Arise Book One: Age of the Witch

Chapter One: My Curse, My Gift, My Eternal Confusion

I can feel her.  I see her.  She is not happy with her life, I can change that.  I can fix her up.  Once I show her my side, she'll see that her powers are beautiful.  I crave her more than I can say.  The Goddess put her in this world at this time for me, I just know it, and once she see's what her powers can do, she'll know it too.  We will be inseparable.  Unstoppable.  Forever.

~ Aidan

"Betha!" Mother calls from behind the door, "Betha, dear, how are you feeling?"  I groan under the covers and shift myself so my face is now in my pillow.  I feel like shit, Mother, that's how I feel. 

"Mom!" I moan, "Can you just come in? I feel terrible!"  I have never been so sick in my entire life.  Not even when my powers were maturing when I was thirteen.  The door creaks open and my thin mom comes in quietly.  She has a mortar and pestle in one hand and a bowl of something in the other, concern paints her face.  She sits down next to me on my bed.

"Not feeling any better, love?"

"No I'm not."

"Okay, my sweet, I have just the thing for you.  Just wait."  My mother is a healer.  If anyone can cure this, it's her.  Well, her or my Aunt Mae.  Twins.  Therefore twin powers.  Twin healers.  Twin Wiccans.  Twiccans?  Twitches?  Oh, great, now I'm a Disney robot.  I moan into my pillow once more.  My stomach feels like it's about to explode.  My head feels like it is in the process of imploding.

"Mother!!  Betha's tea is ready!"

"Thank you, Lina!  Please bring it up!"  There is pounding on the stairs that I feel down to my bones.  Thump thump thump. AAGGHH!! My little sister, Lina, appears in the doorway with a steaming mug in her hand.

"Thank you, sweetie," Mother says. "Just place it here on the nightstand, then get out, I don't want you catching this too."  Lina does as she's told.  Then leaves, but she stops at the door and hesitates.  She turns and acts like she has something to say.  I can feel her eyes boring into me.  Twin telepathy tells me she's worried about something other than my sickness.  I say "little sister" because she was a whole nine minutes late.  Mother is so focused on grinding up herbs and putting them in the bowl and mixing them with some gooey stuff to notice Lina's lingering presence.

"Spit it out, Lina," I say.  Now Mother notices her.

"Lina?" she says, "What is it?"  Lina takes a deep breath.

"Is...is Betha...cursed?" my sister asks.  My head pops up and I stare at my mother.  Cursed?! Am I? Who would have put a curse on me?  Why?  My mother's face grows serious.

"Mother?" I say imploringly.

"No, girls, no.  Betha is not cursed.  Okay?  She's just sick, it happens."

"Even to Wiccans?"  My mother now laughs.

"Yes, Lina, even to Wiccans.  Your sister may be a witch, but she is still human.  Which means she can still get sick.  You girls wouldn't believe how many Wiccans we lost to the plague."  Now it's our turn to laugh.  Mother smiles at our identical laughter. 

Finally, Mother is done making her salve for me.  And tells me to turn over onto my back and lift up my shirt. 

"Now, Betha," she says, "it is crucial that you drink this tea at the same time as I rub this salve on you okay?" I nod and take the mug off my night table.  Gingerly I sip the scolding liquid as my mother spreads the herb goo on my stomach.  It burns and tingles on the way down and the salve does the same.  I continue to drink as Mother smears some on my forehead and empties the bowl on my chest.  When the tea is gone, my mom speaks.

"Blessed be to the Goddess of the wind and sea, of the sun and stars, heal whatever ailment afflicts my daughter, please."  She nods to me.

"Blessed be," Lina and I say in chorus. 

An hour later, my symptoms have faded into nothing.  Which means only one thing.  I have to go school tomorrow.  Fuck.

I guess I should tell you guys about my religion.  Yes, I am Wiccan.  Which means, you guessed it, I'm a witch.  A lot of people are confused on that though.  Do I worship the devil? No, I do not, in fact, Wiccans don't even believe ther is a devil, or Satan, or whatever.  Can I fly, or make myself invisible?  Well, yes and no.  First of all, if you are to ever take Wicca seriously you have to completely disregard anything you have seen on TV or in a movie about witches.  No I can't really fly and I can't really go invisible.  But I can make you think I have. I can cast what is called a glamour, and what that is is a special spell that tricks you.  So while in reality I am standing right next to you, you see me floating ten feet off the ground.  Cool right?  No.  No not really.  You see, I am what people would call a natural witch.  Which means the powers I possess have been in my blood since the very start of my blood line.  MY sister and I are Naturals, both my parents are too.  My mother and father grew up together in their parents coven, and my parents expect Lina and I to marry a son of one of the members of my parents coven.  Luckily for us, there are no sons, until Cherry and Joe adopt.  Then Sapphire and Timothy are planning on adopting a boy as well.  So it's perfectly arranged.  They both want sons our age.  They are doing this on purpose, my mother being the High Priestess and my father being the High Priest held a coven meeting and announced that they want us to marry withing the coven.  Those two couple were the only without children so they offered to look around and adopt two boys our age to help out the coven.  Oh, and another thing, because I am the older twin, I get to inherit the coven and be High Priestess when my mother is gone.  Everyone is so awed by my powers because I am sixteen and can do things a thirty year old witch can't.  Everyone calls it my gift, but it's not a gift.  It is my curse.