Chapter 8
(The witches pov)
Holding her basket of teas with a few lemons, the witch makes her way down to the café hoping to check in with Rayne after the other day she makes a mental note to go thank Bruno and turn in some books for him, the bell to door rings pleasantly as she enters and her eyes narrow to the girl at the counter. “Maya Bryne. You better be distancing yourself from those teas.”
The girl in question jumps at this and hastily replies with “Yes Madam, Madam Visha still knows your rules, I’m working with Rayne Sirius over there to make sure.”
The witch nods in approval as she moves to put the teas in their spaces on the counter heading to put the rest on a shelf out the back leaving the lemons in a basket left for the fruit she brings, tutting softly at the fact there’s one or two moldy ones left over from her last visit.
“Madam!” Rayne calls out just as she’s about to leave, the witch turns in response as Rayne continues “My family wants to have you over for dinner to thank you for your assistance the other day! I wouldn’t have known what to do without you, please don’t feel intimidated to join but we’d love to have you.” Quirking up an eyebrow the witch just nods
“I might, your father is a retired deputy, right?” Rayne just nods dumbly at the fact the madam had known that already… “Alright what time shall I head there I needed to ask some questions, old folk like myself can’t keep up with everything in this modern media time, you know I need to check to make sure I still have the same rights as I did what 30 odd years ago? They had tried to force everyone to join the deputies, hah what a time…” Rayne just nods and goes to write her address and the time on a slip of paper and sees the madam off before continuing her work for the day.
The witch hastily makes her way up the stairs to the shrine, thinking as she does so that this is such a nice view before casting away the thought when memories of a burning town down below where the city now lays threaten to take over. She was greeted by a statue of an old god one that looks like it resembles the old god of stars, making her way past to a humble shrine clearly also used as a living arrangement due to lack of popularity for the god she knocked on the door well maintained for something this far up the mountains. A man with the appearance of a scholar welcomes her at the door “Ah hello you must be the Madam Rayne was talking about! Come in, come in I am Zain, this is my husband Asier and our wife Nova. Rayne is just setting up the table and her sister will be home soon. May we be greeted with your name?”
Passing the basket to Nova Sirius as a welcoming gift, the witch gulped before clearing her throat. “Ah well I am referred to as Madam yes, however the name assigned to me is Estelle, it’s a pleasure to meet you all.” Hiding her face with the front of her hair as the rest of it cascades down her back a dull green colour which would be seen as unnatural should the cling of magic not be vaguely present but as muted as possible. The house surrounds her almost vibrates with the stuff as how the god of stars magic did when he was alive, yet none of these people have the same cling to it as Rayne does a clear realisation hits her.
While Estelle is having this realisation, Asier and his husband come to the same realisation as well, this woman is not related to a god and holds no title. Rayne walked in when the Madam, Estelle her mind supplies, begun greeting her parents surprised to say the least she’d never even heard Ms Visha never even mention a name while talking about the Madam!
The room has a tense silence that begins to grow as the seconds pass, sensing this Rayne decides it’s time to interrupt “Fathers, Madam. The tables been set, feel free to come and sit down” she calls out and moving to direct them to the table where her Mother has already moved towards in order to put the fruit that fills the basket into a bowl accompanied by the teas and herbs brought. Placing the basket over by the entrance of the room for madam Estelle to pick up on the way out Nova calls out “Feel free to have as much or as little as you want anything left over goes to the farmers who work down the other side of the mountain to have for lunch, it’s a small tradition we’ve all had to show that are hard work continues to put food on everyone’s tables! It’s a great way to motivate people even in the winter when resources are scarce and during the summer when at least eighty percent of our produce is being sold.”
The tense silence from before is almost forgotten when Zain and Estelle begin reciting old poetry to each other and the history behind folk lores that have been told throughout the country, Asier on the other hand focuses on his food mind swimming about how she can know such stories that the deputies have brushed over from the publics eyes.
“Well, you sure are well informed Madam Estelle! Maybe you could teach Rayne or let her borrow some books, either way it’d be great experience for her, and she could help you with whatever you need, she has wanted to run an antique shop since she was a little lady! We could hardly drag her away from anything old as a child, she has memorised a lot of my books from my time as a wandering storyteller. It was always adorable seeing her hold a book that’s heavier than herself while all the other lads and lasses would be off running amuck! Even her sibling agrees, always trying to drag her away from whatever thing she was looking at or reading!” The person in mention blushing bright red as Zain spoke about her.
About to laugh and offer Rayne if she wanted to help her out moving old books to her friend Bruno who could lend her books as well, Estelle is cut off by a loud slam of a door.