CHAPTER 11
Operation Oblivious
The party was over; my friends all went home. I managed to sneak off to my room without running into any family, which was a major accomplishment. With several generations and branches of the family living in the keep with us, it was nothing short of miraculous to get to my room without a single encounter. My immediate family was the patriarchal family, with my father as the patriarch of the entire clan, or the Head of the House of Nostradamus.
The keep was like a large luxury apartment complex with numerous wings, kitchens, and dining halls. In recent years, we’d added several workout rooms with saunas, and indoor swimming pools, and more.
Our media rooms combined the latest audio-video technology with enchantments to create 3D movies and interactive games which produced an ultra-authentic virtual reality experience.
A few years back, after one of our older wizards had a heart attack while gaming, the council initiated a requirement to possess an up-to-date health certification to participate in the more adventurous, rigorous, or violent movies and games.
Many of the keep’s inhabitants utilized the other magical conveniences of the keep as well. The shortcut doors led to dimensional folds, providing near-instantaneous passage to various parts of the massive keep. The falling sensation of the folds made me queasy, so I tended to avoid those. The main kitchen had enchanted food dispensers imbued with inherent magic that allowed the user to order up a variety of meals, drinks, and treats.
My father preferred traditional multi-course meals prepared by our chef, Christophe, and served by the norm staff in our family’s personal dining room.
In typical wizard fashion, there were machines which provided custom-designed clothing. Through a complex combination of mechanical engineering and magical properties, the machines utilized floating probes to take body measurements, and then cut and sewed clothing to the desired specifications.
In addition to my father’s library, the keep had a central wizard library to which women were prohibited entry. There were a few other ceremonial rooms in the Nostradamus keep that were also off-limits to any female. I had no idea what transpired in those rooms.
As astronomy was an important foundation of wizardry, the Nostradamus keep boasted its own observatory. Luckily, its use was open to everyone. I’d spent many a night stargazing in that room when no one else was in the observatory. Other than my bedroom, it was hard to find alone time in a keep so full of people.
I couldn’t even keep track of the number of inhabitants. Between immediate family, extended family, and staff members, there were over three hundred people in the keep on any given day. Of course, only some of the staff permanently lived within the walls of the keep. Other staff members came and went on the transport pads each day.
The norm staff came in from several of the surrounding small towns of Phoenicia, Boiceville, Hunter, Tannersville, Catskill, and even Woodstock. Most of the staff members were descendants of families that had been working at the stronghold for generations. Each human was enchanted by a spell that prevented them from revealing anything about wizards or the stronghold to any outsider. They literally couldn’t speak, or write, gesture, or communicate in any way that would divulge information about our existence. In the hundreds of years the keep and the stronghold had existed, no staff member had ever revealed the secrets of the wizard-kin.
On the way to my room, I had encountered at least ten of the household staff, but fortunately they left me alone. I usually said hello or asked about their family, but tonight I made a beeline for my room.
When I walked into my room, I watched Cheeva look around and I wondered what he thought of it. I tried to see it like he would. I guessed it was a little girl’s room, full of pinks, purples, dolls, lace, and frills.
I walked over to my shelves and studied my fairy figurines. Each one was intricately designed and handcrafted, and each had its own unique enchantment. When I tapped the head of my rose fairy, she peeked out from under the brim of her rose blossom hat and the sweet scent of roses filled the air. When I ran a finger over the head of my water fairy, she thrust her arms into the air and a holographic spray of water burst into the air above her like shimmering opalescent fireworks. I had twelve fairies in all, gifts from my parents on each Yule celebration. It was our tradition, one of the few times each year when I felt a sentimental connection to something my parents did for me. Usually, their attention was on the running of the keep, the stronghold, wizard politics, entertaining, and preparing Zarius for his future.
Aside from my fairies, which I could never part with, I realized I’d grown out of this little girl’s room. It wasn’t really me anymore—not that I actually knew who I was after today.
Nope, I didn’t know who or, for that matter, what I was now.
I went to my desk to check my iPad for emails on the highly secure wizard intranet. In this huge house, it wasn’t unusual for my mother or father to communicate with me through emails. Sure enough, I had an email waiting from my mother that read, “Addie, email me when you are back in your room and ready for bed.”
I replied, “I’m in my room, safe and sound, and getting ready for bed.”
I received an immediate reply. “Good. I’ll see you at breakfast, eight-thirty a.m. and don’t be late. It will only be the four of us.”
I sighed. Usually after a big party, we had guests or extended family members at breakfast the next day. Since this was limited to immediate family only, that meant I had a family meeting in the morning. It would be the first skirmish in Operation Oblivious. But for the moment, all I wanted to do was take a shower and fall into my bed. At least tomorrow was Saturday and we didn’t have school. I set my alarm so I wouldn’t be late for breakfast.
Suddenly, exhaustion caught up with me, weighing me down all the way to my muscles and bones. So much had happened today. It felt like a week had gone by since I woke up this morning. I trudged into the bathroom, took my shower, and brushed my teeth. Changing into a soft cotton nightshirt and my favorite Hello Kitty pajama pants, I stepped out of my bathroom.
Cheeva walked straight to the shower door and waited there.
I blinked, and then rubbed my eyes. “Cheeva, do you want a shower?” I asked, slightly incredulous. I opened the shower door. Sure enough, Cheeva walked into my shower, which had large slate tiles and a built-in bench. He sat down and waited for me.
“Okay.” I thought about the logistics of giving Cheeva a shower. I pulled out an extra towel and then walked into my long closet and dug my bathing suit out of a drawer. “Just a minute,” I called to Cheeva. Closing the closet door, I put on my bathing suit. Then, I helped Cheeva shower. I dried him off and then I rinsed off, again. I put my pajamas back on and dried my hair.
Finally, a half hour later, and well on my way to a state of zombieness, I practically fell onto my bed. I tucked my teddy bear, Cuddles, into the crook of my arm and rolled onto my side. I didn’t even blink an eye when Cheeva hopped onto the bed and lay down beside me, with his head on the other pillow. I held up my teddy bear to Cheeva. “Cheeva, this is Cuddles and he’s not a chew toy. Cuddles, this is Cheeva and I guess he’ll be sleeping with us every night.” I didn’t even comment on the perplexed tilt of Cheeva’s head. I just closed my eyes and fell to sleep, feeling safe for the first time that day because Cheeva was with me.