ADWF - Bonus - Evinced (Patreon)

=::= Claire PoV =::=

"Wow," I said as I dumped my backpack and duffel bag on the bed. "I can't believe we're here."

It was a small bed, just a single, and the mattress didn't look very inviting. Compared to the room I had all summer long at Sue's Bed-and-Breakfast, this was a massive downgrade. I had about a quarter of the space here, just a tiny bed next to a tiny desk, a small dresser and a narrow closet. The view out the window wasn't so great either. And instead of having my own little bathroom, now I'd be sharing one with three other people. Two of whom I hadn't even met yet.

Despite all the drawbacks, I was still excited. I was a couple hundred kilometers away from my parents and the small town I grew up in. I was in Halifax, at the university, and this little residence room would be my home for the next two semesters. 

Behind me, Kaitlyn finally responded "Yeah. I never really thought I'd do this."

She didn't sound quite as excited as I felt. I turned and realized she was struggling to get her duffel bag up onto her bed. I smiled and moved around to her side of the room and gave her a hand. The duffel wasn't even that heavy, but physical strength was not Kaitlyn's forte.

"Thanks Claire," she sighed after I picked the large bag up for her.

As we both started to unpack and put our clothes away and everything, Katie asked "Do you know how this residence thing works? Do we have to stay in here for the full year? Or can we leave if we want?"

I smiled, "It's not a prison sentence. I think it's meant to be like low-cost on-campus housing, for students who can't find or can't afford their own place?"

She looked thoughtful as she continued pulling clothes out of her duffel and stuffing them in the small dresser on her side of the room. "Then I think I shall start looking at alternatives very soon. I'm not that keen on such a small space, or sharing our washroom facilities with strangers."

I was busy unpacking my stuff as well, and commented "Yeah I know what you mean. Still, we should give it a try I think? I mean, it's already paid for and we're here, it'd be wasteful to turn around and move out again right away."

"Hmmm," was all she had to say about that.

I added, "And we really should get familiar with the campus. Even if we wind up living somewhere else, we'll still need to know our way around and everything. Plus we might need to take a bus or something, depending on how far away we have to move?"

Kaitlyn sighed "All right. I'll try and stick it out for a little while. I'm still going to look at the local real estate market though. And if we end up somewhere too far to walk, we can just get a car."

"Where do you keep getting all this money from?" I asked as I gave her a look. "I figured you drained your savings or something with that trip out to BC. I can't believe you're taking advantage of Susan, so what gives? Are you getting an allowance or something from your grand... I mean, from your sisters?"

She shook her head, then moved to stand next to me. She had her phone in her hand, and she opened an app and tapped something out on it, then after a few moments she turned her phone around so I could see it. The app was some kind of banking thing, and the number at the bottom of the screen was her account balance.

I frowned at it, "Twelve thousand, four hundred and seventy five dollars is pretty good, but it's not going to cover a year's rent and a car."

Kaitlyn shook her head and whispered, "Look again Claire. Those aren't thousands."

"Huh?" I frowned and had a closer look. My eyebrows suddenly shot upwards as I realized the next three digits after the four-seventy-five weren't cents. My eyes flicked back and forth from the phone to her face. I gulped and whispered, "That's almost twelve and a half million dollars..."

Katie smiled and nodded, then closed the app and put her phone down as she went back to her unpacking. 

I was stunned, I'd never known anyone with so much money. "How... Where did you get all that?"

Her smile faded and she shrugged. When she replied her voice was soft and she sounded guilty, "I've been on Earth for a century and a half. I made a lot of money doing immoral stuff. And I saved and invested a lot of what I made."

I wound up sitting on my little bed for a few moments as that all sank in. Of course I already knew she used to be evil. I knew she was fae. I knew she was almost six hundred years old. I knew she knew magic, she'd been teaching me magic for almost a whole year now. But these sorts of things still surprised me when they came up.

After a few moments I asked, "Hey Katie? Why are you even here? I mean... I guess I mean everything. Why stay on Earth? Why stay in Nova Scotia? Why come to university? Like, you're not human, you're powerful, you're rich. You obviously don't need to do this to get a career. So why bother?"

She frowned and moved around to my side of the room and sat next to me on my bed. I felt her arm around my waist and she leaned against me.

She spoke softly again as she replied, "I'm staying here because you and Maddie are here. I'm attending university because Maddie wanted me to, and because you're here. You're right I don't need to do this, I don't need to make it a career. I'm doing it because I want to, because I want to be with you, and I don't want to disappoint Maddie."

I put my arm around her shoulders and held her against me. I smiled, "That's sweet Katie. And I'm glad you're here with me. I hope this isn't going to be boring or pointless for you though? Like I hope you're actually going to get something out of it."

She nodded, "I think I will. I enjoyed learning chemistry in high school. We don't really have anything like that back on Otherworld? Well, we don't really have much in the way of sciences at all there. But I thought chemistry was a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to learning more of it, and getting a degree."

"Good," I replied. "I'm glad you're going to be doing something you like."

I added after a moment, "I was almost wondering, if you came to university just to be with me, why you weren't taking Marine Biology with me."

Kaitlyn blushed and whispered, "Please don't tell anyone, but I can't handle being out on boats. I get terrible seasickness, and I can't swim. The sea is not my friend so I will stay firmly on the land."

I did my best not to giggle or snicker, but I couldn't stop myself from grinning. I never would have guessed this centuries-old powerful fae mage could be defeated by a rowboat out in the harbour. 

I whispered back, "Ok Katie, your secret's safe with me."

We held each other for a little while longer, then eventually we both got back to work unpacking and putting our things away. I got my laptop set up on my little desk and my Wicca stuff went into one of the drawers. 

By mid-afternoon me and Katie were all settled in, so we decided to go out and tour around the campus. There were three more days before our first classes, so we had time to get used to the place and sort of find our way around, figure out where everything was. 

We were both taking science courses so a lot of our classes were in the same building, but being in different programs we had different schedules. Still, we'd probably be walking to and from class together and we'd probably be able to have most of our meals together.

Many of the buildings and facilities were open already, and there were several little info-desks and kiosks set up to help new students like us get sorted out and settled in. 

As we passed by the student union building I spotted a little kiosk tent with various pride flags up, so I guided Kaitlyn over that way. The university had pretty good support for LGBTQ+ students and faculty, and there were a few programs and organizations to help with that. 

There were a couple young women there behind the little table, they were older than me and Katie but not by much. I figured they were probably third- or fourth-year students.

They were nice and friendly, and the four of us talked for a bit. We all introduced ourselves, and they gave us some flyers and rainbow pins and stuff like that. The flyers had loads of info, and links to websites and social media and stuff. I was excited to meet more LGBT people, back at home I felt like I was the only lesbian at school. Until Kaitlyn came along, anyways.

Eventually me and Katie left to continue on with our little walk. She was still studying one of the handouts she'd picked up, and she had a sort of serious look on her face.

"What's up?" I asked. "Everything ok?"

She replied quietly, "Yeah... Everything's fine. I just never really thought about this stuff before?"

I glanced at her, "What do you mean? What stuff?"

"Pride, gay rights, fighting for equality, all this stuff?" she replied as she gestured to the papers in her hand. 

"It's not a thing back on Otherworld? Nobody cares who anyone sleeps with. Nobles get uppity about having heirs, but as long as there's one or two offspring to keep the family going they don't care if Lord Whatever spends most of his nights with his boyfriend, or Lady So-and-so shares a bed with her girlfriend. And we don't really think about trans stuff either? I mean if someone really wants to change their body, they just find a mage willing to do it for them."

I had a hard time imagining what that must be like, living in a society where nobody viewed being gay or trans as a bad thing. Growing up with homophobic parents I just assumed people like me were hated everywhere. It wasn't till I got on the internet and figured out how to get around the parental blocks my folks used, that I really started to understand things better.

I sighed, "Yeah it's a huge mess here. That's why we have organizations like that one, why we have to have special protections and everything. I don't think it was that long ago where walking around wearing rainbow buttons like these could get us assaulted, or worse."

Katie scowled a little at my words, but her attention was still mostly on the papers she was reading. She asked "What do you know about trans people here on Earth? From what this is saying, things are still pretty bad for them."

"Yeah," I sighed again. "I don't honestly know much about it though? I've never even met a trans person yet. That I know of, anyways."

My girlfriend was silent for a minute or so, she had a thoughtful look on her face now. Finally she said in a quiet voice, "I mean, technically I'm trans? I think? I was a man, now I'm a girl."

She added, "And I know a trans girl, back in Ontario. When I was staying at Lady Tegan's house, she had a trans girl staying with us. Lady Tegan used her magic to give the girl her desired body... I didn't really think much about it at the time because I was only recently changed myself? But I suppose I assumed it was that easy for everyone."

That left me quiet for a while, it gave me a lot to think about. I'd known Katie used to be a man, that she was changed into what she is now as part of a curse, but that all happened long before I met her. She'd always been just Kaitlyn to me, and she never did or said anything that struck me as masculine or manly. It never really occurred to me that she was trans, and I didn't want to admit it but I realized I didn't like the idea.

We were both quiet now as we continued to walk. Kaitlyn was still studying the handouts, and I was trying to figure out why I had some negative feelings about this revelation. It didn't take long to realize it was probably because of my parents and how I was raised, and I probably had a lot of preconceived ideas about trans folks. And I knew that was something I'd need to work on.

Eventually the two of us got bored of walking around the campus, and we set about finding somewhere to get a bite to eat. My excitement about being at university gradually returned, and I was actually looking forward to the start of classes in a few days.

~ End of Book Three ~