#thera 001

[therediegogoes]

for @therawend

Diego still wasn't entirely sure what had happened the night before with the guy. Since his magic first awoke within him, he hadn't had a spell fail on him. There were moments where they didn't do what he wanted them to do or they manifested oddly but never just flat out failed. He was unsure what to do with regards to the guy's memory so he'd have to ask the other Phial witches what he should do.

As he ambled around town with no direction, he didn't notice that every turn he made seemed to drive him closer to the Crow and Chalice. Slowly but surely, the town seemed to lead him to the shop. He had heard about the owner from other Phial witches so he knew that this person was legit and not just a person peddling curios to the public.

By the time his mind had cleared, he was already opening the door. He could smell lavender incense burning somewhere and the chilled air was nice after just walking around in the warm summer heat. There were a few people perusing the shelves, picking up bags of tea and smelling bundles of herbs. He wondered where the owner of the shop was until he made eye contact with a woman with pure magic leaking off of her.

"Hey," he said shakily, suddenly all his confidence falling away, "I'm entirely sure why I'm here."

[rumors-and-royales]

Who: @crows-and-tomes When: Evening, Weekday, July Where: Talon & Tome

Nadiyya had set a goal: to keep herself on a schedule, one major video a week with intermittent story posts, but with the school year starting up again soon, she needed a backlog. Quickly. She could only make so many GRWM: Classes + Rehearsal Edition videos before people got sick of them, and she needed time to figure out her schedule to get more regular events in the mix for better content. 

That meant it was time for a tried-and-true format, a little exploration vlog that hopefully turned up a hidden gem. She was looking to make this a series, and for that, she needed multiple installments. She’d already gotten in contact with a few local businesses, but today she was just wandering around, looking for somewhere to add to the list. 

She really didn’t know how she ended up there. It looked like a little oddity shop, one of those dinky little places tourists loved to discover. Perfect. She took a few shots of the outside, some B Roll footage, before heading inside, taking a look around for what might look best on camera.

There were some neat little knicknacks here. A witch store, maybe? That could be fun. “Hellooo? Anyone here?”

[kibble-and-kickflips]

Who: @crows-and-tomes When: June 29th, 11:00-30am - Drop off Dolly's Book Where: The Talon's Tome

Of all the instructions his great-aunt had left behind in her will, finding her journals in the mess that was the attic was probably the hardest. It had been years since she’d died, with him going in and out of being able to focus on digging through everything that was stored up there, and he’d only just found them the night before, slipped into the velvet lining of a box he’d emptied out months ago and moved past. 

He had no idea what might be in it. He was curious, sure, but... it felt like a weird violation of privacy. The instructions were pretty clear: Find the book with the gold and leather cover, don’t open it, and leave it with Moira McNeiven at the Talon’s Tome. Do not collect $200, do not pass Go, the whole shebang. 

He didn’t really believe in curses or anything, but he knew that Dolores had been prone to her own little rituals and routines like he was, superstitious and particular to an almost neurotic degree. He could stand to treat her things with the kind of care that she would have given it. 

The shop was open, but it seemed to be empty when he entered. He peeked around the side of one of the shelves, lined with strange books and even stranger knicknacks, trying to find someone who could hopefully point him in the right direction, before calling out into the store. “Hello? I’m looking for Moira McNeiven?” 

[tressashaw]

The Crow & Chalice @therawend

Tressa turns a lapis stone over in her fingers, the cool blue of it fixating her stare as she turns its flat planes around and watches light bounce off of it in the shop. She considers buying it, happy with the skeletal vertices that give it a shape that's more defined than some of the oblong stones surrounding it. A little blue treat. Maybe for Jude, if he's gonna go backpacking. She doesn't believe in crystal hokum, but given everything, maybe there's something to some of it.

When it's just her and the shopkeep, though, she makes her strides towards the counter and plops the little rock on the countertop. Somewhere in here, she can smell the caustic, debilitating funk of verbena, whether it's being worn or sold, and it makes her nose prickle.

"Thera Wendell." She says smile suddenly bright. "Congrats on helping the Conclave figure out who butchered Fia Palmgren. Do you mind if we have a little chat? I'm Tressa, by the way."

She draws the little blue stone with a set of pinched fingers, sliding it around the countertop. "No trouble. Me no bite and you no magic. I'm trying to solve a related murder."