Witch Doctors Inc: SEASON ONE (Completed!)

Part 1.6

The sky's eggshell blue is tinged with gold. The windows of the stone houses are warm with firelight. I'm Amarat again.

I'm outside but the cold doesn't bother me. I don't need those fires - if anything, they're too hot. Home was much colder.

There's a smattering of children gathered at my feet. I'm telling them about the plants I found in the forest. I'm very excited about them. They hold light, even after the sun sets. I've taken a few back to the house to study. I'm learning so much here.

"Why did you take back so many?" one of the children asks. "They're all the same."

"The experiment has to be controlled." I lean forward, a grin breaking across my face. "I'm going to put one in the dark and one in the light. Then I'm going to start playing with other things, like water and sound. Whatever their secret is I'm going to find it."

They're speaking in that archaic dialect again. It's almost a different language but the meaning reaches me all the same. Amarat doesn't sound any different to the rest of them - she speaks with the quickness of a person who was born and raised alongside these villagers.

"Ammie." Arti appears in a doorway to the right. "Come inside. You shouldn't be out in this cold. Supper's ready...and I have something for you." He winks.

I say my goodbyes and let him usher me inside. The room is small and cosy with a crackling fireplace and wooden chairs set around it. There's a table in the corner set with a steaming bowl of soup and some bread rolls.

It's a little warm for me, but it's alright.

Arti is fussing over me. "You can't be gallivanting about the forest in your state. Being hit by a meteor fragment is no small thing. All these experiments can't do for you what a good bowl of thyme soup can..."

"But I'm making so much progress," I protest. "I've almost cracked the mystery of the lake pebbles - the ones that stick but don't stay sticky? They're producing something. Arti, I think they might be a life form."

Arti pries my fingers open and puts something in my palm. It's a silver bracelet of twisting vines. "Oh!" I say, surprised.

Arti beams. "I made it at the forge. You're always spending time with those naughty little acanthines, so I thought this might be to your liking. You didn't have much on you when we found you." He shrugs impishly.

There's a pain in my heart. Back home I was an orphan. My superiors gave me awards and medals for my work. But no one just gave me things...because they wanted to.

I sink into Arti's embrace. "Oh Arti, I love it. I love you and Marta. I love this village."

Burn them.

Burn them all.

I jerk awake. Sweat beads my forehead.

There was something with me this time, and it wasn't the lively, sharp-minded girl who loved plants. Something menacing was with us, something with an anger so great it took up my whole being.

I shudder.

Onyx is nowhere to be seen.

I can feel the bracelet's aura emanating from under my blankets. It feels hot and discontented, like a covered flame.

My room is brimming with sunlight. Except for the bracelet, nothing is out of the ordinary. In fact I feel more in control of my powers than I usually do.

The glass horse on my bedside dresser tempts me. Its aura is like a hollow glow. It has a still watchful presence, a stark contrast to the dancing energy of the sun's light.

I reach for it with my own being. My energy settles around it in a gentle embrace. I coax its energy out, slowly melting it under the heat of my own. The horse lifts into the air.

"Aha!"

It comes smashing back down.

I'm too pleased to care. I wielded magic. I accomplished something I set out to do. I feel buoyant, light. I feel made of dancing air. I feel like a glass horse filled with sunlight.

I haven't felt this happy in a while, not since the accidents started happening. This was an accomplishment, but it was also control, safety, and...something else. When I lifted the horse I blended my energy with it. We were one. I can't do that with a cauldron and a set of rules.

Everything about this felt right. I was doing the right thing. Learning to be a good witch would keep my friends safe.

And, I suppose, I could have imagined that dark voice from before.