by Paul Simpson
Chapter 6
2nd Witch / Element of Water
The sun shone through the spider-webbed walls as Ffion continued her search for a portal.
“Geeooorrrgge, found it!" she shouted. "The portal is in this area, just as my mother described in the upper bedroom,” Ffion's hand glowed with the magic mark as the portal fully opened.
George appeared from another room, his new spirit orb in tow. “Well, wish me luck guys" said Ffion. "Last time we saw one of these we had trouble and I’m betting I’ll be walking into the same.
George, you stay here with your floating friend. Hopefully the magic used to create this place will help shield you from being noticed, and you can keep an eye out on the stones from here.” Ffion pressed her hand against the portal of spinning blue sparks. “Ok, here goes, back soon I hope!” She gave a nervous smile and stepped through with a fizz and crackle of energy.
Ffion found herself standing on the cliffside that her mother had mentioned her book. It was a beautiful day with a slight breeze coming from the ocean as she stood looking out at the view over the lighthouse nearby, taking it all in. It wasn’t often she had found herself near a beach, having always lived in and around the village, since she was a girl back in the 17th century. To do this as a child would have taken days to reach, in today’s terms it was just hours, and now, with magic, even less.
It had only been over the last few years that Ffion had travelled. With the lack of fast transport she had always kept herself around the area she knew, safe in familiar surroundings, especially as her life was turned upside down when she was just seven years old, turned into a cat and her father killed, with only her mother’s ghost to guide her through life.
While she was day dreaming she failed to notice that a strange fog had begun to form on the horizon and make its way toward the land. By the time her daydream had finished the fog had reached the shore and had began to engulf the cliffside in a grey shroud. Only the lighthouse could still be seen through the thick, murky curtain that surrounded her, as the sun did its best to break through its damp walls.
“Greetings, daughter of the witch, it’s been a long time," came a voice from the fog. "You were just a small insignificant little girl when I last saw you. Clever trick of your mother’s to hide you away like that. I knew one day you would come looking for me, especially after your encounter with Jack.”
Ffion kept turning around, trying to locate the source of the words. “It seems you have me at a disadvantage. You know me but I never really knew the coven my mother associated with, the ones who betrayed her,” spat Ffion at her unseen oppressor.
A shadow in the form of the witch appeared before Ffion in the fog as the voice began to speak again.
“It was our lives or your mother's. In return we were offered a new start, a purpose, and best of all true power, a power until then that only your mother possessed. How unfortunate that you also seem to follow in her abilities, but no matter, I shall soon put an end to the path you walk.”
“The only end here will be yours when I take your soul in return for my mother's!” Ffion charged forward at the shadow, firing off a blast of energy from her hand. The shadow dispersed as another formed to Ffion's side.
“You’ll have to do better than that!” said the witch, as she reached out a shadowy arm, clenching her fingers into a fist and swiping at Ffion, knocking her to the ground with the blow.
Ffion climbed up to her feet as more of the fog shadows surrounded her. “Playing dirty eh? Should have seen it coming really.” She sent out several blasts in all directions, dispersing the witch's apparitions, but only to be knocked down by another blow to her back this time, sending her tumbling. Before she could get up she was hit again to the head, knocking her on to her side, and then again to her exposed, undefended stomach like a kick to the belly.
Ffion retched from the impact as she clambered to reach her feet, winded and feeling bruised. The shadows once again began to appear and surround her. Looking around for any advantage, the only thing she could see was the lighthouse, just barely visible.
“That will have to do, I've got to get her in closer or I’m just going to take a beating from these shadows,” Ffion paused for a second “OF COURSE, SHADOWS.”
Quickly Ffion focused her power in each hand and formed a ball of light. Lifting it up high, it began dispersing the shadows around her in its glow as she set off to the lighthouse. Ffion’s pace quickened as she moved through the thick fog. The witch’s shadows kept forming either side of her to attack but the light she carried kept their reach at bay preventing them from doing any harm. A yell of growing frustration came from the hidden witch as she became aggravated with the situation.
Racing down the wet and slippy stairs from the sea spray, Ffion ran to the lighthouse and slammed the door behind her. Panting for breath she quickly thought what to do next as the door juddered. With the staircase to the top in front of her, Ffion began to climb up. From outside she could hear the witch shouting at her between the continuous thuds that rattled the door until finally it flew from its hinges. Ffion gazed back down to the bottom as a shadow stretched across the floor into the building, its hands reaching out as it swelled like flowing ink over paper to cover the walls, creeping slowly up the brickwork with skeletal hands outstretched like claws toward her.
Ffion quickly resumed her race to the top of the lighthouse as the darkness reached out to pull her in. She was within sight of the top as she began to climb the last of the stairs to reach the main light. Charging up the magic in her hand she prepared herself to light up the huge light. But with a whip to her ankle the darkness wrapped itself around her foot, knocking her over with a painful impact upon the steps. Pulling at her leg as it crept further up her body, the shadow began to stretch out up her thighs and around her waist. Ffion clung to the handrail and could hear the witch laughing while the dark wraps of the shadows grip tried to pull her back down into the darkness. Still Ffion clung on as the shadow crept up her arms and neck, leaving only her hands and eyes still in view.
“It’s no use resisting, witch's daughter, soon you will be gone and all will be as it should again. Just let go and I promise it will be a quick end,” came the disembodied voice echoing through the lighthouse.
With a growl and sheer determination, Ffion pulled against the shadow's grip. “Sorry,” she strained, “but that isn’t going to happen.”
With her eyes now aglow she once again forced a ball of light into her hand. The light from it caused the shadow’s tendrils to retract away from her arm and face as if it almost hurt them. With a flick of her hand the ball of energy fired over to the lamp, passing through the Fresnel Lenses with a flicker of light. The lighthouse shone brightly with the energy, cutting a slice in the surrounding fog as the shadows inside were forced back to the lower staircase.
The witch's voice hissed in disapproval. “I can wait in here with you until the sun sets. How long will your magic last?”
This made Ffion think about her current situation. “The witch just said ‘in here’," She thought to herself. "That must mean she’s in the building with me. Her shadows must have a short range to them.”
She pondered what to do as the lighthouse lantern rotated, continually flashing past her as it turned. Her magic wouldn't keep the light going forever and there was no way she could stay there as time was against her mother’s soul being captured. Ffion formed a plan as she placed her hands upon the lighthouse walls.
“So, you don’t like the light do you? Then let’s get a little more illuminated.”
Magic seeped into the walls of the lighthouse as Ffion concentrated on the task at hand. Slowly the walls around her began to turn into glass as the power spread through the building. Brick by brick the spell worked its way down the walls like water running over the edge of an overflowing bath. The entire building’s outer walls were now as clear as glass, which had also fused all the windows and doors shut, trapping the witch below as the shadows around her seemed to
fill the lower levels like a swirling ink. Ffion looked down and smiled at her trap.
“Now, to finish off this little trap.”
Moving her attention to the lantern, she began to feed it with more energy, causing the light to grow and pulse through the building. Using the glass walls just as the lantern used the lenses around it to amplify the light, Ffion cast the energy through the building. Everything was bathed in a pure white glow, and from the lower levels came a painful scream.
“NNNNNNNNOOOOooooooooo!”
As the light faded back down again to just the main lantern and Ffion could once again see daylight. The fog had burned away to reveal a sunny blue sky. Peering down the staircase she could see the body of a woman lying on the ground, passed out. With caution she made her way down the steps and stood over her.
She was a middle-aged looking woman, not what Ffion had expected at all. Her hair was black and she wore hippy-style clothing, along with a large nautical patterned shawl around her, possibly where and how she created the shadows, which is why she had to move close in with them. Ffion searched the unconscious witch for a personal belonging. Within one of her pockets she found an antique compass.
“This looks like it’s been around her enough to take on some of her power and should do nicely if I understand the book correctly,” Ffion said to herself, at which point the witch began to come around.
Ffion murmured to herself, reciting the chant from the book that would transfer the soul into the compass, to take back to the stones.
“What are you doing?” questioned the witch. “NO! YOU CAN’T! IT’S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE LIKE THIS, YOU’LL END US ALL!” she screamed.
Ffion was confused by the ranting. What did she mean, ‘You’ll end us all’? Before she could ask, the spell began to work and Ffion watched as a soft golden glow formed in the witch's chest, and a glittery mist seeped out of her body and into the compass.
In just a few seconds the lifeless body of the witch lay still on the floor. Ffion stopped and stared at the body of the person she had just damned to a hell, but then remembered that the witch had only done the same to her mother all those centuries ago and so she began spell again. In a further glow of magic the body slowly turned to burning sparks and was also absorbed onto the compass.
The last words spoken still troubled Ffion, but her mother was waiting and she needed to get back to the village. In a bright flash of spinning sparks the doorway reopened in the house and Ffion stepped through. The portal door shut behind her as Ffion had a thought. She already had one of the witches, which meant there was a portal with nothing to find behind it unless...
“If there’s nothing to link to on the other side, would the door reopen?”
Raising her hand with the symbol on it, Ffion tried to reopen the witch’s doorway, but nothing happened.
“Without the witch on the other side, the doors must stay closed. At least that answers that. If it opens, then someone is on the other side who I need.”
Suddenly in the distance Ffion’s attention was grabbed by growls and shouts that sounded all to familiar to her. “GEORGE” she shouted, and she ran out of the webbed house and across the field to her friend's aid.
Back on the village hillside the barrier was under threat. The Reaper had returned and was trying to break the spell over the witch stones’ protection of Jodie’s soul. George spat and hissed at the feet of the Reaper, but there was little he could do by himself. Spark after spark flew as the scythe hit down upon the barrier.
As he gave an almighty swing, the rebound of the blow knocked the Reaper back a few steps, forcing it to regain its balance. With a sudden flash of light from behind, it arched its body backward and stood tall with its arms out to its sides, fists clenched in pain and its chest pushed up as if in agony. With a second flash a glowing white blade pushed through its chest before quickly being pulled out. The Reaper fell to the floor dead, and behind was Ffion.
“I told you before,” she panted, “my mother’s soul is not yours to take.” She dropped to the floor to catch her breath, being a little worse for wear, still recovering from her last fight.
George was gobsmacked. “Wow, that was like wow! I mean, the Reaper, well, er, wow!” Giving a little cough to clear his throat he started again. “So how was the beach? Did you have a nice time building sandcastles and, I dunno, you know, maybe defeated a witch while you were there?”
Ffion composed herself again, climbing to her feet. “Yes, I’ve got it” and she pulled the compass from her pocket to show George. The compass began to glow as the witch's soul was sucked into a second of the nearby standing stones. From within the light trail it screamed as the witch took her place in her new tomb, with the stones giving off a dull glow.
Ffion smiled at George and then her mother. “Two down, three to go.”