Chương 27: The Feast II

War came in full. The siege of Dublin began - dead of winter, howling winds. The armies of Logres stood outside the ancient walls, Their spells faltering against the oldest wards, Born in blood and bound in death. But Bjorn was not bound by season. He struck by sky-paths and hidden gates, Hitting where they least expected, A wolf in the fold while the hounds bayed at stone. The Saga of Bjorn, Verse 45 Felix sat back in his seat, and attacked his food with vigor.

Even here, it was clear that he could get interrupted at any moment. If he went home fat, his mom would be so happy.

"Dragons! If I may briefly have your attention." Leona's announcement was quiet enough not to disrupt the feast, but loud enough to catch the Dragon's attention.

"Sutter here is officially a full member of Dragon house, and has confirmed he wants to stay. Thank you." There were more cheers and clapping at the table, and Chris pounded on Felix's back.

"Yeah! That's what we're talking about!" He said. Felix couldn't keep a silly grin off his face as he went for seconds.

"The food's not going to run away. You can breathe and talk, you know." Beatrix said. Felix took a minute to finish chewing before answering, all while loading up his fork.

"Really? The feast isn't going to suddenly end, then the food's going to get whisked away or something?" Beatrix looked uncomfortable while Chris chuckled.

"You're exactly right. They only do that at these big feasts. Most of the time, we've got to grab our own food and bus it back. You eat up kid."

"Ivanhoe!" One of the professors roared, and fired a barrage of spells across the room. Most of the students paused and turned to look, Felix included.

"Whoops, sorry, got to go!" Ivanhoe said cheerfully as he raised a shield up over himself, then deflected a few more spells. He got up and ran backwards out of the hall, deflecting spells the whole time.

"Get back here!" The professor yelled, firing more spells after the retreating student.

"Is this… normal?" Felix asked as they vanished down the hall, the sounds of battle occurring the entire time. Nobody was blinking an eye.

"There's one in every year." Beatrix said stiffly.

"One what?" Felix asked.

"One student you'll hear all about." Chris said.

"That's Ivanhoe, a fourth year. His family situation is… complicated. Long, long story short, his parents only came back into his life recently, and want to withdraw him from Camelot. Technically, legally, they might have the authority to, but he's been living with other people, who do support him coming here. And…" Felix got the whole life story of Ivanhoe, and could feel the information already leaking out of his head.

If the boy was so many years ahead of him, what would it matter except as free entertainment now and then?

"... so a few of the professors are half-heartedly trying to catch him and kick him out, but it's more performative than anything. His essays are still getting graded, his tests are still being scored. Honestly, I think it's a bit unfair, he's getting bonus marks in Combat Magic as a result and holds the top spot."

"We usually hold the top spot in that class." Beatrix said, and eyed Felix.

"You know… you could help us make a clean sweep this year. We basically never accept first years, but with you, we could grab the top grade in Combat Magic in every year. Eight dragons on the top, it'd look great."

"We'll tutor you!" Chris offered. Felix swallowed a bite.

"Yeah, sure, why not?" He said.

"I'm not that great at school, it usually takes me a few times to get stuff, but I can work hard at it." That was clearly the right thing to say, as the students around Felix grinned.

"Yeah! Look at this little tadpole, full of energy!" One of them said.

"He's fitting in already!"

"Are there other students I need to look out for?" Felix asked.

"Yeah. Okay, this one is actually super important. Do you see that girl with the white hair in Unicorn?" Chris pointed down the table.

"Yeah." Felix said, trying not to stare. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"That's Thalia. Her dad's a unicorn. Not a unicorn ancestor way back when, not a ritual to make a unicorn core, her father's an honest to goodness unicorn."

"Okay?" Felix said, not getting why it was important, and trying terribly hard not to imagine how that worked.

"Castoff, remember?" Beatrix said.

"Oh right." Chris said.

"Unicorns are sacred. You cannot harm them. Don't draw blood, don't pluck a hair, don't even trip her. Just give her space. Better yet, don't interact with her at all." Beatrix said.

"You're terribly cursed otherwise."

"We nicknamed Natalie over there the mother of dragons. She hates it." Chris gleefully pointed out an older girl. His eyes popped out of his head.

"Are those dragons at the table!?" He hissed. A whole riot of miniature dragons were crawling around the girl. A golden one on her shoulder, two red ones on her head, a blue one on the table, a green one roasting some meat extra with her flames, and a couple moving around. She had a lot of space.

"Just dragonlings." Chris said nonchalantly."'Just dragonlings'" Beatrix mocked.

"Like they show up every day." She looked towards them hungrily.

"If you ever get the chance for an egg, take it." She said with a clear note of envy and longing.

"She's an adept, so you won't interact with her much." Chris added in.

"Our fearless leader… well, you'll have to look out for her anyway." He chuckled at his joke.

"Something funny, Mau?" Leona asked from halfway across the table. He straightened right up.

"No Commander!" He squeaked out. Leona and a few of her friends sitting next to her laughed. Beatrix and Felix joined in, and Chris had a few chuckles himself.

"Right, then there's…" Chris continued to explain different people in different years, and why it was worth knowing about them, even as a 'fresh tadpole'. One of the 8th years was a vampire.

"Are there relationships between houses I should worry about?" Felix asked.

"Please tell me I haven't made mortal enemies with a fifth of the students or anything."

"Oh totally!" Chris said.

"We are mortal enemies with… Unicorn house!" Beatrix reached across Felix to try and swat Chris, but missed.

"You're lucky we're learning staves this year, I can't jinx you right now." She muttered darkly towards him.

"The people that take the house stuff way too seriously don't like us very much." She explained to Felix.

"Mostly because we utterly fucking crush them in everything."

"The best ones are when points are given on an individual basis, and outnumbered seven to one, we still score more points combined." Chris bragged.

"Unicorn house has a love-hate relationship with us." Beatrix continued.

"They're also passionate people who do extremely well and care, but want nothing to do with the military aspects of Dragon house. They think they're better because they've got higher standards than us. At the same time, Dragon house makes up a majority of the injuries, because we don't have any wards on us. A lot of Unicorn house wants to go into the medical field, and we provide a steady supply of hurt students for them to fix up."

"Passion attracts passion." Chris sighed, looking down the table longingly.

"White and silver goes beautifully with black and gold. We make the most dashing couples."

"In your dreams, Mau, in your dreams." Beatrix said.

"You'd first need to have a girl want to get within ten steps of you without being overwhelmed by the urge to draw her wand." Felix looked between the two.

"Are you two actually friends?" He asked.

"Yes." Chris answered.

"No." Beatrix said at the same time, but her smirk gave away her lie. The two started bickering good-naturedly, and Felix let himself fade into the background a bit. There was serious eating to be done. A few minutes later, he took his eyes off dinner and glanced down the table to where Leona was. Naturally, that was the moment dinner vanished, and was replaced by dessert.

"I was still working on that." He said mournfully.

"Damn dude, you started eating and didn't stop." Chris said.

"Where did you put it all? I swear you must've eaten for four."

"Mau, it's rude to comment on other people's eating habits." Beatrix said. Felix happily scooped himself some ice cream on undercooked waffles, slathered them with cream, and tucked in with extra vigor. During a lull in the conversation, he asked a question that had been bugging him a bit.

"Is the whole Light/Dark/Grey thing a big deal here? You know, with Commander Thorne and all that?" He asked.

"We all bleed gold here, Sutter." Leona answered from down the table, to roars of approval from the other members.

"We all bleed gold." Felix muttered with a smile. He could live with that. He was just starting to feel stuffed, and contemplated the fact of life that he was properly full for once when the desserts vanished.

"No comments this time?" Chris teased him.

"That was enough even for me." Felix groaned. Headmaster Thalorien stood up. His voice boomed out over the crowd.

"Welcome, once again, to Camelot College of Casting and Charmwork, the greatest school in the world!" The elderly man vigorously thrust both fists in the air to resounding cheers from the students.

"Now, I know you all get a little nervous when I'm talking with you," He paused for a round of chuckles.

"What?" Felix asked Beatrix.

"Shh!" She hushed him.

"And so I will pass off announcements to the wonderful Dame Elspeth Evenwood." The lady who stood up looked to be around 20, if it wasn't for her hair being entirely white. She had a no-nonsense air about her, and hardly anyone applauded her.

"Curfew is at 9: 00 PM for initiates, 11: 00 PM for adepts this year. Quiet hours end at 6: 00 AM. Vault defenses may be worked on beginning tomorrow at 7: 00 AM. Vault assaults may begin Saturday, August 1st, at 1: 00 PM. July 31st is the last day to register an official coven for the point contest. Stravolux, dueling, and siege schedules are posted in the common rooms, along with the recreation room. A new rule has been added. It is forbidden to sabotage the schedule to misdirect your opponents from showing up."

Dragon house booed loudly at the announcement, while there were scattered cheers from the other houses.

"Eh, it worked great once." Chris said philosophically. Dame Elspeth continued her list of announcements.

"... and for the first year students, please get a good night of sleep. Your CAT exams are tomorrow at 9: 00 AM. Your prefects will show you where to go. Good night." Dame Elspeth abruptly sat down, and Headmaster Thalorien stood up.

"Thank you, Dame Elspeth!" He boomed.

"And now, I'm certain that you've all had a long day, have filled your bellies, and the siren song of sleep is luring you all to bed. To students, old and new, I have but two words to say. Good night!" And with a flourish of his black robes, the headmaster stepped down and out. Throngs of students stood up and started to file out the doors. Felix waved goodbye to his Thunderbird friends. Vivian spotted him and waved back with a smile, but let herself get pulled along with the crowd.

"I'm assuming I'm following all of you?" Felix said to Chris and Beatrix.

"Yeah, just try to mimic us." Chris said.

"Commander Thorne knows you're new."

"Dragons! Form up!" Leona shouted. The students shuffled around, and quickly managed to make two orderly rows. Felix hung out at the back, along with Chris.

"Forward, march!" Leona ordered. With a bang of their staves on the ground, the Dragons started to march to their common room. Felix tried to mimic them, but didn't quite know what he was doing. One of the other officers started a jodie, clearly imported from the mundane world.

"Everwhere we go - oh" The leader called.

"Everywhere we go - oh" The rest of the Dragons mimicked back.

"People want to know - oh" Each call was responded back with the rest of the students, and Felix quickly found his voice, loudly joining in.

"Who we are/ Where we come from/ So we tell them/ We are THE DRAGONS!" The last words were said with a roar worthy of the eponymous creature, and it echoed through the halls of Camelot. Felix couldn't keep a stupid grin off his face. He felt like he belonged.