WeaverWitch

Chapter 6-Doused

Cold pain.

So much. Razors of ice stung her face. Her eyes were stuck. Open.

Dry.... her sinuses burned with a smell. Charred- no frostbitten-flesh. Everything was so dry and cold... cold...

She opened her mouth. But it was silent. Everything.

So quiet.

No peace... only pain. Black threads.

No... not this again. She waited for the Firewitch to break through the mist. To pop and laugh and cleave as she burned alive.

But instead, she sat up. Her body moved without her telling it to, smoothly. Though her ribs felt brittle and twisted, and her shoulder... frozen... she moved with no physical repercussions.

In front of her was a man wearing black clothes... The strange raven-man, she thought, come to fetch her from this tortured land. She could see her surroundings now; it was not snowing, though she could still feel the ice. Stinging her wide open eyes and mouth as she tried to scream for him to help her, to stop the pain. The ground was black and brown, spotted with scorch marks and puddles. The sky was orange and red. But as she stared at the figure, willing him to move, he looked up. It was not the raven man.

His face was covered in soot, his nose crooked and bloody. He kneeled about twenty paces from her, his hands raised as if to summon flames. Boils and veins of darkness covered his bare arms.

The Firewitch had been doused.

He looked different with no fire to light his eyes with madness and spill out of his mouth like a blazing tongue. They were bright green. He was younger than she expected, perhaps in his thirties.

She cringed and tried to move away, to scream that she had to do it. To protect Aeduan. To protect her Heart-Thread.

But when he looked up, all she saw in his dirty, tear-streaked face was terror.

The world was dark now.Everything around her was black, and she felt a stabbing pain in her shoulder- her eyes were closed. She opened them.

Everything was white, too bright. She squinted her eyes and moaned. Now everything was hot. The Firewitch was awake, awake, the Origin Well had not doused him because she was burning and ablaze and she just wanted someone... Safi was not here... the raven man was not coming... Aeduan. He was here, wasn't he?

Someone put a cool towel on her forehead. She made out a faint figure hovering above her.

"Aeduan..." she gasped, relaxing. He was here. She was safe... he stayed with her... was Blueberry here?

"Owl? Is Owl okay...?"

The figure nodded. Their voice was faint and muddled. "Um... yes. Owl is safe."

Iseult laughed. "That little demon... Blueberry probably saved her..." why had the girl been in danger again? Iseult did not remember.

She closed her eyes, blackness creeping over her consciousness. Back to the Firewitch she would go.