2. Chapter 2
Chapter two
As they finished their tea, Regina regaled Amelie with the history of the convent and how everyone ended up where they did.
“I’ve been the Seer here since I was fourteen.” Regina walked her cup over to the sink and placed it in the copper basin. “So it’s been… seventeen years?”
Amelie walked up next to her, setting her own cup down. “Seventeen years?” Amelie shook her head in shock. “That’s crazy. Is it typical to place witches that young?”
Regina turned, leaning gracefully against the counter, her blank gaze heating Amelie from the inside out. Despite her appearance, Regina had a quite warm personality, which all things considered, was surprising. Especially given how long she’d been here.
“It’s not abnormal.” Regina mused, touching one of her sharp, pointed black nails to her bottom lip.
“I come from a long line of Seers, so many members of my family were placed before they turned eighteen. But with other stations, especially ones that demand abilities that are not necessarily quite as lineage-based, witches can be placed at a station anywhere between eighteen and their mid-thirties.”
“Wow.” Amelie rinsed off the cups and dried her hands on an embroidered towel that had materialized next to the sink. “Nobody in my family has ever been assigned a placement before, so this is all very new to me.”
Regina made a soft noise of acknowledgment, raven hair falling to the side slightly as she tilted her head, watching Amelie put the cups to the side to dry.
“How old are the other two?” Amelie looked back up at Regina, doing her best to maintain eye contact despite how much the taller woman flustered her.
“Hestia is the baby.” Regina smiled, a fond look coming over her face. “Only twenty years old. And Delia is a year older than I am, so thirty-two.”
Amelie pursed her lips in thought. “So I’m only the second youngest. I’m twenty-five, by the way… wait, do you know that already? Being a Seer and all?”
Regina laughed lightly, her hand covering up her mouth. “I’m a Divination Witch, not all-knowing.”
Amelie felt her cheeks heat up as she realized her mistake.
“It’s quite alright, my dear.” Regina stepped forward into Amelie’s space and took a lock of her golden hair in her fingers, tucking it gently behind her ear.
“Besides, even if I did already know, I don’t tend to share many of the insights I get from my visions.
I find it’s in poor taste to imply you know someone more intimately than they’re comfortable with. ”
Regina smelled like almonds, coffee, and wood; earthy and grounded.
So far, she had been nothing like what Amelie had expected, and it was proving to be quite the problem.
Regina, tall, dark, and curvy, was actually Amelie’s exact type to a tee.
If she continued teasing her the way she had been, Amelie was not confident how productive she was going to be in the other woman’s presence.
“No, that makes sense,” Amelie murmured under her breath.
“Come.” Regina took a step back, allowing Amelie to get hold of her senses again. “I’ll show you how it does work. At least, my portion of it.”
Amelie nodded, then with a flick of her wrist, she floated the teacups back up to their home in the cabinet and set off after the taller woman.
Regina led her back through the door she’d come in through and back across the nave, but when they reached the other side, they started down a new hallway.
Amelie had felt the presence of the space when her magic had settled into the building, but walking through it and seeing everything for herself was still very new.
The halls themselves were lined with massive, decorated windows that began at waist level and ended at a point only a few feet from the ceiling.
They were partitioned out and decorated in various designs of stained glass, leaving colorful swathes of light on the opposite wall.
As Regina walked through the different colors, Amelie tried her best not to get lost in how she looked like a muted rainbow.
Understated and discreet, but beautiful and mesmerizing.
By the time they turned the corner into the corridor that Amelie had sensed earlier, inundated with Regina’s magic, she was fully questioning how she’d ever considered the option that she had been straight a day in her life before her 20s.
“This is the records chamber.” Regina paused outside a heavy mahogany door, carved with runes and cycles of the moon. “Whenever I have a premonition, it goes in here for safekeeping.”
Pulling out a long skeleton key, Regina fit it into the lock and opened the door, gesturing for Amelie to follow her inside.
The room was dimly lit, and a sort of mist covered the floor, making the space seem endless.
Rows and rows of shelves towered above the both of them and from the very bottom shelf all the way to the highest point Amelie could see, were little bottles holding small bits of light.
“Are those the prophecies?” Amelie stepped further into the space, tilting her head to look closer at a singular bottle. She watched as what she had previously thought was a static light twisted and undulated in on itself, shifting like its own mini-universe.
Amelie felt Regina’s presence behind her, close but not quite touching as she studied the bottles, it made her heart race and she secretly hoped that the other woman couldn’t tell.
“They are.” Regina’s voice caressed Amelie’s ears. “Though most of them are not mine. They are a collection from every Seer Pumpkin Hollow has ever had, since its inception.”
“Wow.” Amelie stood up straight, gazing upwards at the towering shelves. “How do you know what they all are?”
“It’s part of the initiation, when a Seer is stationed. The previous Divination Witch gifts the new one all the knowledge they carry - though it takes quite a heavy toll on the body, sometimes causing changes in the witch’s appearance.”
Amelie’s gaze snapped back to Regina, realization dawning on her. “Your eyes.”
Regina smiled and held up her hand. “Among other things, yes.”
Unconsciously reaching out, Amelie took Regina’s pitch-black hand in her own, bringing it closer to the lamplight. Her skin was soft, and despite the inky darkness, she was warm. It wasn’t until she stepped a little closer that she realized what she had done.
Flushing from head to toe, Amelie let go of Regina’s hand as though it had burned her.
“I am so sorry.” Amelie babbled, shaking her head. “I am not normally like this. I would never usually invade someone else’s space; I was raised better than that, I swear!”
Amelie took a step back, primed and ready to dash away at the earliest opportunity, but was stopped by Regina, cupping her hands around Amelie’s and bringing them up to her lips. Amelie’s eyes grew in size as she watched the taller woman press a gentle kiss to her fingertips.
“It’s quite alright.” Regina grinned, blank eyes gazing into Amelie’s soul, pinning her to the spot. “It might seem silly, but I do feel as though I already know you.”
Butterflies flitted around in Amelie’s stomach. She swallowed heavily, allowing herself to stop panicking for just one second so she could take in Regina’s words.
It was weird… they’d only just met but Regina was right. Whether it had to do with the fact that Amelie could sense her and all her magical abilities now, or simply because Regina was open to the connection, Amelie felt like she knew the other witch.
Interlacing their fingers together, Regina brought her hand to Amelie’s cheek, brushing a lock of golden hair out of the way.
“I’ve been waiting for you, Amelie.”
Amelie could feel Regina’s breath on her lips, the witch’s aura intertwined with the air that she breathed; it was intoxicating. For a brief moment, Amelie thought Regina was going to kiss her; she was sure of it… she was ready… but then.
“Regina! I was wondering if… oh! Is this the new caretaker?”
Amelie’s head snapped to the side; the fiery, orange ball of energy that she had sensed earlier had fully manifested itself and was now standing in the doorway in the form of an absolutely gorgeous redhead.
Regina, completely unfazed by the intrusion, simply squeezed Amelie’s hand and turned the pair of them toward the door.
“It is.” Regina greeted the redhead warmly. “Hestia, this is Amelie, Amelie, this is Hestia.”
A massive grin spread across Hestia’s lips as she, quite literally bounced into the space, stopping right in front of Amelie, who was still desperately attempting to get her bearings back.
Hestia was about her height, if not a little bit shorter, tilting her head up slightly to look Amelie in the eye. Her green eyes darted back and forth across the blonde’s features and, Amelie couldn’t help but feel as though she was being sized up just a little.
Draped in a jewel-toned red dress that looked more akin to a sheet that the other woman had draped strategically over her body, her red hair tumbled down over her shoulders and onto her back. It was wild but not unkempt, more like it had just finished being tousled by the wind.
Wondering briefly how she hadn’t noticed the other woman coming, Amelie took note of the many golden bangles adorning her arms and ankles, noticing that the other woman was not wearing any shoes.
“Aren’t you cold?” Amelie blurted out, her hand moving to her lips too late. “I mean…”
“Oh, it’s okay.” Hestia’s laugh sounded like the crackling of a fire, sporadic and joyful. “I run warm. My mother is a fire witch and while I didn’t inherit her abilities, I definitely got her tendency to exude heat.”
“Oh.” Amelie looked to her side up to Regina, only to find the other woman already watching her, amusement in her eyes.
“Hestia is our Illusion Witch.” Regina supplied, filling in the blanks.
Amelie’s gaze shot back to the redhead with surprise. “You maintain the borders. Gosh, you’re so young!”
Hestia’s eyes warmed, melting from an emerald green to more of a warm tea with honey. “That’s me! I maintain the wards around the town to keep unsuspecting mortals from wandering inside.”
Amelie clapped her hands together in excitement. “I’ve always wondered how that works!”
“All me!” Hestia did a little spin, her skirts flaring out as she moved.
When she finally finished her turn, she interlaced her fingers behind her back and shot Amelie a million-watt smile.
“It’s a work in progress, but I’ve been here for the last two years, and every day it gets a little easier to maintain. ”
“How does it work?” Amelie asked, trying her best to move forward from how flustered she’d been only a few moments before.
“I am not entirely sure.” Hestia tilted her head, putting her hand to her lips in thought. “It was put together at the town’s founding. Something to do with runes carved into the mountains cradling the town.”
Hestia shrugged lightly. “There’s no way that my abilities would be able to project the facade over the entire town alone, so the runes act as an amplifier of sorts.”
“Oh.” Amelie hummed, considering the magical building itself. “I wonder if…”
Amelie closed her eyes and reached out through the tendrils of the building, seeking out Hestia’s warmth. Several hallways down, she found what she was looking for: a space absolutely inundated with Hestia’s magic.
It was circular in shape, and stretching out from the center were seven ley lines.
Amelie followed them in each direction simultaneously until they reached the edges of the property.
She could tell that they continued farther on, but the end of the property line seemingly demarcated the bounds of her newfound abilities.
“Can you feel them too?” Hestia bounced excitedly as Amelie opened her eyes.
“A bit, yeah.” Amelie looked down at her hand. “Though my reach seems to stop at the property line itself.”
“Oh!” Hestia skipped up to the blonde and took her hands in her own, causing Amelie’s face to flush again as she wondered if all her wards were this comfortable with so little personal space. “You’re connected to the house like I’m connected to the ley lines!”
“Exactly,” Regina spoke up again. Amelie glanced over in the other woman’s direction, suddenly feeling a little self-conscious about how close Hestia was, especially given how close the pair of them had been to…
something happening just moments before the Illusion Witch’s arrival.
However, when she met Regina’s gaze, instead she saw a relaxed, happy expression on the other witch’s face.
Regina had leaned against one of the shelves, arms crossed loosely over her chest, and seemed perfectly content to watch the pair of them bond.
“Yours and Hestia’s abilities are very closely tied to physical places, unlike mine and Delia’s. The cathedral just happens to be the best place for us to do our respective jobs.”
Amelie turned back to Hestia, looking down at their hands. Seemingly understanding, Hestia giggled and released her grip, taking a step back out of Amelie’s personal space.
“Delia spends a lot of her time in the crypts.” Hestia tilted her head, a pout appearing on her lips. “We’ve tried to get her to spend more time with us, but she’s been pretty resistant to our efforts so far.”
Amelie glanced over to Regina. “How long has she been here?”
“Five years.” Regina smiled sadly. “I had hoped that she would come around sooner, but she seemed to have an active distaste for the previous Kitchen Witch. Preferring instead to remain primarily outside the central building.”
Amelie nodded. “Maybe I should pay her a visit today… introduce myself.”
“I think that would be wise.” Regina continued, walking over to stand next to Hestia. “Who knows? Perhaps you will have better luck with her than we have.”
Glancing out the window and into the gardens, Amelie wondered briefly what sort of tea someone who spent most of their time in a cemetery would like.