Ophelia had caught the little things that Mitchell was doing. He hadn’t made it hidden that he was unhappy with the fact that she had decided to go ahead and press on with lessons, but she hoped that after the meeting with Checkov he wouldn’t be super on edge. “Mitch, if things go my way, you and Atticus need to have a few days worth of clothes and necessities ready. That’s all I will say.” She said to him, and she noted how he had stopped with her and helped her set up for the lesson. She also caught the uncomfortable look he cast her. She simply wanted them in the circle because it would benefit them too. All of the raw energy being transferred in the circle would do them well since they were energy vampires.

She looked to Kat and took her hands in hers. “It will help you if you feel what I’m talking about.” She said, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath as she drew the raw energy from the burning rosemary and sage and she could feel the fern growing, slowly, but noticeable enough to see. She held it for a few moments before she stopped. “The burning of rosemary and sage emits more natural energy than other herbs, and because you will be using it once you are more comfortable I chose them so it’s easier for you to grasp. As we progress with these lessons, you will be able to transfer energy between any two living things.” She explained as she looked over Kat. “Now, you will be honing in on my energy at first, but as you get more comfortable, or I think you can do it with the sage and rosemary.”

Ophelia closed her eyes and focused on opening up her energy to Kat before she felt the pull, but something else happened, and Ophelia couldn’t stop it from happening. Her mind was opened to Kat and the first memory came through.

[I]It was a beautiful summer day out at the Lockhart Archives, as they had been known as for a log time, and Ophelia was sitting in their large garden with a beautiful [url=http://www.hawtcelebs.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/chloe-moretz-toronto-international-film-festival-portraits_1.jpg]blonde[/url] girl beside her. “Ophelia, I can’t believe I’m finally 20! But I’m nowhere near as good as you were at my age.” She laughed and Ophelia smiled to her.

“You trying to make me sound old, Bianca? I’m only five years older than you. Plus you’re a natural soul, and I’m a balanced soul. Two completely different soul gauges.” She said, and Bianca looked over to her and rolled her eyes.

“Lia, you’re amazing. You can hone in on any form of magic. Old, Dark, Natural, even if it gives you issues.” She chuckled a bit. Ophelia rolled her eyes. “Lia? Can you show me that spell again? The one I’ll never hope to do?”

Ophelia sighed. “The reanimation one that I use only on plants?” she asked and Bianca nodded. “B, you know dad doesn’t want me doing too much necrotic magic. He says it could corrupt me.”

“He also says that you are the most balanced soul he’s ever come across, Lia. Please? It is my birthday.” She begged, and Ophelia smiled.

“Alright.” She laughed, lightly. Bianca handed her a dead daffodil, and Ophelia concentrated on the flower and the air around them, watching as the color returned first to the flower and soon it began regaining it’s former strength. Once Ophelia finished the spell, she handed it back to Bianca. Her sister smiled to her, and they got up and headed back towards the house. “So, any word on the boys’ recovery?”

“Mom said they should be better here soon.” Bianca smiled. “Then we can start planning my wedding to Ian Palmer!” 

Ophelia nodded. “You better not forget about me, little sister.” She smiled, “Betcha I can beat you to the house!”

Soon the two broke into run, laughing and playing like nothing would happen.[/i] 

Ophelia broke away from Kat, standing up. She had felt the magic begin to pulse constantly towards the very end of the vision they shared, and she looked to Kat. “Practice with the burning rosemary and sage for a few minutes. If you start having trouble tell me… I… I need a moment.”

She exited the circle and began down a path in the garden, breaking into a run when she was out of Kat’s sight. Kathleen had just saw what Lia was like when she was younger. When she wasn’t so cold or cut off. Before the fire… before she lost her family… before everything happened. She stopped, falling to her knees before a patch of wilting daffodils, and she felt the tears running down her face. 

She looked around a moment, wiping her face with her hands, and she held them up, a sad smile on her face as the daffodils began coming back to life before her eyes. She felt the energy leaving her, and she just stared at the daffodils, reaching out and touching one, gingerly. The sad smile hadn’t left her face as she looked them over. She had completely zoned out, thinking about her sister. 

She never got to see her sister get married, she never got to help her with her seven children she wanted, and she never got to say goodbye. Her sister was the embodiment of purity for her family, and once Ophelia lost her, she began on the downward spiral. The final straw had been years, decades, later, but it had began then. 

She closed her eyes, the orange glow had faded, but her sister’s face took its place and she whispered. “I’m  so sorry, Bianca.”

--

Atticus watched Kat when she spoke, and at one point she reached up as if something was around her neck, but he knew nothing was. He hadn’t caught her doing that before, but she had seemed awfully adamant about not admitting that she knew the painfully obvious fact. Ophelia would do anything for her. He didn’t know why, but he wasn’t going to continue to push it. His eyes traveled back to Mitch and Ophelia who were setting up the circle as they picked the fresh rosemary and sage for the lesson. 

[I]Atticus looked over Mitch again as Ophelia came closer. “Thanks, man.” He said. “So, a few years of this? Will she always be a total ice queen too?” he asked, and soon the blonde witch came with some herbs in her basket on one side, but she pulled two thermos out of the other side and handed them each one, and then she handed Atticus a small container with a green paste in it. He gave her a look.

“Herbal tea, and ointment for the rash.” She said before she went back about the garden, picking herbs and placing them in the garden. His eyebrow rose and he looked to Mitch. She was being nice but there was still that cold edge. He shook his head and rubbed the ointment on his neck and the rash near immediately stopped itching. He then took a sip of the tea in the thermos and looked towards the path she went down. 

“Will we be out here often?” he asked. “it’s nice to be outside.”[/I]

Once Atticus sat in the circle and Ophelia and Kathleen began the lesson, he felt the energy in their circle and he breathed it in, watching the fern begin to grow at a steady pace and then the energy left the air once Kat finished up, and soon she was explaining the lesson to Kat. For her part, and what she would be able to achieve as these lessons continued. Then the energy returned.

This energy was different than what Atticus had expected even. At first there was a lot of it, but it slowly began to even out and Atticus hadn’t even been paying attention to the fern, but the feel of the energy. He had known Lia was a balanced soul, so her energy wouldn’t feel dark fully, but he didn’t expect it to feel so light. It was very odd. 

The flow was stopped, rather abruptly as Lia backed away, standing. She headed away before he fully processed what happened, and he walked up and looked at Kat. “Hey, are you okay?” he asked, looking at her. 

Unlike Mitch, Atticus didn’t understand many aspects of magic. He wasn’t well versed in the magical aspects of things period, having been around vampires or just plain alone in his life so he wanted to make sure that she was okay. The feeling of the energy had lingered for a moment, but was gone, and once he looked back towards Mitchell, he saw he was gone too. He had a feeling with as quickly as Ophelia left that Mitch would be right behind her. He stayed with Kat though, taking a seat before her.

“This is a very nice kind of magic. It’s not often I can feel it too. I’m guessing Lia knew we all needed a bit of a recharge after the last few months of nothing but indoors.” He said, “I’m glad this lesson didn’t get cancelled. Towards the end of that last one I felt the flow of energy kind of even out, I think anyway. It just felt nice all around.”

He gave her a small smile, and looked down to the fern that had definitely shown signs of growth and the color was a bit more lush. He touched it, and he looked her over. “It amazes me still, how magic can do such beautiful things like this, and cause so much destruction all the same. To be honest, before you, Ophelia was the only witch I had ever come across, I never knew how different it all was.” 

He turned his head a bit, backing away. “I guess I should leave you to practice. I’d let you use my energy, but I don’t know if that is against the rules.”

He moved over towards the crate with the books, and he pulled one out and he opened it up. There was a language within he couldn’t understand, but he saw notes in many different handwritings on the pages, and he read the notes. They were all cryptic, referring to other books and he assumed spells. Then there was a word he remembered seeing in his time before he joined the coven. [I]NECROTICASOL.[/i] 

He rose an eyebrow. There was a sunken library not far from the coven grounds, at the edge of the wolf country that had that word on the inner doorway. Before he had found Checkov’s coven he had found refuge in their foyer during the full moon. It was a very odd place, but one he would bring up to Mitch at least. 

He knew that Checkov would never allow the girls to leave the grounds, so if he told Mitch he could possibly have him find out why that was so important. He sighed a bit, and he placed the book back before picking up another and when he opened it, he found it refreshing to see it was just a book. Even if it was Dante’s Inferno. 

He began reading, looking up at Kat occasionally.