Wicka

6. DISCOVERING WITCH HOOD

Wicka and subsequent books belonging to “Chronicles of Elizabeth Blake” series are available on Amazon.

Over the next couple of days, you could always catch a few of us in the library at any given time, especially Mrs. Shaw. It was as though she was researching a hunch, but not letting any of us in on it. I had endless questions that William always jumped to answer. It was sweet, but completely transparent to everyone how helpful he was trying to be. There was a lot of eye rolling, but it didn’t seem to bother him.

I approached Mr. Shaw, the history buff, and asked, “You’ve mentioned the Elders a few times. Who are they?” A grave look shadowed his face, as though he hadn’t realized he would have to explain the Elders to anyone and dreaded the thought of having to do so.

“The Elders are a group of witches from ancient families who, more or less, run the world affairs of witches. They act as a form of government or police, but without being voted in by other witches; they appoint themselves. They make and enforce their rules as they see fit. Although there are very few rules, everyone must obey them. The Elders have the support of the other ancient families, who share their narrow-sighted views. They take our secrecy very seriously. 

“Most witches agree about the importance of secrecy, although for very different reasons. The Elders believe it will give them an edge over the humans and allow them to properly prepare for an uprising against the humans. The general witch public, meanwhile, enjoys living in harmony with the rest of the world and doesn’t want to expose our race or risk that harmony.

“The Elders are based in Greece. It’s symbolic. They view themselves as the true gods of Europe and of the world. They like the historical importance and traditional nature of the location. The Elders have resided there since the beginning of witches, and they are nothing but traditional.” 

I wanted to know everything about the Elders. They seemed both intriguing and frightening. Before I could inquire further, something occurred to me. I shook my head as if trying to somehow come to terms with the thoughts that had just entered my naïve and sheltered mind. 

“If witches are real,” I said, hesitating for fear of sounding crazier than I already felt and not wanting to sound as childish as I’m sure I would, “what about other mythical creatures we are brought up to fear, like vampires, werewolves, Frankenstein?” 

Mr. Shaw gave a sad sort of chuckle and shook his head, “You were meant to fear them. They were created for that purpose.” He continued, “During the 1600s, witches were being executed by the thousands in Europe. Humans were decimating entire covens and showing some success in diminishing or imprisoning the witch population. When the Salem witch trials began, marking the start of international witch hunts, the Elders had to take action. Revealing ourselves was strictly forbidden; death would ensue, but the Elders would make you suffer first. There was always an example set by the Elders; that much was certain.

“The tests the humans used to determine if someone was a witch or not were inconclusive and didn’t allow any option for escape or defense. They would throw people off of cliffs into water. If they didn’t die, they would be labelled witches and be killed immediately. If they did die, it would be clear that they weren’t witches, but it would be too late. They would already be dead.

“Their other favorite method of identifying witches was to burn people at the stake. If they broke free and didn’t die in the fire, they were witches. If they did die, they were human, but again, it would be too late. Everyone always died; nobody can escape fire.

“Witches don’t typically have pets. They naturally gravitate towards people and tend to focus on family. The Elders knew of one witch who swore she could talk to cats. It turned out that she was just crazy, but they thought it would make an interesting stereotype to perpetuate amongst the humans. Ever since, black cats that could talk were associated with witches. The Elders thought it would throw the humans off our scent as we don’t usually keep pets. They would end up accusing and punishing their own. That’s where the expression “a kick at the cat” comes from. It refers to the period after the Elders spread this vicious rumor.  Humans would take “a kick at the cat” to get it to confess a witch’s location. If the cat didn’t say anything, you either hadn’t kicked it hard enough or it wasn’t magic. Either way, the end result was not pleasant—much like the Salem witch trials.