Chapter Text
─── ｡☆: *.☽.* :☆. ───
“Race?”
“Excuse me?”
The girl on the other side of the desk rolled her milky white eyes with annoyance. “Do you have hearing problems? I asked you for your race.” Her tongue was forked and framing her face was hair in a shade of pink more shocking than her attitude.
“Ah- Uh, Witch?” Chenle’s eyes darted around the large marble-floored lobby, quickly noting that there were all manners of creatures there from fae to demon.
She hummed with annoyance before jotting something down on the paper before her. “Names?”
“Chenle and J-”
“Well actually I don't care,” she cut him off. “I have ten different names and three of those can only be spoken in Hell. What I really meant to ask is, are either of you him ?” she gestured lazily to the wall behind her, where in large graffiti was the lettering ‘BANNED GUESTS’. Under the title, hung an obscenely large ceiling-to-floor length poster of his Coven Leader’s face. Chenle could only recognise it was Kun because he’d had to look at that same face every day, but he was sure he would be unrecognisable to anyone else with the amount of graffiti and sharpie that disfigured his features.
“No,” Chenle let out a pained noise. If Ten’s ire for his Coven Leader stretched to this extent then it was probably better if he kept the fact he was associated with Kun under wraps too.
“Perfect,” the pink-haired girl popped a piece of brightly coloured chewing gum into her mouth. With every chew, the scent around her seemed to change from everything from banana to jasmine to rotting flesh. Jisung took a step back, head dizzy from whiplash but the girl seemed completely unaffected.
“One last question,” she drawled. “Who confessed to who first?”
“What?” Chenle stuttered.
“Ugh, not this again.” The girl grabbed Chenle’s wrist and scrawled down a number on it. “Don’t get too excited, that's only my doctor’s number. You know - so he can help with your deafness,” she explained at Chenle’s puzzled expression.
Jisung cut in before Chenle could snap back and start another race war from that lobby. “What do you mean by confessed?”
“ Feelings dummy. Or do witches not have those? Wait- you guys do know this is a couple's party right? I can’t let you in if you're not together.” She batted her eyelashes at Jisung. Her snarky attitude was replaced by a coyer expression. “If you’re not dating this deaf bitch- sorry, I mean witch,” she smirked, “You could always call me-”
“We’re together,” Chenle interjected. He revelled in the satisfaction that came when the hopeful expression fell off her face. Good . Jisung wasn’t his but he wasn’t about to let some arrogant demon girl that smelled like burnt almonds get her hands all over him either. “And he confessed to this deaf bitch first,” he tacked on pettily. Being the bigger person was for losers. Chenle preferred being small and victorious.
“Fine.” She blew a bubble that burst into the smell of toffee popcorn. “Head on through.”
Chenle smiled with poison as he linked his arms with Jisung’s and pulled forward and away from the girl. Her gaze burned holes into their backs.
Before them lay large rounded crystal doors guarded by a bored-looking ogre. “Take off any magical trinkets you have and place them in the box,” he said robotically like he’d quoted the line a thousand times that night already. “We can’t afford to start a race war.”
Most creatures of magic chose to use amulets and accessories that helped hone their magic and sharpen the accuracy of their spells. It was an easier way of practising and Chenle was no exception to the allure of such ornaments. He briefly considered keeping them on but after one look at the ogre’s red beady eyes, he thought it was probably less hassle to comply. He took off three necklaces and the anklet he’d recently gotten as well as some charms hung on his belt and a poultice bag in his pocket. His magical ability had definitely dulled by at least a quarter. Turning back, he waited for Jisung to do the same. The White Witch stood there innocently.
Upon noticing Chenle’s gaze Jisung gave him a warm smile. “I don’t have any.”
“Nothing?!” Chenle squeaked. Jisung shook his head. The witch had the sort of aura that made Chenle’s skin prickle and his knees buckle… with nothing?! It was a sobering realisation of just how much more powerful white witches were. Of how easily Jisung could crush him in his palms but instead the witch choose to hold his hand in his with the gentleness one would give a freshly picked rose. Heat crawled up Chenle’s neck at the thought.
He cleared his throat awkwardly and pulled away from Jisung’s hold to march through the doors ahead.
At that moment, Chenle understood why Ten’s parties were the talk of the city. Wrapped in floor-to-ceiling glass windows was a vast room packed with every creature you could find under the moon. Tiny spellbook-sized pixies flitted around, powdering the air with trails of pixie dust that overlapped to look like starry nebulas. Bats hung upside down off the ample chandeliers, occasionally flying down and morphing into vampires in a haze of red smoke. Speakers blasting music sat in each corner with small colourful fireworks bursting near them with every beat as if the music itself had come alive. Every inch of the room was dripping with pure magic.
Right in the centre of it all was a sight so spectacular and unmissable, and no doubt planned to be that way. Ten was perched on a large golden hoop, swinging through the air and laughing at the little cherubs that were whispering in his ear. His skin was coated in glitter, and large white feathers were carefully tucked into a band around his hair forming a crescent reminiscent of half of a halo.
“We’re together?” Jisung caught up quickly and asked the question with stars in his eyes, referring to the conversation with the demon girl outside.
Chenle groaned at how the White Witch had wasted no time in plastering himself to his side again. “Physically? Apparently so,” Chenle sighed.
“Romantically?”
Chenle laughed. Jisung never gave up. “Romantically? He turned to face the witch, blinking with surprise as he noticed Donghyuck in the background, very obviously beckoning with ire at Chenle.
Donghyuck was fuming, his bright red hair like a crown of fire on his head, and, his hands jabbing all sorts of angry motions in the air.
“Romantically…uhhh…” Chenle stalled as he tried to decipher just what Donghyuck was saying from behind Jisung.
“Could I interest you in ambrosia shots?” A tall and ghostly-looking butler appeared from thin air, cutting Chenle off.
“Hmm?” Chenle snapped his attention away from Donghyuck, distracted.
“They’re lovebird shots made from the honey of aphrodite garden bees. It brings couples closer.”
Chenle didn’t miss the way Jisung’s interest piqued at that or the way Donghyuck was desperately waving to try and usher Chenle over.
“Um. Yeah, sure. Apollo bee birds, that sounds great. Jisung can you go get us some?” Chenle asked distractedly in an attempt at getting rid of the witch.
“Excellent choice,” the butler nodded before melting into a shadow on the floor which beckoned its wispy black fingers at Jisung for him to follow.
With the White Witch obediently tottering after a shadow on the floor, Chenle wasted no time in rushing forward to where Donghyuck was stood.
“Are you crazy ?!” Donghyuck wasted no time in explaining his wrath to Chenle. “You brought your pet along?”
“He’s not my pet-”
“ He is a one-stop ticket to being kicked out of our covens if he catches us and then rats us out to the High Priest.”
“He wouldn’t do that,” Chenle assured with unfounded confidence. “Besides, I left him with that shadow,” he added as if that helped.
“Yeah, I noticed. Now poor Gaston’s left babysitting him,” Donghyuck looked mournfully after them.
“Your ghost butler’s called Gaston?”
“Not the point. Let’s go.”
Donghyuck threaded his fingers through Chenle’s and quickly pulled him out of the room and down a long winding corridor before Jisung could notice. They came to a stop outside a room not too far away but just inconspicuous enough that no one else would come knocking by accident.
“Password?” drawled Renjun’s voice from inside.
“Pineapple gin,” Donghyuck quipped back. “It’s our safe word” he tacked on in a loud whisper to Chenle.
The door swung open to a very unimpressed-looking Renjun. “It is not our safe word. We don’t have a safe word.”
Donghyuck gasped dramatically and brought a hand up to his chest. “No safe word?! Renjun! After all the things you make me do-”
Renjun moved back from where he was holding the door to let Donghyuck who was leaning on it stumble and fall through with a yelp.
Chenle followed, noticing then how both of the witches before him were wrapped in a similar burgundy cloak.
Donghyuck, not missing the way Chenle’s eyes were lingering took the opportunity to further vex an already irritated Renjun. “That’s right Chenle. We came as a couple,” he preened. “All the rumours are true.”
“What rumours?” Renjun scoffed as he moved further into the room to where there was an almost completed pentagram drawn with salt on the floor.
“You know, the ones of-”
Chenle cut Donghyuck off, his own bubble of annoyance forming slowly. “You knew about the theme and didn’t bother to tell me?!”
“Relax,” Haechan drawled as Renjun took another fistful of salt to finish the pentagram. “I was planning to go as a throuple. How was I meant to know you'd get detention? Now that I think about it, it's probably a good thing you brought your pet-”
“He has a pet?” Renjun asked with minor interest.
“Uh-huh, he's big and cute and totally in love with Chenle.
Chenle rolled his eyes and pushed Donghyuck in the ribs in retaliation for the comment.
“P-pets can be n-nice?”
Chenle whipped his head around to the noise, taking note for the first time then of a small frame crouched in the corner of the room. The figure looked deathly pale and tired, and next to him sat a small glass jar with a spider scuttling around inside it.
“That’s your familiar, not a pet Yangyang, we’ve been over this,” Haechan quipped back in a bored voice, barely even turning to address the shaking boy. Renjun too looked completely unfazed.
Snapping his head back toward the two bored-looking witches, Chenle hissed, “Who the fuck is this?” He hadn’t been aware they’d have an audience.
“Hmm? Oh, that’s just Yangyang,” Donghyuck said as if that clarified everything.
Chenle paused for a moment longer waiting for his friend to elaborate but when he didn't he threw his hands up in exasperation. “Of course!” he said, voice dripping with sarcasm. “That’s just Yangyang ! I should have known! How could I have been so blind to just Yangyang ?”
Renjun traced his fingers along the edge of the salt circle cleaning up rough lines. “Apparently he’s one of Ten’s witches. He just keeps him locked in here for some reason.”
“Not for some reason ,” Donghyuck said with the annoyance of someone who’d been over this several times already. “He’s new. Ten picked him up on a beach somewhere while he was on holiday. Said the witch had so much raw magical energy he’d accidentally drawn the tide in. Naturally, Ten took him in but it turns out he’s terrified of spiders and his familiar just so happens to be one. Everyone knows a witch can’t practice magic without their familiar. So Ten’s just-” Donghyuck waved his arms about like he was looking for the right phrase, “- he’s temporarily got him in here till he makes friends with the little thing in that jar.”
“Right…” Chenle watched the boy in the corner stare firmly ahead to avoid looking at the spider next to him at all costs. It was hard to believe the timid-looking witch had moved even a cup of water let alone the ocean. “And how long’s he been in here…?”
Donghyuck hummed in thought. “Two weeks give or take.”
“ What?! ” Chenle squeaked. “Ten’s had him locked in here for two weeks?! ”
The boy spoke up in a feeble voice. “It’s actually been two and hal-”
“Not now, Yangyang,” Donghyuck cut him off with a tut.
“ Surely , there's some kind of inter-coven council law against this?” Chenle asked in shock.
Donghyuck laughed. “Bold of you to assume Ten follows a single one of those.”
“This is illegal-” Chenle started again.
Renjun looked up at him with a bored gaze. “Not any more than what we’re about to do.” Well, Chenle supposed that was true. The three witches hadn’t exactly been model law-abiding witches either.
Renjun stood up, dusting his burgundy robes off. “It’s ready.”
All thoughts of locked-up witches with arachnophobia fled Chenle’s mind then as he took in the scene of the white pentagram and runes that were glowing with an eerie otherworldly luminescence. He could advocate for witch rights later. For now, he had a spirit to summon and an antidote to brew. Priorities, right?
Renjun extended his palms for Dongyuck and Chenle to take as they stood in a semi-circle around the pentagram. The two witches took his hand, closing their eyes as gestured to before Renjun began his incantations.
At first, nothing happened. There was a moment of absolute silence as if the world itself was holding its breath to see what would happen next. And then, without warning, the air around them plummeted ten degrees. The hairs along Chenle’s arms stood on end in a feeble attempt to fight the chill settling into his bones. Even with his eyes closed, he could tell that the tens of candles around them had been snuffed out as the stifling smell of smoke curled around him and poured into his lungs. He fought the urge to cough, too scared to break the fragile atmosphere.
“I hate this smell.”
Chenle only dared open his eyes when he heard the voice. He didn’t have to look to know who it was. Sure, he’d never talked with the keeper of the library before, but every syllable that had spilt from his lips had sounded so ghostly that there was no question about who the voice belonged to. Chenle had never heard this kind of sound before. It was like the whisper of a breeze and the thundering of the ground shaking before a volcano erupted all at once.
“I hate this smell, because it reminds me of when I died.”
Johnny stood, his presence dominating the room despite being confined within the pentagram. His skin was a pale shade of glowing blue that occasionally flickered much like the centre of a burning flame.
The keeper regarded each of them in turn, his gaze growing increasingly tired. And then, without a single word further, his ghostly figure stepped forward to try and rub out the salt lines and break his summoning spell.
“Woah, woah! Stop!” Dongyuck rushed forward and let his palm fall protectively along the inside of the lines before the translucent foot could ruin it. The witch must truly have no regard for his own life because he then turned to glare at the keeper’s spirit. “You’ve been back for barely a minute and you already want to leave?!”
Johnny looked down at where Donghyuck was crouching with weary eyes. “The dead should stay dead.” Chenle didn’t miss the way the keeper turned his gaze to Renjun pointedly. He wondered how he’d known that it was Renjun who had brought him back when none of them had met before.
“We just need some help-” Renjun began.
“Don’t involve me in your mess.” Johnny snapped back. Before Chenle could interject and ashamedly confess that it was actually his mess, Johnny continued speaking. “Haven’t you disturbed enough resting souls in search for an answer, Renjun?”
Chenle frowned. “But this is the first spirit we’ve summoned for help.”
Johnny turned to him then, a dry laugh escaping his translucent lips. “They don’t know!” he spoke still clearly addressing Renjun. “Oh, suddenly I’m invested. Let me get some popcor-”
“What don’t we know?”
“Nothing,” Renjun said quickly although he looked too troubled for it to be nothing. “I guess I just have a reputation in the underworld-”
“That’s an understatement,” Johnny scoffed. He turned to address Chenle. “You too. If you two could stop graverobbing spellbooks for a start that would be great. We don’t really like waking up to find all our possessions gone one morning. Hmm.” The keeper crossed his arms and complained like a stroppy teen. He then tilted his head towards where Donghyuck was still cradling the edge of the pentagram. “And you- I don’t know much about you but you clearly can’t be up to any good if this is the company you keep.”
Damn okay, so he wasn’t taking any prisoners tonight. Who hurt him?
Johnny, on a roll with his insults, didn’t miss taking notice of Yangyang who was still crouched in the corner with his head in his hands.
“Who’s that?” the keeper asked.
“That’s just Yangyang .” Chenle huffed quietly, mimicking Donghyuck’s explanation from earlier.
Unlike Chenle, that seemed to be ample context for Johnny.
“Okay, well, just Yangyang ,” the keeper let his gaze dip to the jar with the spider cooped up and then looked back up at the witch, clearly piecing the pieces together. “Grow some balls.”
Donghyuck turned to face the cowering witch. “Yangyang, Johnny told you to grow some balls-”
The shaking witch grit his teeth visibly and a book fell off the shelf above him onto the ground and promptly burst into flames. The witch looked unfazed by it implying it was his magic that was the reason a small bonfire was starting in the corner of the room. The three witches and the spirit of the keeper watched the scene in silence.
Donghuck turned back to Johnny slowly. “...I think he said no.”
Renjun rolled his eyes. “Right, well, if you’re done with the pleasantries-”
“I am and I want to leave,” Johnny said stomping one foot down like a child throwing a tantrum.
“ If you’re done,” Renjun repeated, “we would really appreciate your help.”
“You know, usually when you ask for help you do something nice for the person and then you beg. You don’t cause chaos in hell and then disturb their rest.”
Johnny wasn’t exactly wrong but the world would end before Renjun ever begged and so Chenle cut in before the situation escalated. The last thing they needed was for Renjun to vex the keeper to a state where he decided to possess them. That would somehow be a situation far worse and far more illegal than a love potion.
“I’m sorry, on their behalf,” Chenle apologised. His two friends turned to him with looks of absolute betrayal and annoyance that suggested he would indeed be very sorry on their behalves later. Whatever. He could deal with one problem at a time.
“I’ve just made a- uh- situation, and I didn’t know who else to turn to. After all, everyone knows the great Johnny Seo is the most skilled runes reader of the modern witch era.”
The keeper watched Chenle, his angry blue glow subsiding slightly and his feet finally stepping away from the edge of the pentagram. “Hmm…” he seemed to consider Chenle’s words. “Tell me more.”
Was he serious? They’d summoned who was supposed to be one of the most intelligent and distinguished witches of their time and he’d turned out to be someone who threw petty insults and loved blatant, unabashed flattery.
“You’re great!” Chenle said the first words that came to mind. It was a far cry from sincere or poetic but it seemed to be doing the job for the keeper.
“I suppose I am,” the keeper smiled proudly.
“You’re really great!” Okay, so maybe Chenle needed to work on his vocabulary and creativity a little bit. “I am such a big fan. I will literally kiss your feet to prove it-”
The smile fell off the spirit’s face. “Okay, that’s enough,” the keeper said hurriedly, pointing his feet away as Chenle fell to his knees. “I’m really not into that so let’s leave it there. I’ll agree to help you as long as you let me rest after.”
Chenle nodded eagerly. Another day, another time where insincere bullshitting had worked.
He recounted the incident to Johnny in a way that sounded as least incriminating as he could. Turns out, even the most sugar-coated version of the story still sounded like a fucking trainwreck.
When he’d finished his tale of woe, Johnny took a long moment of silence, his gaze glazed over with thought.
“What... do you think?” Chenle asked nervously.
“I think,” he began slowly like he was about to impart words of great wisdom. Chenle leaned forward hanging on to every word. “You’re almost as bad a witch as Renjun,” the keeper finished. He nodded to himself as if he was satisfied with that response.
That’s all he had to say?
Renjun, clearly done with sitting by and letting Chenle take the lead, interjected with annoyance. He thrust the spellbook Chenle had stolen from the cursed library in front of Johnny’s spirit. “Can you read the runes or not?”
The keeper skimmed over the book. “It's simple. Love potions were quite common weapons of war and so witches spent a great deal of research on how to remove them. After all, an antidote could make the difference between winning and losing a battle. It says here that the way would be to feed the reversing potion to the witch’s familiar.”
“And that’s it?” Chenle asked with wide eyes.
“And. That’s. It.” Johnny revelled in the way Chenle looked at him with awe. “It’s a bit of a complex recipe listed and in a very ancient text too but it’s nothing I can’t translate,” he bragged.
The light at the end of the tunnel. Chenle could see it. Johnny could translate and Chenle could brew and this whole ordeal could be shoved behind them and never talked of again. Jisung? Gone. Chenle? Not excommunicated. The High Priest? None the wiser. See Chenle knew that breaking into the library and then summoning the dead was the way to go. Call him the God of Arithmetics because he’d just proved that two minuses truly did make a plus.
Knock Knock Knock.
The four witches and the spirit all froze in tandem as they turned to stare at the closed door.
“Is that Ten?” Donghyuck hissed with horror. “We have to get rid of Johnny.”
“No!” Chenle whispered back in panic. “I need the antidote recipe.”
“And I need to not be killed by my coven leader-”
“And I need sleep,” Johnny cut in the middle of their bickering. “What? Is that not the game we’re playing? Are we not going around and saying what we need?”
“ Chenleee?” the voice was slurred and followed by a hiccup.
“Is that… Jisung?!” Donghyuck asked, somehow looking doubly horrified.
“Chenle,” Jisung giggled from behind the door, “I know you’re in there. Im coming iiinnnnn-”
“Go.” Donghyuck thrust Chenle harshly toward the door. “Go. Do not let him in here.” And then, before he could protest, the red-haired witch had promptly shoved him outside and slammed the door shut again.
Chenle froze as he met warm honey eyes, far, far too close to his own. From this distance, he could count the eyelashes threaded into Jisung’s eyelids, and trace the freckles that painted his skin like constellations in the night sky.
“Chenle-yah,” Jisung breathed out and Chenle flinched as the hot air from his words fanned against his own lips. Jisung giggled again. Was he… drunk? “Chenle-yah,” the witch said again. Chenle started to realise then that maybe he wasn’t going anywhere with that sentence. Jisung sounded like he just liked the way Chenle’s name tasted on his tongue. The thought made the witch burn up.
“How did you find me?” Chenle breathed out quietly. They’d carefully picked a room just out of the way enough that none of the guests should have picked up on it. Not even the trouble-causing fae had come knocking on their door and yet here Jisung stood casually in all his six feet of splendour.
“Your magic went woooshhh and so I followed till it went baaammm again,” Jisung explained earnestly.
Chenle somehow understood the absolute garbage that was pouring out of the white witch’s mouth. Jisung had apparently sniffed out his magic leading to here. What was he, an animal? And more importantly, “Are you drunk?” he asked.
Jisung giggled again. The innocent sound that was so uncharacteristic of the usually composed witch was starting to become a familiar melody. “Mayyybbeee,” he whispered. “You were gone so I had both the ambrosia shots.” Jisung stuck up two fingers to emphasise his point. And then, slowly, he brought those fingers up till they were in front of his eyes to strike a cute pose. Dear god. Chenle didn’t have the patience for this right now.
“Okay, that’s great. Can you go wait for me at the party?
“Are you trying to get rid of me?” Jisung pouted before narrowing his eyes. “What are you doing here anyway?”
For a terrifying moment, the drunk look in the white witch’s eyes seemed to sober up as he regarded the door behind Chenle with suspicion. It seemed that even drunk, he still had his instincts with him.
“Nothing!” Chenle yelled to catch the witch’s attention again. “Just… room… stuff.” Again. Chenle really needed to work on his creativity.
Jisung’s probing gaze melted into a softer one then as his drunk mind clearly bought Chenle’s nonsensical lie. “Do you want help with,” he dropped his voice quieter and leaned forward with a smirk, “ room stuff ?”
Any closer and they’d practically meld into one. Chenle laughed nervously over the lump in his throat and pushed Jisung back. “No, not really.”
Jisung clearly wasn’t a fan of the space that grew between them. He frowned and immediately hooked his arm around Chenle’s waist, pulling him closer from under his robe. Where the soft padding of his fingers met the skin of Chenle’s waistline, the witch could have sworn he was set ablaze. The tens of candles lining the corridor then all blew out in canon till just one was left burning near their faces. It was Jisung’s magic that had done that. Chenle knew because he could feel it sparking around his fingertips on his waist and in the breath in between their lips.
“You know,” Jisung began in a low voice, backing Chenle up slowly, “we’re alone . We could do anything we wanted to.” Chenle gasped as his back met the cool wood of the door. His mind was hazy and his knees were moments away from buckling but he had enough sanity in him to process their situation. If Jisung pushed against him any harder the door would swing open and the sight of a spectre would probably be enough to sober Jisung up. He couldn’t risk the White Witch finding out about any of this.
And so he did the only thing he could do. Probably.
He flipped Jisung over till the White Witch had his back against the wall next to the door and it was Chenle that was standing far too close to him and roughly holding him in place.
Jisung squeaked, his pupils blown wide. He’d clearly not expected this turn of events but he hardly seemed like he minded. It barely took a moment before his lips split wide into his usual cocky smile. His fingers gripped tighter around Chenle’s waist making the witch shiver. He wondered how he could feel so hot and so cool at the same time.
“I’m sad you didn’t get to try the ambrosia Chenle-yah. It’s meant to bring couples closer,” the White Witch whispered.
Chenle’s head spun. The ambrosia was what? He faintly remembered the shadow butler saying something along those lines but he hadn’t expected Ten to actually be unhinged enough to give his guests aphrodisiacs.
“But… maybe,” Jisung brought his spare hand up to cup Chenle’s face. “You can taste it from me.”
The White Witch’s face edged closer to Chenle’s but he waited, his eyes inquisitive as despite his hazed state he tried to make sure Chenle was okay with it. Something about that made Chenle’s stomach lurch. Every fibre of his magic was aching to get closer to Jisung’s. Jisung was kind, he was beautiful, he was powerful, and he was his . It would be so easy to just lean forward and give in to the magic. Chenle’s tongue darted out to lick against his bottom lip where could almost taste Jisung’s magic.
No. He couldn’t.
He stepped back abruptly, yanking away from Jisung’s grip. From the other side of the corridor he felt like he could finally breathe again.
“Not now,” he told Jisung. His skin already missed the warmth of Jisung’s own.
“Then when?” the white witch whined in complaint.
Then when? Once he’d gotten the recipe for the antidote off Johnny then never. So really, it didn’t matter what he said.
“Later.” Chenle lied. “As soon as I get back to the party. Where you can wait for me.”
Jisung’s eyes lit up, motivated by a lie.
“You promise?” the White Witch asked.
“Yeah I- I promise.” There was a lump in Chenle’s throat. He’s not sure why he felt bad lying
-
Johnny looked deathly pale. Even for a ghost. The chatty keeper that Chenle had gotten to know over their brief encounter was uncharacteristically quiet as Chenle slipped back into the room. Chenle didn’t blame him. He too would have looked like he was about to throw up if he’d had to hear that mess of a conversation between himself and Jisung, which he’s sure every party in the room had heard in crystal clear detail.
“Guys can you stop looking at me like that,” Chenle’s ears burned with embarrassment.
“You!” Johnny bellowed, his voice resonating with that spectral quality again. “You never told me the witch you’d love optioned was a White Witch!”
Chenle blinked, taken aback by the keeper's sudden change in attitude. “I didn’t think it would matter.” He shrugged as he easily voiced his disdain for their hierarchy. “We’re all the same anyway.”
“It matters,” Johnny looked like he wanted to die all over again, “because they’re different. The potion needs to be fed to a familiar and they don’t have one.”
Donghyuck let out a hollow laugh. “What do you mean they don’t have one?” Johnny stared at him like he was stupid. “No, I’ve read enough books-“ the red-haired witch continued incessantly, “I know witches need familiars or they can’t do magic. I might be stupid but that doesn’t make me dumb.”
Witches needed familiars. It was a rule that was ingrained in everything they were taught and in every aspect of witch practice and culture. Animals could sense wavelengths of magic that witches couldn’t and so in order to properly grasp the art and perform most spells, you’d need the help of an animal that could lend you small amounts of its magic.
“Well White Witches don’t have one,” Johnny said conclusively.
That made no sense. Witches needed familiars. Without them, a witch could perform spells and sense magic weakly at best. The High Priest’s coven was a far cry from that frail image. Chenle had felt for himself the way their magic had charged the very air around them with an aura as pure and undiluted as the age-old cursed library itself.
“It’s obvious.” Yangyang gritted through his teeth as his gaze remained locked resolutely on the air in front of him. Chenle had almost forgotten he was there. “They’re changelings.”
Johnny pursed his pale blue lips together in silence suggesting that maybe the arachnophobic witch was onto something.
Donghyuck rolled his eyes and whipped around. “Okay, Mr ‘It’s obvious they’re changelings’ , is there anything else you want to contribute?”
Yangyang’s glare became more vexed and in response, the blazing book next to him burned even brighter. Chenle gazed at it mournfully. If the High Priest didn’t kill them first, then the arson caused by Donghyuck and Yangyang’s bickering would. Ten had somehow mastered the art of picking up witches with the exact kind of stubborn attitude that would give Kun a mental breakdown.
“Trust me,” Yangyang continued. “I’ve been trying to figure out for weeks if there was a way I could practice magic without a familiar.” The spider scuttled around in the jar as if it could sense it was being talked about. Yangyang winced and edged closer to the wall. “This is the only way.”
Changelings were a very rare sort of magical creature that could shapeshift fluently between an animal and a human form. They were too few of them for enough to be known or discussed outside of folk tales and with time they’d been assumed lost to history - nothing more than a myth.
Donghyuck laughed drily. “So you’re telling me, our High Priest, little Taeyongie, spends his spare time as someone’s lap dog?”
The pale blue luminescence around Johnny then flared in brightness as the keeper glared holes into Donghyuck, no doubt annoyed by the way he’d addressed the High Priest. Chenle made a mental correction. If the High Priest or Johnny didn’t kill them first, then the fire would.
Somehow, Yangyang’s theory made perfect sense. Even with familiars witches could only harness a fraction of the animal’s magical power. But to be both the witch and the animal itself… it would be of no surprise that Jisung had more magic than he knew what to do with. Despite the pieces slowly falling into place his mind was still reeling with unprocessed information that would take far longer than they had to fully come to terms with. In the meantime what he needed was solutions. Not more problems.
“So what do we do now?” he asked Johnny in a resigned voice.
The library keeper shrugged, for once looking at a loss for words. “This is honestly out of my paycheck - my paycheck being absolutely nothing but the threats you guys give me.” He wrang a hand through his hair in exasperation and pressed his eyes tightly shut. “The White Witches are very secretive concerning spells and antidotes that work on them. The texts were never even stored in my library so honestly, you’d have to ask one of them yourself. Someone who lived through the era in which love potions were commonplace.”
That entire coven of witches had been adopted by their High Priest in what were probably very recent years by Johnny’s terms. It was only their High Priest himself that had lived around the time of the Black War. In other words, their only option wasn’t an option.
Defeated silence hung heavy like a shroud over the room.
“Actually-“ Renjun spoke up, his voice feeble and his skin pale. “I know an old White Witch. “Very old, in fact,” he laughed drily at a joke he seemed to share with only himself. The witch glanced over at Johnny with dread. “Cover your ears,” he said to the keeper.
Johnny sighed. “It’s fine I’ve heard it all just now, it can’t get worse.”
“Okay… well,” Renjun drew in a deep breath. “I may or may not…” he wrung his fingers together and teetered back and forth on his heels as he figured out just how to word his thoughts. “I may have accidentally raised Na Jaemin - one of the original thirteen white witches.”
The silence that fell over the room was deafening.
“Or I may have not!” Renjun tacked on.
“Oh my god, it somehow actually got worse,” The keeper whispered under his breath.
“ Who?! ” Donghyuck yelled.
“How do you even do that?!” Chenle squealed. “The original thirteen were hung and burned and had their familiars staked so they can’t-”
“I know,” Renjun snapped. They all knew, after all, they’d attended the same classes together. His annoyance then morphed into distress. “Or- I don’t know, I-” the witch grit his teeth together and scowled again, somehow returning to the annoyance on his rollercoaster of emotions. “This is because your faulty love potion fell through a giant wormhole and onto a grave while I was in the middle of a spell.”
The witch jabbed an angry finger towards Chenle who opened and shut his mouth repeatedly like a fish blowing bubbles. Now that Renjun had mentioned it, a long-forgotten and foggy memory came rushing back to him. After he’d seen Jisung the night he brewed the potion, he’d freaked out and tipped it out into a portal he’d made to the first place that had come to mind. The graveyard.
So Chenle’s potion had caused two anomalies that shouldn’t have occurred in one night. He slumped to the ground, trying to process just what the fuck was going on. When he’d heard the phrase ‘two birds, one stone’, he never thought he’d see its practical application like this . Except it was two graves one stone - Jaemin’s grave and the one Taeyong would soon be digging for Chenle.
“... Who?! ” It seemed Donghyuck still hadn’t moved past the first point.
“Na Jaemi-”
“No, I know who,” the red-haired witch snapped like he hadn’t been the one to repeatedly ask. “I was just hoping I’d heard wrong.”
Another silence fell over the room like a stifling veil. None of them quite knew what to say.
In the end, it wasn’t them but rather the sharp resounding knocks against the door that pierced through the veil.
“Is that Jisung again?” Donghyuck asked sounding vaguely relieved. Oh, how he longed for ten minutes ago when their biggest problem was stalling Jisung from kissing Chenle. Sure, the witches were overachievers but they really didn’t have to land themselves in bigger and bigger messes each time to prove it.
“Yangyang?” a nasally voice came through.
Donghyuck and Yangyang whipped their heads towards the door in tandem, eyes wide in horror.
“That’s Ten,” Donghyuck hissed. “Shit. Shit shit shit.”
“Yangyang are you there?” the handle rattled. “Why is the door locked?”
“Shit.” Donghyuck stepped his foot over the pentagram and threw a last fleeting look at Johnny, “Sorry,” before he rubbed at the pentagram manically.
The room plunged into deep darkness as the eerie glow of the keeper’s spirit suddenly disappeared.
The handle rattled again. “Yangyang…? Did you finally learn to control your familiar? Is that how you used magic to lock the door?” Ten sounded far too excited.
Poor guy. If only he knew why the door had really been locked.
Donghyuck stomped over to the corner and roughly yanked Yangyang up by his collar. “Go to the door and get rid of him.”
Yangyang stared back at Donghyuck with just as much stubbornness in his eyes. “No.” Despite the fire in his eyes, his figure was still shaking no doubt still terrified of the tiny spider by his feet. “I- I can't.”
“You can,” Donghyuck said with finality. “You belong to the most powerful coven. The only coven that didn’t fall during the Black War. For fucks sake you were chosen because you moved a whole fucking ocean! Get it together, man-”
“-Yangyang I’m giving you three seconds to open this door. Three ..”
Chenle shot a panicked look between the door and the bickering witches in the corner.
“I can’t!”
“You can!”
“ Two .”
“I can’t!”
“You can!”
This wasn’t going to work. Chenle ran over to wrap an arm around Donghyuck and push him to stand in front of the door. This was his problem to mop up.
“ One .” The door burst open to reveal a semi-circular halo of white feathers and glitter sparkling in the corridor. Ten peered down at Donghyuck with suspicion.
“Ten!” Donghyuck exclaimed, noting the tray in his coven leader’s arms. “And you’ve brought food for Yangyang! You know I was just thinking the exact same thing. That’s uh- that’s why I came! It’s crazy how similar we think. It’s almost like we’re connec-”
The coven leader laughed in the red-haired witch’s face. “Nice try. I thought I taught you to lie better than that.”
Donghyuck’s audacity was a flame to Ten’s bonfire. Chenle had never seen anyone put him in his place as easily as the coven leader did.
“Dear Ten, why would I lie to you?”
“Move.” Ten barely spared Donghyuck a second look.
“A-Uh-ha!” Donghyuck squealed as he readjusted to block Ten’s view. “I - I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
Ten raised an eyebrow snidely, shifting his weight onto one hip. “And why not?”
“Because…” Donghyuck paused. Chenle could practically hear the cogs in his head turning as they hurtled towards inevitable disaster. “Kun is at the party.” His friend finished with confidence.
“…what?”
“You heard me. Your mortal enemy is here so go on. Hurry along to go kill him or kiss him or whatever it is you guys do-“
“And why should I believe you?” Ten hissed in a mocking tone although his gaze had started to boil over in doubt.
“You shouldn’t!” Donghyuck chippered on. “But you should believe him.” And just like that, his friend side-stepped till the light from the torches in the corridor bathed Chenle’s form.
What the fuck? Chenle stood frozen like a deer caught in the headlights. It took every ounce of willpower he had to make himself nod sweetly and shoot a thumbs up at Ten.
Ah yes. The thumbs up. The ultimate symbol of honesty and virtue.
Ten stared at them for a moment longer in justified suspicion. However, his annoyance clouded his judgement and soon enough he groaned in anger. Three glass torches shattered as his change in mood made his magical aura prick forward all around him. Chenle brought a hand up to rub his arm and warm away the goosebumps that had suddenly appeared.
“Again?! Seriously .” The coven leader screamed through gritted teeth. “ This is the third party he’s broken into. I have to fire that faerie - you’d think she could read the giant sign that says Kun is banned .”
A runway of shattered torches followed his wake as Ten spun on his feet and marched down the corridor.
Standing there, in the sea of broken glass Chenle felt something he couldn’t fully identify. It must have been all the smoke getting to his head. Ten was powerful enough to shatter a dozen torches with one breath. Jisung was powerful enough to dim and light them in the way that framed the shadows on Chenle’s face in the most gentle way. He squirmed uneasily.
“What a bitch,” Renjun said after the retreating figure of the coven leader.
Donghyuck latched onto Renjun’s one brain cell and ran with it. “Hey girl, are you a changeling? Cause you’re a bitch-“
“That was good-”
“I know . It just came to me-”
Their voices drowned into background noise as Chenle’s mind swam with one singular thought.
He wondered who, or what , Jisung really was.
─── ｡☆: *.☽.* :☆. ───