Witches

Sat overlooking a grand courtyard through stained-glass windows, a man with white hair and hazel eyes slowly took a sip from a glass of wine he held in his hand. Behind him, a young boy knelt on one knee, his head ducked. The boy trembled as the man continued to drink his wine in silence.

All he could hear was the ticking of a large clock sitting above an unlit fireplace. The room was cold, unwelcomingly so.

At last, the man put his glass of wine down. "The last that I was informed, you were cut in half… That you failed your task, and I gave you such a simple, simple task."

Confused, the boy looked up. "Y- you were watching me?"

No louder than how he was speaking, the man's words came out cold. "Answer the question, Sk'er."

"I'm sorry father." Sk'er quickly spoke up, bending his head further down. "It was my mistake, I underestimated the humans."

"Excuses, excuses boy, but you still haven't answered how are you able to make these excuses if what I was told is true, you were half the man you once were."

"I- After I was cut in half I fell unconscious, I'm not sure for how long, but when I woke up. Soldiers of the Wild Guard were looking for my body. I was able to turn into an eagle, my wounds quickly closed as I changed my shape and then I, I can back here."

"You ran."

"There was nothing else I could have done… I didn't expect to stand face to face against their leader. All I could do was escape."

"That was unfortunate, wasn't it, that the Wild Guard were in the area. I suppose I can't put too much blame on you for that… The power of Empathy's Will is comparable to that of one of the heads of the seven great Demon Families. To my power, you were never anything more than a gnat to him. Hmm, Empathy's Will… I haven't had to think about that relic in a long time."

As his father fell silent, Sk'er slowly looked up.

"What was that father?"

Hearing his son, Sk'er's father shook his head. "Oh, nothing, I was just thinking about the makers of that relic. The head of the eighth great Demon Family. Well, I say great, that was before all the Succubus and Incubus were culled for not obeying our Lord, the Demon King. Now they have all but gone extinct… Do you have any more to say about your failed task, my child, or will you be taking your leave?"

"Um." Clearing his throat again, Sk'er shook his head. "N- no, father, the three humans who I was travelling with for a small amount of time were nothing interesting. One man wielded two big swords, another man had some kind of portal skill and the one female was using some kind of violet flame skill-"

Hearing this, the man interrupted Sk'er. "Violet fire? Did you say, a human female, was wielding violet fire? When did she use this?"

"A lot, it seems to be her primary skill. She used it against the Scorpsis in the tunnels, it burnt right through their chitin, she also used it to empower her friend's attacks. She tried to use it against me once, but then she pulled it off of me as she wanted to know why I was there."

"Did you happen to catch this woman's name?"

"I believe the one called Rio called her, Neia."

"Neia? How intriguing, Raven Mother somehow forgot to mention this... Violet fire..." His back to Sk'er, the man picked up his glass of wine, walking to the stained-glass. Sk'er felt a chill run down his spine, the wait for his father to speak felt like hours.

"I have another mission for you, Raven Mother has agreed to send additional eyes to observe the Beast's movements in your stead. I want you to locate the trio you were with… Kill them."

"Kill them?"

"What's wrong, Sk'er, you didn't have any problems attempting to kill them before." Hearing silence, he continued. "If you fail this time, I'll send your sisters to finish what you should have. Return with the human woman's head, or be prepared to lose yours."

Quickly standing up, Sk'er left the room as fast as he could.

Hearing the door slam. Sk'er's father looked back to where Sk'er just knelt. "Half breeds… Why do I bother to keep you around, as useless as your mother." Venom dripped from his every word.

~~

"Rio!" Savina shouted, running up to him.

Confused, Rio looked back at her. "Yeah? What's wrong?"

Annoyed, Savina looked at the trees that surrounded them, the trees cast a dark shade over the trio as the branches blocked most of the sunlight. "You said it wouldn't be that long of a walk. We've been walking for an hour."

Shaking his head, Rio ruffled his hair. "I swear it's not long now, Neia. The Witch's hut should just be up ahead."

Feeling Iseul staring at her again, Savina turned to stare back.

"Rio, what do you know about this witch." She asked, turning back to him.

"In what way?"

"Well, not all witches are good witches, if you know what I mean. They are ostracized by every kingdom on the continent, even by the Demons of Deauri."

"Why would an entire continent hate witches, don't they just use spells and stuff."

Sighing, Savina crossed her arms. "Honestly, Rio, how do you know so little about the history of Olozia. Their ancestors made pacts with a group of eldritch entities, collectively known as Those Locked Outside."

Hearing this, Rio blinked. "Those Locked Outside?" Chuckling for a moment, Rio laughed. "What kind of name is that? Come on, that can't be real, don't tell me that's real."

"I didn't name it, and yes it is, nobody really knows how they got the name. We know practically nothing about them. All we know is that Those Locked Outside are older than the oldest god and that when the first witches made the pacts that sealed their descendant's fate with Those Locked Outside a long, long time ago, that's the name the Witches spoke of. Those Locked Outside." Savina shrugged.

"Maybe they chose that name for themselves," Rio remarked.

"Potentially. As I said, the Witch's ancestors made pacts with Those Locked Outside and to this day their descendants still follow their will, and that will, well, it's never any good. So as you can imagine, they are usually not looked upon in a good light."

"Well, that may be true, but this witch is different. She's nice and pleasant… She made us tea last time we were here."

"How quaint." Savina shot back. "I guess it's not unheard of, there have been some recordings of friendly witches throughout history."

Finally, reaching the clearing Rio spoke of, Savina and Rio blinked as the bright sun glared down at them.

As the group looked around, Rio and Savina's eyes slowly widened.

Surrounding the group, masses of stone lay in piles at their feet. Hundreds of piles dotted the clearing.

"What is this?" Rio asked, extremely confused at what was happening.

"My best guess," Savina muttered, crouching down, Savina picked up a small piece of stone, the size of her fist. "These look to be golems, or well. These used to be golems, now they aren't anything more than rubble. Did the witch do this?"

"That's strange." Rio took a few steps forward as he scanned the clearing in the trees. "It's not here."

"What's not here, Rio?"

"The Witch's hut. It should be over there." He pointed to the center of the clearing.

As Savina was about to take a step forward, she felt something tug on her hand, looking down Savina saw nothing but the rock.

As if someone was pulling on the rock, Savina could no longer hold the rock as it was ripped from her grasp.

"Ah, what the hell." She swore, rubbing the slight abrasions on her palm.

As the rock hit the grass, Savina watched it bounce once and then roll, but the rock didn't stop rolling. Around her, Savina noticed as other rocks of the same size began to roll of their own accord.

Savina looked to Rio, who had also noticed this.

All the rocks began to roll to one location, after a moment, more rocks began to move, larger rocks the size of boulders.

"Neia, do you know what's happening."

As all the rocks came together, they began to move upward, building a body.

"It's, it's making a golem?"

Quickly moving to do something, Savina summoned two balls of fire in her palms. Moving her palms closer, the violet fireballs formed one larger ball.

Casting the fireball forward, it impacted the golem's back.

As it began to melt the rocks, any rocks that were taking damage were quickly replaced by more rocks. Savina grit her teeth as her fire had no effect at all.

The creature began to grow taller every second, the size of a man, the size of a tree, the size of a house, the golem stopped growing at five stories tall.

"That won't do, I'm afraid." A voice rang out behind the golem.

Behind the golem, a hut appeared within the center of the clearing, a small chimney on the top output a steady stream of smoke.

A woman with a long brimmed witches hat that shielded her eyes from the sun, the crown of the hat hung low brushing against her back as she began to walk closer to the golem. In one hand, she held an open book. "This one can only be hurt by destroying the core inside it. It's what's drawing all the rocks to it. One second."

Stopping, she put her hand over the book, the book began to glow with an orange light, the ground around the golem began to glow with the same orange light, firing from out of the ground five large tendrils of energy rose from the ground. As four of the tendrils wrapped around each of the golem's limbs, restraining its movement, the fifth tendril positioned itself over the center of the golem's body.

Stabbing forward, the tendril pierced the golem's rocky body, a slowing metal sphere impaled on its tip. As the sphere began to dim, the golem's body collapsed, as there was now no longer anything there to keep it up.

Dropping the sphere on the ground, Rio smiled, watching as the tendrils returned into the ground as the witch shut her book.

"Neia." Rio happily put a hand on Savina's shoulder. "May I introduce you to our friend Elenwen, one of the Good Witches."