I’ve got some news,” she announced. “Where is Claude? I want him to hear this too.”
“Oh, I’m sorry Lil, he is in New York. A collection of rare magic books is going up on auction and he left this morning. It would be wonderful if we could buy a few for the store at a decent price. Antique magic books are something we want to specialize in. But, I digress, what’s the big news?”
Lilly reached inside her pocket, removed the post card and handed it to Regina.
Regina read the card quickly, “It sounds like he is going to be returning,” she said smiling.
“Yes, I know he is going to come back. I don’t know when,” Lilly said.
“Oh, Lilly, I’m glad for you. I’m glad you showed up with good news.”
Lilly stood grinning and nodding her head as Regina continued, “Could you help me out again today. With Claude gone, I need some help if I am going to get the back room organized and keep the shop opened.” Lilly agreed, glad to have something to do with the nervous energy coursing through her body.
The two young witches passed the morning chatting as they worked. Regina had a hundred questions for Lilly about her life, her magickal training and abilities. Lilly answered innocently, giving Regina an inside view of her life. She told her about her father’s death, her Aunt Pearl, her abusive husband and the power awakening within her as she studied and participated in rituals at Panthea’s. She avoided mentioning her slow adjustment to the Jewel of Inanna. Regina had seen it, but she didn’t know the extent of its power.
Regina locked the front door a few minutes after noon and the two young witches went upstairs for lunch. They made pineapple and cottage cheese salads, poured themselves glasses of tea and settled on the couch. Lilly had taken a few bites of her salad when Regina placed a pipe and a couple of buds of Acapulco gold on the coffee table. They leaned back, put their feet up on and shared a bowl.
“I don’t know much about you Regina. Are you from New York?”
Regina sat back in her chair and sipped her ice tea, “No, I’m from California, the Santa Cruz area. I was in New York shopping when I walked into The Spell Casters Emporium and met Claude. We talked for a bit, I invited him to join me for a drink when he got off work. A few hours later we were sitting in a bar in the East Village. A few weeks later we were moving to New Orleans to open the Raven Moon.”
Lilly smiled at Regina, “Such a magickal story!”
Regina nodded her head, “Indeed, it seemed magickal at the time. Now it seems like a lot of work. I’m loving it, don’t get me wrong. Adjusting to New Orleans, the climate, the people, the food, is a lot to get used to.”
“Has your life always been so magickal. What was it like growing up in California?”
Regina leaned forward, tapped the ashes from the pipe’s bowl and refilled it with the second bud. She lit the pipe, took a long toke, leaned back, closed her eyes and began to speak.
“My childhood was not as happy as your early years with your dad and your Aunt. My parents traveled constantly. I was left at home with a series of nannies; some kind, some bitter, some cruel. My parents came home for my 13th birthday and decided I no longer needed a nannie. I needed to go to boarding school.”
“I was packed up, put on a plane, and enrolled in Saint Mary’s Catholic boarding school in Ireland.”
“The only male allowed to enter the school was Monsignor Scotty. The nuns, especially Mother Superior, cowered in his presence. He was the high hot-in-tot and demanded we agree and submit to his constant demands and attend his long winded Catholic rituals. It was months before I discovered the uniformed girls, meekly approaching the altar for communion at daily mass, secretly chafed under his domination.”
“On the night of the full moon girls from every level at St. Mary’s climbed through windows, shimmied down drain pipes and clung to tree branches before dropping silently onto leaf covered ground. I saw them leave but had no idea where they were going. My first impulse was to follow, but something inside told me to wait for an invitation.”
“At the beginning of the second semester, I received an invitation to join the mysterious full moon exodus. Following the group, I arrived in a grove of ancient oaks next to the graveyard filled with the moldering bones of long dead nuns. I stripped off my night clothes, along with the others, linked hands in a circle and began to dance.
Circe, a senior from Athens, led us through the full moon rituals and, occasionally, placed the sacrament of sacred mushrooms on our tongues. The light of the full moon shone through the boughs of the ancient oaks, as we touched our hidden and forbidden power. It was towards the end of my first year at St. Mary’s that Circe approached me and asked if I was a member of the ancient Valraven family.”
“My name is Valraven, but I have no idea if my family is ancient,” I replied. “I have no grandparents, aunts, uncles or cousins. The family I am aware of consists of my mysterious and mostly absent parents. For all I know, they could be aliens traveling the galaxies.”
Circe nodded, leaned towards me and whispered, “Let’s get together tonight after lights out. I have some interesting information for you.”
Hecate ruled the moon that night. I lay in pitch black darkness waiting for Circe. She came silently through the door, put her hand on my shoulder and pointed to the window with easy access to the extended roof of the floor below us.
We settled down on the tiled roof and leaned our backs against the brick wall of the dormitory
