Pumpkin Spice, стр. 14
The Mapap did not want to be seen when he entered the realm, so he disguised himself as a black cat. Esthrum entered Sibyl’s bedroom through an open window and waited for the witch to return home from her date with the town constable. Sibyl was stunned to see the feline waiting for her. The piercing yellow eyes, the sharp black fur, she knew without question who the cat was. “Why have you not found me a bride?” The feline bellowed. “I haven’t found anyone suitable, anyone worthy, my Mapap.” The cat leaped from the table onto the floor in front of Sibyl and screeched at her, “Nonsense! I have been watching you, Sybil. I know all about you and your constable lover. Your thoughts are for him and him alone. Do not forget why you’re here.” Esthrum’s tone was threatening and terrifying, “I will not my Mapap. I have one clear objective. But, you see, to trick the constable into loving me will help me enter his household. He has two sisters. I am confident one would make a good suitor for you, and mother to your child.” The feline brushed up against Sybil’s leg and hopped back into the bed, “Very well. I shall return in a fortnight. Fetch me one of his sisters so I can bring our worlds together.” The cat leaped out the window and vanished into the night.
Sybil was mortified. She truly did love Madok. She had hope to wed, but of course the Mapap was right, and she knew it. Sybil was not here for herself, as much as she would like to be, she was here to find Esthrum a bride so the witching world would once again live with the humans. Something triggered her thoughts. The witches wanted power over the humans because mankind was viewed as wicked and vile to the witches. Yet for all the time she had lived among men and women she found them to be kind hearted and good natured. Sure, they were not perfect, far from, but their hearts were in the right places. A million thoughts and ideas races through her head, she had to stop and focus on her mission, the Mapap could see anyone at anytime in any place, and deviation and she would face certain consequences.
Maybe after Esthrum weds his bride, he will allow a marriage between the constable and the wife, she hoped, should the constable propose.
The very next day during their autumn walk through the woods they met, Madok knelt down on one knee and proposed to Sybil. She accepted, albeit on the condition that he introduce her to her mother, father, and two sisters. Madok agreed, and arranged for a dinner with the four that Friday evening.
It was a beautiful autumn evening. The leaves had all changed colour, something Sybil was all to use to. Where she was from the skies were gray, the leaves were either off the trees, or they were in the midst of changing colour. Here it was a season, and soon, Madok informed her, there would be snow. Piles and piles of cold white flakey stuff, Sybil couldn’t fathom such a sight! Why would anyone want to be cold? She thought. Madok was excited for the winter months, and Sibyl, now engaged to Madok, was excited for the future. First things first, she needed to find Eshtrum a bride, and she had high hopes for one of Madok’s sisters.
Madok’ mother and father greeted them at the door with the most loving faces Sybil had ever witnessed. Madok’s sisters were running late as they were getting in from school, which they attended out of town, but they would be there shortly. The dinner table was set with a beautiful array of décor. Sibyl compliment her soon to be mother-in-law’s set-up.
The front door swung open and Madok’s sisters danced their way into their parents’ house. They hugged and kissed their mother and father, rushed over to Madok and hugged him as well. One was blonde the other a brunette, and both were very attractive females. Either one would make a great spouse for Esthrum, Sybil thought. The blonde was called Avice and the brunette was Edith. Avice was ten months older than Edith, but Edith had a certain cunningness about her that Sybil thought would match quite well with the Mapap.
At dinner Sybil was asked a varying array of questions, from how the two met, to what she did before and where she was born. They asked her about her schooling, and her religious beliefs. To which the witch had to conjure up her most inventive lie and claim to have been a Christian from birth. Then it was her time for her questions. She asked the parents about their love story, which she found fascinating. The two met on a sailboat when they were under the age of ten and could not be separated since. Sybil then turned her attention to the sisters, most notably Edith. She asked them about their schooling, their hobbies, where they see themselves in the future, and of course their luck with the opposite sex. And as luck would have it Avice was seeing a fellow at school, but Edith was single, waiting to catch a falling star, as she put it. Sybil grinded her teeth, she didn’t want to speak too soon, but she also hadn’t much time to waste. She pressed Edith for more information, asking her what type of man she saw herself with. Edith was looking