How could two people with no foundation of trust reach a partnership? Or rather, how could two families or factions with no foundation of trust ensure that their cooperation could be trusted by both sides?
In ancient times, the most common method was marriage alliances.
And Donna Meyer chose the most binding method aside from "marriage," placing a lock upon their cooperation.
Or rather, in the world of witches, this was a relationship even closer than marriage:
The master-disciple relationship.
The relationship between apprentice and mentor in the witch world carried all the colors of Western fantasy.
Long before witches appeared, master-disciple relationships among supernatural beings had been steeped in all manner of mystery. An apprentice could be said to be their mentor's heir, the inheritor of her ideas, the embodiment of her will after death. They might even be a paramour, a lover, or someone more intimate than either.
That was what a master-disciple relationship was, especially a formal one.
Jiang Han herself had a mentor or teacher like Cheng Yu, but the one with whom she had truly established a master-disciple relationship was Histeria. It had turned them from strangers into close sisters who could talk about almost anything. Jiang Han would gain prestige in Xiya's circle comparable to Xiya's own, while Xiya could gain prestige in Jiang Han's circle equal to Jiang Han herself. The two were practically bound together; even their political careers would be linked... A mentor could have more than one apprentice, but very few witches took on two apprentices.
"The resentful soul witches you brought have already been settled in the Dark Lake Mountains beside the Giant Cat Furnace Factory. Ghost Castle is very interested in these wraith witches. They'll send fifteen Ghost Witches to establish a ghost academy in the Dark Lake