Closed Witches Wick

[Madeira Dusk]

"Ghosts are dead astral bodies, yes. That's also what makes possession possible." Madeira nodded encouragingly to Avela's question.

The Konti gingerly took the dough from her palm, and held it like she was expecting it to explode. Madeira could see her throat working before she voiced her sudden concern: will the dead bit of her soul come back?

"The soul regrows. It does for ghosts, too. I have never heard of someone using up all their astral body.” she couldn't help but chuckle. The idea was absurd. Yet, she had to admit, there might be a limit to the soul that nobody had reached yet. And while soulmist didn't damage the soul, what Spiritists did know was that the production of soulmist, over an extended period of time, could change the body. At this point Madeira was just starting to notice the change, how ghosts didn't feel so incorporeal anymore. How she could almost stroke Emma's cheek and slap Jomi across the mouth and have them feel something.

She wasn't about to tell Avela that, though. The Konti was apprehensive enough as it was. Instead she waited with her hands folded in her lap. Madeira found that there was a certain type of person, a gentle, kind type of person, who hated to disappoint people, even strangers. Thinking Avela might be one, she she sat with an expectant look on her face, the ghost of a smile on her lips that looked ready to stretch wide with pride and joy when the Konti succeeded. If Madeira was expecting her to try, maybe Avela would be less likely to change her mind. Maybe she could persuade her to go through with it with body language alone.

Wether this approached helped or not, Avela screwed up her face and shoved the dough in her mouth. The fact that she didn't vomit immediately was heartening. As a child Madeira remembered it took half a dozen tries to simply keep the revolting concoction down. Avela closed her eyes as she chewed to better help herself concentrate, and Madeira got quietly to feet so as not to disturb her.

It took some quiet fumbling to get her small knife out of her pack by the door, but there was no sound as she made a small incision in her wrist and pinched the wound to draw out the blood. Kneeling on the floor, Madeira drew a lopsided sixteen-point star with her gory paint and pulled a heavy moonstone ring off her finger.

She closed her eyes too, and the little cottage became still and quiet. In her mind Madeira searched for the drop of soulmist contained in the ring, and reached for it with her soul. The small piece of soulmist was pulling towards the ghost it came from, trying to reattach to the larger whole. Madeira used this connection, this magnetic pull, and fed into it with the power of her own living soul. She fed it and felt it's power turn, until it was not pushing towards the whole but pulling the whole towards it. Madeira felt the pull and latched on to it, dragging the ghost across the space separating it from its mist. When she had it firmly in her grasp she called it by name in a whisper: “Emma Chamelle!”

x

[Avela]

Avela was relieved to hear that no one could ever use up all of their astral body. She had no idea what that would even look like, but she was completely certain that she never wanted to find out. Still, the knowledge that she wasn't damaging a part of herself beyond repair helped her to relax a little, to sink further into the meditative exercise of concentration. It wasn't even like she had used her own blood. Like this, it was just an...an experiment. Just a test, to see if she could do it. Just a little bit of idle curiosity, that was all.

Her concentration in place, Avela continued reaching for that feeling deep inside of her, that moving, constantly shifting source of vitality. She was so focused on it that she didn't even notice Madeira moving, didn't notice anything at all but the way it felt to catch that sensation inside of her.

It felt...it felt...

When Avela had been a child, she had loved nothing more than to swim. She still loved nothing more than to be in the water now, but she was older, she had learned restraint. She could spend days out of the water, could get through a day before she ran off for the Caldera. When she was a child, she was forever running off to go swimming. Her father worried about her, but he knew he couldn't stop her. So Avela spent a lot of her childhood days, whenever it wasn't too cold, exploring the Rainbow Shells.

Y'Uanu's Garden hadn't been planted then, but there had been other kelp beds. Avela had liked swimming in them, barefoot and free, liked hiding behind rocks and exploring, liked the way the running water felt moving through her gills and the webbing of her fingers and toes. One of the things that had always fascinated her had been the fish. Tiny little fish, in a rainbow of colors, all picking at the kelp. She had tried to reach out and grab them, tried to catch them, but the fish would always slip right out of her grasp.

This felt like that. It felt like Avela was swimming, trying to reach out for something much smaller and quicker than she was, something that was always just out of reach, slipping between her fingers.

How had she solved that, then? She'd slowed down, opening her hands. She'd been gentle, letting the fish come to her, cupping it gently in her grasp. Gently, ever so gently, ever so patiently...

Drawing it out a little at a time. A little at a time...

The dough in her mouth went cold. It became a block of ice on her tongue, like a patch of fresh snow, and it dissolved just as fast, spreading the coldness inside her.

And something was coming up in its place.

Avela's eyes popped open as she felt it start to come up, and she looked around in panic before raising her hands to her mouth, coughing hard. The thing came free into her hands, a pearlescent gel, and it was only when she was holding it, stunned, that she noticed Madeira standing by her bloody circle near the door.

"What did you do?!" she asked, her voice oddly hoarse. An odd thing to say under the circumstances, when she was literally holding a fragment of her own soul in her hands, but when Avela was stressed, who knew what was about to pop out of her mouth?

Template by Sevaan
"Common" "Kontinese"
(•̀o•́)ง

~Avela~

[Madeira Dusk]

As Avela spoke a shiver of air blew through the small cottage, rustling papers and causing the fire to sputter in its hearth. Sparks jumped from the wood and popped in the cool air, and somewhere between the noise and the light, a ghost suddenly appeared. It was a little girl, sitting cross-legged in the middle of the floor looking windswept and bewildered. In the enclosed space it was easier to see her waves of gentle curly brown hair and long nightdress. And it was impossible to miss how the spirit's eyes found Avela's hands before they noticed anything else in the room.

"Hey sweetheart", Madeira drew the ghost's attention back to her. “I'm sorry to disturb you."

"It's okay”, the girl mumbled, rubbing the heel of her hand over the scabs in the corner of her eye. “I was just playing with Spooks."

Madeira wiped the summoning star away with the sleeve of her dress and got to her feet. She beat the dust on the knee of her skirt as she returned to Avela. "I didn't mean to surprise you.” she explained to the Konti contritely. “I thought it best you weren’t disturbed." As she got closer she spotted the pearlescent sheen between the girl’s curled fingers and her eyes lit up. "Oh, wow, look at that. You did it Avela!" she clapped her hands over her chest and laughed. "You're much more of a natural than I ever was, I'll tell you that."

She motioned the ghost over, and Emma drifted silently to her side.

"You remember Emma, don't you?" she asked. The ghost did a shy little bob of a curtsy in greeting, holding the skirt of her nightdress bunched in her fingers. As the skirt lifted off the floor her bare feet were visible, just as cracked and scabbed as her hands. "Unfortunately I can't judge the quality of your soulmist, but she can. She will also be able to tell us if the candles work too. And you do want to help us, don’t you Em?"

Emma wasn't entirely clear on what they were doing or what would be needed from her, but she nodded eagerly just the same. She was not one to pass an opportunity to be a part of whatever the adults were doing, especially not when there was soulmist involved.

“Thanks sweetheart. Why don’t you give her a taste, Avela.” she smiled her mischievous smile and sat back in her seat by the worktable, wondering just how the Konti would react to not only seeing her dead soul in her hands, but to giving it away.

x

[Avela]

A cold wind moved through the cottage before Avela had even finished speaking, washing over her and making her shiver. The Konti jumped at the sound of the sputtering fire. She looked around, her fingers closing almost protectively around the substance in her hand as she turned to look around the room, and at the girl that had suddenly materialized on her floor.

It wasn't the first time that Avela had seen Emma Chamelle. The first time had been under much worse circumstances. At the time, Avela had been too confused by everything that was going on, too scared of just about everything that was happening to look closely at the ghost. Now, though, in the relative peace of her cottage, she could see the girl clearly.

Avela forced herself to relax, to let go of some of the tension in her limbs, the way her muscles had seized up at the girl's appearance, as if some instinct was still trying to tell her to get up and run away. She told herself she was being silly. Emma was harmless, even if she was the first ghost Avela had seen this close. Looking at her closely, Avela could see that she wasn't that scary at all. Her appearance might have been frightening--those scars and scabs--but she was just a little girl under all of that. Maybe even the same age as her brother.

Still, that didn't mean that her heart wasn't beating fast when she turned to face Madeira.

"It's...alright," she said. "I was just startled, that's all." She colored a little at Madeira's assessment of her ability though, both with embarrassment and, although she tried to deny it, a touch of pride. She didn't really think she had done anything special. If anything, she had been trying her best to follow instructions so that she wouldn't have to try it again.

But...hearing Madeira say that she did well...it warmed something inside her. She had to admit that.

"Um, thank you..." she said, not knowing what else to say. "I'm not sure how good it will be."

It looked like Madeira wasn't going to be the one to tell her, though. Avela's eyes moved back towards Emma as the little girl curtsied in front of her, introducing herself. The Konti offered her a tentative smile. She had to admit, there was something cute about her.

"It's nice to meet you, Emma," she said. "Formally, this time. I mean." She glanced at Madeira, then held her hands out rather awkwardly towards the ghost, not sure what she should be doing. Avela let out a nervous, high-pitched giggle. This was certainly a weirder day than she had been expecting. "Um, help yourself, I guess."

Template by Sevaan
"Common" "Kontinese"
(•̀o•́)ง

~Avela~

[Madeira Dusk]

There was an unsettling intensity in Emma’s gaze as Avela held her cupped hands out towards the ghost. It was a kind of look that did not fit on the face of a little girl. It wasn't quite need or hunger, but a powerful, consuming want. The way an adult would look at their drug of choice.

Emma reached for Avela's hands cautiously, as if expecting the Konti to whip it away at any moment. Then she reached into her hand. Or, more accurately, through them. She passed her fingers through Avela's palms, pulling the willingly offered soulmist with her. At once the pearlescent substance disappeared, absorbed and incorporated into Emma's body. The ghost's form flared brighter for a tick, and her eyes closed as she felt a tiny trickle of strength surge through her. Then she retracted her hands, and her shape resumed the inconsistent flickering she had always had.

"What did you think, Emma?" Madeira prompted.

"It was nice”, she mumbled. "Thank you", she hurriedly tacked on at the end, giving Avela another shy curtsy.

"We need a little more than that, Em", she pressed, pinching the girl's cheek playfully.

"It was really nice?" the ghost ventured, glancing quickly up at Avela and then away.

"It's not rude to give an opinion when it's asked for, sweetheart."

When she got no answer but an uncomfortable blush, Madeira sighed dramatically and sat back in her chair. "It's ok, I understand. We needed a big girl for something this important. Maybe the next time we make soulmist we can call Hurik..."

A ripple flared through the ghost as she realized her chances of being called to taste test soulmist again were fast dwindling. The potential loss of what could prove to be a cornucopia of soulmist overrode her misguided politeness and prompted her to speak.

"I mean! I-it was good. But it's not... not best. It was, like, watery, I think. And wrong? Somehow. I don't know. It wasn't right. But it was nice!" she babbled, caught between being grateful to Avela and obeying Madeira.

"She's saying it was a good first effort apparently, but you need a different recipe." Madeira translated, chuckling. "I don't think my blood, rye flour, goat cheese is best for you. You'll have to experiment and find something better."

x

[Avela]

Avela watched Emma as the little girl absorbed some of the soulmist, taking note of the way she flared a little brighter for a moment, the look on her face. It was odd - up until that moment, she hadn't really thought about what Madeira said, that ghosts were made up of soulmist. Now, though, she could see how much Emma wanted it. Needed it. What would happen to a ghost that didn't get any soulmist, she wondered. Would they disappear?

She wanted to ask, but she also didn't want to upset Emma with the question, so she kept it to herself for now. Instead, she listened as Emma reluctantly gave her honest opinion of the soulmist. Avela was surprised to find that she was actually a little disappointed to hear that the soulmist wasn't very good. She expected that, of course, she'd never done something like this before, but it just made her want to do it better next time.

Which was an odd thought. She definitely wasn't planning on a next time, wasn't she? But when Madeira mentioned a different recipe, Avela turned towards her, eyes widening in surprise. "How else would you make it?" she asked. "Can you make it with any food, as long as you use blood?"

She still definitely wasn't thinking about doing this again, but if she was, then maybe sugar would make the mixture more palatable. And it would feel less weird to use her own blood for sure...not that she was particularly looking forward to getting her blood out of her body.

That rather disturbing train of thought was cut off by the ominous sound of something bubbling, a lid rattling. Avela jumped, looking over her shoulder to see the pot's lid rattling, her wax about to boil over. She let out a little squeak of surprise and quickly ran over to the fire, grabbing a cloth to yank the lid off of the top of the pot so that she could stir it. Thankfully, she managed to stop the wax before it boiled over, saving her from making yet another lavender-scented mess. Avela let out a sigh of relief, sinking back to her heels as she continued to stir, for good measure.

"S-Sorry about that, Madeira," she said as she worked. "If the wax boils over, it can start a fire, and I don't want to ruin this batch..."

That was when the idea struck her. Avela looked down at the wax in the pot, which had originally been intended for ordinary lavender candles. Nothing special, just something good to have in stock. She couldn't see why she had to make an entirely new batch for this.

"...Actually...you don't happen to have anything against lavender, do you? If not, we can use this batch for the candles. Although..." She remembered Emma's criticism of her soulmist, her face reddening slightly. "...if we're going to use soulmist...we should probably use yours..."

Template by Sevaan
"Common" "Kontinese"
(•̀o•́)ง

~Avela~

[Madeira Dusk]

Their conversation was interrupted by an angry rattling sound, and at once the Konti was on her feet and across the room. A lid was lifted off a pot over the fire and the heavy scent of lavender redoubled as she stirred the melted wax with a big spoon.

"Don't apologize", Madeira admonished as Avela stuttered over her excuse. "I've interrupted your workday for this experiment. I should apologize."

Madeira could see the Konti considering something as she stared into the pot, collecting a sheen of aromatic dew on her scaled cheeks. She suggested that they use that batch for the experimental candles. Madeira agreed readily, then turned to Emma.

"Did you see I brought your duck?" she pointed to the little wooden toy on rolling wheels she put down by the door. "Go play for a bit. If you can get push the duck all the way across the room you'll get a treat, how about that?"

As Emma eagerly set to work nudging the toy around the messy cottage, Madeira got ready to prepare another batch of soulmist.

She swallowed another portion of dough, then breathed evenly through her nose as her entire being focused inward. She pulled forward her astral body again, pulling it into her belly to infuse the substance. Kneading her soul, she willed the change to rise out of her body. She breathed again, taking her time, gently persuading the tiny piece of soul to die. When the sour dough suddenly became cool, she was done. Into the same jar the first batch of soulmist had collected she gave her wet, hacking cough and expelled the second. It looked just the same as Avela's, though she could produce much more at a time.

"Wait, wait, I'm almost there!" Emma panicked from the floor, giving her duck an extra hard shove with her soulmist projection. The toy careened into the dark space under the Konti's bed, and the girl dived down to retrieve it.

"Relax, Em." Madeira got to her feet and joined Avela at the bubbling pot. "I'll save some for you. Just tell me when you're done."

The Spiritist stood there with her glowing jar and looked into the pot, which looked like gently bubbling witches brew itself. The dynamic between the women changed as Madeira looked to Avela for instruction, as together they moved towards the Konti's particular expertise.

x

[Avela]

While Madeira prepared the soulmist, Avela kept working on trying to save the wax, stirring until she felt the viscous liquid moving smoothly around her spoon. She still felt lost in the world of spiritists and soulmist and magic, still felt odd and slightly queasy about what she had just done. Even though it was likely all in her head, Avela couldn't help but imagine that she could feel a part of her soul missing, transformed into soulmist. It was a stupid thought, because Madeira had told her the soul grew back. Still, despite all that, she was in her element now.

She might not know much about ghosts, but candlemaking was something she knew how to do.

She didn't pay too much attention to Emma and the toy, focusing instead on the wax. By the time Madeira returned with the soulmist, Avela was ready for her. She sat back on her heels, wiping the light sheen of sweat on her skin that had come up from being so close to the fire, and the dew that had misted over her scales. She looked from Madeira to the jar in her hand, noticing that there was a lot more of it than she had made. Maybe too much for this purpose. Now that Avela had made her own soulmist, had interacted with it, she had a feel for what the material was like. It was sort of like a gel, but it could be incorporated into other things easily.

She hoped that worked that well here.

"Okay," she said. "What we're going to try to do is mix it into the wax so that it mixes evenly. We want an even amount of soulmist through the entire batch. Add it in to the wax slowly, while I stir. A little at a time. I'll let you know if you need to stop."

As Madeira started, Avela continued stirring the pot, monitoring the addition. It was a little tricky to work with, since she was letting someone else add it in, but Avela treated it just like any other scent, making sure it incorporated evenly and going by feel. She stopped Madeira early just to be on the safe side, studying the wax.

"Do you think Emma can take a look and see if she likes this?" Avela asked, looking over at the ghost in the corner. "We're going to need to get this part right while the wax is still wet, because we won't be able to do much to change it once it hardens."

Template by Sevaan
"Common" "Kontinese"
(•̀o•́)ง

~Avela~

[Madeira Dusk]

As per the Konti's instruction, Madeira tipped the jar and added the foreign soulmist a milliliter at a time. The ethereal gel-like substance hit the bubbling wax and sunk in immediately, smoothed in by the wooden spoon. Avela was concentrating hard, and seemed to be looking for abnormalities and inconsistencies with her spoon as she stirred. But Madeira, not sure what such thing would even look like, allowed her mind to drift. The wax was such an odd consistency, somewhere between cream and water, yet had a hypnotizing smoothness of something much more viscous. She wanted more than anything to dip her hands in it, to see what it felt like. Yet somehow she figured sticking her hands in a boiling caldron would not be a good idea.

Avela suddenly spoke, and Madeira startled out of her reverie. The candlemaker wanted to see what sort of reaction Emma would have to the wax.

"Mmm, good idea." Madeira nodded, sitting back and putting the half empty jar on the floor. "Em, sweetheart, can we see you a moment?"

"I'm almost there!" the young ghost shouted back, having just steered the duck around a treacherous pile of laundry.

"It won't take a chime. How about a taste of mist to get your strength back up?"

The girl needed no more convincing. She blinked behind Avela and clapped her hands together in silent delight.

"There's my girl. What do you think of the wax?"

Emma shuffled considerately between the two women and leaned over the cauldron, where the steam continued uninterrupted through her flickering form. Madeira had a pang of maternal instinct to see her bare feet standing so close to the fire, but she wrestled it down. The ghost, for her part, seemed completely unaffected by the heat.

"It smells nice", she declared. "But I thought you said you were going to give me some?" she looked to Madeira and pouted. A ghost could not take imbued soulmist.

"We have some left over. But it seems good to you? Do we need to add more?"

Emma bit her lip and experimentally stuck her scabbed little hands into the pot, much to Madeira's longing jealousy. Yet her fingers merely collided against the liquid surface like it was a solid object. Even pressing as hard as she could the liquid wouldn't let her pass through.

"Ok, enough of that. Thank you sweetie. Here, as promised."

Madeira tipped the jar behind her into her hands her and lifted out a portion of glowing soulmist. Emma greedily snatched her hand through Madeira's, taking the substance with her. At once the ghost seemed more solid, as if the soulmist had patched the flickering in her form. She shone brighter for a moment, then gasped and sighed like a desperately thirsty man given water.

"What do you say?"

"Thank you!"

"Ok, back to your duck." she ruffled the girl's hair and sent her off before turning back to Avela.

"It's completely saturated", she told the Konti with a nod. "If it wasn't, Emma could have passed straight through it. Does this mean it's ready? To harden?" She asked, completely out of her element as she watched the liquid that seemed, to her, completely unchanged. "And would it be possible to leave a little behind? There is at least one more substance I'd like to try for this experiment", she held up her scarred arm and raised a conspiratorial brow. "I said blood was important to Spiritism, right?"

x

[Madeira Dusk]

Grades Awarded!

Don't forget to edit/delete your grade request!

Madeira Craven

Skills

• Acting: 2xp
• Investigation: 1xp
• Hypnotism: 1xp
• Persuasion: 4xp
• Negotiation: 2xp
• Teaching: 3xp
• Leadership: 1xp
• Spiritism: 3xp
• Socialization: 2xp
• Candlemaking: 1xp

Lores

• Acting: faking enthusiasm
• Investigation: following a lead
• Location: Avela's cottage
• Persuasion: being the voice of reason
• The properties of Wraithmint
• Negotiation: bribing with money
• Avela: uncomfortable with magic
• Persuasion: creative use of belittlement
• Acting: pretending to be uninterested
• Persuasion: using body language

Awards & Retribution


Notes

Avela

Skills

• Observation: 5xp
• Organization: 1xp
• Cosmetology: 1xp
• Cleaning: 1xp
• Rhetoric: 2xp
• Logic: 3xp
• Planning: 1xp
• Meditation: 2xp
• Spiritism: 2xp
• Tactics: 1xp
• Socialization: 2xp
• Candlemaking: 2xp
• Leadership: 1xp
• Teaching: 1xp

Lores

• Madeira: unexpected visitor
• Lore of unfortunate clumsiness
• Cosmetology: making oneself presentable
• Cleaning: tidying up for a guest
• Properties of wraith mint
• lore of appearing professional
• Madeira: means no harm
• Lore of magic curiosity
• Lore of the properties of soulmist
• Lore of soulmist recipe
• Spiritism: making soulmist
• Lore of the parts of the soul
• Meditation: centering yourself
• Tactics: let it come to you
• Emma Chamelle: ghost

Awards & Retribution


Notes