79 Chapter 78: St Francis of Assisi

Knock Knock.

Natasya knocked twice on the polished door. They were standing in front of a closed room at the edge of the long corridor. A sign that read "Principal's office" hung outside the door, written in big bold letters.

"Come in." A deep feminine voice answered.

Natasya stepped forward and pushed the wooden frame inward. The door opened with a creaking sound accompanying it. Elize noticed that the insides of the room was quite dark for the time of the day. She could only see that the floor was of polished wood from where she was standing. Irina's frame blocked her view of the rest of it. 

Taking a step inside, Natasya said, "Mam, Irina has-"

She was quickly interrupted by a relived sigh followed by a clap. Elize wondered what kind of woman was inside the room. Natasya followed by Irina quickly entered the room and walked towards what looked like an enormous study table. Elize caught a glimpse of a woman's curly hair as Irina bowed in front of the table. That must be the Principal Mirembe, she guessed.

"About time!" The principal's excited voice replied. "Did you bring the child with you?"

Elize quietly took a few steps forward, despite Agatha pulling her back. She knew that she shouldn't be entering the room without prior permission, but she just wanted to have a look. What if a nun was hiding somewhere? Maybe a priest? Their kind must be somewhere around since the institution clearly was named after a christian saint. There was no other explanation for it. And if she were to find any such people inside, she was going to turn back and run. Elize thought, taking sneaky steps into the room. 

She could see that the furniture in the room was scarce even though the room itself was quite spacious. There was an enormous red persian rug that was draped on the floor towards the end of the room, where the witches now stood. The walls were painted in a caramel shade with a white ceiling completing its look. A small chandelier hung from the ceiling right in the middle of the room. There were enormous glass windows on two sides of the room which were more or less covered up by blackout curtains. The only light in the room was from the warm glow of the mini chandelier. Elize narrowed her eyes and observed more carefully. She wasn't able to spot even one image of the Virgin Mary or a cross. Was she mistaken? There were no items placed in the room which told her that the principal was in any way following Christian beliefs. Wait, did that rule out the possibility of the church having some hand in the training of supernatural beings then?

"Yes principal Mirembe." Irina replied. She suddenly turned around, a confused look flashing on her face before she spotted Elize. With a disappointed shake of her head, she said,"Elize, say hello to your host."

A hearty laughter filled the room. Elize looked up, puzzled. She saw a woman probably in her sixties sitting behind the table on a high leather chair. Her dark curly hair was tied up in a high pony on top of her head. The folds on the sides of her eyes intensified as the woman's beautiful laughter intensified on meeting her clueless expression. Her dark skin shone like a rare black pearl in the warm light of the chandelier. The kindness on her face was unexpected from a woman of her position.

"It's nice to meet you too Chosen One." The woman said, finally controlling her urge to laugh. 

The reference to her status as the sacrifice stung her heart. She wanted to forget it, not to be reminded of it again and again. But the address had convinced her of one thing- the woman must be a witch if not a werewolf. 

"Elize please." She replied with a taut smile.

The old woman smiled kindly, nodding her head in understanding. "Okay then Elize, welcome to St Francis Academy. I gather it's your first time in an institution like this." She said beckoning her forward.

Elize hesitantly walked up to the table, joining the witches. 

"Yes mam. I pretty much grew up among humans." She answered curtly.

"Ahh yes. Irina had informed me of that. Don't worry, you'll fit right in. And if you have any trouble at all, don't hesitate to reach out." The principal offered. 

"Thank you." Elize said politely. After hesitating for a while, she decided to ask the one thing she's been itching to know about. "If you don't mind, can I ask you something?" She asked, nervously.

"Go ahead." The woman said, nodding.

"Does the church have anything to do with the institution?" Elize asked awkwardly, unsure of how it would sound to everyone else.

Every eye in the room was now suddenly on her. Elize bit her lips nervously. 

"Why do you think so?" Principal Mirembe asked, her face taking on a curious expression.

"Well, the name.." Elize trailed off, unable to complete the sentence. Every word that came out of her mouth now seemed ridiculous to her. 

"Oh, the name." The woman said, laughing. Shaking her head, she continued, "No don't worry, it's just a name to appeal to the humans. You see, we have to maintain a good image in front of their kind. Since we accommodate human students here as well, the founders thought it best to name it after one of our greatest supporters to have walked the earth who also happened to be well known to the humans."

"I'm confused." Elize said, raising her eyebrows. Were they talking about the same man here? She thought surprised.

"Haven't you heard about the story of St Francis of Assissi and the wolf of Gubbio?"

"Uhh.." Elize was unsure if she was supposed to answer the question or not. But luckily, instead of making the situation more embarrassing for her, Principal Mirembe started explaining.

"Legend says the wolf terrorized the Umbrian city of Gubbio until finally it was tamed by the saint himself. But in reality the story is slightly different." The woman said, with a wink. "In earlier times, packs were few and werelings without fathers too numerous. The chances of young werelings going out of control are less, yet it happens till date to one in ten young ones. Since they had no one to guide them on how to control their wild sides, most often when these young ones turned out of the blue, they ended up killing and torturing any human who came near them, including their human mothers. Taking the attacks as visible threats to their kinds from monsters, the humans devised ways to kill our kind and succeeded on most occasions. This was so, since lone wolves were quite vulnerable on their won. One of our founders, who was himself a werewolf had made it his life's mission to do something about the issue. He understood that it was important to help the werelings through their period of transition. So Francis thought that-" 

"Wait!" Elize exclaimed. She asked with her eyes wide open. "You're telling me that the saint was-"

"A werewolf yes." Principal Mirembe completed the sentence for her. With a knowing smile she continued, "So when Francis, who had devoted his life to a monastery in Assisi learned about a wereling causing havoc in the nearby area of Gubbio, he quickly reached the place before the humans could get to the young one. Giving much care and attention to the child, Francis brought him under control. Over the next few years he helped many such young ones and often at times even witches who had no one to look after them. When people started questioning the growth of the strange group of youngsters around him, he knew that he could live there no more. Faking his death, he then fled to this very place along with the children he rescued. On his way, he met similar people like him and together, they established the place for training and taking care of our young ones. It's been centuries from then. The institution has since then evolved so much and now we even accommodate human students in the academy. We give them the same education that human universities do while being careful enough to hide our truths from them."

Elize's mouth was wide open by the time the woman had finished explaining things to her. 

"Woah! I didn't know that story!" A familiar chirpy voice exclaimed from behind her. 

Elize turned around to see an awestruck Agatha standing by the doorway, mirroring her earlier expression.  

"And who might this be?" Principal Mirembe asked, suddenly taking on a much more guarded tone.

Elize quickly turned around with every intention of introducing her friend to the woman sitting in front of her. It was obvious that the people here including the principal for some reason valued her presence in this place. Maybe if she were put in a good word for her friend, the old woman would allow Agatha to stay with her. With that intention, she began, "This is-" 

Before she could finish, Agatha had already reached next to her. With a quick bow towards the principal, she said, "Pleased to meet you madame Mirembe. I have heard so much about you. I'm Agatha, from the coven of New Orleans."