~*~ 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.
Inside he was fuming. He wasn't as good a seer as she expected him to be, but he could and did hide his rage that barely simmered inside him. He had talent! More than she knew. One day he would show her.
"Get up off your lazy bones and come here. Take this cup inside and scrape the leaves into a wooden box, no" she appeared to be thinking "a stone one. Make it marble, cold and lifeless! I've been carrying that with me for a while now. Make sure nothing happens to it boy! The time is nearly right for all this to come together! He is coming!"
Gingerly he took it. He did a double take between the cup and the hag. It really was just a stupid teacup.
"Cold and lifeless!" She repeated laughing at her own private joke. "I have to do something. Make sure everything is ready when I return!" In a flourish of cloak and multi-colored gaudy dress, she spun around going back the way she had just come. Her glamor spell falling away as she half skipped, half hopped back into the forest. She looked hideous. Her garments and even her long tangled and dirty gray hair seemed to have a life of its own, levitating around her in an animated cloud.
He looked down at the teacup in his hand and wondered whose life was about to get yanked around. Maybe he could add a pinch of his own magic to it too! He had no love for any of his kind. They had abandoned him. Let them all suffer! He wondered who was coming. Maybe he could find a way to follow up on the leads he had been gathering while the old hag had been away. No, better if he stay here for a while longer. Bide his time and learn some more.
Taking the eggshell thin cup inside with him, he kicked the door shut behind him with a satisfying bang. He heard the sound of scratching claws as creatures rushed away to hide. Soft distressing whines and hissing noises came from every shadow and darkened corner of the hovel he shared with her.
"Oh shut up!" he snarled clunking the cup onto the battered and scarred wooden table dominating the center of the room. When he saw that it didn't break he flicked it with his finger setting it wobbling again. Frowning he moved towards the fireplace and carelessly tossed on another log swinging the cauldron over the suddenly animated snapping flames.
"Make sure everything is ready when I return!" he mimicked. "I'll make sure everything is ready! Who does she think she is?" he talked to the darkness. "I mean really! Toad do this! Smack! Toad do that! Smack! Someone ought to smack her! Someday!" he whispered to the dancing flames "Someday!"
Something misshapen and indistinguishable reached out a tiny hand compassionately to his pant leg, mewling softly.
"Get away from me!" He shrieked kicking it away harshly. His lips curled back in a sneer as the creature squealed and crawled back to a corner to commiserate with other creatures that huddled together there. Pulling out the bench he sat down poking at the teacup, watching it rock back and forth. "I've got to find away!"
The door burst open. "Find a way to do what?"
"Nothing." Startled he jerked guiltily upright. The bench falling backward with his sudden movement.
She watched him critically and then her moods shifted again suddenly. "Leave that cup alone Toad! It's for something too big for the likes of you!" she cackled again.
Righting the overturned bench he turned back to the fire, stirring the vile contents of the now madly boiling cauldron.
"Good! Because if you wish your freedom from your chores" she smiled speaking in a false sing-song voice, "all you have to do is say so."
Yeah, and he would end up like the other tortured disgusting creatures that resided within these walls.
"No, I'm fine."
"Good!" She threw her coat at him. "Then get to work."
He deftly caught it and moved to hang it from the peg by the door, right by where she was standing. Not wanting to be too near her right now he went back to the fire and checked the contents in the cauldron again. "I thought you had something to do?"
"Oh I did and I do, but I need to get other things in order first. I think I shall go visiting soon. But first, we have company waiting for me outside."
"Charming."
"What say you Toad?"
"Nothing, I just said charming, you know, as in entrancing, spell-binding—-"
"I know what the word means! Give me that!" she was pointing with her finger at the cup sitting on the table directly in front of her. He got it for her sullenly. What he really wanted to do was tell her to get it herself. That time would have to wait.
"Actually, entrancing is a very good word for the day." she murmured to herself." She appeared to be thinking as she looked at the cup. Shaking her head she tucked it back into one of the voluminous pockets of her ragged apron over an even more ragged and disgustingly filthy dress.
He busied himself with selecting a marble box. "White or black?"
"What's today's date?"
He looked up at the thatched ceiling. "Middle of December." He added under his breath, "you've been gone since August."
She toyed with the cup in her pocket idly. "Black. Winter Solstice. What else is it called?"
"Yule? I don't know. It's when the old sun dies and the new one is born."
"Yes! Yes! Yes!" She danced around in a mad capo. "That is perfect!"
Keeping an eye on her from the corner of his eye, he selected a tiny black one that would hold the amount of tea leaves he had seen in the cup and a bit of whatever she would add to it. "This?"
She came over towards him frowning, but took the box without a word.
He had been with her for a long time now, since he had killed his last mentor when she no longer served him any purpose. The only thing this one did that he considered good, was she taught him all she knew about the dark arts. He knew what was expected of him. He knew how far he could push her and not incur retribution. She was still valuable to him. Smart this old hag was. He would find a way to get rid of her when the time came. He knew what he wanted and where he wanted to be. He would move up! He did it before. He would do it again.
"Hmm—-" tapping the box with a gnarled finger she was watching intently.
Noticing her scrutiny, he put a reign on his thoughts. He would have to be much more careful around her. Sometimes he forgot just how powerful she was. There definitely was more he could yet learn from her.
"Well?" She was glaring at him with those horrid slithering and soulless black eyes.
Frowning in concentration and reaching up, surprised that she needed another black box, he grabbed one that would hold about a cup and a half of material. "How about this?"
"You're a seer aren't you?"
Nodding he held the second box out to her.
"Then act like one and stop questioning me all the time! All this doubt, doubt, doubt!" She whirled her hand in the air.
Toad was more than a bit apprehensive whenever she exhibited her insane streaks, and watched her closely while holding the box out to her with a steady hand. She didn't take the box from him and instead was appearing to be counting the beams holding their roof up. Waiting a moment he set it down on the edge of the table in front of him and slowly pushed it with one finger closer to her. He wondered what she was up to. Where had she been these past nearly five months? Surely not just to get a silly cup!
No, he knew her better. She was working on something that bode ill for someone, if not a lot of someone's. He knew Numa to be a most ambitious being, who had an agenda she would kill to attain. Indeed she already had. Many times over. Her ever present pet ravens flew in through the open window alighting on the sill startling him. Squawking and jostling for position sensing something of interest was about to happen. They added to the sense of unease he was feeling.
Numa began chanting in an almost monotone sounds. The cup appeared out of her pocket again and setting it on the table she hefted a large black rock and began pulverizing the bit of china. Into finer and finer bits she ground it until all that was left of it was a fine powder. She stopped suddenly and looked at him with an intensity that held him transfixed.
"Ah Toad, the other half of you is what I am grinding! Do you realize that? And such a gift she gave me!" She began laughing at a joke that she thought only she knew. But what she didn't know was that Toad had been busy putting pieces together these last few months as well. She ignored him again pulling a cloth packet out of a different pocket. It looked like a wad of dirty fabric. Unwrapping it she began crooning softly. The ruckus her ravens were making made it all seem even more surreal. "This Toad, this is what has kept me away all these months."
All he could see was a fistful of rags wound around themselves like a ball.
"This was the elusive and tiny pet I needed to find to complete my spell. And now, now my little one has come home now hasn't it?" Softly she began crooning to it now oblivious to the boy in her presence.
Toad shivered hearing her eerie soliloquy. He watched in amazement, awe and fear as the rags that had bound the object in darkness fell to the floor of their own accord. A glowing charm pulsated with piercingly sharp red light in her hand.
Stroking it soothingly, she whispered. "Easy now my pet. Mustn't do my bidding too early. Follow the girl and together you and I will have the third son now won't we. You've some work to do my precious pet, you must find him."
Toad watched her uneasily yet listening intently. This felt very different than anything he had seen her do before. Evil emanated off of her in thick, almost strangling waves and the back of his neck bristled. Setting the wafer on the table in front of her almost tenderly, she reached into one of her deep pocket pulling out an intricate and beautifully carved wooden box. "Do you know what this is Toad?" She asked him never taking her eyes off the thing in her hand.
"No." He shook his head struggling to keep feelings of nausea entwined with fascination at bay.
"It's carved from the bones of those who have disobeyed me." She looked up then, her smile never reaching her eyes that were glittering like hard glass. Toad backed up a fraction of a step.
Sneering she gave him a knowing look. "Better not get any more bright ideas Toad." She cackled uproariously at her own humor. And then suddenly stilled. Returning her attention to the box and touching a corner she stroked one of the carved flowers. Twisting the carving, a hidden peg popped out of its floral center revealing a secret chamber.
Working quickly she pricked her finger with a thin knife that had been on the table. Squeezing out three drops of her dark blood, she allowed them to fall into the chamber one at a time. Setting the box down and fishing in her pocket again she pulled out a slender vial.
He watched her curiously.
Pulling the stopper from it with her teeth she tapped out its contents into her deformed and ancient looking hand.
Unable to stop himself he drew closer. A sliver of a red crystal like none he had ever seen quivered and hummed with a life force that made him feel instant dread. Whatever it was, it was most definitely alive!
Two strands of her hair she yanked from her head, rolling them into a tight little ball, carefully and with precision she pushed first her hair ball and then the pulsing sliver inside the hidden spot as well. Carefully she picked up pinches of the powdered teacup and filled all the gaps and fissures in the chamber with them.
Replacing the peg, she opened the lid of the peculiar box. Lining the inside of it was a thin layer of blood red velvet. Picking at a corner of the bottom lining she lifted it exposing raw bone. Tenderly she nestled the pulsating wafer shaped charm upon it and then took up some more pinches of the powdered teacup, dusting the wafer with it. Waving her hand the velvet moved back into place following her bidding, laying seamlessly upon the glowing charm, securely fastening itself to the box.
She motioned him to come closer.
Toad took a half step forward uncertainly.
"Now! Give me that!" she hissed at him pointing at the black marble box he had selected.
Picking it up, he reached across the table handing it to her.
Snatching it away from him, she nestled it within the bone box chanting softly. At once the bone and marble fused together. The box really did look as if it were entirely made of a dark exotic wood with exquisite craftsmanship.
Reaching in her pocket she pulled out a rattle made of teeth, bones, stones with holes in them, feathers, twisted bits of metal and a lot of things he didn't recognize. She began chanting, shaking it over the box. Her feet bare upon the packed dirt floor began stomping out a rhythm her anklets answered in chiming bells and tinkling bones. Her voice ancient and deep picked up tempo, chanting enticing archaic words that were older than the pillars of earth.
Reverently picking up the box and holding it high above her head she began dancing. With her eyes closed, she opened herself up to the dark magic and the beings that resided there, those whom she was summoning up with her blood, word and song.
Outside her little shack where she'd been banished, a small half-breed man waited cringing in apprehension and fear. His own malignant blood stirred within his veins feeling the power the crone was summoning up. It was chilling and he was truly frightened for what he would soon be carrying in his wagon. He, no stranger to the arts, being partially of Romani gypsy descent himself, knew that what he was feeling had to be of the darkest, most evil thing felt in these parts. Ever. The fruit that now lived in Ber' Sador had produced seed and he would be harboring it. He shuddered hearing the crones sudden high piercing shriek that echoed on in the dark preternatural stillness of the once beautiful, but now dead forest of Ber' Sador.
Whatever that black hearted witch of the Ber' Sador had been summoning was here now. He could feel it emanating from within the walls of the shack she lived in. Backing away from it he feared it intensely. Fervently he wished he could be anywhere but here, cursing himself for ever incurring an octogild with that evil witch. He had no choice. He owed Numa a payment that was being called upon with immediacy he had no control over. She had invoked the octogild, demanding an eight to one payment for an injury. He was sorrier than ever he had accidentally shot one of her ravens in trying to catch a squirrel. Not knowing it was a pet of the witch of the woods he had decided to cook it for dinner that night since the squirrel had run off. No sense in wasting it he remembered thinking at that time. It wasn't like game was plentiful in these parts anymore. A meal was a meal. Now all he could do was rue the day and wish that it had at least tasted better.
The silence grew and the feeling of complete and hideous terror began to slowly subside. Whatever she had been doing was now finished. All that was left was for someone to be crying. He had no doubt of it. The door was wrenched open suddenly.
"Payment time Calamus." Beckoning him to come to her she waited till he was closer before speaking. Her voice was hoarse with strained use. "You know what to do right?"
He nodded unable to speak. He could see that she was very weak, she had indeed invoked something almost too powerful for her to handle.
Numa held a box to her chest that yet dimly pulsed with her wicked intent. She looked even more hideous. He took an involuntary step backward.
"Come" she rasped motioning him with her hands in a frail sort of manner. "My ravens will see to it that you give this to the right person when the time is right. Do not eat another of my pets or else worse than this" she tapped the box "shall befall you and your descendant's for seven generations!" She knew that he would accomplish her task. She had affixed wards to the box as well, just in case the half-breed became squeamish and did not want to finish what he needed to do. She knew he would have no choice now but to see it through to the end. "Do not fail me or I will eat your eyes in my next night's soup and your teeth will chatter forever around my wrists fashioned as a bracelet.
The half breed bowed and held out a trembling hand.
"Fail me not half-breed for I shall know at that very breath if you do."
Tenderly, almost lovingly, she placed her hope for usurping her son and once again attaining the seat of Chief Seer of the Dark Lord of Old into Calamus's hands. "Go!"
Turning she went back into her twisted hovel without a backward glance. Calamus was alone with this putrescent thing that pulsed with unholy life in his hands. Quickly he tucked it safely in the back of his wagon, stashing it under piles of blankets and other boxes of oddities and needful things he peddled. Turning his wagon he began his long trek throughout all of Ber' Sador. Somewhere out there in this foul and crepuscular night there was a person who this box was crafted for. His job was to keep going until the person asked for it. Till the end of his own life if that was what was required.
Behind him he could hear her chanting again softly. Shuddering he looked up to see three of her many ravens looking down at him balefully with molten garnet eyes. He hurried out of this part of the forest with this profane trio as an escort close on his heels.
"That should work just fine now!" She was looking back at the door, a chilling and blood freezing smile on her face. "Where's Zale?"
The boy shrugged his shoulders and shook his head still in awe and fear of his newest teacher.
"You mean he hasn't been by? At all while I was gone?" Incredulously she peered closer at him ascertaining if he was lying to her.
"He came by once on the weekend of All Hallows Eve, but only asked if you were here. He looks different now that he has gone through the utter-death. Anything that may have been even remotely good in him is now gone, washed out completely. He was mightily angered that you were nowhere around, more so when I told him I didn't know where you were."
"Was he now." She looked up at the ceiling again for a moment. "He said nothing else, not where he was going?"
The boy shook his head no.
Numa got an idea, an inkling of what was up and looked as if she were going to come unhinged completely. "He's up to something!" she screeched. "I just know it! He is going to make a play for what is mine! MINE!" Her voice had reached such an eerie high pitch that dust motes danced down from the beams above their heads. "The vile traitor! I should never have trusted him!" She was shaking with her rage and the magic that she had invoked that yet clung to her. Hastily snatching her cloak off the peg on the wall she spun around pinning him with her insane rage. "Stay here Toad!"
And then the door slammed behind her as she left yet again. The boy watched it for a few moments and then reaching up, he took down another little black box. Within it he placed several pinches of the obliterated teacup that had been his sisters and tucked the box into his pocket. There was no way he was going to stay around the unstable and from what he could tell, a most senile witch for one more day. No matter what she could teach him! Besides, he had learned the last piece of a puzzle that had been eluding him. Now he was going to go out and get it his own share of the wealth!