Around noon Sarah was awakened by the scent of eggs coming from the kitchen. It had to be Aunt Caitlyn making breakfast. Sarah was not that hungry, but thought that eating it would make auntie happy. That it would show that her work is not going to waste. Another remnant from the time when her parents were with her. So Sarah came out of the bed, dressed up and came to the kitchen. Aunt Caitlyn has been circling around the kitchen preparing the table for breakfast when she has seen her niece coming down the stairs.

  “Good morning!” she greeted her. “You’re coming down at the perfect time.”

  “I assume you have just made breakfast,” said Sarah.

  “Exactly. I have made us omelettes with jam.”

  “You really like jam, don’t you?” Sarah has noticed simirities with the supper from the st day.

  “It’s part of a well thought-out meal pn,” Caitlyn said.

  Sarah tried to stop Aunt Caitlyn from expining all the intricacies of her nutrition pn by raising her hand, but she was already in the flow.

  “Breakfast should be sweet, so it gives you a kickstart. Dinner should be savoury and big, so it gives you energy for the rest of the day. And supper should be small and warm so it helps you fall asleep. I learned this from a fairy I once knew.”

  “Then can you expin the size of the st supper?” Sarah asked, noticing an inaccuracy.

  “I thought I could make an exception so you can regenerate after your journey.”

  “Well… I guess that expins it.”

  They commenced eating breakfast. The omelettes were very sweet from all the jam. Aunt Caitlyn was very proud since she made the jam herself.

  Sarah had eaten about half of her omelette when she noticed something strange.

  “Did you say you used to know a fairy?” she asked her aunt.

  “Yes.” Caitlyn answered. “Don’t tell me you are surprised.”

  “How am I supposed to not be surprised?”

  “Don’t tell me your parents didn’t teach you anything about…”

  Aunt Caitlyn did not finish her sentence, because she heard the doorbell.

  “She’s here already?” she said as she rose from her chair.

  Aunt Caitlyn walked to the front door and looked through the peephole. On the other side there stood a girl dressed in a cute dress with a backpack on her back. The housekeeper opened the door and let her inside.

  “Welcome, Ursu!” Caitlyn said to her guest.

  “Good morning, Ms. Behn! Have I come at the right time?” asked the girl.

  “I was eating breakfast, but I have your wine. Come in, please.”

  In just a moment Sarah left the table too. She wanted to see who was the mysterious guest her aunt was talking with. In a short time she saw Aunt Caitlyn walking back to the dining room with a girl about Sarah’s age. As soon as their eyes met the guest froze in what could be seen as shock.

  “Ah! Right! I should have told you,” Caitlyn said seeing that. “This is my niece, Sarah. She moved here yesterday evening.”

  “Hello…” Sarah greeted the guest.

  “Sarah, this is Ursu,” Caitlyn said, pointing at the girl. “I told you about her yesterday. Maybe she can be your friend.”

  With those words Aunt Caitlyn vanished going to the basement. Ursu was staring at Sarah with creepy intensity.

  “Um… Hi!” said Sarah trying to establish some sort of thought exchange. “I’m Sarah. It’s nice to meet you.”

  “My name is Ursu,” said her guest, still staring.

  “What are you looking at?” asked Sarah.

  She was ready for multiple answers. She was expecting that something was wrong with her shirt or something like that. But Ursu answered very mysteriously.

  “Your aura… is blue.”

  “Excuse me?” Sarah said the only words that came to her head.

  “The way its waves are moving is fascinating. It is as if something is suppressing your true positivity and potential.”

  Sarah wanted to answer in some way, but she was too shocked by what she had heard. She could not form any coherent statement.

  At that same moment Aunt Caitlyn came back from the basement holding a small cy bottle.

  “Here’s your wine!” she said to Ursu.

  “Thank you. That will be five pounds, right?” asked the guest as she was taking a banknote out of her pocket.

  “Exactly. Here you go!”

  The sight of Aunt Caitlyn selling wine to Ursu was a bit too much for Sarah to comprehend. She didn’t even notice Ursu leaving the house. The first thing she managed to notice was auntie speaking to her.

  “Shall we continue our breakfast?”

  “Did you just sell wine to a minor?” Sarah asked.

  “Non-alcoholic ritual wine. In my recipe it’s just grape juice with herb decoctions. I don’t think that’s a crime. Also, I think it’s safer than a high school student performing blood rituals.”

  Sarah gave up on trying to have a logical conversation and simply continued eating. Aunt Caitlyn was somewhat surprised by the shock of her niece.

  “Did your parents really teach you nothing about magic?” she asked.

  Sarah looked above her omelette and shouted with sparks of rage.

  “Jesus goddamn Christ, do you hear what you are talking about?”

  “Well… That confirms my suspicions,” Caitlyn commented on her niece’s breakdown beginnings.

  “In a moment you’re going to tell me you are a witch and I am awaiting an acceptance letter from a school of witchcraft.”

  “You’re half-right, my dear.”

  Sarah simply continued to silently eat her omelette.

  “I can’t believe you didn’t know you are a part of a witch family,” Aunt Caitlyn said.

  “I’m not in the mood for such jokes!” shouted Sarah as she stormed to her room.

  “Wait! Listen!” Caitlyn tried to call her.

  But she didn’t want to wait nor listen. She wanted to lock herself in her room until Aunt Caitlyn stops telling her such distasteful jokes. She really wasn’t in the mood to hear such bullcrap. She couldn’t imagine being witness to such delusions. The cherry on top was bming her parents for not telling her about a giant family secret or something along the lines. But how could they tell her about magic if magic is non-existent? Sarah was angry and she felt tired. She wanted to go back to bed and spend the rest of the day watching anime. She wanted to finish White Clover and forget about the whole affair.

  Mondays are difficult days for high school students. It was Sarah’s second lesson and she was already feeling tired. The only comfort was in the fact there were only four lessons left that day. She was sitting at her desk and reading the newest volume of Five Piece. It was an effective method of suppressing her emotions, but very limited by the number of pages in a volume.

  Suddenly Sarah was approached by two girls from her css. She was sure she had noticed them just at that moment. She was especially surprised, because she remembered she had met the shorter one.

  “Ursu?” she asked her.

  “Yes, I am,” the shorter girl answered. “And if I remember correctly you are Sarah.”

  “Yes. And your friend?” Sarah looked at the taller girl.

  “Right. You haven’t been introduced to me,” The taller girl took a break to correct the position of her gsses. “My name is Giovanna Alighieri.”

  “What’s the matter?” Sarah asked the two girls. “If you are ganging up on me you want something from me for sure.”

  “Yes, but don’t worry,” Giovanna said. “We simply want to talk to you.”

  “But we would like to not talk in school.” Ursu added. “We want to talk without being restricted by the bells.”

  “I see…” Sarah thought for a bit. “So shall we go to MacBeth’s after school?”

  “That is a good idea,” Ursu said. “We hope you will go with us.”

  In the afternoon all three girls were enjoying burgers with fries that may or may not have been compliant with aunt Cailtyn’s dietary guidelines. Sarah couldn’t wait to hear the big speech from the girls she had met. Ursu started talking in between bites.

  “Ms. Behn, your aunt, has told me about what happened yesterday.”

  “Wait, wait, wait, stop, stop, stop!” Sarah shouted. “Are you trying to tell me that magic exists too?”

  “Precisely,” Giovanna said.

  “Stop right now,” Sarah did not want to hear any of this. “I’m sick of people trying to sell me those delusions.”

  Ursu and Giovanna had expected this kind of answer. They have heard how angry Sarah has been the previous day. But they were not discouraged. Especially Giovanna, who started to speak again.

  “I was sure that you wouldn’t want to hear what we say. So we would like to show you something.”

  “Yes. After all…” Ursu took up the subject. “From what I know the saying seeing is believing does not exist without a reason.”

  After these words she took something out of her backpack. An articuted figurine of a man wearing a scary helmet and gloves with drills. As an anime specialist Sarah immediately recognised it.

  “Is that a Driller Man figurine?” she asked.

  “Yes. And I want you to watch it for a while.”

  “Why is that?”

  “You will see.”

  Ursu took out one more thing from her backpack. A can of a moisturising cream. But when she opened it there was some pinkish pulp. Ursu took some of it on her finger and started spreading it on the figurine.

  “What are you doing?” Sarah asked.

  Ursu was not paying attention to that. Instead she started to recite mysterious phrases.

  “Through blood and earth and flowery seed, I give you life because I am in need. Make my hair into curls.”

  And after that she pced the figurine on the table.

  “Now watch closely,” Ursu said to Sarah.

  Sarah was disgusted, but looked at the figurine. What happened was the strangest thing Sarah has ever noticed in her life. The pulp has turned into dust and fell on the table. And then the figurine moved. Ursu and Giovanna were not touching it and their hands were completely still. But somehow the figurine has been moving. It climbed onto Ursu’s head and stuck its drills into her hair. With just a few turns of the drills her hair started turning into actual curls.

  “Now is that not a cool spell?” Ursu asked Sarah. “It can be used for multiple purposes. You just need the right character to do what you want to.”

  Sarah was speechless. She still couldn’t completely believe what she saw. But seeing is indeed believing.

  “Would you like to try?” Ursu asked her.

  “Um… Not really… No, it has to be a dream. I will now run into a window and wake up in my bed.”

  “I wouldn’t try that if I were you.” Giovanna said. “There are easier and less painful ways to assess whether you’re dreaming or not. I’ll give you an example. Do you remember how you got here? Tell me your route starting in the morning.”

  Sarah was still recovering from a shock but she started talking.

  “I woke up in my bed at Aunt Caitlyn’s house. I came to school through Jugtown and Sonnetists. And then we came here through Byron Roundabout.”

  “That’s enough,” said Giovanna. “Such an excellent memory of your route is a sign that you aren’t dreaming.”

  Sarah didn’t know what to think about all of that. Was that really magic she saw? And if so why did they show it to her? But she wasn’t allowed to think for too long. Ursu was again saying something to her.

  “Now that you know that magic is real we want to ask you something.”

  “What is that?” Sarah asked.

  Ursu started an expnation. It was a really strange expnation.

  “When I saw your aura yesterday I immediately knew you had great potential. We want to help you explore that potential and use your abilities.”

  “You’re starting to sound strange,” Sarah said. “Do you really not want anything in exchange?”

  “There is one thing,” said Giovanna. “We would like you to help us in keeping order.”

  “What?” said Sarah with shock in her voice.

  “Magic in its nature is a thing that tempts,” Giovanna started expining. “There are people who use it for good and there are people who use it for evil.”

  “We have a very specific hobby,” said Ursu. “We are looking for people who use evil magic and try to do things right.”

  “So you are pying magical w enforcement?” asked Sarah.

  “You could say that,” said Giovanna.

  “And can’t you leave that to the police?” asked Sarah.

  “We could, but there are no believing policemen in Oftenhides,” said Ursu.

  “So how shall it be?” asked Giovanna.

  Sarah couldn’t believe what was happening. One moment she discovers that magic exists and the next moment she is asked to battle evil wizards. She started to feel that this is too much.

  “It does sound interesting…” she said. “But I think I have to think it out.”

  Sarah tried to escape the situation. And it seemed to work.

  “Sure,” said Giovanna. “Think as long as you need.”

  “Thank you,” said Sarah. “Maybe let’s exchange contacts in the meanwhile.”

  “That is a good idea,” said Ursu.

  After an exchange of phone numbers the girls came back to eating their meals. Sarah was still daydreaming about what magic could be capable of. Maybe she could learn to fly or breathe under water. A usual reaction of anyone who has just found out about its existence. After the burgers and fries were all eaten the girls said goodbye to each other and Sarah went home. And she was still thinking of all the possibilities id before her.

  When Sarah reached Sir Gawain Street she had finally managed to calm down and started thinking consciously. That meeting in MacBeth’s was the first time ever she has seen magic. But she clearly remembered Aunt Caitlyn saying something about her parents. That she was surprised she did not teach magic to Sarah. That could only mean that her parents also knew about magic. But for some reason decided to keep it a secret from Sarah.

  “If they knew then why would they not tell me anything?” she thought.

  After a while however she has realised something. Maybe they just wanted to wait until Sarah was mature enough. They did keep that strange book from her after all. But couldn’t they simply let her know when she was young and wait with teaching her how to use it? That would be what Sarah would do if she had children.

  When Sarah opened the door to the house she stopped thinking about it completely. She saw Aunt Caitlyn in the middle of the living room and she took her entire focus. She was nervously circling around the room with a phone in one hand and a book in another. The book looked somewhat like the mysterious book Sarah got from her parents, but its cover was light grey. The sight made Sarah feel kind of uneasy.

  “What’s the matter, auntie?” Sarah asked.

  “I think we have been robbed,” Aunt Caitlyn answered.