The Ether Witch

Eli’s legs felt like they didn’t want to move. She had stayed on that side street, looking around every nook, cranny, and store that was in the vicinity. She whispered, calling Tam’s name over and over, until her throat dried up and she couldn’t whisper anymore or she’d cough.

What was she supposed to do? What could she do?

Tam had said he disappeared into a void when his magic overtook him… So where exactly was the void? Did he just turn into nothing? Did he go to the Forest of the Afterlife?!

Eli started to fidget. She debated using her magic. Debated seeing if it could do anything…

People will see though. She pointed out to herself as she glanced back at the still crowded main road of Junya a short distance from where she stood.

Surprisingly the tavern that was nearby had been closed most of the day… A fortuitous thing in the end given how Tam had disappeared.

Maybe if I come back after dark and use my magic. Maybe then I–

“Eli?”

Swinging around, Eli found herself staring at Luca, who looked pale and frightened.

Right. Hadn’t Tam gone shopping with him?! Where had he been the whole time?!

“Luca!” she called. “Is everything alright? Where were you?”

“I-I was just around the corner of the next street over. Dad said… He… He said not to move until he came back, but it’s been so long, and he was going after the men who were following you. Where is he?”

“Oh… Well…” Eli glanced over her shoulder a final time, hoping to find her employer standing there again. “I… Don’t know. He scared off the men following me, but I… uh-”

“Eli! Luca! Thank the Goddess I found you!” Bong darted over to the pair from the street.

“Hi, Bong, did you happen to bring the carriage?” Eli questioned quickly, with the hope that Luca wouldn’t ask her again where his father was.

“Wha– Yes… Yes, I did, but what is-”

“Luca, please go to the carriage,” Eli ordered without sparing him another look as she continued to peer around the street desperately.

Luca looked like he wanted to argue, but he was also exhausted having been out all day, and then waiting in the sun for so long as well, and so he dragged his feet all the way to the carriage without bothering to argue.

“Is something wrong?” Bong asked slowly.

“Yes. Everything. Tam just disappeared, and there were two men who were following me that say they were hired by my brother and I don’t know what to do. My lord, do you know any witches who could maybe-”

“Pardon me, Eli, I am not certain I am understanding what you are saying,” Bong attempted to soothe the woman who was turning back around with mounting distress.

“Tam disappeared. His magic… He… I know he doesn’t want me to talk about it, but he just vanishes, and I don’t know where he is, and he doesn’t know where he is, and I just… He’s gone. He came to help me, he got worried, and he’s gone.”

Bong blinked rapidly and opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again when he realized he had no response despite his two attempts.

“Does he do this often?” he wondered aloud for his third try while watching Eli lift up a potted plant and look under it.

“No! He usually stops it from getting this far! But then I came along, and… Good Gods, why do these things keep happening? Why in the world do things keep going wrong!” Eli shouted angrily while whirling back around and spotting a crate that she dove for and picked up to peer under.

“I don’t believe our dear Tam can fit underneath the crates,” Bong reasoned gently.

“Do you have a better idea of where he is then?!” Eli demanded while chucking down the crate.

Bong moved carefully over to Eli. “What is everything you know about Tam’s power?”

“I already told you everything!”

“So he has no control over where he goes once he disappears?”

“No.”

“What has happened in the past when he has returned?”

“I have no idea! Please, can we just go back, and get in touch with Zinfera’s coven?” Eli insisted, peering up at Bong desperately.

“It would be days until we heard anything, and all requests like this one go through the emperor. It would alert everyone to Tam’s presence, and then Daxaria’s coven would be summoned as well.” Bong held up his hands. “ I believe we should only do that if we don’t hear or see Tam for a bit more time? It’s entirely possible he reappears here later! I’ll pay the staff of those stores on the main road to keep watch for him, alright?”

Eli looked like she wanted to object, but as she stared into Bong’s concerned, yet calm face, the fight left her, and her shoulders came forward in defeat.

“It is not your fault,” Bong informed her quietly.

“It is. It is my fault that I didn’t just go shopping with Tam in the first place. It’s my fault that I… I… I was followed, and that I-”

Bong laid a hand on Eli’s shoulder. “Let’s go back to the house. There’s nothing we can do here, and it is getting late.”

“How can you not be worried?” Eli snapped, her defeat swiftly turning into a fiery accusation.

Bong didn’t react to her mood change. “I am worried. But the longer we are outside talking about it, the more risk we create. We need to manage the situation and regroup best we can. I’m sure that is what Tam wants.”

“Tam wants to get out of a void,” Eli informed Bong coolly.

Bong’s lips flattened, then relaxed. “What would you like us to do right now?”

Eli stared at Bong, emotion starting to make her throat close.

Sure, the situation was bad… but she’d been in worse. Why was she so upset? She normally was fantastic at being resourceful and figuring out what to do. There wasn’t a reason to be afraid really… She was in no imminent danger…

Eli lowered her eyes. I need to stop being like soggy tea leaves. Like a useless lump… I’m better than this. We need Tam back or our plans aren’t going to work. Tonight, I’ll return here and try to find him using my magic. If I can’t find him after a few days, I’ll force Bong to write to the coven, or we can subtly ask around for any other witches that may be living in the city.

Nodding to herself, Eli started walking to the carriage, completely ignoring Bong as she did so.

She’d figure things out. And even if Tamlin Ashowan had disappeared for good, she’d survive.

She’d always survive.

***

It was the same, vast, black nothingness it had been before.

Tam felt as though he were trembling the same way he had as a child. He tried to scream…

And he did.

The fact that he could hear his own shout echoing out into the distance startled him into stumbling back…

Stumbling.

He looked down.

There were his hands.

His feet.

He was in his body!

Relief washed over Tam as he grasped his forearms, and felt they were solid under his touch.

The last time he had been in the void had been seven years ago, and that time he didn’t have a body…

This was significantly better.

Tam turned around, looked up, looked down… only to find there was nothing under his feet. He wasn’t even sure how it was possible he could see his hands and legs. It seemed like the light was coming from above, but when he’d look up, the source would shift.

“Hello?” he shouted out, and listened to his voice echo once more… “If I echo, that means my voice is bouncing off of something solid,” he explained to himself.

Taking a few tentative steps, Tam found doing this was wildly disconcerting as he didn’t feel like he was moving, and yet the way his muscles worked in his thighs he felt like he had crossed some kind of distance. Closing his eyes, Tam reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose.

The two times he had disappeared in the past, he had disappeared for half a day at most… He just hoped that that was all it was. He was sure he’d frightened Eli. And Luca… Gods… Luca would be especially terrified.

Sighing, Tam felt his guilt mounting, which in turn inspired him to try making headway walking again.

He held out his arms as he did so, wondering if he could feel anything… But, after what seemed like half of an afternoon went by and nothing changed, he eventually stopped.

Gradually he lowered himself down to sit on the mass of nothing surrounding him to rest.

“I hope Eli’s alright. And Luca… What if Eli doesn’t see Luca, or he waits on the street without anyone finding him?!” Fresh panic washed over Tam, prompting him to jump back up.

“IF THERE IS ANYONE THERE! PLEASE GET ME OUT! PLEASE! I NEED TO GO BACK!”

Tam felt air be pulled from his lungs as he gasped and felt the familiar dread seep into his being.

He’d been able to stay calm far longer than he ever had in the past thanks to the fact that at the very least he was in his own body this time…

Wait. My body. Every time I’ve vanished before my body has always disappeared with me. Why is it only appearing now? What is different now?

Tam’s mind raced with possibilities.

Was it that he was older? Had his magic grown stronger? Why would it be stronger? Did Luca have something to do with it?

He frowned. Then he did something he had avoided since his magic had first manifested… He turned his attention inward… and examined his power. Tam Allowed it to flow freely through him, even though it made his vision turn black again, making him lose sight of his body once more.

Tam let out a yelp as chaos filled his senses.

He heard sounds… So many sounds all whirling around him…

Voices, animals, music, things banging around, crying, laughter…

But that wasn’t all. He could smell things. He could smell smoke, cold night air, he could smell fish cooking, and incense burning…

He tried to free himself from the onslaught, except something else was happening.

He started… To feel things. The brush of a cold stone under his left fingers, the uneven road beneath his feet… Then it changed and it felt like he was touching the inside of a wooden coffin, then a porcelain one… What was happening?

Tam felt like he was being strangled by senses, and it was overwhelming him until he started shouting, unable to think clearly…

When a violent yank dragged him to the ground from his chest.

What the hell was happening now?

The chaos overwhelming Tam lessened bit by bit, and when he was able to focus again on the tug he was feeling, it happened again.

It was like a rope had been knotted inside his chest, and it was pulling him.

Tam was dragged again, and again…

When he finally flipped onto his back, he stared down at his chest, not sure what he should expect to see.

Perhaps the mage crystal that had refused to work for him in the void was acting up…?

No.

Tam’s eyes widened.

There was a red thread coming out of his chest.

And everytime it went taut, he was dragged.

Tam started to hear sounds again.

Only it wasn’t a cacophony of noise, he could hear someone rummaging about… He could sense someone…

Looking around, Tam still saw nothing. The thread that was attached to his chest seemed to drift off and disappear into the void.

Reaching up to grasp it, Tam watched as the line once again went taut, only this time…

Something jerked on the other end, and Tam watched as the wavering line in the distance became as tense as a violin string, and he had the keen sense that someone, or something, was on the other side.

The question was, who, or what was it?

Holding firm, Tam rose back up to his feet once more and shuffled forward, making sure to not let go of the thread for an instant, or else he could tell he’d find himself getting hauled along to Gods knew where…

While things still weren’t exactly great being lost in the void, at the very least, there was some kind of thread of hope he could, quite literally, hang on to.

Please Eli… Luca… I hope you’re alright.

***

“Welcome to Zinfera, Your Magnificence.” The hooded figure knelt on the dock, amongst the mist and dull lantern lights.

Handed down from the ship by a young man with sandy brown hair and brown eyes, a woman approached her greeter.

“It’s been some time. Tell me, has there been any word about my brother, the devil?”

“No, Your Magnificence. However, by the time we reach the palace in Gondol, there may be news.”

The woman tilted her chin and smiled. Her olive skin and black hair were pristine, but the coldness in her dark eyes made her appear more terrifying than attractive.

“Very well. I look forward to meeting with that concubine again… She was most gracious in funding my escape.”

“Of course, Your Magnificence. Shall we?”

The woman laughed. Surprisingly, it didn’t sound as cutting as her smile indicated it could be.

“Come, Ansar. It’s been years, but you have been loyal. Call me Aradia. I doubt many people know the true name of the first witch, so it should be safe to use, don’t you think?” She held out her gloved hand to the hooded figure who rose back up.

He took it and kissed the back, then peered up at the daughter of the Gods reverently.

“As you wish, Aradia.”