White Moon

Chapter 6

Growing up a witch, you learn three fundamental basics: power is everything, friends are just enemies waiting to turn on you, and finally, just because something is dead doesn’t mean it's gone. That being said, dead things often didn’t speak, in fact, they never did. So why did I hear the voice of this particular ghost?

I turned around slowly and almost lost my footing when I saw the face staring back at me. Only years of practice kept me standing. However, No amount of training could keep my shock from showing.

A lot had changed about her in the last four decades but at the same time, it seemed that not much really had. She had certainly grown fuller and more vibrant in the years since I last saw her, not that my memory of her was very great. Her dark hair was longer than it had been and her figure had filled out with age. She stood taller and more sure of herself, her shoulder eased back in a way that could not be faked and was very different from the way she had carried herself. The only thing that remained of the woman from so long ago was her green eye filled with enough defiance to fill an ocean. While she had certainly changed herself she hadn’t quite gotten rid of that chip on her shoulder.

"You look very alive for a dead woman."

Her eyes narrowed at me and scowled.

I raised a brow and smirked. "I’ve been doing great Yassin, thanks for asking."

She flinched at my use of her name before she compose herself, her scowl deepening.

"Why did you attack the square?"

It didn’t take a master scholar to figure out how she had drawn that conclusion.

"If you’ve been paying attention you know the attacker met a rather nasty end when her spell backfired and the dead aren’t really known for walking around and carrying on conversions," I shrugged then looked pointedly at her. "But then again you’re here so what do I know," I finished amused

"Nightbanes always work in pairs and last I checked you’re the only other Nightbane witch around –"

"Don’t sell yourself short, darling."

"– So I’ll only ask you one more time, why did you attack?"

I tilted my head slightly as I regarded her turning over my choice.

"It doesn’t matter what I say to you, you won’t believe me," I shrugged.

"In case it escaped your notice Dadriana," now I was the one who flinched and she smirked, "I am the one currently holding a deadly spell so you would be wise to get me to believe whatever it is you have to say."

"A belief is all subjective, isn’t it? And let’s be honest you don’t really care that the city was attacked you only care to find out if your cushy little life has been discovered."

"These are innocent people-"

"And you’re a Nightbane priestess," I interrupted, "innocence never really bothered you before, or did you forget how you got that illustrious title?"

She grimaced at the reminder of her past and then sneered at me and her muscles tensed. I knew that it wouldn’t take much more goading for her to act. Before I could come up with another comment to get her to act I was distracted by Razia who walk up to me from the back of the house. Suddenly I felt the world brighten and my senses expand hearing everything going on around us and from the sounds of things our time had run out. My distraction hadn’t gone unnoticed by Yassin either

"What are you doing?"

I snapped back to her and was taken aback by her aura then quickly suppressed any reaction I might have had. Well, that certainly explained some things.

"While I’d love to stay all night chatting about old times," I said ignoring her question, "in a matter of moments several guards and a Guardian will be checking around this area. Now you can toss whatever concoction you cooked up at me but you know that I’m fast enough to retaliate before the spell kicks in. It won’t kill you or cause much harm but it will slow you down long enough to be caught by the guards. I have nothing on me and at most will be fined for being out past curfew but you? You probably have a few nasty spells on you that will be quite difficult to explain not to mention you will be caught next to a civilian with an active spell on them?"

I smiled and then went in for the kill. "Tell me are you willing to take that risk dear cousin?"

She looked ready to deny my assessment with a smartass retort when right on cue the sounds of the approaching party became audible. She narrowed her eyes at me no doubt wanting to know how I could have heard them coming,

"Tick tock," I taunted more amused than someone in my current situation should have been. "So what will it be?"

"This isn’t over," she sneered before backing away then turning around and fading into the night.

The minute she was out of sight, I turned around and walked to the back of the house.

"What exactly did you plan to do back there? Talk her to death?"

I rolled my eyes as I stripped and used a spell to shrink my stuff before putting them in a glass vial for Razia to carry.

"Of course not. I know Yassin and know that spell was relatively harmless. I could have deflected it and given us cover to get away." I paused thinking of the strange turn of events of the night and what it could mean.

"Now’s not the time to be daydreaming unless you secretly have a wish to find out what the inside of the jailhouse looks like?"

I came back to the present and finished putting my stuff together before I shifted.

Razia took control picking up the vial and carrying it in her mouth. She looped around the back of the house going behind the building and coming out just behind the two patrolling guards.

Noticing our presence, the two who had been chatting, laughing, and acting more like they were out for an evening stroll, stood at attention.

"Good evening Guardian. All is well I hope?" the tall one on the right addressed us. Razia merely narrowed her eyes at them causing them to fidget as they broke out in nervous sweats before turning and bounding away.

"You can be quite the drama queen you know that?"

I was met with an amused chuckle as we headed home.

~

I shifted as soon as I made it through the back door to the shop walking in and locking up behind me. I picked up the vial with my belongings and made my way to my workshop where I dumped out the contents and restored everything to its normal size.

"No clothes?"

"I’m a witch. Goes with the territory" I replied.

First was my necklace. I picked up the iridescent gem slipping the chain over my neck, the blue-green gemstone settling between my breasts. With my Aura stone back where it should be, I made a note to redo the binding spell on the necklace in the coming days.

Next, I pulled out the second pendant holding it up to examine it. On the surface, it looked like the typical Aura stone of a Nightbane witch - a dark steal casing housing a black diamond and connected to a chain of the same metal - but something about it didn’t feel right. While on the surface it checked all the boxes I still felt like something wasn’t quite right about the pendant. It felt like someone has stuck a round peg into a square hole. While it would fit it wasn’t the right shape.

I turned it in the light twisting this way and that but I still couldn’t figure out what was wrong. I cast a few low-level revealing spells and doused it with some potions, but nothing changed.

"Are you going to keep casting spells all night or can I get some rest?"

"It's not like you really need it but I guess you’re right," I murmured in reply still distracted.

I sighed and dropped the jewelry onto the workbench frustrated.

"Well when you decide you are done I shall be upstairs getting some much-needed shuteye," she grumbled as she padded away. "I’m too old for all this running around."

I waved her off as she left the room returning to the puzzle that was the Aura stone. After another hour of trying spells that got me nowhere, I gave up and decided to call it a night. I was tired and whatever secrets it held would just have to keep for one more day.

I began the process of closing up my work room. I was putting the pendant in a sealed safe when my reflection on one of the glass doors caught my eye and I paused.

"Maybe..."

I pulled the jewelry back out long with two moonstones, two lava stones, two quartz, and a shard of a broken mirror. I arranged the stones in a symmetrical pattern placing the mirror shard in the center and the pendant on top of it. I Made sure the wards I set up were still in place around the room - and set up a few more just in case - I began casting the runes.

Although it had been decades since I last cast, it was like no time had passed at all. The only trick was keeping my flow of magic in check long enough to finish the job.

Though it was a simple casting using the lowest level of power required, I was sweating and physically shaking by the time I was done and a faint pink glow surrounded the pendant.

I wiped my brow exhausted but energize at the same time. It would take some days for anything to show up due to le level of power I used. I got up and burned some Wheatroot to dissipate any lingering magic in the room before I locked and made my way up the stairs to my bed calling my name.