They'd divided themselves into three groups, three towns, three new witches to find, to recrute. Tanith, Morrigan and Liesel were with her, Cybil, Gwyndolyn and Lor in another, and Sedona and the shadows in the last one. The town that she and her seconds had flown to was small, but not small enough that four knew strange women would be noticed, not at first. They had scouted the town the night before and set down in a clearing in the forest a few miles out, so they wouldn't draw attention to themselves. They did this three times a cycle, and at the end of one cycle the nine girls and women that had recruited would be sworn to the goddess under the full moon. Aislinn alone was incharge of finding the tenth, the coven leader. And the coven leader was always the last one to be found, the judgement of the goddess, with the full moon, her full sight, could only guide Aislinn to the next coven leader when it was strongest. So the coven leader was found by Aislinn under the full moon, and a wholly different ritual. But today they were just looking for the three seconds, the three witches who would be incharge of the coven until the leader was chosen. And that started with searching the town.
Tanith and Liesel went to the pub near the center of the town, there was always at least one backstreet harlot looking for a way out. Morrigan and Aislinn went to a circle of women and girls weaving near the edge of town, the younger girls sitting in the center of the small circle, listening to the stories the women told. Aislinn stood on the outskirts of the circle listening to the story the women were telling the young girls,
"The young maiden now under a spell followed the witch into the woods," an old woman was saying, a stern look on her face. "The next day the girl was found dead in the forest, but her head was missing, the witch had cut it off so she could wear it." that wasn't what had actually happened of course. In truth Aislinn had told the women, a young lady named Meredith, who at the time had been two days away from a marriage she had no interest in going through with, that if she wanted to escape she should come to the forest clearing at midnight that night, that she should come alone. Meredith of course was smart enough to understand the stupidity of coming alone and unarmed into the forest at night, so when she had come she'd brought a small dagger. Tanith had complimented the girl's taste in daggers and then explained that in order to escape her fate she would have to fake her death. That night they'd found a body of a young lady from one of the sick houses and cut off her head, leaving it in the forest for the villagers to find. Tanith had even left a few ritual markings to make it look a bit more realistic, though Meredith had explained that the villagers didn't know what authentic ritual markings looked like anyway. That had been almost a half a century ago. Morrigan stood beside her, a little too tense to be casual but no one seemed to notice, or they simply thought it to be unease at the chilling story. Infact Morrigan was likely inwardly grinning at the memory of that night. Still they watched the girls, their reaction to the story, who huddled closer to friends, who leaned forwards in interest, who sat stone faced and unbelieving. And there in the front Aislinn's eye caught on a girl, maybe fourteen or so, small for her age, whose eyes were brightening in curiosity at the next story. The next story was new to Aislinn's ear but that just meant it was likely some other coven playing jokes on the townspeople. The girl's curiosity seemed to glow off her at the mention of witches and spells. Aislinn looked too Morrigan and found the second gazing at the same girl before looking to her. And the message in her second's eyes was clear, it seems we've found ourselves a witchling.
"Hey you, little girl," Aislinn said quietly as the circle of girls dispersed, the girl looked around, spotting them and pointing to herself as if to say who me? Aislinn just nodded and continued, "Yes you now come over here." the girl floated over to them, her gate light, as if she thought if she put too much weight in her feet the ground would crumble beneath her. When the girl was in front of them she looked from Aislinn to Morrigan in a brave curious sort of way, like she didn't see danger in every inch of Morigan's continence, like she just saw how peculiar it was.
"I'm not a little girl you know," she said matter of factly, "I'm fourteen and a half years of age." Beside her Morrigan made a noise that sounded like a suppressed scoff. She just continued,
"What is your name?"
"Olive."
"And might you be interested in," she leaned closer to the girl asif to share a secret and whispered in her ear, "learning a bit of magic." The girl's eyes went wide with excitement and joy.
"Oh would I!" then caution crept into the girl's eyes and she looked around, as if to spot someone watching her, like this was a trick. When she looked back seemingly reassured that this was a genuine offer she said, "How?" Aislinn gave Morrigan a small grin.
"Meet us in a clearing in the woods at midnight, bring anything you want to take with you, but come alone." The girl's eyes widened further, seeming to realize what they were, that if she went into the woods she wouldn't be returning to the town. The girl gave a glance at one of the women who had been weaving in the circle, middle aged and brown haired, then looked back at them with something akin to determination, and even bravery.
"I'll be there."
When they met up later with Tanith and Liesel it turned out that instead of looking for a new witchling Tanith had run off and gotten drunk, started a brawl, and gotten thrown into the town jail, or the town stalks. Aislinn discovered this when she walked to the spot in the town square where they had planned to meet and found Tanith in said stalks and Liesel standing next to her and saying something that Tanith didn't seem to like.
"It was irresponsible and a waste of time, and now look where it got us." Liesel was chiding, thankfully it seemed Liesel had refrained from wagging her finger in Tanith's face, nothing good would've come of that. She and Morrigan walked over and Liesel explained the situation, glaring at Tanith every few seconds. Tanith who seemed to still be very drunk just gave her an arrogant lazy smile. Needless to say this was not helpful in getting Liesel to stop berating Tanith.
"You're the one that demanded we get drinks and sit at the bar." Tanith spluttered, making an attempt to point one of her restrained hands at Liesel.
"Yes but you weren't supposed to actually drink it, just subtly splash it around a little to make it look like you were drinking it."
"Well my way was a lot more fun." Tanith grumbled, "Plus you made us stay there for like hours, I was bored, what did you want me to do?"
"I wanted you to wait and observe and be patient, I wanted you to listen to me." Liesel said, throwing her arms up in exasperation.
"Well then maybe you should've been a bit more realistic." Tanith said with all the conviction a drunk witch in stocks can have.
"She has a point Leisi, I mean I don't think Tanith's ever done what she was asked to." Aislinn quipped. Liesel just hissed at her but Tanith gave her another drunk goofy grin. "So how exactly do you plan on getting her outta here without being noticed?" She looked to Liesel,
"Why do I always have to be the one that comes up with how to get us out of her messes?" the irritation strong in her voice.
"Because that's what you're good at, I'm good at making messes, you're good at cleaning them up." Tanith said drunkenly, she wasn't oblivious to Liesel's growing irritation, but she certainly wasn't concerned about it either.
"I'm asking you to come up with a plan because we just experienced what happens when Tanith makes the plan." Aislinn says, trying to appease Liesel and calm her down.
"Actually I would say this is what happens when I don't make a plan at all." Tanith adds, laughing a little at herself after she finishes. Liesel just rolls her eyes and turns to Aislinn.
"So it looks like there isn't any actual guard here, though I would be more surprised if there was one, still this means that once everyone's asleep we'll be able to break Tanith out pretty easily so long as we are quick and quiet about it."
"Tanith is anything but quiet." Morrigan says quietly but not shyly at her side. Tanith gives a caw of outrage at this, not seeming to realize that it only serves as evidence for Morrigan's point. Morrigan, Liesel and Aislinn all share a silent look, a quiet laugh, at just that, Tanith still being too drunk to catch on.
"Okay so we have to meet the girl in the woods tonight, so while we are doing that you can go and get her out of these, meet us back in the clearing before anyone spots you."
"No promises." Tanith slurs. Liesel just nodds, rolling her eyes at Tanith.