“Oh, well, thanks.” I smile back. “You seem alright, yourself.”
Eppy looks away to the ground again, she has a hard time holding any of our gazes. I think she’s pretty shy, really.
“You don’t do your magik right,” she says to me.
“Sorry, what do you mean? I do my magik fine. It does what I tell it to do.”
“No, not your dark magik. Your Elemental magik, the creation magik. You don’t do that right.”
“I don’t understand,” I reply to her.
“Sometimes, you pull a bit of the magiks from the earth, but mostly you use the magik you’ve stored inside of yourself. Doing that it’s limited, and you’ll tire very easily. Creation magik is everywhere, it’s part of everything. To use it most effectively you must become a conduct, you must learn to pull it from the air, from the earth, from the sea, from fire – from nature itself. When you do that, the power will be many times what you’ve welt to date.”
“Huh, imagine that, I’ve been doing it wrong.”
Chapter 37: Girl talk
Oh. I hadn’t really explored anything along those lines. I guess I’m a bit of a novice when it comes to creation magiks. I wonder how you’d do it?
“Amura, stop it!” Pulania swats my shoulder.
“What?” I ask. “Why did you hit me?”
“You’re glowing. Don’t do that.”
My eyes flutter in surprise, I look at my hand and it is glowing.
Eppy is giggling at me. “She’s pulling magik from the things around her, she must have started thinking about how to do it.”
I shake my head, and the glow lessens. “Oh, well, that was a lot easier than I’d realised.” I actually feel really good right now, powerful. I think I’ll have another glass of wine. My glow dissipates even further as I take a sip.
Everyone is staring at me. “What?” I ask. There’s lots of eye rolling going on, I’m not sure I appreciate it. “Hey, let’s concentrate on getting Eppy laid. That seems like it should be the number one priority here.” Humph, I’ll practise in private, I don’t need silent criticism.
Pulania straightens the thigh length skirt she’s sporting like she’s getting ready to take charge. “Well, that is a major issue, there are limitations though. We’re looking for an immortal or semi-mortal that can father children. There aren’t too many of those around.”
“I guess demons are off the list?” I eye Eppy questioningly.
Eppy purses her face like she’s just eaten a lemon or something. “Yes, demons are off the list.”
“Jimmy is immortal, he can father children.” Everyone turns to Gil. She shrugs her shoulders, “He fathered Shania.”
Pulania straightens. “Jimmy is off the list.”
We all look at Pulania for a moment or two, perhaps a word of explanation to Eppy? “Ahh, that’s Pulania’s boyfriend. Apparently, he’s a no go.”
“That would be correct,” Pulania asserts.
“That was very insensitive of you Gil,” I tell her.
“But a Seelie isn’t a bad idea,” Pulania considers. “Only there are very few of the males who can father children, so it’s good if we know of one who’s done it before.”
“Well, it’s a bit of a stretch, I mean, he’s not really Seelie,” I shift uncomfortably in my seat. “He’s sort of good looking, a little effeminate maybe.”
“Oh, you can’t mean Arawan, can you?” Pulania asks. “He’s Unseelie, he hates humans.”
“Strictly speaking, Eppy isn’t human, and besides, he loved some woman enough to have Bríghe with. Plus, he actually cares about Bríghe, he showed that when he thought we were torturing her. He might be an option, I can’t actually think of anyone else at the moment.”
“You tortured his daughter?” Eppy seems shocked.
“No, no, we just pretended too, but Eppy, we’re dark, we sometimes really do things like that.” I pat her on the hand. It doesn’t hurt to reaffirm how evil we can be, anything I can do to dissuade Eppy from kidnapping my child will be well worthwhile.
Pulania spends a moment, thinking. “You could ask Master if he has any angel friends who might want a long term girlfriend,” she suggests to me.
“Hmm, I could ask, but I think they actively discourage things like that. They weren’t too happy about you and Samael, and they barely tolerate Master and my relation.”
“No angels, either.” Eppy causes our heads to all turn to her. “I’m used to real children. I’m not sure a child born from an angel is going to be normal, they might be… too good.”
“It’s not something I’m worried about.” I pat my tummy. “But I get your point.” I mean, I think my dark soul is way more than enough to overcome any possibility of ‘overly goodness’.
“Yes, Tadpole the Invincible is in no danger of being too good.” Pulania winks at me.
“Tadpole the Loyal, I’m changing her name, because she’ll be with me for a long time.” Okay, that look I’m getting from everyone is telling me I might have stretched my point pretty far, but ficketty feck, I’m her mother.
A hand comes down on my shoulder, it’s Master. “Tadpole the Loyal sounds good. No luck for Eppy with the Angelic host though, we don’t roll that way. No one will be able to volunteer, she could try seducing one of us, but it sounds like that’s not an option either.”
“Well, thanks for checking anyway,” Pulania nods.
Master sits down beside me, but no one is saying anything more while he’s here. Everyone just looks at him.
“Oh. Girl’s talk is it? So I should leave now?” He changes his body into that of a salacious blonde. She’s got nice legs. Oh, by the way Eppy’s irises just enlarged, she thinks so too? Oh ho, we have so much more in common than I thought.
“Can I stay now?” Master asks.
“No,” is the unanimous answer.
Master turns back into his former… form. Then he rises with arms held out in a placating mime. “As you wish.” And he’s gone.
“No angels,” Eppy reiterates.
“No angels,” Pulania repeats.
Time to get this conversation back on track. “Arawan, then. He’s fertile; he’s under our power; he’s perfect. We have him prisoner, we can do pretty much what we want with him.”
“We can’t torture him,” Pulania reminds me.
“Oh, well, Eppy never made any such promise. I think she might make a good goal keeper. Do you do dominatrix?” I ask her.
She’s looking at me like I’ve grown two heads, or something. “Well, Susan could. Does,” I correct. Susan and Ardan’s love life is pretty much an open book, given that they don’t know the meaning of the word ‘quiet’.
“Who is Susan?” Eppy asks.
“Your very much younger aunt, and my sister,” Pulania replies.
Eppy straightens. “You mean, there’s another daughter of Gaea in the world?”
“Yes, Eppy. We’re protecting her, it’s what we do. Your sister is Susan’s guard, but so are we all. We’re fighting a war to protect her, if we fail, the world will end.” Wow, Pulania sounded almost inspiring there. I feel a little bit special to be doing what we do.
“I want to help, too.” Eppy says, and there’s almost a pleading to her voice. “I don’t want the world to end. I can help.”
“You certainly can,” Pulania continues. “You can guard Arawan and seduce him into giving us some information we need.”
Chapter 38: The Third Copy
“Uor Majesty,” Pulania slurs. “Weve made friends with the Selemental.”
As the evening had gone on, the conversation had flown more freely. Eppy had got to know us, and we had got to know her wine collection. When Hatchesput phoned it was about two in the morning and we were still at it.
There is a good five minutes of conversation from Hatchesput’s side. Normally you’d be able to hear her, but the connection isn’t that good. It ends with Pulania. “Huh, uh. Okay then. We’re on it.”
“What was that about?” I ask Pulania.
She’s having a bit of trouble focusing her eyes. She’s had quite a bit more wine than the rest of us. I guess that the stress of a first meeting with Eppy induced a little indulgence. She purses her eyes, and massages the bridge of her nose with two fingers, before finally shaking her head.
“Hatchesput, Áine and Elizabeth have formed a formal pact. They’ve announced their intent to protect Susan to the Fae community. I guess they’re hoping a formal announcement will dissuade some of the Fae from joining the other side. It’s a powerful group that will be protecting her.”
“Well, that’s a good thing.” We still need to bring Susan back to the world from Pulania’s to give birth. Whatever protection is still here will be much needed at that point.
“There’s something else. They want to try and invoke the covenant.” The covenant is an ancient agreement between the Fae that dates back to the Dark Ages. It has definitely been broken, and any magikal agreement should have repercussions when broken.
“Yeah, about that, why hasn’t anything happened already? I mean, the covenant has been broken, wasn’t that a magikal agreement? Shouldn’t there be some magikal repercussions?”
Pulania is rubbing the bridge of her nose again. “Yes, there should be, but for that to happen there has to be a formal invocation, and to do that the three original copies are needed. One of the copies has been missing for over a century. Hatchesput wants us to find the lost copy.”
“What? You’re kidding.” But Pulania is shaking her head.
“If we can find that missing copy, the threat of losing their magikal powers will bring a lot of the Fae into line.”
“Is that what will happen?” I ask Pulania. “No death, or anything. Seems a bit weak really.” But then I begin to think what it would be like without my own powers. “Then again, being normal isn’t something that appeals after having lived all my life as a Dark Witch.”
“Exactly so,” Pulania replies. “I need some coffee, we’ll have to start in the morning.”
“I’ll make some,” Eppy offers. “I assume you’ll all be staying the night? You’re all welcome to.”
“I might go back and check on Susan, but I’m sure Pulania and Gil will want to stay.” Truth be it known I’d feel too uncomfortable spending the night under Eppy’s roof. Thoughts of protecting Tadpole the Loyal are still foremost in my mind.
“But where are we going to start?” I ask Pulania. I spend a moment to search my memories related to the covenant. “I don’t even know what happened to it. Hexabus was the first to tell me that there was a missing copy. How are we going to track it down?”
“Well, as it happens, there’s one person still alive who might be able to help with that. The three copies were once all kept in Scotland by magikal families prominent at the time of the covenant’s making. Over time, one of the copies migrated to the National Library of Scotland, that’s the copy you’ve seen. One copy descended into the hands of the Royal family, and is kept at the Tower of London. That copy has been inaccessible for centuries, but not so for us now. The third…”
“Yes, the third?” I prompt Pulania.
“The third was held at Abbotsford from where it was stolen in the 1800s.”
Something twigs in my mind about Abbotsford. “That’s Sir Walter Scott’s old residence, isn’t it?”
“Yes, his family became owners of the third copy, and were the last to hold it before it went missing.”
“So we have to speak to Charlotte?” I ask. “Charlotte, the long-lived daughter of Sir Walter Scott who still works at the National Library of Scotland?”
Pulania nods her head.
Chapter 39: Secrets kept
After sleeping into the afternoon, we all meet again where the magikal path comes out into the front garden of Pulania’s place. I expect that Eppy can cross the threshold into Pulania’s because of her granddaughter of Gaea status, though I guess we can do the grand tour later, there’s work to be done now.
Pulania’s eyes are a little blood shot, apparently things went on for a while after I went back home. Have they even slept? Yeah, since it’s four in the afternoon I’d hope so. I slept quite well when I got back. Susan and Ardan were quietly snoring away, so no disturbing hi-jinxes from them. Master was AWOL, probably doing angelic stuff somewhere or other, but that just meant an hour or so more sleep, so I was good with that.
Gil looks rested, and interestingly, Eppy looks completely unperturbed by a late night. I wonder if she has special partying powers, being an Elemental and all. Maybe I should test that with a real girls’ night out at some stage.
“I phoned Charlotte, and let her know what we wanted to see her about,” Pulania offers. “She’s going to have some of her coven sisters with her.”
“Are they on our side?” Eppy asks.
“Yes,” Pulania replies. “The Library Hecatines are loyal to the daughter of Gaea. We can trust them.”
The day is not too bad for a summer walk. It’s a little overcast, so not overly bright, or hot. There’s no wind, it’s actually a pleasant way to spend a few minutes. When we get to the library, Charlotte is out the front, and there are more than a few of her coven there. They’re all there, and there’s a lopsided sign on the front of the library door saying that it’s closed for cleaning.
“What’s going on?” I whisper to Pulania.
“Just go with the flow,” she replies. “I’m not one hundred percent sure, but I have an uneasy feeling about this.”
Out of habit I check the obsidian blade is loose in my thigh holster.
“You won’t need your weapon, Daughter of Darkness.” Charlotte must have noticed. Her eyes were on us the whole time as we came down the road. “There is no danger to you. Perhaps we can all go to the Kirkyard, my sisters have reserved a place for us to talk.”
Charlotte and her coven lead the way to Greyfriars Kirk, which is only a couple of blocks away. On the way in we pass the little monument to Greyfriars Bobby, but then when we get there, we sit on a little patch of grass under a tree, surrounded by the graveyard.
“There, I always find the Kirkyard soothing,” Charlotte comments as she sits herself on the grass. “Some of my children are here, so I visit often.”
I have a very strange foreboding, the hairs on the back of my neck are tingling double time. Something is about to happen.
“On the phone,” Charlotte is addressing Pulania, “you mentioned that you had some questions about the missing copy of the covenant?” She shifts a little.
I’m sitting beside Pulania, and my hand goes to her shoulder. “Don’t ask her, Pulania.”
Pulania looks at me, does she have the same feeling of dread that I do? The look she gives me tells me that she does, but as she takes my hand down and pats it, I know that Pulania is a step ahead of me.
“It’s okay, Daughter of Darkness,” Charlotte nods her head to me. “This is as it should be. I have waited a very long time for this moment.”
Am I crying? I shouldn’t be crying, but there are tears coming down my face. Charlotte puts her hand on mine. “It is time for the pact I made so many years before to end. All that needs be is that the right questions be asked, and then I shall be a keeper of those secrets no more.”
Eppy nudges beside me, and we briefly look at each other. There are tears on her face too. She puts her arm around me, and it feels very natural, Gil nestles beside me on the other side. Her face shows no tears, but there is concern in her eyes.
Pulania looks to Charlotte. “Thank you for talking to us. I wouldn’t ask you these questions, but the life of the daughter of Gaea is at stake, and with her, the fate of everyone.”
Charlotte just nods her head. “Ask,” she replies.
“Did you see who took the copy of the covenant taken from your father’s house?”
“No.”
Pulania looks surprised by the answer. “What magiks are these?” she whispers, before continuing on. “Do you know who took the copy of the covenant?”
>
“No,” Charlotte answers again.
Pulania pauses. “Are you compelled to answer this way? Can you offer further explanation, some conversation perhaps?”
“Yes, to the first question. No, to the second.”
“Who do I know that would do that?” Pulania smirks. “Did you make an agreement with the Faerie peoples?”
As I watch her, Charlotte ages. From the relatively young middle aged woman she had been, the smooth features of her face wrinkle, her hair grows in length and grays. She becomes an old woman.
“Yes, my dear, I did.”
“I’m sorry, Charlotte. Do you think a Seelie took the covenant?”
“No,” she answers.
Pulania looks sad, her hand goes to Charlotte’s knee. “Do you think an Unseelie took it?”
Charlotte looks to the sky, and a sad smile comes to her face. “Yes,” she answers, and as soon as the word falls from her lips her body dissolves into dust. A breeze is conjured by one of her coven, who had been there for her last moment, and the last vestiges of Charlotte are carried away in the wind.
The secrets she had kept for almost two hundred years had finally been revealed.
Chapter 40: Seduction couture
“It’s not going to work,” I comment.
We’ve done Eppy up in one of my dominatrix outfits, but she’s not carrying it off. You need to exude confidence as a dominatrix. Eppy obviously feels very self-conscious and uncomfortable. She’s pulling at the sides and won’t stop fidgeting.
“No, it’s not,” Pulania agrees.
“You should just let her be her,” Susan suggests. She’s right. Gil and I nod our heads in agreement.
We thought it worthwhile introducing Eppy and Susan, seeing as they’re related and all. Hatchesput did want to meet her too, but, of course, we have to keep Eppy clear of Hatchesput, her being my identical twin is a dead giveaway that our relation is a little closer than we let on. That wasn’t hard, Hatchesput is getting on famously plotting with the Seelies, and now that the siege of Elemental wrath has been lifted from Dublin, defences are being put in place near there.
The Dark Witch and the Elemental Page 14