She was delicately dismembering and eating a smoked fish when Aignew broke his silence, startling her, “You need time. Time to learn, time to grow into the fullness of your power, you cannot do that while running. Trouble will follow you are surely as day follows night and they will come, oh yes they will come. Your insult to the Fae Chanar will not be forgotten, your former Tribe may forget a single girl-child fleeing even if that girl-child killed warriors but the Fae Chanar will never forget or forgive and she will drive your former Tribe to hunt you. I can buy you the time needed for your growth but I must borrow your power to do so.”

She looked at him sharply and said, “What do you mean by that?”

His voice was still cold and whispering but carried a note of appeasement, “Nothing of harm my witch. As a spirit I have almost no strength to affect the material world nor do I have much power to call my own unless I spend lifetimes accumulating it. But if I can borrow your magic, my power will become a flood washing away your troubles and leaving you safe to grow. All that will happen to you is a feeling of weakness for a day or two and an evening where you sleep extra deeply. I guarantee no harm will come to you. I also guarantee that your former Tribe will no longer pursue you.”

She was sceptical and asked, “How can you manage that?”

His voice was calm as he said, “I will use fear my witch. The Witches and Shaman know of me and my reputation, they will piss themselves in fear once they hear we are bonded. For now the stories are greater than the truth of it, but they don't know that. They will not want to chase us, eventually the Fae Chanar will make them do so but if I scare them badly enough that will give us time to flee.”

Raelea said, “That's the second time you've said that. 'Fae Chanar'. I'm guessing you mean the false god, you know what she is?”

“Yes, my first master was one many turnings ago. They are the rulers of the Fae Realm on the other side of the dimensional barrier. Power hungry, ageless, immoral, they consider everyone and everything else to be for their exclusive use and viciously crush anyone who says or thinks differently. I will tell you more of them and their Realm but later, for now we must deal with the pursuit that is undoubtedly coming.”

Nodding she said, “OK then. As long as you are sure no harm will come to me, I agree to lend you my magic.”

“My witch, I would not risk harm to you. You and I have a lifetime together and I would sooner see the world burn than have a hair on your head disturbed.”

Raelea said, “I was heading toward the swamps at the foot of the mountains, someone suggested they might be a good place to hide.”

“And they were correct. It will provide shelter, food and an abundance of the materials you will need as you learn your craft. There is a reason Witches and swamps have a long and tangled history.”

Raelea resettled the packs and swung herself onto the horses back. Her head swam and she swayed wildly as her forgotten exhaustion abruptly caught up with her. She only saved herself from falling only by grabbing the comfortingly thick neck of the horse.

“Have a care, my witch, it wouldn’t do for you to fall and break your neck now that your safety is almost assured.”

“Sorry, I haven’t rested properly or really at all in days.”

“Hrrmph. It seems we must have our first lesson already, banishing fatigue to be dealt with later is a basic Witchcraft skill that you should have been taught turnings ago. Just what were those hags teaching you playing at?” He shook his head, silver lines blurring with the motion, “No matter, this is the way of it.”

She gasped as knowledge forced itself into her mind, then making the mark and muttering the activation charm she sat up bright eyed with her fatigue banished.

Aignew said, “Fair warning my witch, not all learnings will be this easy. Most will require rote recitation of the words and repeated performance of the motions until you are utterly sick of them but this is a simple matter, so easily done and easily taught.”

“Understood. I don’t expect everything to be easy, most things of value aren’t.”

His voice was teasing as he said, “You are far wiser than your years then my witch. Even some of my older witches took many years to learn that simple truth and whined the whole time doing it too.”

Starting off north and now curious she asked the floating spirit, “How many others have there been?”

He looked pensive and there was a long pause before he continued, “I… I do not know. I lost count an age ago. Your lives are so bright but so short and I have mourned so very many that they blur together in my memories.”

Aignew floated beside her clearly deeply lost in old thoughts as she rode. Soon though he shook off the sombre mood and said, “Enough of those morbid thoughts. We are at the start, we have many turnings before thoughts of the end should even be considered. I will enjoy our time together and I will not think on it, for all we know this time my witch may outlive me. Come, let us travel.”

Raelea frowned where he could not see because his words had grated on her ear as he said she may outlive him, that had been a deliberate lie. Though he was an ancient spirit of Tribal legend it was to be expected that he would outlive her. In fact he’d said he wouldn’t allow her to be harmed, hadn’t he? His statement still felt… wrong, it was a lie and he knew with certainty it was a lie. But mustering her will she put it aside, no point in thinking on things she knew she couldn’t change. Even if there were things to be concerned about far off in the future regarding Aignew, right now she needed him to secure a chance at any future.

*******

In this season Skysister kept the sun in the sky for much longer so her berries would flourish and Raelea would make camp with it still in the sky. So as she travelled and started to tire she began looking for a good spot to camp and Brother Earth provided. Just as she was deciding she’d have to dig a night shelter she found a stand of gorse bushes that had grown in a semi-circle leaving a patch of short soft grass protected from the constant chill wind that blew unimpeded across the steppes from the lands of snow and seal hunters far to the north.

Laying out her bedrobe and sleeping mat before collecting a good supply of the dried dung the wild herds had left behind, she set up her night’s camp.

When the time came to light her fire she ignored the well-crafted bow and anvil in the pack because even apprentice witches didn't need them. Making a small pile of bullrush fluff she spoke the words of the small casting for fire lighting.

Yelping, she recoiled when instead of the expected flickering and feeble yellowish flame she got a blue cored finger length flame that turned the tinder to ash in moments.

Well.

She made a pile and cast the spell again, a grin stretched her wind burned cheeks as the round grey cakes of dried dung lit directly from the flame at the tip of her finger.

Startling her because she’d forgotten he was there Aignew said, “Why the surprise? Surely you have lit fires before?”

“Yes, of course. But the flame was stronger than I expected.”

Aignew appeared before her and looking skeptical said, “What charm did they teach you?”

Raelea repeated the words and the flame appeared.

Shaking his head Aignew said, “That charm is badly limited, without a familiar it will utilise barely a twentieth of your potential strength. The caster is perfectly safe from corruption but it’s barely better than purely mundane means, utterly ridiculous. A practitioner should always strive to grow their abilities and push their own boundaries constantly. Limiting you like that is beyond forgivable, it wastes so much of your potential. Just what were those useless hags who taught you playing at?”

“They wanted to protect us from the dangers of corruption?”

Acidic scorn dripped from his voice as he said, “Bah! More likely they sought to limit your growth so you could never challenge them, scared that a strong practitioner like yourself would eclipse them utterly. Try this casting instead, it does not have the limitations.”

Knowledge imprinted itself on her mind again, more easily this time.

Speaking the words, the flame she summoned this time hissed and burned white hot but she felt a strange sensation like she had a fever but not a physical one. A burning ache in her spirit.

Alarmed she squeaked and dropped the spell immediately.

Aignew said, “What? Have you never felt the signs of corruption before?”

“Once only, when I made the call that summoned you and the other creatures of madness and hunger here. The Elders say corruption must be avoided at all times, that the cost is not worth the gain and for proof they showed us the twisted bodies of god-touched who didn't.”

Aignew scoffed, “Your Elders are self-serving short-sighted fools. With care corruption can be managed and it's resistance is like most things, something that can be trained. As I teach you, you will learn your limits and you will learn how to extend them safely. Now, make yourself comfortable and sleep. When you awake I will have gained us the safety and time you need to learn what you must to protect yourself fully.”

She ate more fatmeat and fish, then settling down into her robe said, “I am fed and I am comfortable. I can feel the fatigue fighting the charm you taught, when I remove it I will sleep like the dead. Aignew, I release my magic to you. Stop my tribe from hunting me.”

“Thank you my witch. Now, just sleep and I will take care of everything.”

Her hand snaked up and with a muttered counter charm she ended the spell keeping her fatigue at bay. Almost before her hand had returned to the robe her eyes were dropping and her body relaxed, she stretched and snuggled deeply into the thick fur robe as sleep took her.

*******

Standing over her, Aignew watched her sleep. Once the sun had finally dropped below the horizon a long time later and the short true night fell his expression changed and a grotesque parody of a smile twisted his flat silver-lined features. Had Raelea had been awake to see his expression she would have trembled in fear because that smile told of hunger, desire, and a dark need. But she slept on unaware.

He lifted his head and seeming to sniff at the air and his expression changed, bloodlust suddenly kindled in his now brightly silver glowing eyes and with a silver-toothed smile he vanished from view.

Even long after he was gone the small insects and night creatures stayed silent, trembling and terrified of the gaze of the predator that had just left.