Page 10 of Redhaven
Don’t EVER blame yourself. NOT EVER. The people responsible are those who ordered this registration. P knew how much we loved him. He knew. xxx
11
TV EVENING NEWS REPORT
Network Nine, Pacific States Broadcasting: reporter VT
A witch registration centre in Portland, Oregon has been disrupted today. Some are calling it ‘an attack’ and saying the methods used all point to witchcraft.
The facility, at the Second and Oak Bureau, is reckoned to be one of the largest in the country, reflecting Portland’s high density of known persons of magical ability. Images shared with us show crates of testing kits destroyed, and a broken refrigeration unit for the storage of samples. Laptops used for registration data entry appear to have been scrambled or have become non-responsive.
Most disturbingly, staff working at the centre have reported feelings of dizziness, nausea, and confusion. ‘It’s like brain fog,’ one of them told me. ‘I could barely type my own name into the online assessment forms.’
Details are now emerging of similar events across the country, in what may have been a synchronised wave of action aimed at halting the controversial registrations.
Rep. Sandra Ortiz, who sponsored the Witchcraft Registration Act passed last week, has released a statement saying that, ‘This co-ordinated violence, aimed at public facilities and their innocent workforce, further demonstrates the lawlessness of the magical community. It shows how urgently we need to know the true number of witches walking among us and is alarming proof of how far they are prepared to go.’
A statement just received from the Moot, America’s representative body of magical persons, says: ‘We condemn in the strongest possible terms any unlawful interference with the registration process. However, we urge people not to leap to conclusions about who is responsible for any disruption that may have occurred. Crime committed by magical persons is one third that of the general population.’
We’ll continue to track this unfolding story.
12
LATE-NIGHT TALK SHOW
CNN News Roundup
HOSTIf you’re just joining us, tonight we’re discussing the incidents that have occurred at witch registration centres up and down the country. With us is Professor Alyssa McCartney, who is an anthropologist from Showalter College, Ohio. Professor McCartney, something caught your eye today?
McCARTNEYYes, Vanessa. It’s this symbol – I think your viewers can see it onscreen now. This was burned into the brickwork on the outside of the Portland registration centre. It looks like a six-petalled flower, drawn by a compass. Something your kid might do if they were bored in geometry class.
HOSTHey, who wasn’t bored in geometry? But you believe it’s something specific?
McCARTNEYIt looks a lot like something we call an ‘apotropaion’. That’s also known as a ‘witchmark’. They were common from medieval times, especially the Tudor period in Britain and elsewhere, when they’d be incised over doorways and windows, and up chimneys. The idea is that they were protective. They would prevent a witchgetting inside your home or doing you harm.
HOSTAnd they looked just like this?
McCARTNEYWell no, that’s the interesting thing. The true apotropaion puts the mark inside a circle. To contain it, if you like.
HOSTThis one has no circle. So what’s that saying – these witches are … unleashed?
McCARTNEYThat’d be one reading, yes.
HOSTWow. Well, is Professor McCartney’s interpretation correct? America may be about to find out …
13
HARPER
Portland. Tulsa. Flagstaff. Roanoke. Two places in Nebraska and Montana I had to look up on a map. All attacks on registration centres. All with this witchmark they’re talking about that must be some Redhaven sign. My dad’s hand in every one, I’m certain.
Why didn’t you do New Haven?I’d scream at him if I could.Why didn’t you disrupt our registration, so Mom and I weren’t taken? So Pierre wouldn’t have to come to my rescue? So he wouldn’t have …
Have died. It’s still as impossible to say as it is to think.
Why didn’t you call me the minute that summons arrived, Mom, and tell me not to come home?
No. Blame where it belongs.Why did you try magic, Harper, when P begged you not to?
