The Other Witch; Past and Presence

Mostly, the voyage was quiet.  Hack, as Salvia still chose to think of him despite the implications that Braga seemed to have made about his true nature, stayed in the cockpit, locked, for most of the trip.  Since she only saw him at meals, it may as well have been the whole trip, but she sort of assumed he also used the rest room once or twice.  Braga seemed to be determined to learn every inch of the ship, and probably knew as much by the end of the first day as Salvia knew about every starship in existence.  He was, especially by the standards of the notoriously non-intellectually inclined Ga-Vok, brilliant.  It didn't seem to bother him that Hack didn't show himself except at meals, in fact he seemed to have anticipated it.  Any time he had any sort of question, he'd scamper off to the kitchen and start cooking.  He was rather good at it too.
Salvia had set to composing a letter to the Coven, explaining her findings and activities so that they wouldn't come looking for her.  Between edits and rewrites of her letter, she meditated, prayed, and practiced some of her less dangerous magic in the gymnasium.  She found herself thinking of her first magic instructor, the very priest she was now looking for, Father Krell.  He'd taken her in off the streets when she was scarcely five.  She couldn't remember much from then; lots of fire, loud noises, people screaming.  Her mother had been tall, she remembered that much.  Her father wore glasses, and he wasn't home much.  His chin had been itchy, somehow that always stuck with her.  Maybe it was just the contrast between the father who'd never been there when she was little and the Father who had that made her remember it so vividly.  She remembered him kneeling in front of her and saying simply, "Come now, let's get you somewhere safe."
He'd said it three times her whole life.  The day he found her, the day she'd first manifested magic, and her first assignment as a witch; and every time her life had changed.  The first two were obvious, and he'd been there for his own reasons.  He'd never spoken of the day he picked her up off of the rubble, only that he wished he could have done more.  The second time he'd been visiting her at the orphanage, as he had every sunday so he could teach her and offer support.  It had always marked her as special, and she'd gotten picked on a lot by jealous kids.  It wasn't quite the same as having parents, but it still made her feel loved.  Then one kid decided to pull her hair, and she stopped him.  No mage could say that their first time was 'under control' but her intent was certainly expressed clearly.  That was also the first time she'd ever realized what Father Krell was.  He always wore concealing clothing, but the speed he moved with had knocked back his hood.  At first she was scared, then she was just curious.  Most of the Nielda in the Empire were afflicted with the plague, but the plague preserved what it rotted.  Father Krell was a true form, a proper undead.  He'd explained later what had happened, as best he knew, but Salvia was content to know that he was good, and wasn't going to kill her.
The third time she didn't like to think about.

"So you know the good Father?  Nice man, not enough men like that in the world."
Salvia instinctively released the weights from one end of bar and swung the remaining hundred with everything she could muster.  The dark man blocked it with an open palm, and the resulting reverberation shook it from her hand.
"Sorry 'bout that, not used to dealing with people yet.  Haven't really had a serious dialogue with anyone but my Old Friend for...longer than is strictly anyone's concern."
Salvia recovered, although her hand was still twitching uncontrollably, and recognized the man.  He'd been with the Enchanter back on Krove.  Something about him had startled Hack, but other than his ability to teleport onto a moving ship in the middle of subspace, she couldn't tell why.
"What are you doing here?"
"You can't really tell out here, but it's the middle of the day back on Krove.  Honeysuckle is taking a class on one of her field trips, so she asked if I could deliver your weapon."  He presented a good sized medium case, she couldn't tell what kind of wood it was, only that it was very expensive and likely magical.
"Trueshot to make it more accurate, hits where you want it to instead of where you point it, within reason of course.  Variable Element to add versatility, just focus on the desired effect and it'll make it happen.  Bottomless quiver, with a modification to make it automatically reloaded, all you have to do is ready the hammer and pull the trigger, never worry about running out of shots.  Witch's nocturne is a rather potent enchantment, allows your shots to act as though they were silver against Lycanthropes, wooden stakes against vampires, or similarly properly enchanted to deal with whatever your adversary."
"What's that have to do with witch's?  I've never known a witch to be ready for those sorts of things, or even connected to nocturnes.  Most witch's prefer pop and rock to any classical piece."
"It's a really old enchantment.  I don't know who named it, only that i'd have called it sure-kill or 'divine dirge'."
"Sorry."
"You didn't know, but you could probably stand to complain of names a bit less.  The last one I did help name; TransAstral summoning.  Even if it has been visibly destroyed, or thrown within the event horizon of a black hole, or otherwise made unusable, you can call it to hand.  And only you can do so."
Handy, Salvia decided not to point out the problems this would create were she to die.  It was unusable by anyone else, but indestructible.  Still, its not as though she planned on dying anyways.
"What do I owe you?"
"Personal favor, don't mention it."
"Well thank you."
"For what?  I haven't told you the favor yet."
"Oh, its just.."  He'd already mentioned he wasn't used to talking to people, and done so in the most suspicion provoking way possible, so she decided to just cut him some slack.  "Go ahead, I'm listening."
"When you meet Father Krell, tell him that Lewiza would want him to be happy.  Tell the Assassin that her mother died well.  And when you meet the Dark Lady, tell her..well played.  She'll know what it means; I doubt the other two will be quite so happy when they hear their news, but it'll do them a lot of good in the long run."
"That's it, pass along personal messages?"
"At our level, that's an epic quest.  Now for you; large red buttons work exactly when they are supposed to, and never sooner."  And then he vanished.