Thomelisa Taken, Pt XXVI

In a way it was harder to strip their power without killing them; it required greater control.  But I had always excelled at control, and the part of me that enjoyed a challenge thrilled at the test- could I disable both of them long enough to simultaneously drain them?

I could.  I did.  I left them nothing, left them crying aloud in fear and anger, but left them alive, with their children to comfort them.  I was overflowing with power, felt as though I should be glowing in the darkness.  They’d been more disciplined than I had, by far; they’d not done any great works for a decade or more, and for a moment I felt I could touch the faces of the Goddess herself, could reach back through time and pluck my daughter to safety before she was ever threatened.  But of course I could not.  What I could do, what I did do, was draw the the darkness around myself, and vanish from the village as if I’d never been there, with not even footprints to mark my passing.

I reappeared in my cottage, at my hearth.  Now that I had everything I needed- components, life force, and power to spare- now I could move swiftly, I would.  I had placed the spell in my own throat, not daring to put it in anything that might be taken from me.  It was dangerous to continuously cast from your own body, but it was better than the alternative.  I had charged it with the life’s blood of twenty moose, the freely-given life force of two five-hundred-year-old trees, and now I would weave in the power that I had gathered.

It took more power than I’d anticipated- if I hadn’t gathered up Kvenna and Roshen’s power, if I’d relied only on my own store, it would have killed me.  I tried not to think about that, as my power levels continued to drop, and a cold sweat broke out on my brow.  It didn’t matter what might have been- what mattered was what was, and what was, was that I did have enough power, enough control, to make my will reality.

With a final flare of power I felt the spell snap into place, ready and waiting to be cast.  I felt faint, and lowered myself shakily into a chair, took a sip of the warming tea I’d prepared before I’d begun.  It was warming no longer: it was cold as ice, and I realized that the finalizing of the spell had taken longer than I’d been aware of.  All the more reason not to hesitate.

I spoke the word to activate the spell- and nothing happened.  Or rather, the spell triggered, but beyond that- nothing.  I let out the breath I’d been holding, and then a shaky laugh.  What had I been expecting?  There was nothing living in the cottage besides myself, after all!

Or was there?

“Hello?” I said.  My throat hurt, as though I’d been screaming, and I tasted blood.  “Is anyone there?”