Witch's Brew - Spellspinners 1 (Spellspinners of Melas County) by Heidi R. Kling Read Free Book Online Page B

public knowledge, the archive’s many antique books were protected for their fragility and uniqueness—some were the only copies still in print. What the public didn’t know was that the Melas witches always had a representative on the library’s board, so we’d always have access to the precious collection we kept in here, glamoured, so only we could read it.
    Our books were mixed in with human books. When I ran my fingers down their leather spines, their true titles appeared. With a pounding heart, I read:
     
    DARK PROPHECY: ON THE ENDANGERMENT OF SPELLSPINNERS
     
    If the Hundred Year Curse—placed on the witches and the warlocks by the Seven Sisters in the year of 1912—is not broken within a full century, modern Spellspinners will face the Deireadh na N-Amanna.
     
    I pulled out my phone and typed the phrase into the translator:
    Deireadh na N-Amanna: Irish: Gaelic.
    End of Times.
    End of Times?
    Automatically, the enchanted book turned the page:
     
    As their magic begins to fade from existence, modern Spellspinners will be left with only basic human bodies, impotent of the vast powers granted through practicing magic.

    My back scratched against the hard bindings as I slid to the floor. Heavy in my lap, the book flipped to a new page:
     
    Hundred Year Curse
    In the year of 1911, after centuries of living in peace, the stable family unions of male & female witches found themselves in deep-seeded philosophical conflict: Male/female opinions split between an eagerness to live amongst humans (female) and lust for power to rule over them (male). * Wives accused their male counterparts of succumbing to the temptations of dark magic. (Why else would they want to rule over less powerful beings?) Husbands accused wives of not tapping their potential. (Why waste healing energies on human children when they could be increasing their own powers?) After individual families fell, coven communities succumbed to aggression. When the warring covens couldn’t come to terms, violence ensued. The Seven Sisters were forced to intervene and create a new order.
    * Abridged Council ruling, translated from oracle on the Isle of the Seven Sisters

    Ord Nua
    Ruling that Spellspinners were unequipped to control the great surge of energy that came from binding the dark and light powers coursing between them, the Sisters were left with no choice but to sever their union, ordering female witches to continue to live among humans, but practice their light magic (i.e., healing, Breathing) in secret. Male witches were branded with a new name: Warlock*, and, as such, they were banished from witch communities and the human world, and stricken from harming or ruling over human or witch kind. They could practice their dark magic (i.e., levitation, mind reading) in secret.
     
    *Origin: before 900; Middle English warloghe, -lach, Old English waerloga oathbreaker, devil, equivalent to waer covenant + -loga betrayer (derivative of leogan to lie)
     
    The Congression
    To maintain the new order, the Seven Sisters created a fair council of Spellspinners to govern over the witches and warlocks in the form of the Congression, a body comprised of seven wise Spinners (three warlocks and four witches, alternating quarterly to four warlocks and three witches for balance), all of whom were approved by the Sisters.

    The Gleaning
    Stripping the Spellspinners of half their energy proved problematic, and both female and male complained to the Congression of failing magic beyond the powers stricken from them. Because the fe/male Spellspinners were not allowed to interact, they created a process called “The Gleaning,” where fe/male Spellspinners would exchange dark and light energy through a magically governed battle, to ensure their powers remain balanced. At the first Gleaning, in June 1912, on the Isle of the Sisters, a tragedy occurred. A warlock murdered the opposing witch he was meant to glean light magic from, and in retaliation, a warlock was murdered by