The Attack
1080 Words
Aurora stood still.
The words didn’t settle like information, they hit like something already waiting inside her,
“My bloodline?” she asked again, slower this time.
The old witch didn’t answer immediately.
The air inside Moonroot Curiosities changed first.
heavier.
Like the room had remembered something it wasn’t supposed to.
The candles flickered once… then dimmed.
Selene stopped moving.
Nyra’s gaze shifted toward the ceiling as if she was listening to something no one else could hear.
Aurora felt it too.
Not fear yet.
Pressure.
The old witch slowly straightened.
Her fingers tightened around the edge of the counter.
Then her voice dropped.
“They are here.”
That was all she said.
No explanation.
And in the same breath, the shop responded.
The wooden shelves trembled.
Glass bottles shook softly at first, then violently.
The lights,small enchanted flames snuffed out one after another until only darkness remained.
Aurora took a step back.
“What do you mean”
The old witch lifted a hand.
“Don’t speak.”
Her eyes were no longer on Aurora.
They were on something beyond sight.
Something inside the room that didn’t belong to the physical world anymore.
She began to chant.
Not loudly.
Not like a spell meant to be heard.
Like something that had to be survived.
Symbols formed beneath her feet, glowing faint silver across the wooden floor.
The air cracked.
Then the mist appeared.
It didn’t break windows.
It simply existed where air used to be.
Dark.
Dense.
Moving like it was thinking.
Aurora’s breathing slowed without permission.
The mist thickened at the center of the room.
It pulled itself upward.
One shape became visible.
Then another.
Then a third.
Tall figures.
No faces.
No clear edges.
Only presence.
They looked directly at Aurora.
And in that moment, she understood something without being told.
They weren’t searching.
They already knew.
One of them lifted its hand.
The old witch reacted instantly.
A burst of silver light exploded from her palm.
The attack hit the creature
and passed through it like smoke.
The witch froze.
That was the first time her expression truly changed.
The creatures moved forward.
The old witch shouted something, throwing both hands outward.
A barrier formed in the air.
Thin. Shaking. Barely holding shape.
“Leave!” she ordered sharply.
No one moved.
The nearest creature tilted its head.
Then the barrier cracked.
A sound like glass being pressed too far filled the room.
Aurora stepped back again.
Selene grabbed her wrist without thinking.
Nyra moved closer without speaking.
The old witch staggered as the barrier shattered completely.
Darkness spilled into the space she had been protecting.
One of the creatures reached out.
Not toward the witches.
Toward Aurora.
The moment its fingers touched her shoulder
everything stopped.
Not physically.
Not visibly.
Inside her.
Something inside Aurora snapped awake.
Pain.
Then silence.
Then power.
Her feet left the ground.
Slowly at first, then completely.
Her body rose as if the air itself had decided she no longer needed to stand.
Silver light spread beneath her skin.
Not glowing from outside.
Coming from within.
Her arms loosened.
Her head tilted back slightly.
Like something else had taken control of the weight she carried.
The room reacted instantly.
Glass shattered.
Shelves exploded outward.
Candles ignited into silver fire.
The creatures paused.
For the first time, they hesitated.
Aurora’s body hovered in the center of the room, suspended as if lying on an invisible surface.
Her consciousness flickered between awareness and something deeper.
Something ancient.
Something that had been waiting.
The old witch whispered without moving.
“…a chain.”
The word wasn’t directed at anyone.
It was recognition.
The silver light erupted outward.
The creatures recoiled.
Their forms began to fracture.
Simply unable to remain near what Aurora had become.
The room shook.
A sound echoed somewhere far away.
Metal breaking.
Not here.
Somewhere else.
Somewhere deeper than the shop.
The first creature dissolved.
Then the second.
Then the third.
In seconds, nothing remained except silence.
Aurora fell.
Selene and Nyra caught her before she hit the ground.
Her breathing was uneven.
Her hands trembled slightly.
The old witch didn’t speak immediately.
She just stared.
At Aurora.
Like she was looking at something that shouldn’t exist in this era.
Finally, she whispered:
“You broke it.”
Aurora frowned weakly.
“What did I break?”
The old witch didn’t answer right away.
Instead, she pressed a hand to her injured side.
“You should come back in few days time”
The wound there had worsened during the attack.
She winced, struggling to stand properly.
Selene stepped forward instinctively.
Nyra didn’t.
But she didn’t move away either.
The old witch exhaled slowly.
“I lost something years ago,” she said finally.
“A focus. A healing relic.”
Her voice tightened.
“Without it, witches don’t recover properly.”
Aurora looked at her.
“You’re hurt.”
“I know.”
There was no pride in the response.
Just acceptance.
Aurora hesitated.
Then she reached out and touched her arm.
Not thinking.
Silver light flashed once.
The old witch froze.
So did Selene.
So did Nyra.
The wound on her side began closing.
Slowly at first.
Then completely.
Bruising faded.
Blood disappeared.
The skin beneath returned as if nothing had ever happened.
The old witch stepped back immediately.
Her eyes widened.
“That… shouldn’t be possible.”
Aurora stared at her own hand.
“I didn’t do anything.”
“You did,” Selene said quietly.
Nyra looked unsettled.
“That kind of healing doesn’t exist anymore.”
A heavy silence followed.
Then all three of them looked upward at the same moment.
Through the broken ceiling.
Into the night sky.
A single silver line stretched across it.
Thin.
Sharp.
Like something had cracked reality itself.
The old witch’s voice dropped.
“The First Chain.”
Aurora looked at her.
“The what?”
The witch didn’t look away from the sky.
“There are three chains binding the seal.”
“One has broken.”
Aurora’s chest tightened slightly.
“And the others?”
The old witch finally looked at her.
Fear returned to her expression.
“Two remain.”
Far away, somewhere buried beneath stone and silence, a chained man lifted his head for the first time in sixteen years.
A crack appeared on the walls attached to the chains binding him
Then slowly, a smile appeared across his face
“My daughter”
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