Lords And Ladies (2.18)

“Eva, please tell her to wait a minute.  Or call back later.   Please.   I’m very busy, having a little drama with Anilin right now - please don’t tell her that.”

“...She heard it,” says Eva, wincing.

“...Okay, well.  I need to go take care of her first, okay?  So just...Hang tight.  Very busy today.”

“I could keep an eye on her?”  offers Eva, suddenly.

“Um, no, no, this is my fault,” says Kitty, creeping towards the stairs and back stepping up them as if expecting another person with a gun and a fedora to burst through the door.  She bolts to her door, twisting the handle.   Locked.  She knocks politely on the door.

“Annie?” she calls out softly.  There is no whimper, no little reassurance that Annie is okay, no demand to go away.  Just...nothing.

Kitty clenches her first in anger - not at Annie, gods know, but at herself.  She calls out again, quietly, listening for an answer.

"Kitty..." says a voice on the other side of the door, weakly.  Nothing else.  The voice sounds pitiful, small, and not at all the boisterous, enthusiastic, and - admittedly - slightly unhinged voice Kitty was used to.

"Annie...Can we talk?  I want to talk."

"You're just going to roll your eyes again at something stupid I said.  Why bother?"

"Annie...I won't.  I promise.  Please.  This is all my fault.  I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."  She rests her head against the door, shutting her eyes.  "I'm sorry I didn't believe you.  I'm sorry I kept rolling my eyes at you and treating you like a little child.  I'm sorry I just...smiled and nodded at your...charms and magic.  I'm sorry I tried to sell them.  I'm sorry, because I know I'm the pain.  I'm the brat.  I'm the fool, Annie.  It's me."

Her voice cracks, her palms sweat.  She had thought nothing of it at the time, but now every single veiled insult, every eye roll, every...mere toleration of her girlfriend comes flooding back into her mind, clear and vivid and painful.  Every denial that they had something.  Every refusal of help, putting her and her little sister in worse straits.

The door clicks.  Kitty pulls back as the door opens.  Annie's there, her head down.

"I'm sorry," says Kitty.  "I'm so sorry."

"Kitten...The one person who I know loves me, the one lady I trust, the one girl I've let...touch me...Thinks I'm a fool.  Tolerates me.  Finds my voice irritating.  The one person who I can trust to be honest.  The one.  Single.  F-friend who isn't sucking up to me just because I'm a princess.  There's no one else, Kitty, not right now.  It feels...it feels...poopie"

"Poo-" begins Kitty, and she bites her tongue.  "Annie...I don't have any excuse.  I don't...know anything.  I'm the fool.  I've spent my whole life shut up in this place with nothing but a sister who constantly wanders off and Old World books to keep me company-"

"You have me," says Annie.  "I just don't count."

Kitty's heart doesn't just ache.  It...breaks.

"I've always been here, Kitty.  Every.  Single.  Day.  I'd gladly live here full time if you wanted me to.  But you never did.  You never introduced me as your girlfriend, not until lately.  Kitty, do you realize for how long I wasn't sure if we were a thing or just...experimented?  And how long I've had to watch you and your sister, here, alone, just...refusing my help.  Falling apart.   And if you didn't believe me, you could have just...asked."

"I...never thought to..."

They both stand there, in silence and pain.    Annie sniffles and rubs her eyes.  Kitten returns it in kind.  She rubs her arm.  Stares at the wall.  Breathes in deep, and lets it go.

"Teach me," says Kitty, suddenly.

Annie snaps up.  "Huh...?"

"Teach me how to...to..." Kitty made a series of indecipherable hand gestures.  "To do the magical...thing.  Teach me to be the witchiest...witch."  She gently takes one of Annie's hands.  "Make me your magical girlfriend, like one of those manga."

"I thought you didn't like manga?"

"I don't!  People keep asking me about them!  But I love you Annie, and...I want to be a part of your world."

Annie looks deep into her eyes, biting her lip.  She shuts them, turning away, her face red now.
"What's the matter, Annie?  What's wrong?"

"N-nothing!"  she replies quickly.  "Only..."

"What is it?  I'll do anything..."

"I...can't teach you."

Another ominous silence presents itself.

"...What do you mean, you can't teach me?"

"I can't."

"Why not?"

Annie bites her lip again.  "I'm not actually that good."

"What?  I'm sure you're fantastic...Amazing, even.  You're probably the best witch in town."

"Heheheheheh....heheheh...heh...heh..." Annie fiddles with her dress a little.  "Um.  No.  I am the most enthusiastic witch in town.  Well, that's probably not true either, you've seen Mindy.  I bet that girl throws a mean curve ball.  Made of fire.  A fireball, if you will."

"What about all those charms?"

"Oh, well, I made those with the power of love," says Annie.

A big, enthusiastic, awed smile crosses Kitty's face.  "The most powerful magic of them all, right?"

"Yes!"  says Annie.  "And, um...No.  Not really.  I mean.  I don't think so.'

Kitty's face went into a free fall, crash landing somewhere between hope and disbelief.

"What?"

"Oh, I mean, love and positive thinking and hope and stuff is powerful!  Just...Um...It would be more powerful.  If I...Was better at being a witch.'  Annie coughs slightly.  "But the gesture means a lot to me Kitty!  I mean, it'll take me some time to get over it, but um...Yeah."

"So...What can you do, Annie?  I'd love to see it..."

"Well...Okay, it wouldn't be fair of me to go through all that and not show you!  That'd be awful.  Just, um...Don't laugh, please?"

"I won't."

Annie smiles, with a little cringe.  She pulls a metal wand out of her bra.  It's ornate, and gorgeous; decorated with silver and saphire.  Distinctive designs resembling a sea serpent snake around the base of the wand, the head of one devouring a sapphire at the tip

Annie takes a few slow, deep breaths before holding out the wand.   Her eyes seem to glaze over in concentration, as if staring off in the distance...

And then a stream of water douses Kitty's face temporarily, knocking off her cat ears.

"Oh," says Kitty, as water drips from her head.

"Yes, heh," says Annie, embarrassed.  "You see, most wizards or witches or whatever the individual prefers have, um..."  Annie clears her throat again.  "Found their familiar by now.  Or been found by their familiar.  It's kind of silly, really, but you know what they say about witches without familiars."

"What do they say?"

Annie  taps her chin.  "...Never mind, it would just make you angry."  Annie snaps her fingers.  "You know what though?   We know some magical ladies.  Right here in this building!"

"You think they could teach us?"

Annie looks thoughtful.  Then she grins wickedly.

"More than that."  She grabs Kitty's arm, pulling her along.  "C'mon!  Come with me!" She shouts, all eager and smiles again.

***

As they come down the stairs, Eva pokes her head in again.

"Duchess," she says quickly.  "The bartender wants you to call back around six-"

"Evangelina!" says Annie happily.

"...Evangeline!  But close, princess," she says, and bows.

"Good enough!  I was drunk when I met."  She grabs Eva's arm.  "...Hot biceps.  Hot hot.  Hey, you know what would be fun?  Coming with me and Kitty.  We're going to do a magic thing!"

"A magic...thing?" asks Eva.   "Magical...lesbian things?"

"Why, yes, sexuality is magical!" says Annie, dragging both girls along now.  "But this is more of 'magical secret things' than 'magical sleepover with Kitty when we were-'"

"Hey!" says Kitty.

"Perhaps..." says Eva, coyly.  "Magical conspiratorial things?"

"Something like that!"

"I like those."

"I thought so!  See, I wasn't that drunk..."


***


"Hello, Bante!" shouts Annie, storming back into the sarcophagus.

"Dante," says Dante, not looking up as he, Roxanne, and Oreo focus on the sarcophagus.

"Right!  Where are your witches?"

Dante's head looks up slowly regarding her with a stare that was piercieven under the unnecessary sunglasses.  "My what?"

"You know!  Mindy, and...The other two.  The ones that are not Mindy."

"...I believe they're hanging out in 312," he says, looking back down.

"Thanks!" shouts Annie gleefully, already dragging them down the hallway.

As the door slams in the distance, Roxanne smirks.

"What's so funny?"

"You didn't ask her what was on the sarcophagus."

"...Damn."



***



Annie slams the door shut behind her after Eva and Kitty are dragged in.  She turns around to the other trio.  Mindy and the...other two Annie doesn't know...are sitting on a bed, chatting away about...who cares!  It's not nearly as interesting as what she's got to say, she knows that.

"Mindy!  Other two!"  says Annie enthusiastically.

"Tara," says Tara.

"Despina, but you can call me Destiny, your majesty."

"Right!  So."  Annie claps her hands together.  "I was thinking.  Kitty's magic, I'm magic, you're all magic...Let's form a coven!"

"...Like a witch co-" begins Kitty, before palming her face  "Right, yes, stupid question, sorry."

"Oooooh.  Sounds shadowy and mysterious," says Eva.  "And sexy."

"You know!   You teach us, we teach you, circle of friendship.  Maybe some pagan worshipping.  Learning new things about magic.  Becoming a mysterious and powerful shadow government once I'm in power.  You know!  A coven."

Everyone in the room seemed to ponder this.

"...That does sound like fun..." says Mindy.  "...And my sister's already on board..."

"Cov-en!  Cov-en!  Cov-en!  Cov-en!" cheers  Eva.

"I though cheerleading was my thing, Eva."

"Cov-en!"

"Could be interestin'," says Despina.  "Certainly wouldn't be boring..."

"I don't know you," says Tara.  "And I'm pretty sure neither of you know Despina.  This is a really, really poorly thought out idea.  No disrespect, princess."

"So we're agreed then?' says Annie.

"Yes!' says Eva.

"Um," says Kitty.

"I'm going to enjoy this, at least," says Mindy.

"I don't have anything better to do on weekends," says Despina.

"This is a terrible idea," says Tara, "and I don't want to go along with it."

"But you are anyway, right?" says Mindy.

"Yes."

"Yesssss!"  shouts Annie, punching the air and running a lap around the room.  "We've got so much to plan, now!  Schedules, secret handshakes, meeting places, rituals, lesson plans, uniforms...Hats!  I'm going to knit so many hats."

"Don't we need a name first?" asks Mindy.

"YES!  A name, name, we need a name...Something magic-y and order-y and coven-y and yesssss!' Annie skids to a stop.  "...Does anyone have a name?"

Lords and Ladies (2.17)

Kitty stares back into Annie’s deep eyes for a moment.

“Nope.”

“Yep!”

Kitty gently pushes Annie away.  “Nope.  We’re not doing this.  I’m not magic.”

Annie’s lips pull an abrupt U turn.  “But Kitty!  You read the thingy we can’t read!”

“Annie...No.”  Kitty sighs, her voice shaking a little.  “Look, Annie, the cutesy fantasy thing?  The ‘oh my god, it turns out I have magic!’ sudden twist?  That’s all you, not me.  That’s your dream.  That’s...not mine.”  Kitty shrugs, helplessly, as Annie’s face wrinkles in pain.  “I’m sorry, okay?  At best I’m the girl you have to rescue.  And I’m not even a princess, not really, so you got cheated.  Okay?  So....”  Kitty turned, looking down at the letters.  She shuts her, squeezes them tight.  All t-that?  I’m just going to go on assuming I’m being pranked.  That we can all have a good laugh, and I can go back to my quiet life.  That a man really didn’t die this morning on my front desk, because of this...this...big, dumb box that’s been in my family for years.  I...I don’t want...” She bites her lip, leaning on the edge of the box, as if she were addressing the stone cat lady.  “I don’t want to be a story.  I don’t want to be some...fantasy.”

Kitty turns and looks around the room.   At Mindy, then Tara, then Despina (who waves)...Dante doesn’t bother to look at her, just watching the sarcophagus himself.  She doesn’t look at Annie.

“How many of you are wizards?” asks Kitty, quietly.  Everyone raises their hand, except Dante, who just pushes his shades further up his nose and coughs.

“My sister is too,” adds Mindy.

“Right,” says Kitty.  “Yes.”

“You know, downstairs.”

“I know.”  KItty sighs again, staring at her feet.  “Look...that’s fine.  But I dont want to join the wizard club.  I don’t want to be magic.  I don’t want to get wrapped up in some magical mystery haunting my family for generations, or whatever!”  Her eyes water; her throat clenches.  “I don’t want to take the ring to Mordor.  I don’t want to be accepted into Hogwarts.  I don’t care what bloody season is coming, they’re all coming all the time.  I know the odds are more certainly not in mine or anyone’s favor.  I most certainly will panic if I want to!  I am not going in the wardrobe, I am not taking the witch’s shoes because I’m not a bloody graverobbing maniac, and I most certainly am not going on a quest to kill God!”

“Which one?” asks Tara.

“Who cares?!”

“I don’t know, you could probably take Dionysus.”

“Probably not Loki, though,” adds Mindy.

“Probably not,” nods Despina, in agreement.

“Gah!”  Kitty throws up her hands, slaps them back down at her side, and walks to the door, right past Annie.

When she reaches the door, someone whimpers.  Kitty’s heart aches in recognition.  She hangs onto the door frame and turns to Annie.

Her princess’ lip is quivering, her hands held to her cheeks.   She lets out a pathetic, small whine.  Pained emotions swell within her face, leaking out on the surface...

“Annie,” says Kitty, her own voice nearly breaking but remaining stern.  “I’m sorry, but that’s not-”

“Do you love me?”

Kitty jumps back at the implication.  She feels as if a shot has just been fired, but for what?  “Annie, you know I do...”

“Then why weren’t you honest with me?”

“What do you mean?  I always try to be honest with...”

Annies head snaps upwards, her face in the tightest scowl Kitty’s ever seen.  “Then why didn’t you tell me you thought my magic charms were...were...were...bullshit!”

Kitty clutches a hand to her chest, her mouth agape, wounded. “Annie...I didn’t mean-”

“You said, in front of everyone at the dinner party, that magic wasn’t real.  Wasn’t.  Real.  Why?  Did you think that just because I was drunk I wouldn’t remember?”

Kitty’s eyes close and she shakes.

“But you know what?  It’s okay!  I let it slide.  I know everyone thinks I’m a spoiled brat of an idiot, even you Kitty.  Even you! Especially you, because you have to put up with me all the time!  But now...Now...now...It turns out you might be magical too, and you just...Decide to...Ignore it and go right back to pretending it’s not real!  I thought we’d be done with that after Lord White explained things to you, but no, you’re just going to shut yourself off and start humoring me again.”  She’s in Kitty’s face now.  “It’s part of my life, Kitty!  It’s part of me!  You don’t have to have anything to do with it, but at least acknowledge that it exists!  Let me be excited for something, just once.  I don’t want to just be your little joke.”  She grabs Kitty by the shoulders.  “You out of everyone should know that!  I read just as much as you do!  I wouldn’t prattle at you about magic charms just out of craziness, and if you thought I was, you should have told me!  You could have been honest, even if you thought I was dumb.   I could have showed you what I can do!”

She pulls Kitty forward, wrapping her in a tight, constricting hug.  There’s anger in it, mixed with sadness, disappointment, and anguished love.  As well as a grip like a vice.

“You’re all I really have, Kitty...okay?  And even you treated me like a fool.  I guess that’s all I am.”

“Annie...I...”

Anilin pushes her away, sobs violently into her fingers, and takes off out of the room.

Annie, wait!”  cries Kitty, taking off after her.

The room falls into a dead silence. Dante stares down at his feet.  Tara stares at the door.   Despina stares at the ceiling.  Mindy stares at Dante.

After a while Dante sighs quietly.

“She could at least have told us what it says,” he murmurs.  Tara pats his back.

***

Annie tears off up the stairs to Kitty’s room, running faster than Kitty can follow.  By the time she makes it into the living room, she hears the door slam shut.

“Annie!”  she calls out, but there’s no response, and no surprise.  Kitty curses herself under her breath.  Dammit, Annie had a point...

“What’s wrong?” says a voice suddenly.  Kitty turns her head, seeing...One of Dante’s girlfriends, she thinks?  She’d only just met them minutes ago...the one with the shorts...Shoot...Right. Oreo.  It was Oreo.  Whatever that name meant.

“It’s personal,” says Kitty quickly, pausing to catch her breath against the wall.

“She seemed very upset.  What did you do?”

Kitty raises an eyebrow at the stranger.  “Why would you assume...” she begins, but catches herself.  “...Something bad.”

“I figured, by the way she was crying.”

The door leading to the stairs heading down opens abruptly.  Eva sticks her head in.  “Duchess,” she begins cheerfully, “There’s a phone call for you.  The woman on the other end says it’s important.”

“Who...” coughs Kitty, between panicked and stressed breaths.  “...is it?”

“She says her name is Meb.”

“Oh,” says Kitty, calling to mind the bartender.  “Right,” she adds, remembering the time she spent in the bar.  “...Oh god,” she whimpers, remembering that she ‘seduced’ her, if it could reasonably be called that, and ran out of the bar with her invitation.

“What shall I tell her, my Lady?” says Eva, with some concern.

What will Kitty do?  And what will she say?

Lords And Ladies (2.16)

Dante leans against a table, hand covering his eyes, shades propped up on his forehead.  He sighs.

“Everyone, stop poking the sarcophagus,” he says, as most of his employees’ hands grope the ancient stone.  “You don’t know where it’s been.”  Most of them remove their fingers from it, taking a step back as he looks it over again.

It’s definitely covered in the image of a woman, replaced with the head of some sort of feline.  Maybe an image of one of the Egyptian goddesses?  Either that or someone had robbed the tomb of an ancient fursuit enthusiast.  Upon closer inspection, the cat-woman appears to be covered in some sort of plated armor.  Her arms are folded across her bosom, and are cupped as if holding something.

Whatever it was, they were long gone.  As was the paint, only the smallest green or blue or black speck here and there.  Otherwise, the cat-woman is in remarkably good shape, assuming it’s really that old.  There was always the possibility of counterfeits.

“Tara, Mindy, grimoires are...usually books, right?”

“Duh,” says Mindy.  “They’re always books.”

“They’re textbooks on magic, for the magical.  Sometimes they’re magic themselves, but...” Tara shrugs.  “A magical sarcophagus wouldn’t be a grimoire.  Unless it had instructions on it.”

Dante glances over at Tara, then drops down to the side of the sarcophagus.  Columns of shapes and lines wrap all the way around it.  “...Maybe the instructions are in the hieroglyphs...?” he ventures.  “Though I doubt any of us can read them.”

“Sometimes grimoires can only be read by certain people,” says Tara.  “I think, anyway.”

“That’s true.  Bloodlines, certain affinities...” adds Mindy.

“...Well, I certainly can’t, and it doesn’t sound like either of you can.  So we’ll have to try the next best thing:  Visiting our local library.  And learning.”   Dante stands up, clapping his hands together enthusiastically.  “Roxanne, bring the delivery truck around.  Someone get a couple of the androids to lift it in.  I’ve got to make a few phone calls.”

***

Despina

“I see the man...he’s getting into the truck, now, with his lovers and two employees.  They are really crammed in there, with the robots and sarcophagus in back.  Hmm, and now they are driving down the street...”

The air seems to rumble as an enormous, noisy gas powered vehicle roars moves down the street near the caravan.  Destiny focuses on her crystal ball.

“Now they have parked.  The man is exiting the vehicle.  He is running towards...a...err...Roma caravan...He’s walking up the steps...he is entering the front...He is throwing aside the curtains.”

“Despina!” says Dante  “Hey!”

“He appears to be shouting at a small Roma mystic.”

“...Despina, what are you doing?”

“He is asking her what she’s doing.”

“The small Roma mystic continues to talk about herself in third person for some reason.”

“The man complains about the Roma mystic, despite the fact that the Roma mystic is clearly with a client right now and is quite busy.”

“The man sees no client.”

“The Roma mystic calmly points out the gentleman sitting in front of her.”

“...The man sees no client.”

Destiny looks up.

The strange man for whom she was reading the fortune is gone, leaving only a chair.

Destiny’s mouth drops, crashing right through her character.

“Fuckin’ bastard,” says Despina, instead.  “The little runt must’ve run out on me!   Good thing I forced ‘em to hand over some cash ahead of time, Christ.”

“...Sorry,” says Dante.  He rubs his hands together.  “While you’re not busy, I need another expert to help me with a possible magic thingy.”

“Thingy.”

“Yes, thingy.  There will be pizza.”

Despina stares at him, cocking her head to the side.  “...Maybe.”

“I’ll pay you.”

“Oh, fine, fine.”  Despina stands up.  “Beats sittin’ around and listenin’ to people call me a gypsy all day.  I’ll grab my things.”

***

Kitten Tiger

At this point, Kitten was no longer particularly surprised when Dante entered the Library with several women and two robots carrying a sarcophagus.  And several pizzas.

An empty room on the third floor near the living room was of course commandeered by Dante and his friends, the bots depositing the sarcophagus in the center.  Kitty and Annie watch, with interest.

“...So...where’s the grimoire?” asks Kitty.

“That,” says Dante.  “Is the grimoire.”

“...That’s a sarcophagus.”

“The note said it was a grimoire.”

“Note?  What note?”

“The note that came with it.”

“Who from?”

“I don’t know.  Someone named Levesque.”

Kitty’s heart pounds.  Levesque.  Lord Ilucis had said that name, hadn’t he...

“Anyone you know?” asks Dante

“Nope,” says Kitty, quickly.  She takes a look at the sarcophagus herself.  She whistles.  “This is certainly a beauty.  Too bad it’s probably a fake.”

“Huh?”

“Some idiot put the writing in English.”

Dante looks up at her.  “...What?”

“The writing on the side.  It’s in English, I think.”

Dante glances at the sides again.  He looks at Mindy and Tara (standing right next to him), then at Despina (presently sipping tea across the room).  “...It’s in hieroglyphs?”

Kitty raises an eyebrow.  “...No.  It’s in English.  Can’t you read?”

“...That’s not English,” says Tara.  “That’s definitely not English.  That,” she says, pointing at a specific spot.  “Looks like a bird or something.”

“That just says bird, ma’am.  Are you both feeling alright?”  Kitty asks, carefully.  Clearly surrounded by the ill or insane.

“That’s definitely not English,” says Mindy.

“I think I know what English looks like!”

“Apparently not.”

Annie shuffles over.  She regards the writing on the side, then looks at Kitty.  She strokes her chin in thought, carefully putting things together...

She snaps her fingers and grins.

“Oh my god.  I’ve always wanted to say this,” she starts.  “I love this part.”  She grabs Kitty by the shoulders, spinning her around to face her.  “It’s like a dream come true.”  She clears her throat, shakes a bit of hair off of her face, and kisses Kitty’s cheek, before taking a deep, slow breath and belting:.

“You’re a wizard, Kitty!”