Hi everyone! Here is the next chapter! I apologize greatly for the wait, it's been an uphill battle since the surgery. Warning this chapter has so references to torture and violence! Hope you enjoy!

" Hold out your hand" Mother Malkin commanded. I stared at her dumbly, with both my hands still knotted up into the sides of my skirts, shaking from fear and nerves. She saw my hesitation, and glared at me. " Be you deaf girl!" She snarled, seizing my left arm and gripping it tightly, just enough to force open my clenched fist. Mother Malkin wasted no time in producing two thumb bones from the pocket of her blood spattered apron. I watched her in horror as she held them up to the light, the bones were pure white and they seemed to be almost glowing in the light of the roaring fire.

Despite my fears, I couldn't help but be curious of what was to become of them, but although I was curious, I still did not want to touch them. Before I could protest the delicate bones were pressed into my palm, and my fingers automatically closed around them as if they had a mind of their own. Immediately my eyes widened and my pulse begin to race. I felt hot and cold at the same time, with ice at my finger tips and fire in my veins. I found myself drowning in a purple ocean darkness, waves of hushed voices crashed around me. I was swept under by the current, head just below the crest of the waves, around me were spirits who wrapped their cold fingers around my throat, suffocating me and pulling me further under the black waters. Yet somehow I felt free, easy, and weightless like I had woken up from a good night's rest.

The room distorted and its image rippled like a lake when a stone is dropped into its waters, melting away into an entirely different scene. I was surprised to find that I no longer was in Mother Malkin's filthy cottage but instead looking down into a room as if I was hovering above, looking down from the sky, circling like a hawk. The room's walls were lined with stone and they glistened with damp and rot, chains and instruments of torture lined the walls, and the room was rank with death and freshly spilled blood. Below me a voice cried out begging for mercy, the sound barely heard over the snap of a whip against flesh.

I had never seen this battered and chained woman before in my life, but I knew her story well. It was almost like reading from a book. Rowena Mouldheel was born September the twelfth and she was twenty three years old, the youngest of five sisters. She died there, from loss of blood and asphyxiation, later her thumbs were cut from her body. A blood curdling scream erupted from her mouth and blood gushed from between her lips onto the front of her prisoners tunic. I startled and lost concentration causing the bones to slip from my fingertips and clatter to the floor. How long had I been in this trance? Hastily, I wiped the sweat from my brow with the back of my sleeve.

Mother Malkin stood there in stunned silence, studying me as if I had done something incredible. "Whose were they child?" She asked finally, pursing her lips in impatience. I didn't answer at first, and I stared down at my pointy shoes, somehow I was ashamed of what I had just done. " How did they die?" She prodded again, leaving me no choice but to answer.

"They belonged to Rowena Mouldheel" I say voice barely a whisper, the name tasting sour and metallic on my tongue. I swallowed, attempting to gather my wits for what I was about to say next.

"And."

" You took her thumbs and crushed her chest with stones, like they do at trials." I had answered her question but I knew more, so much more. "She was twenty two, born on September the twelfth, she had a son with a man named Jacob Taylor, but the child died shortly after birth, she was a powerful scryer..." I spat out this information and more, speaking a mile a minute, I would have certainly gone on for hours if Mother Malkin didn't stop me.

" That'll do Lizzie...that'll do" She said with a cold smile that chilled me to my core. My training as a witch had begun.

Hope you enjoyed! I am doing a lot better but I am still not myself and haven't been able to edit as much as I should be. Hopefully the next chapter will be up soon, but I don't want to make any promises that I cannot keep. I Am Thorne has three more chapters, all are written but they need to be edited before I post them. This story has the next few chapters outlined and or written but again need to be polished up and edited before I post them. Thankyou so so much for sticking with me these past few months it's greatly appreciated! I promise that I have not abandoned any of my stories despite the gaps that may be happening between updates.

Check out my profile for updates on all my other fanfictions (including this one)! So as always, review/follow/favorite N' all that Jazz!

- DaringDauntless XOXOXO

PS: Happy Thanksgiving!