Comforting Darkness

Chapter 28: The Tutor, Cursed

"Lady Sullivan! Your help if you please, Lady Sullivan!!" Sebastian yelled, furiously knocking the door of the girl's bedchamber; an unconscious Ciel in his arms.

"Mm? What is it? Have you come to sneak into my bed?" The sleepy girl asked as she dragged herself to open the door; however, sleep left her for good as soon as she saw the three faces in front of her quite swollen and bleeding. "You three have been in the forest, have you not?" She asked although it was pretty obvious.

"I am at a loss as to how to express my deepest apologies. I will accept any punishment you see fit later... so please, save the young master!" Sebastian pleaded, watching Selina ignoring her own pain and shoving her fingers between Ciel's tightly clenched teeth, preventing him from biting his tongue as he was starting to shake.

A door further down the corridor opened and Wolfram in his night clothes appeared. He started calling names at Sebastian, but Sieglinde cut him off, ordering to prepare the cauldron chamber to perform the rite of purification. Soon they had all climbed a great spiral staircase leading to the top of one of the manor's turrets, where a great cauldron was seated right in the middle of a room that looked more like a laboratory.

"Hurry! We have not much time! Take off your clothes and throw them into the oven!" The little witch ordered and Sebastian placed a now screaming Ciel on one table and started undressing him.

"I gave him a healing potion and applied a salve on the blotches." Selina said Sieglinde via Sebastian as she was getting off her own clothes.

"What were the ingredients?" The girl asked and Selina with everything she could remember of the lessons her mother taught her – terms of her craft in all languages, so that never make a mistake in case she found herself in a foreign country in need of ingredients – she managed to correctly inform Sieglinde. The girl shook her head. "Too weak. It might have just bought us a minute or two."

Selina was left speechless by that. She never claimed to be a great witch, but surely she knew her potions quite well, and that was the strongest concoction she could think of against any kind of curse that caused physical damage. Suddenly, she felt a pull and saw a naked Sebastian forcefully removing the rest of her clothing; he grabbed the rest of the bundle his and Ciel's clothes made and threw them in the oven.

"Now into the cauldron all of you, quickly!" Sieglinde said and they followed. "When did you go into the forest?"

"About fifteen minutes ago." Sebastian informed her as he got into the cauldron filled with water. His answer seemed to infuriate the young lady more, she ordered Wolfram to bring more water and herbs, while mixing various strange powders.

"Submerge yourselves in the water while I chant the spell! Stay in there until I tell you to come out!" She went on and Sebastian with Selina obeyed taking Ciel with them, who immediately regained his senses and started screaming once again.

They stayed under water for not more than a minute, listening to the muffled voice of Sieglinde's reciting an old pagan prayer, later believed to be an incantation of witches'. Selina was listening utterly confused and then saw Sebastian sticking his tongue out and taking a taste of the powder the girl was pouring in there. They emerged from the water as soon as she told them and it was right on time since Ciel would actually drown in a while.

"We need to cleanse your bodies from the inside! Make him drink this decoction and have him retch." She said and gave a funnel and a jug to Sebastian.

Her eyes opened wide seeing Sebastian's seal on his left hand while handing him the funnel; but opened even wider at Selina's forearms covered in seals, spells and flames, as the woman moved behind Ciel. She circled him with one arm and steadied his head on her chest with her hand, while Sebastian shoved the funnel in Ciel's mouth and started pouring in the liquid ignoring the gurgling sounds the child made.