(filler)
After Dreki had left her office, Astrid set to work immediately sketching a design for the pendant that she had agreed to craft for him. The design came to her quickly, hand moving on its own accord in her sketchbook as the image bloomed from the tip of her pencil.
Good thing, too. She still had other things to work on. Like the poppet-Dreki and a large batch of cleansing floor wash for 13 Broomfield Crossing.
She sat topless on the floor in her room at the Parlour surrounded by several candles, humming quietly to focus her casting-energy while working her pliers in short twisting motions. While she had been trying to use the office at the Academy for her work, she missed the comfort of the Parlour. The energy available to tap into was much more accessible and just...fit better. And there were fewer distractions.
Honestly, she was terrible with keeping work and home separate.
The Aqua Aura Quarts point Dreki had selected was adorned with a trail of small Flourite beads, a tight double helix of copper wire securing every piece together. It had taken her the better part of Thursday night to complete, and this morning she worked to put the final touches on it.
Pulling a single hair from the envelope containing those that Dreki gave to her, she wrapped it around the pendant. In a small cast-iron cauldron in front of her, there was a slip of paper with his name written on it. She placed the pendant on top and poured a bluish powder over it. Astrid closed her eyes and exhaled slowly, tapping into the energy coursing through the building and the earth. With palms emitting a dull glow, she held her hands out over the cauldron and, humming, shifted the flow of energy into the cauldron. The glow gathered in concentration at her fingertips like tiny fireflies and moved slowly to the cauldron, sticking to the surface of the blueish powder until it was completely covered.
She cracked open her eyes and slowly lowered her hands. Good.
With a metallic flick, she ignited her zippo lighter and touched the flame to the blue powder. Astrid watched carefully while holding her breath, guiding the flame with her own intense focus. There was still the chance that her hard work would be destroyed in the process. The augmentation powder was on the old side and needed to be replaced (she’d have to write home about that). Thankfully, it erupted in a series of sparks instead of outright exploding. A low blue flame burned away all in the cauldron save the pendant. That remained untouched.
Astrid breathed a sigh of relief and stood, crossing over to the window where a pitcher of tea had been bathing in direct moonlight. Pitcher in hand, she moved over to the desk and plucked a small corked bottle from a pile of seemingly-disorganized stuff and made her way back to the cauldron. She sat in front of the cauldron and placed both the bottle and the pitcher on the floor.
Hesitantly she reached toward the pendant to pluck it from the ashes of the cauldron, but when her finger made contact with it she yelped and withdrew her hand. It was scalding--which was technically a good sign. This time she fished it out with her pair of plyers and guided it into the corked bottle. Then she dropped the corked bottle into the pitcher of moon tea and it sunk to the bottom with a plunk. Next, she tipped the ashes from the cauldron into the pitcher and gave it a little swirl.
Astrid would’ve preferred a direct infusion but the design was so intricate she couldn’t be sure it would dry out unaffected. Indirect would be effective enough. The pitcher went back on the windowsill and the witch returned to the second task: poppet-Dreki.
The top drawer in the desk had dozens of poppets of different colors and she selected a plain white one, then fished around in the bottom of the drawer for a spool of white thread and a plastic container of sewing needles. Before sitting down at the desk, she darted back toward the cauldron on the floor to retrieve the envelope containing the last of Dreki’s hair strands. Can’t be forgetting that. After adding this to the desk beside the blank poppet, needle and thread, and the envelope containing the page of Dreki’s handwriting, Astrid crossed over to the bedside table. This drawer was stuffed with various containers of herbs and powders, both in plastic and glass. After a bit of searching, she selected the plastic container labeled “DECOY BLEND” and went with it back over to the desk.
“Okay.” She sighed after sitting, looking over the items she had gathered to be sure she had everything she needed. First, she added the remaining strands of Dreki’s hair to the envelope with the paper stuffed inside. After sealing the tiny envelope, she shoved it into the open chest-cavity of the loosely-stuffed poppet and set it back down on the desk. With both hands, she grasped the plastic container with the “Decoy” herb-salt blend and cracked it open. The top popped completely off, as though it had been pressurized, sending some of the blend showering all over Astrid and her desk.
“Fuck!” She set the open container down and stood, brushing herself off and shaking some out of her hair onto the floor. With an irritable sigh, she sat back down at the desk and took a pinch of what remained of the blend and added it into the poppet. She’d have to deal with the mess later. Astrid took a moment to relax and recenter herself, taking slow measured breaths. It was best to work with a calm and clear mind, minor annoyances set aside. While humming, she threaded an arm’s length onto the needle and stitched the poppet closed. When done, she pulled out another desk drawer and produced a spool of black, threaded a bit onto the needle, and began to sew a pair of eyes and a mouth into the face of the poppet.
“You are Dreki Arach,” she spoke slow and with command. “Your mind is the page inside. It is an open book to those who seek to read it.” The phrase was repeated until the facial features had been sewn on. By the time she had finished, the needle was warm to the touch and the black thread at the eyes bled into the same bluish color of the real Dreki’s eyes. Astrid took a larger jar from the back corner of her desk and placed the poppet inside. She leaned back in the chair and stretched her arms over her head.
Now to clean up this mess.
