I have already explained that I wasn’t a well developed girl, but apparently there are men that like that. Problem is, I also wasn’t experienced, but there are also men that seem to like that. It took hardly any time, and only a few terrifying nights and I had the experience. And, while I was learning that, I was also learning about my scorpion and why he had come to me. Again, that is for later as my next hard lesson took me away from my ‘new profession’ and to another important chapter of my life. You see, the house I was living in didn’t teach their girls, but assumed that girls knew how to handle things. As I hadn’t known how to handle men I also didn’t know how to handle what came from ‘handling men’. The life in the house was fairly easy for the girls that brought in money, so I had a fairly ‘easy’ couple of months before the house mother noticed that I was gaining weight. She cancelled my appointments and scared me as she hauled me out to the local herbalist, Angelina. The house mother left me with Angelina with no explanation. I thought I was being sold and was really angry ‘cause I hadn’t been allowed to gather my stuff, or the money that I had hoarded.
Angelina must have noticed my attitude. She explained the details of men and women, and reproduction. She lowered her voice and asked if I wanted to carry the child or end it. I think it was her quiet that terrified me the most, but I hadn’t even thought of such things. My child could be from any of the men, from Chert to, well, any of them. I ended the pregnancy, regretting things but realizing that I couldn’t provide a life for a child. Then I asked about future prevention. Angelina taught me the simple herbal recipe to prevent any children until I was ready to start a family. I didn’t know if the day would ever arrive, but who knows. Nothing is impossible!
I must have impressed Angelina with my skill at mixing thing. She asked many questions and explained some of her other recipes. I learned that she wasn’t just an herbalist, but also a bit of an alchemist. She couldn’t create magical potions, but had learned to put together things like tinder twigs and such. She sent a message back to the house and asked that I be allowed to apprentice with her. I returned to the house, lying, pretending that I wanted to keep my child, and gathered my things.
My apprenticeship also allowed Cervie to train me in my true calling as a witch. I learned to wake early and meditate with him which allowed him to impart spells into my mind. At first he allowed me just a simple orison, or cantrip, then another. Eventually he showed me a first level spell. I learned that the orisons would stay in my mind after casting so I could use them all day. But the higher spells fled from my mind immediately when I used them. He also taught me my first hex. A hex is a power unique to Witches. Some are similar to orisons and can target others and be used over and over. Some are personal. Cervie taught me to use my power to heal, then, when I asked for more, he taught me to use it to strengthen a persons ability to protect themself.
While I was with Angelina I had occasion to need some money. She started to pay with her own money but I explained that I had some gold from my time in the house. We had a lengthy discussion, covering the ‘work’ that I had done at the house and how the money was supposed to have been divided. She got quite angry at the amount of gold that I had and explained about the price of the work that I had been doing. At first I wanted to charge over to the house and demand fair payment. Fortunately Angelina was able to stop me and teach me about better planning. She asked what I planned to do if they refused and I almost displayed my magical powers. Cervie tapped the back of my neck letting me know not to do that, so I just stood there with my mouth open. Angelina took my lack of an answer as my acceptance of her thinking.
Apparently Angelina had felt that the house was not being run fairly for some time and she had a grudge. She had worked at a ‘house’ earlier in her career and had also been cheated. The house had been destroyed so she never had her chance at revenge, but she carried a grudge. She had learned her current trade and traded with the houses looking for information and a way back inside, not as an employee but as a way to make things better for the working girls. I worked with Angelina for days, going over the floor plans and schedules of everyone in the house. We also worked to create acid flasks and a couple flasks of alchemist’s fire. I was finally granted permission from Cervie to explain about my magical powers, explaining that maybe I could use a sleep spell to incapacitate a few of the men that I felt might be innocent and not worthy of killing.
The day finally arrived and Angelina sat with me and Cervie while I meditated to get my spells. We headed to town with an excuse of restocking the house’s supplies. The day had been chosen because we felt we had the least resistance to taking the head off of the beast. The plan started out perfectly. Angelina explained that I was along learning the tricks of her trade. The excuse got us all of the way to the office where the boss remembered my pregnancy. That thought made him understand that maybe things weren’t quite what they seemed. Realizing that the plan needed updating, Angelina yelled and threw her flask of alchemist’s fire at the boss. While Angelina finished him off, I cast sleep on the guard, then turned and watched for reinforcements, putting them to sleep too. One of them wasn’t one of the ‘good men’, so after he was asleep I slit his throat. When the last guard arrived, seeing the carnage, Angelina held an acid flask up and told him to choose his side wisely.
Angelina had been wounded in her struggle, and I surprised her and myself by using a healing hex on her. Once we straightened out things with the guards, we hid the bodies until we could get them out of town and took over the running of the house. We met with all of the girls and lied telling them that the house had been sold to Angelina, and that any of them that wanted to stay would be treated better, or at least paid better. Once the ‘takeover’ had settled down, all but one girl stayed on. Angelina and I searched the office and found that there were really good records, and, quite a large amount of gold. Angelina was going to split it evenly, but I just asked for my fair share. I had decided that it was time to search out proper training for my powers.