ghost in the graveyard (miha)

The cold winter, snow on the ground, fog in the air, and howling winds in the trees always made Valda weary when she came to visit Scoarta. She had every right to. She'd been attacked by a pack of wolves a couple of years prior. She'd survived thanks to the help of her dear friend, @Gio Gambino and came out with some pretty wicked scars. That same time, it was December then too and her mother had just passed away. Heartbroken and trapped, Valda had made her escape here to clear her head and get away from all she was drowning in. Now, two years later, she was pleased to say she came on much happier terms.

She was going to see Miha!

Valda and @Mihaela Lupesco had corresponded one with another through OWLs whenever they managed to have the time. both were preoccupied with their own lives they rarely had the time. Valda traveling all over the place made it difficult to keep in touch with her too but she always tried to update her best friend so she could find a letter waiting for her at her next destination. She'd come with some exciting parchments she'd come across. Ones she was certain Miha would be interested in. The redhead wasn't sure she had much hope for them, but an old lady she had met in China swore up and down that the instructions written down were legit. If done correctly, she'd have another chance to see her mother.

Her last encounter had been good and offered her a chance to say goodbye. Zoya, her beloved mother, looked so sickly though. Was this something she could do again? She'd thought about it over and over. While Miha was one to jump feet first, she was smart. Valda refrained from telling her about it in her letters and figured she'd surprise her with what she had found. If the Romanian didn't think it was a good idea, then she would store it for safekeeping.

When she saw her friend in town, Valda, though she knew it was a crazy idea and risked getting tackled to the ground, attempted to sneak up behind her. As she got closer, she lunged forward and grabbed at her arms yelling in an attempt to scare her. "Miha!"'

Charming the snow off the paths was a lot easy in theory than it was in practice. And even though she'd never pick up another shovel a day in her life (thank you magic!), Mihaela was exhausted. Swooping her muscular arms this way and that way as she muttered the charm over and over again, the work had her cheeks turning pink before she was halfway done. She huffed as it began to snow again, knowing she'd get all this work done only to have to come back out tomorrow morning and do it all over. The Romanian used to love the snow when she was a child playing in it, but now it was just another thing on the hefty list of Responsibilities she had been assigned. She flicked a bit more snow over the bank, sending it flying as the wind picked up, and huffed again.

Hearing boots crunching in the white powder put her on edge; it was getting darker earlier these days, so she had to be careful. Mihaela was in the process of swinging around, wand at the ready, when Valda's arms wrapped around her, and she caught sight of that familiar firey red hair. "Valda! You are gettin' better at that!" Mihaela was actually quite proud. She had heard the other witch coming, sure, but it didn't do her much good if Valda was quick enough to get the drop on her. "Hangin' round me too much, I'd wager," Mihaela beamed at the other girl as she began to toot her own horn. Breaking free of Valda's grip easily, the witch quickly wrapped her arms back around Valda, enveloping her in a crushing cold hug, and giggled.

"I've missed ya!~"

"It seems so. I learn from the best." Mihaela had taught her an awful lot during the times they'd get together when they were at school. Valda was a little rusty but she hadn't had a need to go sneaking about so far.

"I've missed you too," Valda chimed happily as the two embraced in their reunion. "I expect for you to fill me in on everything that has happened since the two of us can barely write letters to each other. Everything happening here, with you and Lev," Valda and him planned to meet up just after she left Scoarta. Valda was excited to be reuniting with all of her old friends during this holiday.

"I promise to tell you all you want to know as well, but first," She pulled her bag around and dug through it. Her entire life for the past few months was in here. While she traveled lightly, she managed to obtain many souvenirs and gifts. She would reveal Miha's later. "I don't know real this is, but I figured it's worth a shot. Remember when we summoned my Ma at school?" Her bag was up to her shoulder at this point. Valda but her bottom lip as she groped inside her bag until she clasped her hand around what she had been looking for to reveal a leather-bound scroll.

"Ancient text to summon your ancestors. I was at a temple in China when an old guy in some bright robes pulled me aside. I believe he was a monk. He showed me it and convinced me to take it so here I am. For all I know we could be summoning an army of evil spirits but...." She held the scroll out for Miha to inspect as she tossed her bag back over her shoulder. "You want to try this at the spirit poll? I think it's worth a shot!"

The Romanian didn't waste time trying to hide her proud snicker at Valda's comment, she had indeed 'learned from the best', and Miha loved the way it sounded. "Ya' know I will," Mihaela squealed when Valda explained how they had to tell each other everything, and Mihaela intended on everything. The witch was not known to be bashful. Mihaela intended on getting Valda set up where she could sleep for the night, getting them something to eat (maybe even some whiskey), and then they could do all the sleepover things. Stories, hair braiding, too many snacks, and fuzzy slippers. It was all on the plan, but then Val brought up something else, and Mihaela quite literally stopped dead in her tracks,

Turning sharply, she faced the other witch, dark eyes searching Valda's with a bit of dangerous curiosity. It was not the safest thing that the Russian witch was bringing up, but Miha wasn't known to scare easily. Reckless was a better word for what Valda was proposing, and Miha was all about it."Yeah, I ain't never gunna' be able ta' read this," Mihaela said after snatching the scroll and turning it around in her hands. The words weren't anything Slavic that she recognized, and Miha stared at it like it was written in Alien. "Aint sayin' I don't wanna' or anything, though,"

Miha returned the scroll and reached for Valda's bag with a wicked grin, slinging it over her muscular shoulders, and nodded once. "We should be gettin' there then, now is best; everyone's doin' their thangs." It was a good time of the day. The village was bustling, but everyone was busy worrying about themselves, and Mihaela doubted they would notice two smoking hot witches headed for the spirit pool to get into some trouble. She took another look to make sure her bunică wasn't watching from the porch and then took off in a jog.

"Come on then!" She hollered behind her, laughing as she ran.

Proudly she stood with her arms crossed over her chest as Miha inspected the scroll. She hadn't expected Miha to be able to read it, but the wear and tear and age to it was pretty neat. "Don't worry. He translated it for me and I had it reviewed by a couple of my connections. As far as any of us can tell, it's legit." She took it back and carefully wound it up before tucking it into her bag. "Perfect. I knew you'd be interested."

She was quick to follow up to the spirit pool. When they were climbing up the steps she found them to be a little slippery from the melted snow that had frozen over them. Her brown hiking boots proved to provide some great traction to keep her on her feet. She moved up carefully, still going a little slower than Mihaela.

"Before we begin, I want to promise you that I'm not going to freak out like I did last time we were able to summon her. I got to say my goodbyes then so," She clutched the scroll tightly in her hand against her chest. "If this doesn't work, I won't be ruined. A little disappointed? Sure, probably. But I'll be okay. I was thinking we could try this here at the spirit pool because of the strong connection it already has with their realm." Her chest rose and fell as she took deep breaths to steady her excitement. It proved to be challenging, but she also internally prepared herself for it not to work.

"Hold onto this?" She passed the scroll back to Miha as she dug for the translation. Once she got ahold of it, she set her bag out of the way and held up the translation so they could compare it side-by-side with the original instructions and small diagrams. "Are you ready?"

Miha was thankful there was a translation already in hand because there was no way she was ever going to help with it. Mihaela could do many things, but she could barely speak native Romanian, let alone learn any more languages than she needed to. When Valda began to talk, Mihaela gave her a confused look. She hadn't put things together as quickly as her Russian friend, but Mihaela rarely did. The Romanian blinked a few times, unsure how to respond because the more Valda spoke, the more Mihaela understood. She hadn't thought of the last time they had tried to do this until Valda brought it up, but now, she could get why Valda was worried about what Mihaela might have been thinking.

"I'll be holdin' ya to that," Mihaela said, wiggling her finger at the other witch as they came to stand in front of the spirit pools. Bouncing a little on her feet, Mihaela held onto the scroll as Valda began to prepare. A part of her knew this was probably going to be a bad idea, but no part of her was going to do anything to stop it. Mihaela believed in a life well live, and that made me never saying no. "Anythang we need to do for the spell?"

Mihaela felt anxious, eager to get going, and on edge as the adrenaline began to creep in. Her eyes fluttered around them, surveying the perimeter, on overwatch, as she waited for the magic to start. "You know, dancing, chanting, blood sacrifices?" She eyed the other girl with a sarcastic but playful smile on her face.

"Yes!" Valda passed a piece of chalk she had revealed to Mihaela. "Wanna draw the symbol?" She showed which one they were to construct. "It's invisible chalk, so you've got to be careful. We'll light it up when we're done."

She retrieved from her bag a small potion and a carefully crafted knife with a jade handle. "A blood sacrifice again. It's to connect and call my mother. Cool thing about this one, we can summon more than one spirit." She watched Mihaela carefully to see how she'd react. Valda didn't know of many of her friends and family who had passed over the years, but Scoarta was a dangerous place. She knew that some were usual visitors of the spirit pool too.

"Do you have anyone you'd like to summon, too?" She pulled a second potion out similar to the first. One for Miha. One for Valda. "There's dancing but we do have to chant a Chinese mantra once we start the ceremony. We're only preparing right now."

"Invisible chalk? Well, ain't that some fancy magic." Mihaela was impressed when the moon rose over the mountains, it wasn't difficult to astound her, but she thoroughly loved magic. And danger. And Valda. Please put all of those together, and she knew they were in for a heck of a night. "Why is it always blood sacrifices with you, you harborin' a penchant for knives or sumthin'?" The rustic witch asked with a mischievous smile. Not that she would have blamed Valda.

"Maybe I'll just help with yours first, and then we can see about summonin' someone for me." Truth be told, she didn't know of anyone she'd need to use a blood magic ritual to summon. All of her lost relatives lived here still as ghosts; they used the spirit pools like hot tubs. Mihaela took the chalk from her friend's hand and studied the book's image before tracing the lines on the ground. Invisible chalk made it difficult to figure out, but she managed.

"What kind of dancin'?" She asked, turning up to look at her friend from the ground. A bit of wind kicked up, the spirits knew they were here, and they were interested, and Mihaela smiled as she pushed a loose tendril of curls away from her face.

"We gotta' get naked?"