[ July 7, 1962. ]
"Arthur, wake up, my dear. Today is your big day!" — I was completely ruthlessly and unceremoniously awakened by a kiss on the forehead. Where are my white man's rights to sleep until noon? I'll complain to the UN right now that they're violating my rights... Oh right, I'm not human anymore. Well, didn't really want to be anyway!
"Maybe the big day can wait until noon?" — I sleepily rubbed my eyes, which was my mistake.
"You're so cute!" — and then I was literally squeezed between two soft hemispheres. I might have been happy about this, but alas, I'm currently incapacitated in that regard, and all I can do is feel embarrassed.
"Alright, alright, woman, you win!"
"Ha-ha, mama won this round too!" — laughing melodiously, Ariel got up from my bed and went to the kitchen.
God, I constantly forget that she's just a child herself. But at least it's clear the girl has become much happier and more open. If I had a worm of conscience gnawing at me for using her as an incubator for myself, it died long ago in agony and doesn't make itself known. So I went to dress in my favorite white shorts and shirt. At least this way I'll be a white man.
…
We lived in a small two-room apartment in the dormitory. What's good about being a mage is that if you want, you can furnish your room however you like. Need to change wallpaper? Please. Don't like the wardrobe? One wave of the wand and it changes shape.
Here, you could say, Ariel went wild. Over the past two years and nine months, she studied almost all textbooks and several collections of household spells. If you only learn wand movements and don't go into details, even in such a short time you can get the hang of it, especially with constant practice.
So this week I lived in a room with blue butterflies against a background of green grass, which moved when you looked at them. On the floor was a beige carpet with long pile, and the furniture, consisting of a wardrobe, dresser, single bed, table and two chairs, as well as bookshelves, was walnut-colored wood in Art Nouveau style.
Why this week? Because I shouldn't have told her about "muggle" styles. Very, very shouldn't have. Every week now the style throughout the apartment changes, and I can say it's quite fun. Ariel jumps around the apartment like a fairy and changes everything with a wave of her wand.
Of course, such abuse reduces furniture lifespan, but we buy them at flea markets for pennies anyway, then repair and disinfect them with magic, so this whim doesn't hit the wallet.
it's strange sleeping on second-hand when you have seven million dead presidents in your account, but alas, there's no way to withdraw them yet — let alone explain where I got them.
…
After a delicious breakfast consisting of toasted bread with jam, scrambled eggs with bacon and coffee, Jacqueline and Apolline came to visit us, the two biggest thorns in my new life.
"Here's the birthday boy! Look how big he is!" — my second mother's friend grabbed me in an embrace.
"Let me go, woman! This is sexual harassment!" — I tried to break free, knowing it was useless.
"What are you feeding him, Ariel? Why is he so smart? My Apolline wasn't like this at his age," asked this tormentor, however not letting me go.
"I just have a smart mama, so I'm smart too," — I finally managed to break free.
"Wait, are you saying I'm stupid? Come here, you brat! Aunt Jacqueline will teach you to respect your elders!"
"You mean old people?"
"Arrr, I'll show you old!" — she ran after me, but I was already by the door.
"Sorry, but I'm not interested in old ladies!" — and now it's time to run before they tear my ears off. She can do it.
The last thing I heard behind the closing door was Ariel's melodious laughter and Jacqueline's pretend-furious scream. She herself enjoys our banter, but will never admit it.
…
While we walked from the tall wooden gates, bound with iron and decorated with carvings in the form of plant ornaments, I made an offended face and rubbed my red ears. Yes, they still caught me and boxed my ears, but it was worth it.
Where are we going under Apolline's childish enthusiastic chatter and Jacqueline and Ariel's conversation? To Flower Alley, of course, the main magical street of Paris in particular and all of France in general.
And now we're heading to the checkpoint, where the public fireplace connected to the floo network is located. As I understood, modern wizards use three methods of instant transportation.
There's a portkey — a one-time enchanted object that transports you to specific coordinates.
Apparition — a puncture in hyperspace and dragging the mage through it. Used for moving to a place known to you.
And floo network with the principle of a telephone: there are nodal points — fireplaces — and lines between them. You go inside, throw a handful of floo powder, which when burning gives enough mana for travel, and name the address.
…
I was also thinking about veela charm aura. Specifically, no one knew how it worked, veelas didn't care — it works and that's fine, and if mages know, they keep quiet. But if you gather all the small facts I know and combine them with Sumerian knowledge, the following picture emerges:
1. The aura appears for the first time during the onset of puberty, after the first menstruation.
2. The aura doesn't just affect men, but specifically the gender you find attractive. That is, lesbian veelas' aura affects women. Moreover, it works stronger on those who are personally attractive to you.
3. It's definitely not pheromones, because it doesn't depend on wind direction and works almost instantly.
4. Without proper training or during strong sexual arousal, the aura works without the user's knowledge.
From this it follows that most likely the aura mechanism is mental or empathic, works subconsciously and is very similar... to the natural mechanism of heat in animals, yeah.
Such a way to notify others that the veela is ready for mating. And judging by the fact that despite small numbers, our magical people haven't disappeared from the face of the earth, it works.
Even in liberal France, purposeful subjugation by aura of a wizard is a crime close in level to using the "Imperius" curse. Only unconscious aura emission, which is easily blocked by an amulet, is not punished. Though it still depends on the veela's age. If a child or teenager suffers from this, they turn a blind eye, but for an adult — it's like pissing yourself in public. Not fatal, but you won't escape shame.
…
Veelas don't have any traditional clothing or culture for the reason that they most often adopt the beliefs and culture of their husband. Though there are traditional holidays, like magical peoples' independence day and the veela coming-of-age ceremony. They never told me about the latter, though I was very interested.
Well, here we approached a small wooden guardhouse, where registration of everyone who wants to visit our forest, which we share with centaurs and werewolves, takes place. Inside as guards by tradition were a werewolf and a veela, and centaurs, due to their size and physiological features, were responsible for patrolling the borders.
"Hi, Jacqueline! Decided to take a walk with the little one?" — the veela in a gray cloak standing outside the guardhouse and cooling herself with a cool wind from her wand greeted us. Fire is fire, but we also want coolness sometimes.
"Oh, and who is this with you? Do we know each other?"
"This is Ariel and Arthur," — she introduced us, not mentioning my gender. It's much easier to mislead a person when they figure everything out themselves.
"We're celebrating a birthday!"
"Ho, what a cutie!" — I hate veelas for this, why squeeze immediately?
"What a lovely girl!"
"I'm a boy!" — I pouted and made an offended face.
"Of course, a boy!" — she winked at me and didn't raise this question anymore.
I told you, mages are quite calm about others' quirks. A girl wants to call herself a boy? Her business. Wears a nightgown with galoshes? Please! At school I'll have to be more careful with manifestations of my peculiarities. There it's immediately clear by the uniform who's a guy and who's a girl.
The guard's partner watched us with an indifferent face, apparently used to veela quirks. Werewolves are distinguished most often not only by their transformation during full moon, but also by their sturdy appearance, beast-like facial features and increased physical strength.
True, if a werewolf denies their nature, tries to suppress the beast, then they wither and weaken, losing their strength. Therefore, werewolf society is extremely hierarchical, with an alpha at the head. In contrast, veelas, on the contrary, don't have clear centralized management and are a commune.
How do such different societies exist side by side? Well, let's say werewolves become obedient puppies if veelas want it, and they sense another, no less strong beast in us.
Before us, a man with a son entered the fireplace, apparently Apolline's age, but who knows with werewolves, they usually look older than they actually are. I only glimpsed them and only thought that in the future it would be nice to study a werewolf.
I'm not interested in their transformation, but specifically the physical power in human body. How does the enhancement happen? Different muscle structure? Enhancement through prana, mana? Interesting.
…
"Arthur, what are you thinking about there? Let's go quickly!" — while I was pondering, my friend and her mom had already passed, and Ariel was waiting only for me.
She approached, took me in her arms with one hand, and with the other a handful of powder, which she threw into the flame, making it burn with green light, and entered inside. The fire didn't burn at all and was quite strange in properties.
Making a note to research this interesting powder later, I heard: "Flower Alley," and after flashing pictures of other fireplaces we found ourselves in one of a dozen public fireplaces disguised as bushes. Apparently the bushes were enchanted, because they parted and even shook the ash off us. How polite and courteous they are.
I just opened my mouth at the sight before me. Not for nothing is the alley called flower alley: flowers of all shapes, colors and sizes twisted and grew around, emitting delightful aromas. On which no less diverse in pattern and colors beautiful butterflies landed.
Each house in 17th-18th century style was almost completely covered with vines. Under the windows grew bushes and many flower beds were laid out. Each owner seemed to try to outdo neighbors in elaborateness or beauty, and most likely that's how it was.
"What, first time here? Impressive?" Jacqueline asked me.
"That's an understatement! Much better than Diagon Alley," — and then I realized I blurted out the wrong thing.
"How do you know what it's like there?" the girl asked.
"My mom told me!" — phew, thank you, Merlin, that she really did tell me.
"Well yes, we really are more beautiful. We protect nature, unlike those island barbarians. Well, shall we go have fun?" — clapping her hands, Jacqueline exclaimed.
"And who has a birthday here? Me or you?"
"What do you say? You're our birthday boy," — putting me on the ground, Ariel asked. You're the best girl in the world, I almost teared up.
"Of course, let's go have fun!" — what am I, a fool to refuse?
…
Knowing that Ariel economizes, I didn't particularly push for expensive entertainment. We walked around shops, looked at clothes, ate ice cream at a cafe. Some varieties of the latter, by the way, could run away and resist being eaten, but I'm not a fan of such extreme sports, unlike Apolline, who ran squealing after a fleeing ball of raspberry sweetness.
Then we just walked and admired the diversity of architecture and nature. And when the day began to turn to evening, I was showered with gifts. Jacqueline gave me a children's broom, which couldn't accelerate much and rise above two meters, but I really liked it. Especially since I'll be able to disassemble and improve it.
Apolline gave me a wreath she wove herself, and Ariel... the bracelet and wand. Everyone received a kiss on the cheek from me, and if the adult veelas only smiled, my friend blushed like a tomato, which amused the others even more.
***
"Ariel, are you sure it's worth giving such things to Arthur so early? You don't know what your... liberator might have left inside? And you even gave him a wand, what if he gets hurt?" — Jacqueline scolded her friend when the children fell asleep.
Today they stayed as guests at her house, because everyone was too tired after such a long walk and didn't have the strength to get home.
"I believe Viktor didn't leave anything dangerous. And about the wand, you yourself saw how smart my son is. He already knows how to use fire at such an early age. Even though it's in our blood, he's a genius!" — Ariel boasted to her friend with pride.
"You know, he sometimes scares me,"— the interlocutor looked skeptically at her friend.
— "No, no, not in a literal sense. It's just that he speaks so clearly, expresses his thoughts and constructs sentences, that sometimes it seems like he's an adult in a child's body."
"I think it's even good that he's so conscious," the girl answered her friend thoughtfully.
"Why? What's good about it if he has no childhood?" — Jacqueline approached the kettle. "Will you have some? Coffee, tea or something stronger?"
"Tea, please, with two spoons of sugar," she answered.
"Think about it yourself, he might be the only male veela in history. I've never heard of such a thing, at least. If he were a child, what would he do?"
"Blabbed to everyone around?" — Jacqueline understood Ariel's thought, waving her wand, and the kettle heated itself and poured the steaming liquid into two mugs.
"Exactly! And if he hadn't blabbed, he would have given himself away on trifles. How society will react to his appearance, I don't know. And I'm not sure I can protect him myself. And what will happen if other veelas find out about this? Can you imagine what they'll do to him?" — the girl threw up her hands, showing the full extent of her indignation and fear for her son.
— "Think they'll use him as a breeding bull? You're exaggerating," — handing over the mug with aromatic tea, said Apolline's mother.
— "Even if so, at minimum, they won't give him a normal life. Cunning veelas will slip their daughters to him, and if that doesn't work, it might come to setups," — taking a sip from the mug, Ariel answered her.
— "You stayed in England too long, we don't have such ways here!" — Jacqueline was indignant, "are you saying that I'm slipping Apolline too?!"
"I'm not talking about you. I know you, I trust you, but can you speak for others? Faced with the possibility of making our race independent from others, are you sure no one will take advantage of this?" — Arthur's mother asked her friend.
"Yes, sorry, I didn't think about that," the veela admitted. "And what do you want? Dress him as a girl?"
"Arthur manages quite well himself, misleading others. If we start hiding his gender purposefully, it might cause more suspicion. Especially since when he goes to school, the deception will be revealed anyway. No, it's enough that around strangers he doesn't use abilities inherent to veelas. Then in the coven they'll consider him a girl. And..."
— "And mages a boy! Brilliant! But what if the deception is revealed?"
"What deception? That their expectations weren't met — that's only their fault. Especially since Arthur will give himself away with charm aura anyway someday. I just hope it won't affect men," — both women shuddered at such a prospect.
***
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