Magnolia couldn’t remember falling asleep. Yesterday was so full of discoveries and wonders that she just couldn’t handle her excitement.

Juniper wasn’t even acting crabby about it so she guessed that there were some things her older sister could be surprised by.

Her heart stopped and her breath was held as she imagined each brilliant moment just a day ago. It was a dream made manifest, the raw power given artistry and form by Dahlia and her queer looking staff. Her mind ran a mile a minute coming up with questions to ask but she didn’t want to make herself or her sister look like a pair of country bumpkins.

No, all her questions would be reserved for class today.

Well, the questions her book had failed to answer.

Dinner time arrived last night with more than just food; one of the stewards of the campus knocked on their door carrying a stack of thick books piled high like a teetering block tower. Juniper picked out her books from the stack and handed Magnolia the rest.

This was the first time she’d ever seen an enchanted book. Well, that was a white lie. She’d seen another enchanted book owned by Mr. Isaac on the pier but only a glance at the colorful hellfire roasting a skull as the shadows in its background danced chaotically.

It was an advanced book that she wasn’t meant to be privy to and neither was Juniper apparently. Magnolia didn’t like to keep secrets from Junie but Mr. Isaac promised it’d only cause them more headaches and that he’d be prohibited from teaching her anymore.

The covers on these books were less extravagant. Some depicted a rendition of the astral interpreted by Incants of various artistic merit, while others didn’t even go that far by just having a sequence of sigils flash on the cover over and over.

The bit of education she received from Mr. Isaac, she confirmed, was colored greatly by his perspective on the nature of Incants, the Astral Plane, and the Schism that led to what remains of the modern world.

She poured herself into the opening contents of the “History and Compositions of Incants” with relish. It took Juniper yelling and the pangs of hunger to pull Magnolia away from each wonderful discovery.

Her former teacher had mentioned the Schism as a day of unbridled pain and chaos and the textbook agreed with his sentiments and then some. Neither Juniper nor Magnolia were around for the event and what she could pry out from her sister of her parents and grandparents informed her that they didn’t have a pleasant experience during the event either.

The book made no mention of the events origin so Magnolia had marked that down as one of her questions of interest for her professor today.

“Hey, do you want me to walk you to your class?” Juniper yawned as she spoke, scratching her face and rubbing the grogginess away from her eyes. The trickling morning sunlight made her sister's faint brown skin glow with an effortless radiance.

“You don’t have to, June.” Magnolia replied.

“I’d want to, Maggie. I just want you to tell me yes or no.” Juniper replied.

Magnolia shook her head, “No no. I think I should handle this by myself. At least the first day.” The anxiety in the back of her mind ratcheted up one notch but she needed to do this. Her sister had already done so much to get them this opportunity and it was here that she could show her that she was just as capable as her sister raised her to be.

Juniper gave Magnolia a smile that filled her from head to toe with love and warmth.

“Knock em dead Maggie. If anyone gives you a hard time, show ‘em what it means to mess with a Winthrop.” Juniper flexed her bicep and laughed.

Magnolia wanted no part in that kind of violence. If someone gave her a hard time, she’d deal with it her own way.

“Are you going to be home when I get back from classes?” Magnolia asked.

“Depends on whether my classes are interesting enough to stick around for. If not, who knows, but you don’t have to wait for me to get dinner with you and your friends.”

Magnolia smiled, “Friends? Junie, it's my first day in class. What makes you think I’m gonna have friends over?”

“Maggie, come on. There’s a reason why the rest of the community asked for me through you. I’m sure you’ll have half that class hanging on your every word by the end of the day and I look forward to seeing it happen.”

Magnolia placed her books down and gave her sister a long hug.

“Thanks Junie. For everything.”

They didn’t need to say anything else.

Magnolia left their new home behind to take her first steps forward on a new chapter in her life. Her long blonde hair bounced up and down her shoulders as she walked through the hall and out of the building.

She made an effort to smile and greet the other witches, taking note of their mood and accessories. Magnolia had foregone wearing the school robes (especially under this oppressive heat) in favor of another sundress that approximated the school's colors. Most of the other women had made similar assessments of the weather, carrying their various magical implements in matching bags.

Some even wore hats! The long and pointy sort of hat that she’d long associated with the profession since Juniper handed her that one fairytale book.

“How do you think class is gonna start this year?” Magnolia caught a conversation between a pair of witches just ahead of her.

They were all heading in the same direction!

“I dunno but my lovely step-sister mentioned the reputation of our professor and I’m quite unimpressed.” The other girl's voice was drenched in venom for all parties involved.

Maybe they were just judging Professor Del Marin over his eccentricities and if that was the case, she didn’t feel like his ego was enough of an issue to warrant note. Her former teacher had riddled her with enough stories of other Incants that something as benign as incompetent megalomania was endearing compared to the stranger and deadlier alternatives.

“My mother mentioned something similar but we won’t find out his supposed pedigree until we’re in class. Honestly these rumors are enough of a black mark to how far this institution has fallen.”

Magnolia frowned. The two hushed their conversations and turned their heads slightly back to look at Magnolia with paired sneers.

Magnolia refrained from turning away, channeling her sister's attitude into a combative glare. Their faces recoiled in disgust and their walking pace hurried along. She managed to catch the word, “mongrel” in that fast paced rush of sentences they exchanged as they fled.

She was happy that she’d defended herself but only slightly. This was her first day and the first two people she’d interacted with in an extended capacity were purely confrontational.

The hesitations quickly melted out of her when she came face to face with the large birchwood double doors of the main academy hall. The three spires that pierced through the building loomed over the students like ancient sentinels. From her perspective so close to the center, their spiked ceilings appeared to scrape the sky.

Magnolia entered the academic building and was unexpectedly perturbed by the echoes of her footsteps as she walked through the halls. Where she had expected a confluence of bright, young students chit-chatting about their expectations for the day, she found empty corridors and uneasy silence.

Had classes begun already?

No. She’d woken up early. Classes weren’t starting for another thirty minutes. Magnolia pulled out a cracked timepiece to double check her previous assessment.

Taking a deep breath, she attempted to unsettle her nerves and simply walk into class. If the halls held no solace for her then maybe the class would be filled with enough potential friends to see her through these uneasy moments.

She walked to the classroom's closed door and gripped the cold golden handle.

“Knock ‘em dead, Maggie.” She muttered under her breath.

Magnolia opened the door.

The classroom interior did little to assuage the unease in her body, with a grand hall hinting at filling its space with rows upon rows of students made uncomfortably intimate with just a scant nine to account for.

Dividing lines were already drawn, the two girls Magnolia was behind among a gaggle of three other women. There was a clear head of the group, a confident porcelain woman with jet black hair down to her shoulders maintaining an aura of aristocracy with deliberate and graceful moves.

Magnolia’s arrival caught their notice. The leader didn’t deem it necessary to look in her direction while the rest of the group laughed directly at her expense.

This was fine.

She’d expected that these brilliant minds had gotten access to the covens academic program at various points in their life. They’d probably known each other before taking this accelerated program and were catching up from the last time they’d interacted with one another.

Maybe there was just a misunderstanding. Yeah, this was something she could smooth over.

Magnolia straightened herself and walked with bravado towards the front corner of the room. She could see the secondary group of women looking down at her from the back end of the room.

These were traditional looking witches, in her eyes. They wore deep blue hats with pointed and curled tips along with dresses that shined with streaks of stars. Their faces were obscured with a veil that covered the length of their bodies, a gradient of black around their eyes that dissipated into grays and whites.

She placed her bag on the desk and faced forward.

This is fine.

“Hello.” A mousy voice startled Magnolia out of her apprehension. She turned to see a short girl with freckled pudgy cheeks and brown curled hair in all directions. Her spectacles were cartoonishly large, magnifying the light browns of her eyes as she stared expectantly at Magnolia for a response.

“Oh thank goodness.” Magnolia let out a sigh of relief. “Yes, hello. My name is Magnolia Winthrop, but you can call me Maggie. What’s your name?”

The short girl’s cheeks grew flushed and her eyes ripped away from Magnolia’s.

“I, uh, my name is Willow Pontiere. It’s good to have a f-friendly face around here, M-Maggie.” Willow struggled to put her words together, fidgeting with her bag and taking out items as she talked.

Magnolia chuckled, “Yeah. I still have high hopes we’re gonna all be friendly by the end of things.”

Willow turned to her and-

“Good morning class,” bursting from the door, Professor Del Marin sauntered to the podium in an immaculate white suit with golden trim, “And welcome to the Scarlet Societies final examination of entry. I don’t have to tell you what failure represents, do I?” He paused and stared at the class with a voracious glint in his eyes.

Magnolia looked at the gaggle of girls to her side. They didn’t seem fazed.

“A little bit about myself. I am a second generation Incant and have slotted a total of five spells with an additional ten inscribed in my grimoire. Before you pry, I will not be informing you of these spells in any capacity and hope to go the length of this semester without using anything more than a shield spell.”

Another pause. He moved away from the podium and hopped down the small stage set for them towards the front student desks.

“I do not need to know your names,” His leveled stare passed across the classroom, “As far as this institution is concerned, you are all fledglings and will be referred to as such. Keep your name to yourself and if you must identify yourself in your classwork, use a pseudonym if possible. There’s nothing more dangerous than an enemy holding your name.”

Oops. Well Willow wasn’t an enemy as far as Magnolia was concerned. Her chest was tightening as the speech continued but it was nothing her sister couldn’t handle and they were cut from the same cloth so-

“Are you going to get the lesson started?” Piercing through the professor's statements was the regal woman, a voice quite pointed and drenched in contempt. “I’d like to get on with my life while this institution still holds some repute. Although judging by your character, it sinks by the second.” Barb after barb, her golden eyes did not pull away from the professor. Her very being was attempting to subjugate the man.

Any thought of friendship with the woman immediately evaporated. She wanted subjects or peers and Magnolia was painfully aware she’d fall into the former with her current knowledge.

Del Marin maintained his smile. If he was irritated, he did not show it.

“The first class is quite short, señora. You have your materials to refer to for private study but this first class is meant for questions from the initial reading.” the professor elaborated.

Magnolia felt the air thicken with anticipation. She refused to turn to the side again and watch those women wait for her to reveal herself as an absolute novice.

She was kind but not blind to the predatory nature of their academic course. Regrettable as it was, she’d refrain from asking her questions now. Maybe Willow would be willing to indulge her.

“I will take your silence as understanding. Class is dismissed.”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Hey Willow.” Magnolia pulled the girl to a far corner of the building, away from prying eyes and ears. “Do you want to study through the semester together? Between you and the rest of our classmates, I’d rather take my chances with someone kind enough to introduce themselves to me.”

Willow's eyes widened behind her glasses and tears welled up at the corners.

“Yes, yes, a thousand times, yes.” Willow pulled in Magnolia for a hug and she gingerly returned the embrace. “It’s awful Maggie. Trying to do this alone. I’m so g-glad we can work together like this.”

“Well, for the first few nights, I’ll likely be learning from you. I was going to ask the professor some questions but…” She trailed off.

Willow nodded, “Yeah, that was a good decision. You don’t really want to look clueless in front of the rest of them. They’ll leave you alone for now while they figure out your level of competency. Bianca is like that and the rest of ‘em won’t step out of line until she’s come to a decision.”

For now. The thought felt uncomfortable in Magnolia’s head.

“Is the learning experience like this in all covens?”

“I don’t know. The Scarlets are all I know and I’ve only known them for about two and a half years. Some of these other women have been in the program since its founding and their parents, progenitors of the whole institution.”

Interesting.

“So, Bianca and her group. They’re, like, properly entrenched in the coven then? How’d you come across her name?”

“More or less, yeah. By virtue of the coven’s acceptance policies, even people like them have to go through the testing but that’s a formality really. I doubt mommy and daddy would let their kids fail out of being a Scarlet sister.” Willow spat her statement with a surprising amount of vitriol. “And as for the name, well she has nothing to fear. Most of the class is already wrapped around her finger and those that aren’t are either disinterested in engaging with her people or are too weak to fuck around with her.”

She looked up from that angered expression and her face paled.

Magnolia turned around to see what would cause such a reaction.

Standing just behind them was a tall, pale woman in a white and golden robe that was practically consuming her. Her scarlet hair was braided into a crown and despite the ease of her smile and the perfection of her skin, Magnolia had to repress a reflex to run.

Her eyes were pitch black.

“Good afternoon, fledglings.” Her voice held with it a reverberation as if multiple women were speaking to the two of them in unison.

“G-good afternoon, Matron!” Willow fumbled to get her words out, performing a curtsy. “Let’s meet at the plaza later, Maggie, see ya!”

Willow abandoned her friend to the paralyzing gaze of the coven's founder.

Magnolia couldn’t help but let out a chuckle.

Shit!

Would the Matron take it the wrong way? Was she already-

The Matron smirked and giggled, “A shame, that one. Brilliant mind constrained by a lack of social grace and courage.” Her gaze returned to Magnolia, “I hope you’ve found everything to your liking thus far, Miss Winthrop.”

She knew her. The Matron knew who she was.

“Yes, Miss. I mean Matron. Although there are many things I don’t understand about living in a coven, I’ve found our facilities to be wonderful and the knowledge intoxicating.” Magnolia’s tone oozed gratitude and a hint of fear.

“That is good to hear. I remember the headache that came from corresponding with your sister and the assurances that had to be made for her to even consider this institution.”

It was Magnolia’s turn to laugh, “Yeah, Junie’s definitely a handful when it comes to that kind of stuff.”

“I’d expect nothing less from someone like her. The entrepreneurial spirit still lives with the headstrong and foolhardy and yet there’s a measurable amount of intelligence in that one. Shrewd and determined are a dangerous combination in our line of work.”

A pause in the conversation. Magnolia maintained her positive demeanor but…

“Matron, may I ask you a question?” Magnolia connected with the woman’s neutral gaze. “What do you see in me? I can understand my sister getting in but I haven’t…” She didn’t have enough resolve to put her concerns to words.

The founder’s face softened, “You are here because I expect great things from you. It is up to you to claim that greatness. Your sister is a force to be reckoned with considering the experience she’s accumulated at the threshold of our potential, but inside of you there is so much more that is begging to take on the world should you have the knowledge and power to wield it.”

Magnolia imbibed on each and every word.

“Given that mind of yours, I know I’ll see you at our final communion. It is an event that cannot take place without you, as far as I’m concerned.”

Magnolia’s heart lit up with the words of encouragement. How foolish she’d been.

“Thank you, Matron. Your words mean the world to me. I promise I won’t let you down.” Magnolia assured.

“It was a pleasure to meet you in the flesh, Magnolia. Should you find your resolve wavering again, find me in my office and I will lend an ear.” The Matron replied.

Broken from her paralysis, Magnolia sprinted down the hall and out towards the plaza where her friend would be.

All she had in her mind was the drive to achieve that greatness the Matron saw in her. And to gush at her sister later about what kind of day she had.

Hopefully her sister fared better with her first day than she did