Chapter 2.4

Despite their reputation, the Egregore Seven looked perfectly comfortable occupying a small, underheated conference room in one of the event spaces on the second floor.

Fang Fang brewed tea at a side table covered in jade cloth while the others wandered by the windows freshly installed with bulletproof glass before settling into their seats. It was only then that Reiko realized Baba Yaga was the only Egregore followed by a personal escort.

Every other witch had attended the tea party alone.

“When’s lunch?” Baba Yaga asked.

“The Prime Minister invited you to kaiseki,” Lisa frowned, “but instead you spent that time in Akihabara looking for… what was it called again?”

“A Russian novel.”

“Right…”

Fang Fang went around the room, starting with Gentiane, and left a unique porcelain cup of tea for each Egregore. Each time she tipped her teapot over, Fang Fang poured out a different tea. Jasmine. Chrysanthemum. Bergamot. Khali’s cup was decorated with a creamer cup and sugar. For Dahlia, a thin bowl of milk was given to her black cat.

“Tea?” Fang Fang offered Reiko when she finished serving her fellow witches.

“No thanks,” Reiko shook her head.

“And what about you three?”

Fang Fang looked at Miyuki and the other juniors. Fujiko and Mamoru both passed as well, but Miyuki pleaded to Reiko with eyes that looked like they could flood the room and the one across the hall if Reiko said no.

“Go ahead,” Reiko mouthed.

“I’ll have some,” Miyuki squeaked. “I’ve been studying your theories on glyphs and enchantments since I was a little girl.”

“I can tell,” Fang Fang smiled. “Those are variations of my own spells on your shoes. An injury?”

“When I was in school,” Miyuki nodded.

“Quite impressive.”

Fang Fang took a seat at the end of the table. She poured herself a cup of tea and waited for Gentiane to close her book and raise her cup to her lips. Then, in the order that she poured, the members of Egregore Seven began drinking tea.

Reiko gestured for Section Eight to fan out to the far corners of the room. Reiko positioned herself by Baba Yaga’s bodyguards. Even the shortest one, a frazzled looking secretary, stood taller than her, and the subtle protective magic she was casting over her Egregore told Reiko this “secretary” was no joke.

“So?” Khali folded her arms. “Anyone want to try answering the Question?”

“You don’t sound convinced that Lady Baba Yaga even asked a Question,” Lisa Everest grinned.

“The Mysteries responded,” Dahlia argued. “The imaginarium yesterday was heavier than Baba Yaga’s own ascension.”

“So why doesn’t she enlighten us on why she asked this Question in the first place?” Khali narrowed her gaze. “She didn’t even ask for our Permissions. Maybe she can answer it on her own.”

“Where’s your sense of sisterly spirit?” Lisa Everest admonished. “Do you have no interest in magic outside of real world applications?”

“We’re here to make the world a better place,” Khali sighed. “Why should we entertain half-baked Questions while less fortunate people suffer?”

“Not everything that is practical is useful,” Gentiane suggested. “Not every Question is meant to help the world.”

“And there’s more that we do by example than by the tea parties we host,” Lisa Everest smiled. “Don’t forget, the vitriol in my country over the definition of womanhood ended the moment you ascended.”

“You’re very welcome,” Khali rolled her eyes, “but again, maybe we should let the witch who asked the Question speak for herself?”

All eyes fell on Baba Yaga, who returned their looks with indifference.

“The Question is quite simple,” she shrugged. “What is imaginarium? Fine. Let me demonstrate the problem.”

Baba Yaga rose from her seat and the trails of her silver mane shined gold. She placed a hand on the conference table. The room temperature plummeted. A square shaped subspace carved itself out of the center and a prismatic cage rose from within.

Reiko and Section Eight froze when they saw what was trapped inside.

The phantasm born from the Brideskiller’s corpse raged against its prison bars. Its porcelain hands shattered mirrored walls, only for the broken shards to push it deeper into a fractured maze.

“I caught this several nights ago,” Baba Yaga explained. “It was not immediately destroyed when I collapsed its Existence Formula into nothing.”

“That’s–” Khali started.

“Impossible,” Baba Yaga nodded, “and yet here it is.”

“It has a rather striking appearance,” Fang Fang mused. “It looks like something you would create in one of your Stories, Lisa.”

“As if,” Lisa laughed. “It’s too gauche for me.”

“By the rules of magic, imaginarium that does not have an Existence Formula cannot be sustained in The Now,” Baba Yaga motioned to the phantasm. “Yet this creature is clearly made of imaginarium, but you will find no formula on its body.”

“Are you telling me you asked our annual Question because you caught a plaything on a whim?” Khali scoffed. “She’s hopeless, this one.”

“You aren’t curious, Khali?” Lisa asked. “By all accounts, she has caught what appears to be a Taboo for us to study.”

“We’ve seen imaginarium with no Existence Formula before,” Khali responded. “This is just the Null Field Paradox with a sacrilegious twist. How many people had to die in order for this thing to be made? And you want to study it?”

“Null imaginarium does not move like this,” Baba Yaga replied. “Imaginarium is also not known for speaking.”

Baba Yaga snapped her fingers. The fractals in the mirrored cage merged. The broken shards melded and carried the phantasm closer to the cage’s edge.

Reiko saw her again.

She looked just like the last time Reiko had seen her. Long braided hair over curled lashes. Vibrant ruby eyes paired with a keen nose.

“Reiko,” the phantasm called to her.

“Natsuko,” Reiko choked on her name and swallowed it before anyone heard.

“That’s it?” Khali snorted. “Speaking? It’s just a bunch of guttural nonsense.”

“You didn’t hear it?” Lisa asked. “I heard a name being called.”

Reiko glanced at her juniors. Only Fujiko reacted with any acknowledgment that the sound that the phantasm had made was human in origin.

Is it because she knows what Natsuko sounds like, she wondered. But if so, then why…

“If you think this Question is meaningless,” Baba Yaga shrugged. “Then I shall release this Taboo back into The Now, Khali. You must be confident that you can destroy what I cannot.”

“Is that supposed to be a threat?” Khali rose from her seat.

Reiko motioned for Section Eight to prepare to intercept, but Lisa Everest raised a hand to halt every party.

“Now, now,” Lisa smiled, “it’s not like I can’t see everyone’s point of view here, but let’s not start something out of nothing. How about a compromise?”

Lisa glanced at Khali who turned her nose but nevertheless sat back in her chair. Baba Yaga nodded, and Lisa gestured her other hand below the table for Reiko to stand down.

“Khali believes this Question is meaningless,” Lisa explained, “but Baba Yaga raises an interesting conundrum with our dear specimen here. Where does its imaginarium come from?”

“That Question’s been tried before,” Gentiane replied without looking up from her novella. “Imaginariun is an unquantified, unobservable state of pure presence. It simply exists.”

“Yes, yes, I know,” Lisa sighed, “but we all take for granted imaginarium’s existence. We assume it came into being along with the rest of the universe, but this feels convenient as a way to fit magic into our conventional understanding of science, metaphysics…”

“Look out,” Khali drawled, “the American’s trying to use big words again.”

“I’d like to assist Baba Yaga’s Question with an inquiry of my own,” Lisa continued. “We’ll release it from its cage, and I’ll use it to tell us a Story. Perhaps this will get us closer to an answer.”

“You want to bring Taboo back into The Now?” Fang Fang glared. “It’s dangerous, Lisa. Consider my Permission denied.”

“As is mine,” Gentiane muttered.

“Ah!” Lisa laughed. “Before you go about sealing that in a contract, I forgot to tell you all one last thing. Maybe Baba Yaga should tell you. She’s the warden after all.”

Baba Yaga pressed her hand against the glass prison. Spectral chains surged from another branch of the labyrinth and bound the phantasm’s neck and arms. The chains yanked and dragged it hollering into the depths.

“I cannot hold it forever,” she admitted. “It will escape its chains in several days.”

“Imagine that?” Lisa gasped. “A Taboo that an Egregore, that our Lady Baba Yaga cannot contain with her abilities alone? Doesn’t that make you wonder? How is that possible?”

“Maybe she’s not as strong as she thinks she is,” Khali shrugged.

“Or maybe this thing is not a thing at all,” Lisa suggested. “If it hadn’t been able to speak, I would have had my reservations, but surely some of you have already started to suspect the possibility?”

“That it’s a person?” Fang Fang speculated.

Gentiane folded her book closed.

“Not just any person,” Gentiane whispered. “Miss Everest, are you suggesting?”

“Yes,” Lisa grinned. “This may be the final Egregore, the missing member of Egregore Seven.”