"Father," came Marie's voice, "Wake up, father..."
Marie Cruz's godfather slowly woke up and rolled over to look at the girl he had adopted and was training. She was holding Mutt with her, and the hound had taken to licking his face as he rolled over. They had returned "home" and Marie had gone to bed to get some much needed rest.
"Dear, you should be asleep," her godfather spoke, trying to pull away from the affection of the dog, "You've had a very rough time."
"I had a dream," Marie told him, "A strange one."
"Dreams commonly mean little," her godfather replied, "a place where the soul can relax from the trials of the day."
"I dreamed I saw three other girls," Marie continued, "They asked if Mutt was a magic friend... they asked if I would be their friend..."
"A familiar," her godfather sighed.
"Huh?"
"A familiar, an animal used by a sorcerer to channel magic, both white and black magic," he explained, "Merlin Ambrosius supposedly kept a small owl or falcon... some of our records are conflicting... as a familiar, though from what I've read he kept it for conversation, apparently."
"But I do not practice magic," Marie spoke, "the church has forbidden it."
"Black magic, because of its destructive and dark properties," her godfather spoke, "both to the victim and to the practitioner. White Magic is permitted, with the proper training by the Church or by another white wizard or witch."
"Aren't witches bad?"
"Not all of them, just like not all normal humans are good. There have been evil men just there have been good witches."
"Like Nero was bad?" Marie asked.
"Yes, yes, he was, and many a Saint suffered under his reign," her Godfather nodded.
"They asked me if Mutt was a magic friend," Marie spoke, "but Mutt is Mutt. A friend, a companion... they asked me if we wanted to be friends, and I must admit I was tempted. It would be niece to have friends that I don't have to hide the fact that I am a girl from."
Her godfather nodded.
"As I went to shake the hand of one, this enormous raven appeared out of nowhere and wrapped its wings around me and glared at the girls," Marie continued.
"Sounds like it was protecting you."
"It was wearing your mask," Marie informed him.
Her godfather looked at her with tired eyes, but could easily see she was startled.
"This dream has frightened you," he sighed, and waited for her to nod, "I assure you, if this raven in your dream was protecting you, it had to be for a good reason... as for my mask, maybe you connect me with the raven... which isn't that bad."
"But don't ravens mean death?"
"God made them to be scavengers, Marie, to clean up after the world's predators," her godfather spoke, "without them, you would find decaying corpses laying throughout the world. They are important. They are nature's cleaning crew."
"But don't they bring bad omens? Darkness? Evil?" Marie asked.
"Noah sent a raven out from the Ark in search of land," her godfather spoke, "and they brought Elijah food. Is that a bad omen?"
"No, father," Marie answered, "but it frightened me."
"Dreams can be strange in that way, Marie," he informed her, "I've had dreams where I was married with you as my blood child."
"I think there's more to it the just strangeness," Marie spoke, "what could the raven have been protecting me from? The girls looked innocent to me."
"Things can be deceiving," her godfather answered, "sometimes things that look good can be quite evil and things that look evil can be quite good."
"Like ravens?"
Her godfather nodded.
+++++++
"Is this Marie's second sight starting to emerge?" Betty asked curiously, "You said earlier that the loss of her eye enabled it."
"Would she become a good witch?" Cassandra asked, "to help her fight evil?"
"Marie Cruz indeed had the potential," Marie nodded, "but her training, however, would have inclined her to avoid the term "witch"... much as Merlin actually avoided the term "wizard". He is remembered a white wizard because of the Arthurian Legend which gave him a lot of qualities the real Merlin didn't have... but that is a different story altogether... and her shared dream with the witches was an indication of her potential awakening."
"Did her godfather actually intervene in the dream, since the raven was wearing his mask?" Lilly wondered.
"No," Marie answered, "the raven was a symbol of Marie Cruz's potential awakening and the mask was created by her subconscious. That potential saw Marie's future fight with the witches and because of Marie's training, reacted to insure that the witches couldn't corrupt her. Neither Marie, her godfather, nor the witches really understood these things completely the way we do today, and the witch's response to the dream was different from Marie's."
+++++++
Fran stirred slightly in her sleep to find herself being carried by her husband and sister-wife.
"Jensen! You're awake!" Fran said weakly.
"Barely," Jensen sighed, "Mother Glen has come to visit the wounded and became upset, likely when informed about the battle. Her roars woke us up and we came down to check on everybody."
"You did a good job, Fran," Kaylee told the dirty blond female as she held on to Fran's legs, and Jensen carried her upper body, "Julie and Darla are taking over."
Fran nodded, still looking drowsy.
"Some one should have called Mother Glen though, let her know what happened," Kaylee then sighed.
"Could have, should have, didn't," Jensen sighed, "I'd imagine things were hectic around here. I'm sure Mother Glen understands that."
"I'm sleepy," Fran told them.
"We're going back to bed, dear," Jensen lowered his head to lick her nose at the end of her muzzle, "catch up on some much needed sleep."
Fran barely nodded before she began to drift back into "dreamland", while Jensen and Kaylee reached the main stairway.