Eva and I spoke non-stop for my entire stay at her house over the weekend. She had so many questions about magic, and I was free to answer them now. I didn’t hold back a single ounce of the truth. I told her everything that happened to me the night of the event, my death, resurrection, and then my change.

Of course, when I mentioned that I’d died, she’d freaked out and pulled me to her. “What do you mean you died? And how did you have magic beforehand?”

“Uh… I got shot?” I said, framing it more as a question. I’d just finished the story of my ordeal that night, and yeah…

She bonked me lightly on the head with a clenched fist. “Yeah, I get that, dummy. I mean… shit, you fully died?”

“I bled out on the steps of the altar, yeah,” I nodded, trying not to remember how that had felt. “I’d really like it if we… sort of skipped over that part. It wasn’t a pleasant experience.”

Her frown had an aura the size of a city block as she stared into my eyes. “Fine, but I get to cuddle you again, to make up for it.”

“To make up for—“ I protested, before she tackled me prone onto her bed again. “What do you mean, to make up for it?”

“Cuddles help with trauma,” she murmured, snuggling in close. My whole body was like a lightning rod for sensation. Every nerve was firing, reporting the feel of her body pressed against mine in exquisite detail.

“Eva,” I gasped, my hand coming up to flutter uncertainly across her back. “Eva… I…”

“Okay, so maybe I need the cuddles to feel better about the fact you got killed protecting me,” she mumbled, shifting her face so it was right in the fluff of my big fox ear. “I feel so bad.”

“I mean, I’m here now.” I tried to make my voice reassuring, but it came out sort of strangled. Concentration in the face of soft girl cuddles was not my strong suit.

“I know,” she whispered, tickling my ear fluff. God, please Eva, ease up on me. I really wanted to wrap her up completely in my arms and just… squeeze. I wanted to feel even more contact, I wanted to— 

No, stop. Stop. She’s your best friend, not a relationship prospect. Bad Tia.

“My family is magic, Eva,” I told her, rather than addressing the very intense position we were in. “I have a really old bloodline, potent magic that survived all the witch burnings and shit. I always knew about it, practiced when I could. Until the whole magic catastrophe thing, magic was all but dead, remember?”

“Oh… right, yeah, you did explain a bunch of magic shit to me, didn’t you?” she asked, sitting up to straddle me. That position was even worse.

I smiled, even if it was a bit of a strained one. “Yeah. I did. Want to hear about the rest of my Gauntlette exploits?”

She bounced up and down, and I almost blacked out. “Yes! Keep going.”

I told her all about my adventures as Gauntlette since, and about the new supergroup I’d joined. We both agreed that calling them supergroups was actually super lame, and she proposed the name coven instead. I liked that one better. Witches are cool.

****

 

Another week passed before I could ask the other magic users about the name. Spirit Boy was a bit grumpy over the idea of calling ourselves a coven instead, but Dremea perked up at the idea.

“That’s a great idea, Lette!” she beamed at me as we all sat in a park. “Rather than being all about punching bad guys, we can bring others in too. Those who might not necessarily be good at fighting, but will be good at magic.”

“A support structure is a good idea,” Tarmack said in his graveled voice. “We should move quickly too, before the hunters get wind of what we’re doing.”

Stoneskin snorted. “You, advocating for something other than smashing people’s teeth out with your steel pipes? I’m surprised.”

The older man’s reaction was a simple narrowing of the eyes.

“I’ll put out some feelers,” Dremea said, pointedly ignoring the bickering. “It’s hard, I don’t have many contacts in the city yet. Working on it, though.”

“We need a base,” Spirit Boy said, cutting in quickly before either of the other two guys could start their squabbling up again. ”Meeting in parks and on rooftops isn’t the best, long term.”

“I was thinking about that, actually,” Dremea said, perking up. “We have a choice to make. It could be out in the broader region, or it could be inside the town. Then, we could go down, or we could go up. Personally, I’d prefer we go down below the sewers, that way we would have space to expand as our operations increase. Additionally, we could add entrances all over the city.”

“Wait!” Spirit Boy exclaimed, hopping up from the pipe he’d been sitting on. “If we’re being witches, we should go full Blackreach! Like from Skyrim! Have a huge cavern down below and everything.”

“And how exactly would we make this giant cavern?” Stoneskin asked pointedly. “Pray to God to create it? I highly doubt he’s listening these days.”

“I might be able to call in a few favours,” I said quietly, causing everyone to turn and stare.

Stoneskin was the first to speak. “Who in the fuck do you associate with that owes you the type of favour that gets a big fuck off cavern built?”

“It’s better I don’t say,” I shrugged. “Is that what we want? A big Blackreach-style cavern?”

“That sounds perfect,” Dremea agreed, and everyone else gave their nods of approval. “Let’s discuss the details of what we’ll need.”

****

 

Praying was a very strange experience, but I assumed that Artemis would hear me. I stood on the rooftop of a gas station near my house, hands clasped together and head bowed. It was dark, but the moon was almost full, so I could still see pretty well.

“Artemis, hear my prayers,” I whispered. “I’d really like to talk to you. Need to call in a favour that I think will benefit you, too, in the long run.”

“That was a pretty lame prayer,” she said, her voice speaking from behind me. “You’re too young to get involved in the best of my rituals, though.”

I turned to find Artemis standing nonchalantly on the rooftop, wearing a casual pair of jeans and a leather jacket. Her dark hair cascaded down over her shoulders, complimenting the dark eyeliner she wore.

“Heya, Artemis,” I said cordially. “You look nice. Blending in well I see?”

“I was in a nightclub, actually,” she agreed, her expression curious but impatient. “Can we get this over with? There’s a very pretty woman that was making eyes at me, and I’d like to get back to her.”

“Uh… sure,” I said, staring at her like she’d just told me aliens existed along with the gods. Artemis was out clubbing? “Well, I was wondering if you could help the coven I’ve formed with creating a base. Originally we were just thinking of a warehouse or some shit, but then we had an idea. What if we created a whole new district in the city? Somewhere that magical folks could be themselves, and also somewhere that would serve as neutral ground.”

“Ah yes, just… create a district,” Artemis scoffed. “Let me just pull one out of my ass.”

“We were thinking, maybe a giant cavern underground?” I mused, ignoring her snark.

Rather than shoot back, she considered for a moment. “That’d be doable. Otus could do with a stretch, and he’s been such a good little boy these days. Probably the tiny cage that I trapped him in after he and his brother tried to rape me. Stuffing a massive giant into a cage too small for him usually breaks the spirit.”

“O-kay,” I said slowly, staring at her apprehensively. Sometimes I forgot what the ancient Greek gods could be like.

“I have a better idea, though,” she said after a moment. “I’ve been consuming a fair amount of fiction, and there’s been a few books with a common idea. I was considering it anyway, but it wasn’t a priority.”

“What idea is that?” I asked tentatively.

Artemis had very thoroughly taken control of the conversation and the idea, apparently, and I was just along for the ride.

“Once upon a time,” she said, in the tone that always implied a story. “The hunters ravaged europe. It was a magical dead zone at the heart of an expanding plague. The surviving spirits, mages, and magical creatures all attempted to flee to the new world. To hide from the hunters, they created the Sideways Districts.”

This sounded fun, and I quirked an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“They’re basically just space, but folded strangely,” she said. “It’s a common thing, especially with fairies. The British Isles are particularly full of old Sideways paths. Anyway, there should be one in every major town on the eastern seaboard. The resurgence of magic didn’t last long in the Americas, but it did happen. I’ll look into if Concord had one, although the local Sideways District might be down in the ruins of Portland.”

“Well… uh, thank you,” I said with a grateful smile.

Artemis laughed and shook her head. “Don’t thank me just yet, my little disciple. You’ll still need to gather the necessary mages to reopen the pathways. I’m certainly not spending what little energy I still get on this. I’ll do the intellectual work, but you’ll have to find a way to provide the muscle.”

“Oh…” I deflated. Damn, that sounded like it might be tough. Wait, I wonder… “Uh, by the way. Hypothetical question, but is it possible to uh… create a mage? You know, like, turn a normal human into a mage?”

The goddess went as still as stone, staring at me with a calculating and not altogether friendly look. “Why?”

Uh oh. I’d messed up. “I want to give my friend magic…” I mumbled, raising my hands in a gesture of surrender. “Sorry. I won’t ask again.”

“It is possible, yes,” she said slowly, as if evaluating me, testing my morality. “It requires a spirit to… donate a piece of their soul. The knowledge of the exact method isn’t taboo as such, but it is guarded, and one or both of the participants could end up dead in the process. I suggest you put the notion from your mind and concentrate on more pressing matters. There’s far more useful ways to risk your life and the life of a spirit.”

“I would be the spirit, actually,” I said. “Since I am one now, right?”

“Ah, yes… that is correct,” she murmured, her head tilting, and I could almost see the lightbulb go off in her head. “Say, little lady? If I help you in your endeavours, will you serve me? Worship me, and spread my word?”

I frowned and glanced out over the city. “Uh, yeah? Maybe?”

It was a dicey deal. Old gods like her were very fucky, and I definitely didn’t want to get dragged into some wild monkey paw of a contract or some shit.

“I would make you a priestess,” she said, and to my surprise, she reached up and gently brushed a thumb across my cheek. “Something tells me this would not be too great a hardship, as it might for other girls.”

“Why is that?” I asked suspiciously.

“I require my priestesses to make a special vow of celibacy,” she said slowly, a grin spreading across her face. “In particular, all of my most loyal acolytes are forbidden from sleeping with men.”

It took me a moment to fully compute what she was saying, and then I laughed. “Yeah, okay. That’s fine with me. How about you lay it all out for me now, and I’ll agree or disagree?”

“Pragmatic little thing, aren’t you?” she chuckled. “I do not think I’ve ever had a girl so knowledgeable in the ways of gods and magic still jump at the chance to make a pact of worship with me. You humans are usually so cautious.”

“I need power and allies,” I shrugged, speaking truthfully. “You’ve helped me before, and I know your reputation. You’re good to those who follow your rules, and you destroy those who piss you off. So long as I don’t do the latter, I can enjoy the former.”

“That is correct,” she smiled, hand on hip. “In that case, here are the rules…”