Arcana's Path

"I'm a witch?"

She stared at the waitress, "What? What the fuck has that to do with anything!? Fine, you worship some nature spirit. I literally do not care! I care that you are in my house!"

"It's hard to have a sense of privacy when you can hear everyone's thoughts. Can't turn it off." The waitress shrugged, "Can you stop assuming I've poisoned your pancakes, too? I wouldn't do that. Food and drink is... Sacred. If I wanted to hurt you, I would just hurt you. Not like you wake up when I come in, is it?"

Rin felt her stomach growl, and rolled her eyes and walked over to her couch and sat down. "Is this going to stop you breaking into my house? Satisfy you, so you stop being a creepy stalker?"

"I really don't understand what you're so upset about. Not like I rearranged your bookshelves." The waitress shrugged, "All I've done is offer you treats. You don't take enough care of yourself. You're special. You should treat yourself as if you believe that."

Rin laughed bitterly, "You pity me, so that's why you keep stressing me out?"

The waitress finished stacking a plate on a tray with legs that Rin absolutely did not own, and brought it over to her. There was also a large glass of peach tea, and a clay jug of maple syrup.

The woman then overstepped again by pouring the syrup, and beginning to cut up her pancake for her. "You wouldn't be so stressed if you just accepted me for who I am. I'm here."

"Already regretting this." Rin glared.

"Open."

She snatched the fork, "We're not friends. We're definitely not lovers. You're not feeding me like that. You're just some creepy stranger who broke into my house to cook for me."

Irritatingly, it was the best pancake that Rin had ever tasted in her life. How could something so simple get so much better in the hands of someone so invasive?

"It wasn't pity." The woman said glumly, clearly hurt that she couldn't spoon feed her. "It was concern. Most people are their own harshest critic, true. But you take it to a whole new level, Rin. If someone talked to me the way you talk to yourself, I'd break their nose."

"Reading thoughts is creepy af." She mumbled as she ate.

The waitress shrugged, "I'm a witch. I was born this way. It isn't something I can turn off. Just like you can't turn off your ears. You try and tune things out, but you still hear a lot that you know you shouldn't."

"I don't believe in magic."

The woman giggled at her, "That's precious. Like believing in something was ever a pre-requisite for it existing. I'm sure gravity is very invested in your opinion."

Rin rolled her eyes, "There's only thousands of years of proof magic doesn't exist."

The woman snapped her fingers and her book appeared. She lay down on the couch beside Rin, tucking her legs in. "Let me know when you're interested in an actual conversation."

"When exactly were you planning on leaving?" Rin asked with trepidation.

She shrugged, "I've got work in a couple hours. We always open late on a Saturday, so I've got a little time before I have to get ready."

"Not..." Rin gave up. Reasoning with the witch was obviously not something that was going to work. And if she tried to call the police, the witch would just snatch her phone again.

"Can you try and not think so loudly about me? I'm trying to read."

She glared angrily at the relaxed woman.

Rin rolled her jaw, "Fine, then. Stalker. What's your name? You obviously know mine. Including my last name, somehow."

"Mmm. Violet Waterhouse. Your family name is on the bills on the table. Not creepy." The woman replied, busy with her book.

She glanced over at her bills and sighed, remembering how many were coming up to due. And overdue. "You don't have a magic wand to make me rich, do you?"

"I work at a cafe." Violet laughed.

Rin shrugged, "Worth asking. If magic were real."

"Magic is also licensed. I'm not going to risk going to prison just to make one person feel more comfortable." Violet said and turned her page, "Oh, don't do that Sven. She is clearly into you."

"Romance novel?"

Violet nodded, "Mmm. Somewhat trashy. Not embarrassed. I like 'em."

"What's the punishment for making a love potion?" Rin decided to tease the witch, hoping to annoy her into leaving again.

Violet paused, looking up and thinking, "Well, technically if you use it then it falls under the normal sexual assault laws. If you only made or sold one, then similar to people who sell roofies and crap like that. So I guess... Three to fifteen years? Something."

That went nowhere, fast.

Rin went back to her irritatingly delicious breakfast. It wasn't just the pancakes either. The tea was light and fragrant, it clung to the tastebuds, but didn't feel like it was leaving behind a residue.

If she wasn't so pissed off at the invasion of privacy, she probably would have come out with a compliment. Something about why Violet was working at a cafe and not a five star restaurant.

"Too much work." The witch mumbled.

Rin sighed, "So what do I have to do to stop you showing up here? Yes, the food is good. No, I'm not comfortable with you randomly appearing."

"You could just accept me." Violet replied, shrugging.

She shot a glare at the witch, "No. No, that is not happening. You don't just get to decide that you're going to insert yourself into someone's life! That's... Classic stalker. Which you say you're not."

"I really don't see the problem." Violet sat up, bookmarking her page. "I make you nice things. I don't make a mess. I don't rearrange your house. I'm not loud or inconsiderate."

Rin swallowed nervously, "Oh shit. You're talking like you're planning on being a roommate. Please, please, don't be..."

"Not like your landlord could prove I live here." Violet shrugged, snapped her fingers to disappear the tray so she could lie down in Rin's lap and look up at her.

She glared down, "And now you're taking even more liberties. I want you out. Gone. I just want to be able to live my life in peace."

"You hate your life."

Rin ground her teeth together, "That's not the point! It's still mine!"

"Debatable."

She hauled the woman off her lap and into a sitting position, "No, it isn't. This is my life. Not the life of Violet the crazy witch. This isn't some romcom where you just show up and I'm forced to accept you are moving in."

"Sort of is." Violet shrugged, "You can't stop me. And you clearly can't take care of yourself, either. So until you stop hating yourself, I'm going to be doing nice things for you."

"Oh, for... Fuck!" Rin cursed.

The witch smiled sweetly, "Now, I've only got twenty minutes before I need to get ready. So can I please just lie in your lap and read my book?"

"Hell no." Rin stormed off towards her room.

---

Kitty didn't feel like going to work. She felt more exhausted now than when she'd fallen asleep. Every time she tried to remember last night and the weird tentacle crap she felt worse, and it didn't seem to fade.

Probably some fucky magic thing.

She was also feeling pretty damn angry at Arcana for trying to treat her like some kind of porcelain figure. It was the sort of thing that made her want to spend the day riding, not looking back. Ending up in a new city and starting over.

Right as she started to lose herself in her thoughts, the door chimed.

Kitty practically leapt out of her skin, not even realising that there was a door chime. Sort of made sense, considering the elevator opened into the apartment, but she'd figured you couldn't get to the floor without a code meant it'd be more intercom crap.

She wandered over and looked around for some way to respond, shrugged, and opened the doors.

They slid open to reveal the doorman, and two police officers. Kitty's face fell and she sneered, "She's not here."

"Actually, we were here to meet you Miss de Sheouvre." One of the officers said.

Her eyes lit up and she glared down at him, "Huh? You wanna fight? Name's Kitty, asshole. I'll light you up."

"No. You won't." The other replied, and waved a hand, freezing her up. Kitty could move her eyes around wildly, but that was it. She was completely immobilised.

The officers entered and the elevator doors closed behind them. The one who had frozen her somehow started poking around whilst the other looked at her regretfully, "Sorry, but you really shouldn't have done that. Threatening an officer gives us a little bit more leeway about what we can do. But, we're here because you were a victim. So... Try and behave."

He snapped his fingers and Kitty shook her face, feeling a numbness to her tongue. She flexed her hands and glared at him, "Magic cops?"

"We're from a team that investigates magical phenomena, yes. Specifically those that pose a risk to the general public. We understand that you were attacked by a managuise last night."

Kitty flopped onto the couch, "Stop touching her shit. And I ain't answering shit."

"Are you sure this is the right place?" The other one said in surprise, "I can't imagine the daughter of Astraea willingly hanging around someone like this. So... Unrefined."

She flipped him the bird.

"Enough. Kitty is the victim here. Focus." The first stated, and a seat appeared as he sat down nearby. "We understand that Miss Astria both detected, and killed, the managuise. Can you at least confirm that? She's not in trouble, quite the contrary. Our concern is with finding where it came from. Stopping anyone else getting infected."

"That's true." The other nodded, "But, we've been rude. I'm -"

"A pig." Kitty interrupted, "Don't talk to cops. Fuck off or arrest me. I don't give a shit which you choose."

The first sighed heavily, "Most cops aren't allowed to paralyse people, Kitty. You're out of your depth, here. I'm sorry to say it, but it's the truth. If you don't answer our questions, we'll just dip inside your mind. We try and avoid it, because it hurts. A lot."

She sneered, "Fuck off, pig."

The other raised a stick that looked similar to the one that Arcana had used right before the mana-whatever had exploded. The first caught their wrist, "We're not quite there. Calm down. She's mundane."

"Magic cops that insult, threaten and act generally like assholes. Nah, you're not any different." Kitty spat.

The first sighed and pulled out a notebook, "Okay, we're going to start basic. This thing, it scans things. Gets your name, birthplace, height, weight. Basically takes a mugshot and history all in one. Just got to touch a blank page. Which... You can do, or we'll make you do."

Kitty looked at the held out blank page, up at his fake smile and rolled her eyes. "Just touch it?"

He nodded, and she sighed and poked the damn thing. Instantly she saw a picture of herself and writing beside it. He swung it around, "And I'll just add a notation that your preferred name is `Kitty'. It'll go into the official records. You mind?"

"Unless you want me punching the next one of you bastards that comes calling."

He smiled, "I'll take that as a yes... So, according to this... You do actually have some magical ancestry. Your great grandmother on your father's side learned at one of our universities. She didn't go into any of the magical trades, but she was what we call a visionary. More of an annoyance than a useful skill. Glances fragments of one of the infinite possible futures."

"She was weird freak before she went fuckin' insane." Kitty replied, not liking being reminded about watching her descent into Alzheimer's. It had hurt, that.

"Spike." The other suddenly said, holding up a small device sort of like a phone, except square.

She sneered at them both, "You were fuckin' with me."

"Not intentionally." The first said quickly, "I'll explain, as best I can. The managuise that infected you, its a kind of thing that feeds off bad memories and feelings. Even though it's dead, there will be a resonance field for a little while. Because it was feeding on you for a long time. Our concern is working out how long, so we can figure out where you picked up the parasite."

Kitty frowned and glared at them both, "I'm still not talkin' to you."

"You don't need to." The first said, looking at the screen and then the printout of her that appeared, "Talking is for me. You're the victim here, after all. You picked up the demon seven years ago. Basically you were on the verge of suicide, and it tried to push you over the edge. When you didn't just die, it followed you and dug in."

"Seven years?" The second said incredulously, "No way. You must be reading it wrong. No mundane could stick it out for that long."

Kitty leaned forward threateningly, "What the fuck does that mean?"

"Mundanes don't have the will." He sneered.

The first rolled his eyes, "Excuse my partner, he's a xenophobic dickbag sometimes. Can't imagine that people are just people. See, most people die within six months of infection. Longest I've seen in person is two years. You're a record holder. Seven years of bad luck, and a depressive soul eating monster feeding on you. You might be the toughest son of a bitch I've ever met."

Kitty shrugged and leaned back.

The second guy ran over the book and device, and sighed heavily, "Well, shit. I think you might just be right. Seven years. Holy shit."

The first smiled, "Well, we've got what we needed. You were infected at the funeral, if you were wondering. We already killed off that swarm a while back. The side effects will last a few weeks, because of how long you had it. But they should fade. Your luck is turning."

She frowned and finally gave in and asked a question. "Cop last night, he implied I was a problem."

"That'd be Tom Aides, sir."

The first laughed, "Good ol' Tom, the mindkiller. When a magical incident takes place, it's up to the first officer on scene to make a judgement call. Erase memories, or let 'em go. We generally lean towards leaving people be, because they can reason themselves out of believing or remembering whatever they saw. Tom is from the old guard. Likes to flashfry your brain so it can't remember the last few days."

Kitty sneered, "He's an ass."

"Don't disagree." The man stood up, chair disappearing, and then turned around, "Uh... One more thing. Usually when someone is a victim, the state arranges for compensation in mana. Sort of our currency. Unfortunately, that's pretty much useless to you. You can designate someone else to receive it if you want, otherwise it'll end up in a holding account at the Ascot Bank with your name on it."

She frowned, remembering the morning's prices, "What kind of compensation?"

"That's not up to me." He shook his head, "Have the actuaries issued it from our report yet, Sil?"

The second man looked at the square device again, "Uh... Yeah. They went with standard rates. Must be an intern on. A hundred fifty a day, for seven-ish years is... Somewhere in the region of three hundred thousand? Bank will have it by end of day and give you the exact amount."

Kitty tried not to salivate. She'd never seen that kind of cash before. Except the counterfeit shit her dad rolled out. Even though it wasn't cash and she couldn't personally spend it, she sort of figured that Arcana might be able to spend it for her.

"Send it to Arcana. Hope she don't mind being my rep." Kitty said, and rubbed the back of her head, "Sort of worn out my welcome, here."

"Worrying about her?" The first said and flicked at his notepad, "A heraclaide. She's been issued a fine of twelve hundred mana, and has to pay a further three thousand to get the dragon back. No jail time."

Kitty felt some relief, but shrugged, "We only met because of the dragon. I'm a stranger. So, how about us three strangers leave her room before the freak over there starts looking for her panties again."

---

Rin breathed a sigh of relief as she found her home blissfully empty of invaders when she'd finally calmed down enough to come back and investigate.

It wasn't that Violet was a particularly bad house guest. She hadn't left any dishes to clean. The kitchen itself was spotless as well. Her stove hadn't shone like that since she'd moved in.

However, it wasn't like Rin even knew who the hell Violet even was. She just turned up out of nowhere and acted like she owned the place. Even if her intentions were as kind as she kept saying, it was an overstep.

This was Rin's own space. The only space that was her space. To have it violated by a complete and utter stranger was terrifying. Especially one that was so... Odd.

Rin still wasn't sure she believed in magic. But Violet's sleight-of-hand was ace. She could probably get by in any Vegas sideshow with it, or make a mint at poker.

Following that train of thought, Rin crashed on her couch and opened up her laptop. She put in the witch's fullname and hit a search, not expecting to find much.

There was a couple articles from a local newspaper about a self-professed witch opening up a cafe. So she wasn't just a waitress, but the owner of the place. The articles were mostly fluff. Everything Violet was quoted on was about how to obtain quality tea.

However, one of them did have a passing reference to Violet apparently being kicked out of a local coven of some sort.

Rin hesitated, and then gave in and looked up the crazies who thought that Violet was too much for even them. The group, the Sunflowers of Endor, had their own website, most of which was locked behind membership portals. Yet, it didn't feel very Wiccan.

There was practically nothing about nature gods, or even much to do with any kind of philosophy. It seemed more like a therapy group, people sharing stories from random parts of their life. Most of it non-magical in nature.

Rin was confused as to why Violet would have been let go of the group when she stumbled across a locked post. `On the Waterhouse Situation'.

It mostly started with an angry rant about something Violet had apparently done. Or rather, many things. The first poster seemed to have a bone to pick with the witch, referring to her as Violent Tearshouse. Not the most inventive of insults.

The thread was vitriolic, lots of back and forth. Some people supporting Violet, some people thinking she had good intentions and went too far, and some who downright hated her.

All of them seemed to have known exactly what Violet had done. There was no posters asking about what the event was, which wasn't something Rin was used to seeing online.

A few of the posts were gated behind logins, which seemed a bit odd. Rin hadn't seen that kind of spoiler-tagging before. She supposed it fitted with a semi-secret society type thing, though.

The thread was suddenly shut down by an administrator locking it, and saying that some Council had passed verdict on Violet, and that was that. There was no debating or appeal possible, so it wasn't worth talking about as it would just upset people.

It almost felt like Violet's removal from the group was solely political.

Rin couldn't help herself. She was inquisitive. She really wanted to know what was the big deal behind what the witch had done. It wasn't like she could see Violet actually being... Violent.

Half an hour later she found herself on some other coven's board, where people were petitioning their Council to reach out to Violet and offer her not just a place in their coven, but a Council Seat. Which seemed a big deal.

One of the admins weighed in saying that whilst Violet was absolutely qualified for the position, they didn't want to kick off a war with her last coven. Too many people might get hurt, and they should all remember how many people died last time.

Since when did politics between coven groups result in murder? That was one thing an internet search didn't really answer for Rin. Nothing she found was even for her own country.

Rin got distracted for a while trying to find out what would qualify someone for a Council Seat on a local coven. Near as she could tell, you needed to be influential, smart, and have some kind of academic acknowledgement. Something like a thesis? But like, witch-y.