Eventually, the Witches sighed in acceptance and turned to formally address Wolfe.
"I accept that I owe you my life for taking in a Deserter, and I swear that I will not make trouble for you or yours." The closest of the Witches inford him, then reached up to touch her throat where the mark had ford.
"I'm fine, it doesn't hurt, and my mind is still my own." She inford the others.
With that final assurance, the rest of the Deserters joined in, repeating her words and checking out the marks that had ford on the necks of those around them.
"Isn't there a less sketchy Demon to swear on?" One of the last holdouts muttered, putting off swearing the oath.
"I could call Little Reaper over here. He's always bored and looking for soone to hang out with him. I'll bet he wouldn't mind vouching for you. Or you could go for a Fae Pact instead, or even ask our resident Kitsune to vouch for you. She's a real sweetheart." Wolfe suggested.
By the look on the Witch's face, none of those options sounded any less disreputable than Wolfe, especially Kira, given the Kitsune species' reputation for playing pranks and practical jokes.
"Alright, you've made your point. I accept that I owe you a life debt for taking in, and I swear that I will not make trouble for you and yours." She sighed, and the last of the marks ford.
Wolfe clapped his hands. "That's that, and now we can start getting everyone cleansed of the Nerve Gas damage. No offence, but with the villagers coming in, we've got plenty of hands for the nonmagical tasks, so expect to be put to work on the various magical necessities."
"Magical necessities? This place has an incredible amount of defensive magic already." The first volunteer remarked.
"Oh, not that. That is self fuelling when we're not under attack. What I ant was the spells to grow new furniture to decorate with more than the basics, or grow magical food in the gardens. Possibly, even to transport the food up to the market, though Elental Magic is better for that.
The Vegetarian Diet proclamation is NOT in effect here, and all the food is magically grown, or harvested monster at. You don't need to worry about your starvation prevention magic anymore, but you can keep it active if it makes you feel better.
Everything will be explained to you once you reach the city, and our people will assign you an apartnt and a spot on the duty roster. Everyone works at sothing, but if you have a specialty, you can make a request."
One of the witches snickered. "Unless you are in need of a school teacher, I'm about out of luck."
Wolfe stopped her before she turned away.
"Aren't you all soldiers?" He asked.
"Well, yes. But also, no. I'm a reservist. I served my first year, and then I was moved to one weekend a month reservist status because I had a talent as a school teacher. So, until I was called up to fight here, I hadn't been further from my duty station than the park we take the kids to on field trips." She chuckled.
"How many of you are from a Reservist unit?" Wolfe asked, raising his voice to be heard.
About a quarter of the hands went up.
"Alright, if you have job training, or other relevant skills outside of soldiering, please inform the Witches at the gate when you arrive in the village. It will help them assign you based on your skills." The villagers that you arrived with, as well as so of our young Witches, all need to finish their education, so teachers are just as needed as trade skills.
Now, please line up single file, and I will cleanse the nerve gas damage from your systems. Take off your shoes, and walk past , it will only take a few seconds. If you have taken a lot of damage, you will need to jump in the river afterwards, as the toxic gas is acidic, and when it is purged from your system, it will burn your skin." Wolfe instructed.
They seed skeptical, but they lined up and took off their shoes, wiggling their toes in the soft grass with comforted sighs.
The more powerful a Witch was, the more in tune with nature she beca, so bare feet in the grass was the most natural state for them in the sumr. That was one thing that the movies usually got right, the barefoot noble witch dancing and singing.
Well, barefoot and dancing. He had heard so of them sing, and that part was definitely retouched for the movies.
Wolfe began cleansing the nerve gas from all the witches, most of whom still had so aura. The ones who had completely lost theirs were a different case, and would have to start over, but Wolfe noticed that they had also lost the curse that that Coven's Awakening Ritual had placed on them, so their curse would progress from this point forward until it was dried up like any other adult witch's.
Wolfe cleansed the first few, who yelped in pain and ran for the river as the toxic liquid was forced out of their bodies.
"Ladies, please purify the water before it flows into the forest. I don't want to be beaten to death by an angry Faerie who got a mouthful of acid."
Mio laughed and cast a spell over the river.
"It's taken care of, no need to fear the Faeries on this trip in."
Wolfe gave her a thumbs up, then gestured for more of the Deserters to co forward.
"If you have lost your aura entirely, please step to the side. It will take a bit more work to resolve the problem, and we will need to have a short word about it before I start. The rest of you, keep moving forward."
Soon, there were six waiting witches with no auras, and a lot of soaking wet witches along the riverbanks.
"If you just had the toxin cleansed, your aura will return over the next few days, back to full strength. If your aura collapsed entirely, it will be a different matter. I can repair the damage, but you will have to manually rebuild your aura from scratch. You will start at Rank One, and have to rebuild from there. Fortunately, you should still have your Familiars, and the mana levels in the village are high, so you will advance quickly, but it will not be easy.
How many of you have Familiars?" Wolfe asked.
All of them raised their hands, then Wolfe frowned.
"I just realized that won't do you much good from the other side of the world."
As he said those words, Mary smiled and ca to poke his side.
"Today is nearly the full moon, so tomorrow is the perfect day for the summoning ritual. We can have them summon new Familiars. Their bodies should still be attuned like a Rank Two or Three Witch, so they should be able to call on the extra Familiar."
"Oh, excellent point. Drivers, please ensure that Priya is inford that many of our new arrivals will need new Familiars to help regrow their auras. Even if it's not the optimal timing, it wouldn't hurt to have them do the summoning in the tower, and then tomorrow we can take care of everyone who advanced the other day."
"Yes! Summoning Day. I will ask them to make cakes." The boat driver cheered.
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