Grandma stood in front of the now uncovered well and said. “Ding Dong Dell; Belmare Moor Springs in my well.”

Well thankfully my concern we were going to leap into the shit filled well was unfounded...

...as an archway rose and expanded out of the well in the same sparkling stone work that the sides of the well were constructed of in my nightmare recollections of being stuck down there. Flagstone pavers ran through the archway covering the well opening.

The other side of the archway was a stone room. That is a room constructed of solid grey stone blocks that looked as much in agreement to the glass sided greenhouse we were stood in on this side of the archway as is seen at the edge of a snow fall on the Sahara. Whereas looking around the arch the rest of the greenhouse and beyond garden and rear wooden fence were in evidence what was through the archway was not Grandma’s greenhouse.

“What the he…

Quickly stopping swearing I interrupted myself. “Nursery rhymes are spells?”

“That one is a cantrip. Think of it as a shortcut, and yes there is power in shared repetition. It lets me harness the course foundation this spell uses. Course isn’t the foundation my magic is founded on…

“Anyway now’s not the time to go into the foundations of magic. Quickly Tegan, there will be other students returning to Belmare Moor this evening, we can’t hold their Well Spring too long.” Grandma almost pushed me through the archway. I stumbled through while steadying my suitcase before I knocked it into the stones of the archway we passed beneath; and yes, the words ‘Well Spring’ were spoken with obvious capitals.

The other side was an octagon stonewalled enclosed room without window. There was a pair of open doors in one of the eight sides. Flames burned from torches in sconces that provided the flickering lighting. With Grandma joining me beside the wall, the archway folded into a fountain within a circular pond. The fountain was playing; a jet of clear water rose into the air and fell into the top smallest circular basin. Water was overfilling the three stone circular basins. The top basin having the smallest diameter caused a ring-shaped curtain of water to fall into the larger diameter basin beneath. If you included the circular pond as a fourth bowl of water, then thrice the circular curtain of water fell into a greater basin beneath.

“Tegan, don’t you dare mess with Belmare Moor’s Well Spring!” Grandma exclaimed, and I could here the capitals of each of those four words as before. I mumbled to myself, “The BMWS is strong in this one.” She hurried me through the pair of huge wooden arched doors and we were in my school’s staffroom. Grandma was not even smirking at what I knew she’d heard me say.

The usually closed oriental style wooden wardrobe was open. Its doors were smaller mirror images of the stone chamber’s ones. The fountain room looked smaller looking back through the wardrobe into it and the fountain proceeded to fold itself into an archway once more. Recalling that the bottom of the cupboard doors usually were just below waist height and that there should be drawers and the open stand below made a secondary image superimpose on the prior making the fountain room even smaller and creating a near three-foot step out of it into the staff room.

“Tegan!” Grandma’s yell caused me to shift my attention allowing the entrance of the re-enlarged fountain room to line up with the staff room floor once more.

“Misses Goss, so this is Tegan. Tegan, we’ve set you up in the fifth years’ ‘Seagull’ dorm, as they have a spare bed that neither the third years’ ‘Fire Escape One and Two’ nor fourth years’ ‘Fame’ dorms have. Well that is if Misses Goss is correct on your pillar.”

I was trying to get a handle on why my school’s staffroom had some kind of magic portal room in its oriental wardrobe. I mean as I couldn’t do magic until I became closer to being a girl and only girls could be witches one would expect a magic school to be all girls like my sister’s. This school seemed to know about magic. My headmistress Misses White carried on talking whilst I was thinking how strange it was that we all called our headmistress a witch and she just might be one.

Even with those distractions I didn’t miss the importance of ‘my pillar’ and that it was the right one. I added it to the earlier foundation of magic being the wrong one. Obviously there were different foundations and pillars of magic. As long as the words weren’t arbitrary it would appear there were different methods to magic which sure beat Grandma’s demand ‘to keep looking at a blank page until you learn something, Tegan!’ that must have been due to the time crunch to not actually be taught in a more usual fashion.

I was pulled from my musing when my Grandma proudly exclaimed. “Most Wood witches are Decay pillar, with secondaries of either Battle or Blaze. It’s why there’s never been a Wood witch at Belmare Moor…

“Hi, Miss Myles, nice half term?” My headmistress greeted Sharon, a second form girl that was trying to not look curious standing within the cabinet’s opening into the staff room. “Hurry up, out of the receiving room. You’re holding the Well Spring.” The pregnant silence as Sharon crossed the room to the staff room’s exit was so loud it was deafening.

As the door finally closed, Misses White strode to the phone. “Fiona, can you cover the staff room I have a new student and their guardian I need to take to my office?” Replacing the phone she turned to us as I saw the fountain folding into an arch once more for the next witch my school apparently hid. “We will continue this conversation in my office.”

Beatrice Walker was the next girl to step into the staff room. I, like almost every boy in the school had a major crush on the fifth year prefect. She looked at me inquisitively then nodded to Misses White before seeing my Grandma.

“Misses Goss, are you here to accept my family's terms?” Beatrice inquired while I was probably gormlessly staring, rather stunned she knew my Grandma and wondering how to leverage that to getting a shot at her. “A third witch and a drone is fair for the Wood coven.”

“I am sorry Miss Walker; Thomas has been pulled from Belmare…

“My Mother had right of first refusal to counter…

“Miss Walker, please meet Tegan. She is family. Sometimes family trumps even still open formal offers.”

Beatrice glared at me, causing me to take a step back. Before I could ask what the hell everyone was talking about Beatrice whirled around and exited the staffroom not quite slamming the door. I was still trying to think what to ask when the door timidly re-opened. Not as I thought for an apologetic Beatrice to return, but for the Latin teacher, Misses Mills to enter.

“Yes, well let’s head to my office to confirm... before we cause any more issues for this half term.” Misses White tried to fill the prior silence that had tamed the earlier pregnant one. “Fiona, thanks for covering. I wouldn’t have asked, but this is critical.” She then gestured us to follow.

I had never been in the headmistress’s office before. Two of the four large rope sash windows, each hung on their two ropes, were partially opened and allowing a gentle breeze to enter from the sixth form terrace behind. Beyond the terrace wall, a sliver of the sloped sundial lawn was visible prior to the girls’ tennis courts and forest after. Beyond the forest of this dell unseen the moor began its apparent endless carpeting of the rolling land. The sun dial and most of sundial lawn couldn’t be seen of course as it was hidden by the ten or so foot drop beyond this side of the terrace low wall.

Within the office chunky solid teak furniture failed in dwarfing the tiled floor room. The expanse of bared floor before her desk made it obvious you weren’t welcome in visiting the headmistress. She would be sat on her throne behind her defensive desk barrier. The ‘guest’ chairs, if they were for guests were haphazardly placed between the bookshelves that stood out from the walls more than the chairs in their solid, but failing attempt to dominate the huge room. The failure being in the huge open expanse of tiled flooring that the large furniture was unable to encroach upon. Heck you could probably allow twenty or so couples to hold a ball in the open space.

The headmistress muttered something about releasing the veil and spread her arms wide and the abstract tiled floor flowed as if made of water. The reason for the needed huge expanse suddenly apparent as a fifteen or so odd footed circle centered within a thirty-five foot diameter circle appeared. Within the smaller circle a pentagram appeared in the middle, the points of its star touching the inner circle. Then words appeared between the two circles, first at the points of the star. ‘Wood’ was at twelve o’clock if the point, pointing toward the headmistress desk was the top of the diagram.

My pondering if these were names of the five covens was dashed as the subsequent points going around clockwise from ‘Wood’, were ‘Course’, ‘Zephyr’, ‘Ore’ and ‘Irradiance’. I was interrupted in trying to interpret the rest by Misses White.

“Tegan, leave your suitcase here and stand in the very center pentagon, of the pentagram. Then we can find your pillars, foundations and work out why you’re joining our school so late.” I looked at Grandma and getting from her, a go on gesture and an unworried nod I decided not to argue. Thus emboldened I entered the pentagram, hoping I wasn’t about to be sacrificed to some demon. Hey it was a valid concern. Numerous words were written just within the circumference of the outer circle and the ones to either side of the twelve O’clock position were ‘Demonology’ and ‘Necromancy’ If those were Misses White’s most important as they were closest to her desk then I wasn’t too happy following her orders. I turned and started looking at what some of the other words said.

“Face the top, Tegan.” When I turned to face ‘Wood’ and incidentally the ‘Demonology’ and ‘Necromancy’ words beyond that I was most concerned about, and didn’t get any further correction I was glad that at least I’d worked out the orientation correctly. I mean it’s a flippin’ circle and all the words appear right side up when facing them from the center of it. How the hell is there a bloody top to it?

“Tegan, relax and let the magic flow through you.” Initially I wondered how I was supposed to relax on demand while standing in the headmistress’s office, a place I expected only kids in trouble usually ventured. I had been on a roller-coaster of emotions since yesterday that hadn’t let up in its dipping and swerving consistency. For everything I seemed to learn I unearthed a thousand more troubling questions. I had no idea how I was supposed to let magic flow through me, and whether I wanted to let it, when I worked out how to do so anyway. Needless to say I was about as relaxed as a startled deer facing hi-beams on a motorway at night, and likely about to face the same thing as said deer in such a situation would. My heart was pounding up my throat. Sweat seemed to be jumping ship prior to said collision. My mind was screaming at me to get the hell out of the middle of the f’ing ritual circle.

Have you ever been doing nothing and a hum seems to appear within your ears when there is no sound. The hum becomes a buzz with a sudden shift of frequency and it feels like pressure is building within your ears before there is suddenly a pop, often imagined rather than heard, and you return to the silence that had always been around you, whilst you had lived through noise and pressure that if it existed, did so due to your body creating it. Well imagine that but not within just your ears.

The buzzing is heard within your toes, finger nails the tips of your hair, but it doesn’t stop. There’s no pop and release it just keeps building. Then while it is occurring in your illusioned genitals and you’re worried of sporting a boner and wondering if the illusion will still cover it, you seem to have one within your none existent illusionary female genitals and your nipples become rock hard. They have no illusion to hide their occurrence and you’re sure both older women can see your new female chest ornaments protruding from the overly tight clothing that seems designed to show them off. The pop, when it occurs, is thankfully and annoyingly just before you are sure you would experience the usual male orgasm along with the ‘La Petite Mort’ of a still not experienced female, mind blowing one.

The word ‘Wood’ before me is nearly blindingly shining in front of the top point of the star that I initially don’t count the word within a Greek Corinthian style column that says ‘Blaze’ glowing to the left of me. It’s only when I notice that the word ‘Life’ in a Doric style Greek column that was as close to the middle space of star points ‘Wood’ and ‘Course’ as the word ‘Blaze’ was to ‘Wood’ and ‘Irradiance’ that I realized ‘Blaze’ had a muted glow that was its own, and not caused by the brightly glowing ‘Wood’.

This was concerning as the pillar titled ‘Blaze’ had three lines like radians pointing to three words along the inner circumference of the outer circle. One of those words was the Demonology I’d been worried about entering the pentagram for.

“See I was right Decay pillar on a primary Wood foundation. Tegan also has a secondary Zephyr foundation and a potential secondary pillar of Blaze.” My grandma interrupted my musing. Turning I saw there were two more glowing words behind me. Inside the Tuscan style pillar with an unreadable word that was directly at the six O’clock position and actually couldn’t be read anymore as it was irradiating brighter than ‘Wood’ was. Beyond the point of the star pointing just before five O’clock was the word ‘Zephyr’ that glowed a bit more than the word ‘Blaze’ was doing on the opposite side of the circle from it.

The line that ran from star point “Wood’ to star point ‘Zephyr’ was bright silver. Three of the other four lines creating the pentagram were still the original black. The fifth line that ran from the points ‘Wood’ to ‘Ore’ was grayish. It became closer to silver at the end closer to the ‘Wood’ point of the star.

Studying the Tuscan pillar that was at the base of the floor art, I found it to have, like the Blaze titled Corinthian column, three lines heading to the inside of the Outside circle. Each ended in a word but only one made much sense. ‘Hex’ the word on my right, that would be moving toward the seven O’clock if looking from outside the circle, likely dealt with hexes and curses but what ‘Gab’ at the six O’clock position and ‘Chrysalis’ heading toward five O’clock meant had me drawing a blank.

“Tegan come here and pull your blouse out of the skirt at the front.” My Grandma interrupted my next attempt to study the pentagram in more detail. She then pulled my blouse up as I hadn’t done so and touched my navel piecing. “One week should be good enough. When you get into your dorm get a shower and then change into your lilac crop top that shows off your navel.” She then mumbled something about veil that I wasn’t able to catch as she spoke so fast. Or more likely, it was I that even while trying to concentrate on the spoken words seemed to get distracted and unable to hear her words. I felt a tingle on my belly, and looking at my navel, I found the jewelry was changed.

Though it still had three gold chains dangling beneath, the stone had changed. Instead of the round amethyst there was a marquis cut stone that seemed to have orange, pink and yellow hues to it. The marquis cut stone was vertically oriented and the gold mounting had writing the letters were hard to read. Hard to read except for five that were several fonts larger. The larger letters were like old books that capitalized the first letter of a new chapter. Around the edge of the mounting each word’s first letter was made of the significantly larger font.

“Perfect, so she is enrolled?” The headmistress inquired.

“Yes, she will be on correspondent course for this Winter Solstice taking her third year trials on the three subjects of Decay’s pillar at Gwithial Ylt. She can use four of your subjects for the other choices.”

“Perfect, Tegan you are not allowed to speak of Gwithial Ylt to anyone that has not attended there, which for you is great as you actually haven’t seen it, so have no reason to talk about it. Wear the top you’re Grandma stated and you will appear to inform to all that you passed the third year trials Magna Cum Laude. They will assume you took them early, when you will actually be taking them late.”

My Grandma agreed. “Yes, ensure it is covered all of next Tuesday’s evening so no one sees it change when my illusion ends. Per the requirements of your other school you are not allowed to talk about it so if someone comments that you changed the piercing, do not say anything to confirm or deny making any change. Don’t lie Tegan, hopefully you’ve learnt that you only lie when you know what you are doing. You can’t get in trouble if you just refuse to talk about something and let them assume whatever they want.”

I frowned but didn’t really want to say anything as though it seemed my headmistress knew all, I felt less humiliated if I didn’t confirm she knew.

“Oh, and you need to study hard as in just a bit over six months you have your third year trials on seven subjects you should have studied for three years. Gwithial Ylt has a stricter pass criteria of about the top third verses Belmare Moore’s nearly half the third years.”*

While I was wrapping my head around the bomb my Grandma just dropped on me my headmistress ensured I had enough to worry about. “Tegan, you can’t just pass the trials. You’re letting everyone know you passed them Magna Cum Laude. Thus you need to be in the top five percent to not be lying.”

“Grandma, why didn’t you just give me the standard passing one?” I asked annoyed.

“Gwithial Ylt requires you to pass at this level to allow for them to accept you late in their correspondent course. Be thankful I didn’t give you Summa Cum Laude’s stone instead of the Padparadscha sapphire** you’re currently wearing. I considered to force you to aim for the top three percent and thus ensure you definitely meet their requirement.” Was my Grandma’s unhelpful reply to my query. It also made me wonder if the school’s actual requirement was lower than the one she had told me. Maybe I only needed to pass and by forcing me to think I needed to meet top five percent of students she got me aiming higher than needed.

“We also need to address why you chose to transfer here. The easiest is you want to specialize in the Life and Illusion pillars, as those are Belmare Moor’s specialty and you would have stayed at Gwithial Ylt if you wanted to specialize in Decay, Battle or even Blaze.” Misses White changed the conversation. “It also would explain why you don’t know much magic in them as obviously you didn’t study those subjects at your prior school.”

“I need to understand how magic works too. I mean I can’t be surprised when a well turns into a portal like how we got to school. Grandma you said you would explain more about cantrips, why nursery rhymes work the way they do, and stuff?” I tried to get a better understanding so I didn’t feel lost, confused and generally well... like my question fizzled into not knowing what to say, so did my thoughts.

“That is actually a good idea. A cantrip is a shortcut or crutch for using a foundation that you don’t have natural talent in.” My Grandma began and indicated I should sit in the chair beside her. “I like you have ‘Wood’ as my primary foundation and when witches were seen using trees as portals the legends of dryads were born. Similarly ‘Course’ witches were the birth of stories on naiads, mermaids and selkie. ‘

Grandma took a breath and before I could interrupt and ask questions continued. “Of course the male dominated none magical society would associate animals, monsters or men in place of the witches they’d seen. Case in point the best known legend of an ‘Ore’ witch birthed both the tales of an ‘effeminate man’ known as the pied piper and the vicious criminal harlequin, and the whole confusion of angels being effeminate male or female. Angels would actually be tales spawned from seeing ‘Irradiance’ witches.”

The headmistress interrupted. “We don’t have time for this. You will have to initially come off as a cold aloof snob that looks down on Belmare’s students, so as to not say anything that shows your lack of knowledge. I will assign detentions against your poor social behavior to provide some time for you to meet your Grandma, and myself. I will give you books charmed to be legible only to you, so others think your studying magic far beyond them. Ignore teacher’s questions, I will have prepared them that I am handling your detentions. Oh, and as you already have created an enemy I’ll call that prefect to show you around. Ignore her, and look down on her.“

My Grandma grabbed my hand “Tegan, no matter what she asks about Thomas and contracts, ignore her or tell her, that her Mother must talk about that with Misses Goss. Don’t refer to me as your Grandma. Don’t ask her anything…

“Due to what Beatrice assumed earlier she would have to at least respond to an inquiry on where Thomas is now going to school. Failing not to would allow a feud to be declared. When it didn’t take it would bring your house of cards down.” The headmistress became increasingly more agitated. “What can she say and not lie? I was unaware of the formal contract when I agreed to this, Brin.”

My Grandma got up and started to pace. Her frown stopped me from bugging her on what her business with Beatrice and the prefect’s family was about. I wasn’t stupid to not know it clearly involved me, and I tried hard to think what it could mean other than what it appeared to tell.

My Grandma started laughing. “We’re making this harder than it needs to be. Tegan, listen you need to repeat this verbatim. No adding words at all.” My Grandma actually waited until she had got me to verbally acknowledge I understood. Not accepting my nod, as a good enough answer.

“Tegan, use this only If Beatrice asks. Ignore anyone else as if the words weren’t spoken. But, If Beatrice asks where Thomas is, you reply. ‘Thomas has been enrolled in Sexey’s School near Lusty Hill, Somerset,’ Note you never volunteer or talk about it under any other question as you don’t want to lie.”

“But, Grandma if I say that it means I am lying…

“No Tegan, witches are steeped in tradition and this is a formal way of telling Beatrice to fuck off.” I gasped, I mean when my Dad accidently hits himself with the hammer I’ve heard him swear, but I never thought I would witness it from my Grandma even if she did something more painful to herself by accident. “Remember, it is only said if Beatrice asks specifically where Thomas is. For any other question about Thomas from her you tell her to have her Mother talk to Misses Goss. To anyone else you need to be a stuck up bitch. Everyone here including the teachers, you consider below you.”

“She can’t behave that way to the Gwithial Ylt alumni on staff.” The headmistress said as the only challenge to the instructions my Grandma had given me. I was busy pinching myself as I am in a room with the headmistress, and Grandma is telling me to be rude and disrespectful to her staff.

“So Tegan, there are four exceptions that require you to be polite they are your Headmistress, Misses White, the two teachers Miss Hodges and Misses Fitzpatrick, and lastly the head of the girls’ dorms, Dame Martin. Don’t talk about magic. Oh, yes remember the boys and men here do not know about magic.”

Notes:
*Passing criteria for both schools and the allowed stone to signify achievement
Gwithial Ylt pass ratings for third year trials:
Pass – Approx top third of class
Cum Laude – Top thirteen percent of class – Imperial Topaz
Magna Cum Laude – Top five percent of class - Padparadscha Sapphire
Summa Cum Laude – Top three percent of class – Trapiche Emerald

Belmare Moor pass ratings for third year trials:
Pass – Approx top half of class
Cum Laude – Top twenty percent of class - Topaz
Magna Cum Laude – Top thirteen percent of class – Blue Sapphire
Summa Cum Laude – Top five percent of class - Emerald

Gwithial Ylt pass ratings for seventh year trials:
Pass – Approx top two thirds of class
Honores Excelsis – Top thirteen percent of class - Pink Star Ruby
Honoribus Summum – Top five percent of class - Diamond

Belmare Moor pass ratings for seventh year trials:
Pass – Approx top two thirds of class
Honores Excelsis – Top twenty percent of class - Ruby
Honoribus Summum – Top five percent of class - Diamond

Imperial Topaz are golden orange yellow vs. the clear or cloudy light blue of standard stones
**Padparadscha Sapphire has a distinctive blend of orange, pink and yellow tones within the stone
Trapiche Emeralds have a six pointed radial pattern within the gem