Witches' Rising

Behind her, a silent figure in a pale green bathrobe padded up into the loft.

"Do you still have doubts?" Brooke asked.

"No," Ava replied without turning around, "You were right. Hedoeshave a great deal of magical potential flowing in his veins. I felt it pouring into me last night."

"Me too," Brooke sighed, as she absently stroked her mons with two fingers, in a circular motion.

"It's a pity he was never tutored by a magical coven. He might have become a strong wizard," Ava mused.

"Perhaps," Brooke answered, "But then we would've had to choose someone else. You know it's forbidden for the male to come from another faction. It would breed mixed loyalties to the coven and weaken us."

"I know," Ava said as she watched Ethan disappear behind a wall of trees. She appreciated the wisdom of Brooke's words, but the situation still seemed unfair, perhaps even unethical. Had Ethan received a magical upbringing, there would've been no need to erase his memory. But because he hadn't, his role in the girls' lives couldn't continue beyond that single night of passion. Ethan had been brought up to believe magic, monsters and spirits were mere flights of fancy. If he were to follow the journey of his four bewitching lovers, the things he would discover could drive him insane.

"I couldn't help but notice that you slept in late this morning?" Ava remarked, changing the subject with a little mirth in her voice.

"Well, yes," Brooke shrugged with a smile. "I was celebrating."

"Adamine, too?" Ava asked.

"Twice!" said Brooke. Both girls laughed.

-----------------------------

Later that same morning, eight cloaked figures paraded through the forest in two columns. At the front of the procession were the four ladies who bore the bejewelled necklaces. Their attractive faces were mostly hidden under their large, black hoods. Following close behind were their daughters: Brooke, Sera, Adamine and Ava. The teenage girls' flowing black cloaks were identical to the ones worn by their mothers, except they didn't have their hoods pulled up.

The austere procession soon reached a circle of stones, about twelve feet in diameter, which almost seemed as old as the trees themselves. At the far end of the circle was a simple stone altar, upon which were two bronze chalices, a chunk of smoky quartz the size of a baseball, and a cylindrical bronze sensor. The man-made artefacts looked very old.

The older witches split into two pairs that continued around the circle's boundary on either side. The younger witches stepped into the center of the circle and stood there, waiting for the ceremony to begin. Once all the elder witches were in their rightful positions, the one who wore the emerald necklace, Adamine's mother, spoke.

"All hail, the high priestesses of the Coven of the Four Paths!" She saluted.

"All hail!" her three sisters repeated, in unison.

"For centuries, our beloved coven has been charged with preserving the magical secrets of the four primordial elements. With this sacred knowledge, we help and protect those in need," Adamine's mother continued.

"The god and goddess have blessed us with great power..." said Brooke's mother, who wore the necklace with the sapphire.

"...And great responsibility," added Ava's mother, the witch whose necklace bore the milky gem.

The comely blonde witch with the ruby necklace, Sera's mother, spoke next, "The Coven of The Four Paths has always been guided by its four high priestesses, four witches of great worthiness. The laws of the coven state that each high priestess must be a direct maternal descendant of one of the four legendary champions of elemental magic. Thus each witch will have inherited a natural affinity with her own element. Our laws further state that all four high priestesses must be sisters, spawned from the seed of a single father, so that our beloved coven shall be forever united under the bond of family."

"By tradition," Ava's mother began, "all four high priestesses must be conceived on the same night and born on the same day. Together, the four of you satisfy these sacred laws and follow these cherished traditions. Now, with the next generation already growing within your wombs, you have proven yourselves capable of continuing our coven's legacy and worthy of assuming its leadership."

"The great elemental powers of a high priestess passed to each of you the moment that new life formed inside you. With this ceremony of ascension, the Coven of The Four Paths acknowledges you as its true high priestesses," Brooke's mother declared.

Only now did the elder witches enter the sacred circle and approach their daughters. One by one, the mothers removed their precious necklaces, and placed them around the neck of their successor.

"You are Ava, heir of Illmari, the storm summoner. You are the high priestess of air," Ava's mother said, as she passed her necklace over to her daughter.

"You are Sera, heir of Haedine, priestess of radiant light. You are the high priestess of fire," said the woman passing over the ruby necklace.

"You are Adamine, heir of Felsea, moulder of the enchanted clays. You are the high priestess of earth," Adamine's mother spoke with pride.

"You are Brooke, heir of Kallana, wise witch of the lake. You are the high priestess of water," said the last elder witch.

With that, all eight witches turned towards the humble altar. The new high priestesses stood still while their mothers approached the relics on the stone. Sera's mother reached into the folds of her cloak and produced a modern barbecue lighter, which had been tied to a concealed leather belt she was wearing. While one of the chalices held water, the other held a clear, flammable oil. Sera's mother ignited the oil, then passed the lighter to Ava's mother, who used it to ignite the fragrant herbs within the sensor. Then, each elder witch picked up the relic associated with her own element and presented it to her daughter. Ava received the sensor billowing white smoke, Sera received the burning chalice, Adamine received the polished black crystal and Brooke received the chalice filled with water.

The elder witches stepped backwards into their original positions outside the circle. Then they lifted their hoods and showed their beautiful faces.

"All hail, the high priestesses of the Coven of The Four Paths!" Adamine's mother repeated.

"All hail!" the other elder witches replied. The proud mothers, now mere acolytes to their mighty daughters, they all kneeled and bowed their heads in respect. The teenage sisters all looked at each other and smiled, before lifting the relics above their heads in triumph. Their reign as high priestesses had begun. It would continue until the night their daughters conceived their own successors.

The tree branches themselves parted so that a warm beam of sunlight could shine down upon the four sisters, a sign of favor from the god and goddess.

-----------------------------

Winter was almost over when Ethan interrupted his first year of college to fly up to Philadelphia for his cousin's wedding. As it happened, the groom was a particularly distant cousin, and Ethan knew very little about him apart from the fact that he was Uncle Kevin's son. Still, it was expected of him to attend, so he did.

At the reception, he had been seated with his parents. Even though Ethan had gone home for Christmas, they were nonetheless eager to catch up again. In many ways, it was an enriching experience. His mother seldom drank more than two glasses of wine at home and Ethan had never before seen her intoxicated.

"...So Irv bought the mower back the next day, but when your father tried to start it, it wouldn't go, and now they aren't speaking to each other!" Ethan's mom chuckled heartily, finishing her hometown gossip with another sip of wine.

"Yeah, and I won't speak to him until the jackass pays for the repairs!" Ethan's dad nodded in a matter-of-face tone.

"Oh, now what else? What else?" Ethan's mom asked herself, racking her brain for any snippet of local trivia she might've forgotten to tell her son. "Oh, yeah! I've got some interesting news for you. You remember those four unusual girls that were in your grade at school? The pretty ones that were a bit odd?"

"Oh, you mean the ones who lived together in that big house on Greene Street?" Ethan asked, immediately remembering Ava, Sera, Adamine and lovely Brooke, the secret crushes of every boy who went to his highschool, including himself.

"Yes, that's them. Well, they've all had babies!" His mother said in a way that made it sound scandalous.

"Really?" Ethan asked, genuinely shocked. His mother nodded as she took another sip. It didn't show, but Ethan's heart sank when he heard the news, although he didn't really understand why. It felt like he had been robbed of something. His fantasies of sleeping with those sexy babes had bought him so much pleasure in highschool. Perhaps finding out that some other guys had obviously lived them out tarnished those dreams.

"It was so strange though. They all gave birth on the same day and all the children are little girls!" Ethan's mom divulged.

"On the same day?" Ethan repeated in surprise. "That's gotta be unusual, right?"

"Mm-hmm," his mom nodded. "Well, the story I heard is that they went to a wild party at some kid's house one night. They got drunk and ended up letting some boys take advantage of them without taking any precautions. Not one of them knows who the father is, or so they claim," she said, shaking her head in disapproval.

"Uh, honey, isn't that the type of thing a nurse is supposed to keep confidential?" her husband reminded her.

"Oh crap, you're right! I could lose my license!" She agreed, panicking just a little. "Forget I said anything!" she told her son.

"About what?" Ethan asked.

"About those..." his mom began, before noticing the clever smile on Ethan's face. "Smart aleck!" she said with a smirk.

Her brush with a potential pink slip seemed to cool his mom's loquaciousness and suddenly Ethan found himself alone with some quiet time to think.

"What I wouldn't give to have been at that party..." he thought to himself. He imagined what it must have been like, to sneak off to a bedroom alone with one of those minxes and have her offer her body to him, uninhibited. Especially with Brooke. Even today, she was still Ethan's ideal of what a woman should look like.

As the many voices in the hall drowned each other out, Ethan lost himself in a daydream about making love to Brooke Kallan in a large, ornate wooden bed. It was so vivid, it almost seemed real...

The End

Edited by Kumani