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Mr. Gideon Hill
Third party candidate for mayor
“Who are the Daughters of Tituba?”
Miss Stone gives her shoulders a stern little shake. “I wish we might make use of every tool in our pursuit of justice. But I’m afraid the modern woman cannot afford to be sidetracked by moonbeams and witch-tales.”
“Miss Cleopatra Quinn, with The New Salem Defender.”
Bye baby bunting, Mother’s gone a-hunting A spell to end what hasn’t yet begun, requiring pennyroyal & regret
Madame Zina Card: palmist, spiritualist, card-reader, and midwife.
But Agnes wanted to take care of her sisters, once. She won’t bring another life into the world just to fail it, too.
Three of Swords,
The number 3
“Come see me when you change your mind. I’m the best midwife in West Babel, ask anyone”
Better the middle sister than the mother. Middle sisters are forgotten or failed or ill-fated, but at least they survive, mostly; mothers rarely make it past the first line.
Because survival is a selfish thing.
Queen Anne, Queen Anne You sit in the sun Fair as a lily and white as a wand. A spell to shed light, requiring heartwood & heat
Maybe because she worries what a woman like Juniper might do if the power of witching is won back.
The rules aren’t written down anywhere, but the important rules rarely are.
“What belongs to her,” she hisses. “What was stolen.”
Cleopatra
Witch-blood runs thick in the sewers,
a fat, fashionable widow named Inez Gillmore
Electa Gage, who keeps muttering about chaining themselves to public buildings like the English ladies did.
Lady”
Gideon Hill's dog
As Juniper watches she sees Mr. Hill’s shadow ripple strangely, as if it isn’t quite under its master’s command.
Hmmm
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust Yours to mine and mine to yours. A spell to bind, requiring a tight stitch & a steady hand
Things always come in sevens in witch-tales (swans, dwarves, days to create the world), so Juniper figures they’ll do fine.
She can see faces—mostly women, mostly young—watching them with fascinated hunger in their eyes. Juniper figures they’re the ones who want, who pine, who long; the ones who chafe against the stories they were given and dream of better ones.
Wickedness is in the eye of the beholder, baby. But then she sobered. She said witching was power and any power could be perverted, if you were willing to pay the price. You can tell the wickedness of a witch by the wickedness of her ways.
that there’s a good chance the wicked witch wandering around New Salem is standing right in front of her in a white sash.
Grace?
May sticks and stones break your bones, And serpents stop your heart. A spell to poison, requiring fangs & fury
Jane and Jill went up the hill To fetch a pail of water. Spill it thrice, say it twice, Or soon it will get hotter. A spell against burns, requiring clear water & a strong will
Miss Florence Pearl,
Owner of Salem's Sin
Salem’s Sin,
It's probably a brothel
Juniper doesn’t hear anything but the beginning: He sent me away. Her daddy sent Agnes away.
aunt Mildred.”
Frankie Black
Works at brothel
A familiar isn’t a spell or a pet. It’s witchcraft itself wearing an animal-skin. If a woman talks long and deep enough to magic, sometimes the magic talks back. But only the most powerful witches ever had familiars, and I don’t figure there are any of those bloodlines left.”
THE TALE OF RAPUNZEL AND THE CRONE
When their daughter was born they named her after the herb that saved her: Rapunzel.
When the Crone left the house that night, trudging through the silent snow, she carried a baby bundled beneath her cloak.
The Crone bade her close her eyes and touched two cold fingers to their lids. When Rapunzel opened her eyes once more the green-growing color had been taken from them, along with her sight.
My maiden, my maiden, Let down your long hair, Braided tight and shining bright, A way where once was none. A spell to escape, requiring three hairs & nimble fingers
“That it’s time for the women’s movement to become the witches’ movement.”
“I think it’s important. That it might bring witching back to the world.”
“Miss Wiggin, the head of the Women’s Christian Union—and, I might add, the adopted daughter of a member of the City Council—was injured in the riot. She claims it was an act of witchcraft, and I am disgusted to say I am unsure whether she is lying.”
What if her adoptive father is Gideon Hill and she is secretly a witch and has him in a thrall? But why?
“Or we could win it all. If we stop worrying so much about what a woman should and shouldn’t do, what’s respectable and what’s not. If we stand and fight, all of us together.
“Well, I think maybe magic wants to be found. And I think maybe we’re the ones who are supposed to find it.”
Juniper
Tell your tale and tell it true, Cross my heart and hope to die. Strike me down if I lie. A spell for secrets kept and told, requiring bindweed & blood
“What about the Sisters of Avalon?”
Beatrice Belladonna Eastwood, Press Liaison. Agnes Amaranth Eastwood, Recruitment. Jennie Gemini Lind, Secretary/Treasurer,
James Juniper Eastwood, President.
“It’s a risk just to be a woman, in my experience. No matter how healthy or hardworking she is.”
Yesss
quote?
The kerchiefed woman raises her chin. “Annie Asphodel.”
“Victoria and Tennessee, spiritualists, magnetic healers, and mediums.”
