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the-hilda-librarians-wife · 4 years

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Family Fights - Chapter Four

Summary: Even the strongest bond, the most loving family, can be broken by nightmares, and the librarian is soon to learn this. As she learns sinister things about a person who she had thought was lost forever, she realizes she will need the help of another witch to get her family back.

Notes: I’m not too happy with this chapter, but it will get better, hopefully!

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She hadn’t had anyone outside her family in her house for over an year. She hadn’t given this much thought before, but as her guests entered her house for the evening, it became stark clear to her that she had not properly prepared her home to receive outsiders.

Not that there was anything dirty or smelly - Maven made sure to keep her house in good conditions, as her mother had taught her. It helped her keep a clear mind. But she could tell that she should probably had put some things away before Johanna arrived that evening, bringing with her the elf that apparently lived with them and her very new apprentice.

She eyed warily the books piles on the living room’s shelves, frowning at titles such as “Advanced Spirit Work: Protections” and “Introduction to Blood Magick”. The elf, taking the place in from his spot at the woman’s ear, hurriedly jotted down notes as he tried to distinguish all the different sorts of ingredients on their glass jars by the room’s windowsill. While Hilda… Hilda looked like she was having the time of her life.

“Your house is so cool!” She told Maven when the librarian gestured for her guests to sit down on the sofa. “Does no one suspect that you’re a witch with all this stuff around, though?”

Maven shrugged, leaning her hip against the big table where she used to take her meals with her family, once upon a time. “Not many people come here. Mostly few cousins, but they know about witchcraft, even though their branch of the family lost the gift.”

“Will you teach me how to cast a spell today?” Hilda asked, looking up at her with shining, excited eyes, and Maven noticed out of the corner of her own eyes that Johanna didn’t look at all very happy with that prospect.

“There’s still much for you to learn before I can teach you how to cast a spell.” Maven sighed. “But first, did you read the book? What did you think of it?”

The girl bit her lip and tried to look less guilty, failing and giving it away that she had barely reached its half. “I found it very informative.”

“Well, it was quite a heavy book, anyway. I don’t blame you for not thinking it a page turner. Would you lot like some tea?”

Hilda and Johanna exchanged looks. “Not now, but thank you. Could you explain us what you’ll be doing today?”

The librarian nodded at Johanna’s words, and pulled a chair from the table for herself. “Of course. We’ll be looking at the basics of energy work today.”

In a few minutes, Maven tried to put the most important concepts of energy work in the easiest way to understand she could think of- she talked about how every being had energy, and about how some of them were energy, like the faeries. She talked about how witches could wield this universal energy to do their wish, and that this was how spells worked. She talked about grounding and visualization and energy raising, and she was happy to notice that Johanna seemed to grow less suspicious with the explanations. The elf had been writing down everything she said, even going as far as asking her a few questions along the way.

“When you’re ready, I’d like to try a grounding exercise with you.” She told Hilda, who promptly stood up and declared herself ready to go.

Maven asked Johanna to remain inside the house. This was a very simple and safe exercise, and it would be better for Hilda to be alone so she could properly concentrate. Then she brought the girl to her kitchen, where a door led to a simple garden at the back of the house.

“Sit down.” She instructed as the sun dipped lower, the sky getting ready for dusk. She set down herself on the grass, cross legged in front of her student.

“Grounding is an exercise to rid yourself of unwanted energy. It will stabilize you. Close your eyes.”

The girl did as she was told, but looked none too happy about it. The librarian figured she probably expected something more magical on her first class, but it would do them no good to skip the essentials.

“When you exhale, imagine all bad energy leaving your body. When you inhale, imagine pure one entering it.”

Hilda broke the exercise, opening her eyes. “How am I supposed to imagine energy?”

Maven sighed, but she supposed it was a valid question. “I like to imagine negative ones as clouds of smoke or dirt. I usually see the new ones as golden, but what really matters is that it feels right to you. Trying to visualize it is important in order to make you feel it, there’s no wrong way to do it.”

Though she looked confused, she nodded and closed her eyes again. After a few minutes had gone by, and Maven could feel her apprentice more balanced, more in tune with the nature around her, she spoke up again.

“Imagine a tree root coming out of your backbone.” She was pleased when Hilda startled slightly at her voice, a clear indication that she had been concentrating at the exercise. “Imagine it growing all the way down to the earth. If there’s still leftover energy that you wish to let go, let it flow through your roots and let the earth absorb it.”

Attuned as she was to all the different energies around her, Maven could feel all the negative, chaotic energy leaving Hilda, even more so than with the breathing exercise. This was good. It was important for each witch to learn what worked best for them.

“Now feel the roots growing even deeper, to earth’s core. Can you imagine it? Glowing with harmonic energy?”

“Yes.” Hilda whispered.

“Let the roots absorb this energy and bring it to you, filling you up with it. Keep up this switch of energies, just like you were doing before.”

Slowly, silently, Maven got to her feet and went back inside, to find that Johanna had been watching them through the window.

“She’s doing very well.” She informed the mother, who looked somewhat proud at that. “Let’s leave her at it for a few minutes. Your girl has a lot of pent up energy, she could do with some meditating.”

Johanna chuckled, agreeing with the librarian and thinking that the woman must truly be a powerful witch, to be able to get Hilda to calm down and reflect, or whatever it was that the two of them had been doing.

“Miss Underhill!” Came a small voice in the middle of their chat. “Would you mind if I took a look at your books? They seem impressive!”

Maven tilted her head at the elf, who was now at her kitchen’s counter trying to organize the many notes he had taken that evening. “Of course. Do you want me to take you to the shelves, or…”

“No need!” He chirped as he jumped from the counter. Though her parents had made sure she had signed elf paperwork at a very young age, she had had few opportunities to actually see them, since there were very few in Trollberg, so she was quite impressed to find they could jump from so high.

“Yeah, it surprised me at first too.” Johanna spoke, as if she had been reading her thoughts, and smiled when Maven felt her cheeks heat up a little.

“Tell me, how did you happen to come across an elf? He is not from Trollberg, is he?” The elves Maven had found inside the city walls were all somewhat wild. She didn’t think this one fit among them.

“No, he’s not.” Johanna chuckled. “Hilda brought Alfur over from the wilderness. His tribe had attacked us.”

The woman seemed amused at the librarian’s lack of response. She had thought that apart from the Lost Clan, elves were supposed to be peaceful. She’d definitely ask the two of them for more of that story later.

“I see. Would you like that tea now?”

Johanna thought it over, raising her eyes to the ceiling, from which she noticed hung twigs of dried herbs and branches. “I don’t want to impose… besides, I should probably give Hilda dinner soon.”

She rubbed her left hand against her right arm, looking out at the window to try to get a glimpse of Hilda. She didn’t really want to go, but she didn’t know how Hilda would feel once her training was over for the day. Maybe she’d want to go straight home.

“It’s fine if you’d rather not, but you’re definitely not imposing, Johanna.”

Oh well, she thought, not really wanting to resist anymore, there was no trouble with a cup of tea.

She accepted and watched with wonder how carefully the librarian prepared the brew. It was not from a sachet, like it often was at her own home, but rather from herbs and flowers that Johanna suspected Maven had dried, and maybe even planted, herself.

When she was done, there were three cups of tea on the counter. “I, uh, don’t think I have anything fit for the elf.”

Johanna chuckled. “I’m sure he’ll understand. Will you call Hilda now?”

“Yes. She’s been at it for long enough.” Maven nodded before excusing herself to go outside. The sky was beginning to turn purple and blue with the night setting in, and the sounds of insects all around them was getting louder.

The librarian sat in front of her student. A more experienced witch would have been able to sense Maven’s presence, but as it was Hilda remained unaware of it. Carefully so as not to startle her, Maven touched her fingertips to the back of the girl’s hand, resting on her knees.

“Feel those roots shortening… coming towards you… shrinking into you once more.” She whispered. “When you’re ready, open your eyes.”

She did so few seconds later, a smile slowly spreading over her face. “That’s… not what I had been expecting, but I feel so well! Like I’m focused and awake but… calm?”

“That’s exactly the point.” Maven chuckled. “If you could do that everyday before you go to sleep, that would be good. It would even help you sleep better.”

Maven rocked herself on her heels and got up, offering a hand for Hilda to take. “All of it?”

“No need, just try the part with the roots. I just asked you to try both because I wanted to see which you’d respond the best to.”

Inside, Hilda wasted no time in rushing to her mother to describe how she felt. Maven smiled with some measure of satisfaction at Johanna’s happiness as she saw her daughter’s interest on the lessons. The woman truly wanted to help Maven, but she would never ask her daughter to do something she didn’t want to.

Leaving Hilda to her tea, Maven walked over to where Alfur was studiously inspecting a tome on the different ways to use crystals in witchcraft. Amused at his interest, she didn’t bother him as she looked for a book in specific. It took her a while before she realized that it wasn’t there.

Sighing, she moved to her room, hoping her disappearance wouldn’t be noticed. She tip toed past where Freya was sleeping on her bed, and her shoulders slumped when she saw where the book was, even though she had already reached this conclusion.

The book she wanted was sitting on Myra’s shelf, mocking her with the reminder of how badly she’d failed her sister, and how her sister had failed them in return. But there was no time to wallow in past mistakes, she thought as she took “Basics of Witchcraft for Children” from its place. This was all about fixing the past, not being choked by it.

This had probably been the first book she’d read without her mother’s help. It was nearly a tradition that this book would be passed down from parents to children in their family. There were notes, written in childish, immature handwriting by many of their family members: her mother, her uncle, her grandmother, and even a few people she didn’t get to meet. Myra had also read it, and the book remained with her, waiting for one of the sisters to have children of their own or for someone with magical gifts to be born to the other branches of their family, to be passed down and read and scribbled on once again.

Well, her sister’s fate was terribly uncertain, and it was extremely unlikely that Maven would have a child herself, so there was no harm in giving it to Hilda for the time being. She was sure the girl would appreciate the direct and concise way the author wrote.

She went back to the kitchen and finished her tea with her guests. They were joined by Alfur not much longer.

“I have to make up for the tea someday.” Johanna quipped, a lovely smile adorning her face.

Maven lifted her eyebrows, amused. “You really don’t.”

“You should come by our house someday, I could make you dinner!”

“I wouldn’t want to impose.” The librarian kicked back at her, making the woman roll her eyes. “And dinner in return for tea? That doesn’t sound very balanced.”

Johanna helped Maven put the cups in the sink, filling them with water. “Well, then you could make up to me later. In some way.”

Hilda and Alfur exchanged a look at their banter, the two of them already waiting by the door where the two women couldn’t see them. “I’m sure I can think of something.” Maven said as she walked Johanna to the exit.

They said their goodbyes, and Hilda thanked her once again for the lesson and for the book, assuring her that she’d read this one. They scheduled their next meeting for the next Saturday; they would once again meet in her house.

As Maven watched the trio go away, the moon shining its light on them, she mused that even if this didn’t work, a thought that greatly pained her heart, she had at least got to know good people. Whatever the outcome, she’d already won something.

#fic: family fights #hilda the series #hilda netflix #hilda fanfic #hilda librarian #hilda librarian fanfic #theres a little hint of #sketchbook ship hilda #so its better to tag it

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