Josie Pye’s smile stretched inhumanly wide, the skin stretching over altogether more teeth that was proper, as she moved the dark stone knife back and forth from one hand to the other. “You should never have come here to my place of power witch” she hissed at Anne Shirley...
Anne’s eyes, now the cold grey of the morning sky off the point of White Sands, narrowed but she did not answer her. Instead she continued to weave the binding ritual, her hands blurring the air before her in phantom traceries the air crackling as the arcane energies gathered.
She did not dare take her eyes off the thing that was wearing the Pye girl’s skin to see if Matthew was okay. To her relief she heard a pained groan behind her. The hommunculi had survived worst attacks and Anne was sure it would be okay until they could repair its wards.
The Josie thing threw itself at Anne with a snarl its fingers stretching unnaturally long and sharp as its upper body contorted to grotesquely stretch across the barn towards her, skin and bones tearing as it came.
There was something dark and glistening showing beneath the skin now and for a moment the spectacle almost shocked Anne into missing her chance. Almost.
The years of her Adept training beneath Marilla’s stern tutelage in Sewing Circle kicked in and Anne pivoted on her heel as she brought her hands smoothly up into the final gesture of the hex she had been forming.
The air crackled darkly in front of her and the hay shot out from around her in a circle as the power coalesced. Josie’s headlong attack came to a halt in the air right above Anne as the dark energies there held her firm binding her now unnaturally long limbs to her sides.
Anne brought her other hand up in a fist that clutched her saining stone and with a gesture that would have raised eyebrows at the church ladies luncheon sent the creature flying back to smash through the back wall of the barn
She began to move forward to follow after it, her face drawn and grim from the energies she continued to hold, her left hand still dripping shadows and the right tracing a new hex but Matthew’s well callused and heavy hand fell on her shoulder and stopped her.
Looking back she saw his lined and weary face and battered body but before she could protest he held up his other hand on which the traceries of Marilla’s wards now burned with a blue and fey light.
“I’m okay” he grunted tersely. “I’ll clean this up while you go back to warn the Circle” the homunculus gave her a wry grin and gestured to the gash in his chest inside of which Anne could see the mix of sorcerous machinery and organs that kept him alive. “Just a scratch really”
And with that Matthew pulled a scrap of paper from his jacket with one of Marilla’s “for emergencies only” spells on it that immediately caught on fire, and stayed burning, the paper reforming and growing until he was holding a coldly burning blade in his hand.
“See? Now go on, don’t keep Marilla waiting I’ll be fine”he said over his shouler as he calmly walked towards the hole in the back of the barn.
Anne stood there for a moment and finally smiled quietly to herself before turning to leave. Homunculi could be so stubborn sometimes.
Anne stood there for a moment and finally smiled quietly to herself before turning to leave. Homunculi could be so stubborn sometimes.
