1689 August
Mal'akh sat with Joella, silently. Mal'Akh knew the execution had to be over by now. She
didn't care about the witches… but she did care an innocent girl like Joella had to suffer
because of their evil whose only crime was loving the witches as they presented themselves
to her.
There was a knock on the door. Mal'Akh got up and went for the door… and gasped…
Joella got up, trying and failing to ignore the cool body of her grandfather… And gasped
too.
At the front door was a gargoyle… who was her size… A large brown snake with six small
snakes connected to it's sides, and a black haired peach skinned human in clothes too big
for him (The only wearing anything).
Mal'Akh stepped back in fear. But Joella just stepped foreword… "Who are you?"
"We are the final gift your mothers could give to you." Said the gargoyle who was her size.
"They died trying to give happinesssss to to thissss world… " Said the large multi-
headed/armed snake.
"We wish only to serve and protect you since your mothers can no longer do so…" Finished
the black haired human.
Hearing of her mothers' deaths, Joella blinked away tears, but forced a smile and nodded
and quickly hugged the giant serpent who hugged her back with his six 'arms'.
Upstairs, Lark was the first to awaken, ironically being the most far away from her creators
being the first effected by their deaths. She awoke in the soft warm bed, with no idea she
had been out for over a day and a night. She felt herself itches and ugly rendered herself
back to her true nude 'glory' as she did so, she felt like a hammer had hit her in the back
of the head and she fell to her knees… crying… feeling like some awful had happened…
++++++++
"What Lark felt," Marie-Eliza explained, "Was what Herodias and Lilith felt at the same
time, being a familiar herself ultimately, Lark and the other child familiars were hit
emotionally hard, like any familiar is by the death of the master."
"THey would recover right?" Lawrence asked.
"The former mob members? Yes. Since magic had been the midwife in a way to their birth,
they were able to balance out the magic in them much more easily than the affected
children, for whom it would be a longer journey. And most importantly, while they weren't
leomon cubs, well, most of them, the Witch Pride would die before abandoning a single
one of them. That's why Twilight wouldn't let the pups go with the Wolf Pack without a
blood feud unless she was allowed to go with them.
Marie-Eliza broke out of her narrative to explain some things in fore-detail, "There was
one part of the curse that Vatican found he couldn't escape… any body he entered would
grow small… quite small… to a Felman what a Felman was to a Human and a Human was
to a Lupman and a Lupman is to a Lemon. Vatican, or Equality as he would ultimately come
to call himself, would in the early years apologize to Joella for this flaw, though he knew
better than to tell his master that it had been her mothers who had cursed him so. He'd
eventuallyshape a form for them that was more visually and emotionally appealing to Joella
for Free to transfer him into … "
Lawrence pointed out matter of fact, "You said that Joella told them to live their lives as if
they were not under a spell."
Marie-Eliza nodded, "I did. But you must understand, while Joella was incapable of being
greedy, cruel, or self serving, due to the very nature of how she was born. She had no
comprehension that the people around her were slaves programmed to obey the witches
without any real question, it was one of the things she didn't learn about her mothers save
of course of the mob turned into children and only because she directly witnessed it. And
that programming, having taken on a life all it's own, gaining personhood, it adapted to
the witches' absence by switching their loyalty to Joella…
And the witches had told their loyal creations to treat Joella with as much respect and
loyalty as they showed the witches, in their own way even more so since the witches were
confident in their ability to protect themselves but knowing Joella didn't have the gift
planted layer up layer of enchantments and commands with more layers than a wedding
cake. All with the single purpose of insuring their desire to protect and serve Joella could
NOT be broken short of killing them like the witches had killed the people they had once
been!"
"And this meant Joella did not find it alien or strange in the least that some of the hunters
had a change of heart and chose, out of penance she assumed, to join the estate as her
loyal servants like all the rest. She ordered them to live their own lives, since all the death
she had seen had taught her harshly that she wouldn't be around forever. And lived their
own lives they did, but by then, the Dare to serve Joella like she as the second coming had
been engrained itself into their very being! But of course they also obeyed their master's
order to do more with their lives than simply sit on their rears waiting for her to ask for a
cup of tea. And Death's geass was in full effect, in it's own way, their Dare to serve and
obey Joella without question MERGED with Death's geass, they became even more
determined to build a future for all of the children who had no parents to return to or now
had the gift within them.
Of course Linus had to hide the fact he was a creature that was not in the least bit human
when helping Marie Cruz try to talk reason into the people of Salem that were persecuting
innocent people… and it made things harder… with being someone who always hissed,
and covered his body so completely… This only added to the rumors he was a warlock."
"Of course that was not the only thing that made things harder… in particular now that
Kathrine couldn't defend herself, AT ALL… she no longer even had the most basic instinct
for survival most living things have when pushed into a corner… Marie Cruz's Transform
had prevented from either of them from having to kill the other… but it also made Kathrine
a complete and utter sitting duck! A spider with a poisonous bite that she saw on her arm
she couldn't kill!"
"Sounds like someone as without an immune system." Betty said.
Marie-Eliza sadly nodded. "She had to have someone with her CONSTANTLY… when
sleeping, when going to the out house, she wasn't forced to kill Marie… but she'd suffer all
the same… And finding out that Marie had cared more about the witches even after all they
had done than her.. that left an emotional scar that would take years if not decades to
heal..."
"As for Herodias and Lilith… they would serve Joella as best they could … in spite of
everything… in spite of anything… they had shared their master's vision, Herodias merely
spoke out what the witches in the shadows cast by the back of their minds had already
wanted… to make what was wrong right… In a way, that was what the symbiotic spirit
spoke to Marie Cruz all those years ago.. but until the witches, that little girl proved
stronger than the dark side that spirit was attracted to.
And now their masters were dead… They had FAILED as familiars. That truth struck them
harder than ever. Lilith.. ate herself… for lack of a better word… Herodias watched as the
great red boa slowly consumed herself like an Oroborus. Until there was literally nothing of
her left, like watching a paradox in motion.
As for Herodias… she'd wander back to the witches manor in a stupor… she'd be found by
Roselia, who'd ultimately make her her hidden familiar bringing things full circle."
Everyone gasped.
"But Herodias was at her heart a familiar, and the voice that spoke from the shadow cast
from the back of Roselia's mind was quite different from that of the witches… and so
Herodias by her nature as a familiar took on a new persona… Maybe it was a natural
change, maybe it was a slow death, either way, she was no longer the familiar who had
served Golgatha. And 'Princess'' line continued to provide familiars until the curse
continuing to devour, eat up and gobble up any and other magic in existence to full itself,
made magic on Earth effective impossible. The gargoyles themselves became effected by
this… suffering 'miscarriages' for the first time in their existence's history…Not totally, as
new gargoyles are spawned even today… but now the shadow of fear had crossed over
them. "