Policeman and the cat

28 - On Witches

On Thursday there was the guild lesson. It looked like Lorelei was fully set to have him sit next to her every time. And while there was no longer an invisible divide between people in this classroom, their group sat like before, but now some 'undecided-on-faction' girls had sat in front of the witches and were talking with them.

"Ian, I had a--" She started speaking, then noticed his eyes-- "They weren't slit before, were they?"

"No," Ian said.

"You feel stronger now too," she said, "but I guess asking would be against the etiquette?"

"Yes," Ian said.

"A pity, but - right!" She returned to her previous expression. "The Alchemist's alliance head said the Police might be a good fit for what I'm looking for because he says Kenneth cooks for you guys."

The alchemist two said they were surprised that Lorelei was only interested in food, but not so much in either the luxurious lifestyle or any other perk being an alchemist gave you.

"And I don't like cooking," she added. "Or chemistry either," to add to why being an alchemist was not a good fit after all. Ian checked if the alchemist alliance head was someone that easy to meet, but not the case. Lorelei said it had gone easy for her, though. She just asked to meet him and they let her.

Lorelei had questions, but the lesson started so they focused on the class.

Madison talked about the witches at that time. That there were twelve clans in total. One thing tying them all was that they all had established presences and influence on various normie private sectors.

The Guild had ties and influence in governments and all public facilities of that sort, hence why they could get hidden sections in public libraries and have a seeing-side police department, but their reach did not go into the private sector one bit.

The first two with a clear standpoint were Ursus and Willow, clans with ties to mythical beasts: Tiamat, in particular, and by extension, no known relation with Terrea or other major groups.

Ursus clan was all astral users, they did study witchcraft, but their forte was forming contracts with various beasts and beings. Not necessarily familiar contracts, but most of them did become familiar users when they found something or someone they both really adored, wanted to monopolize, and could get. Ursus clan was led by Rebecca Ursus, no.4 in rankings. They dealt in real estate and owned a lot of properties, including most mythical beast and elven ones, although for those they only served as the official cover.

Willow clan was almost exclusively witchcraft users, they were famous for trying to seduce mythical beasts at every chance they got. Not too successful, but sometimes it did work. Those rare 'sometimes' led to most of their clan being made up of half, quarter, or other dilution humans. Being pregnant with a strong mythical beast's child, led to the aether vessel of the mother growing - they were both after that and also after having powerful kids. Willow clan was led by Hedwig Willow, no.1 in rankings. (spots no.2,7,8 were all taken up by Willow witches)

Willow witches and warlocks had a strong influence on marine trade, and they managed relations between mermaids, sirens and humans. Just as there were land off-limit territories, there were plenty of those in open waters. They couldn't do much about poachers being done in by krakens, sea-serpents or sirens, but all official trade routes and people who played by the rules were safe from most magical threats.

The next two were strongly aligned with Terrea - Hills and Reef. Many had deals with Terreans ascending on them both to fight in their stead and just to spend time in Urea.

Hills clan had a deep reach into the entertainment industry, it was mostly them pushing for stuff like sexual liberation, freedom to enjoy all good life has to offer and, in short, being in opposition to everything the Church stood or stands for. They co-owned most film-production studios and owned most porn sites and stuff like that. Hills clan witches were familiar users and a lot of the porn was made by their younger clan members with their familiars. Daenerys Hills was their clan head - no.3 in rankings, no.9 was also a witch with that surname - platinum rank guild member - Rose Hills.