every day a little sting

[wildkingdom]

Comments

[rehire]

Once I know everyone's safe, I'll be on a plane back to New York. Answers I'm looking for aren't here.

( He's been in the wrong place at the wrong time. )

And Monroe losing her foothold will mean something to my clients. My work's already doubled.

[transientem]

Guess it's a good time to be a lawyer for the supernatural.

[And since David wasn't super specific about an end date for this:]

If it's all the same to you, I'll stick around until you get on that plane. Just to cover our bases.

[rehire]

It's been a long time since I've had a witchsitter.

( Wait a second. )

What do you know about ancient spellwork?

[transientem]

It's been a bit of a niche interest lately.

[She tips her head to the side curiously.]

Why?

[rehire]

How about a damnum essentia.

( He senses her motive here (12) )

[transientem]

[There's a brief look of interest, though it's hard to say whether she wants to obtain the artifact or study it (13).]

Heard of them. Never had the chance to take one apart.

[rehire]

Would there be a reason a low-level first tier hunter would have one on them, much less would use it.

( Something so ancient. )

[transientem]

By accident? They were unfortunate enough to stumble onto one and figured out how it worked. Those things don't come with an instruction manual and if you're not careful you've got a pretty nifty magic bomb on your hands.

[A beat.]

Or, someone who did know what they're doing, found it and gave it to them on purpose.

[rehire]

Knowing it could fall into their idea of the wrong hands.

( Door two does make more sense. )

From what I heard, you don't just stumble onto a damnum essentia. They're stored or made.

[transientem]

Theoretically, yeah. But we don't know how many of them were ever made, given how ancient the spell is, and hunters have gotten crafty. Sure, some of them are chucklefucks like these assholes, but the real scholars? The ones who can build curse boxes? They'll hold on to this shit for years until they can figure out what it is and how to destroy it. Their life expectancy may be shit, but if they don't have friends to pass that on to, their stashes of magic items could remain buried for years.

[She would know. She's raided some of them.]

As for making them - well, there's only one coven that's got the means to do that. And I can't see those stuck up assholes deigning to stooping to helping hunters like this unless there was something huge in it for them.

[rehire]

If this is the dedication a follower of Monroe would employ, scholars would be few.

( How much influence she carries... They don't know. )

What would a rogue member of that coven get from putting that into the hands of an every day hunter?

[transientem]

That depends on what they want.

[Which can be hard to pin down with most witches on a good day.]

A witch competitor out of the way, without your hands being tied to it would be my best guess but ... there are many varied reasons. I might need more context.

[rehire]

The witch in question was captured, rescued and then had her magic returned. If that was what they wanted, then that process was sped up.

( He considers. )

It sounds like a shot in the dark.

[transientem]

... Not necessarily.

[This is a very interesting set of scenarios, she will have to dig into this later in her off time.]

Witch spells are all about timing. Especially big ones. You have a limited window to pull something off. So even if the witch in question might have gotten their magic back, if interference during that window would have been a problem, then it probably was what they wanted.

[rehire]

( There was another spell going on. Maybe it was about timing.

He too has some things to think about. But, less to go on than he expected. )

Thanks for letting me pick your brain.

[transientem]

No problem.

[She's happy to help.]

If you need to pick it some more, you know where to find me.