by Phil Stern
“Eleanor.” As usual, a strong swell of emotion began swirling to the fore. “Blake isn’t a witch. He has no idea who I really am. This Sharra was deliberately baiting me…”
“Yes, she was. And you fell for it.” Slowly nodding, the Coven Leader’s gaze never wavered. “That wasn’t very smart.”
“What was I supposed to do?”
“You should have just left, obviously, as soon as you realized who this Sharra was. It’s nice that you sent out a warning message, but you yourself should have immediately walked out of the restaurant and gone underground. When appropriate, you should have then rendezvoused with Norine and waited for instructions.”
“Oh really?” Tiffany began irritably drumming her armrest. “And just leave Blake there? Embarrassed and unprotected?”
“My dear girl.” Giving her a tight smile, Eleanor brought her hands together, fingertips lightly touching. “Let me be very clear about something. I have tolerated this relationship of yours for some time now, despite the nearly unanimous objections of our sisters. Including many women quite senior to you.”
“That’s all extremely interesting.” Unbidden, Tiffany’s earth stone began pulsing. “But as far as I’m concerned, my personal life is none of the Coven’s business!”
Raising an eyebrow, the Coven Leader first glanced down at Tiffany’s earth stone, then back up to her furious gaze. “I think you’re forgetting yourself, young lady.”
With difficulty, Tiffany forced herself to relax. After several seconds, her magic talisman returned to its inert state. “Now I think you’re the one baiting me,” she mumbled.
“Really?” Bleakly eyeing the young enchantress, the Coven Leader sighed. “Tiffany, do you think you’re the first of our kind to fall in love?”
“I’m sure it’s happened before.” Stiffly, she looked away. “Just like I’m sure the Coven promptly went out of their way to ruin it.”
“Oh, I see.” Eleanor gave a knowing nod. “So you’re determined not to let your loving sisters, who have always nurtured and supported you, destroy this wondrous relationship. Is that it?”
“You got it.”
“Because Blake sees you for who you are! The deep, inside you. The real Tiffany Smith!” Leaning forward, Eleanor nodded encouragingly. “Is that it?”
“That’s right, Eleanor. He does see the real me.” Tiffany’s eyes narrowed. “But don’t worry. I wouldn’t expect anyone else to understand.”
“Oh, please. I’m just a stupid old woman! What would I know?” Eleanor leaned back once more. “Clearly, this Blake doesn’t have any misconceptions, does he? Tiffany Smith, a native Terran, reporter for some magazine. Where’d you grow up, dear? Somewhere in upstate New York? Parents died when you were young, is that right? In some car wreck? What about your fake college diploma and work history? Is he familiar with all this reality?”
“That’s my cover!” Tiffany’s back teeth began grinding together. “You and I worked all that out in Haven!”
“Of course we did, you young idiot.” Eleanor’s pleasant voice now developed an edge. “And it’s fiction. All lies, every word of it. A story to tell the locals. Especially the men, so we can manipulate them more easily.”
“Manipulate them? Well yes, but…” Trailing off, Tiffany tiredly rubbed her forehead. “Listen, Eleanor. You have no idea what he knows about me. Or what we share together.”
“So I guess he knows you’re an inter-dimensional operative for a magical, all-female organization?” Now the Cover Elder’s own earth stone let out an irritated throb. “He must know that you just assassinated a local leader in another world, right? Oh, and that you weren’t even born on Earth? Does he know all that?”
“No, he doesn’t. But in the ways that matter…”
“Does he know what we do, Tiffany? What you’ve done?” Now her voice dropped almost to a whisper. “Is Blake aware that you’ve traipsed around the universe, using magic to force your will on any number of creatures? That you’ve slept with many other men? Is he?”
“He knows I had a life before him.” Tiffany paused. “But nothing else.”
“You see? That’s the problem.” Suddenly standing, Eleanor walked around the massive desk to face her directly. “For us, that kind of love is just another version of a lie. And it’s far more insidious, and much more harmful, than the lies we tell in our primary role of protecting women and children.”
Eyes drifting closed, Tiffany let Eleanor’s voice wash over her, brutally weighing every word. “I never expected it to last this long!” First one tear streaked down her cheek, soon followed by another. “I thought something would happen…”
“But it hasn’t.” Almost tenderly, Eleanor sat on the edge of the desk, taking Tiffany’s hand. “And every day that goes by, you’re leading Blake further away from the truth. From the real Tiffany Smith, with all her strengths, and all her flaws.”
Glumly pulling her hand away, Tiffany now also stood. Restlessly pacing into the middle of the office, she then turned back. “Were you ever in love? I mean, where you truly cared for someone?”
“Of course, dear.” Leaning back, Eleanor smiled. “A long time ago, in a world you’ve never even heard of.”
“Tell me.”
“He was a simple goat herder.” Nearly blushing, the older woman turned her head to stare out the huge windows. “We lived together for a year. I was out of touch with the Coven entirely.”
“For an entire year?”
“Back in those days that wasn’t unusual.” Sighing, Eleanor now idly settled into one of the guest chairs before her own desk. “The Coven was much more loosely organized. We came and went as we pleased.”
“That must have been nice,” Tiffany muttered, coming over to sit in the seat beside her.
“No, it wasn’t. We lost more than one girl to stupid accidents, or in worlds we knew nothing about. I think a few must have somehow lost their earth stones and became trapped somewhere. But since nobody checked in, or left any kind of flight plan…” Trailing off, Eleanor sadly shook her head. “It’s only been in the last thirty years or so that the Coven has systematically gathered intelligence on the universe, rationally organizing our activities.”
“And since Lord Gensrow appeared…”
“We have become even stricter yet,” she acknowledged. “And that’s a good thing. But back then, this man and I lived as husband and wife, without interference from anyone else. I thought it’s what I wanted.”
A few awkward moments went by. “So what happened,” Tiffany gently prodded.
“I finally told him that I was a witch with magical powers. That our Coven subverted men’s reproductive lives, and their entire families, for our own purposes.” An airy wave of the hand. “He didn’t take it so well.”
“Didn’t you explain that’s not who you were anymore? That those things weren’t really you?”
“How could I say that? I had done all those things, and in many ways that’s exactly who I was!” Intently leaning forward, Eleanor nodded. “He screamed and raged, calling me all kinds of names, and demanded I leave.”
“That’s awful!”
“No, dear. You see, he was absolutely right.”
“What?” Fearfully, Tiffany drew back. “How can you say that?”
“By his standards I was an evil witch, Satan’s bride, all that other stuff,” she explained. “And I had deceived him. I wasn’t from the next village over, or even from his dimension. I was an interloper, an invader, both in that world and in his life. He immediately grasped that fact, even it took me some time to accept it.”
“But the Coven is good!” Desperately, Tiffany held her eye. “We save girls from awful lives! We…we prevent men from abusing others, where nobody else would do anything. On some worlds, we protect whole villages from attack by magical beings. By the stone! We even step in when a demon like Gensrow pops up!”
“What’s your point, dear?”
“My point?” Leaping up once more,
the sleek enchantress strode over to the massive, wall-length windows, first staring out at the panoramic Vail countryside, then looking back at the Coven Leader. “I’m proud of who we are!”
“Even if our methods are a little questionable?”
The younger woman thought on that a moment. “Yes,” she finally said. “Nothing in life is perfect. And you’re right, the Coven needed greater discipline. But we help people, provide at least a little justice in a chaotic universe. Overall, the Coven is a positive influence.”
“I’m glad you think so.” Eleanor nodded. “So go tell Blake all that.”
Leaning against the glass, Tiffany folded her arms. “Excuse me?”
“If he really loves you, he’ll be able to accept your life.” Rising once more herself, the elder sorceress tiredly stretched out her arms. “If he tells you to get the hell out and never come back, you’ll know what your grand love affair is really worth.”
“Eleanor!” Shocked, Tiffany stared at her in wonder. “We can’t tell anybody in a mundane dimension about magic!”
“Oh, my dear girl. In this case, I’ll make an exception.” Raising an eyebrow, Eleanor caused her still steaming coffee cup to float across the desk to her. “If you dare, tell Blake who you really are. See what he says. And does.”
“Wow.” Biting her lip, Tiffany let out a slow breath. “All right. I will.”
“But…” And here the vibrant older woman held up a warning finger. “Regardless of what he says or does, the safety of the Coven comes first.”
“I’ve always stood up for my sisters,” Tiffany carefully replied. “Or have you forgotten what I did in Jain two years ago?”
“Tiffany, I will never forget. But let me be very clear.” Once again, Eleanor’s gaze hardened. “You will follow Coven protocols to the letter. If ordered underground, or out of Earth entirely, you will comply immediately. We may need to mobilize, pull everyone back to Haven, or somewhere else. Your private situation will not be a concern, or an impediment, in any such eventuality.”
A long moment passed. “I understand,” the tall brunette nearly whispered.
“But enough girl talk.” Eleanor briskly walked around to the business side of her desk once more. Taking her cue, Tiffany again crossed over to sit opposite her.
“The Coven Council has known of these other witches for a few months now,” the Coven Leader announced. “And no, they’re not our friends.”
Tiffany raised an eyebrow. “I see.”
“They’re very different from us. They use locals in each world to consolidate their power.” Eleanor paused. “That Prefect you killed in Tethra? He was one of their underlings.”
“So, without telling me, I was ordered to kill a man in the employ of a hostile coven of witches?”
“At the time, you knew what you needed to know.” Eleanor calmly eyed her. “That Prefect was one of five men we eliminated in a coordinated operation.”
So she hadn’t been the only one of her sisters employed as an assassin. Somehow, that gave Tiffany a small measure of comfort. “So you launched a war?”
“We got their attention,” the Coven Leader corrected, pushing back a stray lock of grey hair. “These ruby witches are trying to infiltrate existing social structures, then break them down. Once sufficiently destabilized, they plan on seizing complete control of key worlds throughout the universe.”
“Wow.” Tiffany’s mind raced. “And how do we know all this?”
“Because a ruby sorceress has already defected to our camp.” Eleanor allowed herself a grim smile. “With her information, and once we’re fully prepared, I intend to break this rival coven and bottle up these renegade witches in their home dimension for good.”
*****
The Coven Leader decreed that Tiffany would get a good night’s sleep in Vail before continuing on her mission. Settling into a private “executive suite” within Eleanor’s headquarters after lunch, she reveled in the sumptuous bed and blazing white sheets, with every modern contrivance known to mankind available for her use.
The suite’s lone entrance also sported a heavy steel bolt, multiple modern locks, and a personal electronic shield operated only from the inside. While here, a sorceress could feel protected and at ease. And while there were no Boundary portals within the suite itself, a large window, also protected by an electronic shield, could be utilized for escape. A ten-story drop down to the ground would be easy for a magical operative, yet an intruder couldn’t possibly breach the grounds and scale the outside wall undetected.
But Eleanor’s impressive corporate home was only the beginning. The Coven’s new super fortress was located fifty miles away, buried mostly underneath a mountain. Fully stocked with weapons and supplies, it also utilized a pure, underground stream for fresh water and hydroponics bays for growing more food. There was even a rich lode of the rare rock from which the Coven Council crafted earth stones situated right beneath it.
Tiffany had never actually been to the super fortress, but she was very anxious to check it out.
That evening a gleaming black hover-limo pulled up in the main entranceway of Eleanor’s corporate palace. Tiffany, Marissa, and two other Haven witches, all dressed for a casual evening out, hopped in the back of the imposing vehicle. A fifteen-minute flight found them landing on top of a stupendous anti-grav mall. Exiting the limo on the VIP roof pad, the four young women simply dove down into the cavernous, weightless environment, just like any other native Vailer.
Now this, thought Tiffany, was very weird. At first it was hard not using magic to automatically support her own weight in the anti-grav environment, but soon she had the hang of it. Indeed, the young sorceress found she enjoyed the mild challenge of using all the handy ropes and padded structures to propel herself around. There were often collisions as throngs of happy shoppers drifted up and down the eight-story mall, diving into any store they wished. But everyone was very polite, eagerly zooming off to the next shop after a quick apology.
Though a witch never had to actually buy clothing, Tiffany picked up a few irresistible scarves and a cuddly pair of socks for Blake. Of course, they weren’t supposed to transport “artifacts” across the Boundary, but socks were socks in any dimension. Right?
After an hour in the mall, the quartet was then whisked off to the theater. And while Tiffany had attended live productions in several different worlds, nothing had quite prepared her for this.
In Vail, entertainment and education were all jumbled together. So the “play” was actually a depiction of several college professors discussing advanced physics. For two long hours they droned on and on, broken only by furious scribbling on a blackboard. Actually, that was only the first half of the show, but Tiffany, Marissa, and Emily insisted on leaving at intermission.
“Well, I’m sorry you guys didn’t like the play.” Laci, who was originally from the high-tech dimension, gracefully sat down at the dinner table in their private room. “But it’s one of my favorites! Weren’t you guys inspired when they determined that string theory actually correlated with the general principles of quantum mechanics?”
“Yeah, I nearly had an orgasm.” Rubbing her forehead, Emily took a dainty sip of water. “Listen, I get that this is a super advanced world, but these people take themselves a little too seriously.”
“Ladies.” Tiffany gently touched Emily’s hand. “Let’s not forget, the walls have ears.”
“Actually, they don’t,” Laci said. “I’ve put a sound buffer in place around our table. So unless a waiter’s standing right by our elbow, we should be fine.”
Tiffany frowned. “Is that wise?”
“Oh, that’s super passive magic, Tiff.” Emily waved a dismissive hand. “Even on Vail, no one would detect anything from afar.”
“Are you sure?” Apprehensively, Tiffany glanced about their private dining room in the back of the posh restaurant. “What about a waiter with a pocket sensor?”
“Guys, we don’t even have to worry about waiter
s. Look!” Laci touched the base of a raised platter in the middle of the table. A holographic menu instantly formed above the device, slowly rotating so they could all read it. “And once we order, the food is shipped into us via matter transmission! We’re completely alone in here.”
“Matter transmission. Just like mother used to do it.” Laughing, Marissa touched a menu item. A covered basket simply formed out of thin air beneath the menu, from which Marissa extracted a luscious looking bread roll.
It was good, Tiffany realized, to just socialize with her contemporaries. So often a Coven witch was operating on her own in some foreign land, or in company with her peers for a single, harried mission. Sure, they all hung out in Haven at times, but that simple world only provided basic needs. One couldn’t grab a girlfriend and go out to the nearest anti-grav mall in a stretch hover-limo.
Still, the sudden crisis hung over them. Emily and Laci were assigned to the six-member fortress garrison, which was even now being strengthened from Haven itself. Marissa was part of a just activated, three-member bodyguard unit for Eleanor. The Coven Leader wasn’t concerned about security within her corporate lair, but would need company when traveling about.
“Is this ultimate safe house really as impressive as everyone says?” Tiffany asked.
“We’re not supposed to talk about it,” Emily replied. “But yeah, it’s pretty amazing.”
“And where are you off to tomorrow?” Marissa took an initial bite of salad.
“First Haven, then Rasten.” Now Tiffany nibbled on a buttered roll, which was absolutely delightful. “That’s where Eleanor has stashed this ruby witch.”
“Rasten?” Laci groaned. A pretty blonde nearly the same exact age as Tiffany, the Vail native physically reminded her of Keri. “That’s the loony bin of the universe.”
“It’s one of them,” Marissa agreed. “So what exactly are you supposed to do with this girl?”
“Now that we’ve poked this other coven in the eye, Eleanor thinks they’re scrambling to protect something on Earth.” Tiffany shrugged. “Somehow, I’m supposed to get this witch to tell us what it is, and then get it first.”
