Windkissed

How many years in how many different high schools could she endure? And yet again, she could not fault her father’s logic. In that long ago place, she’d stopped aging at seventeen. In the current century, that meant she would best blend in among high school students. She could stay hidden in reasonable safety.

All of it was getting to be too much. 

She had come to Grayfall for one essential reason, and that reason was to keep existing. But was there something more? She could almost fool herself into thinking she’d finally walked into her place in history.

Maybe she was getting her hopes up too high. But the universe was a strange place.  Asteria was as likely to find meaning at Grayfall High as anywhere else. How different could Grayfall really be?

“Something really fascinating must be happening on Swan Isle.”

Asteria started at the voice behind her. She turned to see a smiling, shorter young woman. A well-beaten bag hung from her left shoulder. She had the bright look of someone who laughed easily. “I’ve been taking in that view my whole life and I’ve never managed to lose myself in it like you were.”

Caught in her thoughts, Asteria paused for a moment before she laughed. “I must have been standing there longer than I thought.”

“I almost didn’t want to bother you, but I think you’re expecting me. I’m Isabelle,” she said, holding out her hand to Asteria.

Finally, the mysterious Isabelle. The only real detail Gaetan had given Asteria. He’d said someone named Isabelle would meet her at the new house that Monday morning and accompany her down to the grounds of Grayfall High.

“It’s good to meet you.” She took the warm offered hand without hesitation. “I have about a thousand questions.”

Isabelle chuckled, and said, “Well, your father didn’t tell me anything more than he thought you should know, so by that logic you can ask me anything. I’ll answer what I can. He’s a secret, your father.”

“And I don’t know much more about that secret than anyone else. What has he told you? I couldn’t get much more out of him than to come here. A good refuge, he said.”

“Believe me, if your father has some kind of greater plan in mind, he didn’t tell me,” Isabelle said. “You know as much about his motives as I do. But you also know your father. He’s done well for you all of this time. Is he likely to make a mistake or take a bad chance now?”

Isabelle had a point. How could Asteria allow the chaos of the sudden move to overtake the trust Gaetan had earned over centuries? “So,” she said, “I should just have faith that my father has put me in the best possible situation.”

“Let’s get walking. I can try and fill you in along the way. Granted, I don’t think we have a long enough walk for me to have time to answer all your questions, but it’s a start.”

Asteria nodded, and the two girls turned onto Bluffview Way. Any information Isabelle could provide would be more than welcome. One revelation at a time, Asteria thought.  There would be plenty to discover.

“I am very glad that you’re willing to help me,” she said, patting Isabelle’s hand. “This move has taken me entirely by surprise. I thought I had gotten used to my father’s surprises.”

“From what I can tell, your father is able to surprise himself.” Isabelle flashed a smile.  “Where did you live last, anyway?”

“Someplace warm, sandy, and across the world from here. Not to my liking, now that I think about it. We hadn’t lived there long.”

“As Gaetan told me, you haven’t lived anywhere for very long.”

Asteria had been hoping for an opening to ask her one burning question. “Isabelle, how do you know my father? He neglected to tell me.”

Isabelle kept quiet, a soft smile on her lips. After a few minutes, she said, “We’re going to get at the heart of this sooner rather than later.”

“I’m not sure I understand you.”

“Asteria, you’ve probably figured out that I’m something more than a congenial companion from Grayfall.”

Actually, Asteria mused, she hadn’t thought ahead that far. The shock of the sudden move must have been greater than she had suspected. Again she found herself new to this mystic place, and she wondered how Isabelle might be a manifestation of New Broceliande’s nature.  “I’m not well enough equipped to have figured much out, I’m afraid.”

“But you will understand. Your own heritage is mystic, and so you will be able to comprehend how mine is, too.”

Asteria took a step back. “You mean you’re a Druidae too? How can that be?”

Now Isabelle laughed. “The Druidae have not been the only mystic beings in the world, but only one of many.”

“Then I thank the gods, For most of my immortality I’ve only had my father’s company.  There are others?”

“And New Broceliande welcomes them all.”

To hear that the island was such a place had been one thing, but to have the news confirmed reassured Asteria. Isabelle corroborated what Gaetan had promised. “So you’re like me.”

Isabelle laughed again, a light and easy sound that Asteria found delightful. “I am, and I am also different.”

“Well, you’ve made me feel much better about being alone in a strange place. Is that magic or is it a mystic personality?”

“Both. In a way, I am New Broceliande. I am a living symbol of the island, and my charge is to welcome newcomers. A mystic embrace, if you will. Technically I am the gatekeeper, but that sounds so unfriendly.”

There had to be more. This was only a quick summary of Isabelle for the sake of conversation. Now Asteria had even more questions. She suspected the details would require more time than the walk to Grayfall would provide.

“Then I have been embraced?” Asteria asked.

“There was never any doubt of that.”

To Asteria’s mind, the conversation circled back to Gaetan Rex. “Then can I assume my father sent me to Grayfall because the island is a mystic refuge? He hasn’t said that in so many words."

“He didn’t give me a reason. Considering who he is, he didn’t need to give me a reason. He wanted me to welcome you, which I would have done in any case. Any way you look at it, you’re here now. You must have some role to play out at Grayfall.”

“I can’t imagine that role as anything other than keeping my head down and trying not to attract unwanted notice.”

As she said it, Asteria realized how ridiculous she sounded. She would stand out in this crowd as she would in any other. However, and she reminded herself of this, high school students were a peculiar lot. The differences between her and the Grayfall regulars could send out shockwaves. This had happened before, in other schools and in other places. That didn’t mean she would ever come to the attention of the entity she struggled to avoid.

“We never know,” Isabelle said. “Sometimes the reasons are beyond us.”

“Then maybe I should push through all the mystical mayhem and just concentrate on being a student.”

“Ironic, then, that you’ve finally come home to a mystical place. You’re a part of us now.  But don’t change who you are. By whatever powers, you’re obviously meant to be an Islander and Asteria at the same time.”

“I might be overthinking this.”

Now Isabelle smiled. “We’re the old brood, Asteria. Once we were called the Children of the Passing Isle, but now we just call ourselves Islanders. The mystic children of the mystic island. Our families have been here for centuries—since the explorers of the original Broceliande found the island, in fact. The island has become part of us and we have become part of the island. I know I am. Even though you’ve come to us from somewhere else, I’m pretty certain you’ll find an Islander’s heart inside you.”

Asteria was certain, too.

Isabelle gestured towards the entrance courtyard. “Walk in as you are and let Grayfall do the rest. There are worse places in the world—and certainly more boring places, too.”

At this Asteria laughed, releasing her tension. She was an immortal teenage girl on the run from a force of nature, here to go to high school on an island of magic and mysticism. No. whatever else would come her way, Grayfall would not be boring.