There was a loud clattering against the floor and the flimsy bed frame shook beneath her, “What the hell do you think you’re doing at a time like this, Whelp?” Nanri jolted awake and met a pair of electrifying golden eyes that she recognized to great dismay. She wore pristine white robes and a pointed hat to match. As her narrow face fell into a deeper frown, her brows furrowed. This witch’s gaze held an indignant fury, “Well? Do you intend to say nothing?”
Nanri blinked the sleep out of her eyes and cleared her throat, sliding out of bed. She stood up, still in her robes from the night prior, and looked at the woman who rudely awoke her. Old as the bat was, she looked as young as Kate. She had been dreading seeing her former history of witchcraft instructor again, but upon waking she found it absent from her well of worries, “It’s been a while, hasn’t it Estelle? I see you are much the same.”
“Excuse me?” The ornery little witch approached her and puffed up, “You don’t get to talk to me like that, and you’re missing the ‘Madam’. Now that we’re beyond your education, you will call me none other than Lady Astral Witch, is that understood?”
This witch had many stories about her floating around these skies—many of them tragedies. She taught history because she experienced it, but she was now a revered inquisitor for the mighty Earth Vein. This woman would surely make trouble for Cira if they met… She must have been in such a hurry because she knew it would become a fight. I need to make sure they don’t tear down all our efforts here.
“You’ve awoken me at my bedside after a very long day, I don’t intend to indulge you.” Nanri decided to stand her ground, but this one could vaporize her if she decided to.
“Are you being serious right now?!” This infuriated the new witch, “Do you even understand how much shit you’re in? You will explain everything, immediately. Starting with The New Shores District and whatever the hell is happening at Zero Stratum.”
“Th-the New Shores District?” This caught the Titan Witch off guard. She was genuinely confused, “What do you mean?”
Estelle scoffed, pacing over to the nearest window, “Is that supposed to be a joke? Do you mean to say you haven’t the slightest clue what’s going on?” The older witch kept glancing between her and the expanse outside with incredulous shock.
Nanri cautiously stepped over to the window. She knew the water was glowing already, despite not understanding how, but didn’t know anything about the lower stratums. She peered out the window and an uneasy expression grew on her face. The rivers shimmered as she remembered and it reflected off the sides of the river like the lighted pathways of Nymphus. Wherever the water touched had been coated with titanium and lined with a flared edge to isolate it from the salt entirely.
“Well? Get talking—” The Astral Witch’s voice seethed with anger, but as she looked at Nanri, she was stopped in her tracks, “What in the blazes are you wearing that stupid smile on your face for?! Are you completely disconnected from reality?!” She snapped in Nanri’s face.
“This… this means…” The young witch looked down at her superior with joy and relief unabashedly plastered on her face. It was the very portrait of Nanri’s sunniest smile. “She’s alive! She has to be if she’s done all this!”
Estelle’s jaw hung open and she gave Nanri a vicious scowl, but before she could get any words out, there was a shirtless man standing at one of the windows and his abrupt shout bounced around the workshop , “Holy crap! I knew she was alive! Lomp, you gotta come check this out! Wait, where did Lomp go—”
“Silence!” The Astral Witch yelled really loud, for she could not cast wind magic. Still, it startled Triton’s soul out of his body, his body visibly turning the shade of salt as he perpetually gasped, looking between Nanri and the new witch in shock. “Nanri, just who are these people?” Her voice was curt, and she did not share their joy.
She waved her hand over two frightened groups, “Our team of exorcists and alchemists respectively. They are instrumental in producing the cure, which is what you see happening here.”
“And do you intend to tell me who didn’t die?” Her nails clacked on the crystal set atop her staff.
All the cure crew’s blood ran cold, and they looked as far away from this new witch as possible. This was, of course, Nanri’s question to answer. And a sorcerer never lies, “That would be the Hidden Witch.” There was a pleasant grin on her face.
She swore she could see a blood vessel pop in her old mentor’s forehead, “And you thought it would be alright to allow this ‘Hidden Witch’” She made quotes with her fingers, “to melt down all of Earth Vein’s metal that we paid you to expand the island with?!”
Now, it had not been more than two or three minutes since waking up. Triton was the first of the others to brave getting out of bed, oblivious as he was, and upon the outburst, they had all shrunk to the far wall. Still, Nanri had not connected events with what she saw before her. Looking closer into the river, she inspected the newly reinforced canals with greater scrutiny.
It’s… It’s all titanium. Cira is lining all the islands rivers with it…? That’s insane. And she got it from… Down below? She was still riding the high of finding out she was alive, but her expression froze when she finally made the realization. “Do… you mean to say the New Shores District is gone?” Nanri’s voice now faltered. “And Zero Stratum?”
“Oh, you’re finally realizing what you’ve gone and done, is that it?” At Nanri’s broken expression, Estelle chuckled, “I don’t even know where to begin with how much you’re clearly implicated in, but yes, the New Shores District is gone, since you’re apparently oblivious. And we had reports of nineteen missed shipments! They ran out of room at the dock yesterday, so I’m going to need you to wrack that tiny little brain of yours and explain to me how THE ENTIRE COMPLEX IS GONE! There’s god damn giant balls of it flying around!”
Nanri shrunk back as her teacher’s tirade continued. She had been yelled at like that by her before, but there were too many things on her mind to think in the face of it. Did she just earn my trust to use up all of my titanium? Was that really it? That… That couldn’t be. What about the letter? She… regrets it? Her teacher was livid, Nanri was too lost in thought to hear her. She… must have known that I would be here when the Estelle arrived. She didn’t just leave me here to stick me with all the blame… did she? Nanri felt her heart crumbling, but the Astral Witch wouldn’t give her a moment to think, clattering her staff on the ground and letting out a blinding flash.
“Are you even listening to me?!” There was light behind her eyes and even the group in the back could feel the mana radiating from her. While the others were still huddled up trying to remove themselves from the situation, they were visibly unsettled to see Nanri getting belittled so harshly. To them, she was like a step down from Cira, who stood above this new witch in their mind after experiencing yesterday’s maelstrom.
Panic was setting in though, as this one was undoubtedly strong, and of the worst class of witch known across the skies, and actively furious right in front of them. Their faith in Nanri lowered, and they watched the smaller witch snap in her face again, “Hello?! Are you seriously crying?!”
Nanri blinked a couple of times and wiped her eyes, “Shut up—”
“What?!” Her mana flared as she intimidated her former student.
“I said shut up!” Nanri stood tall though, pushing her own mana out. It was weaker than her teacher, but it was a habit of witch’s pride, “Are you daft? Has all that light made you go blind? Obviously Cira repurposed the New Shores District and Zero Stratum to fix the flooding on this island permanently.” The cerulean shimmered off her platinum hair, hiding the frays of a serious lack in recent beauty regimen.
“Wha—” The Astral Witch’s mouth hung open, “That’s the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard. Where is this ‘Cira the Hidden Witch’ then, hmm? I’d very much like to pay this omnipotent witch a visit Or, oh! Is the Hidden Witch Invisible?!” She was right in Nanri’s face, who noticed the spittle somehow didn’t reach her.
“Perhaps to ignorant eyes,” the young witch quipped. Her teacher’s face contorted, and she took a deep breath to launch into another tirade, but Nanri didn’t give her the chance, “She’s curing the plague! Stopping the floods, the stampedes, and… and I know there was another one!”
“Oh, she totally mentioned famine!” Triton said from the back.
“Shut up!” Chip clamped a hand over his mouth.
“All of you lessers, silence!” The Astral Witch’s voice was pretty loud again as she shouted to Cira’s dear assistants. Light grew behind her as the ambient mana felt heavier.
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They all gulped and went silent, but a rude former sponge maiden couldn’t keep all of her sass inside, “Why don’t you just throw one of those silent domes over us then?”
“Wha—” The Astral Witch was speechless, “What in the blazes is that?!”
Her anger was starting to flare up in their direction as Chip smacked Triton and avoided eye contact with her. Nanri had to step in before it got out of hand. “That’s right, the famine too! She’s fixing every problem on this island for you, so what’s the issue?”
The issue is that she completely blindsided me… and left without a word. We were supposed to have a nice dinner in Uru… And maybe I’d be on my way off this island… Nanri shook the thoughts out of her head as the other witch recovered from the shellshock of such insolence.
“The issue!” Estelle’s face was red with fury, and she growled with each word, “Is the sheer amount of Earth Vein’s money you simply gave away! And how much they won’t make as we recover from this absolute disaster! I know you’re an idiot, but you do know there is no Hidden Witch who hails from the Nightwing Isles, yes? That you’ve been fooled?”
Nanri was fooled, yes. She thought she had Cira figured out. The lies she knew of were one thing. They hurt her to a degree, but she thought she had come to an understanding. With Cira’s position and goals, she had to hide her identity. But alas, the sorcerer had been planning to sweep all her work out from under her and escape into the sky.
Her chest tightened as her mind roiled, a brewing storm of doubt and anxiety. She felt sad, and abandoned down here in this cave. “Regretfully, Cira” She… really betrayed me, didn’t she? To save the island, she pulled the wool over my eyes. But… If she had just talked to me first.
Nanri thought of that morning when they had a late breakfast on the balcony talking about nothing and simply flew away on a whim. Cira was often like that, so prone to following whims, but no matter which way the wind blew, she always stayed on course. She remembered later that day when they got to the plague ward, and a smirk grew on her face, finally finding the answer for her former mentor.
“If you have not heard of the Hidden Witch,” Nanri leaned in, with a low, serious tone, “Perhaps it is for good reason.”
“Pfft—” Chip could be seen near-strangling Triton and struggling to choose between a thumbs up and a nervous wave with his other hand. Cira would have laughed with the poor ol’ smuggler, Nanri was certain.
“You must be joking.” Estelle struggled to find the humor here.
“Hey Stella, she might be right.” A dull and quiet voice startled Nanri out of her skin as she jolted and looked at the girl next to her.
“L-Lyren?!” She gazed at the little witch in shock. She wore faint purple robes that wisped to the ground like willows. She had a distant look and dark bags under her eyes, marring an otherwise rather soft face. “When did you get here?!”
“I was always here…” Her tone droned on mostly the same pitch. She hid her face behind a deep charcoal colored mane of hair, “You just couldn’t see me.”
“I see you haven’t changed either.” Nanri clicked her tongue. Lyren the Dimension Witch was a reclusive girl who didn’t often stick her nose in other people’s affairs. For what it’s worth, she never went out of her way to bother Nanri, or anyone for that matter. When they crossed it was strictly business—that seemed to be how Lyren liked it with everybody if she could help it.
“Whatever are you talking about, little Lyren?” The Astral Witch fluttered her eyelashes and leaned closer in an undeniable show of perplexed irritation.
“Uh… You know…” She looked over both shoulders and made her voice even quieter, “The Unseen—”
“Shut your mouth!” Estelle demanded, “Right this instant. You know you’re never supposed to speak those words. It’s just a fairy tale.” She was fuming.
“Oh, come on…” Lyren shrunk back as her mentor’s gaze growing slightly translucent as she nervously shivered, “We all know they exist, or you elders wouldn’t be so weird about it—”
“I said shut up!” Her staff clacked with another blinding light. “That can’t be…” She muttered while everyone recovered.
As Nanri was able to see again, Estelle continued in a rage, “And who was it that gave authorization to pull up all that prima salt? Is that what you’ve been doing all week instead of building worker housing?” She walked over to the massive prima hoard and picked some up with her hand. Her neck snapped back to Nanri, and she could tell there was an incredible lecture coming on. Estelle could no longer control the lights flashing as her temper reached a breaking point. Then as she stomped back over to Nanri, the salt wisped away right out of her hand, “Wha.. What is this?” Her voice went cold as she glared at Nanri.
“It’s that big magic circle…” Lyren answered, pointing her eyes to the dull glyphs surrounding the salt.
“Well remove it, then!” Estelle gave her an incredulous look, “That’s half the reason I took you on as my assistant. What even are these? Some elementary null spell?”
“Nope…” Lyren’s dark hair swished around as she shook her head, “I can’t remove them. Already tried… You should get away from them too.”
While slightly offended, the Astral Witch still heeded the warning, “And whyever is that? I don’t have time for your riddles, Lyren. Tell me what they are.”
“Curses…” She was taken aback, but so was Nanri, to a great degree. Curses…? Why does Cira know how to place curses? I don’t remember seeing her look into them in the forbidden archive. That’s where they’d be right? I remember the bookshelf vividly. So why curses? She said it was for protection.
“Impossible, we’re dealing with a curse witch?” Their mentor seemed to be sizing her up, “That makes it easy, in fact. If we kill the caster, they’ll be dismissed. And she must be in a frail state with this much missing.” She scanned the workshop trying to count all the gray glyphs, quickly realizing the number was too great. Removing herself from the prima salt circle didn’t help much, but there were no apparent effects.
The corrupted piece of one’s aura which forms a ‘curse’ could not be removed from one’s soul. Even if expended or laid on another, it never leaves. However, we’re talking about cursed people. Objects and areas bore curses in entirely different fashions, but each one placed was still a piece of one’s soul. It would return upon dispersal, likewise the caster dying would hasten that outcome.
“Nope…” Lyren shook her head again, poking her upper body out from nothing and evidently leaning with her elbows on thin air, “You’re thinking of a standard soul-bound contract curse.”
Nanri and her mentor both stared at the timid witch, causing her to grow more translucent still. “Go on…” Estelle urged.
“While the same would be true for an affliction-type curse, those are for people…” When her mentor’s glare intensified, she nervously finished her explanation, “I think these curses are entirely different. Much older… I think they might be primordial curses…”
“Impossible!” Estelle was shocked, but quickly realized and gained her composure. “I mean, are you certain? How is that possible? Primal script is lost. Why can’t we just kill her?”
Nanri shook at the nonchalant mention of her friend’s assassination, as if it were a matter of course.
Lyren answered the question, “It is lost… Only first era demons should know it, and they’re extinct. Even if we kill her now, she might just turn into a lich and appear in the middle of these glyphs.”
“Cira…” Nanri muttered, “A lich…?”
“Well, no matter.” Estelle’s staff started blaring light, “It’s not my job to play with curses, nor deal with impudent little girls. We’ll kill the lessers then hunt down our stray witch. If we have to hunt a lich afterwards, then so be it. Go ahead and restrain Nanri.”
As she barked orders, the Dimension Witch was nowhere to be seen. But her soft voice could still be heard, “I don’t know if it’s safe to touch her... What if she's cursed too? ”
As mana coalesced at the tip of Estelle’s staff, the exorcists and alchemists all hugged each other and bid their farewells to the world. More than one of them were seeing flashbacks of Silver Lake—this witch was much more inline with what they knew. Five minutes around her and they were staring death in the face, ruing the cruel circumstances of their births.
“I won’t let you!” Nanri stepped between the Astral Witch and the ones she’d come to know over the last few days. Some she’d hardly known for a full day, but they had all come together to make a difference here, more or less willingly. They were important to everything her and Cira worked on together, and they were important to her. Earth mana blazed behind Nanri as the metal sphere in the air behind her lit up like one of the sorcerer’s Lamplights. Her voice was clear and confident, but her hands trembled. It was no secret that she would lose in a fight, but she had to stand her ground. “I won’t allow you to hurt them.”
“Pah!” Estelle spit in a very unladylike gesture of disdain, “You think you can stand against me?! You really are a traitor, aren’t you? In fact, I think all you’ve helped do here could be considered high treason. Imagine how disappointed your father will be.” Her words were sharp and laced with poison. She knew deeply about Nanri’s personal life and what would really cut into her.
Nanri’s heart raced as her own mana struggled to compete against the dominating light converging at her opponent’s hand, “I don’t care! If doing what’s right is treason, then I will never yield to you. Coming to this island was a mistake in the first place. I never should have let Mother send me here, but no matter what, I will not let you destroy what we have built.”
“Fine.” Estelle’s dispassionate voice made Nanri’s blood run cold. “Then you are in my way.”
The gem atop her staff flashed and a focused beam of light blasted out of it aimed at Nanri, rippling the air as it rapidly burned any in its path. The incipient fragments of a titanium shield was forming, but it wouldn’t make it in time—light was simply too fast to beat. Nanri had stood in her path without thinking too far ahead, but in that instant, she had to wonder if she would even serve as a shield. Concentrated light like that could go straight through the island, let alone a frail witch who’s too slow to conjure a shield.
In this split instant, Nanri’s eyes were beginning to shoot open and she only trembled once or twice when the ear-piercing chirp brought an imminent ray of light before her eyes. The world seemed to slow down as she started to register her final moment and everything around her was blanched in pure white.
I’m sorry Cira… I let you down, didn’t I?
She waited for death to come, but the raging light lost its intensity. She blinked in confusion and saw it all condensing above her head, then the light started to wisp around almost like Cira’s water staff did. It formed a spiraling stream of light before finding its way into the sapphire pendant hung from Nanri’s neck. With a final burst of light and a dying chirp, the Astral Witch’s attack was gone, and the blue gem had gained new luster.
With her face frozen in shock, Nanri took the pendant in her hand. There was a mixture of awe and gratitude in her eyes, with relief creeping around somewhere. Nanri went through a flurry of emotions, but looking into this sapphire, she felt a weight lift from off her heart.
“I think I get it now, Cira…” Nanri rolled it over in her hand, sparkling in the light, “You didn’t want to leave me like you did. You thought you had to…” She let the pendant swing to a rest and left one last muttering before returning to the threat at hand, “You stupid sorcerer…”