The Story so far: Lillith once again watched her long time neighbour Sonya literally chase off a corporate shill by running naked down their street after him shouting about her "devil vagina magic." (Do you believe in our lord and saviour Bigger Banking? If you let me, I can arrange a special prayer plan...) Realising that this wasn't a long term solution to the problem of shills attempting doorstop conversions, they start talking about what magic they have, or don't have...
(Image alt text: A black and white half tone image of a naked woman with a very large bat silhouette.)
Lillith took a deep breath and reached deep within herself. She closed her eyes, didn’t realise her fingers were drawing into fists on her lap. It had been a while and to say she was out of practice would be a joke. The well of her magic was still there, but… Lillith sagged with effort, her heart pounding in her ears.
Sonya patted Lillith’s knee and got up, then started pacing up and down the room, her footfalls dull thuds on the hardwood floor. “Okay,” she said then paused, nodding to herself. “You have magic, but haven’t used it in a few years. I have magic, and use it a lot, but it’s not very powerful.”
She made a face with this last comment, whether from self doubt or shame or something else, Lillith wasn’t sure. But Lillith nodded along with Sonya’s assessment. “What do you do with your magic?”
“Oh, you know this and that,” Sonya said. She stopped pacing and shook her head. “But specifics would be more helpful here. I use it for cooking, to make my meals tastier with less effort and less time. I use it to keep the mice out of my house. The kind of things that I could do on my own, but,” she shrugged, “I use a bit of magic to help out. Or rather, I try to.”
Lillith was staring into the middle distance in front of her. “I would use magic in scrying. In boundary defence spells. Occasionally defeat some demons who strayed too far out of their realm.”
“Holy shit,” Sonya said, her face a picture of shock.
It felt good to talk about this, Lillith thought, as if a too small garment had finally been taken off.
Sonya, recovering quickly, chuckled and shook her head. But she couldn’t help herself; she cocked an eyebrow and asked, “You come across many demons?”
Lillith made a so-so gesture, a grin bringing her back from what she’d been staring at. “They used to come about in seasons. I haven’t really been in a place to find out if they still do lately.”
Sonya took a few steps towards the front of the room, stared out the window for a moment, glancing briefly at the door. Turning back to Lillith, she asked, “Why did you stop? What happened?”
Lillith sat back and looked out the window at the formless grey clouds. “There were many things, and it wasn’t entirely my choice.”
Hey, thanks for reading this episode. "A Pair of Witches" is something I started on a whim during a writing sprint with the GSFWC. I'm aiming to put out an episode a week, but I'm not good with schedules (sorry).