Crisanta Knight: Eternity's End

CHAPTER 1 THE AWAKENING-2

I didn’t hold any of that against this Mauvrey, of course. She hadn’t been responsible. But while my friends had already gotten to know the real Mauvrey, I’d only been introduced to her when they freed me a few days ago. Our relationship was therefore still an awkward work in progress.

“You did it!” Girtha exclaimed as I slid off Lucky.

“What, you thought he’d flame broil me or something?” I replied as Blue and Jason landed beside us and hopped off their steeds.

Girtha shrugged her broad shoulders and blew brown bangs out of her eyes. “Honestly—”

“You know what, don’t answer that,” I said with a wave. I glanced at Mauvrey, whose folded hands fidgeted in front of her. “Mauvrey. Come say hi to Lucky. He’s friendly, I swear.”

She strode over cautiously, her ponytail bouncing behind her.

“Lucky, this is Mauvrey,” I said, meeting my dragon’s curious expression and gesturing at our princess friend. Much to her discomfort, my dragon sniffed Mauvrey before turning away, uninterested.

Jason stared up at the sky. The last of the magical colors faded as the In and Out Spell became invisible again. “I’m surprised the spell around Lady Agnue’s is up already,” he remarked. “Doesn’t it usually activate at ten o’clock the night before school starts?”

“That was in the past when people were less uppity,” Blue replied.

Jason tilted his head. “By uppity do mean vicious, scheming, and homicidal?”

“Well, there’s no adjective to combine all that, so yes.”

“There are new security rules in place,” Girtha explained to Jason. “Lady Agnue and the higher-ups are trying their best to protect us from the antagonists and anyone else out there who wants to kill us. Though considering the number of breaches in the past, I think the school should be teaching the student body to defend itself like the boys’ school does, rather than relying on some magical border for safety.”

I nodded. I couldn’t have agreed more.

“As if Lady Agnue would ever go for that,” Blue huffed.

“I don’t know,” I mused. “She’s different than she used to be. People can change. Maybe it’s not wise to write them off because of what they’ve done in the past.”

My eyes inadvertently fell on Mauvrey as I said this. She shied away from my gaze as if she thought my comment was purposefully directed at her.

“On that impressively mature note,” Jason said, “I’m sorry to cut this reunion short, but I told Lord Channing I’d be back by dinner.”

I sighed. Lucky lived at Lord Channing’s during the school year. This was partly because of my classmates’ reluctance. More importantly, the boys’ campus provided him a better lifestyle. Their outdoor area was way bigger than ours, so there was a ton of room for my dragon to play and nap. And our male counterparts gave him plenty of exercise with their recreational hero drills. I trusted Jason, along with our other friends at Lord Channing’s, to care for my pet. Still, I’d only just gotten him back.

“Yeah, okay,” I said, gazing at my magnificent pet.

“I guess I’ll see you in the morning,” Blue said to Jason.

“Morning?” I repeated. “We’ll be in class.”

“We’re seniors, Crisa,” Blue said, as if that answered everything.

I blinked, still confused.

“You haven’t looked at your schedule yet, have you?” Girtha asked me.

I shook my head. I’d bailed on traditional registration yesterday, not ready to be around so many people. Thankfully Lady Agnue understood and had my schedule delivered to my room last night.

“She hasn’t even opened the envelope it came in,” Blue answered on my behalf. Then she looked at me. “Even so, I can’t believe you forgot, given the boys in our lives.”

I paused. Boys were only allowed on the Lady Agnue’s campus when we took field trips together and on the days of our monthly balls. The only exception was—

“Ballroom Theory!” I exclaimed, clapping a hand to my head.

“According to SJ, it’s being called ‘Masters Ballroom’ now, but yeah. Class meets first thing tomorrow,” Jason said. “I know guys aren’t typically supposed to be stoked about fancy dancing, but since I have the world’s best-looking partner locked in, I’m actually kind of excited.” He put an arm around Blue and she shot him a look.

“Who says you have me locked in?”

Jason’s face shifted with confusion, maybe a little fear.

“Just kidding.” Blue grinned and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “I’m as locked in as cheddar in a grilled cheese.”

I smiled. After years of being best friends with secret crushes on each other, Blue and Jason had finally admitted their feelings and were in a relationship. As the keeper of both their secrets for far too long, I was greatly relieved.

“So cheesy,” Mauvrey remarked.

I released an unexpected huff-laugh. “Mauvrey, that was funny.” “Real me has a sense of humor,” she replied.

“It’s true,” Girtha chimed in. “It’s been a pleasant change of pace from Tara-Mauvrey’s condescending snottiness.”

Mauvrey raised a brow. “Not the words I would have selected, but yes.”

“You know I mean well,” Girtha replied. “Making light of a tough topic helps a girl get past it. Tara-you really messed with my self-esteem. You-you is nothing like her. You-you I like.”

“Well, me-me likes you too,” Mauvrey said.

Jason smiled with a hint of satisfaction that caught Blue’s eye.

“What are you grinning at?” she asked.

“Nothing. I just . . . I like seeing everyone getting along.”

Blue ruffled his hair and Jason swatted her away. “Okay, now I really gotta go. “

“See you tomorrow morning, then,” I said.

Our friend whistled to Lucky, who perked up and trotted over from where he’d been resting. Seconds later, my dragon and Jason broke through the In and Out Spell again. Girtha offered to help Blue take our Pegasi back to the stables. With a wave to us, they flew off, leaving Mauvrey and I awkwardly alone together. Eventually she cleared her throat.

“So, will you be coming to dinner tonight?”

“I’m not sure,” I admitted. The idea of so many people looking at me, staring at me, wondering about me . . . It made me feel like an old dog up for judgment at a show, spectators uncertain if it still had the ability to perform new tricks. Only in my case, I was just as worried about falling short on the expectations they had for “old Crisa” as I was about “new Crisa” bringing something to the stage they didn’t want to see. So much about me was different now . . .

Mauvrey and I headed across the lawn toward the main building. After a long silence it was my turn to clear my throat.

“Any updates on the plan to reach out to your parents?”

Mauvrey gulped. “I have not yet garnered the nerve. I learned a lot about myself in the last month. That self-discovery was fasttracked when I went on the quest with Daniel and SJ to save you and realized—in addition to being funny—I am brave, introspective, and full of gumption. But confronting witches and monsters is nothing compared to confronting your parents, especially when you are the one in the wrong.”

“Telling your parents that you were magically possessed for almost a decade and it wasn’t actually you who tried to assassinate them is a hard subject to broach. Take your time to find the words. For now, you can focus on school. The students and staff here just think you took last semester off for medical reasons and not that you—”

“Ran off to join the antagonists after Tara-me tried to kill you with a poisoned dress?”

“Exactly,” I said. “Lady Agnue covered that up and our friends certainly aren’t going to say anything. Try to relax and adjust to normal life before you take on bigger burdens.”

“Is that what you are going to do?” Mauvrey asked.

We stopped under the arched entrance that led into the main building, and she looked at me with surprisingly judgment-free eyes. I glanced around at the darkening campus, taking a deep breath before answering.

“I’m not sure I can afford to,” I responded.

She and I proceeded wordlessly under the great, gold-encrusted sign that bore our home’s name:

Things were ordinary in the most uncomfortable way.

Though I’d told Blue I wasn’t going to come to the welcome dinner, ten minutes after she’d gone I had a change of heart.

Hm. Funny. A change of heart is what I’m most trying to avoid in my story with the whole “don’t turn evil” thing.

Wearing a knee-length dress with a pattern of strawberries, I wandered down the quiet corridors of Lady Agnue’s, taking the long way to the banquet hall. Traditional suits of armor lined the path while living guards on patrol protected the halls. By my count, the number of guards had doubled—another security update I suppose.

Plush carpet squished under my brown ankle boots as silence and anxiety itched my skin. I’d been through so many stages of character at this school, but I didn’t feel a connection with any of them just now, and I didn’t know how this ambiguous version of me would be received.

Apart from my friends and Lady Agnue, no one at school knew what I’d been through, but they already knew plenty about me. Last semester, the populace of Book had become aware of my Pure Magic, and because of the stigma with the disease I’d been looked at like a pariah and a piranha—both avoided and feared as a monster that could tear them to shreds. After an official trial deemed I was not a threat, most people had mellowed out and since then had generally regarded me with courtesy. Though it didn’t escape my notice that many students still avoided interacting with me directly.

I didn’t hold that against them. Making casual conversation with someone who could give and take life was a lot for anyone. I’d gotten used to my classmates automatically parting when I passed through the halls, girls whispering in my wake, and the not-so-covert stares across the room. That had been the new normal for Crisa last semester.

The problem was that—as mentioned—I was not last-semester Crisa.

I had been tortured over summer break, killed again and again to force my powers to reflexively take over and resurrect me. My magic grew stronger but wilder in that period—damaging the control I had over it while the experience damaged my psyche.

Though the time zone differences between dimensions meant that only a few days had gone by in Book; that equated to months for me on Earth. And yet . . . somehow school was resuming tomorrow and I’d have to attend classes, do homework, and say my name at roll call like it was any other semester. Would my classmates and teachers notice a difference in me? Would I be able to keep it together and embrace normalcy as I’d advised Mauvrey?

Girtha was right about how making light of a situation could help you move forward. Humor had protected me as much as any shield in the last year. However, this wasn’t a random magic hunter trying to kill me in the forest, a bad guy attacking me on a train, or a flying monkey attempting to carry me off. I was changed from my ordeal—stronger and weaker, harder yet more fragile. I didn’t want to think about it, but I couldn’t pretend like it never happened.