Caena

Click!

The door opened, and we walked into Master Silver’s new office; it was slightly bigger than the old one with a beautiful interior.

The table and chairs are elvish made. They are green-blue and look amazing against the creamy pastel walls.

It is a really beautiful office and the thing that makes it even better is the huge window, from which the whole view of the gate and road can be seen.

The glass is reinforced and enchanted. It could protect but also magnify.

It is not the only office on the floor; there are two more offices and while they are small. They are just as beautiful; that I wish one of them would be mine.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have a chance. One belongs to Madam Carla and other to the Madam Margaux. The assistant madams have got their own offices, but they are in the basement.

I have seen the offices and hope I will get to choose the one I want.

“Take a seat, Caena,” he said as he sat down. “Thank you, Master Silver,” I said as I sat down and looked at him.

There must be something for him to call me into his office and, for some reason, I couldn’t help but feel nervous about it.

“As you know, all the girls will need to sign the new contract today,” he said and took out the contract.

“Here is your contract,” he added and slid toward me.

I took the contract, hoping there wouldn’t be many changes.

Hun!

I activated the Fast Reading and started to read it; within a second, I was shocked, but that shock was nothing in front of what I had gotten a few seconds after that when I read the privileges.

I had not thought he would give this to me. This early.

“This?” I asked, looking at him in shock.

“I want you to be Madam of the establishment,” he stated.

It is not what I had been asking about. Though it was the thing, that shocked me first.

“What about Madam Margaux?” I asked. “She had resigned. She wants to take the responsibilities of the circle,” he replied.

Now, it all started to make sense. In this past month, Madam Margaux handed me quite a lot of responsibilities, more than she had given to the assistant madams.

The responsibilities had made me a little angry, seeing I wasn’t able to give the time, I hoped to give to crafting the ritual charms.

She has been training me by giving me all those responsibilities.

However, I am still shocked. There are women more qualified for this job than me, like Dell, Lola, Andrea, and others.

I didn’t ask about them. I would have, if the privilege hadn’t been involved, but it is, and I want it.

I am sure, he would have thought about all the candidates before offering the job to me. I will not disrespect him by asking the question.

I finished reading the contract and took the pen.

“You don’t have to sign it immediately,” he said. I smiled and began to sign the contract.

There is no way I would give him time to change his mind.

I love the position he is offering, but more than that, I want that privilege. I have been trying for it, since the day I came to this place and now, I will have it.

I signed my name on the last page, and the moment I did, I felt the contract clicked. More than that, I felt an even bigger change, full of magic.

If there had been another witch standing beside me; she would have been shocked by seeing what was happening around me.

I felt the establishment truly accepting me, by the order of its lord. I could feel the resistance to me disappearing; more importantly, I could feel its power and know I could use some of that power.

The contract gives me the privilege to use 1% of the power of the establishment.

There are twenty-eight conditions attached to it for purposes which I couldn’t use, but I don’t mind as not any condition stopped me from doing what I am doing.

Even my personal project is for the benefit of the lord of the establishment.

I had dreamed about this power, and now I have it. Witches dreamed about it but could never get their hand in such power. If a coven has access to such power, they could do things that will give their enemies the nightmare.

Now I will wield this, and I wanted to use it immediately, but I controlled myself and turned to the person who had given me this power.

“Thank you, Master Silver. I will not let down the trust you have shown to me," I said to him, bowing deeply.

The gesture seemed to surprise him, but he quickly controlled his emotions.

“Go, then, and see the preparations. We need today to be perfect.” He instructed.

“As you wish, Master Silver,” I said and got up and was about to leave the office, but stopped.

“They have arrived,” he said. Seeing the line of carriages on the street, moving toward the circle.

Today, we all are moving into a new home. Speaking of which, now that I am a Madam, I will get one of the big three suites.

There are three suits on the top floor with the best view and the interior. One is for Madam Carla, the second one is for the headmistress, the head of the circle, and the third is for the madam of the establishment.

Now, being Madam; I will not only have the office on the top floor of the establishment but also the best suit.

I looked at the carriages for a second more before walking out of the office. I have a lot of things to do.

The first is meeting Drev and Stavad.

Till yesterday, we were equal. From today, I am their boss, and it couldn’t help but put a smile on my face.

Soon, I reached the first floor and walked toward the kitchen, which was running at full force.

We haven’t done a soft opening for the new system, but girls are coming here in one and a half hours.

They will sign the new contracts and eat.

There will be a few rounds of practice, but it will be done on the three floors above. The first floor is for a completely different purpose. There won’t be any girls involved in it.

I had just entered the kitchen when I saw Stavad, and he was with Drev. They seem to be discussing something.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Drev is the one who referred to Stavad; he used to work with him, in the restaurant he burned down.

They noticed me and stopped talking, before walking toward me.

“Boss,” they said in unison. “You know?” I asked in surprise.

“Mr. Silver informed us yesterday that he will be offering you the position and looking at the smile on your face, you seemed to have accepted it,” replied Stavad, in his drawling voice.

Stavad is a man in his late thirties, with an average face and build, but an amazing voice.

So much so that when Madam Carla first talked to him, it was a warning to not seduce any girls.

We had hired him a few weeks ago. He will be the manager of the first floor.

“Well, since that is out of the way, then let’s get down to the business,” I said and led them out and sat down at one of the tables.

“Do you have everything you need, Drev? Anything you need, tell me now?” I asked to which, he shook his head. “I have everything I need, boss,” he replied. I nodded and turned to Stavad.

“How is your staff?” I asked.

“They are good, you will see them working like a fine-oiled machine in an hour,” he said, sounding quite confident.

“Still, we will go over a few things,” I said and took out the list from my purse.

A few minutes later, they left.

I remained at the table, thinking about all the things I had to do. Instead of doing them. I got up and walked into the basement.

I couldn’t control myself. If I didn’t test the power, I wouldn’t be able to work in peace. Even when I was talking to those two, all I have been thinking about is the power that is around me.

I have to test the power, the things I could do with it.

Click!

Soon, I opened the door and went inside, before stopping middle of it.

I raised my hand and willed the emotion present everywhere around me into my hand and they did, without any resistance.

Seeing that, a smile couldn’t help but appear on my face.

A moment later, I calmed my emotions and willed the spell to materialize through my craft.

Hun?

A second later, surprise appeared on my face when I didn’t feel the spell materialize.

I tried again with more focus, but once again, nothing happened. So, I tried again and again, but every time I tried, nothing happened.

“What is happening?” I asked myself before suddenly my eyes lit up with understanding.

“I am such an idiot,” I cursed and wanted to hit myself.

In my excitement, to try the power, I forgot one of the main principles of witchcraft.

I looked at the emotions, gathered in my palm, and poured an equal amount of emotions into my palm from my own reserves.

The establishment is closed, but that doesn’t mean, I can’t harvest emotions. I had to meet a lot of people due to my responsibilities and many harbor the lust toward me.

I had harvested it and while it is not as much as I get in the establishment; it is still enough for me to do some experiments here.

As I did that, the fireball appeared in my hand.

“As expected,” I said, seeing the yellow fireball in my hand.

The 1% power is huge, but it couldn’t be used directly. It would go against the nature of witchcraft. I have to provide something of mine to use this power and it puts a smile on my face, instead of disappointing me.

Because, if this place, ever turned to a legacy. It will be terror.

I dispelled the fireball and, a couple of seconds later; the wind blade appeared in my hand, and a few seconds after that, the earth spike.

We, the witches, are capable of casting any spell that mages could, but due to the nature of our magic, we couldn’t fight on the frontline like mages do.

Unlike them, we have to harness our power from emotions, and while we have mana, we need emotions to power our craft.

If we deplete the harvested emotion, the mana will become useless to us.

There is also slowness of spells and many other things.

It is why witches focused more on rituals and charms. They are the things, that work on a much more subtle level than the spells and are harder to defend again, than putting a simple shield in front of you.

I tried a few more spells before taking out the ritual charm from my pocket.

I had a thought, with increased responsibilities, I wouldn’t be able to create the number of charms I thought I would, but I did.

The responsibilities seemed to have strangely made me better at crafting them. Likely because of all the mental strain I had to endure, managing these girls.

From today, it will increase even more than now I will have to handle the whole establishment, every aspect of it.

It is stressing me, but also making me feel excited.

I pushed those thoughts away and focused on the task at hand. Charging the ritual charm.

I did what I had done earlier and gathered emotions from the establishment and merged the equal amount of what I had harnessed before pouring it into the charm.

It worked and within seconds; I had finished charging the charm, the fastest, I had ever done.

Now, not only I will be able to charge the charms with half of the harnessed power, but it will also help me during the crafting.

Power is not only required when charging the charm but also during the crafting.

If creating ritual charms would have been just bending off flowers and vines and adding crystals and herbs, I would have created hundreds of them daily, instead of five or six.

I wouldn’t have been so tired too.

I wanted to charge more ritual charm, but I was nearly empty. I didn’t have much to begin with, and most went to spell and the charging of ritual took nearly all that was left.

I am not disappointed.

The moment in the evening arrives; I won’t have a problem filling my reserves and charging these charms.

It put a smile on my face, but also increased the pressure to make the evening as perfect as possible.

‘I will be,’ I said to myself and walked out of the room to make the preparation for the experience that patrons would talk about for days.