The Thirteenth Daughter

Chapter 4- Hijiri Sasaki

“Guys! I’m home!” The door had opened and was followed by Gale’s elegant voice. “You will not believe what I have just been…” She was cut off by the scene that had just unfolded before her arrival. Celeste, Eshe, and I were standing in the entryway. Eshe had one arm crossed against her chest and the other was busy hiding her face in her palm. Never mind the strange events over the past week that have lead up to this moment. I had promised Eshe that I would be patient and let her handle things, but it had all been very painful to watch.

“Guys…what’s going on?” Gale asked as she rolled her suitcase to the side and gently closed the door behind her. Celeste looked like a trapped animal looking for a way out. The anxiety was written all over her face. I sighed while rubbing my temples with a couple of fingers on each side.

“Look…we just want to know if you are a witch or not.” I said while gesturing towards the new girl. Eshe groaned. I’m sure Gale was in her own state of panic too but seeing as she was just coming in and had no idea of what had transpired only moments ago, she held fast keeping her face as blank as possible. My question was still up in the air. Celeste’s face went from panic to confusion, to worry, then to what looked like understanding, and back to confusion all within what seemed like a split of a second.

“Is that really what you’ve been trying to find out this whole time” she asked. It was my turn to groan.

“Yes. Eshe has been too polite to just come out and say it.”

“I think I need to sit back down.” Celeste had started to go up the stairs originally before my initial question had stopped her in her tracks and Gale had then burst through the door. It had been clear to me that Eshe’s prying was starting to make her uncomfortable and for the life of me I could see why. This whole week she had been beating around the bush and it was obvious to me that Celeste wasn’t ready to open to anyone of us yet. Not that I had made it easy for her to either. I’ve only been seemingly giving Celeste the cold shoulder since the day she arrived.

‘I have every right to do so’ I thought to myself. She was hiding something or else she wouldn’t have been dodging all of Eshe’s questions in the first place nor would my readings be telling me that this girl was a danger in the first place. Celeste took the two steps back down and then sat at the staircase.

“Um…Girls can I talked to you?” Gale was waving both Eshe and me over to the door. We both looked at each other and then huddled up next to Gale.

“Do you mind filling me in? What exactly have you two been doing to traumatize this poor girl” she asked.

“Eshe has been spending the better half of the past week trying to figure out this girl since she moved in.” I volunteered. I’d known Gale longer than any of the other girls and knew she’d be able to understand where I was coming from.

“I have not!” she said indignantly. Both Gale and I both just gave her a look.

“Ok, maybe I have, but it’s just because her gift just radiates so strongly.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. She barely even has the gift if you could even call it that.”

“I don’t know why you don’t believe me. It does! It’s there. I swear it on my grandmother’s grave.”

“There’s no need to be swearing on…” Gale cleared her throat cutting off what I was about to say. We both looked at her expecting her to say something, but when she didn’t, we both asked ‘What’. She gestured back towards the stairway where Celeste was now standing looking at us three.

“I promise you I am not a witch.” Celeste said. “I know I am from Salem and all, but I am not that. I don’t cast circles, or magic spells, or worship Satan. I am just Celeste.” Gale covered up a giggle, Eshe once again covered her face just mortified, and I am sure that I still had what people would have called RBF.

“I know you all must think that I may be hiding things, but its just that I’m not ready to share everything about myself yet. I’ve grown up in Salem all my life and everyone knows everything there is to know about me. They assume things or treat me differently because of what they know, and it was suffocating. I moved here to just get away from all that and to write. I hope that’s ok.”

Well, isn’t that just great…my feelings twisted my guts around. Part of me wanted to sympathize with her, but another part of me didn’t because of the reading.

“Of course, it is.” Said Gale. She gave each of us a look before crossing between us and held out her hand to Celeste. “Hi, I am Gale. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Hi” Celeste took hold of Gale’s hand and it just seemed like the whole world had been lifted from her shoulders. I was familiar with that feeling. Once upon a time ago I had that same feeling when Gale had shaken my hand seemingly out of nowhere. We’ve been friends ever since really. My emotions raged inside me. I needed to go and sort things out.

“I think I’m going to go out for a walk and to cool down for a bit” I said looking down at my feet. “I’ll be back for supper.” My keys were in my pocket and there wasn’t anything else I really needed. Everything was within walking distance and more than likely I would just go to the shop. The shop was where all of us mainly practiced the craft anyways. I’m sure we’ve received some more scrying, and divination requests. That would be more productive for me now than sticking around here while Gale diffused the situation. Plus, it would also give Gale some time to evaluate Celeste for herself. Feeling slightly better already I closed the door behind me and headed in the direction of the shop.

By the time I reached the shop I didn’t even need the keys to unlock the door. The shop was already open. Lachlan was already here going through the requests.

“Hey. Gale made it home today.” I said as I approached her. I looked at the desk of discarded requests. One of the letters stood out to me, but I didn’t pick it up just yet.

“Did she get to meet Celeste then?” Lachlan said with an absent mind.

“You could say that. She walked in right as we were kind of in the middle of something.”

“What did you do?” I had her full attention now. I felt a little defensive immediately.

“What makes you think I was the one who did something?”

“Oh please, just because I’ve been working nights doesn’t mean I haven’t been able to sense the tension building up around the house. Something was bound to happen so what did you do?”

“I cut to the chase like I usually do. Eshe has been politely trying to pry information out of the new girl all week and it was just too painful to continue watching.”

“What was it that Eshe wanted to know?” She asked going back to sorting the requests.

“She wanted to know if she was a witch like the rest of us of course.”

“Oh that.” Lachlan said nonchalantly.

“What do you mean ‘Oh that’” I asked. “Eshe is convinced that she is very gifted, but when I look at her, I can barely even sense the gift in her. She’s probably just some halfling. Maybe even a quarter.”

“I’m not so sure about that myself.” She replied.

“What makes you feel that way”. She looked up at the ceiling tapping the last of the envelopes to her chin.

“Well just like you and Eshe I can sense that part of her, but I can’t seem to gauge how strong her gift really is. If I could put in perspective its liking trying to look at someone’s aura directly, but when you do it’s no longer there.” she said tilting her head to look at me.

“You lost me. How does that make any sense? Auras are your specialty how can you not see hers?”

“I can see it, but only if I’m looking at it indirectly.”

“Like from your peripherals or something?”

“Yeah, kind of like that, but that is no way to view an aura. It makes it all blurry.”

I tried to digest this bit of information. Lachlan and I hadn’t really been able to discuss this whole new roommate situation since before she arrived. Lachlan received the job she had been pursuing quickly. It helped that the owner was a girl, and it was a biker bar.

“Have you tried to do another reading yet” she asked.

“That’s why I am here. I stepped out of the house to let Gale de-escalate things, and perhaps see if I can divine anything else that could possibly put me more at ease with this whole thing. I’d welcome just about anything really.”

“What exactly did your first divination tell you about her”?

I sighed.

“When I first investigated her all I could see was nothing but danger looming all around her. It radiated off her like an unshakeable stench.”

“Why not try it again then. See if you can see more about this danger.”

“Perhaps.” I looked back down at the stack of envelopes Lachlan had sorted. I lost interest in the envelope that I was holding previously.

“Yeah, I didn’t get good vibes from that one either.”

That could happen sometimes. Sometimes a customer would request help from one of us, but their intent was usually something corrupt. I opened the letter, and it surprisingly was a request for protection. It didn’t say for who though which is probably why Lachlan’s sense had naturally rejected the request. We usually would write the sender back with an apology stating that it wasn’t the right time for that kind of spell and request the submit again at such and such moon phase. This letter didn’t have return address either. So much for that route. I decided to walk the store instead. I started with the section of stones. We had several crystals that hung from dowels. Some were quarts, some were obsidian. There were jade stones and tiger’s eye. On the counter there were geodes and crystal pillars. Some were even actual gems cut from emeralds or garnets.

They ranged in all different sizes. My fingers ran across them all. The hanging crystals gave of a soft melodic chimed and they swung and bumped against each other. A few of them were luminescent even. Not far from the stones were the herbs. Bundles of incents and leaves. Dried sage and thyme stems each stood organized in jars of their own waiting for the local spiritualists to come and buy them. There was also rosemary, laurel branches, and several kinds of petals too. Mortar and pestles were displayed here as well. Next were the candles in all different heights and colors too. We even had a bookshelf dedicated to empty journals that for some would become spell books. All in all, it was just a basic shop divided into quadrants that displayed all these things.

I moved to the back of the shop and through the beaded door that led to a hallway and three doors. The door to the far left held all the back stock and the rarer materials, the door to the far left was a simple bathroom, and the door in the middle was a very special room. It was our room. The room in which we all practiced our craft. Inside was a heavy wooden round table. Underneath the table there were basic wooden stools. We had selected for the stools because we barely actually sat at the table while practicing. They were more for when we had those customers in which we would do readings or scrying for and surprisingly the occasional séance. Towards the back was an apothecary chest that held all our tools. Atop held four little journals neatly standing side by side between two large. The walls in here were all wood paneling. It wasn’t the cheap kind of paneling either, but more of the type that you would have seen perhaps in an old saloon.

Nothing much else decorated this room, but a few wall hangings. On one wall hung a tapestry that displayed the many moon phases, its opposite held a canvas painting of all the constellations, and above the apothecary drawers was an amber wood plaque that had the cardinal directions engraved to its surface. All these nuances told all other witches who visited on occasion that we were of course a Cardinal. Which was just fancy talk for a group of Four witches. Five witches would be a Shadow Circle represented by the pentagram. Five was also the start of a Coven. I once had ties to a small coven once. I had gotten tangled up with a group of delinquents who had no regard for the hallow rules, but what did you expect from a band of witches who were led by a corrupted halfling. The leader had been half vampire, half witch. A secret I had learned the hard way.

I had yet to be inaugurated into their ranks. Of course, when I had met this male leader originally, he was charismatic, alluring, and sweet. Just a little too sweet. My ability screamed at me to turn the other way and I almost didn’t until I had discovered his secret on a night of a blood moon. We were somewhat of an item him and I. He had asked me to marry him. I was going to surprise him on that very night with my answer, but when I arrived there was already someone there in his room. To my disgust I found him feeding on an enthralled human girl. I left and never went back. I probably could never go back there again and luckily, he never searched for me. My memories broiled within me stirring up my emotions more. I crossed over the apothecary chest and pulled out a deck from one of the many drawers. I also grabbed a few other things, some salt, a candle, incents, and a tray.

I copied the cardinal insignia in a salt drawing upon the table to my right I placed the candle and on the left I placed the incent on the tray. The candle was imbued with Euphrasia while the incent had been made from star anise. The incent was to increase psychic awareness and I chose the Euphrasia candle in hopes to find a more positive outcome in the reading I was about to do. With everything in place, I pulled out one of the stools and sat before this simple alter. It was then that I delved into the depths of my being to access the well of my powers. My internal flame. Instantly the candle came alive on its own and the incent immediately began to smolder and smoke giving off its fragrance. I steadied my breathing counting out the draw of each exhale and inhale as everything permeated the room.

I closed my eyes and continued to breath peacefully and controlled. Soon I could see everything with my minds eye. The salt drawing burned with a fiery light. The deck of cards was bathed in an ethereal darkness that I was somehow still able to see. Three cards laid them selves down before me just below the stack of tarot cards representing past, present and future. The first card turned over and was illuminated in colorful light. The upright tower the same as before. The upright tower represented disaster, madness, and despair, but in the past position it had already come to pass. The second card flipped over the card for the future. The ten daggers also like before it meant calamity.

The third card flipped over and just like before it was another arcana card, the Devil. Something toxic lingers. To me it all just spelled disaster, but the reading wasn’t done. The cards still had not answered my question. What was I to do with this girl? Before I had never delved this far into the reading. After all I had just wanted to know what was instore. I hadn’t been seeking any answers or questioning their influence. To my surprise two more cards laid themselves down. The next card flipped over it was the moon. It represented anxieties and fears. My mind boggled at the idea. I was not afraid, but next card flipped over, and it insisted. It was the card of temperance. Temper your anxiety and fears it said. I scoffed at it. The cards were telling me not the be afraid how unbelievable. Why should anyone not be afraid after divining a reading such as this?

“Whatever!” I yelled at the cards. I waved my hands, the candle snuffed out and the incent ceased its burning. everything lost its luminescence, and I stormed from the room. Unbeknownst to me the cards did not obey their dismissal and things did not put themselves away as they were commanded. I never saw that another card was drawn. For a brief time, the star hovered over the cards spinning and then everything was snatched up and gently went back to their resting places inside the apothecary chest. Lachlan and I locked the doors and never saw an opened envelope had closed itself back up and placed itself back into the pile of requests.