Chapter 386: Spell of Domination
Witches had been a part of Celes and Gretchen’s family line as far back as the line could be traced. But witches weren’t their original titles back in the old country as they didn’t perform black magic or summon the devil. Instead, they were healers and wise women who communed with natured and used their learnings to help others. Once the roman empire came to power however and spread their influence over the lands, witches had a harder and harder time surviving as the townspeople who used to live next to them and beg their help, quickly forgot about all the good they did in times of need once the rewards were offered for their capture.
No other object in life can turn a man’s heart faster than that of glittering gold. Despite this, the line of witches survived. They hid and lived solitary lives, apart from the rest of the word. After the final fall of the empire, when the world was again in chaos, covens sought to again go out into the world and make peace with the people.
And for a time, it worked.
But then came the rise of the church from the ashes of the empire, having gained and held on to strength even while the empire was besieged on all sides by it’s enemies. Following the example of the fallen empire, the church also found within witches an enemy with which to scare it’s people into obedience with while offering rewards for their captures. After all, a boogey man is more effective when it has a face, doesn’t it?
And again, the witches were forced to run. When the time came and the world opened up once again, witches fled from the church and the people they once associated with in an effort to be free to practice their lives. Many of them came west and settled down in the new lands, hiding their beliefs and rituals in silence while professing faith to the scared book and holy pulpit. But in secret, they still kept to their ways.
The final straw came when the movement of the church again started rising, using the bastard ideas of madmen with which to label good, god fearing women with the title of witch. Once news of these actions and the tortures that came along with them reached the coven’s ears, they didn’t bother wasting time, heading to the wild west were the land was plentiful and the reach of the church thin.
The many of the different covens split up at this time, going in different directions to hide their presence and protect their rites. While the bulk of the coven was made up and ruled by women, there were also men who played their part. While this may seem a bit derogatory for the men who served the women, the truth was that these men were responsible for the population of the witches. Added to that was the few number of them that witches could trust and therefore the men would live rather rich lives with many different partners.
As for the dangers that the coven’s faced while heading west, their was little to be said about that. During their long stretches of persecution and suffering, they had gained strength the likes of which the world had never seen. While they couldn’t summon the wind in one hand or the rain in the other, the powers they gained were more focused on the mind. Control someone, cursing someone, killing someone? They could do it all and more. Not very effecting against metal and gun powder, but quite effective against those who saw the women as nothing more than women.
As for the natives who resided in the regions they settled, they lived with coexistence as the nature commanded. Skill respects skill after all.
Fast forward to the present where Celes, her eyes still as black as the void but no longer covered in shadow, dug around in an old storage house, one that was older than the oldest building and yet locked tight and sealed all year round until she finally found the book that she was looking for. One of the older spells but a useful one. This particular spell had been used on several boat captain’s back in the day and their crew members to allow the coven’s safe passage aboard their massive shifts. Normally women on the sea would be a bad omen, especially when many times the passengers were all women. But thanks to this spell and the sacrifice of many of the older members of the coven, most of the ships arrived safely to the new land.
’One of the stories grandma always told me was of the doomed coven ship. While the spell would drain a little of the life of the user, it had more of an impact on the mind of the user. Before they got on board, the women of the coven would choose those who would give up their sanity and also their lives to help the others survive. Many times, their were enough volunteers but sometimes there weren’t. The doomed ship had enough volunteers before leaving port, but bad weather and a broken mast ended up delaying their travel by over a month. When the women of the coven found out about this problem, they were quick to ask for more volunteers, but when the needed parties could not be found, several women were picked from the lot. Since all of the older and more noble ladies had already given their lives, many of the ones selected were younger as the middle aged women were considered the leaders and would not give their lives. When the time came for the younger women to take over the ritual, they had decided to hide themselves to save their own lives and sanity since once you went insane, they coven would give you a quick death to end your suffering. As such, new replacements couldn’t be picked in time and the men of the ship ended up waking up from their trance. While they didn’t understand what was happening, that didn’t mean they didn’t understand what kind of danger they were in. The women of the ship were quickly round up or killed. As for the fate of those who survived... perhaps it would have been better to have been killed. In the end, the hiding witches, having seen what had happened and knowing that there was no salvation, sunk out one night and set fire to the powder keg room, causing the ship to explode from within and killing everyone. Whenever grandma told me that story, she would always ask the same question. What did you learn from it? And every time she wanted a different answer. The final answer I was ever able to come up with was that even though the young hiding witches had been partially at fault for dooming everyone, the ones who were killed and the ones who were captured never once told of the young hiding witches to their jailers, no matter what type of torture they were put under, even while being raped and beaten day in and day out. While they may make mistakes with each other, they would never betray one of their own. And with that, my grandma never told me that story again. But it seems I’d learned one final lesson that I never spoke of... the usefulness of that particular spell,’ Celes thought to herself while searching for the old book.
She found it wrapped in an old, tanned dear hide, with many strange symbols carved into it. At first, the symbols tried to reject Celes’ invasion, but she had grown more powerful than any witch of the past and her knowledge of runes and symbols made undoing them an easy task.
’Now then... yep, blood... and something of their own. His shorts will work. But let’s see... sage, sandalwood and a few other ingredients to set up the smoke that will invade his mind. It seems so primitive and yet... even with their lack of internal energy, they were able to use this to control men’s minds. How impressive my sister’s of old. How marvelous. And with my energy supplying the battery for the control, he shall be mine in no time," Celes smiled a crooked smile, unaware that their was something stirring within her black eyes while the voice within became weaker and weaker.
Sneaking into the lab was not a problem. Even getting into the locked storage proved easier than Celes had anticipated. Since the inside of the cold storage would be dark without the door open, all Celes had to do was not turn on the light which allowed her to travel the shadows into the cold storage and grab the vile of Laz’s blood which Nora had clearly marked.
After taking it back and putting it in a cooler, she attended the one on one training as usual, much to Laz’s surprise. Celes had originally told Nora she wasn’t feeling well and Nora didn’t think much of it when she relayed it to Laz. While neither of them had heard of an infected getting sick, there was more than one thing that not feeling well could mean. As such, they didn’t question it. Since Nora was going to visiting with Renee tonight to check on the baby and Laz wasn’t needed this time, he stayed late at the field to give some extra training to anyone who asked for it. Once he was done and alone, Celes made her appearance.
’She seems... ok?’ Laz thought, looking her over. He didn’t bring up knowing it was her watching him and Nora and it looked like she didn’t suspect they knew. Since Nora had said keep it quiet for now, he didn’t bring it up.
"Feeling better?" Laz asked, a normal smile on his face.
"Getting there," Celes responded, with a small giggle.
Laz felt that was strange too since normally she was much colder and focused before they fought, but he let it go.
Tonight, they had been working on a theory of Laz’s, to see if Celes could clone herself and make copies using shadows.
It was a massive success, much to both Laz’s and Celes’ surprise.
"Amazing..." Laz praised while looking over the copies one by one to see how close they were.
"It’s easier to create a featureless shadow than one that looks like me, but it’s still possible to have two clones," Celes said with a bit of pride.
"It’s still an amazing feat. I’m sure that once you get even stronger, you could be a one woman army. Congratulations for taking one step forward. So tell me, are you going to try to kill me today?" As the training came to an end, Laz asked his usual question, not to mock her, but just to keep her wanting to grow. She knew this as well, it was his subtle hint to never be satisfied with what she already knew.
"Not today. I still can’t beat you," Celes pouted while making a hidden move.
"But that doesn’t mean I can’t get some revenge..." Celes then said as a several shadows snuck to attack Laz at once. Smiling, he took them on and destroyed them one at a time, neither fast nor slow. Just as he struck down the last one though, another shadow popped out from underneath the ground, except this time, it wasn’t a full person shaped shadow, but three hands that attacked his shorts, cutting them away from his body and leaving him exposed on the spot.
"Oh My God..." Celes squeaked at the sight and only half covered her eyes as Laz looked down at his now displayed manhood swinging freely in the breeze.
Laz then looked up at Celes’ amazed and not angry. All of her previous clones required her to focus on them one at a time to fight, while making general movements and actions could be done with little focus. As such, seeing her control three different arms to take his shorts was actually something he didn’t think she could do. And because they had targeted his clothing and weren’t attacking, he didn’t respond fast enough to them to stop them. All in all, it was his loss.
"Alright, Alright. You got me. Just let me get some new shorts on before my little friend here gets too chilly," Laz laughed as he walked over to his pouch to get out another set of shorts.
Much to his surprise, when he had finished covering up and turned around, Celes was gone.
’... The fuck?’
