Chapter 2

Lila Orion, like most of Jira’s students, lived on the same street. Her house sat at the entrance to Witches’ Cove, a mere fifteen-minute walk from Jira’s house.

However, whenever classes ended, Lila preferred to go with Tomi and Timi to the Witches’ Market instead, even though it was more than an hour away.

It was either that or staying at home alone until late in the night when her parents returned, and Lila wasn’t a fan of spending time alone.

The only child of her parents, Lila Orion dreaded the loneliness of her house.

Starting at Jira’s School of Witchcraft turned things around for her. She got to spend time with fourteen other kids, two of which had become like pseudo siblings to her.

Unlike most of the other kids who got excited when classes ended, Lila often wished classes continued long into the evening. After all, nothing but empty seats and vacant rooms awaited her at home.

She called out to Tomi the moment Jira dismissed them.

“Let me guess,” Timi said, “your parents are working late again today?”

Lila nodded, her blonde hair swaying left and right as she rushed to join her friends standing in the cramped street.

She paused to wave goodbye to some other students, who simply crossed the street and disappeared into homes around, small and twisted like the giants from the old tales stepped on them.

As the last of them vanished off the street, leaving Lila, Tomi, and Jira alone, Lila gave her attention back to the Afolabi siblings.

“The company is trying to meet the deadline for the release of a new model of crystal wands.”

“Didn’t they just release some new ones two months ago?” Tomi asked.

“You know the Tartian motto: never stop innovating.” Lila mimicked the way her father usually said it.

She never understood why he and her mother had to work so hard for a company that wasn’t even theirs, especially when there were rumours that Arron Tartian who owned the Tartian empire, rarely ever showed up to work.

Tomi slipped a hand into her pocket and brushed the side of her wooden wand. She got it when she started training with Jira, and even though wooden wands were less effective than crystal wands, she loved it all the same. Besides, her parents couldn’t afford the extra hundred gamnis the cheapest crystal wands cost.

Tomi slipped out her hand from her pocket. “This makes the third straight week your parents have been held back at their workplace.”

Lila shrugged. At this point, she was used to it.

Every time Lila’s parents worked late, she went with Tomi and Timi to the Witches’ Market and stayed in their parents’ broomstick shop till hers came to get her.

And since Lila’s parents worked late very often, Lila had come to think of the Afolabis as a surrogate family.

These days, she even looked forward to spending time with them at their broomstick shop.

They resumed walking, with Lila setting the pace for them. “And they’ve been talking about quitting too but I know they are not going to do it. They need the money.”

Lila continued to talk about her parents’ job until they left Witches’ Cove, cutting into the wider street that served as the main road to the Witches’ Market.

Carriages and carts drove past them, and a few witches on broomsticks flew above them as they journeyed by the side of the road.

They made sure to stick close to the treeline, where the dust raised by passing vehicles was less likely to reach them.

The trees hedging in at either side of the wide road looked dead and dry but would sprout back to life in a month’s time when the rains returned.

The trio played this little game where they guessed which vehicles were headed to the Witches’ Market and used that to pass the time.

By the time they did arrive at the Witches’ Market though, the conversation had moved on to a more serious topic: the tournament.

“Do you really think we stand a chance?” Lila asked, sliding over the curved bridge through the market’s entrance and almost colliding into a mobile stall, a tent mounted on a wooden cart.

“Watch it child!” The trader scolded her.

Lila apologized with a bow and waited for Tomi and Timi to catch up.

“They say Airad’s the best wizarding school in the land,” Lila added as the siblings met up with her.

“Is it?” Timi questioned, leading their small group down a small path between market stalls of textiles, shoes, and cauldrons. “I personally think it’s overrated. Just a place for spoiled rich brats to gather. I mean, didn’t Jira tell us as much?”

“Well, that’s not how she put it,” Tomi corrected, not liking Timi’s oversimplification even a little bit. “She said she just wasn’t into how they approached magic and left.”

They zigzagged through the crowd, avoiding sellers and buyers locked in bargain.

“I don’t know whether we’ll win or not,” Tomi continued, “but not trying at all would be wrong.”

“I believe we’ll beat them,” Timi said, turning a corner down another tiny path crowded by even bigger shops. “What can wizards do that we can’t? They can fly, and so can we with our brooms. They can control the elements, and so can we with our wands. They can manifest objects with their hands, and so can we with our wands.”

“Well, that last part isn’t exactly accurate,” Lila voiced out. “Witches can only translocate objects with their wands, not create them from scratch.”

“That’s true,” Timi admitted, calling to mind the memory of the class where Jira first demonstrated translocation for them.

That day she’d walked into class with a broomstick and handed it to Timi. Then she walked away from him and said, “Broomstick.”

And just like that, the broom in his hand vanished and appeared on the ground at Jira’s feet.

“But still, it doesn’t guarantee their victory. I mean, whatever wizards manifest eventually snaps out of existence, right? So clearly, they’re not that powerful. Besides, when it comes to good old spell casting, we have them beat.” Timi argued.

When he looked up, his parents broomstick shop came into view.

They met only Mrs Afolabi at the shop, which meant Mr Afolabi was out making deliveries again.

Even though he was just sixteen, Timi was already a head taller than his mother.

He bent low as he drew her in for a hug, releasing her so Tomi and Lila could have theirs also.

“Hi Aunt Wura,” Lila greeted. She was by no means related through blood to the Afolabis, but for all intents and purposes, Wura Afolabi was her aunt, and the husband, Yomi Afolabi, her uncle.

Mrs Wura Afolabi cupped Lila’s face in her soft hands, her long black fingers reaching as far back as Lila’s neck. “Your parents are still having those extra shifts?”

Lila nodded. “It’s okay though,” she said. “At least I get to hang out with you.”

Mrs Afolabi laughed, tipping her brown gele to one side as she did. “Sit down all of you.”

She cleared a pack of broomsticks blocking the woven raffia chairs towards the far end of the store. “Let me fetch you some akara to eat.”

Lila received her plate of akara with thanks, her nose bulging as the scent of spice and oil creeped in. She stuffed one ball into her mouth and leaned closer to Tomi beside her.

“You think we should tell your mother about the tournament?”

Tomi shushed Lila, telling her to lower her voice. “Not yet. If my Mum learns of this now, she’ll freak out. She might just overreact and pull me out of school. Do you want that to happen?”

Lila straightened up on her chair and continued eating her akara in silence. She definitely didn’t want what Tomi just described to happen.

When the time came, they would have to find a way to break this news to their parents in a way that wouldn’t scare them.