Trial of The Witch (Story 8)

Net flickers on the TV. "Is magic real? Source online are conflicting."
Tyler blinks looking up from his book. "Depends on what you mean, but yes. Almost no one understands it or can properly use it. Most the time it's just experiencing something you can't explain."
Net shifts it's wave from, "So the witches."
Tyler cuts in. "Almost every witch trial was a shame to justify killing a rival lover or to cover up an affair, or to punish some poor girl who didn't have any say."
He closes his book. "I was at a few of the trials."
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The heavy doors of the court house swing open. Tyler walks in travelers cloak flowing as he walks. The priest stands next to a woman rope binding her hands tight behind her back, her mouth gaged with a cloth. His voice carries over the on lookers in the pews. "Cassandra, you are accused of witchcraft and bring Illness to our humble community."
Tyler laughs stopping next to one of the guards near the doors. "Please, she is no more a witch then you are a holy man."
The priest eyes shoot to Tyler a scowl on his face. "Stranger, this does not concern you."
Tyler moves grabbing the hilt of the guards sword, pushing the man as he pulls the sword free causing him to spin and stumble off balance. The tip pointing at the second guard. Tyler smiles at him, his voice not changing. "Tell you what preacher. If your words are true and you aren't trying to cover up your own crimes. Strike me down."
Tyler moves the blade his arms spread wide offering a free strike. " With your God as witness, order your guard to run his sword threw my heart and I do not fall, it's because your words are untrue."
The preacher eyes narrow with a scowl as he shouts. "That is enough. I won't be accused of such outrageous acts."
Then Cassandra turns her mouth still gagged, her eyes pleading. Tyler nods at her with a faint smile. "Don't worry, this is the house of God. And I am sure everyone here wants to see his judgement stand."
The guard next to Tyler starts to draw his sword, stopping as the preacher stands up. "Enough. Guard arrest him I want him in irons."
Tyler turns to the people in the court audience. "Anyone else think it odd he won't strike me down?"
Tyler eyes move from the on lookers to the guard. "Sir, is your oath of duty to the man or to the Lord?"
The guard hesitates before drawing his sword, "I swore an oath to both. My oath to the Lord comes first."
A fire burns in his eyes as Tyler speaks. "Then strike me, with the grace of God let the truth be known."
The guard nods raising his sword up swing swiftly down cutting through Tyler neck and shoulders blood spraying as Tyler stumbles and falls. The crowd gasps as Cassandra eyes well with tears. The preacher exhales with relief.  "See, the Lord has spoken."
He takes his seat sweat dripping from his brow. "The witch shall be burned at the stake."
The crowd doesn't respond as they look on Tyler body the wound kitting together. Cassandra freezes watching as Tyler starts to pushing himself to his feet. "I think."
He coughs blood dripping from his mouth. "We can all agree the Lord has spoken."
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Net flickers "Why would you say that? You don't believe in a god?"
Tyler nods. "You're correct, but they did. Proving her innocence would require changing how everyone thought at the time. I would need evidence I didn't have time to collect. Claiming it was God was simpler."
Net waveform wiggles before it says. "This doesn't explain magic."
Tyler smiles. "You can't explain magic."
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The court house starts emptying out. The guards leading the priest in chains away. Cassandra pushes her way against the crowd. "Thank you, without you I would have been killed."
Tyler smiles at her. "Then enjoy life child, it's a gift few get more than once."
Cassandra is pulled away into the arms of her husband.
"I'm curious how many times you've been gifted life?"
A woman leans against the court house, dark dress her hair woven into braids the silver and red mixing into an aged beauty. Tyler looks at her, his eyes moving down watching her hands her fingers as they move slowly with an established pattern. "You aren't one of the white gods followers, I don't sense any claims of the old gods on you either."
Tyler moves slowly cupping her hands in his, leaving her room to move the fingers in the pattern. "It's not often I see a real witch at one of these trials."
She laughs, loud and forced. The crowd keeps moving away, unaware of her. She pulls her hands free from Tyler. "They won't notice us, as long as I keep the enchantment up. However you avoid my question, how many lives have you been gifted."
Tyler's eyes narrow on her. "Enough to do good. What gods are you with?"
The woman smile widens. "Oh you pretend to know us?"
He leans in closer, "I've killed enough witches to know the dangerous ones, from the small time practitioners."
Her smile disappears. "I'm not one of the Roman pretenders, nor of the weak willed casters bound to the Greeks."
She leans in biting Tyler on the cheek, his blood dripping down his cheek. "I follow a different guide, one who understands true hunger and pain."
Tyler watches her as she giggles her eyes drifting out of focus for a second before the return as she says. "Wendigo doesn't like the way you taste."
Tyler's hand moves to the knife in his waist. "Leave. These people are protected you and your guide aren't welcome."
She takes a few steps back, "Oh, I'll be back. It is watching you now."
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Net cuts in "The Wendigo isn't from that region."
Tyler smiles nodding. "Same creature different name. A being of hunger, created from starvation. That's how most magic works. Cultures assign different names to the same types of spirits and demons. This one fed on hunger and desperation."
Tyler puts his feet up on the coffee table. "One witch I could deal with, a witch working with a spirit of hunger, I wasn't sure about."
Net flickers "You were scared?"
Tyler nods. "I'm still not sure how my immortality works. Who knows if a witch can switch it off. Something as old as a spirits of hunger could do who knows how much. Even the seers and witches in Rome didn't dare deal with the old spirits like this one, the darker ones."
He laughs slightly. "So, that's when I meet her."
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Tyler sits uneasy at the end of the bar, sipping a glass of water. Watching the main entrance. A woman enters with a smile. The bartender turns away his eyes glazing over as the women takes a seat next to Tyler. "Tell me are you the mortal who wanted a meeting?"
Tyler straightens up eyes scanning the room as everyone seems to be looking away. "I wasn't expecting someone so human."
Her laugh seems to start in the eyes before it makes a sound. "Oh, don't you worry child, the Fey have always looked like your kind."
Tyler relaxes slightly. "Right, my contact said you claimed to be a fairy."
The woman's mouth snaps closed into a thin crease. "That's an offensive term, you'd do well to forget it."
Tyler cocks an eyebrow. "Right, so who are you?"
She smiles as she presses a finger to her lips. "Oh, you couldn't afford my name."
Tyler shakes his head, "what should I refer to you as?"
She laughs again, her eyes skimming the dazed crowd. "Lilly, that is what most mortals call me."
She cross her legs, her outfit shifting with a shimmer to a small black dress. "So, rumor has it you are hunting a spirit."
Tyler shakes his head. "I'm hunting a witch, she partnered with a spirit."
Lilly eyes widen. "oh?"
She leans in her words dripping with sweetness. "What are you offering?"
Tyler leans back thinking for a moment. "Your kind are known for asking for a first born right?"
Her smile seems to shimmer as her eyes seem to press down on him as they look over him. "Oh, we do. Though offering a soul dead by centuries would be rude."
Tyler shakes his head. "You've done your homework. Why don't you tell me what you think is fair?"
The woman teeth flash, to perfect, to white for a normal human. "I want the witch, if you spare her life I will take her make her into a vassal for winter. The hunger spirit will be die unless it find a new host till she passes on."
Tyler smile drops as he shifts uncomfortable.
She watches him, Tyler finally says. "Yea, as long as you kill the hunger spirit I'll spare the witch."

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Net cuts in it. "She wanted a slave?"
Tyler shakes his head. "Fey, if you believe the folk stories can't do certain things. They need humans to do them for them. She wanted a vassal, someone she could teach and train who could walk the mortal world on her behalf."
Net flickers it's waveform. "That doesn't sound better."
Tyler nods in agreement. "It isn't."
He shifts a little "it would keep her alive though. I was going to kill her to stop the hunger."
Net shifts the screen to a family sitting around a table the voices muted as the share food. "You can't kill hunger."
Tyler watches the screen as they dine. "I know you can't, but the hunger spirit would harm so many more, they spread out kill harvests, force starvation. When the people are starving it starts making other food sources sound good. The witch can use the deaths to power her magic."
Tyler forces the smile back, leaning back. "Even with all of that, I'm still not sure if it was a good idea to give winter a vassal."
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Tyler looks at Lilly. "Why, what happens if I don't kill stop them?"

Her smile still to perfect. "Oh simple, the spirit kills the harvest. The people starve and start die, the hunger reaches out starts making people eat the dead, killing for food. The witch then gets to use all that death and blood to boost her own magic."

Lilly stands her dress adjusting to floor length as though it was liquid. "Then it's a deal. I'll aid you, against the spirit, you'll hand the witch over to me."
Tyler watches her as she turns drifting out of the bar. The other patrons returning to normal conversations. The bartender turning around he snaps. "Sir, did you pour that drink?"
He scoops up Lilly glass watching Tyler, who smiles. "No sir I did not."

It's Just before nightfall Tyler paces the edge of the forest. His eyes staring deeper into the trees. The hairs on his neck standing on end as the forest looks back at him. The silence is broken by Lilly, her sickly sweet voice flowing from behind Tyler. "Mortal hunters always say a silent forest, is a dangerous forest."
Tyler turns facing her as he attempts to mask the surprise behind his movements. "Is that your way of warning me off going into the woods?"
A smile spreads across to all of Lilly's face, except her predatory amber eyes. "Oh child you miss understand."
She leans in closer whispering. "A silent forest is only dangerous if you are the prey."
Tyler rolls his shoulders with hesitation. "Right, I'm sure the hunter spirit is saying the same thing to the Witch."
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The waveform shudders once shifting a few times before it drops down to a straight line. Tyler nods his head. "Yea, magic sucks makes things complicated and half the people using it are amateurs."
Net chirps. "No, it's not that. Just don't understand how you could give someone into slavery. That is what you did right, giving her to fey?"
Tyler doesn't look at the screen. "Yea, giving her to the Fey would be slavery. It would also save the village."
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The forest creaks as Lilly and Tyler move through it. Hours have passed and the only thing that changed has been deepening darkness around them. Lilly pauses holding a hand up a predator smile on her face. "There is a clearing ahead, I can taste a mortal, and one spirit."
Her tongue slips back into her mouth, Tyler doesn't respond with words. His hands are already pulling the short sword out. Lilly eyes narrow on the blade as she lets out a soft hiss.
Tyler smirks as he steps into the clearing. "Hey, kid."
The fire crackles, cold amber light seems to focus on Tyler. "This is your last chance, if you give up the spirit you both walk free."
Lilly silent moves along shadows. The witch giggles, he fingers dancing slightly as the amber light of the fire changes its' focus from Tyler to Lilly. "Oh you brought a friend."
Lilly says something, words from a forgotten language, sounding like a bird. She walks slowly into the clearing the bird song language drifting from her.
The fire in response roars, burning brighter and colder. Frost biting the grass around them. Tyler steps sideways, skirting the cold fire as it faces off at Lilly. The witch still giggling flicks her wrist, a spear of ice flying from her palm towards Tyler.
He deflects it's with a simple swish the ice shattering into the ground as Tyler moves. Closing the distance to the witch. Lilly, shouts "Do remember honey, don't kill her."
Tyler ignores her as he lunges forward the witch throwing both hands forward a sheet of ice catching the blades edge, her voice the only warmth in the clearing. "Awe, your babysitter wants me alive."
Tyler lets go of the sword as it hangs in the sheet of ice. He moves around it, watching the witch as he stands unarmed. "Yea, she wants a mortal vassal, I'm giving her you."
The witch fingers freeze as fear washes over her. Tyler takes the opening shoving her with both hand into the sheet of ice. Her eyes go wide as her hand fall to her side the barely visible sword tip finding it mark.
The sheet of ice starts to show streaks of red as blood drips from the witches head. The fire goes quite, retreating back to it coals. Tyler kneels next to the body his fingers on the throat as Lilly walks over. "You promised I could have her mortal."
Tyler stands up. "Yes, and you can."
The witches eyes move slightly from Tyler to Lilly. Lilly for her part looks disgusted. "You killed her. You promised me a living vassal."
Tyler nods. "The blade paralyzed her, seem to be above the shoulders, but she is alive, she's your to take."
Lilly eyes narrow on him. "She useless to me now."
Tyler watches the fire, it's could cold amber pressure looking on. "Well you can refuse to take her, then you'd owe me more."
Lilly snorts with laughter. "How would you think that mortal?"
Tyler pulls the blade free. "You failed to kill the spirit that leaves our scales unbalanced. Now if you backed out of taking her you'll have made the unbalance worse."
Lilly smiles wide. "Oh, mortal I get it. You never intended me to have her."
Tyler cleans his blade not looking at her. "No, I never intended for you to have a working vassal."
Lilly already disappearing in to shadow, the same shadows stretching out and taking the witch. The amber light of the cold fire following as her words echo in the clearing. "One favor, from me. You need only summon me, be careful though mortal. Neither I nor the court forgets those who bend the laws against us."
Tyler cleans slides his blade away. "And I don't forget the monsters who think they get to own a human."
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Tyler shakes his head trying to push the thoughts away. As nets waveform shifts uncomfortably. "She wasn't a slave?"
Tyler forces a smile. "No, winter court was bound by their own laws to care for and keep her alive, in fact they may have been able to heal her some. Doesn't make it right, what I did."
Nets waveform moves up and down in a digital nod. "The alternative though would have been worse?"
Tyler glances toward the window. "That's what I tell myself."
He gets up walking over to the window looking out. "I don't really know. The witch and the Spirit would have fed on the town killed who knows how many, which is a the problem. I stopped her, to prevent something, just never found out what I prevented."
Net flickers "unneeded loss and suffering."
Tyler smiles looking out the window. "Maybe, but that doesn't make what I did right. Doesn't make magic any better to deal with."

Net shifts. "Do you still have the favor?"

Tyler chuckles. "Yea, I won't call it in. If I ever tried they would agree to the letter of the favor and then do everything possible to screw me over."

Net shifts. "Sounds like a lawyer."

Tyler smiles at that. "Yea, it does."