Page 82 of A Monarch's Fall

“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.