"Circe!" Beatrice said, surprised.

Circe advanced towards the group, trailed by Lana and Misha who lagged only a few steps behind. Their dark Hawkswood robes were still dirty and wrinkled, and Circe's was damp. That didn't stop the enraged young witch, however. "How dare you!" She howled.

"Excuse me?" The earth witch said, stepping between her friends and the Hawkswood scion. "How dare they? How dare you! You've insulted my friends, challenged them to a duel, and then lost fair and square to them. Now you're coming in here to scream at them? You lost, Circe! Give it up."

"I'm not talking to you, Gaia." Disdain dripped from Circe's voice. Her hair was a mess, sticking out all over the place and framing her face in a wild halo. She looked quite the madwoman indeed. "How dare you three embarrass me like that? In front of my school, in front of my father!"

"We did no such thing, Circe," Adeline said with a smirk. "You did that to yourself. Maybe if you weren't so unpleasant you'd be able to take a loss graciously."

"I demand a rematch."

"What?"

"No," Sascha's voice was soft, but they came out from behind Hanan to face Circe themself. The pixie that was in their hair flew away to hide inside a locker for the moment. "You had your duel, you got what you wanted."

"What I wanted was to beat you into the dirt, half-breed," Circe said through gritted teeth. "What I want, is to see you and all your kind thrown out of this school and out of magical society completely. Go back to the dark woods you belong!"

The air of the holding room grew tense and heavy, so much that even the other teams that were waiting for their own duels at the other side of the room fell silent to watch and listen with bated breath. Nova's hand went to her pocket where her phone was, electricity already crackling quietly over her fingers.

"That's enough." The young druid's voice was like steel. "If you want a fight so badly, then I challenge you to a duel. One on one, no one else needs to be involved. If I win, you vow to leave my friends and other non-humans in Ravensburl alone."

Circe scoffed, crossing her arms and glaring at them. Behind her, her hangers-on shared nervous glances. "And if I win? What will you do then, Gaia?"

"That depends, what do you want?"

"You..." Circe's smile grew cruel. "You will leave Ravensburl, and come to Hawkswood instead."

"What?"

"Those are my terms, Gaia. The one-on-one duels start tomorrow, after the teams. I believe signups are still open till then, and I expect to see you at the arena."

Beatrice said nothing while Circe laughed.

"I'll get you non-humans thrown out of here soon enough, half-breed." She spat. "Out of here, and everywhere there are witches and wizards."

Circe Hawkswood turned on her heel and quickly left the holding room with the other two witches scurrying after her. The Witches Three, Beatrice, and Nova stared after them in stunned silence.

"I don't get it," Nova said after a moment. "She wants you to move schools? That's it? Are those high enough stakes?"

Hanan likewise looked just as confused, but Beatrice's face was grave. The earth witch nodded.

"It's not just a matter of moving schools, Nova. She wants to hurt me by forcing me away from you." She looked pointedly at Nova for a second, before looking to the Witches Three as well. "My friends. She wants me alone and miserable. And, I believe she wants me for my family name."

"You're going to have to spell it out for me, Bee."

"I think I can take it from here, darling," Adeline said with a sigh and sat on a bench. "Circe wants to take a Gaia out of Ravensburl. As a member of a powerful and old family, our darling Beatrice and her actions have some weight behind them. She's got the pedigree for her opinions to matter."

"So you're saying if a Gaia stands up for non-human people's rights, someone will listen more than if us nobodies did it?" Nova crossed her arms.

"It hurts if you put it that way, but yes, Nova. That's exactly what Circe's going for."

"That bitch."

"Couldn't have said it better myself, darling."

Still fuming from Circe's challenge, the five friends couldn't sit still. After a quick meal at the dining hall, they wandered the castle grounds till Sasha suggested they sit by the small pond at the east field. There was something about the still water and fishes that was relaxing for everyone, so they sat on the grass and flat rocks by it.

"That damn Circe." Nova fumed. "You're not seriously going to accept the challenge, are you?"

"I have to. It's more than a matter of honor, it's for you guys."

"And what if you lose, you're honor-bound to move?"

"Also magically bound."

"What?" Nova swore in another language. "Now what's this nonsense?"

Adeline reached a hand into the pond to gently touch the cool water. "Well you see, there is magic even in ordinary words, Nova. So we have to watch what we say and the intent behind it. Terms have been set, there's been a verbal agreement between two witches or wizards."

"What will happen if Beatrice says yes but doesn't go along with it?" Hanan asked from where she leaned back against a tree.

"She'll blow up," Sascha replied glumly.

The tech witch couldn't believe what she was hearing. She threw her hands up in the air in exasperation. "You've got to be kidding me, right? Is this some prank you people pull on people not born into magic?"

"No. It's what happened to my father."

Hanan looked equally confused and alarmed. "You are joking though, right?"

Sascha shook their head. They hesitated for a moment, taking a deep breath, and gathered the strength to continue. "I need to be honest with all of you. I know you have a lot of questions."

"Sascha, please," Beatrice said gently. "Only if you're comfortable with us knowing, okay? You don't have to explain anything if you don't want to."

"No, no, I want to. At least, I need you to know." They looked at the others, from Nova's frustrated expression to Adeline and Hanan's curiosity. "You all are my friends and I need to take the leap and trust you all. You dueled Circe for and with me so... I can at least tell you this."

Sascha leaned back and stared up at the starry sky. When they spoke, their voice was soft and somber, lost in their memories and shyly learning that it's okay to trust their friends. "The reason why Circe keeps calling me an abomination is because I'm half-fae." Sascha started.

"My father was a carpenter and craftsman who went deeper and deeper into the woods in search of the best wood for his work. He stumbled — literally stumbled over a tree root and fell — onto a hidden village of fae folk. A wood nymph found him first and he was smitten right away. She was beautiful, graceful, ethereal, how could he not fall in love at first sight? But while the other fae would have tricked him or done worse to him, the wood nymph guided him safely out of the woods. He was so shaken by her beauty and kindness that he asked for some way to see her again. She gave him a piece of wood that was blown off a tree during a storm and said he'll know what to do with it.

He was a woodworker, so he knew what to do with wood but not what the nymph intended for him to do. So, he took it home and whittled it into a small figurine of a tree with the same nymph emerging out of it. I saw it in his home, and it was just as beautiful as I imagine my mother was that day. Some years after that meeting, my father got lost in the woods during a terrible storm. He hid in a thick grove of trees in the dark woods, but the storm had darkened everything so he just hid at the first shelter he was able to find: the base of a large tree with a vast canopy and swooping branches. He couldn’t hear over the sound of the howling wind and rain, but the branches overhead creaked as they moved, the canopy closing in on itself to shield the man against the rain.

When the rain stopped, he woke to find a wood nymph cradling him to her chest, curled around him protectively. The branches were closed around him to keep him in a bubble of leaves and wood. When the wood nymph realized he was awake, she scrambled away from him with the tree likewise unfurling with a rattling groan, both of them startled.

He begged her not to run away, and as he did he took the carved wooden figurine out of his pocket and offered it to her. The way he held it out to the nymph, it was like a silent prayer and a small offering. The nymph took it and admired the craftsmanship, the artistry that this humble human was able to produce out of a piece of scrap wood. She had been right, of course, he did know what to do with the wood she had given him before. After the storm, the wood nymph escorted the man out of the dark wood and back to the worn paths herself. He had nothing else on him but his axe and the figurine, so he wasn't able to give her anything as thanks, and she refused to keep the figurine. To be polite to the fae, the woodworker did something that most witches and wizards would think very foolish: he told her where he lived.

A year would pass before the woodworker would take a wife. Always a solitary man, he kept to himself at his cottage by the wood till one day, a beautiful woman dressed in earthy greens and browns, who smelled of sweet flowers and fresh grass, would knock on his door. He welcomed her with a smile and earnest gratitude in his heart and said nothing and asked no questions because he knew. They had a happy life together, with him teaching her how to carve and whittle wood, how to build furniture and structures as well as the finer art he was known for. She would teach him the ways of the earth and tend to his garden and provide him with all he needed so that the woodworker would want for nothing.

Then they had a child together. That was the end for them.

The fae court had no interest in the woodworker and the nymph for, to their eyes, their activities were insignificant. Fae lay with men all the time, so there was no problem there. It was only when the two decided to keep me, to raise me to have as normal a life as possible, and to keep me from the fae courts, that the two caught terrible attention. My father was not executed like Circe said. Instead, he had made a promise that he couldn't keep.

The fae court decreed that the wood nymph be banished from the woods, her connection to their earth severed. They knew it was as good as a death sentence, separating a nymph from her element like that. As for my father, they told him to bring me to the court itself. They never said why, but they were fae so of course, my father did not trust them. He swore that he would bring his child to the dark wood on the next moon.

Instead, when the silver of the full moon bathed the woods next, he took his nymph wife, his child, and his axe, and ran. As far away from the woods as they could run. But magic, especially the fae's magic, would not allow vows to be broken so easily. He had made a promise with simple language, with no formal contract, and he had little formal education in magic despite being born a wizard himself. When he broke his promise to the fae court, he burst into flame. The magic that bound his words and honor took hold of him as a heat that spread from his lying tongue to his heart, immolating him where he stood still holding tightly to his wife and child.

At that spot, the two became a tree blackened by flame and soot, charred and hollow, bleeding black resin."

Sascha paused in their story and pulled out their wand, turning it over in their hands. It was a fountain pen carved from a dark wood with a fine lacquer sheen. With a small flourish, the ink flowed from the pen and formed a figure of a tree with a wood nymph emerging gracefully from its trunk. "My wand. My mother's wood and the sooty resin from my father’s flame. It’s all I have left of them."

A somber, stunned silence followed Sascha's words as the others didn't dare speak. The young half-fae watched the ink construct of their father's carving slowly spin in the air. "I have nowhere else to go. Of course, the fae court won't take me, I was the cause of all the trouble in the first place. I can't just move into magic cities and try to make it on my own with so many people like Circe Hawkswood thinking I'm an abomination with no place there. If not for Ravensburl, I don't know where I would be."

"Where did you grow up? I mean before you got to Ravensburl?" Hanan chanced a question that had been nagging at her.

Sascha sighed and let go of the ink construct. The figure of the carving morphed back into a blob of ink which returned to the fountain pen. "A farmer who went to the woods looking for firewood found me crying at the base of the burned tree. Must have been there for days, he said, my voice was so hoarse. He and his wife took me in, but as I grew old enough to walk and talk I heard them saying how misfortune had started to befall them after they found me. They were a non-magical family, they only wanted to grow crops and raise sheep, but after I arrived their harvests started to shrink and their livestock grew sick. So I left. The farmer had told me about the burned tree and I went back and took a branch. After that I.... I found my father's old cottage."

"You were all on your own after that?" Beatrice asked softly.

"I had to be. The look on the farmer's wife's face when she thought I wasn't looking was just hatred and disdain. How could I stay? I was a child."

"Then as soon as you heard Ravensburl was accepting students, you came here," Nova stated, arms crossed. "Now Circe wants to kick you out and she doesn't even know you."

Sascha only nodded, not trusting themself to speak anymore.

"Oh darling, we didn't know!" Adeline brushed away the beginnings of tears from her face and wrapped Sascha in a tight hug. Hanan followed suit, not bothering to wipe away her own tears. "We're here for you, you don't have to be alone anymore, okay?"

"But I—"

"No, no buts! We insist!"

"Yeah, what Adeline said!"

Beatrice let The Witches Three have their emotionally charged group hug. Her brow was furrowed in thought as she turned back to Nova. "I had no idea about any of this. Not just Sascha, but the werewolves will be affected and may be forced out."

"Without your influence, that is," Nova stated. "So the answer is staying here and vouch for them as a Greendale Gaia."

The earth witch nodded. "Yes, but one member of a prominent family isn't enough to sway the whole magical society."

"Of course, it’s not, but it’s a start. A house fire starts from a single spark."

"A house fire?"

"Speaking from experience. It's not important." Nova sighed and looked to the castle that had been her home for a few months now.

Beatrice followed the line of Nova's gaze. "The Headmistress won't let them just leave, right? She was the one who allowed them to live and learn in the first place."

"But Ravensburl is a new school, nothing compared to Hawkswood's legacy, isn't that right?" The tech witch scoffed. "I saw a plaque somewhere, it’s only been around ten years. I imagine that's hardly a trial period."

"You're suggesting that the magical society can just force her to kick them out?"

"I'm considering the worst scenarios, Bee. Prepare for the worst."

"But hope for the best!" Beatrice smiled a bit and leaned on Nova's shoulder. "I'll work towards it. I promise. And that means beating Circe Hawkswood in a duel."

"Alright!" Hanan said suddenly, untangling herself from the now-sobbing group hug of The Witches Three. "No more crying!"

"Hanan darling, you're the one crying the most."

"Beatrice has to sign up for the duel, and beat Circe's ass into the ground! Come on, you need practice!" Hanan jumped to her feet, wiping away tears with energetic gusto. "Duel me at the practice arena! Right now!"

"Hanan? Are you sure?" Beatrice couldn't help but chuckle at her friend's sudden change in demeanor and how enthusiastic she was suddenly. But it made sense to her, there was now a goal, a sense of purpose. Someone that she needs to fight for and protect, and on her honor as a Gaia she will fight and protect. It wasn't just her friend Sascha, or Lee and the young werewolves, but for non-humans all throughout the magical society. She thought of Sascha living alone in an abandoned cabin, of Lee and the werewolves huddled sobbing in the library, and who knows how many others there were living in the sanctuary of Ravensburl that she hadn't met yet.

The earth witch nodded, standing with an assisting hand from Nova. She drew her wand. "Alright, Hanan. I accept your challenge."

"My darling, don't think Hanan's going to be the only one having a go at your for practice!" Adeline chimed in, standing and brushing herself off.

"I'll go third," Sascha said with a small smile, holding their fountain pen wand to their chest.

Behind them, Nova laughed. The tech witch stood as well, phone in hand. "What the hell, Bee. After all that's done, I'll be the final boss."

"You all!" Beatrice looked to her friends, tears of love and gratitude starting to well in her eyes. "You're all going to help me?"

"Of course, we will, Bee. You never even had to ask." Nova smiled. She stood with one hand jauntily on her hip. "Let's get to practice. I'm looking forward to seeing how red Circe's face gets when she loses again."