For him to live, a witch must die.
Driven out of his village for the curse he possesses, Tavor is alone. With nowhere else to go, he must venture into the Eylderfell to hunt down the witch who cursed him.
But the forest is dangerous, wild with magic...
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Tavor surfaced from the lake and swam back to the ledge.
The familiars were still where he'd left them, lying on the rocks, breathing steadily.
They need magic, Nestani had said. Tavor held his hand over them. He called the magic up from within him and let it spill out. Light flowed from his palm, washing over them in a wave of gentle energy.
A moment later, the cat's ears twitched. Tavor's heart leapt.
She stirred and blinked up at him. "Tavor?"
Then her ears pricked up and she pushed herself to her paws. Tavor saw the expressions flit over her face: excitement, surprise, confusion, then relief. "You're okay!"
Tavor bent to stroke her head. He couldn't help the smile on his face. Seeing her awake and lively again, her familiar warmth brightening the room, filled him with relief.
The crow awoke soon after. He ruffled his feathers and looked around the cavern.
"What is this place?"
"The Well at the End," Tavor said.
"Ah." The crow scratched at his chest. "Did you...find out what happened to Nestani?"
Tavor sighed. "She's gone. The Elder really did kill her, back at the Tower. I'm so sorry."
He expected the news to elicit some kind of response. Even the cat, usually the more emotional one, didn't seem shocked.
"You knew?"
"You said so yourself," the crow said. "That knife was designed to kill her. A clean strike like that..." the crow shook his head sadly. "Nestani was powerful, but even she couldn't survive something like that."
Tavor looked at the ground. The familiars didn't bring up the fact that he'd brought the knife with him, but the thought hung over him like a storm. Nestani might still be alive if it weren't for him. And while that was exactly what he'd set out to do when he'd entered the Eylderfell, now the victory - if he could indeed call it that - rang hollow. Bitter.
Because nothing had changed. He was still stuck with the curse — the magic. And now that he knew it belonged to him, there was no way he could return home. The crow had told him so, and in his heart he knew it to be true. But now he was forced to admit it. And Nestani — perhaps the only person in the village who could have understood him, the person the familiars had loved and respected — was gone, and it was his fault.
They must hate him, Tavor thought.
"Nestani told me you'd be able to help do the spell to get out," Tavor muttered. He relayed the information Nestani's spirit had shared with him, and the crow nodded.
"Ah, I see." He drew himself up to his full height, already in scholar mode. "Yes, I can help with that. We'll need a yew branch and some quartz sand."
"I'll have a look!" The cat sprang to her paws. "There must be some of that stuff in the forest. Hey, it's kind of like we're your familiars now, isn't it?"
Tavor flinched and swallowed bile. "No. This is just a one-off. Once we get out of this forest, we go our separate ways."
The cat's ears drooped. "Oh. If that's what you want..."
She turned and hurried up the tunnel to the forest outside. The crow cast him a searching look, one Tavor had seen a few times now, like he was toying with the idea of saying something.
The bird hopped onto Tavor's arm, apparently deciding against it. "Come with me," he said. "We'll prepare the rest."
They got to work. The cat returned sometime later with a slender sprig of brown-gold wood and a couple of stones, which they ground into a fine powder. The crow etched out a shape in the dirt with a talon, while she sat on a nearby rock and watched them, tail swishing in the dirt.
"Nestani created a tethering point in her home," the crow explained, as he worked. "By drawing this symbol and connecting to it with magic, you can create a channel and ride it back to the original."
Tavor nodded. Using the ground quartz, he began to trace the glyph the crow had drawn in the ground in front of him, several feet wide this time. The three of them were silent. Tavor tried to focus on the sigil, but his thoughts were scattered, and he couldn't focus.
"Why didn't you tell me what happened to Nestani?" he asked finally.
The familiars exchanged glances. Finally, the crow spoke.
"Do you remember what Nestani told you, about you being able to cultivate magic?"
Tavor nodded uncertainly.
"Because a spell of Nestani's triggered your own abilities, your powers are linked. In the event of Nestani's passing, all her power and ability passes onto you."
Tavor recalled what she'd said to him in the cavern. That power belongs to you now.
The crow continued, "that includes all her active spells, wards..."
"The seal," Tavor muttered.
The crow nodded. "Precisely. Now, it is a little known fact of magic, but while it is developing, it is possible to reject it. Most people develop their abilities as young children, and so consider it a normal part of themselves and see no need to do so."
"When we met you, though, you were convinced all magic was evil. If you knew your abilities were in fact the same magic you so despised, you'd have rejected it outright. Fortunately, you thought of it as a curse — something entirely different. Therefore, the risk of you rejecting the magic was low."
Tavor's face flushed, and he gazed at the floor. So they'd known this whole time.
"It was a similar case after we left the tower, only the situation was more fragile. You now knew it was magic you possessed. Under so much stress, how would you react to the news? Only your determination to find Nestani kept you going. I didn't want to ruin that."
The cat put her paws up on his knees. "We're sorry. We didn't want to deceive you, but we had no choice. We knew the Elder would get his powers back, and he'd probably try and fight Nestani. She told us before she left that she didn't know if she'd make it back."
The crow nodded gravely. "If you rejected the magic, and something happened to Nestani, the seal would have immediately been broken. The Elder would be free to do as he wished. We couldn't afford to take that chance."
Tavor added another line to the glyph. "I see."
There was so much they'd been keeping from him. He didn't know whether to be angry or relieved. He'd been playing into everyone's hands this entire time. A part of him remembered the high he'd felt back at the Tower, Nestani and the Elder at his mercy. The only time he felt he'd had the power to control his life.
He had to drag his thoughts away. Not like that. He'd made up this mind. Once they were out of this forest, he was done. No more magic. He focused his thoughts on the sigil on the ground. Just focus on this.
Soon, they'd be home, and this whole nightmare would be over...
The gentle breeze sharpened into an ice-cold draught that cut the back of his neck. Tavor stood bolt upright, heart suddenly racing, mouth suddenly dry. Behind him he felt a presence close in on him, the sensation of fingers on his shoulder, a voice by his ear.
