The Student and the Storyteller

Chapter One

Sophia Hendrickson was everything her parents wanted her to be. She was nice, smart, dedicated, ambitious, and very, very smart. She went to the most prestigious school available and had the highest marks in her class. She was best friends with her twin sister, and Disaya––the queen of the Republic of Devo, the land of the konta––had her eye on the two of them.

But Sophie was very, very curious as well.

From a young age, the fraternal twins were selected by royalty to be some of the leaders of tomorrow. Brielle Hendrickson, future master of logs, records, and international affairs, and Sophia Hendrickson, future leader of studies of science and magic, were being groomed to take control in the near future. Their destinies were set in stone, and the two were closely monitored and protected.

There came the day when the two started preparing for the future and stopped reading up on the past. Brielle worked on making good decisions, using good judgement, and learning about the national archives. Sophie spent long hours in the school library and observatory, contemplating ideas and programs.

Then, Sophie got an idea.

It was a cloudy September day, and Sophie and Brielle were on their way to school. As a few drops of rain began to fall, the two of them ducked under a coffee shop awning.

“Let’s wait here till it gets better,” Sophie suggested as it started to drizzle. Brielle nodded in agreement and the sisters stepped inside.

“Okay,” Brielle replied, absentmindedly pulling her right hand through her wavy indigo hair. “Oh, wait! What day is today?”

“Friday,” Sophie said casually, standing in line to buy a hot chocolate. Suddenly, it clicked with her. “Wait a minute...crud! We’re meeting with Rita and Disaya today, aren’t we?”

At the mention of the queen and her sister, whispers started to drift through the shop.

“I’ll call her,” Brielle said, pulling out her phone.

“Okay, okay,” Sophie said, turning to place her order. Brielle left a message to Disaya, warning of their delay, as the rain poured down outside, pounding on the tin roof. Sophie picked their drinks off the counter and the two sisters sat down. Brielle took a sip of her coffee and adjusted the papers she was holding in a folder.

“Hey, Brielle, I wanted to ask you something,” Sophie asked.

Brielle’s head snapped up. “Oh. Hey. What is it?”

“What do you think of black magic?”

Brielle’s violet eyes widened with worry. “It’s bad. Why?”

“Well,” Sophie said, a little shakily, “I think there’s no such thing as bad, or good, just opposition––when it comes to magic, that is. I wouldn’t say there’s no good or bad in nature or people or anything. Anyway, my thought is, if I could find a way––sorry, if we, as in the konta...if we could find a way to use it for good, wouldn’t it be beneficial for society?”

Brielle thought over it a moment. “ I suppose, but you know it’s dangerous and downright wrong. You need to stay away from that stuff, Sophie.”

Sophie quickly shook her head. “Oh, no! I would never get near that stuff, I swear!”

Brielle narrowed her eyes. “If you say so.” There was a short silence, and then Brielle’s phone rang. “Oh! It’s Disaya!”

Heads snapped to look. The thought that Queen Disaya was calling someone in their presence was astonishing! But, sure enough, when Brielle answered the phone, there was the Queen’s voice on the other end.

“That’s okay, girls. Rita’s running a bit late, too. The bus she was taking got caught up in traffic on her way back from breakfast.”

“Okay!” Brielle said, saying goodbye and filling her sister in. The two sat for a little while longer, drinking their chocolate with some idle chatting.

When the two were finished, the rain was starting to let up. With a pair of smirks and nearly identical giggles, Brielle and Sophie set off into the rain, hand in hand. They took a detour from their normal school route and headed to the Noväess––a large, imperial palace that loomed over the city of Tiso, housing the Royals, their associates, the national library, archives, and science center. Every Friday, Sophie and Brielle headed there in the mornings rather than the Nova Royale Academy. The girls would spend the mornings with Disaya and one of the other rulers––often times it was Princess Rita, Disaya’s younger sister, but not always––and then, they would head their separate ways. Brielle would go down to the archives and the Diplomats’ Hall, whereas Sophie would head to the science center and the library. Disaya and Sophie were closer, whereas Rita and Brielle were nearly best friends. Rita was only fifteen, and Sophie and Brielle were nearing their thirteenth birthday, so it wasn’t that big a stretch.

Upon arriving, Brielle and Sophie held up their I.D. badges to the security guard at the front, who waved them into the corridor. The two walked back through the hallway until they came to the main chamber. It was a large room, with wooden desks all along the walls and granite floors colliding with bright white walls. Sitting at the two desks in the front were Disaya and Rita, hunched over stacks of reports and proposals.

“Hello, girls. Why don’t you two take your seats?” Disaya asked, standing up and moving a stack of papers. Disaya looked to be in her late forties, the slightest hints of wrinkles beginning to appear on her face. Her hair was a light magenta, usually pulled back in a bun. Her eyes were a bright crystal blue, almost the color of Sophie’s. She was usually wearing formal attire, so the black pants and white blouse she was wearing that day were no different from any other outfit.

“So, what are we talking about today?” Brielle asked excitedly, taking a seat in front of Rita’s desk and tilting it to get a better view of everyone. Sophie did the same with a chair by Disaya’s desk.

“Well, we were actually going to ask you guys to share some of the things you worked on last week. Sophie, we asked you to come up with a different way to improve the education system and to make sure everyone enrolled in our schools has a curriculum tailored to them while not taking away from anyone else. Brielle, you were asked to come up with a way of modifying the systems of the archives so that people could access the public files and not the private ones without separating the two of them.”

Brielle nodded. Sophie opened her mouth to speak, but Brielle jumped ahead of her. “Well, I thought that maybe we could find a way to require some kind of authorization to open certain files. Whether these are executed by magic or technology wouldn’t matter much, but we could have a certain spell lock that would only be opened by people who received authorization at the front or a card or key that was needed for a traditional lock could be used.”

Rita’s bright yellow eyes flew open. “That’s such a great idea!”

Disaya smiled. “That’s a good idea. I’ll suggest it to some of the archivers.”

Sophie felt a little bit of nervousness settle in her stomach. She’d spent her entire life trying to finally come across as better than her sister. Brielle was always the role model, the genius, the thinker. Sophie was too much of a dreamer to do much but suggest unrealistic things. Sophie felt even worse, feeling guilty about thinking such negative things about her sister. Brielle’s never done anything to me. I shouldn’t be thinking about her this way.

“Now, your idea, Sophie?”

“Well....” Sophie took a deep breath. “I think that we could have the teachers be given things that they need to teach, and it’s their job to make sure each student learns something on that level. Perhaps by sectioning off the students into groups, each student could receive something under a topic that was more tailored to their level of learning.”

Sophie sat awkwardly until someone replied. Surprisingly, it was Brielle. She spoke with a nervous voice, forced with lies, but a bit reassuring nonetheless. “It...it could work, I suppose.”

“The problem is,” Rita said quietly, getting louder as she spoke until she was at a normal volume, “that we can’t always be sure that it’ll be pushing students to their full potential. They may hold back so they’ll get easier work, and we can’t have that happen.”

Sophie looked down at her shoes. It was feedback like this that she got every Friday that made her feel like sinking back into her chair. Brielle Hendrickson, a visionary...and her sister, Sophia...she’s a capable leader, surely...she just has some unrealistic ideas.

How can an idea be unrealistic in a world of magic? This thought popped up in Sophie’s mind every time she felt pushed down. If they could do and create anything, there was nothing stopping her ideas from working, was there not?

Sophie sat there for the rest of the meeting, until the two girls were released. Brielle left, eager to get down to the Diplomats’ Hall, whereas Sophie lingered behind a moment. “Disaya, may I have a word with you?” Sophie asked when her sister had left the room and Rita had returned to her work.

“Um, yes, Sophie?”

“Well, uh, I was thinking. I had a really good idea. Not like my other bad ideas. I think this could be very important, and good, and it’s something we definitely should try, if that would be okay with you.”

“Go on,” Disaya said, the feeling of an expected disappointment clear in her voice.

“Well, my thought was, what if we took black and dark magic and used them to our benefit?”

“Sophia, what in the world are you talking about?” Disaya asked, a look of nervousness on her face.

“Well, I don’t think there’s such thing as good or bad in magic, just how people use it. So, if we could find a way to use ‘black magic’ to our benefit, that could really have a positive effect on society!”

Disaya shook her head. “Sophie, you’ve been warned from a young age to not deal with black magic. It’s something far too dark for you to be getting into.”

“I just thought...I thought it would be a good idea.”

The Queen’s voice was stern. “Go down to the library, Sophie. They’re waiting for you.”

Sophie turned and ran from the room.



Down in the library, Sophie went to her usual job of taking stock, filing some papers, getting some forms taken care of, and doing some minor computer repairs. It was all very elementary, repetitive things that she’d been doing since she was little. She loved her job at nighttime––the observatory was usually nearly deserted and the telescopes and equipment were all hers to use––but during the daylight hours, she was convinced she had the most boring job on the planet. There was nothing wrong with working at the library for her, but the fact that she had been working there for years and never done anything more but the same jobs was starting to get on her nerves. How come Brielle was attending meetings with highly ranked politicians and royal conferences and working down at the archives, one of the most important systems in the nation, while Sophie was stuck doing simple things she’d been doing forever?

That night, Sophie told Brielle she was going to stay late. Brielle went home and delivered the message to her parents, who were very used to Sophie staying late to go look at the stars. However, that night Sophie didn’t go to the observatory. Instead, she waited for the library to close down, telling her coworkers she was staying late to do some last check ups on some of the virus-infected desktops. When the place was closed, she picked up the keyring she had been given to lock up and went to the far corner of the library. She put key after key into the lock on the restricted access door until finally, one clicked. She’d seen the restricted files before, when Brielle was touring them. She knew that national secrets, some of the most important plans and archives, and, of course, magic scripts were locked behind that door. When the door swung open, she searched the wall for a light switch, finally finding it and turning on the lights. The restricted area wasn’t very large, probably around the size of a school library, and everything was organized so neatly that Sophie had no trouble finding her way around.

She slipped a book on black magic off one of the shelves and set it on one of the tables along the wall. She sat down and opened the book, flipping through the pages. “Huh...no....” She muttered every so often as she scanned through the pages. Finally, her eyes lit up. “See...I told them, you can do good things with this!” she said as she found a page that went along with her theory that black magic could be used to the world’s benefit. She looked down at her watch. “Great, it’s already ten. Mom and Dad are going to kill me...” she muttered, closing the book and standing up.

Only to find herself face to face with Disaya and three security guards.

“What did I tell you, Sophie?”











As usual, Lily Briger awoke to the sound of clashing pots and pans and cursing. She brushed a lock of reddish brown hair out of her face and climbed out of bed, changing out of her pajamas and into cargo shorts and a t-shirt. Not even bothering to acknowledge her brother, she walked straight into the kitchen, grabbed a bag of chips from the pantry, and leaned against the wall, eating the bag with a smug smile.

“Lily, for God’s sake, give me those!” Eric shouted, grabbing the bag of chips from her hands and turning away. Flicking her hands, Lily half levitated, half grabbed the bag back and popped another potato chip into her mouth.

Eric sighed and stormed into the living room, where he sat down and popped open a can of beer, taking a long swig. Lily finished her chips, threw the bag into the trash, and went into the bathroom. She picked up her brush and pulled it through her hair. She couldn’t help but smile when she looked in the mirror, because it was another victory for her, another loss for her brother. No matter how much her brother tried to scrub them out or use chemicals, her blue tips and highlights in her hair were in there for good and there was nothing Eric could do about it. Brushing her bangs out to the side of her face, she smiled as they flipped up at the end, as always.

She walked back out of the bathroom and back into her bedroom, where she closed the door, flopped back onto her bed, and went to sleep for another twenty minutes. Waking back up again, she walked back out once more, grabbed a soda from the fridge, and went back into her room to sit at her laptop for a while. She checked her email and Facebook, and then started her daily hunt for local sorcerers. It was a strange interest which got her a lot of hate and ridicule from her brother and her peers alike, but it was real and she couldn’t deny it, because she had learned how to do magic.

The door flew open at around one o’clock. “What are you doing?” Eric screamed.

“I’m checking my email,” she replied. Lily stood up, stretched, walked to the doorway, and smirked. She pushed the palm of her hand to her brother’s chest and gave him a quick shove, slamming and locking the door in his face. He immediately started banging on the door. “Let me in!”

“No thanks!” Lily shouted in reply, smiling as she grabbed her laptop and fell down on her bed.

The pounding on the door eventually stopped, and there came the sound of a can of beer being opened and sipped. Lily sighed and stared at the ceiling fan swirling overhead. This was her Saturday, every Saturday. Eventually, after the sound of her brother opening another beer, Lily took a few wary steps out of her room. Her brother, who was a drunk but easily saturated, lay on the couch, breathing steadily as he slept.

Lily grabbed a bag of chocolate chips out of the fridge and a bottle of Coke. She darted back into her room and watched a movie on her computer, careful to be quiet so as to not wake her brother. Part of her contemplated over visiting her mother, but she’d had enough of drunks for the week. Instead, she traced yellow patterns in the ceiling, connecting the dots as she pointed up.

Suddenly, there was the sound of movement outside her door, and Lily jumped to her feet.

“Lily Joan Briger, get out of there!”

Lily suddenly felt very nervous. The fact that Eric was using her middle name definitely wasn’t a good sign. “Fine,” she muttered, throwing the door open and stepping out.

“Lily, we need to talk,” Eric snapped.

“Oh, we do?” she replied.

“Yeah. Actually, I have to talk. You have nothing to say.”

Lily took a deep, shuddering breath. “What’s going on?”

“You’re going to boarding school, that’s what.”

“What!?” she exclaimed. “I’m going to boarding school? Hah! No way. You should know better, Eric, you can’t just get rid of me.”

“Actually, your school counselor requested it.

That only came as a half-surprise to Lily. She’d been meeting with Mrs. Summers for a long time, and it was clear that Lily was coming across as a little bit crazy: believing in magic, claiming that her brother, a successful real estate agent, was a drunk.

“Pack your things,” Eric said coldly. He walked away, leaving Lily standing in the hallway, frozen.



An hour later, Lily was crammed into the passenger seat of her brother’s worn down Chevy truck. Hardware clattered around in the bed of the seven-year-old pickup, and there were crushed-up cans of soda all over the floor. The entire ride was dead silent. Lily sat with her tongue pressed against her clenched teeth, sucking on a jawbreaker, while Eric sat tight-lipped in the driver’s seat, messing around with his GPS every time it took them down a dirt road.

“Get over it!” Lily finally exclaimed. “Not every road we take will be paved. I’m sure the GPS isn’t broken.”

“Shut up.”

Eric Briger was twenty four years old, and one of the best real estate agents in town. Lily was astonished that he could drink so much and maintain such a great career, but there were a lot of unexplainable things in life and her older brother wasn’t her problem. Lily’s mother died in childbirth, and she never knew her father--both Eric and Lily were accidents.

Lily was given to her aunt for seven years until her brother turned eighteen and could take care of her himself. There were a lot of things that Eric didn’t know about Lily, though. Sure, he knew she was turning 13 soon, she made mainly Cs and Bs, she hated most of the girls at her school, and she almost never went to the mall, but he could never tell you what her favorite show was, or who her favorite singer was, or even what grade she was in--seventh.

Unfortunately, what Eric remembered most about Lily was her fixation with magic. Eric was very religious, and thought that Lily was just misguided, hanging with the wrong crowd--and he was determined to “fix her”. He didn’t know the extent of to which she believed in magic, but he’d found her trying out spells or inquiring to local people who claimed they could do magic. Eric was nervous that her silly belief would one day turn into Satanic worship, and no matter how much Lily tried to convince him that it was innocent and completely different, he just wouldn’t hear it. Lily told him over and over again that magic was real and he was just oblivious, but when asked to prove it, Lily simply couldn’t.

He believed that was because she was incapable of doing it, because obviously, it didn’t exist.

The truth was that Lily showed him every time he asked to be shown. He was just too drunk to care.

When they pulled up to the school, Lily felt a little bit more nervous than before. The school looked like any other school, made of red bricks and white columns, but there was a separate building off to the side which looked to be dorms. Eric parked the car, grabbed Lily roughly by the arm, and took her into registration.

“Hey, I’m Eric Briger, this is my sister Lily Briger, I’m hear to drop her off.”

The secretary looked up with a kind smile. “Hello. My name is Cindy. We’re very pleased to have you hear.” She typed something into her computer and her eyes lit up. “Perfect! We have your name right here. I’m in charge of welcoming the new students and taking care of any issues you might have, so don’t be afraid to ask me for anything! We’ll send someone out to help you with your stuff. Eric, if you could fill out the forms on that table over there, I’m going to show Lily around our school!”

Lily honestly felt nothing negative toward this woman. She was being sincere, and there was a definite sign of kindness in her eyes. I suppose I’ll be nice to her, she thought as if it was nothing to even worry about.

Eric nodded and picked up several sheets of paper from the table off to the side of the room, while Cindy walked out from behind the counter and gestured for Concept to follow her out the other door. “Now, you’ve seen the outside of our school, of course. The building on the far right are our dorm rooms. You’ll find a kitchen on each floor. You’ll have one roommate chosen at random unless there are specific requirements left for us when a student is enrolled. Each room has two beds, two closets, a bathroom, and two desks. We expect that you will be respectful of our property.”

Lily nodded, extremely pale blue eyes wide with a mix of confusion and curiosity. Cindy turned to look down at Lily and suddenly frowned. “Uh...I’m sorry, uh, there was nothing that your brother said about...I mean...are you...?”

“My sight is fine,” Lily replied a little bitterly. She was used to people being thrown off by her eyes, often led to believe she was blind by their almost total lack of color.

“Oh! I’m so sorry, so sorry--”

“It’s fine, really. Everyone does it,” Lily said with a sympathetic smile.

“V-very well then. Uh, I’ll take you to the dorms in a little bit. Now, sixth grade is down this hall, seventh grade is upstairs, eighth grade is upstairs to the right, and electives run parallel to this corridor. If you go out to the left, you’ll find everything else.”

Lily nodded. “Is there a cafeteria?”

“The students have lunch in their homerooms. The rest of their meals are prepared for themselves in the kitchens, which are fully stocked.”

“Well, that’s a crappy idea.”

“What do you mean?"

“This is a special boarding school, of course. Say you have an anorexic student. Just eat a light lunch and skip breakfast and dinner.”

Cindy paused a moment, but quickly regained her composure. “For students with special needs, we take specific measures.”

“Oh.” Lily was quiet again as they went down the short hall that connected the two main corridors on the first floor.

“Yeah. We try to provide the best environments for our students, Lily.”

“Please, call me Concept,” Lily stated.

“Concept?”

“Yeah. My name is Concept.”

“I’m sorry, we call our students by their names--”

“That is my name.”

“It says on your registration forms that your name is Li--”

“Cindy, you’re really a sweet woman, and I’m so, so sorry, but,” Lily said, reaching up and pressing her forefinger to the center of Cindy’s forehead, “my name is Concept.”

Cindy was about to say something and back away when her eyes glazed over, and then returned to normal as the girl’s hand returned to her side.

“Y-yes. I’m sorry, Concept.”

Concept smiled. “So, where to next?”