Lament of the Traitor King (Complete)

Chapter 18 - The Boy with the Cruel Smile (Minor Edits Made)

Ash turned to stare at Netta, Its hands motioning towards her. "I thought I made it clear that you weren't supposed to leave until I had returned. It takes more than setting me on fire to kill me. What do you think I am, a Human?"

Netta's mind spun, for a moment not believing that It had returned. Had, on some level, begun to believe that in spite of all of Ash's bravado, that he would not be coming back this time.

Calliope, who could only see Netta, said, "You cannot call this man - I am sorry, a Monster - a friend and expect me to believe it. I sent you out to return with the help of a Familiar, after all. You know that if you got involved with one of his kind, that you're duty-bound to report it to, well, to me now that Hera is gone..." she stuttered off, apparently too outraged to continue. She sighed and pressed her hands to her face.

Ash walked up to Netta and rested a hand on her shoulder. It waited to speak until she looked into Its sharp eyes.  "I can understand worrying about me, but I won't understand the next time that I tell you to do something that's a matter of life and death and then you defy me. I don't ask much, Nettles, but I mean it when I ask you to do something."

Before Netta could answer Ash, Calliope asked, "What's happening with our Coven?"

As she pulled leftovers out of her apartment's fridge for dinner, Calliope seemed unable to stop her own morbid curiosity. She had managed to get the whole of the bum-rushed attack on the road to town out of Netta before she had finished heating water for tea.

"If someone's set on killing you - it sounds to me as though you need to take the initiative," Calliope said. "you need to make a Monster your Familiar - and quickly. Don't want to be caught with your pants down. And besides," she snorted. "if you actually managed to kill a Witch, you can't possibly carry the burden of what the murder would do to your psyche."

Netta tried to assuage the fear she felt at those words - and the concept of what Calliope was telling her.  "What do you mean?"

"Dear, don't you know what happens to a Witch, when she does not die a natural death - when her death is caused by one of her own kind?"

When Netta shook her head, Calliope said, "Our dead are not quiet. We will drive our murderer mad, without the protection of a Familiar to stop them. Witches who kill their own kind have been all throughout history. Some were women who want to rid the world of our kind, brain washed by Humans into seeing Witchkind as evil. Any time they do it - and they do it sincerely, not possessing their own Familiar - they always end the same way."

Netta shivered, clutching at her arms. "I've never heard of this. It sounds a little... fantastic, don't you think, Cal?"

Calliope shook her head, her mouth fixed into a grim line. "I'm afraid it's true. Whenever a Witch is unprotected, she is pushed to commit suicide, her mind turning on itself. No such Witch has ever survived past the passing of the first night - given time, they're taken over, and their organs shut down, ending the curse. Well, they won't survive, not without the very focused help of other Witches."

Netta shut her eyes tightly. "Well, it shouldn't get to that point, anyway."

Ash spoke, the first noise it had made in what felt like a good, long while. "And you think it's a good idea to not prepare for it -"

The Monster was interrupted, unknowingly, by Calliope. "Why do you fear this one's aid so? There's little chance that It can ever overpower you - you're a smart girl, you know how to Humble one of Its kind well enough. And I can give you all the magic tea in the world, but it won't protect you - from one of your own kind, in the long run."