AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Ugh,”I huffed.“Friendship goes two ways. I don’t want to be friends with someone that insults me or thinks I’m less than them.”
“But you’ll spread your legs for the Queen to be, like a good servant. Does our Princess view you as her equal?”she mocked. I should have been embarrassed, but her question saddened me, I knew the Princess did not think of me as her equal.
“How do I kick you out?”I asked, upset.
“I’ll take pity on you as a friend,”she mocked.“You should find it quite simple to block the connection. I was trying to project images to you at first but was unable; you have a surprisingly strong natural protection from psychic attacks. Imagine a cord attached to my voice and simply cut the cord. Go ahead and try,”she instructed.
I did try. I imagined her voice like a thick rope and a big pair of scissors cutting through it.
“Did it work?”I asked.
“No, try again,”she replied, and I sighed aloud.
I imagined burning the rope to ashes this time.
“Are you still there?”I asked and received no answer. I was relieved but also apprehensive I thought maybe Heidi was playing a game with me, pretending to be gone. But her voice did not whisper in my head for the remainder of the class.
“Remember to complete the reading,” Dr. Phears said, as we were dismissed by a bell signalling the end of the class.
“Percy, my new friend.” I turned to a brunette, curvy and taller than myself, smiling as she approached me.
“Heidi?” I asked.
“Sure is. Where are you heading now?” she asked, leaning towards me and walking by my side.
“Why do you want to know?” I questioned, not trusting the intrusive witch that had taken an interest in me.
“I wonder if you would like to spend some time together? I’m going into town, dress shopping for the summer ball.” She paused to look at me. “I know, this close to the event and I haven’t sorted a dress yet, really, how chaotic. Would you like to accompany me? We could stop by the enchanter’s market and buy ourselves some potions. None of the tourist horse piss, of course, they have quite a skilled enchantress for personalised orders; I feel like going blonde for the ball. Your shade is nice,” she complimented me, reaching out as if to touch my hair before pulling back.
I didn’t know the Academy was close to a town, and I hadn’t been to a town in months, not since last going to trade for the village. Would the Princess provide a dress for me? Was I even going to the ball? I assumed I was, but she hadn’t told me anything.
“Percy, it’s rude to ignore people,” Heidi chastised when I didn’t reply, lost in my thoughts.
I scoffed, “You’re calling me rude? You who pokes around people’s minds willy-nilly?”
She laughed loudly beside me.
“I do think I could rather like you, even if you are only a half-witch,” she said. “I wasn’t poking around. I couldn’t poke around in your mind or even project a simple illusion. Your natural defence is impressive. You could build on it, your magic. Flores aren’t as pathetic as they appear. Their problem is they don’t give proper dedication to furthering their craft. My grandmother told me a story of a Flores witch who once held a whole town hostage, refusing to let a single green thing grow. They thought her Demeter herself and prayed for Zeus to protect them from her anger. You could be strong, maybe not that strong, but stronger than most of your blood. I could help,” she offered.
I stopped walking - not only because I was lost and couldn’t quite remember my way back to the entrance, having been highly distracted by the Princess when she guided me through the building, but because I couldn’t quite wrap my head around the oddity that was Heidi.
“What are you on about? First, you want to go shopping with me and now you want to help me grow my magic. What do you want from me?” I asked her warily.
She smiled brightly and took a step toward me. She was taller than me, not intimidatingly so like the Princess, but still, I was forced to look up to meet her eyes. “Percy, I’m lonely here. I’m the only pureblood witch at Sanguis Academy, the only other witches are a few servants like yourself, and none are of House Coactus. I’ve seen you and how you make friends with Borealis, Viridis, and Syngeneia. The relationships between Houses don’t influence you. Why would they? I heard you’re from one of those backward villages, didn’t even have a House before you became the property of her Royal Highness. I only want to spend some time and interact with someone like me, or at least as close to like me as I can find here,” she explained.
“You know how to make a person feel wanted,” I deadpanned. But I did feel sorry for her. I didn’t know what it was like to be alone. Not really. Back home, we didn’t segregate ourselves the way people seemed to do here. Even now, I had the Princess and my friends.
“Would you like for me to woo you? I could bring you pretty tokens, flowers, crystals, write you poetry, and sing you songs,” she mocked.
“That’s not, no, what?” I sputtered.
“My lady.” We both turned to face the Royal Borealis Guard that approached us. “Is everything alright here?” he asked me.
“Yes, thank you,” I told him.
“We should get going, or we will keep her Royal Highness waiting,” he instructed.
“Yes. Bye Heidi,” I said as I stepped away from her toward the guard.
