Chapter 4-107: Silver Magic (2/2)

She had no problems seeing at night, but the shadow landing on the branch of an old oak tree towering in front of her was unclear, save for long golden hair rippling around her like a living cape, eyes that seemed to be glowing faint blue in the darkness under the Haze... and a Curse Brand glowing ever blacker and bluer at once, radiant in the dark of the waning moon.

“Auntie,” Sama smiled, her voice rising into inhuman registers and accents. She had no problem meeting the greenhag’s invisible eyes at all. “How nice of you to come to me! I was beginning to think the Ritual would rise without you!”

Behind her, five pillars of silver rose into the sky, reaching for the unseen stars, threads of some writhing blackness seemingly spread between them.

“Little niece,” the greenhag rasped back, magic rippling as she lost the obviously useless invisibility. “I see you arranged for some surprises. Do you think they will be enough to keep me here?”

Sama’s teeth seemed to be glowing as she smiled, perfectly symmetrical whiteness with eight canines gleaming brighter than the rest. “I invited royalty to help out.”

The greenhag shouted, and her form writhed and transformed into the shape of an owl as she leapt into the air. She beat at the air, speeding up and away on silent wings into the night-

...and promptly crashed to the ground, wings clawing at the air that should have carried her away, and instead found her far too heavy to support.

“The first of them was King Gravity. He’s particular about who gets to ignore Him.”

The owl whirled and spun back up to the full seven-foot height of the greenhag, feathers receding into sallow yellow-green skin and bristling mop of her hair, moss and odd molds seeming to have taken root here and there on the mottled mess of her skin. Her features were asymmetric, both organic and not, as if she’d grown and formed in some way that was convenient for the moment, not planned. One yellowed eye was twice the size of the other, she had a definite lurch to her step, and one of her great clawed hands had six fingers instead of five.

For all that, she spat out another spell, the trees and grass and ferns all shaking around her as she invoked it.

The oak Sama was resting on began to twist and move, coming to life under the greenhag’s magic-

Silver motes of light slammed into the tree, washed across it, and the branches and trunk that were starting to twist and move were restored to their original appearances, as if it had all been a mere illusion.

“The second was the Silver Queen... or at least her attendants.” The women in white, none closer than fifty yards away, were all looking in this direction, clearly able to see what was going on here. One of them was obviously the source of the Dispel that had undone the Animation of the oak tree.

“You dare mock me?” The greenhag’s hand came down, and from the omnipresent Haze overhead, a great crashing bolt of bloody red and foul purple hate lightning came plummeting down at Sama.

The crack and boom were oddly asynchronous, and sputtered out and away as the slamming bolt drove down on Sama... and faded into nothingness, like a raindrop expending itself mightily against an uncaring lake.

The greenhag stared in shock at the Hagchild, her glowing eyes and too-white smile, rising up on that branch from her crouch, none of the oak’s bark the slightest bit scarred by the strike.

“You swam in sin, preyed on your kin,

Died content and fat on children’s blood.

In this new life, condemned to strife,

A cursed and useless thing, hungry bane of the wood.

Innocents bleed, they cry in need

And the green, the green knows what should

Await them all at the last!

Your Eternity Ends!”

“TREMBLE!”

Golden light snapped out in her hand. No claws now, this was time for serious killing!

“WE COME!”

Enmity, Banefire, Greater Ki-bound... the glowing golden Blade in her hand instantly bloomed to a level of anathema the greenhag had not imagined was possible in a mortal Weapon.

Sama was coming right at her, Tremble quavering with two notes that rippled in the Hag’s blood, and a great fear arose in her...

No, not in her... From the depths of her Curse!

Her Curse knew that song!

She screamed her defiance, but the fear was paralyzing, and a golden end to her long years was coming for her...