The Sacrifices of War

Chantelle walked purposefully into the lounge, where the majority of the glitches were still recovering from the previous nights festivities, and pinned a sheet of paper onto the noticeboard. The glitches all gathered around as if it were time for their exam results. All of their names had been placed into three categories based on their susceptibility to magic - high, medium or low. Even Tania was on there in the middle group, with only Nari currently missing since Noelle had overslept and not had the chance to meet her yet.

"It is really important for what is going to happen further down the line, when the shit really hits the fan with Rebecca, that you not only know which of these groups you are in yourselves, but commit to memory which group each of your fellow glitches is in as well. Please make the time to study this list and ensure you are familiar with it. That said, for now I only need those in the high and low categories. The rest of you can go about your business"

Nearly half the group dispersed while the others stood and looked at each other in confusion.

"Noelle has other business she needs to attend to presently, but we were discussing tactics last night and we agreed that six witches are better than one, even if five of them are rookies. Melanie, Cassie, Laura, April and Leilani, these are for you"

Chantelle reached into a bag Noelle had given to her and produced five ornate looking wooden boxes. When their respective owners came to claim them, they found that each contained a wand and spell book"

"No fucking way!" Laura gasped.

"These past couple of days just keep getting better and better" leilani squealed as she gripped her wand.

"So what do you want us highs for then?" Sophie, who was sitting in her wife's palm having still not been restored by Noelle, asked with a hint of trepidation.

"We probably only have a few days before we will need to get Tania back. We may be able to stall Rebecca a little longer with what Noelle is working on at the moment. But eventually, we are going to find ourselves in a magical war. I don't want to have to resort to asking for any favours from a certain individual I won't name - they always come at a huge cost. Instead, I want us to be able to fight Rebecca ourselves. Which means our five new witches will need to be trained in record time""

"Okay, so where do we come into this. Just spit it out already" Lexie folded her arms and tapped her foot impatiently.

"Noelle has assigned each of our budding new sorceresses a high susceptibility partner to practice their spells on. I know that might not sound like the most glamorous job in the world, but look at it as being a necessary part of the war effort. This is about learning to reverse spells as much as it is about becoming proficient in casting them. We don't want to have another situation where someone spends weeks under one of Rebecca's curses, and Noelle can't be expected to do everything"

"So what? We just sit there and have spells cast on us?" Lexie huffed "Great, I'm gonna feel like a real fucking hero"

"We're basically practice dummies!" Tina complained.

"I'm sorry, it's just what has to be done. We all have to make sacrifices in a war, and I can assure you, I wouldn't be asking you to do his if it wasn't vitally important" Chantelle answered.

"So Noelle assigned us our partners? Who is with who?" Abigail asked.

"Okay, so obviously Noelle herself is working with Maggie, though that is less about practice and more about..."

"Fucking her as a catgirl" Lexie shouted out.

"Potion testing" Chantelle glared at the glitch equivalent of the class trouble maker "April you are with Chelsea"

"Oh! This should be fun, we can pretend we are working in a magic shop!" April told her former assistant, who looked less enthusiastic.

"Leilani, you are with Tina. Laura, you will work with Abigail. Cassie, you get Sophie and Melanie is with Lexie"

"What!" Lexie blurted out "Fuck no!"

"Wouldn't it be better if I went with Sophie?" Melanie asked tactfully.

"Yeah, Noelle is new to the group, she won't be aware of all the dynamics" Cassie added "I'm happy to swap"

"No, this is the combination Noelle thinks works best, and since I know fuck all about magic it's the combination we're going with" Chantelle doubled down "If we are going to war together we need to put our differences aside and work with each other. This is a difficult enough situation as it is without make things even harder for ourselves."

"This is unbelievable" Lexie shook her head, realising there was no way out here.

"Noelle wants you to spend a couple of hours a day practicing together at the very least. And make sure you find yourselves plenty of space to do it in. We don't want any other glitches getting zapped by accident"