The Outcast

Talk about the capture of the draconian female was all that anyone could talk about.

“Do you think she was here to attack us?”

“Maybe she was a scout.”

“There could be more of them out there?”

“My mom wants me to come home.”

“You’d think nothing interesting ever happened in their lives,” Dia commented four days after the incident as she sat down across from Lily in the canteen for dinner. In response, Lily motioned to the pages of homework in front of her alongside the potions book she had. “Ok, point taken” Dia laughed “The dragon-lady is more interesting than writing up the uses, and complications if not brewed correctly. I mean, are you seriously planning on doing every piece of work given to us on the night it’s given?”

Lily blinked away from what she was writing and swallowed the mouthful of delicious key lime pie she was enjoying.

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“You’re such a bookwyrm.” Dia’s voice was strangely fond, though it quickly turned mischievous. “Can I copy it when you’re done?”

This was becoming a habit, but Lily couldn’t find it in her to care. It made sure that Dia didn’t bug her about her immediate solving of homework, which wasn’t solely to do with the work itself. If she didn’t have to worry about the homework, then Lily had more time to sit and read other books. This time, she was trying to find any book in the library that could tell her something, anything, about the draconians and their relationship with witches.

So far, she had found nothing. All she could go off were the whispered rumours that were rattling through the school after the draconian female’s capture.

Lily was finding the stress of confusion building up in her like a fist twisting every muscle fibre under her skin until even the hot water of her baths couldn’t relax her. Nothing she was coming across here was making sense. Kiki had returned with the reaction Lily had predicted; things were obviously hidden deeper under the surface than the Fairies had predicted.

“Don’t you always?” Lily replied with a twitch of a smile.

“You’re a star! Love ya, Lil!” Dia grinned into the sickly-sweet dessert she had called a treacle delight.

“You just like my brain” It was scary how easily Lily had relaxed around Dia enough to even begin to tease her. It was fun, and Dia never reacted badly. In fact, just like now she would just chortle softly and offer up a less-than-innocent grin.

“Nah, just your work ethic.” Dia retorted.

“Oh, I’m sure she likes you for more than that, there’s so much to like.” Came the voice of the growingly-familiar voice of Finnigan Byrne who sat down opposite with a charming grin.

Lily couldn’t keep herself from laughing lightly, even when she shook her head in disagreement.

“You’re such a flirt Finn,” Dia pointed her spoon at him in an accusing fashion “Anyone would think you were popular and likeable.”

Finn gasped in mock offence. “How could anyone accuse me of such a thing?”

“I know,” drawled Rainer as he sat down, taking a huge mouthful of his roasted beef before smirking at his friend “Everyone knows you’re just an idiot with a good family name.”

“You know me so well,” Finn cooed in mock tenderness. He then turned to Lily and raised an eyebrow at what she was still writing despite the subtle look of amusement on her face. “You never get distracted, do you?”

Lily flicked her eyes up for a moment before shrugging. “I can still do my work while I listen to you all.”

“You could join in?” He suggested though his eyebrows quickly furrowed in confusion at the frown that appeared on Lily’s face.

“I could. But I’m not used to having interactions like this, so I don’t know how” She replied honestly, her eyes downturned in embarrassment while her cheeks flushed slightly.

The silence that followed that was a little awkward.

“Well…” Finn started “You’ve got plenty of time to practice.”

“Yeah, don’t think Finn could leave you alone at this point. Ow!” Rainer whined as he received a light punch to his upper arm. Lily glanced his way, and then to Finn who, to her surprise, was flushing slightly.

“You’re very kind,” she said with an obliviousness that made Dia snort in laughter.

“And you’re very dense”

“What? How?”

“Doesn’t matter, we still love you” Dia reached out to mess up Lily’s hair with a playful ruffle. Lily glanced around confused, Dia looked amused, while Rainer looked exasperated and Finn looked somehow embarrassed. They were all making as much sense as everything else she had discovered from this place.

The quick jibes and charming atmosphere lingered for the rest of the dinner and during the short walk back to the dormitories.

“Finn so has a crush on you.”

The cheeky statement from Dia as she shut the door of the dormitory behind them short-circuited Lily’s brain. She turned her head so fast that her neck cricked painfully.

“What?” Lily’s confusion and disbelief couldn’t be masked “Don’t be ridiculous!”

“I’m not, you really are dense when it comes to social stuff aren’t you?” Dia laughed good-naturedly.

“I…” Lily could feel her cheeks flushing, but she wasn’t sure if that was because of the pointed comment on her lack of social skills, or the idea that Finnigan Byrne liked her. Shaking her head, she turned away from Dia. “He wouldn’t like someone like me.” She finally said, confused by the pang of disappointment in her stomach.

She quickly pushed that feeling aside, allowing the logic of her father’s lineage to come through. Finnigan Byrne was not a romantic opportunity, he was the ancestor of the people who had built this school. He was a high up family name, and therefore a complete danger to her and everything she was here for. It didn’t matter that he wouldn’t like her anyway; for the exact same reasons why he was a danger to her.

It shouldn’t matter. But Dia wasn’t about to let it go.

“Oh, come on! So, you’re quiet, big deal. You can still be liked despite that!” Dia protested.

“Dia, please.” Lily sighed “I’m not… interested in that kind of thing.”

“Sure, sure. If that’s true, make sure you let him know” Dia waved off Lily’s words with a shake of her head, perhaps realising not to push it.

“He’s not going to need telling,” Lily mumbled as she placed her homework on Dia’s desk “Here, you can copy that when you want. I’m going to take a bath.”

“Awesome! Thanks, Lil!” Dia chimed, not noticing the avoidance of the subject. With a flick of her eyes towards Oscar on her own desk chair, Lily trudged into the bathroom with the cat hot on her heels mewling happily as though he just wanted to be with her after a day of her being out of the room.

The running water from the faucets covered the low words from Oscar who hopped up onto the side of the bath like he usually did when he followed the fairy inside. “Everything ok, Lils?” He asked softly, his black ears twitching at the close sound of water falling.

“I’ve been thinking,” She began, hesitant to voice something that kept visiting her mind “I want to speak to that draconian girl.”

Oscar paused, his mind struggling to register the statement much as Lily’s had a few minutes before. His fur bristled in discomfort as he shuffled his front paws to sit himself up straighter.

“Why?” He asked at last.

“Because nothing makes sense so far.” Lily murmured, cautious of being overheard even with the taps running and the thick walls of the bathroom. Even with how many times she had gotten away with talking to the cats, this was a different topic rather than empty reports. “We’ve found nothing on what is going on here with the witches, and what we have seen doesn’t match anything we were taught. A draconian would have another story, and a reason for being here; maybe she is here for the same reason.”

Again, the cat shuffled, obviously choosing his words carefully. “I get that you are confused and probably frustrated that we’ve not found anything yet but doing something like that is too risky. How would you even get her to speak to you? If she thinks you are a witch she’ll never talk, and if you tell her you’re a fairy, she could rat on you and then you’ll end up in the same situation as her. Or worse.”

“The longer I’m here, the riskier this gets.” Lily reminded him logically.

“I know, but you need to think this through.”

“All I do lately is think about what I’ve found, and what I’ve not found. Nothing is adding up; these people are far from evil. This is just another school setting, with teachers and bullies and childish laughter. Not one thing could be used in a war, there’s nothing that suggests we are right in what we are taught.”

“Kiki and I could maybe search the town?”

“And if that’s just a normal town like it looked when I visited?”

“Then we’ll look deeper.”

“Which is just delaying the risk until a later date.”

“What’s wrong with that?” Oscar half hissed in demand “Surely it’s better to play it safe for as long as possible?”

Lily frowned before looking towards the locked bathroom door. She knew why Oscar was asking such a thing, normally she would never have dared do anything risky for fear she would fail at it.

“I’m scared, Oscar.” She whispered, sitting on the edge of the bath and running her fingers over his soft fur. “If I don’t find something soon, I’m scared…”

“Of what? That we won’t have enough time to protect ourselves?”

“Well, that…” Lily sighed with a look of despair seeping into her disguised eyes “And that I won’t want to find something.”

Oscar’s eyes widened at the crack in the girl’s voice. Quickly getting to his feet he hopped onto her lap and nuzzled her chin. “Oh, Lil.” He mumbled.

Admitting it out loud hurt. It filled her with an illogical and aching feeling of failure. She had fun here, and she was growing a substantial soft spot for her roommate along with others. Some of the teachers had managed to elicit fondness from her through their encouraging treatment unlike many of those had back at home. But the longer she allowed herself to have friends, to feel valued, the more it weighed on her mind. She knew she would fall into this easily, lulled into it through pleasant feelings. And in doing so, she would be failing her own kind, her family!

“I need to find something, Ozzy.” Lily sniffled.

“It’ll be ok.” Oscar licked at her chin gently, “We’ll find something.”

The sound of water stopped behind them, the bath recognising the right time. Neither the fairy nor the cat moved for a few minutes; Oscar nuzzling her chin to comfort her.

“I’ll start checking out the Lock Up and see if there’s any way to get in there. For now, you should get in that bath and relax for the night. If you are too worked up, questions will be asked.”

Lily nodded in defeat, waiting for Oscar to jump down from her lap before getting rid of her clothes and settling into the bath to do as he suggested.

It took the best part of the following week for Oscar to come back to her. Days which were filled with the same lessons filled with slow progress, and laughter between friends. But when Oscar finally did come to her, Lily’s fears were conflicting with her mind more and more in the night hours.

“There are some hours in the small hours of the morning where there are only sentinels on the door, no guards or anything inside.” Oscar was saying while Dia was in the bathroom. “There’s an upper window which you could get into if you use magic.”

Lily’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion, but she didn’t need to speak before Oscar continued. “I can only guess that it’s arrogance that leaves it without too many guards, though I think the rooms themselves are magically protected without the keys. I saw a few insects zapped into non-existence when they got too close.”

“So, how would I get in through a window on the upper floor? It’s not like I can hover with those boots let alone fly.”

The cat stared up at her with a look that told her Lily was being stupid. Lily’s mind ticked over slowly, painfully slow. Until finally… “Oh, Fairy Magic.” She realised sheepishly, watching Oscar roll his eyes.

“That was slow,” He teased.

“Shut up,” Lily pouted.

“At least you got there in the end,” Oscar chortled. “If we get some plant matter, you’ll be able to create enough vines to climb up to the window and get in. The draconian is a couple of floors down, in room nineteen. She’s the quietest one there. Some of them seem a bit insane, and all of them except her are witches of various ages. You’ll have to make sure none of them sees you if you are going in there, if one of them decides to shout about an intruder, people might look into it.”

Lily nodded in agreement.

“Should be easy enough, the doors of the cells only have half windows, so you’ll have to crawl through the corridors and be silent down the stairs. She’s thankfully at the end of a corridor away from others, probably so she cannot talk to anyone else, but that means no one will hear you once you are there unless you scream and yell.”

“Have I ever yelled?” Lily asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Not since you were a kid and you got that wood piece stuck in your leg. So, you’ll be fine so long as she doesn’t stab you through the window.”

“She doesn’t have her weapon?”

Oscar chuckled and shook his head “No, she doesn’t. I’m pretty sure that is locked away in the basement, but I couldn’t get in there to confirm.”

“Well, that’s ok. I just want to talk to her anyway.”

“What are you going to say?”

Lily blinked in thought, her mind trying to focus on some of the questions that were bugging her. She knew that wasn’t what Oscar was talking about though, he wanted to know what she was going to say to make the draconian even willing to answer those questions.

“I don’t know,” She mumbled honestly.

Oscar sighed, looking up at the bathroom door. They were running out of time for this conversation. “Well, think it over. You should go Friday night, Dia sleeps heavily and always sleeps in so you’ll be able to lay in and catch up on sleep when you are back.”

“Yeah. Ok.”

When Dia opened the door to walk back inside, Lily was sitting with her potions book open, acting like she was reading up on that day’s lesson of changing lead to silver with an Argene potion.

Friday was only a few days away, but they were difficult to get through without her mind wandering. Lily had no idea what she could say to convince the draconian that she wasn’t there to fetch information for the witches. She only had one idea, but it was her riskiest one yet.

Lily did not take the potion that hid her true appearance on the evening of Friday, and she was woken by hissing in front of her face.

“Are you insane?!” Kiki hissed down at her in anger.

“What if Dia woke up and saw you like this?!” Oscar joined in.

Lily’s blue eyes blinked through the darkness at them, sitting up so as to force them from snarling down at her face.

“This is my best chance; no one will see me,” Lily whispered, quickly swinging her legs off the side of her bed and stood silently. “You guys are my lookouts, and I have a vial with me in case I need to quickly alter my appearance and make some excuse.”

“I can’t believe you!” Kiki growled as she trotted to keep up with Lily as she left the room. “This is so dangerous!”

“They won’t see me,” Lily assured her. To make a point of this, she raised her hand and black shadows licked around her fingers before spreading to the lights in the corridors, causing them to dim and shield Lily from the immediate view of anyone who could leave their dormitories. “It’s not my strongest element, but I can still make good use of the darkness for something like this.”

“Hmph.” Kiki scoffed.

“Good thinking kiddo.” Oscar piped up before running ahead to check out the stairway down to the entrance.

“And how are you going to hide if there’s anyone outside when we go through the statue?” Kiki was still growling lightly.

“It’s two in the morning.” Lily sighed “How likely do you think that will be?”

Kiki clicked her tongue but said no more.

Lily was right, though. No one was outside this time of night. She shivered at the temperature change as the cold night air hit her skin. The cold wouldn’t settle in, the ice magic within her veins wouldn’t allow that, but the difference between temperatures wasn’t something she could immediately ignore.

“We’re going over the back boundary,” Oscar informed Lily as he led the way behind the dormitory buildings, so they were secluded in darkness as they moved. As she walked, Lily plucked a couple of vine roots from the ground. At the boundary she knelt to plant the first vine in the ground, placing her hand beside it and concentrating. With a low creak of quick growth and a glow of green beneath her hand, the vine shot upwards, curling tendrils into the gaps of concrete for stability. Her silver eyes watched the vine reach up until it was lost into the darkness above, the breeze causing her white hair to sway back and forth in the ponytail she donned it in.

“You guys will need to fly up while I climb,” Lily instructed; her words met with a small fluttering of the cats’ wings springing from their shoulder blades. They flew quickly and silently upwards into the darkness.

“I really wish I could do that,” Lily grumbled to herself, grabbing the vines with one hand and starting her climb up. At least he was used to this, climbing up and down her home had given her plenty of practice. She was slow though, almost two months of no practice made her muscles ache as she climbed. Every few feet a glow of green showed on her feet to grow thicker vines up under them to take her weight. Once at the top, her job was easier as she could hang from the end of the vine and have it grow towards the ground.

She had picked a place that was in the centre of two custophinga sentinels, hoping that they wouldn’t pay her any attention if she still didn’t have wings. Thankfully, her assumption was correct; neither moved even remotely.

“We’ll have to leave it there and hope someone doesn’t see it from that side,” Oscar stated close to her ear in the darkness. “If we need to get back over quickly, this is the best way.”

Lily hummed in agreement, reaching out to take gentle hold of his tail so he could lead her to the next wall she would need to climb. It was pitch black to her eyes this side of the boundary, the moon shone from the front of the Lock Up, leaving them behind it cast completely in shadow. She trusted the cats wholeheartedly though; she knew that Kiki had vanished her wings and gone to sit at a vantage point a little way off to keep an eye on any movement around the front.

Oscar glided to the ground, guiding Lily’s hand with it until she was met with a very thin slice of dirt between the concrete ground beneath her bare feet and the stone building. Placing her hand on the ground, she planted the second vine with the other. This climb was a few feet taller, so Lily made sure to increase the shadow that laid across her, unmoving and deceiving even if a light was shone their way. Oscar flew up first to nudge the loose window he had discovered open, and noiselessly, Lily dropped herself inside onto the child of metal lined floors.

The material felt cruel against the balls of her feet, claustrophobically so. At least with stone, she could still feel a sense of freedom with weeds, vines, and moss growing up and through it. But this metal interior made her feel oddly exposed and powerless, more so than anyone had ever made her feel. Swallowing back the wish to leave already, and the fearful doubts that this was the right call, Lily slipped to a crouch and began to gingerly make her way down the hallway.

It was difficult to move silently in a crouch, but there were snores and grumbles from a few of the cells they passed which covered any minuscule noise that came from her. Lily still couldn’t figure out exactly why there was a jail of sorts directly behind a school; it was the only threatening thing she had come across so far.

Down two flights of stairs and Lily found Oscar guiding her further and further down the corridor, towards the end where the moon was barely shining through from its high angle.

“I can smell you out there even if I can’t hear you.” A rough female voice sounded from inside the room at the end. Lily stood rooted to the floor. Oscar shared a look with her that seemed to be defeat; we’ve come this far, he seemed to say.

Letting out a shaky breath, Lily raised to her full height and walked towards the door until she could see inside. The Draconian inside was bathed in a strip of moonlight, making the purple scales on her face glitter like obsidian glass. The purple glint in those eyes that met hers seemed to glow in the darkness.

“A fairy?” The Draconian didn’t mask her confusion.

“Yeah. Long story.” Lily replied awkwardly “They, erm, they call me Lily.”

“Xalina.”

An awkward silence fell, Lily really should have had a plan of what to say. She knew that. But she was not well versed in conversation, her time at this school had proven that enough times. It would have been easier if Dia had been in on everything with her. Lily thought she would know exactly what to say.

“What is a fairy doing in the Lock Up but not in a cell?” Xalina broke the silence with curiosity.

“I wanted to speak to you” Lily found her voice saying with honesty. “I’m here looking for information to help us protect ourselves in the coming war. I thought maybe you were here for a similar reason.”

“We do not take part in your ridiculous wars.” Xalina growled softly.

“Ridiculous wars…” Lily repeated, surprised by the tone. “There’s nothing ridiculous about slaughter.”

“There is when you all remain in darkness about your reasonings and merely follow the whispers of pasts long gone.”

“What do you mean?”

“That’s what we are taught about you. Fairies are so cut off from the world they live and die through their own ignorance.”

Lily frowned deeply. Her chest ached in confusion and frustration. A low rumble of a laugh filtered through the door, Xalina was amused by this reaction.

“Let me guess,” She started “You’ve come to find information only to realise that there is none to find?”

Lily nodded.

“I did the same once, I met a young witch when she holidayed with her parents. I thought I ought to fear them, but she was, and still is the greatest thing in this world. They were taught that we draconians are savages, and we, in turn, were taught witches were dangerous. But I could never harm her, and she wouldn’t harm me.” Xalina sat herself down and rested her head against the wall of her cell. “I don’t know what your kinds have against one another, but there are good witches.”

It wasn’t the information that Lily had been hoping for. It pulled a sigh from her lips.

“I know there are.” She admitted, “I never expected to come here and make friends.”

“You should show them mercy.”

Lily sighed again. “When the war starts again, they won’t show us any.”

“All the more reason for you to show it, no?”

The purple in Xalina’s eyes burned as they directed themselves straight into Lily’s. It wasn’t a plea for the race as a whole, but for the one which the draconian had spoken about previously. Something dawned on her then.

“You were here to visit your friend.”

It wasn’t a question, but Xalina smiled sadly, “More than a friend, but yes. It’s her birthday soon, so I wanted to give her a gift. I didn’t expect to be caught, now I will only be causing her sorrow.”

“But, why let them imprison you if you weren’t here to attack?”

“They would imprison me no matter my reasoning for being here, as will they do to you if you are discovered. Besides, if I told them a witch had come to care for one of my kind, my witch would be locked in here with me. So, I will rot in silence.” Xalina’s tone was full of finality, she had accepted her fate and she dared Lily to contradict her.

Lily couldn’t. She could merely stand in awe of a love that crossed races despite the way they had been brought up. Perhaps such things were possible between fairies and witches; perhaps the war had gone on long enough and it could be stopped with the right proof that witches were not inherently evil.

“You’re braver than I,” Lily whispered into the silence.

“You’re kidding right?” Xalina snorted when met with a sceptical look her eyebrows raised in wonder. “Seriously? You’re wandering around in a witch community after living the sheltered life of a fairy, and you think I’m the brave one?”

“I was ordered to come here.” Lily countered “You came here on something pure, a wish to see a loved one.”

“You should give the individuals here a chance, some of them might look past the whole race difference. Though, not many I suppose.” Xalina added in an afterthought.

Lily glanced to Oscar who gave her a look of exasperation. “Such a thing would be way too risky!” Xalina glanced around in confusion, her eyes widening as there was a flutter of wings and Oscar twitched his whispers in the moonlight. “Hey!”

“Ah, so it’s true that fairies have companions that can talk and fly?” Xalina sounded impressed.

“You don’t?” Lily asked.

“Nope. We don’t have any companions at all, not even ones like witches without powers.”

“I wouldn’t survive without mine,” Lily said honestly, scratching Oscar behind his ear as he hovered there. She couldn’t fathom being stuck in a silent room without Oscar and Kiki. The thought itself made her sigh softly. “I wonder if we could get you out of here” She mused.

“Don’t be daft, you’d put yourself in more danger.” Xalina chuckled.

“At least I’d have another ally somewhere.”

“You have your kind, don’t you?”

“Well…”

“Hardly,” Oscar scoffed “Every time we send a message back, they just say the same thing. Witches must be hiding the secrets, keep looking.”

“Hiding secrets?” Xalina laughed again. “They’re just living their lives.”

“We can see that, but if they aren’t preparing for a war why will the war continue in five years again?”

“It’s not making sense, but the council isn’t willing to think about any other ideas.” Lily sighed.

“They sound a bit… well, small-minded.” Xalina deadpanned, though at the silence she was met with she coughed awkwardly “Sorry”.

“It’s ok,” Lily mumbled. “I suppose it’s true, we’ve been secluded for so long. It would be good to have someone who knew the truth about me as well as the outside world.”

“We should go, Lil,” Oscar informed her, glancing to the moonlight position to check how it had moved.

“Already?”

“They have magic scans throughout the night, staying too long would be way too dangerous.”

Lily sighed and looked back to Xalina. “I’ll try and find a way to get you out. It was nice to meet you, Xalina.”

“Hmm, don’t worry about it.” The draconian female waved her off lazily, obviously not believing Lily would come back.

Both Lily and Oscar dropped to the floor and noiselessly crept back the way they had come. The vines carrying them back down and vanishing into the ground and then the second vine carrying them back over the wall.

After taking her concealing potion, Lily struggled to get to sleep, her mind whirling with more thoughts than she’d had before the visit to Xalina.