Eventually, Gaea moves apart, she lifts her arms into the air, and turns around in a dizzying circle like any child might do in play, and as she’s doing that she holds her head toward the heavens. From nowhere and everywhere swarms of butterflies, dragonflies, moths, and other winged insects swirl around her, blocking her from view, and then as they disperse, she’s gone. And Pulania is there alone, sitting on the ground, her head downcast.
We all rush down to Pulania, and jump on her with hugs and squeals. “What did she say? What did she say?” I burst out as we tackle Pulania to the ground.
“She said… she said I have to wear knickers.”
Chapter 29: Who am I?
So another horrible morning. But…there’s no blaring radio, and what the feck? When did Pulania get central heating? What time is it, anyway? Oh crap, it’s like 9 am, I’m so late for school. Oh, but wait, we agreed there would be no school today.
“It’s Victoria’s Secret day!”
I spring out of bed and do the morning shuffle. There’s a full length mirror for me to shuffle in front of and I’m just about to magik my clothes on. But wait. I just sprang out of bed. I’m looking at myself in the mirror, I don’t spring out of bed, not ever, that’s just not me.
What have I become?
“Who the hell are you?”
Some minutes creep by, and I’ve been standing here naked for some time. With a flick of my brow I magik on a bra and some undies. I can at least do that, but the cover alludes me. I don’t know what I am.
For almost a decade I’d dressed gothicly, before that it was another dark persona, and before that, and before that… each change a reflection of my dark nature.
“You glitzed blue.” It’s Pulania, she’s come up to the doorway while I’ve been standing here, perhaps she had sensed my thoughts.
I’m not even startled by her. But her words take a while to sink in. “Blue.”
Blue, not red. Blue.
“Don’t read too much into that, honey. When you were blinded, Susan mentioned that your eyes had glitzed blue. Do you know what that means?”
I can see her image in the mirror behind me, all I can do to answer is shake my head.
“Demons glitz, red, orange, very occasionally a strong demon will glitz yellow. Higher level demons have eyes that continually glow red, sometimes orange. The colour reflects the fire of power inside,” she’s just paused to let that sink in, but I don’t get where she’s going with it.
“Red is a low heat, so a low power, orange is hotter, yellow hotter again. Blue heat…blue heat is unheard of, I know of only one creature of darkness that can glitz blue heat. And almost no one would know of it.”
“Satan?” I venture.
She shakes her head, “no, your father.”
I turn around to face her. There’s question in the grimace on my face, what’s this mean Pulania?
“It means, sweetie, that you’re your father’s daughter. That power came to you even before Gaea visited, didn’t it?”
I only have to think for a second before I nod my head.
“It was always within you, just waiting to awaken, darkness like no demon can possess. I had to think about it a bit, why did Gaea come to you when she did?”
“Because of Susan?”
“Yes, because of Susan, Susan with her strange mute of earthly magik, magik that can destroy the world. It stoked the fires within you. If Gaea hadn’t come… and provided you with earth magik, your balance as a semi-mortal would have been lost. You would have been consumed by the fire and become nothing more than an elemental, a creature without reason or thought.”
I look down at the floor as I contemplate what Pulania has said. “Okay, I can see that, but then… what am I? I always thought that I was a dark witch, but now… I’m not. I don’t know what I am anymore.”
I turn to the mirror and morph one side of me to one of my gothic outfits with black lipstick, eye shadow and my piercings. The other side is blonded, platinium white, with a blue white dress, pink lipstick and a rose blush.
“This is what I feel now.”
Pulania is leaning against the door jam with her arms crossed. She brings up her hand and does the miniature violin signal. Like, really? I roll my eyes… thanks, mummm.
“Oh, I’m not going to call you that again.” I know from the startled way she reacted that she’d heard that thought.
“No, we’re more like sisters, really.”
I turn back to the mirror, still in split personality mode, “I don’t know what to wear.”
For a second I go full on Martha-Sue, but it just doesn’t suit me. Then I’m back to goth, but that doesn’t work anymore either. It’s what I was, not what I am. “What am I?”
Behind me Pulania looks at the ground, a strained look in her eyes. “The closest thing I can think of would be an Erinyes.”
“A fury?” I whip back to Pulania. She’s nodding at me.
“They were born of the blood magik of Gaea. But you’re not quite the same.”
“No, my blood wasn’t from a castrated god, if I remember my Greek mythology right.”
Pulania smirks, “no, no castrations involved, your blood is from the angel of death and a corrupted daughter of Gaea.”
“I still don’t know what to wear. But I kinda like the idea that I could be a fury. It’s so badarse.”
“They’ll have to write another page in Greek mythology to describe exactly what you are, Amura.”
And, then it sort of comes to me, I need to take this a step at a time
“So I’m a dark bitch.” I morph on an all-black outfit. Long dark overcoat coming down to the ground, black riding boots, complete with a hand crop, black lace stockings, black bodice with choker, and a short black pencil skirt.
“But I’ve also got some sort of light magik going on.” I morph the bodice to white, as well as the stockings and skirt, but they don’t look right on me. “No, that doesn’t work, what’s another goody two shoes colour?”
“Blue,” Pulania answers, I look back at her over my shoulder, she’s always worn a bit of blue, if only a lining on black. Humph, well that secrets out, but it works on her, so why not on me?
“Blue it is.” I turn the bodice dark blue. I don’t like the white at all, so the skirt is back to black, and the stockings are dark blue as well. It’s subtle, but sexy.
“You have earth magik too,” Pulania chips in.
That means browns and greens, yuck, brown won’t work. Or will it. I morph the outer coat to brown. Mawh, it sorta works, in a pinch, I’m not crazy about it though, maybe for another outfit. I switch it back to black. Hmm, oh, I know, not colour, but hair style. I’ve always had my hair straight while I was a goth, but now… dreadlocks, they’re earthy.
“Nice,” Pulania comments.
I add a slight sheen to the overcoat, so it’s still black but shimmers with an emerald green. “How’s this.”
“Not bad at all, but it’s not finished yet.”
I know what she means, but I’ve held back from thinking on that one. “Protector.”
Pulania nods, “that means body armour, honey. Leather, I think.”
Hmm, I morph the coat to a light leather, it’s a bit unwieldy, but I think I’ll be able to get used to it, I shorten it to mid-thigh to help with the extra weight. The bodice I morph to black leather as well. But I’ve added a couple of concealed Kevlar plates over the chest and back. Silver bulletproof, baby, dig that shit.
One last thing. “Death.”
For me the colour of death is red. Blood red. I change my lipstick colour to that. I’m keeping some of my piercings, I like those, but I lose the safety pins, and the metal horn, they tend to grab on shizz.
That’s it, that’s the new me. For now anyway, I’ll see how this look does me. It’s still goth, but new goth. I nod my head in the mirror, and turn to Pulania with a faux curtesy.
She snorts through her nose, “coffee time.”
Chapter 30: Royals
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We held off going to my coffee shop. Instead, we had a hand pressed coffee before heading off to get Pulania some knickers. We were going to splurge a bit on that. After all, it was a first for Pulania, so we had to it with style. We wanted to go to Victoria’s Secret, so we decided to head to the New Bond Street store in London.
As we head out the front door it’s a glorious almost summery day, but only in the yard. I stop on the stone steps that lead down to the front garden. I can see that it’s snowing and grey in the city beyond the treeline. Yet it’s a beautiful day where we are. Susan and Gil are similarly surprised, but Pulania just keeps wandering down the steps toward the path.
“Coming?” she turns to ask us, and there’s a big smirk on her face.
I just point to the sky above the trees.
“Oh that?” Pulania smiles, “It’s a present from my mother, the house is actually somewhere very far from Edinburgh, and… apparently, the weather around the house will reflect my mood. She said it will help protect us from what’s to come. Can we go now?”
I’m still doing a double take, this is just so weird, and it’s really strong magik. Only a god could do something like this. It’s not as though there weren’t already a shit load of spells protecting the place, but this is a substantial step beyond those.
We follow the magikal path to Berkeley square. Hmm, Berkeley square, a place with magikal history, and coincidentally only a short walk from Victoria’s Secret. It doesn’t take us long to get there, but when we got close both Pulania and I slow up and then stop.
“What’s the matter?” Gil asks with a puzzled look on her face. She and Susan had gotten a few steps beyond us before we’d stopped.
Pulania and I are both just staring at the store front. “I think she’s on the second floor.” I say after a moment.
“Do you know which one it is?” Pulania asks me.
“A younger one, I think.” Well that made sense, Victoria’s Secret is a young woman’s store.
“Huh?” Susan asks.
Pulania nods toward the store, “we can’t go in, there’s a Royal in there.”
“What?” we have Susan really twisted with this one, some explanation perhaps.
“The Royals are of German and Scottish descent, but not just of ordinary human lines, they’re Fae on both sides.”
“Really?” Gil and Susan reply with that wide eyed innocence of youth.
“Hmm, witch hunters.”
“What?” Susan squeaks.
“Witch hunters. On both sides. They didn’t sign the covenant to end the Fae wars, they just kept going. James the sixth, James first to the English, burned many of the covens, while the Hanovers were doing much the same in Europe.” Pulania has her arms crossed. “It’s how they came to power, they killed the competition. All the Fae avoid them.”
“I think we should go in anyway,” I say, “after all what can she do in daylight? It’s not as though she can shout ‘witch’ and have us burned at the stake. Besides they’ve been shunned for hundreds of years, it might be time for a change.”
Pulania has her eyebrow raised as she eyes me off. “Hmm, that’s a gutsy move, well lead the way, MacBeth.”
I almost stop when she mentions the name MacBeth, another Fae family that didn’t fair well with the Stewarts. I’m sure she knows that, too.
As soon as we enter the store we’re set upon by a shop assistant, but we wave her off telling her that we’ll just browse a bit. We’re a colourful crew to come into any store. Though Susan has toned down from dominatrix to just plain emo. Actually, there are some places where we just add to the background, and this is one of them.
Pulania and I are feeling the lay of the land. There’s a sense of panic wafting down from upstairs. Whatever was happening up there is wrapping up real quick like. She can feel us, this is probably the closest a Royal has gotten to another Fae in a hundred years, and she’s scared.
We’re trying to look inconspicuous but all four sets of our eyes are watching the stairs. A suited guard comes down first. I wonder if he’s trained to handle witch incursions? He has his hand to a communication earbud and is looking about the store suspiciously. His aura tells me he has some magik too, but not much. A Raven. No surprises there, the Ravens have a long history with the Royals. Outside a black vehicle with the royal emblem pulls up in front of the store. She’s going to do a runner! But I want to meet her.
I walk up to the guard. “We’d like to meet your mistress. We’re the ones she’s worried about, but we’d just like to talk.”
The guy is wearing dark glasses so I can’t see his eyes. I know he’s packing a weapon under his coat jacket, undoubtedly the bullets are laced with silver.
“Back off.” Is all he says to me.
Fine. I’ve got my hands up in the air in mock surrender, this isn’t worth pushing. I back away from the stairs to the edge of the store. The guy knows who to watch for now. A second guard comes down the stairs, and we’re pointed out.
This suit actually pulls his gun, but he’s keeping it low. The threat is there, come any closer and I’m going to blow you away. Like really? Whatever, dude.
I’m not impressed. I stand there with my arms crossed eyeing the guy off. Put the piece away, Jack, this is a public place.
From the top of the stairs the scuttle of high heeled shoes on marble breaks through the store music that’s playing in the background. Here she comes. Another suit is at her side giving her body protection as they rush down the stairs. She’s looking at us though, she’s about twenty something, clean cut, shoulder length reddish brown hair. Of course, I know her from her pictures, she’s Elizabeth’s granddaughter.
It’s a circular staircase, with glass railing supports. The poor guard is having a hell of a time keeping his body between us and her. It’s slowing them up a bit. Then a thought hits me. A simple thing really, I put my hands up in the blessed greeting. I’m not even sure she’ll know what it is, it just comes to me.
She’s reacting. The guard turns to her as she hesitates on the stairs, there’s a conversation going on between them now. I venture a step forward, but the guard with the gun takes aim at me when I do, so I freeze. This isn’t good. “We’re here to buy knickers.” I shout out to her.
Ooo. That’s got her attention. She’s staring at me. After a second or two she tells the guard who’s got a bead on me to lower his gun. There are other people in the store, a lot of other people, and I’m obviously unarmed with my hands in the air, so to ordinary people I don’t seem like a threat. You could cut the tension with a knife. People who were shopping before aren’t shopping now, everyone is looking to see what’s happening.
On the stairs the Royal makes a decision, she waves off her guard and starts walking toward me. She’s doing it slowly, eyeing off Pulania as she does. We’re the two with the biggest auras. She puts up her hands, and now that the guard has lowered his gun, I take another step toward her. I’m watching that guy really closely, but the gun isn’t coming up again. Another step and our hands are intertwined, it’s very tentative.
“Blessed be thy feet, which have brought thee in these ways.”
“Blessed be thy knees, that shall kneel at the sacred alter.”
“I’m here to buy some bras,” she whispers to me, and there’s a tentative smile. “Would you and your friends care to join me?”
Chapter 31: Under things
There’s a heated discussion going on between the Princess and her protectors, though it’s all in whispers. Only one of them has magik, the Raven, but the others are no less concerned. After a bit it’s all settled, the Princess heads up the stairs beckoning for us to follow her.
We make our way to the stairs. We’re obviously a group, everyone else can tell that. As I come even with the Raven at the bottom of the steps. He grimaces at me.
“The bullets are lined with silver,” he threatens.
I hesitate, my aura is going wild. My eyes glitz him, and he’s startled by it. “I’m not w
orried by your toys, little boy.”
The Princess is watching the exchange from the stairs. It’s pretty clear that the Raven has angered me. I take a moment to reign in the dark aura that’s flaring throughout the whole room. Susan puts a hand to my shoulder. It must look really strange, a white witch and a dark witch together like this. “Easy,” Susan whispers in my ear.
Yeah, well, I’m trying, bitch. But it’s another minute before I can pull it together. The Raven is looking really contrite. I’ve been staring daggers at him the whole time, he’s pretty unsure of himself given the display he’s just witnessed.
“Jonathon, please check the car,” the Princess asks him.
He’s startled even more by that, and looks at her questioningly.
“I’ll be alright. Please check the car.”
As the little twat heads off to elsewhere, the princess beckons again, leading us up the stairs. Her two remaining guards are on high alert, but wisely keep to themselves.
We follow the princess into a private viewing room at the head of the staircase. There are two models, recently deserted, who are surprised to see the Princess come back into the room with our raggedy group in tow. They’re wearing bra-knicker combos, and one has a pair of pretend wings on her back.
“Give us a few minutes, please ladies.”
There’s a set of cushioned stools for sitting on, we each take one, forming a small semicircle, with the Princess at its head. I’m pretty sure she would have been in the more comfortable seat at the back when she was here by herself.
“You have black wings.” Oooo, she is strong to be able to see that.
How, should I answer? “Ummh, yes, they’re a new addition.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, did you die recently?”
I laugh at that, which helps to break some of the tension. “No. I’m not an angel.”
The Dark Witch Page 12