First and foremost, sorry for how long this one took, it's been a while and a lot of stuff has been going on, plus I wanted to make sure I got as much of it as possible recorded here.
So last time(last proper update), we ended with me finding out that Vanny wanted me to meet her mother and head witch matriarch. That in order for us to move in together properly and officially, it had to be blessed or sanctified or approved of by the matriarch. Her mom. Honestly? Thought she was screwing with me at first.
"Wait...are you asking me to meet your parents?"
Vanny shook her head.
"No...well, yes but no. My dad's...well he's away for now, but my mom lives pretty close...ish. It's about a three hour drive away." Closer than my parents, who live six or more hours away. Not that I speak to them much.
"Uh, ok. So we really have to get this all...blessed?"
Vanny squirmed a bit.
"Sort of? It's more a formality, plus we can go this weekend. We're both off and a bunch of the coven is gonna be there, so it'll be a
lot
easier talking to my mom. She'll be so distracted by everyone that she'll just say yes and we can leave. In an out, like ten minutes, tops."
I frowned. She wanted to visit her family for...ten minutes.
"Wait, first off. Coven?" I knew what the word meant, obviously, but this was the first time she'd ever mentioned it to me.
"Yeah. There's something like thirteen covens, though...later. Thirteen main covens, and my mom is the matriarch of this one. She governs all the witches in Canada and some of the northern states. There's a get together, someone's getting married soon so they're introducing their partner to the coven. Means they want to convert their partner and make them a witch."
"You can become a witch?"
"Well, no. But yes? Ok, you know magic is a little...wonky, well when a witch marries a non-witch, they can bring them to the coven for a ceremony, the metamorphosis ceremony. The wannabe witch has to do a bunch of stuff to prepare - I don't really know it all, this is the first one done in this coven in...decades, possibly centuries. Anyways, during the ceremony, the two - the witch and their fiance - try to connect their magical energies and if the magic allows it, the non-witch will become a witch. It's one of the few things the matriarch has no control over; it's all up to the magic. They get the longer life and the magic, but their body remains whatever they were before, though it guarantees any offspring will be full blooded witches. Of course, if the ceremony fails, they could die..." Her voice trailed off.
I blinked. And again. This was
a lot
of information, all thrown at me all at once.
"Ok...looking past that last statement for a second. One of the members of your coven is getting married?"
"Yes."
"And they're inviting a bunch of the coven to your mom's house to introduce their partner?"
"Well, it is my mom's house, but it's actually covenspace."
"OK, what?"
"It's just a large family compound. We call it covenspace cuz it's where we all get to be normal and do whatever we want. More or less."
"Ok, gonna swing back to that, but one thing at a time here. So it's
possible
to become a witch, but it involves a ceremony where
magic
determines everything and
might
end with the non-witch's death."
"Well both their deaths, but yes."
"And you want
me
, to go meet your mom, the coven matriarch at this incredibly important and critical juncture, so she can approve of us living together, in hopes that she'll be too distracted with preparations for a ceremony that hasn't been performed in decades
or
centuries, to fully notice me."
She squirmed under my gaze a bit.
"Kinda?"
"Vanessa, bunny. Look, I'll go, I'll do what we need to do, but I'm really gonna need you to start teaching me things
before
springing stuff like this on me. Please?"
She nodded as a small smile spread on her face.
"Ok, thank you, darlingheart. Now, just to warn you, the coven can be...a lot."
"Like a lot of people, or they're all super dramatic?"
"Yes."
And that was pretty much the only warning I had for everything that was coming. There was a couple more conversations about it, but those are private and filled with details I
won't
be sharing.
It took three days before the weekend. And in those three days, I got more and more nervous. Listen, meeting someone's parents can be difficult, meeting someone's super high ranking mother in a special compound filled with an unknown number of magical witches...well, it's just a
little
bit more difficult.
Friday evening came around.
"Hey Ace!"
"Hey Jake, you done now too?"
My long time best friend nodded.
"Yeah, hey Ace. Look, feel free to tell me to screw off, but I noticed something's up with you and Gemma."
I sighed as I pulled my blue vest off.
"It's...complicated, bro. I don't really wanna get into it."
"Hey, fine by me. Wanna go get smashed?" I rolled my eyes for a sec then laughed.
"You know what? Why not. I'm meeting Vanny's mother this weekend, so a little night out sounds fantastic right now."
Jake grinned from ear to ear.
I accepted on two reasons. One, it
did
sound like a good idea; I hadn't had a night out in a while, well other than the ones with Vanny. But on the other, I felt a little guilty. Ever since Vanessa and I had started dating, I'd been busy and not hanging with either Gemma or Jake much. Gemma for different reasons, but still. Jake and Gemma and I had always been close, even when we'd been dating other people.
"Ha! Just like old times, eh?"
I laughed and shut my locker. I messaged Vanny, let her know I was going out with Jake for a bit, would be home later. She messaged back telling me to have fun and not stay out too late; we wanted to get to covenspace relatively early.
