To Drown a Witch

1

Nomi felt the moment her mother died. She felt the snap of magic being broken. The skies, which had been sunny, began to weep. The ocean and the creatures that lived below thrashed in protest, smashing the ships of the men who had come for them - for the whole coven. Even the ground softened at that moment. In that instant, it was as if the world was dying because it too felt the loss of something truly precious.

The book screamed. It wailed and screeched and cried and fought. It lashed out against those who had taken its Keeper. It cried for her.

Nomi, who was only eight, had never heard a more deafening sound. But she was the only one. The men and women didn't hear it, but they felt it. They fell to the ground, blood dripping from their eyes, mouth, and ears as it silenced them as they had done to her.

And then there was silence. Nomi, the young witch, crawled towards the book and took the rough leather in her hands.

It was warm. She could feel life flowing between it's pages.

The day Maria Castellanos died, the world wept and the book claimed it's next victim from a faraway land.

Two days later, a witch named Helen came to claim her prize and the leech that clung to it from the bloody shores of a far off land.

--

"Nomi!" The old crow squwaked. "What was going through that thick head of yours this time?"

Nomi breathed lightly, asking the mist from the seas and the air itself to hide her trail. She even asked the earth to cover her footsteps. The forest was, after all, her safe haven. She knew its scents and sounds and its deepest magic. 

It was so similar to the coast if Benyett that she'd think them the same if she didn't know any better. But Emmessa carried the scent of sailors, pirates, and traders - nothing like the barren coasts of her homeland with much too many monsters roaming the seas and forests.

"Nomi!" She screeched again, drawing the younger witch out of her reminiscing. "You cursed Venya. Where have you gone?"

"What should we do?" Charity, the witch who sat next to Nomi, clinging to the same high up branch, whispered. "Should we come down?"

Nomi bit her lip. "Helen used to be a great witch," she whispered into the wind, "but she's old, now. There's no way-"

Something tightened around Nomi's ankle and suddenly she was falling.

The ground softened for her, but even it couldn't completely stop her fall. She was sure there would be bruises later.

"There you are, you ungrateful-"

"Please, Keeper, ma'am," Charity said, her voice as soft and careful as always as she nimbly touched the ground. All of nature liked Charity, it was hard not to. "It wasn't her fault."

The thorny branch tightened around Nomi's ankle, and the younger witch looked up at her senior. The old woman had aged horribly, to Nomi's glee. She'd seen pictures of her, in her younger years, beautiful and strong, but now she was thin and frail. Nothing but bone clung to that familiar leather-bound book.

"You brought Charity into this?" Helen spat, barring her gnarly yellow fangs. "I should end you right here and now."

"Try me, you old harpy. This forest likes me more than it'll ever like you."

Helen raised her free arm - it was really just a bone at this point. Nomi's fingers dug into the dirt.

"Wait, please," Charity called, any alarm lacking from her voice. "Please, Helen. Nomi was only helping me."