When Magic Flows

LIEUTENANTS

I erupted in cheers when one of that small spheres stopped at the top of Sybil’s head. Now I knew that I would not be there alone. She would always be by my side. 

The other Lieutenants were Alistair Wardwell, a 21-year old blonde who was tall and behaved in an almost arrogant way, Mary Faulkner, a 19-year old brunette that had a warm smile, Jared Foster, a funny guy from my high school year, that I knew from a class or another, and Jamie Black, 21-year old with green eyes that looked very surprised at that moment as if she was not expecting even to be a suitable candidate for the role.

Leading the line, Alistair came to the stage followed by Sybil and the other three chosen ones. When they arrived, my mom asked me to join them to be presented this time as a group. 

Just like me, they have their hands sliced and shed blood to pledge themselves as guardians of the coven, but since all of them already had their marks, mine was the only one that appeared tonight. 

In the end, my mom told the crowd present there: “I present you the future leadership of the Moonrise coven!” and all the crowd started cheering and applauding again. I could not help myself, I had to hug my best friend. When we approached each other, we said at the same time “Congratulations!” and started to giggle like two little girls. Finally, the ceremony was over, and we could enjoy the night calmly. I was beyond relieved.

“Oh, Allegra! I knew it was your special day, but I never thought that I would be chosen as one of the leaders! I don’t feel prepared at all!” She whispered this final sentence as if it were a confession. 

“And do you really think I do, Sy?” I told her, but the difference was that I was not ashamed to reveal that

“But you were born for this role, A.” I could see that she was starting to freak out, but it was too soon.

“And it looks like Alistair feels that he was born for it” I started laughing. He looks as if he was in my place, or at least that he wanted to be. Well, this definitely put a smile upon Sybil’s face, so I continued: “Well don’t worry, at least not for tonight. Now it is time to celebrate, honey!” And then I pulled her towards our table. We had our own table with the other new leaders to get to know them better. I was not actually nervous, but I thought it would be a little uncomfortable sitting by some people that I barely know from school and other common places. 

But I was completely wrong. Mary and Jamie were the nicest girls that I have ever met. The conversation flowed easily as if we had been friends for years. I have met Jared when we were juniors, so I knew he was a funny and easy-going type of guy. Even Alistair was nice, despite appearing to be above everything and everyone during dinner. 

“Of course, you are our leader, but we are here to help. I heard that we are going to be trained as hard as you will, so if one day you need us, we will be ready to assume the task.” Jared told me in a bit of the conversation we had. “Have you had the opportunity to list the tasks you’re going to give us already?”

“Well, no…” I told them.

“Then you should start thinking about it. We don’t want to let the quality of the leader’s work drop, do we?” Alistair asked me in a superior tone. I did not like it. I was the main leader, not the opposite. But as my mom always says, ‘if you must tell all the time that you are in charge, then you really are not.‘. I took one deep breath, smiled at him, and continued:

“Of course not. I will seat with my mother tomorrow and start to draft the tasks and who will take charge of each one.” This guy was going to have a small surprise when I hand him his tasks for the next years. Oh, I think I should put him in his place, that is for sure. 

“Oh! What is the subject that you most want to learn in our classes?” Sybil asked, changing the subject. I bet that she could feel me getting annoyed at that moment and was trying to avoid any misunderstanding.

“I have a thing for spells. I want to be a protector” Jared said excitedly. I must confess: This guy was so vivacious that was a little contagious and suddenly I was not apprehensive about the forthcoming training. I would learn so much more than I have ever up to now. This would not be the magic 101 we have been learning over the years. This was huge, and I was glad to be a part of it.

Then I told them: “I really like regular chemistry, so I think that this could be useful for potions and elixirs.” When I saw their grimace about my declaration I continued: “I always wanted to be a healer, so I think that this could be useful. I want to be our people’s comfort too. Of course, I will learn spells with the same diligence, but I always saw myself as a safe haven for people around me.” I told them. At the image in my head, I wish I could be a mother to our coven, and you come to your mom not just when you need protection, but also when you need comfort and words of encouragement. 

“I could not agree more about you, A,” Sybil told me, as the support she always has been in my life, and I smiled back to my best and oldest friend. And then she continued: “I would also like to be a protector. I think I can learn a thing or two. Well, just kidding. I am pretty sure I can learn a lot! I’m so excited about all of this! Who would think that I would be chosen to take this place? I’m so honored!”

“Yeah, me too.” Mary told us and continued: “I want to be an enchantress. I think that this illusional area of magic fascinating. Can you imagine being able to bewitch objects and bend them to you will? This is a heck of a useful art!” She seems so excited about learning to be an enchantress that suddenly I was willing to learn that too.

At that moment everyone looked at Jamie, who just murmured: “I don’t know, guys. I inherited this magic shop from my mom and up until tonight I was planning on running it the rest of my life, but apparently the universe has other plans for me. I’m not the only one here that is shocked by all of this, right?”

And then all the others started to murmur “Yeah, pretty much.” It should be a surprise for all of them, but not for me. I was born for this. Destinated from the womb. But looking better at it, this does not seem to be the same for Alistair. He looked like he was craving that position for a few years now, and it was as if he was finally getting it. But at that very moment, I decided to leave it like this. I was not going to be worried about it tonight. Not when my adventure was beginning. 

To summarize the whole day, it was really nice. I had butterflies in my stomach earlier, but I did fine and did not stuttered at the ceremony, met new people (or at least got to know better some people), and surprisingly, the conversation flowed easily. I started to like the people chosen by the Universe to help me in this role. I hope I am right about it. Later on,  I laid in my bed, exhausted, but happy that in general terms. It was a good day.