The Otherkind Book One:Heart

~*~ 20 ~*~

~*~ 20 ~*~

Rushing deeper into the gnarled darkness of what had once been the beautiful forest of Ber' Sador, Numa dodged hideously gnarled trees. Time was running out! She had been away much too long. Skittering out of her way, vermin and spell enchanted creatures who infested this abyss of despair cowered in deeper shadows. She had foreseen when the one would come to the forest. Her spell percolating over all these many long years glowed in ready alertness deep in her pocket. This last bit had taken her months to obtain, carefully she patted her pockets with a satisfied smile knowing the time was near. Now that her assurance of victory was sealed in her mind with the obtainment of something so exceedingly rare that none believed in its existence. The rare and precious living crystal thrummed low and content, nestled safely deep in her pocket. Long she had held her stance with the Dark One of Old, insisting that her gift would not let him down. Ultimately it had cost her position as The Dark One's personal seer. She had been banished to a tiny hovel in the forest and one of her dark whelps had usurped her position.

It was vital she find the missing third son. Her gift surpassed that young man's by huge leaps. Sure, he had used his visions, but she would give him the best of all! She would give him the third! She would hand him the ultimate, the key to the prophecy! Using her magic she would of course be reinstated in the House of Lords as the chief seer! She had waited a very long time for this precise moment. Summoning her ravens to her she bade them find the half-breed trader who owed her. Payment time had come. The missing triplet was near the forest even now.

With swiftness her ravens found the half-breed. One of them dropped the paper it carried in its beak on the ground in front of the man's feet. The summons was a spell that would bring him to do her beck and call. The paper, black with its malicious intent opened itself and the words glowed amber red. The trader came at once his feet. Turning his cart he woodenly returned down a path he knew too well.

"TOAD!" she bellowed, her ever present ravens hissing and screaming in a wild frenzy sensing their mistress' distress. "Where are you? How come you're not here waiting for me? Get over here now you miserable lump!"

A boy of about sixteen or seventeen darted out of the forest apprehensively. "Over here Numa!"

Ducking under the last low hanging branch before the clearing to her little hovel she kept tucked away, not too far into Ber' Sador. She had a small but lucrative business selling spelled charms, amulets and such. Occasionally there was need for her to affix wards to something for someone. She ran a very specialized shop of magical particulars. The Otherkind had their own talents and abilities including herself, but she could do something that not many could. Even Arminius didn't know what she was doing, not that he cared since he had banished her anyway. She would employ everything she had in this endeavor. She had a goal, to get back what was stolen from her.

Just as a boy ducked under a tree she waved her hand and the branch snapped him on top of his head. Around this part of the forest that lay just outside the Meromi Nol within what was known as The Margins, they didn't call her the 'witch of the Ber' Sador' for no reason.

"Ow! You didn't have to do that!" he rubbed his head and noted that she still wore a glamor spell. She was not long away from whatever trouble she had been stirring up. "I said I was coming! I didn't know you were going to take so incredibly long, months even. Doing" he waved his hand in the air "wherever it was that you went to do!" he sounded peevish.

"You should have known! If you want to be a seer that is." She grinned at him "Then—- start—- seeing!" This time a thick branch hit his backside hard enough to send him sprawling into the dirt.

"You didn't see that one coming either!" She cackled uproariously and just as quickly, ignoring him, behaving much as a small child would that had been sidetracked by something else. Pulling something out of her pocket and unwrapping it carefully, she inspected it, delicately poking it with her finger.