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Somewhere, in a place beyond time, there was a dark castle ruled by 8 with powers divine. Now listen, as the most powerful one among them recounts the chronicle of her most magnificent inner circle…
“I wonder how I should start this story about us, our Amethyst Coven,” the head witch began… “Well, I suppose I should probably introduce myself first and foremost. My name's Ember, the coven's current Supreme Witch.” You've never heard of that title before, but you get the sense that Ember is not someone you ever want to mess with.
“I'll spare you the details of what happened to our previous one for now.” Now, that's certainly a very mysterious comment. You feel the need to inquire but this witch swiftly interjects before you can get a word in.
“Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself! Where was I again…? Oh, right,” she said. “As the Supreme Witch, I'm basically the leader and each of us specialize in a special type of magic. I bet you're wondering what that is, right?” asked the powerful sorceress. “Well, allow me to fill you in on our magical abilities,” she exclaimed.
“Now, I'm no bragger, but I just so happen to have complete mastery over the elements of fire and ice,” she stated. “Yes, I know… not the most original, but hey! You take what you can get,” admitted the elemental witch. “Besides, I didn't pass the Ascension Trial for no reason,” she added proudly. “But enough about me, tell you about my trusty second-in-command ‘Selene’...”
At this stage, you have no idea who this Selene person is, but she sounds quite important so you try to listen intently to what Ember has to say.
Just then, a small stone object begins to ring like a cellphone and so the elemental witch goes to pick up the call
“Hold on—I'm getting an emergency call on the telerune,” she announced suddenly. “No matter,” she muttered, clearly disappointed. “I suppose she'll just have to introduce herself in that case…”
With that, she guided the visitor toward the teleportation area and added, “Come on, I'll teleport you to the Lunar Enclave, the place where she resides. I got somewhere to be in a moment.”
A moment later, she paused, looking back at you as she was reaching for her TeleRune, “If you have any questions, please refer to the other Coven Witches. Bye-bye…”
A circle of icy flames appears on the ground around you, followed by a ‘wooosh’. And then, the visitor is elsewhere…
Within a moonlit garden surrounded by castle walls, sat a woman with midnight-colored hair, reading her grimoire under the white wisteria trees.
Suddenly, the wind begins kicking up the stray petals from the ground like a small scale whirlwind and next second, a person appears in its place. The woman seems to have been expecting this though, as she stops reading and gets up to introduce herself.
“Oh…? Pardon me, but might you be the visitor Madam Ember informed us about?” she ponders curiously.
The calm woman takes a slight bow before greeting the newly arrived visitor, “If so, then it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I am Selene, the Lunar Witch of the Coven.”
As she says this, she opens her eyes to reveal two identical crescent shaped pupils that shine like moonlight.
“I mainly specialize in the art of illusions and anything correlated with the moon in some manner,” she explains. “As our leader may have already told you, I am her second-in-command and as such, my role is to keep an eye on the other members should they ever run into any trouble,”
Though you can easily imagine how tiresome that job could be, you feel a sense of calm in her words, as if it's not as much of a burden to her as you think.
“Though, none of them have seemed to need much of my assistance as of late, so I've just been tending to spacetime distortions and doing my part to stabilize the mana flow in one of the many realms we preside over,” Selene adds calmly.
Now you know why you felt that she sounded relieved. “Although, the task can be quite uneventful at times. But no matter… someone has to do it,” she expressed. “However, I'll admit that I sometimes delegate some of my work to the other members whenever I'm off duty.”
You get a little curious about what she does outside of work, so you ask her about one of her hobbies.
“I quite enjoy going to a park in a nearby realm to take my mind off things every once in a while.”
You ask her what happened the last time she went there and you're a little surprised by her response: “You want to know an interesting story? Not long ago, when I was catching up with an old friend, some rude individual came up and almost got away with my grimoire,” she said, sounding irritated. “Luckily, my friend went in and got it back from him so it wasn't too bad in the end,” she continued cheerfully.
Her friend sounds pretty cool, you wonder what kind of person they are to be on such casual terms someone as powerful as Selene.
“We agreed to meet up for tea later today, so that is certainly something to look forward to.”
While you are intrigued by everything the Lunar Witch is saying, you can't help but wonder what the Amethyst Coven actually does.
“My apologies, you're probably wondering what role our Coven actually serves,” she began. “Well, we guard the balance of magical energy that flows between worlds and we help stabilize the ether currents that allow people to travel to different worlds without attracting… unwanted attention,” that last part she muttered, hesitantly. “I'll leave that at that for now, there are some things you are better off not knowing,” she says nervously. “Now, I'll be off… you still got to meet the rest of the Coven, don't you?” Selene exclaimed.
“As for myself, I have a tea party to get ready for! Farewell, visitor…”
A circle made of moonlight appears atop the moonlit flowerbed, followed by a ‘wooosh’. And then, the visitor is elsewhere…
Atop a large, stormy mountain overlooking the dark castle, stood a tall tower housing a bright young girl who was bouncing off the walls, frenzied as usual because she just got done baking her latest confection.
As thunder clapped in the distance, a whirlwind of snow materialized before her very eyes and a person appeared in its place. Excitedly, the girl stood still and got ready to greet them.
“Well, well, well… you must be the visitor I've heard about!” she noted. “I'm so excited to finally meet you. What's your name?” the girl asked curiously. “I'm Aurora, nice to meet you! Did I mention I could summon lightning?” she snapped playfully. “No? Well, I just did!” she giggled softly. “Anyways, sorry if I startled you just now. My friends tend to react in a similar way around me. Not sure why, but that doesn't bother me, it's just who I am!”
And who could blame them… with that eccentric attitude of hers, just about anyone would be taken aback at first.
“Say, wanna be friends?” she cheered.
You might have been a little startled at first, but over this short time knowing her, you can easily tell that she means well and you've slowly warmed up to her personality by now. So, you agree to be her friend.
“Yes? Awesome! We're going to have so much fun together!” she exclaimed.
The way she reacts to your answer, it's like she's overjoyed. It's as if she hasn't felt like that in a really long time.
As she says this, you notice a small pin engraved with what looks like an arrow with a line going through it placed near her left shoulder. However, upon closer inspection, you realize it's actually a Sagittarius symbol, unlike the previous two who had no such bauble.
"You're curious about my badge?"
You nod in response.
"Well, it symbolizes my role in the Coven you of course! Believe it or not, it means I'm a scout. I locate dimensional anomalies and report them to “Master" depending on their severity or I just patch them with lightning if it's only a minor rift. Safe to say, my job ain't half bad!" the lightning witch rambled cheerfully. "Oh, I also love baking sweets," she quickly added. “You should try one of my sweets! They're delicious,” she said enthusiastically.
However, the visitor simply waved the offering away, for they were unable to consume any dairy confections
“I'm so sorry, I didn't know you were lactose intolerant!” she exclaimed, sobbing uncontrollably.
You decide to comfort her and the tears eventually subside.
“Tell you what, I'll make different ones some other time,” she promised. “You still have to meet the others, don't you?” Aurora stated.
You confirm her statement.
“You must be in a hurry. Here, give Morwen some of the cookies I made. It'd be a shame to let them go to waste,” the young witch blurted out in a hurry. “Sorry our meeting got cut short, I hope to see you again pretty soon! Take care, bye-bye!” she exclaimed enthusiastically.
A lightning circle formed on the ground with sparks flying repeatedly, followed by a loud ‘ZAAPP!’. After that, the visitor is sent elsewhere…
“Hey, welcome. I'm Morwen and I specialize in… shadow manipulation, I guess,” she muttered awkwardly. “Apologies, for sounding distant or whatever, I just don't really like talking to people, that's all. I live in the shadows most of the time so I usually don't get many visitors…” muttered Morwen.
You totally get where she's coming from. You understand that being introverted can be quite hard at times, so you explain to her that you're just making the rounds of getting to know the entire Coven and that you'll be on your way very soon.
When she sees you holding the box of cookies you brought from Aurora's place, you see a whole new expression on Morwen's face. Her eyes lit up for a split second like she was in awe, but soon turned back to normal as she composed herself.
“Are those… Aurora's cookies?” she asked, intrigued. You ask if she'd like to try one. “Sure, I guess I could eat,” said the reclusive woman, trying to act nonchalant about it. “Oh, you're still here? Alright, you can stay a little longer, not like I care…”
This sort of behavior seems strangely familiar to you, but you can't quite put your finger on it. You then ask her what her role in the Coven is.
“If you must know, my role in this Coven is to capture inter-dimensional threats, not that it matters or anything…” she explains. Just as you were about to turn around and leave, she suddenly shouted: “What are you still doing here…? Get out! I SAID GET OUT!”.
With that, a flash of darkness obscured your vision and next thing you knew, you were in the Lumina Grove, the next witch's abode.
This graceful witch was walking along the Grove when she saw something peculiar. A whirlwind of darkness seemed to converge on one location, and as it dissipated, you were left in its place, lying there unconscious. Upon seeing you on the ground like that, the gentle witch decided to pick you up and place you on a nearby chair until you would awaken.
“Greetings, dear visitor,” she would say cheerfully, with grace. “It appears you're finally awake,” she noted. “I'm sorry you had to witness that side of her,” the tall witch expressed. “I know that she might seem a bit pessimistic at first, but trust me when I say… she truly means well, she just doesn't know how to express it,” she reassured.
You're unsure how you feel about these words, but one thing's for certain. She definitely feels like the therapist of the group.
“I should probably introduce myself now, shouldn't I hehe…” she chuckled. “My name is Seraphina, but you can call me Sera if you want,” she sang, with her hair flowing in the wind like a curtain of gold. “I'm like the healer in the group. I tend to their wounds, and sometimes… listen to their troubles when they need someone to talk to, you know…” she said warmly. “What about you? Anything that ails you physically or mentally?” Sera asked.
You respectfully decline her offer for now, but promise to keep in touch, should anything come up.
“Don't worry, I'll be there if you ever need anything,” offered the healing witch. “Please, send my regards to Miss Celestia. It's been quite a while since we last talked, now that I think about it,” she remarked, giggling all the while.
With that, she saw you off with a gentle farewell: “Safe travels…”
A flash of radiant light shone all around you as you are enveloped in a bright beam. Moments later, you are elsewhere…
Up atop the central tower of the dark castle, stood a wise maiden stargazing on a moonlit night, out on her balcony contemplating what the stars were telling her.
Out of nowhere, a flash of radiant particles appeared out of them, and with these particles came a visitor, one whose arrival had been divined by the maiden not long ago…
“What, pray tell, brings you here today?” the curious witch inquired.
Despite your sudden appearance, she didn't seem at all surprised. You wonder why…
“The stars have informed me of your visit, I can tell this will turn out to be quite the fortuitous encounter…” she states whimsically.
You are just about to ask her something, but she cuts you off before you can even begin to say it.
“You were about to ask me about my powers, weren't you. I can see it written all over your expression,” she said, sounding amused. “Very well, I shall enlighten you on the scope of my magical ability!”. She lifts her hat slightly and winks as she says this. “As you probably could've already surmised by my earlier statement, I personally dabble in constellation magic which, as you may correctly presume, means I can utilize the Astral Charts and gaze at the starry skies to glimpse upon future events,” she explains. “As such, I am most commonly known as the ‘Stellar Witch’ by the masses, but you may simply refer to me by my name, ‘Celestia’.”
You have got to admit, her title sounds impressive, she must be incredibly revered as a wise mage among the masses…
“I presume your next question will be: ‘What role do you play in the Coven?’. Well… as guardians of magical equilibrium, our general purpose is to maintain magical balance by stabilizing the mana flow between realms,” Celestia explained, looking through her telescope. “As such, we typically come across spacetime distortions which we then have to seal before they become a major problem.”
Everyone's abilities sound amazing so far, but you can't help but wonder what exactly it is they are fighting against. Though, maybe it's best you don't know for now.
Celestia the “Stellar Witch” continues her self-introduction.
“As the resident diviner, I can call upon the power of the stars to summon a prophecy in order to foresee where the next distortion is likely to appear,” the diviner explained. “Now, I do believe you still have a couple more members left to meet, if my readings aren't mistaken,” she reminded. “Do not fret, Miss Seraphina and I will reconvene shortly,” the Stellar Witch added. “But first, I will require some more.time to decipher these runes,” she said as she examined the Astral Charts one more time. “You go on ahead, I shall meet back up with her as soon as I'm done. It truly has been too long.”
The Amethyst Coven may not interact with each other that often, but you can clearly tell they're like a tight-nit family. Always willing to make time for another of their members whenever they're not busy.
“Though, heed this warning… This next individual you'll encounter during your visit may appear quite gentle and kind—and they are—but I urge you not to get on their bad side, for they can get rather protective if you so much as insult their plants,” she warned.
You were a bit alarmed by the sudden word of warning, but you decided to keep it in mind as you headed off to your next destination.
“Safe travels visitor, may the stars guide your way forward…” she said as projected constellations shimmered around you.
Not even a second after Celestia waved goodbye, the star projections began slowly swirling around you, spinning faster and faster, until… You were sent elsewhere.
At the outskirts of castle grounds, an androgynous looking mage could be seen tending to the roots which surrounded the castle from all sides, as if protecting it from something fierce.
All of the sudden, a mini-vortex of constellations appeared right beside the mage, which prompted them to look to their side to greet the visitor that had just appeared before them.
“Hello there,” they said calmly. “Are you the new visitor I heard about?” the mage asked.
You only just got to the castle fairly recently, so how are they all already aware of your presence? You decide to ask them just that.
“News travels quickly among us witches, especially with the TeleRunes we use to communicate,” they state plainly. “My name is Rowan and I specialize in Earth and Plant magic. I'm in charge of creating defensive barriers around our Amethyst Sanctum to protect it against hostile threats.”
No wonder this entire area is surrounded by some sort of vines and tree roots, it's to protect the so-called “Amethyst Sanctum” from all sorts of potential invaders. But what kind of entities would dare invade a place like this filled with such powerful individuals like the Coven?
"Though, I do swap them every so often. After all, even plants can get tired and need a break from time to time,” the earth mage sighs.
You give them a skeptical look. Sure, you know that magic is real and you've seen crazier things with your own eyes… but plants with feelings!? Now that's where you draw the line.
“Oh, don't look at me like that, of course I treat my own creations with the decency they deserve!” they said, offended. “They all work so hard to protect the Sanctum and our Amethyst Stone day in and day out. What kind of Guardian would I be if I didn't at least give them SOMETHING in return!” snapped Rowan.
The mage appears to be very offended. It is quite apparent that they are very protective about their plants, especially their well-being. You apologize profusely for accidentally insulting their pride and joy and hand them a cup of tea you brewed earlier, as a peace offering, in hopes of being forgiven for your apparent blasphemy.
“No, I don't want tea, just– ugh fiiine… I forgive you, for now…” the earth mage said hesitantly.
They seem to be tired of your nonsense, but have decided to let it go just this once. Hopefully they haven't realized that tea is made of dried plant leaves soaked in liquid, or else you'd really be getting an earful.
“By the way, apart from helping maintain balance in the mana flow of the multiverse, we also aid in stabilizing most forms of dimensional travel so that anyone who can use it can do so with ease,” they explained.
That kinda makes sense, considering how simple it was for you to get here.
“Speaking of which, it's about time I sent you home, don't you think?” said the mage. “Welp, it's been fun chatting with you but you still have one more Witch to meet. Ta-ta!” chimed Rowan.
As the mage of Earth and Flora bid you farewell, you became ensnared by dark twisting vines that began to glow a light green color as time went on. Eventually, the vines faded and you appeared to be somewhere completely different.
Somewhere deep inside the dark castle, there lies a grand library filled to the brim with things such as spell tomes, scrolls, slates, basically anything relating to magicks and magitek–even the occult. Right now, the resident scholar was busy working out ways to improve the library's defense mechanism when she suddenly detected some peculiar readings on her spectral goggles. It would seem the young witch was about to receive a visitor… and the place hasn't been organized in days!
“Inputting sigil matrix… extracting command runes from seal…” the young scholar would mutter to herself.
Just as she was about to finish setting up the final adjustments to the “Arcane Guardian”, her goggles detected a familiar magical signature (no doubt one of Rowan's), which meant she'd be receiving someone soon enough. Something that the Supreme Witch had informed her of in advance.
“Ah, according to my calculations, the visitor could arrive here at any moment,” the young witch noted.
However, after looking around the room, she realized that the place was an absolute mess.
“Oh no, I'm not ready to receive any guests right now!” she panicked, but as the witch's calculations had predicted, a sphere of vines appeared before her, before quickly dissipating to reveal a person standing inside it.
"Oh, y-you just got here?” the young witch stammered. “Um, sorry about the mess. I was just finishing up some magic research before you suddenly popped in here—not that mind the company or anything, it's just… yeah,” she rambled nervously. “I'm… Morgana, I'm the librarian of the Coven,” she said quietly.
Looking around, you could indeed see a variety of books and mechanical components strewn across the floor in various piles, along with mountains of runic slates stacked against the walls.
Nevertheless, you could tell that this 'Morgana' was a bit more reserved and timid than the rest, so decided to ignore it and ask her the same questions you asked the other.
“My power mainly involves manipulating sigils and runes,” she meekly explained. “I'm just a simple researcher, really, it does get a bit lonely staying here in the Arcane Library all day,” Morgana admitted, sadly. “Then again, I've never been much for social interaction, I don't really get out much…” she said as she quickly added the finishing touches to the library's defense golem.
You know the feeling… It's hard to develop social skills when you're generally unmotivated to do anything and you just stay cooped up all day, but when you actually get the chance to talk to people, you practically forget how to communicate properly since you haven't practiced in so long. That's probably what it's like for her too, except she spends all her free time researching and building machines.
“Say, if it's not too much to ask for, I'd like to go with you to your world for a while—if you don't mind, that is. It's been getting kinda stuffy staying in this cramped library for so long…” Morgana asks you with pleading eyes.
You are afraid to take her away from her workspace. After all, it looks like she still has plenty of tidying up to do. However, you suppose a break wouldn't hurt considering all the hard work this young witch seems to be putting into her research. You reluctantly decide to bring her with you.
“Really? Thank you so much, I promise I won't be a bother,” she assured the visitor. “I can help you study if you want,” the young scholar offered.
You chuckle a bit before considering her offer as she opens a portal back to your original dimension, wherever that may be.
“Well, off we go… to your world!!!” she exclaims excitedly.
Magical runes appear on the ground, and after a sudden flash of light, you are transported back to your world with a new friend in tow, leaving behind a huge mess in the library for someone else to clean up.
>>> However, in some unseen realm known by few… There appears to be an entity who lies in darkness, fangs furled, forgotten by time. But that shall be a story for another day.
TO BE CONTINUED…