The Vampire & Her Witch

”The simple answer is that sorcery uses the power of your own body and life to influence the world,” Ashlynn said with a smile as she recalled the lesson she’d received from Nyrielle what felt like a lifetime ago. ”Witches give shape to the power of the world, bending it to their desires however they please,” she added, using a description of witchcraft that came more from Amahle’s teachings than Nyrielle’s.

”I think what you need is a demonstration,” Ashlynn said as she stood from the stone she’d been resting on and dusted off her skirt. ”Heila, you can dismiss your lights for now. Let Ollie see everything as it is.”

”Yes, Mother,” Heila said, waving her wand and plunging the forest into darkness illuminated only by the twinkling lights of the stars above and the faint sliver of light from the crescent moon. That darkness didn’t last long, however, as Ashlynn drew a gnarled oak wand from the sash at her waist and began to gather faint, emerald green energy as though it were dew settling on a branch.

For a moment, Ashlynn wondered if she should stop to inscribe a circle. The wounds inflicted by the Frost Walker ancestors had been stubborn with frostbite that seeped all the way into her bones, chilling her even now. The burns inflicted by the Holy Flame Sword were just as tenacious, refusing to yield in the face of her body’s immense capacity for healing.

Nyrielle’s gifts allowed her to heal ever so slightly faster than the lingering energies in her body could inflict more damage, and the strength and resilience she gained from her blood bond with the vampire allowed her to endure despite the pain, but it was a fragile equilibrium at best.

A circle would make it easier to control the energy she was preparing to gather from the forest, but it would also take more time to prepare,e and she didn’t have any items on hand that felt suitable to use as anchor points for the working.

Besides, she told herself firmly, so long as the focus of her witchcraft was herself, she shouldn’t need to struggle against the trees, even ones as gnarled and stubborn as these. With her decision made, Ashlynn began to recite the incantation she’d carefully prepared during the days she spent in the carriage, racing from the High Pass to deliver her to a place where she could finally heal.

”Through twisted limbs and weathered bark,

Where mountain winds have left their mark,

I draw the power seasons stored,

In rings of life, in heartwood’s core,

I now call upon your deep reserves,

The strength each gnarled branch preserves.”

Ollie’s eyes went wide and his jaw hung low as he watched Ashlynn’s wand trace a wide circle in the air above her, leaving a trail of glittering motes of emerald light that blew away on the mountain breeze like the seeds of a dandelion. Each tiny trace of light drifted to one of the trees surrounding them until Ashlynn’s energy had reached dozens of trees, maybe even hundreds beyond his sight!

Then, as Ashlynn’s voice began to resonate, echoing from each tree that bore one of her seeds of light, the trees themselves began to glow, dripping tiny drops of dark green energy from their needles as though they were shaking off the last remnants of an autumn storm.

That energy crept along the ground, resembling a tapestry of roots snaking over rocks and sometimes eachother, merging together into thicker, stronger, brighter roots of light as they stretched toward’s Ashlynn’s feet, offering up everything the trees were willing to give, and in some cases, every last bit of life they had.

”This borrowed power, freely lent,

Now mends what fire and frost have rent.

From frostbit skin to charred remains,

From shattered bone to severed veins,

As trees heal scars with patient grace,

Let my wounds close, leave not a trace.”

Slowly, like a wick dipped in oil, Ashlynn drew in the energy the forest offered, drinking deeply as she guided the strength and vitality of the trees toward her abused and battered flesh. In the distance, the sounds of cracking branches and falling trees could be heard as those trees that barely clung to life on the side of the mountain gave up their struggle at last, offering their final days or years to the Mother of Trees in her time of need.

All around them, Ollie watched in amazement as the needles of some trees turned brown, dropping to the ground in a quiet shower that combined with the distant cracking to create the illusion that the forest itself was in the midst of a thunderstorm of powerful magic. And Ashlynn, wreathed in brilliant emerald light, stood at the center of it all.

Nothing could be done in an instant, and Ashlynn’s witchcraft had already spread to every tree within one hundred paces or more. But slowly, the pain that had plagued her body since the battle in the High Pass began to fade. Sharp pains dulled as cracked bones became whole and feeling returned to flesh too burned or frozen to feel anything at all.

The energy flowed deeper within her, wrapping around her heart and the seed she’d nurtured there, giving both a gentle whisper of soothing energy before flowing through her veins, mending muscles torn by strain and lungs too scarred by frost to draw deep breaths.

For ten minutes or more, while the forest bent to offer up the strength she needed to rise again, Ashlynn stood all but unmoving, focused entirely on healing her body from the wounds that tormented her and everyone who looked upon her.

As the energy flowed into Ashlynn’s battered body, Ollie jumped nervously every time he heard another tree limb crack and break or the crash of another mighty trunk falling to the rocky ground of the mountainside, shattering itself on the rocks like a ship broken in a storm.

”How, how much is she going to, going to take?” Ollie asked, licking his lips as he found his mouth had gone dry. ”Is this what it means to be a witch? She’s like a vampire who preys on trees the way vampires feed on people?”

And quietly, too softly to be heard above the sounds of shaking trees and the mountain wind, a deeper question hung on his lips.

”Is that what I’ll become if I join her coven?”