The young witch ran across the long corridors of the cold mansion that was her home, occasionally she had to dodge one of the servants or guards at work, but in the end she arrived at her room, closing the doors with quite the bang. The room was on the bigge side, a large queen sized bed stood in the middle of it, on the left side there were twin wardrobes that hid in itself most of Marcelin clothes, on the right side was a toy chest, a full bookcase and small comfy sofa. The room was completely clean - no thanks to its owner of course, she had servants and was spoiled enough to make use of them when needed! Already with a face drowned in tears, the young witch looked at the window, seeing two small lights behind the glass, seemingly waiting for it to open, but the blond girl simply sniffed and ignored them, she wasn’t in the mood for any company and simply, jumped on her bed, hiding her face into a pillow and started to cry in earnest. 

When Sybil arrived at the door to Marcelin's room almost an hour later, she still could hear some quiet sobbing, but she braced herself. She already waited an hour - it should have been enough time in her opinion. The oldest of the new generation of Le Fey took a deep breath, braced herself and opened the door. 

“- Marcelin.”  

Started Sybil, but before she could say another word a pillow was flying towards her, feeling no magic from the improvised, harmless  projectile, she decided to take the hit to the face.

“- Get out! I wanna be alone!” 

Yelled back the youngest Le Fey, while looking towards the doors with hostility. Seeing that, the older sister simply sighted, the pillow was now lying on the floor near her feet.

“- I imagine. But we need to talk anyway. I promised our mother.”

Sybil was speaking in a matter of fact tone, her face betraying no emotions as she let herself in and closed the door behind her.

"- You know, if it was one of your sisters, they wouldn't stop at a simple pillow, more likely an explosive one or maybe they would enchant it to be heavy like iron."

 Those were the words Sybil started with and they awarded her with a confused look from Marcelin.

"- So what? It's not like I wanted to hurt you …just get you to leave."

Answered the younger sister, still visibly confused, the older one in the meanwhile simply gave a soft smile and then commented.

"- Exactly, it means there is still hope for you yet."

After those words Sybil moved towards the bed in which her sister was hiding and took a seat at its edge while Marcelin buried herself under the pillows. She still couldn't understand why of all her sisters, it was Sybil that appeared in her room, after all Sybil was always so… distant. Both Beatrice and Marie played with her often, but the oldest sister? She was always so busy, cold as if she was too good for her own family, which was strange, they were Le Fey, they were the greatest, right? For almost a minute there was silence, Marcelin wanted to be alone and the intruder in her private room sat there in silence, almost as if she was creating a battle plan for her next words.

“- Celin, you need to be stronger, smarter.”

Sybil began her speech, while the youngest sister winced, still hidden behind her pillows, just a few words in, she already wanted to yell again for Sybil to leave.

“- If you want to go this way, to be my sister, you need to act smarter around your mother and our sisters. You need to be stronger to be able to stay true to yourself without hurting. But you can’t be honest, not to them, not to other Le Fey or anyone else in Fey Circle. They are witches, they don’t play fair, and they aren’t nice people. You need to learn that, if you want  to survive.”

Hearing her sister's words, Marcelin was even more confused. Witches were the greatest, right? The pinnacle of humanity. They were the most gifted and the world was theirs, it was the truth everyone at the archipelago knew. The only ones denying it were the savages from the continent and yet her own sister was speaking such words! Why? Did they infect her with their ideology when she was visiting the continent? Feeling concern for Sybil, Marcelin pushed the pillows away and took a look at the elder sister.

“- Wha… What do you mean? Y-you know you can’t speak like that! And anyway it ain’t true!”

Marcelin protested, but somehow her words didn't feel full of confidence. 

“- Ohh? What makes you say that? Celin, sweetie. You *ehh* nevermind it for now. Listen, sis I want to help you, but it won’t be easy, I need your cooperation, do you understand?”

Now Sybil’s words seemed to be filled with concern, she was speaking slowly and not as loud as she used to. The younger sister was still suspicious but she moved closer to her oldest sis, while observing her with worrying eyes. Still, she was just called a sister, so maybe Sybil was accepting her? Even such a thought was strange, after all in her eyes they weren't close so why would she accept her when for example Beatrice couldn't? In the end Marcelin didn't answer with words, she simply nodded her head and moved closer to her sister with newfound curiosity.

“- Good. You had chosen a harsh path, but not an impossible one. I can sympathize, you know, but... we need to change your approach.”

Sybil spoke slowly, looking directly at her younger sister and observing her body language, over the years of her witch duties, she got really good at interpreting the body movement and facial expressions and from what she seen, Celin obviously didn't trust her and honestly she couldn't blame her, after all she actively avoided interacting with any of her siblings, still she felt like she had to help, even if her help wasn’t really appreciated, at least for now. Sybil was quite confident that soon she would be able to win her youngest sister's trust.

“- First off. At least for now, stop announcing your nature. I know why you would want to, but your safety is more important. You don’t want to disobey your mother so openly. Be smart about it, act as if everything is fine. Second. Maybe… slow down on the ribbons, stick to more classic robes? And focus on your magic studies. About the engagement… just let it happen, okay? It’s not like you can run away from home, finding the best fiance will take time, a long time if I know mother and trust me - I know mom much better than you or your sisters. In the meanwhile, as a show of trust, take this. And lastly, try to keep a skeptical look at your other sisters.”

At the end of the talk Sybil took off one of her hanging earrings, it was a ruby shaped like a water drop, decorated with a gold border on its sides. Marcelin was still precessing her sister's words, when the earring was dropped into her hand, she gave a confused look at it and focused her senses, it was obviously an magical artifact, one of the most famous way’s of witch magic, enchanting an item with magical power. She analyzed its magic for a few seconds, and then gasped - it was a strong artifact, its power allowed to freeze the wearer’s body developments. Why did her sister have something so amazing and more importantly, why did she have something like that? Marcelin was about to voice her concerns, but when she looked up from the earring, her sister had already left the room.

“- Strange…”

That was about all she managed to say before she focused on her gift again and smiled at it. Maybe today wasn’t so bad?

Three days later.

Marcelin was happily skipping, while moving through the massive corridors of the mansion, her new earrings swinging on her left ear. After wearing the magical accessory for a few days, she decided to believe in Sybil and do what she told her to do. That’s why she was now wearing one of her more plain robes and was on her way to the study room. The plan for today was to simply survive all the lessons and then find Sybil to get some answers from her, the last part may be quite hard as Marcelin didn’t see her oldest sister after their conversation a few days ago. In her search, Celin even did the impossible of asking the marathon of Le Fey family about Sybils wearabouts, but all she got as an answer was that she was busy with her responsibilities, which was not helpful at all! Still, thanks to the gift she was still quite happy and found newfound strength to survive whatever her family will push at her which was good, because unknowing to her, quite the challenges were being prepared for her.