Chapter 6: When dreams become Reality

I was standing at the pit again. Blood soaked my nightgown and the bones beneath me looked bright white under the pale yellow moon in the sky. This time however there was nothing holding me in place, no force desperate to drag me down. I took this opportunity in stride, walking around the pit. It was about 100 feet wide and slopped 30 feet towards the bottom where the bones lay. I circled the perimeter stopping before a reflecting pool. It was small and deep, the water as black as the blood drenched soil I stood on. The surface was shiny and I knelt down to peer at the strangely placed water. I saw my reflection and instantly started to scream. I saw myself in my white nightgown and hair let down past my shoulders, but my eyes. My most specific feature was changed. My eyes were all white containing no pupil, and seemed to ...glow with a sickle green hue surrounding the stark white center. I stumbled from the pond falling on my ass two feet from the pool. I looked down at the green tattoos that usually graced my arms, to find them bleeding around the edges. The ground I stood on started crumbling.

"NOOO STOP PLEASE NOO " I screamed shooting up in bed to find father gripping me by the shoulders, trying to shake me into reality. His old wrinkled face was covered in dirt and scruff. But his honey colored eyes held nothing but concern as he released his grip and stood over me lookin down my sweat soaked comforters.

"I didn't know they still happened, the dreams I mean, I haven't heard you scream like that since you were a girl"

I looked at him in surprise "What are you doing home so early?" I said. It was only 7 pm when I decided to go to sleep. Last call at the bar isn't till 4am, it couldn't be more than midnight.

" I oh, well I ran out of money you see. I came back to see if I could borrow some off ye but as soon as I came in I heard you yelling bloody murder and rushed up her to see you thrashing around in your bed".

He was more sober than normal, probably from the lack of funds and a tab at the tavern he was never gonna pay back.

"I'm fine" I barked out, a tone of bravado in my voice hiding how scared that dream had left me. " I don't have any money for you to borrow, shit I don't have any money for fucking food, let alone money to give you for whiskey".

I turned on my side away from him. And I heard him let out a exhale and leave the room dragging his clunky feet behind him. He clicked the door closed gently and I stared at the window for some time before falling asleep, still sticky with sweat.

I didn't dream this time, and for once I had wished I had. I was frozen in sleep, but aware of my surroundings, almost if I was watching myself as I lay in bed. Stuck in a paralysis a white hot pain began on both of my forearms. If I could scream I would've waken the whole neighborhood. Green bright lines appeared on my skin, as if they were burned into them, leaving blistered red skin and blood around all edges. The tattoos from my dreams. But it was just a dream how is this having. I began thrashing in bed and was able to renter my body and sit up wailing in pain . There was too much blood, the flesh had third degree burns, and the glowing tattoos made me feel panicked. I threw up over the bed side and scrambled for a cloth to bind my arms. I tore a piece of linen off my night dress binding them quickly as the blood kept pouring out. I have to get help I thought, father would be a drunken mess by now and I didn't dare bring Charles into this

I quickly put on boots and a overcoat and headed to the Frankels in a panic. I banged on the old wooden doors. The street torches were still lit meaning it was around 4am, someone would come by at 5 to put them out. Candlelight flickered in the parlor on the front floor. Mrs. Frankel cracked open the door, her face filled with sleep. She was stout and wrinkled with whips of grey tendrils weaved in her pitch black hair that flowed down to her waist.

"Annalease dear, is everything alright?"

Fumbling for words I undid my coat and thrusted my bandaged arms towards her, the blood now searing though. I realized then, tears were rushing down my face and the pain was white hot.

"So-something is wrong I don't know what's happing"

Her face relaxed a bit

"Come in child, I can help, don't cry your gonna be fine" she said a little too calmly.

I entered the old, yet nicely fashioned cabin and took a seat at the round dining table unable to stop shaking.

"Normally dearie I would have my husband drive ye into town, but he's away for the night on business. I promise I know how to help you but forgive a old women for being out of practice."

She sat across from me looking at the bandaged woods with a intensity I had not seen on her face before. She undid the bandages to reveal the glowing green tattoos and crusted blood. Fresh blood still poured out the sides and the pain was so unbearable I felt woozy.

"I wondered when it would happen" she said. And before i could react she placed her palm on my right arm. A cool breeze past over the wound followed by a pale blue light radiating from her entire body, a halo of power, faint but healing.

"Your a healing witch?!" I said as the wounds began to heal and close, the skin around them once burned turned a pale pink color again, the pain washing away.

"I was", she started, moving to the next arm. "I stopped practicing when I got married you see. Back then it was, ah difficult to practice being married to a non witch."

The wounds healed under her touch but the tattoos remained, faintly glowing and barley visible on the skin. I burst into hysterical tears.

"What's happing to me" I sobbed "why wont they go away"

"Annalease" she started, as she folded her hands in her lap, now finished with her work.

"I have kept your mothers secret for 21 years, I made a promise to her when you came of age I would explain everything, but only when your icmals came in"

"What's a icmal?!"

"These markings dear, the sign of a fully realized necromancy witch."

I must have not flinched at that term because she made a slight chuckle noise, a corner of her mouth lifting in a small smile

"Smart girl" she said "Did you have that part already figured out"?

"A healer in the witches square recognized me, told me what my mother was" I said, disdain dripping out with each syllable.

"She was, and so are you. I'm sure you have many questions, and I'm happy to answer them. But first I must tell you what I promised to reveal at this time. Let's stat at the beginning shall we? Your mother was a necromancy with, orphaned when she was a young girl. She was raised in the community, on the isle of Noofan where most necromancers reside. She left when she was 18 and met your father who was passing from town to town for the library. They fell in love and ah well you know the rest. Your father never knew of your mothers power, she kept it from him to protect him, as you know necromancers are not well liked and she feared for his safety if anyone found out. Necromancers have been feared for ages because of their power. The responsibility to guide lost souls and commune with the dead. They are guardians of balance, life and death itself, thus others fear this power . Dear, what you have to understand about witch bloodlines is it can be a bit random. When humans and witches first produced offspring these children contained blood from both lines in equal amounts, tipping the scales of nature, being they had untapped power. They were called Omniti or the free children. These children never made it past their 5th birthday the magic would overcome them, most witch families would abandon them rather than face the travesty and the shunning from there communities . Now as the generations went by, blood mixed more on both sides, evening out the imbalance and making those children very uncommon. Why I reckon the last Omniti was 3 generations ago, in a healer colony, my grandmother told me that the boy died a week after his third birthday." She was quit then tipped her head down and began again.

" You started displaying powers around the time you could walk, you would Babel to kind spirts and even managed to get a bunny to reanimate into this dimension, which even the most skillful necromancers seldom do before their 18th year. You were so gifted but it was two early. I told your mother there was no hope, but she was adamit that you would live, she would find a way. To this day I don't know how she pulled off the supine. It was urban myth, a fairytale"

"What's a supine?" I said now feeling woozy again.

" It was a myth of a spell amongst witches never attempted, no actual proof of its existence . The supine is a suppression spell of sorts. Its purpose is to trick nature into believing you were a human child and not a Omniti. It renders you powerless for a period of time and wipes your memory of your magic ability. Thus tricking nature from coming to collect the magic in imbalance. Now once you reach your 21st year your powers are solidified and you reach the peak of your ability, both saving your life and your powers"

I stared at her for a long second contemplating the words leaving her lips. "So I didn't die obviously" I started ," So your saying I still have whatever powers mother tried to hide ?"

"I'm not sure, if I'm being honest" a worried look washed over her face. "A Omniti has never reached maturity. The tattoos alone prove ye to be a necromancer but the untapped power you possessed in your youth? I'm not sure how it will manifest"

She grasped my hands in her own. "As to where your mother is I have no idea child. She performed the supine a month after your tenth birthday, I know that much. But her leaving was as much as a surprise to me as to you and your pa. She left a note explaining what I should tell you when the time was right, and I have not heard from her since, I assumed her dead.."

She started to cry a bit and I leaned forward to wipe a single tear from her cheek. It was cold against her warm wrinkled cheek.

"This is a lot" I said.

" I know it's must be overwhelming, but your life is about to change completely. Now that your powers are beginning to manifest it will be very difficult to hide them. Magic feeds off emotion, off feeling. Meaning heighted emotion will result in flares of power. Now for healers this can look a bit different. In all honesty your mother was the first necromancer I came across. They tend to stay their distance from other witches but she was one of a kind."

There was a silence that washed between us, and a chill tore through the air and wiped around the table. I felt the numbness then, I was withdrawing. The whole conversation my mind was racing around what I am, what my mother was. I want this to stop. I wanted my normal self back not this version with the fucking marks of a beast. I wanted it to stop . Just stop and I would be fine. Fine. I was fine. I was cold. Numb . I tuned out from the room and was alone in my head. I heard shouting but I ignored it. Why was it so cold in here? Someone was shaking me by the shoulders and I heard Mrs. Frankel call out my name.

My eyes came into focus to find her red in the face, tears a rushing down her cheeks.

"Annalease come back to me" She Yelled.

My ears focused and I found the room ice cold. The table had frost on the smooth wood top and Mrs. Frankel was shivering. I was half aware that she ran to the pantry and grabbed a vile crusted over within age. She uncorked it and covered her leathery hands with a green liquid that reeked of ...pine.

She was mumbling something I couldn't quite register. She made a half mood shape with her thumb across my temple. Then she began tracing the curvature of my jawline and sweeping the oil to the back of my neck and pressing both hands behind my ears.

The numbness faded and the ringing in my ears seemed to subside. I looked at Mrs. Frankel who was still crying and noticed the room starting to warm backup, the frost that covered the table began to retreat from the heat of the cottage. Her hands remained on the side of my neck, gently holding the oil in place.

"Why is it so cold in here" I whispered to her.

"Dearie," she began "That what I was just warning ye off how the magic can flare when ye be distressed."

"But the cold, the snow. I'm not a elemental witch, how did I do that?"

She sighed taking her her hands off my neck and wiping them on her nightdress. She brushed the nearly dried tears off her cheeks and looked me up and down.

"Well I'm no expert on necromancers but I reckon that was the chill of death you summned"

"T-the chill of death?" I said in a hushed tone.

"Aye, there was a Nursery rhyme about it when I was I child". She began then to sing the dreary tune as she stroked my hair :

"When the tides turn in their Solomon wake

And vines of plenty wither to dust

A chill creeps from somewhere below

In a place that can't be touched

Ye mind the crows for they are a warning

Of a frost that beckons the line between death

The maiden will yet have her glory

Her bounty to collect"

As she finished the tune my mind seemed to clear and I relaxed finding her hands still grasped firmly on my neck and one stroking my hair

"The pine oil " I chuckled heat spreading back into my cheeks. "Mother used to use it when I had nightmares, why does it help so much?"

"Like I said, your emotions are strongly linked to surges of power. I reckon you felt hopeless just now ? Thus the summoning of the front, to mirror your despair. Pine me trees are interesting plants you see. Unlike flowers that bloom in springtime they don't wither by first light of fall. They are a balanced between seasons and a balance of nature, life and death itself. A couple drops soothes the thing inside ya that is out of balance. Ill give ye some to take with you, it'll help with flare ups."

"OK, but what do I do now? How to I keep my powers in check? How will I hide it from everyone, one word I'm a necromancer there goes what shamble of a life I still have"

"Rather then suppress it you need to learn to harness it. Otherwise it will come out in ways you don't want dearie. Ways that could be dangerous to ye. Now I suggest you go to your people on Noofan isle. Only they can teach ye how to become what you are, and counteract any lingering effects of you being a Omniti"