Chapter 31

In the deep realm of the immaterial, the spirit of Gaia floated blissfully. She was smiling and happy, as her newest champions had awoken, doing her will as it had been done in ages past. She sighed as she slept, feeling a sense of pride and contentment in that moment. It did not last, as another sensation rippled through this trackless void, one of urgency and alarm.

The moment it touched Gaia, she knew what was going on. A small part of her panicked, as what she sensed was something she had felt before. But at that time, she had great champions who were more than up to the task of dealing with such a threat. Now, she worried that this old enemy would snuff out the fire she had taken the time to cultivate.

Gaia would not allow this, as she had worked too hard and waited for too long to let this traitor come back unchallenged. While she knew her champions didn’t have the strength to defeat the Dark Witch outright, together, they stood a chance. Pulling together what magic she could in her state, she let it build up before unleashing it in a brilliant blast of power.

It arced away from Gaia, filtering out to every form of magic that was tied to her. With the magic, she sent a message that she hoped her disciples would hear. It would reach everyone who practiced magic for certain, but whether they heard it or did anything about it, was up to them. She hoped to the divine of the cosmos that her message was heard and that her champions would answer the call.

Aaliyah Wilson lay in her bed, next to her husband Darnell, as they enjoyed a rare morning in. Their kids were still asleep and snoozing like rocks, which was the plan the couple had all along. It tapped their energy reserves a bit, but the morning of pure silence was too blissful to not enjoy. Aaliyah smiled as she started to come to full wakefulness until she felt the magical pulse surge through her.

“Wha—” she gasped as she sat bolt upright in her bed.

“What the fuck?!?” came the voice of Darnell right next to her, as he woke a few seconds later.

“You felt that too?” she asked him.

“Yeah! It felt ... like panic!” the man rumbled, his normally placid voice now laced with worry and fear.

“That was ... a warning?! At least, that’s what it felt like,” the ebon skinned woman sighed as she tried to make sense of what she felt and heard in her head.

“Maybe if we meditate, we might get a clearer answer?” her husband suggested.

“I can always trust my warrior to help me sort things out!” she told him affectionately.

“And I can always trust my witch to guide us in the direction we need to go,” Darnell said to her as they got out of bed.

The pair of them headed to the spare room, which, as far as their kids knew, was their ‘office’. In truth, what they called their ‘office’ was a training room and meditation chamber. Both Darnell and Aaliyah were far more than what they appeared to the outside world. The fact was that they were both servants of Gaia, but each one served her in their own way.

Aaliyah was a witch, but not the typical type of witch you would think of. She was part of a coven of witches known as the Defenders of Yggdrasil. They were dedicated to protecting nature and maintaining the balance Gaia had set forth. While they didn’t draw their magic from Gaia per se, each member of the coven was a staunch defender of all life. In their eyes, all life was sacred and deserved to be safeguarded.

The Defenders of Yggdrasil took their duty very seriously, as few had their level of fervor. They even went so far as to make a Blood Pact upon their initiation as a way of demonstrating their loyalty to Gaia. But her coven was nearly gone because of circumstances that saw them persecuted over the centuries. While the coven had endured, they were dying a slow death, as Aaliyah was the last of her coven.

Darnell, while also a Gaian himself, he too was different in the manner where he didn’t use magic. Magic flowed through him, but to augment his already impressive physical prowess. He had honed his body and mind to near perfection, attaining the pinnacle of what humanity could achieve. Once he reached this point, he was then tested and after he passed this test, he was inducted into the Zulu Brotherhood.

The Zulu Brotherhood were a group of warriors, who dedicated their lives to ensuring that Gaia was kept safe and alive. Their main way of doing so was to bring war and strife to the doorstep of whomever threatened the goddess. Over the centuries, their methods had evolved, just as they had, but they too were in a decline.

While they had declined over the last thousand years, they kept their vigil, doing everything they could to keep the goddess safe. Their numbers were too few to affect any real change. It was believed by the last remaining elders that they would soon see the end of their order. Refusing to believe it, Darnell had left his home in search of answers. It seemed that fate had plans for him, as he soon crossed paths with Aaliyah.

The pair of them were at odds initially, but soon realized that they served the same goddess. The time that followed saw them stand and fight together through many trials, tribulations, and adventures. Some of the enemies they had fought were after them, or more specifically, their lives. These enemies did their best to end them, but that they were here today was a testament to their prowess and resilience.

Once they realized they were better together than they were apart, was when they began to fall in love with each other. Darnell remembered those days fondly, as they were some of the best days of his life. He was certain that Aaliyah remembered them in the same way, as he often caught her looking over their old tools and weapons. Though same could be said for him, as he too missed those days.

While they still trained themselves relentlessly, they couldn’t go out and take up the fight like they used to. Since Aaliyah had gotten pregnant, they had taken up fights at a less frequent pace than they had in their earlier years. They had both agreed that once children entered the picture, that they would be the main priority over anything else.

That didn’t mean that they had just abandoned their duties and become normies like the rest of humanity. The Witch and the Warrior would still go out from time to time to combat evil, but that was when they could find a babysitter! Though their kids were no longer babies, they still had to be looked after. If their respective families were still alive, they would have been the first people to call.

As it was, the pair of them had to rely on the goodwill of co-workers at their day jobs and whoever they could find that they trusted. Such a list was quite small, as the pair of them had used their abilities to suss out the undesirables. A few babysitters they’d interviewed had a good swath of darkness about them, which was never welcome in their home.

Though it wasn’t the type of work they’d normally do, they found ways to out this darkness to the authorities. One babysitter, who had been a teenage boy, was a pedophile in the making, going by what they detected. While tricky, they found a way to expose him, and he was put away in short order. There were also other such undesirables lurking in the neighborhood who were hiding in plain sight.

Most of these people had either been caught or gotten the message that they were being hunted and moved away. There were still a few lurking in their area, but Aaliyah and Darnell still had yet to find out who they were. It was a slow process, due to them having lives outside of their calling. But that was the price they paid to have a family, and they paid it willingly.

They walked into the room and twitched aside the rug that covered the floor. On the ground was a spell circle, one designed to amplify whatever magic they were using. Aaliyah had drawn it some time ago, but had periodically added to it to help crank up its potency and usefulness. Darnell even had some ideas, which had proven instrumental in helping fine tune its focusing power.

Clearing their minds, the pair put themselves in a Zen like state of concentration, so nothing would disturb them. Using a quick cantrip, Aaliyah lit the candles around the room, to help with building that calming state in their minds. Focusing on their breathing, the Witch and the Warrior stepped into the mindset they wished to be in. It took a few moments, but they had reached it with little effort.

With their minds clear and focused, Aaliyah and Darnell sat down in a lotus position opposite each other and closed their eyes. Letting nothing distract them, the couple put all their energies towards hearing what was being said with the magic that had awoken them. They put everything they had into trying to decipher what the magic was trying to say, but found that the message was still garbled.

“You get anything, babe?” Darnell questioned.

“Nothing! It’s not any clearer!!” Aaliyah huffed, her beautiful features contorted in a scowl of frustration.

“One thing was clear, both when we woke and when we meditated just now. Something has just awoken. Something ... dark ... evil. The darkness we’ve felt around the city has dropped, but this is something new. Worse, if it can be believed,” Darnell stated.

“That much is clear. The only question is, what can we do about it? We can investigate, but there is the fact that we have our family to look after, Aaliyah reminded him.

“I know, but this is something serious. You sensed it, right?” he asked her.

“Yes. I did. As much as I hate to admit it, this is far different than what we’ve fought in the past. It is far more ... potent,” Aaliyah shivered, feeling a slight draft run through her.

Darnell noted this, but also couldn’t help but notice how the cold affected his wife’s body. He saw her hardened nipples through her nightshirt and couldn’t help the boner he sprouted at this. Even after all this time, Aaliyah could still affect him like this, and he loved it. It was a sign that he knew this was the woman he was supposed to be with.

“Hon, as much as I would love to, maybe you should put that away,” his wife giggled, looking down at his tenting boxers.

“I don’t know. Maybe we should do something about it? I mean, the kids are still asleep, so we should take advantage of this time we have,” Darnell suggested.

Aaliyah almost scoffed, but she found herself getting all hot and bothered by the suggestion. It had been a while since they tried something risky, like sex in a place outside the bedroom. It had been a few days since their last encounter and Aaliyah burned for some nookie at that moment. She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment, before she crooked her finger in a ‘come hither’ motion at her husband.

Darnell walked over to his wife, but instead of letting her do what she wanted, he scooped her up. Aaliyah squawked in protest until he placed her on the loveseat they had in their office. She then looked up at her husband with a pleasing shiver as she pulled down his boxers. The moment his dick was free of the clothing, it sprang out, almost hitting her face.

Aaliyah was ready for it as her mouth was open, which she used to swallow Darnell’s dick. A small groan escaped his mouth as he felt his wife’s lips sucking on his turgid member. Her head bobbed up and down as she used her mouth to vacuum Darnell’s thick cock to full hardness.

The Warrior wasn’t idle with his time, even though he was enjoying himself immensely. He bent down slightly, reaching down to where his wife’s nethers were soaking through her panties. He played with Aaliyah’s puffy lips through the thin membrane of cloth, teasing her relentlessly. The woman shuddered in delight at this, reveling in the sensations she was feeling in that moment.

Darnell continued to play with his wife, pushing her closer and closer to the edge. He then slid his hand inside her panties, his digits rubbing her lips up and down as he toyed with her steaming hole. Aaliyah tried to keep it together, but was losing that fight, and fast! She continued to suck her husband off, but was increasingly distracted by what he was doing to her pussy.

“Honey ... cock! Now!!” Aaliyah demanded as she popped her mouth off his dick.

The man was more than happy to oblige as he stopped playing with his wife’s quim. In one smooth motion, he took hold of her panties and ripped them off her body, shredding them. This move never ceased to turn Aaliyah on and right now, she was more than ready to take his dick.

Darnell got onto his knees and lined his tool up with her steaming channel. In one stroke, he entered her and bottomed out in her pussy, his balls resting on her pussy lips. Aaliyah shivered delightfully, as she could feel a minigasm rifling through her body. She then looked up at Darnell with lust hooded eyes and whispered one sentence that never failed to rile him up.

“Fuck me ... like you own me.”

A surge of lust powered through the man as he took hold of his wife’s hips. He slid his cock out of her, far enough to where the head rested inside her quim, before he shoved it into the woman, hard. Aaliyah keened briefly before stuffing her fist into her mouth, biting down on it to muffle her screams.

She did what she could to hold herself back from uttering a sound and waking the kids. But the things Darnell was doing to her was making that a practical impossibility. Aaliyah wanted nothing more than to egg her husband on, to talk dirty to him and demand that he fill her with his dick. But she could not. Not here and not at this hour, so she settled for moaning as quietly as she could.

The Warrior was insanely turned on as he heard his Witch moan in lust and desire. The way she was squirming and writhing beneath him told him he was doing something right. He continued to pillage her, driving her pleasure higher and higher as he sought to make her squeal. Darnell was playing with fire though, as he too was feeling a familiar tinge at the base of his cock.

He continued to ramrod her, giving his wife the good stuffing she deserved. Darnell could feel her insides clenching and fluttering, which told him she was drawing near to her peak. Not wanting to let her have it like this, he stopped moving and withdrew from her leaky quim. Aaliyah groaned, almost complaining out loud, until she felt herself being manhandled and turned over.

A grin then formed on the Witch’s face as she knew her Warrior was going to take her in her favorite position. Once she was on all fours on the loveseat, Darnell got behind her and slid his dick into her once again. Now, he not only had a proper grip on his lady, but he also had an unobstructed view of her gorgeous ass.

“Beautiful,” Darnell murmured appreciatively.

“Me, or my ass?” Aaliyah questioned.

“Both,” Darnell said as he gripped her pliable tush hard and plowed her hard.

Aaliyah wailed in delight, but buried her face in the cushions beneath her, screaming into them. Darnell wasn’t pulling any punches and was taking this opportunity to the max. Not that the Witch was complaining, as she was enjoying getting her pussy stretched like this! She could feel her husband pushing himself so hard that he would be losing his shit and filling her up soon.

While she enjoyed being pumped full of his seed, she didn’t want it to happen yet. Though her mind was addled by his thick cock, she could still manage to focus enough for what she had in mind. Drawing upon her magic, she cast a quick cantrip, completing the spell in seconds. Once she had finished it, Aaliyah then turned to look at the man, raised her hand and placed it upon her husband’s chest.

“Wha ... what did you ... do?” Darnell moaned, as he could feel the magic working inside him.

“Put ... off ... you ... cumming. Want ... to ... cum ... hard...” Aaliyah breathed. The Witch then felt the Warrior’s hand on her throat, restricting some of the airflow as her head was pulled up where his was.

“You play ... with fire...” Darnell warned her, and Aaliyah shivered in anticipation of it.

He then dropped her, letting her fall back to the cushions below as he ramped up his tempo. Not only did his pace pick up, but she then felt a sting on her ass cheeks as loud cracks sounded in the air. Darnell wasn’t just slapping her ass, he was punishing her for slowing down his orgasm.

They’d done this sort of thing before, but not for a while, as doing kinky things when you have babies is a tough thing to do. But now that they were old enough to sleep through the night and noise, she felt it was time to unearth these old kinks and get back into them. Darnell didn’t stop slapping her ass, as he tanned those round cheeks of hers. Each slap was like a bolt of lightning to her pussy, sending the woman to a higher peak with each blow.

She could feel her husband abandon all pretense and become a pure sexual monster as he ravaged her. Aaliyah realized a few moments too late that it may not have been such a hot idea, as she would be sitting gingerly for at least a couple of days! But the pleasure she was experiencing was too good to just ignore, as she let Darnell redden her cheeks.

The slaps stopped suddenly, and Aaliyah craned her head to see what was going on. Her eyes widened as she looked at Darnell, with his arms up in the air, his hands ready to come down onto her ass. With a snap of her fingers, she dispelled the cantrip, allowing her husband to have his orgasm, as she knew hers would come with the impending blow.

In a matter of seconds, a massive crack of flesh upon flesh sounded, and the power behind the blow sent Aaliyah over the edge. She buried her heard in the cushions and howled as she came, her pussy clenching her husband’s dick like a silken vise. Aaliyah felt like she was stumbling through time and space, completely out of control.

Darnell was at a similar point, as his balls had been full to bursting since before his wife put the cantrip on him. Now that it was gone, her squeezing his dick as she was, kicked him off the edge of pleasure and into blissful oblivion. His cock erupted inside his wife as his seed filled every nook and cranny within her weeping pussy. He would have shouted in his release, but he wanted to enjoy the moment he had with his wife.

The pair of them panted with their exertion, both having needed this for some time now. They stayed connected like this, as Darnell loved the feeling of Aaliyah’s quim milking his tool for every drop. When they finally came apart, they were both sticky, hot messes. The pair cuddled as they recovered, enjoying the moments as they crawled on by.

“You know ... now that I ... think about it ... it seems like ... the ask from Gaia was ... being interfered with,” Darnell breathed, as his mind came back to other matters.

“That ... could be why ... we can’t ... understand it,” Aaliyah agreed as she nestled against her husband’s chest. “I think that ... we’ll probably need some ... help in determining what ... exactly Gaia was saying.”

“How? Last I checked, we’re kind of on our own out here,” Darnell told her.

“Not completely. Remember how I said I was feeling something a while ago? Something new, but powerful had manifested recently?” she asked him.

“Yeah?”

“When I was meditating earlier, I reached out to the power to determine what it was. I couldn’t tell exactly what, but only that it was friendly,” Aaliyah told him.

“This ... new power, could it be responsible for the ebb in the darkness that hangs over the city?” the Warrior questioned.

“I believe that it is. This power, while new, has something ... familiar to it. At least as far as my magic is concerned,” Aaliyah replied.

“Familiar? Familiar how?”

“I ... can’t explain it. It’s almost like it’s ... something I should know, because of how ... old it is,” the Witch responded.

“Hmm. If that’s the case, they might have a few answers we could be looking for,” Darnell stated. “If they are the reason why the activity from the Sons has all but ceased, then we should definitely cultivate them as allies!”

“On that, we agree! Having allies that powerful will help us immensely! Maybe even convince some of the other witches that live here to side with us!” she said enthusiastically.

Excitement welled from them both and they turned to each other, desire written on their faces. Darnell kissed his wife, and she responded in kind, moaning into her husband as they pressed against each other. They were both eager to kickstart round two, as Darnell was hard as steel once again. Just then, a high-pitched cry pierced the air, as one word sounded, which killed the mood instantly.

“Daddy!”

“Aagggghhh! Always count on those two to interrupt things at the most inopportune times!” Darnell huffed balefully.

“Don’t fuss, babe. We can still have ourselves a quickie if you put that monster away and handle the kids. I’ll be waiting in the shower, after I fix those two some breakfast,” Aaliyah told the man sultrily as she stood up and sauntered away from him.

Darnell couldn’t help but grin to himself as his wife shimmied away to the bathroom. She was going to get it bad, and she knew it. But first, there was the matter of checking on his son and daughter. The man stood up and pulled his boxers on, willing away his erection as he stepped out of their office. He hoped he didn’t have to deal with wet sheets as he wondered what Aaliyah was going to make the kids for breakfast.

Jason, Sheena, Phalmina and Xaera woke up at the apartment, having felt the same thing that Aaliyah and Darnell had. They blinked away the sleep in their eyes as they came to, minds focusing on the remnants of the dream.

“What was that?” Xaera asked as she rubbed her eyes.

“That ... felt like a ... warning,” Phalmina breathed as she sat up, trying to wrap her head around what was going on.

“Only thing was, that it wasn’t clear. Like it was garbled or ... something,” Jason groaned as he stood up, cracking his bones and his neck.

“Indeed! I believe that it’s because of where we are, is why we can’t make sense of it. I think if we were to return to the grove by the house, we’d get ourselves a proper read on it,” Sheena suggested.

“There was ... something ... I managed to catch as we woke up,” Xaera stated as she sat there pensively.

“Well? Come on girl, spit it out!” Sheena almost demanded.

“It was a word, but I’m not sure if it was the right word. The word was... ‘witch’,” the troll woman responded.

“Oh fuck! Shit just got a fuckton more complicated!” Phalmina groaned as her wings drooped with her mood.

“Complicated? Complicated how?” Jason wondered.

“If witches are involved, then we are going to have to tread lightly. In ages past, witches were often involved in the various conflicts that would rise. Though who they sided with was always unknown until you met them in battle. Witches were and are perpetual wild cards in the game of life,” Phalmina explained.

“Wait, witches are real?” Jason asked, blinking rapidly as he came to terms with this new information.

“Yeah, silly! They’ve been around since the earliest days of humanity!” Sheena told her fiancé.

“Sheena, go easy on the man. It’s not like he grew up with the same knowledge you did,” Phalmina reminded her. Sheena then facepalmed herself cutely, as she remembered this little factoid.

“Witches are, by definition, unaligned magic users who play by no one’s rules but their own. Sometimes they’ll be out on their own, but more often than not, they form, or join a coven that is more along their own personal tastes. It is because of this lack of rules is why they are often seen as wildcards in the greater scheme of things,” Phalmina explained.

“How do they have access to magic? I thought you had to be a magical being for that to happen! Or at least chosen by a magical entity!” Jason replied.

“That’s one thing that no one, but a witch, knows about. The thing that is most scary about a witch is that they have a unique ability among those who use magic. They are capable of drawing from any type of magic they wish to. From the green, life giving magic of Gaia, to the utter blackness that is Dark Magic, witches can use any magic on the spectrum,” Phalmina continued.

“Many people, including Gaians, have tried to find out how witches forge such a magical connection. To this day, not a single soul knows how it is done. Not even practitioners of the Dark truly know, as witches who serve the Dark do not divulge their secrets. The only ones who know are the covens, and they guard their secrets jealously,” Sheena responded.

“Exactly so! One thing we do know about witches and the magic they wield is that it affects them more profoundly than it would other people,” Phalmina told him.

“Oh? Like ... the magic they choose to use can ... change them?” Jason guessed.

“That’s right! The things they can do with magic are amazing, but at the same time, it can influence who they are and their actions in ways even they don’t see coming,” Sheena stated.

“On top of which, witches generally don’t interact with people outside their own covens. They like to stick to their own kind and whoever they’ve managed to rope in as guardians and sperm donors,” Phalmina finished.

“Sheesh! They sound about as secretive as the Sons of Caesar!” Jason commented.

“Since the incident at Salem, they have had to be. Even beforehand, in some instances,” Phalmina told the man.

“Wait, that shit that went down at Salem was real?!?” Jason asked incredulously.

“Yes, but what we read about in the Crucible and what historically happened is very different from the truth,” Sheena told the man.

“How? What happened exactly?” Jason wondered.

“Well, the villainess of the story, Abigail Williams, is pretty much set in stone. The details of the story have been muddled, as many of the normies couldn’t or refused to see the truth,” Phalmina told him.

“Plus, they were Puritans. You think the Puritanical types of today are bad? The first Puritans of those days? That was a whole other level!” Sheena told her man. “Anyway, the whole hunt for witches in Salem was more or less the doing of that evil little twat. Mainly because she was a powerful witch herself.”

“So, she could wield magic?” Jason asked.

“Yes, and from what I understand of it, she was talented at making things happen. So much so that she was being taught things that many novices couldn’t dream of doing. Not yet, at any rate. It was this desire and hunger for knowledge that would drive her off the deep end. You see, she desired knowledge that was forbidden, as the woman she was learning from was a witch herself,” Sheena replied.

“Who was it she was learning from?” Xaera queried, enthralled by the tale.

“Tituba, the slave woman that was owned by Samuel Parris,” Sheena replied.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Are you saying that the Crucible actually got one serious detail like that, correct?” Jason wondered.

“Yeah, babe! They did get that little tidbit right, but I guess even a broken watch is right from time to time,” Sheena snickered.

“Hang on! If Tituba was a witch, then how is it she allowed herself to be kept as a slave by a normie like Parris?” Jason asked in disbelief.

“Not a lot is known about the woman, but from what I’ve picked up from the archives and what my parents taught me, was that she was on the run. She was a powerful witch, but she was a White Witch, which was a rarity down in the islands back then. Tituba was a woman who was trying to shut down any evil covens that sprang up in her homeland,” Sheena went on.

“The legends say that the covens knew that dealing with her was going to take a lot to do. So, they created a powerful creature to go head to head with her, and hopefully kill her. With Tituba out of the way, they could reign through the island unchecked, unchallenged, doing as they pleased. It wasn’t powerful enough to kill her in their first encounter, but it drained her powers severely just to fight it,” Sheena continued.

“What happened next?” Jason asked excitedly, hooked on the story.

“Tituba knew she had to get out, so she slipped in with the slaves during a sale and mingled among them, hoping to find a way off the island of Barbados. She got that chance when Reverend Parris bought her and took her to Salem. It was more than far enough away to distance herself from the creature that hunted her, while she gathered her strength to engage it again,” his fiancée said to him, telling the story.

“It was in Salem that she had found a bunch of young girls, all of which who had the gift to become powerful witches. So, she carefully took several of them under her wing, hoping to teach and guide them as she had been. Though she was sworn to uphold all the tenets of right and wrong, she saw this as an opportunity to raise an army. One which would go back to Barbados and destroy the evil covens so utterly that none would dare trespass against her or her people again,” Sheena went on.

“I’m guessing it didn’t go so well?” Jason asked, having a good idea of what had happened.

“That’s putting it mildly. Once Tituba had started teaching the girls, they obeyed her, and they were all developing as she had hoped. It was when Abigail started using her magic for petty gains and shit, is when things started going off the rails. It wasn’t long before the other girls started doing as Abigail was doing. They used their power for material gain, which went against everything Tituba was teaching them,” Sheena continued.