Sage Windsor's Story

All was still in the mornings of the French Quarter, the warm breath of the Mississippi River created a fog in the windows and caused Sage’s thin cotton shirt to stick to him. Despite red cups being littered everywhere on the street from the night before, not a single one touched the toes of the warlock, rolling out of his path by a nonexistent wind.

Ahead he spotted one of the Ayers Coven members, River, just getting into work for the day. She was a witch distinguished not only by her dreads but a sharp mind. Not many witches strived for a higher education like she did, choosing to use their magical powers to gain success. But not Dreads. He respected that. So he also respected her space and paused unnoticed in the distance until she could get inside. It wasn’t 1692 anymore, but the Ayers and Windsors still were not on good terms, finding new reasons to fight generation after generation.

Dreads took a moment to get into the store, pausing to pull a piece of paper stuck in the door and read it, before quite violently chucking it into the nearest waste bin. What could that have been about? He proceeded forward after the witch shut the store door firmly behind her. He casually walked by the store front and peered into the trash bin that the paper had been thrown into, barely slowing his pace. Sitting on top of wrappers and plastic cups was a small crumpled piece of paper which lifted into his hand like a gentle breeze had caught it as he went by. All his tiny little acts of magic went unnoticed to anyone around him because he did them so subtly, and even if noticed by someone, they might just think their eyes were playing tricks on them. He opened the paper flyer, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose as he read it:

"Come & find God here at
Saint Anthony's Church & house for the weary of spirit.
The Devil is everywhere,
find shelter behind the Lord's doors."

It figured the nut jobs would stick this where River might find it; she was a triple threat to their morality being a witch, gay, and a scientist. He folded the note several times in his hands and carried it with him. Towards the end of the block on the same street, Sage stopped in front of his own store. It was a narrow violet building with a big front window that read Windsor’s Emporium in nouveau styled letters across the glass. Beside the huge window was a narrow sky blue door at the top of 3 stone steps with a gold plaque next to it that read “Madame Robin Windsor”.

This was “his” store to begin with, a place to temporarily each day escape the drama and mayhem of his largely female Coven and interact with the normal civilians. But more and more his sanctuary was being intruded upon by his relatives. Nothing ever truly belonged to “him”, anything he owned extended in ownership to his Coven. His grandmother Robin insisted the he make room in the second story storage area for a space his Coven could perform séances and rituals. It didn’t seem a terribly unreasonable request, as long as they kept the blood sacrifices to a minimum (he was afraid the stains wouldn't come out of the wood floor) and performed them by night when there weren't customers in the store. So he gave an inch and the next thing he knew his Grandmother was operating her own tarot card business up there. She wasn’t there most of the time, keeping irregular hours. He thought she mostly set it up to see her name written on a shiny plaque.

Now he was thinking of hiring a part-time employee with business going steady and finding it impossible to keep up with everything in the store especially during this busy time of year. He knew plenty of his younger cousins would be interested in having a job at his store, ones who were plenty capable and charming. But more than anything he just wanted a normal, down-to-earth employee with no ties to his family or witchcraft, someone who felt the same curiosity and excitement over magic that his customers did when they came into get their palms or tarot cards read; an innocence that he had lost a long time ago and that he knew his relatives would mock behind his customers' back as they already did without getting paid.

He entered the store which was a lot bigger on the inside than appeared on the outside, more narrow than it was wide. It was packed to the brim with an eclectic mix of fake hoodoo items, t-shirts, key chains, books with topics from authentic creole cooking to history of witchcraft, and even a few real deal charms. He unfolded the crinkled St. Anthony's flyer still in his hand as he got inside and with a big bold permanent marker wrote on the back side of it “HELP WANTED” and taped it into his window. He then stood back, taking a deep contented breath in, sucking into his nostrils the smell of cheap plastic novelty items and sage.

Today was going to be a good day, he could feel it.

It was a typically humid Spring day in New Orleans, the bright sunshine viciously stabbing its way through purple, gold, and green banners hanging limply from the iron banister rails on the upper level of the French Quarter homes, piercing streets with violent shafts of gold. Not so much as a single cooling breeze from off the river was to be found just then and Jace's grey shirt was now sticking to her lower back with perspiration, but still she basked in the sun like some contented fat house cat, skin worshiping the light as she picked at the remnants of her breakfast plate. She really needed to be hitting up the local fashion stops to find something suitable to wear tonight as per plan but some unknown driving force had her diverting from the normal course, and when she paid for her meal and left the bistro, it had her turning up the street back to the line of local witchcraft shops.

It wasn't so foreign an inclination to her though, she oft found herself changing her plans on a whim and when she was left standing outside of the Windsor Emporium in the face of a HELP WANTED sign she couldn't help but cheerily thank her good fortune and gut instincts. Her mother had been mumbling about potentially trapping Jace up at her dad's house for the break, and what better a way to quell those wayward thoughts than to lock herself in place in the Quarter with employment? It was cruel but brilliant. Plus...she could always use the cash, her wallet looking decidedly thin as of late.

She quickly slipped inside, slick as an eel, and sighed happily as the cool air enveloped her. Thank God or Allah or whomever for the invention of air conditioning that the store owner had the presence of mind to have it. The shop was packed to the overflowing point with all sorts of treasures and knick-knacks, its narrow halls and dim lighting reminding her of a gothic library but with shelves laden down with substantially more interesting finds.(She wasn't super into reading at all, really.)

On the other side of a long glass counter, made to display objects inside, a man peered at her from behind a set of round spectacles resting gingerly on the bridge of his nose. He had at least two days worth of five o'clock shadow--one day away from being moved out of the scruff category and firmly into the beard category, and wild curly brown hair that looked bedraggled--the kind of disarray that suggested it was from lack of effort rather than intentional. Jacey smiled warmly at him and gave a little wave before looking back behind her at the sign taped up haphazardly in the window. Oddly enough, the paper the HELP WANTED sign was apparently scrawled on the back of was a flyer for the Catholic church St. Anthony's. "Huh." Odd.

She turned back to face the man and approached the counter, placing her palms on the glass and giving a little drum roll. "Hi. I noticed your...uh sign...and wondered if I could apply for the position? I'm Jacey." She extended one of her hands to him to shake, smile still brightening her face before tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear and folding her arms across her chest. "This is quite a place you've got here. Real touristy meets authentic chic."

No sooner had he counted his morning till and turned the open sign, Sage had a customer. He was hanging crystal pendants on a display rack that was in the form of an ore twisted tree as the young woman came in. “Good morning.” He greeted her. She did not meander long amongst the narrow lanes of bookshelves and wood table displays before she made her way to the counter.

"Hi. I noticed your...uh sign...and wondered if I could apply for the position? I'm Jacey." The young woman offered up a hand to shake with a friendly smile on her face. He went to shake her hand, but paused to switch the crystal pendants still dangling from his fingers with a sheepish laugh to his other hand, “Nice to meet you, Jacey. I’m Sage Windsor, the owner.” He shook her hand with his now freed hand. Hm, good energy. he noted in his head before he released. She looked no more than 19 years old and she had a boho style outfit that blended her into the store's surroundings, like she belonged as a display. She folded her arms to her chest, a bit nervous to be in an interview, but if she had known anything about Sage, he was just as nervous to be interviewing her. He wasn't really social outside his Coven. She glanced around the store. "This is quite a place you've got here. Real touristy meets authentic chic."

“Thanks. Yeah, I have a little bit of everything.” He said, scratching the back of his frizzy head self-consciously and looking around as well at all his little knick-knacks. “Most of these are just things I like.. And I hope others do too.” It was somewhat disorganized but somehow the eclectic items held a cohesive theme. It had a whimsical feel with crystal chimes hanging from the ceiling catching the morning light alongside dream catchers. Tucked in bookshelves and displayed on tables with long draping cloths were trinkets from skulls to Catholic Saints. While most of the items were replicas and simply appealing garbage made of plastic, there were some real deal craft items with powers if one had the know-how to use them. It was really authentic meets tourist, though most tourists wouldn’t know authentic if he cast a spell in their face.

“There are tarot cards and palm readings upstairs too. A little obvious for this part of town, I know, but it pays most the rent on this place.” He told her, nodding his head towards the door that lead upstairs. “A lot of people turn their nose up at this stuff, think it’s all a sham, a tourist trap. I don’t care. I simply want my clients to get what they came for: an experience, a genuine one..” He drifted off for a moment then shook his head and looked back at her, “Have you ever had your fortune read?” He figured the fastest way to get know his potential new hire was to sit across from her at a fortune telling table and read her palm.

Just then, the door to the store opened and in walked Sage’s cousin Kaitlyn. He had been expecting her since it was regular for them to have coffee in the mornings together. The family resemblance was striking, both having blue eyes and dark brown hair. Obviously she was prettier than Sage though, with more of an artsy vibe to her dress and fingers usually stained with some form of art medium or another. Everything about her was loud, from her dress to her opinions, but she was one of the more friendly Coven members in Sage's book. Sage was a lot more muted in contrast, dressing in an all neutral palette and never so much raised his voice to draw attention to himself. “Morning cuz. Here’s your coffee. How’s business?”

“Hi Kait. Business is going good, very good actually.” He answered, taking his coffee from her, “I’m kind of in the middle of a job interview, thinking of hiring my first employee. This is Jayce.”

He studied her reaction carefully, wondering if she would think he was crazy for even thinking of hiring a non-Coven member in his store.

The store owner, Sage, gave Jace a glimpse into his psyche with the statement; Most of these are just things I like. This place wasn't exactly the poster for normalcy, which meant Sage must not have been either despite his socially acceptable garb. She could just picture it now, all of the odd and exciting people that must have traipsed in that shop day in and day out. She was practically chomping at the job bit as he prattled on, sharing more about himself and his place of business. “Have you ever had your fortune read?” He asked all of a sudden, pulling Jacey out of her reverie. "What, you mean like I give you my palm and you just-" She started, already extending her hand across the counter top to him before the door swung open causing her to retract it immediately like she had been burned by scalding hot water.

Despite her previous notions about the strange sort of people that must have frequented the place, a totally average and albeit attractive girl waltzed in the shop with a cardboard tray of coffee, smiling at Sage Windsor familiarly. “Morning cuz. Here’s your coffee. How’s business?” She asked before sharing that gleaming bright grin with Jacey herself. “Hi Kait. Business is going good, very good actually. I’m kind of in the middle of a job interview, thinking of hiring my first employee. This is Jace.” He replied formally whilst introducing Jacey. She was beginning to think he was probably this stiff with everyone, like he couldn't get comfortable...as if his clothes were just freshly starched or he was wearing the wrong skin. This girl seemed the complete opposite. Where he was reserved, she was friendly and open seeming like a well aired out room with walls painted bright and vibrant colors. She liked that Sage had already deemed her interview worthy though and that he was comfortable shortening what she had told him her name was. Her name was already a shortened version of itself, but not actually being able to stand her birth given name, any affectionate moniker was welcomed.

"Hi, I'm the interviewee, Jace obviously." She stated, bouncing on her heels a bit with excitement, long hair swishing across her lower back. "Do you work here too or..?" She trailed off, looking between the two of them. They both had some similar defining features and she had called him cuz, but that could mean anything. If she was going to be a new coworker or the bosses girlfriend, it was important to define which immediately.

---

---

---

---

Jacobi eyed River when she was talking about not giving him the heads up if she was going to kill him. He didn't know whether to laugh or what so he just plastered a half crooked smile and just went with it. When she stated that she could kick his ass, he scoffed then rubbed his shoulder after she elbowed him. "Yeah, did you feel them muscles? Boom!" He flexed them in a joking manner then couldn't help but laugh as he mockingly snorted like River. His eyes then trailed over her as he nodded his head. "I'll be here. Well, I'm going to leave you to whatever you do here." He walked over towards River and hugged her tightly. "Alright. See you later." Jacobi had broke the hug and turned heel and left the shop.



He walked on down the street with his hands halfway into his pants pocket. Jacobi looked up every once and a while then something sort of caught his eye - A help wanted sign. He stood there and stroked his chin a moment before pushing open the door, seeing at least three people ahead talking. His eyes looked over every single person as he took the help wanted sign and walked towards the counter and stood beside a female, who was talking to a male and another female.

With a little eye roll, he spoke and tried his best not to sound like he had an attitude. "Excuse me..." He cleared his throat then held up the sign. "I would like to apply for almost any position you have available." A smiled curved among his features as he eyed everyone, not particularly sure who to be talking but thought he would take the chance and asked out loud.

His eyes danced from one person to another as he waited for a response from someone.

Robin glided with unchallenged balance in her heels, through the Quarter. It was an awfully muggy day, the air was stagnant, but this didn’t affect Robin who created a micro-climate wherever she went. Every place she passed by a chill wind followed, swaying the old-fashioned signage in front of stores and the colorful pennants hung around the street for Mardi Gras. Nothing much had changed about this Catholic holiday, people celebrated with the same tomfoolery and gluttony as they had since the days of old, except God did not collect his toll of empty stomachs and abundance of prayers afterwards. The world had all but forgotten the holiday’s true meaning and origins; much like witchcraft as a whole that was made a mockery of not just on this day but every other day of the year in this petty town. Once upon a time she shared this street with real witches, and the priests and priestesses of Santeria and Voodoo. Now she shared the street with a bunch of con artists. She supposed it was all the better to blend in and keep her family safe. Yet she couldn’t help feel her heritage was being degraded.

Robin ended her walk at her grandson’s shop, the Windsor Emporium. She entered without even touching the knob, a small gust blowing in behind her, tinkling the crystals on the tree display. She was caught off guard only for a moment by all the people and shut the door behind her with her hand.

“Good morning children.” She greeted, largely to her two young descendants, though she gave a stiff smile to the other two in the room too.

She walked lithely over to the group, leaning on the glass counter with one elbow and her hip sticking out, “My dear, what is this you have going on here?” she asked her timid grandson who did not give her an immediate answer. Her questions were not really questions at all, her relatives knew that. Giving a response might offend her because she tended to already have an answer. Her dark cat eyes fell to the paper in Ayers boy’s hand. “What’s this? You’re hiring.” She said, sounding surprised and snatching the makeshift Help Wanted sign from the boy’s hands, like she couldn’t believe her eyes.

“Young man – Jacobi isn’t it? – What are you doing applying here? Doesn’t your cousin Jacqueline own an herb store down the street?” she asked barely concealing her contempt, raising her dark eyes to meet the innocent smile of the young warlock. Jacobi didn’t know Robin, but Robin certainly knew the new male witch in the Ayers clan, just recently moved to New Orleans. She didn’t give him time to answer, using the question only as a way of indirectly saying “get lost” and moved on. The world of witchcraft was a woman’s world and if the Ayers didn’t teach him that, she would.

“Your cousin Josephine is looking for a job, Sage. You should give her a call.” She told her grandson, folding the flyer in her hands.

-----



A young man came bouncing into his store, pulling the Help Wanted sign and bringing it over to Sage. "Excuse me..." He cleared his throat then held up the sign. "I would like to apply for almost any position you have available." Sage couldn’t believe his good luck when Jayce had come in and now he had two potential new hires standing before him. It was good in a business sense to have choices, but he was feeling a bit overwhelmed with the possibilities. He also wasn’t used to conversing with more than one person at a time. Thankfully his more socially adept cousin Kait jumped in, "He's the one you want to speak to." She said pointing at Sage before smiling at the newcomer. "I'm just loitering."

The young man turned towards Sage now, who got his voice unstuck in his throat and tried also to give a welcoming smile to the newcomer, though he had met his human interaction quota for the day, “Yeah, I’m the one you want to talk to,” he began nervously, glancing at his cousin uncertain as to how to proceed, “I’m Sage, the owner. I’m only hiring for one position right now. I’m actually in the middle of interviewing someone else. Maybe you could come back in…”

Before Sage could finish his sentence the door opened once again, and a chill gust of wind swept in. He was frazzled as his attention was again pulled in another direction. An acute panic attack welled up inside him as he faced the doorway to see his grandmother Robin in the doorway. Alas, what affection the fickle Lady Luck had given him moments ago, she took away. Robin was not the grandmotherly grandmother in a smock and apron, she was a voluptuous vixen in a tight black dress with lace trimming and sky high heels. She walked in, a sugar-coated smile on her unnaturally youthful face though God only knew what was going on behind those black eyes.

She swiped the Help Wanted sign from the unnamed boy’s hands and harassed him a little. She couldn’t help heckling a man if she got the chance, especially a warlock. Sage hadn’t known there was a young warlock in the Ayers family. It made him feel immediately sympathetic towards him.

“Your cousin Josephine is looking for a job. Why don’t you give her a call?”

“I’ve already hired someone.” He announced quickly.

Everyone looked surprised, even Sage, at the words that came out of his mouth. His eyes darted between Jayce and Jacobi, before gesturing to the latter, “This is Jayce, my new employee.”

Robin stood mouth agape for a moment before she was able to compose herself and smile again.

“Oh, what a lucky girl. She must have good fortune.” Robin stated, giving Jayce a smile, “Excuse us Jayce, but I think we need to have a family pow-wow for a moment. Kait, Sage, follow me please.” She turned and headed towards the doorway that lead upstairs. Sage stood rooted to the spot. “Uh, she hasn’t had any training yet, I think I should stay down here.” he protested weakly.

Robin pivoted around with her hand on the door knob.

“I’m sure she’ll be fine, you wouldn’t hire anyone incompetent.”

Sage frowned as Robin proceeded upstairs, heels clacking loudly all the way up. He then turned towards his now new employee, Jayce.

“If you wouldn’t mind starting now?.. I’ll pay you at the end of the day.”

He looked at Jacobi, giving him a sympathetic look, “I’m sorry this didn’t work out, Jacobi..” The poor guy was probably unawares to their family’s history and rivalry. Sage didn’t much care about the rivalry, he saw the Ayers as a minor threat compared to the Crusaders and in fact thought they should be friends given their common enemy. He couldn’t push his luck with Robin hiring an Ayers though.

Jacey made note of Kaitlyn's paint marred clothes with a wry affection, it reminded her so much of her mother. "The look suits you." She complemented before the stale and tepid air from outside found it's way indoors when a rakish older boy with a devious crooked smile wandered in. Her perpetual hyperactive joy wavered ever so slightly as he made it known he wanted to also apply for the position with a confidence rivaling her own. Damn. Now it was more of a competition, but in truth she preferred it that way. She never backed down from a challenge. This Sage sure was a popular guy though...

Her liquid copper eyes shifted downward as they talked, tracing haphazard paths through the shop between the narrow isles set by rackety shelves, almost as if she were nervous or something of the like. Juliet Christina Fortis, who had never been nervous a day in her life. She was unwittingly accounting the sudden storm roiling in her blood, weather in her bones, and the shudder lacing up her spine like a cold finger counting her vertebrae for interview jitters though she had never had jitters about anything before now. What else could it be if not that? What she had failed to realize was that it was in fact a sort of sixth sense, her own inner radar if you will, for witches, that allowed her to feel this palpable static floating in the atmosphere like that before a lightning strike. She had no clue she was the only not magically inclined being in the room because she had no clue that magic really existed.

Sage was just in the middle of telling the boy to come back later, much to Jacey's excitement--calming her 'nerves', when yet another individual joined the party. Just how many people could they fit in the cramped little store? It was certainly filled to capacity now. The tingling that was trailing up and down her spine ever since her interview began, that had seemed to ebb just for a moment with her renewed enthusiasm, burst back into a full blown burn actually causing her to slightly wince when a dark haired slinky older woman strutted into the store like she owned the place. What the hell? Every molecule within her scorched and moaned in pain as the effects of her internal warning system seemed to berate her body into actual discomfort. It was trying to tell her something was going on here a seriously ardent way, she just couldn't pin down what it was. The woman rested against the counter casually while simultaneously seeming to look down her nose at them all, chatting them up before rudely implying the Sage should look elsewhere for new employees, completely ignoring the fact he had two perfectly good applicants right there. Jacey scowled at the woman openly, not hiding her dislike before shooting Jacobi a sympathetic glance. What. A. Bitch. She opened her mouth to speak up when timid little Sage gave her the best news she had heard all day.(Granted, it was only the early morning and there were many more hours of daylight to go.)

"I've already hired someone. This is Jace, my new employee." A glittering smile broke across her face, like the waves of the ocean crashing upon the shore. It lit up her whole countenance in an instant before a small laugh broke free. Not a dry anxious spasm of laughter but a chuckle of genuine means, pure, ringing like coins shaken loose from a purse. "Seriously!? Awesome." Her moment of triumph was short lived however, because this boy's(She assumed)mother or aunt demanded they meet upstairs, Kaitlyn included apparently. Jesus, why does he let her yank his chain like he is some well trained dog? I'd tell her to stick it where the sun don't shine. She thought dryly. "Don't worry about it, I can manage fine on my own for a few minutes. Though at this rate, your likely to have half of New Orleans in here nosing about." Jace milled around to the other side of the counter and took her position. "Go, go see what the wicked witch of the west needs; I'll keep the place from burning to the ground."

---

---

---

---

Jacobi looked at Kaitlyn, who pointed to the male then nodded his head towards her with a smile. "Thanks." The male seemed to be a bit preoccupied though so he waited his turn. He knew that doing this was a big mistake and that he might have to hear it from River or Jacqueline later on but he took a risk. Sooner, the air got colder as another female presence walked in. Jacobi studied the female's features and flashbacks started to play-out through his head as he remembers his mother talking about her. How mean and evil she was. When she nearer him, his eyes diverted towards hers as she questioned why he was here. "Yeah, well maybe I don't want to work in a herb store. Maybe..." He was cut off when she snatched the paper out of his hand.

He balled up his fists and the room was suddenly getting hotter but he cooled down and looked towards Jacey, who looked like a regular old human but it seemed like there something more to her than to his knowledge. The older female walked off, calling for some family meeting. His eyes then drew towards the male, who was being a little sympathetic. He gave the male a half ass smile then rolled his eyes. Jacobi had a scolded look on his face towards the older female now, who name came out to be Robin. She had to the leader of the coven or something by the way her demeanor is.

Jacobi turned towards Jacey again, extending his hand out towards her. "Congratulations." He said with a bright smile while leaning on the glass counter top with his elbows. "I haven't seen you around here before, you new to the area?" He was much new himself but this was just his odd way of flirting. Jacobi eyed the Jacey's features and licked his lips while glancing back up and to stare into her eyes. "By the way, that wicked witch of the west comment. More like, wicked bitch of the west." He laughed a little then slapped his hand on the counter top. "Well, I guess I should go then. It was nice meeting you." He said while putting out a small piece of paper from his pants pocket, grabbing a pen off of the counter and writing his number on the paper.



"We should hang out sometime. I don't have nothing else better to do." Jacobi said while handing Jacey the piece of paper. If she accepted the paper, he would turn heel and exit the store but not before he knocked a few items off of the shelf.

Kait was the first grandchild to reach the top of the stairs. Robin was facing away, staring out the smidgen of space between the heavy velvet curtains that allowed light into the dark room. There was a seance table in the middle of the room with a red pagan star drawn on it - what most tourists would assume was red paint but was actually dried blood - surrounded by shelves and boxes of miscellaneous occult items. It was even more stifling up here with no air conditioning besides a dusty stand alone fan. However with Robin's presence in the room the space was a few degrees cooler than it would usually be. The woman never broke a sweat even in the most muggy heat.

She didn't speak to Kait, awaiting her second grandchild. Once he entered, shutting the door both at the bottom and at the top of the stairs, she finally seemed to take note anyone else was in the room. She turned on one heel looking towards them both standing in front of the door like two children ready to be handed down their punishment in the principal's office.

"Of all my children, you two concern me most. It's as if you live to torment me with worry." Robin sighed dramatically, leaning on the table with both hands,"I give you two all the means to start your own businesses and this is how I am repaid?"

An ornate blue and white Chinese vase rattled on one of the wooden shelves and appeared to of its own accord fling off the shelf. Sage quickly caught the hurtling object with both hands, fumbling it a little before holding it tightly to his chest. He looked at his grandmother wide-eyed, knowing the storm was just beginning. "Honestly, I ask so little of you both: Complete and absolute loyalty to your Coven. And I come here to find you, Sage, interviewing an Ayers and a twit for the family business!"

Another object, this time a helmet off of a 13th century piece of armor, hurled itself across the room. Sage unable to catch the flying hunk of metal this time with his bare hands already occupied, stopped the object with his mind a hair away from smashing into the opposite shelf. It remain suspended in the air. "I am loyal!" He argued back. "Then why would you hire a non-witch to work in the store! Don't lie!" Three books flew from different corners of the room and unable to react fast enough, they collided into Sage and Kait. Sage dropped both the vase and helmet at once. Sage stared at the broken pieces of the vase with devastation written on his face. "I didn't hire family because I just wanted someone normal." The words came out of his mouth before he could think of a way to censor them, to soften their harshness.

Robin's face turned from raging fury, to suddenly expressionless in no time flat. It was scarier than her mean face. She cocked her head sideways, a slight grin tugging at one corner of her mouth. A slight chuckle vibrated in her throat, "Normal?... We aren't normal? Is that what you want us to be?" She looked thoughtfully up towards the ceiling, tapping her finger on her lower lip. "Okay. So what do we do to become average? What do normal families do?..." She walked around the table. Sage was regretting his choice of words. She lifted the help wanted sign still in her hand and fanned her face with it in a blasé fashion, "Oh!" She gasped looking at the flyer, then turned the paper around to show them the side with ad, "they go to church. Today is a religious holiday and I hear the sermons are just riveting at St. Anthony's." She handed the flyer to Kait. "Tonight we are going to attend mass as a family. Wear your Sunday's best." She reached a bony hand out and patted each other on the cheek, "I will see you tonight my children."

Robin directed her gaze towards her outspoken granddaughter. She might have smiled at her nobility in standing up for Sage, been proud of her boldness had it not been directed towards her. She expected the women in her family to be strong and none were stronger than Kait to the point where she was downright bullheaded. Whether Robin was impressed by this she never showed. It was only when she was disappointed that she made her feelings abundantly clear, whether in the moment or at some later point in time.

“It’s one thing to have non-Coven coming in and out of the store. It’s another to have one in our presence at all times. It is dangerous having associations outside of the Coven, for both our sake and those who become involved.” She answered with surprisingly reasonable. She did not elaborate on said dangers. It was hard to tell if she was simply bluffing for manipulative purposes or if there were actual risks involved that she had seen before them. Most Coven member’s awareness of the Matriarch’s infallible third-eye intuition would make them err on the side of caution though.

She tore her steely eyes away from Kait at last and opened the door behind them. “It is your decision not to come to church, my dear. But it will be such a shame not to have the whole family there. We rarely all congregate under the same roof. And a family that prays together stays together, no?” With that said, she left the upstairs vicinity.

As she got down to the bottom floor and made her way to the exit with a languid stroll, she gave Jaycie behind the cash register a cordial nod. “I will see you later.. and your little dog too.” She didn’t even glance in Jacobi’s direction though it was obvious whom she was referring to. She turned the handle of the front door and exited, not even bothering to close it behind her. The door drifted lazily until a few seconds later a harsh wind sucked it shut from outside, rattling the whole wall.

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



The hot air began to intrude upon the upstairs room once Robin had left. Sage quietly went and grabbed a broom from the corner with the dust pan. “Just.. Just great.” He muttered in contained frustration, tramping back over to the broken china and beginning to sweep, “I’ve pissed her off. Now she’s scheming something..” So much for having a good day. His fortune-telling skills were rusty. He pointed the dust pan incriminatingly at his cousin, “And you didn’t help matters. You should have stayed out of this. Now she’s not just mad at me, but you too.”

He set the pan down on the floor next to the pile of shards and brushed the glass a few more times before letting go and allowing the broom to continue the chore by itself. “You need to come to church, Kait. She’s already unhappy with you. It’s bad to cross her twice.” He paced anxiously around the round table, arms crossed tightly across his chest, “And I can’t watch all the younger cousins by myself. It’s hard enough getting them all to cooperate for Winter Solstace, I can’t imagine getting them to sit still for a sermon at church!”

It was lunch time now and River sure as hell wasn't staying in, she was going out. Really she was....or at least she meant to. She had finished closing shop about thirty minutes ago but she languished over her creative coding decorated laptop, typing out DNA sequences and mathematics furtively and talking aloud in undergrad speak that few were likely to understand if they were there to hear her processing aloud. This might have appeared boring to most, but then again, most missed the real beauty of things when they could only manage to spare it a cursory glance. Number and sequences spelled out everything around you, there was nothing that wasn't quantifiable, not even magic-- River was sure of it. She had just yet to crack the code but she wouldn't stop until she did.

Scientists did not go into the field for a lack of passion, of feeling. Scientists viewed the world like a lover; possessed a need to understand it on every level, a need to cherish it, a need to write volumes of love letters about it, a need to document it so that everyone else could love the world too...and there were none more truly as passionate about it than her.

One of her numerous cousins, though hardly her favorite one, Amber, waltzed in the door, disturbing the catatonia that normally accompanied River's staring at base pairs. "Hey. You hard at school work instead of work work? I still don't understand why they let you run this place if you'd obviously rather be elsewhere." The girl complained, envious of River's position. River spared her a squinty eyed glare. While she had heard her clearly she wanted an extra second of not answering for the sake of articulating herself. The initial route of self-preservation presented itself as sarcasm. "It's not a school project, just a personal experiment of mine...besides, I'm on my lunch break. My brain must feast upon science or else it might starve and wither away to look something like yours. Can you imagine the horror? I would conceivably be a Neanderthal."

Most of her family weren't a part of her cheer squad or fans numero uno. Her dalliance with the philosophy science and magic were one and the same seemed to rather piss them off. It was possible that her desire to study magic on a scientific level and slight objective professional excitement at being born prenaturally able to manipulate physics with the mere grey matter of her brain could be taken as an insult to her fellow genetic lottery winners who chose to see magic as a gift horse not to be looked in the mouth. But being born this way and knowing others like her was such a unique opportunity to study the potential mutation in their genetics that would be hard to find anywhere else. She was trying to respectably catalog witch genomes, but in order to effectively document anything, she needed more than one subject of study. Just looking into her own DNA strands wasn't going to hack it. Hence her having enlisted Jacobi in her little field experiment earlier that morning.

"Whatever." Amber stated with an exaggerated eye roll. "Have you heard the news? About the Windsors?" She chirped with all eagerality of a vapid shallow teen with her teeth on a juicy bit of gossip. "No. And I don't really care either. You know, their lives aren't our business. They're supposed to be our friends. We ought to examine our own lives before we scrutinize anyone else's." River couldn't conceive why Amber had shown up in her store, she knew better than to think open minded laid back weirdo River Ayers would be hooked like a fish by dangling an idle canard in front of her face. "Ugh, will you stop being such a downer for like two seconds! I'm trying to tell you something interesting!" River sighed and gave her cousin her full attentions. "What." She finally conceded, not really posing the inflection like that of a question but Amber seemed pleased enough to accept it as such. "Robin Windsor is dragging her coven to church! Helena said that sage pissed her off royally by hiring a normie to work in his shop and she is dragging them before the crusaders to sit right in front of the pulpit for what reason I can't imagine. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?!"

She couldn't. It was suicide. Robin really had lost her mind. "I'm going to see our matriarch. Somebody should tell her about this. Someone has to talk sense into that crazy devil woman, Robin, and something tells me she wouldn't listen to either of us low level witches."