Explaining It All

"So Rosa...."

Holly shifted onto her stomach, presenting the witch with a perfect rear view of her mortal girlfriend while she continued to stroke her soft, dark hair and converse with her.

"How exactly can you help my sister. Assuming we prove all of those commands are bad"

"Of course they are bad" Rosa chuckled, but not cruelly, more out of affection for Holly's endearing naivety "He hasn't been secretly commanding her to improve her maths skills or learn the piano. The only question is how bad. If it makes you feel any better, he doesn't seem particularly depraved to me. But then again, it's often the quiet ones"

"Okay, so lets say we need to intervene to help Maisie. What can you do for her?"

"There are two routes we can go down. For the first, we spend as much time as we can with your sister and her friend. After a while, I should be able to get a pretty good read on what commands are there and start slowly removing or lessening some of the more objectionable ones. Of course, he can lay them back on far quicker than I can take them away. That fucking curse is way more powerful than I am. But if I am subtle enough, he may not notice"

"Okay, and what's the second route"

"We remove the curse completely. From everyone. Forever"

"You can do that?" Holly raised herself up into a kneeling position on the bed, suddenly very alert, regardless of how long she had gone without sleep now.

"Yes, but don't get too excited. I'd be happy to do it, but it would demand an awful lot from you"

"Me?"

"Yes, it would have to be you. Firstly because you are the most recent in the line of eldest daughters of the original victim. But also because, quiet honestly, there is nobody else I would make this offer to anyway"

"So what would I have to do?"

"Who is your current master? I haven't figured it out yet and it's been bugging me?" Rosa went off at a slight tangent.

"Jared. My gay friend from work" Holly answered quickly, just wanting to move the conversation along.

"Clever girl" Rosa smiled "Though I'm slightly surprised you are still a girl, that's not usually the way it goes in those situations. Anyway, I would take over from him and become your mistress. And everyone else would be freed from the curse"

"That's it?" Holly asked, as if she had been expecting something way worse.

"It would be a pretty **** version of the usual master and girl relationship though" Rosa continued as she played with Holly's nipple "You'd be mine for centuries. Never ageing, always bound to me, always by my side. And all the usual limitations of the curse would be gone"

"What do you mean by limitations?"

"You know exactly what I mean Holly, you spent enough time researching the thing. With the curse no longer draining most of my magic, I would be an extremely powerful sorceress. And without it needing to be diluted between so many people, all the usual roadblocks would be removed. I could give you magical powers, mind reading and controlling abilities, I could make it so you would be able cast almost any spell that I can on your own whim without me even being there, or bring one or many people under your control. You wouldn't technically be a witch, but in all but name you could become an extremely powerful one. Just not quite as powerful as me"

Rosa, bopped Holly on the nose in a playfully patronising way after laying all of that on her. She then seemed amused by the silence as Holly tried to take in everything she had just been told.

"I don't think I'd like that" she finally decided as she lay back down and rested her head on Rosa's shoulder.

"I believe you" the witch chuckled "It's part of what I love about you. Most people would be ripping my arm off to get that deal, and you don't want it. But think of it from my point of view. If you don't take it, I will have to watch you grow old and die on me. And i definitely wouldn't like that"

Holly was now completely silent. As bright and intellectually curious as she was, that was just too much for anyone to take in for one night. Rosa decided to reign herself in a bit.

"Look. I'm not saying make a decision now. This offer will always be open to you. You can decide in a month, or a year, or ten years, or never. Okay?"

"Okay" Holly nodded.

"For now, I can still help with your sisters' situation. But first, I need to understand it better. Do you think you can arrange for us to spend some time with her and Jake? Just the four of us?"

"Sure, I'll call her tomorrow and see what I can do" Holly said as she shut her eyes and finally tried to get some sleep.