77 Chapter 76: A fresh star

"Woah!" Elize exclaimed, her eyes sparkling with appreciation. 

They were standing in front of a huge palatial gate. There were intricate carvings of animals and birds on its wooden surface. Elize was easily able to spot a few that she knew. But what caught her attention were the bigger motifs among them. They were mythical creatures, accommodated in between the animals a feet apart. The closest one to her was the figure of a centaur- half man and half horse, emerging out of a water body. Or was it a kelpie in transition? She couldn't decide. Above that was a huge seal like creature in transition- probably a selkie, she guessed. There were even brownies, banshees, goblins and even elves, all highlighted by their bigger size on the gate. 

She was able to spot even fox or two. Elize was proud that she could identify most of the mythical creatures highlighted on the huge gate. It was all thanks to the books she had been reading up throughout her school life. Since she had no friends, books were her only companions. And as she wanted to understand more about her own powers, she was naturally inclined to the ones about supernatural and mythical creatures. Her head tilted back as her gaze moved on to higher parts of the structure. 

A wide arch made of stone rose above the gate, connected to tall stone walls flanking its either side. Just below the arch, at the top of the gate were four motifs, bigger than the rest of the carvings. A wolf, a huge moon and a cauldron surrounded by what looked like the intertwined naked bodies of two lovers. A sharp pain shot through her heart as the carving suddenly reminded her of Zack. She forcefully made herself look away, and to continue her evaluation of the place. This was where she was going to stay till at least the next four years until her college education would be completed. This was as far as she could hope for a normal life outside the Island. 

Her eyes widened in awe as her gaze scanned over the huge stone ensemble before her. She walked towards the wall to assess its construction. She ran her fingers over the cold stones with awe. It appeared that the stones were not held together by any cementing agent. Yet, the structure appeared none short of a fort. The walls were at least three storeys tall and the wooden gate appeared as if it was made from a single piece of wood. Elize suddenly felt like she was taken back to a medieval time period. A huge board which read 'St Francis Academy' loomed over the arch. 

"This place is huge!" Agatha exclaimed loudly.

Elize was startled by the loud noise. She was quite peacefully sinking into the quietness of the place when Agatha decided to shout. Her voice was the only sound that could be heard from anywhere around them. Elize looked around quickly, to see if anyone or anything was alerted because of it. She hoped no one had heard her, since she didn't want to be embarrassed on her first day of school. She sighed in relief after five minutes, seeing that they were all alone. 

"Of course." Irina said with a shrug, unaffected by the actions of her two friends. Pointing towards the huge gate, she said, "This is where we train the best of the world's supernatural beings. Welcome to St Francis Academy."

"Sometimes I forget that you're older than us." Elize mumbled.

Irina laughed at the remark. "Surely, I am not that old." She said.

Elize shot a sarcastic look at Agatha. The blonde witch nodded in agreement.

"Yeah I've been wondering the same thing. This is like the best college in the supernatural world. I heard that all the staff here have years of experience in the field. Taking into consideration that you probably would have had to have prior teaching experience, you should be….. How old are you anyway?" Agatha asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Somewhere on the higher end of twenty." Irina said proudly, "But then again I was a prodigy- so."

Elize looked at the red haired witch with her mouth wide open. Who was this woman and why didn't she know this before?! A prodigy? And one who was teacing at apparently the world's best supernatural institution which had a reputaion of being picky with both its staff and students? And here she was- a witch who managed to lose her own powers. She had miles to go before she was qualified to stand anywhere near this woman, she thought with awe.

"Pff I'm not intimidated." Agatha said, sticking her tongue out at the other witch.

The three of them started laughing. The dark of the night was slowly giving way to dawn. The first light of the sun's rays softly landed on the three beautiful women standing in front of the towering structure. An onlooker would have easily misunderstood them for faeries, caught in their ethereal allure. The forest surrounding them would have appeared empty for a human, but only the people inside the walls knew that it was more than that- it was an enchanted forest, home to creatures of myths and legends. Above all, it was a maze which was designed to trap the lonely human who dared to wander into its depths. A protective barrier encompassed the forest and the walled compound, invisible to the human eye. Elize looked at her friends with contentment. She was going to get to start over fresh, she thought happily.   

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They were granted permission to enter the academy at the break of dawn. Apparently there were wards placed at the huge compound wall, which canceled any form of magic to pass through, making it impossible for anyone to enter the premises through means like teleportation. It also meant that, people couldn't use their magical abilities when they were standing right outside the boundary. Any person's ability to use magic would resume to work once they were inside. Hence, every single person who wanted to get inside had to wait for the keepers of the gate to admit them entry. Irina informed the girls that the gate was always kept closed from sunset to sunrise, making the place impenetrable at night and hence letting people sleep peacefully without any threat of attacks. Elize wondered why a college of all the places had to have such a high level of security. 

Once they had entered inside, she was further awed by the architecture of the place. A huge palace- like structure loomed large at the center of the college grounds with smaller stone buildings encircling it. The size of the smaller buildings were at least thrice the height of her own mansion and ten times its width. She counted thirteen such buildings. Since the gate stood on a higher ground level than the rest of the area, she could also see from where she stood, tall buildings made of red bricks on the extreme left and right sides of this building ensemble, much closer to the compound wall. She guessed that they were probably residential buildings since Irina had informed her that the college was strictly residential. There were at least six of them in total. The whole area was also covered by a well maintained growth of forest, which more or less hid the magnificence of the buildings from the farther point of view. She was awed at the thought of how much money they would have had to spend in order to construct such a place. 

After letting her enjoy the view for a while, Irina had insisted on teleporting to the main building, since they were supposed to report to the administration about their arrival. Elize quickly agreed, since she guessed that it would take at least an hour for them to reach the intended place by foot from the looks of it. In the blink of an eye, they had reached a wide corridor with huge paintings adorning either side of the wall. Almost all of them were portraits of people- both men and women of different ages. Under each painting were dates carved into polished wooden planks. Since there were a couple of dates under each painting, she was confused as to what it meant.

Elize was quite nervous walking through the carpeted corridor. There were enormous curtained windows towards her right, within the space of every six meters. The morning light was slowly seeping in through the partitions of the heavy curtains, lighting up the hallway softly. The little light that poured in helped her take in the deep red of the carpeted floor and the silvery white of the plush walls. Elize felt like she was walking through the corridor of a five start hotel rather than her future college. She remembered that the place was named after St Francis, the christian saint. She wasn't able to wrap her head around the idea that the church had decided to work hand in hand with witches and werewolves. She reminded herself to ask Irina about it later. 

"This is so exciting!!" Agatha squealed, startling Elize. The witch laughed at her reaction and turned towards Irina with a grateful look. "I doubt I would have gotten in, if not for you." She said looking around with awe.

"Why?" Elize asked, taking in the smallest details of her luxurious surroundings.