It was not until late in the night, after the students were fed and asleep in their chambers that Genevieve had a chance to invite the Kingsley siblings to what used to be Sheehan’s office. The four of them destroyed the student and teacher records while they discussed the inevitable attack. The Fomorians did not need to know exactly how many students Sheehan accumulated.
“We need to make a SWMP and evacuate the students.” Genevieve told the trio.
“To make a SWMP large enough for our students we’d need four Elemental Stones. And there is no guarantee the students would all end up in the same places Beyond the Veil-” Lilith gasped.
“I know.” Genevieve nodded as she gathered up an armful of scrolls to burn. Sheehan told me to trust my gut. “We already have two between Shirley and Oxley.” She would have had all four if he did not send Eden with her sister, but Suki and her group would need Eden more than her.
“We could make a bunch of tiny SWMPs?” Shirley suggested, her breath hung in the air as mists. “Wait. No. We still need a lot of Mana that we don’t have between the four of us.” She glanced at the Halfling. Genevieve was the only Mana Major in this room and maybe one of a handful in the castle.
“Give me those, Miss Lamb. Before you hurt yourself. Oxley! Go and start a fire in the courtyard. A big one. I don’t care if those Fomorian bastards see it. I’m freezing my tail off in here.” Shirley ordered, uncrossing the leg she folded over the other. She hopped down from the desk stained by a pool of ink. Tiny, invisible bells jingled as Shirley walked. Ever since Sheehan’s vigil, the Will-O-Wisps took notice of all the despair and returned to the castle with a vengeance to feed. “I’ll sweep the halls one last time.” Genevieve said resolutely. She grabbed a candle. “To ensure none of those pesky Will-O-Wisps bother Arthur’s children while they slumber.”
“Isn’t that what Sheehan’s pet is for?” No fairy dared to speak of such heinous curses.
“Normally, yes, but he’s not here anymore.”
“What do you mean, ‘he’s not here anymore’? Genevieve. What have you done?”
“I sent away the only other Mana Majors in the school.”
“Why would you do that?!”
“Would you like them landing in the hands of the Fomorians?”
Even the dead could be used to make…another Vita Loquitur or an immoral Conduit.
Shirley turned to grab Genevieve, but she saw the candlelight bobbing down the pitch-black corridor. The windows were boarded up after Sheehan’s vigil so the students could not see their doom approaching. There was no way that three siblings and a Halfling could save all of them from the Fomorians. Even if they had the whole Pantheon’s blessings to protect them.
“Lilith. Hold your arms out. We’re burning every scroll in this castle before the sun rises!” Shirley scowled, stacking every scroll she could lay her hands on into her sister’s arms. Except for three. Hers, Lilith’s and Oxley’s. She folded those three and slipped them into the lining of her pink woollen sweater. It seemed that Genevieve did not have one. Unless…Could it be? Did you take her scroll to the Fomorians? Did you not give her one because she’s a Fomorian? If only I could ask you. We could use your help, Arthur.
“Sh-Shirley?” Lilith stammered, reaching out to grab her sister when she heard no bells.
After a lifetime of being trapped in Snowfell, memorising the settling of the stone bricks to the thumping of her brother’s footfalls so she could foolishly attempt to run away from him, Lilith could hear every crinkle and crumple of the scrolls tumbling from her arms onto the carpet.
“Yeah?”
“Nothing. I thought-” Her mind flashed back to the way that Gideon used to treat her.
“I’m still here. Don’t worry, Lilith. I’m not like Gideon or our father. If they could not separate us, the Fomorians can’t.” Shirley wrapped both of her arms around her blind sister and squeezed.
That’s right. If those monsters could not take them away, what can the Fomorians do?
Their father was known as the Beast of Many Faces and feared prior to his downfall. The shrines dedicated to the Pantheon were replaced with their father’s likeness and every year the prettiest daughters and their strongest sons that the villagers had to offer were sacrificed to him, so they didn’t end up like her mother’s village. Once a thriving village, Shirley’s own mother said ‘no’ to the Beast of Many Faces and he reduced the entire village to a crater at the base of the mountains that later filled with rain. Her mother’s life was spared due to being pregnant. Shirley, Lilith and Oxley were all children of the sacrifices and the Beast of Many Faces. During his travels around the Other World, even after they told him that they used to collect the sacrifices from the shrines for their father, Sheehan invited them to this castle to live and teach students.
Lilith was equal parts frightened and comforted by her sister’s embrace. Oxley might have been physically stronger, but Shirley was the emotionally strong one. Nothing bothered her. Except their father (deceased), their half-brother Gideon (also deceased) and now the Fomorian army.
“Sh-Shirley?”
“Yeah?”
“Can we really stop them?”
“It’s not about stopping those Ebony Sigils, Lilith.”
“Then what can we do?”
“We’re going to survive. Like you survived our disgusting brother and our equally disgusting father.”
“What if we can’t?”
“We don’t have the option to fail. These kids that Sheehan saved are depending on us. Speaking of Jewels. When this is over, we should see how she and Porter are doing over there in Frogbellow.”
“That sounds wonderful.” Lilith whispered. “Didn’t they have a baby the last we met?”
Neither of the half-sisters wanted to let go of each other. For a moment, the sisters did not want to think about what awaited them outside this room. At least they had each other to hold. There was also Oxley and Freya in this castle. Far from here, lived their half-brother Porter, his wife and their child. Genevieve did not have anyone to live for.
***
The Halfling stood vigil. Watching the records crackle and burn in the roaring flames. To outsiders they must have looked like quite the odd group.
“Finally! That should be the last of them.” Shirley dusted her hands as Oxley handed her the last basket crammed with scrolls. Freya held Lilith’s hand in her stumpy forelimbs.
“Genevieve? Where are you-”
“Thank you, Shirley. Lilith. Freya. Oxley.” Genevieve bowed to them. “You really should rest after all of your hard work. I shall keep the fire stoked tonight while I corral and tack all the Nightmares for the disabled students. We’ll evacuate as soon as dawn breaks.”
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