The Witch's Gamma

Chapter 5

Eight Years Ago

Later that night

Allie

It would be more than four hours before Esther, the older woman who had met her at the main entrance of town, would walk Allie to a small room in the top farthest corner of the only inn Oceanward had. At first, the Council had wanted the children present to recant the story, wanting as much information as possible. But that had been vetoed by the extended family members and the older women that had met her and the children. Once the children's long-term lodgings had been sorted out, there been four extended families and the last three children had been divvied up amongst those houses as well. They had said a weeping goodbye to Allie and left as a group.

She then recalled everything she could remember about the events of their village. Multiple times, a gnarled looking older man on the Council paused and asked biting questions. He had looked disgusted when she had mentioned using all of her power to blast those two wolves. He opened his mouth as if he was ready to chastise her when the woman on the Council spoke over him and told her how brave it was and smart to take out the wolves herself. That had the older man clamping his jaw shut, but he clinched it so tight it made Allie wonder if his molars had problems.

There had been some discussion when she finished about sending scouts to check out the village. Several men had volunteered. Warrior warlocks, they called themselves. They would be checking out her village first thing in the morning, leaving on several fast horses. Then there was a discussion about what they would do with her. She had not been surprised when the older man insisted she be booted that evening. He had been quickly overruled, though. Everyone else had decided she deserved a place to rest, and Allie had been grateful. When all was said and done, she had been told she could stay there, rent free, for a month while she got back on her feet. And if her magic hadn't recovered, she would be given some money she could use in the outside world and be made to leave.

As Allie laid on the small full-sized bed that was more comfortable than she felt she had a right to, she felt the tears fill her eyes. She thought she had cried everything out the night of the raid, but as her eyes grew glassy, that turned out to be false. She’d been booted out of the only life she'd ever known. At least she protected the children, she tried to tell herself, but that didn't help the despair that filled the aching hole in her chest where magic had been. She knew her magic was not going to come back. She didn't know how she knew. But something deep inside her knew she'd injured her magic and if it came back at all, it wouldn’t be for a very long time.

She didn't have the same skills people her age would have out in the modern world. She knew there were things like televisions and cellular phones that people her age had mastered, she of course, had very little interaction with them. Twice a year one of her uncles would take her cousins and her and Bryce into Portland, and that always felt overwhelming but exciting. But she couldn't imagine those twice yearly trips would be enough for her to be fully acclimated and able to get a job like someone her age would.

Magic villages tended to not have more advanced technology. Some did, within reason, but magic didn't always do well with modern technology. It made it more difficult to do spells and use magic, though Allie didn't know why.

She didn't know how she was going to survive on her own, but she was grateful that they were giving her a month to try to figure it out. And that they'd offered to give her enough money that they said would keep her on her feet for a little while. It was more than she thought she was going to get, and she was incredibly grateful to Esther and the others who fought for her. She laid on the bed crying herself to sleep. She told herself she give herself a day or two to wallow and then she'd start asking around and seeing what skills or things she could learn that could help her on the rest of her magicless life.