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

[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."

[bewitchinghaze]

Val tugs her hair into a bun and rolls up her sleeves, heading into the kitchen and coming back with tea for everyone. "Only drink one of these each, please. They'll boost your magic, if you have it, and keep you full of energy. They're really potent though."

She takes a seat at the table, pulling over her pile of charms and sorting through them all to find the ones that would be best for holding multiple, stronger spells. "Those ones are for delicate areas of town, okay? We can work on them first."

[asharpertongue]

Lara takes a tea for herself and one for Les. "Okay. I'll help Les. When you're ready to distribute them, I'll call some of my people to come and get them."

[jiyunnies]

"Thanks, Lara."

Riley sits at the table across from her sister. "Which do you want to start with?"

[bewitchinghaze]

"Mmmm, wards and repelling spells on the big ones. They'll need the most energy." she reasons, clearing a space in the middle of the table and putting a charm in the space. She reaches out and takes Riley's hands. "Ready?"

[jiyunnies]

Riley takes her sister's hands, sitting up straighter in the chair. "Alright, sounds good." She closes her eyes, breathing in deeply and feeling the air get lighter around her. As she exhales, she sends a vine of magic to her sister, offer it for her own magic to grab hold of.

[bewitchinghaze]

Syncing her breathing with her sister's, she puts out her own tendril of magic, braiding the two together. She feels them sink into the charms and begins to weave protection magics like vines onto a trellis. She leaves small gaps between her own spells for Riley to do hers and then moves onto the next charm, trying to get as many done as quickly as possible.

[jiyunnies]

It takes a good hour to get the spells into all the charms, and Riley is drained. After they finish with the last charm, she releases her sister'sister's hands and leans back in her chair. "God, I hope these help," she says, rubbing her eyes.

[bewitchinghaze]

Val sighs as she leans back, absolutely exhausted. "They will... If they don't, I'm going to be incredibly angry." she says, letting out a tired laugh. "We may need a little rest before we go distribute these though..."

[jiyunnies]

"Oh thank God you agree," she says with a sigh. Riley grabs the tea and pours two cups, handing one to Val. "Heard anything from Grant?" she asks, sipping her tea and feeling its warmth.

[bewitchinghaze]

She sips at it before picking up her phone and opening her texts again. A second later, she slams the cup onto the table, sloshing tea everywhere. "He's a fucking IDIOT." she snaps, texting him back angrily. "He's gone off and done something stupid and has the fucking spell surrounding him and that Alex girl in blackness. I'm going to kill him!"

[jiyunnies]

Riley jumps back as the cup hits the table. Thank God she had reinforced their cups and plates a long time ago to prevent trips to the store to replace their stock every time Val got angry. "Val!" she screeches, getting up and grabbing a paper towel to clean the table and charms. "Deep breaths," she adds. "We can feel them out and send some kind of light charm. Alex is a siren, remember? We can find her."

[bewitchinghaze]

Val seethed quietly, frantically sending texts back and forth with him, wanting to curse him silly right about now. "Light charm. Right." she breathed, trying to calm down. "I'm going to give him fucking dick-centered poison ivy still."

She holds out a hand. "Lend me a bit of strength so we can do this?"

[jiyunnies]

Riley sighs, looking at her sister. "You two are going to end up being the death of each other, I swear. He's a cop, Val, of course he was going to investigate. Dumb, but still a cop," she says, taking Val's hand.

[bewitchinghaze]

"Gi-gan-tic dumbass. I'm angry, okay. Let me be angry." She takes her hand, breathing in and out slowly and resyncing their powers. Letting them loose into the town, she sought out Alex's aura and, upon finding it, let the charm descend over them.

"That should do it, right?" she sighs as she lets go of her hand.

[jiyunnies]

"I know. Channel into your magic, Soo-Yun," she says in a comforting voice, pressing a hand on her sister's arm. "It'll help them. I know it will."

[bewitchinghaze]

Val chews on her lip, sending at much magic as she can into the spell to sustain it. "Doing my best," she sighs. "Thank you for the boost, unnie. It's gonna help me keep this up."

She quickly taps out a text to Grant.

[txt] Hope the light charm helps. Get out fast, please. Not much energy left.

[jiyunnies]

"The things I do to help your idiot boyfriend," she teased Val. "Tell him he owes us dinner. This is going to make me hungry."

[bewitchinghaze]

She flushes slightly. "He's not my boyfriend!" she mumbles, laying her head down on the table as the magic slowly drains out of her. "He totally owes us dinner though, ugh."

[jiyunnies]

Riley smiles at the blush, knowing her sister's got it pretty bad. "Such a cute Soo-Yunnn," she coos and messes up Val's hair. "Speaking of, Les went through your pickle jar."