The family Matriarch for the generation, the Captain's Mother, decided to step in at that point since her mother was still sleeping soundly upstairs in her new bed.
"I don't think that anyone needs that particular service here. I'm told that you already have plenty of Witch Servants back at your Den." She announced.
"I have a few, yes. But they all chose the Servant Bond of their own free will in order to repay a life debt or to gain more power. You see, I spent most of the end of the winter saving Witches from the Mundane Army, who had been trying to steal them back to human nations in order to make up for their declining natural resources." Wolfe explained.
"Does the military command know about the situation?" The Captian asked.
"They do. In fact, we've even gotten their blessing to take in a number of their witches since they were so heavily damaged by the Nerve Gas that the army used against the front lines that they could barely cast a spell even after spending months at the treatment camps." Wolf informed her.
The Captain nodded, then gave Wolfe a suspicious look. "I don't recall there being any crippled witches at your Den. In fact, everyone there was at least as powerful as I am. Even the little girl with the fluffy ears could give me a run for my money in a pure power contest."
Wolfe smirked and stepped forward to pat her on the head. "You didn't think that I would just leave them crippled, did you? They were discharged for injuries sustained, so there was really no reason not to heal them and keep them with us, right? I asked if they wanted to leave, but nobody went anywhere except a handful from the Morgana Coven, who were likely still in the middle of their rebellious phase."
The situation in Morgana wasn't common knowledge, but the fact that things had been chaos there and that there were a lot of defectors was, and that was what most of the witches assumed that Wolfe was talking about.
"So that's how you gathered so many powerful witches together in the middle of nowhere. You freed them from Captivity, then flexed your power and freedom in front of them until they caved." The Captain laughed.
"You make it sound like some nefarious plan. I would have been fine with just the handful that I started with, but as it turns out, there are a lot of witches who would happily give life in the Frozen Wastes a chance instead of going back to live inside the Fortress Cities.
They even all decided to stay with us before there was a Fae Forest there, back when the whole area was still frozen foothills to the mountains. That's how I know that they meant it. If they wanted to stay when it wasn't glorious, it's much easier to trust their motivation than someone who came later and saw what they had made."
"And the fact that you promised them power, healed their aura and gave them the ability to reach Rank Two had nothing to do with it?" The Captain laughed.
"Maybe a little bit. But that's hardly the point."
Footsteps from upstairs announced that the Elder of the family had woken up from her nap and was ready to rejoin the group for dinner, which the Cook had been constantly adding to as more and more people had shown up over the last half hour.
It seemed that she held a great deal of respect in the family as the level of complaints and background noise audibly dropped as she entered the room with a smile for Wolfe.
"It couldn't have been more than an hour or two, but I feel like a whole new Witch. That bed is amazing."
They had gotten to that part of the story since there were so many questions about where she was when people first started to show up, so at least it wasn't a shocking revelation, and the old woman gestured everyone toward another room where a pair of long tables took up every bit of available floor space.
"Sit and eat. We can discuss the business matters later."
For Wolfe, that was true. Once they were seated at the table, nobody was all that interested in talking about trade deals with the Den. Instead, the two newly awakened witches were the topic of all the conversations, more specifically, what they should do with them.
In theory, witches were supposed to go to the academy once they awakened, but it had been centuries since that stage of their life occurred at a time before they finished their basic education, so having two family members here who were qualified for the Academy but far too young to attend posed a real issue for them.
"What did you do with the youngest ones at the Den when they awakened?" The old woman asked Wolfe while she waited for her soup to cool a little.
ƥandasnovel·ƈom "They're from the neighbouring villages, so once they were awakened, we took them in to start teaching them. We're not going to be sending any of our people to an outside Academy anyhow, so we might as well add magic training to their basic education, and then they can learn all of the combat stuff later if it's necessary.
There have been some discussions of creating a white witch or two since it would make the Fae feel more comfortable." Wolfe explained.
The old woman looked confused, so Wolfe elaborated. "When you use magic to harm others, it leaves a permanent mark on your aura, one that the Fae can see and immediately identify. So only a witch who has never cast a harmful spell on another, even in practice, counts as a white witch to them.
The idea seems a bit unrealistic for our world, but somehow noble, right? If we can train the younger ones as gardeners and healers, we can also have our soldiers and guards. We will teach the combat lessons later, only for those who want it. That way, we can keep some white witches to deal with the Fae, which should reduce friction between the two groups.
You know how the Fae are about pranks. Apparently, they don't do it as much to the white witches."
"And what about Demons? Do the Fae judge them just as harshly?" The old woman asked.
"They say that we smell like evil to start with due to the Curse, so they judge us individually but never really trust a Demon. On a related note, I will give you a warning in case some of your people come looking for us. If you're lost in the woods, stay out of the mushroom circles. They can sometimes lead to Faerie, and that's not a great place for a black magic user to be."
One of the other witches nodded rapidly as Wolfe explained.
"I have a Fae Familiar, and they said much the same thing, that Witches like us weren't welcome in their world. But they never elaborated on it, so I didn't know that there was a possibility that some witches were welcome."
Wolfe chuckled and shook his head. "I wouldn't say that they're welcome, but the Faerie said that they're not unwelcome, so more reluctantly tolerated for the time that they are in that world. The Fae just kick the Demons out as soon as they see them, for the most part."
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