BrightMoon: Path of a Witch King

Chapter 18

“Ah my arm you piece of s**t bastard!” The blue skinned man was rolling on the floor cradling his mutilated arm. Some might say my fighting style was a bit dishonorable, but to me so long as I was breathing it didn't matter how dirty I fought,

Part of me wanted to beat the man senseless but I didn't want to cause any further trouble for Ashala or myself. I looked down on the whimpering buffoon, “Now im not sure how stupid you are, so I am going to say this as simply as I can. Do Not, under any circumstances, assault one of my apprentices again. If you do, I will drag you outside and scalp you in the street.”

Before he could accept my terms I kicked down, the kick slammed his balding head into the floor, I looked up as Ashala sucked in a hiss of air. 

“Are you ok Satera?” I asked my red headed apprentice. She nodded back from the embrace of her sisters.

I motioned them to sit on the far side of the couch, after they settled I turned back to the manager Ashala, “Well that was fun. I take it the unconscious buffoon is your coworker Faruk?”

“Yeah. he is a real piece of crap, I am sorry for this, do you mind filling a report about him assaulting your apprentice. No one resorts him since he can just fire them or give them a terrible shift.” ah the good old abuse of authority, I thought while she walked me through the paperwork. Everyone in the room signed it and Ashala filed it away.

“Girls go ahead and take out your anger on him.” I said nonchalantly. 

They all looked over at me, “You heard me, go ahead and take out your frustrations on that limp noodle.” I said again.

I sat back and watched as the girls got up and slowly approached the unconscious Faruk, Indra gave in first and kicked the man in the ribs, after the first kick was given the others started beating on the large man.

I ignored the tears and quiet sobs that came from the girls, they needed this therapy just as much as Faruk deserved to get his unconscious ass beaten. About five minutes into the mob beating the girls had exhausted themselves and came back to the couch. They hadn't done any real harm to the man, just added a ton of bruises to his chest and legs. Though Cera did kick the man in the balls at the start, I wasn't sure if I should feel sorry for him or not.

The girls huddled together while they worked through their emotions, a knock came from the door before a few men came in. I suppose by how they were dressed they were guards hired by the union, “Miss Ashala, we heard a disturbance is everything alright?” one of the men said, his eyes moved between my group and Ashala.

“Yes, everything is ok. Take Faruk to his office, find him a healer if you can, the oaf couldn't keep his hands to himself.” she explained, the guard didn't look too surprised. He nudged his fellow guard and they worked together to literally drag Faruk out of the office and down the hall.

Jillian came in as they were leaving, “I always miss all the fun.” she pouted before walking up to me and passing me a bill for the cider. A woman who looked like she was in her thirties had followed her in and sat across from me.

“This Angelica, she is the seamstress and owner of one of the finest shops in town.” Jillian introduced the woman before she got started on refreshing our drinks.

Angelica and I dove right into talking about the outfits I wanted, what they were to be made from, along with a dozen other questions and answers were passed between us. She even drew a rough sketch, there were two designs, one meant for apprentices and one meant for me.

The girls approved of the outfits, after a few alterations, and once Angelica was finished getting everything she needed she let me know that she would have a few for each of us by the end of next week.

The price wasn't too high, though much higher than our simple clothes we had gotten at Golas’ at three silver cubes per outfit. Once we had everything purchased we went downstairs to enjoy ourselves a late lunch before heading back to the ship

The day felt like it had been stretched to the maximum limit and I wanted to go home and enjoy my furry bed. Making it to the docks I noticed the small crowd around my ship, a man pulled out a knife and ran onto the deck screaming something about his shipmates.

The man lasted all of five seconds before his war cry turned into screams of pain and finally the whimpers of a dying man.

Why must people foolishly charge onto my ship? I asked myself as the cart hauling the cider stopped, the few men with us looked a bit nervous but still followed me forwards.

“Don't worry my friends, my men aboard won't do anything to you all.” They relaxed a little but I could sense the tension as we pushed through the crowd.

Once I was on board the crowd had gone quiet, my sprites greeted me and showed me their kills. There were eight men lying on deck, the last one that had run up on board was still alive, and wasn't too badly injured. 

I grabbed him and forced him to look at me, “Why were you on my ship?” He had a bit of trouble talking but I finally got it out of him.

“The ship was supposed to deliver something to the headquarters, but it never arrived. Anyone who finds the ship is supposed to board it and find the missing cargo.” He was delirious from blood loss and started calling me by the name of John. 

I ended the fellows suffering while the men hauled my cider aboard, after looting the man and his mates I tossed the bodies into the river.

I leaned against the rails of the boat and watched the bodies float away with the current, death seemed to be my ever present companion since I came to this world. Bandits, beasts, monsters it seemed that there were no end to those that chose violence and death over enjoying peace and quiet.

The rest of the trip home was uneventful, even if there were a few more eyes that lingered on my ship as we headed up the river than I would have liked. 

Once we made it home I noticed a group of twenty sprites had absorbed enough silver essence to reach their nugget stage, they were just under two feet tall now and their weapons now matched their size.

They came running to me with smiles on their faces, “Master we wish to hunt the foul green things!” they exclaimed. 

It wasn't hard to tell they meant goblins, their group was large enough to take on a pack of goblins so I told them yes, after they were done cheering I told them to be careful and only take on one pack at a time.

They shot off into the forest at wicked speeds, their gleeful chittering sounds filled with the promises of slaughtering goblin kind made it back to my ears. I unloaded the barrels of cider and stored them in the food storage in the basement, coming back up to the main floor I watched as Indra took her sisters to their rooms.

Not wanting to disturb them, I went to my own room, kicked off my boots and laid in my bed. I still needed to go back into town tomorrow and pick up my furs from Gola. I had forgotten about them after all the excitement, not to mention after seeing the magical weaponry I thought about giving that a try.

“Excuse me master, breakfast is ready.” Indra called from my doorway.

I blinked my eyes repeatedly, I must have dozed off while contemplating weapon enchantments, I got up from my bed and grabbed an earth blossom before tossing it into my mouth.

I wanted to try a blossom while I was full of mana already. After the initial warmth I had felt before was an eruption of mana, it felt like I had injected gasoline into my veins and lit a match.

I grunted and bent over in pain, my heart pounded as it pushed the massive influx of mana through my body. I wheezed while trying to catch my breath, the blossom ignited my own mana and as it burned quickly the mana from outside my body rushed in.

I pushed myself off the floor and sat on my knees, I breathed in the mana and resisted the massive influx of the wild mana by releasing the mana inside me. My mana saturated the wild mana and slowly turned it into my own.

I had no clue what to do with the mana, all I knew about my cultivation as a spirit was that I was supposed to absorb mana. As my body was there was almost no room for any more.

I brainstormed while my bones ached on how to store more mana as a spirit, but I wasn't just a spirit, I was also a witch. I thought about how witches were supposed to store mana, the answer to that was basically endless, there were too many methods to choose from.

As the information flitted past my mind I saw one that fit my namesake and started to work on the first  phase. 

“Cmon! FOCUS!” I screamed.

The method wouldn't have been so hard if my body didn't feel like it was cracking apart, first was the construction of the path of mana, for the method I was using it required an eight pointed star.

With mana I drew an eight pointed star in front of me, it wavered and fluctuated until I refined it down to smooth lines. Once the lines steadied I drew a circle, connecting each point, I breathed through the pain.

With a hiss the star of mana struck my forehead, it slipped through my skin and carved itself into my skull, I grit my teeth and screamed. Once the pain in my forehead settled I channeled my mana into the star, it soaked up the mana until I could feel it nearly bursting.

The next step came sooner than I expected, I still had too much mana for my body to handle, I ran the excess mana along the lines until I reached the tip of the star. At the top I ran the mana along the outer ring until it once again reached the top, once there it was time to build the north points moon.

At the tip of the top most point I created another circle and made another eight point star inside it, I drew the lines of the star making several petals that made up the interior. I filled them all with mana until the pressure on my body finally relaxed, when the moon of the north point was finally full I relaxed.

I leaned back against my bed and breathed in, my body ached, I felt brittle and weak. Almost like when I had been human, “Master are you alright?” Indra popped her head into the room. When she saw me she gasped and ran to my side.

“I am alright, though I might have made a small error, I will be fine.” I knew I would heal, I just didn't know how long it would take.

Indra called to her sisters, who came running, Indra gave them some instructions. They started by removing my clothes, which were covered in blood. I saw the cracks all over my skin and knew that my insides were about as messed up as my outsides.

The sisters brought in rags and started wiping me down, once I was clean they dressed me and put me back into bed, they brought me my breakfast and Cera sat with me and fed me.

Once breakfast was over the girls went about their day but continued to check on me, my body was weak but I could feel my mana was still strong, I contained so much my body was unable to cope with it. I could easily make the grimoires for my apprentices, I smiled to myself, it was nearly time I made my coven.