Page 16 of Witch

“I don’t care what Erich thinks,” Kana replied, his voice easy as if the tense atmosphere in the entry hall wasn’t affecting him at all. Hunters were trickling in from all directions, as if they had been called to the room.

Kana threw open his magic channels and power poured into him as smooth and easy as usual. No hint of bruising remained. He didn’t need anything big to stop Erich, just something flashy enough to show Erich he was wrong.

“I’ll prove it right now!” Erich snarled out. He stomped toward Kana, both hands held out as if he was going to grab Kana around the neck and squeeze.

Kana drew a small circle and star, added in the runes for stop and hold, and wrapped the circle around Erich’s left ankle just as he lifted his right foot to take another step forward. He fell, slamming into the ground face-first with a crunch that said his nose hadn’t enjoyed the experience. Kana drew another circle with his magic, this time on Erich’s back. He added the runes for weight, but carefully added the embellishments to the rune that would limit it so Erich couldn’t get up but wouldn’t be crushed.

Erich got his hands underneath his body and pushed. His arm muscles strained, and he groaned, but he didn’t move even a centimeter off the ground.

“Anyone else?” Kana asked. The two circles hadn’t tired him at all, so he was ready if anyone tried to back up Erich. No one else moved. The hunters who knew Kana looked unsurprised, and the newcomers were apparently too busy staring at Kana in shock. Had they never seen a witch cast a circle without chalk before?

“Let me up, damn you!” Erich snarled.

“Not until you promise to stop threatening me,” Kana retorted. Mika meowed pointedly as if to underscore Kana’s words.

Erich huffed for a moment, and his arm muscles bulged as he tried and failed to free himself again. “Fine, I promise! Now let me up!”

Kana waved his hand for showmanship purposes and the circles vanished. Erich stumbled to his feet, one hand pressed to his bloody nose. He glared at Kana but didn’t appear to have any interest in trying to attack him again.

“What are you?” Erich asked, his voice muffled by the blood and the hand squeezing his nose. “You might be a witch, but that’s not all you are.”

“Lucina,” a woman gasped.

Erich jerked in place in surprise, and Johanna let out a soft gasp. She wasn’t alone, as other people also made noises of surprise and disbelief. Kana—and about two thirds of the room—looked over at the woman and saw one of the witches from Diana’s coven.

The woman blushed bright red, squeaked, then turned and fled deeper into the hunter’s house.

Who or what is Lucina? Kana asked. The name did sound vaguely familiar, as if someone had mentioned it to him sometime recently, but Kana couldn’t remember when.

No idea, Mika replied with a mental shrug.

“All right,” Ary called. “Hunters don’t hunt by spectating. I’m sure there’s something more productive all of you could be doing right now.”

There were some grumbles, but the room did begin to empty. Johanna thrust her clipboard into Ary’s hands before hurrying over to Kana’s side. Kana waited for her, and then they walked into a side hall together, heading toward their office.

“What’s Lucina?” Kana asked when they reached a deserted hallway not too far from their destination.

Johanna stopped walking and turned to face Kana. “It’s one of the power designations in the Salem coven. You’ve met Mother Diana. Crone Hecate remained in Salem to run the coven, but as far as we know, that coven hasn’t identified a person as Maiden Lucina since the last one passed nearly twenty-five years ago. The fourth designation in that coven is Horned Lord, which is a title they begrudgingly give to a male with some power.”

Diana had mentioned multiple times in Kana’s hearing that he wasn’t a horned lord. But Kana had no idea what it meant that one of her coven had called him Lucina instead.

“I’m not from that coven,” Kana replied when Johanna’s silence seemed to indicate she wanted a response. “My coven had circles of power with the inner circle comprised of the most powerful witches. Each successive circle diminished in power from there. As a male, I wasn’t allowed to be part of any circle, so I could never have filled a power role for them like the Salem coven’s Maiden Lucina.”

Johanna nodded. “I don’t know how much you know about the animosity between covens, but they all generally follow their own version of witchcraft. The circles and runes are the same, but each coven adheres different meaning to why you have the ability to use magic and why one witch’s magic might be stronger than another’s. Your previous coven—the Seattle coven—believes strong witches birth strong witches, so the inner circle is prized as they are the ones who will ensure the future of the coven. The Salem coven follows the rule of Three—with the occasional fourth, the Horned Lord. They believe the Goddess bestows power to her witches regardless of the power of their parents, and She is the one who chooses who rules their coven by bestowing certain attributes to the Three. The Salem coven has never gone decades without actually having three witches in power. That witch calling you Lucina means she thinks you’re their absent leader.”

“I don’t follow their religion, so I can’t be one of their three!” Kana gasped, appalled. He didn’t have any interest in being a coven leader, and quite frankly he was worried he was being mistitled.

“As long as Mother Diana doesn’t confirm it, you’re just Kana, mate to Alpha Maxwell, and employee of the Albany Hunter’s Coalition. Even if she does confirm it, they won’t really have a choice if you refuse to take on the mantle. You’re not one of their coven, like you said.”

Which means we need to make sure Diana doesn’t do something squirrelly to make us one of her coven, Sora added.

We’ll be careful, Kana replied in complete agreement with Sora. He could definitely see Diana trying something like that, but now he was forewarned and would hopefully catch her at the trick.

“Anyway, let’s focus on why you’re actually here,” Johanna continued. “You have to come see the two things we’ve been working on.” She led the way down the hall and held the workroom door open for Kana before following him inside.

The room erupted with: “Kana!”, “Hey, man!”, and “How’re you feeling?” when he stepped inside.

Kana grinned and waved at the entirety of the local research department, all of whom had been his coworkers since he started. “I’m all healed. How are you?”

---