Page 17 of Witch

“Check out our protection amulets,” Niale called.

Kana obediently went over to that work station, where he saw what appeared to be glass beads in a teardrop shape with blue water inside that glowed even in the bright light of the workroom.

“The holy water inside is just holy water, but we imbued the glass with all sorts of fun things,” Niale continued. “First, we made it so the holy water doesn’t know there’s glass between it and your skin, so if you’re infected with demon magic it will burn you and help drive it out.” Niale and Nancy, his partner, were both druids. Usually they imbued magic into trees and plants, so using glass must have been a fun experiment for them. Kana was sad he had missed it. “We also spelled the glass to turn opaque as a warning if demon magic is being used near you. We’re still working out the spells to make the holy water repel that demonic force before it has a chance to touch you, but at the very least, it functions the same as having that bowl of water out front. We’re going to mass produce them so everyone working this threat has one.”

Niale held one of the teardrops out for Kana to take. He felt a slight warmth from the magic, but otherwise the teardrop felt like a simple glass ornament. There was a loop at the top to fit a chain through.

As if Kana’s thought had conjured it, Nancy held out a chain. “This one’s in thanks for stopping that imp,” she said. “I don’t think any of us were prepared for that. It could have ravaged through us.”

“Ary did a pretty good job,” Kana said in disagreement, but he took the simple silver link chain from Nancy and slid it through the loop. He hooked the clasp behind his neck and the teardrop landed just below his collarbone, in the vee of the unhooked top button of his collared shirt.

“Only because you gave him enough warning to get some holy water,” Johanna cut in. “What do you think of the charm?”

Kana pressed his palm against it, feeling the slight hum of magic. “I like it. Let me know what you’re thinking about for the repelling part, and I’ll let you know what happens if I run into another imp.”

They all laughed at Kana’s joke. “Let’s hope that never happens again,” Johanna said. “Come see the searching spells we’ve been doing. This is where we can really use your help.” She pulled Kana to another table across the room.

The table was covered in runes, spell circles drawn on crumpled paper, and research books. At least one full incantation—a type of spell used by sorcerers—was half written and lying abandoned amid the rest of the detritus.

“What have you tried?” Kana asked. He picked up some of the circles and runes to study. “This is good stuff,” he added after a moment of reading. They had already tried spells to search for demons, demonic magic, and residual demonic energy. “Why didn’t any of it work?”

Arnold let out a heavy sigh. “Apparently, we need to activate the spells at the exact same time the warlock is using energy, otherwise our spells can’t sense anything. We don’t have the magical energy to keep the spells running indefinitely, and we tried your new mobius strip idea, but none of us have the control to spin our magic into the correct shape. Besides, I read your notes where you said even you can’t keep it up that long.”

“Not indefinitely,” Kana said with a frown at himself. If only he could figure out that last little bit of the spell, but creating a magical battery was still beyond him. The mobius spell was primarily a way to recycle his used magic back into the spell, but as Arnold had said, it was far too taxing to use except in the most dire emergency.

“Which means we can’t track the warlock unless we get really, really lucky when we activate one of our spells,” Arnold finished.

“We can’t track the warlock in real time,” Kana mused as he flipped through the spells covering the desk. “What about searching for residual magic? Didn’t you say you were looking for that?”

Arnold sighed again, and Johanna and everyone else surrounding Kana shook their heads.

“I think we literally have to be standing where the warlock physically cast the spells to find residual magic,” Arnold explained. “We’re having trouble creating a magical equivalent to a radar for a broader search.”

Sora jumped down from Kana’s arms and strolled across the table. How does a warlock cast spells anyway? he asked.

Kana had no idea. I know they steal magic from the demons they enslave, he replied. But beyond that?

Sora walked across the spell circles, hopped over the rune dictionary, and then abruptly stopped at the incantation as if he had noticed something. He read the paper, then pushed it with a paw in Kana’s direction.

Read this, he said.

Kana obediently picked it up and read through the lines. One stanza stood out in particular.

For lo the summoned demon cries

Enslaved to magic’s price

Freedom lost to cruelty’s master

Home stolen when greed calls

Summoned, Kana read again. A warlock had to summon the demons from the demon plane, likely in a similar process to what Kana had done to summon Sora and Mika from the magical one.

Kana dropped the paper back on the table as he spun to head to his own workstation and grab his chalkboard and chalk.

He started drawing rapidly and, aware the rest of the room was staring at him, started explaining. “The spell for summoning familiars is a massive one. It’s so powerful even the weakest witches leave a residual impact when they cast it. My previous coven created a separate building from which to cast the spell, and the building was warded from the foundation to the roof to prevent that power from spilling out and affecting the rest of the coven lands. Even I, the much hated and ostracized male witch, was given access to use that building when I wanted to attempt calling a familiar. They didn’t expect me to succeed, but even what they believed would be a futile and weak attempt needed to be warded.”

Kana had to pause to concentrate as he chalked in the more intricate runes. Johanna and Arnold had moved to read over Kana’s shoulder as he drew, and Johanna’s soft gasp of realization as he finished the rune to open the path to the magical plane told Kana she was following him.

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