Volume II - Episode 50 Where: Cologne, Germany When: 1 month and 5 days after E-Day, 2:28 pm Twenty minutes passed. Monika cleared her throat and asked: "So Ellie wasn't a spellcaster?" Cathy shook her head. "They say only one in ten thousand people is born a spellcaster. That chance goes up to one in five if one of your parents is a spellcaster, or four in five if both parents are spellcasters. So if that's true, there was an eighty percent chance for Ellie to be a spellcaster. But no, she wasn't one." "When did you find out you were one?" "Do you have time for this? I mean, don't you have other patients to see and stuff?" "No, it's okay. I'd like to stay and talk to you. Do you mind? I can leave if you would prefer to be alone?" "No, I'm glad you're here. I could use the company." Monika smiled. "So, when did you find out?" "When I was sixteen. It was my first week working at Dazzling Donuts, and I was still being trained. The manager, Jamie, was this really irresponsible kid who had no idea what he was doing most of the time. One day the cook had to leave early, because his brother was involved in a car accident, so Jamie put me on the fryer. I was there for maybe two minutes before I spilled grease on the floor and slipped over. I landed with my arm in the boiling grease halfway up to the elbow. I screamed like crazy, and people came running from everywhere...but there wasn't a mark on me. One of the boys instinctively wiped some of the grease off my arm and burnt himself pretty bad. I took him to the hospital. He was off work for a week, but I came back to work the next day. I was pretty shocked by the revelation - but not as shocked as I was by everybody else's reaction to it. Nobody looked at me the same way after that. Even my parents treated me differently. They knew what it meant. They weren't happy about their daughter growing up to be a witch. I think they blamed themselves; you know, for bringing me up wrong.” “What happened then? Did you study magic?" “Yeah. Funnily enough, my parents sent me to the Academy when I was 18.” “The Academy? In Paris? Or is there another one in America?” “The one in Paris. There isn’t an Academy in the States - spellcraft is illegal there. I think my parents hoped that sending me to Paris would somehow set me straight. Like I’d find myself surrounded by all these spellcaster freaks and I’d realise my mistake and grow out of it." “But that didn't happen?" Cathy laughed. “Ha! No. Especially not after i met the love of my life there." “Your husband?" “Rob. It wasn’t exactly love at first sight. Our eyes didn’t meet across a crowded study hall or anything like that. In fact, when I first met him I thought he was a bit of a loser. We went to a few of the same classes - that’s how we met - but he definitely wasn’t a gifted warlock. Spellcraft didn’t come easily to him. He had to work at it. I guess I looked down on him a bit for that. But as I got to know him better, I realised how determined he was; just how hard he really was working at it. I respected him for that. And pretty soon I discovered what a sweet, genuine, all-around decent guy he was. It didn’t hurt that he had a Christian upbringing pretty similar to mine. You don’t find many Christians at the Academy. So, yeah…it took a while, but eventually I fell madly in love with him.”