Solstice

by Scorpius

Bound

To my dear friend,

In my time, I have fought many beings, and in my youth I was as eager as you are now to seek the thrill of battle. And some fights must be fought: there is little[a] wisdom in those who say that the good must always avoid violence. Sometimes, to avoid violence is to risk the loss of all that we hold dear, and it is right and proper to endure great suffering to protect that.

Yet be wary of being too eager to fight, my friend. Though it sometimes cannot be avoided, it must always be abhorred. Therefore, I say unto you: fight only when there are no other options that present themselves to you, whenever yourself and your kin are threatened more by your inaction than your action, and let no fight carry on longer than it needs[b].
—Epistulae 12:1–8

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Even for a Monday, this is bad.

Maria weighed the options before her—not that there really was a choice in the matter. Even if one of her options would, at least, keep her out of trouble with the teachers, she couldn’t afford to be seen to cast further slight upon another House, not even to avoid personal troubles. Even though staying safe (and perfectly within school rules) was very tempting, Maria couldn’t let her House’s reputation take any more blows because of her.

She didn’t need to glance at the staff table to know the havoc that Abigail Forthnall had caused, but she did need to catch Professor Everfree’s eye. Standing behind the table while the staff around him panicked (each, of course, trying to reach the source of the commotion as quickly as possible, to catch her before she could bind the two of them into this awful situation), his muzzle twisted into a grimace as he seemed to force himself to nod, once, in affirmation. He knew as well as she did that there really wasn’t another choice.

The students were already growing impatient—and quite the crowd had formed in those few moments since Abigail had called out to her, far more than she would have expected—shouting and jeering as if they expected a fight then and there. But Maria would take her time over this, to ensure that she was composed and dignified throughout, and to ensure that nothing at all went wrong.

“I, Maria, first neophyte of Everfree, do dispute the charges laid before me, and accept your condition of an honour duel.” She spoke carefully, moving her lips more than she normally would and slowing her speech so that all could hear—and who knew that Oration lessons would come in handy in such a strange situation—reciting the words she had forced herself to memorise long ago. She lit her horn, and sent out a small shimmer of hornglow to meet the bright yellow orb of Abigail’s. “So mote it be.”

For just one moment, everything stopped still.

The staff halted, some still halfway over tables in their desperate bid to reach Maria before she could speak, others sat frozen at the staff table in shock. The crowd of students fell silent, staring in awe at the yellow–violet orb that was spinning quietly in the air of the hall, small sparks of multi-coloured hornglow orbiting around it. Out of the corner of her eye, Maria could see Tim’s face fall, almost in slow motion, as he realised what was going on far too late.

But in that moment, Maria’s eyes were focused solely on Abigail Forthnall.

Magic bound the two of them together. It was no longer a possibility for Maria not to duel Abigail—and this was the reason that swearing oaths was so thoroughly against school rules—because dueling Abigail Forthnall was no longer an abstract thought but an intrinsic part of who Maria was. And for that moment, Maria could do nothing but watch as her opponent’s eyes widened slightly in surprise, her lips slacking and parting just a fraction. Had she not known that Maria would have to accept? Did she truly not understand the political ramifications of her challenge? She had cast the Oath first, after all.

Maria smiled, and then sat down to try to eat her dinner. It wasn’t as if the magic bound them to duel right there and then, and she really didn’t want to let her plate get cold. Besides, she should have enough time for a mouthful or two before any of the staff could come back to their senses and reprimand her for breaking school rules.

And so it came as a great surprise to her when, mere moments after the students’ clamour rose again to an uproar, the headmistress’ voice—magically amplified, and booming with barely-concealed fury—filled her ears.

“MARIA EVERFREE AND ABIGAIL OSCINA FORTHNALL! MY OFFICE! NOW!”

Maria sighed, setting down her cutlery, and rose once more from her seat. The crowd of students parted around her as she made her way towards the small door behind the staff table that lead to the base of the Headmistress' tower—there was no point in being polite and waiting for Abigail to go first when they were both in such trouble.

"I'll talk to her after you're finished," Professor Everfree muttered as she walked past him. "This isn't your fault. Stay strong."

She had no time to do anything but nod in response. Soon enough, she was looking up into the fiery eyes of Headmistress Fenglade, and any strength that Maria had left drained out of her. She had never seen the Headmistress so angry, and to know it was all their fault… Maria and Abigail shared a sideways, nervous smile, as the Headmistress turned around and beckoned them to follow up the winding, torchlit stairs.

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[a] in some translations, no. Scholars are divided over which word best represents Starswirl’s view, with one camp arguing that a harsh and absolute stance on the matter is contradicted by Starswirl’s later proclamation that violence is to be abhorred, and the other arguing that it reinforces the idea of black-and-white morality that seems so important to Starswirl in this passage. There is certainly a lot to be said about black-and-white morality here, but this author believes that this is clearly not what Starswirl had in mind—despite his command to “always” abhor violence, Starswirl seems to be insisting that there are times to stick to one’s principles and times when it is better not to take the risk.
[b] Though Starswirl does not elaborate, it is generally assumed that he is referring to victories and not losses here. His own advice seems to be to fight on while you still can, but not to let your enemies suffer one moment longer than is necessary to win. Many modern scholars criticise Starswirl’s approach as limiting and stifling in combat, particularly against enemies who will not hesitate to prolong a soldier’s own suffering.

Author's Note:

I'm not particularly happy with the ending of this chapter, and will probably come back to tweak it tomorrow. It looks like this long weekend is going to have some rushed chapters—my friends and I are participating in a speedrunning challenge, each trying to learn a video game to speedrun in under 12 hours! Needless to say, that'll take some time away from me when I do mine, but I hope to get around to writing two chapters tomorrow so I don't have to worry on Sunday.
Hope you're all enjoying where things are going—I was going to save this for a few more chapters, but I decided that what this story really needed was plot, not endless worldbuilding and character introduction
—Scorpius

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

7429052 I can't, it's rated m. I'm not sure if you're allowed to link m rated stories in PMs, but just in case, I'm not going to. I can, however give you a link to the author... Here.

[fourths]

Oh crap, that's dangerous magic.