Previously: Aurora’s parents had a hard choice to make, but they were willing to do anything to save their daughter. Aurora noticed weird things through the years leading up to her parents’ death on her graduation day.
Shortly later, Aurora finds out her life is nothing like she thought. She’s magical. And as she learns more, she finds a letter from her parents. Then, she encounters her first demon and the aftermath that leads her to learn about Murova.
Slightly later, she plans to visit the magic school, Maverick’s. There she get’s a tour.
Episode 10: The Dean
Chrys told me that Dean Smoothouser had moved into my dad’s old office which, of course, was the designated office of every dean the school had ever housed. On the way there, Chrys took me down countless more passages, each more grandiose than the last. I was mesmerized with the academy. It was ancient, and normally speaking, I didn’t love old buildings, but Maverick’s was different. There was something about the character of the place that screamed mysterious and historical in an interesting way.
We’d been walking for nearly ten minutes when Chrys stopped outside of a huge, wooden, arched door with a large ornate brass knocker in the shape of a griffin head. I reached out and ran my fingers over the head of the knocker.
“It’s a griffin,” Chrys said. “Your dad loved that knocker.”
“I bet he did. He was fascinated with birds,” I said, sadness in my voice.
Chrys smiled sadly, and then she reached for knocker.
“Wait! I’m not ready,” I began. “I don’t know what to expect. What is this meeting about? Is he nice? Did he like my parents? Is he going to judge me for my lack of knowledge?” Words were just coming out of my mouth like a broken pipe spewing water. My anxiety had crossed the threshold it normally stayed behind.
“Whoa! Whoa! Easy there. He just wants to meet you and chat with you. He has waited a very long time to meet you. He was friends with your mom and dad. He supported their choice to keep you away from magic until later in life. He refused to have kids,” she explained.
She was patting my arm, clearly trying to comfort my overwhelming urge to cry. “So you think I should knock?” I asked.
“No, I will knock. You just breathe.” She reached out and banged the knocker four times, then she waited about five seconds and banged it three more times. “It’s a code,” she explained.
We stood there for what felt like an eternity. Then, the door opened. A large man with a rather round belly opened the door. He was wearing slacks and a magenta robe like top that hung past his knees. He had a handlebar mustache, and silver colored hair that hung down his back. His eyes were brightest green I’d ever saw, and arguably, the least interesting part about him. I’m not sure what I expected him to look like, but this was absolutely not it.
He smiled warmly at me and extended his hand. “I’m Smitt Smoothouser. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you,” he said.
SMITT SMOOTHOUSER. Oh my gosh. I barely held my smile back. What a freakin’ name? I bet his childhood sucked.
I quickly reached forward and shook his hand. “I’m Aurora, but I guess you already know that.”
He grinned while rubbing his belly. “Yes, I’ve known about you since you were nothing more than a jellybean in your mother’s belly. By the way, call me Smoot.”
“Smoot?” I asked, making sure I’d heard him correctly.
“Yes, Ma’am. Come in, come in.”
He stepped out of the doorway to let Chrys and I pass through. As I entered into the office, I realized that it was an entire studio style apartment, if you could call it that. It was definitely the most unique office space I’d every inhabited. There was a large sitting area near the door. The chairs were overstuffed with an ugly floral pattern, and they were placed around a large wooden coffee table that had a cauldron on it.
On the other end of the room, there was an enormous desk that was covered in paper and odd little Knick-knacks that I wasn’t quite sure what they were. There was a kitchenette with high end appliances that stuck out like a sore thumb, and every other space was filled with bookcases, except the large bed in the corner.
Smoot watched me observing the room. “Cool, isn’t it?”
I laughed. “Yes, it’s not what I expected. Is this what the office looked like when my dad had it.”
He hesitated briefly. “Does it bother you? Me having this office?”
“Oh no! I was just curious,” I assured him.
“Good, but yes, it looked almost exactly like this. He didn’t have the high-end appliances. He just used magic to do what he needed, but I like my creature comforts. Want to see something?”
“Sure,” I said. I was quite curious.
He walked over to the fridge, opened it, grabbed out some leftovers in a container, and popped it into the microwave. He waited a couple seconds, never hit a button, and opened the microwave again. The food was steaming hot.
“What the...” I started.
He laughed heartily. “Well you didn’t think I would actually rely on an ordone appliance, did you? They malfunction near lots of magic. It would be disaster,” he laughed.
I couldn’t help but laugh. Smoot seemed like a really nice guy, but he was over the top eccentric. That was already obvious. He looked much more like a magical than the other people I’d met so far. Or I guess, he looked like what I’d imagined a wizard would look like you’d asked me six months ago to describe one to you. I glanced at Chrys, and I could see she was barely able to contain her eye roll, which didn’t seem very characteristic of the her I’d experienced. It told me that this wasn’t Smoot putting on a show for me. He was just like this.
Smoot walked over to the sitting area and sat down. He gestured for Chrys and I to join him. We took our seats, but I was still looking around.
“May I ask you a question?” I said.
“Of course!” he jovially boomed at me. “Never hesitate my girl. Ask away!”
“What type of books are these?”
“Oh a little of this and a little of that. Some are about the history of the school. Some are about the history of magic. Some are spell books. Some are romance novels. Some are about ordone technology. You know, a little of everything,” he grinned back at me.
This man was crazy weird, but he wasn’t formidable and scary like I’d assumed he’d be. I guess I should have considered that my dad wasn’t either, but he was impressive looking. This man looked like someone’s favorite uncle, not the dean of one of the most prestigious magic schools in the world.
“I guess this brings us to the matter at hand though, doesn’t it?” he said, looking at me with interest.
“I guess,” I muttered.
“Well, Aurora, you’re a witch! Isn’t that exciting? You can perform magic, and to boot, you’re from a wickedly powerful lineage. That means you are going to be legendary,” he said.
I felt my stomach knot up. I didn’t feel like a wickedly powerful witch. I felt like a lost and confused girl who wanted her parents back. I couldn’t form words, so I just looked at him. Chrys reached out and patted me.
“I think she’s a bit overwhelmed, Smoot. She has had a lot on her plate in the last few weeks.”
“Well yes, we’re all sad about her parents, but she needs to understand how fortunate she is, in the grand scheme of things.”
“Fortunate? My parents died. I found out my entire life was a lie, and you think I’m feeling fortunate, right now?” I snapped at him.
He looked crestfallen to say the least. “Well, I didn’t mean it like that,” he said. “I meant more like more fortunate than someone without magic.”
Chrys frowned. “She doesn’t feel fortunate because her life has been turned upside down. No one in their right mind would think she felt fortunate, so clearly you misspoke.”
There was an air of anger in her voice that made her sound much older and powerful than her normal disposition. It was as if she was challenging him to disagree with her, and he didn’t seem to want to. Her kind face was laced with what was unmistakable grief.
I smiled at her. I didn’t really like Smoot that much. It wasn’t like he seemed nefarious, but more like he seemed self-absorbed and was a bit of an inconsiderate asshole.
“I don’t mean to be rude, but why am I here, exactly?” I asked.
“To learn magic, of course!” he said, just a little too happily. Chrys gave him another severe look. “I mean, that is if you’re ready to,” he added.
“I’m not going back to school,” I said with a little too much emphasis. “I just finished a lot of years.”
“Oh heavens no, I meant like from Chrys and myself. I never intended to place you in a classroom. We will just be here to assist you with developing your powers and learning the craft. You’d look right out silly with all those sixteen-year-olds,” he joked.
I stared back at him. His chubby cheeks were turning a shade of magenta that emphasized his handlebar mustache.
“I don’t have a choice but to learn. I’ve already been attached by a demon, and apparently I have a target on my back and a sworn duty to protect a community that was prepared to shun me at birth,” I said plainly.
Chrys beamed at me. At least she seemed to appreciate my brutal honesty. Smoot didn’t seem as pleased.
“Well now, you have to understand. Your powers could be unlike those we’ve ever seen before. Having you on the side of good could upset the balance, but you on the wrong side, it could have done the same thing. People were just worried about the unpredictable nature of a child with such power. They meant nothing by it my dear, nothing by it.”
“I don’t care,” I said flatly. “I still don’t see why people think I need to be their savior now, when no one was there to save me after my parents died. I was left all alone.”
The room was silent. No one spoke for a couple of minutes. Smoot looked like he felt guilty, but Chrys looked devastated. Her face was knit in tight concentration, a mask of grief and sadness. I wasn’t trying to upset her, but Smoot rubbed me the wrong way. He thought I was a solution to a problem, but the question was, what was the problem?
“Look,” I started, “I know that I seem angry, and I am, but I’ll try. I’ll learn magic. I’ll do what has to be done, but you need to understand that my life has been turned upside down, uprooted, and no one can expect me to run into this with excitement. I’m utterly flabbergasted. I haven’t even wrapped my head around this magic thing, not yet, anyway.”
Chrys reached out and placed a hand on my arm. “You aren’t alone,” she started.
“But I am. My family is dead,”
“Not all of them,” she said.
Smoot gave her a look, “Not here. She’s not ready.”
“I don’t give a damn, Smoot. She needs to know.”
“Know what?” I asked nervously.
“I’m your aunt. Your mother is, was my elder sister.”
Plot twist!