Chapter Text
Eda was running.
Okay, sprinting was more of the correct word. She’d be flying if she could, but if she whipped out Owlbert now, the guards on her heels would join her in the skies too. Since they were trained for aerial chases, they’d evidently catch up to her that way, and she really didn’t need to break out of one of Warden Wrath’s vans again. That would be the third time this week.
So she had to do things the more difficult way, by running on her own two feet. Honestly, she could really use a bottle of apple blood right around now. She was going to purchase one before she was so rudely interrupted by the guards demanding her to join a coven. The stand owner had shut their blinds instantly on her, not wanting to get involved.
You’d think after the millionth time of saying your coven system is garbage and disgustingly oppressive for those who refuse to conform to it, the guards would take the hint, but alas… here they were.
Eda sighs and fires off a smoke spell behind her to throw them off a bit. They never learned.
Coughing through the smoke, one of the guards finds the strength to yell at her, their voice like an attempted battle cry piercing through the air. Huh. She probably should’ve put more smoke in that spell.
Oh well. You couldn’t win them all. She’d just keep that in mind for next time.
“Edalyn Clawthorne, by the name of the law and under the jurisdiction of Emperor Belos, stop immediately! You won’t get away with this, and you will be coming with us!”
“I’m good, thanks!” Eda calls back cheerfully.
Picking up speed, she sprints faster. This neck of the woods is considerably deeper, and it should be easier to lose them here, so the rest of this getaway shouldn’t be much of a problem.
As their boots crunch and crackle over the dead grass and leaves, the sounds of the guards behind them begin to fade. When they’re sure they can’t hear anyone anymore, they summon Owlbert, swiping the staff when it appears in midair. They extend it so the length is just wide enough to sit on, and they hop on board, tapping Owlbert on the head.
His eyes glow gold, and then they’re off, zooming through the thick brush of tree leaves like their lives depend on it. (Which, if she’s being honest, they kind of do.)
If you had asked Eda where she was going, she’d tell you that she doesn’t have a specific destination in mind, not really. The house she grew up in has long been abandoned, the ghost of her mother’s voice and the memory of her father’s eyes haunting her well enough that she refuses to go back. All she knows now is that she needs to get away, to go somewhere she can call home for the night, and make it there in time to light a fire so she’ll be warm.
The sun’s already melting into the horizon, ready to meet the moon, and the blood-orange of the skies will go dark when the two of them switch places. Night is approaching sooner than she’d like, so she urges Owlbert to move faster and lead them to a clearing to set up camp.
She has food, at the very least. It’s not much, just a sandwich and a snap-apple from the marketplace, but it’ll keep her fed. They know how to survive; they’ve practiced their entire life for times like these. If worse comes to worst, they can activate the portal key and grab a bite from the human realm, but that shouldn’t be necessary for tonight.
Eventually, the woods come to an end, and it spits them out onto an overgrown field. Startled, Eda realizes that she recognizes this field, having trekked through these patches of weeds more than enough times in her youth. She’s gotten her fair share of scratches and torn leggings just from trying to navigate the overgrown path, and there’s a tiny scar by her ankle from where a jagged rock had dug into her skin.
She’d led herself into Raine’s neighbourhood. Raine freakin’ Whispers, who’d made themself abundantly clear that they wanted nothing more to do with them all those years ago. Well, she was paraphrasing- they’d never told her to cut off contact explicitly, but they also never tried reaching out when she did.
They shouldn’t be surprised by how they’d come to this part of town. Their mission was to find someplace to make home for the night, and since they were already nearby, it was no wonder that they’d arrived at this specific spot. Raine would always be home to them, even if the years pushed them farther apart as they passed. It was a simple fact, a promise, one they’d established since the two of them were kids who didn’t know any better. They’d keep each other safe when everything else wasn’t.
The thought of them- and the two of them, together, back in the past when nothing that hurt was able to touch them- makes her heart ache. She misses that, being able to hold and be held, to love and be loved. It’s funny to think how much her life would be different now if she’d just—
No. They’d worked past that guilt. Okay, they are working past that, currently. You can’t sue her, these things take time, it’s all a delicate process. (Also, she’d probably eat the court papers you draw up, so you can’t sue her either way.) Their split was amicable, and they’d parted on good enough terms, wishing each other luck in their prospective futures.
What Raine didn’t know was that Eda had never really imagined their future without them in it. Raine had the Bard Coven, and their shiny, brand new teaching job, while they had broken dreams and nowhere to go. Their life was a never ending witch hunt, except no one else was being hunted but themself.
Activating Owlbert once more, they take flight above the weeds, making their way past them in a gust of wind. After clearing those, there are a couple long blocks to get through, stretching from the woods to the main road. Despite the distance, it’s the easiest path they’ve taken in days.
The street lights lining the roads to Raine’s house have rain-drenched posters clinging to them, hanging on for dear life. Breezing past them, she knows most of them are sharp-lined drawings of her face, with fire in her hands and a smile that looks more like a sneer.
She’s the monster they made her out to be, and it’s fine, really, she’s so fine with it. It’s flattering. Whatever.
She can’t get out of this, not in any way she likes. She’s never joining a coven, and she’ll spend the rest of her life running to maintain that. She’s not letting herself get thrown in the Conformatorium either- the walls are painfully drab and their security is laughable. She’s not staying in the human world- she doesn’t have anyone there, not like how she has—
She has someone here. She’s staying, and that’s final.
Almost approaching Raine’s house now, they pass by a couple having a late night stroll. They’re arguing over something, and it seems to be age-old, from how their responses meet each other.
“I’m just worried about you, honey,” Witch Number 1 says. Witch 2 rolls their eyes. “I don’t want them hunting you like they do with—”
Eda slows down Owlbert, her ears twitching to listen. Are they talking about her?
“Don’t you remember the guard from the other day?” Witch 2 replies, further piquing her interest. “He tried to bring me in, but when I spoke to him and showed him our certificates and my ring, he saw that I was married to you and left me alone. He just let me go with a warning and some ‘encouragement’ to think about joining a coven.”
“Of course I remember,” Witch 1 gruffs. “I pay attention. That guard is lucky I wasn’t there to beat him up for even trying to lay a hand on you.”
“No need for that, love,” Witch 2 chuckles, squeezing their partner’s hand. “If you remember that, then you should also know I’m fine staying wild,” Witch 2 retorts. “I have you with me if anything was to happen.”
“Yeah, yeah, alright,” Witch 1 says, appeased for now. “I trust you.”
The two of them kiss, and Eda feels something twinge in the instrument strings of her chest.
As the couple’s footsteps fade, disappearing around the corner, a bizarre, otherworldly, thought pops into her head like a comet streaking across a sky:
What if she and Raine got married?
There’s no guard jumping out at her, no one whispering curses in her ear, no beast coming out from its cage to terrify her. But the thought shakes her all the same, nearly getting her to fall off of her staff from how hard her heart is pounding.
She could. They could. There wasn’t any harm in asking, right?
Her mind races, trying to weigh out the pros and cons of the situation. If they got married, she’d be safe from the Emperor’s Coven. She wouldn’t have to run anymore, she’d have somewhere to go at the end of the day—
And she’d get to see Raine again.
Eda didn’t know if their childhood promise still held, but it was worth a shot. It’s no different from when their fairy dusted pinkies linked together in the dark, their lips babbling an oath for forever:
Raine would always, always be worth everything to her.
~*~
Let it be known to all of witchkind that Raine Whispers despises paperwork.
Unfortunately, much to their dismay, it’s half of the work that they have to do when they’re trying to climb the ranks to get to the top. Trying to be the new head witch of the Bard Coven isn’t easy, considering how Scooter Crane is still alive and kicking, and has been the head witch of the coven for decades.
Not that Raine was planning on killing him or anything. They didn’t want that kind of blood on their hands. If they were going to make it, they were going to make it honestly, through their sweat and tears- and if that meant filling out countless forms daily and repeating their signature until their hands hurt, then so be it. They could handle it.
These papers are really testing their patience, though. Whose idea was it to have five page forms for instrument rentals? They were just instruments, for Titan’s sake! Back when they’d gotten their violin, the process took a pouch of hard earned snails and no forms at all. It was a monetary exchange between themself and the seller, and that was it.
They couldn’t even imagine what it was like to fill out actual necessary forms for jobs. How many pages did those take? Fifty? Emperor Belos was clearly doubling down on the strict Stick To Your Chosen Track Or Get Petrified Or Disappear system he was putting in place.
Raine couldn’t wait to put an end to it.
Feeling a headache coming on, they set aside the instrument rental forms pending for approval and shuffle their papers to review their pitch plans instead. They have a meeting with Scooter Crane in a few weeks, and while he hasn’t specified what it’s about, he said they could bring suggestions for improvement within the Bard Coven if they so choose to. He gladly offered to take them to the Emperor’s Coven for further development if they seemed promising, and Raine was determined not to let him down.
Scooter was a profound presence in their life, especially since they’d joined the coven. He was a guiding mentor figure to them, teaching them everything they had to know about being a bard leader. How to work with others, managing the paperwork, learning new spells… he covered all the bases and left nothing out.
But Raine wasn’t the only candidate gunning for the head bard position. Scooter’s attention was divided among them and the other two witches their age. Raine didn’t know what their names were since they mostly kept to themself in the academy, only crossing paths between classes.
Still, Scooter took the time to mentor each of them alone, offering advice tailored to their personal strengths and weaknesses. Raine didn’t want to presume by saying they were his favourite, but he never cracked inside jokes with anyone else in the teachers’ lounge. He’d wink at them over his steaming mug of tea- which read Chai-kovsky, a pun on a music composer’s name that they recognized from a brief trip to the human realm. Eda had taken them there, and the two of them had bought several cassette tapes and CDs to bring home with them.
They tried not to think about Eda these days. It was difficult not to, with how they were the main inspiration for their planned rebellion, and how they were the reason they wanted to fight for wild witches. They would have remained covenless with her, unbound by any seal and capable of any magic, but that wouldn’t have helped anyone.
Eda was why they wanted to stay, and they were also why they had to leave and move on.
Becoming head bard would allow them full access to students and potential rebellion members, and they would be able to collect as little witches into the coven as possible, while gaining more people on their side. Emperor Belos never said why he wanted so many witches in covens, and Raine wasn’t sure if they wanted to find out. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good, and they had to do what they could to stop him.
Reaching for a red marker, they start reading over their plans again, circling and scribbling down revisions. They’re simple enough, discussing how to make instruments more accessible to, for example, those with no mouths, or those with a lack of limbs. Providing instrument stands and formulating spells that can work around them, as well as implementing these into the curriculum of all magic schools on the Isles is their main objective.
As they make more notes, their mind drifts off back to Eda again, unable to help itself. They wonder how they’re doing, and if they managed to find a home after they’d fled from the Clawthorne residence when they were younger. Eda deserved a home, and to have somewhere and someplace that would keep her safe since they couldn’t anymore.
They’d heard stirrings about the failed captures of the Owl Lady, too, passed along through the grapevine that came with working in the higher ranks. Guards would return empty handed after every attempt, bested by Eda’s magic and trickery, and Raine would always have to suppress their smile.
If Eda didn’t want to be found, then she wouldn’t be. Same went for being caught- no one was ever able to hold them down in one spot long enough. If you thought you caught her, she had you right where she wanted you, and you’d end up playing the fool.
Above all, they just hope they’re alright. Running for so long had to be tough, and they can’t help but feel a little guilty about taking a small part in that. They had a home with them, and they had left them on that hill and refused to turn back even when they heard the pained grunts of their transformation. They’d respected what she wanted to share with them, and didn’t make an attempt to cross the boundary that she’d set in place.
They miss her, they realize. It was as simple as that, yet infinitely more complicated. They’d missed her ever since they left.
Finishing up their notes now, they’re halfway through revising the last paragraph when the doorbell chimes through the house. It’s a melodic ringing noise, one that they don’t hear very often, and they purse their lips together, their eyebrows furrowing.
It could be the shipment of teaching supplies that they’d ordered yesterday for the coven. The expected delivery was supposed to be made to their office at the academy, though, so it was strange that the door was ringing now. They never requested for the mail witches to make personal deliveries; all of their deliveries were made for the coven, and anything they wanted to buy, they went to the market to purchase themself.
The doorbell rings again, interrupting their theorizing, and they huff at the noise in response. Okay, whomever this was, they were persistent, and clearly they weren’t just dropping stuff off, or they’d be gone by now. Guess they had to actually get up and see who it was.
See, this is precisely why they hated scroll-line businesses like Demonzon.
“I’m coming, I’m coming,” Raine groans, setting down the marker and scrolls of parchment on the ground. They stand up and stretch their arms up above their head before making their way over to the front door, grumbling. “You don’t need to ring it like a madman, once is just fine.”
With a sigh and a twist of the lock, they open the door, expecting one of those merchants that stop by to sell them some scam potion every once in a while. They’re already not having it, after their more-than-exhausting paperwork to deal with today, and they bring a hand to the bridge of their nose to pinch it.
“Whatever you’re selling, I’m not interested,” they say tiredly. “So if you could kindly vacate my property and leave me be, that’d be wonderful.”
The merchant clears its throat, and Raine looks up at the sound, momentarily startled. It’s… Eda, the very witch that hasn’t been able to leave their mind since they left. Time has taken its toll on her, with her typically long hair cut short and aged gray streaks tucked behind her ears.
She’s definitely not who they expected, and what they’re expecting even less are the words that come next out of her mouth. Her expression is almost sheepish as she waves- the near shy gesture seeming so out of place on her, when Raine knows her as anything but.
“Hey, Rainy,” Eda smiles, though it’s a little tight at the corners. “Wanna get married?”