“What exactly is his grimoire’s problem? Because, so far, by my count, it has put him in danger at least three times. Which is sort of the opposite of its purpose, last time I checked. And it is quickly moving up my list of people and things I want to hurt and/or destroy.”
The familiar let out a clearly frustrated hiss. “I damn well don't know. I have never come across one so stubborn, or sopurposely confrontational and aggressive towards its own witch. I assumed it was due to the delays, but that was hardly Ollie’s choice.”
“Is there anything we can do to fix its attitude?”
Red chuckled. “I’m thinking of setting it on fire.”
Noble laughed. “Would that actually work?”
“The type of fire I’m speaking of would destroy it completely, resulting in Ollie’s grimoire reforming. Sort of reborn from the ashes type of results.”
“I didn’t realize witches got a new grimoire if theirs was destroyed.”
“That is likely because you never gave the witches you killed enough time for theirs to reform. But no witch exists without one. Grimoires are born of a witch’s magic, and are connected to their very soul. As long as the witch survives, a new one will emerge. At the same time, if a witch dies, then so does the grimoire, even if it continues to exist as an object.”
“Which makes the actions of Ollie’s grimoire incredibly stupid. Is there a reason you haven’t burned it already?”
Red paused as they reached the already open door leading up to Ollie’s living quarters, his too-knowing eyes boring into him as he practically admonished, “You should know why already.”
Noble frowned, blinking before it dawned on him. It honestly spoke to how tired he was that he’d even asked. And Noble was tired. Dealing with the public for hours was not his thing. He in fact liked his personal space, and hadn’t gotten to keep much of it for most of the day. But the familiar was right, he knew exactly why Red hadn’t already done it.
As much as they may think a new grimoire would be better, or even safer, for Ollie, the fact was, destroying the one he already had would be devastating to his little witch. As Red pointed out, the books were connected to their witches. Noble knew for a fact that if they burned it, Ollie would experienceevery agonizing moment of it until the thing was reduced to ash. He knew because he had witnessed it, or rather, he had done it himself and gleefully watched the results many times.
“Fuck…right,” he sighed.
Red grunted as he padded into the small space before the stairs, and when Noble stepped inside as well, the familiar asked, “Do you plan on staying the night?”
“I do.”
As he spoke, the door behind Noble closed ‘on its own’, the sound of the lock engaging loud in the silence. They had just reached the top of the steps when they heard Ollie screaming. While it cut off quickly, they took off running into the kitchen and down the hall.
“Ollie, are you okay?!” Noble yelled, just before reaching the open doors of his private library. But he stumbled to a stop as he rushed in and spotted Ollie.
With his back to them, the witch was crouched down near the spiral staircase. More alarming still, there was what looked to be a door in the shelving, partly hidden behind the stairs, cracked slightly open and glowing around the seams.
“Umm, that’s new,” he drawled slowly.
At the same time, Red snorted. “Have to say, of all the doors that could have unsealed, this is definitely one that I’d consider to be the most useful right now.”
Ollie looked at him sharply over his shoulder. “So you knew it was here?!”
The familiar shrugged. “Binding.”
The binding had been mentioned more than once before, but it sounded like there was a lot more to it than just someone trying to delay Ollie’s abilities from manifesting.
“Seriously?!” the witch huffed. “Like, I guess I realized something was wrong with the dimensions of my house, butlike…?! How many doors am I missing, or rather, how many doors are there that I am unaware of?!”
Red opened his mouth, but…nothing came out.
“Binding?” Ollie said, monotoned.
“Binding,” the familiar confirmed.
“Ugh,” the man huffed as he stood up and faced them. Noble’s eyes widened when he spotted what appeared to be a translucent kitten in Ollie’s arms, which the little witch was definitely petting.
“Is that…”
A brilliant smile lit up Ollie’s freckled face as his Baby transferred the kitten to both hands and held it. “I found a kitten.” The smile dropped almost instantly after he said the words, his eyes becoming glossy and large with pure sadness, as he, with a small whimper, amended, “A ghost kitten.”
