Magic people - the gathering (Emmz)

Once Kiara was sat comfortably on the broom, the broom would raise up into the air and lifting above the stalls before flying towards her house at a nice speed, like riding on a flying motorbike at a gentle speed, it would take them about 15 minutes to get to her house, flying over the houses and roads and eventually landing gently in front of her front door, it looked like anyone would expect of a witch's house, oddly shaped and unique looking.

Hazel took out her keys and unlocked the door, opening the door and walking inside "take a seat, do you want a cup of tea or something before we start?" she asked her new friend.

Benighted hadn't expected them to take off. It just didn't seem like one of those eventualities that was obvious. She yelped at first and doubled down on her hand holds. But when they began with forward momentum she found it more comfortable to wrap her arms around Hazel like a frenzied cat, "You could have mentioned this!!!" Seatbelts, that's what one of these needed. And a bug screen.

Over time Tzul calmed. Mostly once she remembered that she too could fly. Really took the fear out of falling, that. She realised that this form of transportation (though still really weird) was rather convenient. Think of the cobwebs you could reach. Hazel's roof must be very clean.

Kiara would enter Hazel's property by wiping her bare feet on the placement mat provided. Her ankle jewellery jingling as she did so, "Y-Yes. Tea thank you. Do you brew it with any herbs?" As Hazel went to do that Kiara would find a place in the main living space to sit down cross-legged on, staff across her lap, chewing at the bare remains of the stick which had the meat on earlier.

You didn't want to throw away a good stick.

Hazel nodded "mhmm, all herbs grown from my own magical garden" she said, grabbing some tea leaves and making some tea for both of them, pouring it into some nice cups with saucers and a bowl of chocolate biscuits, soon returning to Kiara and sitting beside her, handing her cup to her and putting the biscuits on the coffee table in front of them.

Hazel would blow on her tea a little and sip it happily, meanwhile a black cat would be watching them from the top of the stairs, staring at Kiara cautiously.

Kiara became aware that she was being watched. She angled her head and caught sight of the cat. Her astral vision let her see an ethereal bond it shared with someone nearby. When Hazel came into the room, Benighted could see that it was her. People often formed bonds with their pets. But Hazel's was particularly strong with her cat. She decided not to comment on it and instead thanked the witch for her exemplary hospitality.

Tzul tried the tea, approved of the taste, and gave Hazel her compliments. She remarked on the preference of blends that she knew, the fine tableware on show, and the late Autumn rains. At length she brought it back to the crux of matters, "I want to thank you again for humouring me. It's awkward to ask for help sometimes. I'm not good at explaining myself." Nevertheless she would try, "Do you ever let your legs just wander? Just go? Try to be where you're needed to be? Even if you don't know where that is? The Lizard People call it serendipity. But I can't spell that so I prefer the other name - Walkabout. I forget who taught me that one. Anyway, I'm quite good at it."

A stray limp leaf fell from her head-dress into Benighted's cup, so she put it down, "In fact it's happened to me so often that I've never reached the end of the path. No home like you have. The place I need to be was so far away I was reaching way-stops but never the destination. So I tried to skip ahead. I asked my father to do an augury for me. That means see the future, didn't know that. Anyway, what came back wasn't very useful. Just some information about next year's harvest and my love life. When I told him what I'd hoped to discover, he told me there wasn't an omen for something so specific. It was all very frustrating. So I decided to invent my own omens."

The tea was too scolding to dip her finger into. Kiara searched her person and suddenly remembered the food stick. She scooped out the leaf with that, "So I created some. Whatever first came to mind. What seemed right, y'know? And the results were very troubling, if not a little more clear. Inhuman. Tremendous. Malevolent. North. That's the gist of it. So now I have better guidance. I can cut my journeys short and head straight to the destination. So if you can help with summin like that, I would be grateful."

Hazel listened to Kiara as she tried to explain herself, weirdly enough Hazel understood every word, she would nod along interested as Kiara spoke "hm, I can certainly try, my crystal ball can reveal the future too, but it can also reveal existing locations of things, although most of the time it's pretty vague and up for interpretation, I understand the aimlessly wandering bit, anyway, we can certainly try, there's no telling what the crystal ball will reveal, but whatever it may or may not show, don't hesitate to ask for help, heck, you can even stay with me for a bit if you like, we witches look out for each other" she said smiling as she finished her tea and ate a biscuit before standing up and leading Kiara to her "witchy room" which was behind a door under the stairs, leading down some stone steps to a big cauldron about half the size of them, suspended over a fire pit with ingredients in jars on one set of shelves and potions lining a cabinet on the other side with a big book on a book stand beside the cauldron.

Off to the side of this room where Hazel headed to was a door which led into a dark, small room with two chairs facing a table with a pretty blue silk cloth adorned with gold tassels along the edges and a large crystal ball in the middle, about as big as a human head but perfectly spherical, it swirled with cloudy mystical energies. Hazel would light some candles around the room with a lighter and sat down in one of the chairs.

Kiara was dogged on the heels of her host. She was glad she'd had no follow up questions from Hazel. Perhaps she really did understand. Perhaps she could explain it to Kiara. When they entered the snug chambers, Benighted could see the inherent magic of the place. She cast her eyes around and both fell on what she assumed was a large glass bauble. She tapped it gently with her staff.

"Sorry." She leaned the staff against a wall and went to sit in one of the chairs. She seemed wary about the candles, glancing into the crystal's reflective surface, "This isn't one of those summonings for Bloody Mary is- dammit! I keep forgetting I shouldn't say the name." Well it wasn't like she'd slip up twice more. That would be unfortunate.

Hazel laughed a little at Kiara's child-like concern "nono, that's just mirrors, this is my crystal ball, used for locating things, seeing the future, divination of sorts I suppose, its used for scrying too, really helpful for sorting out all that fluff from your mind" she said as she sat down, letting Kiara sit opposite her "now, the key thing is to focus on what it is you want to find, or, if it's not a physical thing then just focus on the feeling or sense of it, or it's name if nothing else, see the representation in your mind's eye" she spoke before opening her hands and holding Kiara's "now, close your eyes, focus on what you want" she said before Hazel spoke "eye of eyes, show us what Kiara desires, show us the thing she seeks, so she may help and protect those effected by it, give us the location" as the cloudy glass swirled around the clouds inside began to clear and would reveal something to Kiara "okay, open your eyes, what is it you see?".

Kiara opened her eyes and stared intently into the ball. At first all she could see was its smooth glass and her own reflection. She wondered if maybe she should get a haircut soon. But then she started to see things behind her own face. A modern building in the shape of a letter. Like a capital 'I' she thought. There was someone stood in the door, and when she squinted the scene was suddenly upon them. They were a very young blonde haired boy. There were tiny twinkling dots on his armour that she next focused on.

The scene was sucked into that expanse of stars, accelerating or so it seemed, so far and fast that you could be forgiven for not noticing that the lights were growing dimmer and the darkness expanding. At the edges of her vision there were strange carvings and statues of animal-headed figures. The icon of an eye dominated her view for a moment before everything went dark.

Kiara detected movement in the lack of light, "Oh. That could be it. Is there-" From nowhere the room shook violently. It was only for a brief moment but jars fell off shelves and shattered; potions were sent spiralling across floors. The candles went out, the table made a dragging sound as it lurched from some unseen force. A piece of plaster from the ceiling clattered unseen in the darkness.

In the pause that followed Kiara put a finger to her lips and let out a faint shush.

Hazel was a little shaken by the seemingly paranormal forces at work now, this had never happened to her before, she looked around and then looked to Kiara "what did you see? anything that might help?" she asked curiously, brushing some plaster dust off her shoulder and lighting a nearby candle so they could see each other again.

When the candle was lit the room was not in its right dimensions. Although it was a small space, there was now a horizon. At the end of the horizon there was something writhing. The table could just be seen at the outer edges. Kiara cried out a warning but it was too late. They'd made noise. She didn't know what exactly was over there, but she felt that she didn't want it to see them.

If she didn't know any better she would say they were being dragged to another 'place'. The fae had other places. Their own world that they could step between. The crystal ball had somehow connected to this one. Kiara looked at the horizon. Looked back at the candle. Then looked at the crystal ball. Oh thank goodness for the lit candle.

"Bloody Mary! Bloody Mary!" From out the reflection of the crystal ball the visage of a flayed gaunt woman appeared. She was far away, but they would be able to see the blood dripping from out of empty eye sockets. The terrifying ghoul pulled itself out of the crystal ball and brandished sharp blades.

It then looked behind it. Fear befell the ghost.

There was a pop and everything went back to normal. The room was regular dimensions again. No esoteric beings or bloody women remained. Just Hazel and Kiara holding that one candle. The shaman had interrupted whatever connection the crystal ball had by forming another one with Mary. Crossed lines cancelled each other out. Right?

"Erm. Do you want to talk about that? Or do you want to go stress eat ice-cream?"

Hazel would blink, trying to take what she just saw all in "uhh..mm..lets eat ice cream first...then we can discuss what the heck that was" she said, slowly standing up and turning the ceiling light on and leading Kiara out, the room starting to fix itself as Hazel went out into the kitchen and got out a tub of raspberry ripple ice cream.

Perched cross-legged once more on the end of the couch, Kiara would accept a spoon offered and then enjoy the semi-scoops of ice-cream they devoured. There had been a time when she was young when she would only eat ice-cream and associated sugary treats. Her dad claimed they were bad for her, but she didn't feel bad when she ate them so she would disbelieve him. It was when she got her first toothache that her sweet tooth tapered. She hadn't been one for brushing.

"It's getting late." The shaman observed, looking at a window. Though it was the Winter time. The Sun ran away quicker in this season. "Does your cat like to sing? We had lots of cats back home that would sing in the evenings."

"Nah, he does like to curl up and watch tv though, or watch me cook, he's more a watcher" said Hazel with a chuckle "any noise he makes he's usually complaining or criticising, but I know it's just his way of showing affection" she added smiling as she dipped her spoon to scoop out some yummy ice cream "where do you live right now anyway?" she asked curiously, since it didn't seem like Kiara lived anywhere except the street.

"Oh. I don't. I mean, my dad's happy to let me stay at his when I pass through. And my brothers would take me in. But I don't really know where their houses are. They gave me an address book once, but I still didn't really know where the streets were. I usually just ask locals for bed and board for the night. But ever since I came over that really long fence in the south, I haven't had much offers of that." The Californians were not a trusting bunch. It also was not always as straight forward as she made it sound. There had been people who wanted work in return. There had been families who disagreed on letting her stay. There had even been men who had expected... services of her.

She was lucky her powers made her a bit of a bruiser. But she hadn't gotten much sleep those nights.

"Otherwise, it's quite warm out still. I like to sleep under the stars. As long as I pray to the spirits for traveller's safety I'm usually okay."

"Well you're more than welcome to sleep here any time you need, even if it's out in the garden, I have a tent for just such occasions, it might even be nice having another girl around, especially a magical one, I miss the days of school" she said softly, a hopeful smile on her face "and it'd allow you to have a nice shower or a hot bath too and you could drink as much tea as you like" she added grinning.