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Chapter Text

Returning to the second floor of the main school building, Delila followed closely behind Diana into the south corridor and towards a set of large double doors located in the middle of the corridor, intently listening to Diana giving her a brief rundown of the room they were about to head into—the auditorium.

"The auditorium is used to host school-wide assemblies or events on special occasions," the older Cavendish explained without breaking eye contact with the approaching doors, which were currently wide open. "I'm sure you have already gathered that because of the opening ceremony, however."

"Indeed, I did," Delila confirmed. "But speaking of which…" The younger Cavendish increased her pace to align herself with her sister on her right side, a hand subconsciously patting at the elixir vial in her cape coat pocket. "Seeing as you've attended three of them since your enrolment, you can probably give me an accurate estimate for this query of mine: how long is the opening ceremony expected to take on average?"

"Using an educated guess, around five minutes," Diana answered instantly, appearing to have anticipated her sister asking such a question. "Taking into account the headmistress' welcoming speech and any additional announcements Professor Finnelan or other members of the faculty may have."

Delila forced a couple of blinks out of disbelief. "Really? Five minutes?"

Diana gave an indifferent shrug of her shoulders. "The purpose of the opening ceremony is to welcome students old and new to the school for the current year. Once that has been accomplished, the professors switch their focus to student attendance and then sorting dorm room arrangements, which naturally takes up a lot of time depending on the number of students present."

Delila relaxed her expression with an understanding nod, slowing down alongside Diana as the sisters closed in on the auditorium doors. "That makes sense—short and sweet is the best way to go, especially in this instance." She tapped a finger against her chin. "I can imagine checking attendance is a herculean task with a school this size."

"Very true." When Diana came to a stop before the auditorium's threshold, so did Delila, the younger Cavendish following her older sister's gaze as it turned to the left area inside the room. "Good thing the faculty have recognised such a predicament and planned ahead."

"Wha—?" Delila interrupted herself the second her blue eyes caught sight of the tall, square, wooden table placed in front of the auditorium's left door. A thin and dark blue leathered book was opened on top of it beside a pot of ink and a quill, the two visible pages revealing black inked and cursive text that was a list of names written surname first and then first name (plus any middle names if they had them), the two exposed pages currently showing names in descending order from 'A' to 'D'. Delila didn't recognise any of these names, yet she didn't need to be a genius to figure out what she was staring at. "Is that a register?"

"It is." Diana stepped closer to the table, her eyes rapidly skimming through the names on the right page until they halted on the surnames beginning with 'C'. "They leave the register here so students can tick the box next to their name upon entering the auditorium."

"Assumingly to save the faculty having to painstakingly stand around and manually mark attendance off themselves?"

"Precisely."

"How resourceful."

Delila moved to Diana's right side and peeked over her shoulder as her sister picked up the quill and dabbed its end into the ink a couple of times, preparing to tick the boxes next to both hers and Delila's names located close to the top of the right page. Even after sixteen years, Delila found it strange whenever she saw hers and Diana's names written together in alphabetical order, because her name always came before Diana's thanks to the second vowels in their first names. Funnily enough, it was the only time she was placed ahead of her sister with anything, Delila mused. Well, except for the years before Delila's medical diagnosis—

Delila's train of thought was cut off at the sound of Diana putting the quill to the parchment, striking their boxes in descending order with two swift strokes. With Diana's task completed, Delila took a couple of steps backwards to let the older Cavendish return the quill to its pot, deciding to take the opportunity to get a look at the auditorium during her short wait. A brief skim revealed that she and Diana were the room's only occupants at this time, allowing Delila to properly scrutinise her new surroundings more closely without making awkward eye contact with a random student (she suspected Diana had purposely brought them to the auditorium ahead of everyone else to give herself the chance to get her bearings without being self-conscious about it).

The auditorium was a wide and high-ceiling room with three wooden stands lining the left wall and three wooden stands lining the right wall, with each stand containing five rows of long benches and separated by two sets of stairs. In front of where Delila and Diana stood were three rows of wooden benches placed on the red carpeted floor, centred in line with the large blue and yellow outlined circle with three spear-headed shaped points attached to it in the middle of the room, one of which was at its top while the other two were at its bottom left and right corners. There was also a semi-circle, wooden stage at the back of the room with a small wooden podium at its top and two sets of steps on either side aligned with the two sets of double doors at the back of the stage.

For the average person who beheld the auditorium's layout, it was a simple design choice, nothing out of the ordinary. But for Delila Cavendish, it wasn't difficult to spot the obvious and purposeful pattern formed amongst the four walls of this room. Three stands against the walls, three rows of benches on the floor, three points on the school's symbol, and three students per room—it was only just dawning on her how obsessed the academy was with the number three.

"Is the number three significant to Luna Nova, Diana?" Delila enquired as her sister approached her left side and halted beside her, the younger Cavendish's eyes homing in on the school's symbol on the carpet. "I'm noticing a repeating theme."

"I believe it's referencing the deity archetype of the 'Triple Goddess' from Neopagan religions and other spiritual traditions." Diana sideways glanced Delila at hearing her sister release a breathless 'Oh!'. "Do you remember learning about that?"

"How could I not?" Delila joked, though there was a slight crack in her tone when she did, her eyes breaking away from the symbol on the carpet to stare intently at the auditorium's high ceiling. "The 'Maiden', the 'Mother' and the 'Crone'—the rulers of the heavens, the earth and the underworld, each representing a phase of the moon and a stage of life."

Quoted word for word from their mo— you-know-who, Delila realised and mentally corrected herself, prompting a lump to spring to her throat shortly after she'd finished that she immediately tried to swallow. A hand also subconsciously rubbed at the middle of her chest to make sure she was okay, but it soon fell still when she felt no oncoming pains.

"Well remembered," Diana praised, yet Delila swore she caught a slight wobble in her sister's tone, which seemed to disappear when she patted a palm against her sternum a couple of times; perhaps Diana had just experienced the same realisation, Delila guessed. "I suppose Luna Nova's name does give it away."

Delila suddenly perked up with a forced blink and whipped her head towards Diana so fast it could have easily snapped from her neck, distracting her from her momentary sadness. "That's right. It means 'new moon' in Latin, correct?"

"Correct."

How did she not catch that before, Delila mentally admonished. The urge to smack her palm to her forehead was strong, yet she held back upon lowering her gaze to the school's symbol on the carpet once more.

"Come to think of it..." She tilted forward on her tiptoes with a scrutinising squint. "Is that circle supposed to represent a new moon?"

"An eclipse, actually. But good catch." Delila switched her focus to Diana at catching movement within her peripheral vision, her expression relaxing and her feet flattening at witnessing the older Cavendish pointing to the school's symbol attached as a golden buckle to the blue band around her hat. "The students wear this symbol on their hats, while the faculty usually bear a crescent on theirs."

"To show who's more experienced than who?"

Diana's eyes drooped at Delila's bluntness. "That is not how I would choose to phrase it, but…" She paused for several seconds before allowing her shoulders to slump a little. "…yes."

"Thought so."

Delila expected their conversation to temporarily end there and for Diana to take the lead in venturing further into the auditorium. Instead, she witnessed the older Cavendish lean forward and clasp her hands behind her back, her sharp blue eyes staring intently into her younger sister's matching own.

"How are you holding up?" she asked, prompting Delila to place a palm to her sternum and close her eyes for a few seconds to gauge her current wellbeing.

"Surprisingly okay," Delila answered honestly upon locking eyes with Diana again.

"No oncoming chest pains?"

"None, if you can believe it. I certainly can't."

"Yet the fact your nerves have not affected your condition is a good sign, no?"

"I suppose so." Delila fixed her droopy-eyed gaze on the empty auditorium before them. "Though, I worry that will change as the day progresses…"

"Well, I wouldn't worry." Diana straightened her posture once more and followed Delila's eyes, her own scanning the length of the room and glossing over every vacant bench she could. "You have made it this far without any problems. I am certain that will continue if you focus on the positives."

Delila rolled her eyes and clicked her tongue, letting a sarcastic retort loose before she could catch herself. "That's easy for you to say—"

Her shoulders stiffened the second her own words processed, abruptly interrupting her sentence too late by slapping her palm over her mouth. Curse her snarky tongue, she chided.

Several seconds of awkward silence passed before Delila growled out of frustration and dropped her hand away from her face, avoiding looking in Diana's direction by squeezing her eyes shut and thus missing her sister's surprised raise of a brow.

"Apologies," she uttered lowly. "I didn't mean that."

"I know," Diana replied in kind after a short delay. Delila dared to crack open an eye upon hearing her sister huff, observing the older girl close her eyes and hang her head a bit. "But if it's any consolation, it would appear your illness is going to be the least of your worries."

Delila's left eye and the left corner of her mouth twitched at the comment, yet this time the younger Cavendish did well to hold back from saying anything snarky, purposely taking a long moment of pause and then releasing a long exhale from her nose.

"Perhaps so," Delila eventually forced out in an even tone, keeping her eyes locked on her shoes. "Thank you for the encouragement nonetheless."

"You're welcome."

Diana's response was as composed as ever; however, from within her peripheral vision, Delila swore she saw the older Cavendish smile faintly at the show of gratitude, which soon disappeared within a literal blink. Perhaps it was just Delila's imagination again.

"Well then," Diana began as she straightened out her posture and took a couple of steps further into the auditorium. "With that matter cleared up, we should take our seats—"

No sooner had Diana said that, however, derisive laughter echoed from the corridor outside of the auditorium and caused the teen witch to perk up. Delila watched the older Cavendish abruptly stop and partially turn to face the open doorway with the slight raise of her brows, prompting the younger Cavendish to follow her sister's gaze and listen to the two pairs of soft footsteps approaching the auditorium in sync.

Shortly after, two grinning figures appeared and walked into the auditorium side by side, revealing two girls looking to be around the same age as Delila and Diana and bearing the same uniform as the latter, including the matching-coloured bands on their hat and shoes and the sashes around their waists peeking out from underneath their cape coats. The girl on the left had hazel eyes and wavy auburn hair tied into a ponytail by a yellow ribbon underneath her hat, while the girl on the right had teal eyes and straight black hair that went to her waist.

"Can you believe how dumb that commoner was?!" the girl with raven hair exclaimed in a grating and posh British accented voice, continuing to talk to her companion as she paused by the register and removed the quill from its pot.

"What a moron!" the girl with auburn hair snidely added in a shrill and matching posh accented voice, turning her nose up to the air with a smug smile. "I suppose that's what happens when Luna Nova just lets anybody in!"

"I know, right?" The raven-haired girl cackled while she ticked off their names and returned the quill to the pot, facing her companion with a matching smile.

Delila silently observed the two unknown witch students with her lip curled and her nose crinkled, instantly gulping at the déjà vu nauseously crawling up her throat like a group of spiders she'd accidentally swallowed. She couldn't put her finger on why, but something seemed so… familiar about the way they sounded and acted, and not in a good way. It was making Delila's skin crawl, to the point where the younger Cavendish decided she and Diana should go find their seats to avoid a potential interaction with these girls.

But just as Delila turned to look at her sister and opened her mouth to speak… she was cut off by the two students simultaneously shouting the older Cavendish's name.

"Diana!"

The two girls immediately jogged over to where Diana was and straight past Delila without any acknowledgment, with the younger Cavendish narrowly avoiding a collision with the auburn-haired girl by taking three swift steps backwards. How rude, Delila thought with a disdainful sniff.

Luckily, Diana seemed to read her younger sister's mind. Without a single break in her stoic mask, the older Cavendish lifted a palm towards the two excitable students once they got within her personal space, bringing the pair to a screeching halt before they could do anything else.

"Girls, please," Diana began sternly, causing the two students (whom Delila noticed were a couple of inches shorter than her and her sister) to straighten their backs and press their arms against their sides. "Be mindful of your surroundings. We can't be having any accidents now."

"Sorry, Diana!" the two girls both apologised in unison, only for the pair to smile widely as the auburn-haired girl cheerily returned the greeting.

"It's good to see you!"

"It's good to see you both as well," Diana returned the greeting with a nod of acknowledgement, lowering her hand back to her side. "And being rather punctual at that."

"Thank you for noticing!" The auburn-haired girl closed her eyes with a beaming smile, clasping her hands to her front and replied in an exaggeratedly sweet tone. "But we can't take all the credit! We learnt from the best role model at Luna Nova, after all!"

"Your school attendance and punctuality are unmatched!" The raven-haired girl piped up as she lifted her shoulders and tilted her head to the side, her tone just as saccharine.

Diana didn't need to say anything for Delila to recognise that the unnecessary and overexaggerated 'compliments' (or at least what she believed to be 'unnecessary' and 'overexaggerated') were making the older Cavendish uncomfortable. Diana closing her eyes and lowering her head a little without responding to them was all the proof Delila needed. She'd observed these two students for less than five minutes and yet their words and actions continued to make her uncomfortable, to the point where the younger Cavendish's stomach was churning just listening to them.

Delila couldn't tolerate such behaviour, which was why she had no qualms putting an instant stop to it by purposefully clearing her throat as obnoxiously loud as her lungs could muster.

"Ahem!" Delila held her arms to her back and calmly watched the two unknown girls whip their heads in unison in her direction, the pair blinking widely upon realising she was there as the younger Cavendish addressed her sister monotonously at normal volume. "Diana, sorry for interrupting. Shouldn't we take our seats in case other students arrive?"

Diana, unfazed by her younger sister's timely disturbance, opened her eyes and righted her head again, strolling past the two girls now frozenly staring at the other Cavendish while repeatedly looking her appearance up and down out of disbelief.

"Of course. But I believe introductions are in order, first and foremost." Diana halted beside Delila's left side and gestured a hand towards the younger Cavendish, facing the two students as she did so. "Girls, allow me to introduce my younger sister, Delila." Then she proceeded to turn to Delila and repeat the same action towards them. "Delila, these are my teammates, 'Hannah England' and 'Barbara Parker'."

Ah. These two were her sister's roommates/teammates. That explained Diana's interactions with them, Delila mused. She recalled her sister had never been interested in making friends with other children their age when they were growing up. Then again, she was no different; another commonality that still lingered between them, apparently.

Delila followed up the introduction by taking part of her skirt's hem between an index finger and thumb, lifting it slightly and then bending her right knee for a small and polite curtsy, bowing her head forward a bit out of acknowledgement. "How do you do?"

The auburn-haired girl was the first to break free of her trance with a rapid blink, directing a decently polite smile at the younger Cavendish as she stepped a little closer. "It's nice to meet you, Delila!" she greeted in an enthusiastic tone and extended her left hand for Delila to shake, which prompted the raven-haired girl to finally snap back to reality with a brief shake of the head before she joined them. "I'm Hannah!"

"A-And I'm Barbara!" the raven-haired girl said with a slight stutter, copying her companion's actions with a matching smile. "It's a pleasure!"

Out of the corner of her eyes, Delila saw Diana preparing to open her mouth with the raise of her finger, likely wanting to say something regarding her discomfort with physical contact, Delila assumed. However, Delila instantly silenced her older sister by taking hold of Hannah's palm in her right one and giving it a firm shake, managing to suppress the slight twitching of her left eye upon doing the same with Barbara's hand. She thought she caught Diana raising her brows with a surprised blink, but that disappeared a millisecond or so later.

"Pleased to make your acquaintance," Delila replied in an even tone as she pulled away from Barbara, ignoring the small twitch of her fingers when she did so.

But then Hannah's happy demeanour shifted as she turned her attention to Diana, pouting at the older Cavendish with slumped shoulders. "Diana, why didn't you tell us your sister was one of the new students enrolling this year?!"

"Yeah!" Barbara said in agreement and loosely balled her hands into fists. "We could have arrived earlier to help her get settled in!"

And since when was that any of your business, Delila mentally snarked, doing well to keep that to herself and let Diana speak on her behalf.

"I wanted to give my sister the opportunity to ease her way into life at Luna Nova without drawing too much attention," Diana explained, giving the subject of the discussion a quick sideways glance. "She isn't used to being in a public academy, after all."

Hannah's brows raised with a wide blink at hearing this. "Oh, that's right!" She looked to Delila and placed a finger to her chin. "I remember hearing you were home-schooled around the time Diana first came to Luna Nova!"

'Home-schooled'—the lie Aunt Daryl insisted she and Diana say to anyone who wasn't sworn to confidentiality surrounding Delila's condition, Delila recalled; she'd almost forgotten about that.

"So, this must be a huge change for you, huh?" Barbara commented as she curiously tilted her head and cupped one of her cheeks in her palms. "What made you decide to enrol at Luna Nova?"

"My sister has spoken quite fondly of her experiences at Luna Nova during our letter correspondences," Delila lied, the words casually rolling off her tongue without an ounce of hesitation. Obviously, Delila wasn't going to blab the real reason she was here to just anyone, whether they were acquainted with her sister or not. And from the corner of her eyes, the younger Cavendish could see that Diana understood what she was doing, based on the curt nod of agreement she gave. "It was high time I came to see what all the fuss was about."

Barbara beamed and clasped her hands together underneath her chin. "Well, you certainly made the right choice!"

"Agreed!" Hannah chimed in. "If Diana likes it here at Luna Nova, then you definitely will too!" Delila felt her throat spasm at the attempted flattery. But then a sly smile slipped onto the auburn-haired girl's face, which she directed to Barbara while leaning over to her and lowering her voice a bit. "Even more so if that moron doesn't show up."

It took Barbara a few seconds to understand what Hannah was getting at, only to gasp and then muffle a giggle behind her hands upon moving them to cover her mouth. Meanwhile, Diana and Delila, who had caught wind of the insulting remark, both raised a brow out of confusion.

Yet before the older Cavendish could query her teammates on what they were talking about, faint chatter echoed from the corridor outside of the auditorium, hushing the four girls and turning their focus to the opened doors of the room.

"It appears the opening ceremony is due to start soon," Diana commented with the brief closing of her eyes. "Let's take our seats."

"Good idea, Diana!" Both Hannah and Barbara said in cheery unison, something that made Delila flinch a little as Hannah became the first of the two to walk down the right aisle of the benches; why was she getting terrible déjà vu from these two?

"We'll choose a seat for you!"

"On the first row, of course!" Barbara added while jogging after Hannah to catch up to her, switching her attention to the auburn-haired girl once she'd done so. "Maybe we should choose one of the middle stands and avoid the benches on the floor—"

As Hannah and Barbara continued talking amongst themselves, Delila stayed put for the time being, waiting for Diana to take the lead and move after her teammates. Instead, the older Cavendish waited until the two were out of earshot and then leaned close to Delila's ear, lifting the side of her hand close to her mouth.

"I apologise," she whispered. "I wasn't expecting Hannah and Barbara to arrive to the auditorium so soon."

Delila lightly shrugged her shoulders in response. "I would have crossed paths with them eventually. Better now than later."

A tense pause fell between the Cavendish twins for several seconds before Diana dared to whisper again, with Delila catching the older Cavendish direct a frown to her chest. "Are you going to be okay?"

"Yes," Delila reassured lowly and held up her palm as an act of reassurance. "I can continue to interact with them until the end of the ceremony."

"Are you sure?" Diana pressed, with Delila noticing her sister's blue eyes then switching focus to Delila's right hand for several seconds. "I'd rather you not make yourself uncomfortable for my sake."

"I'm sure," Delila countered calmly. "Besides,"—she paused to clench her right hand into a loose fist, rubbing her fingers against her palm—"I can't just ignore them. We have appearances to maintain."

To an outsider, the last thing Delila said wouldn't have made them bat an eye, but as the younger Cavendish sideways glanced Diana, she saw the concerned glint that flittered across the older Cavendish's eyes for a few seconds, peeking from behind her composed mask. Neither sister spoke again as they followed after Hannah and Barbara, yet Diana didn't need to for Delila to recognise what that glint meant.

Diana knew those words weren't Delila's own.

Having chosen the first row of the middle stand on the right side of the stage as their designated seat, Delila and Diana respectively sat beside Hannah and Barbara at the end of the left side of the bench, the twins' postures as straight as pins, their heads held high and their hands clasped together in their laps, their identical calm expressions almost making them mirror images of each other. From the corners of her eyes, Delila spied Hannah and Barbara attempting to copy the same pose, their eyes repeatedly flitting back and forth between themselves and Diana to ensure they were mimicking her every move. Once again, Delila's insides twisted as though it were tied into a knot and being repeatedly tugged, but the discomfort was promptly ignored by the younger Cavendish. Eventually, Hannah and Barbara chatted quietly between themselves while waiting for the opening ceremony to begin; however, Delila and Diana both remained silent, choosing instead to observe the swarm of dark blue now filing into the auditorium, courtesy of the girls returning for another year at this prestigious magic school.

This turned out to be an intriguing and welcomed distraction for Delila, whose sharp eyes noted of the variety of coloured hat bands scattered amongst the sea of same-coloured uniforms—yellow, green, indigo, orange, peach, purple and so on, all of which were grouped in threes. But it wasn't just the uniform grabbing Delila's attention. The once soundless room was brought to life by the indiscernible and excited chatter of the girls as they made their way to the stands or the benches on the floor, a mixture of thick-accented voices echoing between the ceiling and walls, some familiar and some foreign to Delila's ears. Delila was already aware that Luna Nova Academy, a boarding school located in Britain, accepted students and teachers from across the continents, so hearing the different voices of so many cultures under one roof wasn't a surprise. Yet she couldn't deny how fascinating it was to be experiencing such a phenomenon first-hand, a feeling she blamed on her upbringing. After all, it was rare Delila and Diana had ever interacted with anyone outside of the Cavendish household who wasn't British, so listening to the varying accents bouncing about her brought forth a strange child-like wonder, one that apparently ended up reflecting on her face, if the sly glance Diana gave her was any indication.

As the benches above, beside and opposite them were gradually filled, however, it didn't take long for the younger Cavendish to spot the obvious gaps forming in the seating on the floor and the opposite side of the auditorium, some small and some large. Diana's indirect warning from their conversation in the leyline popped into Delila's head then, prompting the young witch to slyly sideways glance her sister sitting as still as a statue beside her, their matching eyes instantly meeting the moment Delila's shifted.

'I told you,' were the words Diana's eyes spelt out, seemingly having read Delila's mind yet again, shattering the illusion of that invisible wall between them once more for the briefest of moments.

Even still, it didn't change the fact that Diana was right: the current state of Luna Nova's financial problems because of the decline in magic were, indeed, palpable by the empty seats scattered between the rows of chattering students. How unfortunate, Delila crestfallenly thought with the slight drooping of her eyes. Though, it sounded like the present students in the auditorium were still in high spirits about the upcoming school year despite this. It was certainly an invigorating and promising change of pace to the dreary and depressing atmosphere she was used to back home.

For a few minutes after the last of the stragglers took their seats in the auditorium, the lively and inaudible conversations between the various students continued, filling up the silence lingering between the two Cavendish sisters blankly eyeing the empty stage. However, it gradually started to die down when the collective sound of approaching footsteps could be heard from the corridor outside of the auditorium, grabbing the female students' attention and causing a hush to descend across the wide room. A group of women of varying heights and ages walked into the auditorium in single file, splitting into separate lines to stroll down the left and right aisles on either side of the benches by the door—the teachers of Luna Nova, Delila guessed, at spying the crescent symbols on the front of the black bands on the witch's hats they were all wearing, remembering what Diana had told her earlier.

As the two lines approached the steps of the stage and ascended them to form two lines beside and behind the podium, Delila attempted to get a look at their appearances from her current vantage point, even squinting and leaning forward a little in her seat. It was difficult, yet from what she could make out, she identified they were all wearing the same dark, violet hooded and long, wide sleeved dresses with a red flame-like design (except for one teacher, whose flame design was grey) on the bottom half of their skirts (some of which varied in length depending on the teacher) and dark blue knee-high boots. Yet despite this glaringly obvious commonality between them, Delila noticed from the teachers on the front row that she could see that they all had very distinct hair, ranging from mundane and plain to eccentric and vibrant styles, lengths and colours (like the one teacher just to the right of the podium with flowing grey-blue hair that draped down to her feet, for instance). She also noticed that some of the teachers were wearing extra items of clothing on their person, such as the teacher with the grey flame pattern on her skirt placing a round glass bowl of water on a tall wooden stool set up in between the teachers stood to the left of the podium, whom Delila noticed was wearing some kind of cap and thick, black goggles underneath her witch's hat—

Wait a second.

"Diana?" Delila whispered to her sister as she discreetly tilted her body closer to her, keeping her eyes focused solely on the glass bowl. "Why is there a bowl of water on the stage?"

"That's for Professor Pisces," Diana whispered back without sparing her younger sister a glance, remaining unfazed by the enquiry.

There was a five second pause before Delila could bring herself to respond. Did she just hear Diana correctly? "… Pardon?"

"That bowl is for Professor Pisces."

… Nope, she hadn't misheard Diana the first time.

"Who's 'Professor Pisces'?"

"Look closer."

At first, Delila looked at Diana as if she'd grown a second head, but when her sister subtly gestured with a head tilt to do as she'd instructed, the younger Cavendish huffed quietly and returned her focus to the stage, inching forward on the bench and circling her fingers around her eyes to mimic looking through a pair of binoculars. Sure enough, a few seconds of intense staring allowed Delila to just make out the outline of a golden fish with turquoise fins floating in the middle of the bowl, the shape of a witch's hat atop its head also being visible.

"That fish is a teacher?" Delila replied in disbelief, earning herself a low hum of confirmation from her sister. "… Fascinating," was all the younger Cavendish could mutter to herself as she straightened up again in her seat and returned her hands to her lap.

But then Delila's train of thought switched focus upon spying the teachers' postures stiffening and their chins tilting to the ceiling, with some either clasping their hands at their fronts or behind them, or leaving their arms idle at their sides. Next thing Delila knew, a big and curvy, dark blue witch's hat (bigger and curvier than the hats of the other teachers' to boot) with a new moon symbol hooked between two crescent moons on its black band bobbed between the two rows of teachers, a hat that Delila was certain she'd seen somewhere before now as her eyes intently observed it manoeuvring its way to the front of the stage.

The younger Cavendish didn't get her confirmation until the owner of the hat finally reached the podium and popped up over the top, exposing a small and elderly lady with short, pale green hair and blue eyes hidden behind rectangular spectacles. Like the teachers on the stage, she wore the same uniform as they did, but Delila could only just make it out from underneath the red jacket, green stoned necklace and white scarf that was covering it. Delila's mind propelled her back to the school pamphlet she'd received, remembering the black and white photograph she'd seen beside the section detailing the brief history of the school and its progress over the years. Didn't this woman look just like the one in that picture?

"Greetings, everyone," the elderly woman greeted the room in a soft-spoken and posh-accented voice. "To those of you who have returned to us, welcome back! I hope you all had a good holiday! But to those of you who have just joined us, allow me to warmly welcome you to Luna Nova Academy." The elderly woman placed a palm to her necklace. "I am Miranda Holbrooke, Luna Nova's 44th headmistress."

… Wait.

This was Luna Nova's headmistress?!

Delila recalled the photograph in the pamphlet had been a close-up of the woman's face, so the younger Cavendish hadn't gotten a good look of her entire person prior to now. And while she had no issue with the elderly woman's height or appearance, she couldn't get over how sweet and kind she looked, even with how she spoke, despite her professionalism. Though that didn't stop Delila from paying attention to the headmistress' speech, her gaze fixed on the elderly witch as she dropped her hand to the podium and gave the seated students a wide and slow scan from left to right.

"As we begin yet another year, let me remind you all that Luna Nova has nurtured many girls to become great witches since its founding." Delila noticed the corners of the headmistress' lips twitch each time her eyes crossed with an empty space amongst the stands, though it only lasted for a millisecond as she resumed talking, acting like nothing had happened. "Just like those who came before you, you must devote yourselves to the study of magic with great determination within these historic walls."

As the headmistress' gaze reached Delila's side of the auditorium, the pair locked eyes for only a few seconds, yet the longer the younger Cavendish hung onto every word oozing from the elderly witch's mouth, the more awestruck she became at the stern and warm glint reflected from behind those rectangular spectacles.

"But remember to stay humble and be respectful," she continued, her tone a little firmer compared to a moment ago. "As Luna Nova's founding mentor once said, 'Let this academy be the first milestone in restoring the art of witchcraft and all of its lost glory,' a goal that has remained until the present day."

A quick sideways skim of her row revealed that the majority of the current students weren't as captivated as she was by the headmistress' speech—Diana was as poised as ever, her face failing to betray her true thoughts as she kept her gaze ahead and her posture rigid; Hannah and Barbara had retained their own proud and matching stances, but wore tight-lipped smiles that were clearly forced; and then there were other random students visibly slouching and looking to the stage with droopy-eyes and heavy blinks, giving off the impression that this speech wasn't new to them in the slightest. Maybe it was because she was new and this was the first time she was hearing this speech? Who knows, but Delila didn't care.

A strange, burning warmth was building in her chest, like a Phoenix rising again from its ashes and resuming its cycle of rebirth for yet another time. It made Delila straighten her back and lift her shoulders a little more, her chest puffing out as the ignited flame within swelled and burnt more passionately, granting her a feeling of confidence she hadn't felt in a long time.

A short time ago, Delila had been staring at her reflection in the bathroom mirror of her sister's dormitory, questioning where her absent pride was. But now, she was no longer asking that question. Experiencing the headmistress' speech while seated in uniform alongside an auditorium full of students was apparently the very thing she needed to properly accept her induction into these hallowed halls, keeping her aunt's taunting voice silent inside her head for once.

At last, Delila was one step closer to upholding her promise and saving her family's future. And no one could take that away from her.

"And now that's been said, let us begin the ceremony by—" the headmistress started to say, only to abruptly halt mid-sentence and turn her eyes to the ceiling with a concentrated frown. "Hm?"

Delila furrowed her brows out of confusion as she watched the headmistress lower her head towards the floor in front of the stage, ignoring the raised brows and sideways glances from her fellow staff while locking onto the school's symbol printed onto the red carpeted floor. Her reaction suggested she'd become distracted, yet Delila and everyone else in the audience had no idea what it was that had caught her attention.

That is… until the faint sound of whipping winds reached Delila's ears, coming from the same direction that the headmistress was currently focusing on. The noise was growing louder and louder by the second, prompting all heads in the auditorium to whip to that one specific spot with surprised glances and befuddled murmurs, with Delila's frown deepening at trying to figure out what was causing such a noise. Then, one blink later, the source made itself known.

Delila beheld the inner circle of the symbol become bathed in a bright and light blue glow, followed by a thin beam of light shooting upwards towards the ceiling. Startled gasps erupted from the benches, stands and the stage as teachers and students alike recoiled at the sudden gust that whipped at their clothes and hair from the glowing beam, forcing many to shield their faces with their arms and look away, Delila and Diana included, the former of whom gripped onto the rim of her hat with both hands and squeezed her eyes shut for good measure.

The gusty assault lasted for a solid ten seconds, but once she felt her hair and clothes fall still, Delila opened her eyes again and released her hat, slowly lowering her arms in the process. Upon doing so, she was left wide-eyed alongside everyone else at the transparent, light blue spotlight encompassing the circumference of the symbol's inner circle and stretching as high as the top of the stage, her mouth agape. A chorus of shocked noises echoed from the teachers as they collectively shuffled to the front of the stage and gawked at the oval wisps continuously rising from the floor to the ceiling, gathering around the headmistress still standing wordlessly at the podium. Meanwhile, the seated students around Delila were left just as speechless as the headmistress, intently staring at the anomaly before them with a mixture of gaping mouths and bulging eyes, like they were all single-handedly trapped in a petrified trance.

This was obviously the work of magic, Delila concluded, but where had it come from? The reactions of those around her proved that this wasn't part of the opening ceremony. Everyone was just as baffled by the appearance of this transparent light as she was.

… Well, except for one.

Delila instinctively turned to face Diana seated beside her, observing the older Cavendish fixing her gaze on the scene before them while leaning forward on their bench. But unlike everyone else around them, her sister's blue eyes and slightly gaping mouth didn't reflect fear. No. Delila recognised the faraway look in Diana's eyes, the same look she vividly remembered her sister possessing that one time when they were six years old and Diana was enthusiastically detailing her trip overseas to Delila shortly after her return home.

"Diana," Delila hissed and scooted closer to the older Cavendish, breaking Diana's awed trance with two forced blinks and one shake of the head. "What's going on? Is this supposed to be happening?"

"I don't think so," Diana answered in a quiet mumble, her eyes refusing to leave the magical spotlight in front of the stage. "But that spell…"

Unfortunately for Delila, Diana never got to finish. Delila saw the older Cavendish's brows raise sharply as the unknown light in the auditorium intensified in glow, the younger Cavendish's head whirling to the magical anomaly at the thundering bang that swiftly followed.

And then… her vision was swallowed by an eruption of sparkling, white smoke expanding towards the ceiling, the collective distressed screams of panicking girls echoing throughout the auditorium.