Chapter Text
Chapter 1 : A young girl walked silently through a back alley, the moon light shone over it, the walls of the alley preventing any natural light from shining in, the only few bits of light being sparse lighting shining from street lamps along the alley. The alley was filled with trash bins and doors lined it that lead to stores, apartments and homes. Windows lined the walls as well with some shining light upon the alley and its cracked pavement.
The girl whose name was Cyn, was wearing a long white sundress with strips of yellow at the ends of the sleeves. She also had black shiny dress shoes that clicked against the ground and the little bit of her leg that might have shown under the dress was covered by white-yellow striped socks. Her hair was a strange shade of silver white except the ends which shone a more natural blonde. Upon her head was a large white sun hat that proudly carried a black bow. It hid her upper face under its shadow though her yellow-gold eyes shone from under the hat and a large smile was upon her freckled face. White lace gloves covered her hands.
Cyn walked strangely as-although her legs were numb, her hands rested at her side as she went but they were never straight instead remaining bent in all cases. She moved somewhat hurriedly down the alley, at least as fast as she could go without tripping or hurting herself with the way she moved. Every so often she would slow down and study a wall before moving on. Suddenly it seemed although she found what she was looking for, she stopped, a blank white wall staring back at her. She glanced both ways then leaned forwards towards it and spoke words filled with magic. Instantly and almost out of nowhere an elder, carved oaken door appeared in front of her, its bronze knob shining slightly.
“Sigh.” Cyn spoke strangely saying the action before doing it, she opened the door with a hint of reluctance but stepped inside. The place Cyn entered was a Magic store, but it was the least organized one she's ever seen. Items cluttered the shelves with random appearance and no order, spell books rested against boxes of pens and inks spilled forth from behind plants. The whole place shifted as the orbs of fire illuminated it all warped and moved across the ancient roof. In fact the whole place must have been as old as the city itself, the whole building carved from creaking oak with carvings of impressive skill showing in every piece. Cyn began moving down the center aisle studying each shelf as she went looking for incense and an ink pot but was unsuccessful in her attempts. “Giggle.” Honestly to Cyn the whole thing was humorous and she found herself enjoying her new adventure. “Do you need any help!?” a voice shouted from the back of the store, muffled by all the items and distance but still loud. “Gasp!” Cyn exclaimed, shocked by the suddenness of the voice. She looked around for a moment. “Head shake.” she shook her head as if reorienting herself. She began moving deeper into the store and soon entered into a wider area with two tables against the left wall and a counter with a door behind it, next to the tables against the back wall. The counter carried an old copper register, paper and an old wooden pen.
Behind it sat a middle aged man, he was wearing a lily-blue buttoned shirt with white flowers dancing across it. An old worn leather belt held up tan jeans. He smiled at Cyn from behind a white mustache. His eyes widened as he saw Cyn. “oh! Pardon me, I wasn't expecting nobility today.” The man stood up and gave her a small bow.
“Giggle, i-I'm not noble.” Cyn responded with her eyes hidden by her sun-hat, she returned the bow with a small curtsy and stepped up to the counter. Her stutter showing in her attempt to speak.
“Are you sure?” the man asked. studying her again. “A girl dresses as nice as you? You're not noble?” The man reached up and ran a hand through his hair.
“N-no not noble, j-just got some rich r-relatives. I like dressing-nice.” she said, her smile growing.
“Eh fair enough can't blame a girl for wanting to look nice. So what do you need?” The man leaned against the counter smiling in both a real and practiced way.
Cyn studded the man from behind her sun-hat for a moment. “I n-need an ink pot and I-incense.”
“Sure miss, what kind of Incense?” The man quickly straightened his body and spun the wooden pen into his hand writing down the items in a tiny notebook pulled from a shirt pocket.
Cyn thought for a second. “R-rosemary.” She followed the man with her eyes as he headed out of the counter and stalked down one of the isles, returning after a moment with a box of incense and a silver sealable ink pot. He placed them down on the counter and glanced at the price tags of the items, clearly this store did not use modern electronics.
“62 dollars is your total Miss!” He said with the excitement of a salesman, once again resting himself on the counter.
Cyn froze for a moment. ‘A bit much…’ She thought but still she reached into a hidden pocket in her dress and pulled out her wallet, a small sunflower acting as its seal. She took out the rough amount and handed it to the man who smiled at it.
He counted the total before opening the registar with a sound of moving coins, she placed the money in it and took out Cyns change handing it to her. “You know… ive never seen you here before… Are you new in town?”
Cyn nodded with a slight bob of her head. “Head n-nod. I just came I-in yesterday.” She took the change from the man and put it in her wallet moving it back inside her pocket.
“Well i thank you for coming here first, it's not often a lone witch comes into town to stay.” he chucked. “For the first time I have new gossip, eh?”
“Giggle.” Cyn agreed with the man, it was rare for a lone witch to exist at all today. Most witches and wizards existed in covens nowadays, staying rooted in one place and teaching their magic to each other like a family or a public school. Cyn however belonged to no coven or group of witches.
“You can call me Mr.Broodsson Miss, if i may ask what's your name?” Mr.Broodsson handed Cyn her items, she took them, stuffing them in her hidden pockets.
“Cyn.” was her simple response, Cyn had a longer version of her name, that being Cynthia. But honestly she preferred Cyn.
“Well then Miss Cyn, what school of magic do you study?” Cyn froze at this question but quickly recovered.
“...Light m-magic.” This was a lie and Cyn knew it, having practiced this exact situation in her head and in real life many times. Cyns real form of magic was hidden, known as evil and forbidden and the only reason she had left her old town was because people had found out and she had to flee.
The man, however, nodded, not noticing Cyns' hidden fear. “Well then Miss Cyn i hope your night will be well and hope to receive your patronage soon again.” Mr.Broodsson held out a hand for Cyn to shake.
Cyn stared at the hand offered to her. “Umm, s-sorry i d-don't…” she started.
“Not in the shaking mood eh? Fair enough.” Mr.Broodsson retracted his hand, his smile never leaving his face.
“T-thank you, I hope your n-night is good t-too… Wave.” Cyn waved as she began walking towards the entrance, Mr.Broodsson waved back.
Cyn stepped out into the cold alleyway again. “Sigh.” She looked down both ways of it, closing the door before stepping away from it, then she braced. With a wet ripping and tearing a pair of large dragon-like wings shot out from her back, they dripped with blood and Cyn let out a gasp of pain as they did. A tail soon followed, long and ending in a large black scorpion like hook. Both the Wings and tail shone red as they dripped with blood but soon the dripping slowed leaving a puddle on the group and revealing their true form, grey flesh like that of a corpse covered them, stretching thinly across both her tail and wings. So thin in fact that parts of it had torn revealing tendon and bone, white and clean.
Cyn moved them both for a moment testing them. “Giggle, Cyn w-why did your m-magic have to be this o-one?” Cyn moved her gaze to an arm lifting the sleeve to reveal long stitches that traveled up her arm breaking and connecting to each other seemling randomly but with one center stitch running up the whole length of it. She let the sleeve fall again covering the stitches.
“W-well Cyn any magic I-is better then n-non.” Cyn smiled again to herself. The fact that she was a flesh witch didn't have to put her down after all. So what if she was part of a group that created monsters, tortured and sometimes ate other humans to survive? As far as Cyn was concerned the only thing that mattered was that she was happy, full of silliness and able to consume her mangos.
Cyn let out another giggle. “Takeoff!” Cyn said excitedly, with a powerful beat of her wings she was airborne and flying above the sprawling city, its lights dancing below her. Cyn was confident that at this time of night no one in the whole of Copper 9 would notice her. Cyn sped up moving north, towards the wooded hills that surrounded the city, the wind rushed past her and she laughed, this is why she loved her magic.
Cyn landed upon a dirt road in front of a darkened cabin. The only light that shone through the dense forest was the pale half moons light. She stepped towards the cabin unlocking it with a key she took from her pockets. The inside revealed a small barren hallway that led to a kitchen with doors on both the left and right sides of the hallway. She removed her dress shoes as she entered, leaving them next to a pair of sneakers and leather boots.
She stepped off the wooden entrance way and turned towards the door on the right keeping her wings and tail behind her as she entered her bedroom. It was, like the wallway, barren with only a small one person bed under a window, a nightstand setting against it and a dresser against the left wall. She turned to the dresser and emptied her pockets placing her keys, wallet, incense and brand new ink pot upon it, next to a sharp blood-stained pen and a notebook.
Cyn sprung out of her clothes easily revealing the stitches that danced across the whole of her body besides her head, neck, hands and feet. With a sickening noise Cyn retracted her wings and tail back into herself bracing as they did, she then put on a large yellow t-shirt with a mango on it and a set of yellow shorts on in order to sleep.
Cyn spun towards her bed and jumped onto it, messing up the large white blanket as she did. “Shuffle.” She wiggled her way under the blanket before turning to the nightstand and grabbing a laptop.
Cyn was blessed in many ways, Cynthia Ajla Elliot was part of the Elliot family although only distantly and honestly Cyn couldn't remember how she was related, well to be fair Cyn couldn't remember much about her life before she was twelve, not even her parents.
Luckily for Cyn also this cabin had been cheap, apparently both a murder and double suicide had taken place here which made be seen as cursed, of course Cyn hadnt seen any demons yet and if she did she would just get some Priest of Imam to take care of them. The only downside of the cabin being the fact that it was far removed from the rest of the city but luckily again there was a nearby hiking trail that ran down to a neighborhood where she managed to get enrolled into the local highschool. All she had to do to get there was walk a good forty minutes to and down the trail.
But anyway being Elliot meant she received monthly payments, they weren't enough on their own in order to pay for everything which is why Cyn did a bit of freelance programming on the side.
If there was anything Cyn was good at besides being silly and her magic, it was programming. She booted up her laptop checking her emails and sites of work for any updates, after being satisfied that at the moment there was nothing new for her she shut it down and placed it back upon her nightstand.
Cyn buried herself deeper into her bed and blankets before shutting off her lamp allowing the room to fall into darkness and soon falling asleep.