How To Burn A Witch |DISCONTINUED|

Chapter 12

The day was coming to an end. The sky had been painted different shades of orange and red as the sun set into the horizon. The scent of the sea carried by the wind filled the nose of the golden-eyed witch as she watched the setting sun from the foot of the cliff.

"Nothing is going as I planned..." Her voice was soft and sweet as honey as she forced herself to get up and walk back into the lair of her enemy. The hallways, which were usually empty at this hour, now jostled with people.

Alev shook her head and continued walking. Probably some weird cult shit. She went into the dormitory designated for people who didn't specifically identify as a certain gender and waited for her old friend to come in, killing time by playing with her Nazar pin.

She didn't know why her coven had adopted the talisman of protection as their symbol but guessed it was because it was a widespread symbol across Empyrion already, offering at least some degree of protection to witches who had been forced to practice in secret.

She shook her head. Now she couldn't even tell who was a witch and who wasn't if it weren't for the distinct smell of magic that clung to their every piece of garments and never quite seemed to fade away.

It was one of the reasons why she envied Şahmeran's assassins so much: they had a symbol of their own the general public was too dense to understand but witches knew well enough to fear.

A few too many moments later, a blue-haired kid around her age appeared wearing a black frock coat and black pants. "Well don't you look like a snobby rich kid." said the witch as a way of greeting.

The kid scoffed but didn't say anything, "Was there a special occasion or something? A party, perhaps?" the individual continued to ignore her and started undressing.

They put on a black tunic and their midnight black linen cloak. Embroidered on the back was a light grey snake wrapped around a crescent moon, the symbol of Les Serpents D'Argent assassins the proved their allegiance to none other than Şahmeran.

"Finally coming to terms with what you are, I see." Alev got up and placed her hand on Aether's shoulder. "I'm proud of you, kid." her friend shrugged her hand off.

"Don't call me 'kid', you're only a day older than me."

The girl snorted but abided by their wishes.

"It's just... today was a long day," they said in the end, pinching the bridge of their nose to calm themself down.

"I fought with Nehir and𑁋 Today just sucked, come on let's go meet up with Refia, I don't want her nagging at me about how I'm late or about how people are starting to 'question my allegiance' because I 'spend too much time with the Yeniçeri girl.'"

Alev snorted but continued to listen to her friend's rant, "I mean obviously I'm going to spend a lot of time with her, we're childhood friends!"

"Yeah, yeah, childhood friends, would be weird if you suddenly stopped talking because you have a moral compass, would be too suspicious, blah, blah, blah, we've heard all of those excuses a thousand times, Aether. Now let's go. We wouldn't want to keep our dearest Refia waiting now, would we?"

The individual shook their head with a small chuckle and followed their friend out the window of their dorm and into the woods.

"Do you want to do the void-step or should I?" asked Alev, shooting Aether a look, "You haven't used your magic in years. You're probably out of practice."

Aether scoffed, "I can perform a simple teleportation spell, thank you very much." and so they tried and failed to perform the spell, causing Alev to snicker and ask if they needed help. "Shut up I can do this."