Chapter 116 - The Highway To (buroucracy) Hell

Elder Elena wasn't really that old. Just on the younger side of her fifties, by my rough estimate. She had all fashion choices of a person who knew that they weren't in their best years anymore, though: wavy dull-brown hair cut to her chin, a blouse without a hint of bright colours, and pale pink lipstick that could've as well not be there. Maybe she was actually just in her forties, and I only thought she was in her fifties because of all that.

At the sight of me, Elena beamed with both politeness and genuine joy and stood up from her desk to greet me. "Ah, Diana! I'm so glad you found time to get there, after all. I wanted to give you a tour of the grounds and discuss the details of your membership. For now, let me get your medallion."

"Medallion?" I asked, watching Elena hustle around cupboards of her office desk. She opened one with a key she fished out of her pocket and pulled out a chain with something dangling from it. I walked up to her to take a better look.

"Yes. It's a sign of membership in our coven. You aren't required to wear it at all times, only at ceremonies, but they could be used as identifications. This one already has your name at it and my seal."

Elena put the medallion on her palm and brought it closer to me. From closer on, I saw that both the medallion and the chain they were hanging from were made from silver. I took it from Elena and inspected both sides of the jewellery.

It wasn't big or heavy. If I used a banana for scale, the medallion would be smaller than the cross section of it. It was a delicate, stylised bird composed in a silver ring, singing some silent melody. On the other, flat side of the medallion, were etched my full name and a tiny picture of the same bird.

A pretty thing that would fit well with my typical fashion choices. I didn't think I would wear it that often, though, but for now, I put it on as a show of good faith.

"Is there a particular reason these are made from silver?" I wondered aloud, raising my eyes to Elena again. She shrugged, waving her hand in the air dismissively.

"Gold is too garish of a metal, but anything less than silver for a status symbol is too small for an established coven like Nightingale. Though if you want, another metal can be arranged…"

"No, no." I hurriedly shook my head. "I was just asking."

I didn't tell her about the time I took a habit of wearing tons of silver jewellery near JJ out of fear of him biting me without being asked to. That felt like an eternity away… And eventually JJ explained to me that silver only hurt vampires when it pierced their skin. Then it would poison their blood, rendering it inert and unusable, which was the primary danger of wounds made by silver weapons. It slowed their healing, too.

But I was still on avoiding bringing together my vampire acquaintances with my witch ones. And considering that I still had just normal, human friends… Even if I had little time to spend with them lately… I was living not just a double life, but a triple one! Good thing that I was so great in compartmentalising.

"Well then, if we are done now, how about that tour then? And after this I'd like you to fill in an information form. Every new member does that. Or you can do the form first?.."

Now it was my turn to shrug. "Let's start with the tour, I guess." Not that I planned to spend a lot of time around, but if that tour had a library on its way, I was all in.

"Great!" Elena beamed at me again. She was thrilled to have me here. That she offered to show me around personally was just another part of it. I let out a tiniest sigh. I would never be able to get any decent friends around here if it goes on like that. Teacher's pet… No, headmaster's pet, that's who I will be.

⠀⠀

The Nightingale Coven's headquarters had not just a library, but also two resting lounges (one of which was also a lobby and the main hall and the biggest room of the building), a gym, a kitchen, a mess hall, a dormitory (a luxurious one, not to be mixed with a crap my (put on hold) college stuffed people in), a treasury, a laboratory and a safe room. And these were only the most important parts.

The library attracted my attention first, of course. It had books, it had computers… I was more focused on the books, though. To my disappointment, though, what seemed like a magnificent collection at first turned out to be not as impressive when Elena explained that half of these were just mundane natural sciences books. Useful to know when doing magic, yes—but I could get them anywhere.

Laboratory was more interesting. It wasn't anything like a scientific one. Instead, it was just an empty, cold and quiet room with heavy walls and a lot of insulation from anything, on magical and physical levels both. Witches used it to analyse and create spells without distractions from outside world, and in case anything went explosively wrong.

From the rest of the rooms, the only one that took my attention was the kitchen, and that only because the cook was happy to share some snacks with my hungry stomach. Thankfully, Elena didn't throw long speeches on the history of gym lockers and soon enough we got back to her office, where she invited me to sit and pulled out a threateningly thick stack of paper.

One glance at it was enough to make the fingers on my right hand to hurt. I discreetly checked the time on my phone. Late-ish, but not too late yet. I raised my eyes to see Elena evening the papers with a few sharp pats. I swallowed.

"Are these the forms I'm supposed to fill?"