"Well, we didn't get very far--it was just a first meeting. But, I think there's a chance, maybe, that she might be able to help." Claude didn't want to get his hopes too high, but this was the closest he'd felt to having any answers in a long time. All of the questions she had for him were valid ones, especially as he hadn't told her the meeting was even coming, but Claude was far too busy basking in the potential for results that he hadn't even stopped to consider whether he should be putting all his faith into the woman the Order had appointed. "I think she studies them, breaks them, probably sets them on people, hopefully not on myself," he joked, feeling lighthearted. "I believe she's a witch, which, I know to be careful, but she can't be one out to hurt us, if she was appointed by Arthur and the Order to help us. The how part, I'm not entirely sure." Claude wasn't even sure he wanted to know how Eda was going to go about absolving them of their curse--he would rather not be involved in the details of magic he would have nothing to do with. "Either way, it's all very exciting, I think. I know how desperately everyone affected wants to be rid of this, though, as much as I'd like to celebrate, I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high, as nothing's happened yet, but I'm so glad you're here. Adam would be telling me I sound ridiculous."
A sinking feeling of dread begins to develop in the pits of her stomach as she listens to Claude go on about the meeting, watching the obvious excitement and hope bubbling up within him that she so rarely saw anymore. It was wrong and selfish for her to not want this for him and the rest of her friends. Even more so knowing that she had the ability to undo it all, to bring them back to their lives of normalcy, and yet she still has no intention of even attempting to do so. Not until the elder Bete man was dead. No, she couldn’t let this curse be lifted. Her mind was already racing to think of ways she could potentially discredit Eda, or even the Order as a whole if necessary. But Zara couldn’t let that show, not now in front of her closest friend. She needed to appear supportive, but cautious, just as she always was with anything of potential danger or importance that crossed their paths. “Listen to yourself, though, Claude. You just admitted yourself that she could curse you all even further - who knows what this woman is capable of. You need to be careful,” she warns, frowning ever so slightly as she looks her friend over. No, it wasn’t the owl lady that he needed to fear but rather the woman standing right across from him - and he had no clue of it. None of them did. “I don’t want anyone else getting hurt or your situation getting any more complicated than it already seems to be.”
For the first time in years, Claude felt a sense of hope that he hadn't allowed himself to feel in a long time. Every bit of his research until now had hit a dead end, but after Eda had left his office, it felt like he was actually getting somewhere. Though she hadn't had all the answers now, she promised that she'd be getting back to him, and that was about as much of an answer as he'd ever had. With a cautious grin on his face, Claude savored the rest of his glass of whiskey, allowing himself a moment of gratitude and reflection before going back out into the restaurant.
The knock on his door was an unexpected, but not unwelcomed one. In fact, he was glad that Zara would be the first one who he'd tell about his meeting with Eda. She would allow him to feel optimistic in a way that Adam would likely later squash, and, for a moment, he simply wanted to savor the hope Eda had given him. "No, no, but come in, close the door," he instructed, sitting up in anticipation. "This woman stopped by, looking to discuss possible ways to break the curse," Claude whispered excitedly. "I think we're actually getting somewhere. Adam had contacted the Order, and they sent her, an expert of some sorts. It was just an initial meeting, just to get the details down, but I think she may be the one to finally get us some answers."
The instructions to close the door, with the obvious excitement in Claude’s tone as he said it was answer enough to the questions she hadn’t been able to ask aloud. He knew exactly who the owl lady was and she would bet her entire life savings right now that they had been discussing the curse. It was selfish, the fact that Zara didn’t want to find any type of cure or countercurse to help them, but she had to preserve her own safety and well being. Lifting the spell that affected them all would put her right back into forced obedience with Mr. Bete and there wasn’t anything she wasn’t willing to do to keep that from happening. Closing the door as she was told, her smile remains ever the same as she moves further into the room and sits down in the chair the older woman had just occupied.
“Break the curse?” she parrots back the words, as if she’s surprised to hear such a thing and hadn’t already pieced that together. While she’s never been the best actress in the world, over the years she’s had enough practice lying about her magic and family to keep up a simple act like this. “The Order? An expert? Claude, you’re losing me. I don’t understand - who, who was she and how will she be able to help you all? What does she study curses or spells or something? Surely, she can’t be some kind of witch herself, right? Would you really trust someone like that?” It felt right to appear at least somewhat skeptical, after all Zara herself wasn’t supposed to be impacted by this curse as far as her friends were aware - so surely she would know the least about their plans for undoing it. And she’s given none of them, other than Adam’s father, any reason to believe she knows anything about magic at all.
closed starter for @morethandusting
location: bete estate - during the week adam refused to leave his room
For all that she had grown up knowing the halls of the Bete estate as well as her own, over the years Zara has grown to detest the building. There was a period of time when she had been freed from the estate and the Bete family as a whole, those happy years when her husband was still alive. But that time was long gone. Because for all she may no longer be entrapped in her magically binding contract to the head of its house, Zara still found herself working for the youngest Bete. While they had never been friends themselves and a large part of her still detested him, the higher than normal salary and support group that came from the rest of his staff was enough to keep her around despite her anger towards the entire Bete family line. Thankfully Adam’s father only had him in charge of the restaurant thus far, the man still running and maintaining the estate himself, so it was rare that she had to return and when she did, Zara made certain that she never ran into the head of its house.
But with a week having passed and Adam still refusing to leave his room, she made an exception and willingly stepped into the estate that to her felt more like a prison than a home. Glaring up the stairs where she knew her boss was holed up somewhere above, she made her way through the foyer and into the kitchen where she knew her friend would likely be working. “Fifi?” she called as she entered, smiling to herself as the girl jumped ever so slightly at the sound. “Sorry. Any luck getting him out for breakfast? You know, I’m half tempted to just ram the entire door down and drag him out whether he likes it or not. This is getting ridiculous.” If she still had her magic that was exactly what she would have done by now - but then again, if she still had her magic none of them would be in this mess and he likely wouldn’t be hiding away in the first place.
closed starter for @ccogsworth
location: claude's office
Passing by Claude’s office, she originally had no intention of actually stopping to speak with him, but there was a flash of white through the door window that caught her eye and had her freezing in her step. She couldn’t make it obvious that she was looking, but that wouldn’t be a problem because all she needed was one more glance to see that it was indeed who she thought draped across one of those chairs. Forcing herself to continue walking, Zara returned to her desk outside of Adam’s office as a million thoughts and questions raced through her head. The biggest one was the easiest to answer - why was Claude talking with the owl lady? About the curse, of course, there was no other reason for him or anyone in their friend group to need anything from the elusive self-proclaimed wild witch. But how had he found her? How long had they been in contact with each other? How much did they know? Those were the questions that continued to swirl round her mind as she waited, trying not to be too obvious in the way she watched his door.
When it finally opened though, she kept her eyes locked tight on her laptop screen, typing away as if busy at work and refusing to risk making eye contact with the woman. For all Zara knew who she was, she could only hope that the owl lady didn’t recognize her as well. She wasn’t as prominent of a figure in the magical community, not the way that the other woman was, and everyone knew Eda tried her best to stay out of the politics of the witch world anyway… so it wasn’t very likely that she would have known Zara even if they had directly spoken to each other, but she couldn’t take the small chance of being exposed right in front of her friends. It wasn’t until the blonde was out the door and a few minutes had passed that Zara stood from her desk and made her way to stand in the doorframe of Claude’s office. “I didn’t have you down for a meeting today,” she points out, tilting her head to the side ever so slightly and watching the man closely as she asks her next question. “Is everything alright? I don’t think I recognized that woman from being around here before. Is she a new vendor or partnership we’re looking to reach out with?”
zara arora potts // twenty-nine // secretary & former enchantress
When Zara’s great grandfather first moved to Echo Isle he had practically nothing - no status, no means to provide for himself or his family, and no connections. However what he did have was magic - which was the entire reason he had come to Echo in the first place, rumors of the island’s own magic having reached his homeland and calling him to see if they were true. Of course they were, however he had been mistaken in thinking it meant that magic was openly and freely used in the country. When he realized that was not the case, his entire hope of building a future for his family was shattered. Or at least, he had thought it was. Until he met a farmer that was trying, but struggling, to build an empire around his crops. The two men came to an agreement. Zara’s great grandfather would use his magic to enchant the land, to produce the most bountiful crops in both quality and quantity that the island had ever seen. He would also use his magic to help get the funds and other necessities for the farmer to begin his business. And in return, the Arora family would receive a part of all profits made from the Bete’s company for the next few decades.
Once the agreed upon time was up, it was Zara’s father that was running the Arora house and in turn Adam Bete’s father had taken over the company and responsibilities of the Bete family line as well. Business was still good, but not as booming as it could be. Mr. Bete wanted more. And so another agreement was made between the two men. Only this one was more than just a vocalized agreement. It was a magical contract that bound the two families together far more intensely than before. It was decided that if the Arora family wanted to continue receiving any money from the Bete family, they must lend their magic without question at any and all points deemed necessary by the Bete’s. A lifetime clause added in that Zara’s father could never back out once he signed. While Zara’s mother and father had made a living for themselves off of their own jobs, the lavish lifestyle they practiced relied entirely on their earnings from the Bete deal, so he was eager to agree. He had originally thought it no big deal, he was more than happy to cast a spell every year to enchant the land or influence the commercial market. What he hadn’t expected was for Mr. Bete to begin requesting enchantments for his own personal life. Over the years, Mr. Arora has essentially become a personal genie for the Bete patriarch - bound to continue despite his moral objections to what he was often asked to do.
Zara had grown up her entire life knowing of the Bete family and the connection their families shared. Her father always told the tale of her great grandfather and the agreement he had made that earned the Arora family the luxuries and privileges they had now. It had been in the highest of esteem that her father had once held the Betes within and because of that Zara had thought them to be amazing as well. The two families had once seemed like genuine friends. She had been raised in the same social circle as Adam, though she never much cared for him.
Once her father had signed the contract everything began to change, though. Mr. Bete’s true feelings for the Arora family and their magic had been revealed, showing them that he had only ever kept them so close to benefit his own life. Zara’s father, while ashamed of the decision he had made and the contract he found himself bound within had told her all about what was going on. He wanted his daughter to have nothing to do with the Bete family after that - to ensure that she never made the same mistake again of offering any part of her magic to them. It was only a few years after that, when Zara was twenty that her father committed suicide to free himself from the deal he had been stuck within.
Mr. Bete had immediately attempted to come to Zara and force her into an arrangement similar to that of her father’s - but she refused and threatened to curse him and his entire family if he ever so much as spoke to her again. It had worked for the time and he left her alone, however it also meant that they were cut off. And not only that, but Mr. Bete saw to it that all the money the Arora family had been saving over the years was returned to him, a clause that her father had not realized had been included within his original agreement.
With the money gone, Zara was forced to immediately find a job - one that paid well enough to support herself and her mother. She became a secretary for one of the smaller law firms on the island, which is where she met Joshua Potts. The two hit it off almost immediately and it was practically love at first sight. After just a year and a half they were married. And they were happy, for a few years everything was good.
Until the day Adam’s step mother grew ill and Mr. Bete approached her again, demanding that she use her magic to save his wife. Despite the promises he made for it to be a one time thing, Zara refused. Those types of spells were dangerous and she wasn’t going to get sucked into performing them. She told him to find someone else and though he tried, he never succeeded and his wife died.
It was only a few days later when her own husband was killed in a car crash, one she and everyone else believed to be an accident. Or at least, she had at first. But then Mr. Bete returned to her door and demanded that she begin working for him as her father had, admitting that he had been the one to kill her own husband, and threatening to continue to hurt the ones she loved if she didn’t agree. At first she still refused, believing him to be bluffing and thinking her magic was strong enough to protect everyone now that she knew she needed to. However Mr. Bete then used his connections to have her fired from her job the same day her mother called to tell her someone had been following her all day - and Zara knew that he hadn’t been lying.
Reluctantly she agreed to his deal. Signing another magically binding contract that was the exact same as her father’s - only she received no financial gain and there was also a clause that she must work within the Bete family business to ensure she was always nearby. She was given a position as Adam’s secretary, which surprisingly she found she did not mind. It meant she got to work closely with plenty of her childhood friends as well make new ones with the employees that currently worked for him.
However there was still the issue of Adam himself. He was still the brutish ass she had always believed him to be when they were younger, or at least that was how Zara saw him. And now knowing the true colors of his father, she feared for just how similar the men might be. Which was why a year later when Mr. Bete told her he intended to bring Adam into the arrangement they had - Zara decided to test the younger Bete.
She first used a spell to transform her appearance into that of an old hag, arriving at the estate in the middle of a horrible thunderstorm. She offered her services to him in exchange for shelter, claiming to be able to grant him all the power he wanted in the world. He rejected the offer, which she at first saw as a good sign. But then he turned her away, refusing to grant her even a moment's reprieve from the storm. And Zara knew that though he may not be as horrible as his father, Adam was no good man. And she promised him that he would regret this decision and would see consequences for these actions soon.
The curse she conjured when the door was slammed was only supposed to impact Adam himself. It was a new type of magic that Zara had never dealt with before, far darker than any of the common spells and enchantments she was used to casting. But she believed herself powerful enough to handle it, to control what she was doing. However, it was that exact power she held that had it backfiring.
The curse was meant to take away what Adam loved the most - to force him to see a life that she had been living in because of his father’s actions. And it did, removing Belle’s memories of him and forcing him to transform into a beast at every full moon, taking his humanity - the one thing he had always known he held over his father. But it didn’t stop there. No, she had cast the enchantment far too wide and rather than only being placed upon Adam, everyone within the estate was cursed as well, including herself.
For Zara the curse took away her magic. Which at first seemed like the worst thing that could possibly happen to her, she didn’t know who she was without her magic. But then when Mr. Bete came around to her desk the next day, asking to speak with her, she found herself able to say no again. With her magic gone there was nothing forcing her to do his bidding - nor was she physically capable of doing so, even if she wanted to. The moment she realized she was free, she quit on the spot and walked right out of the estate.
However, she didn’t end up staying away for long. No, a few weeks after she quit, before she had any chance of finding a new job, her whole world shifted. Two little lines on a stick told her that everything was about to change. She was pregnant and single. She needed that job and the safety net of everyone around her. Thankfully, the boys were able to convince Adam to take her back despite the dramatic walk out she had made.
She’s worked as Adam’s secretary and practically Claude’s assistant ever since. She now has a five year old boy - Christopher “Chip” Potts.
She’s never told anyone about her magic or that she was the one that cursed them all. No one knows that she was affected by the curse as well, since she hadn’t officially been there that night everyone believes her to have been luckily avoided. She offers to help them with finding a cure or reversal to the curse, but never actually tries. As guilty as she feels for the fact that all of her friends must live with their own effects of the curse - she knows the moment it is lifted and her magic is back, she’s stuck doing Mr. Bete’s bidding once more. And that’s a life she never wants to go back to.
blakekathryn
discoholicmusic
2087
janainaart
