Bell(e)s in the Woods - 8. Thursday, April 24, 2025 (II)

~The Cursebreaker~

The short night and the crappy weather had taken their toll on me, but Vee didn't look like she was having a good day either when we left the medical examiner's office. The lab was the closest destination, so we headed there first and were greeted by an incredibly tired Josy and a much more awake Simon.

“Anything interesting yet?” Vee wanted to know immediately, and they both shook their heads.

I suppressed a sigh, because I hadn't expected anything else.

“There's just dirt under Madeleine's fingernails, no DNA markers to be found,” Simon then clarified. “There was a foreign hair on her sweater, but without a root. It's short enough that it could be from anyone.”

“And nothing else,” Josy interjected. “The swabs from her cheek scratches are still being analyzed, as are various blood samples.” Then she gave me a skeptical glance. “The database has a marker for witch blood, but none of us has access to the details. So in the end, we can only see whether it’s yes or no.”

Simon grunted in agreement and brushed a loose strand of hair from his forehead.

“That's all there is to it, no?" There was nothing more I could do in this case than shrug helplessly.

“Probably not,” Simon said, “but the time factor may limit our options. I've heard about witch blood in my studies, but anyone who doesn't have access to a database like ours has a problem. Sure, you could also search separately for some kind of plant stuff, but which one?”

“That's the funny thing about it,” Vee retorted sharply. “Witch blood is forbidden.”

While Simon pulled a face as if a drooling beast had snapped at him, I shoved my hands into my jacket pockets and opted for a polite, apologetic smile.

Josy sighed. “Anyway. The analyses are still ongoing.”

Vee nodded to her. “Let me know when you have something.”

Simon nodded, visibly pissed off, Josy smiled and blushed. Vee's cheeks also flushed, and Simon rolled his eyes.

I raised an eyebrow in his direction and he turned away. Better for him. I nudged Vee, who seemed to have lost herself in Josy's eyes, and turned to leave.

“Sometimes I wish CSI: Miami or something like that was real. Put the tube in the machine, press the button, hooray, results,” Vee grumbled in the hallway as we trudged toward the tech cave.

Arguing voices could be heard coming from one of the offices.

“That would be nice,” I agreed, pushing aside the memories of TV nights with my mom. She had loved CSI and NCIS and all those shows, just like me.

Nico's desk was deserted, but Jonah was highly focused. “Hey.”

“Anything to report?” Vee dropped right in with the door.

With a negative-sounding smacking noise, Jonah turned to us. "Not really. Her browser is synced on her phone and her computer, so I can track her searches, but I don't know how much runes of power can help us."

“She probably used some,” I replied, shrugging when Vee looked at me questioningly. "Probably carved them into the ground and then hid them with leaves and needles. Or at least that's how I'd do it. A mixture of defensive and supportive runes."

“Well, with all the rain, there's probably not much of that left.” Jonah pulled a skeptical face and Vee and I shook our heads.

“That was a lake up there and Peggy only found scraps,” Vee said, the corners of her mouth turned downwards.

“Any news from the search team?” Jonah wanted to know in turn and Vee shook her head again.

“They're supposed to be doing an extensive search of the paths Kate might have taken to get back to her car, but so far no sign of her.”

“Hmm.” Nodding, Jonah turned to the screen and pointed at it. "I mean, Madeleine seems to have been a flamboyant character; it's a mystery to me where she got all this time to be a witch novice. But there's nothing else of interest. On her computer, maybe."

“What else do you want to find?” I glanced at him questioningly. "She met up with Kate for an illegal duel. It doesn't matter if that weird blackmailer guy is involved or not or some other shady type of person. She's dead."

“Come on, Dust, don't be so negative.” That came from Vee, of all people, who put a hand on my arm. "I understand what you mean, but we mustn't forget that Kate and Madeleine acted out their rivalry. Perhaps one of them deliberately lured the other there. The fact that Madeleine was looking for runes certainly suggests that."

“But Madeleine is dead and Kate has disappeared,” I replied. “Kate probably died too, somewhere along the way.” I shook my head weakly when Vee tried to object. “Even if Madeleine instigated it and lured Kate into a trap, it's no good now.”

“Well, for the record, I have to look for things like that,” Jonah muttered a little uneasily and I sighed. The whole thing was making me increasingly uncomfortable.

~The Detective~

I admittedly had no idea what had gone down between Warren and Nathan—rumor had it was a disastrous date—and I wasn't going to ask because I wasn't close enough to either of them, but Dust's relief was palpable when I told him Warren would be staying in the department. Again, I didn't want to pry, but the mentor-student dynamic between Dust and Nathan had surprised me, especially since Dust seemed quite protective and Nathan still wouldn't say a word about his magic. Either way, there was a certain tension regardning Warren-Dust and Warren-Nathan.

And since Dust had offered his home living room as an alternative because the Ladies Mentor Phoebe and Uma didn't want to show up at the QFPD—my God, what a horrible phone call with Maggie Moon that had been—I couldn't blame him for not wanting Warren there.

However... I didn't really feel comfortable with the two witches. They sat next to each other on the gray-blue couch, Phoebe shocked, Uma focused and strangely annoyed.

Dust brought tea. His face betrayed tension, but he gave me a small smile after he had distributed the cups. When he sat down next to me on the second cube-shaped stool, I began:

“I'm sorry, but I have to ask you some questions. Especially about the possible course of events.”

Uma—both women had refused to identify themselves or even give me a last name—nodded seriously. “Of course. There are general rules for duels to prevent exactly that from happening.” She shook her head slightly. “The foolishness of youth.”

Phoebe sniffed quietly, and I nodded in agreement.

“Phoebe, Dust pointed out to me that you are still very young to be a mentor...”

“That's right, and it wasn't planned that way,” Phoebe replied with a faint smile. “My mentor Katrina took Kate on when she came to us. I had only been a graduate for two years myself, and I was happy to support Kate.”

“Katrina died unexpectedly about three years ago,” Uma interjected, almost harshly. “Because Phoebe was closest to Kate's training, she was appointed the new mentor, but due to her lack of general experience and because Madeleine's training was practically at the same point, I took on the overall supervision. Supported by a few others, especially Bridget.” She nodded in Dust's direction.

“Did that possibly fuel the rivalry between the two of them?” I wanted to know, and they both shrugged.

“Possibly, but they're not quite that childish,” Uma put it into words. “It was always about skills, potential, knowledge first.”

"Good. So just so I understand correctly,“ I tried a polite smile, ”Madeleine is the brute force type, Kate more subtle? The bell with the thread of life and the runes—"

“That's a very simplified way of putting it, Detective,” Uma interrupted me with a frown.

“Please explain it to me.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dust make a strange face, and Phoebe also looked as if she didn't like Uma's behavior.

“Madeleine always relied on her magic, on the raw power at her disposal, that's true. But not because she was lazy or brutal, but because she never mastered the finer points.”

“I can relate to that, in a way,” Dust murmured, and Uma gave him a tiny, warm smile.

“I think she was aware of that from the beginning, and that's why she wanted to get away from her family, away from her mother's coven.”

I nodded in understanding.

“Madeleine envied Kate for her skill in alchemy. And she was looking for something, her own talent, something in which she could really shape her raw power. She only really started working with the runes a few weeks ago, but I saw potential and encouraged her."

“We found search queries for them on her phone. So is it likely she used runes—in whatever form—for a fight?” I followed up.

Uma pursed her lips. “Possible.” She picked up her cup awkwardly. “One of Madeleine's problems is overconfidence. She may have planned to use runes, but whether she succeeded or to what extent? I can't say.”

“What about Kate? Could she have used her talent for alchemy?” I deliberately left out the suspicion of witch blood for the time being, even at the risk that Bridget had already passed on information.

“That's quite possible.” Phoebe nodded and hid behind her cup for a moment.

As Dust pushed the jar of honey toward me, I at least pretended to be interested in the tea and spooned honey into my cup.

“There are various potions that fall under the category of liquid bombs,” Phoebe continued uneasily. “Filled into small bottles or vials, they are thrown and take effect when the glass breaks. Some liquids need to be ignited or otherwise activated, but that's...” She waved her hand meaningfully and I nodded.

“As far as I know, no glass shards or anything like that were found.”

Phoebe shrugged.

I glanced at Dust, whose face ranged somewhere between uneasy and unhappy—not very reassuring. Then I turned back to the witches, of whom Uma in particular was looking at me expectantly. “Please, how does a witch duel normally work? What changes when it's held illegally?"

“Well,” Uma twirled the cup in her hands, “a normal duel—whether between witches or other mages—has attendants who shield the fight with protective barriers. That means they protect themselves, other observers, and the surroundings, and intervene if someone breaks the rules or a participant is seriously injured. A witch duel in particular takes place on coven grounds, so there is additional protection, but that's just a side note."

I nodded. “So the attendands — seconds? — end the duel when it's clear who has won?”

“You could say that, yes.” Uma's narrow smile gave me goose bumps.

Phoebe shrugged strangely.

“But that doesn't mean that all illegal duels take place without seconds,” Uma added after a sip of tea, and I shut my mouth again because I had wanted to ask the matching question. “Depending on the situation and the opponent, that would be suicidal.”

“That’s just how magic is,” I remarked dryly, and Dust snorted before saying:

“But that leads to the question of whether Kate and Madeleine tried to find seconds or not.”

“I guess it depends. On who proposed the duel, who organized it, and why,” Phoebe said quietly.

Into my frown, Dust said: “You already said that Kate would never have proposed something like that, only agreed to it. Since she and Madeleine didn’t get along anyway—”

“Madeleine isn't stupid, Dust,” Uma interrupted, shaking her head slightly. “And she's not malicious either. Maybe she wouldn't have suggested an attendant, but if Kate brought up the subject, she would hardly have refused.”

Since I had the feeling that the discussion would just go round and round in meandering circles if I let it, I asked, “Does that mean we now have to privately interrogate the entire coven to find out who volunteered as second?” My tone was probably a little too harsh, but both witches’ eyes widened.

“Oh God,” Phoebe murmured, her cup trembling in her hands.

“Oh my—well, Detective, that's a strong accusation.” But Uma sounded flustered.

“Well, the question is, if the two of them were smart enough to get one or more seconds, who was it?” Dust summed it up. “Time wasn't exactly on our side here, and therefore the missing of magical residue around Madeleine's location isn't helping us.”

“So,” I took over, putting on a polite smile, “how do we check if and who?”

Uma struggled for words. “Detective, that's...”

I broadened my smile a little and upped the ante. “You know, it seems to me that you're trying to protect someone.”

“Detective, really, as a White Witch, it's my job to protect my coven,” Uma replied indignantly. “But that's—I mean, none of our witches would support an illegal duel. Especially not between novices.”

“What about other novices?”

Double shake of the head.

I glanced at Dust again, but his critical frown didn't help me. “Good. Or not good. Second or not, Madeleine died from witch blood poisoning.”

The shock on Uma's face was genuine; she almost dropped her cup. She glanced at Phoebe, as if to make sure she had heard correctly, but Phoebe whispered, “Oh my God,” and stared at me.

“Witch blood?” whispered Uma, pale as a sheet. “Oh God. Oh God, the Walburga has to hear this."

“Are there any books in the coven where a recipe might be found? Could Kate have found it during her extensive research on alchemy?” I wanted to know, and Uma shook her head with her mouth open and shrugged at the same time.

“If so, no one noticed that such a book was freely accessible,” she replied tonelessly after a moment. “There are a number of books, tools, and ingredients that are only available to White Witches. You can request them, but you have to have a reason and…”

“I’m afraid if someone really wants to, they can find it on the internet,” Phoebe whispered. “It's crazy—scary—what you can find there. And when the older novices get ingredients and brew something somewhere over one of the fires, no one looks too closely anymore.”

I nodded slowly.

Twenty minutes and more fruitless questions later, I was standing in Dust’s kitchen drinking a well-deserved coffee. “Tell me what you think,” I urged him, and he shook his head.

“Something's not right here. In the coven, I mean.”

Questioningly, I raised my brows and sipped my coffee. The black brew of the gods smelled a thousand times better than the horrible herbal tea.

He leaned against the kitchen counter and wrapped his arms around himself. “I have a feeling Bridget knows more than she's saying. And Phoebe too. She was too nervous just now.”

Even though I had been more focused on Uma because she had said the most, I had noticed as much and nodded. “I almost said they want to protect Kate, but the shock at the mention of witch blood seemed real to me.”

Dust nodded slowly.

I turned the pieces of the puzzle over and over in my head, but nothing seemed to fit. There was something we were missing, I was sure of it.

“You know what still bothers me about this whole story?” Dust then began after a long moment of thoughtful silence.

“Hmm? Aside from the fact that we have one dead witch and one missing witch?” I asked dryly.

“Yes, that too.” He tilted his head and I raised an eyebrow. “Why here? Why the Monk's Tower with the thread of life? Why not ringing the bell directly?”

“Doesn't that lead back to Bridget somehow? The fact that she's living so close?”

“Yes, and that's what puzzles me.” He ran a hand through his hair with a frown and then paused mid-gesture; I could hear his phone vibrating. “Uncle Carl?”

I took the last sip of my coffee.

“Oh,” Dust said tonelessly, after listening intently. “Oh. Yes. Tell him we're on our way.”

“What's going on?” I wanted to know, while Dust was already setting off and waving me to follow him.

"The family that leases a piece of land from us and built a small cabin there... the man found a girl on the couch. Apparently dead."

“Oh, great,” I sighed and put down my cup before rushing after Dust.

“Her face is burned, but she still looks Native enough that it could be Kate.”

“Great,” I muttered again and pulled out my own phone to call Warren.