The Witch's Diary by Rebecca Brae

Author:Rebecca Brae [Brae, Rebecca]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy
Publisher: Tyche Books
Published: 2020-04-19T16:00:00+00:00

Tydias, Seed Moon 16, 209

I MUST KEEP my scribing short this eventide. I’m knackered and covet sleep.

I spent most of this morn trying to locate the non-union job bank (not an easy task when their address only intermittently exists), and then I spent the rest of the sun browsing the posted jobs and chatting with patrons. Once I figured out how to get down to them.

The place is massive. Its entrance opens onto a balcony that extends around the perimeter of the building. The main floor below is crammed with makeshift boards and desperate job seekers. And I thought WU headquarters was a maze! There is a dedicated herd of minotaurs taking newcomers on guided tours (for a price). I should have coughed up the coin, but I got stubborn.

Even finding the platform that lowers to the main floor proved challenging. I tried to take the one the minotaurs were using, but I was sternly escorted off and told it was for tour groups only. After circumnavigating the balcony several times, I grew tired of searching and sat on a reasonably clean section of floor. Cleanliness and organization appear to be of equal importance to management.

Suddenly, I was sinking. At first, I thought I was experiencing some kind of slow-motion faint—the air was hot and thick with everyone’s combined breathing and sweating and flaring and oozing. After a stunned moment, I realized I had inadvertently sat on an unmarked conveyer.

I’ve never seen so many different species under one roof. I expected fights but, apart from a scuffle between two alpha scaflags, there was little excitement. I guess the common goal of finding gainful employment binds tighter than speciesist enmity.

It’s an old-fashioned establishment. Everything is printed on scrolls and tacked to boards. Nothing is organized. The layout is nonsensical enough that I suspect Crone or a close relative of hers must have had a hand in it. There were job postings for moreuvian apenator shrews in with ones for dighert domers, and everyone knows those two species release gasses that are explosive when in close proximity. I moved the dighert domer postings to a board on the other side of the warehouse.

I should have packed supper for myself. The comprehend lingua charm Magda lent me only works on spoken words, so I had to cast a read languages spell to understand the job postings. There were more languages represented than I believed existed. Keeping the spell active for so long completely sapped my power. (NOTE: Recharge crystals!)

There were postings for every profession and species. Finding something in the chaos that fit my particular skill set was a chore, but I ended up with three possibles. Three! My witch-sense screamed that this was one of Hekate’s dreaded triple crossroad moments. I pondered my choices very carefully indeed.

I eliminated the first because of the fine print at the bottom: Scythian arthropods preferred. They probably want someone with detachable brain segments, and possibly claws. There’s no way I have the skill or access to enough power to pull off that level of transmutation on myself at the moment.

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