A/N: I own nothing. Enjoy!
Woosh! Crack!
"Ahhh! It hurts!"
Pain flared upon her calves as the whip slashed down upon the tender flesh, leaving red marks upon the broken skin.
"No, please, Father, help!"
But even as she protested the whip would only slash down again.
"Sister!"
Her younger brother cried out as he tried to help her, but the servants held him back.
She cried out again as the blacksnake leather whip twitched down once more. Struggling to get free, she flailed out, only for the whip to lash out even harder. Her vision blurred as she seemed to lapsed into unconsciousness from the unbearable pain.
When the pain finally subdued, she managed to pick herself up. But she wasn't the only lying on the floor.
"F-father?"
Annabeth gasped out as she woke up in a sweat. She was greeted not with the stone ceiling of her childhood bedroom but of the wooden ceiling in the cottage she currently resided.
The witch sighed, brushing the curly blonde hair out of her face. She had thought that time had passed enough for her nightmares to subside. Apparently not, Annabeth wryly thought.
"Meowr?"
A black cat nimbly jumped onto the bed, looking at her questioningly.
"I'm alright, Mrs. O' Leary. It was nothing. I probably stayed up too late last night."
The cat narrowed her amber eyes as they met Annabeth's grey eyes. Mrs. O' Leary clearly didn't believe the witch's words as her whiskers twitched. Witches' cats were knowledgeable like that, and Mrs. O' Leary was prouder and more temperamental than most.
"Heh, nothing escapes your eyes." Annabeth scratched the underside of Mrs. O' Leary's chin. "But I'll be fine. I promise. Let's go and have breakfast, okay? We've got the whole day ahead of us."
Annabeth soon started her day with straightening out the cottage. With a wave of her hand, the blanket and sheets straightened themselves on the bed while the pillows automatically plumped themselves up.
Unlike elemental mages who produced their own mana naturally, witches could only manipulate mana from a mana source. Such sources could be from the surrounding environment or a mana stone that could store mana. This was why Annabeth chose to stay in the Forest of Illusions.
The Forest of Illusions contained thin amounts of mana in the air but was able to sustain many magical plants and creatures. The structure of the forest itself often changed, as sections of the forest moved by itself. As the name suggested, the magical forest produced many illusions due to its natural mana, often leading to the tragic death of any careless traveler that dared to venture inside. As a result, few people entered from the small villages scattered outside the borders of the forest, which was just what Annabeth preferred.
Witches were not as revered as mages usually were, especially after the Great War between the witches and the mages who had fought for dominance in the magical hierarchy three hundreds of years ago. While the war eventually ended in a draw, the number of witches had been so reduced, the mages quickly took prominence, especially in the royal courts who had supported the mages. Lies and rumors about witches soon spread, such as they ate babies, seduced men before eating their hearts, and drank the blood of virgins which.
And so to avoid persecution, the few witches left secluded themselves in areas that had sources of natural mana, and even those sources of mana were diminishing just like the Forest of Illusions was. Still, a few like Annabeth managed to eke out a living, producing magical healing potions that were sold to villagers who were tolerant to witches or were desperate for cures.
When Annabeth first entered the Forest of Illusions after running away from home at the age of sixteen, she had nearly died from the illusions. An elderly witch named Chirana had found her malnourished and half dead. The older witch brought Annabeth to her stone and wood cottage and eventually became Annabeth's mentor for nearly eight years. Oftentimes, Annabeth thought Chirana saw her as a daughter or granddaughter, especially in the last two years of Chirana's life when Chirana would mumble to herself and accidentally call Annabeth the wrong name. There was a bit of sadness in Chirana's brown eyes even when the older witch was smiling affectionately at Annabeth.
Chirana taught the young Annabeth how to control her mana, cast healing spells as well as how to navigate the ever changing forest by sensing the mana structure. Annabeth lived with Chirana until the older witch passed away in her sleep peacefully, leaving the cottage, Mrs. O' Leary, and a small sapphire ring that could store mana to Annabeth. Annabeth could have left, but she stayed in the Forest. Where else could she go? Home was no longer an option. So for the next two years, Annabeth continued her quiet profile as Chirana had taught her, living in the small cottage and occasionally helping the outside villagers.
After breakfast, Annabeth surveyed her garden. The vegetables were growing finely, and a few chickens were busy running through the yard, pecking at grasshoppers and other bugs that decided the garden made a fine meal.
"Well, Mrs. O' Leary, it looks like the herbs are growing fine but the mugwort is running out again. We might as well go hunting for some mushrooms to grill tonight. Mushroom omelet with a fresh dandelion and arugula salad paired with wild plum wine would be good, yes?"
Mrs. O' Leary meowed back before jumping and landing in Annabeth's basket.
Annabeth hummed a song as the pair entered the forest, following the mana network to her favorite bramble of blackberries. She set down her basket and began picking the delicate berries.
It had only been less than five minutes when Mrs. O' Leary suddenly snarled and sprinted away.
"Wait, Mrs. O' Leary! Where are you going? My basket isn't even full."
But the black cat had already disappeared out of sight. Annabeth grabbed her basket and followed suit.
"Mrs. O' Leary, where are you?"
She was answered by a yowl, with more urgency than Annabeth had ever heard the cat meow, even when Mrs. O' Leary once fought with a gnome that had tried to steal some eggs and had trampled over Mrs. O' Leary's favorite patch of catnip.
"What is it, Mrs. O' Leary-oh."
Half lying in the cheerfully bubbling river was a man lying on his stomach. Annabeth was startled at the sight. Most people avoided the Forest of Illusions like the plague. How had he gone so deep into the forest?
Mrs. O' Leary pawed closer and sniffed at the back of the man's muddy head. She placed one paw on the neck before quickly snatching it back. Annabeth caught the glimpse of white frost on Mrs. O' Learys black fur where the cat had touched the man.
"Meowr." Mrs. O' Leary complained as she shook her paw. Fortunately, the ice melted off with the cat's warm breath.
"Don't touch him, Mrs. O' Leary. He could be dangerous."
Annabeth carefully ventured closer, as the man had a sword clasped in his hand. She had no idea who or what kind of person the stranger was, and she had no immediate plans for losing a limb, either by being cut off by a sword or through being withered through ice. It appeared that just by being touched, ice from the man would encase whoever touched him. Fortunately, the man made no moves with his sword. In fact, he was not moving at all.
"Is he still alive?"
The witch carefully extricated the sword away from the unconscious man just in case before examining the stranger. He had quite a strong grip on the sword before Annabeth could remove it.
"Oh, his wounds..."
Now that she had gotten closer, Annabeth could see through the mud covering the man's body that the man was injured. Rusty flecks of dried blood were mixed with the bright red of fresh blood on the man's torn shirt. All she could tell was that his hair was black and the sword he carried signified him as no ordinary man.
Annabeth felt for the man's forehead cautiously. Other than his skin feeling hot to the touch signaling a fever, the man caused no frostbite or ice to appear on her skin.
Mrs. O' Leary tried pawing at the stranger again seeing that Annabeth was unaffected, but frost enveloped her paw once more. Mrs. O' Leary hissed grumpily. You touch him then, the cat seemed to say.
But Annabeth had also discovered something quite strange. This man seemed to have an interesting mana network inside him. In fact, as soon as Annabeth had made contact with the man's skin, the small amount of mana in the man's body had begun to flow into her body.
She quickly retreated her hand back from the man's body, and the intensity of the energy quickly diminished. Annabeth blinked at her hand. While witches could extract and manipulate mana from the surroundings, this was the first time Annabeth had heard of mana being taken from another being, nor had she ever heard of an ice mage. As far as she knew, the only elemental mages out there used water, wind, fire, earth, and wood.
But the situation was not looking well for the strange man. Though he was most likely a mage, he could easily damage his internal organs from having no mana left.
Annabeth bit her lips, wondering what to do. She knew that the history between witches and mages was traditionally not pleasant, yet she could not abandon a presumably innocent man to his death. If he did not die from the mana poisoning, then he would most certainly die from the numerous magical creatures like ogres and trolls that appeared after sundown.
Standing up, Annabeth sighed. She had made her decision. Chirana had taken the same chance on her when Annabeth was young.
Using the mana in the air, Annabeth levitated the injured man and carefully headed back to the cottage with Mrs. O' Leary in tow. She set the man gingerly on her bed and carefully cleaned the mud and dirt off as much as possible. The man's injuries were soon exposed as each layer of debris was removed. Mrs. O' Leary hissed at the sight of the wounds.
"I know, they look worse than I thought," she murmured.
In addition to the fresh injuries on his upper back and shoulders, there were a multitude of older scars scattered across his torso. This man had survived many battles. Gingerly, Annabeth dripped a few drops of her purple disinfectant into a laceration that had a greenish tinge.
Poison? Annabeth frowned as she studied the injury. Placing her hand on the man's heart, she inserted her own mana to explore the man's meridians. The trauma on the strange man's body seemed to be exacerbated by some strange energy coursing through the man's body. The dark energy was turbulent, and seemed to be trying to overpower what little mana the man had.
Annabeth painstakingly tried to trap the dark energy using her own mana but could only imprison a small portion before the dark energy tried to siphon her own mana. The witch quickly took back her own mana caging the small bit of energy before the dark poison could infect her. She expelled the dark essence into the room, scared of what it was.
Mrs. O' Leary pounced onto the dark essence, yowling and batting the essence into a ball between her dark paws. For a brief moment, Annabeth was afraid that Mrs. O' Leary would inhale the dark essence, but the magic didn't affect the cat. Satisfied, Eclipse twitched her whiskers proudly as the essence dissipated into nothing. The mana network of the forest remained undisturbed. It was like the dark essence had never been there at all.
Annabeth set to work cleaning and disinfecting the rest of wounds, carefully trying not to extract any mana further. She would have to make numerous small attempts to remove the dark essence later.
Never had she worked on such painful and many wounds before. This was even worse than the time Chirana and she had to heal some hunters who had an accidental hunting incident. On the back of the man were long whipping scars that reminded Annabeth of the pink remnants of whipping on her calves.
She was sure her treatments hurt but the man never woke up. He slept through the whole treatment like a dead man. At the end of the healing, Annabeth was tired and sweaty.
"Meowrrr," Mrs. O' Leary purred.
Her eyes told Annabeth to rest. Mrs. O' Leary would keep watch over the patient from a distance. Ice would still encase Mrs. O' Leary whenever the cat touched the man, but Annabeth remained unaffected. She wondered whether it was magic that affected just animals or only Annabeth herself was untouched.
Sighing with fatigue, Annabeth took a look at herself in the mirror. The healing and extracting of the poison had taken a toll on her, and she had a white pallor on her skin. The dark essence in the man's body had barely decreased, like she had only managed to take a drop from a lake. But at least the man's own mana had grown from a thimbleful of energy to a bowl at least.
Damn, Annabeth thought, as she checked on the man periodically. It had been two days since she discovered the stranger. Was she going to have the man die on her own bed?
A/N: Ya'll, I have finally done it. After two decades of living on this hellish earth, my parents have finally said they are proud of me after being accepted to med school. Verbally, I mean, because action-wise they've showed they're proud of me (like displaying my school and extracurricular trophies, bragging about me to other friends but not to my face as parents are wont to do, and cooking my favorite foods all the time, etc). For Asian parents, this is a big deal lol.
I also decided to put a revised version of Revenge of a Duchess on Wattpad up, thanks to a guest reviewer's encouragement!
As for this story, it's gonna be a slow burn, but an enjoyable one, I hope. As always, see you all next time!