-ˋˏ [a witch's best friend] ˎˊ-

Death Mazes,

     You rub at the branding on your wrist, the triangle-shaped mark feels no different from the rest of your skin. You should be excited, but as you lay in your new room you can't help but feel like nothing has changed. Maybe it's for the best, after all, you have a purpose now. A purpose that plenty of other kids dream and train for.

     You count the stars on your ceiling, the little stickers that glow in the dark. They were some silly human invention that you'd bought on your first stint to the Night Market about two years ago- for your birthday. You thought they fit your room nicely. Magic could create something much more beautiful, but the little things with their sticky adhesive and barely visible light had a sense of speciality. They were something different. Fourteen. You'll need one more in a week. You wonder if you'll even be able to find any more.

     The alarm goes off and you slide out of bed. You hope you'll be able to keep up with the minimal amount of sleep you got last night. Your jaw pops uncomfortably as you open the door, and you grab your windbreaker on the way out.

     As you walk down the pristine halls, you can't help but feel as though this is routine. The thought comes to you again; being in the Emperor's Coven should feel new. Special. But it doesn't. It feels no different than when you would walk down the halls of the orphanage, waking the others for school.

     You find yourself in the main hall, the other recruits crowded around in front of the stage, and Coven Leader Lilith stands at the front. She's most likely only here to introduce whoever will train them.

     "Recruits!" She calls in an authoritative voice that never fails to impress you- you often wish you could speak as assertively as she did. "As stated before, there will be no time to 'adjust.' You will start your training today! The head of the plant coven will be your instructor today, so-" She seems to wince a little, "Good luck."

     An older-looking woman floats in on a bundle of vines as Lilith quickly steps off the stage. She clearly wants no part of the leader of the Plant Coven.

***

     You had barely made it through the first part of the maze and you already understood why Lilith left so quickly. Terra Snapdragon was insane. You're out of breath, having fought off an entire minotaur just moments prior. Not to mention you'd spent a lot of your energy trying to control the hedges with plant magic. Your hands are perched on your knees as you bend over, gasping for every bit of air you can get.

     "Are you okay?" A hand is placed on your back and you snap up almost immediately. A young man, a few years older than you are, looks at you worriedly. You step away quickly, reaching around to feel on your back where the man's hand was.

You raise an eyebrow, pulling off a glyph. It looks like one from the construction coven, although there's certainly something off about it. Most likely it's an ability dampener. Terra did say that the first person out would get special training from her, didn't she? You wonder briefly why you didn't think this through enough. Clearly, there would be some of the recruits seeking to win through more... aggressive means.

Before the man has any time to react, you twirl your finger in the air, a circle forming. A shield forms around him, slowly pressuring the man inside. "It'll break before it squeezes you too tight." You say in some form of consolation before turning and running down the path once again.

You hear the man yelling and banging on the forcefield, clearly regaining presence of mind soon after you had taken off. You curse yourself as you run off; you shouldn't have stopped to take a breather in the first place. You'll properly scold yourself for it later, right now you need to stay focused on this death maze. You wonder how it seems so big- surely there wasn't this much space in the field they were in initially?