#chpt4-aesthetics

[tangerinenotebook]

Feeling pretty sick the last few days and he surprises me with these. I love his thoughtfulness.

[the-hilda-librarians-wife]

Family Fights - Chapter Eleven

Summary:  Even the strongest bond, the most loving family, can be broken by nightmares, and the librarian is soon to learn this. As she learns sinister things about a person who she had thought was lost forever, she realizes she will need the help of another witch to get her family back.

Notes: First and most importantly: the pentacle is a symbol that belongs to an actual culture (Wiccan/witches), and by using it in this fic I do not, by no means, want to make it look like something ~aesthetic~ or silly or fake. Respect cultural minorities and stop insisting that their symbols are demonic thanks

Now that we got the important stuff out of the way: please imagine Johanna getting flustered when she opened the door and found Maven wearing a dress. Do that for me

(chpt1) (chpt2) (chpt3) (chpt4) (chpt5) (chpt6) (chpt7) (chpt8) (chpt9) (chpt10) (chpt11)

Maven walked serenely with Hilda at her side. A feeling of lighthearted contentment washed over her, turning her steps light and her breathing easy. They’d gotten lucky with the weather - it had been sunny with a gentle breeze since early morning, and it was getting warmer by the minute. Although Maven generally prefered colder weathers, that day it fit her perfectly, in a way that she didn’t even resent having to forgo her comfortable pants and sweaters. Instead, she was wearing a purple summer dress that reached just past her knees and grey flats that she was reasonably sure hadn’t gotten out of her house for a whole year. A black wide-brimmed hat and a layer of sunscreen protected her from the sun. Summer was definitely here.

On top of that, her good mood was also due to her being very nearly alone with Hilda. When Maven showed up at her house, Johanna had confessed that she had a meeting with a client to attend, and asked her if there was any problem in leaving her to take care of Hilda by herself. It was a shame not to have Johanna’s company, but she would be lying if she said she wasn't happy that the woman finally trusted her enough to know she wouldn’t let harm come to her daughter. Their one other companion was Alfur, who seemed to have shown interest in that day’s lesson, probably because of the location.

Hilda was also wearing more appropriate clothing herself. When her mentor told her that they would be going to the beach that day (or at least to the closest thing Trolberg had to a beach), she’d ran into her room and come back in shorts and sandals. Maven hoped she wouldn’t be too disappointed by their lesson not involving any traditional beach activities.

It took longer than the librarian had thought it would for Hilda to speak up. They had left her house a full block behind before the girl’s curiosity got the best of her.

“So, what are we doing today?” She asked. Never having been to the beach, except when she passed by it on her way to find the rat king in the sewers, it was hard for her not to be excited. And it also made her feel better that Maven seemed to be in a light mood, a far cry from her zombie-like appearance from a few days before.

“We are going to study about the five elements.” The librarian declared. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see her apprentice frowning. A smile began to play at her lips.

Fire, water, earth, air. Hilda went over them on her head. But that’s only four. She was on the verge of wondering if those were not the elements that Maven was talking about when she noticed the amused glint on her eyes. She realized, then, that she wasn’t expected to know the answer.

“Well, which is the fifth?” She asked finally.

Maven kept her gaze straight forward as she walked. “The elements are what makes up everything. They’re the essence of the universe.”

“Really?”

“Well, I mean-” she shrugged. “Now we know about the atoms. But for witchcraft purposes it remains the same. You probably remember the most well known elements, but doesn’t something feel off to you? Much of the work we’ve done doesn’t involve any of the four.”

Hilda thought about it, and the more she did, the more it made sense. On their first real lesson, the librarian had taught her the most basic things in witchcraft, and although the earth had played an important role in the lesson, it hadn't been the main element of the practice.

“Energy?” She guessed, pleased when Maven nodded approvingly.

“Perfect thinking. We call it Spirit, but you got the idea.”

Hilda was silent for some time, which Maven took as a sign that she had sated her curiosity for now. Soon, they could already hear the soft crash of waves on the shore, and the cool wind that came from the sea was even stronger on their faces. The two of them walked to the area closest to the water, past the pebbles that covered the outside part of the beach, and into the warm sand. From the bag she was carrying, Maven took a towel and spread it out on the floor.

“Where is it?” Hilda asked while she sat down. “Spirit, I mean. I can see all the other elements, I know where to find them. But where is spirit?”

Maven shook her head fondly, letting herself get used to the fresh beach air. “Hilda, you’ve learned this already. Spirit is everywhere.”

_#_#_#_

They spent some time grounding. While they did so, Alfur sneakily got down from Hilda’s ear and hopped to the sand. He seemed to be trying to build himself a table out of the sand, but the witches tried not to let themselves be distracted by that.

After that stage was done, the librarian had Hilda do something different; instead of attuning herself to the world around her as a whole, Maven wanted her to connect with the four physical elements, one at a time.

Hilda chose to begin with fire. Under the librarian’s guidance, she closed her eyes and focused on the feeling of the sun on her skin. It seemed simple enough, and she was about to ask what she was supposed to do next when the instructions came.

“Now I want you to summon the strongest memory with this element that you have.” Maven said. “It doesn’t have to be good, or bad, it just has to be strong. Put it in the forefront of your mind.”

She didn’t have to think for long to remember an episode. She still could remember the day very clearly. Wanting to learn how to light a fire, she’d stacked some sticks on the outside of her house, and stolen a match from the kitchen, since she had been very young and her mother didn’t allow her to use them back then. Her mother must have been very focused on her work that day, because when her fire didn’t catch, she had gone back inside and found some cooking oil inside the pantry.

When she had poured what she’d thought to be a reasonable amount of it on the sticks, she must have spilled some on the grass around them as well. Dropping the match to her pile, Hilda had watched in amazement, and then in horror, as the fire caught and spread to the grass around it. She’d been paralyzed, able to do nothing but watch it slowly take over its surroundings.

Luckily, her mother had showed up with a bucket of water and skillfully put the fire out. She still didn’t know how her mum had showed up so fast, without even needing to be called. Maybe the light of the fire had been visible through one of the windows, but regardless of how it happened Hilda was grateful to this day for Johanna’s quick reaction.

“Visualize it the best you can.” Maven whispered, doing the exercise herself. “The scent, the warmth… feel it as if it was happening right now.”

Surprised at how real it felt, Hilda brought back the smell of smoke to her nostrils, the impossibly bright light standing against the darkness of the wilderness’ night. She didn’t know if it was only a placebo or of the sun was getting stronger, but she could swear she felt her hands getting warmer.

“How, would you say, is there magic in it?” Hilda almost startled when the librarian asked. “Fire is used in many rituals. But which spells go with it?”

“Curses.” Hilda said immediately, thinking about the fear her young self had felt when faced with the fire’s ability to consume everything near it. “Or anything related to strength.”

Her mentor didn’t push her for more, and so she didn’t say anything else. It felt good to bask in that warmth, that memory of raw power. Soon, however, she found she was feeling quite lost in the exercise. Her skin felt like it was on fire, but not in an unpleasant way; instead, it felt like she was bathing in power, but she wasn’t sure if that was all she was supposed to be doing.

Slowly, she opened her eyes, and had to stifle a gasp when she looked at Maven. She was kneeling on the ground, sitting on her feet, and her hands were cupped on top of her tights. Flickering on her palm, there was a strong flame, easily recognizable as magical because of the flashes of colour that shone inside of it every once in a while.

Had Maven not looked so calm, Hilda would have been worried for her burning herself. But as it was, the witch looked completely in charge of her work. She may have sensed that Hilda was staring at her, hypnotized by her magic, because she almost immediately opened her eyes.

“Is everything okay?” She asked when she noticed how startled Hilda looked. As she continued watching the fire, an excited smile took over her face.

“That’s so cool!” She exclaimed. “Was I supposed to do that?”

After taking a deep breath, Maven let her flame fade away.

“No,don’t worry about it. I don’t expect you to be able to summon the elements yet, it’s quite tricky.”

Yet, Hilda thought. With time and training, she’d be able to do things just like that. The idea made her exhilarated.

“Hold on.” She said when something occurred her, dropping her voice to a whisper. “Can’t people see what you’re doing?”

Before Hilda could look around them, anxiously checking for anyone that might have noticed the magic, Maven pointed to a symbol on the sand by the top of the towel.

“I already took care of that. Outsiders won’t see anything out of the ordinary when they look at us.”

A quick check told Hilda that Maven had drawn the sigil on each side of the towel, and she admired the intelligence of it. She thought she should probably memorize that sigil, it could be useful in many a situation.

They continued with the same exercises, and they made Hilda realize the reason why Maven had brought her to that place for the lesson. When they moved on to earth, the librarian gently guided her to burying her hands in the sand, feeling it pulse with energy under her. While she attuned herself to air, she noticed just how unyielding the wind was on that part of the town, and as she brought her focus to a lovely memory of dancing under the pouring rain with her mum, the sound of waves made it all more real. The elements were more intense in that place.

Something felt different about connecting to water. The feeling of cool raindrops falling on her skin felt too real, and she wondered if that was the objective of this dynamic.

“Which sort of spell goes with it?” Maven asked like she had for each element, but her voice sounded very distant to Hilda. Almost as if she was underwater and someone was talking to her from the outside.

“Intuition.” The words left her mouth without her even thinking about them, but they felt right, so she didn’t take them back. “Healing and emotions.”

“Hilda.” Her mentor said gently. “Open your eyes.”

Slowly, she blinked them open. She didn’t know when she’d done that, but during the exercise she’d raised her hands approximately to shoulder height, and now a thin stream of water was dripping from them. Her eyes widened, and as she lost her concentration, the stream dried out. Bringing her gaze to the librarian, Hilda saw that she was also wearing a smile.

“Very good, Hilda.” She said as they both looked at the wet spot in the towel where the water had fallen. “That’s very hard to get on the first try. You should be very proud of yourself.”

She was reminded that Alfur was with them when he clapped his hands for her, cheering at her success. She was admittedly quite stunned by what had happened, and she realized that it had been the first tangible piece of magic that she’d ever done. The sensation was thrilling, like she was finally on her way to being a real witch.

“I think this is enough practical training for today.” Maven said, using the same stick which she’d found on the floor and drawn the sigils to mix the sand and make them disappear. “Besides, the sun is getting too strong.”

Hilda extended her hand, still slightly wet, to Alfur, so that he could hop onto it and move back to her hair. Then, she got to her feet to allow the librarian to pick the towel up, waving it to get rid of the bulk of sand and storing it in her bag again.

“Just one last thing.” The librarian picked up the stick once more and brought the tip to the sand. She began making a drawing that looked like a star, but then she surrounded it by a circle. “Do you know this symbol?”

Hilda nodded. “Some kid doodled it on their desk, Ms. Hallgrim was livid. She says it’s evil and we should not go around drawing it.”

The girl was crestfallen when Maven pursed her lips and sighed in disappointment. She thought she’d been doing very well on that lesson, but that was not a positive reaction.

“Did I get it wrong?” She asked, holding herself back from fidgeting.

“Yes, but it’s not your fault.” Maven said gently, making Hilda drop her shoulders with relief. Her eyes were locked on the pentacle. “Many aspects of our culture were twisted to convince others that witches are vile. That’s the information most people have.”

“Look.” She used the stick to point to one of the tips. “Water.”

Hilda frowned as she too looked at the pentacle. There was no water in it, so she didn’t understand what her mentor was trying to say. Maven continued on, however, pointing at each tip at a time.

“Fire, earth, air.” She finally pointed to the tip at the top, the one she had drawn leading to the sea. “And spirit.”

“Oh.” Hilda sighed as she finally caught on to what she meant. The librarian then gestured to the circle that linked each tip.

“And the universe connecting them all. Do you see?”

Turning to the librarian to realize that Maven was already looking at her, Hilda grinned. “I do!”

Maven smiled shortly and dropped the stick to the ground. “It’s a lovely symbol. There are many meanings, but I like to use it for protection. It’s a shame it has such a bad reputation.”

Hilda had no chance to say anything before Maven began walking away. She took a few strides to catch up with her, and realized that she was still speaking.

“Does it sound good to you to grab some take out and go eat lunch at my house? I want to work through some theory with you but we really should eat.”

Hilda nodded, thinking about the perfect place to suggest. “That sounds just perfect, Maven.”

_#_#_#_

“Why do you think it only worked once?” Hilda asked. “The training, I mean. Why did it only work with water?”

The three of them were sitting on a couch in Maven’s leaving room. After lunch, they had spent some time going over the theory of elemental magic. Hilda wrote down information on her book of spells, which the librarian had asked her to bring over before they left her house for the beach, and Alfur quickly jotted down every word that left Maven’s mouth. He seemed to want to write a report on that particular area of magic.

It had been pleasant. She’d particularly enjoyed it when the librarian explained how the elements were incorporated in spells and the reasons behind them being included, which turned out to be the reason why she’d asked Hilda to say which spells she thought should use them. It turned out that, in the meditative state of connection she’d been, she’d gotten very close most of the time. Hilda had even asked which elements would be used in the Soul Spell (mostly Spirit, but also Fire for purification and healing, and Earth would be present in the form of the crystals they’d use). As nice as it had been though, she was glad for the little break that they were currently having.

“Just because you weren’t able to materialize the elements, doesn’t mean it didn’t work.” She answered. “You got in tune with them, and that was the point. But it is usually easier for a witch to do summon the element they lean towards the most.”

“So that would be water for me?”

Maven took a sip from her tea. She’d made some for the three of them, even going as far as putting some drops on a tiny cup that had belonged to her sister’s doll house for Alfur. “I’ve been noticing that you’re more of an Earth witch, actually. But Earth, just like Fire, are harder to get a hang of. There’s water in the air and, well, air in the air. So what the witch does is manipulate that which is already around them. With Fire and Earth, you actually need to create the element. Water is probably the second you relate to the most.”

“Oh, I see.” Hilda had barely finished speaking when the heard a thud from the outside. They looked in time to see something grey falling to the floor, but it was nothing recognizable.

“I’ll go see what that was!” Alfur said immediately as he put his cup down on the table. He was reasonably sure he knew what the source of the sound had been, and she didn’t want any of them to see him before he did.

“Are you sure?” Hilda asked. “It might be dangerous.”

“Don’t worry about me!” Before either of them could say anything else, the elf was already running towards the door which led to the back garden.

He didn’t even need to open the door, the gap under it was small enough for him to get through. Once he was out in the garden, he found exactly what he thought he would. A grey bird had his wing pressed to his head after having hit it in the window.

“Raven!” He exclaimed, striding to him, and he looked up to the elf. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll be fine.” He brushed it off. “I got your letter, but I didn’t want to send the reply by mail. Who knows who handles those letters.”

Alfur blinked, somewhere between startled and impressed. “You did it already?! It’s only been a few days! The librarian was looking for longer and she managed to find nothing!”

It was true that Raven had an advantage with his point of view from above, but Maven was nothing if not skilled in her craft, and looking into each house couldn’t be that much quicker with wings than it was with magic. He sighed, rubbing his head again, and Alfur thought that he should probably offer something for the pain as soon as he could.

“No wonder she didn’t!” Raven said, gesticulating with his wings. “I only found her by chance, when I was flying over the woods.”

“The woods?”

“Yes! If you give me a map I can show you exactly where I saw her.”

Alfur looked to the the door and then back to Raven, analyzing the situation. He decided, eventually, that it was only fair for the girls to be there when his friend revealed Myra’s location.

“Come inside.” He said then. “You should show it to them first. And we could probably get some ice for your head as well.”

He was about to lead him inside when he realized Raven wouldn’t fit the gap. Luckily, he saw the problem and opened his wings, flying just high enough to land on the handle. It opened easily under his weight, and the door swung open to allow them inside.

As Raven hopped back down to Alfur’s side, they saw Maven’s eyebrows fly towards her hairline at the unexpected situation, at the same time that Hilda gasped Raven’s name.

“You know it?” Maven asked upon noticing Hilda’s reaction.

“Oh, Hilda and I are friends, ma’am.” At the answer, Maven smiled with amusement. She was beginning to see a pattern in her apprentice’s friends.

“I take it you’re a Thunderbird?”

“There’s no time for introductions at this moment!” Alfur interrupted, though his words were more anxious than rude. “Miss Maven, Raven knows where your sister is!”