Random piece - Witch Way Round? - part 10

Not far from Jim's, Lee pulled me over to him. I stopped inches in front of him.

"I have so many questions, I might just explode." He said, taking both my arms gently in his hands as he looked down at me.

I was still feeling edgy though.

"Can we go home first?" I asked, resisting the urge to rub my arms. I was getting really sick of this feeling.

He made a frustrated noise. "I sat through that whole conversation without asking a damn thing. I felt like an idiot! Tell me - "

"Please!" I cut him off, "Please, can we just get out of this enchantment first? It feels so oppressive!"

He frowned at me slightly, as if I'd reminded me of another question.

But he could see how much discomfort I was in - practically fidgeting from one foot to the other.

"Okay." He nodded once, sliding his right hand down my left arm to take my hand and releasing me with the other. "But, can you explain the enchantment while we go?"

I started moving before he'd finished asking. 

Why had I not felt it before? This was like a pressure on my entire body. It itched and crawled and felt like a thousand creatures battering against me. Lee didn't seem to be feeling it, which either meant that his aura was so far clamped inside that it wasn't touching the spell, or it was something different - directed solely at me. Fingers-crossed it wasn't the latter.

"Alright." I sighed, tugging at his hand to make him walk faster. So much for him having longer legs and always walking too fast for me. I was practically jogging away from Jim's.
We didn't say goodbye to Jim... I thought suddenly, and instantly felt bad. Best bring him something next time we went in to make it up to him.

"The Treatise Enchantment?" I asked, trying to focus through the nauseous feeling creeping up my spine.

Lee nodded.

"It's a spell that acts on an area as a suppressant. Theoretically no one can cast spells in the area it's cast on. It dampens all magic - in everyone that's there. I'm not sure if you'd have noticed since you were holding back so much...?"

"But you cast a spell. I felt it. For a second it was as if I could feel the spell and see how it worked and everything..." He said. I could feel his confusion at my conflicting explanation, and his amazement at the experience he'd had.

I'd never shared in a spell like that, except yesterday when we'd channelled each other to heal Bree a little. Which reminded me - we were supposed to go do that some more today.

"I don't understand how it worked." I admitted, turning the final corner out of town. It had taken only two minutes to reach the edge of the town centre, but I could still feel the spell. "You shouldn't be able to work any magic in a treatise enchantment... though the enchantment is only as strong as the caster - or only as strong as they want it to be. Maybe they wanted to be able to cast if need be?" I shrugged at myself. I hated not having the answers.

"How did you know it was in effect?" He asked. "Did you try to cast a spell and it failed or something?"

I shook my head, pushing us just a little faster along the street. The bees under my skin were dancing too fast now.

"No, it was just... I was trying to feel for anything big and bad and magical in town. Just to check sort of thing. I couldn't feel anything - I mean, nothing. Like - not even normal everyday people's energy..." I looked at him as we speed walked to see if he understood at all.

"So... you knew that it was there just because you couldn't feel anything?" The concept seemed silly when he put it that way.

"I knew something was suppressing either everyone's magical abilities, or something was cutting out my senses like you wouldn't believe. I've been hoping the entire time that it's not the latter - though when they said that they just wanted to talk I made the connection and assumed a Treatise Enchantment." We were at the final stretch of shops, before rows of houses started taking over the street. 

"So their reaction was what let you know that it was a Treatise Enchantment..?" He was trying to piece my thought process together.

"Is." I corrected "And I'm still only hoping I'm afraid."

How can those things reach anyway?

"Wait - you said you could feel it a little back there... like a pressure... was that just so they didn't understand how much of a guess it was - or was it true?"

"Both." I admitted, "It felt like that headache you get when a thunderstorm is close whenever I tried to do anything with my magic."

"So stop trying to do magic." He said, as if this were the most blindingly obvious thing in the world, and I were being stupid for not doing so. "It's clearly hurting you - like the see-me-not thing..."

I shook my head "I'm not doing it. I think I activated something in the spell by leaving early. Need to get out of its area ASAP. If it's not a Treatise Enchantment I really don't know what to do..."

Finally he seemed to click onto my fear and urgency. I needed to get out ASAP, because if it weren't the Enchantment I thought it was, we needed help. Immediately.

His pace picked up to slightly faster than my own so that I had to jog slightly to keep up with him.
I figured - to hell with it - and started jogging properly, if not running. Running while holding hands is awkward because your hands go all flaily - especially when the person you're holding hands with is nearly a foot taller than you. Plus, I look like an idiot when I run; I really need to start practising. I was just so glad no one could see us jogging along now - my bag bashing against me with every bouncy step we took, my legs not wanting to move in any kind of fluid motion, instead choosing to fling themselves to a fro like a baby zebra learning to walk. 

Women often get compared to gazelles when they run... I'm definitely more a zebra... or a giraffe with dwarf-syndrome.

I felt the moment we passed the barrier of the spell. It was like that moment where your ears pop after a long build up. There was a sudden 'eep' from my body, then a sigh of relief as the horrible feeling just disappeared. 

My feet slowed to a gentle jog, then a walk as the relief washed over me. It hadn't been a targeted spell. I was okay. It was okay.
Lee was looking at me as if he weren't sure whether to pick me up and run or not. 

I stumbled into him and giggled, tears sliding down my face in gratitude for the universe granting me this out.

He was picking me up, probably ready to run, when I squeezed him and sighed.

Arms round his neck and legs wrapped round his waist I hugged him

"It's okay - we're through. We're outside it now." I said into his neck, not wanting to let go.

Gosh, that had been a close call. 

We were going to have to have some serious talks about this, but I really wasn't ready for them.

Explaining everything to him was going to take long enough, without me telling him off for agreeing to go to lunch with strangers who he could feel were witches. From now on, no matter who they said they were, if they felt like witches I wanted Lee to turn tail and run. Or what ever the subtle equivalent of that is?

"Thank God for that!" He said into my shoulder, hugging me tight "I thought you were going to pass out or something!"

We stood like that for a minute and giggled at our fortune.

Then Lee eased me back to the floor and let go. I felt his aura come flowing back as he put me down, and it made me smile. Slipping my hand round his waist and ducking under his arm, I let my own aura swim up and meet his.
He gasped and shivered. 

"Woah! What was that!?" he asked, a touch of ecstasy in his voice.

I grinned and let my aura bubble up further and swim round us. Along with being able to strap down my aura, I'd worked out how to open it outwards. It was just the opposite - like stretching your belly outwards instead of sucking in your gut.

"Wooah!" He said again, almost stumbling "What is that!?" 

He was staring at me like some glowing, radioactive fairy. Like I was unreal.

"It's me... well, part of me..." I was starting to blush.

"That's your aura?" He asked, raising a hand as if to touch it. "But... that's... I've never felt it like this before."

Amazing how much I've been holding back around you, isn't it? I thought briefly. It was strange how much my relaxed state had become more and more tightly bound.

Then the question I was dying to asked slipped out.
"What does it feel like?" I was so scared of the answer that I instantly wished I hadn't asked.

"Warm..." was all he could manage at first. "Comforting..." He added.

I understood why he was being so vague though. They don't feel like anything you can describe really. It's like feeling a person - only more... and different... in face it was nothing like feeling them at all. Sometimes they have a taste - other times a colour... but the feeling is pure emotional reaction most of the time. Warm and comforting was probably the best description I could have come up with for Lee's in fairness.

"Like yours." I said, smiling as we walked along in the glow of escaping something not so pleasant.

"Really?" He sounded sceptical.

"Nah, yours feels like a fish..." I said sarcastically, slugging him in the arm playfully "Yeah, really."

He laughed, then squinted slightly.
"You're like... pushing it outwards... aren't you?" He asked.

Observant much?

"Yeah, kinda." I said, easing off the pressure I'd been exerting and allowing it to lapse back to where it naturally wanted to be. It felt so good not to be reeling it in - like stretching when you've been in one position too long. "That's me not stretching it outwards."

There was a slight look of surprise on his face, but it quickly disappeared into his 'concentration' face. It took a second, but his aura grew a little - pushing out to brush mine more firmly. 

The sensation made me shiver. 

If it hadn't been Lee, I'd have thrown up a barrier so high the sun would be blocked out and withdrawn as far as possible. It was intimate in a way I couldn't explain. Not sexual - just close. Really really close. 

I hesitated, but didn't pull back.

Lee barely noticed, he was still concentrating on pushing his aura further.
Soon it was pressed so hard against mine that I was fighting the urge to shove back with my aura - see if I could shove his aura literally back into him.

I was just contemplating trying it when we reached our front door. 

"Home sweet home." Lee said, his aura seeping back to a bearable distance again. He hadn't pulled it down and into himself, it was just where it should be. The pressure had been getting uncomfortable, yet as he let up on it I felt almost sad - as if I missed that awkward intense pressure.

That kind of reaction told me it would be more endurable to have his aura smushed against mine for hours on end than to have it removed and shoved in a locked box somewhere deep in his chest for hours.

His key turned in the lock before I'd even got mine out of its pocket. 

There was a brief second where I thought something bad might explode out at us, and I considered checking all the warding spells before entering the house - just in case. 

I decided against it though, and stepped through the open door Lee held open for me trustingly.

Random piece - Witch Way Round? - part 9

There was a moment of silence in our secluded corner, and I wondered if I'd just lit a fuse to some high explosives. Hannah still looked like she'd like to shove a crackling psi-ball into my chest - or maybe even just shove her hand in my chest and rip out my heart.

I don't like it when people look at me like that.
Neither does my magic, which was itching to leap across the table on its own and extinguish her life force.
Just the thought of a part of me being able, let alone willing, to do that scares me if I'm honest. It's as if it has a mind of its own at time and I'm just along for the ride.

No one moved. No one said anything. The tension levels just kept getting higher and higher.
Let me explain something about magic: a lot of it is linked to your emotions. As far as I can work out, our aura is like an energy force - and for witches it's either a lot bigger or we can just flex it like a muscle; almost like being double jointed. So you can concentrate and use it in a controlled way - just like using your hand to write; or you can react with it - like catching a ball. The concentration is only needed in a big way if you're writing something you're unfamiliar with - like an English person starting to write in Cantonese symbols - which is why it hurts my head so much, it's all so unfamiliar. On the other hand, you don't always react; you wont always catch the ball, you wont even always  go to catch the ball. So it's not fully predictable.
With Li, his 'magical reaction' was to dodge rather than catch. I got the impression that Cairn would be similar. They're more intuitive when it comes to defensive magic - or healing I guess.
Hannah was probably more like me - ready to catch that ball and fling it back at you as hard as she could.

Alex was the only one I couldn't predict. He was so under control of himself that what ever he did would be a surprise. I always wished I could be like that. Calm, in control, unaffected by the situation.

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, placing my hands palm down on the table and splaying my fingers. Sometimes you can dissipate energy or feelings through contact with your element. Mine's earth, and Jim favoured granite table tops. Lucky me.

"So what did you want to talk about?" I asked, sounding (if not entirely feeling) composed.

My gaze hovered around Hannah, but the question was directed at all of them.

Hannah didn't hesitate this time - she was still too mad at me.
"What were you doing out there? We felt the power you were raising all the way at our circle! What kind of evil are you trying to manipulate that requires that much power?"

My mouth literally dropped open. I couldn't think of a reply to that. All we'd done is forged a circle and started raising our own power levels so that we had enough to work our spells with. Everyone does that - except endurance junkies - otherwise you burn up your own aura and it takes so long to replenish that you're ill for days.
Hannah, however, seemed to take this as an admission of guilt.
Apparently I was shocked they'd worked out the truth, rather than thinking they were crazy.

"Oh yes, we felt it!" She went on, sliding into a comfortable snobbish air of contrition. "If it had been your full coven we would have believed your innocence; but for only two of you to be power raising like that? Do you think we're fools? What evil are you trying to draw down on us?"

My wide eyed stare wasn't helping where Hannah was concerned; but it seemed to be having an uncomfortable effect on the boys. They didn't seem half as certain as her - or maybe they just hadn't planned on letting this much information slip.
Alex kept looking at me as if he were trying to pry back my mind and find the truth.
I realised a little too late that he probably was doing that.
My gut reaction was to shut him out completely - but then I remembered that I hadn't that sort of thing to hide.

I couldn't work out how to protect my inner most secrets without closing him out completely. This was getting far too complicated.
There's a technique to shutting your mind. I'm apparently a natural at it though. My first circle Tanya had decided to probe my mind. I'd cast her out so forcefully she literally flew away from me. It was as if I'd hit her hard in the chest. I was learning control though, and this guy was barely probing more than the edges.
I gave a little nudge; with the enchantment still in place he wouldn't be able to do much anyway, but I still wanted him to know I wasn't happy with him trying.
In fact, if it weren't for the enchantment, that little flex might have shoved him clean out of my mind.
That place was just a fortress of its own sometimes.

Part of me wondered if Circle White Dawn were right to think of me as a weapon.
I'd not been reaching anything like my potential without Lee to compete and practice with.
I wondered if that little zap I'd felt earlier, when his leg had touched mine and the 'look away' charm had settled on the remaining customers, meant that we were literally stronger together.
Dan had 'shared' power with me only recently - but it hadn't felt quite like that. It had more been like leaning on someone when you can't walk easily. This was like being zapped by a plug socket.

Concentrating on keeping Alex a little further distanced from my inner thoughts had given me time to calm down and try to think of what to say.
My mind had been running through a check list:

Your first thoughts of that amount of power is of raising evil creatures? Interesting...
I couldn't say that out loud though.
You think we were raising a demon or something? Do you realise I'm scared shitless of those things??
Too personal, better to not give away your fears to people you think are trying to hurt you and your friends. People who could, possibly, have been the cause of a friends death...
You think two of us could raise something like that? Don't you need a full coven? 
If that were true they'd think I knew more about raising demons than I did.

"There's no way we called enough power for you to feel at any distance. There were only two of us - and I'm not even initiated yet. Bree may be good, but she's not that good."
For the first time I wished Lee had been in that clearing with me - just so he'd have been able to back me up with the truth. I realised a second later that having him with us, as a healer, would have been a huge help too.
I shook my head, both to clear the thoughts and to emphasise my disbelief.
"I'm sick of this bullshit." I said, swearing for the second time in only minutes. I wasn't exactly angry any more, just annoyed and frustrated. "You lied to Lee to get us here, you cast a spell that effects us without intending to even tell us, you lie about the reason your High Priestess was in a clearing trying to kill us, and now you accuse me of summoning the sort of things that have been sent to attack our coven - that I've watched kill people, my friends..." I shook my head and felt Lee's hand on top of my own.
Some how the tears didn't come. It was one of the first times since thinking about Lani's death that I'd not cried. Go me!

Cairn was looking at me in surprise, Alex was frowning - deep in thought I think. Hannah was frowning in a completely different way. Anger really did not suit that girl; it made her look ugly in a way that I couldn't describe. Right now she looked like she'd very much like to reach across the table and rip my throat out, then use my blood as ketchup.

"We're leaving." I said, Lee and I standing simultaneously - hands still clasped together.

"Wait." Cairn stood, but made no move towards us. He simply stood with his hands held loosely by his sides. "Please. What attacked your coven?"

The question threw me. Was he so new that he didn't know what his own coven had been doing? I felt pity for him.

"Demons. Shifters. Creatures of evil that no one would name..." I looked down on Hannah, my face showing all of my contempt and repulsion at her and her beloved Circle Half-Light. "Just remember the Rule of Three..." I said, directly to her.
Then we left.

None of them made a move to follow us.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part 10