A Congregation of Witches (And a Siren) [Val, Riley, Lara, Les, Tristan(??)]

[bewitchinghaze]

 Val let out a heavy sigh of relief as she and Les finally approached the cottage. "You may as well come in and rest for awhile," she offered, getting out her key and unlocking the door. A few odd twists lowered the basic wards she kept active whenever she and Riley were out and she headed in.

"Riley? Lara? I'm home. I brought company..." she called into the house.

The familiar feeling of her personal collection of greenery and the magic she'd put into them quickly calmed her nerves and she began to collect the things she'd need to set up a good strong set of wards to keep out the curse. This house would be the safest goddamn place in town, if she had anything to say about it.

Comments

[jiyunnies]

"James," Riley says with a sigh. "This definitely seems like the curse at play. Which means it's old."

She blinks and turns to Val. "Wait, was the idiot going to look for James himself??"

[bewitchinghaze]

Val pauses, the thought only just hitting her. "That giant fucking idiot!" she snaps, seething with rage now. "I told him to fucking stay indoors because it's not safe. I'm going to kill him!"

[asharpertongue]

Lara sighs. "Of course he has." She tapped the table next to her thoughtfully. "This damn curse...silent for an age. Why would it wake up now? It's not even like Jame and Moira are an item."

[jiyunnies]

"I don't get the impression he's the best at listening," she says, placing a hand on Val's shoulder. "I'm sure he's fine, Val."

"That's a good question. Everything's been quiet for awhile now. Maybe that's why? Too quiet?"

[bewitchinghaze]

"I'm going to kill him anyway. Then I'll bring him back and kill him again." she seethes, honestly torn between being pissed he didn't listen to her and being worried that he was going to do something stupid.

"I'd imagine quiet would activate that kind of curse," she muses. "It doesn't want the town that started it all to be quiet, it wants it to be as restless and unsettled as it is."

[asharpertongue]

"Of course it does." She sighed. "We've been complacent. We should have been working out how to kill this curse since it happened."

[jiyunnies]

"I wouldn't even know where to start with that. Unless someone in town has more knowledge of the actual history of this place than just rumours and gossip."

[bewitchinghaze]

"I'm sure the Thorntons and Coombs do but, well... They're not much use right now, I'm sure." she sighs. "Maybe if we check the library we can find a good hardcopy history of the town?"

[asharpertongue]

"It's delicate with the families at the moment. I could ask but I doubt I'd get anywhere." Lara huffed a laugh. "Good idea but the librarian isn't my biggest fan since his daughter joined Heart of Gold so I think you'd better not mention my name there."

[jiyunnies]

"Probably the last thing either family wants to discuss is the curse."

"Oops. We'll be sure not to mention it," she grins.

[bewitchinghaze]

Val smothers a snicker. "If you want, you can stay here and hold down the fort while we check the library? We can bring any books back here so we can all look them over." she suggests, checking up on her wards for probably the tenth time since she'd arrived home.

[asharpertongue]

Lara tosses a piece of paper at Val's head for the snicker. "I think that's probably the best idea. But it might not help with this current spell."

[jiyunnies]

Riley snorts at Val getting punished. "Yeah, how exactly are any of us supposed to get to the library if we get sick as soon as we're in contact with it? Val, we need to put our heads together and come up with some kind of protective bubble."

[bewitchinghaze]

Val sticks her tongue out at Lara playfully, tossing the paper into the bin. "Hmmm... Charms, maybe? If we put sufficiently strong spells onto them we can wear them around our necks."

[asharpertongue]

Lara nods. "Do you think it's worth putting them around town? At least in the witches premises and some of the innocuous human places too. The school...Definitely the school."

[jiyunnies]

Riley looks at her sister and nods. "I think we could do that."

[bewitchinghaze]

"Definitely," she smiles slightly. "I've got plenty of carved charms stored away. I was going to find a way to sell them but this is more important. We lay a couple protection spells on these, wear one each, and then drop the rest off at places that will need them most as we go."

[asharpertongue]

"We can replace them after this is over and done with." She smiled at them. "You're good girls."

[jiyunnies]

"Val and I usually make them when we get bored. It's no big deal." She smiles. "We try, Lara, we do."

[bewitchinghaze]

Val shakes her head. "I don't even think it's about being good," she shrugs. "It's about keeping people safe and by keeping others safe, we keep us safe. Awful spells like this really don't help witches get a better name around here, y'know?"

[asharpertongue]

Lara grunted in agreement. "You're right. It's a pain in the ass keeping our reputations above board at the best of times. Let's try and get this thing fixed if we can."

[jiyunnies]

"Alright, we got a game plan! Val and I will start working on the protection charms."

[bewitchinghaze]

Val scurries off to her room, coming back with a large wooden box full of wood charms. "All right. I'm thinking basic repelling charms, luck charms, and warding charms, yeah?" she suggests, handing a bunch of them to her sister.

[asharpertongue]

"What can I do?" She spots Les. "Can he help or is he on the wrong side of the dark side/light side equation for protection spells?"

[jiyunnies]

Riley takes the charms, looking them over. "Good idea. Let's channel some of the charms together so they're stronger, yeah? We can place them in the more sensitive areas. Get some of your teas for our strength, Val."

She glances over at Les. "He's definitely on the right side. He can help cast protection spells around town, at the public buildings so people inside are safe. Since you're not affected, not that we know of anyway, can you assist Les? He may need a hand and you can take note of everyone's reactions. Is everyone irritated or are they reacting uniquely? If we know the side effects, we can figure out at least a temporary cure for those under the spell."