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Kentree Institute of Magic
Was it one church, or several? The center one was made of red brick and boasted one large many-windowed tower. To the right was an even more impressive church made of stone with four towers. On the left was a modest church built of wood with no tower at all. The wooden church had stained glass windows, of course, but next to the brick and stone churches they looked like child’s play. The ornate windows of the other two buildings were highly decorated and Eliza longed to see them from the inside where the light show would surely be greatest.
The three churches with distinct styles were patched together in a careless way. Crude passageways cut into the buildings to connect them in several places. There were tunnels from the ground level, some passages halfway up the buildings, and others connected at the roofs. The churches looked as though they had undergone some renovation; all three rooflines had been broken by the addition of many dormer windows. Two of the towers were joined clumsily by a wooden covered bridge. The original architects had created impressive places of worship, but someone without taste for beauty had really left an impression.
Overall, the impact it left upon Eliza was not a flattering one. The collection of mismatched buildings looked rundown, several windows were broken, and the roof was rotten away in some places. A fence had been erected around the front of the building which read:
“Danger—Building Unstable. Do Not Enter.”
Pal twitched on Eliza’s shoulder. “Not the welcome I had expected,” he said with a note of disappointment.
They could hear the sound of rushing water, and Eliza was just turning to see if there was a river nearby when she heard a sound coming from the center church. A small woman with muddy brown hair came jogging down the stone steps, having appeared quite suddenly before one of the massive front doors.
“Hello! You must be Eliza,” called the woman, stretching out her hand to shake Eliza’s despite still being several meters away from reaching her. Eliza held out her hand uncertainly; there was still the small matter of the fence standing between the two of them. As the woman closed the gap with four long strides, Eliza gasped in surprise. The woman walked straight through the fence as though it was made of air.
The woman looked quizzically at Eliza’s look of astonishment while she pumped her hand in a firm handshake. “What’s that look on your face?” she asked, bemused.
“You just walked through a fence,” said Eliza as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“F—fence? Do you see a fence here?”
Now it was Eliza’s turn to look suspicious, “Yeah, and great big signs that say it’s dangerous to enter.”
Shock and comprehension crossed the woman’s face. “Oh dear,” she said, “I’m afraid there is more to you than I thought!” The woman smiled pityingly at Eliza. “Here I’ve been racking my brain to figure out how our instruments didn’t detect you for so long, and here you arrive being affected by enchantments we cast to keep Mundunces out!”
“Mundunces?”
“Just what we call people who haven’t connected to their magic. Mundane dunces, originally, but eventually it was shortened to the word Mundunce,” the woman replied in a professional manner. “I’m Holly, or Miss Quaker if you like, I’m assistant to the Principal and in charge of recruitment.” Holly was a few years older than Eliza, approaching her forties but still in full form. She had the firm body of someone who exercised frequently and walked with an energetic bounce in every step. Her hair was in a ponytail, and she was dressed quite like any secretary Eliza had ever seen. No swooshing cloak or pointy hat.
“When I realized you should have been accepted to Kentree over a decade ago, I was shocked! I monitor our instruments daily for signs of magical activity that could indicate a new student, and you have never registered there—”
“I’m sorry—did you just say I was supposed to be accepted over a decade ago?” interjected Eliza who felt this was a very large revelation to gloss over so quickly.
“That’s right, it’s very puzzling,” nodded Holly. “I believe I made my apologies in your acceptance letter. A few days ago your name appears as having performed level eight magic—and at twenty-eight years old! Highly unusual. Our instruments begin picking up low-level magic in normal circumstances. Level twos and threes start to show up and we know that we have a potential new student on our hands. But, usually, they are quite young. We do get an occasional mature student though. But it’s always the same, we start seeing level two or three magic, then it grows a little bit if the person recognizes it as magic and begins working those muscles, so to speak. We send a letter of invitation in late spring to everyone who has registered level five magic. Usually kids are about fifteen or sixteen when this happens, but like I say there are always late bloomers and you will not be the oldest student here. Last year we had a woman in her seventies graduate! She was thrilled when she found out she was a witch!”
It was a lot to take in, Eliza was feeling both resentful for being overlooked for so long and grateful to finally arrive. These turbulent emotions prevented her from making further comments. Instead, she decided to absorb as much of the information as she could and would process the messy feelings later.
As Holly talked, she led Eliza into the school. Eliza walked through the security fence as Holly did and found it really was only an illusion. Walking through the front doors of the school was much the same. The doors appeared closed from outside but when Eliza crossed onto the threshold, she found the huge double doors were wide open, inviting the warm October air into the entrance chamber. From outside, the school had looked run-down and decaying. Now inside, Eliza realized the extent of the magic. There was not a single broken or boarded-up window from the inside, and light poured down onto them from a large circular stained-glass window that was set high above the large double doors. Now within the hall, everything was immaculate.
“Our campus is small, and by accepting students only when they reach level five magic we can keep the school from overcrowding,” continued Holly. “You see, if we began teaching them from the first instance of level one magic, there would be twice as many students as there are now. Most people, if they don’t come from a magical family, will never develop their magic to a higher level. They could technically be trained to use magic, but as we don’t have the room and their abilities haven’t reached a level where they could pose a danger to themselves or society, we think it best only to teach those students who have a genuine interest in learning to use magic.”
They walked through the entrance chamber and made their way down a hallway that brought them toward the back of the building. As they walked, Eliza looked through a huge doorway to her left into what had clearly been the church hall. It was now filled with round tables large enough to seat eight people at a time. Students were clustered in pairs or groups, bent over large books, scribbling into leather-bound journals, or else actually performing magic. Eliza spotted a pair of boys whose faces were contorted in concentration. One had managed to conjure a ball of light in his hand but was maintaining it with some difficulty. The other boy had failed to do much of anything but continued to forcefully concentrate on the end of a large staff that he banged the end on the stone floor. Eliza’s heart plummeted as she was led away from this spectacle, wanting to see more.
“You registered level eight magic the other day, which is really impressive. To achieve that level of magic without receiving training... now that could have become dangerous indeed! You’ve clearly been aware enough of your magic to seek out knowledge and practice on your own, but how?” Holly did not stop long enough for Eliza to answer, “I cannot imagine resources could be found in the mundane world that would teach you much about Witching. Some herbalism, possibly, it is a branch of magic that even non-magical people have been able to grasp through trial and error. Of course, a potion concocted by a witch with the same ingredients as a tea concocted by a Mundunce would have far more potent effects...
“The good news is that you are not the oldest pupil we have, despite the majority of students being in their early to late teens. A small portion of the population, perhaps three in every hundred witching folk, only begin to truly manifest their magic when they are in their twenties, thirties, sometimes not until late sixties or seventies! In those cases it is a matter of priorities. People are born with magic but want to fit in, so they suppress it and forget it is there. Then, as they age, they become restless with the mundane world they face every day. That is when they begin to cultivate their magical ability and begin to register high enough levels of magic to warrant us reaching out to them with an invitation. Some people enjoy the mundane world so much it never occurs to them to do anything else. But when their kids are grown and their careers are over and the grandchildren rarely visit... well, you will see we have several students who are here to learn about magic to complete that part of themselves they always ignored. They are not studying with the intention of ever using this magic to build a career.”
Eliza did not feel it necessary to participate in the conversation Holly was having with herself, but she listened attentively to every word. She had a feeling this speech had been written for orientation week and had not been prepared solely for her benefit. Eliza exchanged a glance with Pal, who was still perched increasingly heavily on her shoulder, as Holly took in another deep breath, ready to launch back into her oration. “I sent you an acceptance letter as soon as I saw your name on the registry. When I told the principal, well, you can understand we are both very interested. Principal Crinwere dug a little through crystal gazing and found that you had performed level-three magic when you were eight years old! Why could we see that in the crystal ball, but not in the instruments? The answer is beyond me.” Holly stopped in front of a stretch of blank stone wall several meters before reaching a double door that led outside through the back of the school.
“As you’re already performing level eight magic, we needed to enroll you straight away. You could endanger a lot of people with that much power. Level eight and totally untrained! I can hardly believe it,” Holly stopped for another deep breath. “Principal Crinwere! It’s Holly with our new recruit!” Eliza looked around the empty hall, perplexed. Holly just winked animatedly at Eliza.
There was a moment when nothing happened. Then with a sound like mortar and pestle, the stones shifted to reveal a large opening in the wall that led into a comfortable and lush office apartment. The office was handsome and decorated the way Eliza imagined a secret room in a school of magic should be. Lots of thick wine-red drapery, carpets, and armchairs. There was a large stone fireplace that dominated the space and a huge clock face on one wall. The ticking was muted. An ornate wooden desk stood at one end of the room, each leg carved with the menacing face of the Green Man.
If Holly was dressed like a normal assistant, the principal made up for it by being dressed in exceeding extravagance. It was not immediately apparent to Eliza whether Principal Crinwere was a man or a woman (and she quickly wondered whether that mattered at all), and the long draping robes that billowed around them did not give much hint to the figure beneath. The principal was wearing rich shades of royal purple and blue, and wearing upon their head a delicate silver crown decorated with jewels. Whatever their gender, Eliza admired the flamboyance of the Principal’s outfit.
“Welcome, Eliza,” said Principal Crinwere in a deep and gentle voice, arms wide in welcome and smiling warmly at her. “I expect you have many questions. Please, be seated,” Principal Crinwere indicated a comfortable armchair and sat in a chair opposite. Eliza did as she was asked. She had a feeling this conversation was going to be longer and more intimate than usual student matriculation. Pal lay himself like a sphynx on the arm of the chair, eyeing the principal with curiosity.
The principal indicated to Holly that she was no longer needed and sent her away to take care of other school business. Eliza was treated to much the same welcome to Kentree as she had already received from Holly. Principal Crinwere recited the same speech about level-five magic, and limiting the number of students in attendance. She heard again the curious circumstances of discovering they had overlooked Eliza for well over ten years.
“Yes, you should have been one of the youngest students to attend Kentree. You created level five magic when you were only twelve years old. Can you remember?”
Eliza, who had been wondering what on earth the levels of magic could mean, thought back on what had happened when she was twelve that would have earned her a place at this school. “I pushed a group of girls down into a puddle of mud,” she remembered suddenly. “They had just been teasing me that I was too ugly for Josh Hyman ever to be interested in me.”
Eliza remembered the fury she felt then, watching the girls walking away from her in the schoolyard and feeling their whooping laughter baiting her. They were walking on the pavement, and there was a large puddle of water to one side where the lawn had been flooded with rain the day before. In her anger, Eliza wished she could dash up to them and toss them all into the muddy water. No sooner did she think it, than she felt a force of energy move through her body and shoot toward the group of girls. Like five-pin bowling, all five girls were tossed suddenly to one side and fell face first, arms outstretched, into the muddy water.
Eliza had laughed in delight that day. Even though she had been nowhere near enough to push them in, the girls had no trouble linking Eliza’s maniacal laugh to the accident. The next day they held her down and beat her until she cracked two ribs. Eliza didn’t go back to school for two weeks.
“How is it that this cathedral looked like a ruin until I stepped through the gate?” Eliza asked, now that the memory had reached a sour point.
Principal Crinwere considered her for a moment before answering. “It should never have appeared to you as a ruin. That is a spell we cast to keep Mundunces out. If the spell is affecting you... are you quite sure you are a witch?”
Pal saved Eliza from having to be rude, he sat up and gave the principal a look of such disgust that the principal shifted uneasily in the chair. “No, of course you are a witch. It is just unusual.”
“How so?” Eliza asked. “I don’t understand why I’m unusual. Why do spells aimed at mundane people work on me, and why didn’t my magic register until last week?”
“We have been examining the instruments that detect magic ever since we discovered you to see whether there has been some tampering. Discovering a powerful witch fifteen years late is a great loss to our community. That the spell protecting the school from Mundunces affected you is yet another anomaly... Makes me wonder whether it might not be our instruments that have been tampered with... but you.” Principal Crinwere gave Eliza a very significant look and silence hung thickly between them.
“Tell me about this cat, I can tell you share a rather special connection,” said Principal Crinwere.
Eliza shrugged, “Isn’t it a witch thing to have a familiar?”
“No, many witching folk have pets but to have a familiar is a much deeper bond of connection. Does the cat help you to perform magic?”
“Help me?” Eliza laughed. “He’s the one who trained me! I adopted this little runt of a cat and he hated me! But when I started to let him outside to accompany me in the garden, something changed. He began to speak to me. At first I thought I was imagining it, part of my inner monologue. Then he started saying things I was sure I wasn’t imagining. There were creatures in my garden, he said. Faeries, gargoyles, gnomes. He told me about them, where to find them. I couldn’t see them, but I could see the signs that they had been there. And then he taught me how to reach into myself to call on magic. You know, directing energy to do what I wanted it to. But nothing like what I saw when I walked past the Grand Room with Holly!” Eliza was dying to learn to conjure a ball of light in her bare hand.
“You cannot see faeries?” Principal Crinwere looked thoughtful for a moment but appeared to decide against continuing in that line of questioning. “You have many questions I’m sure, and many of them will be answered in your classes. I know how unfair it is for me to ask you to have patience now, considering you have been overlooked for so many years, but I am afraid it is best that you follow our usual curriculum as best as you can. You have more than likely developed some bad habits that you will need to unlearn. You will also have much to learn about our society and how we operate within the mundane world beyond our doors.
“My new theory about how you have been overlooked is that someone has magically altered your perception and hidden you from discovery. It was, perhaps, your strong desire to be discovered as a witch that broke the charm momentarily. You could have been hoodwinked from a young age not to be able to see those signs you may have encountered in your life that prove magic is real, such as the magical creatures in your garden. Someone worked very hard to make you unfindable by witching folk and to hide your magic from yourself.
“Before anything else, you should visit the school’s enchanted pool. When you swim there, all charms, spells, and curses are lifted. In order to keep you out of magical society, someone would have had to cast many spells to maintain the charade. Remove those spells now before you start your classes tomorrow. You may well have a curse placed upon you that prevents you from speaking incantations or reading our textbooks! It’s best we get you free from bondage quickly. But first,” Principal Crinwere slid a small pamphlet toward Eliza. “Here is the course list available for first years.”
Eliza perused Kentree’s course offerings for the first time while the principal busied themselves with other work.
ELEMENTAL MAGIC - Storm Soother
Learn to control the elements in this first-year course! Manipulate the power of flame to produce heat and light, and exploit the infinite power of water to create beautiful and terrible effects. No tools are required for this course apart from a sharp mind and a sharp pen!
VIBRATIONAL RESONANCE - Hystermina Cluck
Using sound and song to create magic. Everything around us is energy and has its own frequency. Learn to tune into this frequency and use it to move or break objects, grow plants, and heal broken hearts. Ability to carry a tune required, perfect pitch strongly recommended if students desire to move on to second year.
HERBALISM - Willow Walker
Growing, caring, harvesting, and storing herbs magical and mundane for use in potions, spells, and protection. Learn during which phases of the moon plants are most potent to harvest, and how to water them to maximize yield! In this starter course you will get cut, pricked, tangled, and occasionally poisoned by a plant masquerading as an innocent herb! Course requirements: mortar and pestle, good secateurs, string, a drying rack or shelf, and mason jars.
COOPERATION WITH BEINGS MAGICAL AND MUNDANE - Hazel Brown
This first-year course covers the basics of communication with creatures magical and mundane. By the end of the first year, you will understand the psychology of most animals which are commonly met. Ever wanted to spy on a neighbour? Or else destroy their prize lettuce without leaving any trace? You will be able to become fast friends with wolves, use birds to convey messages, and tell rabbits where they ought to have a good meal (and more importantly to please leave your cabbages well alone). Students who continue in this field of study through until fourth year will be among the few who will learn to transform themselves into animals. Course requirements: a wand, staff, or other magical amplification device.
SORCERY - Mark Kent
Why complicate life when there is an incantation for that? Wand magic is all you need, just twirl the wand, say a few words and Presto! Anything is possible, even if your magic is as weak as a watered-down cup of tea. Easier to learn and master than most other branches of magic. We will cover practical, combative, healing, and destructive spells in this course. There are no limits to what you can do when you have a wand! Course requirements: a wand, notebook, and pen.
HEALING – Nepi Teget
Learn to detect sources of pain and how to heal them. This course combines practices that can be learned in Herbalism, Sorcery, Vibrational Resonance, and Potions but does so with a focus on healing. Students interested in specializing in Healing in their fourth year are encouraged to enroll in the aforementioned courses to gain a fuller understanding of these branches of magic and the ingredients involved. It is the noblest of professions. Requirements: strong academic mind capable of reading several hours per day and memorization. Verify course requirements for Herbalism, Sorcery, Vibrational Resonance, and Potions for a complete list.
TRANSPOSITION – Siobhan Neach
In the first year you will learn to move objects with your mind. Shock and dazzle Mundunces by making a table float across the room (you must pretend it is only an illusion, of course). By the end of the first year, you will move on to teleporting objects small distances of up to a few hundred meters. Students who continue into the third year will learn to teleport themselves distances up to several hundred kilometers. Requirements: none, but some students perform better with a wand, staff, or other magical amplification object.
FORTUNE TELLING – Hystermina Cluck
Predict the future, become a soothsayer, speak in prophecy and riddles! Fortune telling is one of the most gratifying branches of magic. People are drawn to soothsayers as much as they are terrified of us. In this course we will use runes, tarot, tea leaves, crystal pendulums, and spirit boards to unravel the mysteries of the future. Students who move on to study the course in following years will learn palm reading, crystal gazing, astrology, and eventually progress to telling the future merely by touching an object that belongs to the querent. Course requirements: first-year students require a set of runes, tarot cards, a spirit board, and a crystal pendulum. Tea will be provided for you.
ENERGY AMPLIFICATION – Rodney Stone
Learn about the qualities of wood, crystals, and metals and how to use these to craft your own wands, staffs, spirit boards, pendulums, medallions, and crowns. It is common knowledge that witching folk can better direct and augment their magical energy with the use of these tools. This is the course for those who like to work with their hands. Course requirements: there is a fee for this course which will be waived if you produce three instruments of high enough quality that can be made available for sale in Kentree’s Quality Witching Supplies by the end of your first year.
EMPATHOLOGY AND MENTALISM – Derren Angel
In this course you will learn to read a mind, communicate voicelessly with a peer, see someone’s memories, receive and interpret people’s emotions. As you progress to other years, you will learn to influence the emotions in a room and even control and possess a human mind.
POTIONS – Willow Walker, Nepi Teget, and Principal Rowan Crinwere
Potions are as versatile as wand magic but with the advantage that they can be bottled and preserved for later use. They can be shared with witching folk less adept than yourself and can save you or restore you when your own magic is spent. This course is jointly taught by three professors. Course requirements: enrolment in Herbalism. A cauldron. A set of potion ingredients, glass bottles, sealing wax, and a wooden paddle.
NECROMANCY – Arius Claeg
Speak with those who have gone beyond our world. Bring the temporary apparition of people who have passed. Release ghosts from purgatory. Trap free spirits into this world as a curse and animate corpses. This magic is for those with sharp mind and steady moral compass. Much of the magic covered in the three years of Necromancy is prohibited in the wider magical world. This is the only Necromancy course offered anywhere in the world. It is recommended study for those wishing to become a Wizard. This course also has a high expulsion rate. We do not tolerate morally dubious characters in this class. Requirements: a set of crystals, a crystal ball, a wand, and a full set of candles.
Eliza devoured the list and when she was finished she looked up at the principal ready to burst with a million questions. Principal Crinwere raised a hand to silence her.
“Fourth year is when you can get into really specialized courses and the magic becomes not just a brute force but an elegant thing of beauty. Students begin with a full courseload of six classes their first and second year, and then focus on three branches of magic by their third year. In their final year they either only study one branch or else choose to graduate after year three and forego the final year altogether. Your first two years are generally free to try any of the courses that interest you so that you can make that choice in the third year. The allure of wand work which you will learn in Sorcery may seduce you at first, but when you realize harnessing the power of flame in Elemental Magic can produce many of the same results you will feel more comfortable walking away from one subject toward another.”
“—sorry to interrupt. Some of the courses here only have three years, and others have four years. At least, that’s what it looks like in the pamphlet.”
“Correct. Even if you only enroll in Necromancy your second year, you could still choose that subject as your specialty for fourth year.”
“What does it mean by It is recommended study for those wishing to become a Wizard?”
Principal Crinwere explained that Wizards are those peculiar folk who have mastered all forms of known magic. There are fewer than two dozen true Wizards in the world. These obsessives spend their lives discovering new branches of magic and perfecting them. Wizards are the magical authority who keep witching folk (a blanket term for all people with harnessed magical ability) in check with the laws of the world. To become a Wizard, one acquires much natural wisdom and so Wizards are seldom tempted by evil. They are merely the balance that brings the world to order.
“Some students enjoy learning so much that they choose not to graduate until they have taken, or attempted, all the courses we offer. They might go on to another magical institute that offers different courses and continue their education there. This is a very exciting place for those of academic mind.” Principal Crinwere smiled at Eliza who was reaching forward to take the pamphlets with course descriptions for years two, three, and four. She was drinking it all in with her mouth open in shock. It was everything she had ever dreamed of.
“I want to learn all of it!” she exclaimed.
Principal Crinwere laughed gently. “Why don’t I have Holly take you to the enchanted pool and have those barriers removed from your mind? We shall meet again in the morning to finalize your timetable and get anything you require from our supply shop. It would be a good idea if you could meet some students this evening and ask them which courses they are taking, and see what interests you most.”