Blumengarten

All stood in silence as the Grey-haired Witch addressed them in her smooth tone "I am Arch-Wicken Andromeda Pond, Nymph of the Clearwaters and Queen-Mother of all Witches. And this..." She opened her arms, framing this mysterious and wondrous place. "...Is Blumengarten Institute of the Wiccan Arts; the Forever Gardens built by All-Mother Hecate and the primordial sisterhood, home to the Grand Lotus upon which I take pleasure in serving as Matriarch."

Girls began to chatter abrasively.

Yuna lent into her sister "Nymph of the Clearwaters? what kind of title is this?"
Haru shrugged as Matriarch Pond silenced them all with a tiny flicker of her disapproving ire.

"I know that many of thee are familiar with our ways, and many are not. Plenty of thee have met others of our kind before, and many have not. A select few might have even had the privilege to be informed of what you are, and some have not. So I shalt extend unto thee, a privilege which I likely never will again, I will make it easy.

Despite your looks, despite your beating heart and breaths of life, thou art not human. thou art much much more. thou art Wiccan. More commonly known as Witches."

Some of the girls went pale in the face. Did that mean... that not all Witches had mistresses to raise them like Morgan did?

"Ah, but some of you were raised by Mortalfolk, yes? You girl." Pond gestured curtly to... yet another face that Morgan recognized.

The Blonde girl, covering her perky nipples and nether garden as best she could with her hand (Despite her golden bush doing a good enough job on its own) flushed scarlet as the Matriarch addressed her. "Qui, madam?" She replied shakily in a thick French accent.

"Frenchling, you arrived thinking was some kind of student exchange, working in a fancy hotel, grovelling at the feet of those mindless monkeys out there. You didn't know what you were before this day, correct?" Pond inquired

"Y-You don't know anything about me, Madam." Monique shot back, clearly unnerved by Ponds' disarming cadence.

"Oh, but I do. We all do." Pond beckoned the four obscure figures behind her, silent and unmoving."

"Then prove it, prove you know!" The French hostess from earlier challenged.

The Matriarch grinned and spoke boisterously "You are Monique Dupont Refraine, you're favourite colour is Magenta, and you have a recurring dream, dancing in the plains of Africa with talking elephants. You only drink semi-skimmed milk with your English tea, something you never told your foster mother, who despised the English due to her family history being tied to the battle of Agincourt.

A Mother who abused you because of her belief that you were her husband's bastard daughter when He simply found thee in a ditch. You're a germaphobe and cannot abide this city by its stink, despite your own home staining half of Europe with the stench of piss and you do not shave, not out of some stereotype but because you're afraid the razorblades with cut you and reveal the venomous blood that runs through your veins.

Do move that hand out of the way dear we all know it's not hiding anything."

Monique Refraine was stunned, standing in silent shock, as Matriarch Pond spoke matter-factually to them all.

"All your lives, you have been befouled, mistreated, lied to. But I shall bathe thee all in the light of truth.

Any who claimed to be your blood, hath deceived you, and the invitation we sent was to liberate you from the chains of their falsehoods.

You see, we Witches are born through a process of immaculate conception. In this regard, we have no sires, no fathers whose seed created us. It was instead by the will of the Great Old One, that your mothers were chosen to bring all of you into the world.

"That can't be possible? only christ himself was born of god." Another from the crowd protested.

"This, God you speak of, we believe He too like ours likely sent his own avatars out into the world. In a similar way to Jesus, the Great Old One sent all of us.

...But unlike the Virgin Mary... the women who birthed you all into this world died during your labour. Do not misinterpret my words, witches born of mortal women result in the mother's **** 100% of the time. Anon, we art all born Orphaned.

I am sure that we've all noticed some of the quirks of our biology, such as the fragile nature of our bodies which chip and crack like china, our toxic black blood poisoning whatever it touches, or perhaps your affinity for water, and vulnerability to fire. All are trademark stamps of a Witch."

Morgan did hate fire, she recalled her mistress banning candles in the laboratory, and how she nearly caught on fire playing with a magnifying glass as a child.

"But of course, there is another tell-tale sign that one is a Witch, one factor which gifts us with power unfathomable to the Mortals and their narrow understanding of the sciences. Can any of you tell me what it is?" She asked.

Nobody spoke. Did they really, not know? or were they just too scared to speak?

Morgan was not scared "Magic" She called, making every eye in the crown snap in her direction. Okay, she wasn't scared, but having this many people stare at her made her feel a little self-conscious, covering her Amethyst with her hand.

The Matriarch smirked at the stark-white girl, and nodded "Magic, yes, and do you know what magic truly is, Miss Blair?"

She knew Morgan's name too, but after watching her light those braziers with a gesture, Morgan knew that this woman was a power not to be trifled with.

Morgan shook her head earnestly.

"Mmm." Matriarch Pond chirped thoughtfully "Then let us find out together. Now today we will conduct Blumengarten's 666th Initiation, where our budding Witches will join our ranks to master the mysteries of dark Magic..."

Pond's face darkened with a grim kind of smile "I will not lie to you, girls, today is the first time that I have laid eyes upon you, but it may also be the last. This term we have 24 candidates, but the fact is that all should prepare themselves and beware, as out of all 24 of you, we require only 12 to complete the Coven."

Everybody went dead silent as they all soaked that in, many looked ready to run away on that alone.

Morgan could see a fair few faces that still burned with conviction, faces that had already stared real danger in the eyes and lived to tell the tale.

"This is bullshit."

Morgan's ear pricked up to a girl muttering and shaking her head, picking at her nails as she mumbled to herself.

Pond's eyes locked on the girl "What was that dear?"

The Small brunette girl, with freckles spanning from her toes to her clammy face, looked up hesitantly. "That one looks fit to burst." Morgan heard Angie whisper to Jack with a smile.

"Nothing." The freckled girl grumbled.

"No no, my girl. Please, speak your mind. This is a place of learning and debate, if you have something to say, then the sisterhood would hear it." Pond encouraged in her strangely hostile way.

"I..."

"Yes?" Pond pushed.

"I wanted to say-"

"What, girl? Spit it out." The Matriarch demanded.

"Here we gooo." Angie muttered.

"It's bullshit!" The Freckled girl exploded, pushing people out of the way as she exploded with tears of anger "My mom and dad are my real parents, astrophysicists in fact. I'm not stupid enough to accept this massive trick and none of you should be either"

"A trick is it?" Pond inquired, as the girl marched to ponds side, addressing the entire crowd.

"Yes. Do you really think any of this is real, sure I can believe that we all share some medical condition, but I bet this is just some government experiment. They are probably Russian spies for god's sake. All it takes is a few wires and mirrors to pull off something of even this magnitude!

You all must see it, right?

I say we walk out of here and get out of this facade, who is with me!?"

Pond's smile had vanished, and nobody dared move a muscle when they saw the look she had fixed on the freckled girl.

"What is your name?" The Matriarch asked.

The Freckled girl scoffed "You probably already know, having collected all that intelligence on us?"

Pond nodded "I do, but I want you to tell me."

"Deidre, Diedre Scott. And even if these idiots won't leave, I will." She turned to walk off but Pond spoke out.

"Your intellect is unquestionable and your magical talent shows great potential, Are you sure that this is what you want, Deidre?" Pond asked.

Diedre Scott turned on her heel, and flipped Andromeda Pond the bird "Fuck off, Ruskie."

Pond's visage verged on demonic as her eyes went blank and her hand once again raised into the air "Very well."

Her wrist twirled as if signalling some invisible sniper, but Morgan and the rest watched as she began to... pull droplets of water from the air. As her gestures grew wider, the droplets became streams of aqua, slithering after her hand waves like great liquid snakes.

Deidre had turned at the strange watery sound, and when she did, Pond shot out her flat hand in a spearing motion.

The Water cannonballed towards, Deidre smashing into her face and sending her spiralling to the ground. But it didn't stop there, with her other free hand she continued to pull more and more moisture from the air, slamming more and more bucket-fulls painfully into Diedre's spine and ribs.

Her screams were muffled as the water formed a sphere over her entire head, more and more gathering as it constricted around her body. Eyes wide as she tried to break free, the water kept building and rising, pulling Diedre up off the ground and consuming her body in a watery coffin.

They all could do nothing but look on in horror, as the Freckled girl writhed, **** as the water invaded her lungs, the undulating sphere spat droplets all over the ground as she kicked and jerked.

Morgan watched her eyes roll into the back of her head, more and more bubbles escaping her lips, counting down each lost breath as her movements got slower, and slower until she finally went limp.

Nobody said a word, nobody even moved a muscle as Pond let her arms relax, allowing the sphere to smash into the ground, leaving only a naked, freckled corpse.

Silence.... save for Haru, who outstretched both hands to grip both Yuna and Morgan's forearms "Nymph of the Clearwaters." She whispered grimly, a title well-earned.

Pond walked closer to them all, and some of the girls flinched back as she did "I want you all to listen to me very carefully, within each and every one of you lies dormant the power to level cities, to summon creatures who could render every living thing on this world extinct, to see things beyond the realms of mortal comprehension.

Without training, this power within you may alert being so foul and so cruel that they will not hesitate to break the chain for the mistakes of one weak link. Today is the most important day of your lives, today is the day of new beginnings; today is the day you join the Wiccan. Or die trying."

Since approaching alongside the Matriarch, the four figures finally moved, coming as Pond beckoned them.

"These four are the Sisters of the Lotus, the Sisters' Rose, Violet, Iris and Carnation.

For those of you who survive the Initiation, they will serve as a mentor, a mistress and most importantly, a teacher.

Each one is a graduate of the Lotus, a master of their chosen crafts. To begin your trials, You will follow them across the Bridge of Cosma, and only those who pass this test may emerge unto the other side -- and be warned, every initiates test is unique, there is no way to cheat and no way out once the test begins.

There is no turning back. I wish you all the greatest of fortunes..." Pond turned to walk off but paused, turning to utter her last words "...Walk on with no regrets, the way of the Witch is a wicked path, by the end of today, we'll sort the victors from the Diedre Scotts."

The Matriarch stepped off the cliff's edge, leading into the cosmic abyss below where she allowed herself to fall with open arms.

Everybody gasped and rushed over as she vanished into the darkness, Morgan watching the flock of nude bodies giggle as they gazed in awe over the edge and watched as huge feathered wings, sore out into the starry shadow above, chirping and cawing as it swopped up towards the Ivory Academy.

Morgan could ignore the Amerphyst no longer, she was getting hot and bothered, along with the nerves of this dilemma, set off just what she didn't want, at just the moment she didn't want it.

The Amerphyst began to swell, as a wave of arousal began to flood through Morgan's loins.

"Bollocks!" She growled in an urgent whisper, cupping the violet gem and swivelling out of view. "Just stop it, I'll... sort you out later, later! Not now, not now!" she insisted, sometimes it could be talked down, sometimes it would listen, but not this time.

Luckily everyone else was too in awe of the Matriarch to notice as she bit her lip, holding back a deep groan of pleasure as a trickle of wetness slithered down her left leg.

"You alright there, Kid?"

Morgan jolted as a tall figure appeared beside her. It was one of the Veiled Sisters, adorned in sleek fit robes of pale yellow. The Girl nodded "Yes, all is well. I just... It's just a stomach ache, do you mind if I jump over there for a minute, I'm sure if I just-"

The Sister caught a glimpse of what Morgan was hiding, gleaming between her legs and immediately grabbed the girl's arm, marching her away from the group.

"Sister Carnation." a deeper tone called from the Sister garbed in crimson.

The Yellow Sister; Sister Carnation, stopped and looked back to the sister in red, likely Sister Rose.

"The Matriarch made her directions clear," Rose warned, still standing within the group of three by the flaming braziers.

Sister Carnation spoke out... but not in English, it was a strangely flowing kind of tongue that Morgan could barely comprehend, but as strange as the tone was, she recognized hostility in it "Sthwithar, Swethic Ctharlyn."

The Sister dressed in pale robes called to the others "No more gawking my young friends, gather in single file by the bridge."

With that, the other sisters, although tense, said no more as Sister Carnation continue to drag Morgan away from the group.