The splitting headache rocked through my skull as I was jolted awake. My body felt sore and heavy, almost as if I had been training with Uncle for the entire day without rest. But there was something more, I felt… empty in a sense. My vision remained unfocused, but even then, the room was so dark that nothing could be seen. Everything around me seemed to be continuously spinning and before I knew it, I was on my knees barfing what little food I had eaten throughout the day. The clanging of metal chains echoed in my empty prison. Only now made aware of their existence did I feel the clamping force on all my limbs. Panic, fear, anxiety, and every shade of melancholy gurgled in my being. Tears and snot began to blend with the barf that lined the floor, a slight tinge of red coming from the dried blood that rested on my face.

“Hihihihihihi, ah the sweet taste of misery. Sisters, Sisters! How long have we tasted such pure emotions? We don’t need to wait anymore right eldest, verily? He’s already rested enough so we can finally have fun most atrocious.”

Laughter that sounded like a broken record on a loop eerily filled the chamber. Its high pitch like screeching voice brushed passed my ears.

My eyes darted to the source of the sound but found nothing. Swiveling my head from corner to corner yet even now all I could see were the 4 darkened walls that lined the room. Fear instinctively grabbed hold and my legs mustered the last of their strength to pull me into a corner. Still, I searched the empty corners of the room to no avail.

“Now youngest, it’s no good to tease our young lamb. What would happen if you were to spoil him? Such a delicacy… no, we must make sure we savor him slowly. It’s not every day we get a new pet walk into our abode on its own. Besides, look what a fine specimen he is. We’ll have years of fun before we ever need to turn him into our daughter. Oh, if he had just come a year or two earlier, how fast humans age. Pity.”

A low gravel like squawk ushered into the room. As my eyes searched to no avail, my panicked eyes soon caught a glimpse of a small flicker of a light source. It was then that I saw it, a set of lightly glowing amber eyes high in the ceiling.

“Eldest you speak of slowly savoring him, yet you dispel our invisibility. Our youngest might be the most playful but you are definitely the most excited by our new pet. Though you are right, poor little soul lost in natures embrace. While the thought of hosting another doesn’t entice me, I suppose having another sister would help us get started on our first real steps to forming a coven.”

As a new distinct voice came from the same silhouette, the amber eyes shifted to a light pink. Soon a horrid shape began to take form in front of me. High on the ceiling this silhouette hung as if it was natural, like a spider watching its prey caught in its web.

“Play, play, play! Oooooh the games that will cause dismay. KAKAKAKAKA. Shall we start with the skin ripping? But I’ve always liked the sound of bone crunching and yelping. But if sister wants maybe a slow burning oil drippings to hear our little thiefsies hissings?”

Intense burning red eyes flared brighter as the first voice returned. The unnerving unnatural laughter causing my very skin to crawl. My mind no longer able to comprehend what was occurring before my very eyes. Soon the creature began to descend from the ceiling, its head seem to contort and spin in ways that shouldn’t be possible. Their eyes ever changing between amber, pink and red, glowing constantly menacingly in the dark. The only source of light in this nightmarish pit of hell. Like a moth to a flame, they guided all attention to it. This… things body was no less horrific and confounding than its changing voices. Legs and arms twice the size of itself yet so thin and long that they seemed to belong to two different bodies. One arm stretched out, crossing the entire rooms length, reaching out towards me. My instincts flared in response, my entire being attempting to retreat, yet there was nowhere for me to go but to try and push farther into the wall that already cut off my escape.

“Now, now little one. Let me get a good look at you, and you best BEHAVE. I HATE BAD LITTLE CHILDREN.”

The amber eyed voice began to distort ever lower into a demonic growl. Tendrils seemed to lock my body in place as I was suddenly unable to move at all. As one craggily hand reached out, the other seemed to move in strange patterns. One of the demonic eyes shifted to pink, and two distinct unnatural voices sounded at once.

“Viesa” “Viesa”

A set of small glowing orbs began to float above my unmoving head. From its edges a face began to take shape in front of me. Dry grey skin marbled its features, a huge, crooked nose with bulbs and cracks adorning its visage. Teeth so yellow and green that seemed to match the moss of the ruins I had seen earlier. A crooked smile that housed those very same cracked serrated like teeth, much like a cave that housed a serpent ready to pounce outside. A slimy mossy tongue that began to slither its way through, it hung with ease in the air before it began to caress my cheek. My mind screamed and roared, every cell in my body vibrated with the intent to pull back, to move, to do SOMETHING. Yet nothing happened, I was stuck like a puppet with its strings help tightly by its owner. The ugly mug that stood before me cackled and smiled in delightful glee.

“Hmmm, did he really break our control before? Was it just a fluke? Maybe he had some sort of amulet on him?”

The pink eyes took over both sockets as the tongue retreated back to its treacherous maw.

“Sisters you promised, you promised, you promised!”

The red glow lunged out, its glow fierce and unabated. Unrestrained, unlike its counterparts.

“You promised I could PLAY.”

The boney fingers thrust forward and gripped at my throat. The surprise made me gasp, but no air came in or out. For such small thin arms, the creature held me high in the air with no trouble at all. I could feel my lungs begin to burn; my body struggled in vain as my tiny legs kicked the air. My hands attempted to claw at the pincers that held my fate. Tears streamed down my contorted face while the room began to smell of urine. Before my vision blurred, I could see the disappointed face of the mishappened creature. As its eyes faded to the low amber hue its grip lessened and soon, I was crashing down on the drenched floor gasping for air. An audible sigh came from above me.

“Control yourself youngest. I swear you always get too excited and break everything before we can even have the slightest amount of fun. However, as you mentioned Jeannette, truly a strange child. Maybe a bit stronger than the average but that is common for most hunting families. How this child made it this far into our territory is quite the intriguing mystery. Well at least we can indulge in our little antics once again with this one. Entertain us well child, and maybe we’ll allow you a painless ascension into our coven. Ah, the squirming of children, it has been too long. I can’t wait for tomorrow.”

As my limp body lay motionlessly on the ground, my captor turned to walk out the room with undisguised glee. Its misshapen limbs didn’t seem to create any sort of discomfort as it dexterously made its way out. My haggard mind, too tired and shocked to comprehend any of the thoughts rummaging through my brain focused on one particular detail.

‘I was able to move just then. More like they allowed me to move at the end. I was allowed to struggle with their ‘youngest’. Was it some sort of test? Or did they just wish to see me attempt in vain as I tried and failed.’

My eyes tried to water once more but my mind was simply too tired. What should have been a fun little adventure had turned into something out of my wildest imagination. What the hell was this creature, was this magic? Could magic really enslave someone to not be allowed to even fight for themselves? My thoughts ran at full speed with the countless questions all to avoid thinking of what would come in the marrow.

I should have listened to Uncle, why was I so stupid… I… I wanna go home. I promise I wont argue again Uncle. I’ll read all the books; I’ll never ask about the empire. I don’t even wanna leave the cabin anymore. I’m sorry Uncle Yian, I’m sorry.

----------

As the quiet sniveling of the traumatized Raiden carried his weathered body to sleep. Off deeper in the ruins, over a stone table stood the hag that dwelled in this desolated place since time immemorial.

“Sisters the funny man is calling us old again”

“Jeannette, I thought you said the brew would cure her of these imaginary voices she keeps hearing?”

“Eldest sister, I’m sure the brew we concocted was perfect, maybe it was your magic that destabilized the distilling process.”

“GIRL YOU’D BEST WATCH YOUR TONGUE.”

“I’m just saying sister Sheryl dear. In any case maybe little Carrie managed to somehow trick us into believing that she drank it all?”

In the darkened room, an ever-changing set of glowing eyes flashed as 3 distinct bickering voices resounded from the same figure.

“No, no, no Sister! I kept my promise, just like you said. ‘A hag’s word must always be kept if given to their sisters.’ I didn’t lie, no,no,no!”

The red eyed Carrie began to panic as she feared being accused of breaking the Sisterly Code.

“Right, but what were your words again? You said you would ‘drink’ the brew, however there was no mention of you consuming ‘all’ of it. Truly Carrie, me and Sheryll thought you would try and play a smarter loophole than this. I know you’re but a few centuries this coming decade but surely you should have learned by now.”

As the pink eyed one began one of her many lectures at the dismay of the young hag, Sheryl Interrupted.

“It doesn’t matter, let the girl play with the voices if she likes them so much. This won’t be the first or the last of her eccentricities. We must focus on important matters. The boy. How did he get passed the illusionary barrier? If he is this far into the woods, then that must mean he has companions and they will surely be looking for him. We must prepare ourselves for a glorious feast!”

The amber eyes danced with glee at the thought of fresh human meat, a taste long forgotten since their isolation began.

“It’s a child, eldest. He probably stumbled into our garden without even noticing it. Children have always been less receptive of incantations that guide others away from illusions. I would rather focus on our little failed attempt at coercing him into the lair. There were no traces of protective amulets on him when we first sensed him. Unless humans have figured a way of weaving their magics into fabric, I highly doubt we would have missed it. Even then, he would have not been tempted once he entered our garden if he possessed such protection. So why did our magic collapse once he entered the temple ruins?”

“Bah” Carrie scoffed and turned around. While the voices of her sisters carried on inside their head, droning on about whether her new toy had or hadn’t been the cause of their failure. It did not matter to her, oh no. Her mind was fully occupied, imagining all the little games she would play. How many decades had it been since she last had been able to use all her magnificent collection? Not since her sisters had found her at the edge of their forest, starved for Visary and barely a shadow of herself. She was still not whole, neither were her sisters, but they were more complete than before. Letting her mind wander, contemplating all the possibilities of what it would mean if their experiments were a success. A childish giggle escaped the horrid hags crooked maw. Their boney fingers reach out and the trunks that slathered the walls began to slither away, making way to the walls that lay beneath them. A dark red stained surface that was etched in olden runes began to take form as the trees roots began to recede away. The dried blood sprayed and plastered in crusty sections of a long unused torture chamber.

“One gave his life to birth others.”

The hags reached out to hold a dark ebony knife. Their glowing eyes changing in tandem of a strange rhythm of an old prophecy meant to be passed down by the priests of the temple.

“The broken world whose source is covered.”

The blade began to run across the hag’s dry skin. Black bile drizzled slowly across its arm and onto the stone bed at the center of the chamber.

“And when the 5 corners join at last will a new age be ushered.”

The chamber began to pulse with light blue tinge, and once the pulse followed the chanting rhythm the hags started their own twisted prophecy. The natural blue began to turn murky and darkened, all until a corrupted green sprung forth far stronger than its predecessor. Blood continued to pour from the hag’s arm, already coating the entire stone bed. It began to drip onto the sides where it began to flow along the grooves on the floor painting strange runes throughout the chamber.

“When 3 become 9 a coven is born,

Begins the sisterhood of malice and scorn,

Shadows spread and ancients reborn.”

Ever hastened the pace of the chanting went, the pulse followed along. Excitement could be palpably felt from the hags as their divination became clearer and clearer with every attempt. Soon they would be able to fulfill their goal. However, before their connection was cut a low rumbling broke the delight of the 3 sisters. The excitement in the room cooled. A deathly serious tone came forth the amber eyed hag as small cracks were forming around the earthen walls.

“Beware the scarred Fallen one,

Safety upon the night of awakening inevitably gone,

Find the Matriarchs tome to seal the new dawn.”

The pulsing walls began to recede in their glow. Silence hung thick in the isolated room. All that was left in the gnawing darkness was the solitary figure, standing completely still while contemplating the implication of what it had divined, along with the pitter patter of blood dripping ever so slowly onto the stone floors.