J. M. Prigmore

Dec 20, 2024 by J. M. Prigmore

It's the end of another week, and thus here I am again, gracing the internet with my words. The void of the dead internet is welcoming and its arms are as cold and lifeless as ever. Same old, same old. Christmas is just around the corner, and I'm going to be honest, I am not prepared. It snuck up on me this year, and with everything that was going on, I was caught unaware of its creeping presence. I think I'll be able to fulfill obligations and reciprocations, but national shipping times are giving me conniptions. 

Writing continues, though my pace has slowed. No longer having the crunch of the daily writing goal is very nice, but I feel as though I performed much better under such a strict time constraint. Now I'm lucky to hit 1700 words a week, much less a day. Still, I'm trying to finish things up by the end of the year. We'll see how that goes. I might set aside a few days next week to just write and crank out the rest of the story. Not sure if that's the right call, but I really need to get this done and get back to work on The Kin-Slayer. My heart yearns for vampire edginess, and it must have its desires met.

Last week's excerpt was a bit of a moody one, wasn't it? That's right, its not just a story about a witch and a cat; its a story about a witch, a cat, and being gay. Surprise. Though it shouldn't be much of one, if you've been paying attention. Much like the real world though, not everything is hunky dory and goes the way we want it to. My first take on the romance was much more bland, so I actually went back and reworked a lot of it as I went to make it more believable and enjoyable. I'm striving to write it much better than I did with Sigmund and Elsie, which I realize I did kind of a half-assed job there. Hopefully I'm able to do so, but the thrilling conclusion will be much later...or will it????

It will be. Anyway. I need to get back to work, so I'll wrap things up here. I'll be back next week with the final blog post of the year, so stay tuned for more...whatever this is. Hope you enjoy the excerpt, and here's to a Merry Whatever You Celebrate. Christmas is for losers. Later.

Make your own fate
J. M. Prigmore

Ch. 9

There was an eerie silence filling the cabin as Yelena stood in the doorframe. The woman was waiting patiently for her reaction, and she could feel Hemlock brush up against her leg below.

"Be cautious," he whispered in her head. She could feel his tension too, passed through to her via their mental connection. He was just as concerned by this mysterious person as she was.

"Who are you?" she asked warily, her hands growing a little sweaty.

The woman took another drag from her pipe, then replied.

"Helvetia." She dipped her head ever so slightly, the corners of her mouth tilted into a smirk. "Charmed."

"Why are you here, Helvetia?"

"I heard there was a new witch in my neck of the woods."

Helvetia slowly stood up, and as she rose to her full height Yelena realized that she was quite a bit taller than she was. She was forced to look up at her, but she didn't back down.

"Is that a problem for you?" she challenged.

Helvetia laughed once with a deep, mature voice then met her gaze. Yelena could just make out her red eyes, and something about the look she was giving made her uncomfortable, like she was being judged, and found wanting.

"Hardly, dear."

She stepped forward, and Hemlock moved a step closer between them. Helvetia glanced down at him and grinned.

"Aw, isn't he cute. Don't worry little kitty, I don't intend on harming your human. In fact," she snapped her fingers, and instantly the fireplace and every candle in the cabin sparked to life. "I want to help her."

After her menacing introduction, Yelena had her doubts about this woman being anything more than a threat. She'd had her suspicions that she may have been a witch, but her display was clearly meant to make that aspect of her known. She couldn't necessarily sense any ill-intent, but that didn't mean she wasn't just good at hiding it.

"Help me…how?" she probed. She stepped inside and shut the door behind her, giving the witch the benefit of the doubt, against her better judgment.

Helvetia gestured to the seat across from her at the table, telling Yelena to sit.

"You are young, inexperienced, and likely prone to dangerous amounts of failures, are you not?" she asked.

Yelena moved to the seat, but chose to stand rather than strictly obey her command.

"I am young, yes, but I'm hardly as helpless as you might think," she replied. She knew her accusations were said in order to get a rise out of her, but she didn't want to play this game. She was in far too distressed a state of mind for something like this anyway.

"Oh ho," Helvetia said, smiling devilishly at her once more. "I like that spirit you have, Silver Witch. It'll serve you well."

"My name is Yelena."

"Forgive me, Yelena. I meant no disrespect. It is just what my friends address you as, you see," she said, her phony apology intentionally poorly acted. "I feel as though we may have gotten off on the wrong foot. How about some tea to smooth things over?"

There was something Yelena didn't like about how this woman was moving and speaking, but at the same time, her actions were almost hypnotic, fluid and ethereal. Still, Yelena was far too upset to let something like that ruin her already awful mood.

"You broke into my home late at night and expect me to have tea with you? Are you out of your mind?" she said, genuinely concerned with this woman's logic.

"Well, I got here around midday, but you were nowhere to be seen, so I decided to wait around for you to return. It isn't my fault you made me wait so long," she said, shrugging coyly.

"What? How is that- no. You need to leave. I've had a very long day, and I don't want any guests. Not even witches right now," she said, summoning her staff to her side to emphasize her point.

Helvetia's eyes narrowed, and she grinned again.

"Oh, a threat? Adorable."

The tension between the two witches was palpable now, and even Hemlock was standing to the side, not entirely sure how to act.

"Very well. I will return tomorrow, hoping to find you in slightly better spirits. Farewell," Helvetia said, turning to leave now without any further pushing. To say Yelena was surprised would be an understatement.

Helvetia walked away with her back turned, opening and closing the door behind her with flicks of her fingers. She vanished into the dark night forest, and the powerful magical presence that Hemlock had warned her of disappeared with her. Once she was relatively sure that the witch was truly gone, she sighed in relief, nearly collapsing in the dining chair.

"Hemlock, come here please," she asked, her head and arms going limp as she draped herself over the back of the chair behind her.

She was at her wits end. Today had been both amazing and awful, and she wasn't sure she could handle anything else without screaming. Hemlock, sensing her mood, obediently leapt into her lap, facing her with his mismatched eyes.

"What is it, Yelena?"

Before he could protest, she grabbed Hemlock and held him close to her chest. He let out a surprised mreow! but didn't fight back. He was good at knowing when she needed a good hug, even if he was only a small cat.

"Sorry for yelling at you," she said quietly.

"I understand. You are…distressed. But please heed my warnings in the future. I only seek to keep you safe," he explained, but his quiet purring against her heart made the light scolding go down smoother.

"I don't know what happened. One second I was happy and having fun, the next," Yelena trailed off.

It had only been about a little while since she had fled from Sonya in a panic. With this sudden advent of a fellow witch at her door, she hadn't had a moment to really process everything else. It was too much, and she didn't understand all the emotions that were swirling around in her head at the moment. She almost wished that she had just let Sonya go home alone. She also wished that she had just let her do whatever she had wanted in that bed. She didn't really know what she wanted right now, now that it was actually offered to her. How was she supposed to talk to her now, after all this? The jig wasn't up so much as it was reversed and shoved back in her face, and she wasn't ready to admit it. Was this normal for Sonya? Was the reason she wasn't already settled down with a husband because she'd never sought one out? And when she had said 'it's good to have another girl around again', was she talking about something like this? She had so many more questions now, and she felt like a fool for not being better prepared for this. It was what she had been going for, and yet here she was, cowering in her home after running away from the thing she had wanted. What an idiot.

"Yelena," Hemlock said, cutting off her thoughts.

She looked down at him, their eyes meeting.

"You have nothing to be ashamed of. Love is a…complicated emotion. It can cause great joy, yet also great pain. It can appear at the strangest of times and catch us off guard, and other times it goes exactly as planned. It is fickle, cruel, and sometimes the most painful thing one can feel."

"What an encouraging sentiment," she mumbled.

"But," Hemlock continued, "It can also be a wonderful, beautiful thing, well worth the hurt it might one day cause. It is worth pursuing, and it is worth making a few mistakes along the way. You have nothing to worry about. If what you feel for Sonya is true, and if what she feels for you is just the same, there is a path forward for you two."

Yelena looked at Hemlock's one yellow and one swirling black eyes, somewhat lost by his sudden candid extension of advice and support for anything other than magic. He'd never said anything like this before, and she wasn't really sure how to respond. As she stared into his tiny face, she felt a warm tear fall down her cheek. She hadn't even realized that she was crying.

Hemlock's tail swept up and wiped the tear from her quivering lip.

"You and I are in this together, Yelena. I desire what you desire, and I will support you, even if I may not fully understand the emotions you may feel."

She couldn't hold it in any longer.

Big, fat tears began to stream from her eyes, and she cried out like a child calling for their mother. She had managed to hold it all in on the way back, when faced with the mysterious witch, but now that Hemlock was opening up and reading her like a book, the dam burst forth. She didn't know how long she was there at the table, spilling her tears like a child, but once she was done, she felt better. Hemlock never left her arms, and she knew that he must've hated being held for that long. What an incredible partner she'd managed to find in him. She couldn't have gotten any luckier.

***

The morning sun's golden rays hit her closed eyelid, and Yelena woke with a groan. She rubbed her eyes and sat up, trying to figure out why she was at the dining table and not her bed. She was still dressed too, boots on and everything.

Oh. Right.

"Ugh."

She sat up and her back was stiff, popping a few times. She must've fallen asleep here at the table last night, too tired to go through her nightly routine. Hemlock wasn't in her lap anymore, which was hardly a surprise. She glanced around the room quickly, but couldn't find him. He might've been out foraging for food. She could feel his presence close, but not close enough to easily locate. Oh well.

She got up from the chair with some effort, her back and neck sore from the unnatural position she'd been in for so long. Her head still hurt and her lips were salty from the dried tears. She wiped her lips with the back of her sleeve, then placed her palm on her forehead to stretch her neck back with a light push.

That was where Sonya had kissed her, wasn't it?

She quickly pulled her hand back down, looking at her soft hand that had been entangled with her rough, calloused fingers. She sighed. She wished she had stayed with her last night. She might have ruined things with her with her hesitation, but Sonya had said she was going to come talk with her today. Yelena wasn't exactly sure if she was dreading it or looking forward to it quite yet. If she had decided to stay, who knows what would've happened. She probably wouldn't have found that weird witch in her house.

The witch! She said she was going to come back in the morning! Crap!

She looked awful, she was sure of it. If she was going to deal with one of her peers, she needed to look at least somewhat presentable. She rushed to wash her face with some water kept fresh through cooling magic and brush her hair with a nice brush she'd purchased in town yesterday. She did her best to smooth out the wrinkles in her dress, then ripped a chunk of bread off of a fresh loaf before heading out into the yard to try and find Hemlock. She knew she could just summon him with magic, but she thought that doing that was quite rude, so that would be a last resort. She had legs, so she could walk around and look for him.

She swung the door open with the chunk of bread hanging from her lips, only to find Helvetia reaching for the door handle herself. Yelena froze.

"Umm," she said, mostly just noise around the bread.

"Good morning, Yelena," Helvetia said, placing a hand over her mouth to stifle a laugh. "I see I arrived at a poor time once again."

Yelena growled, then pulled the door shut again without letting her in. She bit off a bit of bread, chewing and swallowing it as fast as she could, then opened the door once again.

"Hello, Helvetia. Aren't you a little early?" she said, her smile obviously forced.

"I figured that a witch like yourself would already be up and brewing. I see I am mistaken," she replied, returning the attitude she was given.

Yelena glared at her now.

"What do you even want with me?"

"It's like I said last night, I only wanted to see who this young upstart witch was. My fellow witches had spoken of a silver haired witch that had banished a shadow beast, and I just had to come and see if the story was true."

She pulled that same pipe she'd had yesterday from behind her back, produced a small flame from the tip of her finger, then lit the contents of the pipe before waving the tiny flame away. She took a drag as she waited for Yelena's response.

"The story is true. Satisfied?"

Helvetia blew a smoke ring into the air and smiled.

"Not even a little bit. May I?"

She gestured inside, inviting herself in.

Yelena rolled her eyes, then let her in. While she was still annoyed by the witch, she still couldn't sense any malice. She may be speaking the truth, but that didn't mean that Yelena had to like her.

As Helvetia strolled past her and entered the cabin, Hemlock ran into view from around the far corner.

"Yelena, that witch is-"

He stopped mid-sentence when he saw her.

"Yeah, I know," Yelena said, even her telepathic voice slightly annoyed with his tardiness. She waved him over, and he quickly entered before she shut the morning chill out once more.

Helvetia took a seat at the table once more, leaning back with her arm over the back of the chair and her legs crossed. Her silky black hair fell straight down her back, with her exposed shoulders covered by her hair rather than her open back dress. She was oozing sex appeal, but Yelena only found her off-putting. How was she even warm in that outfit? It was almost freezing out there, but she seemed to be fine in her thin clothes. Her arms were only covered by thin sleeves that attached to her dress just before her armpit, her hands partly covered up to her knuckles and jingling with stacks of bracelets of silver and gold. Her nails were pitch black and long, her fingers adorned with various multi-colored rings. Rings pierced both her ears and nose, and her long and perfectly curled eyelashes blinked slowly and with purpose. Everything about her seemed to be finely crafted to create an image of beauty that would be hard for any to ignore.

Yelena grabbed the bottle of wine she'd been drinking from for the last week and two cups before sitting down across from her. She poured two cups and set one in front of the witch.

"So what else do you want to know?" She took a sip and then crossed her arms. It wasn't as though she had anything to hide, but she didn't like her privacy being ignored so brazenly.

"How did you do it, for one. Few of those gifted with magic are ever able to successfully destroy a shadow beast."

Helvetia lifted the cup to her nose and gave it a sniff test. Her upper lip curled a bit, but she took a sip regardless. After a moment, she shrugged.

"I siphoned the magic from its core and dispersed it."

Helvetia laughed.

"Come now, there's no need to lie. Just tell me. It could help save lives."

"I'm not lying. I grabbed its core and sucked out all the magic."

Helvetia set her cup down and leaned forward.

"Doing so would have killed you. Without a doubt. Not even I could survive taking on that much magic all at once. Even the weakest of shadow beasts would kill a novice."

"It almost did, but my familiar saved me."

She narrowed her eyes.

"How?"

Yelena looked to Hemlock briefly. She wasn't sure how he did it, but she knew that he had taken the shadow curse from her. As for the excess of magic that she had absorbed…she had never really asked him about that. In truth, she had kind of forgotten about that. How had he saved her from that?

"To be perfectly honest, I don't know."

Helvetia turned to Hemlock now, her attitude much different from before.

"Cat spirit. Explain," she demanded. She wasn't playing around anymore. As much as Yelena wasn't fond of her commanding her friend, she was also very curious.

Hemlock sat and stared back at Helvetia, silent for a time.

"Well?" the witch followed up, holding her hands up.

"I took on a good portion of the magic," he finally said.

"Nonsense. That's not how magic siphoning works, and you know it."

She almost seemed…angry.

"Perhaps your understanding of magic isn't quite as complete as you assume it to be, human," Hemlock said, slowly and deliberately.

Helvetia's eyebrow twitched once.

"If what you say is true, and this girl truly survived not only the shadow curse but also the influx of magic, then this 'cat' is not what it claims to be."

She stood up from her seat and pointed at Hemlock. Yelena rose as well, ready to intercept her if things got violent. She wasn't sure what Helvetia was implying, but she didn't like it.

"What are you, spirit?"

Hemlock sat silently and swished his tail back and forth rhythmically. His eyes didn't blink, and his gaze never shifted off of the witch. Yelena looked back and forth between them for a few seconds. Would he answer her at all now? He was being especially cagey, and even Yelena was worried that he was being a little too secretive.

Suddenly, Helvetia laughed. It started as a single "Ha!", quickly turning into a long bout of hearty laughter that lasted for nearly half a minute. Yelena was completely lost. No one had said anything. At least…out loud.

"What's happening?" she asked.

In her head, Hemlock answered, saying, "Nothing. I am misleading her. Act as though you are ignorant."

Yelena couldn't help but furrow her brow.

"But I am ignorant," she replied, a little frustrated by how she was being treated by them both.

"Very well, Hemlock," Helvetia suddenly said aloud. "I will accept this for now. Let us move on."

"No, hang on. What did he say?" Yelena said, not happy with all of this.

Out loud, Hemlock said, "I will tell you later, Yelena. I promise."

Helvetia returned to her seat, shaking her head and still laughing quietly. Yelena was still standing, but she knew that when Hemlock got like this, there was no prying his lips open. Rathe than continuing this odd scene, she decided to let it pass for the time being. She sat as well and nursed her cup of wine.

"Well then, moving on. I believe you when you say you killed a shadow beast, so my next point of interest surrounds you yourself, Yelena."

She took another drag from her pipe and blew out a trio of concentric smoke clouds, each in the shape of a tiny cat that expanded until they lost their shape. A neat trick.

"What do you desire from learning magic? Forbidden knowledge? The ability to smite your enemies with arcane destruction? A safeguard against the mystic forces of the world?"

"I just want to help people," Yelena replied honestly.

Helvetia seemed to find the answer confusing. She cocked her head to the side and blinked a few times.

"Help people?"

"Yes."

"Oh honey, you think that magic is some kind of force for good, don't you?"

"No. It's a tool to be used. Just like herbs or metals."

Helvetia turned in her seat to face Yelena directly now, planting both feet on the floor.

"You are an odd one."

"What's so strange about wanting to help people?"

She chuckled, then said, "Almost any witch or wizard will give an much more long winded answer that will, at its core, boil down to wanting to dominate the very forces of nature and the universe. Put simply, power."

Yelena could understand what she was saying, but of the two magic users she'd met before, neither seemed to be particularly interested in such selfish pursuits. At least, as far as she was able to tell as a young girl. She knew that sometimes a well crafted facade of generosity could cover a soul full of hate, but she was always one to take things at face value. Could it really be that common, or was Helvetia just biased? She had no way to know the truth as of right now.

"Well I have no such delusions, I promise you. I only want to protect people and help them. It's as simple as that. I can use my gifts to do that, so I will."

"But you could've been a doctor without using magic, couldn't you? Or a city guard? A cleric? There are countless ways to help the downtrodden without the use of magic. Most of which won't get you exiled from the cities or hanged in the backwaters. You must have known how dangerous this pursuit of yours would be. Why chase after it anyway?"

It was a valid question. She had already ostracized herself from her family and home, and she had only gotten lucky that she had stumbled across a village that was so welcoming to her and what she wanted. She knew that the Waukin Disaster had made magic users all be looked upon with suspicion, but she had chosen to ignore all that and pursue her dream regardless. Yes, she had always wanted to be a witch…but she had never really thought about why.

"I think…" she started, waiting for the right words to find purchase on her tongue, "I just needed something more. Ever since I was young, I've wanted to learn magic and use it for good. I knew that there were other ways for me to be useful, but for me, nothing ever felt like I was making the most of myself. But now," she looked around her small cabin, its walls slowly filling with small decorations and its floor becoming more cluttered with shelving and furniture filled with herbs, fungi, and various bits from animals, "I feel content for the first time. Like I'm finally doing what I was meant to do. It's what I was meant to do. That's why."

She wasn't sure why she had spoken so candidly, but she had meant every word. She may not have realized it until just now though. Perhaps no one had really asked her that question before? She certainly hadn't done so herself. She guessed that she hadn't really needed to interrogate the idea before now. It had just felt right.

Helvetia had been intently watching her while she spoke, and once she was done, she smiled in a way that didn't make Yelena want to run. It seemed genuine.

"Good. Now I know that you're serious, and I can actually do what I came here to do."

She stood up from her seat and offered her hand as if to shake. Yelena looked at her with confusion, lost as to what she was implying.

"Which is…what?" she asked.

"I'd like to be your friend!" Helvetia said, surprisingly giddily.

"My friend?"

Yelena was completely lost. The menacing aura she had felt from this woman was melting away, and the complete about face of this entire conversation was throwing her for a loop. Was she really asking for something so mundane? She looked to Hemlock for his opinion. Without words, he nodded his head, affirming that he at least trusted her. If he was fine with her, then…what could be the harm?

Yelena stood as well and grabbed her hand, shaking it gently. It wasn't how she had made any of her other friends, but perhaps witches did things differently. Or, maybe it was just something she did.

"I guess we're friends now," Yelena said, still a little lost.

"Lovely! Now I can be done with all this."

Helvetia snapped her fingers and a sudden glimmer fell across her entire body, making it hard to see her. It only lasted for a few seconds, but Yelena could see through the haze that her clothes were seemingly melting away, then quickly being replaced with something new. As the glimmer faded, Helvetia was clothed in a much thicker coat that went from her neck to her ankles, with a heavy blue tunic beneath that. She wore long brown pants and simple black boots, and her hair was stuffed under a fluffy fox pelt scarf. Her face stayed the same, but nearly every ounce of her previous over-the-top sex appeal disappeared into her winter attire.

"It's exhausting to keep that up for so long. Now I don't have to try and impress you anymore," she explained, without really explaining anything.

"Uh huh. So all that was in illusion?"

"Correct. If you had been some pompous upstart with no respect for your elders or your work, I'd have left you as smoking embers with your last thought being 'I never should have pissed off Helvetia the Burning Flame', but since you're actually an adorable little witch, I don't think I need to scare you straight anymore!"

Yelena just stood and stared for a moment. Were all witches like this? Would she end up like this!?

"Sonya is approaching, Yelena," Hemlock said, breaking up their odd little conversation.

"Crap," she said. With all this happening, she'd nearly forgotten that she was on her way. Wasn't it a little early though? She should be out hunting at this hour. Had she come straight here as soon as she woke up?

"Sonya? Another friend of yours?" Helvetia asked, looking between the two of them.

All at once, the nervous tingling in her stomach returned, and she felt a chill down her spine. She wasn't ready, regardless of what she wanted to talk about right now. She hadn't had any time to even think about anything, thanks to Helvetia. She was going to have to figure things out on the spot, and that was something she wasn't too fond of.

"I know you probably travelled a long way, but can I ask for some privacy with her?" Yelena asked, as kindly as she could muster right now. Her hands started trembling, and she couldn't will them to stop no matter how hard she tried.

Helvetia leaned closer to her and looked into her eyes, then said, "I understand. I'll go entertain myself with your cat for a while, okay? Come along, little kitty."

She glanced at Hemlock, and he nodded. If he needed her, he would call out to her, and vice versa.

"Very well. Thank you. We'll talk soon," she said. Despite all of this, she was still insanely curious about this witch who had showed up at her doorstep last night. She had a million questions that only another human witch could answer that Hemlock simply couldn't, and hopefully she would be a willing source for her. Only time would tell, but for right now, she had to focus on Sonya. As much as she may not have wanted to, given the context.

Helvetia and Hemlock left the cabin, leaving Yelena alone again for just a few minutes. She reached for her breakfast and scarfed down her bread with a chaser of wine as quickly as she could, then began to anxiously pace back and forth across the floor, lost in thought. What happened last night may have been a fluke, perhaps a lapse of judgment on Sonya's part. She was quite drunk, after all. Maybe her emotions got a little too mixed up and she did something she otherwise never would have done. Or…maybe it was all very intentional. Maybe she'd felt the same way this entire time, but hadn't known if Yelena felt the same, and so never acted on it until her defenses were down enough to do something about it herself. But if that was the case, then why hadn't she reacted at all to her previous advances and flirts? Was she just really bad at it? That much was entirely possible. She'd had next to no experience with such things, so it would make sense that she'd fail at every turn to woo Sonya in any way. But even if they did feel the same way about each other, and there weren't any mistakes in intention…was this okay to do? Was she alright with possibly jeopardizing their friendship if something went wrong and they broke bad? Sonya was so important to her, and if she did something to hurt her and push her away, she didn't know how she would deal with that pain. Was it even worth the risk?

"Ahhhh," Yelena groaned, clutching her face with both hands. Her mind was running away from her, mixing things up and leaving her more unsure than she had been before.

"Good to know you're handling things just as well as I."

She hadn't even heard the door open. Yelena whipped around to see Sonya standing in her doorway, leaning against the open frame. Her cheeks were red despite the cold, and her chest rose up and down with signs of heavy breathing. Yelena couldn't help but blush.

"I-uh, well," she ran her hand over her head and smoothed her bedhead that she was certain she had, "yeah."

Sonya laughed, then stepped inside. She had a tall bag in her hand that she set down on the table with a thud.

"Fresh mead from Uncle Amir. Just bottled it this morning. Let's drink."

It was a little early for such a heavy drink, but Yelena felt as though perhaps a little alcohol would do wonders for them both. Sonya noticed the second cup, still half full with wine, on the table. She looked at Yelena with an eyebrow raised.

"It's been a busy morning. Turns out there's another witch whose eye I've caught."

"Oh. Well that's…good?"

"For now. She'd odd. She also broke into my house, so I guess she'd a bit of a mixed bag."

"A bit of a red flag," Sonya said as she pulled out the mead and finished off the remaining wine in the cup in front of her before filling both hers and Yelena's to the brim. It's sweet scent wafted through the air and tickled Yelena's nose with its stoutness on the backend. She'd had some of Uncle Amir's mead before, and she knew that it was stuff saved for special occasions.

"If she can help me learn magic, I can overlook some weirdness."

"I would say that breaking into your home is a little more than 'weird', but if you think she's okay, then I won't argue."

"Hemlock think's she's safe enough, so that's the opinion I'm going with for now."

The conversation petered out, and the two women sat with full cups of mead in their hands in the most awkward silence Yelena had ever experienced. She stole a glance at Sonya only to see her staring down at her cup, shifting her fingers mindlessly around its side. She was feeling just as lost as she was. That was some comfort, but not much. Still, they'd get nowhere if they just sat in silence until they both got old and died. One of them needed to speak before things got any more awkward. She needed to talk.

Just say something.

Anything.

Just speak.

Right now.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"So-" they both said at the same time. They looked at each other, paused, then both gestured to the other to let them speak first.

"No, really, you first," Sonya said, bowing slightly. "Please."

"Okay," Yelena started, having no idea where to begin. "So, um…I'm sorry for freaking out. I didn't really know what I was doing, so I…"

She had no clue what to say. She normally didn't have any issue speaking to people, especially Sonya, but right now it was like the words were too slippery for her to grasp, and they kept evading any coherent thought.

"No, I'm sorry. I was drunk, and I did something I shouldn't have. You have nothing to apologize for, Yelena," Sonya said, her usual cheery demeanor gone. "I never should have kissed you."

Yelena flinched at the word. Why?

"I assumed that you felt the same way I did, and I was too dumb to even ask if what I thought was right. It'll never happen again, I promise."

Yelena looked at her now. Never again? As Sonya took a sip from her cup, Yelena watched her lips as they touched the rim, and she could feel their gentle warmth pressing against her forehead again as if she was back in her bed last night again. Her heart fluttered at the thought. Her hands were in her lap, her arms straight and tense. What did she want to say? If she didn't admit that Sonya was right this whole time, she might never get the chance. It would be too late, and she'd never get to feel her hands like that again. She'd never get to touch her lips again. She hated that idea. It made her want to cry. She couldn't wait any more. If she did, it'd be over.

"I," she started again. She couldn't chicken out this time. She had to say what she felt, what she knew was true in her heart. She could be brave. She was a witch, for goodness sake! She could do this. Just say it. Just say the words.

Say it. Say it. Say it say it say it say it!

"I don't…"

She couldn't. She didn't know how. Her throat seized up, and all of her courage fled like a mouse before a hungry cat.

"It's fine, Yelena. Just forget it ever happened, alright? I don't want to ruin what we have right now, so let's just carry on like always. Deal?"

Yelena couldn't bare to look in her eyes. She felt like a child, unable to voice what she truly wanted. Instead, she just nodded, unable to clear up these misunderstood emotions. She had no idea what to say, or if she should even say it. She felt like her heart was about to explode, like her brain was on the verge of shutting down. Everything was going so wrong, and she didn't have the strength to fix it.

"I'll leave you to your guest then. I'll be back later this week. Take care, Yel."

Sonya stood up and made her way to the door, pulling it open slowly. Still, Yelena couldn't bring herself to look up. She knew that if she did, if she met Sonya's eyes, she'd break down like a kid and collapse into tears. She was supposed to be a capable adult, wasn't she? She couldn't let something so stupid as that happen. She kept her head low, swallowing down her feelings, stuffing them back down into her heart as it beat, rapid like a sprinting deer's hooves in the dirt, running away. She couldn't see why, but she noticed that Sonya was paused in the door frame for a few seconds. Maybe…maybe this was her last chance. Maybe she could…

Maybe…

The door closed with a resolute thud, and Yelena was alone.

Ch. 10

After only a week since the witch Helvetia arrived, Yelena's life had changed dramatically. The witch had offered to stay for a month to help get Yelena up to speed on all things magical, filling in the gaps in her knowledge that even Hemlock didn't know how to. There were certain simple practices and concepts that she taught Yelena, such as a spell to hide her true identity, the very same Helvetia had employed to alter her own appearance, and a way to cast her spells much faster by reciting their power words mentally rather than verbally. To a spirit like Hemlock, he didn't even need to recite the words to cast spells, so he had simply assumed that humans would need to do so. He was, surprisingly, incorrect, which both Yelena and Helvetia gave him a hard time about.

On the other hand, her brief, terrible meeting with Sonya had left an awful weight in her heart. She hadn't really been able to talk with her the same way as before, and she was sure that Sonya also noticed her awkwardness around her now. It wasn't as if it was intentional. She just didn't know how to move forward now. She had ruined her chance to just be honest and say how she'd felt, and now things had gotten even more complicated. She tried not to dwell on it, but every time Sonya came out to her cabin, there was far too much awkward silence that rested between them now. It was awful, and every day that passed without Yelena expressing her feelings, it felt as though she was tightening a noose that she herself had wrapped around her neck. The one thing that she had going for her, however, was that Helvetia was giving her little time to sit and sulk. Her lessons, and sometimes her proclivity towards treating Yelena as both a student and an example was somewhat taxing on her mental state. She went to sleep early and woke up tired.

Helvetia was in interesting person, to say the least. Despite her initial antagonistic introduction, she was actually very cheerful and bubbly at times. At this point, Yelena wasn't quite sure which side of her was the real side and which was the mask. Sometimes the cocky, prideful side of her slipped out and made some rude remark about either Yelena or Hemlock, but she was always quick to say it was just a harmless jest and apologize. Still, she was incredibly knowledgeable and seemed to enjoy teaching Yelena and going over practical applications of what she was teaching. Today was going to be different however, as they were going to begin working on alchemy for the first time. She was still waiting for her cauldron, but she had a small kettle that would do in the meantime.

"Alright, so first things first. I can see that you have a decent understanding of the local flora and fauna, but you seem to be lacking in some of the basics," Helvetia said, picking through her ingredient shelves. "I am failing to find any of the more vicious poisons and venoms any witch worth her salt should keep in ample supply."

"Why would I need such things when I don't plan on making anything like that?" Yelena asked.

"One cannot craft antidotes without first understanding the source of the affliction, my little witch."

Helvetia grabbed a small jar of what looked like a harmless stem of a green plant, its leaves six pointed and glossy with oil. Yelena had found out the hard way that that plant was especially dangerous, even to the touch. It was called lecher's weed, and it could cause serious rashes if it made contact with human skin, and could even kill if eaten. Yelena's hands had taken over a week to recover after her first encounter with the plant. After that incident, she had always checked with Hemlock before mindlessly reaching for odd looking plants.

"I see you have some idea, but you must expand your collection. Today we will be foraging for a particularly nasty little flower, the petals of the ochre flower."

She had never heard of such a thing, but if Helvetia said it was bad, it must be quite dangerous.

"What makes it so awful?"

Helvetia set down the small jar and turned to face her, a sly grin across her lips.

"One touch of its deadly flower bloom can kill. Its poison sits and waits for an entry into the body, even for days and weeks on end, but once it does, its over unless treated immediately. Its toxins flood the body and slowly begin to shut it down, leading to a most painful and agonizing death. It is a truly horrific sight to see."

"Then why are you smiling while you explain it?" Yelena asked.

Helvetia seemed to only just now notice her own reaction. She blinked once, then her grin vanished.

"No reason! Well, time to get ready to go out. Bring your gloves, for obvious reasons. We will be burning them afterwards," she said, all too giddy for the danger she was about to be putting them both in.

Hemlock was curled in a ball a few feet away, silent up until this point.

"Do you not think it foolish so seek such a dangerous thing intentionally?"

Helvetia turned to him and put her hands on her hips.

"One cannot be prepared to handle danger unless they've faced it before, correct?"

Hemlock sighed.

"For some instances, perhaps. Fine, do what you will. I will watch over my witch, though. Should you become separated and fall prey to some flower or beast, I will only laugh."

It was harsh, but nothing Yelena wasn't used to at this point. The two of them bickered like siblings frequently, and it was somewhat entertaining to watch.

"I'll be okay Hemlock. Come on, let's go. At least the weather is nice today."

"Its the perfect condition for such awful things to take root, yes!"

Yelena laughed, then went about gathering up her coat and her gathering bag. Hemlock had helped her design it, a small pack that had tiny pockets inside to help keep different herbs and bits separate from each other in transit. The internal lining had been made from moose hide and treated with pine oil to keep it clean and prevent other plant oils from sticking to the hide. It was hardly a fashionable thing, but that hardly mattered. She grabbed her harvesting gloves, a pair of rough, scratchy leather mitts that gave her just enough dexterity to actually grab small stems without crushing them. If they did find this ochre flower today, she'd be happy to be rid of them and have justification for a better pair.

They set off heading east, running parallel to the path to Village. The edge of the Deep Forest was that way, and according to Helvetia, the ochre flower wasn't too fond of the tall pines that devoured all the sunlight, but still enjoyed the temperate climate and the altitude. They were rare here, but still attainable. As they walked, she began to go over the various uses of poisons, both for medicinal uses and magical. It made some sense that even the most potent of poisons could be distilled down into something useful and non-lethal, but the magical uses were particularly intriguing to Yelena. If used as a base for an enchantment, ochre flowers could imbue an object with its same orange color, its metallic scent or taste, or even its toxic traits. While Yelena knew the basics of enchanting items due to the concept transferring to making shortcut potions easily as opposed to true alchemy, its application to any non-liquid medium was hardly mentioned in her book. There was apparently a large market for enchanted items, ranging from incredibly potent and deadly weapons to simple glowing toys for children. There was less of a demand around here, thanks to the intrinsic mistrust of magic, but in other parts of the world the magic trade was alive and well. She was looking forward to experimenting with enchantments someday, but she first had to learn the fundamentals.

A few hours passed, and other than the occasional distraction of a passing squirrel or a brief encounter with an amused tree spirit that had tried to offer them a home in their pine, the trek was rather boring. It did, however, allow Yelena time to ask some questions.

"So where do you live?"

"Oh me? Far to the south, in the land of Daria."

"What's it like there?"

"Hot. And dry. Nothing like here," she gestured out before them, waving her hand, "with sand and rocks as far as the eye can see."

"The whole place is a desert?" Yelena asked, surprised that she would have come so far.

"Not exactly. Half of Daria is a wasteland, but it wasn't natural. The other half, where I and my coven reside, is a paradise of green tucked away in the lowlands. A tiny jewel of life in an ocean of death," she explained, her words more somber than Yelena expected them to be.

"The desert isn't natural?"

"An old wizard used all of the magic of the land to banish the ancient dragon Gagantio, but doing so killed all life in Daria. That was over two hundred years ago now, but the land still hasn't recovered. Still, little by little, my coven is working to reseed life into the land. It likely won't happen in my lifetime, but its still good to see the steady progress."

"Dragons are real!?" she exclaimed. Of course she had heard the stories as a child, but she never imagined that such incredible beings could actually exist.

Helvetia turned and nodded casually.

"Of course. They're rare nowadays, but many still brood at the peaks of mountains or deep underground."

It made sense that the news of dragons being real would be old to her, but to Yelena, it was amazing.

"Are any around here?"

"If the rumors are true, the lightning dragon Siluria resides on a mountain peak not too far from here, atop the Stormthrone Mountains. Named thus for obvious reasons," she said nonchalantly.

"Do they talk with humans?"

Helvetia stopped and turned to face her suddenly. Her look was stern and serious.

"Yelena, do not try to speak to a dragon. Under any circumstance. Do you understand?"

She was a little confused.

"Why? Are they that dangerous?"

Helvetia narrowed her eyes.

"A single breath from a dragon could wipe your little village off the face of the earth. Its claws can rip great ships in two with no effort. Dragons are not entities to bargain or deal with. They are the very forces of nature given form, and their presence is calamity and death made real."

She could tell that she wasn't joking anymore.

"Okay, fine. Sorry."

Helvetia turned back and continued through the forest. She hoped they were getting close. Her feet were starting to hurt.

***

Hemlock was draped across Yelena's shoulders now, and as the trees slowly began to change from almost entirely pine to some interspersed birch trees, she was beginning to grow impatient.

"Should we not have found some by now?" she asked, sighing as the spoke.

"Are you not enjoying our little journey together, silver witch?" Helvetia asked, feigning hurt.

"Not really, to be honest."

"So cruel," she said, holding her hand over her heart. "I thought we would get some good bonding through hardship, my dear."

"This isn't really hardship, as much as its just annoying."

Helvetia laughed, but didn't reply otherwise.

"She's really getting on my nerves," she communicated to Hemlock silently.

She felt his tail lazily sway across her collarbone.

"She is testing you, Yelena. I suggest you stay on your guard. This is not simply an herb gathering trek."

"What does that mean?"

"Who's to say," he replied, much to her chagrin.

For almost another hour, they marched through the dense underbrush and pushed through overlapping branches. For all Yelena knew, they were roaming aimlessly and just working on luck to find this stupid ochre flower. She'd had no desire to find this thing, and now she was wasting an entire day stomping around the forest looking for a worthless plant that no one she ever cared about would likely ever run into. Ugh.

"Stop," Helvetia said suddenly, her hand held back.

Yelena obeyed, but was hesitant.

"What is it now?"

The witch put a finger to her lips and crouched, gesturing for her to do the same. Was there something out there that she couldn't see? Why hadn't Hemlock warned her?

"I see one," she whispered.

Yelena gazed around but couldn't see anything.

"Then why don't we just-"

"Shhhh!"

"Why!? Its a bloody flower! Why do we have to be-"

A thunderous roar rumbled trough the trees, shaking Yelena to the bone. She fell back onto her rear and tried to identify the source, but it seemed to be coming from all around her at once. The roar ended, but she had no idea what had caused it, only that it had almost made her wet herself. Her knees were shaking, as were her hands.

"I forgot to mention," Helvetia whispered after having crawled over to her, "the ochre flower is a massive, sentient, carnivorous plant that also eats humans whole."

What!?

"It eats people, and its toxic, and it sounds like that!?" Yelena whispered, terrified of inciting that awful roar once again.

"And we're going to turn it into soup, yes!"

Helvetia was all smiles, her eyes bright with delight. She was enjoying this.

"You never told me that we'd be fighting a giant sentient flower!"

"Any witch worth her salt would have known that from the get go," she replied smugly. It was all she could do to hold back her boiling temper.

"Did you know?" she asked Hemlock.

"Of course I did."

"You little," she said, not finishing the sentence. It wouldn't help anyway.

"Okay, so here's the plan. You and your kitty run out and distract it, and I'll burn its roots as it moves to pursue. Should be done in a minute."

Hemlock jumped off her shoulders and grew larger again, his shoulders now at her head height as she sat on the ground in shock. She would make both of them pay dearly for deceiving her with such ease, but that would have to come later.

"Fine. But when we're done, I have words."

Helvetia patted her knee, then summoned a small wand in her right hand. It was simple, but Yelena could tell it held a massive amount of magic within it's spiral pattern carved into the wood. A double looped golden ring attached itself to both the wand and her finger. It was a smart design.

"Show me what you've learned, Silver Witch. Come on!"

Helvetia leapt up and sprinted ahead, and as she did another loud roar exploded out from the direction she was running to. Yelena also noted that she had immediately thrown out her plan to let the two of them distract it. A violent sound of cracking tree branches and an explosion of soil blasted into the air, signaling that she didn't have time to dally.

"You've got this, Yelena. Use what you've learned, and be careful."

Hemlock dashed forward as well, leaving her alone on the ground at a bit of a loss. The shards of broken ice crystals and flares from magical fire could be seen through the trees. She really didn't have much of a choice here. What kind of witch would she be if she just sat on the ground like a child, scared to face a monster? She had been so stuck in her annoyance from before that she hadn't even considered that of this thing was this large, this much of a threat, it could easily harm someone she cared about. It could hurt Sonya. That's something she wouldn't allow, even in hypotheticals.

Yelena stood and brushed herself off, then summoned Éan beag to her hand. She felt the strength of the magic, born from the frostbloom, begin to connect with that of her own, entangle and meld together to form a bond of power. She took a deep breath in, then stamped the staff down, sending a gust of wind below her to propel her high into the air, far above the short birch trees. From up here, her bird's eye view allowed her to see the monster in its entirety.

It had to be nearly twenty feet tall, towering over Helvetia and Hemlock as they dashed around its whip-like tentacles and roots. It's 'head', if it could be called that, resembled that of a normal flower, only the size of her cabin with petals of a dark orange hue. It moved and swayed as if it was dancing, or, more likely, panicking, lashing out at these odd little things that had disturbed it. As she looked closer though, she noticed that at the center of its pistil, a seam split open, revealing a maw of curved, misshapen teeth-like appendages and gnashed and dripped spittle. Its stem split into four different, smaller vines that were being thrown about wildly, smashing tree trunks more than double the size of Yelena's body like twigs. Wherever they went, a trail of dark purple liquid trailed after. That had to be its poison. This thing, this 'flower', was truly a monster. She didn't understand how anyone could call it a flower.

Still, it was clearly a plant, and if it was a plant, it could die.

Yelena used the wind to push herself a little higher, trying to get a good view of its petals. They were here to harvest those, so she couldn't destroy them. Her best bet would be to try to sever the actual flower from the stem. If this thing had something approaching a brain, it would be there. Probably. Down below, Hemlock was busy trying to pin as many of its tentacles to the earth with icicles, but it seemed to be able to shrug off his attacks with ease. Helvetia had a different approach however, opting to set the flower ablaze with gouts of flame that spewed from her wand. She was incredibly agile, despite her heavy clothing. She leapt and dodged out of the way of the flower's attacks, ducking below swipes and blasting out scorching flames in the openings. She was very clearly used to combat. Hemlock was equally adept at dodging, but Yelena could tell he was struggling somewhat. She knew he was relatively safe when it came to fighting physical beings, but she didn't want to push it. She needed to get in there and end tings quickly.

She allowed the wind that had been carrying her to die off and she plummeted down a good fifty feet before catching herself. She hovered just beside where the head met the stem, then focused. In her mind's eye, she shaped the wind into a flat edge, like the blade of a scythe. She carved its curve into the air with her staff, then loosed her magic through her body, down her arm, through the small thrush on the tip of her staff. At once a nearly invisible blade made of wind shot forth, whistling as it pushed the air around it out of the way. It was perfectly aimed to sever the flower from its-

WHAM!

Yelena was flying through the air suddenly, and she gasped for air after having it all evacuated from her lungs so suddenly. She realized, too late, that one of the flower's tentacles had slammed into her. It must've been a glancing blow however, as she was still alive to realize what had happened. She quickly caught herself with the wind, but her first attack had long since lost its form, dissipating as her focus on it faltered.

"Watch yourself," Hemlock said in her mind. "This thing has no blind spots."

"I see that now," she replied. She was hurt, but not terribly. Her left side had taken the brunt of the attack, but she was still able to move everything. She could still fight.

Yelena glided along the wind and circled around the flower, doing her best to send small wind blades at the flower's stem and tentacles where she could, but it seemed to be doing little damage to it overall. Much to her dismay, she could even see some of its wounds begin to quickly patch themselves back up shortly after she made them. Her current strategy wouldn't work. She needed one decisive cut to sever its head, but she didn't have the time or the angle to perform such an attack currently. If she got hit by one of its strikes dead on, she'd be done for. She had really focused on wind magic, but she had skipped ahead in her book and learned a little of a different, much more dangerous type that could give her the opening she needed…she just didn't know if she could pull it off.

"Kitty, pull back!" Helvetia called. From above, Yelena could see why.

As Hemlock leapt away from the writhing roots of the flower, Helvetia let out a roar of her own, only composed of a deep blue flame that engulfed the flower's base. Even from her vantage point a good forty feet up, Yelena could feel the intense heat threaten to burn her too. The power behind such an attack had to be extreme, and there was no way the flower could come away from that unscathed…right?

As if to answer her thought, the flower roared in reply, so loudly that it felt as though her eardrums would burst. She clutched her head and struggled to stay aloft, watching as the searing blue flame that had previously been devouring the flower flicker out and vanish under its might.

"Well that's not-"

Helvetia's word were cut off as a root shoot up from beneath her, its sharp point going right through her left shoulder. She cried out in pain, clutching the root as it lifted her from the soil, pulling her up to its maw like a man would a tasty morsel of food. Was it about to eat her?

"Helvetia!" she called out, unsure as to what she could do to stop the flower.

She glanced to Hemlock, who was too far away to intercept. If Yelena didn't do something, it was going to devour her whole. She wasn't about to let that happen. There was one thing she was confident would work, but if it didn't she'd likely get them all killed. It was now or never though.

"Cruinnigh agus buail, solas neamh!"

A shudder ran through her entire body, and her hair began to straighten and spark as charge gathered. Éan beag was held above her, and she could feel the power growing, gathering, condensing into a rising thunder that would shake the very heavens. She looked down at the mouth of the ochre flower, then envisioned a bolt of pure, white lightning striking from above and setting its entire body ablaze. Then, just as she willed it, it happened. A blinding flash of light followed by a deafening CRACK the bolt of pure electricity struck the flower's stem directly, passing straight through its open mouth before dissipating into the air around them. Yelena's eyes saw little bright spots and her ears rang, but that didn't stop her. She guided the wind to catch Helvetia as the flower's roots lost their grip on her, catching her and delivering her to safety on the ground below. The flower didn't make a sound, it simply twitched and convulsed sporadically as its stem burned from the inside out, its maw and pistil blackened and cracked. In a single, decisive strike, Yelena had killed the ochre flower. She breathed a sigh of relief.

Then it hit her. Her chest seized in terrible pain, and her limbs and digits began to lock up, rendering her unable to move them any more. Her focus on the wind holding her aloft ended, and she began to fall like a bag of rocks, unable to even flail as she descended. What was happening to her? Had she used up all of her magic again? She hadn't thought so, as she could, even now, feel her well of energy still there, deep in her spirit. A side effect of the spell that she'd never used before? That would make more sense. Her legs, arms, back, everything felt like they were going through the most intense cramping she'd ever felt, and all she could do was groan in pain as she plummeted. Surely Helvetia would be able to catch her, wouldn't she?

She had only been falling a short while before something snatched her from the air, and through the terrible pain she could at least feel that she was no longer falling, and that the pain meant she wasn't dead. She could feel soft earth beneath her, but all she could do was writhe in pain as her body's muscles contracted sporadically, and she felt no end to her suffering was approaching. It was all she could do to stay conscious as her back twitched violently, shooting hot knives of pain through her entire torso. She screamed out, unable to do anything but hurt. Why wasn't this ending!? What was happening!? Through clenched teeth and a constrained jaw, she called out as loudly as she could, "Hemlock!" She had no idea if he was nearby, or if there was even anything he could do, but she didn't know who else to call for. All she could do was curl up and hope that something, someone, would save her. Her eyelids squeezed shut as the muscles in her face pulled tight, and all she could sense was pain and darkness.

***

It felt like the agony lasted for hours, maybe more, before eventually the tension felt throughout her entire body came to an end. She was finally able to breath, and all she could think to do was lay still and take in the chill air. There was a slight tinge of smoke wafting into her nose along with the sweet scent of spring blossoms. She could also hear faint voices, two of them, going back and forth rapidly. She only got bits and pieces as her brain struggled to wake up fully.

"…so many lives, you shouldn't be…

"…mine to give as I see fit…"

"Does she even know?"

"She mustn't."

"Know…what?" she grumbled out, trying to open her eyes.

She heard a sigh, then steps in the grass approaching her.

"She seems to be coming to now," Helvetia said. Yelena could recognize her voice now, and as she tried to open her eyelids and blink away the sparkles, she saw both the witch and Hemlock standing beside her prone body.

"At last," Hemlock said. He was still enlarged, but he had a look in his eye that she had only seen once, when they had faced down the shadow beast and she had grasped its core to free him. She didn't like making him feel that way again.

Helvetia used her pointer finger and thumb to flick Yelena's forehead, and her brain rattled a bit from the force.

"What made you think you could handle such a spell so early in your career, silver witch? That was awfully stupid of you."

She spoke with the playful scorning of a worried mother, both relieved and livid.

"I saw you in danger," she muttered out, her throat still sore. All of her was sore, actually.

"Do you really think so little of me? I had lured it into a vulnerable position, and if you had only waited for another moment, you would have seen it burn from the inside out," she explained.

"I'm…sorry."

Helvetia sighed and placed her hand on Yelena's forehead, the other on her stomach, then closed her eyes, mouthing silently as she cast a spell to heal Yelena. Hemlock sat next to her, watching them both.

"You should not be able to cast that spell, Yelena," he said, his tone even more monotone than usual. "You were extremely lucky it did not backfire and simply kill you instead of the ochre flower. How many times must I teach you these lessons before you truly learn them?"

She knew he was right. She sometimes took too many risks, and even if it happened to work out in this case, it seemingly always fell to Hemlock to pull her out of dangerous situations that she put herself in. She had no words to fight back with, even if she did have the strength to do so.

But…

What was the point of all of this if she never took any risks? Life was too short to do everything super safely, and sometimes some rules needed to be broken. Sure, in this instance, Helvetia may have had things under control, but what if that had been Sonya? Would playing it safe be the right call then? She knew that if she actually voiced her dissent, Hemlock would likely reply with something much wiser and more well-thought, so she simply kept it all to herself. For now, anyway.

"Well that's no good," Helvetia said, interrupting her thoughts.

"What is?" she asked.

"Seems that your hasty casting of lightning had left you a bit…well…" Helvetia pulled her hands away, then clasped them together, saying, "cursed."

Cursed?

"Cursed?" Hemlock said, audibly however.

"Cursed. Best as I can guess, she's managed to anger the lightning sprites she tapped into. To be honest, I've rarely even seen lightning be used, so I'm not too familiar with the correct procedures to entice the sprites to begin with."

She looked down at Yelena, shrugging.

"You messed up real bad, silver witch."

She understood a little of what she was saying, but not fully. She knew that when a witch tapped into a certain elemental type of magic for the first time, a sort of 'bargain' needed to be struck between the witch and the sprites that allowed the element's use. It wasn't a real, tangible thing of course. It was more of a feeling, a sense of give and take, a little slice of the witch's spirit in exchange for access to the element. For something as simple and readily available as wind, Yelena had felt next to nothing, only learning about the idea of the bargain after Hemlock explained why she felt a little lightheaded after casting her first breeze spell. She hadn't even considered the toll such a bargain might take on her body for as potent and rare a phenomenon as lightning, much less completely ignoring the concept overall. But a curse? What did that even mean?

"I was worried this might happen. Yelena, this is precisely why you cannot jump ahead blindly," Hemlock said, continuing the scolding.

"So what does that mean? Am I going to die or something?" she asked, only half joking. The world of magic was becoming more and more unforgiving the more she learned.

"Maybe?" Helvetia said, not helping at all. "Its hard for me to tell the severity. All I do know is that you're going to have to try and win the sprites back over. Which isn't going to be easy. For now, whatever you do, do not cast that spell again. I'll have to do some research to figure out what to do, which I can't really do here. Come on, let's get you up."

Helvetia helped Yelena to her feet, and though she could stand with some help from Hemlock's larger form, it felt like she had done a full body workout for the last six hours. Every single muscle in her body was stiff and sore, and she could hardly stand up straight.

"Oh!" she said, suddenly remembering the whole reason they came here in the first place. "The flower!"

She looked over her shoulder, only to find the blackened, charred remains of the once orange and green monster. It was lying in an ashy heap, barely recognizable if not for the distinctive shape of its once pristine petals, now slowly falling to nothing in the wind.

"Yeah. Not much left," Helvetia said. "I must say though, your spell would've been incredibly impressive if it hadn't been so…overkill."

Yelena sighed. What a complete and total waste of time.

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