Mother of Magic

Plea

The city of Collins town hall is small. The largest meeting area looked more like a courtroom than a conference room. At one end, there was a raised platform, enclosed with a long podium/desk and with chairs behind. Normally city council sat there and heard from the townspeople.

Rows of chairs faced the bench area.

Ava did not want the formality of the default setup. The long bench meant for the city council was designed to put a wall between Council and residents. It was an unspoken authority position. Ava did not like that. She created a small platform in front of the bench, with steps up, for her to stand on. The only reason to do this was to be able to be heard all the way at the back of the room.

Sitting in a row of chairs up against the bench were Stephanie, Le, Silena, Tasha, Brianna, Simon, Vivian, and Bob Rhodes.

Facing the group was a room full of former witches.

It had been a week since the "Battle of the Three Towers." A name Vivian had given the event, and that was in common usage about Collins because Vivian spread it.

For the Witches, it was something else. Individuals often just called it the 'Debacle'. Witches from outside Seattle had more bitter words. Many were feeling they were fooled into joining the fight only to lose everything they knew.

For a Witch, magic is everything. The more powerful the more it worked that way. A low-power Witch would develop other skills. A powerful Witch could do everything with Magic they needed, and so had no other useful skills. They never needed them.

There were exceptions to this. There always are. Hobbies, if nothing else meant that there was the occasional additional skill. Being good at knitting or sewing might even be a good life skill.

That did not mean the powerful witch wished to survive by sewing, or that they were dealing well with the loss of their access to power. If nothing else, a former Witch who had to set up shop as a Tailor or whatever was in competition with non-magical artisans who had been doing that their entire professional lives.

The division in the ranks was easy to see in the room. No one sat near the Seattle Witches.

Former Witches.

There was a third group in the room. People from Brianna and Simon's organization. Witches who had been helping with the survivors of the Battle of the Three Towers. Cleaning up the mess the attacking Witches made. The sodden fields and dead animals. It was easy to tell the groups apart.

The magical looked tired but were clean as only a magically enhanced person can be after that kind of labor. When one is a Witch of any significant capability, being dirty is a choice.

The Witches with Namber in them all looked like hell. No amount of trying to set up decent facilities in the camps let them get as clean as some who could magically erase all the dirt and sweat from their bodies. Most of the formerly magical looked haggard. Not from labor. Not from cleaning up their mess. The Namberized Witches were dealing with the stress of suddenly facing the world without their only skill.

In the front row of the Seattle group was a face Stephanie knew well. The Reverend Mother Yvonne Parmar. She looked a decade or more older than when Stephanie had last seen her. Parmer's lack of magic had not been treating her well. She was the first to receive the Namber when she faced off against Stephanie and learned at the same time Stephanie did about The Mother's special plan. Why specifically, in all the worlds, Stephanie and Le were here.

Yvonne Parmer, formerly one of the most magically enabled, has been without magic the longest. It showed. The stress was obvious from the new lines on her face and her hair looking dull and frizzier. On Stephanie and Le's Earth, one would think Parmer suffering from malnutrition. Perhaps recovering from a long illness. When Stephanie first met Le, he was dealing with a stubborn form of cancer. Le had looked more energetic and healthier than the Reverend Mother did now,