Hallowmas - Wicca Sister

Abi giggled at my scrutiny, a clear, sweet laugh, soft and gentle as summer rain, with a quality I'd never heard before, an echo that rang softly in my mind. Abi smiled at me again, and once again that clear, sweet laughter echoed through my head, and it took me a couple of seconds to realise she was smiling but I could hear her laughing.

"Abi, what...?" I began, but her fingertip on my lip quelled me, then her voice rang, softly, but so clearly, in my mind.

"Mikey, my Mihangel, this is what I was doing all along, this was what everything was for this night; yes, you can hear me, and I can hear you, more clearly than ever before; this is our destiny, this is why I can do what I do, and now you'll share it with me. From now on, no matter where you are in the world, or how long you'll be gone, you and I will always be more closely together than two lovers in the same bed; you are part of me, and I'm part of you, now. This is the magic this night gives, this one night of the year, if you know how to harness it."

"How...what...why tonight, what's special about tonight?" I managed, still enthralled by hearing and feeling her inside my mind, the caress of her mind against mine more thrilling and intimate than the most passionate kiss.

Abi giggled again, her laughter tinkling like fairy bells in the recesses of my mind, but when she spoke, her voice was mature, stately, magical.

"This is the night of Hallowmas, Mihangel, the Samhain, the Eve of All Hallows, and the turning of the year, when all protections are at their lowest ebb, and the dark and the light are completely in balance; this is the night when choices are made, where the smallest thing will tip the balance; a wish, an unspoken hope, a careless thought, a cry for vengeance, a prayer for protection, all these and more, are part of this night and have power this night. The choices you made tonight, that we made together, these have set our feet on our path. You are part of me, now, in a way you never were before; all my power, and those of the others like me, will be solely for the protection and preservation of what we have made this night. I love you, my Mihangel, and all I am will be all for you, for all of time."

This was a new Abi entirely, one I liked even more than I'd liked as my little sister, a woman who knew who and what she was, whose skin fitted her the way it should, and whose powers were hers inborn. She'd enchanted me, but only because I'd let her, because deep down I'd wanted her to, and so she'd taken me and shown me who I was, and were we stood. I was still curious about where she'd learned all this, and she smiled her pixie smile and rubbed noses with me.

"Mikey, this goes far and far back, how far back no-one knows, but I do know one thing; this has been passed from teacher to teacher through the ages; Ginger taught me, and one day I know I will teach it to my own pupil, and so the chain will remain unbroken. This time of year, this night, this is when the walls between the worlds are worn thin, where the world is vulnerable and anything could come through from the outer dark to plague the world, the night when the long dead and the never-born will seek to make this world theirs, so this is how the ancestor-people in the far deeps of time, in the time of the great ice and before, marked their year; they joined with their loved ones, and banded together to defend against the darkness, and they made a world where their children, and their children's children, and ultimately the unbroken chain that leads to all of us today, could be safe from the things that live in the outer dark. Maybe in long-ago times speaking mind-to-mind was needful, because people were so few and far apart and travel was so dangerous; now, only a few still have it, people like me, who have what the ancestor-people had, and so I shared it with you, because you are my Mihangel."

She gasped as she moved closer and I slid out of her.

"But there's more that you need to know and understand about this night, the true meaning of this night. Mikey, this is the night when the rough music plays to banish darkness from the fallow fields, when the silent black dance is made at midnight to balance the heedless joy of the white dance at the greening of the fields when the solstice signals the lengthening of the days; this is the time to prepare for the new sun, and ask blessing from the land, that life will grow, that crops will flourish and blood-letting diminish, and hope that we've chosen wisely for the year to come. This is the night when magic is loosed upon the world, old, wild, untamed, but still human, not alien, not something from the outer places, from the dark that has no ending. People like me can share, this one night, what that magic means to us, and why we are the way we are, and so, Mikey, my darling Mihangel, I have shared myself with you, because I love you, I always have, and I always will."

I was fascinated, but also deeply moved by what she'd revealed to me, and awed beyond my ability to understand just how powerful she was, what she knew, what she could do. And yes, I did love her, I loved her to distraction. Abi, obviously still in rapport with me, smiled and pulled my down so she could kiss me.

"Thank you, Mikey, I love you to distraction too! And now, I think I need a shower. C'mon, join me, and later I have some treats and a couple of bottles of better than average wine, I think we need to celebrate!" her voice tinkled in my head.

I jiggled her bottom suggestively.

"I've got a couple of treats here, I'm quite happy where I am, Abs..." I murmured, drawing a smile from her.

"After what we just did, you really need a shower, so do I, up, up!" she grinned, speaking out loud for the first time.

Epilogue:

Abi and I have been living in our version of marital bliss for almost three years now, with never a hiccup to bump the way; living in each other's minds is one way to quell arguments and head misunderstandings off at the pass. I call her every day, because that's my habit, but the real conversations and pillow talk happen in our minds; even if I'm on assignment in Brunei or down in the South Atlantic, Abi is in my ear and in my mind as if she was right next to me, I see through her eyes and she sees through mine, so I'm never actually away from home. Wherever I go, my Abi's with me.

Things have gotten a little...complicated recently, though; I was on-assignment in Cyprus, and Abi and I were talking, as usual, but I could feel what felt like someone else trying to talk, or at least make themselves heard, which I thought was impossible, but then Abi's delighted, tinkling laugh echoed in my head.

"You're not going bonkers, Mikey, there is someone else here; Mihangel, I was going to tell you in person...Mikey, I'm pregnant, almost six weeks now! You're hearing our daughter's mind awakening, trying to make sense of what she's experiencing; Mikey, you're going to be a father!"

I was awestruck; we were going to be parents, but more than that, that little speck of life growing inside Abi was already so powerful it made me wonder what she was going to be capable of. Our little girl was going to be one powerful little witch, just like her mother!

As I thought that, I could clearly see Abi grinning happily and feel her thoughts, I could feel her mind coiled protectively around our baby, and caressing mine as our happiness flowered, and, most rewarding of all, the feeling of warm inclusiveness as our baby's awakening mind reached out and curled around mine, drawing me in and knitting our three conjoined minds into an unbreakable fortress that would hold us together against any misfortune. Abi's smile was a picture of pride in our burgeoning family, fulfilment and contentment, and even as I gazed at her with my mind's eye, all I could think was:

'So this is what happens when you climb in bed with a witch, even if she is your sister!'

The End.