prompt - how would your character react upon receiving a letter from the coven that had kicked her out? would they desire her to come back or would it hold a dark secret/curse/etc.? what would rosemary do with the letter?

Though she left her birth coven a little over two months ago, the pale wildcat never managed to stop thinking about them; before her exile, she thrived in the environment of free information exchanges and tight bonds between her female relatives. Now that she left, she saw how 'odd' some of their practices were compared to what seemed to be the norm among other groups - ritual sacrifices of smaller animals, androgyny, large personal libraries, and so on hardly ever occurred in the Typhon if it occured at all. And she missed the customs of her coven; she ached to return to those simpler times (though she knew, logically, the coven shrouded itself with much more complex traditions and customs than her new home).

She muddled on this, as she often did, in the late hours of the evening; when the sunset threw colors across the sky that reminded her of potions' toxic colors. Looking out the window, her ears twitched as she heard a familiar rustling sound. Instinctively, she turned to see a green Amazon parrot flying towards her, landing in front of her on the open windowsill with an busybody flare. He bobbed his head, pinning his eyes excitedly; she noticed the white, blue, and reddish patches on his head - and that meant her coven sent him. Her family commonly kept white-fronted Amazon parrots as pets and to help carry messages, and he certainly looked like the ones she grew up around.

He opened his wings and waved them at her, holding out one foot. "Letter from Lu! Response requested! Read it!" he chirped loudly at her, meaningless squawking punctuating the end of each sentence. She saw that a slip of paper was wrapped carefully around his outstretched leg, tied on with cord, and she carefully worked to remove the letter. This was no easy feat, as the parrot continued to move and demand she read it while she worked - not the most intelligent one, then, but Rosemary supposed the male birds always made for inferior messengers.

With the letter in paw, she smoothed it open and placed a tea tin on each corner to keep the old paper from curling in on itself. "Read it!" the parrot squawked at her, climbing up her arm to sit between her shoulders. But Rosemary ignored him, her four eyes wide as she read the ciphered message - she hadn't been expecting news at all, but this was certainly unexpected.

Cousin Rosemary,

I wish I could write to you with news of joy, but today is a sad day for our coven. Grandmother has passed away, dying unexpectedly in the night. She didn't suffer at all, but her passage has splintered our family quite severely. Right now, it seems likely that my mother will become the new Matriarch of our coven, though it would be wise to hold off celebrating until the choice is formally done.

With Grandmother's passing, your exile is ended. I doubt my mother will reinstate Grandmother's choice; you always were one of her favorites, and that hasn't changed even with all you did. Though I would still not plan to move back home permanently; many of our aunts and great-aunts don't think fondly of you, and I would only plan on a brief visit if you choose to return.

Besides, your new home needs you, doesn't it? Admittedly, I did some scrying on you - and you should know that one of Grandmother's magic might glue itself to you sometime in the near future. You'll need a parrot for it, so plan on getting one now before you truly need it!

Regards,
Lucia

The want to return to simpler times was a feeling that ate away at Beatrice's core as well. She wanted to return to her family and friends. She wanted to go back to the days when her biggest worries were tracking mud into her home and whether or not she could beat her siblings at races. Nothing would ever be a sweetly mundane as her early days, she knew. And while she did had the chance to return, to try to rekindle what once was, she couldn't. All the magic scissors in the world weren't going to bring back Greg and Wirt - she had to do that herself, while she was here.

It was tough, but she would never admit it out loud. She was stronger than the pain that radiated throughout her body with each heartbeat. She was braver than the fears that seeped into her thoughts.

"What's that? A letter?" Beatrice asked, flicking her thoughts away as easily as she flicked her right ear. "I didn't know you all had the ability to write letters," she deadpanned to Rosemary while tilting her head to the right and arching a nonexistent eyebrow.