A Coven and a Crone

From the tower of a small castle in France, three Witches prepared to summon a ghost. The forest nearby was darker than ever, and a chill permeated the air. Wisteria, the Wizard of the Coven, buttoned her coat and joined the others in the attic. The Autumn Equinox had brought an extra edge to the air, especially to those who knew that this was when ghosts could pass from the ghostly to the living plane. She knelt in the centre of the room and began to set up a circle of runes, not joining the others as they talked.

“What did you get on that chem test?” Silver asked. Autumn threw back her head, shaking golden hair out of her face, with the carefree energy so many Mages possessed. “A, of course. Didn’t even study.” Silver looked away. Autumn felt a strange sense that she’d said something wrong.

Silver flushed red. Her own A felt pathetic, because she knew how long she’d studied for it. Autumn could go it alone, so why couldn’t she? Maybe she was spending too much time with her friends. If she studied more, she’d get those grades she wanted. She looked at Wisteria. They could hang out in the holidays.

“The clock is about to strike midnight.” Wisteria announced. “Let us begin.” The rune circle began to glow. The floorboards surrounding her became shinier and some of the scratches disappeared. The ghost of a Crone rose from the floor. Although she was old and wrinkled, she was beautiful, with long silvery hair and wise eyes. “I see you are back again, young Wizard. And with a Coven.” She looked at Silver and Autumn, Sorcerer and Mage respectively. “I’m sure you’ll find a way to work with them.”

“I have a series of challenges that will test each of your magic. If you should succeed, I will turn this castle into a stronghold. The closer you are, your magic will increase in strength.”

Autumn interrupted, “Yeah, we know what a stronghold is. We’re in.”

“Stop, you can’t agree on behalf of all of us.” Wisteria said

“Yeah, not fair.” Silver glared

“We’ll put it to a vote then.” Autumn said. “Who’s in?”

Wisteria raised her hand followed by Silver.

“You shall have until sunrise to pass my challenges.” The Crone declared. “And should you fail, your magic will power a Coven more worthy.” She dramatically descended into the floor.

The wind began to howl fiercely. Autumn snapped her head to its direction. Something was coming. Before she could further react, the window shattered. Shards of glass cut her face and littered the floor. It spun around the room, tossing around furniture that had been pushed into the corners. “This is my challenge!” She yelled over the howling wind. Autumn ran to the broken window and jumped, using her command of the elements as a Mage to use air to push herself out towards the field next to the castle.

She dropped and skidded along the grass, the wind following her. Autumn reached out with her mind, shoving against it with another gust. It seemed to make the other gust lessen, but suddenly, her feet were pulled out from under her. Something was wrapped around her ankles. Vines. Dragging her towards the lake.

Digging into the ground desperately with her hands, she tried to force the vines to let go. She thought of using fire. Too dangerous. She was slowing down, but too late. Autumn was falling down the slope into the lake. There was barely time to take a gasping breath of air before she was underwater, hitting the shallow bottom of the lake. When she tried to stand, it felt like there was a wall on top of her.

What had she done wrong, that every element now hated her? Or was it just the challenge? In the darkness of the lake, Silver flashed into her mind. She realised now. At some point, she’d crossed over from friendly joking to outright arrogance. Somewhere, she’d started to believe that she was better than her friends. But now she thought on it, seriously, Silver was smarter, and Wisteria was the better leader. And she’d rushed into this and now she was letting them down instead of helping. When had she crossed over from working with things, to fighting them?

“I’m sorry.” Autumn said to the lake, bubbles flowing from her mouth. The pressure almost instantly loosened. She stood up, gently parting the water in a path to the edge of the lake. Clouds gathered, blocking out the stars. She shivered, jeans and cropped t-shirt drenched. Up on the grass, vines extended towards her, an invitation. She accepted it and let them carry her onto the field. Rain began to pour but she asked the air to shield her and called fire to warm her. The wind carried her home, where her Coven, her friends waited for her. As she stepped over the threshold, the crone appeared.

“You have passed the first challenge. Working with instead of against the elements will allow your power as a Mage to grow further. Your next challenge now will require more of just that.” Then she vanished once again.

Silver’s knees buckled under her as her body suddenly turned heavy. She would have fallen, had Wisteria not steadied her. “What was that?” Autumn yelled at the ceiling. “What did you do!”

“Autumn the Ghostly Plane is below, not above.” Wisteria said

“That’s not the point.” She looked at the ground where the crone had vanished. “Did you poison her?”

“She must have.” Silver said. “Let me get my spellbook.” She struggled to walk. Her body felt as if each of her limbs had weights tied to them.

“Do you need help?” Autumn asked her.

“I’m fine,” She lied. Just. Work. Harder. Silver made it past the kitchen and into her bedroom on the left before collapsing onto her bed. Stupid Autumn and Wisteria wanting a stronghold. Couldn’t they just be happy with the magic they had already? Her spellbook was lying amongst her schoolbooks on her bed. Picking it up felt like lifting a ton of bricks. She flipped through the pages with great effort, sinking deeper into the bed. There was no simple spell to fix it. It would be an antidote. Although it felt like a metal crowbar, she reached out her hand to pick up her potion book.

After what seemed like an eternity, she found it. The most intricately complex antidote there was. In her healthy state it could have taken her three hours, maybe more. Now… she already had so much to do without spending all night making an antidote. She sunk into the bed. The crushing weight of exhaustion overwhelmed her.

She was awoken some time later by Wisteria knocking on the open door. Autumn brought her a cup of herbal tea. Wisteria took a deep breath then spoke. “When we decided to do this, we rushed in a little. We should have talked it over more, and I’m sorry for that.”

“I just sometimes think if both of you want to do something and I don’t, you’ll outvote me and saying I don’t want to do it will just make you both mad at me.” Silver said, “Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize, its not your fault. I just want you to know that it’s not majority rules every time. If you don’t want to do something that could hurt you or put you in danger, we won’t make you.”

“That being said, we are in this mess now.” Autumn added, “Just tell us what you need us to do, and we’ll do it.”

Silver smiled. “It’s just a recipe, just like cooking.”

Hours later, the final parts of the antidote were simmering over the stove. Wisteria and Autumn had followed each instruction precisely. The cauldron sat on the floor next to Silver. “How come just anyone can’t do Sorcery?” Autumn asked.

“Because you have to say incantations to activate the potion.” Silver said. “And sometimes you do incantations without a potion.”

Autumn sighed. “It’s so much work.”

“So is Wizardry.” Wisteria said, “You have to know all the runes and how they can interact with other runes to make different spells.” She paused. “There are 24 runes, but that gives you over a million different combinations. Its like a language.”

“How do you do it?” Silver asked

“I have a study group that meets once a week.”

Silver thought on this. “Smart,” She nodded.

“You should get one, it would do you good.”

“I think I will.”

“Guys,” Autumn said, “Do we need to add the stuff now?”

Silver checked the instructions. “Yes.”

Wisteria and Autumn poured the last parts in, and Silver began to chant. “Pro hac maledictione mihi, fontes luctantur, dolorem hinc longe auferatur.” The potion shifted from brown to bright purple. Autumn filled a glass with the potion and handed it to Silver. Her hand was heavy, so heavy when she reached for it. She struggled to carry it to her mouth. It burned her throat on the way down, but the pain was replaced by the relief of feeling much lighter. She moved her hand up and down, feeling the heaviness fade.

The ghost of the crone appeared once more. “You have passed the second challenge, Sorcerer. I hope you now see why Witches form Covens and don’t strike out alone. Although,” She said turning to Autumn, “You might want to try being more honest with each other. Giving you a stronghold won’t help you much if I don’t teach you anything.” She turned to Wisteria. “For your final challenge, venture out into the field. Bring no one.” Once more, she disappeared.

“Are you okay now?” Autumn asked Silver.

“It’s amazing, it’s like I’ve been carrying a bag with a ton of bricks in it everywhere and now I’ve put it down.”

“Look at you being all considerate now Autumn.” Wisteria said, “What happened?”

“When I was doing my challenge, I realised, like properly…how do I say this? I can’t admit people are better than me, I just keep fighting them and pretending that I’m better. I used to be smart, and get good grades, and I learned how to levitate before my older sister, and people would say, “Oh Autumn, you’re so talented,” and then I slowed down, and I stopped being good at everything. Everyone else started being better than me and it took me so long to realise that other people were genuinely skilled at stuff that I always thought of as my thing.” She took a shuddering breath, and Wisteria placed a hand on her hand. “And then when people do well, I say things that bring them down and I push them away, but I don’t want to.” Tears were running down her face now, “I want to be a better friend to you guys, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I keep letting you down.” She turned to Silver. “That was a really hard test Silver. I cheated, that’s why I got an A.”

Silver was taken aback by this. She was silent for a moment. “How many tests do you cheat on?” Autumn didn’t answer. “How many tests do you cheat on!” She yelled.

“Almost all of them, in some way.” Autumn said, not meeting her eyes. Silver laughed. “So, all this time I’ve felt bad about myself because I study for days to get grades you get without even studying, you’ve been cheating? I’ve just been comparing myself to a lousy cheat!?”

“I’m sorry!”

“No, stop. You don’t get forgiven just because you cried.”

Wisteria tried to step in. “Silver calm down.”

“Calm down? She nearly got me killed with these stupid challenges that we’re only taking because of her overinflated ego. Saying sorry doesn’t fix that. I’m done letting things like this slide, as soon as this is over, I’m leaving.”

“Both of you, listen. That Witch wants us to fail and if you start fighting, all we’ve done is for nothing. Autumn, it’s not good that you cheated on all your tests and you’re gonna fail as soon as someone finds out, but it is good that you’ve owned up and apologised. Just maybe don’t tell the school. Silver, I get that you’re hurt, but you being a massive people pleaser isn’t our fault, and lashing out at Autumn isn’t going to help.” Wisteria sighed. “We’ll talk about it later.” She picked up her rune bag and left.

The dark stormy night made her feel uneasy. As a Witch, Wisteria was no stranger to being alone in the dark but tonight was different. Something in the air felt dangerous. The wind whipped her hair into her face, and the rain started to soak her hair. Her coat blocked some of the chill, but she still shivered. The crone appeared. “That was quite the scene.”

“Go find another Coven to harass.” She snapped.

“I only meant to help you.” That seemed unlikely. “I see you’ve brought your runes. You don’t need them.”

“I thought this was a test of magic.”

“But good Witches don’t rely solely on their magic. She must have the wisdom to know when to use them, and skills for when she can’t.” My request is simple. Find the brooch my granddaughter lost here many years ago and return it to my resting place.”

“Why? You’ve got one right there.” Wisteria pointed to the brooch pinning the crone’s cloak together.

“The very same. Alas, before I was buried, my granddaughter stole it. Since I was wearing it when I died, I can’t move further than a mile from where I was laid to rest.”

“So do you know where it is?”

“In the forest, although exactly where I do not know. It lies just beyond my reach.” She disappeared again. Wisteria set out towards the forest at a walk, then looked at the time on her watch. It was 5:30. She only had an hour in which to finish the challenge. She started to run.

After a short walk into the forest, Wisteria found a tree with a small hollow in it close to the castle. She reached inside and found the brooch, wondering where the grave was. There was a grave here. She shivered. After thinking for a moment, she laid out five runes in a circle and put the brooch in the centre. Before she could activate them, the crone burst out from the ground. “I told you not to use these!” She stumbled backwards, scared. The crone didn’t follow her. “This is the border?” She asked, “Right here.” The crone nodded slowly. Wisteria took out her phone and saved the coordinates of the location. She gathered her runes ran to a spot around 100 metres away. Holding up a rune, she started to activate it, but the crone appeared in front of her. Although she was prepared for it, she still dropped it in surprise. She picked it up and ran until the crone could no longer follow, then saved the coordinates again. She repeated this, then used an AI tool to find the coordinates to the midpoint of the circle.

“What is that?” The crone exclaimed.

“I’m sure you’ve spied on us enough to know what this is.” She walked to the coordinates, deep in the forest, and placed the brooch in the casket. “Done.” She said, giving the Crone a small bow.

“You have passed your challenge,”

“I know.”

“But what you haven’t proven is that you can lead your Coven. And we both know that you are the leader. I have one final challenge for you, defeat the final ghost of my Coven, and you may take the stronghold.” Wisteria sighed and walked towards the castle. After a few paces she looked back, seeing the crone looking out toward the forest, “You aren’t going to disappear dramatically again?” The crone’s head snapped towards her, and she realised it was a different ghost. One with glowing red eyes and a demonic stare. It started to chase her; she sprinted towards the castle.

She reached it, ran in and slammed the door. “If there was any time to stop fighting, its now!” Wisteria yelled at the others. “Murderous ghost we gotta defeat!”

“We got a what now?” Autumn said, before it flew through her and knocked her down. “You’re supposed to be incorporeal!” she attempted to use air to shield herself.

“It’s the Equinox,” Silver exclaimed, rushing out of her room.

“Well how do we kill it, its already dead!”

“We don’t have to kill it! She said defeat it! Does holding it off till sunrise count as defeat?” Wisteria said

“NO!” The crone yelled, then disappeared.

“How long till then anyway?” Autumn asked

“Ten minutes.” Silver answered. Wisteria remembered something from when she’d come here years ago. “Autumn! Break the tiles in the corner of the kitchen! Before this place was renovated there was a trapdoor to the basement there.” Without hesitation, Autumn controlled earth to do so. Wisteria jumped down the ladder. In the centre of the room, she found what she was looking for. Ghost hunting weapons. She took them and ran back up, throwing Autumn the mace, Silver the sword and keeping the dagger. Silver stabbed at the ghost.

“How long does it take to kill it?” Autumn asked, letting down her guard momentarily. The ghost knocked her down again, and Wisteria threw her dagger at it. Autumn screamed. The ghost vanished. The blade fell to the floor. Silver laughed, a genuine one. “Relax, it can’t hurt you.” She said. “The only part you can touch is the handle, why else would Wisteria throw a mace at you?” The sun began to rise. Although the crone didn’t reappear, Wisteria felt her magic strengthen. The chill in the air seemed to fade.

“It’s okay.” She heard Silver say to Autumn, who breathed a deep sigh of relief. Maybe, just maybe, they would be okay.