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I started from the beginning of the little section thing, so there's going to be a lot of stuff you've already read....this is from my Isabelle Creour story. She got on the train, if you remember, and Ellie plopped down next to her (Ellie is the REALLY talkative, REALLY energetic girl), if you don't remember.



Miss I’m-Gonna-Talk-‘Til- My- Teeth- Fall- Out certainly lives up to her name during the train ride to the school. The ride isn’t even over yet and she’s already been through at least 6 authors, the meaning of toothpaste, the story of how she learned to count to ten in German, what color highlighter she likes best, her favorite brand of tampons, her theory on why it always rains on days when she was going to have plans (apparently, the Weather Lord gets upset because his chicken is always undercooked and throws a tantrum in the sky), the difference between knives and scissors and why she loves them both equally (at which point she took out a pair of scissors and actually kissed them happily on the handle), and numerous other terribly amusing but incredibly ridiculous topics.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m truly intrigued, it’s just…
…I’m also ready to bang my head against a wall.
I think she’s just moved on to the subject of how she’s certain the girls have softer toilet paper in their bathrooms than the boys and how that is anti-feminist or something like that. I glance at my watch. We’ve been on this train for about an hour and a half.
“…which really bothers me, because although I do appreciate the fact that my bottom gets special treatment, I think it’s rather sexist towards the guys, don’t you?”
I take my chance. “Where exactly is the Academy?”
She doesn’t even seem to mind that I completely changed the subject. I guess she’s used to people interrupting her. “Well, that’s actually under debate.”
I stare at her. “What does that mean, it’s under debate? It’s in a place or it’s not!”
She shakes her head. “No, no, they know where the school itself is. They just don’t know if they ought to tell non-Delirian parents that the school is located in one of the magic districts.”
“Magic districts? And what are non-Delirian parents?”
“Parents who posses no Delir but whose children do. And the magic districts are a bunch of huge hunks of land around the world that the Delirian world buys to build magic shops and schools and the like.”
I’m trying to process this. I didn’t know the Academy had kids who all had Delir! I suppose I ought to have assumed so. I have so many questions buzzing around in my head right now…“Is Delir taught at the Academy, then? And what exactly can you do with Delir? No one’s ever explained this to me!”
She looks at me. “How come you don’t know all of this? Haven’t your parents ever told you?”
“My parents are…” I pause. “…non-Delirian. They only recently found out I have Delir.”
She nods in understanding. “Oh, I see…well, my parents didn’t know about me either, but they knew what it was, of course.”
“How did they know what it was?”
“Well, one of my dads has a little hint of it. The principal of the Academy when he was a kid told him he didn’t have enough of it to come, but he can do little things with it, like household chores and things so he doesn’t have to clean things by hand and all.”
“One of your dads?”
She pauses for a moment, not looking at me. For the first time, she looks a little tense. She seems to make a decision right then, and says, “My parents are gay.”
I process this. I’ve known a couple of kids at my school with gay or lesbian parents. No one ever seemed to have a problem with them, but I’ve heard that in other parts of the world, it is less accepted. “Okay, cool. Just curious.” I pause for a minute, now. “So, you never answered my other questions…”
She glances at me, then smiles really wide. “You don’t care?”
I shrug. “Nah, of course not, why would I?”
She shrugs back. “Where I come from, some people were okay with it and some weren’t.”
“Well, it’s not like it was in past generations, you know. Almost everybody accepts stuff like that nowadays.”
“I know. My town was very conservative. I’ve always stuck out like a- a-” She thinks. “Like a very, very large, human-sized, bright pink needle in a haystack.”
I laugh.
I never laugh.
This girl is doing weird things to me.
She smiles. “Alright, so I’ll answer your questions. You asked…if Delir is taught at the Academy? The answer is definitely yes. That’s pretty much all that’s taught at the Academy, hon. They have math class and English class and the rest is all Delir-related.”
I snort in annoyance. “I left for school so quick, I didn’t even have time to find that out. I thought it was just a normal school.”
“Why you’d leave so quickly?”
I have a minor panic attack. I can’t tell her the truth, no one can know where I come from! I shrug. “My mom only found out I had Delir right before the term started, and wanted me to start school with the other kids, so we were really busy the past few days. I thought she was sending me away because Delir was something bad, not because I could learn about it here!”
She nods. “Oh. My dads didn’t want me to go, they got all mushy-gushy and wanted me to stay home, but I told them I didn’t want to accidentally blow them up so I should probably leave.” She smiles.
“Oh.” I’m remembering just how strange she really is.
“So, you asked what people can actually do with Delir?”
“Yeah! I don’t even know what it is I supposedly possess.”
“Okay, then, I’ll tell you! There are three main branches of Delirian magic. Healing, Creation, and Movement. Healing is what it sounds like; using magic to cure injuries. It’s a very complicated subject to major in, you have to really enjoy anatomy and things like that. Then there’s-”
“We major in subjects?”
“Yes. But not until we’re older. We’re going into our first year now, and there are four years of schooling. We can major in something during our second two years.”
“You’re telling me I’m going to be in school ‘til I’m twenty?”
“Yup.”
“Hell no,” I mutter to myself. Then to Ellie, “So go on.”
She nods. “Alright. So that’s Healing. Then there’s Creation. This is for more…artistic minds, usually. Creation is what it sounds like too; using one’s mind to either summon things you need, make pictures, perform, discover new scientific remedies for illnesses, pull things out of thin air, and…well, the most important use of Creation is called Vision. It is the ability to make material what is immaterial. In other words, you could create your feelings. It’s a confusing subject, but very revered for both it’s difficulty and it’s use in everyday life and social sciences.”
I nod, processing. Healing sounds too doctor-y. But Creation…Vision…it sounds interesting. If a little bit personal. “Okay,” I say, showing my understanding.
She twirls one of her pigtails. “And, as I said, there is Movement. This is the art of manipulating matter. Movement is like…learning how to levitate, or having your washcloth clean the dishes for you, things like that. That’s what my dad can do. More advanced Movement involves transporting your mind into someone else’s, and that is a very useful function, because it literally lets you see things from someone else’s perspective. Ever heard the expression two heads work better than one? Well, Movement has contributed to many of society’s most important inventions, because two minds could connect with each other.” She pauses to see if I have any questions.
“So…can Movement connect more than two minds?”
She thinks. “I’ve only heard of that happening twice in the history of man, and neither time did it end very well.”
I’m curious. “Why not?”
She shivers a little. “That much thought circulating through one brain can make a person go crazy. Even just two people takes careful concentration and a lot of Delirian energy.”
“I see.” I nod slowly. “Thanks for the explanation. How do you know all of this, anyway?”
“My dad and reading, mostly.”
I nod again. This has really put a whole new twist on things…I have something that can do all of that? Impossible. Ridiculous. And yet…that boy…I know I have it, even as I wonder how it can all seem so surreal and wild. I feel like I’m living inside a fantasy novel. It never quite struck home what it might mean to be the only living member of the Creour family to possess Delir, but now I can see all the possibilities it holds for the future, all the power I have but can’t yet use.
A whisper enters my mind, a thought I don’t want to face, about why my family sent me here. Have I….do they mean to use me for their own destructive ends, to strike fear into the hearts of the Felixus’s, to twist the use of my Delir into a weapon? Do they mean to manipulate me into entering a dangerous, high-stakes game of warfare, rebellion, betrayal, and violence?
I push the thought from my mind. Perhaps they don’t know all that Delir can do. Perhaps they just want me to be comfortable with who I am, to know how to control it.
I lay my head down on the window and watch the trees go by. I’ll leave those thoughts for another day. Sleep claims me.