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For years, Fern had looked for someone to take them in as their witch apprentice.
They weren’t much, just a regular only child grown up in a non magical family at the very border between the realms. Normal parents, normal school, but a not so normal childhood as they accidentally caused havoc wherever they went, like a weird curse, a metaphorical cloud hovering over their head waiting for the perfect moment to strike. To keep it short, they were somehow able to do magic but had no idea about how to control it, even the slightest and often ended up being seen as a walking death trap.
Being close to Fern meant that it was only a matter of time until you got dragged into a huge mess of a probably dangerous or even deadly scale. From the age of ten, their parents had tried to find a mentor for them while also trying to get them enrolled into several magic-centric schools, both in their realm and the other. But since Fern was a human from the Common Realm, schools from the First Realm did not want to accept them on the premise that the Common Realm would. However, the Common Realm denied them entry to every school on the simple grounds that they were from a non magic family, even though they were magic themself.
If they wanted to study magic, they could apply for a place in the First Realm that did accept children from non magical parents. And that had made Fern stuck in a never ending loop of “no’s” as their powers kept growing out of their control and putting them in even more danger than before. It was frustrating and had caused them much anger since the rules of the two realms saw them as an anomaly.
The First Realm had a ratio of magic users outnumbering non magic users twenty to one. Before the realms had split in two during the ancient times it had been a realm of pure magic, but at the creation of the second realm, the Common Realm during a shortage of grains that lasted for an entire generation a huge deal of magic had simply disappeared as a price of the creation. Children started to be born without magic, and those were generally the ones moving to the new realm, making it almost completely populated with non witches. Only about one in a thousand people in the Common Realm could conjure magic. Not a lot, but since the Common Realm had a population twenty times the size of that of the First Realm, magic schools were still needed for the children from magical families.
And Fern was not from a magical family with their bad luck, they shouldn’t even have magic in the first place. And because of that tiny fine print, they had been barred entry. Such a law did not exist in the First Realm though since it was not unheard of for magic children to be born into non magic families, and since the world was overwhelmingly magic all could attend, humans, elves, halflings, pixies and so on, everyone, if born in that realm had a chance to become witches.
At the age of fifteen they had almost given up and accepted the fate of being a constant danger and victim of Murphy’s law for the rest of their life. That was until they met Arran for the first time.
Fern had simply been on their way home from school, using their bike. Everything had been smooth sailing, only one small incident during the day so far. That was until they witnessed the three men grabbing the purse of an old lady before quickly trying to sprint away into an alley. They couldn’t just leave it at that, as a witness and before thinking it through they followed, speeding up the pace like their life depended on it and did a quick unnatural turn into the alley, hearing the metallic thump of the bike.
The alley had been long and narrow, an old cobblestone design with some empty food cans floating about five feet into the air surrounded by some blue magic, a typical childhood prank from magic users. It was dark, the path seemed to get more and more narrow by the second as Fern had their eyes set on the thieves who got closer and closer to the dead end. They heard the thieves curse, but as they got closer they felt how a burden of their legs suddenly got looser, like a loss of pressure. It was weird and tingly, all of Fern’s hair standing on edge as it felt like they were biking on air with nothing stopping them.
It was great for about five seconds, until they looked down and saw that they no longer touched the ground. In fact, they were already a good three feet into the air and they just floated higher and higher up by the second, leaving the confused thieves behind until they eventually were above the buildings, soaring through the sky in a small panic.
“Dang it!” they had yelled moments before they almost biked into a fairy with a grocery bag, and by that point panic had truly set in. They were flying on a bike and had no idea what was actually going on. They had to get down quickly because if the cops found them, they would get a fine for using a flying bike in the air without a proper flying license. They were already on the city’s bad side from all of the accidental trouble their magic caused them and everyone around, but that still wasn’t a good enough excuse to let them enroll in a magical school.
Just as they were about to give up hope they had heard the heavy thump of metal hitting their bike, seeing a long magical chain surrounded by a vague green glow. It automatically tied itself around the bike and they slowly got dragged down. Before they knew it the bike had touched down on the roof of an old building and Fern stood eye to eye with Arran for the very first time.
Tall, about a foot taller than they were, in his early thirties. Long black hair, some stubble and tiny dents on his ears that showed distant elf ancestry. To a fifteen year old Fern, he had looked cool with the look of his face and his black denim vest, and the faint green glow surrounding his hands while simultaneously lighting up his unnaturally green eyes. A sign of magic. When magic was used by a skilled user their eyes always glowed in the color of their magic. He was a witch.
“You do realize how lucky you were right? If I hadn’t been here you could have floated into space.” he had said, voice serious and low. “I’ve seen you get into trouble for years, everyone in the city has and this time I had to intervene. Don’t they teach you anything at witch school anymore?”
“I’m pretty sure they do, but I wouldn’t know.”
“What?”
“Non-magic family. Common Realm doesn’t accept me, neither does First because I wasn’t born there. I have literally no control whatsoever and it’s not my fault. Don’t blame me for the chaos, blame the system.”
He had cursed at Fern’s words before helping them down from their bike.
“Stupid rules, no offense to you, but right now you’re a literal danger to society.”
“Thanks love, you too. That’s such charming words to hear.”
“I get you’re just a kid, but please try to be serious.”
“Fine. What even is your name, mister rescuing me from the cops?”
“Arran, just Arran. You?”
“I’m Fern.”
“Well Fern, since you’re literally a danger to everyone around you and the schools won’t let you in I guess it’ll be my job to train you. One on one witch apprenticeships are legal for people with non-magical parents as long as the mentor has a graduation diploma, which I have. Are you up for it?”
“You mean, properly learning magic which is something I’ve wanted to do since I was a small kid? I am more than up for that.”
Arran nodded.
“Okay, let’s get you home. I need to speak with your parents and then we need the paperwork to get you out of high school and get you the proper books and gear, and I need to look over the curriculum. If you’re lucky you might get your magic license by the time you’re… wait how old are you? Twelve?”
“Fifteen.”
“Okay, you might get it when you’re around twenty if we cram like crazy since you got a late start.”
“Nice. But how are we getting down from here?”
“Levitation charm.”
“You mean all the way home?”
“No. Just down the building. Then we take the bus.”
It had been two years since the day Fern met Arran for the first time, and a lot had changed. First, they had moved out of their parents to live with their mentor in a large house that looked like a fish out of water in the middle of the city with its four stories, black brick and the tower with a triangular roof at the left side. With the tower adding two stories more, the house was actually six stories tall. It was like a small mansion with a fenced off back garden in the middle of the inner city, Arran was filthy rich and hadn’t mentioned it until Fern had stepped into his house for the first time. They got an entire FLOOR to themself, their own room, kitchen, living room, bathroom, supply rooms as well as training areas outside of lessons.
It had been great, everything they had ever wished for and it felt ten times as luxuries as the boarding schools in the First Realm they had seen pictures and videos from. The food had been less good in the beginning, they had found out the hard way Arran couldn’t even cook a decent pancake even if it would save his life. So, outside of school hours they, a back then fifteen year old, had to be the one teaching their 32 year old mentor how to cook properly. To them, it had been extremely frustrating but after two years Arran had managed to no longer be a hazard in his own kitchen.
How he had survived by himself up until that point, Fern didn’t know.
But if cooking was something Arran was bad at, it was the absolute opposite when it came to magic. He was a genius and a master, able to conjure any spell he wanted with ease. The way his hands looked when they glowed in green, the way all of his spells worked and performed. He was so powerful and so in control and it looked like he was born to do magic, Fern was more than impressed.
With such a good teacher, Fern had expected magic to be easy.
That had been their very first misunderstanding.
Magic was way harder than it looked, even with a proper teacher that showed them exactly what to do. It was even harder with the instructions. Whenever they wanted to do something intentionally, it was like their magical core wanted to play a prank on them just for the sake of it. The first weeks they could only do the theory, Arran had called them a natural for remembering it all and for trying their best. They had a good form, moved their arms in the right way to conjure the spell, even to the point of having every individual finger in the right place as they moved their hands, but nothing. Not even a tiny spark coming out from their hands and it had made them almost give up. They had felt like a failure, the only time they ever managed to do magic was when it was an accident. Arran’s house had looked like a battlefield, especially after Fern accidentally set fire to his library after they threw away a book into the wall in pure anger. They had been reading about the theory of levitating for over an hour, their third read through that week and had then tried it on an apple without luck. Their hands had cramped as they basically turned into an orchestra conductor and it had been too much. The book had been thrown away in anger and afterwards a tiny flame had exited their hand and set fire to a bookshelf.
Pyromagics was not even close to the same category as levitation and they had felt so angry and ashamed when Arran had to put out the fire. They had almost given up, feeling terrible. It was like they would never be able to learn properly, and their mind had told them Arran secretly hated them afterwards.
Instead Arran had given them a pat on the back, congratulating Fern for being able to create a small flame since pyromagics was advanced magic. Then he kept telling them how much they had improved with the theory and movements and that they did their best. He was proud of them and it had felt so strange to hear, especially since they still hadn’t been able to do magic on purpose .
But it had felt nice, knowing their mentor supported them. He might be pretty grumpy from time to time but Fern saw that he cared, and that was what kept them going. Every day they kept doing their best all because of Arran’s encouragements, and their weird involuntarily magic shenanigans slowly dwindled.
After three months disaster only struck about once a week, and around that mark they managed to succeed with their first spell.
They got an apple to levitate for about ten seconds, a whole foot of the ground. It had been covered in a weird orange glow that also enhanced both of Fern’s hands, until they got exhausted and the spell broke itself, making the apple fall back onto the ground. They had jumped up into the air and quickly said the enchantment spell once more while moving their fingers, but this time the apple didn’t move. A headache had begun to set at the back of their head, meaning they had strained themself enough.
Arran had been so proud and the witch had given his apprentice a hug before ruffling their hair, telling Fern how much they had improved. That night he had done his best to cook some celebratory spaghetti that ended up tasting like burnt rubber. They ended up ordering pizza instead. After that day Fern had felt so much more confident in their abilities, they had seen their true orange glow for the very first time and performed a spell on purpose.
It took another week before they could get the levitation charm to work again, but that time it lasted a whole minute.
Months went by and Fern kept improving, Arran encouraging them every day as they studied not only the spells but also the magical history of both realms. And as the friendship between mentor and apprentice grew, Fern slowly got to learn more and more of their mentor’s past. Arran was the last born son of a family from the First Realm and he had moved to the Common Realm at the age of twenty five for a new start because he didn’t want to be overshadowed by his six siblings who all got seats at the High Court. They had always had a bad relationship and he wanted to start over without them, and he had spent most of his time alone until he had decided to take in Fern.
When Fern had turned sixteen they no longer got into any accidents at all, and weeks after their birthday they had found out the city secretly had sent Arran thank you flowers since their uncontrollable powers no longer caused havoc over the infrastructure. After being Arran’s apprentice for a year they knew ten basic spells by heart and could hold them for hours, their speciality being the levitation charm, and for some reason a basic pyromagic charm that was actually way above their level. They could also handle six intermediate spells for a few minutes as well as two advanced ones for about ten seconds each. With their growing knowledge their confidence grew. And according to Arran, that wasn’t always a good thing.
Once when Fern had been on grocery duties they had once again seen the thieves they met about a year prior, this time they tried to steal someone’s car. And to help the witch had quickly used their levitation charm on their boots to quickly catch up with them before they set their robes on fire. Everything ended up with the car exploding and Arran had to pay money to not only the man whose car was damaged, but also to the city since a part of the driveway had been blown off .
At least the thieves had been caught in the end.
Afterwards Arran had called Fern’s parents about the incident to inform them and they had almost sunk into the old couch as they heard the voice of their angry mother on the other side of Arran’s phone. She ended up cancelling their allowance for the next month and also told Arran that Fern would do all of the house chores for a week, which was a deal Arran accepted.
“You must be more careful in the future.” he had told them afterwards. “You were lucky you didn’t get blown up. You still don’t have your magic license. I am proud of how much you’ve improved but you’re still very inexperienced and a bit hot headed with way too much confidence now when you can cast magic. I’m just worried about you and don’t want you to be hurt.”
Fern had nodded and apologized again, really feeling the shame as they got lecured by their mentor. It was like if their mother lectured them all over again, and the worse kind. The “I’m not mad, just disappointed” kind.
“Though, you did use quick thinking and your magic has improved. How about we celebrate with pizza and you can start doing all house chores tomorrow instead of today? I think you’ve earned it.”
That had caught the witch off guard, but they happily finished an entire meat lovers pizza with their mentor while watching a badly written teen romcom on tv that Fern loved and Arran hated. Afterwards they didn’t care about having twice as many chores for a week. Arran was still proud of them and that had been what mattered.
By this point Fern had begun to see Arran as their big brother, and even though Arran wouldn’t say it out loud he saw Fern as a sibling too, not only an apprentice that he had just taken in for the safety of the city. They laughed, had banters and supported each other and everything felt so natural. Fern felt safe around them and knew Arran would always be there to comfort and protect them, and it was nice.
When they experienced their first heartbreak Arran had been there. It had been a guy from Fern’s old school that had texted Fern on their social media, asking if they wanted to see a movie with him. And as they had liked him back then, they had accepted. The guy had only asked Fern out as a joke and they revealed it after two weeks of dates they had been heartbroken. The guy had laughed in their face, telling them that they would never date the “Accident Witch” as they were called after everything they had done to the city by accident. It had just been a bet and the guy had gotten money by his friend for “suffering through two weeks with them”. It had hurt and stung and they had done their very best to keep their composure to not use the levitating charm and throw them fifty feet into the air.
Instead they had just left, but not before using magic to set fire to the money the guy had shown them. He wouldn’t be able to get any money from their misery. And once they had gotten back home the facade of a cool and calm face disappeared. They cried, making their makeup run down their face as Arran immediately ran up to them and gave them a hug, letting them cry out into his shoulder while they told him everything about what had happened. They could feel the fury in their eyes, he had listened to everything they had said, how they felt and comforted them.
Afterwards both of them went to the guys address and as the door opened and he saw a furious Arren with glowing green eyes and hands along with a crying Fern with orange hands he had been terrified. Arren ended up screaming at him and his parents for a good fifteen minutes and it felt great to know that he ended up getting grounded for three months. And when they got home Arren immediately ordered pizza while getting a pint of ice cream from the freezer. Then he put on Fern’s favorite movie and sat there with them and just let them talk about their feelings.
To Fern, that was nice. Arran always had their back.
Another few months passed and during the middle of a magic lesson Arran had simply smiled at Fern before uttering four words that caused the witch to really feel a sense of joy. Those words being “Your eyes are changing.”
They had quickly dropped everything they had been doing, meaning that they broke their concentration and the sleeping spell they had used on a manticore kitten came to an end, leaving Arran to deal with countless cat scratches and burning furniture as Fern ran to the nearest bathroom. They could barely believe what they saw. Their face looked like it usually did, covered in freckles and framed by their red locks, but their previously blue eyes had a tiny ring of pure oversaturated orange in the very edges. Like a small flame, the same color as their magic.
They had expected that to happen sooner or later, it happened to all magic users eventually once their cores got used to the magic around them and inside them as their skills and endurance improved. But it was still weird to see it on themself , a real proof that they actually were a witch even though their background wasn’t magic. Soon the blue would be completely erased and replaced by the orange, and once their eyes were fully transformed they would end up glowing like that of a cat in the dark whenever they cast a spell, making their eyes and their hands prominent orange. Like how Arran was a bright green.
Later that evening they asked what his original eye color had been and the answer was brown, like all of his siblings. Now, none of them shared eye colors any longer, the color of one’s magic was completely random and had nothing to do with genetics. His siblings had cyan, purple, wine red, pure red, orange, pink, and then he was green. The mark of a witch, unnatural eyes that glew in the dark. Even without magic spells being used the eyes had a faint glow to them.
And it felt great.
A week before their seventeenth birthday they were completely filled in, and when their parents visited on their birthed Fern had decided to use it as a party trick, turning all the lights off and just letting their eyes glow to the surprise of their parents. Then they had enhanced the glow by using a levitation charm on their mom who quickly told them to put her down. She wasn’t exactly scared of heights, but Fern’s previous track record and almost marriage to Murphy’s law had caused her to be on edge, and Arran couldn’t help but laugh the entire time.
“Don’t be scared, they’re a natural at this point. They’re almost at the expected level for someone their age that went to an actual school, even though they started several years after their pears. They haven’t set fire to the house in months.”
It had been a nice birthday, and after their parents had left Arran had given them a new spellbook as a present, as well as the makeup kit he had heard Fern pestering their father about on the phone.
Three weeks after their birthday they had their first magical exams. Professors from five different magical schools as well as two members of the Board attended. Fern not only had to write tests but they also had to show off their skills in magic and potions. The tests took four days to complete and by the end of it they passed everything with above average grades and got their beginners license. That meant they were allowed to use simple magic in public, as well as levitation on themself (but not objects, they still needed another license for that) if so desired.
It also meant that Arran passed his own obligations and were allowed to keep being the mentor through Fern’s studies now when they were quickly going to become more complicated than before. And in about three more years they would be done and finally get their real license as well as an educational diploma, proving the world that they were a witch with an education.
And then everything is back to the present, Fern and Arran had taken the rest of the day off from teaching and decided to play a board game after Fern had managed to brew a perfect love potion. Love potions because of their nature were illegal to brew outside of educational purposes so Arran had immediately confiscated it and was going to send it away to a licensed brewer for destruction later. It was one of the most complicated potions for someone Fern’s age, and since they the day before had managed to cast an invisibility charm on themself that lasted for two whole minutes, everything was seen as a win.
They studied and it paid off.
But as they were in the middle of a game of Monopoly Fern looked out of the window from the fourth story of the house and immediately stopped. They heard police sirens and several cars driving onto the street, as well as two floating in the air. That could only mean one thing, high speed chase with a magical criminal.
Without even blinking the witch immediately stood up, opened the window and jumped out of it while casting the levitation charm onto their boots mid air, magic taking effect when they were only a foot from hitting the ground. After having passed their first exams they had quickly grown more confident and cocky to Arran’s dismay.
They quickly moved forward, doing the best to fly and keep up with the police cars. They could beat up the criminal and catch them quickly and they knew it.
Then they heard Arran’s voice behind them and as they turned around they saw him jumping out of the window before quickly following them with a green glow.
“Fern! Get back here!”
They sped up. They could be scolded later, now they wanted to have some fun.
