Coven
Vrhovniot watches the other dæmon fade as Fiona slashes the girl's throat. The skylark had been flying around looking at the portraits when he felt the pain across his throat. The bird burst into Dust barely halfway to his human and Fiona, still Supreme, laughs in the back of her throat.
'She clearly wasn't that close to taking the crown.' The witch smiles, sitting down and placing a hand on the tiger's head. 'I don't know what we were worried about.'
Vrhovniot shakes her hand off, scowling up at her and beginning to pace around the body. 'We were worried that she wasn't the Supreme at all. Because, if she wasn't, we now have even more problems on our hands.'
Fiona scoffs, waving a hand at Spalding to move the body. His mastiff dæmon nudges Vrhovniot slight and, with a snarl to keep her cowed, he saunters back to his girl's side.
'If she was, we're fine.' Fiona smiles, watching Spalding work with a distinct lack of interest. 'If she wasn't, we'll just have to find out who is.'
'And then?' The tiger sneers, already knowing the answer.
'And then we kill her.' Fiona smirks. 'Whoever she happens to be.'
'Don't make me wear it, Delia.'
Cordelia sits on her bed, one hand on her dæmon's back, the other clutching the leash they have been giving to connect them. Neither knows what it looks like, if it will be obvious to the world that her soul is being chained up like a pet.
'You know we can't risk being separated. We could wonder off in separate directions, you could fall down the stars. We have to be connected physically so we don't stretch the bond too far.'
The lynx growls, through the sound has lost its fury. 'The Salem Witches were Stretched anyway. If we underwent the trials-'
'They would never let us, Vtor. We've just got to just accept it.'
Vtoriot growls again, even weaker than before. Cordelia just continues to stoke his back, trying to sooth herself with the movement.
'We're going to be blind forever, Delia.' He mutters into the pillow, voice breaking. 'We'll never see anything, not Hank, not Fiona, not anything. I hate this.'
Cordelia frowns, feeling tears forming in her unseeing eyes. 'I know, Vtor. But you have to wear the leash.'
The lynx snarls, finally sounding fierce. They haven't lost all their fight.
Marie glares after Papa Legba as he carries off the baby she offered him. Her dæmon opens his mouth, as if for a second he thinks he can sink his fangs into the spirit but Marie grabs him, pulling him back as the spirit disappears. Ratu squirms out of her grasp, hissing at her.
'Don't you touch me.' The snake says, fangs dripping with venom as he speaks. 'Don't you ever, ever touch me like that again.'
She smack his tail, almost forcing him off the chair they are resting on. 'I wouldn't if you managed to restrain yourself. He owns us, he owns our soul.'
Ratu scowls at the wall, the deal having always been a sore spot for him. 'I thought I was your soul. I was expecting him to take me and he didn't.'
Marie scoffs. 'You make it sound like a bad thing. Is it not better to say here? Do you really want to leave with the spirit of death?'
Ratu suddenly lashes out, sinking his teeth into her arm. She throws him away, standing as he curls up in the corner. 'I wanted him to take me away from you.'
Marie leaves, staying silent.
Kebanggaan tilts his head up as the iguana shuffles past, the pig keeping his eyes closed in dignity. He will not bend to the black girl's pressure, he won't give her that satisfaction.
'You can open your eyes, they're gone.'
The dæmon moves close to Delphine as he opens his eyes, allowing her to rest a hand on his head. 'What do you think the latest show was about?'
The girl had been parading her dæmon in front of them since they arrived but had recently began to leave him in the room with them, leaving with a smirk.
'Probably think it shows she has a soul. She must believe that, because she has a dæmon, she must be the same as us.'
Kebanggaan snorts, rolling his eyes in the direction the iguana left. 'By showing us her unnatural ways? Only freaks can keep such a distance from their dæmons.'
Delphine smirks but her eyes glance around fervently, hoping that none of the other, more powerful witches heard that. 'Of course. But, much to my dismay, we surrounded by all manner of unnatural things. It's almost insulting.'
The scoff that Kebanggaan makes tell Delphine how insulting he actually finds it.
'Well, it fits I suppose.'
Zoe stares at the counter, watching her dæmon inspect himself in the mirror. Taruna has only recently settled, the shock of seeing their boyfriend dying having forcing him to pick a form without even realising.
'I mean.' He says, turning his small body to face her properly. 'They call us a Black Widow, don't they? That's got to be good.'
Zoe sighs, wishing the spider didn't seem so excited about them being in the strange witch school. 'Only you could could think that it's a good thing. We killed Charlie, remember?'
Taruna shakes his tiny head, moving each leg in turn. Zoe would love to find out more about his form, to get used to how he will be for the rest of their life but she also doesn't want to be close to him when he acts like that.
'I don't think the kill is a good thing.' He admits, climbing along the wall to get to her. 'But you have to admit the magic is cool.'
Zoe sighs, holding a hand out for him to rest on. He squints, managing to transmute himself to her palm. 'Yeah, I suppose you could say that.'
Madison pulls on her coat, Oddyn flying over to rest on her shoulder as soon as the fur is covering it. The skylark, only recently reunited with his girl, shakes his feathers out, glaring at the door of their room as Madison grabs their stuff, moving everything into their bag with her mind.
'We'll show them, Mad.' He mutters darkly, the wardrobe beginning to shake. 'We'll make them regret this.'
Madison rolls her eyes. 'Stop being so melodramatic. You sound like a B-lister in Annie, Od.'
Oddyn begins preening, ignoring her words as they continue to pack away all their memories and souvenirs from their time at the academy, realising that none of the thoughts are happy ones. They've been wasting their lives here when they could have been famous, could have won a dozen awards by now.
'In a few months, they'll be begging me to come back.' Madison says, smirking at her own gorgeous reflection. 'They'll be telling everyone they know about how they went to school with me and how well they know me, won't they Od? Od, Oddyn are you listening?'
She looks past her dæmon, following his gaze. Kyle is stood at the door.
Svica picks the coin up in his mouth, flipping it upwards and watching it fall. It lands heads and he picks it up again, throwing it over and over, sighing each time it falls, as if both the options are a disappointment. Heads, tails, tails, heads; no throw seems to cheer him up. The iguana finally stops when the door opens and Queenie walks in, carrying groceries.
'What are you doing?' The girl asks her dæmon, placing the bags on the sofa and walking towards him.
'Tails for voodoo, heads for witches.' He says back. 'Only, I don't want either choice. It's infuriating.'
'Sounds it.' Queenie sighs, placing a hand on his back and picking him up, putting the coin in her pocket. 'We've still got to make a decision. We can't go back to the Salon and I don't know if the witches will have us back.'
They both look up as screams echo around the apartment. Queenie waves a hand and the sound stops, muffled by their magic. Svica sighs, his tail wrapping her arm as she cradles him.
'We'll just have to make a decision.' Queenie mutters. 'Just choose one.'
Svica snorts. 'I know, that's the problem.'
The eagle flies through the neighbourhood, picking up on each person's thoughts as he passes over them. Most are boring; ideas of what to have for lunch, what to wear tomorrow, etc. Others are imaging things and Taraha soars above them for a few moments, revelling in ideas of winning the lottery, becoming famous or fighting a hundred bad guys at once. The novelty takes a while to wear off but, once it has, he curves back towards the Academy, flying through the window and landing on Nan's shoulder.
'Anything interesting happening?'
Taraha shrugs, Nan running a finger through his chest feathers, straightening them out. 'Not really. One guy was going to do some terrible things but I got rid of those thoughts.'
Nan nods, the idea not a new one. Since they discovered they could change what people thought, they had been doing some low level goodness as often as they could.
'What about around here?'
Nan frowns, eyes glancing around the room, as if she expects Madison or Zoe to appear and criticise her. Of course, they won't do that, because she's made them think they shouldn't do it, even if they want to.
'Nothing interesting, I guess.'
When Misty wakes, Uthnecha isn't there.
There is no feeling of loss, no overwhelming pain that people always describe the loss of a dæmon as. She isn't hurting, isn't nauseous or weak so she doesn't suspect for a moment that the crocodile isn't around. Misty calls for Uthnecha, expecting for her to come rushing around a corner, shouting about all the birds and critters she's been healing while Misty was sleeping.
But she isn't there.
Misty screams when she first realises it. Some of the creatures around her, ones that had been brought back to life in her own resurgence, collapse, their life force dragged out of them as Misty unintentionally pulls it back into herself. Soon, ones that had been alive anyway are falling, Dust streaming from their bodies to recreate Misty's dæmon.
The witch collapses, the Dust swirling around her as she struggles to pull it together, wincing as she finally makes it form the right shape. Uthnecha stands there, her scales a slightly duller green, her eyes without their usual glint but she's there and Misty couldn't be happier.
'Don't you ever do that again.'
The crocodile surges forward, embracing her girl as tightly as she can.
Kyle looks down at Garda as Fiona watches them, her eyebrows furrowed just slightly. The puppy shuffles closer to her man, attempting to hide behind his leg but Fiona's tiger bites her tail, pulling her out for Fiona to examine.
'Not a very good guard dog, are you?' The Supreme smirks, waving a hand. 'Far too small.'
Garda didn't think there was anything more painful than dying or coming back but feeling her limbs stretched out, feeling her very nature changed in far worse. She slumps on the floor once the magic is done and Fiona has walked out, leaving Kyle to sooth her, having only been fully healed recently himself.
'What am I?' She mutters. 'What did she do to me?'
'Mastiff.' He whispers back, feeling strange to have his mind back, to be able to think properly. 'She changed your form, probably so we can help better.'
Garda stands awkwardly on larger legs, Kyle watching her to make sure she doesn't fall. 'So what do we do now? What's the point of this?'
Kyle wraps an arm around her neck, holding her close. 'Well, we are coven guard dog.'
Garda nods, accepting her duty. 'We protect the coven.'