A Magical Scheme

Chapter 8: The Disappearing Act

Morgan

I had to give him credit, Lukas had a pretty good sense of timing. The kiss was warm and soft, however brief it gave me the reassurance I didn't realize I'd been needing about our relationship. We teleported to the bottom of a mountain, a giant grey rock face stood in front of us. I handed Catalina over to Lukas as I began to search for the markings of a door as I heard Lukas say, "No offense Morgan, but um, are you sure we're in the right place?" I smiled, as I found the doorway, "Yes, yes I am." And my hand fell through the rock face into Sister Nora's well-hidden dwelling.

I had only been to her house a few times before, but I remembered her explaining how because she was always out and about drafting witches, she needed it to be well concealed. It took a few minutes but eventually, Lukas came through the stone portal and joined me. The walls of her quaint residence were carved out of the inside of the mountain, and I had to applaud her for the open concept idea. In the middle of the decently-sized room was a fire pit, already lit by the looks of it, surrounded by stone furniture and even a stone cauldron. Sister Nora appeared from what looked like a stone room divider and walked over to us, her bright red hair swaying with every step. "Sister! What a surprise! Are you alright, you look-" Before she could finish her statement she caught a glimpse of Lukas and said, 'What are you doing with this, this human! How dare you reveal the location of my home to him!" I cringed inwardly, "Nora, he's my friend, he saved my life. Some hunters came to my cottage, they tried to kill me and he saved my life." Nora began to calm down, her cheeks, however, remained as red as her hair. "Nora, is it okay if we stay here, just for a few hours? I need to figure out this spell and it may take some time." Nora nodded cautiously, "As long as it doesn't cause any trouble." It was easy to tell that she was not referring to Catalina.

After settling in on the furniture by the fire pit, Nora brought over a few cups of tea, where Lukas seemed a little unnerved still, and could only sound out a small, "Thank you." Before turning his attention on the fire in front of us. Nora took a seat across from us and turned to me, "Morgan, what happened? How did they even know where you were?" I sighed, "They've always known, I suppose. My cottage is sort of a myth to the children, but any hunter worth their stones knew that it was in fact very real." Nora gave me a sad look, "How did they pass through your wards?" I shook my head, "I thought I was keeping them up, I don't know maybe my mana was low when they arrived, it wouldn't have taken very long to look through them." In fact, my mana was very low before they arrived, I had just taken my dose of medicine and it hadn't set in yet. I continued to drink my tea in silence before I decided it was time to try the reverse spell. I searched through my satchel, and I was very glad I spelled it all those years ago to be practically infinite in square footage, one never knows when they'll have to bring their whole library with them. I finally found Catalina's grimoire and pulled it out. "If you excuse me, this shouldn't take too long, but I'll be just outside." I gently picked up Catalina from Lukas's lap and cradled her in my arms as I walked towards the entrance and out the portal into the early evening, I only had a few hours to make this work, and the coven meeting was drawing soon.

I sat Catalina down on the ground and opened the grimoire to the last page. Felinus Anamaius was the reverse spell. I took a deep breath before speaking, "Felinus Anamaius." And guiding my mana towards Catalina, I watched the cat halt her movement on the grass, and turn to face me, however, no change occurred. I repeated the spell another time. And another. And finally another. I threw the grimoire down on the ground out of frustration and looked away. This was my last chance, my final hope. I couldn't go back home, I had no more leads, this was my last chance to stop the killings, the madness. I closed my eyes and focused my energy, and I picked up the grimoire to try one more time, before I turned around to face a woman, with beautiful bronze skin and jet black hair. Her eyes were dark black and her face looked confident, yet sad. She stood up from a crouch, wearing a tight black dress and boots. "Ca-Catalina?" I asked, frozen with a shock that my spell actually worked. She smiled and nodded, "Morgan, is it?" I nodded. "I am eternally grateful to you for sparing me from that wretched form. I can't tell you how awful it is to be that tiny and small and ugh, just thank you so much, I am in your debt." "SIster- if I may, who came after you? Someone clearly caused you to have the need to go into hiding like this." Catalina sighed, "A witch came to visit me, she was kind at first, but then began preaching these awful words of humans and humanity. How witches were superior and how I needed to join her in an up and coming battle of some sort. I rejected her ideals but she attacked me and well, here I am." I almost flew back in disbelief. "A witch attacked you? Was she alone? And did she say her name or if she belonged to a coven?" Catalina frowned, "No she was a smaller witch, reminded me of a red flame. The other witch though, I think her name started with a C, followed by a Cass maybe, and I think she does, her partner of sorts kept reminding her of an important meeting happening soon, one that would 'change everything'." I gasped. Sister Cassandra. She did this. "My coven's meeting is tonight, you have to come, you have to tell our high priestess!" Catalina sighed, "It's not that simple, I'm not part of your coven, I can't just walk into to one of your coven meetings." I scowled, "You can come Catalina, as Raven of my coven you're invited to tonight's meeting, please, you have to come." Catalina sighed and gave me a slight smile, "Okay, okay I'll come." I gave her a smile and squeezed her hand, "Thank you."

Walking back into Nora's, I glanced around and found Nora and Lukas exactly as they were before, Lukas looking even more uncomfortable than he was when we first walked in, however it seemed like Nora was giving him a death glare from across the room. When we approached they both turned around, Lukas was baffled but seemed to draw the connections, at least faster than Nora did. "Cat-alina." spoke Lukas, but before he could say anymore, Nora stood up and had a look of horror on her face. "You." spoke Catalina, staring Nora down. The red flame. Nora was with Cassandra that day. "Nora, what did you do?" I asked. Lukas seemed to read the air of the room and moved towards me and Catalina. Nora looked confused and caught, "Catalina I- how are you here? We thought- I thought" Catalina spoke up, anger coated every word, "How dare you? You- you, you came to kill me, with that other witch." Lukas walked closer to me and stood slightly in front of me, I noticed how he had his guard up, his fists clenched as if getting ready. "Nora, what did you do?" Nora frowned, "It was Cassandra, she told me that we had to find other witches, and just convince them to help our cause." My head started to pound, "What cause?" Nora's face filled with shame, "The human plague Morgan, and the hunters they bring with them." Lukas shuddered. "Are you insane? How could you think you could possibly get away with this?" I asked. Nora shed a tear, "I didn't know we'd be hurting other sisters, Cassandra told me that we would just be recruiting other witches- as I do for the coven." "Except Cassandra had the bright idea that if they weren't on her side, they were on the hunter's side, didn't she?" asked Catalina, stepping forward. "Nora, the last few drafts, for the coven, Cassandra asked you to get them, not Circe?" Nora nodded, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry Morgan, but after they supposedly killed Catalina I told her I was done with her, with all of that wicked business. I didn't want to hurt my fellow sisters so I came here, and I've been in hiding ever since." Catalina seemed to calm down, and I considered her words. If Cassandra wanted to destroy humans, she had to fully turn them against witches. "Did Casandra kill those children?" Now even Lukas was curious, his stance changed and I saw his facial expressions darken with Nora's answer of, "Yes, her and the twins did it." Shit, I thought. Cassandra has gotten away with too much. "Tonight, we're all going to the coven meeting. Circe has to know this. I don't care about Cassandra's followers, we have to tell Circe, we have to protect humanity." A war between the races would prove fatal for everyone, especially the humans that were manipulated into Cassandra's web. "We'll need a plan, we can't just go barging in on potentially a whole coven of witches bent on killing those who oppose them," I spoke. "I have a few ideas," Said Catalina, "and I think you'll like them" And with that, the planning began.