"Your life is your own magnum opus in the crafting. It will not be perfect overnight."

— Mat Auryn, Psychic Witch: A Metaphysical Guide to Meditation, Magick, and Manifestation

☽★☾

Brynn warily positioned herself to face the man head-on, keeping a cautious distance between them. If he decided to attack, she wasn't going to let him surprise her.

"Save the small talk," she spat as Sebastian opened his mouth to speak. "You killed Moonfall. You deserve to die the most painful of deaths."

Sebastian raised an eyebrow, still smiling with amusement. "No need to get feisty with me, girl." His eyes flashed, a single second of rage infested in his gaze, before he recovered his calm expression. "I admit, it was a... shame, that your friend had to die. But, tsk, problems like these must be dealt with, and witchcraft has been a problem in Salem Town for a long time now. Having your friend executed... well, it's an unhappy solution that we hope will bring an end to the issue for good."

Brynn shook her head. "Killing her solved nothing. She— she was a leader, sure, but there are numbers of us that have survived all of your attacks, or that Moonfall saved from the stake yesterday. Some are far more powerful than she ever was." She was bluffing, of course, but she had to give Sebastian a reason to fear her. She had to make him afraid.

"Your friend's strange spell yesterday did hinder my plan," Sebastian admitted. "But we've captured your kind before, and there's nothing that's going to stop us from doing it again. That's only if you give us reason to, of course. We don't want to have to harm you."

"Are you kidding me? You don't—"

Before Brynn could argue, the man shook his head, his expression for a moment losing its amusement and turning completely serious. "Witches have endangered the town for decades. They've become a little rambunctious lately, delving into people's lives when they should be staying hidden. If they were to leave town, or hide away instead of being so public, or if they were to stop revolting, perhaps, there would be no issues whatsoever. We wouldn't need to take such drastic measures if they were to just submit."

Sebastian inclined his head; Brynn hated the way he tipped his chin to literally look down upon her. "Speaking of which, you're the one who spat in my face the other day, weren't you? Yes, I remember you. The one with hair like fire." He stood up from his seat and Brynn immediately tensed, fists clenched as she prepared for fight or flight. The man chuckled softly. "Don't bristle up like a scared pup; it only makes you appear afraid."

Sebastian walked around so that he was standing only a couple of feet from her. "I already told you that it was a shame that so many have to die for a cause like yours. Women aren't meant to speak up like you do; that's not right. If you and your friends were to stop doing that and live by the laws that we've lived with for millennia, I don't think we'd have a problem." The man walked around, his hand coming to rest on one of Brynn's shoulders as he passed behind her. She fought the urge to shudder.

"Funny thing about us witches," she growled through gritted teeth as Sebastian tilted his head to examine her. "We don't like being told what to do. And if we see a problem, we're going to make it known, and we're never going to stop until it's fixed."

"Is that so?" The man murmured in a quiet voice, lips twitching up into a smirk. "Well, we can't have dissent like that in this town. I'm so sorry about this, really." He turned his back to Brynn. She was just leaping for his throat when arms caught her from behind, two of his men gripping her by the shoulders and waist before she could touch a hair on Sebastian's head. She was shoved into a chair, ropes digging into her arms and legs as she was tied up.

"What're you going to do? Burn me? Boring!" Brynn shouted as the ropes cinched tighter around her. "Try thinking of a more unique idea, huh?" She wriggled, trying to escape as she felt her limbs growing more and more trapped. "Ha! And what a dummy; you forgot to tie up my mou—" A rough piece of fabric was shoved into her mouth and tied behind her head. Of course. I'm such an idiot. Brynn tried to curse him out through the gag, but it was no use — all that came out was a muffled mumbling that sounded downright stupid. She settled for squirming in her seat and kicking at whoever's ankles came within her reach.

"Quit trying to resist," Sebastian warned from a safe distance. She glared up at him, wishing that she could telepathically shout at him instead. "You're done for. And as soon as we find your headquarters, you can consider all of your friends wiped out as well." He laughed, a cackling sound that made him sound even more like a Disney villain than he had before. She heard footsteps, then felt breath on her neck as Sebastian sidled up behind her. "It's over," he whispered. And Brynn almost believed him, until a loud crash split the silence.

Both guards in the room were immediately on high alert, approaching the door with their fists balled and ropes in their hands. But the sound hadn't come from the doorway, or the hallway beyond it; it had come from the window. A shadow swept into the room, temporarily blocking out the lantern light. Brynn felt a rush of wind on her skin.

Sebastian let out a cry of bewildered pain as something struck him in the face. The shape of something vaguely basketball-sized disappeared a moment later, revealing the man clutching a bloody nose. A large gash had been cut through his left cheek. Brynn was just beginning to wonder what could have caused such damage when she felt something sharp dig into her shoulder. An owl had perched there, grey feathers ruffled from the ordeal it had just gotten itself into.

Sebastian shouted at the men to kill it, but the owl swooped away before they could lay a hand on it. It flapped up into one of the upper corners of the room before gliding down, pausing in Brynn's lap. As it gained altitude again to narrowly avoid being struck, Brynn realized that the ropes around her chest and arms had been slit; the bird must have cut them with its talons. She wriggled her arms the rest of the way free and ripped the gag from her mouth, coughing for a moment as she choked on her own spit. She then bent down to loosen the ropes at her legs.

As she stood up, giving her legs a quick shake to regain feeling, Brynn watched the owl bank left and then right, dodging Sebastian and his men with ease. It finally perched on a high shelf, lowering its head to casually preen its feathers. It suddenly looked up, its large dark eyes meeting Brynn's. She wasn't sure what it was about this bird, but it meant something to her somehow. It was almost like it was somehow connected to...

"Erebus," Brynn whispered breathlessly. The owl cocked its head to listen. "You're Joan's familiar."