For the fourth time this week, Amy woke up to loud children.

“Shhh! She’ll hear us!” A nasally voice practically screamed, right next to her window. It was accompanied by the whispered complaints of younger children and the shuffling of impatient anticipation. Right. Next. To. Her. Window.

Slow and methodical, Amy got out of her small bed, and put on yesterday’s clothes that were strewn about the bedroom. It was a simple blouse and cotton pants, only a bit stained by some dirty work. The jacket and large-brim straw hat also framed her long chestnut hair well, and made her dull green eyes pop. Although she hated being woken up like this, she’d learned to put on a bit of a show to eke some enjoyment out of it. That show sadly included playing the part of the Witch.

She followed the not-so-quiet children through the wooden walls of her abode, past her bedroom and into the kitchen. For a house for someone like her, it was surprisingly small, taking almost no time at all to cross the full length of the house and reach the front door. It was just as the voices were arguing who would knock that Amy put on a fake evil grin and barged the door wide open. Their shocked screams made that smile just a little more real.

“It’s the Witch!” One of the younger children gasped.

“Who dares disturb my rest? Was it you?” Amy loomed over them, looking pointedly at the one who just spoke.

“N-no!”

“Oh? So all of you delicious little children just happened to be on my doorstep this morning?” Amy grinned, licking her lips.

“We ain’t do nothin’, miss!” One of the older ones croaked out, causing them to roll their eyes.

“Lies! You thought you could sneak past little old me?”

“No, we-”

“You’re lucky I’m feeling merciful today, so flee! Flee before I change my mind and eat you!”

“Run!” The youngest yelled, fleeing immediately. The majority followed that one and scampered off, leaving only them, the true culprits, behind.

The nasally kid with his awful haircut stood front and centre, always so proud to disrupt her rest. His older sister stood to the side, smugly watching the play with pleasure, while the oldest of the bunch scowled at the back. Only a couple children still remained, too young to understand why this was happening, stuck between fright and delight.

“What do you want then?” Amy asked, letting her smile fall as she crossed her arms, anxiety building.

“Nothing much, Witch, just some compensation,” The nasally kid provoked, his voice making it sound like he was calling her something else. Sometimes Amy wondered if he ever did.

“And what, exactly, would this ‘compensation’ be for, Alex?”

“You know what, bitch.” Alice, Alex’s older sister, grinned, definitely calling her something else on purpose.

“No I don’t actually. Now, if you don’t mind, I have some work to go about doing,” Amy lied, closing the door and trying to push past the mob. It was the oldest, Rupert, that stopped her, using his height to block her way.

“You should go back to where you belong, Witch, before we force you to,” Rupert sneered, “You don’t want that, do you?”

Amy didn’t answer, moving past him by going through the children. They complained, but they were too afraid of the Witch to put up too much protest. At least Rupert didn’t escalate, as he always got a bit too scary when he did. Amy only had enough courage to deal with the other two today.

“You still need to pay up, bitch!”

“You’re gonna pay eventually, Witch!”

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The siblings continued their petulant complaints right up until Amy was out of sight, only Rupert deciding not to say more. Her quaint house was surrounded by trees so as soon as she had lost them, she sprinted behind one of the larger ones, sliding down its bark and onto the ground.

Amy had gotten too close to breaking down in front of them there for her liking, which made her sobbing worse than normal. Guilt and anxiety raged a war inside her mind, while her body shivered uncontrollably. The only comfort was her own warm arms wrapped around her head, and the rough bark and moist ground shielding her from the world.

It was a shame too, Amy remarked, detached from the situation, that the forest was particularly beautiful that day. Last night’s showers had invigorated the woods with new life, and the smell of fresh humidity was oddly comforting, not at all smothering. Brilliant light patterned by the leaves above helped distract her better than her usual methods, her panic attack calming down after only a minute.

As she allowed herself time to breathe, laying down under that tree, hoping that they didn’t see her, she caught a whiff of something in the air. The familiar twinge of something strange that haunted every forest she had ever visited. Yet, for some reason, it was especially prominent here, in this wood by the village. It was the smell of radiant springtime.

An odd smell to be sure, considering that it didn’t really exist. It was ‘fake’, a product of her mind trying to comprehend something outside of her world; the synesthesia of unreality, as she had always put it.

Faster than a blink, a single thought was all that was needed to prompt her being to open up to the Ocean, her senses, sight most of all, instantly overwhelmed. Strange colours flittered past, following unseen currents, imbued with concepts, with Elements. Silent sounds boomed in her eardrums, forcing her attention to whatever stream resonated with the world the closest. Tastes of nothing further enriched her understanding of what she was trying to comprehend. And then it was all washed away, as the world of mana refocused, constraining itself to fit Amy’s world rather than its own.

Mana was like that; caring and kind to all who wished to witness, even to those who didn’t quite deserve it.

In the imprisoned painting of the world, one fragrance of mana stuck out among all others, even outshining Nature itself. It had no name, yet Amy knew it was primal, an evermoving dance of emerald aurora that swam through the sky in rivers. It was especially potent today, it seemed, as the wood was saturated in the Element from ground to canopy. And, oddly enough, it had a direction.

Wait, what-? Amy could hardly form a proper thought before the tsunami arrived. Green swallowed the forest whole, faster than the eye could see. Intermixed with the wave were vacuums of nothing like invisible creatures running along the stream’s current. The wood was silent in the green’s wake, all drowned out by the all-consuming viridescence. It was all she could do with the time she had before it hit, seeking desperate shelter behind that tree, hoping that she would be safe. And then it was over. The green swarm had came and went, harming nothing in its wake.

Amy pulled herself up from the tree’s cover cautiously, hands shaking, eyes glancing back and forth. The mana of the wood was strangely undisturbed, but there was no green mana left; it had all been swept up in the storm. The forest itself wasn’t only undisturbed but it was like nothing had happened in the first place: the birds continued their singsong, the leaves their rustling; and the world returned to colour.

“...What?”

Was-, was that a Spell? A mana beast turned monster? Maybe even a Mage fight! Amy’s mind scrambled to find an answer to what she had witnessed, But a fight that could cause something like that had to be at Archmage-level, right? Maybe even a Monarch… Here though? Nevermind, too unlikely. The Monarchs have ‘better’ things to do. The same could be said though for an Archmage- Wait, Mind Magicks!

Fumbling a ring out from her jacket pocket, she slipped it onto her finger as quickly as she could. With her will, a small drop of mana became visible to her from the Ocean, drawn to her by her Magecraft. She imbued it into the ring and activated one of its enchantments: Mind Blank. A blanket of suffocating security fell over her shoulders as Amy felt the ring’s imbued Spell take effect, sealing her mind from the world, and from itself.

If there are Archmages then they definitely know Mind Spells, Amy reasoned, taking it slow and careful after the Mind Blank’s dumbing effects took its toll on her thoughts, And I certainly don’t want to be hunted down through Detect Thoughts.

Amy took a few seconds or so searching the Ocean once more for any signs of that wave returning and found nothing, not even a glimpse of any disturbance in the mana currents. Either the fight is won or something has gone terribly wrong. Wrong enough to need… investigating…

Panic and guilt returned with a vengeance, shock no longer allowing her peace. It had always come back to this, the need to ‘investigate’, to dream up scenarios to play hero in. But… this might actually need looking into; not like that one. And he’s at the village, so they should be safe if he noticed it too.

So, with an unsteady resolve, Amy calmed her shaking the best she could and marched forth, in the direction of the disturbance, unaware of how it would change the trajectory of her life.