The Fixer; or The Reason Rysa Whitethorn Hates Samhain... and Humans - but Mostly Humans

Rysa Whitethorn hid herself behind a tree and blasted power at the fire that was starting to lick at a bale of hay. She lowered her hand and shook her head. This was why she had always hated Samhain. The stupid things humans got up to. She had been taking care of their problems for years, correcting the mistakes that would destroy everything her coven held dear.

Truthfully, she would like nothing more than to let the humans correct their own mistakes. Let them learn something for a change, she thought, but she wasn't the one who made the rules.

"No, I'm the one sent to fix their problems," Rysa muttered.

She watched a group of young teenagers dressed as superheroes stand on a porch and knock on the door of a house that had steps lined with pumpkins and spiderwebs and a black spider in all the corners. A woman came out of the house and started cooing over their costumes.

Rysa rolled her eyes. One or two of the costumes were good - fairly accurate cosplays that showed they had spent time with images from the comics or films or TV - but most of them were actually fairly horrible. After tonight, Rysa was convinced that the people that answered the door with candy on Samhain had a manual that told them what to say and how to dress. It was the eighth time tonight Rysa had seen that sweater and the third time she'd seen it in that hideous mustard yellow.

Someone screamed down the street and Rysa jumped out of the bush and ran away while the woman and the group of superheroes murmured to each other about what the sound could've been.

The problem didn't hide itself and for that Rysa was grateful. The problem was the chimney fire and the tree next to it full of toilet paper and Kleenex ghosts. And the whole sprawling house. People were watching the fire from the street. The children were in costume, afraid and trying not to look, older teenagers in dark clothing, looking on silently and the parents who looked afraid, but were trying not to show their children the reality of the situation.

The fire department had already been called in, but they weren't helping much.

Of course they aren't, that's why you're here. Viv's voice came back to her.

Rysa sighed.

She conjured fog and blurred herself into the darkness. She blasted power at the chimney fire. She tried to blur it with the stream of water the firemen were sending. Blending had been one of the first things she had mastered and now she could do it seamlessly, but it was on nights like Samhain when she was sending blending spell after blending spell at the town that she wished she weren't quite so good at it.

She threw another blast of power at the building. She could feel the heat retracting and she threw more heat on the fire. She wanted to put the fire out, but if it was too cool there would be something suspect and Rysa didn't want to be the reason the coven would have to leave. The coven was settled here. She was settled here. She didn't want to leave anymore than the rest of them and she was the one in charge of protecting the coven's secrets tonight.

The fire flared once and then died. Rysa knew the questions that were going to be asked. She knew she needed to get out of there, but she stayed where she was and watched as the cleanup began. She liked being able to see that she had been of some help to the people who needed it. She knew she was taking a risk, but she stayed in the shadows of a tree near the sidewalk and watched the emergency personal do their jobs.

***

"So this where you've been."

Rysa turned around. Vivian was standing there, her ice blonde hair was mostly hidden under the hood of her cloak.

"What's the big deal? I dealt with the fire."

"Yes, but you're supposed to take care of the whole village at Samhain, not stay watching one house."

"I've done more successful blending spells tonight than you managed in training."

Rysa knew it was a low blow, but she hoped it would get Viv off her back.

Viv disappeared into the darkness.

Rysa sighed. She knew Vivian had the right to be looking out for her. She knew Vivian had done exactly as Rysa would have if the positions were reversed, but Rysa stayed where she was even though she knew she shouldn't.

Teeth of Hades, she cursed, and then walked away into the darkness.

Rysa followed the street, listening carefully for the sounds of people in trouble, but all she heard was talking and laughter. It was nothing to concern herself with. It was a perfectly normal Samhain night. What she was listening for were things going wrong.

She heard screams coming from the field again. Likely there was another fire in the hay. She wished teenagers would find somewhere else to smoke their pot and cigarettes. She wanted nothing more than to arch through the sky, but she didn't want to scare any of the small children who had nearly watched a house burn. She stuck to the sidewalks and well-trodden paths.

Rysa was able to put out the fire in five seconds. It took longer to shake off the crowd than to deal with the problem.

She didn't need the voices to tell her about the mugging. She felt it.

"Don't get scared, don't get scared," she muttered, as she rose into the sky. "There's nothing happening here."

She coasted to a stop, hovering in the air, and she could see the mugging taking place. There was a figure hovering over another figure on the ground. The figure on the ground was shaking and overwhelmed and Rysa was sure the figure would be screaming in another situation. She walked toward the two and then raised her hand and shoved power at the attacker. The attacker flew across the street and slammed into the plate glass window of the Indian restaurant opposite. It shattered. The sound attracted the attention of passerby.

"I shouldn't have done that," she muttered, then dismissed the thought. It had already been done. She couldn't do anything about it now.

She knelt down by the figure, resting her fingertips on the person's ribs. Information started flooding in. The figure was a woman in her mid-twenties visiting her family before returning to Boston for a job. A male had been following her since she'd arrived and had finally attacked. The woman had memories of trick-or-treating on this street as a child.

"You didn't deserve this," Rysa muttered.

The woman shifted under her fingers and people were starting to gather at the edges of Rysa's vision.

"I'm sorry," Rysa murmured, "but I'm glad I was able to help you."

She launched herself into the air before the others could see her, before she could be questioned. Vivian and the others were going to ask why she hadn't left sooner.

She wanted to make sure the woman was going to survive, that there be people who would call emergency services and take care of the things the woman needed, but Rysa couldn't do.

She sent a bolt toward the Indian restaurant, repairing the window as she returned to her coven.

***

When Rysa entered the forest encampment, it was early, the moon was still low in the sky, but she had taken too many risks tonight, being here was better.

"You shouldn't be here, Rysa."

Rysa turned around. "According to you, Viv, I shouldn't be anywhere."

Vivian's ice blonde hair shifted around her face. "That's not what I meant and you know it."

"I came back, didn't I? I didn't take anymore risks than usual."

"Usual for you isn't usual for the rest of us."

"I didn't want to be cast out, and you know I'm the best medic you've got."

"Alethea's good. Perhaps you should start sending her out."

Vivian paused. "I'm sorry, Rysa."

Rysa rolled her eyes. "You can't possibly know all the stupidity that humans do on Samhain. It's like they use our traditions as an excuse to dress up and make fun of who we are and what we do."

"Easy for you to say when you don't have to fly around all night fixing their problems."

"Rysa..." Eithne started from behind them.

"No," Rysa snapped. "None of you get to tell me that I've been in the wrong. You don't know what it's like out there, watching people set fire to hay accidentally, saving houses because teenagers are morons who need to figure things out for themselves, but will never do the work because they are lazy."

Orange flamed in the sky, sending bright sparks above the trees.

"I'll save the camp," said Rysa.

Eithne touched her arm. "You don't have to."

"At least for tonight. I'm the Fixer of Samhain," said Rysa. "It's my duty to make sure the coven is protected. That we don't have to because something strange happens."

Rysa plunged into the story, sending waves of power toward the hay has she went. The orange she had seen from the woods was another house fire or a bonfire gone wrong, it was no simple hay fire like earlier in the right.

She was lucky there was no one there when she arrived, that it was a bonfire, not someone's house that was burning. She had tamped it on the way and it was easy to diminish slowly when she arrived. She put it out, letting go of her anger. By the time it was out, she knew her story was going have to come out, that at least Eithne and Viv deserved that.

Rysa returned to the camp fire, picking up the still warm cup of tea. Eithne stayed her hand from taking a sip.

"You were right earlier," said Eithne. "We don't know what it's been like for you."

She poured tea from the pot on the fire into a mug, and handed it to Rysa. Rysa took it, but she had never liked Eithne's herbal concoctions. She preferred the ones she brewed herself in the corner where her medic supplies were. She watched steam billow up.

"Take a seat, Rysa," Eithne continued. "Tell us everything you want us to know."

"Everything?"

"Everything," said Vivian, joining them at the edge of the fire. "We want to know what we can do for you."

"Are you sure?" asked Rysa.

Vivian nodded. "You aren't the apprentice you were last year. You've come into your powers and you can do more than being the Fixer of Samhain." She paused, taking a sip. "Talk to us, Rysa. We're your family."

Rysa nodded, sighed and took a sip of the tea. It was as bitter as she remembered, but it allowed her to tell the story that had been brewing in her mind for years.