Blood Curse Academia - Interlude IV - Mae (Patreon)

Interlude IV - Mae

Stina’s lecture finally concluded. While more entertaining than the horrible lessons taught in the schoolhouse, Mae still slumped in relief as the witch exited their makeshift classroom in Taroe’s house. Stina was insistent on teaching her apprentice the foundations of stars and history of their coven before any interesting witch magic. Mae wasn’t against the idea completely, she’d always enjoyed the few moments when she’d been able to pierce the World Dungeon’s barrier and see the stars for herself as a child. But always staring at the stars got drab fast. And, instead of cool stories about the coven, those lectures were just rules and different important witches.

The worst part was that neither Anata nor Kon could join her. Stina said these lessons were meant to be super secret and not shared to anyone else.

A banging in the nearby closet brought a smile to her lips. The closet door creaked open, revealing a familiar unkempt head of hair.

“She’s gone?” Rui asked, eyes darting side to side and his usual mischievous grin on his face.

“Gone!” Mae confirmed, darting over to Rui. She grabbed his hand in her own and leaned into him.

Rui, the human boy, was easily the greatest thing to ever come from this entire island. He alone made school days bearable.

His existence almost even let her forget about her mother.

Him hiding out in the closet had been his own idea. Originally, he’d done it thinking he might learn some crazy witch magic. When he found out that Mae had been honest about her lack of hex studies, he’d told her he wanted to keep coming because it meant they could hang out instantly afterwards. No delays.

He pulled on her hand, eagerly guiding her away from this place.

They burst out of Taroe’s home and Mae giggled as Rui pulled her through the streets at a dash. Then they stopped to catch their breath at a crossroads. From here, they had a decision to make.

Anata and Kon would be down at Comet’s stable, getting ready for her lesson with the hippogriff. They could go to them, or….

“We should go to my hideout,” Rui insisted. “I don’t want to watch Anata brush Comet for the millionth time.

“What are we going to do there though?” Mae’s tail swished back and forth, the tip dusting the street. She was reluctant to agree to the hideout. She didn’t like going there. Not when there was that… thing buried in the basement. She’d only heard about Gomi, but just the story of him gave her shivers. She liked cuddly animals. Not gross hairless underground people.

“My pa taught me a new game we can play, just the two of us.” He rummaged in his pocket for a few seconds, his tongue slightly out to the side as he concentrated. Then he yanked his hand free. “Ta-daah!”

Opening his fist, he revealed four marbles. Red, blue, green, and yellow.

“What do they do?” Mae asked, poking one.

“When you smack them together, they make elemental bursts! So, what we do is sit across from each other and shoot them. We try to hit each other’s marbles.”

“Can’t we do that at the stable?

“But then we’ll have to share,” Rui complained. “Come on, let’s just go to the hideout.”

Mae frowned. A part of her wanted to just fold and go along with Rui. He’d waited in that closet for over an hour during her lesson and he must be super bored. And yet, despite the warm sun overhead, she shuddered at the thought of Gomi lurking beneath the floorboards. She struggled to believe something like that could possibly be related to Anata.

“Anata will be busy with Comet and Kon doesn’t have thumbs,” Mae pointed out. “We don’t need to share at all.”

“I guess….”

He looked so dejected as his shoulders slumped. Panicking, Mae scrambled for something to make him happy.

“Do you remember what I told you about that secret witch technique my coven taught me? We should use it for real! No more just talking about it!”

Rui perked up. “You mean….” He glanced over his shoulder, but nobody was nearby. Plus, Mae understood humans well enough to know that even if they were, no adults cared what a couple of kids were yapping about on the side of the street. “You mean the familiar bond? You said before that it was dangerous.”

“I think I understand it better now,” Mae lied. “I’ve been studying under my mentor for ages. I can do a little witch magic.”

“Really?” A familiar grin split across Rui’s face. His eyes twinkled at the prospect of witnessing rare magic and the look warmed Mae’s heart. At the same time, it plummeted into her stomach as nerves took hold. She knew in that moment that there was no backing down. It was time to finally commit to casting the spell ritual.

As they walked through the streets, Rui loudly whispered to her, questioning her about the process and pressing her about the necessary steps.

“Do we need any equipment? Should I get any supplies first? What sort of familiar will you choose? I’ve always wanted a dog. My parents refuse to let me get one. But I suppose a cat could be good too. There are a lot of strays in town down by the docks. Maybe we can catch one? Oh! What about a bird? There are so many colorful birds everywhere in the forest! You think we can lure one with seeds? They sell them in sacks at most of the general stores.”

At the mention of a dog, an idea occurred to Mae. There was that capybara Ione had abducted from the Hon Basin and named Dog. It mostly loafed about in the water on the other side of the waterfall that hid Owl’s Respite’s underground cove. He was kind of cute though. She decided that he would be her new familiar.

“We just need blood and the ritual circle and…” Mae’s sentence trailed off as she blanked on what else they needed.

“Special chant?” Rui suggested.

“Yes!” Mae smiled, relieved as the forgotten piece snapped into place. “A chant. The coven taught it to me. But the most important part is blood.”

“I’ve seen Anata using a fancy knife. We should use that!”

Mae’s eyes lit up. She knew exactly what knife Rui referenced and it would be perfect for the ritual.

As they walked through town, Mae silently nodded along to Rui’s rambling, distracted as she reviewed everything the witches had said about the ritual. Most witches in the coven had a familiar of some kind. Her mentor was a minority who’d opted to not tie her soul to a creature. Mae didn’t fully understand why, but she’d been told it was for a personal reason and to be careful when choosing an animal to bond with.

The witch who’d told her about the ritual’s specifics had been a Kemon woman with a deer familiar. The familiar bond had enhanced her already deer-like features granted by her species. It had made the witch more deer than human, like an Awakened beast with a slightly humanoid base structure. Though, the witch had said that not all bonds were as powerful as her own. There were ways in which to regulate the severity of the bond.

“Anata! Kon! Come quick!” Rui shouted. Mae’s train of thought was shattered as they reached Comet’s stable.

Her brother emerged first, bounding up to Mae and entirely ignoring Rui’s existence. She’d noticed Kon snubbing their friend more frequently recently. Since Rui seemed oblivious and treated her brother the same as always, it was probably some one-sided insult that Kon had taken from him. She didn’t like that. But the thought of mediating a peace talk between them sent butterflies through her stomach and she liked that even less. What if one of them got angry and left her?

Anata poked her head out of the stable, her uncovered human eye meeting Mae’s. She frowned slightly, as if sensing something was weird.

Her friend was scarily perceptive. Anata spoke infrequently, but she was always absorbing information. Even in her sleep, Anata astral projected herself to wander the streets, invisible to the naked eye.

“Today’s the day!” Rui said, hopping from foot to foot. “We’re going to get ourselves familiars!”

Cocking her head, Anata silently questioned Mae, asking her for verification.

“It’s true,” Mae confirmed with an uneasy smile. “I… I know enough about the ritual now. We just need blood. Well, and an animal to connect with too. You have your knife?”

Anata drew the blade from her belt and handed it over before rushing back to the stables. Mae had noticed she’d taken to wearing it on her person the last week or so. When she first started bringing it with her everywhere, Dean had thrown a fit about it in class which caused Ms. Reads to speak to Taroe behind closed doors. After her conversation with the scary man, their teacher had shut down any complaints about the knife.

“What do we need to do?” Rui asked. “Oh! I know, we need the animal first, don’t we? Um. I don’t have anything.”

Silently, Anata exited the stables. Comet followed after her, shaking her head back and forth. Jet black feathers fell from her head. The magical creature was molting into her adult coat. While they’d all met the hippogriff before, she wasn’t yet used to this large of crowds and glanced about nervously.

Anata pointed at herself, then at Comet. The message couldn’t be clearer and Mae wanted to both hug her friend and shake her. Anata was volunteering to go first to form a bond with the hippogriff. That unwavering confidence in Mae’s capabilities both encouraged and frightened her.

“You need to first use your blood to paint the binding ritual circle,” Mae explained, doing her best to keep her voice steady.

Anata nodded her head and continued to stare at Mae for several seconds. Only after the silence stretched did the Kitsune girl realize what her friend was waiting for. Anata didn’t know the circle’s structure. The witch who’d taught it to Mae had seared the pattern into her memory with a hex, but that didn’t help Anata. She almost offered to draw it in her place, but hesitated, not knowing if her touching the blood might mess up the soul binding.

Rather than continue to wait for Mae’s floundering to end, Anata reached down and picked up a small pebble. She pressed it into the Kitsune girl’s hand and then pointed at a flat stone nearby.

Relief flooded Mae as she understood. “Right! I’ll scratch the ritual circle into the rock with this. Just wait one minute.”

Once scratched into the stone, Anata stepped forward, knife in hand. Without hesitation, she clenched the blade in a fist and sliced through her palm. The girl didn’t even flinch. It was like Anata had done this a thousand times before. Mae wondered if pain tolerance was part of her friend’s Blood Lord heritage.

“The most important thing is keeping track of how much blood you place down,” Mae said, repeating the words of the deer witch. “The thicker the lines, the firmer the bond. A weak soul bond can be broken. One that’s too strong can threaten to overwhelm your personality.”

Anata gave a single curt nod. Then she got to work, tracing Mae’s marks in the stone with her own blood.

“Next, you’ll need to layer on the beast you’re bonding with,” Mae explained.

Anata carefully rinsed off her blade in a bucket of water, then wiped it clean on the tall grass that surrounded the stable. After triple checking the cleanliness of her knife, she stepped up to Comet.

To everyone’s surprise, Comet offered her taloned front foot willingly. She bowed her head as Anata gently cut through the scaly foot. Staining her pointer finger in the blood, her friend then retraced the ritual circle once again.

“You don’t need to cover the entire circle again,” Mae said. “Just a link to connect your souls. It has to be freely given and it’s best if you care about one another.”

Anata stopped and looked up at her, indicating that she was waiting for the next instruction.

“Finally. You need to repeat the following phrase.” Technically, this part could be done out of order. The witches had said that words like these contained power that lingered for hours. But it was most pertinent to use them at the very end with clear intention.

Anata repeated the words Mae spoke. The Kitsune girl shuddered as the Primordial language left her lips. But, when Anata spoke the words, the entire world seemed to stop and listen. The Blood Lord Harbinger’s presence pressed down on the little clearing. As the final syllable left Anata’s lips, a stillness fell over them.

Then both Anata and Comet collapsed to the grass simultaneously.

Mae cried out and ran to her friend. Terror rippled through her as she contemplated the million different things that might have gone wrong in a soul ritual. Maybe Anata’s soul had just exploded! Or what if she swapped bodies with Comet? Or… could she be forever trapped in a coma? Or, or, or….

Anata sat back up and touched her face. At first a befuddled expression seized control of her face, but then it slowly transformed into one of joy.

“Linked!” Anata confirmed. “Comet is linked!”

Mae collapsed to her knees. A tear trickled down her cheek and she wiped it away before anyone could notice. Thankfully, both Kon and Rui were too distracted by Anata and Comet to pay Mae any mind. She heaved a breath and spoke a silent thanks.

The ritual had been a success. Anata was now bonded to Comet.

The clearing around the stable erupted in excited chatter as Mae and Rui attacked Anata with an onslaught of questions about what the bond felt like. Anata, par for the course, remained pretty closed-mouthed. Mae knew that was largely for her own good, as a careless word from Anata could accidentally glamour nonhumans. Really, the questions she asked served as an outlet for her own anxieties rather than actually a means of seeking out answers. The words just sort of continued to bubble out of her.

While the two humanoids expressed their nerves vocally, Kon went and sniffed both the hippogriff and the Blood Lord Harbinger. Whatever he smelled from them, it must not have totally satisfied his concerns as he then walked over to the bloody ritual circle and stared at it.

Rather than continue nervously tittering, Mae decided to get started with her own circle. Using the knife Anata offered her, she slit her palm open. The stinging pain that followed knocked her to her knees, her vision blurring with tears as she struggled not to wail. Anata had made it look so painless. Beating down the betrayal she felt, Mae slowly blinked away the tears and found her friends in a circle around her.

“I—I’m fine,” she said, her warbling voice clearly exposing the lie. “Let’s just get started.”

She stumbled over to a new flat stone and carefully painted the ritual circle on it with her blood. As she worked, she did her best not to meet the concerned eyes of her friends. Her face burned nearly as much as her hand stung. Still, she tried to put on a brave face as she plastered on a smile.

“What about your animal?” Rui asked as she stepped away from her blood work.

“Oh. Right.” Mae’s attention flitted from her friends to the circle. “I… I’ll be right back. Dog shouldn’t be too far away.”

She dashed off into the forest in the direction of the waterfall. When she found the lounging capybara, she faced a new obstacle. Getting him to move out of his patch of sun.

“Come… on!” she said as she pushed against his furry butt. He looked over at her and flicked his ears, clearly unimpressed by her pitiful strength.

From a distance, Dog seemed like a great pick for a familiar. He was cute and great at swimming. But now, as Mae sat in the grass at the bank of the cove, she realized that maybe she hadn’t spent enough time actually interacting with the capybara. He was a lot like Ione. Stubborn and lazy. Only willing to do anything on his own terms.

“Maybe you’re not the best choice,” she said out loud, dejected. “I… I just thought maybe we could be friends. Like, if you’re bonded with my soul, that means you won’t be able to leave me. We can always help each other.”

The capybara snorted.

“Well, fine!” Mae shot to her feet and sniffed. “If you don’t want to be forever friends, I’ll find someone else. Enjoy your lonely life alone!”

She stormed off back in the direction of the stables. Her mood twisted to frustration.

As she walked, she sought out the different animals. There were thousands of other animals in the forest. She would find one of them. A garden snake caught her eye, but snakes were gross. Bonding to one of them would be horrible. Maybe Rui had the right idea when he suggested birds. A lot of witches used bird familiars. Though they liked drab ravens and bats. Instead, she could maybe bond something like a pretty peacock.

“I don’t know, I think the line here is off. Mae’s is different. You think if I cross it out it’ll be fine?”

Mae heard Rui’s voice as she approached.

When she stomped back through the foliage into the stable’s clearing, Rui, who’d been leaning over her ritual circle, his own version half completed on a stone beside it, stumbled in surprise. He reached a hand out to catch himself.

A bloody hand.

In the split second gravity required to drop him, Mae reflected that she’d already spoken the Primordial words when explaining the process to Anata.

Then the hand landed directly on her completed ritual circle.

In a blaze of internal pain, Mae collapsed.