Mother of Magic

Brianna

"What brings you here, Bri? I have not seen you in a while." Ava asked her apparent friend.

Stephanie kept that at 'apparent' for now. Ava was inside the Ward and did not seem to be making any moves to expose herself to any kind of magical assault.

Stephanie looked away from the two witches for a second when she thought she heard something behind them but saw nothing. Having been recently attacked by Ninjas, and now having an unknown Witch before her had Stephanie on edge.

"Hello, Ava. You look well."

"Thank you, Brianna. You are looking hale and hearty as well. I like your hair like that."

Brianna touched her auburn locks. "Thank you. I decided to try this style for a while."

"Suits you. Frames your face nicely." Ava assured her.

That conversation made Stephanie wonder if Ava and Brianna had ever been more than just two Witches passing in the night at some sort of Witch meeting.

"Well. Thank you. I have to say: You have caused quite the stir." Brianna noted.

Ava acted slightly offended. "Me? I have? How have I caused a stir? I was attacked. Here. In my home. I was kidnapped. I responded to assault. Assault upon me personally, and upon my city. In what way have I caused anything?" Ava asked very reasonably. Stephanie and Le being secret weapons of a sort, Ava left them out of her response to the recent events.

"I do not know all the details of any of that. I know you were assaulted and imprisoned in that godawful tower. You know I would never have supported that. I do not like the necessity of a witch-proof jail, but it is fair to say they are sometimes required. You do not and have never belonged in one. Your rejection of the Temple, leaving it... all of that? Not a cause for being in one. I support that utterly. Taking you prisoner was the sole and complete work of the First Church of The Mothers Light of Seattle. Salt Lake or others may not like you for your positions, but as far as I know, no other organizations were involved."

"The Guild was involved." Stephanie pointed out.

"No other Witch organizations I should have said. The Guild was engaged at the behest of the First Church of The Mothers Light. They paid for the abduction. No other Witch organization was involved." Brianna clarified.

"No other Witch church of any kind by any organizational name — and holy crap do Witches need to standardize their organizational names! Confusing as hell! — but none of them by any name interfered with the kidnapping either. None of them told the Seattle Shitheads to chill out." Stephanie said, finding some internal irony in her defense of the woman who had carried out the Mother's plan to kidnap herself and Le.

"No other organization knew about the planned abduction of Ava until after. Then, especially given what happened in Seattle, we all heard about it. It became a national sensation." Brianna stayed very even and did not seem to mind the questioning of her or her affiliate's motives.

"What of the events in Seattle stirred the Witchy hornet's nest?" Ava asked. "Not as if anyone took my leaving Seattle seriously. Not outside of the Temple. Sure: The Seattle group got their noses out of joint, but other than being called a few names in a few other cities, no one else seemed to care much at the time. You always supported me. Sure as hell no other Temple by any name cared about Safe Harbors. Thought my cause worthwhile. Many voiced opposition but did not actively get in my way."

"Ava. Seriously? Are you kidding me? You broke out of a Namber-lined cell. Like it was not there. I saw the pictures. You destroyed the wall of the detention spire. Blasted it out with the cell bars themselves. Namber coated wall and cell bars! Then you flew out into the sky in some sort of weird winged thing. That was not as strange as you firing beams of what seemed to be solid light. I did not see a picture of that, but I saw photos of the damage. Light that cut through walls and Witches. They said no Ward would stop that light. The only protection was to dive for cover. Something thick enough the light did not cut through it."