Alteration

The two young witchlings stood alone in a secluded chamber of the manor’s basement, diligently drawing chalk lines and referencing the open books strewn about in the air around them. From time to time they would reach for a new color, or drip a wax seal on the focal points of the enchantment. The floor was covered in their work, as were the walls, reinforcing sigils glowing in the soft hum of the manor’s natural leylines. It wouldn’t be long, now.

The red haired of them looked to her compatriot, beginning to close the drifting books as she did. “Are your parts done?”

“Yeah, they should be.” The black haired witchling “Checked them three times now.”

“The moon’s almost at its peak, I don’t want to wait another month.”

“It’ll be fine. Let’s check them again, okay?”

The two went back to their work of checking their work once more, the light of the moon beginning to mix with the candlelight as they removed the magical barriers. Soft leylight began to emanate, tracing the chalk in a gradual flow. After an unbearable minute of waiting, the light made contact with its other half, the entirety of the design lit fully. The hardest part was done, now.

“Is… is this it?” The red haired witchling’s voice took on a tone of giddiness. “Are… are we going do this?”

“We’ll have to clean up quickly afterwards, if we don’t want her to find out.”

“Well, she’s going find out after when we go to class, isn’t she?”

“We’ll just tell her it’s a glamour, until we figure out how to tell her for real.”

“I guess I didn’t think we’d actually get this far…”

“Hey, it’ll be okay, yeah? You’ve wanted this for as long as you can remember, haven’t you? Now, we can do it, together.”

“Y-yeah…” The witchling nodded. “Let’s do it.”

The two took their marked spots, holding each others hands, beginning to whisper the spell that would bring the enchantment to life properly. Magicks sparked in the gaps between their fingers, jumping back and forth between them as the spell took form. Radiant moonlight began to thicken in the air, silver streams of mana materializing in the air and pooling itself onto the chalked outlines. Even the leylines of the room began to enter the material world as the spell grew ever louder, lending the force of the invisible rivers of the world to their goal.

The two witchlings smiled at each other as they entered their final verse, eyes alight with the magicks behind them, alive and pushing against the restraint of their bodies. A final breath, and they escaped, filling the air with the smell of ozone and the lights of a newly-formed galaxy. Together, they collapsed to the floor, the candlelight and magical glow alike snuffing out, leaving only the moonlight behind.

Maybe a half hour later, the Matriarch opened the door, another witch following closely behind her, the two of them looking around the room with shock and confusion.

“What in Eve’s name did they do…” She murmured to herself, looking at the two unconscious bodies in the center of the now-burnt out enchantment. It took her only a moment of reading to realize what had happened. “Oh. Hmm.”

“Mother?” The other witch looked at her, then to the enchantments. “These look… centuries out of date, at least. I can barely read it.”

“It’s an admirable enough translation, but you really had to be there to fully comprehend it.” She knelt down by the two, whispering a portal to life and drifting them slowly into their awaiting beds deeper within the manor. “They’re going have an awful headache later.”

“Are you going to reprimand them?”

“For this… no.” She pursed her lips, looking more closely at the enchantments. “They’re certainly going have plenty of explaining to do with their classmates, though.”


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