WHITE DARKNESS - BLACK MAGIC SAGA - BOOK 1

PLATED NEW MOON

More days passed by, slowly and without much to say. It was already Friday again. Tomorrow would be the selection for the twenty champions for the Paragon Tournament.

Leevanna wasn’t having a great time. It had started two days ago with an immense urge of having to shower every chance she could. There was this itch and ache in her whole body, especially her hair, and her bones itched, for goodness’ sake.

She could feel her blood running, her food being digested. It was a nightmare. And it wasn’t that she was dirty, Leevanna Vaughan was an incredibly hygienic person. She made sure her bathroom in her dormitory was cleaned two or three times a week, depending on the use of it.

So, two days ago, in the middle of the nigh, she had woken up with an incredible burning itch and irritation, consequently waking up Lhu from her cries and sniffles. Lhu had called Sthepon, who came to their dorm with Madame Pamela, the nurse from the Institute, and gave the white-haired girl a sedative that would let her sleep after she had taken a bath with a special cream that would end with the sensation on her body.

Leevanna had then finally been able to be at peace.

Lhu had heard Madame Pamela speaking with Sthepon Reeves, saying how Leevanna was experiencing a psychotic episode due to emotional stress. Lhu kept quiet. Sthepon attributed it to the date being close to the time she had been released from East Valley a year and a half ago. Lhu didn’t dare to contradict him when he asked her if there was another reason. Sthepon then asked Lhu to keep a close eye on Leevanna, who by the next day was already feeling better. And by Friday everything was forgotten.

Their following class, after a brief recess at 10 o’clock, was the one Professor Lawrence was giving, but now he seemed to have a replacement. When the doors were opened behind the students, confused of why they weren’t in the attic of the classroom, everyone turned around to see who it was. “Goodness, you look disappointed,” the snicker of Professor Alex Macnamara made everyone start apologising right away.

She, being the professor of Mentalist Magic, that most of the time was merged with DAP, was the sweetest woman everyone should meet at least once in every life. The young woman was understanding, comprehensive and certainly big-sister-like behaved with every student that came to her with a problem, either it was about her class or personal life.

Allhana Michels, Vasilka from third year, was the first to speak, “Disappointed about you not receiving an increase in your salary, professor.”

Professor Macnamara laughed, making many smile, “Wondering about that one too, Allha.” The woman left her things on the desk, and then she walked towards the front of the classroom. “You must be wondering why I am here,” she smiled. “Well, that is because your teacher is sick, so, for today, I’m with you,” ending with a clap, she started gesturing for everyone to stand up. “Up, up, my children, we’re going to have some fun.”

As the rest of the students left their things over their desks, Professor Alex snapped her fingers so the tables would walk themselves to the end of the classroom, leaving the students in a kind of semi-circle around their teacher.

“Now, could anyone tell me what is Plated Shapeshifting?”

Lucille White, a Faris, raised her had at the same time that Harlee Leighton, another Faris, but the professor gave the word to the first-mentioned. “It is when a magical being shapeshifts themselves into a class-three creature due to a trigger,” stated Lucille. “Askard Hellend, the famous historian on magical art, for example, who every new moon his human being left to be possessed by the one of a Hellhound for one day before the crescent moon came.” Mason and Rhaz’s howl made Leevanna go back to her reality.

Sometimes, unconsciously, she put herself into a kind of auto-pilot state in which she just followed orders as her mind was somewhere else. She could wake up from it three days after and not remember a single thing of what had happened. She had been thinking about how insufferably inefficient she was so hard that she didn’t remember even entering class.

The fact that her chance of dying due to the itchiness had been yanked away from her had her fuming within. She was a coward, yes, that was why she wouldn’t even step into the edge of the Heavens’ Lookout Tower without feeling like vomiting before feeling the true weight of her decision.

Though she was not afraid of dying — she wasn’t afraid of death at all, she wanted to die so f*****g much and let the worms eat her remains as she burns in hell or maybe she plays poker with the Devil —, she was a coward. A bloody coward who couldn’t try and kill herself because she thought that she was going to disappoint all the people for not telling them about how was she feeling. It was an odd combination of thoughts.

But her brain worked like that, what else can we do?

Why don’t you just pitch yourself from the Heaven’s Lookout Tower? Just stop thinking so much when you’re up there, asked her conscience, like a mini her who looked straight at her with a frown.

I don’t know, her own voice responded, as if the original Leevanna and the fake one was having tea in a normal afternoon. Like a normal conversation between two old friends.

“Some things never change,” chuckled the professor. “Careful with your two classmates here, they might be possessed,” and the rest of the class laughed as the two boys made a high-five.

The jade-eyed stared at the closed window on her side. Well, this class was certainly better than just staring at her book, Mystical Guidebook of Obscure Creatures, all the two hours the class was meant to be. She was grateful that Madame Alex was here with them. However, he was not paying the minimum attention even. She knew what they were talking about though, but she just wasn’t interested at all in the subject, at least not now.

Leevanna was still recovering from that itching, and she hadn’t had a good night the day before thanks to that. Instead of waking up because of nightmares, the phantom of the itch hadn’t even let her sleep. The whole room suffocated her, so she had tried to go to her common room, but there was this just uneasy feeling within her that even if her comfort zone were there, she couldn’t feel comfortable at all. Wandering through the chateau had also crossed her mind, but it quickly got off her mind. Hearing the wind constantly blowing through the old beams of the chateau just wasn’t something that would help her, instead it would just make her think — have nightmares.

She hated having so many f*****g memories that haunted her every single night.

She hated waking up crying.

She hated crying in general.

But she did it quite often.

That made her hate herself even more for being so weak and such a cry-baby who was vulnerable and fragile towards others. She had been through so many things — she was more than traumatised… People had done so many cruel things to her that it was impossible not to cry and have nightmares… But she did not like it. She hated it.

The voice of her father always repeated in her head, shouting at her that she was weak, that she was a complete disappointment, that she was fragile, that the people did not like her, that she was guilty of everything that had happened to her, that she was the responsible, that she needed to be punished for her actions, that she needed to be dead. He had said her the last phrase a thousand times now that she had it memorised and repeated it in her head again and again. It was just so carved into her that perhaps that was the reason why she wanted to do it so terribly.

She had wished so many times for being made of stone or ice and not pay attention to his cruel words…

But she wasn’t made of those materials. She was human. She was fragile. She was vulnerable. That was one of the million reasons she had built her imposing and majestic empire of ice walls. The cruel words would not reach her in that way. Her vulnerable and fragile self would be covered in that way. She could pretend that nothing happened to her in that way. She would be secure. She would be protected. She would be praised and feared. She loved ice — her empire of it. It was lethal and beautiful at the same time.

That’s why her in schoolhouse was known as the Ice Queen after all. She was gorgeous but locked up in her own winter of memories that burnt her with sun.

“… meaning that the spirit that possesses them isn’t something the person acquires, they are born with it due to diverse factors,” explained Professor Macnamara. “This could be because a relative has suffered the same condition, or due to incest between families with Plated Shapeshifting heritage… Now, if the family doesn’t have a history of it, it could be that the baby was born into a Plated New Moon, that is when just the circumference of the moon is glowing, but it is as rare as seeing a Pegasiphix. Only one person is born as Plated Shapeshifter every fifty thousand years in a Plated New Moon; contrary to the two aforementioned causes, that constitute the 74% of possibility.”

“But, professor,” started questioning Terry Golden, from House Vasilka, “how is it possible that the ones born into incest or heritage are less threatening than the plated moon ones?”

Many wondered the same, since they have always been thought the incest of heritage Human Shapeshifting could be controlled with certain herbs and medicines so the transformation wasn’t as painful, and it wouldn’t come back until three months later.

“Your professor hasn’t told you about the story of plated moon?” the frown crossing the face of Madame Alex was due to mere confusion.

Hope Patrell, from House Faris, raised her hand, “That day it was supervision day, the headmaster and two sub-masters were observing class. We put aside History and Apparition of Dark Events to do an oral exam about knowledge.”

Madame Alex nodded, a tight line instead of full lips. But she still went back to smiling.

“Well, the history of a Plated New Moon comes a long way before the birth of the gods and goddesses. Sure you have heard the history of the lost son of Uttara, the goddess of the stars,” everyone nodded. “Good,” she grinned. “The first Plated New Moon was registered in his birth though this itself didn’t have any effect even if being the sign of the birth of gods but not goddesses since they are born in full moon… Due to Uttara’s husband ability to shapeshift into certain animals, the son was born with this ability as well…”

Every student was now sitting on the floor, hearing attentively the story their teacher was telling them. And thanks to her being their beloved professor of Mentalist Magic, she was able to captivate them with a projection of the events. “As he grew up, and Uttara had her second child, a woman, that is, Aztra, the son became jealous of the attention the new goddess was receiving and the way she was making his mother grew apart from her son, and quickly searched for a solution to doom her to obscurity,” the woman continued. “It wasn’t until Aztra was about to descend to Earth next to Osnos that the lost son descended to Inferno, in search of a remedy to kill his sister.

“In the way, the Hellhound of Inferno attacked him, leaving a lash wound on his chest, making him return to Paradise as the venom the Hellhound had was corrupting his body, getting him fall into illness as soon as leaving Inferno,” the professor quicky made the classroom go obscure. “Arriving to the promised earth, the son saw her sister, sleeping peacefully before her wedding, and quickly thought of attacking her — please dear children, if you don’t want to hear the next part, feel welcome to block your hearing until I snap again.” After her warning, she gave them a few seconds to do as she said, and the continued with the mentalist projection. “Filled with the venom of the Hellhound’s scratch and hatred towards his own blood, the son r***d Aztra, in the hope the venom he ported within him would kill her when it pierced her flesh…,” and she snapped her fingers. “The young goddess screamed and fought until her mother and father came into her rescue, just as well as the rest of the gods.

“The son was quickly killed in the act with the help of Ineyr, and Aztra cured with the remedies of Dresphy, goddess of health, however… After her marriage she gave birth to her r****t’s descendance, a baby boy with the three heads of the Hellhound and the ability to shapeshift into it after being born into a Plated New Moon… He grew up, excluded from Paradise and sent to Inferno, where, without the knowledge of anyone, he reproduced with a concubine.”

The curtains were raised again as the projection ended.

“And what happened to the concubine?” asked Vasilka girl that Leevanna right now didn’t remember the name of.

“She was also sacrificed,” answered Madame Alex. “Though, she had already given birth to the descendance of the first Plated Shapeshifter, that is why we learn about them now, because those children were hidden and consequently reproduced themselves without the knowledge of the gods and goddesses.”

After those words all the students helped the teacher to accommodate the desks in how they had been, as they chatted about the subject they had just learnt.

Everyone was just so excited of learning Dark History itself because it wasn’t something many of them had access to since many books and libraries were destroyed in the First Rebellion as a way of stopping the knowledge of obscure fine arts to reach young students’ brains. Most families of course were very satisfied with the new rules, just the royalty, belonging to obscure organizations and of course inside the black market, held accountancy of those books, either for trafficking or just personal use of them.

Once all was stelled, professor Macnamara placed herself in front of all students. “Well my children, now we will have forty-five minutes for you to discuss the information we have just talked about since the beginning to the mere story I told you and write them down on piece of paper please.”

“Can we make groups professor?”

“Yes dear Allhana,” the woman smiled. “You can share your thoughts with your desk-partner or accommodate your desks to make groups, just don’t forget to put them in order after.”

And even if Leevanna didn’t have much to say about the whole class, she was dragged next to her friends. It seemed that she couldn’t scape and be alone. She wondered why it was that a Plated New Moon wasn’t celebrated anymore since it was still a God-like celebration. Perhaps history had made the circumstance too dark, and now, since there was no more gods and goddesses, it was just a waste of time. However, though, a thought that flashed her mind, was the fact that she was born into a full moon. The event of the—

“Leev do you have a book about this, don’t you?” asked Freya, interrupting the flash of thoughts, which quickly fade away, leaving her with a sensation of weirdness.

“Yeah, I can ask the professor if I can summon it.”