She considered leaving the day after but reasoned against it, she had nothing to do while she was waiting, and he wouldn’t be back anytime soon. She could as well leave now and maybe be back in time to pretend she never left at all. It wasn’t her first outing, so she quickly gathered the necessary equipment, and changed from a dress to warmer clothes than the pants and tunic, she didn’t want to freeze if she didn’t find a good spot to sleep. Pants, shirt, jacket, a shawl and a pair of boots. Her bag, necklace, some coins and she didn’t miss to stuff her wooden beads into the bag. It worked wonders on humans as well as animals or undesirable beasts. It didn’t have the same effect on monsters, but she tried not to think about them. No risk no reward.

She scanned the surrounding waves. Her aunt was upstairs, probably cleaning out the empty rooms. Her mother was in the kitchen, undoubtfully being displeased with aunt’s cleaning. She couldn’t find her father, whom she favored of the two. She couldn’t ask aunty, her mother would see her heading upstairs. She didn’t have any choice than to confront her mother. She tried to think ahead and clean up her own room as a welcome home present to herself when she came back. Alas, not much changed in the room when she was finished.

She dropped the bag outside the kitchen door, and took a deep breath. She closed her eyes and calmed her mind, or tried to, she was very rudely disturbed.

“YOU!” The roar came from inside the kitchen. “In here. Now!” She sighed and did what was asked of her. Her mother stood in the middle of the kitchen and fumed. Her face red as a tomato, and holding a threatening kitchen knife in one of her hands. The daughter didn’t need to be an empath to see what her mother was feeling.

“You, you have been out walking again. I overheard the butcher this morning, he spoke about his son seeing the floating lantern last night! I have told you, over and over and over to NOT SNEAK OUT OF THE HOUSE! Do I have to beat it into you!? What if those wretched things stopped working and you were seen? What would our neighbors think about us, huh?! How would we be able to put food on our table if everyone refuse to do business with us?! Ungrateful child, we fed you and sheltered you…”

She tried to tune out her mother’s core that was almost desperately sending out wave after wave with displeasure and resentment. It was hard not to become effected by the overpowered emotions, this close and with this intensity, her necklace didn’t do much good. If there was any motherly love in there, it was dead and buried under all that anger. She missed the mother she had before witchcraft came between then, she had been strict but there had also been affection. Her parents had been so proud when they found out she was an empath, only to be shot down by her not joining any church.

She could feel herself gradually changing for the worse, she couldn’t just stand there and be trash talked to. Her mother that was standing there yelling at her nonstop while recklessly waving that knife around. The problem was that she hadn’t found a way to effectively deal with her mother that worked. Talking back didn’t work, admitting her fault didn’t make the scolding last shorter, running away would temporarily solve the issue, but she’d get it back tenfold at a later occasion. At this moment, running away wasn’t an option.

She was battling her emotions, trying to come up with something she hadn’t tried before, and at the same time keeping her eyes trained on that knife that sometimes came dangerously close. She doubted her mother would really cut her on purpose, but accidents can happen.

“…and remember that time too. Argh!? Are you even listening to me?! How shameless!” Her mother stopped gesturing and glared at her. The daughter met her gaze, and frowned. The core didn’t lie, her mother was pissed off, but the anger didn’t quite reach the eyes. It was unmistakably present, but it wasn’t as fierce as usual. There was more impatience than fury. She wondered if the blanket was still in effect. She urgently tried to figure out a way to take advantage of it, but nothing came to mind.

“I don’t know what to say, mother. I know I took a risk to walk outside at night, I’m sorry. But my toys have been breaking at a remarkable speed lately, I had to try figure out why.” She knew she pierced a hole in her pride by calling her tools toys, but any wound heals with time. She saw her mother’s eyes narrowed and continued. “I can’t stay inside locked in my room without anything to do.”

“Oh.” Such a simple sound could make her so happy, she had expected a continuation of the rant. Calling her tools toys payed off. Her mother crossed her arms and looked suspiciously at her daughter. “Then I can expect more midnight outings in the near future.”

She suppressed a gulp and tried to not sweat. Time to drop the bomb.

“I’m leaving for a few days.”

“You. Are. Going. Nowhere,” her mother stated without a single trace of hesitation. “You might leave my sight temporarily, but you are not leaving my grasp. Not after that stunt you pulled…”

“That was completely safe- “

“Safe!? What about that was SAFE?! You could have blown all of us up. Inciting the wrath of the Gods!” The rage had been refueled. She should have kept her mouth shut and not interrupt her mother. A mistake was made and reversing time was impossible, she’d have to live with it.

“Look, if I can’t play, I have no reason to stay here.” With the exception of one certain friend, but she wasn’t about to tell her mother that. “I’m going to go there, find out what’s breaking my stuff and return, okay? I promise I’ll be- ugh!“ Her mother had grabbed her collar and yanked her forward, close to a very red face.

“You’re not leaving anymore, you hear me? By the Gods, if you try to leave I’ll break your legs… my… self.” The mother’s voice trailed off when she saw the mischievous smile on her daughter’s face.

“I wouldn’t be swearing to the gods too much, mother. What if they find out there is a heretic in the house? It’s not as simple as having a single witch.” Her mother paused and let the words sink in. There wasn’t a visible change, but the inside was flipped upside down. The fury and displeasure were still dominating, but the foundation started to crumble, letting fear take hold. Heretics weren’t punishable by death, it was to live the rest of your life in torment in the hands of the church who first got you. And it wasn’t limited to the said heretic, but extended towards family as well.

“Dear mother, what will happen to you?” She tried hard not to show it to her mother, but deep down she was disgusted with herself. She came up with the threat on the fly, but didn’t think it through. If the charms in the kitchen didn’t hold for one reason or another, and someone overheard them, she could have gotten this entire town killed. No matter how much she disliked humans nowadays, she didn’t want to be responsible for someone’s murder, or torture. She felt sick in her stomach.

However, the result was undeniable. The color in her mother’s face was settling down and the heated fury within was being clenched. She slowly released her grip on her daughter’s collar.

“You can have a few days, if you take too long I’m hiring mercenaries to look for you.” With that she turned around and continued tending to the kitchen. The daughter, having nothing else to do, left to pick up her bag, then walked out the back door and crashed down on the bench. She thought about sleeping the day away and leaving tomorrow, but that wouldn’t change anything. She satisfied herself with lying on the bench and trying to relax.

A little while later, she held the compass in her hand to double check the direction she should walk in. Nothing had changed, it still stopped at and only at northeast. The sky was clear, sun was high and with her wooden beads wrapped around her wrist, she headed into the forest.