“Perhaps we should begin with why are you here?” Alecto asked, looking into Van’s eyes.

Which was kinda annoying, for Van wanted to ask her that same question. What were two witches doing out here in the middle of nowhere? And in vampire territory for that matter?

But Van did his best to answer, explaining that he was here for training and the events that lead up to him arriving at their little cottage. Leaving a few important details out.

“Now, if you don’t mind my asking, what are You doing here?” Van asked in return.

Alecto studied Van for a few moments before replying. “As you know… my daughter is a soul awakened, apparently like you are.” as if not entirely believing that Van was one as well. “And let's just say… some of the witch clans that comprise our forest… well… they thought that such a unique soul would be very… valuable…”

Van could literally feel the cold that wafted from her chilly demeanor and the way she spoke those words. Agnès looked like she was relieving a few traumatizing memories that she could do without when her mother even slightly hinted as to what might have happened.

“So it’s true…” Van said, nervously. “Witches do sacrifice people to outer spirits…”

Alecto glared at him, making him freeze in place. “Not all witch clans are like that. True we are known for trying to make contracts with spirits outside this world. But for the most part, we make contracts with your everyday spirits that your common shaman and druid would make. Even you have made a contract with a spirit of darkness.” pointing out the fact that Van had Azra.

“But that still doesn’t change the fact that some of you do human sacrifices, or make contracts with evil spirits, some from outside our world that are harmful to everything on ours just by their presence alone.” Van pointed out.

Alecto frowned, but in the end, sighed. “You're not… entirely wrong… but…” then looked at him. “Please understand that not all witches are evil, in fact, they are in the minority. The truth is we are like anyone else. We just have a different… culture…”

“And are not vampires the same? Considered at least mostly evil with a few outliers of good ones? Even if you know that is not true? Though it might as well be, considering how many still live by the old ways of doing things…” she rebuked back to Van.

Which he couldn’t really deny. Memories of his time being raped by Karen replaying in the back of his head, and the more recent one with the troll. “You… have a point…” he admitted.

Alecto’s expression softened as if understanding by Van's face what he must have experienced. “I fled from my coven, from my clan, for the sake of my beautiful daughter's safety… I have spent decades researching everything about the soul realm and the soul, to help her. Even if you continue to think that they are no good witches… please at least think of me as a good mother… or at least one who is trying her best.”

Van let that sink in. He supposed, no matter who she was, if what she said was true, then yes, she was at least a good mother. And perhaps by extension, maybe a good person…

But it was something she said that made a light bulb go off on the top of his head, as he realized something. “You said you studied the soul and soul realms correct? Does that mean you're the doctor I was told I was going to see?”

Alecto blinked, then her eyes widened. “Well… imagine that…” she then smiled with some amusement. “I was planning to go out and see my patient, and instead my patient comes to me… I see… so it wasn’t a fairy…” she mumbled that last part and took a sip of her tea, deep in thought.

Van looked at her oddly, and Alecto must have noticed that he must have heard her because she began to explain. “As I said before, we normally don’t get visitors. And the ones we do get are, well… mostly of the fairy nature… maybe a few animals and kobolds here and there. This is the first time in a long time that we have seen a non-fairy, and a male at that!” finishing with a warm smile.

“If it’s been so long, why did you think I was sent by the lovers guild?” Van asked

Alecto blushed a little in embarrassment. “Sorry about that, we didn’t have a lovers guild where we lived. But I heard nothing but good things about it. So I figured sending a letter with a magical tracker would be enough for them to find us. But I suppose trying to find a couple of witches hiding in the middle of a forest with anti-scrying barriers and more might have been a little too much for them to handle.” She then gave a cutesy look and bonked herself on the head with her free hand.

Van glanced at Agnès who rolled her eyes and sipped her tea.

“But in the end, everything worked out!” Alecto continued. “After all, didn't you say you were from the lovers guild?”

Van hesitated, and he felt Agnès’s curious and slightly judging gaze on him. “Well… while I am affiliated with them… and studied with them… I don’t have to take any jobs from them unless I want to.” he took a sip of the tea offered to gather his thoughts. The smell was herby, and ran down his tongue very smoothly, warming his body up. “Besides… that's not what’s important now.” taking a more serious tone. “Alecto… can you help me?” looking her straight in the eyes.

Though if Van had to be honest. He didn’t want someone even remotely similar to another soul seer near him. Who knows what she could do to him with her knowledge? But if she really was the doctor that Amie mentioned… then she must be trustworthy… though he might have to get in touch with her again just to make sure this was the right person. One couldn’t be too careful after all…

Alecto smiled, a somewhat warm but mischievous one, “my dear… I’m already helping you…” her gaze fell onto the cup of tea that was in Van’s hand. And almost immediately he went a little pale at the implications that the tea must have been drugged.

“Oh, gods damn it, mom! What the hells did you put in the tea this time!?” Agnès complained, looking at her own tea with suspicion. Indicating that this has happened before.

Alecto chuckled. “Oh, nothing too serious, some ghost root, spirit herbs, and a dash of my special secret stash of green. You two are going to get really relaxed… and really, really high!” she laughed a little.

And it was true. Van was feeling oddly relaxed for someone who was drugged. “Why the hells would you feed me something that would make me high!?” he said in an oddly calm voice. He tried being a little angrier about it, but couldn’t find the energy to bother.

“Ugh…” Agnès said, leaning back on the cushions of her seat. “Mom is always doing this.” she sighed. “At the least.” She turned her head towards Van. “whatever this is going to do to us, it’s probably for the best…”

“This happens often?” he asked.

Agnès shook her head. “You have no idea…”

“So what exactly is this supposed to do?” he asked, looking down at his tea.

Alecto began to explain. “It’s just some tea to help relax your body and mind. When both are thoroughly relaxed, then the ghost root and spirit herb starts doing their job. They are filled with spiritual energy, and the tea is designed to use that spiritual energy to fill any holes, gaps, or damages that your soul realm might have. By no means is it a perfect solution… but it acts like a salve to stop the pain and promote your soul's natural ability to heal itself.” she said, almost sounding like a professional doctor towards her patient.

“Huh…” was all Van said as he took another sip of the tea and relaxed into his own seat. Allowing himself this strange sense of calmness. Though in truth, he really couldn’t do anything else, his mind and body were beginning to feel a bit lethargic. Thankfully, his mind awakening helped prevent him from completely succumbing to the tea’s effects.

But then a question came to him, and he looked up drowsily from his cup to Alecto. “How did you know I needed this before you even knew I was the patient you were going to see?”

Alecto gave another of her mischievous smiles, but now with a bit of pride mixed in and with a haughty attitude said. “Well, I wasn’t the best doctor in my coven for nothing!” puffing out her chest. “I could see a symptom or illness from a mile away! Figure out that illness, and prescribe a treatment within the minute of seeing it!” she said proudly, her nose in the air and hands on her waist. But then she relaxed and looked back at Van. “So when I saw you and noticed your damaged soul realm, I just…” she blushed a little and rubbed her head. “Couldn’t stay by and let you suffer…”

Van was a little taken aback, from what he could read from her expression. Alecto was telling the truth and was embarrassed that she couldn’t stop herself from helping someone. The innocent, honest, and sincere expression on her face, did more to soothe his fears than anything else she could have done.

But then Alecto blinked and she sniffed the air. “Ah! The cookies! I’ll go get them, you two stay here and chat while you wait, I’ll be right back!” she jumped to her feet and rushed out the living room. Leaving Van and Agnès alone together.

An awkward silence stretched between them. Until finally Van had to ask.

“Are you… really soul awakened… Like me?” looking over to her to see her expression and how she would react.

“I am… and you?” she asked in return, doing her best to hide the shine of curiosity in her eyes as she did.

Van nodded. “I am…”

Another stretch of awkward silence.

“Soo…” Agnès began, her impatience getting the better of her. Wiggling her butt in her seat and looking around before finally settling on Van again. “What was it like for you? Umm… growing up with… memories and stuff…” she asked awkwardly.

Van hesitated but decided perhaps he should be as truthful as he felt he should, only hiding a few things. So he began to tell his story, about his birth, how he was treated, about the awkwardness, how weird everything felt, then getting married, and much more. Surprisingly, he was left talking for little over half an hour, and this was him trying to give a rushed version of his life with a bunch of things left out.

But oddly, it didn’t feel so bad… Perhaps it was the tea, or how accepting Agnès was with everything he said, or even how she nodded with him about things he thought only he could understand since no one else seemed to. But saying it all out loud felt… therapeutic…

“And you?” Van asked, “what kind of life have you lived? What kind of memories did you get?”

Agnès gave a complicated expression as if she was trying very hard to gather her thoughts. Finally, she gave a heavy sigh and tilted her head back to rest on the couch. “Where do I even begin?” she then straightened, her mind made up and began her story.

“Well, first of all… this is my third reincarnation… or maybe the fourth? The truth is… I’m not even really sure what a plane, a car, or computer is. Perhaps I knew it in my first life… but when my second life came around, I completely forgot everything and was nothing but a farmer's girl… I only somewhat remembered some things of my first life because I actually met someone in my second life who said the exact same things you did, expecting me to know what they were. But in the end, nothing came from it.”

“After I met that other reincarnater, I could somewhat vaguely remember large cities and stuff. But that was it… and more importantly… a few years later… I was killed violently by monsters… I… wasn’t even able to marry… or have kids… or really make anything from my second life…”

She went silent for a moment, and Van did not dare to say anything for fear of ruining her train of thought. Finally, she began again.

“After that… I think I was reborn again? Perhaps I had a fourth life? Maybe a fifth? But the memories are too… dark… almost like they don’t exist. So I might as well have had only one life before this one.” Then her expression went dark. “More importantly… I didn’t even remember anything useful, only the part where I was violently killed…”

She then shook her head. “As a child growing up, I had constant nightmares. Over and over again. People began to think I was cursed, no one wanted to be my friend…” she then lifted her legs up, her knees to her chest, and hugged them looking down. She still seemed to have not realized that she was still wearing nothing but an apron and underwear.

“One day, a witch from the dark blood clan found out and came to investigate. She came to me with promises of curing me, saying she had an idea what was wrong with me. At the time my mother was at her wit's end, trying to figure out how to cure me, feeding me medicine after medicine in the hopes I would finally be given a good night's sleep.”

“I know it might sound stupid to trust a complete stranger… but I was desperate, I was in so much pain… I was willing to do anything to make it stop… and… she did… but…” she shook her head. “To make a long story short… I was used… and worse… I was going to be…”

Agnès didn’t say anything more, tears started to fall from her eyes, small little things that she quickly wiped away, even as she kept her expression blank. Not showing any signs of weakness, even as she sniffled.

Van felt bad… it wasn’t his intention to make Agnès remember such traumatic memories. He was also reminded of his own traumatic experiences, and he felt a feeling of kinship with her, as his dark feelings took him. Absently wondering if it was something in the tea that was making them so open.

The silence stretched, and they both gratefully soaked into it, alongside their thoughts. But in the end, Van couldn’t help but look Agnès’s way one more time. And slowly got up to sit next to her on the couch. She looked at him curiously, wondering what he was doing.

He awkwardly sat close to her, reiterating some of things he went through, even adding a few things he didn’t mention before. His mother not wanting him at first, the weirdness of the world, the rape, and being raped again and more.

He then slowly, and a little awkwardly and nervously, placed his hand on her opposite shoulder, fearful that she would hate it. “I… know what you have been through… trust me… I get it… But… at least we have parents who love us… and… at least we found someone who we can share these problems with.” he hesitated, “that is… if you don’t mind… sharing it…” looking away a little out of embarrassment, it was not like him to be so brave or forward with a stranger. But he was too oddly relaxed, and he felt like she needed someone to lean on and share in their somewhat similar circumstances.

Agnès stared at him as if trying to figure him out, as if suspicious of his kindness. But after a while, she seemed to have relaxed, slowly settling her head on his shoulder peacefully.

And like that they stayed, perhaps for a bit longer than they should have. In fact, they stayed like that for so long they both started to look around together suspiciously. Wondering where Alecto went, and why she hasn’t come back yet.

Finally, they spotted her, grinning widely from the doorway on the other side of the room. Watching them like a hawk.

The two went a little red in the face, and Van awkwardly got back up to sit in his seat. “Err… sorry about that…” he said to Agnès.

Agnès shook her head. “You did nothing wrong.” was all she replied. Glaring at her mother.

“Awwww! Come on! I’m not getting any younger! I at least want to see my grandkids this century!” Alecto complained, making the two go even redder in the face and making Van absently wonder how long do witches live for.

But in the end, Alecto sighed in defeat when she found out she wasn't going to get her way, left, and reentered the other doorway a few minutes later with a batch of cookies she quickly rewarmed with her magic. Plus some more tea.

After that, the group slowly started to talk about other things as they began to enjoy the cookies and the atmosphere, even Azra was given a small plate of cookies and a bowl of milk which she happily enjoyed. And while the atmosphere was good, Van couldn’t help but wonder where things were going to lead to next...