The Witch: Book Two of The Sorceress Saga by Taliesin Govannon (important books to read .txt) 📕

later, I was reclining on a sofa down in Jack's playroom.  It hadn't been down there before, but Vincent carried it down... with one hand, no less... so I would have a comfortable place to recover from my latest out of body escapade.  He quickly left me in the care of my friends, needing to consult with Trevor and Evelyn on new paranormal security measures for the house.  I was just fine with that.  Being around two people that I had known my whole life had a way of making me feel better faster.

                Besides, I was sure that Vincent would do what he could to help me feel excellent a little later.

                Several pints of chocolate ice cream, all carrying names such as "coco orgasm" or "dutch fudge runner" littered the low table that Vincent had carried down with his other hand.  They were interspersed with boxes of chocolate donuts, bags of chocolate cookies, and other bits of sugary chocolate excess.  Jack and Raina had joined me for my pig-out session, Jack's bong providing the appetites for us.

                Jack slid a donut over the pipe stem of the bong and took a hit,  blowing out the pungent smoke in a thick stream.  “I wonder what's higher,” he mused, “my blood THC level or my blood glucose level?”

                “This would normally be the place where I'd give you a verbal smack-down,” Raina chimed in, “but I am far too busy having a love affair with these cookies.”  She took another bite and closed her eyes in ecstasy.

                I stared down at the pint of ice cream I was holding and grunted.  “I am so done.”  I tossed the spoon into the container and set it down in front of me.  “Why is it that every supernatural remedy calls for ingesting obscene amounts of sugar and fat?”

                “Don't knock it.” Jack replied, gesturing at me with the bong.  “It's proof God approves of what we're doing.  It's the only thing making me believe in Divinity these days.”

                “What, other than the fact that I met a Goddess?”  I reached out and took the bong from him.  My meeting with the Welsh Goddess Arianrhod last year still stuck out in my mind.  I wondered if I would ever meet her again while I lit the bowl on the bong.  I stopped, however, to take the donut off first and throw it playfully back at Jack.

                He caught it in his mouth and took a bite.  “Well, yeah... other than that.” he replied with his mouth full.

                “I asked Rini about the lake.” Raina said, referring to her main magick teacher among the Fae.  “Even she won't go near it.”

                "Well, that's comforting.” I deadpanned, exhaling.  “Any idea about our mysterious female guests?”

                “There's not much.”  Jack pushed his chair over to his desk and grabbed his wireless keyboard and mouse.  He edged back over to us as he started clicking.

                A gigantic monitor on the far wall sprung to life, an image of a Wikipedia article on it.

                “Gee, what a reliable source!” Raina said sarcastically.

                “Cool your jets, Betty Rubble.” Jack retorted.  “All I have to do is access a special version of Wikipedia...”

                He typed on the keyboard sitting in his lap, and suddenly the screen started to change.  The white background started to fade to black, and the black lettering started rearranging itself while turning blood red.  When it was done, a landing page for something called 'parapedia.org' stared back at us.

                “Para-pedia?” Raina read out loud.

                “It's a paranormal wiki.” Jack explained.  “Kind of like a massive, digital Martello's.”

                “Well, if any vamp or shifter with an ax to grind can change the info on here, I think I'll keep my paper copy of Mr. Martello's Encyclopedia, thank you very much!”  Raina took another bite of a cookie to punctuate her point.

                “So what does the Scooby-pedia say?” I asked impatiently.

                “Okay, so the closest thing I could find was the legend of the Botan Doro.” Jack began.  “It's a Japanese folk tail... some kind of parable about not letting lust rule your life.  Or maybe it's about not dwelling on death too long, or something.”

                “I've run into that story before.” Raina added.  “About some Samurai?”

                “Also known as ‘The Peony Lantern’,” Jack continued, nodding, “the most popular version goes something like this… “

                Jack typed a few more keys. I stared intently at what popped up as he read.

                “Let’s see… “ he said, reading, “It usually starts with a samurai who’s just lost his wife, and he has the hardest time dealing with it at night.”

                “Not unbelievable.” Raina said.

                “So one night,” Jack continued reading, “a beautiful woman comes walking by the samurai’s house, she’s carrying a lantern with a peony flower on it, and she has a servant in tow.”

                “The women by the lake looked too similar to be employer and employee.” I said. “They looked more like sisters.”

                “I'm sure that there are versions out there where they're sisters." Jack said. "Anyway, the samurai is smitten with this beautiful, raven-haired beauty. They make love every night, watched over by the woman's handmaiden. His neighbors start to get worried about him, and one sneaks a peek through the samurai's windows one night. The neighbor sees the samurai, only he's in bed with a rotting corpse instead of a beautiful woman."

                “That would take the Mother of all beer goggles!” Raina said, whistling low.

                “Ya know?" Jack said with a grin. "Continuing on… the neighbor convinces the samurai to let them bring in a local priest to drive the corpse spirit away, the samurai reluctantly agrees, and the woman and her companion stop coming. The samurai can't handle the loneliness he feels, however, and goes to the local cemetery to see what he can find. He finds the beautiful woman standing by a crypt, and he rushes into her arms."

                “And now the twist.” I said.

                “Yes.” Jack nodded. “So the samurai