Mother of Magic

What Happened While We Were Gone?

With the fresh addition of the three witches brought in on the cart, the solitary jail cell was overstocked with four sleeping Witches. Once the Witches had been eased into the bunk and onto the now standard floor mattresses, the group returned to the bar. Even Sheriff Bob.

"They'll be fine in there. We'll bring them some food later." Vivian told the lawman.

Returning to the Saloon was not about immediately going back, getting a table, and placing drink and food orders. First, before relaxing and enjoying the fact that the Ward was now safe, they had to deal with the remnants of the three miscreants.

Well. They thought they did. It turned out that while Vivian, Stephanie, Le, and Bob were gone, the table where the Witches had been sitting had been bussed and thoroughly polished by townspeople. There was no evidence at all of their sloppiness.

Instead, there was a hero's welcome from the bar patrons people for Ava, Stephanie, and Le. Hugs, kisses, and pats on the back were issued in abundance. Silena, who technically left for the Cheyenne Nation was welcomed back too.

Vivian told part of the story of what had occurred while Stephanie, Ava, and Le were abducted and therefore missing from Collins. "When the goddamn Witches came and started taking over everything, a lot of people left. You don't live in Collins if you want to be under Witch-thumbs. Because of that exodus, I had problems being fully staffed. The regulars who stayed behind and rode it out chipped in. Why the table is so clean. They all have recent experience doing it!" Vivian looked around her bar and at everyone in it. She smiled happily. "How you survive a siege I suppose. Come together."

That expression of the spirit of community brought Ava joy. Her expression mirrored Vivian's. "This is why I love this place and the people here. So different from the Temple. Power is a curse that way sometimes. WItches that are friends — I mean real, true friends — are few and far between. It's all competition and power. Manipulation. Games."

"What's next?" Tasha asked, eager to jump into the fray.

"I for one am glad the Ward — our ward - the one you all put back up — works in both directions. Now that they can't take ours down, the ... err ... people? That seems to be way too nice a term for those jerks. The assholes who did this can't get out. They are stuck in here with us. Us and my Witchy friends. The good kind of Witches." Silena crowed. She paused, looked up in thought. "We need a better way to talk about Witches. Like there are Witches, and then there are Bitches. Or something. Gotta tell the good from the bad, you know?"

"I know the difference. I can smell the difference. Yuch or yumm." Tasha told her friend.

Ava did not address Silena or Tasha's comments. She changed the subject and asked Vivian "Tell us about what went down here while we were involuntarily gone. Not just the rude behavior here. How did it start?"

Vivian took a swig of beer to wet her throat. "You disappeared. GOne. We had no idea where or why. Not at first. Hell, we didn't know the truth even when they started talking about it, did we? Anyway, the damnable Quint took down the Ward. Hell, we did not know you were gone till they did that. You would not have let that happen. A lot of people did not even know that the Ward was there till they saw it get blasted away. Regular folks just walk right through it. Feels like nothing. Once the Ward was down, the Witches rolled in on the winds."

"I'm going with Bitches." Silena injected.

"They had guys too. Bastards." Tasha pointed out.

"Doesn't rhyme with Witches," Silena told her.

"Ditches. Snitches. Be-otches?" Tasha tried.

Bob continued Vivian's narrative. "A group of the invading Witches came to the Jail. Pretty much straight away. They found the Six and released them. I couldn't do a thing to stop them. There was a sort of heated argument between the Six and the Witches about whether they were going to get paid for their work. The Six left town promising to talk to the Guild about the Witches. The Witches hurled insults at them as they left, saying they only paid for success, not having to rescue them, and that maybe they should charge the Guild."