We left the hospital with my mom, checking out without any issues. When we got outside, the temperature was still incredibly high, so much so that I was sincerely tempted to go back inside. Of course the temperature within the car was even worse. I might ask Eiea about her trick to keep cool pretty soon, maybe I’ll be able to use it too. Probably not but it’s worth a shot. When we got in the car and we left, it took a moment before Eiea started driving without her hands on the wheel again. Mom panicked a bit when she saw that but she calmed down quickly. On the way back, the atmosphere was pretty cheery. Eiea suggested she come to live with us now that I knew she was my second guardian. Additionally, it would be a lot more convenient to protect us should something happen and teach me how to use my fragment. Mom blushed for a moment before happily accepting. Were they closer than I thought? It would seem so. At the same time, Eiea said :

 

“Besides, my house is bugged as all hell. And I'm tired of these witch hunters listening in on me every day.”

 

We were very surprised about that, looking at her with eyes wide.

 

“Is that why you said your house wasn’t the best place to talk yesterday?”

“Yeah. They still can’t be certain that you’ve become a witch and it’s better that it stays that way for a time. It’s also why that guy earlier knew I was lying when I said we were there last night.”

 

Mom seemed a bit worried.

 

“Are they going to bug our house too?”

“It’s fine, I won’t let them. I deliberately let them bug mine because I thought they would leave me alone more easily. They have less of an incentive to bother me if they know what I do every day. They won’t do the same in your house, I assure you I can sniff out any bug they might put in.”

“Is the car bugged too?”

 

We were suddenly very nervous but Eiea comforted us

 

“No there is none here. I remove them every time they try to put some. After all, I use my fragment often in this car. Even if they already know that I'm a witch, they would come to annoy me if they knew I still use it often.”

 

She seemed relieved to know that. I understood the sentiment. I also wouldn’t be able to talk normally if I knew a stranger was listening to everything I said. However, the last comment prompted a question in my mind.

 

“If they hunt witches and they know you are one, why are they leaving you alone in the first place?”

 

An awkward air floated around Eiea for some time before she answered.

 

“I’m… somewhat of a celebrity in the world of witches. Even though it's been a long time since I fought them, they are still scared of me. I assume their leaders preferred to leave me alone since I wasn’t getting in their way anymore. I waited a long time for them to come and finish me off while I didn’t care that they did, but they never even tried. And now I’ve got a reason not to let them do as they please. They missed their opportunity and they are probably gonna regret that.”

 

“You would have… let them kill you?”

“...”

 

Eiea stayed silent for a moment. It seemed like she didn’t want to talk about it.

 

“I’ll tell you both what happened in the past at some point. But… not right now.”

 

We accepted this with a nod, but it soured the mood in the car for the remainder of the ride until our next stop.

 

We stopped at Eiea’s house on the way so she could grab some things. After hearing some shuffling and the noise of heavy stacks of books falling down for a while, Eiea came out with a large plastic bag. She chucked it in the trunk without much care and sat back at the wheel.

 

“I’ll come to do some cleaning in my books later. There is no way I can bring them all to the new house anyway.”

“Are you gonna sell them?”

“Some yes, but I will probably ask an acquaintance to grab and keep them for me. I bought most of these because I liked them, not only to have something to sell in the bookstore, so I don’t want to part with them just yet.”

 

I was relieved to hear that. There were still a lot of books in the store I wanted to read ; it would be a shame for such a collection to be simply sold off. I also wouldn’t have to live in a house filled to the brim with towers of books.

 

By that point we were not far at all from home so it took barely 5 minutes for us to arrive. When we pulled up to the driveway, I was expecting the same dreadful emotion I had earlier before going to the hospital. Yet, I was pleasantly surprised to be feeling the same elation of being where I belong as I had before the incident of yesterday. Eiea grabbed her bag of things and I didn’t forget to pick up my anniversary present that was still in the glove box. Actually, now that I had the leisure to think about it, this book… It was the story of a man who had lived a night in a city of witches, Walpurgis. Before I thought that the author’s adamant declaration about it being a recollection of his real experience was just a neat publicity stunt. But now that I knew… It was actually the real deal, wasn’t it. The authentic recollection of a normal man brought to a city full of witches. My itch to read it became even more intense than it was before.

 

“Hey Eiea, this is actually a real story, isn’t it?”

 

She replied with a grin.

 

“It sure is! At the time I wasn’t in Walpurgis anymore so I never met him, but from his descriptions I can guarantee that he really did go to the capital of witches. I was pretty surprised at the witch hunters, letting it be published so easily, but I guess it was advantageous for them in some way.”

 

I see... Hold on, she wasn’t in Walpurgis anymore? So she was there before the events of the book? It was published 30 years ago, how old is she ?! She looks barely 25! My train of thought began turning in a circle as I became stunned in place. I stayed there for a moment, in the middle of the lobby, before Mom asked me what I was doing. I shoved the questions multiplying in my head to the back so I could go help Eiea unpack her stuff. The house only had two bedrooms, so she would sleep in mom’s bedroom. Eiea seemed really happy with that setup and Mom seemed too embarrassed to look me in the eyes. Alright, these two are a lot closer than I thought they were for sure. I mean, for Eiea to legally become my second guardian, Mom definitely had to trust her a lot but I never knew they had that kind of relationship. I felt pretty happy but also a bit awkward.

 

After everything was unpacked in the bedrooms upstairs, we went back down to the living room. There we found an uncomfortable remainder of yesterday’s incident in a small bloodstain in the wall where Mom had hit the wall. Looking at it made my stomach churn and woke up the feeling of guilt that had previously been dealt with. I could feel the color draining out of my face. Eiea, obviously sensing the tense atmosphere, dealt with it rapidly. She approached the spot and, touching the stain with a hand, closed her eyes. She caressed the bloody patch a few times and, before long, the stain peeled off the wall like semi-dry paint. We looked at her funny, unsure of what she had done. She picked it off from the floor and went to dump it in the toilet, flushing it down and removing it from our sight.

 

“This is better.”

“What kind of trick was that?”

 

Mom asked the question before I could, but I was curious as well.

 

“That one is a bit advanced so I won’t talk about it right now.”

 

Shrugging off the question, Eiea sat down on the couch, gesturing us to join her. I was slightly dissatisfied with the lack of an answer but I followed her directions, Mom also joining us.

 

“So...”

 

Eiea still looked a bit reluctant, shining a light on what she wanted to talk about.

 

“There is another important thing I was gonna tell you at the hospital before being interrupted. It’s probably the most important aspect of becoming a witch so I want to talk about it as soon as possible so you both have time to digest what it means.”

 

We nodded, tension appearing on our face. Eiea’s tone was grave, even more so than when she talked to me yesterday at Geoffrey’s inn. Her expression revealed a mix of sadness and stress, making me gulp expectantly. After a moment of silence, she asked us a question.

 

“You two, how old do you think I am?”

 

Ah I see, this is when we talk about it. My questions from earlier resurfaced. She could not possibly be as old as she looked. She said that she was present at Walpurgis before the event of “A Night in Walpurgis”, which was published 30 years ago in 1988. I didn’t know at what age Eiea went to the city, but if she left then maybe I can at the very least assume she was legally an adult one year before leaving. That would make her 48 years old at a minimum. When looking at her, saying so could only be construed as a joke. No anti-aging method was this good. At least not any “known” ones… Mom, who didn’t know about the book, gave a reasonable answer.

 

“Hum, maybe at the end of your 20s? Or the start of your 30s? You look younger than that but you’ve got some pretty old-feeling movie tastes...”

 

Oh, Mom based it on what movies she likes. That kind of makes sense, since it’s the one activity we do together pretty often. I know they are quite intimate now but I guess that means Eiea didn’t tell her age to Mom. She wouldn’t be asking the question in the first place if she had told her anyway.

 

“Maybe around 50?”

 

I aimed a bit higher than my estimate from the book’s information. Mom looked at me funny, which was completely warranted. Nobody would guess that number from her looks. Before I could explain myself, Eiea answered.

 

“You guessed this high because you know I was in Walpurgis before the events of the book, right? That’s a good guess but you are completely off. Not that I would expect you to actually hit the right number.”

 

Eiea chuckled a bit and Mom looked at her with wide eyes. You could see the “what the hell do you mean” look floating on her face. Well, she just learned that her girlfriend was at the very least several decades older than she thought, so it’s quite normal to be shocked. It was followed by a look of slight indignation.

 

“You were that old and you never told me? Am I your girlfriend or am I not?!”

 

Mom made a show of being angry and pouting, although she was clearly not actually that mad. I guess she felt she had the obligation to put up some resistance to such a shocking development even though she didn’t really mind. I giggled. Mom was often that way, barely getting angry but hyperbolizing for the sake of making a point. It wasn’t a very effective way to get it across, however, since her real feelings were clear for all to see. Eiea also giggled.

 

“Sorry Veronica. I didn’t want to lie to you and I couldn’t tell you my actual age as you would have never believed me.”

 

Eiea paused for emphasis.

 

“The truth is, I am 341 years old.”

 

..wat. We blinked a few times, unable to compute the much larger number than we were expecting. It was so much larger than my expectations or my estimation that it took several seconds to sink in. Mom seemed in a similar state, her mouth slightly agape in surprise, which slowly turned towards an expression of shock.

 

“Three hundr...”

 

Her voice trailed off. We sat in silence for what was probably several minutes, Mom and I furiously trying to process that single information while Eiea looked at us patiently, a mix of anxiety and laughter at our reaction hanging on her face. I ended up accepting the fact fairly easily, after all Eiea always had that air of mystery to her that didn’t particularly leave this particular twist of imagination impossible. Mom, however, had it a lot harder to accept such an outrageous number. She was her girlfriend after all, the level of the relationship was quite different. Eventually, Mom took a large gulp of air and, closing her eyes, expelled it very slowly, trying to calm herself down. Then, she simply said :

 

“That is a lot.”

“Hahaha, I told you you wouldn’t have believed me before.”

“No shit!”

 

They looked at each other for a moment, Mom harboring an angry look and Eiea a wry grin, before slipping into a hearty laugh.

 

“I understand why it was so hard to say now.”

 

Mom seemed like she had finished dealing with the blow, but I felt what she said was wrong as soon as I heard it. I don’t know what made me so sure, but I didn’t think Eiea would have been so reluctant just to say that, even if it was some pretty shocking news. What had made her so anxious was something else. It didn’t take much longer for Mom to reach that conclusion as well, as she soon stopped laughing and tension returned to her frame.

 

“You have noticed. The next question is, ‘How did I reach that age without dying like any other person?’”

 

Eiea paused, letting us absorb the question.

 

“It is because… witches do not age.”

 

Yet another stunned silence fell in the room.

 

“To be precise, they stop aging naturally once their body reaches what could be described as ‘peak condition’. For most people, that ends up being around 21 to 25 years old. I’ve looked like this for nearly 320 years. Maria, now that you are a witch… you will be the same. You will age for one more decade or so before stopping indefinitely. Witches do not die of old age. They live eternally as long as they are not killed.”