Being in a state of knowing was not something I was familiar with but as I ran towards the rapidly ascending creature, all doubt had been expelled from me. Mind, body, and soul.

I had found the color of my soul and its shade matched my own desire. The cord of my power that had found a weakness in the Mother's seal was so bright it was nearly pink. I had seen that particular shade not so long ago. In the little room I had lived in on the third floor of the boarding house that I had brought to ruin, standing dangerously close to Anna and feeling like we were something much deeper than just friends, I found her cheeks blushed with the same heat I had felt in my own. That blush, that heat, had manifested from my will and I could feel the truth and power of it running through my hands. Those feelings allowed me to know.

From that unfamiliar state of knowledge, came action.

A step outside of where the horrid creature had taken flight, I looped my right hand once with my aura and drew my arm back. Pain still stabbed through my arm and there was a numb, detached, sensation from the base of my thumb, but nothing could stop my pursuit, I would not allow it.

From underneath the creature, I could see Anna, held within the rib cage of arms, staring down at the body of her brother and her mother laying over it.

"Anna Lao," I called, pulling my arm back and feeling the end of my aura drag across the ground. She looked down at me between the pale flesh of the arms of her captor and I couldn't hear if she replied, but her recognition of me set my heart ablaze. "Witness, Autumn Aubrey unfettered!"

My words sounded over dramatic and strange to my own ears, like I was reciting lines from one of the plays that I knew were put on within Zenithcidel. Where they sounded strange however, they felt like I had always been meant to say them and I found myself emboldened at their end.

I snapped my arm forward and sent the energy of my movement rolling through the desired colored cord of my will. When it reached its tip, it did not snap or crack, but went piercing through the night sky like an arrow loosed from a great bow. As it went, I fed more of my aura into it and it lengthened into what I needed it to be.

Flying in defiance of the dark night, the light of my power streaked past the creature just over its right shoulder. With my left hand, I placed my thumb just above the loop on my right and plucked the cord like Arthur had plucked the strings of his instrument the night I had met him and sent a wave through my power. When it reached its tip, it reversed its direction, forming a loop around the throat of the wretched creature.

A panicked moan echoed from above as the creature strained against the binding force of my will. I spread my feet and pulled against the creature's ascent, bringing my hands down to the ground.

The creature was pulled from the sky like a struck bird. I had taken the air from its "wings", and it descended in a mad spiral.

Familiars are made of stronger stuff. The memory of the sorcerer's words came and went from my mind.

Anna wasn't made of stronger stuff. Anna was plummeting to the ground still in clutches of the horror.

That brought me no fear or panic because she would not be crashing into the ground. I cared for her too much to allow such a thing to happen.

I knew nearly nothing about fighting or how to use my new found power but I found myself not needing the knowledge, because all that was required of me was to allow my will to shape reality. I desired my cord to tighten around the neck of the creature that had tried to steal away my Anna and it did. Crushing against the life sapping cold of the lich's dark magic, my will was tested against the stitches that held the flesh puppets head on its neck. I hadn't felt it, or rather, I hadn't known what I was feeling when I had felt it, but I was sure then what the creature was. As soon as what I understood to be a physical manifestation of my soul touched the stitches, the same flurry of scents that had washed over me both times I had encountered the Lich came again. Sea salt, sun warmed grass, and wild blossoms, the scents filled my nose and were followed by the constant undercurrent of sweet decay. A new sensation, auditory in nature, filled my ears for just long enough that I could understand what I was hearing. The joyous sound of a man and a woman laughing together brought another dimension to the lich's ethereal residue. Somehow, from whatever ruined pit the lich resided in, it was controlling the creature, pulling the strings of its own horrid creation.

I would save Anna, I would rid her and her mother of the terror they had found themselves in on my behalf, I would avenge Arthur.

I would cut the puppeteers strings.

As I thought, my will made it so.

I ran my left hand over the cord and used the slack to create a second loop like I bore on my right. With both hands, I twisted my hips and wrenched my aura back and away. The flurry of senses that contact with the lich's magic had brought about faded.

I pulled harder.

The senses vanished.

Headless, the creature went limp and began to sputter and smoke. The small arms that had made the flesh cage Anna had been captured and released before being burnt away. In less than a second, the remains of the creature had dissipated and left Anna free falling towards the cold hard ground.

As if I had been training to do the exact series of actions necessary to catch my friend, I simply acted. No thought was necessary, because I knew I would not let her fall. For the first time, I felt myself coming to life. Not Dani or Autumn the thief, but Autumn Aubrey, the maiden whose soul burned so bright it defied the oppressive finality of a seal laid on her by the hands of the nine Mothers.

Brought to life in part due to Anna Lao. My first friend. Who I understood in the moment had seen the color of my soul long before I had.

Without the need to express my will, my cord of aura drew back into my hands and I split it. With my left hand, I cast it to the ground where it spread in a flash and I stepped onto it. With my broken right, I sent it up my arm and down the other and braced. Just as Anna crashed into my embrace, I released, simultaneously cushioning her impact and reinforcing my own stance. Her momentum ended in an instant and I gently placed her on her feet.

Her eyes were red from crying but as soon as I looked into them, she threw her arms around me and we embraced.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

We had hugged before, and though it was hardly the time for it, it felt different. Her body pressed into my mine desperately, surely out of fear and exhaustion, but I found more in the contact. The curve of her, the smoothness of her hair, the feeling of trust and acceptance I felt when she threw herself into my arms.

I had killed for her. Granted, it had been an undead flesh puppet, but I had ended its second life on her behalf. Holding my friend in my arms, I thought I would die for her just as willingly.

All she'd have to do was ask.

We separated and I saw the tears begin to fall from her face when she turned and saw her brother.

Ms. Lao, a horrible and broken sound coming from her between silent gasps for air, held her son's head in her lap. She was absentmindedly running her hands through his dark hair and had laid her jacket over his middle. Anna to her mother and dropped to her knees beside her brother. I could not hear the words she spoke, but Arthur didn't answer her. She brought her hand up and patted it against his cheek, continuing to speak without receiving an answer. She did not moan or gasp like her mother was, but I could see the impact of her sobs from behind her as she laid her head down on Arthur's chest.

I approached slowly, shedding my own tears, but staying aware that while he had been my friend, Arthur was their family.

"He needs a hospital, go get the phone." Ms. Lao snapped at Anna, giving her a half hearted push.

Anna raised her head from her brother's breathless chest. "Ma, there is nothing they can do for him, he's already dead."

"Call the ambulance Anna!" Ms. Lao yelled savagely.

Anna caught sight of me and her eyes went wide and she patted her mother's shoulder in a hurry. "Autumn can help," She whispered. "She can fix him, she's magic, Ma," She continued, her words coming out quick and unsupported. She turned to me and waved me over. "Can't you? You can fix him."

I dropped to my own knees beside her, finding that the state of knowing had become suddenly absent. "I. . ," I trailed off, raising Ms. Lao's blood soaked coat to see Arthur's wound. Even in the light of the back porch light, I couldn't make sense of what I was seeing. A hole as thick as my thigh had been ripped through the overalls directly over Arthur's stomach. Beyond the scraps of fabric and pooling blood, I had no knowledge of what I was looking at. "I've never done something like this before."

"Alright, and? You've done a lot of fucking things tonight that you've never done before. You can do it, you can fix him! I know you can. I believe in you." Anna pleaded, staring into my eyes.

All she had needed to do was ask.

I moved the coat off of him. Anna looked away. Ms. Lao looked at me, her panicked eyes momentarily hard set and focused. "Do not hurt him. Please."

I brought my aura to my hands and exhaled. With no knowledge to help me understand what I needed to do, I moved to lay my hands on the grievous wound.

Arthur coughed.

A drop of blood landed on my cheek and all three of us jumped in surprise.

"Arthur. Arthur. Listen to me, the Dani girl is going to help you." Ms. Lao shouted at her son.

His eyes rolled in his head before finding their way to me. Blood leaked from the corner of his mouth and down his chin. "You dyed you hair."

"What?" I muttered, realizing that Arthur didn't know my name or who I really was. At some point during the seemingly endless struggle of the night, my glamor must have faded.

"Autumn's gonna help you alright? You are gonna be okay." Anna said, new tears flowing.

Arthur forced his head up enough that he was able to see his ruined stomach. "Oh, I don't think so," He coughed before looking at me again, his voice ragged and strained. "Have you always been this pretty?"

I didn't get a chance to answer. Anna placed her hands through my aura and onto my own. "Alright, you can do this."

I was almost certain that I could not, but I would try. For her and for him. I owed them much more than that.

The light coming from the back of the boarding house winked out and left us all in total darkness save for the nearly pink luminescence of my aura.

Arthur coughed again and raised a shaking finger off the ground. “See,” another bloody cough. “It?”

We all turned to see where he was pointing.

From within the dark woods, light broke through the silhouetted branches into a pale blue mosaic. Brighter and closer, it grew, until it left the cover of the trees and flew through the air by the way of two great wings that sent motes of ghostly light cascading down with each beat.

“Arthur,” Anna whispered. “It’s your ghost. . .”

With what would likely be the final act of his life, Arthur did what he had always done, and let his signature grin spread across his blood trailed face. “I told you I didn’t make it up.”

"It's not a ghost. It's a spirit." I said, watching the ethereal owl descend in a spiral and land between Arthur's sprawled legs.

A morose hoot escaped from its beak and it turned its head to each of us in turn. "Boy plays," It clicked its beak three times. "Dying, dying, dying."

Anna whispered to me. "What is it doing?"

"I don't know." I answered honestly.

Three more clicks. "Watched. Growing, growing, growing."

The spirit paced back and forth, but kept its head forwards and pointed at Arthur. After several more rounds of clicking its beak, it hopped onto him, ruffled its wings, clicked its beak and then hoped off. "Out of time. Go, go, go."

Without another word or click, the spirit flared its wings and took flight, heading back towards the direction it had come.

"Ma, I told you there was a ghost." Arthur said weakly, a satisfied smile on his face and his eyes closed.

I looked back at my own hands, still held within Anna's and tried to refocus on the futile task at hand.

I would try. For her and for him. I owed them much more than that.

"My sweet boy, I know. I should have believed you." Ms. Lao whispered, and kissed her son on his forehead.

Like someone had turned the gas up on a lantern, pale blue light brightened above our heads. I shot my eyes up to see what was happening.

The owl spirit, its wings tucked to its sides and a dust of ethereal motes trailing behind it, plummeted from the sky and towards Arthur.

Three clicks of its beak.

It slammed into Arthur's ruined stomach and disappeared with no trace except for the glimmering motes. A moment of shocked silence passed and then Arthur arched his back violently before falling back to the cold ground.

"Ma! Look!" Anna shouted, pointing at her brother's stomach.

The wound was closing.

The spirit's ethereal light emanated from the hole in Arthurs stomach, bright enough that I had to close my eyes until it dimmed, shone out. When it did dim, the wound was closed, with nothing but a patch of pink skin to suggest it was ever there.

Arthur coughed and no blood came out.

"Arthur?" Ms. Lao asked, her question coming out hesitant and fragile.

"I feel weird," The tall man said, opening his eyes. "I don't think I'm dying though. Unless, I'm already dead?"

Arthur sat up on his hands. "What does being dead feel like?"

As soon as the words left his lips, his eyes lost their focus and he fell back into his crying mother's lap.

I wish I could have enjoyed what I understood to be a rather large miracle, but the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end and a horrid feeling washed over me.

I was being watched.

Just as I realized it, the porch light winked back on and I saw who was watching me.

"I hate to interrupt, it makes me feel happy that the boy did not die, but we unfortunately have an unresolved matter to attend to." The Sorcerer Eames said, looking down at me with glowing grey eyes.

Then, he moved.