Operation Witchcraft

Chapter 4: Sanctuary

Excerpt of Incident Report, page 1:

Operation successful. Demon toxin was removed from the patient.

Noted lack of glyphs on patient. Get into training ASAP.

·····

Olivia awoke in a room with tall, glittering ceilings. The room was white and gold, and brightly lit. Not an unpleasant light, but rather soft and healing. Artwork stretched across the ceiling, dancing cherubs and drunken men flitted about. She was on a clean, white bed. The air smelled slightly of antiseptic.

Ella sat beside her, head in hands. Her shoulders rose and fell slightly. Asleep.

Olivia shifted slightly, trying to stretch out her limbs. Had she been asleep? For how long? Her legs felt stiff and awkward, and her arms tingled slightly. Her clothes had been changed for white scrubs, the outfit she had been wearing beside her. She almost flipped over, but the dull ache in her shoulder pulled her back.

As she groaned, Ella stirred.

"Ollie?"

"Yea... I'm awake."

"Oh thank god," Ella seemed to perk up at her voice, her hands dropping to grasp Olivia's. "It was touch and go for a while."

"What happened?" Olivia said as Ella helped her into a sitting position. Her shoulder burned, but subsided a bit when Ella put a cold compress there. Olivia noticed some weird birthmark-like markings on her friends arm that had not been there before.

Ella shifted in her seat. Her eyes darted back and forth, as if trying to spy the location of some watcher. Satisfied, she sighed and put her head back in her hands.

"You won't believe me, Ollie." Her voice was a whisper, waving through the cracks in her fingers.

"Try me."

"Magic is real."

"Ha ha, very funny. And the truth?"

Ella stared at her. Her eyes didn't blink, or show any signs of hesitation. Ella held Olivia's gaze for what seemed to be an eternity. Olivia waited for her to crack a smile or show anything that she was joking... but it didn't come. Reaching out, Olivia grazed her friend's hand. Her friend was dead serious, not lying, and definitely not crazy.

The events at the warehouse came crashing back. The weird slug-like beast, the camera flash that stopped the beast, Ella's fighting... Magic was real?

Olivia stared at her friend again, this time in disbelief. Her world view was built around magic being for fairy tales and real life needing hard work to succeed. Magic was a cheat. Maybe cheat codes exist in this messed up game...

She blinked once. Twice. Three times.

"I know this is crazy, but it's true." Ella touched her hand, hesitant. Olivia shook her head. She allowed herself a few more moments of disbelief.

"So what does that mean?"

"Well... It means a lot, to be honest. Magic is real, and it's good and bad like everything else. It follows laws, albeit sometimes strange ones, and it has boundaries that gods cannot cross. I can walk you through it all, and when I'm done... If you want out, you will never hear of it again. You won't remember, we can erase the memories of this." Ella's gaze was unwavering.

Olivia knew, instinctively, that this was a large part of her friend's life. Something that she had hidden for years, and wanted to talk about but knew she had to protect Olivia from. She knew, in that moment, that no matter what Ella said, she would not want her memory gone. Not when this was so important to her friend.

"Okay. So start talking."

They sat like that for what must have been hours, Olivia on the bed and Ella in the chair. Ella took it slow, explaining everything to Olivia again and again. How Ella was born into a Sanctuary like the one she sat in. How Ella's magic worked - she controlled ice. How the camera worked. It was all so much, her head spun.

"Wait, how do I play into this?" Olivia crunched an ice chunk as she talked.

Ella paused, "Well, I saw the Sight Glyph on your neck and I knew you were either a friend or a foe. I quickly figured out friend."

"A what?"

"A Sight Glyph. It was probably rendered dormant by your parents when you were born, before you went into foster care. It's what allows you to tap into magic." Ella held up a mirror as she spoke, showing Olivia the left side of her neck. There was a mark, colored slightly darker than her skin, like a birthmark. It was in the shape of an eye, open and unblinking.

"That wasn't there before."

"It was. Just no one could see it."

Olivia hummed. If she had a Sight glyph, that meant she had magic, right? Which meant her birth parents were one of these people. Would she be able to find out who they were? Even if she couldn't she still had magic. The evidence was there, with the strange mark on her neck.

Ella was watching her, concern etching her face. She wanted her friend to accept her. Olivia smiled at her friend, "so that means I can be a bad ass too."

Ella loosed a quick laugh, stifling herself as to not echo in the large room.

"How about a tour of the Sanctuary?"

Olivia swung her legs over the bed, "Yes, show me around this place." The girls hooked their arms together and walked out of the infirmary.

"The top floor has the infirmary and the training room. The next floor down is a weaponry and some classrooms. Then you have a fairly expansive mission room and a whole lot of living space on the next two floors." Ella guided Ollie to the elevator, pointing out the stairwell.

The building looked fairly normal from the inside. Hardwood with a rug, beige walls with artwork and maps. A few plants here and there. A skylight stretched above them. If Olivia hadn't known better, she would have thought she was in an office space. The illusion was broken by grunts and yells to her left, presumably from the combat room.

"The first floor is a public library, but it also borders a 'park' that is privately owned. There is a greenhouse in the center and it's used for a lot of training drills. Some magical training too, for the more destructive arts." Ella gestured vaguely in every direction.

Olivia had about a billion questions, but none felt grand enough to ask. They were all like, did they have magical plumbing? Was their cooking magically generated? Magical house maids? Were the lights on because of electricity or because of some magical generator? Did their laundry get magically cleaned?

The elevator dinged, and the pair stepped in. Ella hit the 3 button, and there was a small whir above them as it moved downward.

"So is this electricity or like... magic electricity?" Olivia blurted out.

"What?" Ella said, midway through laughter tears. Olivia blushed, feeling her face heat. "No it's regular electricity why would... why would you think it's magic?"

"I dunno... television..." Olivia mumbled.

The elevator dinged again as they hit the second floor. The room before them had high ceilings and wall-wide whiteboards that were nearly completely covered in words and photos and lines connecting them. People milled about, some with purpose, some not. There was a balcony, the third floor above. She could see some sitting area and a few hallways above her, to the living spaces, probably.

It wasn't until Olivia took a few steps in and twirled around that she noticed Ella had only just stepped into the room. Her mouth hung open and she stared behind Olivia.

"Demma?"