Rosie picks up the needle and threads it with practiced ease, all the while humming her relaxation spell in place of anaesthesia. The half-demon already had five drops of magical Black Mamba venom which was incredibly potent - the healer didn’t want to risk an overdose, especially when her patient is still weak

Jennie leaves Rosie’s side so the healer could finish her work. She turns around and almost doubles over in laughter at the expression on Jisoo’s face, stopping herself at the last moment.

Same, Jennie thinks.

She had the same reaction when she first watched Rosie heal someone with her voice. The shapeshifter keeps her cool, carefully masking her amusement. She smirks and saunters over the seer.

“Need help picking your jaw off the floor?”

“H-huh?”

Jennie giggles.

“She’s amazing , I know.”

Jisoo exhales, mouth still open.

“I have half a mind to shapeshift into a huge blow fly or a cockroach and go into your mouth.... Or ask Cotton to do it.”

Cotton, hearing its name, pauses mid-flight and chirps. Jennie turns to the familiar with a smile and shakes her head, mouthing “nothing”.

Jisoo closes and frowns. She looks at Jennie with brows furrowed and asks the question that’s been on her mind the whole time.

“What was that?”

“Hmm?” Jennie plays at being clueless. “What was what?”

Jisoo waves her hands around in the air.

“That!”

The shapeshifter picks up the elixir and the cloth. She smiles pouring a few drops of the potion on the cloth. When the shapeshifter gives no indication that she’ll be answering the question any time soon, Jisoo goes back to staring at the healer, but not before throwing a glare the shapeshifter’s way.

“The magic she does…” Jisoo exhales, still in awe. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Jennie’s hand freezes in the air, mid-dab, a brow raised in confusion.

“What? You’ve never witnessed the healing arts?” The shapeshifter’s voice is dramatically high-pitched and is dripping with sarcasm.

Jisoo glares at Jennie then rolls her eyes.

“Of course, I’ve seen healing magic, shapeshifter.”

Jennie presses the cloth hard against Jisoo’s wound.

“Ow! Hey!” Jisoo swats at Jennie’s hand. “What the hell?”

Jennie puts both hands on her hips and stands in all of her 5’2” glory.

“Don’t give me attitude, seer, or I’ll claw your eyes out. I’m not obligated to explain anything to you.”

“Fair enough, but let go of whatever your preconceived notion of my level of intelligence, because insulting me is unnecessary.”

Jennie laughs.

“Okay, seer, fair enough.”

Jisoo rolls her eyes.

“Thank you.”

Jennie looks her in the eye and accepts the daggers with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.

“Come on, seer, I’m not done tending to your wound. Sit up so it’ll be easier for both of us.”

Jisoo sighs and obeys. She sees no point in fighting the shapeshifter although the woman is irking her greatly. Jennie dabs the wet cloth against the wound, accidentally pressing too hard. Jisoo hisses in pain and flinches.

“Oops, sorry.”

Jisoo sees that the shapeshifter was genuinely apologetic, so she allows the other witch to continue her work. They’re both saved from having to endure an awkward silence as the healer hums and sings a few words, here and there.

This song is familiar, Jisoo thinks. She feels like she’s heard it before, so she tries her best to recall.

“Hmmm, I think I know this song.” The remark slips out of Jisoo’s lips before her brain could catch it. It was a thought meant to stay within the confines of her brain because she definitely wasn’t interested in speaking to the shapeshifter.

“It’s from The Little Mermaid.”

Jisoo looks up at the shapeshifter. Jennie is just smiling genuinely, sparing a quick glance at the busy healer who immediately perked up and turned to them after hearing the movie title. Rosie sings the line “I’ve got gadgets and gizmos a-plenty,” with theatrical flourish for Jennie. The shapeshifter giggles, and claps her hands. Rosie smiles and turns back to the half-demon on the bed and Jennie does the same.

Jisoo still wears a question mark on her face. Jennie halts in her work with an incredulous expression.

“You don’t know Disney songs?”

Jisoo suddenly recalls the childish animated movies Lisa would force her to sit through on their off days from Ministry work.

“Oh, wait, you mean the cartoons where they sing and dance with the princesses and talking animals?”

Jennie actually laughs, mirth sparkling in her eyes and smile gummy. Jisoo would have never thought that this girl was a shapeshifter, let alone one with a terrifying panther form.

“Yes, yes, that’s it.” Jennie nods, still smiling and amused.

“Lisa loves those.”

“Rosie, too."

“Hmm.”

The shapeshifter goes back to just working quietly, but now the awkward tension between them has dissipated and Jennie seemed to be in a better mood. Jisoo stays quiet for a while, lost in her own thoughts. Silence between them hangs in the air until Jisoo speaks up again.

“Her style of healing… it looked like she was transferring her own magical energy.” Before Jennie could ignore her, Jisoo puts a hand on Jennie’s arm to get her attention. The shock and annoyance shows on Jennie’s face and Jisoo explains before the shapeshifter snaps and grows fangs to bite off her head.

“I practice Divination and I am a Lunar Aquarian and I will not stop bugging you about this until you tell me. So please, if you’re withholding information for no reason at all except because you dislike me, please stop and just tell me what you know.”

Jennie raises a challenging eyebrow.

“How do I know you won’t use whatever I say to hurt Rosie?”

“Because I was ready to die at your hands just to so your friend could save the life of my bestfriend and right now she just saved her.”

The shapeshifter sighs and rolls her eyes.

“Fine.”

Jisoo smiles and lets go of her hand.

“Thank you.”

Jennie looks at Rosie, before turning back to Jisoo and speaking in a low voice.

“Rosie’s healing powers… they come from her voice. I don’t understand how or why. I’ve looked at all the tomes and scrolls I could get my hands on, but there is nothing. And trust me, I have access to one of the most extensive collections of artifacts and literature on witchcraft, magic, and the other dimension.”

Jisoo nods. Jennie realizes she’s gone off-tangent a bit and gets back to her explanation.

“Anyway, from what Rosie’s told me, ever since she can remember, she has the ability to transfer magical energy to another magic user, whether they are a practitioner or a magical creature - basically anything living that’s not of the human world - demons included.

“However, doing that drains her of her own magical energy and we both fear that overdoing it might deplete her own reserves and render her non-magical. Or worse, kill her. So she doesn’t do it much and heals instead with the herbs she has in her greenhouse and other ingredients we collect every month.”

Jisoo nods again, processing the information. The wound on her head finally closes and all that’s left is a purple bruise in its place. Jennie hums satisfaction with her work, pulls her lips into a thin line and nods.

“Mhmm, mhmm. Your wound is all patched up, seer.”

“It’s Jisoo.”

“Huh?”

“My name… it’s Jisoo.”

“Oh, um… I’m Jennie.”

Both dark-haired witches are silent for a moment, just looking at each other; Jisoo is just staring at Jennie, studying her face while Jennie waits for Jisoo to reply.

Jennie isn’t a fan of awkward silences so she looks down at her bare feet, having forgotten to put her shoes on after transforming. Were they supposed to shake hands now and pretend she almost didn’t kill them earlier? She shifts her weight from one foot to another and clears .

(She transforms into panther form and transforms back into human form with clothes on but for some reason her shoes are always left on the ground. She asked her grandmother who was a master shapeshifter once before, when she was just a child, why the shoes don’t transform with her. Her grandmother just chuckled and shrugged. Apparently, no one could explain why shoes never transition with shapeshifters.)

Jisoo just looks at Jennie; from the girl’s thin eyebrows to her cat-like eyes, her small nose, her soft lips, and to her round cheeks. The hard edges and fierceness was gone.

She’s so different as a human… She’s a kitten.

Jisoo chuckles.

She’s adorable.

Jennie looks up and raises an eyebrow, a silent “ what? ” in the air. Jisoo shakes her head, smiling.

“Nothing,” Jisoo chuckles. “It’s that, you were terrifying earlier but you’re actually so harmless as a human.”

Jennie feels her face heat up in a blush. She throws the cloth at the seer’s face. Jisoo catches the cloth, still smiling.

“Shut up or I’ll bite your head off.”

Jisoo laughs.

“Okay, okay.”

Jennie harrumphs before turning on her heel, walking towards the healer. Rosie was already finished with stitching and is now putting some sort of balm over the closed wound. Jennie puts a hand on her lower back and rests her chin on her shoulder.

“Wifey, I just remembered I have to literally stitch close the hole that this one,” she motions her head towards Jisoo, “ripped open in the barrier. Be back in a bit?”

“Okay,” Rosie sing-songs, still focused on her task. “But be careful and call us if there’s anything suspicious. You know it’s also not safe for you outside and it’s still the Shadow Hours.”

“It’s almost dawn but I’ll still be careful.”

“Hmm. Take Cotton with you just to be sure?”

“Okay. Cotton, let’s go!”

Jennie turns around and exits the hut with Cotton flying behind her.

Jisoo’s eyes follow Jennie until the shapeshifter is out of the hut. Something that the shapeshifter said caught Jisoo’s attention: she had access to one of the most extensive collection of tomes and scrolls of the magical world. The question of who these witches are and why she has never heard of them has been nagging Jisoo’s mind, but now she has half an answer to it.

There are only three libraries in the magical world that are worthy of such a title; first is the Ministry’s archives to which Jisoo has 24/7 access to and she knows like the back of her hand, second is the library of the Dark Arts and Demonic Artifacts which only her father and a few other high ranking Ministers have had access to for decades, and the third is the personal collection of an ancient family of master shapeshifters with a bloodline tracing back to the first witches.

Jisoo gulps.

This Jennie is no ordinary shapeshifter.

She’s Jennie Kim, heiress of the Lynx, and the last shapeshifter of their bloodline.