Story: Keeping Want and Trouble Out - Village Witch #9

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9th session of the solo TTRPG Village Witch, this 854 word story was inspired by the "Bless this House" square on my January 2023 Public Domain Day Bingo Card. The song "Bless This House" is a Christian hymn, but I could immediately see how it could be tweaked into a decent foundation for a Home Blessing ritual by our intrepid Village Witch - Edwina Mallyson Stevedore! You can read the earlier stories for this series on the landing page for Village Witch - Edwina! 

Keeping Want and Trouble Out

  "Bless these walls so firm and stout, Keeping want and trouble out . . .," Edwina intoned as she maneuvered around the small space of Alderman Edouard Lavigne's stilt-house with a cedar and sage smudge gently smoking. Edouard Lavigne was the annoyed elderly Alderman who had agreed fervently with Viola that the presence of Alpha Minerals Mining Company was a mistake that Murkwell was due to pay for sooner rather than later, and the third Home Blessing she'd performed that day. Edwina's work in Murkwell had come on fast and frantic following her first few days of getting settled and introduced to the townsfolk. Unlike the begrudging trickle of magical requests that had been funneled her way at Llyne of Mossly Woods, the residents of Murkwell were apparently going to use their With-In-Residence hard while they had her undivided attention. The requests for personal amulets and talismans, Home Blessings, boat wardings, and all other manner of protective magic was clearly in response to the town’s strong belief in their soothsayer's prediction of pending disaster. 

 

   "Bless these windows shining bright, Letting in Sol's golden light . . .," Edwina's voice continued strong and steady as she set a salt line along the sill of each window. The Alder's had requested she meet with them at the blast of the Early Morning Shift Whistle on her fourth day in town to devise a schedule that would see the entirety of the town's residents protected within the first two weeks of Edwina's arrival. It was a brutal pace, but they'd been scrupulously fair in spacing out when the Alder's themselves would receive their appointments. Edwina had been surprised, but impressed, that they'd stuck to a firm plan to protect the resident's based on proximity to the lake first, and that she should make it to each house in turn, regardless of who lived where.

 

   "Bless this door that it may prove, Ever open to joy and love . . .," continued the general Home Blessing she'd chosen that night after the schedule had been finalized, dabbing the door frame with a rose and lavender water. After the two weeks were up Edwina had negotiated for a three day break to rest and recharge. The Alders had been amenable, and further insisted that the townspeople would also see to her meals during her mad magical dash to provide protections, as a way to ease her burden. Each house had a full meal prepared for her when she walked in the door, and she was expected to enjoy that with them before starting her workings. It had been a charming, and slightly overwhelming, way to really get to know Murkwell's inhabitants. And to get to know their fish. Edwina had thought growing up the daughter of a Stevedore in the employ of the Haemouth Trading Navy had introduced her to most of the ways fish could be prepared. She was wrong. Fish could be made into anything, and the citizens of Murkwell managed to feature the lake's bounty at nearly every meal. Alderman Lavigne had made fish and rice cakes for supper, along with a sweet bread pudding studded with fresh blueberries, as he'd admitted he had an over-fondness for sweets of all kinds.

 

   "Bless the roof and chimneys tall, Letting peace lie overall." The Home Blessing came to completion, the final act hanging a small bundle of protective herbs adorned with a mourning dove feather from the rafters. Edwina floated gracefully back to the floor, the gathered magic in her limbs suffusing the floorboards beneath her feet in a final protective layer. She herself felt a heady rush of pleasure at a job well down. Alderman Lavigne's modest home, at the farthest edge of town where it barely needed to stand on stilts at all, was her final task before her three-day break. She really looked forward to the time to rest and research. As she stood still in the center of the small house Edwina faintly shook with magical exhaustion and started in surprise when the Alderman cupped her elbow. 

 

    "Let me get you home now ami. You've worked very hard and have done very well. I'm telling Marc LeBeau our Witchling-in-pants does thrice the work of his wretched Trinity while I whoop his ass at cards tonight!" 

 

   Edwina goggled at the elderly Alderman. She'd heard the phrase growing around town as she worked, "Witchling-in-pants", and hadn't decided if she felt offended per se. And if she did, she couldn't decide if it was because of the crack at her age, or the continuing issues folk had with her masculine clothes. But over the days she'd worked, it had sounded more and more fond, more a gentle ribbing than a condemnation, and she'd held her tongue whenever she'd overheard the phrase. That generally annoyed Alderman Edouard Lavigne was the first to use it to her face was no surprise, but that it felt like he definitely meant it as a friendly moniker, really was surprising. Murkwell just wouldn't stop throwing her off her stride.

 

   "Yes, certainly, let's get me home so you can go cheat at cards."
 

~~~Notes~~~

 

For anyone interested - here are the lyrics and other information on the song "Bless This House" that is now Public Domain!