The Harvest, page 11
“I can’t even imagine what she has in store for me.”
“Probably bookkeeping,” Vickie giggled. “Or smashing rocks to uncover runes. I heard you’ve got a knack for that.”
“I take it you got into the dating class then?” Leandra said, crossing her arms.
“Don’t hate,” Vickie sniffed at the air. “It’s beneath you.”
“I like where I am,” Leandra grinned.
“Then what classes have you enrolled in?” Vickie said.
“I haven’t enrolled,” Leandra said proudly. Dinah slapped her on the back of the head. “Dinah, keep your hands to yourself, you brute!”
“You idiot,” Dinah said. “You made it all the way to number four and you’re going to slack off now?”
“Dummy, it was calculated. Picking a class reveals too much about me, to the Ostara and our classmates. You heard what happened to Philomena.”
“I can see our classmates,” Dinah asked, rubbing the bruise on the back of Leandra’s head in recompense. “But why the Ostara? They mean no harm.”
“They’re looking at us closely,” Leandra said, swatting Dinah’s hand away. “This is a move that sets me above the pack.”
“But what if you get kicked out for not choosing? The classes may be voluntary, but you’re still breaking the rules.”
“You think they’re going to kick out the number four recruit? Please. They’re doing all the work and designing my itinerary as we speak, and it will be custom made for my specialty. I’ll be ahead of everyone in that regard.”
“You’re not all that smart,” Vickie smirked. “Technically, Madeline gets her classes designed for her too, right? Since she was unable to choose.”
“Wha—” Leandra’s jaw dropped as she looked at Vickie in disbelief. The dumbfounded look on her face made all the girls step closer to examine it.
“What is this face you’re making,” Vickie grinned triumphantly, squinting hard. “It’s new.” She put a finger to her lips and then pointed it back at Leandra. “But I like it though. Yes, I think this is my new favorite.”
Leandra’s face began to redden. “With Maddie, it’s different.”
“Uh-huh.”
“It is! She was asleep. No, she was knocked out! She didn’t plan this.”
“She still got the same result,” Vickie said. “And easier at that! You really must start working smarter, not harder, darling.” With that, Vickie lightly waved goodbye to Leandra like a beauty pageant queen and then walked off on her own, riding on the ecstasy of victory.
“Slut,” Leandra mumbled.
Dinah laughed. “Leandra, let it go. You have to admit that she got you.”
“No, I don’t,” she sulked. “Hey, weren’t we supposed to show Maddie around?”
“Yeah, we’re doing what we always do,” Riley said. “Standing around and talking when we should be figuring out something to eat. We talk about how we’re starving and then we switch to a new subject, and then we mention how we’re so hungry an hour later, only to keep spiraling down the hole of despair until we’re so desperate that we settle on some crap that no one wanted in the first place.”
“I’ll interpret,” Madeline said. She cleared her throat. “Riley’s hungry.”
“Damn, right,” Riley said.
“Then let’s walk and talk,” Leandra chuckled. “I don’t want to be the one to break tradition.”
“As long as it ends with food, that’s fine with me,” Riley said. They began heading away from the one room infirmary and towards the center of the square where the most benches lay, surrounding a rippling fountain decorated with flowers that bloomed and died within seconds.
“Wow,” Madeline whispered as they approached. “What is this?”
“I heard some students talking about it,” Riley said. She stopped suddenly and glanced at her friends in concern.
“Yeah?” Madeline asked. “What about it?”
“We’re stopping and talking,” Riley said, her eyes full of disappointment. “Are we eating today?”
“We promise,” Madeline laughed. “Please, tell me.”
“Those flowers,” Riley said, pointing at a dying and rising yellow lilac. “They were once human. Do you remember the Flora Fae?”
“It was a family flower shop,” Leandra said. “Mother and daughter passed down to father and son. It doesn’t have the same popularity as it once did, but it’s still known for its magnificent flowers.”
“Our house had ordered some once,” Dinah said. “I couldn’t take my eyes off them.”
“I knew the flowers in town were fake,” Madeline laughed, but no one joined her. “What?” she said. “I didn’t really take the time out to notice until I was older.”
“Oh, Maddie,” Dinah said. “I hate myself for saying this, but sometimes you got to stop and smell the roses.”
“But Flora Fae’s,” Leandra said. “Not the fake ones. That makes you weird.”
“Is Flora Fae the name of the shop or...” Madeline trailed off.
“Flora was the mother and Fae was the daughter,” Riley said. “Their specialty was based in plant life, and they excelled like no other. Their business was booming, and their names were well-known across the world.”
“Then what happened?” Madeline asked. “What do these flowers have to do with them? Did they come from the shop?”
“Technically,” Leandra said. “Maddie, this is Flora and Fae.”
Madeline turned toward the flowers, wilting, dying, lying still for a millisecond, and then coming back to life and blooming before beginning the cycle over again. “They are the flowers?” she asked.
“Our parents kept up with news outside of our walls,” Dinah said. “Don’t...tell anyone that, just in case, but...they said that Flora and Fae were offered an internship of sorts by the Ostara. Temporarily, they would be transmogrified into flowers and be able to control their gender, their type, and even their death. I didn’t understand what they were talking about back then.”
“They chose this?” Madeline asked. “For how long?”
“I don’t know,” Dinah said.
“They can’t die,” Riley said. “If they do, they are just brought back to life.”
“Then...they are choosing to die,” Madeline said. “Why would they do that?”
“As an experiment,” Leandra said, crouching down and leaning up against the wet stone upon which the flowers were. They continued their cycle before her eyes, mere inches from her face. “Wouldn’t you? If you could die over and over, knowing you would be reborn? What could you learn from such an experience? I’d do it.”
“But it’s happening so much,” Madeline said. The action unnerved her, she couldn’t put a finger on why. “What do they hope to learn from so many cycles?”
“What do we hope to learn from this single life we are living now?” Leandra said, standing up. “We all have our ambitions, but do they really matter when you think about it? Are we moving forward for us? For others? For the future? For the past? What drives us?”
“We. Are. Not. Eating,” Riley said.
Leandra laughed. “Sorry, Riley. Let’s move on.”
“Wait,” Dinah said, holding up her hands.
“What?” Leandra asked.
“Nothing,” she said. “I thought...I thought they stopped the cycle for some reason. Must have been in my head.”
“Do something enough times and you won’t know where you stop, and your habits begin,” Leandra said.
“Yeah,” Riley said. “Like walking and—”
“You’re as bad as Vickie,” Leandra said, waving at them to keep moving.
Madeline’s mind couldn’t break from what she witnessed. They said that the mother and daughter had come for this “internship,” but if so, why were there several flowers, and of all different types? Did others come along for the ride? Madeline let her friends continue on as she stopped and looked around her. The Arcana were too excited to notice it, but they were being watched. Against the foreground of beauty, and under a ceiling of autumn sky, the walls of Beltane Castle were drab and boring, almost producing a hazy effect on the eyes. As colossal as they were, they might as well have been trees among the forest. There was no individuality, and certainly no reason to focus on any specific sentinel.
But if one did, they would notice the many windows—windows that were woefully few in number, and if one looked even closer, they would see their guardians—some servants, some familiars, and even a couple Ostara, watching, waiting, licking their lips absent-mindedly as they assessed their prey. This was not a campus center designed for relaxation and recreation. This was a fish bowl.
Madeline wanted to believe that Flora and Fae were authors of their own fate, and still in control of their destiny.
But she knew better.
Chapter 10 – Kindred Spirits
“There are three restaurants on campus,” Riley said as they reached the northeast corner of the square. “And one café, located right here. I overheard other Arcana raving about the scones.”
“You overhear a lot,” Dinah laughed.
“And who eats scones? Bleh,” Leandra said.
“Where are the other two restaurants?” Madeline asked. She was bored by the conversation, but Riley seemed like she was having a blast, which was a rare sight to behold.
“They said that one will remain a secret for now, and the other is in the west wing. From where we started—the infirmary—you can easily see what each wing is called, encompassing all four major directions, like a compass. No one has been told the differences yet though.”
“The west wing has our dorms,” Dinah said, “and I believe we entered from the south.”
Madeline made a mental note. The South End was where she first met Taylor...and Reina.
“This looks nice,” Dinah said as they walked into the café. Two of its walls were missing, letting the café extend into the outside. Small tables with lit candles were numerous, and though there were nearly a hundred students in attendance, whether in line to get free food or sitting at a table, there were plenty of chairs still left open. The most impressive sight were the miniature umbrellas. As soon as a student stepped out onto the patio, a little umbrella would come to life from the holder it lay inside, fly over to the student, open overhead, and then follow the student as they walked for as long as they were in the outside portion of the café. Upon coming inside, the umbrellas closed and zipped right back to their home.
“Whether you need shade or protection from the rain,” Dinah mused. “These are cool.”
Madeline, on the other hand, immediately thought of Flora and Fae. Though it was unlikely the umbrella was organic in nature, she couldn’t help but be suspicious of everything the Ostara put into place. She sneered at the tiny red umbrella that appeared above her, perfectly matching the circumference of the crown of her head and following her as she walked.
They found an empty table and sat down, except for Riley, who said she would happily get scones and danishes for everyone. No one complained.
“When do you think we’ll find out about our schedules?” Madeline asked.
“Who knows,” Leandra sighed, placing her forehead on the glass table. “This is boring. I want the trials to start already.”
“Enjoy the down time while you can,” Dinah said. “Once tomorrow comes, there will be no such thing as rest.”
“We could explore some more,” Leandra said, lifting her head up to smile.
“Sure,” Dinah said, shrugging her shoulders.
“Not yet,” Madeline said, shaking her head. “I already missed too much.”
“Not to mention your wounds,” Leandra said. “How’d that happen?”
Madeline quickly went over the story, leaving out a few key parts—finding Taylor, meeting Reina and being considered a threat by Annalise. She made it sound as if she went exploring, got caught, and went unconscious from the attack on the fox.
“That sucks,” Leandra said. “Sorry all of that happened to you. That monster, Hush...who knows what it would have done to us.”
“This place is dangerous,” Dinah said. “Maybe Maddie’s right. Keep the exploring to a minimum.”
“I didn’t say that,” Madeline laughed. “Just let me heal up first.”
“Well, guys,” Riley said, approaching them. “Time for me to bow out. I forgot that I’ve got class in fifteen minutes.”
“Where’s the food?” Leandra asked, throwing her hands up in the air.
“Yeah, I didn’t get any. Did you see that line? I’ll be there all day.”
“Have fun!” Dinah said.
“You too,” Riley said, as she walked back into the café and disappeared among the crowd.
“She probably horded it all,” Leandra muttered. “I wasn’t hungry, but all that talk about eating got my stomach rumbling.”
“Do you think she’ll learn anything in there?” Dinah asked. “Elements?”
“The title said, ‘Lost Arts,” Madeline chimed in. “Does that mean those specialties once existed?”
“What?” Leandra said. “Like throwing fire and water out of your hands?”
“Yeah,” Madeline said. “I’ve never come across anything like that in my reading.”
“Our parents said that before the War, Elemental magic existed, though it was still rare. The Ostara and a few other Covens eventually outlawed it due to how unstable it was. Apparently, entire towns would be flooded by a tsunami, or a house would burn down overnight. Many thought they were “acts of God,” as they put it back then, but they were really caused by people, with elemental magic unknowingly flowing through them. Ever notice how there are very few natural disasters now?”
“There were other covens like the Ostara?” Madeline asked. “As powerful as the Ostara?”
“We’d have to ask our parents,” Dinah said. “They didn’t go into depth about it, but I did catch on that they said, “covens,’ plural.”
“Fascinating,” Madeline said. She knew there had to be other Covens in the old times, but the public acted as if the Ostara, and only the Ostara, ever existed and were in power.
“I might find out more in my History class,” Dinah said. “That’s what I have today, but I’m going in skeptically. I realize that the Ostara may fabricate a few things.”
“Still,” Madeline said. “I would love to sit in.”
“If it’s allowed, sure.”
“Excuse me,” a man in a tuxedo interrupted from the right of them. “Is there a Madeline Chase present?”
“Yes,” Madeline said. “Who are you?”
“I’m Alexander,” he said with a curt bow. His long, dirty blonde hair momentarily covered up his face, and for a second, Madeline’s heart skipped a beat. Alexander was a common name, but she couldn’t help but think of Mr. Tate. “I am taking over for Sota while he attends to other matters. I was looking for you, young miss. Your class is about to start, and I was told to that you would need an escort in case of your...injuries.”
“Thank you,” she said, standing up and pushing in her chair. “Will you be taking me there? I didn’t get a tour of the campus and I don’t know where to go.”
“Certainly,” he said. “Follow me. Good day, ladies.”
“See you later, Maddie,” Dinah said as Leandra threw up a wave. Following the butler from behind, Madeline walked through the café and took a right into the East End. It was a long hallway that had several classrooms with their doors wide open. She made note of the stairs leading upwards, next to a set of stairs that descended into the hall of classrooms. Just because there were classrooms on this floor, it didn’t mean it stayed that way going up. Also, based on her experiences with the Onyx Room and the strange hidden room in which Reina resided in, it was certain that there were several backdoors and mysterious nooks and crannies to explore. On paper, the South End was the public event area, the West End were the dorms, and the East End housed the educational facilities. The north end would remain a mystery.
“A few more doors,” Alexander said as they slowed down the pace.
“What class am I going to?”
“I’m hardly in charge of enrollment. You’ll have to wait and see.”
“Do you know my teacher?”
“I was simply given the room number, young miss. Ah, here it is. Room 110. Good day.”
“Wait,” Madeline said, but the butler had already vanished from her sight. Were they ghosts like the doctors?
“Come in, we’re about to begin!” she heard a pleasant, airy voice call to her from inside. Madeline hesitated, but then she stepped in. A popping sound hurt her ears momentarily, and then she found herself at the top of a lecture hall. The teacher down below stood behind a desk, waving on Madeline to keep moving.
“Take any seat!” she yelled up. “There are plenty!” This was true, especially considering that there were only 300 students in attendance at the Harvest, and the lecture hall could fit that three times over. There were a few small groups that clumped together, but for the most part the Arcana gave themselves breathing room.
“Alright, I’ll start,” the teacher said. Madeline quickly procured a seat in the back of the room. “My name is Mrs. Rhinestone, but you can call me Irene. Welcome to a class that I’m sure all of you will be thrilled to come back to repeatedly: Intro to positive and negative magic.”
Groans echoed throughout the room as the teacher put a finger to her lips. “I understand that on your schedule it says: Black and White Magic 101, and you probably thought you were going to be introduced to a plethora of macabre stories and sacrificial rituals, juxtaposed to healing spells and miracles. I’m sorry, but if you wanted that, you should have gone to Religious History down the hall. Here, we’re going to focus on the practicality of your specialties and how you can gain an edge over your peers. I already have a volunteer to assist me in what I’m about to say. Kieran, could you please stand up?”
“Oh, no,” Madeline said under her breath. She slumped in her seat and put a hand over her eyes. She watched as Kieran stood up from the front row and walked over to the teacher. He faced the class with a bored expression on his face.
