Chapter 112 - A Call Home

What's the difference between a coven and a corporation? When you get fired from a coven, instead of the streets, you go straight to Hell instead!

It wasn't the best joke on my internal scale of humour, but it came to my head all on its own as I kept listening to everyone's invitations to their covens. And when I say "everyone's" it means every single coven that was inviting at all—and the ones that didn't invite looked like they would do it later, personally.

It was in their eyes, in their speeches, in their offers. These people… no matter how much each coven claimed themselves to be a family, they had as much love for their people as big corporations. Orion Coven might've liked to use me as a reason to brag around—I saw them do that even now, as they watched from the crowd—but they had some honest friendship to offer, too.

But not the bigger covens. These looked like snake pits. Sadly, I needed one of them to aid me in my studies, and that meant picking one and abusing them before they could abuse me.

I took a deep breath, sifting through the heap of wreaths in my hands. In the end, I couldn't remember which was the right one and just walked towards the coven I chose with all the wreaths still in my hands.

Nightingale Coven. It wasn't the biggest, the richest, or the most prestigious (in fact, it was on the lower end of all the above), but it was based in Petersburg—which meant no moving out of the city—and their HR guy appeared to be on a better side. Now I just had to negotiate terms I needed. One thing I had to remember was that they needed me more than I needed them. If they refused, there were dozens of covens ready to agree to whatever I said.

"You want to join us?" the HR witcher asked with a hopeful gleam in his eyes. He didn't have any assistants with him, unlike most other covens.

"I'd like to discuss terms first. Quickly, since there is still someone waiting…" I turned to glance at the lone witch who had been left, forgotten, after the hype I created. At this point, she looked somewhere between envious and dead on her feet.

"Of course. Was there anything you wished from our coven?.."

"First, I don't want to live in your coven's domain. I have my own house and I want to stay there," I said, lifting a finger, only to be immediately interrupted.

"But that's… That's dangerous. I imagine that living on someone else's territory wasn't a problem for you before, but members of the bigger covens, like Nightingale, have to stay protected. With fame and power come many enemies, you must understand," the HR witcher smiled uneasily.

I nodded. "I do understand. But, I have my own agreements of protection, and I will bear responsibility for whatever happens because of living outside of your territory, but it's not negotiable."

"Alright, well, that would be… inconvenient in emergencies… but, ah, of course. Was there anything else you'd like to point out?"

I bit my lip, thinking. The deal with big covens and new members was pretty simple. They would give their members money to spend on a luxurious lifestyle and plenty of opportunities to live like a VIP. In return, coven members had to follow orders of the coven's leader, which had varied degrees of restrictiveness.

In short, most witches in covens acted as soldiers that protected coven's assets, and as agents to increase its influence. Of course, there were other roles, but these were entry-level stuffs. As an ultra super duper mega rare arch-witch, I had offers of more important positions, which… Held no appeal to me. I had my own responsibilities to think about.

"I just want to study magic, do my own business, and be left as alone as possible. Alright?"

The HR witcher's head bobbed up and down without even a moment of hesitation. "Of course!"

"Well then," I reached out towards him with my heap of wreaths. "Please, help me pick out which one of these is yours."

⠀⠀

"I… I don't even know what to say. Perhaps, I should start with my most sincere congratulations. Arch-witches… I'd never imagine you would turn out to be one of them. Ah, don't take this in a wrong way, ma chèrie…"

I laughed at my phone. I wished I could see the emotions on JJ's face that I could hear in his voice: the astonishment, the sheepishness… I wished I could see his smile again. But, I still had an entire way to the Petersburg to go, and I didn't even gathered my things together yet.

"Don't worry, JJ! I'd never imagine it either if I didn't learn about their existence about at the same time someone told me I might just turn out to be one. Now everyone here looks at me like at the goose that laid golden eggs or something."

"Be careful out there," JJ's tone grew more sombre. "A fame is a double-edged sword. I don't think I need to tell you all this, but I'm still afraid that someone will strike at you out of envy."

"I will be," I promised. "I will even travel with my new coven, so no one will pick at me during this nightmarish track. Ugh, my legs feel like someone poured molten lead inside." I yawned. "And I didn't sleep since yesterday."

From the other end of the call came JJ's velvety chuckle. "This pain belongs to a good kind, ma chèrie. It means that you grow stronger. Though if it's too unbearable, try massaging your muscles. Do you remember how I did that?"

Oh, I remembered all right. It was already about thirty degrees Celsius. I didn't need to feel even hotter right now!

"By the way, how are things on your end?" I asked, switching topics. This was something JJ was at ever since last Saturday, and I hoped he had results by now. How long did one need to check on one vamp? "Have you found Christina's place?"