Reyna averted her gaze. Her face was heating up; she couldn’t stand to look at him any longer. 

‘I haven’t been close enough to anyone here that they wondered where I came from,’ she began speaking slowly. ‘I think my neighbours and friends just assumed I was another traveller who stuck around too long. I didn’t feel the need to tell them about my magic.. till the Creatures came. And I haven’t spoken to them since I was crowned so I don’t know what they think.’ She hastily changed her tune, not wanting the atmosphere to get too heavy.

‘I grew up in a witches coven. There aren’t any in this kingdom as far as I’m aware, but back in Europe, they are these big neighbourhoods, where all the houses are interlinked, with a bunch of witching families staying together. My mother- she was from South Asia. I was born back there too but she came to the coven when I was younger because she had met my stepfather. There were other children from other houses-we just spent our days brewing random potions and running around and performing spells.

‘When I got a bit older, my stepfather decided to make a magic school. He had always wanted me to be a powerful witch. Magic was cool, so I didn’t mind. It was fun, and he kept it rather informal. We would read and practice spells with occasional guidance from the Sages. They were older, well-respected wizards from different covens; my stepfather occasionally asked them to teach us. 

I didn’t really set out to be powerful, I just wanted to learn magic. So, I didn’t have an idea of how far I had come till one day when I challenged one of the Sages to a duel and won. Friendly duels were a thing back in our school, but I didn’t know any student who beat a Sage. I know my father had- but out of respect, I never challenged him.’

‘After I graduated, I stayed in the coven house and helped my father teach. I travelled too, sometimes alone, collecting magical artefacts, or visiting historical sites. I visited another magic school in the South with my stepfather to see how they ran things. It was interesting and quite different from ours. I thought they had too many rules though- towards magic in general. My teachers never emphasized on dark vs light magic, so we did whatever we wanted…’

‘Well, when I was there, one of the teachers mentioned this open Mullerian portal in the centre of an island country, and all the special precautions they had to take to keep the creatures the portal let out away from the people, and I was intrigued.’ She shrugged. ‘So my stepfather went back home and I travelled to this kingdom. The dark forest was quite a sight, but I got too overconfident and tried to close the portal… Anyways, I had to come to the main city to recuperate for a while.’ She hesitated, then added, ‘I worry it might have been my interference causing the barriers to collapse- though I don’t think so... it was almost a year later.’

‘You- you didn’t go back to your family for a whole year?’

‘No- as I said, I was recuperating.’

‘How badly injured were you?’

When she noticed his expression shift to wild concern, she couldn’t help but laugh. ‘Don’t worry- it took a while, but I’m fine. I think my pride was more badly bruised.’