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Chapter 18: Covention

The Next Day

The morning after Eda's little incident, Shirou returned to the Saffron Gate and updated them on the home situation. His friend's medical condition flared up because she forgot to take her daily medication. Sienna and Marcu expressed their sympathies, hoping she was doing better now.

"Everything alright, boy?"

"She's stable now. I was able to get something stronger for her. It's no cure, but at the very least, she only needs to retake it every few weeks or so." Sienna and Marcus were relieved. "I hope the rest of the night wasn't as eventful as mine."

Marcus waved his hand. "Bah. Nothing crazy. Started slowing down." The man chuckled. "That little friend of yours waiting out the rain kept apologizing for that food you gave her."

Shirou scratched his cheek. "Sorry about that. You can deduct that from my pay."

The older man waved it off. "Bah. It's not my first time giving a dish to someone struggling. If anything, you were holding out on us. Cold Pork Noodle Soup? That stuff'll be a hit during the rainy season. Judging from the girl's expression, I'm definitely adding it to the menu."

The teen laughed. "I'll be sure to show you guys how to make it next time."

"Yeah. Yeah. In any case, I'm sure your household would appreciate some leftovers."

Shirou smiled. "It has been a while since we restocked our pantry."

Later that Week

Bonesborough

It took a few days for Eda's body to stabilize, but no one in the house complained when they got served the same food Shirou cooked at work. The witch enjoyed her time to rest, but all good things would come to an end. She needed to get back to work at her stand. She considered dying her hair so the new orange and old grey wouldn't clash as much, but that would be for another day. Unfortunately, today seemed like a slow day. Eda dusted the table, rather bored.

Off to the side, Luz read King the first Azura book. The pages showed Azura facing off against Hecate. "Emboldened by the dishonor Hecate had shown, Azura lifted her staff to the cotton-candy skies and shouted, 'I challenge you to a Witch's Duel!' And look, I drew a flip book," She gestured to the bottom right corner, where there were drawings of both Azura and Hecate. "Pew, pew, pew!"

"Show me the picture." King peeked over the top of the book.

"What?"

"Show me the picture!" She turned around the book to face him, and he snorted.

"Huh! I can draw better than that. You know, they once called me the King of Artists," King bragged to her.

"Wait, I thought you were the King of Demons," Luz said with an amused smile, and he froze. "Are you just making this up now?"

"Well, four beings share the title of King of the Gods. Most others tend to stay to one individual." Shirou walked over to the stand to drop off another box of trinkets. "There's the King of Heroes, King of Conquerers, King of Knights, and so on. Regarding demons, I've met a King of the Demon Gods."

Eda and Luz raised brows at the declaration with a hint of wariness.

King jumped at the name. "King of Demon Gods? That's a thing? What was he like? It is my duty as a Demon King to usurp his title."

"Yeah. Goetia is not someone you want to emulate."

"How bad is this Goetia?" asked Luz.

Shirou rubbed the bridge of his nose at the memory. "They wanted to incinerate human history and remake it into something better."

The trio stared at him. "Ah... That's bad."

"Yup."

King crossed his arms. "Well, that just means this Goetia was a bad King." He whipped around to Luz. "If it were me, I would have humanity at my beck and call, bending to my will without incinerating people. Well, maybe a few that get out of line. What's important is that my followers would leave me offerings in fear of me."

Shirou didn't bother correcting him on the nature of Goetia before his expression went thin. "Leadership fueled by fear always leads to resistance or a coup."

Luz shrugged. "Well, maybe just the King needs to believe that they fear him when they don't. I'm sure this tantalizing book would take King."

Eda groaned nearby at just the thought of it. "Please stop reading that. Its flowery language insults witches and drives away all our serious customers!" She waved the dirty feather duster in front of Luz.

"Um, Eda?" Luz looked to the empty area, as they were the only people around. "What customers? There aren't even any other stands around. What's going on?"

Eda groaned. "This is a bad omen. There must be something horrible happening today."

Shirou crossed his arms. "Yeah, it seems everyone is busy with this." He handed Luz the pamphlet he got from Principle Bump from their visit at Hexside. "This Covention sounded like a college major fair. I was thinking about taking you there in the afternoon after helping Eda, but it seems like we might go sooner.

"Luz!" Off to the side, Gus and Willow walked down the block to them, holding a poster.

"Gus, Willow. Hey," Luz greeted them with a wave.

"My parents finally ungrounded me, and we're heading to the annual Covention. Do you want to come?" Willow held up the poster, which mentioned a mystery guest. "Student witches get to see all the types of covens before they're placed in one. There's even a mystery guest this year."

"It is a job fair for witches!"

Shirou raised a brow. "I was under the impression that you don't officially join a coven until graduation, at least according to Eda."

Willow shook her head. "For undergrads, it's not required to join the coven. It's mostly to get people to join the track at school. However, people can still join covens ahead of graduation if they want."

"That sounds great! Eda, can we go?" Luz asked excitedly.

"Absolutely not," Eda denied her, earning a groan.

Shirou watched as Luz slid to the ground. "Is there something wrong, Eda? It seems pretty mundane if you ask me. Besides, if you really don't want to go, I'll chaperone Luz like before."

The woman's expression wavered a bit. She did promise to be more active in learning magic. "There's nothing inherently wrong with attending. I just don't like their intentions. You guys know why I never joined a coven. Sure, it's like a fun club for witches, but you're also giving up your magical independence to be part of a corrupt system." Willow whimpered her answer. "Eh, but, you know, no judgment," She looked away with closed eyes. "In any case, I haven't been to one since we were girls."

"'We'?" Luz asked in confusion, earning a wide-eyed look from Eda.

"I-I mean..."

"Who's 'we'?" The girl stood up from the ground.

Shirou rolled his eyes at the slip. "I think I know who you're talking about. I may have met the person at my workplace."

"Is that how you found out about my curse?"

"I mostly talked to the co-worker, Steve. Pretty easy-going guy."

"You have a mysterious past." She pointed up at Eda. "Now we gotta go."

"No," Eda made clear.

The older teen waved the pamphlet. "I did say that I wanted to know more about the coven system. It's a bit contradictory if you ask me. Don't you want to see if I find out anything?"

"I..." The woman was still curious about what they had talked about before. "Can't you just update me when you get home?"

The redhead grinned. "Nope."

"Okay. Then you leave me no choice," Luz gestured to King, who started to read the Azura book.

"'You shall not shan't doeth no more harm,' Azura callethed out-"

"So flowery, so awful," Eda walked away while twitching an eye as he continued reading it.

Shirou saw her holding a strange suitcase in her hand.

"Hecate could only screech."

Eda held it up in front of her as it stayed in place and unfolded into a white doorway.

From what Luz told him, Shirou knew that Eda had some sort of portal to the Human world, but it seemed fascinating in person. The ability to travel between dimensions was akin to the second magic. Maybe down the line, he could ask how it worked.

"Screecheth did she, for the screeching did worseneth."

Luz took King and threw him into the door to follow after Eda.

The door closed and reopened a few seconds later. Eda marched out, fists clenched as King sat on her hair.

"Stop it. Stop it! I will literally do anything to stop this."

"We win!" cheered all the young teens.

Covention

They all stood before the Covention center, Eda groaning as she pinched her nose. She just had to say 'anything.' Eda struggled to put her hood over her wild hair as the group walked in. King was standing on her back to help her put it on. "Gotta keep a low profile," She struggled, grunting. It went over her head, but her locks were still sticking out.

Luz tried to help by pushing it in. "Is this cowl really necessary?" The others just watched.

"Do you think all my wanted posters are for petty theft?" Once she got the hood on, junk fell out.

"I'd say sixty-forty for petty theft," guessed Shirou. "Throw in some trespassing and resisting arrest in there too."

Eda raised a finger in silence for a moment. "That is not a far-off assumption. I may not have mentioned it before, but being a wild witch is illegal." She scooped up all her items into her hood. "If I'm seen, I could go to jail. Again."

Gus raised a brow. "If you're supposed to be a wild witch, why don't you cast an illusion over yourself for a disguise?"

The woman looked away and coughed. "I uh don't know much illusion magic. I was originally in the potions track."

Gus grinned. "In that case." The boy traced a blue spell circle, and magic washed over Eda. Now, she wore a more business-style robe with straight orange hair reaching past her shoulders.

Shirou nodded at the spell. "Impressive."

"Thanks! It should last you for the next hour or so."

"Wow, Eda. You look great," complimented Luz.

Eda checked herself out. "A bit too formal for my tastes, but It'll do.

"You look much different than the poster." Willow held one out. "Maybe coming back to the Covention would will inspire you to join a coven. That way, you don;t need to go through all the trouble in public. "

In response, Eda waved a finger to make Willow's hood go over her head.

The blue-haired girl quickly adjusted it but didn't seem angry about it.

As they made their way to the main hall, Luz was amazed by the flags above their heads as there were various booths for covens, with nine banners hanging from the ceiling, all of them in different colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, indigo, pink, and brown. Several booths are set up inside, each with a sign for one coven or another. From the ceiling hangs nine large colorful banners.

"Whoa! Was I even alive before now?" Luz murmured, seeing several witches flying over their heads.

Gus gestured to the banners. "Those are the main nine covens, but you can join hundreds of others."

"Yeah," added Willow. "There's Flower Coven, Artist Coven, Big Dog Coven, Small Cat Coven, Tiniest Cat Coven-"

Shirou hummed at the sight of several food-related stands and one related to metalworking. "This doesn't seem all that bad. Might take a look on my own if you can watch Luz.

Eda groaned behind them.

Luz's arm hooked around Willow's. "There's also the Grumpy Coven," she joked.

"What was that?!" Eda growled, scaring the two off.

Luz looked around excitedly and then pointed forward. "Ooh, what's that?" She pointed to a dwarf standing nearby bricks.

"That's the Construction Coven," Willow introduced. A bearded witch in a hard hat and Tinella Nosa stood next to a pallet of wood and bricks. He grabbed both pallets and tossed them in the air. Like magic, the materials fall to construct a small house perfectly. "One of the main nine. They use power glyphs to increase their strength." The witch lifted his hard hat to pull out a slip of paper with a fist symbol.

Shirou narrowed his eyes at the paper. "Glyph?"

"It's kind of like a grafted spell circle. When activated, it works like normal."

"That sounds just like my light spell."

Gus and Willow were confused for a moment. "I thought you said you couldn't do magic."

"Uh, it's complicated. I'll show you guys later." The two accepted the answer, and Luz gestured back to the Coven stand. "Do Power Glyphs require a bile sac?"

Willow shook her head. "The magic comes from the one who grafted it. It works on anyone and anything within reason."

"Ooh. Maybe I'll join the construction coven then." Luz wondered if she could combine her light spell with a power glyph.

At the stand, the older witch peeled the adhesive off the back of one and put it on Tinella Nosa's nose, causing her pupils to constrict. Something sparked within her, and she screamed, releasing a powerful yellow aura.

Luz and Shirou swore this was just like an anime.

In a high of power, Tinella grabbed the witch and threw him into the air.

"Uh... I think I'll keep my options open for now," cringed Luz.

"Ha-a-a! I'm the destroyer of worlds!" Tinella grabbed the Construction Coven sign and tossed it too.

"Hey, that's the opposite of construction!" Two Construction witches ran in to stop Tinella Nosa as she grabbed a giant hammer.

"Yowza-wowzer," Luz exclaimed at the effect just one glyph had. Maybe one day she could make more powerful spells than her light ones. Then a blue hologram appeared behind her.

"Yowza-wowzer." She flinched and looked behind her, watching the other Luz walk past with a smile.

"Yowza-whaaaa?" She watched as it went over to two Illusionists and then completely disappeared.

"Ah! You've been taken in by the allure of the Illusionist Coven," Gus gestured to himself. "We like to magic with a hint..." He disappeared and then reappeared, bowing. "Of showmanship." The other two witches appeared and bowed next to him.

A part of Shirou was a bit jealous of this type of projection. "What comes to your mind when you make visual illusions of people before solidifying them?" While Shirou doubted he could do anything outside of inanimate objects, it was good to get the perspective of others in a similar field.

Gus made a face. "I'm not exactly sure how to explain it. Projecting a copy of someone just comes naturally to me. You can say I make the energy more static, so you feel resistance when you touch it."

"I've also noticed that you don't project the materials." Shirou traced a metal rod, much to the boy's amazement.

"Dude! You didn't summon it from somewhere else, right? This would revolutionize the Illusion track forever. How'd you do it?"

Gus only received a sly smile. "Sorry. Trade secret. Maybe when you're older."

"Wow! Acceptance? Camaraderie? A sense of belonging? Covens sound incredible!" Luz stated happily, looking up at Eda. "Is being limited to one magic that bad?"

Eda gestures to someone getting inducted. A seal in the shape of a mirror appears on the witch's wrist, light blue lines running from it up his arms and face. He pales slightly as the lines fade. "You may be too young to understand, but getting a coven sigil is permanent." Eda paused before turning to Shirou. "I don't suppose your Rule Breaker..."

The hero shrugged. "Same as before. It depends on how the sigils work. No guarantees."

"In any case, coven sigils can impact a witch for the rest of their lives. There are no takebacks or swaps."

Shirou frowned. "That's oddly strict. What happens when you no longer feel as passionate about it as before?"

"No exceptions as far as I know. I've seen some witches grow miserable, thinking they made the wrong choice."

"Wow. That's worse than the college major stories I read online." Luz expression dimmed. "I don't know what magic I'd want to learn for the rest of my life."

"And you don't have to limit yourself. From now on, that kid will only be able to make illusions. However, if you stick with me, we can do every kind of magic," She made a fireball and a water ball from her hands to emphasize her point. "That's why I, and I suppose Shirou, are some of the most powerful magic users on the Boiling Isles." She walked away with Willow, Luz, and Gus hurrying after her, amazed.

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