The Death Song of Evanore Frock

Chapter 2- Chained

I woke up to whispers, multiple persons from what I could tell.

"Well being buried alive for two decades will do that to you." A woman was saying.

"But is she going to be alright?" Leonarde insisted, he must have been holding my hand in an attempt to comfort.

It didn't work.

"Her body will heal darling. All witch children are blessed with fast healing. To protect us against potions made wrong."

"Like that time you accidentally put oak instead of pine in the cauldron. You were blue and coughing dragonflies for a week" One of them snickered.

Sounding a little annoyed, Aine continued "I believe that's what saved her life. Maybe. It depends on whatever spell her coven attempted. What's important is her body will most likely heal. Her mind is a different story."

"What do you mean?" a third female in the room inquired. I didn't need to see her in order to tell she was only 60, a mere teenager.

"Orion would understand, he is a psychologist after all." answered the first female, using Leonardes witch name, an honor few males were given.

A name I had given to him thirty years ago. When the council agreed to let him be one of the few mortals allowed to be apart of the hidden world of witches. I chose that name because of the constellation he loved so much.

Leonarde answered the female in a worried tone. "Both social and physical isolation can damage anyone's mental state. I don't know how she's even talking right now. She's strong. I know she is." I knew he was trying to convince himself more than the witches in the room.

"Well. This should help at least. Again, sisters."

I felt the warmth of their magic assail me. Immediately I began to fight back. They were trying to do the same thing my coven had done. Enemy. They were my enemies. Doing only what everyone I trusted ever did; use me up then throw me away.

Screaming at the top of my lungs, I thrashed as the others tried to hold me down.

I was chained to the slab of basalt. The witches I considered sisters standing over me. They showed no emotion as I struggled against the chains and screamed for someone to save me.

"Soon you will be free from the binds of the natural world." They chanted together. Their minds linked to enhance their powers.

Whatever they planned to do to me required enormous energy. I thrashed harder. Begging to be released, to know why. My sisters- my betrayers- ignored me. As one they began to write ancient symbols into the air around me, starting whatever spell they planned.

It dawned on me. In that moment, at 17 years old I understood what most people didn't experience in their entire life. I knew they were serious. I was on my own against a powerful coven willing to experiment on their own sister. But I also knew I wasn't going to be a helpless victim.

I thought of my best friend Orion as I began to inscribe counterspells into the air in front of me. I thought of my mother, at a charity event waiting for me to arrive to help. I thought of my father walking out without a second glance when I was thirteen,I was not going to die here. So that my mother, so that Orion, would never feel what I felt all those years ago, abandoned with no answer as to why.

Furiously I scribbled what I could with my hands bound so tightly to the basalt on both sides of my head.

Regretting not studying defense magic harder, I was able to conjure a rainbow pastel shield around my body. The six witches around me began to chant in unison. "Aditi! Chain this soul to your domain. Break the heart. Change the brain. Break the clock so time may reign."