“I'm gonna be honest with you Dani, you might be the worst teacher on earth,” Anna said, gesturing to herself with both her hands. “And my mom homeschooled me, I would know.”

“For the last time, I’m not a bad teacher,” I hiccupped. “ You are literally incapable of learning it. You are a bad student.”

“Hey.” Anna said to me.

“Yes?” I answered.

“Fuck you.” A vicious smile spread across her face and we both broke into laughter.

Sometime after I had taken another drink, I had lost count of how many times I had attempted to explain aura to her. I would tell her what I knew, step by step, and then she would try to do it. In what was possibly the most predictable outcome in the history of attempts, she hadn’t been able to find her aura.

It took us longer than it should to stop laughing. Anna’s face had reddened as she drank. That blush, combined with the light sparkling in her dark eyes, it almost looked like she was glowing.

You're never going to see her again. My laughter tapered off into a sigh.

"Thank you for this." I said, the words coming out much more serious than I had intended.

Anna stopped laughing, but her good humor did not leave her face. "For what? Getting you drunk and making you repeat yourself? This is for me."

“I am not drunk.” I insisted. Although, I did feel good. The warmth that filled my belly kept any thought of the small terrors I had witnessed recently from having the power to stay in my mind. The four eyed familiar that had greeted me with bared teeth the last time I had been in the woods was no threat. It had been night time when I encountered it. Anna and I had nothing but sunlight. The lich had found me within The Well. I was very much outside of my mind. We had walked far enough into the woods that Mrs. Mole and her horrific story about how large Mr. Mole had been was no danger to me. I knew those things had happened and I knew they wouldn’t up and disappear, but in that moment, all that mattered to me was being with my friend.

Maybe, I was drunk.

Anna brought my focus back to her, pushing the bottle back into my hand. "One more and then I want to hear it all again."

I obliged, glad that the burning had vanished somewhere between my third and fourth drink.

"Remember," I hiccupped again and passed the bottle back. "It is impossible for you to learn how to do this," I held my breath to try and stop the hiccups. Once I thought they were gone, I began my poor explanation again. "First, you have to find your aura. It is,"

"I know, I know. I got that part. How did you find yours?" Anna interrupted me, she hadn't asked that before.

I had to think. "I, uhm, I don't remember," It sounded like a lie when the words passed through my lips, but it wasn't. I had no memories from before I had stolen The Well. There must have been a time when I was younger that I was not in contact with it, but that time was lost to me. "As far back as I can remember, I've always been able to find it."

"You better not be lying to me Dani, I can read you like a book," Anna raised one of her eyebrows and pointed a finger at me. Then, she continued. "Alright, the second emelent."

"The second element is channeling your aura. There are five channels that aura can be manifested through."

"Yours is your hand, right?" Anna asked the second new question.

"Wrong, mine is my navel," I pulled my shirt up and pointed to the seal over my stomach. Nine interlaid circles, each a reminder of the damage I had inflicted and the debt I had incurred to each of the Mothers, surrounded my navel in a pattern as unbreakable as it was beautiful. "This keeps me from channeling."

Anna crossed her arms. "That doesn't make any sense. If it's supposed to come out of your belly button but that thing keeps you from doing it, then how did you do it from your hand?"

While it was natural for palms or soles to be able to channel through each of their hands and feet, I had never heard of a navel opening a secondary channel. "I don't know," I said, shrugging my shoulders. Hiccup. A shiver ran through my body. "Is it getting colder?"

Dark, heavy, clouds had rolled in above us. What had been an open blue sky that morning had become a moody gray sometime since my first explanation. It wasn't worthless, she had asked questions that I needed to find answers to and I hadn't thought about anything other than her and what we were doing for some time.

"No, I'm perfectly warm. You're just skin and bones." She replied, taking another drink.

"Element three," I continued. "Is manifesting your aura through your channel. Which, just so you remember, I have only done twice and both times were this morning,"

"Go on." Anna said.

"There is nowhere further for me to go. That is the extent of my knowledge.”

Anna slid towards me until our knees touched. "I've got another question. Why do you have that thing on your stomach?"

I knew the answer to that. I thought about it everyday. My skin was marked and my power suppressed because I was a thief. I had been punished and confined to reduce the danger I posed to the Mothers. They could have wrenched The Well from my mind and left me empty headed or dead, but they had been merciful and allowed me the opportunity to repay my debt and retain my life.

"Because I did something bad." I said, looking down at the leaves under our legs.

"Is that why you're here? Is that why you ran away?" She asked. I could feel her looking at me.

"It is the reason for the reasons." I muttered, suddenly feeling my good mood receding.

I hadn’t told her I had run away. Was it that obvious?

Anna grabbed my hands "Hey, quit that shit. I'm not letting you get all sad. I don't know what bad thing you did but that doesn't make you bad."

I looked up at her. If she knew what I had done to her mother, would she still say that? If she knew that she had never seen my face and that she didn't even know my real name, she would probably never want to see me again. Tell her. The thought came to my mind and I didn't disagree with it. Leaving her would be that much easier if she learned the truth and hated me for it.

I looked back up and met her eyes. Our faces were so close together. I remembered how my aura had glimmered on her lips back in the bathroom.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” She didn’t back away.

“I. . .Hiccup.”

The sky broke open and the rain came all at once, hard enough that the cover the trees provided could do nothing to keep us from getting drenched immediately.

Mr. Bill Argus had been right.

"Oh fuck." I screamed the heavy droplets stinging my skin as they impacted.

Anna scrambled to her feet, pulling me up with her. "Did you do this?" She asked, her face set into a serious expression.

Shielding my face with my hands, I raised my voice against the din. “This has all been an elaborate plot just to get you soaking wet.”

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

The rain got harder, filling the woods with a low roar.

"Alright, fuck this. Let's go." Anna said, pulling her jacket over her head and turning towards the direction of the house.

I followed behind her.

Walking through the woods had been much easier when all the water in the sky wasn't trying to beat you into the ground. Every step had the potential to make you slip. The gullies we had so effortlessly crossed on our way in became treacherous descensions and near impossible ascensions. Even though we were moving much faster, it took us twice the amount of time to get out as it had for us to go in. We rushed through the back door, bringing the leaves, mud, and rain in with us.

"I've got to serve dinner, are you hungry?" Anna asked me, shivering just as hard as I was.

My stomach groaned just as she asked the question. I lied. "I ate earlier."

Anna rolled her eyes. "No you didn’t. I know you didn’t."

I don't know if it was because I was wet and freezing, the emptiness in my stomach, or because I was drunk, but my answer came out of my chattering teeth in a breathless stream. "I am starving. I haven't had a proper meal in a month and a half but I would rather not eat than risk being around other people."

Anna patted me on my cheek. "Much better. Go to your room and get warm. I'll be up in a bit."

She didn't wait for me to agree, leaving me dripping at the foot of the stairs. She disappeared into the kitchen, leaving a trail of wet footsteps in her wake.

With nothing else to do, I did what she told me to.

When I turned to climb the last set of stairs to my door, I hesitated. The yellow light that hung from a chain swayed as if something had just brushed against it. Having not spent very much time examining the stairwell in my time at the boarding house, I didn't know if that was unusual. Maybe there was a draft and because of the wind that had blown the rainstorm in, the light had been disturbed. Maybe, the Lich had returned and was moving through the walls, waiting on me to drop my guard so it could do to me what it had done to Uma. Only when my teeth began to chatter again did I force myself to move. I unlocked my door and let it swing inward.

The only monster that greeted me was Sam. He sat in the column of light I had let into the dark room. "I will hunt."

Shit. I thought. I had told him we were leaving when I got back but I hadn't found the words to tell Anna goodbye yet.

I walked in and shut the door behind me, locking it even though I knew Anna would be up soon.

I pulled off my waterlogged boots and piled my soaked clothes on top of them. Ignoring my familiar, I ran for the bathroom, shut the door, and unraveled the shower curtain from its rod for the first time since I had taken residence in the boarding house.

Running from the cold, I took a shower.

The water was blistering hot but I still checked the knob that controlled the temperature several times to make sure I couldn’t force any more heat out. The water pressure was poor but after nothing but baths for a month and a half, it felt nice. I stayed in, letting it beat against my head and my shoulders until the water ran cold. I turned it off and got out. Sam was not in the bathroom. Apparently, he had been able to tell I was not entering The Well.

I wondered how long it would be before I would hear my familiar’s questions again. Even after I settled somewhere else, how was I supposed to make myself enter The Well knowing the lich could be waiting for me?

I left the bathroom in two clean towels and a cloud of steam.

The smell filled my nose immediately.

Anna sat cross legged on the edge of my bed, wearing a thin tank top and shorts just like the pair I had stolen. She froze with a spoon full of something that could only be delicious halfway to her mouth and nodded towards a large bowl on the dresser. She took her bite.

It was silly but I went back to the bathroom, where Anna couldn't see me, and changed into my sweater and shorts. I left the towel on my head and hurried over to the bowl. Chunks of meat and potatoes and carrots broke through the surface of the thick broth. Two hand sized pieces of bread, half saturated in the warm liquid, jutted out from the bowl.

I almost cried.

When I drank the last sip of the broth and rendered the bowl empty, a pang of regret wracked my chest as I wished I had taken more time to enjoy the best meal I had ever had.

"That was disgusting." Anna said, smiling. In the heat of the moment, I had forgotten she was there.

"I am sorry," I said, embarrassed. "I wish you had not seen me like that.”

“There is more, I can go down and get you another bowl when I finish eating."

I knew in my heart I could eat until it was gone, but the last thing I should do was acquire more debt to her. “No. I’m full.”

“Sure,” Anna turned up her own bowl and finished the last of her broth. She stood and took my bowl from the dresser. "As strange as it feels to say this, your cat asked me to open the window so he could hunt."

I looked at the window, with the exception of a small crack that I thought Sam could fit through, it was mostly closed.

The shower and the meal took hold of me and I went and laid down on the bed. I yawned, the exhalation stretching through my whole body.

"I'll be right back," Anna said. "I'll bring you more bread too."

"Thank you." I yawned again.

Before she took the stairs, she turned back to me. “I know you’re some kind of crazy runaway and it seems like you haven’t had it easy, but I want you to know I’m on your side, alright?”

“Alright.” I nodded.

I watched her leave and was asleep before she returned.

Nearly all the snow that had piled atop the dark fur cloak my guide had insisted on draping over me had melted from the warmth of the small fire when the outrider appeared on the far side of the mountain summit, signaling the arrival of my opponent.

I had held no hope for him not showing, I only wished he would have arrived an hour later.

I had just gotten warm.

"Violence approaches, Ten-Moons. Does your blood grow hot with the fires of Hezbelthorag?" The gargantuan man sitting on the stone beside me rasped. Having given me his cloak shortly after we had arrived at the proving grounds, he wore only a cloth to cover his crotch, leaving every scar covered inch of his skin exposed to the frigid temperatures. Every flake of snow that touched his skin melted on its landing.

"Gresh, I insist that you call me by my proper name. I am a diplomat," My guide had steadfastly refused to call me anything but the nickname he had coined for me after I had used my aura to shorten our trek to half its original length by cleaving a path through the mountains side. The loss I had taken would not be replenished in time for my duel. "And no, I do not."

"Ah, you will. Scarl has not descended from his frozen throne but once in my life and he comes to face you. I have killed for less. Hezbelthorag will surely bless you, Ten-Moons." The man growled, ignoring my demand with a wicked smile that shone through his bushy red beard.

Not a moment later, a group of men appeared on the far side of the summit.

If Gresh was gargantuan, the man who would be my opponent could barely be considered human. Even from the distance we were at, the other men walking beside him looked like his toys, small enough in comparison to him that he could have clutched one in each palm and thrown them about if a tantrum took him.

Gresh stood. "Come."

We left the warmth of the fire behind and met my opponent and his retinue halfway across the snow covered summit.

If I was not who I was, I would have felt terribly vulnerable being led by a man almost double my own height.

Gresh dropped to one knee and bowed his head. I did as he did, though none of my information had suggested a bow was necessary.

“Well met Fatier.” Gresh growled.

“Mine own son, rise.” My opponent said in a voice that carried the same harshness of the winter winds whipping the snow into flurries around us.

King Scarl, mightiest of the Hezbelths, was my guide's father?

Gresh was a prince.

I almost laughed.

I’d found him sleeping off a drunk in a barn on top of a mound of hay.

“Ten-Moons, stand up.” Prince Gresh whispered to me as he rose.

We had kneeled close enough together that I felt him grab the fabric of my dress through the thick fur of his cloak and pull me to my feet.

King Scarl didn’t so much as look at me. “You are here and yet the time for our meeting is not.”

“I have traveled with the Sorceress to ensure she would arrive. Her ask is necessary for our people.”

Scarl turned his red eyes to me. “Greetings little one, your bow shows a lack of understanding of our culture but I thank you for your respect. Say your wish and I shall answer.”

Presuming I survived, I would have to question Gresh about the confusing nature of their honor system to make Zenithcidel's records of the Hezbelths more accurate.

“I come as a chosen representative of Zenithcidel and the nine Mother’s. We wish to open trade negotiations between your people and mine.”

Scarl shrugged off his own cloak, revealing a body of bulging muscle and scars. One, faded white from age, ran longer than I was tall. “As I have heard, you come knowing the nature of how my people reach agreements.”

My heart pounded in my chest, if my plan did not succeed, I had no chance against the king of the Hezbelths. “I do.”

“Name your style of combat.”

“Hand to hand.” I said, ignoring the outburst of laughter that had erupted out of Scarl's riders as soon as I had spoken.

Scarl clapped his massive hands together, sending a thunderous echo across the surrounding peaks. "As I suspected. As is my right, I have chosen a champion to represent me in this duel."

The outrider that had first appeared upon the summit stepped forward. His head was hooded and everything but his eyes was concealed in a tightly wrapped scarf. I should have noticed it as soon as we had met, but I was too focused on the King's impossibly large stature. The fabrics the outrider wore were too fine, his boots and gloves too new. I was not looking at one of the Hezbelths.

"Sorcerer Edwuin of the sky bound spire shall duel you in my place," King Scarl announced, a knowing smile spreading across his well worn face. "After all, it would be no true duel if only you could use the soul power."