Witches’ Business

Posted on Fri Feb 17th, 2023 @ 3:34am by Dominique LaFramboise & Andrea Carter

Mission: Daemoniacus Tribulatio

Once they were set up with their tentative plan, the meeting broke up. Most people seemed keen on chatting for awhile, and Nicki decided to use this opportunity to talk to Andrea about the spell she’d mentioned. “So this spell,” she said, turning to the vampire as Jarrod wandered off to talk to the weretiger. “I know you probably haven’t finished it, yet, but care to give me an overview? I could do with a refresher course.”

"Oh no, I finished it," Andy said with a sedate, almost bored, confidence, handing over her unlocked phone so Nikki could see the design scrawled out on the screen. "So, you must start with the circle, kinda like alchemy, it sets the boundary of the spell, but unlike alchemy, it's got this little knot sort of symbol there. Yeah, that symbol must be drawn last, it closes the spell and literally ties everything together," she explained, pointing the knot out on the screen. "Now, some elements inside the circle have to be drawn in a certain order; it's an equation, and like mathematical equations it does have its own order of operations," the redhead continued as she zoomed in on the center where she'd incorporated Astaroth's seal. "You with me so far?"

Nicki nodded. It seemed that she remembered more than she’d suspected she would. “I always thought that part made sense, even if I did t learn much of the actual operations portion,” she said. “Necromancer a don’t use this much. Sometimes, when raising really old zombies, but there isn’t a lot of use to them, so…” She shrugged. At some point, she would have to admit to using really old zombies, but now was not the time.

Andy's eyes brightened up at Nikki's sound comprehension; this should be fairly easy to get through.

"Right then," Andy said, a hint of enthusiasm leaking into her tone. "So the first thing you will need to draw after the circle itself is this diagram here in the center," she went on to explain, bringing Nikki's attention back to the seal of Astaroth in the center. "So, you start with this ring, it's a declaration of sorts with the target itself being the seal inside it. Basically, this is what will identify Astaroth by illuminating. Then the next layer is a conditional statement, like an if/then statement in programming, it will only trigger if there's a negative reaction from the declarative argument, which then goes on activate the demon trap in the outermost layer. Then, you just finish it off with the knot on the bounding circle and you're done." Andy glanced at Nikki to see if she was still with her or if she had totally zoned out like the English Lit students she used to tutor in college.

“I’m gonna have to practice this,” admitted Nicki. “Sans magic, of course. Can you text this to me? Or email. Whichever is easier.”

"Yeah, sure," Andy replied with a brisk nod. It was at this time that she remembered the business card Nikki had given her in the coffee shop, but she didn't have it on her at the moment, but Nikki was right in front of her now, so after a moment of swapping numbers, the text with the image file was on its way to the Hound. "I'm assuming you know how to feed the magic into the spell? If not, it's just like charging ward runes, and really the hardest part is maintaining a slow and steady flow that won't exhaust you by the time you're done drawing."

“I’ve done it a couple of times,” Nicki replied. “I mean other than in lessons and exams. One of them was… terrifying, so put it mildly. But yeah, I’m familiar with how to do it.”

"Good," Andy replied with another nod, shutting off her phone and pocketing it. "So... Astaroth? You guys here in Nashville don't do things in half measures, do ya?" she said with a hint of amusement.

“I guess so,” agreed Nicki with a grin. “I’m actually from Michigan. I just moved down here a few weeks ago. Worst thing we had up there was a mind flayer.”

Andy grimaced. A mind flayer? Creepy bastards; sure, they were no Astaroth, but they were still a nasty piece of work to deal with.

"So, what brought you to Nashville?" Andy asked casually as she glanced around; there was a nice empty bit of floorspace over in the corner, maybe she should get Nikki started on practicing the drawing. Patting her pocket to check for chalk, an occupational habit of being an alchemist that she had not yet discarded, she stood and made her way to the empty corner, then withdrawing the chalk she began to draw a very large circle on the floor. And it was a perfect circle; her alchemy master wouldn't even consider accepting an apprentice until they could freehand perfect circles regardless of the medium they were using, so Andy had spent months perfecting this skill to earn her place as an apprentice, a skill that now continued to serve her well.

"I- wait!" started Nicki, following Andy as she started drawing the circle. "Are you sure you should be doing that here?" she asked nervously.

"The priests have left already," came the voice of Reverend Jones, who was standing nearby. "As long as she's using chalk and not a sharpie, I have no objections."

Nicki shrugged, then turned back to Andy. If she didn't care, Nicki didn't, either. "So.... you asked what brought me to Nashville," she said, sitting cross legged on the floor. "My cousin recorded an album here not too long ago and asked me to do some fill on some of the songs. Some other people heard it and want me to do work for them, so...." she shrugged. "Why not come to where the work is?"

"That sounds like fun," Andy said as she drew on the floor with practiced ease. "I pinned a map on the wall and threw a dart," she continued, then with a few more strokes she finished the design and standing straight, stretching her back for a moment. "Trace the spell a few times to get a feel for it," she said, offering the chalk to Nikki. "So, what kind of music you and your cousin make?"

“She’s got this sort of folky sound,” answered Nicki, beginning to trace the design in the same order Andy had drawn it. “Not quite country, but not quite folk rock. Somewhere in between. I’m good at copying styles, so that’s what I did. She did a cover of Button Up Your Overcoat that came out pretty good.”

"Sounds interesting. I'll listen to just about anything, so maybe I'll look her up, check out a few of her tunes," Andy said as she watched Nikki draw. She began to nod in approval as she paced around the circle, especially when she got a nice look at Nikki's bum as she stretched to mark out the glyphs. "Nice," Andy murmured, but quickly recovered her senses by adding, "Good, you're doing good," she assured the Hound.

Had Nicki been less concentrated on the task at hand, she might have noticed something about the Vampire’s voice, but as it was, she was simply pleased to be doing this properly. “I might have to take a picture,” she admitted, finishing up and standing back. “I don’t want to miss anything.”

"I'll text you a copy of the original sketch once I clean it up a little more," Andy assured her, shamelessly stealing once last glance at Nikki's backside before returning her attention to the chalk lines on the floor. "But you did pretty good. Just keep at it, and I'll be there to help you once we're in the bar. Oh, and before you have to draw the active trap, practice drawing some random runes so you can get a feel for how to moderate the flow of your magic over such a large spell."

"Probably a good idea," agreed Nicki. "It's been awhile since I studied Alchemy. Necromancy was my major," she added. "Did I mention that before? I can't remember."

"Fuck, I don't even know anymore. I think, maybe? It's been such a crazy week, well, months really, my brain is all over the place, so you might have mentioned it before, but hell if I know," Andy said, running a hand over her hair in her exasperation. "All of my experience with necromancy is purely theoretical, I could never get it to work during my more explorative studies, and as much as I would love to dive headfirst into any theoretical discussion, I think I'm gonna have to cut and run; I, uh, fed, before, but... I'm not used to being around so many people like this and, uh, think I might be getting a little, uh, you know..."

Nicki grinned. “I get it,” she reassured her. “It’s bad form to feed off clergy. You’d better go find a proper snack.”

"Oh no, I've never- I mean, I don't-" Andy stammered, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable; it had been one thing to discuss her feeding with another vampire, but this was a whole different can of worms. "I'm just gonna go. I have your card, I'll text you the trap design once my head is clear," she finally said, then made her escape, making a hasty exit while avoiding the other humans and weres still in the church.

Oof. Young vampires. It couldn’t be easy.

No matter, Nicki was sure Andy would get a through it. For now, though, she studied the circle one more time before snapping a quick picture of it and then turned to see what Jarrod had got up to.