The sound of a voice stirred me to wakefulness once again, then the feeling of magic blazed acrossed my skin. It was not the feel of a thousand’s scorpions stinging me all at once that came with active magic but this was the feeling of hundreds of tiny creatures crawling up my body. It started on my toes and fingers and as the witch came closer to me it moved up my arms. I could feel my heart start to race with fear, she was going to see the beads and then realize that I was a witch hunter.

The beads had been a gift to me when I came of age, most of my family had them. some of the older generation loved to tell the story that they were the bones of witches that the family had taken down in the dark ages and then made into a focus to protect against magic’s of the mind. What I had been able to tell with the few test I had done was that they are bone but not human, some sort of creature that no longer lived on earth but was not affected by magic. I tried to move the beads out of sight but that only caused the pain of the brakes in my arm to flare.

Squeezing my eyes closed against the pain as I let out a unintended whimper. She must be working with the Family and be here to finish me off, and now she knew I was alive even if I could do nothing againted her. A tear trickled down my face as the sensation of pain overpowered the sensation of a magic user being nearby. It was about then I realized that yes I could feel my feet and no I really did not want to be feeling them right now. The flames must have gotten closer to me then I had thought, I could feel the cold of the water on my bare feet where the soles of shoes once were. They felt like they might have been run to bloody stumps.

In a matter of seconds I knew that not only had I done that damage to my feet but I was also facing some cracked if not broken ribs, frist to second degree burns on most of my back side and also around most of my legs and arms. If she did not wipe me out then I was in for a long time of bed rest. “if your going to kill me get it over with witch.” My voice croaked out.