Chapter 18 An Odd Place for a School.
Chapter eighteen
An Odd Place for a School.
Percy Flores
Lady Flores led me deeper into the mansion than I had been before.
I hadn’t explored Witching Command at all, really.
Everywhere I went, I was accompanied by Kat.
When I thought about it, other than to sleep and use the bathroom and shower, I hadn’t been alone since Arvid had dropped me off after I awoke.
At the ground floor, I was surprised when Lady Flores reached a heavily guarded, metal door and, using a drop of her blood, much like the seal that I had used within Ardens, opened the door to an underground basement level.
“When we first arrived here, the mansion was in much need of repair. The repair works were a perfect cover for us to add additional space within the old cellar. This is the most highly guarded and protected area within the building. Few know of its existence. From this moment, Percy, I am entrusting you with our greatest and yet most fragile assets. Do you understand?” she asked as the door was opened and she wrapped her bleeding finger in a handkerchief from her pocket.
“I understand,” I told her.
Anxiety rose up within me. I was sure this was what Arvid’s instincts or knowledge gained through his other spies, because he undoubtedly had others, were warning him of.
I followed Lady Flores as she led the way down stone steps, with fluorescent lights set in the concrete ceiling above, and we travelled deeper underground. At the end of the stairway, another metal door was guarded by two more soldiers — women, Flores witches certainly.
“Good morning, Ma’am,” they greeted Lady Flores in unison.
“Good morning,” Lady Flores replied as one of the women opened the door.
Immediately, childlike laughter escaped through the door, small voices shouting and screeching in joy.
On the other side of the door was a bright space. Passionflower, colourful and in full bloom, decorated the walls, which were themselves bold with childish cartoon figures. It was like stepping into a junior school activity room.
Two small girls ran up to Lady Flores excitedly. They could not have been older than ten.
“Lady Flores, Lady Flores, want to see the picture I drew for you?” One of the girls asked.
“Who’s that?” the other asked, pointing at me.
“This is my granddaughter, Percy,” Lady Flores answered and looked at me expectantly. It pulled me out of my shock. I stood in a classroom full of young children. What was this place, and why were all these children so heavily guarded?
“It’s nice to meet you,” I said, and the girl who asked who I was shrank back in shyness.
“And I’d love to see your drawing, Abigail,” Lady Flores said, taking the child’s hand and allowing herself to be led towards a table.
The noise of the room, of children ranging from perhaps as young as ten to roughly twelve or thirteen playing and talking, gradually grew quiet as their attention was drawn to us.
There were at least thirty or forty young girls and a few boys.
“This is a very nice drawing,” Lady Flores complimented.
I was overwhelmed with so many eyes on me and the dawning understanding that these were the children like me.
A door to the room opened, and a severe-looking woman with greying black hair entered.
“Play time is over,” she announced, before noticing Lady Flores and me. “Persephone, I wasn’t expecting your visit. Is this the younger Persephone?” she asked, walking towards us.
“You heard Mrs Narkissa, play time is over,” Lady Flores announced, and the children all lined up next to the door the woman, Mrs Narkissa, had entered through. Another woman appeared at the door and nodded her head in our direction in acknowledgement.
“Sofia, will you please get started with our late morning lesson?” Mrs Narkissa asked.
“Certainly. We’ve got a lot of fun planned for the day ahead,” Sofia said, excitedly to the children. The older children were not nearly as excited as the younger ones as they all left the room.
Lady Flores turned to me.
“Percy, this is my dear friend Narkissa. She is an excellent teacher, truly skilled in helping young witches master their gifts,” Lady Flores introduced us.
“I taught your mother,” Narkissa said with a smile, “and had you grown within the coven, I would have taught you too.”
“Why don’t we sit down?” Lady Flores suggested as she comically pulled a small seat from the low table next to us.
Narkissa agreed and pulled out a chair too, and I followed suit.
It was odd sitting in a seat so small; I hadn’t done so since I was a young child in school. Everything seemed so big then, and yet it was so small in reality.
“I’m sorry for arriving without arrangements. I thought now was the best time to introduce Percy to what we are doing here,” Lady Flores said.
“Don’t apologise, I always enjoy your company and Sofia and Zoe have everything covered for today’s lessons. I have plenty of time for you and Percy,” Narkissa replied.
“I was hoping you would be better able to explain to Percy what your role here is,” Lady Flores said.
“Of course,” Narkissa smiled and turned her attention to me, “I have always held the role of teacher within Flores. One of my personal skills is helping young witches learn to use their Flores magic. It was trial by fire with your mother, the first dual user any of us had ever encountered. But I learned a lot, and we were successful in helping young Damia control and harness both of her gifts. When Jack and Idonea came along, my skills were tested again, especially with Jack. It’s always a little trickier to help the men of Flores master what skill they have, and adding an unexpected but welcome novel ability increased the challenge.
I have, since we began having children outside of Flores, become uniquely skilled in helping witches who have greater gifts than average, master those gifts,” Narkissa explained.
“The children here are dual users?” I asked.
“Every child here is indeed a dual user, and many have developed a novel ability,” Narkissa answered.
“Novel abilities?” I asked.
“We have learned that mixing other magic lineages with Flores not only produces most commonly dual users, but a proportion of such children are able to produce novel abilities. When we learned this, we knew we had to protect these children and help them to develop their abilities,” Lady Flores explained.
“Is that why you made a deal with House Halvorsen to start this base?” I questioned. It made so little sense to choose House Halvorsen as the location of their base and strongest ally, but it made sense, if what they really needed was a place to hide so many children with novel abilities.
“She is a smart one,” Narkissa said to Lady Flores, who seemed to straighten with pride.
“That she is,” Lady Flores agreed.
“Here we have the financial resources, the military resources, and secrecy to protect and provide for the children. And they are flourishing,” Narkissa said.
“They stay here, underground?” I asked. I didn’t understand how any person could flourish underground.
“It’s not as bad as it seems. Look around.” Narkissa opened her arms wide to the room. “The environment is hardly what one imagines of a cellar. Every room is filled with light, colour, and flora, designed to mimic natural sunlight and be a supportive, creative environment,” she said.
I simply nodded. No matter how colourful a prison was, it was still a prison.
“The children are very happy,” Lady Flores told me.
“I… I know. I’m just finding it difficult to think that they never leave here,” I told her, hoping honesty would hide my growing anger. These were children, and they were kept down here, learning to control their magic with the sole purpose of being used as pawns in a war.
“I understand. It is purely for their safety. The world is not a safe place for those with novel abilities and dual users. We are hiding them here until they are capable of protecting themselves,” Narkissa explained.
“Where are their parents? How do we keep them secret?” I asked, careful of my wording, and hoping that by including myself in the secret it would further hide my simmering outrage.
“Most are working within The New Foundation, entrusting us to provide protection and training so that their children will be safe and free someday,” Lady Flores answered.
“This is simply the safest place to house these children,” I stated, pushing down my feelings that this was all wrong.
“Exactly,” Narkissa said.
“Do you understand what we are doing here, Percy?
We are embracing what it means to be Flores, truly, for the first time in our known history; we are not making ourselves small.
We no longer prohibit mixing with other magic lines.
We assumed such a law had always existed for fear of losing ourselves, but Damia and every child since then have shown that Flores' magic is never lost; we grow, we adapt, we become something more. We were always the forgotten coven. The coven that could be pushed around, used, and abused with impunity. Perhaps our ancestors feared how powerful we truly were. We do not know why our true nature was prohibited and hidden for so long, but we do know that by embracing our power, we will uplift not only Flores but everyone,” Lady Flores told me.
It was a nice speech, and maybe if we weren’t sat underground in a basement where children were being kept from their mothers and from experiencing the warmth of the sun, so that they could be moulded into perfect little soldiers, it would have had the effect that Lady Flores had intended.
“I understand,” I assured her. “We are far from weak now,” I said.
Narkissa smiled broadly.
“We were never weak to begin with; we just never knew our own strength,” she corrected.
“Everyone is going to know the strength of Flores soon,” I said confidently. It was true. I didn’t think anything could stop them now.
Lady Flores patted my shoulder approvingly, and I gave her what I hoped was a happy smile.