The Thunder Witch Pt. 1

The ground and sky shuddered as the figure above us descended. Its catalyst, a polished white wooden bident, shone even with the sun shrouded by the ominous rumbling clouds above. The dozens of golden seeds inlaid through the bident gave off a warming glow akin to the one that emanated from Yssa’s hair, yet there was no warmth, only the chill a child feels when she looks into the night forest only to find the yellow eyes of the predators waiting to devour her in the its deepest bowels.

The most notable part of the bident, however, was the three blinding orbs between its wooden prongs. Each was at least the size of a fist folded in another and each emitted the same light as a golden seed, only a thousand times brighter. The dazzling display fully obscured the catalyst’s wielder, though the murderous aura from the figure was unmistakable. The dragon was nothing compared and resistance was equivalent to death.

With each inch the figure descended, the aura became more suffocating until I was on my knees, grasping my chest and gasping for air. Remmi and Yssa had managed a bit more dignity, only falling down on one knee. Still, it was clear from the thick droplets of sweat dripping from their down-turned faces that they were barely keeping their composure.

“Pathetic.”

The word boomed through the sky, lightning arcing through the clouds with each syllable. It shook me to my core and in the distance by the Grand Cathedral I could hear whimpering and begging from the other survivors.

A gust of wind knocked me back, sitting me up onto my heels while I shielded my eyes. Still kneeling, Yssa and Remmi did the same until it all — stopped.

The light from the bident subsided and the clouds above dissipated as quickly as they had materialized. The sun was shining and a cool breeze comforted my sweat drenched face and robes. By all metrics it was a beautiful day, sans our dead classmates, the mutilated dragon corpse, and the ravaged landscape.

“Stand.”

The voice that had boomed mere seconds ago spoke at a normal volume now, though the nauseating waves of terror it sent through me hadn’t changed. Obediently, the three of us rose to our feet, with me, as usual, standing slower and more unbalanced than my friends. We continued to keep our heads down, hoping that the humbling gesture would spare us from whatever fate we were about to meet.

Then it was gone. The sun. The breeze. The scorched grass. All gone. The sun had been replaced with a silver chandelier housing dazzling magical blue crystals rather than candles. The air was cold and stagnant, and the grass had transformed into a dark grey polished granite with a plush burgundy circular rug that just barely missed reaching the twenty foot tall shelves and cabinets lining the walls. It was a prodigious room I knew well.

“Lady Venna,” Remmi, Yssa, and I said in unison.

“Raise your damned heads already,” a firm, yet raspy voice ordered.

We all complied in practiced unison, raising our heads to give the small old woman sitting, hands folded together, behind the dining table sized mahogany our full attention.

“Alva. Explain.”

Swallowing the stone in my throat and clenching my sweating fists around the fabric of my dirty blue robes, I stepped in front of Yssa and Remmi. I tried to rehearse what to say in those brief moments, but every explanation felt like it would be seen as an excuse. Lady Venna, Headmistress of the Royal Academy of Humonon Knights and Mages, did not like excuses.

“L-lady Venna, you see, uh, there was this… We were eating dinner in the Grand Sorcerer’s Cathedral and —“

“GET TO THE POINT YOU BUMBLING TWIT.”

Jumping like a frightened cat at the demand, I managed to sputter out a relatively coherent account of the recent events, making sure to include every detail I could remember while not accidentally making up ones I didn’t.

“I see.” Lady Venna’s two simple words bore down on me and it was all I could do to keep my shaking knees from giving out. “So you three ‘saved’ the academy from this dragon.” I nodded. “And none of you, and answer this truthfully, had anything to do with it before it attacked?”

I shook my head, reflecting on all the mistakes I, or more accurately the three of us, had made over the last two years that warranted the last question. Between several of my experiments creating chaos in the C student dorms and the extensive (and expensive) damage Yssa and Remmi’s duels had caused, it was no wonder suspicions were on us.

With a tired sigh, Lady Venna unfolded her hands and levitated from her chair. She rubbed the bridge of her nose with her tiny, wrinkled fingers as she floated towards me. Her bident drifted behind her, though its glow was dimmer now that magic wasn’t being poured into it.

“Lady Venna, please, this was—" Remmi’s plea was cut short by a wave of Lady Venna’s worn fingers that hurled her across the room into one of the dozen shelves packed with books and jars of alchemical ingredients. Or, more accurately, Remmi was hurled at one of the shelves before stopping and bouncing off of the magical barrier protecting the shelf and ending up splayed out on the granite floor.

“Please, if it was anyone’s fault it was—“ Like Remmi, Yssa was cut off, but instead of being hurled at a shelf, the Lady simply levitated Yssa close to the ceiling and slammed her face first onto the floor, though thankfully it was on the rug rather than stone.

“When,” the Headmistress growled, “did I give you permission to speak?”

Neither Remmi nor Yssa responded as they silently pulled themselves to their feet. Neither seemed injured, though their tight lips and narrowed eyes throwing daggers at Lady Venna alarmed me.

“I believe I told you to keep these two on a tight leash, Alva.”

The blood washed from my face as the first brown strands wrapped around my neck and pulled taut. Dozens and then hundreds followed, strangling more and more until the magical noose made of my hair was ready to hoist me into the air. My feet kicked as I tried to free myself and I clawed, first at the hair choking me and then at my scalp, in a pointless attempt to free myself

“Let. Her. Go!” Remmi roared, firing through the air like a ballista bolt. Her right hand was a black claw, twice as big as it should be and with dagger sharp nails ready to shred the old woman.

Flanking Lady Venna, though much quieter, was Yssa, A fire burned in her fierce blue eyes and her hair was glowing like the wings of a divine herald. Like with the dragon, magical circles formed in the air, this time revealing hundreds of golden swords that fired down, ready to turn the Lady into a pincushion. They easily found their mark, running the old woman through at every angle possible. Blood splattered across the room, droplets hitting and dripping down the invisible barriers.

“Yssa!”

Remmi’s voice rang through the room, full of misplaced alarm. It was over, right? That’s what my dimming vision and fuzzy mind told me. But from the darkest recesses I could hear my logic berating me. It was impossible for it to be over. Lady Venna was the Headmistress of the academy. The unstoppable Thunder Witch who, along with three other heroes, traveled to the demon country, killed the last Demon King, and brought the current era of peace to Humonon.

How could someone like that die easier than a dragon?

They couldn’t.

Such a thing was as impossible as breathing without lungs, as inconceivable as the sun vanishing from the sky.

Yssa’s contorted impaled body was proof of that.