The Dark Witch and the Elemental

by Tabitha Scott

  “Are you coming with us?” Pulania eyes him off.

  “Ahh, noh, I have no need to meet your other lovers, Pulania. I’ll just see you off though.”

  “Oo, okay, just your official duty of escorting us about the city,” Pulania says.

  “Well, that be true.”

  ***

  The old River Pitt is ours by conquest… well, the angelic host made it official by completing the paperwork, but we took it from a demon who we vanquished by most foul means. He, he, he, it was a particularly bad bit of evil doing.

  It’s called ‘The Two Witches’ now and is the most hipster place in Pittsburgh. I used creation magiks to grow a few willows out the front, and that’s made all the difference for the street appeal. A few faerie lights in their branches, a few gas heaters, some roughly hewn wood tables and chairs. Hmm, I think I’ll grow a few small tree limbs from them when I get a chance, it will add character.

  ‘The Two Witches’ has been endowed with special magiks that protect us from unwanted magikal visitors – unless they’re otherworldly, like the Seelies. Jimmy seems to be able to pop in and out at will. Well, it was magiks provided by Gaea, and Jimmy is otherworldly. Still, like Pulania’s house, it is a refuge for us in this world, with the added advantage that Samael, my father, can appear here at will. Huh, now all we have to do is work out how to call him. There are a few hipsters in the front, I guess if we have to we can off one of them. That’s a sure call, Samael would have to appear then. Not good for business though. We’re actually doing quite well out of this place. Pulania is thinking of redecorating her house with the proceeds. I want a new centrifuge for my lab.

  Pulania and I go in the side entrance, there are lots of entrances – and exits – now, most them magikal. There’s a back room we’ve claimed as our office.

  “Okay, how do we do this?” Pulania asks me.

  “Like, how would I know? You’re the bitch with hundreds of years of magikal knowledge. What do you think I bring to the table?” Having your memory wiped of most of your past life doesn’t really help with ‘how to’ questions.

  “Oh, I thought you might have some innate knowledge, you know, you’d just do it and it would happen.”

  “Really?” I’m sure I have a pretty good look of disdain on my face right now. “Yeah, okay, ‘Samael, appear to us now’.”

  “Oh. That was easy.” Pulania is looking at something behind me.

  I turn around, and, “Holy Schizz, Samael!” He’s standing about 3 inches behind me, I can feel his breath on my neck! “Personal space, dude.”

  “Sorry,” he steps back, “first time doing that. I’ll get it right next time.”

  Pulania hits me, “Don’t swear in goodness.”

  “Ouch, like really? Oh look, you two sort yourselves out, I’m for the bar.”

  Yeah, yeah, I know, I’ve had a few today already, but Tadpole the Invincible is just that. He’s magikal, he’ll… she’ll… be decades in development, one day of my having a few won’t be the same as for a human pregnancy. Poor humans. They hurt their own so much.

  Gil is in the bar with her boyfriend and a couple of other Ravens, she waves me over. A little umbrella cocktail finds its way into my hand (thanks Roger) and I plop myself down beside my familiar.

  Chapter 11: Raven gossip

  “What’s up?” I ask Gil.

  I’d noticed that ‘The Two Witches’ had turned into a bit of a hangout for Gil’s entourage of royal Ravens. She’s become quite popular since hooking up with the head Raven boy. What’s his name again? Jonathon, that’s it. They can only cross the threshold as long as they harbour no ill will toward us, so I guess they’re good.

  “Well, the gossip is that Hatchesput has been having secret conversations with the Queen.”

  Huh! “Bullshit.”

  Gil takes my straight forward reply in stride.

  “Nope, it’s true. It’s all the buzz about the palace.”

  “No way, it must be a different Hatchesput, or something.” I mean this can’t be real. Can it?

  Gil is shaking her head at me.

  “Any idea what it’s all about?” I ask her. She shakes her head again.

  “It’s true, there have been a few phone calls, and even a meeting.” It’s one of Gil’s random friends, but he’s being backed up with lots of nodding heads. It’s like a bobbly head convention. Is this kid trying to come on to me or something?

  “I don’t believe a word of it,” I flatly state. I mean, who could believe any of this. “You’re having me on.”

  The hand of the little drizzle boy comes down on mine. “No, it’s true.”

  My dark aura flares out, I’m not interested in Ravens. He removes his hand, quick smart. “Sorry.”

  Humph, just as well. I’m not any floozy this little Raven boy can pick up in a bar. I have standards. He needs forceps, and abs, and maybe a personality or something. Besides, I have an angel, it sort of pisses all over Ravens.

  “What’s it about?” I ask Gil, I’m totally ignoring the Raven lad. If he makes a sound I’ll have to off him. I’m sure it’s part of the dark witch ‘pickup’ protocol. If you fail, shut the hell up or end up dead. Well, to be honest, if you succeed you might end up dead anyway, but that’s a separate evil doing story. I guess the little Raven lad gets that, because he’s gone very quiet.

  Gil just shrugs her shoulders at me.

  “Okay, so is there any more information to this bit of high level gossip?”

  She shrugs again. Still, I believe it. Something very strange is on the move. Hatchesput said she was up to other things. I guess this is it. I’ll have to tell Pulania, but what the ficketty feck is going on? The royals are persona non gratae Nobody has spoken to them in centuries, well, apart from us. Though I guess we sort of broke the ice between the royals and Hatchesput when at the battle for Dunnottar Castle they came to the rescue. The royal family supported the coven to save Susan, so, an alliance of sorts was there in the making. Maybe Hatchesput is taking it a step further.

  “Amura,” Pulania is calling me back to Samael and herself, they’re standing in the door of the back room. Goodbye little Raven boy, If you’re lucky I’ll never think of you again.

  With the door closed behind us, I go to ice bitch mode. “Okay, what’s this all about?” Straight forward and to the point. Samael answers.

  “You have a sister.”

  A sorta silence ensues for a couple of minutes. Sister, I need to process that word. Sister. I have an academic understanding of the term. “What do you mean?” I ask Samael. “What do you mean I have a sister?”

  “I’ve talked to your mother, and we’ve decided it’s best to be straight forward here. You have a sister.”

  He seems kind of deflated, like my having a sister isn’t a good thing. But, then it comes to mind that it might not be.

  “Why haven’t you told me this before?” I look back and forth between Pulania and Samael, but it’s Pulania who answers.

  “She hurt me, Amura! She almost killed me.”

  Chapter 12: She almost killed me

  What? How can that be possible? “What do you mean, I have a sister?”

  “You have a sister.” And the deflated tone from Pulania is enough to let me know it must be true.

  Samael nods at me.

  “A sister by you?” And he nods again.

  “Magiks are very powerful,” he explains. “For some bodies too much magik is given, and the soul is lost.”

  “That… doesn’t sound good.”

  “No,” Pulania shivers, but she seems overwhelmed, she can’t carry on.

  ‘No.” Samael continues. “Your sister was too powerful, her sense of self was lost, she became an Elemental.”

  Pulania had once said that I was in danger of becoming an Elemental; that the balance of Earth Magiks given me by Gaea had saved me.

  “An Elemental.” My words are hollow.

  Samael continues, “She was your twin, born of the same womb. Th
at’s…” he’s faltering. Why would an angel falter? He sounded so confident a second ago, but he’s looking down now, and I can see a tear in his eye.

  “That’s what happened,” Pulania jumps in. “She…” Pulania stumbles, she can’t find the words.

  “She was too powerful,” Samael finishes. “The blood of an angel and a White witch, a daughter of Gaea, you two are the first of your kind.” Samael’s eyes, which had been on the ground, turn to mine, and he takes a deep breath. “She broke through your mother’s womb, a creature of pure energy.”

  Pulania is crying. “She almost killed me, she was so powerful, if Samael hadn’t interceded…”

  “You and I would have died,” I end the thought for her. My Faerie blood lets me skip to the next part of the puzzle. Sometimes… I can see things a step or two ahead.

  I turn away staring toward the walls. Pulania and Samael just wait for me. I have to have time to take this in. I walk around the back room making several circuits of them. It takes me that long.

  “Too much. This is too much,” I mutter.

  Samael’s hand is on my shoulder, it’s firm. He’s trying to hold me to this world, I know and feel that. “Don’t let the magiks overtake you. You’re not an Elemental, you’re Amura.”

  I ease back, taking in his words. “I am Amura,” I repeat. “I’m not an Elemental, I am Amura. I’m me, and I’m in control.”

  I take a deep breath. And so does Pulania. It’s only now that I realise why she wanted Samael to be here. She was afraid she’d lose me, but knew that Samael had the strength to help. My thoughts are scattered, but he’s helping me focus them. That simple hand on my shoulder, it’s all, and everything. Am I staring at him with the doe eyed look of someone so vulnerable that the magiks could take me away? I can feel my own strength, part of it is wild and unfettered, but part of it is the Earth magiks given me by Gaea.

  “I need to go outside,” is all I can say to them.

  There’s a side entrance, they open the door for me, and I virtually stumble out to the dirt that’s in the alley way. I run my hands through it. It gives me strength, it anchors me, but it’s not enough. I stumble to the Faerie path in the alleyway, Pulania follows, though Samael is confined to “The Two Witches”.

  I somehow navigate the path back to Pulania’s. Is she holding me, trying to help me make it there? I doubt if I could have made it on my own. In the library I reach for the Angel of the Year cup, the one that Gaea has magikly endowed with the power to take me to her. I touch it…

  ***

  The cup is enchanted to take me to Gaea, but only when I’m called. I must have been called, a sense of vertigo overtakes my body, and within little more than a second, beneath my hands is pure, clean soil. I crawl on it, my hands taking it in.

  “Well done, my granddaughter, it was good that you came to me.” A hand rests on my back. I’m exhausted and just breathe, holding the earth beneath me. “The Earth will always anchor you.”

  The hand massages my back, but it’s several minutes before I can recover.

  I turn on to my back with a handful of soil in each of my palms. I look up into the face of the old lady I needed just now, my grandmother, Gaea, the mother of the Earth.

  “Just wait, granddaughter, there is no hurry, here or in any other part of the world, just relax and feel my love for you.”

  The massaging hands continue to spread strength through me. I had none, but shortly I can lift myself up again to a sitting position.

  “Thank you.” Gaea’s ancient forest surrounds me.

  “You are welcome granddaughter. I am pleased that you turned to me so instinctively with these troubles. Here is where you should be.”

  “What is it? What is it I’m carrying?” I ask her. She knows what I mean, the baby, what is it?

  “A child of great power, just like your sister.” She leans down to me. “Just like yourself,” she whispers. “But I have another warning for you while you are here.”

  I look to Gaea and nod my head, urging her to go on.

  “You have all done well to hide Susan from the world in my daughter’s house. She will be protected there, but the daughter of Susan must be born in the world. Susan cannot remain at Pulania’s when the birthing comes, elsewise the test will be corrupted.”

  “Oh, that doesn’t sound good.”

  “No. A daughter not born to the world would not be an end of the test. Susan must return to the world to give birth.”

  My mind takes a moment to process this information. With the coven still at war with some of the Fae, the Earth isn’t a safe place for Susan. If the other side know this, they’ll keep trying to destroy all those who can protect her. The battle at Dunnottar was only the beginning.

  “Return to me when you need to, granddaughter. You must go now, to protect Susan.”

  And with that, the vertigo returns, and I awaken to find my head is in Pulania’s lap. There are tears in her eyes. “I was so worried for you.”

  Oookay, this is weird. I’m lying down again though, and I don’t really feel like getting up. I’m good where I am.

  It takes me several minutes to recover. I can’t say anything for a while. I just need to lie here. Pulania’s hand is stroking my brow, and there are still tears in her eyes.

  “I’d hoped you’d be spared this,” she weeps.

  Spared this? I’m still trying to process what ‘this’ is.

  “After all, you only have the one child, not twins.”

  “I’m good, Pulania. You don’t need to worry.” And then I notice, Susan, Gil and Master are all here looking down at me. “Hey! I’m good,” I yell out to them.

  I try to struggle up but get a bit dizzy on the way. Okay, so maybe I’m not good quite yet.

  “Oh, my head.”

  Strong arms lift me up from the floor.

  “Put her on the sofa, Master,” Pulania directs.

  I guess I’m pretty stuffed, really. I don’t know why, I haven’t done anything, but I have no energy to spare.

  “Tadpole the Invincible is making herself known.” Master’s voice drifts through my mind, but I’m already falling into a very deep sleep.

  Herself?

  Chapter 13: Charlotte

  Moments of terror, mixed with moments of quiet. That’s my life now. Sometimes the terror is other people’s, that’s true enough, but moments of terror, none-the-less.

  Tadpole the Invincible is giving me moments of terror. ‘She’ seems quiet enough now. Pulania believes that my womb will be strong enough to hold the child to full term. I have much more magiks than poor Pulania did when her stomach was ripped apart by my sister. Apparently, when Samael saved Pulania and I, that was the moment he incurred the wrath of the heavenly host. He was banned from seeing us after that, well, until quite recently.

  I’ve told the others what Gaea had to say about Susan and her baby. They’re all contemplating the future now. At some stage we’ll have to risk everything by taking her back to the world. That will be the moment she’ll be most vulnerable, we all know it.

  “Baby is coming.” It’s Ruby, she’s doing her rocking thing. I think I’ll get her a rocking chair, that’ll make it easier for her.

  She keeps saying the same thing, not all the time, just every now and then.

  “I think I should have another ultrasound,” I tell Master.

  We’re in the nursery room, I’ve been doing a bit of sewing to help me relax. This is my chill room. Master and Ruby like to keep me company here. Gil sometimes pops by to talk, but the rest of us don’t do a lot of talking here, we just spend time in each other’s company.

  “We can do that,” Master answers.

  “Hmm, but I also need to spend some time in the library researching Elementals.” I put my sewing aside.

  “Decisions, decisions.” There was no smirk on his face when he said that. “One would be better than the other right now.”

  “Oh shite, another angel puzzle to work out. You know I hate those
.” Humph, at least he has the good sense to look a little contrite.

  Puzzles from Ruby, puzzles from Master. An answer or two would be good.

  “Library,” Ruby whispers. Though if she meant to keep it between just myself and her, she failed. I mean, Master is an angel, he knows stuff. Plus, she’s not very good at whispering, I’m sure he heard. Yep, he’s rolling his eyes, I don’t know why, I mean, I expect Seelie help is allowed in the angel book of confusion and half-truth.

  “Right, I guess we should adjourn to the library then.”

  I gather myself up and head down the stairs, Ruby doesn’t often come down stairs, but today she’s following me. Master comes too, he can do what he does.

  There are a lot of books in the library, an awful lot of books. There is an old encyclopedia of magiks, that’s usually where I start when I want to know something. It’s a Hecatine text, as are many of the volumes kept by Pulania, this being Scotland, and the Hecatines being the main Scottish brand of coven.

  “Elementals,” I read aloud – though I’m actually translating as I go. “Elementals are forces of nature. They are creatures of such power that they lose all semblance of their former selves. Many of those who have sought power through increased magiks have been lost because their bodies are unable to contain the magik they sought. They become Elementals. An Elemental may have a sprite like appearance, but in time they become pure energy and diffuse in nature, they return to the Goddess.”

  Huh, imagine that.

  “Hmm, well that tells me a little bit about them, but not that much.” My mind goes back to the meeting with Áine. “Why are they keeping Dublin so… so clean. They’re worried about Elementals, but why there?”

  “What do you know about Elementals, Ruby? You probably know a bit.”

  “Ruby slipper, ruby slipper, ruby slipper.” She’s reminding me that for many years her soul was tied to the ancient relic of her people, the shoes she now wears. I expect there wasn’t a lot of opportunity for information gathering there. Though I suspect she knows more than she can say. I sometimes get the impression that the Seelies are restricted by something like the equivalent of the angel book of befuddling humans. Or maybe there are ancient agreements that they have to abide by, I guess it’s more likely the latter.