could simplify—”
Translation: dumb down.
“—this class of spells into their base parts. We’ll start with a basic transmutation exercise.”
She rose from behind her desk and brought out a cup full of flat marbles. I held my posture pin-straight as she scooped out a handful and spread them out in front of me.
“All you have to do is change their color.” Miss Shelvey waved her hand over the marbles, shifting them from blue to pink, then back to blue again.
I internally cheered in relief. This was one of the few spells I could successfully cast, even if I mostly used it to change my own hair color. But the principle was the same.
I focused on one marble at a time, letting out barely a sliver of my magic to carefully change their color. It took more effort to rein in my power than it did to actually perform the spell, but a minute later, all twenty-two marbles were a lovely shade of rose pink.
Thank fuck.
“Good work, Merreid.”
You don’t have to sound so surprised.
“Thank you, Miss Shelvey.”
She brought one of the marbles up to the light, inspecting it closely.
“But your spellwork is still sloppy. See this?” She turned it so I could see the flash of blue in the center, “Do it again.”
I restrained a groan as she returned the marbles to blue with a flick of her hand.
She made me repeat the exercise several more times, both of us getting increasingly annoyed that I couldn’t reach her standard of perfection.
“You need to work faster. You’ll never get anything done at this rate.”
“Yes, Miss Shelvey.”
I bit my tongue to keep myself from saying something sarcastic. No need to have her telling my aunt that I’m insolent as well as inept.
I hovered both hands above the desk, extending my reach to the final five marbles, and tried to change them all at once. I thought I was successful until Miss Shelvey lifted one, revealing a damning pink splotch in the wood.
She clicked her tongue, “I think that’s enough for the day.”
I pushed back my chair and stood, more than ready to go.
“Have a good evening!” I forced out, the slight tang of blood filling my mouth.
Miss Shelvey smiled with all the decorum of a porcelain vase, “I’ll see you next week.”
I left the classroom as fast as I could without looking like I was rushing. As soon as the door shut behind me, I grabbed the pill case I’d tucked into my pocket and dry-swallowed one of the capsules inside. I held onto my temper just long enough for the effects to kick in, my magic settling dormant in my chest like silt at the bottom of a lake. Now that the palace decor was safe from me blasting it off the walls, I stomped off to my room.
✭✭✭
Dinner was a casual affair. Aunt Euphinia, her closest friend and royal advisor Brigid, Kiara, our little cousin Caden, and I sat at a round table on one of the many terraces of the palace. Trellises dripping in ivy enclosed the small seating area, protecting it from the worst of the winds, and drop lights charmed with heating enchantments kept the temperature pleasantly warm.
Kiara picked at her food while Caden and I pretended to sword fight across the table with our asparagus.
“Manners, both of you,” Auntie Fin scolded gently.
“Sorry, Mom.” Caden put his asparagus stalk back on his plate, then promptly stabbed it with his fork and held it back up en garde, smiling wickedly.
Brigid laughed, “Oh, let them have their fun!”
I copied him, shrugging apologetically at my aunt. We clashed our asparagi again until he sent out a final thrust, and I feigned a stab wound to my chest and fell back against my chair. Caden giggled and took a bite of his sword.
“Now that that’s over, what’s been bothering you, dear?” Euphinia asked Kiara.
She cleared her throat and took a sip of water. I nudged her foot with mine in support.
Kiara drew in a deep breath, “I want to get out more. I’ve been thinking, I barely even leave the palace at all! I want to visit other planets and I want to…”
She trailed off. A look of utter heartbreak fell across Auntie Fin’s face.
I glanced between the two of them, not daring to even chew another bite. Euphinia was well known for preferring the safety and solitude of the palace, ever since our parents died. She’s almost afraid to leave, and she forgets that we could feel differently.
“Oh. Oh, honey, I’m so sorry. I never thought— Of course you can. It’s hard to remember that you’re not a little girl anymore.” she laughed a bit sadly.
“Why don’t you take her with us to that meeting in Lynphea next week?” Brigid suggested, “It’s high time she starts attending these functions, anyway.”
“Actually, that’s an excellent idea. What do you say, my sunset?”
“Hooray, a boring business meeting.” Kiara’s massive grin revealed her true feelings.
I watched the tension release from both of them. I hadn’t even noticed how anxious Fin must have been about travelling off-world.
“Not to push our luck…” I butted in, “But maybe the three of us could go out for ice cream or something after my competition? We can come right back home afterwards, I promise.”
Euphinia never came to my competitions in person, but I never minded. She watches them on the newsfeeds and then asks me all the details as soon as I get back. I think it’s the closest she’s willing to get to being in an actual crowd.
Caden screeched, “ICE CREAM!”
“Well, you can’t disappoint him now,” Kiara laughed.
Auntie Fin relented, “Alright.”
The three of us cheered.
“But I’m sending guards with you. One for each of you.” She looked each of us sternly in the eyes, “And then straight home.”
I grinned, “You got it.”
Kiara was practically glowing. I knew she had built this up so much in her mind; this was a massive weight off her shoulders. Maybe there was hope for me going to Alfea yet.