You cut a fire rune spell into the cloth with your strikes, and then dump some mana into it.

No flames.


____________________



Heading downstairs, it seems like Madenuuk and a few dolls are missing. Probably in the basement, getting the Heartstones set up.

You wait at the door for a bit while Aucupe runs around the house saying bye to everyone before she joins you and Andrew, the four (or five, including Lucida) of you walking towards Aander's.

The place looks like you remembered - a mansion built from piles of shacks. The door opens as you approach, the familiar lupus garbed in witch clothes standing in the doorway to greet you.

Aandern: "You have returned soon."

Expending all stamina, you swing horizontally at the dummy as hard as you can. The blade cuts through the cloth padding and digs into the wood about the width of your hand before stopping, stuck.

A voice shouts out from some distance away.

"Hey! Don't abuse the equipment!"


____________________


Aandern: "It has no meaning to me, no. Come in, perhaps Poker can help."

Your group heads in and enters the same large shack-room as before, seating yourselves on one of the two couches. Aandern sits on the one across the room, while silently urging Poker to take a seat beside him. It takes a bit, almost a minute of gesturing and quiet talking before the tophat witch sits next to him.

Aandern: "Okay, feel free to ask her anything."

You try to ease your sword out of the dummy, but it ends up being more like forcefully wiggling it back and forth to loosen it and then pull it out.

The edge looks perfectly fine. Whoever made the sword must've made it out of the good stuff.


____________________


Poker turns slightly towards Aandern, and starts making hushed whispering sounds while the shaman listens closely.

Aandern: "She says she doesn't know what the agreement refers to or anything about a herald or a specific call.

However,"

There's a pause while the two communicate a few seconds more.

Aandern: "Ensi usually refers to the First Mother. The First Witch."

Tuhota: "Yeah, I guess. I defend, you attack."


____________________



Aandern: "She says she does not know anything else about the Ensi.

I have read old books and documents that talk about early witches, though, some of them even mentioning a First Witch. It appeared very early during the Corruption, possibly at the beginning. Descriptions of the Witch vary among the texts, but they all share a few common elements. A humanoid creature in a dark blue cloak or dress, fire, and a massive object shaped like a greatsword affixed to the back of the Witch. All sources say that it was capable of speech and had a decent grasp of our spoken language.

Supposedly, the First Witch reacted violently to the Caelum emblem, the sun with seven flames. In combat, she used mostly fire, though often resorted to space-controlling magic, and would occasionally remove the greatsword-like object from her back and used it as a weapon.

That is all the useful information I've read that I can remember. There were several religious implications, if you are interested in those."