Perhaps you remember, years ago, the day I was kidnapped by a witch hunter and rescued by the Stranger. I’ve recovered from the event, inundated by a slew of further traumas in the meantime. One might even suggest I’ve learned something, though, if that’s the case, ‘The Second Place for Follower’s of the Gray Witch, Roki’ is undoubtedly the first test of that theoretical knowledge.
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I’m not at all nervous about the visit until my sheet of counterfeit membership cards slides from a machine in the local print shop and I begin the tedious process of cutting them out. The edges of the first as so mangled by my nervous tremors that it wouldn’t pass muster with even the least invested bouncers or doormen. Like casting a spell or embellishing a resume, the use of a counterfeit credential requires an expenditure of some kind- a little sacrifice, even if its just the energy necessary to maintain a commitment to the bit.
I manage cleaner cuts on the next few, but I start to wonder exactly how official an organization like ‘The Followers of the Gray Witch, Roki’ would be on paper. The most official document I own, my driver’s license, is pretty ratty and it still gets me into bars. Do followers keep their membership cards clean or is there an amount of blood staining or smoke damage lending credence to the pass?
I’ve got six counterfeit cards, when all is said and done, each on heavy card stock and each looking more or less authentic depending on cut. I take some of the worst and fold them a few times. I rub one in dirt and let Hector chew the corner off another. I consider coaxing a drop or two of blood from a scrape on my knee but draw the line at handing bodily fluids over to a cult. I think of myself cautious but understand how it may look, to an outsider, like superstition. I squint and settle on the first one that doesn’t make me feel a nervous flutter in my stomach.
‘The Second Place for Followers of the Gray Witch, Roki’ is a sprawling complex, meant to be condos before the housing collapse and, now, a solid investment on the part of the cult or, alternatively, the sect of witch-hunters that attempts to lure the cultists in. The woman who previously kidnapped me claimed there were only three of her kind but, given that deceit was the basis for the interaction, her word doesn’t hold a lot of weight. In my mind, the chances of ‘The Second Place for Followers of the Gray Witch, Roki’ being another trap is about equal to it being the real thing.
Which presents a new problem with the cards. The hunters of the followers of the Gray Witch, Roki seem like the type to burn first and ask questions later. Discovering the membership card on my person won’t do me any favors if I’m suspected of being in the fold. The more counterfeit a card appears, the more likely it is I might convince hunters that I am what I am- a curious traveler with a strange pet. Too counterfeit, though, and it won’t pass by a true believer.
Hector scuttles about in his carrier as, an hour later, I hover over a public garbage can and examine the six cards, talking myself into and out of each. I consider bringing them all so that I can improvise on the spot, depending upon the legitimacy of the welcome. A witch-hunter means I bluff a clear counterfeit from the back of my wallet, a follower situation means I pull a clean-cut, authentically-worn card from my breast pocket. A shakedown reveals all the cards which, in either scenario, might suggest a lovable interloper (which is the truth I tell myself). In reviewing them again I find, to my dismay, that even the nicely printed cards have begun to wilt under examination.
I return to the copy center to print another round and find the self-service machine is out of order. The woman behind the counter offers to let me use the machine in the back so I step through the ‘employees only’ door and into a small, dark room- empty except for a chair and bindings. The door locks in time for me to notice a pattern scrawled on the floor underfoot and the woman moving in the shadows, now clad in a robe.
“Ah ha!” she smiles, “I see my sigils have held against you, sir!”
I wonder- which card do I show her first?
-traveler
