A Touch of Magic| J. Hale

Chapter 12: Changes

Chapter 12: Changes

Freya had stumbled through the forest for a few hours before finally getting back to the coven grounds. She had no idea how she was going to be received by her coven, let alone her family, after the whole fiasco at the solstice celebration, but surprisingly she was welcomed with open arms. Everyone had apparently been very worried, and they had sent out a few search parties, but were unable to find her, which made them fear the worst had happened.

Freya didn't know whether to feel relieved or not, being back in the coven. She loves each and every person there like they are her family, but she had felt so calm and at peace outside the confines of the coven. She didn't need to be perfect or keep up an act outside the grounds, and so being back was bittersweet. Regardless of everything, flashes of golden eyes and honey blonde hair haunted her everywhere she went. No words could describe the guilt Freya felt for manipulating a living being in the way she had the Cullens. She was gifted with such incredible talents by Mother Earth to do good in the world and protect her land, this gift was never meant to be used to bring harm onto another, and yet Freya had to steal another's memories in order to keep others safe. She was doing good in one sense, but in the other, she was taking chunks of time away from another being's existence, and that made her sick. Memories are very precious things, and she had tarnished that for another by stealing some away. Freya almost wished she could take her own memories away, but she figured it was only fair that she be tortured by her memories for taking another's away.

Surprisingly, even though she was no longer working on the wards and other protections, the sisters had decided Freya had earned some new runes, and the moment she was allowed back out of her house, Freya was off to get them. Every member of the coven was fully capable of performing magic on their own, runes just brought about a whole new level to the experience. Getting one permanently added onto your skin was a slightly dangerous process though. One had to prove them self in the area of magic the rune came from, or they risked having their body reject the rune, which could be a fatal process at its worst. Best case scenario, the rejection of a rune only resulted in a short period of sickness.

There were certain runes each member of the coven received. The very first one was given on a child's first birthday. It was a test more than anything else to see if the child inherited the magical abilities of their parents. It was rare , but the rejection of this rune simply meant the child had no magical abilities at all, and very very rarely was the rejection fatal. With the success of that rune, a child was given the rune that they inherit from their family. At the age of six, when a child became a fully inducted member of the the cove, they were given the rune that distinguished them as a member of that coven as well as a rune representing the child/maiden stage of life. At the age of thirty they moved up to the adult/mother stage. At sixty they went into the elder/crone stage of life; and then there was even a rune given to the corpse at the time of death.

In between each stage, one could strive for as many or as little runes as they wished to obtain. All you had to do was prove your proficiency in the area of magic for the rune you sought to the sisters and then one of the three would gift it to you. Freya's first earned rune had been one for healing. She had taken after her parents and was almost lay naturally just very good in that area of magic. Freya also had a protection, strength, agility, shielding, and accuracy rune, each stemming from her exceptional skills in combat magic. Although witches were inherently very peaceful people, and the last thing they wished was to partake in any form of combat, they understood that there were times where fighting simply couldn't be avoided and they had to have some way to protect themselves.

Little did anyone know was that Freya had easily figured out the process of imprinting a rune into one's skin, and had started creating her own. She only gave herself a few as she didn't want to have so many that it got noticeable. It was one of the few times she had broken the rules, but she did it in the name of keeping her sanity. Living under her mother's tyrannical ways, Freya created a calming rune and a clarity rune. She heavily relied on those when all she wanted to do was blow up at her mother. Freya had been very good at portraying herself as someone who was very in control of her every action, but living in her house was extremely suffocating, and it was only a matter of time before she exploded if she didn't have anything to help her keep her cool.