For the next seven days, the four of them fall into a routine. Six, if one counts the rosefinch familiar and the griffin.

They were kind of left no choice but to stay put and wait.

--

After their arrival and once everyone was settled, Jisoo immediately explained everything to Lisa, Rosie, and by extension, Cotton. The seer told them of her visions, of the prophecy – the child baptized in runes and the child born in flames. She recounted the attack and her father's warnings and instructions. Anger clouded Lisa's expression and her knuckles went white as she balled her hands into fists. 

Lisa considered the minister her second father ever since she lost her parents. She knew the mixed feelings Jisoo had for him, knew that the seer harbored some resentment after he discovered Jisoo was no ordinary oracle and so quickly sent them away so his daughter could develop her abilities and become an asset to the ministry. Jisoo had lost her childhood and had practically been removed from the comfort of her home, from the comfort of her father's presence. But the Minister had taken Lisa in when she lost her parents – had given her a home when hers burned down. He'd made sure she would never be alone by sending her along with his daughter, thereby giving her a sister in Jisoo.

Lisa loved him. She would forever be grateful, swore she would forever be indebted to him and repay him by protecting Jisoo, him, and the ministry he'd so loved and dedicated himself to.

So, when she learned that the same people who'd made an attempt on her life had somehow wormed themselves into the ministry – into the place and institution sacred to him – and attacked him, the fires of her wrath found itself fanned back to life. And if it wasn't for her recent injuries that have stripped her of her powers and strength, she would have gone into a rage, breathing fire out of and charging blindly at this unknown enemy.

Jisoo picked up on the heat starting to emanate from the half-demon. She immediately reached out to put a hand over Lisa's, to calm her down. But she was surprised to see that the healer had beat her to it and had already laid a soothing hand on the half-demon's arm. Lisa relaxed visibly, still angry but nowhere near looking like she was about to breathe fire through her nostrils.

Jisoo found that fascinating, how the healer had somehow known to calm Lisa down with physical touch. Perhaps it was a side effect of whatever ritual the healer had performed. The scene in the healing hut replayed itself in Jisoo's mind, the column of pure magical energy connecting her friend and the other witch glowing bright. Maybe the two remained connected somehow.

Jennie also noticed Rosie's easy show of comfort through physical affection towards the half-demon. The action was immediate, seemingly unprovoked but very much welcome, judging by the half-demon's reaction. She quirked a fur-covered eyebrow, but made no comment. She didn't feel particularly motivated to speak when she was recharging her energies in her cat form. She could if she wanted to, but Lisa had resumed the lazy of her fur and Jennie didn't see the need to interrupt her.

Jisoo got back to her narration and once she finished with getting everyone on the same page, they'd proceeded to develop a plan of action. Or some semblance of one.

The first thing they all agreed on was that they needed to know more about the prophecy so that they can get a better sense of who their enemy is. It's impossible to fight someone or something with little to no knowledge about them, their abilities, their motivations, and their weaknesses.

Rosie offered the tomes and resources at her disposal but they are all of Lola's old healing books and herb magick, some on magical creatures, and very few on magical history. But that was not enough, so Jisoo asked Jennie if they could visit her family's library.

At this, Jennie angrily screeched. The shapeshifter felt both betrayed at the fact that Jisoo had already figured out who she was and didn't tell her and hurt at the reminder of what she had lost.

Her grandmother. And her home.

Jennie had never been able to come home after that night where her grandmother was killed and she was attacked. Her mother had communicated with her through a scrying mirror and told her that she couldn't go back to them – they didn't know who their enemy, how many, how powerful, or what exactly they wanted. But by targeting the Lynx and her heiress, her mother had an inkling that whoever attacked them wanted to snuff out their bloodline and wanted the descendants of the first shapeshifting witches to die before the ability could be passed on. The fact that this enemy was bold enough to attempt an attack at two master shapeshifters and actually succeeded in killing one was terrifying.

So Jennie's mother did what she could do at that moment – she and the non-shifting witches in the clan cast a shroud around the ancestral lands and made it nearly impossible. She had the whole magical world believe that she'd lost the last heiress, ensuring that Jennie isn't hunted down. This meant that Jennie was forbidden from coming home, in case their enemies are simply lying there in wait. Jennie was safer hidden healer's greenhouse, where no one would ever suspect her to be, laying low and no one else knowing that she was still alive.

"You knew who I was and you didn't tell me." Jennie growled, fangs bared, fur prickling and her tiny feline body vibrating, as if ready to shift. Jisoo just sighed and muttered an apology but Jennie just growled again in response, sounding less of a cat and more of her bigger panther form.

"No way," the shapeshifter said. "There is no way we are going to the ancestral mansion. Your half-demon friend isn't the only magical being whose life is in danger and I cannot afford to risk my life nor the lives of the members of my clan."

Jisoo nodded in understanding.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you I knew." Jisoo said so quietly and sincerely that Jennie deflated in her anger. "I'll go by myself, then, just show me the way."

It was Lisa's turn then, to give Jisoo her disapproval.

"And be out there without backup? Are you listening to yourself right now? You're not some martyr, Soo, and whoever infiltrated the ministry knows that the two of us are always together. If my life is in danger then so is yours."

Jisoo sighed again then pressed fingers to her temples.

"But I need to know more, Lisa, and I don't know how much I can learn through visions. I need to study tomes, scrolls, touch artifacts to trigger these visions. Anything. I can't do this on my own."

"You won't." It was Rosie, then, who spoke up. "We'll help you. But we won't be able to help you if you go running off into danger while insisting we have to stay here where it's 'safe'."

Cotton chirps its approval.

"It would help no one, Miss Jisoo, if you needlessly put yourself in danger." The familiar pointed out. Rosie smiled at it and Cotton simply flapped its wings.

Jisoo sighed again.

"But none of you three can leave," the seer pointed out.

They could not risk leaving the protection and resources afforded by the greenhouse and the nearby forest with its ley lines and abundance of natural magical energy. The seer was adamant about following her father's instructions of keeping both Lisa and Rosie safe and it would be the stupidest move to leave and expose both of the children of prophecy at risk.

"Maybe we can all stay here for now," Lisa suggested. "Maybe we can ask for the help of the minister and the other agents. Maybe we can wait for whatever comes up from the investigation of the incident at the Ministry and maybe we can work from there. We can call Minister Kim and talk to him."

Jisoo sighed. They were all right, the rosefinch familiar especially. So they'd agreed to lay low and stay at the greenhouse, it being the safest place for them with all the wards and protective barriers. Jisoo and Lisa decided to add some more protective spells of their own around the area, the seer having knowledge of many complex spells that the ministry kept secret. With Jennie, Rosie, and Cotton's help and their combined energies and powers, the spells would be nearly indestructible.

Jennie, Rosie, and Cotton then took it upon themselves to set up magical surveillance around the forest – magical trip lines that would alert them of any other unfamiliar energy signatures nearby.

--

So with nothing else to do but lie in wait and stay put, the four of them - six if you count the rosefinch and griffin - easily fall into daily routines, to keep some semblance of order and sanity.

Jisoo spoke with her father once and updated him of their plans, or rather, non-plans, and he happily agreed that that was the best course of action. He promised he'd send a team of agents soon, probably Seulgi and Wendy, because he would feel better with their guarantee that they're safe.

The seer settles herself the routine of slipping into meditation in the day in hopes of triggering visions in her dreams at night. She feeds and cares for her griffin and does exercises with him in between.

Rosie, meanwhile, continues her care for Lisa and her other regular activities in between. She's probably the busiest among the four of them.

The healer mans her shop and attends to some of her regular customers in the day. Mr. Hodong the ogre had complained of a stomach ache after eating the meat of an Erymanthian Boar, mistaking it for regular wild boar meat; Mr. Janghoon the troll had come for his regular session of therapy for his leg; and Joy the succubus had even dropped by to buy some of her favorite perfume Styraxian perfume in bulk, formulated especially for her by Rosie. Then the healer also continues to collect herbs and crystals, tend to her plants, and document the magical healing knowledge passed onto her by Lola, in the afternoons til the evening.

Jennie, of course, helps Rosie with her regular healer duties and goes around the forest in patrols with Cotton. She usually sits at the footsteps of the shop and basks in the sunlight or chases after insects or mice when Rosie is doing her rare herb documentation and there isn't much to do.

And Lisa, for her part, does her best to recover. Her body still feels sore in places, specifically in her joints and some parts of her arms and legs. Rosie had explained to her that the poison was meant to rot her from the inside out, that if in case the poison did not kill her instantly from her wounds, she would have suffered a slow and painful death, her organs losing their functions until her heart simply stops beating. It terrified Lisa to know that, but she refused to let the fear immobilize her. She resolved to instead turn that fear into anger and determination – the sooner she could get back to top shape, the sooner she could end this and kill every last being who attempted to harm her and the family who'd adopted her.

So Lisa exercises and trains after every healing session with Rosie and her magical herbs. But she also tries to get as much rest as she could, only toeing her limitations and making sure she doesn't push herself too hard.

She finds that Cotton makes for a formidable opponent and a good training buddy, perhaps unsurprisingly so. The rosefinch is small and fast and can cast quite powerful blasts of energy for a familiar and it keeps Lisa's reflexes sharp. Jennie even joined her once, fighting in both her human and panther forms.

On the seventh day, Lisa is training with cotton at the back of the greenhouse – at the edge where the forest began and where Jisoo had fought Jennie on that first night finally – when she finally properly conjures her flames and focuses them enough into her signature daggers.

She does it by accident, the heat building in her palms as she launched a flurry of fists at the rosefinch who weaved away and between the punches thrown at it easily. It was with a barely missed jab that the fires spark, engulf her hand, and then somehow sharpen into knives. Cotton nearly had its feathers singed and it flaps away in panic.

Lisa freezes, stunned. Cotton yelps.

"Miss Lisa!! My feathers!!"

The rosefinch puts some distance between itself and the half-demon, affronted.

"Well, Miss Lisa! That was not a nice trick to pull! You said you couldn't conjure flames yet"

Lisa physically shakes herself, snapping out of her shock.

"I swear I didn't do that on purpose!"

The half-demon and familiar look at each other. It takes a moment for the statement to sink into both of them.

Suddenly it does, and Lisa howls in excitement and happiness, jumpin up and down. Cotton joins her, chirruping happily in celebration, flying in circles.

The raucous noise was enough to summon the three other witches to them in alarm. Rosie bursts out of the greenhouse, Jisoo runs out of the healer's hut where she was meditating, and Jennie bounds from the front of the shop in her cat form and lands a few feet away from them already having transformed into a panther.

Even the griffin Hinsaeki was summoned from the forest where he was probably hunting for food.

"What is it?!" Jennie growls in her distorted panther voice, her muscles coiling as if to prepare for an attack, senses heightening in defense.

Cotton halts mid-flight and Lisa turns to all three witches in front of her and then to the griffin to her side before exploding in the happiest, brightest grin.

"Look, I can conjure my daggers again!" the half-demon exclaims excitedly, flames once again erupting from her palms then moulding itself into blades.

Jisoo laughs in relief at the news, happy that her best friend is slowly getting back to her old self. Rosie claps and calls out a cute, "yay!"

Jennie, meanwhile, slaps her panther face with a paw and huffs air through her nostrils so loudly and strongly that dust billows beneath her in frustration. She shifts to her human form, hand still at her face before she pinches the bridge of her nose.

"I thought we were under attack, you idiots!" Jennie yells at them then stomps away in anger.

"Sorry, Miss Jennie!" Cotton squeaks apologetically after her.

Jennie just waves it off.

"Whatever. I'm going back to my nap."

Rosie just laughs at her friend then turns to Lisa who was still grinning, completely unbothered by the shapeshifter's outburst.

"She meant to say congratulations on your fast recovery and well done." The healer explains, but it seems like there was absolutely nothing that could dampen the half-demon's mood.

"Glad you're getting better, . Keep it up 'cause we're definitely gonna need lots of brawn and muscle for the fight." Jisoo can't keep the smile off her face, too. "Now, please keep it down because I need to focus on my meditation so we can make progress on other stuff."

The seer turns away and retreats back into the hut. Rosie bids her leave to Lisa, too, and Hinsaeki huffs in annoyance at being disturbed from his hunt before slipping back into the forest.

Lisa just shrugs and turns back to cotton again.

"Once more round, rosefinch?"

Cotton just chirps before flying in close for an attack.

Beyond the barriers and deeper into the forest, unnoticed by any of them, the shadows darken then shift as they creep closer to the greenhouse.