Congratulations! You've found my secret page. Please enjoy this bonus passage from The Source of Everything.
“Why do the wizards fight so much, if they’re supposed to be good friends?”
Astronorion was lurking in the ship galley looking for a snack to eat, but at the sound of my voice, he looked up at me with his round green cat eyes and smiled wide. “Why, young Addie, it is infact, because they’re such good friends that they fight so much! They’ve always bickered, from the first day I had them in my after school club.”
“After school club?” I questioned.
The cat wizard stood on the counters opening cabinet after cabinet, but frowned at the contents.
“Why, yes. Your island doesn’t have magic schools, if I’m not mistaken? The magic academy in Triton required middle and upper school students to fulfill a certain number of credits per semester, and you could attend an after school club to do that. Most students did, because if not, they might not even graduate! That’s how your father and all the others ended up together in my classroom! I ran Coleopterists Club, or “Beetle club” for short. We learned all about the various shelled beetles of the islands that dot the World Ocean, often going out into the field and hunting them. My favorite past time! I don’t think your father joined because he liked beetles, rather he just didn’t want to be expelled from the school. He sure caused me and the others grief!”
“What did he do?”
The cat wizard at last found a stash of cookies in a bottom drawer, which he ripped open and began devouring.
“Let’s see… he was about fourteen the first year. Very scrawny, very messy, tall hair like a wisp of flames. Slept in corners and tried to hide it; annoyed Loon, who didn’t want to be there in the first place, he played jokes on the ever nervous Clyrin, who was a baby-faced 5th grader. And he got Bonnie all hyper and bouncing off the walls with his silly antics. Always tried to get the best of me, but I saw through his tricks!”
“So, my father was a troublemaker?”
“Exactly. The worst student I ever had in that club.” The cat sat down on a stool to chew his cookies. “But Galdrin managed to calm Andrew down. Gave him a bit of his own medicine once in a while.”
“What about Fanira and Ulfeann? What were they like?”
“Fanira was extremely shy. There weren’t many mermaids in the academy at the time, and she was the only one who couldn’t breathe air, which is why she wears the helmet. She just stayed in a corner and tried to keep out of the way. Ulfeann wasn’t in the Beetle Club at all. She met the others in a different way— a most remarkable event that changed everything for them.”
“Tell me about that!” I said, sitting myself down on a stool.
“It was almost the end of the school year. A day of arguing, tricks, and trouble stirred up by your father. We had visited a nearby island with a secluded forest, searching for white scarabs. Clyrin happened to find an illegal pixie trap in a thicket. And what would you know? A noctsie was stuck inside it! Pixies are much smaller, and usually die instantly when the trap slams shut. Wretched cruel hunters! But a noctsie is slightly too large for these, and she was badly mangled by the trap. The poor girl was quite hurt, with a tangle of sloppy enchantments all about her, akin to being wrapped in barbed wire! Clyrin ran and got the rest of us as quick as he could, though your father seemed hesitant to get involved. Perhaps he didn’t feel confident he could help. For an hour, the rest of us all poured over the fairy trap, trying to free Ulfeann with various spells and sheer brute force. We were in danger of hurting her further.
“We nearly gave up until Fanira found the right spell to do the trick, but she needed all of us to join in, your father included. I think that was the day his heart began to grow. As a team, and maybe finally friends, they used their magic to free that noctsie: Ulfeann. From then on, she decided to attend school to be a wizardess with the rest of us— rare for one of her kind.
“That is the moment when your father and the others all finally began to like each other, instead of merely tolerate each other. The following year, they could’ve all gone off to a different club, particularly Loon, who wanted nothing to do with beetles, and only wanted to get back to Theater Club. But to my astonishment, they all came back the following year! Eventually they joined the Society of Eyes, and had many adventures together. And it seems you’ve heard about most of them, yes?”
I nodded sadly. “From my mother.”
Astronorion looked me squarely in the eyes with his bright lime green ones. “The first time Julie walked through the door of my classroom, with Andrew by her side, I knew that rascally boy had met his match. She was an unofficial member of the Beetle Club, and one of the most wonderful young ladies I’ve ever known. She would’ve made a wonderful wizardess, but she seemed content to watch us handle all the magic.”
I was surprised to hear this about my mother. My heart ached, thinking of her, and suddenly I felt like we couldn’t get to the Source fast enough.
“I think she does have some magic,” I said ponderingly.
The cat wizard laughed. “Yes, I believe you’re right. No wonder she fit right in with magical beings from other worlds. They were all the best of friends for a long time… Andrew and Julie, Loon and Fanira, Bonnie, Galdrin, Clyrin, and Ulfeann.”
“Until my father disappeared?”
The wizard cat nodded. “It was several years after they graduated from the academy. They waited a month for him to return on his own before getting worried. We all searched, sailing even off the edge of the map a few times. But we all grew tired and gave up after a while. Except for Galdrin, who went off on his own. Poor soul.”
“Galdrin was my father’s best friend, right?”
“That is true... I had hoped to see him again when I heard your father returned. But that seems to not be the case...”
I nodded, feeling sad, and finally understanding Loon’s anger at my father.
“We never heard from your dear mother again. She had no vessel with which to travel the celestial seas to Triton, so that must have been why. Loon and Fanira broke up, saddest of all.”
“They were together?” I burst out.
“My students had great affection for each other! There were a lot of winks and flirts and silly stuff between them that as a cat, I cannot understand.”
I was silent, processing all these stories I had never heard until now.
“Well, time to work on some theorems,” Astronorion said, hopping off the stool and striding quietly out the galley door.
BONUS ARTWORK
