Children of the Clergy

Season 2 | Episode 14 | Alternate perspectives

Seren waited on a small wooden bench in the gardens, swinging her legs and fiddling with her fingers absentmindedly. The relentless sun beat down on her, only slightly quelled by a cool breeze that drifted over the field. The anxiety of the situation was finally starting to kick in and she wiped the sweat from her forehead.

The gardens were where children would wait to be picked up by a new foster parent but, sometimes, a new legal carer would have chosen them instead.

Seren shuffled slightly, nervous to see who would emerge from the main building in front of her. She didn't want a second mother, no-one could replace her first. But she didn't want to stay in foster care for any longer than she had to either. She'd only been there for a day or two and she already hated it.

The sound of a door opening caught her attention and she glanced over to the source, her eyes instantly lighting up and a wide grin spreading across her face. Two of the witches from her Abbey were stood there, smiling back at her.

Seren sighed with relief, expecting them not to have chosen to become her new parents since they knew how close she and her mother had been. But at least they were there to take her out of the foster care system.

The young witch hopped off the bench, darting towards them and throwing her arms around the closest witch who chuckled and bent down, leaning in close to whisper into her ear. "You're lucky this place lets religious groups become someone's legal guardians, or one of us would have had to parent you."

Seren giggled, meeting the other witch's gaze who winked at her and smiled back. "You ready to go, chick?"

Seren grinned from the nickname. The two witches had given it to her after they'd tryed to teach her to cook, only for her to somehow light the chicken on fire without using the oven or stove.

"Yeah!" She cheered. The witch she still had her arms around, a short brunette woman, gently lifted her off the floor and held her in her arms as they left.

The secondo witch, a taller woman with short black hair, thanked Seren's previous foster parents for taking care of her before signing a brief contract to make the transaction legal and following them out.

Seren cuddled into the brunette witch's chest, closing her eyes and allowing the anxiety she'd been feeling meer moments ago to wash away. She was safe now and she'd be in the care of people she'd known for years.

"Is there anyone your age that you'd want to house with at the Abbey, chick?" The witch holding her asked. Seren stared up at the woman, racking her brain for the names of the two girls she'd made friends with a few weeks prier.

She smiled as the names popped back into her mind. "Blanka and Marianna."

The taller witch grinned down at her. "You should actually be calling them Sister Blanka and Sister Marinna now. They got their roles in the Abbey a few days ago."

Seren beemed, extatic for her friends. They'd both likely become Magic Users, as was what they'd been studying for. Seren on the other hand had been studying magical medicines and care, hoping to become an Abbey nurse at some point and maybe even move to a Ministry to do it full time. Unfortunately, there were no Satanic Ministries in England at the time, so she'd likely need to travel to achieve that goal.

Either way, she was more than excited to be sharing housing with her two friends and absolutely relishing in the relief that no-one had tryed to replace her mother. After all, no-one could.

Seren sat in silence in one of the chairs in front of Seestor Imperator's desk. She seemed to be finding herself there quite often recently.

Seestor, Papa Nihil, Anya, Primo, and a few other higher Clergy members were quietly discussing the issue at hand; whether or not to reimplement the shackles.