Witches (The Order)Revised

Chapter 26

Merianna

Jasnine had made the whole plan sound so simple on our way to this village.

At this particular moment? Nothing seemed simple...

The plan was for me to wander inside, look for the wand and take it while she sits outside ready to jump in whenever I needed her.

Dread pooled in my gut as the tracking charm spurred me on to a small stairwell that most likely lead into an underground cellar. The jewel charm tugged against my fingers, letting me know that, yes, it was in fact down that little stairwell and most likely inside whatever chamber was down there.

Sighing to myself I marched onward with the charm tugging me to what I hoped was not a false trail that the Nirn's might have set up in case of a -someone waltzing in with a tracking charm- situation. No other coven of witches would be brave or stupid enough to attempt what I was doing. None of them would say, "Oh look! A very powerful wand was stolen by a coven of Nirns! Let us go get ourselves killed while getting it back for the very concerned if not completely bonkers client!"

Nope, no coven of witches in their right mind would say something like that, but, of course, the Order wasn't just your normal coven of witches. We weren't fully light witches, and we weren't fully dark witches, in fact we liked to straddle the chasim between the two. Magic is magic and witchcraft is Craft. It all depends on how you see it and use it. So of course, just about anyone in the Order would jump at a chance for something like this because, well, everyone was nuts to some degree. I expected Raska or Ara to be all over this type of Bounty, instead of Jasnine of all people.

It only took me about ten steps to reach the bottom of the small staircase. Frowning, I crouched in front of the big sturdy wooden door that rose up in front of me and stretched my senses through and around the door. I didn't find any barriers or wards concealed on the other side of the musty wood. No spells that would raise an alarm and send the living storming down to my location either.

I was relieved that the tracking charm hadn't led me into a bedroom or something similar. That would have been slightly harder to get around, not to mention awkward if the occupant woke up during my search.

I could imagine that senario going from me slinking, to the occupant suddenly drawing in the collective power from all the Nirn witches in the entire village... to me becoming a stinking pile of compost behind a shed. Lovely visual...

Reaching up a hand, I gently tugged at the door handle and noticed that it was locked. I gave a silent sigh in exasperation, I should have figured as much. I reached out with my energy once more and grabbed a hold of the lock tightly with my astral hand. I twisted my real hand sharply and my astral energy twisted with it.

There was a satisfying internal click as the lock opened up, then the door swung slightly on its hinges. I smiled with a thrill that I couldn't place and slipped past the door while pulling it slightly closed behind me. It would be best for me to be able to get out again quickly without having to bother with shut doors.

It was dark and dank in the small space that greeted me. Squinting in the darkness I sparked the small space in-between my fingers with energy and summoned a small wick of flame into the palm of my hand.

My mouth pulled to the side in distaste when I could finally see what was at the other side of the door. Stone, stone, stone, and more stone...

I didn't know what I expected at first when I started descending the steps, but stone walls and more stone walls was not one of them. I think I was expecting tunnels wrapped in vines? Maybe monster spiders lying in wait as guards? Probably spirits rising up out of the ground to grab my legs and trip me? Maybe even for said vengeful spirits to steal and canabalize my soul? A creature from Tartarus could also have been a very high possibility.