2

'So, you’re going to be there for a while then, huh?' Rinny is intrigued, knowing I travel constantly, only touching home for brief short stays before heading out into the elusive quest for purpose over and over. Never before have I shown an interest in setting down a more permanent stay in one place that was not home, so I understand her intrigue.

'I will be here as long as I feel I need too, so don't pack light. I just spent some weeks with a pack of lycanthrope and their problems so it’s time to get back to my own. I have a feeling that Newark is a place I am supposed to be right now. Cora has been following me with a white raven.'

'Cora? Isn't she some damned little wild witch from east of the Rhine? She has barely the power to grow a fungus let alone trail the mighty Leyanne.' Rinny snorted, unconcealed dislike for any other witches in my domain. Her cute loyal love for me shining through.

'Shut up, you're showing your age, Rinny dear. They don't refer to those parts as East of the Rhine anymore. It's Germany now. Not a particularly magical name but it suits the modern humans, I guess.'

'I am well aware, darling, but habits die hard when you pass a thousand years old, luvvie. I don’t know why they have to keep changing things when our old ways and names were perfectly fine.'

'Cora leaving the shores of safety to trail after me are a most definite sign that something is centering where I am. My skin is almost crawling with the buzz I feel around me and the energy in this place is heavy. Newark is meant to be some centre of earth point of interest from tribal rituals or some nonsense and for the first time I can actually taste it.' I point out, shivering slightly even though I am not cold but this place has felt eerie since I got here.

'Nonsense? Says the witch!' Rinny laughed at my exclamation. Always amused when I debunk anything of supernatural origin as though I am a non-believer.

'As I have mentioned many a time, darling girl, most rituals and brews practiced by our modern kin are far disengaged from reality. They lost touch with the crafts and they were lost in legends, myths, and inventions. Most covens couldn't cast a realistic protection spell if their lives depended on it. Older kin are in hiding and most teachings are flawed, embellished, and those who have a modicum of skill and left-over magic only do so by fluke. They have no idea how much their own lack of knowledge hinders them.' My own impatience at this touchy subject is showing, it’s one topic which leaves a sour taste in my mouth. The world is losing it’s abilities and the immortals are becoming fewer. Soon I may be the only one left among a human race.

'You used to teach them, Leyanne, maybe that was your purpose all along?' We both sigh unanimously at her reminder of something I will never do again.

'Look how that turned out? All my students wiped out over years of witch hunts and killings, those left in hiding too afraid to seek me out and even more terrified to pass down any real knowledge. The ones like Cora I have helped along the way, have only the basic of skills. Magick is dying and so is the art form of spell conjuring.'

'You have been flailing all these years, looking for something that might not even exist. Your purpose was maybe just that. To enlighten those with gifts and help those hiding in the darkest cracks.' Rinny's tone is almost that of pleading, a soft warmth creeping in that is rarely ever evident. Hints that true feelings run between us after all. Sometimes I sense her genuine care for me and wonder if I reciprocate it or I just find her useful and familiar.

'Help those in the darkness? Are you insane....? You may be one of those dark creatures, Rinny, but I would not help any of them come to the light and walk freely among the mortals. Do you not remember the last time they ran free in the human world? They should stay in their lanes.' I shudder at the memories of the world torn up by immortals at war with one another with humans dying in droves at their hands. The gods sent down chaos and played with lives and did nothing to intervene.

'They had no limits, no repercussions. You could police it this time, you're more powerful with every year you live upon this earth.'

'And what of those in the light? Those who are equally afraid to show true form? How will they react to me bringing the monsters out to play?' She’s making me tense, irritation evident in my voice at this over argued topic. Rinny's undying loyalty to my kind always at the forefront of everything despite no longer walking in the darkness with them.

'You know how this works.... light and dark, an equal balance to keep things in check.' She reminds me, throwing my own words about balance back at me.

'Things are in check now, with immortals hiding from mortals, and witches powers held at bay. Maybe my purpose is to ensure all supernatural stays dampened down until man completely eradicates all of us with breeding. Maybe that is all of our destinies, to eventually disappear.' Even if my gut says otherwise and keeps leading me on wild goose hunts.

'You don't believe that any more than I do, you would not still be hunting for your purpose in this life if you did. You would be kicking it back and enjoying immortality with hot young human men and eternal youth.' Rinny breaks the tension with a childish giggle, a laugh that always endears her to me. So out of place for a creature who once fed on human souls and creeped in the dankest of places. Rinny’s journey to being what she is now has been long and arduous.

'Maybe I got bored of doing that, besides, I always found the Lychans to be a far more enjoyable race of young men. They may bite but they definitely have more stamina.' My voice is low and laden with a smutty hoarseness, reminding me of my last few weeks dealing with that furry kind. Living with them and figuring out how to break through a magical fog and overthrow a power hungry Lychan is enough to keep me away form them for a while despite my words. The smell is still lingering around me despite multiple baths and cute as some of them were, Lychans can be excessively needy with the whole mate for life thing.

'You're making me feel physically sick. Those wet dog smelling beasts! There is nothing of this earth which would push me in the direction of a Lychan as a lover.' Rinny snorted in outrage. Her repulsion and anger most venomous when it pertains to her mortal enemy. Rinny is a species snob.

'Oh come on, Rinny, they’re practically your cousins are they not? One of them was actually a wolf shifter cross…. Probably related to you. Latino girl named Meadow. Does it ring a bell?' I tease her, knowing how to press her buttons, laughing at her reaction. Enjoying her riled up energy after the stuffy few days of boredom here.

'Changing form is our only similarity, but I am far beyond the skills of some mutt with big teeth. I’m a wolf shifter and not some ugly vile creature with a thirst for violence that can’t control their lust.' She sulks and I can imagine her little pouty face. All cute and chubby and looking like an extra from a manga comic.

'I love how your hatred of the Lycanthrope never wavers; you love them almost as much as you love the Angelics. Of which there were twin crosses too. You really should visit the valley where the Santo pack dwell, such an interesting mix of lychans.'

'Pahh, don't talk to me of those self-righteous glowing freaks. Humans being dumb enough to mistake them as angels has only inflated their stupid egos. I hope they all drop form the sky like dead flies.'

I’m the one to giggle this time, at her aggressive and immature response. The Angelics are commonly mistaken by humans as some godly guardians, with their white skin and hair and impressive wings. They tend to hide in mountains and high places to avoid all human contact but on occasion when they have been seen, the mortals think it’s a biblical event. Rinny had her heart broken by a shifter who had chosen an Angelic girl who could fly, over her, so it is still a raw subject even after two hundred years.

'Well as fun as this is, stirring up all of your old trauma, darling, I have actual things to be getting on with. Call me when everything is ready to ship, I am off in search of a more permanent abode. The Clairmont's guest house is too twee for any long-term settling and they are too nosey for me to really get my groove on.' I adjust my clothes absentmindedly, somehow readying myself to end the call. I don’t do small chat often as I see no point in it and she has nothing worth listening too in terms of gossip in her life. I have no interest in others.

'What are you going to do about Cora?' Rinny cuts into my thoughts once more, stopping my goodbye from progressing.

'Let her come to me. I don’t think she’s working alone. The witch only has the ability to watch and spy, if she wants anything more insightful then she will need to come face me and then I'll see how I feel. Maybe I will have use for any coven sisters she's collected along the way if I set up a home here for a while.' I click my fingers at my ravens to get them moving. Letting them know I’m leaving.

'I would say stay safe, Leyanne, but we both know the only ones in danger are the people who cross your path..... Instead I shall say have fun.' Rinny smiles down the phone, that hint of darkness in her always simmering, probably the reason we two women connected in the first place. She doesn’t abhor my cold heart and I find her more interesting than moral high grounders.

'The moon is fullest tonight, do not forget your ritual, Rinny, it's all that keeps your darkest demons at bay.' The friendly reminder is also that of a warning, my tone serious. I do not have the energy nor inclination to have to claw that girl back from the other side once more and sort her out like I had to once before. She was a beast to deal with.

'I never skip it, a wise witch saved me from myself and her advice is followed to the letter.' Her own tone softens and that warmth is back once more. The genuine thanks for what I have done for her.

'Goodbye, sister.' This is how she likes to end our chats, the term that pleases her. It makes her feel like she has family in this world which has bene a cold dark place for her for centuries.

'Goodbye.' Her voice holds affection and softness.

I hang up the phone and slide it back into the pocket of my tunic, twisting my long pendants together and fiddling with the bangles and charms I always surrounded myself with as I think thing through. I watch the forest around me and let the pieces settle into a somewhat haphazard placement. The wind is lower now but the sun still high and the temperature is of a late summer. I can feel the presence of many a fallen soul around me here yet none that stand out prouder than the rest. Nothing of interest is here and I’m already bored.

With a throw of my dark hair over my shoulder, a kick of my shoe to stomp out the foliage trying to bind to my legs, I head back towards the main road and the search for an abode while I stay here.