Me? A dual caster? They must have been mistaking.

I thought I must have still been in that dream, or maybe this was all some sort of sick joke. I’m a witch with very weak magic and was an embarrassment to the town. Someone must have messed up somewhere “What do you mean? There’s no way that can be true.”

Hama put his paw on my leg and looked up at me as reassurance for this unlikely scenario. Dual casters aren’t something that you would just find walking down the street in any coven. There was very few known dual casters in the world at any moment. Even with the coven I lived in being a large one, there was never a dual caster known to have lived there.

Naomi pulled back from me to say “But it is true! Hama has always tried to find ways to tell you, but it was kinda hard when you seemed to tune out anything that was blood related.”

Hama then barked at her, asking her to tell me something else “Oh yeah, he said he tried a few times to relay a message through other demon familiars, but he wasn’t even able to talk to them either. I guess it’s because I’m a full demon that he’s able to talk to me? I’m not really sure how it all works, but it’s what he said!”

It was so hard to find the words to say. Everything that I was hearing was such a load on my brain that I just felt exhausted. I wasn’t even able to respond to them. All I could do was stare at the space between them and disassociate.

After I don’t respond, Naomi reads my emotions. She can feel how out of it I am as well as some lingering doubt. And in her softest voice, she asked me “Have you never tried using Blood magic before?”

Her gentleness had a way of getting to me. Even though it was hard to talk about, her presence calmed me down enough to talk about Blood magic for the first time in a long time “There was never a point. After I accidentally created some sparks when I was child, I was only ever pushed towards Fire magic. And it’s not like I ever just randomly had blood to accidentally learn I could use Blood magic.”

She was feeling me becoming upset and moved to where she was directly by my side “Well, how about maybe trying now? It’s not like that magic disappeared.”

With her being as close to me as she was, I was a bit distracted. Even when we were sitting she still towered over me. Having to look up at her to talk had me feeling excited for some reason. Though it was an inappropriate time to be having these feelings, it was nice to have my mind brought somewhere else for a moment.

Hama could feel what was going on and barked at us. He didn’t want me loosing focus when we were having an important conversation. Which luckily it did knock me out of my mind and brought me back to the moment for when Naomi translated for him “He’s right. Lets focus up and find some blood that you can practice with!”

Being put to sleep the way I had been left me feeling a bit disoriented. With the blinds closed in my room, I had no way to tell what time it was and assumed it was still dark out “Well we can’t right now. It’s to late for any of the butcher shops to be open.”

Naomi let out a small and awkward giggle “Actually, it’s morning right now… I kinda put you to sleep for the whole night. I knew you were tired and thought it might help you.”

My whole body flinched and I immediately jumped up to run to the window. Once there I pulled the blinds open for the sun to shine through and illuminate the whole room. My eyes were still adjusted to the darkness and I was almost completely blinded.

With my perception of time being completely off, it took a moment for my mind to adjust to it actually being morning. Which as it turns out was only the time I needed to get ready for a day out. I had decided to humor the two by listening to their suggestion to buy some blood.

Walking across the bridge to the other side of town, my mind was distracted. I was looking over the railing and into the water the whole time and just thinking. Naomi on the other hand was practically skipping with how happy she was. And with Hama relaxing in my arms and enjoying the nice breeze, I was envious about how calm the both of them were.

There was so many different thoughts running through my head on the walk across the bridge. So much doubt, confusion, and curiosity that it made it hard to focus on anything else. I hadn’t even realized we had finished crossing and were already walking around the other side of the lake. I was so distracted that it was Naomi leading the way while I followed behind.

The thing that finally made me pay attention again was when I noticed we were walking down a path that I had stopped taking long ago “Where are you going?” I asked Naomi who was a few steps ahead of me.

She pointed at a building that was just ahead of us “You said we needed to go to the butchers shop right? Well isn’t that a butcher right there?”

My eyes followed her finger to where she was pointing. And it was a butcher, only it was one that I purposely went out of my way to ignore. Of course I didn’t blame her for not knowing “It is. But that’s not the one we are going to. That one wont have what we need.”

As her mouth opened to say something I had already taken my first step in the direction of the other butcher across town. She hurriedly caught up to me now that I was the one taking the lead. When she was by my side, she said “Okay… then let’s go to the place you want to.” while a bit puzzled about my response to the shop.

When walking away I took a quick glance at the store to ensure no one in there had seen us. And while there was no people in sight, Lily’s owl had been perched on the roof of the shop with his eyes following us. It was just as unnerving as every other interaction I had with him so far, but given the family he was summoned into, being treated coldly was expected.

Unfortunately the way I responded in front of the shop lead to the atmosphere between me and Naomi being a bit awkward. Her eyes were no longer watching the familiars but were instead on me. I wasn’t sure if she was reading my emotions or not. Though if she had been, my feeling of heartache towards a building would have probably confused her.

Since she hadn’t known what the deal with me was, she kept looking in my arms to Hama. The two were clearly having a conversation as I lead them the rest of the way around town. My life wasn’t really a secret, though I still wasn’t sure if he would tell her everything about it.

Their private conversation lasted all the way until we arrived at the butcher shop I would usually buy my meat from. Only they were so deep in conversation that they hadn’t even realized we had arrived. But that was probably for the better. My nerves had returned and I was anxiously standing in front of the shop. It was like I had a mental block that wouldn’t allow me to go in.

After a moment of my standing there, Naomi had noticed I was stalling and broke off from her conversation with Hama to check on me “Why are you stopping? Do you have an issue with this butchers shop as well?”

I would of laughed if my self confidence wasn’t low “No, I was just thinking… what if it’s not true and I’m not able to use blood magic? I don’t want to waste any resources for anyone else.”

Hama barked, which prompted Naomi to give me a soft punch on the arm. I stared at her with a puzzled look on my face, then her eyes widened and she began frantically waving her hands in front of her “Sorry! But he told me to knock some sense into you because you were being a dummy!”

The look of panic in her eyes after doing that helped bring my mood up. It was clear the punch was supposed to be playful, so I wasn’t upset at all “Don’t worry, I’m not mad at you. Maybe a bit at Hama though.” I glare at him in my arms and he looks away as if he didn’t do anything.

She lets out a big breath and nods at me. Though she can still sense my apprehension. So she steps closer to me and lightly holds my hand with the tips of her fingers “Everything is going to be fine. After you use your Blood magic for the first time, you’re going to be so happy that you’re not going to know what to do with yourself. Then I’m going to give you a great big hug as an I told you so.”

The way that she spoke to me always felt so comforting. Even with her hand just barely holding onto mine, there was a tingling feeling inside of me. I suspected these feelings were being caused by her secretly using her magic on me. Which was a nice gesture, so I figured I wouldn’t let on that I knew what she was doing.

But I couldn’t even look her in the face anymore without smiling. It was a completely foreign feeling to me. Over the last few years I had done so little smiling that the muscles in my face felt like they were being strained. Whatever she was doing seemed to be working great on me.

With me getting red in the face over a simple holding of the hand, I hadn’t even realized the person approaching us “Evelyn, is that you?” it was surprising enough to make me jump and rip my hand away from Naomi.