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12 years later.
Cassie had no true memories of her life before the age of five, before she got to the coven. Her clearest memory started with a warm, sturdy hand holding hers as they ascended the cement steps. No matter how much she tried that was as far as she ever got, with that hand on those steps; her memory had been wiped, they had all found out sooner or later, her family if she ever had one, her name and place of birth.
"Welcome home Sophie" a forty year old woman with dark hair and golden skin had said when Cassie and the older woman that was holding her hand entered the house. At that moment, and though it felt strange for a second, Cassie was no longer Cassie and was now Sophie.
Sophie, her mind had repeated reassuringly, that was her name. She had been born in – France where her family had abandoned her and of whom she knew nothing about, she lived there until the age of three, after which she had been transferred to an orphan in Britain. The history settled in her mind ever since, obliterating her previous life.
They were special they told them, different from others. You see the coven's initial purpose was to help witches ever since young ages. They would be protected by elders who taught them not only how to practice magic but how to control it as well. It was there that new circles were formed; better ones, because they were not bound by blood but by choice. Witches could choose the members of their circles, and by doing so they would be loyal to each other, on the contrary to traditional circles where capable witches had to bear with lazy, stupid or power cravers. However, after centuries of great work, elders began to realize just how powerful they were: they could create and transform circles at their will; they could have not only their power but also the one of the circles at their disposal. Soon they began to exploit children, mold them into their will and pack them in circles according to their abilities. Children were not allowed to leave, a tracking spell made any attempt useless and severely punished.
After seven years in that coven Sophie and other witches did what was thought to be impossible and escaped, making sure they could never be found. Forty witches were freed that day form their coven, most of them left to live on their own, others in groups of twos or threes, Sophie's group was the largest with eight; Tina, Katherine, Thomas, Jenna, Turi, Sophie, Coly and Esteban.
Now, five years after the run, five of them had settled in New Orleans, United States. The fear of getting caught and the need for a place to live and food and clothes helped them to develop their magic rapidly. After only two months they had arrived to the United States, fake passports could only do as much and so the "Mind illusion" spell helped with the obstacles that came in their way.
New Orleans had been Tina's suggestion since she was a big fan of a show that took place in the city. Once they found a house big enough for them the decision was made to stop using witchcraft, at least in a broad magic circuit. Five young witches without a circle family history living in the same house would be suspicious enough, and in order for the word not to get out they choose to practice only in the house and to share or help friends who could be trusted.
Sophie was in high school, with Coly and Thomas a year behind her. Katherine was one year left to complete her PhD, after which she could work as a social therapist and would be able to charge two hundred dollars from the start; the career was perfect because it would not only provide them with enough money but she could also work anywhere else if they had to move. Tina worked as a freelance translator, her knowledge in English, Spanish, Russian, French and German allowed her to maintain a great variety of clients as well as a succulent income. Just like Katherine her job allowed her to move if the occasion required so.
Sophie had intended to work helping Tina since she was fluent in three of the five languages as well as Tina, however a different opportunity was presented during a busy Thursday morning. While in the coven, one of the elders, Marnie, had taught Sophie how to sew and make patterns, abilities that she rapidly developed with practice. Sophie liked sewing, she could be alone for hours comfortable without the necessity of speaking to anybody else. When she grew up and started to enjoy the company of others she dedicated herself to create new designs instead of settling in the classics. Most of the girls in the coven started to ask her for different designs in exchange for house tasks and she was more than happy to oblige.
When they were already in New Orleans, Tina had left a Thursday morning in order to make some errands. On the bus stop a twenty seven year old secretary admired Tina's jacket, and she told her it was her "sister's" design. The woman asked for Sophie's number and she soon called her to ask her for a simple cocktail dress for her company's party. Sophie's beautiful design, prolixity and cheapness made of the dress an instant success among the secretary's colleagues.
Sophie was not a professional, only working by order even though everybody encouraged her to do so. She just did not believe that she was capable of launching a brand of the quality she wanted, she enjoyed taking her time with things, making it as well as she could, and making copies of the same clothes over and over, having to follow tendencies was not something she wanted. The job was good though, she had learnt from her mistakes and charged a fair price for her designs, not like before when she did it for almost nothing.
Life had been good for all of them. Having each other made things a lot easier and they were beginning to move past the horrible memories from those years.
Katherine was in the dining room, books spread all over the table as she struggled to complete the assignment due for next class. She glanced at the clock and was surprised when she saw it was already 6:45 am, Tina and Sophie would be up soon. She looked at the hallway, where she knew their bedrooms were and back to her books with a frown on her face, after four hours of work and merely two hours of sleep her brain was not functioning right, and she knew she would not be able to write another word of her essay unless she cleared her mind. She got up, stretching her sore muscles, and cleared of the table, setting the books in an empty chair next to the window.
She started to prepare breakfast, lazily opening the fridge and taking out the ingredients.
"Morning" Coly whispered as she entered the kitchen and kissed Katherine on the cheek. She was wearing a pajamas consisting of light blue cotton shorts with a simple loose t-shirt, her feet dragged all the way and her eyes were barely open.
"Morning" Katherine grinned, she just loved to see their sleepy faces and the clumpsy way that they acted when they had to go to school. "Are the others up?"
The girl frowned and walked to the kitchen door, "Nope, I don't think so"
"Will you go and wake them?" Katherine looked up and saw it was 7:12 am, she silently cursed for the way time seemed to run during the morning. "They are gonna be late" over the sound of the crispy bacon she heard Coly's feet dragging toward the hallway.
"Ok" Tina said for the tenth time that hour. Coly, Thomas and Sophie had two hours ago to school and Tina and Katherine had stayed in order to meet Celia who was supposed to have news about the situation in the north. Sophia had wanted to stay with them, after all she was the one who helped Celia the most but they decided she should go to school and they would tell her afterwards what the situation was, thankfully it wasn't anything urgent. Celia was forty minutes late and was starting to get into Tina's nerves, consequently into Katherine's nerves, "Should we call her again?"
"We called her five minutes ago, give her some time, she'll show up" Katherine turned the TV on and surfed through the channels until she found The Simpsons.
A couple of minutes later the bell rang and Tina went to open the door. In the threshold she found Celia, her long legs covered with simple jeans and her slim torso wore a light cotton shirt that went down up to her butt.
"Morning beautiful" Celia greeted with a grin as she Tina stepped aside and she entered the house, "Sorry It took me so long, apparently Kyle's cousin had tried to trick his girlfriend into sleeping with him by telling her that everybody would die or something like that" she shook her head, "and you know as much as that girl is sweet she is dumb, and you won't believe the things Kyle casts when he is angry, there was this one time with a senator…" she was talking as fast as someone could and both girls knew that if they didn't stop her now, they might never will.
"I'm sorry" Katherine interrupted with a sly smile "but what news do you have?" she tried to be as polite as possible, and although some other could have taken her interruption as rude and ill-mannered Celia was not one of those people.
"Oh! Right sorry sweetie" she looked around slightly nervous.
"Is there something wrong?" Tina asked concerned as she too looked around searching for any threat.
"No, just looking for Sophie, is she here?" she smiled warmly and relaxed in her seat.
"No, she had school and thought it was better if we told her afterwards" Katherine explained.
Celia looked disappointed for a second but instantly cheered up, "That's ok. So… hum, news. There haven't been any changes in the area. Whatever it was it's gone now. Probably not their cup of tea?" she shrugged, not very much concerned about it.
Tina and Katherine relaxed. Strange events had been happening up north, five towns had been affected, Witthjack, Chance Harbor, Klenn, Goodwith and Brother's town. All signs pointed to dark magic and if it had continued they would probably be asked to check on it due to their fair knowledge of the dark arts. Their biggest concern however was Sophie, very few knew just how powerful she was and most of them lived in the house, on the exception of Celia and Ruth, a middle age woman who had a bit of dark magic herself.
"Probably" Katherine conceded "Any clue of what happened?"
"Well the majority of the… Emm events have been in Chance Harbor but there is a circle there, with young witches who are still learning, so they are probably the ones to "blame" "
Tina didn't look convinced, "But still, Cecil the things that we heard…"
"Yes," she sighed and bit her lower lip, something she did when she was stressed "I know they are not your usual kid's stuff but it explains a lot" Cecil shrugged her shoulders trying to assure her that the worst was over.
"I don't know…"
"Let's ask Sophie" Katherine suggested, "she has always had a good instinct for this, let's see what she thinks about it"
Tina looked at her and smiled, relaxing more with the idea; Cassie was bright, had it not been for her they would never have escaped the coven.
"Great, we'll talk tonight." Katherine smiled and got up.
"Well Celia thank you for coming" the woman got up as well and hugged her, "and good luck at the wedding" she added laughing.
Celia sighed and hugged Tina who laughed as well. "God! Am I going to need luck" she shook her head. She waved the girls goodbye and reached for the door when suddenly she stopped.
"Wait!" she said slapping her head, "I think one of the families that are coming is from Chance Harbor" she thought about it for a while and nodded "Yeah, two actually the Blakes and Conants I think"
Katherine's eyebrow rose up and she looked at Tina who was smiling, this could work to their advantage.
"You know…" Celia said with a mischievous smile "You girls could take my offer and come to the wedding" She had been a bit disappointed when the girls had said that they couldn't go to the party though she knew that they all worked hard, plus the date for the wedding had been settled with little time notice. Besides she couldn't ask much, they barely knew the couple.
"Wouldn't that be a problem?" Tina asked confused "We already said no, what about the seat positions?"
Celia waved it off and snorted, "Pleease! That's not problem at all, we still have a week for the event, the thing is your works babes" she said pointing at them.
"Well my trip got re scheduled to three weeks from now, and Coy is old enough to stay and take care of the rest." Katherine explained.
"My contract with Camelia A.S was put on hold. I am not too sure how Cassie is going with school and work though…" Tina trailed off.
"We didn't say anything because we thought…"
"Oh girls!" Celia said smiling, "Please, you just come, go and talk with the families god knows I'll do research on my own, and enjoy the party" she hugged them again and cheerfully left the house.
Upon her departing Katherine sighed, "At least we got something" she said with a frown.
"I hope we get more at the party or we may have to pay a visit to that harbor place"
"Great, small town and teenage witches, sign me in for that treat." Tina replied sarcastically.