Chapter Text
“Is this really a good idea?”
“Come on, Bela! Mother said to help Arwen practice her spells!”
“I don’t think this was what she meant, Dani.” Bela’s voice was a low hiss, her eyes narrowed in a glare at her sister.
“I don’t see the problem. If it goes badly, we just kill it. Besides, it'll still be in the cage.” Cassandra sounded a little bored but I could see the excited way her fingers kept curling around her sickle.
I was just trying to ignore the uncomfortable feeling that was sitting in my chest that had settled in the moment we’d gone into the cellar. I’d never come down here before, never really cared to ever come down here. The sight of cages in a basement did not spark good memories.
Yet when Daniela proposed trying to raise the dead, I was intrigued. I could do it, it was literally a part of my magical repertoire, but I’d never tried something that intense.
Apparently they’d killed a maid when they were only supposed to be torturing her for information. She’d struggled when they were threatening her and one of their sickles slipped against her neck, cutting the artery hard enough that she bled out extremely quickly.
They hoped that I would be able to resurrect her to gain the knowledge they needed so Alcina wouldn’t be upset with them.
I tapped Bela’s shoulder, gathering her attention as I flipped open the notebook I’d brought down with me.
“What exactly do you need to learn from her?”
“She tried to smuggle a man into the castle. Mother thought it was just for a tryst and was considering ignoring the transgression but when we caught the man, he attacked us with specially made blades. They almost looked as if Lord Heisenberg had made them but when we tried to capture him, he swallowed a pill and died. Mother wants to know if Heisenberg is hiring outside help now that we’ve found a way to contain his lycans.”
“Though I’m not sure why he would now.” Cassandra grumbled, obviously agitated at these events. “Aunt Donna and Uncle Sal are doing better, the next cadou to be worked on is his. Attacking now would just be stupid.”
“None of his attacks could be called smart, Cass.” Bela huffed a bit. “I don’t think he did send them, I think it was just a tryst, but we need to be sure.”
“What do you need me to do?” I wiggled my notebook between them and they just stared at me. Rolling my eyes with a huff, I continued. “Do you want me to fully raise her or just get her to talk?”
“Oh.”
“Well we don’t technically need her back entirely.”
“But a fully raised bitch would be so cool!”
“Dani!”
“What?! It would! And it would be a good test of Arwen’s powers.”
“A dangerous one, you mean. Do you really think mother would be pleased that we pushed things like that this quickly? The possession was three days ago!”
Well that was true. Alcina had been hovering ever since I’d puked my guts out, making sure I felt well and was far away from any wandering spirits.
Today she hadn’t been able to stay home. To add onto her problems, the mayor had called to report some lingering lycans within the village. It wouldn’t take long to go meet with him to discuss making new lock down plans but it was still a trip away. I’d almost gone with her but then figured a few hours with the girls would be nice.
That was turning out to be a bit of a questionable as I stared down at the dead maid.
“I could try the spell to get her to just speak to us but if she won’t speak then I’ll aim for raising her. As long as she stays in the cage so that we can take her back down if I lose control of her, it should be fine.”
Bela didn’t look convinced but Daniela’s excitement and Cassandra’s impatience won out.
“Fine but if even one thing goes wrong, I’m going to get mother.”
With that in agreement, I went about setting up what I’d need. Candles, incense, fresh blood to draw the sigils, a blade, nightshade with wormwood and a few other herbs melted down into an oily paste with myrrh. Then finally a focusing agent so that my mind did not get entangled with the spirit I was trying to bring forth.
I tried to ignore the flush on my cheeks when the girls snickered as they realized my focusing agent was a ring their mother had gifted me.
Waving Bela over, I showed her the sigils I needed to be carved into the girl's chest with the knife and as she finished them, I applied the paste to the newly made cuts. Bela made them as clean as possible, as I knew she would, and I smiled gratefully at her for the help.
Cassandra and Daniela set to placing the candles and incense, following the diagram I’d draw in my notebook so that everything was situated just right. I gave them thankful looks as well once they’d all been lit.
The blood was still warm when I dipped my fingers into it but instead of feeling any kind of disgust, a twisted sense of pride lit up in my chest. The girls had done so well.
I circled the cage she sat in, drawing along as I went until it all looked as it did in the book.
Once it was finished, I waved for the girls to take certain spots and tapped a little incantation for them to whisper as I worked. This didn’t need multiple parties to work but it did help our chances if they did as I asked.
As I knelt before the body, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. My hands worked to make the motions I needed. I’d already studied this spell, not long after I saw that first ghost I’d looked into ways to reach out to the dead. Not to speak to them really but to banish them. Yet I knew living in this castle that finding ways to speak to spirits or raise them back up would be useful skills, so I’d studied.
With each breath, the incense muddled my vision until the world was dark and all I could see were the faded outlines of people wandering the space around us. It wasn’t our realm, not really, but the break between worlds.
A spirit realm, if you will.
I kept the movements as I scanned the faces I could see, ignoring the wrong ones and wiping them away if they came too close to me. My focus helped with that, as did the circle I sat within. None of the exiles could prey on me this day.
Eventually I spotted her, tucked behind a stack of crates of wine. She seemed angry, fearful, and that only intensified when I pulled her forward. Without being able to stop it, her spirit was yanked forward until she was standing just above her body. I decided to pull out one of my new tricks, one I’d learned to surprise Alcina with. It would be helpful here.
As I focused my thoughts, a shaky script began to appear in the air before me. Almost like I was writing with an inkwell pen against invisible paper, I found a way to speak.
“Will you speak with us freely or do I need to tie you back into your body?”
“What do you want from me?!” Her scream was like a banshee’s wail, piercing my ears in a way that made me wince. “I haven’t done anything wrong! Why am I here?!”
“You broke the rules, I’m afraid. You brought a man into our lady’s castle and he attacked the girls. They wished to know who he was and why he was coming here, why he would attack them outright in their own home.”
“My husband?” She seemed to settle a little then and my eyes went to her hand. No ring sat atop her finger and I wondered why she would hide such a thing from Alcina. There were plenty of other maids with families outside of the castle, some that only worked here during the day or certain days of the week before going back to live in homes within the village. Hiding a husband didn’t really clear anything up.
“If he was your husband, why did he come here? Why did you not go to see him in the village? You know the rules about unknown men coming into these halls.”
“I cannot leave!” She hissed, leaning towards me until the circle stopped her. “Those monsters kept me here!”
I snarled a little at the use of the word monster, tightening the hold I had on her until she was practically bound in place.
“They are not monsters and you were never held against your will. All that needed to happen was for word to be given to Lady Dimitrescu for what days you wished to go home to the village to see your family.”
“Liar! He said they’d never let me go! That I needed to bring him here!”
“Your husband? Did you not think to ask the woman who hired you instead of a man who had never been within the castle walls?”
At that she faltered, some of the wisps of shadow that coalesced around her slowly beginning to fade.
“Why would he lie to me? I’m his wife.”
“He had blades that seemed to be crafted by Lord Heiseberg. Did you know of him?”
“Yes. My husband used to live within his village before he came here to live with me.”
“Did you come to work here to provide for your family then?”
“He told me that working for the lords was a privilege, that we would make good money. Then when I arrived, he sent letters about what a mistake it was and that he’d learned that no one ever returns from the castle. That maidens only ever come here to work until death or be turned into wine.”
“While some maidens do become wine, it is only those who break the rules or those who are here to harm the family. Otherwise, the staff here are well taken care of, well paid, and allowed to go between the village and the castle as they wish. You would know this if you ever thought to speak to the other maids.”
“They’re brainwashed! I couldn’t trust them!”
Exhaustion was starting to settle in, the energy needed for this communication spell mixed with the extended foray into spirit talking was taking quite a bit out of me.
“You are to be tied here, until we know the answers. You may roam the castle, you may walk the forests, but you will be brought back at my call. I tether you here, as you so feared, until you have given the information I require.”
“And if I don’t have it?!”
“Then I will release you in one weeks time. The spell will break automatically at midnight, one week from now. However, you would do well to work with me, I cannot guarantee where you will go once you are free but I can send you down the river to reincarnation if you help me.”
Without waiting for an answer, I closed the gates and soon enough, I was back in the cellar with the girls watching me with wide eyes.
Daniela got to me first, catching me when I tilted to the side and almost collapsed onto the floor. Quickly, though, the other two swarmed around me too. I sighed, pressing my forehead to someone's shoulder and let them sweep me out of the cellar. When I looked around next, I blinked at the brightness of the kitchen.
They’d set me on one of the counters as Bela dug through the fridge for something to make me eat.
“I’m alright. I just need to rest.” I waved the notebook at her but she just huffed, shoving a bowl of already cut up fruit into my hand.
“You were in that trance for almost an hour. Mother would kill us if we didn’t have you eat and drink some water after all of that.”
My eyes widened. An hour? It felt like ten minutes of angry conversation, not nearly an hour. I took the bowl, shoving pieces of melon into my mouth without much fuss. All three girls looked pleased and Cassandra slid a large glass of water towards me as well.
“What did she say? Anything useful?”
I wrote down what I’d learned from the girl, wincing when they all deflated a bit. It was good information, definitely something Alcina would want to know but we still had no actual proof of Karl’s involvement.
Sure the man had lived in his village and yes, we could tie him to stirring paranoia in the poor girl, but there had to be more. Something more solid that Alcina would wish to pry out of her.
Sadly, she was already dead.
“I can put her back in her body but not today. I need to rest. Too much magic at once is exhausting.”
“Spirit talking took that much out of you?”
“Well, I technically did two spells at once. I tried out a new way to communicate with her since I needed to keep my hands free.”
“You actually talked to her?!” Daniela rushed forward, eyes wide as she looked between me and the cellar door. She looked almost sad and then it occurred to me that she thought that girl had heard my voice before any of them.
“Not really, Dani. I can just write my words in the air, like physically speaking with my mind. It just takes a lot of focus to keep it up. I think if I can tie the spell to an object I can hold it longer but I’ll have to experiment.”
“When did you figure that out?” Cassandra looked at me curiously, as if she were trying to picture how the writing would look.
“A few days ago. I was trying to perfect it before I showed your mother, it can be a bit tricky.”
“Back on topic, please.” Bela was looking a bit distraught now and I realized it may have been her sickle to do the fatal damage. “Mother is not going to be pleased that we killed a maid, even less happy that she was a hostage with information. Even if Arwen brings her back as early as tomorrow, how are we going to make it up to her?”
I reached out, rubbing a hand along Bela’s arm and she relaxed just a bit. Daniela cuddled up to her side, hugging Bela as tight as she could as Cassandra pulled them both into her chest.
“It’ll be alright, Bels. Mother isn’t going to disown us because of a mistake.”
“Yea! I’ve messed up way worse than this and I’m still here.” Daniela’s proclamation was made with pride but her sisters still hushed her and squeezed her tighter.
“She’ll be home for dinner, right?” I managed to get them to focus enough to read.
“Yes. In about an hour or two.”
“What if we cook for her? You guys hunt something, a quick one so just whatever is close by, and we can make something fresh for her.”
“Do you even know how to cook, Arwen?”
“No but we can figure something out together. The meat and blood can be raw and fresh so we just need to make some sides or a dessert. Simple.”
Bela snorted but gave me a grateful smile as Cassandra took her hand and started to drag her out the door.
“I’ll stay here to help you figure out what to make!” I grinned at Daniela and just waved her forward to help me dig through the cupboards. “Mother likes a lot of things. We don’t technically need to eat any food other than meat and blood but she likes to be sure we have a wide assortment to choose from.”
“Do you think she’d prefer a dessert?”
“Maybe! She likes cakes with fruit in them. I remember she really liked these little vanilla cupcakes that had blueberries and strawberries mixed into the batter we got from a baker a while ago.”
“We could do that. There’s plenty of fruit in the fridge already cut up. Plus I think if we just make some potatoes and veggies as sides for dinner, we could get it all done. It might be a bit of a rush but we can do it.”
“Your belief in us never ceases to amaze me.” I snorted at Daniela’s statement, flushing at the pleased grin she sent my way.
Daniela and I grabbed all of the supplies we needed, ingredients nearly spilling from the mixing bowl she’d placed in my arms. While she looked through a cookbook for any sign of a similar cupcake recipe, I set to chopping assorted veggies and potatoes.
“How are you going to cook those?”
I pointed to a pan I’d already oiled and tossed a random amount of seasoning into. When she raised her brows I just shrugged and threw the potatoes in.
“If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, blame my non-existent cooking skills.”
Daniela cackled but nodded, leaving me to, hopefully, cook what I’d been given correctly. I remembered a recipe mother had made before, only once for my birthday. It was broccoli and carrot and zucchini all cooked in oil and spices, layered in a pan with potato and cheese and slices of venison and then cooked over a fire to melt together.
I’m sure it was just a mish mash of things we had that she threw together to celebrate that I’d survived until twenty but I still remembered how it made me feel.
It was one of the only times I really believed the exiles may have loved me. So I was determined to make my own version of it now, just to see if I could keep that kind of memory alive in my mind by making it even better.
By the time Cassandra and Bela returned, mildly bloody and dragging an already partially butchered deer behind them, I was layering things into a pan and Daniela was starting to measure things for the cupcakes.
“We found this! I bled it on the way and skinned it as best I could while Bela rushed us home. I figure we can make some steaks or something.” Cassandra lifted up a large bucket that had a top on it, blood trickling down the side.
I made a grabbing motion towards it, eventually cleaning my hands enough to request a few slices of meat to add to my own concoction. Bela bit into a potato, surprise flickering across her face as she gave me a thumbs up. I beamed, pleased I hadn’t fucked it up entirely.
“The carrots are a little crunchy still.” Cassandra mumbled as she stole veggies from the pan in between slicing meat for me, “But it tastes good.”
“Cassie, you finish getting the meat ready, we don’t really need to cook it so just get it the way mother likes it. We can cook a few pieces for Arwen once they’re sliced. I’ll help Dani with whatever it is she’s making.”
“Cupcakes! I’m on dessert duty, Bels.”
As I put my dish in the oven to bake for a bit, I leaned back against a counter to watch the girls work. Cassandra was a bloody mess now but she had portioned the deer out for all of us, setting some of it in a pan for me to have cooked before we sat down to eat. Bela and Daniela were absolute disasters, flour and fruit staining their skin and cloaks.
Still, they all looked pleased with themselves, hopeful that this would endear Alcina enough to forgive their mistake.
It definitely would. Alcina was almost guaranteed to melt as soon as she realized what had happened.
Speaking of Alcina.
The front door opening got all of our attention, the girls freezing in their tasks. I waved them off, quickly gathering my notebook.
“Take the pan out when the timer goes off and put it to the side to cool before we eat. Just finish up what you’re doing and then come say hello before you get cleaned up. I think showing her how hard you’ve worked here will help.”
They just nodded furiously, Cassandra now breaking down the last bits as Bela very carefully poured their batter into the baking tray.
I ran out to meet Alcina, hugging her the moment I reached her. She chuckled, lifting me up and kissing my cheek.
“Hello, darling. Miss me, did you?” I scoffed, nodding quickly as I pressed a kiss to her smirking lips. She sighed into it, hugging me a bit tighter. “Now where are my daughters, hm?”
Biting my lip, I pointed to the dining room doors just as Bela burst through them. Daniela and Cassandra followed quickly behind, looking a bit frazzled. Alcina’s eyes just widened at the sight of them, confusion coloring her features.
“What in the world is all over you?”
“Flour!”
“We made dinner.”
“Or we tried to.”
“We succeeded!”
As Cassandra and Daniela bickered back and forth, Bela walked a little closer, looking like she might burst into tears at any moment. Alcina set me down, staying low so that she could gently tilt her head up when she got close.
“What is it, little moth?”
“I didn’t mean to, mother.” She sniffled and then bit her lip, straightening her spine as she met Alcina’s eyes with an almost grim determination. “When we went to talk to the maid, I got too close with my sickle and it cut her neck. She bled out before we could talk to her. Arwen helped, she found a way to talk to her but we didn’t get much. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to, it just happened so quick and-”
She cut off as Alcina pulled her into a hug, rocking her back and forth a bit while she pressed a kiss to her temple. Bela broke them, hiccuping a sob as she clung to Alcina, blubbering out apologies against her dress. I just reached out to rub her back as well, her stunned sisters swarming over to join in once they broke from their surprise.
“Oh my darling Bela. It’s alright, dear, I’m not angry with you. I was too agitated when I gave you those orders earlier, I shouldn’t have been so dire about interrogating her. It’s alright.”
It took a few long moments for her to calm enough to pull back, rubbing at her cheeks a bit roughly before Daniela pulled her hands away to do it much gentler.
“We made dinner, as a sort of apology. I butchered a deer Bela and I caught, Arwen made her own thing for us to try, and Daniela and Bela made cupcakes. We haven’t baked them yet, we didn’t want them to burn so they’re just waiting.”
As I predicted, Alcina basically melted as all three gave her sheepish smiles and I leaned into her side a bit. She pressed a kiss to the top of my head with a tired sigh.
“Why don’t you three go get cleaned up a bit so we can eat. We can wait for the cupcakes to be finished together, alright?” Happy chittering and buzzing filled the room just before the girls disappeared. I chuckled at the sound and then turned to Alcina, cupping her cheek while I ran my thumb just under her eye. “Do I look as tired as I feel?”
I shook my head, leaning up for another kiss. She hummed against my lips, tugging me into her chest until we were perfectly entangled. When she pulled back, her chin settled on top of my head as we waited for the girls to return.
“How much of a mess is my kitchen right now?”
My answer, scrawled against her skin, rewarded me with an exasperated laugh.
“I wouldn’t look at the counters.”