A Magical Scheme

Chapter 4: An Investigative Coincidence

Lukas

The meeting at the Sheriff's office went excruciatingly long. Eddard and I were up late last night, planning our next move and where to find more witches. It was barely past first light when we woke up, but Eddard had insisted we go explore the murder scene to have as much light as possible. I couldn't argue as I pulled myself out of a small cot, approximately two meters away from the small cot Eddard had somehow managed to fit into on the other side of the room. I sauntered over to the front of the room and took a sharp left before hitting the front door to enter the bathroom. I splashed some water on my face from the hot water basin beside the sink and looked into the mirror. My eyes were a dull green this morning, a direct reflection of the purple and green semi-circles under my eyes. I did not sleep well in strange places, however almost every place was a strange place. After my childhood home burned down, I never claimed a place as home, instead, I used all the savings my family had to find myself a tavern every other night and travel during the day. My hair was a wreck and I grabbed the comb from the counter and combed it back to its regular angled look. I sighed as I walked back into the cot room to see that Eddard was already up and dressed in his usual black leather attire, of course, he was. "Good morning." He said, gruff enough for me to get the message as he walked out of the room. I nodded back and slipped on a thin grey shirt before popping on a pair of black trousers from the thin white ones I had worn to sleep, and finally a black long coat over top. I grabbed the small leather brown duffle bag and strapped my crossbow on my back, from beside my cot as I slipped on a pair of short black boots and made my way out of the tavern and into the woods.

"Where are we going, sir?" I asked Eddard after the second kilometer. Eddard glanced over to me and said, "We'll know it when we find it." And I stayed quiet. That was until about five minutes later when a sweet smell entered my nostrils. We were standing in the middle of a dense forest, the trees were tall and towering over us and the forest floor was bright green with moss and mushrooms. Sunlight made its way in through the cracked in the leaves above us and brought a sense of light to this dark place. We were following the sheriff's instructions of "North out of the town until you smell it." Which didn't really seem to make any sense, until I smelt it. I could tell by the faint hue of smoke in the air, that was paired with the gentle smell of something rotten that we were close. The cottage was tiny, very tiny. As we got closer, it looked to be about the same size as the room we just slept in. I stepped onto the stone path in front of it and before I could get any closer, Eddard spoke, "Be careful, I'm going to scout the area and see if I can find where the bodies were found. Stay outside of the cottage, and look to see if there's any sign of life. Use the crossbow if necessary." I nodded and started to walk around the cottage as he walked off into a random direction with his compass out. I got around to the back of the cottage when I thought I heard the snap of a branch, and before I knew it I was standing at the front of the cottage- scared and waiting for Eddard to return. I heard another snap and realized it was coming from inside the cottage. Slowly I grabbed my crossbow from off my back and loaded it with an arrow from inside my jacket pocket as I place my duffle bag down. Maybe this would be my chance, I thought, to come back as a hero. To kill a killer witch. I reached for the door handle and swung the door open to see a small kitchen to the right, with a big metal oven and various empty and open cupboards, and to the left a small take with a bookshelf behind it. In the centre of the room was a woman- a witch. No, not a witch, the witch. She was staring back at me, her arms in the arm and it looked as if she was using her magic to lift three books off of the shelf to the left. I gasped as the door shut loudly behind me, and I almost jumped. The books she was levitating dropped to the table and she continued to stare at me. "You're the witch from the forest." I whispered. She heard me and nodded, her grey eyes looked very alert and cautious as her black hood fell back to reveal her black hair was braided back in a tight bun. The lowered her arms and said, "You're the witch hunter boy." I nodded, and quickly set the crossbow down on the table beside the books. "Are you, what are you doing here?" I asked, a curious tone to my voice as I kept still. She flinched, as if knocked out of a trance, "I am, investigating, on behalf of my coven. I'm going to find this witch and make her pay." I gave her a slight smile, "I've been investigating too. Trying to hunt down a killer witch is uh, my job." "I thought you were a protégée, of that witch hunter." She said those last words as if they were poison. I don't blame her Ed has killed many of her kind. "I'm Lukas, Lukas Smoke." I extended my hand out, she looked taken aback but she reached hers out and we shook. "I'm Morgan FairHand Raven of my coven." I raised an eyebrow, "Raven? So your job is to-" "My job is to keep the human-witch relationship healthy and happy. That's why I'm finding the killer who wants to damage the said relationship." I nodded. "How long have you been a raven?" I asked curiously.  She scowled, "How long have you hunted my kind?" I frowned, "I've been training with Eddard for two months, but the first witch I killed, had attacked and murdered my parents three years ago. Your turn." An empathetic look came to her face and a hint of colour rose to her cheeks as she said, "I'm sure you wouldn't believe me if I told you I'd just been appointed last night, so I'm new at this." I gasped, last night? That's too recent. "Morgan- if I may- those books are they, grimoires?" I asked, gesturing to the books she had been levitating earlier. She hesitated before nodding, "Yes I plan to study them, and find out exactly what kind of magic this witch was up to in this cottage, and why innocent children were a part of it." "Do you think more children could be in danger?" I asked. "I don't-" and before she could continue I heard a gruff voice say, "Lukas? Where are you?" In the blink of an eye, Morgan had stuffed the grimoires into a satchel I hadn't noticed she was wearing on her side. Suddenly I realized I was supposed to be outside the cottage, "I'm not supposed to-" Morgan covered my mouth with her hand- it smelled like lavender and cinnamon and- "Be quiet, close your eyes and give me a second." Without thinking I closed my eyes as I heard Morgan take a deep breath before something freezing cold seized my hand and I felt a whoosh of air. I opened my eyes to see that I was standing outside the cottage, around the back, where Ed couldn't see me. I looked to see Morgan standing in front of me, her hand was in mine, as she realized and let go. Then she glanced around before handing me the crossbow I didn't realize was in her hand. "You'll need this." She spoke as she glanced around one more time and smiled as she said, "Hopefully I'll see you around Lukas." And within seconds she had vanished. I was staring at thin air. I blinked and heard Ed call for me one more time as I walked to meet him at the front of the cottage, making up some story about getting lost. As I entered the cottage- now for the second time- I couldn't help but think about Morgan.

Morgan

Teleporting that frequently had cost me quite a lot of mana. I almost collapsed as I appeared in the middle of my living room. I placed my satchel on the stone table as I purposefully fell onto the cold wooden floor. It took me a second to catch my breath as I rested, I've never performed magic in front of a human before- at least nothing as big as teleporting. I shuddered to think what could've happened if I wasn't quick enough. I had heard of Eddard the Witch Hunter before- but he wasn't a blatant witch killer- he only killed who he was hired to kill or bad witches. Thankfully I was not one of them. I sighed as I sat up and made my way over to my couch. I pulled out the grimoires from my satchel and wondered. Who needs three grimoires? How many spells has this witch performed, and why would they have left them lying around? Well, to be honest, they were disguised as cookbooks- but any witch worth her magic could have seen through the camouflage spell. I opened the first book, it was a deep red with a gold spine. And the first page read, "Unholy Grimoire of Sister Catalina." Sister Catalina? The name didn't ring any bells. I closed the grimoire and place the second book on too. It was olive green with an iron spine. I opened the first page and it read, "Unholy Grimoire of Sister Beatrice." So there are two killer witches? I've never heard either of these names before. Curious, I opened the third grimoire, white with a blue spine, to the first page. I gasped as I read the title, "Unholy Grimoire of Sister Locasta." No, no Locasta was dead. This meant that Beatrice and Catalina were probably dead too. It was if the grimoires were being kept as a trophy of sorts, reminding the killer of their conquests. Bile rose to my throat as I stood up and walked away from the cursed books. What if it wasn't a witch that did this? "What if it was someone who wanted us to think a witch had done it?" I spoke the words softly as if it was a sin to say them. Tired from the day, I retreated to my room where I lied down and just closed my eyes.