Frigid water splashed over me and I jolted awake. I winced as my arms failed to move, something restricting them behind my back. My breath came out in gasps as the water dripped down my back and hair, pooling around me.

My legs were splayed out in front of me on top of the waterproof cloth. I started shivering as the three people around me glared down. Barick was holding the doll in his iron glove. Alisa had a hand open towards me and Daral sat in the back, still covered in mud.

“Awake?” Barick asked.

My head still spun from the sword impact. I struggled to pull my arms forward, but the binding was too tight.

Barick squatted down in my line of sight and held out the doll. “This seems important to you, I can’t tell what curse it is, but”—he put the doll up to my face—“there's an uncanny resemblance.”

“If you answer our questions, we’ll think about giving it back to you,” Alisa said.

Everything was wrong. I was supposed to be back at Trissa’s house. Not here.

“But before that, we must inform you that you are under arrest for theft of confiscated property and initiating harm on a knight…apprentice,” Daral said. The other two looked at him, but he shrugged and held his hands up. “Them's the rules. Even for witches.”

“What is this?” Barick asked, turning back to me.

I wet my lips and regretted it after tasting blood and dirt. My head was pounding and words slipped away from me. “Please…please don’t damage it.”

“If you don’t want that to happen you’re going to have to cooperate. Alisa over there saw you holding the key, The curses don't affect you?”

I nodded meekly.

“Can you handle the book? Read the language they’re in?”

Another nod.

“Alisa, bring her bindings to the front.”

“I swear if you try bite me again I’ll smack you.”

Alisa loosened the binding around my wrist, but I couldn’t tell if I was able to move my arms or not. When they were brought forward I and re-tied with a metallic thread I watched them move, and still couldn’t feel them.

“Read this.”

Barick placed a book in my hands. It was awkward to read with my wrists pushed together but I knew this book already. “It’s about medicinal herbs and making tinctures.”

I let the book fall into my lap.

“Can you two start floating all the books down here? I’ll convince her to be a bit more forthright on what we already have.”

Daral grumbled while getting up from his seat. “If the Captain actually told us what we were doing here this would go a lot quicker.”

“Maybe we should go get her?” Alisa said.

“Do you people not understand the opportunity that’s just placed itself in our grasp?” Barick said and stood. “Annalise randomly picked us cause she was in a hurry and we happened to be there. You’ve seen how she and Ian have been, this is big and if we solve it, that could mean guaranteed selection for the ducal knights after school. And all for the price of wringing out some knowledge from one nasty little witchling.”

“What’s stopping her from forgetting to mention our contribution,” Alisa asked. “It’s not like she appreciates hard work. Been running us ragged this past week to get here without a word of thanks.”

“...She’s having a party with the Mayor, we take the information and show off the witch he missed and they’ll have to include us in the report,” Barick said.

“I’m not a witch.”

“Well you’ve got no mana, so you’re not a mage and only witches can use magic besides us,” Barick said and turned to Alisa. “Are you sure she had no charms on her? She doesn’t feel empty, I can’t even sense her while staring right at her.”

“No charms, maybe a ritual. I think they would have told us in class if it was a thing inherent to witches,” Alisa said. “Though, I also don’t remember them being able to cast spells.”

“She wasn’t,” Daral said. “That thing with the mud was just mana being thrown around, like a very large version of free casting.”

“I think it was the same with the wind,” Alisa said. “I thought she was a mage throwing air blasts at the time.”

“We saw how there were two sets of everything in the hut, we should have expected another one,” Barick said. “This was probably the start of another coven.”

All three grimaced and ignored me as I mumbled that I wasn’t a witch. The two went off to start gathering the other books in the cottage while Barick turned back to me.

“Are you sure this is only a medicinal book? Sounds quite benign for a witch.”

I repeated that I wasn’t a witch, but nodded, that really was it.

“I’m going to need to confirm that,” Barick said and placed the doll slowly in his other hand. When nothing happened with the curse he started to build up mana and tie it together. “See, I’m not too sure what lightning is going to do to this thing, who knows, might end up damaging it.”

The spell was cast and I saw the miniature lightning bolts arch across the doll's smooth skin before the pain hit.

I screamed as my muscles locked up. Each part of the body the bolts jumped to burned harsher than anything I’d suffered while cooking. I writhed on the ground before my body slumped down on the mat, my face in the pool of water splashed on me.

“What the fuck was that?” Barick said while leaning over me. He placed his fingers against my wrist and lifted my shirt to look at my back. “You don’t have any burns on you…you only felt the pain.”

I wasn’t sure if my nod was perceptible, but he stood and paced while examining the doll.

He came back to hold the book to my face. “Is this really only a medicinal book?”

I nodded. He cast the spell again and repeated the question. I nodded.

He left to get another book. I lay in the puddle of water that had turned a murky reddish colour. The pain was gone as soon as the spell stopped. I slowly sat up.

It was the good part of the doll’s workings, no leftover pain to prevent me from doing my task.

He dropped another book in my hands with his iron glove. This was the one from another witch about poison. I said as much without opening the book which he didn’t appreciate. I read the first two pages as he held the doll up as a threat.

Alisa and Daral came back with a bunch of floating books and asked what the scream was about. Barick explained what the doll was which intrigued Daral, but Alisa made her feelings of it being creepy very clear.

“Interrogation is allowed if the information you’re trying to get is time-sensitive,” Barick said. There was a long back and forth on how time-sensitive the information really was since they had no idea what they were looking for. The point on how quickly they had rushed here couldn’t be refuted.

He didn’t cast the shocking grasp again as I read out more and more of the books. Most they threw to the side, but a few were kept in the maybe pile.

Next was one of Mother’s personal journals she always wrote in. I refused to read it before because of what it might have said about me. I refused to read it now.

Barick shocked me and my weak refusal crumbled.

“Name, Jagor Tylul. Request provided, potion to ward off spiders. Payment, bar of silver. Contingency, partial Vow of secrecy.”

“Read another one,” Barick asked. All three of them were now focusing on me instead of elsewhere.

“Name, Jonathan Whitikar. Request provided, healing tincture for daughter. Payment, sugar. Contingency, partial Vow of secrecy.”

They made me read the whole thing with Daral occasionally writing down some of the information that involved poison or cursed objects.

“Name, Vince Riker. Request prov—”

“Fuck.” “Read that again!”

“Shut up,” Daral said with his pencil hovering over a page.

“Request provided, recipe and healing tincture for mana poisoning. Payment,”—the words were weird and didn’t make sense, so I said it as normally as I could—“A seed, journals on witchcraft, various ingredients, cloaking enchantment. Contingency, Vow of secrecy, Willing acceptance of Curse of retaliation spanning anyone under his influence.”

They huddled together around Daral's writing for a long while. I was exhausted, my head drooping against my chest. The pain from the shocks wasn’t there, yet I still imagined the arches of lightning jumping across my body. I touched the side of my head and winced, sticky dark red blood coated my already grubby fingers when I pulled my hand away.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“She hesitated part way through, this is what Annalise is looking for, we have to make sure,” Barick said.

“We already have it, let’s go get her and we can head back to the duke,” Alisa said.

“We don’t have the cure yet, but Ian might be able to make one. It makes sense why we brought that fussy alchemist with us now,” Barick said.

“Girl, what’s the cure for the retaliation curse,” Barick asked me. I knew what it was. It was extremely simple, but impossible for anyone to obtain without Mother’s approval—or mine, now that she was gone. There would be no point if anyone could remove it.

“You said you’d give me the doll if I helped.”

“We’re not finished yet.”

I thrashed about as the jolt hit me. “I…don’t…know about a cure. I’m…not a witch.”

It was the final thing of value I could trade. I couldn’t let them have it for nothing.

Three spells later Daral was shouting at him to stop.

“What? You’ve done far worse to people in duels and this isn’t even maiming her. Look at her, it’s only a moment of pain. This thing probably doesn’t even transfer all of it. Not everyone is top of the ladder with a guaranteed spot, Alisa and I need this, Daral. She’ll be executed for being part of the coven after all of this anyway.”

“Yes, tell the only person here and possibly the whole duchy who can read this shit that they’re going to be executed,” Alisa snarked.

“Does it honestly matter when we have this?” Barick asked with the doll held up.

“I don’t think she knows the cure, there might not even be one. The sun is starting to set, let's get through the gate and to Annalise before it closes. We have what she probably came all the way out here for, she’ll be grateful and put in a good word with her father.”

My body was limp. It was over for me. I desperately didn’t want to see Trissa and her parents' reaction to the accusation. I didn’t want to see them dismiss me when I told them I wasn’t.

Mother had always made it clear never to mention witches, but the past week had shown me clearly why she said that. Something involving a coven and the capital had poisoned everyone against them, or rather us as everyone seemed to believe.

“She planned to spend the whole week here, so I think it’s fine to sit on this till morning,” Daral said.

“Camp out in the mud all night with a witch? We don’t even know if that iron is working, it’s made for mages,” Alisa said.

“Maybe the mayor is involved, these names probably all live in town, it’s better to wait for the captain to come back here in the morning and plan from there.”

“All the more reason to catch him off guard, he might run after Annalise asks about the witch,” Barick said. “Let's take it to a vote. All those in favour of taking the witchling and information to her now raise a hand,”—Barick and Alisa raised their hand—“motion passed.”

“I still think we’re rushing things,” Daral said. “And since when are the knights a democracy?”

They ignored his grumblings as Barick handed off the doll to Alisa who held it at arm's length. He grabbed me around my waist and hoisted me over his shoulder. It dug into my stomach, but I didn’t have the stamina to care. I huddled inside my mind and tried to block everything out.

My hair, which had been untied at some point, curtained out most of the sights, so all I saw was the cloak on Barick’s back and the ground he walked on. It fell all the way to his knees and swished back and forth and back and forth with each step.

At some point I was laid over one of the horses with my hands and legs dangling over the side. He was annoyed I wasn’t cooperating enough to sit up. My body tensed for the pain, but Alisa didn’t seem to think that was worth it.

The horse didn’t like the way I smelt.

Forest floor changed to dirt which changed to gravel and then cobble. With each change, my mind retreated further away and my chest grew tighter. I didn’t want Trissa to hate me.

Annalise Riker

It was strange being around people who said my title of captain with reverence and respect. Papa didn’t seem to understand the consequences when he gave it to me. He just wanted to spend more time with me, have someone he could trust, and who already knew the ins and outs of the palace. It also helped that I was powerful enough to fit the role’s purpose.

The others didn’t care about the reasons. They saw a young graduate getting a position they coveted because of her family. I had made the mistake of trying to appease them by saying it was fine to call me Annalise. Now everyone did unless Papa was around.

Most of the adults and youngsters at the table were mages and could sense my mana. I had a charm to conceal its true amount, but they still understood it deserved respect. The others respected my relation to the duke, but that was fine.

The town itself was quaint and lively. People had actually stopped to talk to each other instead of shuffling and pushing past.

I pushed around the fresh fruit on my plate. The dessert would have been expensive back in Drasda, but here in…Ulasa it probably got picked from the back garden and was valued as much as the seeds.

The Mayor was all smiles except for when the issue of the witch was brought up. He shook his fist and lamented on how awful it was to find one of the ‘vial creatures’ near the town, but there was more he wasn’t saying. Casting a truth spell would have been rude and illegal— I wanted to anyway.

I also wanted to be back at the witch hut we had found cloaked in the forest when we arrived, but I was stuck here with Ian and company. This was meant to be a short meeting, however, the Mayor had turned it into a whole event. Dismissing mayors who may one day become a barron we needed to vote us into staying duke wasn’t a politically sound idea, so here I was.

Papa had been fine when I left, bedridden but fine. The healers were treating the symptoms, though the cause needed to be stopped sooner rather than later. It had taken a week to realise it wasn’t a normal sickness and instead a curse.

Only witches dealt in curses. Witches that had been hunted down after the events of the Night of the Last King. One being executed right when he fell ill was too much of a coincidence.

Despite not being able to take the train even part way since it would have taken longer to walk the rest than to ride the full distance, we had made good time.

“Is the fruit not to your taste?” Malisa asked.

I shook my head. “It’s perfectly suitable, I was just concerned about the apprentices I left to camp out near the witch's domicile.”

Her smile dipped slightly but stayed plastered on her face. “I’m sure they’ll be fine. The mayor has seen to the witch’s removal and the forest is home to nothing bigger than deer.”

Cragar Hasting nodded along to that last part. I hadn’t been sure why a hunter and tailor were here till I heard and recognised the last name. Hasting was a well-liked baron and her younger sister was worth getting to know for someone pursuing the title themselves.

I was more worried about them getting cursed than any animal. I’d left them to cleanse some of the items and while I didn’t expect them to accomplish all of it, I did expect third years not to get themselves cursed.

The three apprentice knights I had snagged wouldn’t have been my first choice—except for possibly Daral—but I had been in a rush. Looking back I could have planned better, brought a change of horses, more provision, more of the knights.

Only the commander and a few captains were privy to the information Papa gave us about his dealings with this particular witch, so I was out here to gather information while they explored other options and coordinated protection.

Ian was a good pick to drag down here despite his whining. He’d been disappointed to learn the witch’s body had already been burnt and scattered across a field far away from town. At least his sour mood was abated by a ‘civilised meal.'

The whispered gossip of the three girls sitting down and across from me was far more interesting than the conversations others tried to drag me into. Oh, I could talk about trade routes, tariffs, taxes, and exchange rates all day, but it didn’t mean I wanted to.

I had a noninvasive spell active to float the words from them to my ear. There were a few trained images like the mayor, his mother, and the Iraya family, but unless they were watching for it the minuscule amount of mana to tie together the spell should have gone unnoticed.

The two boys at the table with untapped mana couldn’t seem to make up their minds if they were admiring or glaring at the girls. I had to hide my smile behind a napkin when the story of each of the boys being bested by them and another girl was whispered amongst the three.

There was a small commotion coming from the open balcony door and I cancelled the spying spell to prepare a shield in case of an attack. Horse’s hooves clip-clopped across cobblestone and into the courtyard. I had a sinking feeling one of my apprentices would need saving from some creature—again. They seemed to baby the students more and more every year, though some of the veterans also said that about my year.

I controlled my breathing and heart rate as I waited for the reason why all three of them were now in the courtyard. The others hadn’t seemed to notice. It was annoying, and sometimes painful, to push and hold mana in my eardrums to enhance my hearing, but it was worth it.

Barick and a member of the town's watch came through a door opened by one of the two house servants. I had expected a worried or anxious expression, but he was in surprisingly high spirits.

Everyone watched him drag mud across the wooden floor as he walked up to me near the head of the table. He stopped, almost forgot to salute and ended up handing me a paper and holding his other palm to his chest at the same time.

I unfolded the paper with mud splatter and water droplets on it.

I read it and read it again.

“You got this from the hut?” I asked, surprised but impressed.

“Somewhat, the witchling we captured helped translate it for us,” Barick said with a proud look he directed to the mayor. “Turns out you missed one.”

You didn’t capture witches, even witchlings that easily. The reason it happened here, according to the mayor, was because she was comfortable here and wasn't expecting it. They had thought the woman simply liked living in the forest until word from the local baron came through—utter horse shit.

“Sorry everyone, I need to head back to the forest to handle this,” I said and stood up.

“No need, we brought her here, maybe the mayor could help identify her?” Barick said.

“I don’t think that would be necessary,” I said

I ground my teeth together, how could it possibly help us to include a civilian in this mess? I hated that he and the other apprentices already knew the real reason we were here. But as knight aspirants, they’d keep it secret. The mayor could be another story.

So many people thought it was okay to tell just one person. The problem was, everyone thought that way.

“I think I’d like to come along and see what the young man has caught in my town,” William Grath said.

It was polite but I didn’t like the use of ‘my town.’ This was still a part of the duchy and under knights' jurisdiction. I nodded anyway, better to not raise tension at this point. I was going to hit Barick with a spell the second he thought about mentioning anything related to the duke.

My anxiety increased as we went down the stairs, but I worked hard to keep my face impassive and heart rate steady.

I wanted to ring Barick’s neck and choke the answers I wanted out of him. The mayor, and my last shred of self-control, was the only thing stopping me. I was going to have him on latrine duty for the next ten years unless this managed to cure Papa, then I might have thought about reducing it till he graduates.

Outside the double doors to the courtyard were the other two apprentices with Alisa holding a weird doll. The horses had walked to the flowerbeds with Daral and a second officer of the watch had their crossbow loaded and pointed at a corpse.

The body of a small girl was face down in the wet grass, her long black hair covered in mud and spread out over her face. Ambient mana had already seeped into the corpse and hid the body, that was supposed to be vacant of mana, from my senses.

My heart dropped and I looked to Barick for some kind of explanation beyond them being suspected of witchcraft. That feeling worsened when I thought of this person being the only one who could have helped Papa.

I was too distracted to realise the mages in the dining room had been moving onto the balcony, which probably meant everyone was on the balcony.

“Valeria?! What did you do—”

The screams of one of the girls rang out from the balcony before being muffled.

The corpse twitched and curled in on itself.