The Necromancer's Daughter

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Lucille Asters rushed through the front door of her small studio apartment. In her arms was an unconscious Lilian, hastily wrapped in the thick brown robes Lucille used to hide herself in the shadow of the woods earlier. A draft of air swept in and the soft jingle of metal chimes broke the silence in the empty living space she was currently renting.

Its interior looked pretty normal and average for a studio apartment. There were no walls to separate the living, dining and kitchen areas, and only a cheap, department store shoji screen separated the bed from the rest of the spaces. On one side was a beige PVC door leading to the small bathroom. On its opposite side was a single casement window facing East, now draped in light material curtains provided by the landlady. Everything was clean and tidy as Lucille had always lived simply; Her modest lifestyle kept the apartment from being cramped with unnecessary clutter. All she owned were the essentials in a home, nothing more.

But if you looked a little closer, if you took time to really notice the minute details, you would see that the vibrant flowers on the centerpiece aren't really flowers but blossoms of herbs meant to invite good fortune. You'd realize that the shiny things hanging by the windows aren't just decorations that bend light joyfully around the house but are in fact charms to purify the energies passing through the fenestration. And the small insignia delicately carved on the door frame, just below the knob, is actually a sigil to protect the home from unwanted guests. The sigil glowed a soft blue when Lucille came in, its way of welcoming the inhabitants of this blessed space.

Lucille laid the girl on the bed as gentle as she could and ran back to bolt the door shut in three places. Sweeping her fingers across the sigil, she prayed for its protection to linger, although she knew the Necromancer's Evil Eye would not be evaded for so long. She needed a stronger protection charm.

Despite not being born with innate abilities like moving things with a simple thought or casually conjuring flames to dance at her fingertips, her prowess in spell casting was exemplary. With the right combination of spoken words, the right graceful gesture of her hands, the right amount of herbs and crystals, she could overpower telekinetics out of their wits and freeze firestarters right down to their toes. Spells and incantations were her gift, and through years of practicing The Craft, she eventually learned simple wordless magic to mimic telekinesis and pyrokinesis among other things, making her even more capable than the average witch. Right now, she willed herself to use all the magic she's got, all that she learned in her journeys, to once again keep her daughter safe.

She reached for a small velvet pouch secretly hidden in a wall crevice near the main entrance door. In it were dried and powdered leaves of the fire tree, collected during the Summer Solstice; water caltrops harvested a fortnight after a blue moon; and cilantro grown in her own potted garden, watered with a bewitched watering can. On their own, they were the best protection herbs witches used to ward off evil, but Lucille created her own incantation that combined the magic of these three, along with a fourth ingredient, that would allow the caster to create a sanctuary sealed from ill will and its various forms.

Ignoring the pain from her left shoulder, wounded from the energy ball she took, she poured a heap of herbs on her palm and closed her eyes in concentration. Taking a deep breath, she allowed her own magic to flow though her body and directed the energies to her hands. Lucille then spoke the first part of the protection spell:

"Cilantro from the earth, Caltrops from the water,
Guard this space for now we'll call shelter.
Leaves from fire trees longing for summer
And a breath of life I willingly offer,"

Lucille pursed her lips and blew hard on the small heap scattering the powder everywhere, making it rain specs of green, brown and red all around her. Along with it came a glitter of pure magic, sacred energies flowing out of the witch's very soul.