Coven

ꀍꍏ꒦ꏂꈤ

She calls it a house, but the Haven is much more of a small castle.

Stone walls, towers and turrets, and the periodically stationed gargoyle. I stared at the sculptures.
Fairy shaped gargoyles.

The gargoyle I am staring at turns around and sticks its tongue out at me while the High Witch grins at my flabbergasted expression. "Stare too long and they'll bite."

"...Bite?"

I add the chompy gargoyles onto the List of Things to be Terrified Of, which I had been extensively adding to, so far on our journey.

"Tiremna-ami." The High Witch says, and the massive gates of the house open. The walls are lit by more tiny sparks contained in glass lamps, most white or yellow, but a few differing in colour. She clicks her hands and the purple spark immediately stops dancing and dissipates, as she leads me through the pathway to the entrance.
She whispers that word again, and the doors of the Haven open, and I find myself in the cauldron of witches.

The halls of the Haven are quiet, aside from the occasional witch on patrol, who passes by in a blur of white robes and averted gazes.
The High Witch leads me, still floating, through the rooms and I am suddenly reminded of the fact that other witches are indeed passing by, and seeing me, a princess, being floated around.

"Uh, I'm alright now, could you let me down please?" I plead.

"No."

Another witch passes by us, and this time, she does a double take and stares at me for a moment with bewilderment, before the High Witch merely turns her head to the side and she scurries off.

Fuck, why? Was this embarrasment some form of twisted punishment?

We stop in front of a door with designs of constellations marked upon it. The High Witch puts her hand on the door. "Resting. We're too late tonight." She clicks her tongue in annoyance.
For a moment, she looks unsure, before she seems to come to a decision.
She stops a witch passing by in her tracks with a single look.

"Take her to the North Tower. You'll be able to enter. Send a healer to the room after you have deposited her." She instructs, and the witch nods, eyes averted, and immediately begins floating me away.

This witch is just as quiet as the High Witch, leading me along the staircases and corridors in utter silence.

I lie back and take in my situation. Kidnapped by the High Ruler of the Forested Ones. My father planning to marry me off to the Elodian prince. Witches. A secret haven.

I look down at my muddly, scratched shoes. They had been a gift from Myxos before he went to the south to train. "Dainty shoes for a dainty princess." He'd smiled, slipping the heels onto my feet. "I bet you'll miss me for your Crowning, but pretend that I'm there anyways. And don't fuck it up." Unlike me, he never had any reservations using 'low class' words. He threw them out with the casual carelessness of a young man.

I'm sorry, Myxos. I fucked it up.

"We're here." The witch says, and I'm broken out of my thoughts. She snaps her fingers and the door opens.

The room is at the very top of the towers, and rather than a mere bedroom like I'd expected, it looks more like a library. Books crowd the tall walls, are stacked up in haphazard piles on the floor and litter the tabletops and seating.
A singular plant sits beside the glass panels of the entrance leading to the balcony, and in the midst of it all lies a large couch littered with papers.

The witch lets me down, and I test my balance on the stone floors gingerly. I'm about to utter a 'thank you', before she does a sharp about turn and leaves immediately.

Is it a witch thing? I wonder. Being taciturn and abrupt?

I hobble my way over to the couch and shove some papers aside so that I can sit. My legs almost give out as the tire of the whole day drops down me at once. My stomach growls in hunger, but I can barely keep my eyes open. I gently remove my shoes and set them aside to examine the increasingly painful swelling on my feet. The entire area felt like a throbbing lump, and was an ugly brown, spotted with blue. I fear displacement, or even worse, a broken ankle. It had been a rough twist, I remember, wincing from the pain. I wouldn't rule any of those possibilities out.

I want to stay awake and scope out my room, but I've almost fused with the couch and it feels like there are two rocks tied to my eyelids. I sigh, finally giving in, and let my eyes fall.

°‥∵•．:° ☾︎‥°∴² •...°☼︎⇢

Where...where am I now?

I lie on a huge bed, smack dab in the middle of a small room with a low ceiling, vines curling along the stone walls and wooden shelves filled with books. The large window beside me lets in the morning light, and I can hear noises from outside the closed door.

I'm quite sick and tired of waking up in unknown places by now.

What's more, my clothes are missing.
Or more accurately, they've been changed. And although there's a dull pain in my foot still, it's been neatly bandaged.
I look down at the simple white gown that I am wearing, not much different from the ones which I noticed the witches last night to be attired in. It's looser than I expected, a size too large. When I try to stand up, it drags at the floor.
I try walking, testing out the pain. I wonder why they haven't used a healing spell yet. Maybe their healer couldn't do it?
I try not to think about my foot as I limp around the room.

And then I remember the noises I'd hears. I put my ear against the wooden door, trying to comprehend the source of the sound.

The muffled sounds turned out to be talking.

One person...no, two.

I strained to make out the words.

"....passed out...subdued...sprain...idiot." It was obvious they were talking about me.

Should I...?
I gulp nervously.

I decide to take a risk and open the door.

Morning light streamed through the floor to ceiling windows, illuminating the messy stacks of books and papers.

I'm still in the tower quarters, and it seems that the room I was in last was merely a form of small hall, with stairs leading up on either side to more rooms, one of which I'd been sleeping in.
In the darkness, I hadn't noticed the stairs, nor the rooms, but now, in the morning light, they are properly visible.

"How do you feel?" The question jolts me from my momentary confusion.

I stare down into the main room, where a strangely familiar woman sits in the very same place I occupied. She sits regally, her white shirt rolled up to her forearms and her legs crossed, looking at me. Curly dark hair shorn to the scalp, bright blue eyes, dark brown skin...she even wears the same strange pendant as the High Witch. I rack my brain, trying to think of where I'd seen her before.

"Come down. I've been waiting ages to meet you. It's been a long time." The woman smiles at me, and a faint memory of that smile resurfaces.

No way...it can't be?!?

The High Witch coughs.
"Melrose...meet Nakshatra."