Mother of Magic

Witch Reveal

Stephanie looked at and flexed her hand in some surprise of her own. She checked it on both sides. It looked like her hand. Nothing unusual. She looked at the crumpled heap of Guild assassin at the base of the pillar. That happened.

Stephanie was as amazed as Vivian. She managed a single-word response. "Huh."

Le more completely answered Vivian's stunned question "It's a very new thing for us. We both only recently became Witches. Just happened. We did not used to be. We weren't until we came here. Where we are from there are no Witches. Or Guild. Or for that matter, Were's. We just met Tasha, and before that, never met one at all."

"That's weird. Goes with how you dress though." Vivian said.

Le continued. "Ava brought us here to help defend Collins from..." Le paused and looked over at the stunned assassin on the floor. "... from people like her. I guess? We did not know that at first. Or that we had access to magic. Not until very recently. I have to tell you, growing up all my life without magic? It's very weird to have it. Neither of us thinks of ourselves as Witches. Just ... people. Where we are from, we are Baseball players. No magic at all. Unless you think of a home run or a curve ball as magical."

Stephanie held up her hand as an exhibit. "I did not know I could do that. Whatever that even was. Sitting here now, even though I know I did it? I don't know how I did. Just instinct at having a sword under my chin. I guess?"

Vivian sighed. "Been non-magical my whole life so I can only imagine." Vivian sighed again and tossed a wave at the crumpled heap dressed in all black. "Great. Now we need to get the sheriff involved." She turned and called back to the kitchen "Hey. Rufus."

"Yeah?" Came a youngish male voice.

"Do me a favor, please? Go get Sheriff Rhodes. Need to lock up an assassin out here."

"An assassin? Really? Cool! Ok. Be right back" came the voice, followed a few moments later by the sound of a door slamming shut.

"I wish that kid would learn to close a door right." Vivian complained. "How long do you think tall, dark, and killer is going to be out from your whammy?"

"Vivian? Honest: I did not know I could do that until I did it. I have no idea. Pretty sure she is only stunned from hitting the post."

"I heard how hard she hit that beam. She'll be lucky if she does not have broken ribs. Gutsy move there, girl. Guild does not like it when you take down their people. Sheriff not going to be happy he has to deal with this now too. Interesting what she said about the Ward around the city. I didn't know Ava did that."

"Ava, and for that matter, The Mother, move in mysterious ways." Le said.

"Ava... The Mother... one of them? Both? They brought you here... to help us?" Vivian asked.

"That's what we were told. Well. What Ava said. The Mother? She does not exactly talk. She... intersects. Comes to the same thing. We understand why The Mother had Ava bring us here. Le and I went from no magic and no weirdos with swords and just being regular people to being kidnapped because The Mother told Ava to. Told Ava to grab us, and showed her how to because, as she explained it — sort of ... in the weird way she communicates — The Mother saw no other way to solve the defense of Collins problem. So, without asking, they brought us here, and suddenly..." Stephanie held up her hand. "... magical."

"Not that 'regular'." Le pointed out. "Not blowing our horn, but we were sort of famous sports stars."

"Not the same, Le." Stephanie said.

"Not at all the same, but let us be honest my love: we were not regular people with nine-to-five jobs, either. Regular people paid us well to play Baseball. Regular people with normal lives wrote us letters and proposed marriage and sent nude pictures and all sorts of things. Call us what you like, but regular wasn't it."