Convent. A total of three witches and their familiars, united by a special kind of magic. A young woman, a mother and an elder. This Convent, though, was special: all witches represented all three kinds at once. It was the most powerful Convent of the area, and even probably of the world.

Clarissa, Babette and Lise knew each other since pretty much forever. They were ageless, cursed in their youth by a very powerful spell, and hence doomed to live until they were no longer needed. Together, they had defeated many a foe, saved countless of villages and knit an infinity of baby socks, until one day something happened. Something none of them would talk about, but it changed them. Ever since that day, the Convent split and only met on rare and dangerous occasions.

We familiars were not under that curse, but all of us had chosen to expand our lifespans to remain as long as possible by our witch’s side. We knew each other well, having served as messengers for many years. But this situation was different. We would be asking for help, and that was the very first time it happened. I shuddered.

I first called on Lise, who was farthest away. Her familiar, Pip, was a wise yet mischievous raccoon, whose special talent was teleportation. I started meditating, hoping against most odds that the duo would still be within range of Pip’s spell and thus able to get here instantly.

I sent the raccoon a mental film of what we saw in the forest, and the following message: “need help. Come as fast as possible.” After making sure that my message was delivered, I did the same for Zazzles, Babette’s beloved rattlesnake. As always, he hissed in reply, letting me know that they would be on their way as soon as their current task was over with. My own task completed for now, I went back to Clarissa and tried to be as much of a support as I possibly could.

Pip and Lise were too far, they would need several teleportations before they arrived, so it would take a good few hours. Babette was an old-style broom witch, and would probably arrive at the same time, leaving us scared, with too much time on our hands, in an alcohol serving place… Not a good idea.

We tried coming up with a battle plan, made a map, drank a few cups of enhanced apple juice, played a card game with Thod, tried to come up with a plan B, drank again, and by the time the others arrived we had gone up to plan K and Clarissa was starting to hiccup. Lise took a chair next to her while Babette motioned for Thod to serve them all a real apple juice, and we started with a proper explanation.

A witch’s time is too precious to waste on smalltalk, especially in such circumstances. There were no “hello, how are you?”, no weather talk, no questions about the children, only “so, what’s the plan?” and that was it. We told them of the Fay, the silence, the pink magic, and what we thought we could do. They disagreed, on all of our plans. “A Fay is too powerful to go in head first, Clarissa!” said Lise. “We need to observe her for at least a couple of days, and ask more questions to everyone. I doubt Cyclamen was the only one to call on that vile creature…”

It was then agreed that Zazzles, who was a summoning snake, would go and observe the Fay and her surrounding for a couple of days while the rest of us asked questions, opened closets to find skeletons, tried to find a cure for that magic cold, and drank. The witches, especially, drank a lot. Apparently it was the best way to get the villagers to open up to them, or so they said… Pip and I had another idea on it, but for the sake of staying alive, we kept our mouths shut.

On the third day, Pip and I received a message from Zazzles, saying he had found something really interesting: the Fay can’t resist the cuteness of a baby snake, is completely indifferent to rats, and is terrified of… bunnies. These were the three species that Zazzles could summon, a couple at a time, in random order.