My First Coven

We Didn't Start the Fire

 Auntie M and I had found a pretty nice cafe in town to have a bit of lunch. Dinner as Auntie M called it as where she was from it went; breakfast, dinner and tea and not breakfast, lunch and dinner. We were sat in a cosy booth away from a lot of the other cafe diners with some huge elegant looking sandwiches, if sandwiches could be elegant. I had tuna salad on brown and Auntie M had cheddar cheese and salad on malted brown. The bread was fresh and tasted amazing; all washed down with large lattes. I sat with a bunch of bags beside me, one with my new spell book in and a few more with various other bits and bobs Auntie M had bought for me. She had bought me some different coloured candles, some essential oils of peppermint, chamomile, lavender, tea tree and sandalwood, some dried herbs; basil, mint, sage and thyme, a small bottle of almond carrier oil and a few cute little bottles with screw tops.

'Fresh herbs work better in most cases, but dried herbs are fine when you're stuck.' She told me.

I had asked her loads more questions whilst we were eating. Like what we had to do as witches, were we allowed to tell anyone, had my Auntie M come across anything really horrible she had to get rid of.

'Hmm a few years ago me and the coven had to exorcize a particularly nasty demon from a woman in Northampton. She was a parishioner of St Mary's which was kind of funny at the time but even the vicar couldn't get the damn thing out of her. He called a friend of his who called another friend who contacted us.'

'And did you get the demon out?' I asked, hanging on her every word and pausing to take a bite of my sandwich.

'Of course we did. It wasn't easy though. The lady had more than a few chinks in her armour so the demon was clinging to her like shit to a blanket. Turns out she had quite the shady past and the guilt had caught up with her.'

'Wow. What did you do?'

'Drew the demon out and banished it. Simples.'

I was a little bit gobsmacked after hearing that, then Auntie M carried on talking.

'I'm not just here to take you through your early witch years Maddie, I have to tell you this.'

'What do you mean.'

'Well,' Auntie M said, laying her sandwich down on her plate, 'Your school is surprisingly magical and not in a good way.'

I frowned. 'What do you mean by that?'

'It appears to be a beacon for bad juju. You'll feel it soon enough now your abilities have manifested but I think it has something to do with your old chemistry teacher dying, the whole place has some jumbled up vibes.'

'Mrs Clarkson? How so?' I was puzzled now.

'I think she was a guardian of your school. She had been there a long time am I right?' Auntie M asked me.

'Yeah quite a long time.'

'That's interesting because none of us in the community or coven actually knew about her. She may have been a covenless witch. We also have a tendency to keep our powers under wraps especially from strangers or warlocks, we don't really get on with warlocks that well.'

I was learning even more now.

'Not all witches belong to a coven, not all witches are good and the same goes for warlocks. We keep ourselves to ourselves as the bad ones of our kind would rather prefer our powers be theirs. In fact that may even be the first spell I tech you, especially because you're a new witch your powers are gonna be all over the place.'

Auntie M wiped her hands on a napkin and signalled for me to reach mine over to her. She held my hands in hers and closed her eyes.

'Just breath normally for now Maddie and do what I say.'