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The Invitation
Saturday morning dawned unseasonably damp and cold for September. Eliza wrapped herself up in her favourite housecoat and ventured out her front door. She intended only to look at her garden from the edge of the porch and watch Pal frolic among the wet plants, but an object caught her eye and kept her rooted in the doorway. A small wooden trunk, not much larger than a toolbox, had been left on her doorstep. A card placed on top of the trunk read; ELIZA PALADIN.
Eliza glanced up and down the street. It was wet with oily puddles, and no one was out walking on this chilly, rainy morning. Pal darted out from the house and ran into the garden, not noticing the mysterious package. Deciding not to interrupt his fun, Eliza elected to carry the wooden box into the house and investigate the contents on her own. It was curiously light, and she carried it to her kitchen table. When Eliza removed the card with her name, it revealed the word KENTREE painted onto the trunk lid. When she opened it, she was disappointed to find the trunk was empty. It was merely a wooden box lined with velvet. But there, at the bottom, sat a fat letter.
Eliza ripped open the envelope with trembling hands. The first part of the letter was hastily scrawled by hand;
Dear Miss Paladin,
We regret to inform you that your acceptance to Kentree Institute of Magic has been overlooked for far too long. The fall semester has already begun, but with our sincerest apologies, we hope you will accept a place at our school as soon as possible. With the help of faculty and classmates, we believe you will be able to catch up to your fellow students if you begin immediately.
Eliza’s breath caught in her throat. It was happening. Her moment. Her call to adventure. It was really happening. The rest of the letter had the look of an impersonal mass mailing.
Kentree Institute of Magic is a place where young witches and warlocks learn to control and expand their understanding of the elements that give our people power. To be accepted, a witch or warlock must register as able to perform level 5 magic or above. If you are receiving this letter, it is because Kentree has identified you as such a person. Whether you are 15, 16, 17, or one of our rare mature students, we would be delighted to offer you a place at our school. Once you’ve made your course selection after introduction week (August 31st to September 6th), you will be encouraged to purchase supplies and books from Kentree’s own Quality Witching Supplies. Students are encouraged to bring whatever witching supplies they already have to begin the school year. A trunk has been provided with the acceptance letter as a gift.
Students are expected to stay in school dorms during term. Courseloads are intense and practicing magic where non-magical people could witness it is strictly prohibited. If you are from a non-magical family, please find attached a blank enchanted paper. Presenting this to your parents will offer them an explanation that will satisfy any questions they may have and will make your trip to Kentree all the easier.
If you accept your invitation to study at our school, please reply by folding this letter into an airplane, and throwing it from the topmost window of your home.
Thank you,
Holly Quake
Kentree Recruiter and Assistant to the Principal
With tears forming in her eyes, Eliza re-read the letter five times over. She paused at the sentence Whether you are 15, 16, 17, or one of our rare mature students, we would be delighted to offer you a place at our school. She would be a mature student, then.
She read the first sentence again. We regret to inform you that your acceptance to Kentree Institute of Magic has been overlooked for far too long. That was curious. Was she meant to have been accepted back when she was a ‘young witch’? What did that make her now, she wondered? An old witch? An ancient hag. She laughed and shook her head. It didn’t really matter. She had a miracle in her hands. She was accepted to a school of magical learning.
The sound of tapping at the window broke her from her reverie. She saw Pal mewing to be let in. Eliza crossed to the door and opened it for him. “It’s chilly out there!” he exclaimed as he trotted into the warm living room. “What have you got?” he asked, spotting the letter in her hand.
“Pal, it’s finally happened,” laughed Eliza, bouncing on the spot. She had never felt so light and joyous in her life. Eliza read the letter aloud to Pal, stopping several times to squeal in excitement. Even Pal was thrilled, and it was difficult to get him excited about anything that didn’t come from a can. He zoomed through the house, room to room, unable to contain his glee.
“You have to reply right away! They want you to start as soon as possible! We need to know where it is, how to get there—we need to pack! You have to call your parents, tell them where you’re going. What are we going to do with the house?” The cat paced around the room, turning on his heel every time he thought about something else that needed to be done.
With a light-hearted chuckle, Eliza said, “Have you finally caught on that adults have responsibilities and things to do? Of course I want to run away to this Kentree right away, but, yeah, there’s a lot to do!”
They decided, however, that everything could wait until after Eliza replied to the letter. She folded it into a hasty paper airplane and launched it from her bedroom window. They waited in dramatic silence for a few long seconds. The paper airplane disappeared from view almost immediately. Seconds turned to minutes, and Pal and Eliza decided they had better start packing.
“I’ll need to rent out the house,” said Eliza, being practical. “It wouldn’t be right to leave it empty during an entire school year.” She fired up her laptop and, after taking some pictures of the rooms, she published an ad on several websites renting the house until June. Once that was done, she started packing. Her runes, crystals, spirit board, and clear crystal ball fit easily into the small wooden trunk Kentree provided (once she removed Pal who had begun taking a nap inside the box). There was a lot more room in the trunk to fill, and Eliza decided to throw in some bunches of herbs that she had been drying over the living room fire. Just in case.
Next, she packed her clothes into a suitcase and put away the rest of her personal items into boxes which she stored in the attic. Evening was closing in before anything alluding to her acceptance at a school for magic occurred. The fireplace began to make a racket. Bracing herself, Eliza wrenched open the door of the wood stove and covered her face in case anything came bursting out at her. This caution was not altogether unwarranted. A large bird made of flame, approximately the size of a goose, glided smoothly from the fire and landed upon the tiled floor. Eliza felt a pleasant warmth emanating from it. She knelt before the fiery creature and waited.
The bird opened its wings and a heavy amulet dropped from its chest and rolled on the floor until it fell to one side in front of Eliza.
“When you are ready for your journey to Kentree, hold the medallion and chant three times,
thoirgu eòlasmi
thoirgu eòlasmi
thoirgu eòlasmi”
The firebird folded its wings into itself and, bowing its head, its fire went out. The fire in the wood stove continued to crackle merrily behind the spot where the bird had disappeared. There was no trace left of the bird, except the hefty bronze amulet that it left behind. Pal and Eliza admired the item together, turning it this way and that so the light could catch the runes carved upon it. Eliza had the presence of mind to write down the chant on a piece of paper, lest she forget it.
It was late before Eliza went to bed. She had tirelessly packed and cleaned the house all day, while Pal watched her anxiously (it was too wet outside for exploring). Neither slept much that night. The call of adventure was too enticing. The little sleep they had was interrupted when Eliza suddenly sat bolt upright in the early hours of the morning and exclaimed that she had to quit her job.
Writing a hasty email, Eliza felt no regret or uncertainty about leaving her position. Whatever might happen, it would be better than what she was leaving behind. When she returned from her time at Kentree, however long that might be, she could find something else to do with her life. Something more meaningful. With a smile, she lay back in her bed and thought the possibilities of what she could achieve with magic were endless.
The following day, Sunday, was sunny and full of promise. After three showings of her house, a young lady in her very early twenties agreed to rent it for the school year. She was attending a university nearby and no longer wanted to share a house with four other rowdy students who did not take their studies as seriously as she did.
With one last glance at her magical garden, Eliza packed her things into her car and drove to her childhood home in Brampton to see her parents. She hugged them tightly when she arrived and presented them with the blank sheet of paper Kentree had provided her. Its effect was immediate. Their faces grew oddly blank and complacent. Eliza had only to wait.
“You’re going to a hippy camp?” said her father skeptically.
“What?” asked Eliza, snatching the blank paper from him and looking at it, bewildered.
Her mother nudged him reproachfully, “Your father’s just teasing. Of course, we’re delighted that you’re going to study to become a naturopath. It’s exactly what I’ve been saying you should do! You have a talent when it comes to working with nature and I think you could really help people.”
Eliza’s eyes widened with surprise. Her mother had, in fact, been nagging her about pursuing exactly this ever since Eliza began showing an interest in gardening with herbs that healed. With a confident smile, Eliza assured her mother that she had been right and she should have listened sooner. They sat down for lunch and chatted excitedly about the possibilities in Eliza’s future. She felt giddy, like an eighteen-year-old who was going off to college for the first time. Her parents looked delighted to see her optimistic too, and this boosted her even more.
They weren’t her biological parents, of course. That much was obvious just by looking at them. Her mother and father were darker in their colouring than Eliza was, and had broad strong features. Eliza occasionally envied her family for their looks. Her own wide eyes, thin mouth, and pale complexion were not likely to draw the eye. Her parents looked like athletes, while Eliza suffered from a perpetual desire to shed a few pounds. When Eliza wanted to draw attention to herself, she had to do it using her personality, rather than her physical appearance.
Being adopted was a debt Eliza could never repay. Knowing how much her parents had given her throughout her life made her feel it was all the more important to make them proud. Luckily, she was the middle child, she had an older brother and a younger sister. If she didn’t make anything of herself, at least they had other children who could become successful. Seeing how happy and proud they were to discover she was returning to school to study a new career made Eliza feel strangely guilty. Her parents must have noticed how unhappy she had been in her present position and Eliza wondered if they spent their nights worrying about her, wishing they could have done more to make her a more cheerful person.
Eliza pushed away those unhelpful thoughts and concentrated on spending a lovely afternoon with her family. Finally, she gave her father her car keys and let them know she was being picked up by a friend to go to college together. With many hugs and kisses, Eliza left the house, stood out of sight behind a large shrub with her suitcase, little trunk, and Pal on her shoulder.
After having agonized the night before about how one should dress when appearing at a magical institute one month after the start of semester, Eliza had settled on what she hoped would look acceptable in any context. Sensible shoes and neckline, no flashy colours, and her hair half up in a Dutch braid while loose at the bottom. She’d even gone so far as to put on a little eyeliner and blush. If there was such a thing as a timeless look, Eliza felt she had achieved it.
She grasped the heavy amulet and retrieved the crumpled piece of paper upon which the words to the chant were written. While struggling a little with the unusual syllables, Eliza chanted,
“Thoirgu eòlasmi, thoirgu eòlasmi, thoirgu eòlasmi.”
The soft breeze stopped and the air stood still for a moment. Eliza suddenly felt herself explode into a million tiny atoms. Each part of her body was spreading out at great speed across a great distance and Eliza wondered whether it would be possible ever to put herself back together again. And she became conscious that she was still having a thought, despite no longer having a brain anywhere. With a frightening whirl she felt herself appearing, thoroughly solid, in front of a great big church with huge windows of stained glass.