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asked, angry at her
lecture. “What did they depend on you for?”
    Elsa turned her head away from me slightly.
For the first time since she’d revealed herself to me, I could see
hesitation. It seemed that she too had secrets.
    “We are alike in many ways Olivia,” she
continued. “I did not reject my skills when I was your age, but I
did not manage them well, either. I wanted to do more than help old
men bring in good crops for the village. So I began to dabble in
things that were beyond my measure.”
    Elsa got up from the bar stool and began to
pace around the kitchen.
    “Eventually, I left my village in search of
someone or someplace where I could learn how to gain more power. I
was not content to see the future; I wanted to control it. After
much searching, I found an old witch who promised to help me gain
introduction to a school of magic where I could learn the secrets
of casting powerful spells to control things… nature, the
weather.”
    “So you wanted to be a powerful witch?”
    “I wanted power,” Elsa said. “I had no
specific occupation in mind.”
    “Did you find the school?”
    Elsa nodded, but her face was grim. “The scholomance was in the mountains of Romania. It was very
remote. I began my journey in the fall. It took more than a day to
reach the top of the mountain and find the castle.”
    “And…?”
    “The witch was true to her word,” Elsa said.
“She sent me to the door of a school where all things dark could be
learned. I should have been more cautious, but I was eager to begin
my lessons. I knocked upon a large wooden door with a raven
engraved on the front. After some time, an elderly man dressed as a
servant opened the door. He confirmed it was a school, but said
they only accepted ten students at a time. At first I thought he
was sending me away, but then he said that I had arrived just in
time and would be the tenth student. He instructed me to secure my
horse in the stables nearby and return to the castle. Excited, I
quickly did as I was told. As I walked back toward the school, an
angel appeared on the branch of a tree next to me.”
    I raised an eyebrow, but did not
interrupt.
    “The angel called out to me by name, and
implored me to not enter the castle. He told me it was the house of
the devil, and that of the ten students chosen, one would have to
stay behind and be sent to hell as payment for the lessons. The
angel was certain I would be the one to make good on the debt, and
he urged me to reclaim my horse and ride away from the castle that
very moment.”
    “Did you leave?” I asked, caught up in her
remarkable tale.
    “I was eager to become more powerful, but I
did not want to give my soul to the devil. I agreed to leave with
the angel. As I turned to retrieve my horse, the door of the castle
swung open. The servant I spoke with was there again, but this
time, he was dressed in the clothing of a gentleman. I realized I
had been conversing with the devil himself the entire time.”
    At this point I was speechless. The devil?
Was she joking with me to make a point?
    Elsa sensed my skepticism. “If you decide to
continue with your training, you will come to see that there is
more to this world than meets the eye. I didn’t believe I would
ever stand toe-to-toe with the devil until that day, either.”
    “Go on,” I urged.
    “The devil asked us both if we would like to
come inside for a cup of tea. The angel laughed and said ‘you know
very well that I will not walk through those doors.’ ”
    “‘Then I will come to you,’ the devil said. I
had seen many evil spirits in my time as a shaman, but I had never
felt such evil as I did when he approached us. He was standing as
close to me as I am to you. By knocking on his door, he said, I had
already offered myself to him. The angel replied that he had been
watching the school for more than 100 years and knew very well that
until I crossed the threshold, I was not subject to the devil’s
contract.”
    I have to