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Welcome to Charming, the year is now 1894. It’s time to join us and immerse yourself in scandal and drama interlaced with magic both light and dark.

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Queen Victoria was known for putting jackets and dresses on her pups, causing clothing for dogs to become so popular that fashion houses for just dog clothes started popping up all over Paris. — Fox
It would be easy to assume that Evangeline came to the Lady Morgana only to pick fights. That wasn't true at all. They also had very good biscuits.
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#1
June 2nd, 1889 — Churchyard, Church of St Fergus

As she exited the church just behind her aunt, Blythe felt as though she were hovering just above the two of them, looking on. She might have thought she had died and was now a ghost, were her body—corpse?—not still moving, and if it weren't for the fact that no one seemed at all perturbed. She had checked out as soon as the words mission trip had left Mr. Dursley's excited lips. Was  this what it felt like to have no agency at all?

She had known immediately what would come—not, perhaps, during church but probably not at home. No, on the road between lay a trap, a pit of spikes or a rabbit's snare, one designed just for her. Aunt and niece would be sailing off on this expedition, Blythe just hadn't been told as much yet.

When Father had left—first left—for India, Blythe had thought it sounded like a tremendous adventure, had yearned to accompany him. The woman she had since become scarcely even recognized that child's sense of adventure, and instead looked at anywhere not British (except, perhaps, Paris) as intimidating at best and impossible at worst. Some among her friends, she knew, would leap at this opportunity.

In contrast, Blythe's feet were planted firmly upon the ground.

But, like the eventual second coming of their lord and saviour, it was inevitable. As her aunt's attention turned from another churchgoer to Blythe once again, the young witch snapped back to earth, the tips of her ears already reddening in anticipation.
Temperance Fairchild/Elladora Black


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   Temperance Fairchild

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#2
Temperance felt rather dazed. Since they’d been children she and her brother had spoken of distant shores, of Missions and having a mission, but she had never actually imagined she would get to visit those far off lands herself to spread the word of the Lord. Mayfield was the one who travelled while she remained behind to tend to their mutual home and long had the arrangement worked perfectly well.

Barring the odd ward being dumped on her doorstep of course.

But now all of that could be changed. She could do the Lord’s work herself, take her skills to savage lands where she could heal the sick and set them on the path towards righteousness. And unlike her brother she would obviously be taking her niece along with her. It was only for a few weeks after all and the change would do Blythe good - in fact it would do both of them good. It never harmed anybody to have a reminder of quite how fortunate they were to have already accepted the Lord into their hearts.

“Well, this is certainly an opportunity too fortuitous to ignore, don’t you think Blythe?”



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#3
A more brazen girl would have laughed at the predictable sentiment—but Blythe Fairchild was not one who would ever be considered brazen.

"With your passion for our Lord and your gift with the sick," the youth answered dutifully, "it seems as though it would be in defiance of His will if you didn't accept this opportunity."

You, Blythe thought wishfully, not me. For it was true that Aunt Temperance was perhaps the most suitable person Blythe had ever met to undergo a mission—including her own father—and for a moment, for the first time, she wondered if the care of her was the reason her aunt hadn't done just that. With Blythe now an adult, perhaps her aunt would finally take that step—and recognize her niece was more than able to mind herself in the interim.



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#4
“It would, wouldn’t it?” Temperance agreed hastily, momentarily allowing her excitement at the prospect to slip over into giddiness. Or as close as she came to the emotion.

Blythe’s world could be expanded too, away from this village where half the population needed saving from themselves but rejected the Lord’s teachings and treated those that tried to better them with contempt. To be somewhere where their efforts would not be in vain would be a glorious adventure.

“And He has sent us this as a sign Blythe, I am quite sure of it,” she added. “I knew I was supposed to pass my skills along to you and perhaps it will inspire you to leave law enforcement for something a little more genteel.”



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#5
I don't enforce the law, I'm a secretary.

The words died upon her tongue before she could even say them, the true weight of her aunt's words now beginning to sink in. Blythe's heart fell. While of course Aunt Temperance was not thrilled with her occupation—there was little other than Jesus that her aunt was thrilled by—she had not realized the formidable woman had such a desire to redirect her. Suddenly, this conversation was not only about the upcoming mission but about Blythe's whole life, and not for the first time, she wished she had the skill-set to simply evaporate.

"Oh,", was all she could muster at first, missing the decisiveness of the no she had wanted to utter. A beat, and then, "In truth, Aunt, yours are not gifts I ever thought myself particularly apt to receive."


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#6
“Nonsense,” Temperance replied briskly, irked as she often was by Blythe’s apparent inability to have any confidence in her own talents. The Lord taught them to be modest, and she was proud of her niece for the excellent example she set to the other youngsters in their congregation, but it didn’t mean she could ignore her potential. Especially not when she may be able to serve the Lord a little more appropriately.

“You’ll rise to the challenge as I did,” she insisted, turning to hold her niece’s gaze and speaking in a tone that was, for her at least, relatively soft. “You have the soul of a healer in you Blythe, I know you do.”


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   Blythe Fairchild

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#7
Blythe doubted that very much, but she could tell—both from her aunt's tone and the look in the woman's eyes—that this was not a battle she was likely to be victorious. Perhaps when she failed utterly at the challenge in question, Aunt Temperance would believe her. Besides, the young witch reasoned, she had more pressing matters to attend to...

"Perhaps you might show me around the infirmary," she suggested shyly, "once you've returned from the mission."



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#8
“Once we’ve returned you mean?” Temperance replied distractedly, her attention having been caught by another member of the congregation making a beeline for Mr Dursley with the sort of passion in her eyes that suggested she was about to enjoy being the first to make her desire to join the expedition known to the vicar. Which was pathetic of course – the impropriety of the woman! – and absolutely something Temperance needed to save the poor man from.

“Head straight home Blythe, I’ll catch you up.”

And with that she hurried towards Mr Dursley happy in the knowledge that her legs allowed for much quicker movement than Mrs Yates’ did and the Fairchild name would be top of his list.



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#9
The moment Blythe thought her aunt must surely be out of earshot, she let out a heavy sigh. Lord help her, the girl thought, resigned; Temperance Fairchild would not be moved, and Blythe herself was for Africa.

With heavy heart, the witch set off for home.



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