Coven Graduation

Scene: EXTERNAL Back yard of Rhiamon's house on Wisteria Lane on a bright sunny day.
Brightly dressed folks are getting together in the back yard. All are chatting. Some have small plates of nuts and snacks or small glasses of drinks. Leaf, the servant faun of the house, is helping set up statues on the altar. As others do their part, Leaf gets bored and looks to the house.
INTERIOR: He goes in and watches Melicious making deviled eggs with a magical flourish at each step. As she finishes, Leaf helps her carry one of the two trays of eggs out back.
EXTERIOR: Esmeralda, the oldest of the three women living in the house, takes hold of Leaf's tail as he passes by stopping him. He startles in surprise but holds tightly to his tray. (CLOSEUP) Esmeralda indicates her ear and then points Leaf to the house. (RETURN) He hands her the tray and nods. As Esmeralda takes the tray of deviled eggs to the altar, Leaf heads inside the house.
INSIDE: Leaf pauses a moment breathing slowly and deeply and tilts his head slightly, listening intently with closed eyes.
The doorbell rings loudly. Leaf is startled, but happy that he has found what he sought. He walks to the front of the house.
Outside the front door stands a young woman in a trench coat and fedora hat. Leaf opens the door and is surprised to see the woman. He smiles while looking her up and down, then happily bows to her and waves her in.
The young woman, Sapphire Circe, is equally happily surprised to see a faun answer the door. She speaks. He does not seem to understand a word of her language, but he is entirely comfortable with the situation. She looks him up and down and accepts his offer to enter. She removes her coat and hat, revealing a bright pastel sundress underneath. She wears the long drab leather Belt of Binding around her waist, but the diadem which marks her signature look is not there.
Leaf clumsily hangs her hat and coat on the same hanger in the coat closet while she stares at this creature. He happily leads her through the house to the back yard.
Circe takes in the scene from one side to the other, an overly large altar has various wild flowers, goddess and god statues, a banner proclaiming, "BLESSED OSTARA!" and food, so much food, colored eggs, deviled eggs, hot cross buns, bottles of home made and store-bought wine, various colorful salads, and even little bright marshmallow chicks covered in colored sugar sprinkles. The spread is just barely in the shade of the eastward trees, but the bright pastel colors happily shine.
Sapphire Circe introduces herself to the other ladies in the backyard and engages in conversation. She is surprised and delighted to see butterflies and tiny fairies floating about in the air.
(One of the gathered guests is a ghostly transparent elderly version of Clothos, the younger sister of Valkyrie, Chooser of the Slain.)
A bell rings clearly in the air. All turn to look.
Rhiamon holds a small musical triangle and tiny metal beater which shine like pure silver. She puts them away in a pocket while speaking welcomingly to the crowd. She raises one finger, circling it in the air, waves both hands as if drawing the butterflies toward her, and speaks more words including, "Love", and, "Trust".
Everyone takes a few steps toward the altar, including Leaf following suit after he sees what everyone is doing.
Rhiamon is now on the East side of the altar, the side most in shadow. Melicious, the youngest member of their group, hands her a large yellow candle and an ornate silver antique lighter. Rhiamon lights the candle and sets in on a short column standing there while saying some gracious words. The whole area seems brighter now. Rhiamon then walks clockwise around the altar and sunshine seems to follow her path.
At the South side of the altar, Esmeralda waits with a bright red candle, standing next to an identical concrete column. Rhiamon repeats the lighting of the candle and then continues her path clockwise with the trail of sunlight still following her.
At the West side, the shadow of the tree just barely covers the concrete column. Melicious arrives with a bright blue candle, handing it to Rhiamon as she arrives to perform the lighting again. The sun's rays slowly move closer to the west column.
At the North column, somehow Esmeralda seems to have been waiting quite a while with a green candle for Rhiamon to perform the lighting again. She continues walking, now around her circle to the East where she began.
Leaf and Sapphire notice the oddity that the sun seems to be shining on the entire circular path around them. Just then, the sun rises out of the thick tree leaves and the shadow inside the circle disappears as the sunlight slowly moves along the ground from west to east revealing the altar in glimmering beauty. Glitter on the Easter eggs and the banner glisten as if dancing.
Leaf perks up his nose to sniff the air as a gentle breeze makes itself known, playing with the banner and various people's scarfs, shawls, and hair.
Rhiamon waves to get Leaf's attention. She points to a tray on the altar then signals a circle around. Leaf jumps to attention, approaches the altar, takes the tray full of teacups, and begins to circulate among the crowd until everyone has taken one, finally he takes the last one for himself.
Melicious follows him with a large pitcher and a small one similarly taken from the altar. She pours for each guest a large amount of liquid from the large pitcher and just a splash from the small one.
Leaf stands next to Sapphire awaiting their turns to have their cups filled. Esmeralda slips up between the two of them and swaps a large metal stein for Leaf's tiny teacup. As Melicious approaches all eyes watch her pour the ceremonial drink for Sapphire, but Esmeralda surreptitiously produces a pocket flask from nowhere and empties every drop of its contents into Leaf's stein. Not noticing, Melicious pours the ceremonial drink for Esmeralda and then for Leaf, filling his stein. A sly smile very slowly grows on Esmeralda's face until she looks quite pleased and a little naughty.
Rhiamon draws everyone's attention back to the altar and says a few words while gesturing to the sun, the altar, all the people gathered, and then Melicious, who walks up to the altar. Rhiamon appears to propose a toast to Melicious, who graciously and modestly accepts the attention. All raise their cups and drink to her.
Sapphire is pleasantly surprised by the drink. Leaf is surprised at its potency, but drinks it up.
Again with all eyes on Melicious, she begins a chant, gesturing at everyone gathered there. She ceremoniously draws her magical athame knife and holds it up to the sun. She closes her eyes and continues to chant, swaying the athame in a circular motion. Rhiamon sneaks a peek over her shoulder at the altar, hopeful.
On the altar the two trays of deviled eggs begin to spin slowly, then faster.
Everyone gathered is happy and excited as they watch the hors d'oeuvres, lift off gently from the altar. Each one floats like the butterflies seen earlier and flutter around the crowd until one is floating before each person. Melicious is still concentrating intently.
Sapphire and Esmeralda carefully pick their treat from the air. Leaf catches his in his wide open mouth in mid air without using his hands. All are delighted with the flavor. All smile and start to glow with sunshine from all angles.
Rhiamon and Melicious are quite happy that the magical spell appeared successful and take a bite of their eggs after everyone else is eating and seems joyful. Esmeralda appears next to Melicious, and she and Rhiamon take Melicious' hands and raise them up in celebration. The gathered crowd applaud. It appears Melicious has graduated through some rite of passage, and she is overjoyed with her new status as a full dedicant of the coven.
The guests mingle. Leaf is suddenly a social butterfly, fliting from one person to the next. But for each passing moment, he appears to be deeply in love and infatuated with whichever person is speaking to him at the moment. Pink and red phantasmal hearts float in the air behind him and over his head. Many of the guests seem entertained or flattered at his wordless attention.
The three housemates, Rhiamon, Melicious, and Esmeralda link hands for a moment, enjoying Melicious' new status, with a sense that their group is moving to a new chapter, occasionally glancing into the gentle breeze and sky, looking for the next adventure to come.


Melicious' Deviled Eggs Recipe: