Part 2: Chapter 5 - Answers & Blood
Amity's sixteenth birthday came without much fanfare from her parents. Her father acknowledged it and wished her a happy birthday the morning before she went to school, giving a weak attempt at reaching out by asking if she had any plans.
She told him a couple of her friends did.
She neglected to mention that it was Willow who had made those plans. Apparently Skara had put together a whole show of Bard magic, and Gus had prepared some sort of cake.
And she had not yet decided if she would be attending it, either. Her birthday was one thing, but she had found a book mysteriously left inside her hidden room of the library that had so far proved to be a promising lead on portal magic. Or at least, contained snippets of a supposed history of portal magic from before the Savage Ages. It didn't even register on the library index, meaning she had no idea where it was from, or who could have left it on her table for her.
She suspected one of the twins, but there was no way to prove that without incurring her mother's wrath.
Not to mention that she had nearly perfected the formulas for her spell. She could now see herself normally when in the Human Realm, while Luz remained frustratingly out of focus. The girl couldn't see or hear Amity, either. It had to be something on the other end, something in the Human Realm, that was interfering with the spell. She was sure of it now.
Though what the interference was? She could've searched every book in every library on the Isles and never find that answer. The Human Realm was such an unknown, witches hadn't explored it for nearly four hundred years once the humans started burning witches at stakes.
Also, the giraffes had been banished there.
She had an inkling of where to find an answer to her problem though, one she waited until she was home after school to pursue the idea. The house servants largely ignored her as she moved through Blight Manor, some giving her a nod and a brief 'welcome home' that she returned with a polite response. Amity was sure this was the time to try her idea, though. Her father had said he would be busy on Abominations Coven business until late, almost seeming regretful he would miss most of her birthday. And her mother was at the Emperor's castle, tending to her duties as Head Coven Leader. Training new recruits, too busy to scry on her and spy on whatever it was she was up to.
Amity was sure of it.
Because she had scryed on her mother.
Turnabout seemed like fair play, to her.
She glanced down both sides of the hallway just outside of her mother's private study, making sure that none of the servants saw her before she pushed in the door and slipped inside. Closing it behind her and using a small spell to flip the lock without looking back, she grinned as she glanced around.
A large runic circle was carved into the stone floor, and bookshelves filled with grimoires lined the walls. All of her mother's spellwork in one room, a treasure trove that Amity would love to pick apart some day. But none of it was her goal right now, as she drew a spell circle and brought a bright pink fire into existence, burning just above her right palm.
Veilfire, for revealing illusions.
Stepping carefully around the runic circle, she scanned the nearest shelf with the bright fire. What she sought was in here, she was sure of it. She reached the far side of the circle before she saw it, the veilfire burning back the illusion her mother had placed on the pedestal just as Amity was about to walk by it. Atop it sat her prize; Odalia Blight's crystal ball.
Spirits bound to crystal balls were strange cases.
The ones at school were.. Fine. They were fine. Easy to work with, hardly skilled enough to answer the sorts of questions she had been asking since she had discovered Blood Magic.
Her mother's though? The spirit bound to this ball was old, ancient even, if her mother was to be believed. A Blight witch from before the Savage Ages, a powerful leader of the family in their time.
The kind of spirit who knew secrets.
She grinned victoriously as she dismissed the veilfire and reached into the illusion to pull the crystal ball up from the recess it had been set in. Holding it aloft in the darkness, she peered into its depths.
The crystal balls she was familiar with, the ones used at school, they had a pinkish-white smoke that swirled and swirled within them. Even a glance told her this one was vastly different. Blackened violet twisted and writhed inside the ball, more like a viscous liquid than any type of smoke. It seemed to rail against its confinement, twitching and rushing back and forth seeking a way out.
And then, it settled.
It had noticed her.
Good.
Amity poured her will into the crystal, drawing the spirit out. That heavy smoke billowed forth from the orb, twisting and swirling around her as it tried to overpower her. She let out a laugh and closed her fingers to her left palm, cracking the scab that was hidden beneath the illusioned bandage. The phantom roiled against her magic, and she forced it into the runic circle that lay in the center of the room.
It couldn't win against her, not as witch blood pooled beneath that bandage. Its form coalesced within the circle, a twisted reflection of what had once been a witch. Its visage was translucent and draped in white wrappings, its eyes glowing a pale blue as they peered down at her. It was the same hue as her mother's eyes, and that alone got the hairs on the back of her neck standing up in alarm. "You are not the Blight I usually deal with."
The otherworldly echo that followed each word was tinged with contempt for her. She had known it would be too much to hope for an ancient Blight to be any nicer to her than her own mother. "No, I'm Amity, and I have some questions for you."
"Golden eyes. And lacking our natural green hair. How much of a Blight are you really?" The spirit chuckled at its own question, its head winding to and fro in front of her, studying her.
Amity just glared up at it, tracking its movements and ready to confine it to the crystal ball again if it tried anything. She couldn't let it's words get to her. Closing her left fist tightly, her eyes flared with a purple glow as she channeled her magic into the orb in her right hand. "Why doesn't my spell work? The formulas are correct, Luz should be able to see and hear me, why can't she?"
The spirit writhed in the air as if jolted by electricity for a moment before chuckling darkly. "Not enough of a Blight, it seems. How far the family line has fallen if it has led to you, little witchling."
Growling in anger, she forced more of her magic along the line connecting her to the spirit, burning into its being and causing it to emit a screech that echoed within the runic circle. "Tell me!"
"'Amity'.." She let up on her channelling, raising an eyebrow as it softly spoke her name. The spirit hung feebly in the air after being commanded with such power, almost as if it would be panting for breath if it still had its lungs. Her sense of victory was stolen by its widened grin that turned her way. "Odalia has never mentioned you. Not once in all these years.. She used to ask such endearing questions about Edric and Emira. What coven will she head? Who will he marry? But you? Nothing.. I can see why, with such a pathetic child. She's ashamed of you!"
Amity's eyes widened slightly as she felt the words sting in ways that she was sure they shouldn't have. Her mother didn't care, not like a mother should. She knew this, the twins had known it. It's why they had left. She had planned this, had mentally prepared herself to be told all sorts of terrible things from her mother's crystal ball. She had expected it to her tell her that her mother didn't love her.
But ashamed of her very existence?
After years of trying to make her proud?!
How dare she!
Amity dug her fingers into her bleeding palm, gritting her teeth as she scowled at the spirit. This time, she forced her will through the ball and into the spirit without even a twinge of mercy. It would answer her or she would burn it into nothingness! "Why can't I see her clearly?!"
The spirit threw its head back and howled in agony, twitching this way and that, slamming against the barriers of the runic circle. Veins of purple magic spread through its incorporeal form as Amity forced more and more into it. "Tell me, now!"
"E-Enough!" The spirit screamed the word loud enough that Amity ceased her assault, and the purple veins slowly dissolved into the rest of the spirit as it gave ragged non-breaths and stared at her in disbelief. "Such cruelty. Such power. Perhaps you are worthy of our name.." After a long minute of it recovering, its eyes glazed over with violet light, and it spoke without any of the venom it had previously held, without any inflection at all.
Even if its twisted praise had left a sour feeling in the pit of her stomach, Amity steeled herself and focused. This is what she had been waiting for.
"The answer you seek, you have answered before. The resistance is caused by the glyph that banished her from our realm!"
The second part answered the riddle that had plagued her for years, but the first part.. Amity's thoughts raced as she tried to make sense of the words. "I-I didn't answer that before! What do you mean?!"
The spirit laughed darkly, its head twisting to an unnatural degree to the side. "This resistance has already saved her from the claws that seek her, even now. You will succeed, and you will put her in terrible danger."
With her head pounding hard enough Amity could feel that her ears were flushed, she took a step forward and yelled up at the spirit. "What claws?" Only laughs answered her. "Tell me now!"
Ceasing its laughter, the spirit brought its face almost an inch from hers, only the slim barrier of the runic circle separating them as it grinned. This close, she could see the rot that stained its form, that the wrappings partially hid. This close, she could see so well the malice on its features. "Run now, little Blight. Mommy's home."
With a rush of wind and magic, the spirit dissipated into the same blackened purple smoke that it had risen from, the small maelstrom spinning around the containment circle for a long moment before it was all sucked away into the crystal ball Amity held. Catching it with both hands as it nearly rocketed out of her palm, she spun and shoved it back into its place on the illusioned pedestal she had stolen it from, and ran around the runes to the door.
It had no reason to lie to her, her mother must have come home early!
Amity slammed the door behind her, skidding on the stone floor as she ran around a corner, following the winding maze of the lower levels of Blight Manor until she reached the stairs that led upward. She made it to the foyer, and halfway up the stairs to the upper level before she heard the door open behind her, and a cold voice made her freeze in place.
"Ah, Amity."
Why would she be home so early? Did she know?
Amity's thoughts were filled with panic as she turned on her heel and controlled her breathing as much as she could. She was slightly winded from the run up from the basement, but she could pretend otherwise. Hopefully. "Welcome home, mother."
Blue eyes narrowed at her as the older witch approached the base of the steps and beckoned her. "Come down here, there is a matter we must discuss."
She knows.
Fear spiked through her as she obediently took the several steps down the stairs until she was standing on the same floor as her mother, clasping her hands behind her back and standing straight, just as she had been trained. "Yes, mother?"
Odalia Blight stepped close to her, brushing her hands over Amity's shoulders and playing with her hair. Her mother took every stray strand and forced it into a more 'proper' place, before leaning back to observe her work. "Hm." The noise made no indication of what was thought of how she looked, and Amity breathed as lightly as possible through her nose, ignoring the way her lungs protested. "Your father said that you have plans for tonight with friends, to celebrate your birthday?"
Huh.
Maybe she didn't know. Amity nodded and spoke up quickly. "Yes, Skara has prepared a party for me. I was going to take the night to study, but-"
"Nonsense, sixteen is an important year for witchlings. Your reports from school show that you are excelling at both tracks, I see no reason why you couldn't spend a single night away from your studies."
That froze her blood. Odalia Blight giving her a break? "Are.. Are you sure, mother?"
The smile that was sent her way was anything but warm, and Amity noticed the way her mother's eyes kept flicking between her gaze and her forehead. Oh. "You will need to look more presentable of course. Not in your school uniform, of course, and your hair has been showing its roots."
So that's what this was about.
Amity resisted the urge to roll her eyes, her breathing coming in a little heavier as her mother took a step back to regard her more fully. "With Ed-.. With the others gone, I thought I would just let it grow back."
"It isn't just the twins that you matched, dear." Her mother's tone and smile were sickly sweet, but still colder than ice, if the chill up her spine was to be believed.
"Perhaps I can deal with it later? With the party, I should be getting rea-"
"No reason to put it off, you're a skilled enough witch to fix it yourself before you change, aren't you?"
Amity wanted to scream, was her mother really going to force this? She presented a soft smile and put on the act of a dutiful daughter. "To tell you the truth, mother, I was hoping to grow it out. Father and I would match then, and-"
"Amity!" The sudden fury in Odalia Blight's eyes stopped her dead in her tracks, and she straightened her back out of fearful habit, abandoning her act instantly. This time, there was no faux sweetness to disguise the contempt in her voice. No, this was the woman the spirit knew. The woman who cared so little for her as to regard her as unimportant. A failure. Someone who had to fake being her mother's child. The spirit had been right. "I have told you to correct an imperfection. You will do as I say, or it will be corrected for you."
Amity couldn't believe that this sort of thing still felt like a hot iron pressing through her heart, couldn't believe she hadn't learned to expect this. "Yes mother, I'll go correct it right now."
Just like that, the smile returned to her mother's face, and that sweetness returned to her voice. "Good. Now, run along!"
Imperfection.
"Thank you, mother."
She hoped her voice wasn't as monotone as it sounded. She would hate to upset her mother by not being enthusiastic enough about it, and donned as convincing a smile as she could muster before giving a respectful nod and turning to walk up the stairs. Her breath she didn't realize she was holding was let out slowly as no further attempts at conversation came from below, and once she rounded the staircase, she broke into a brisker pace towards her room.
Amity stood in front of the mirror in her room, sighing softly as she slowly unwrapped the now in view bandage from her left hand. It had been white when she had tied it around her palm.. A day or so ago? Time blended together these days. Now it was soaked through and blackened in the center of where it had been pressed to her wound. There was also quite a bit of fresh blood.
She hadn't expected to use so much power to force the spirit. She hadn't meant to.
Just like she hadn't meant to use it to fuel her abomination in the witches duel against another student in her class named Jerbo, her creation ripping through his and then throwing him into a tree. He had been alright, sort of. Or when she had closed the door to her mother's study, such a small expenditure of magic. Blood Magic was quickly becoming the norm for Amity, and some part of her knew that she shouldn't rely on it so much, that she shouldn't allow it to become the norm.
But that rush of power.
The praise her teachers gave her, for advancing so quickly in the last two years.
She held out her right hand, her fingers curling inward as droplets of fresh blood rose into the air out of her left palm. They slowly joined a growing orb of dark red energy between her fingers, and she smiled excitedly. This was something new she had learned just a few months, that she could draw the blood together and then siphon its power all at once. The result was obvious, more obvious than she wanted to be in public, but it was so powerful too.
And it felt like there was nothing she couldn't do when she held it like this, staring at the warm red liquid. Nothing she couldn't be.
Imperfection? Unwanted?
Just a small taste, she reasoned, enough to keep her going at the party.
Crushing the energy between her fingers, she felt the power flood down through her veins, through her entire body. The effect was immediate; The three hours of sleep she had really gotten became nothing but an afterthought, she felt well rested in an instant. Her magical reserves in her bile sack, somewhat drained after her encounter with the spirit, were replenished. A spark of magic traveled down her arm and into her finger tips, causing her to giggle. Maybe more than replenished!
She was becoming more than Odalia Blight could ever hope to be!
She fixed her reflection with a glare, staring at the angled cheeks, the slightly sunken eyes and the fading dark circles under those eyes. Height hadn't really come with puberty, but at least her baby fat had somewhat disappeared. Her hair had grown longer, showing brown on top and around her ears, framing her face in her natural auburn.
It was honestly a miracle that her mother had let it get to this point. But Odalia Blight often wasn't around Blight Manor these days, missing dinners and being absent from her life aside from passing comments about this test and that grade when she received reports from Hexside on her performance in the school. The life of the Head Coven Leader was a busy one, a blessing in her eyes.
With a sigh, Amity summoned up that excess energy and drew the spell circle and watched as her hair raised up and began to change color to the pale mint green she had chosen.
She didn't mind the green color. Really. She just preferred her natural hair color. It made her golden eyes almost glow, it made her look more mature.
The spell finished, and her hair laid back down, the loose ponytail in the back having come undone.
Brown hair wouldn't make her see her own mother staring back at her. Thank the Titan she hadn't been born with blue eyes, she'd never have escaped her mother's gaze! She smirked at that silent thought of rebellion, and turned towards her closet, her eyes scanning over the outfits she could choose from.
Party.
Right.
Author's Note: This is half of what was supposed to be chapter 5, but I took some feedback that other characters weren't featuring enough(something I agree with completely!) and it ended up that the chapter was much longer than usual. So I'm cutting it in half, and this part will have 8, instead of 7 chapters! Thank you again for all your feedback, I love hearing from you, and lemme know what you think of this one! Hope y'all are enjoying the new season, I think the second episode is out now? 'Til next time! -Fox