28

Whoever she was, she was a mediocre fighter at best and had only slightly better than human abilities. I had noticed it before, and I could tell that she wore no clothing under the green cloak for some reason. Her actions in the dream suggested to me that she was more comfortable in the background directing the details of my nightmare than in actually participating. I was starting to think that maybe she might be the Puppet Master that Millicent warned me of, but that didn't feel right. She was angry, and I felt that the grudge she carried like a personal cross was directed solely at me. Why this person should have such a burning hatred of me, I had no clue, but I learned that she hated me for sure when she finally spoke to me in the dream.

It happened during one of the few times in my dream that my anger became so intense that I completely lost control of myself. I remembered rising from the ground after nearly breaking the two Neko I had been fighting in half, and leaving their bloodied bodies behind me as I stalked forward to do the same to the woman in green. I leaped and started to punch, kick and grapple with her, letting my frenzy force her back time and again, always keeping the upper hand. It did not take long before it was clear she was fighting a losing battle, so she spoke a strange sounding command and black chains shot out of nowhere and latched onto my arms and legs. I was instantly immobilized and lifted off the ground high enough that the only thing I could do was stare with fury into her cold, angry eyes, which were barely visible beneath her hood.

"You just don't get it do you," she spat after using some unknown power to manipulate the dream we were in. "I am in control here, not you!"

Whatever power she had over me prevented me from speaking, but the anger I was feeling still threatened to tear me apart. Suddenly, a cold dark terror bubbled up in the back of my throat as she pulled out a curved silver knife. In an instant she began to slash and stab my helpless body and I could do nothing but hang there and scream silently in pain.

"You deserve every last minute of this you whore," she seethed, venting her own angry hatred with each cut and stab. Finally, she buried the blade in my heart and I felt my life begin to slip away. "Next time just accept your enslavement like the little slut that you are!"

She spat in my face as she wrenched the silver knife from my chest and walked off into the woods, leaving me behind to sink into the oblivion of death. I awoke in the moment that I felt my soul being pulled from my body, and my screaming was so bad that our neighbor called the police. It took nearly three days before sheer exhaustion dragged me down into sleep, and back into my nightmare. For some unknown reason, my life was going completely to shit, and it was getting there fast.

It had been just over a week after Valentine's when the woman in green spoke to me in my nightmare, and I had lost the will to even struggle in the dream. The silver lining was that the nightmare returned to its original intensity, but I was drained emotionally and physically. I was having difficulties in class again, I was barely eating, and I could only sleep after days of staying awake forced my body into unconsciousness.

Kelli did not know how to help, and was becoming ever more concerned as the effect of the recurrent nightmare became worse. She was spending hours going over Ali's magic book, along with several others, and I could see the toll the neglect on her classes was taking on her. So there we were, three weeks after Valentine's, my terror preventing me from sleeping, and Kelli with her arms around me in a desperate attempt to comfort me at three in the morning.

There was a knock on our door, and I gave Kelli a confused look as she got out of bed and put on her blue satin robe to go and answer it. Who the hell would be coming by at three in the damn morning? It had at least piqued my curiosity, though, so I got up and pulled on a short half robe that barely covered my ass, but had a nice slit for my tail, and walked out to see who was here.

"Hey Kelli, how are things going," Ali greeted my girlfriend as she walked in the door, followed by two other women.

"All in all, really damn shitty if you must know," Kelli replied, the frustration in her voice as sharp as her wit. "It's only been getting worse, and the fucking tea isn't working."

I sat in one of the corner chairs in our living room and took a good long look at the other women who had arrived while Kelli and Ali were talking. Both had medium length sandy blond hair, and average looks, nothing that would immediately set them apart from a crowd. They appeared to be in their early thirties, and with the distinct similarity in their features I thought that they were probably sisters. My sense of their strong love bond seemed to confirm my speculation. They were dressed quite plainly in jeans and non-descript blouses, and you almost wouldn't notice them if they passed you on the street. What did make them stand out, however, was that both sets of their eyes were milky white with blindness. It was a surprise to be sure, yet even blind they did not seem to be having any trouble getting around without help.

They were both moving around the living room, gesturing and talking quietly to each other about energies, points of entry, and auras. Every now and again they would stop somewhere and one of them would put a hand on the wall, floor, or a window which was followed by a slight muttering in some strange language I did not understand. And while they were arguing about the mystical properties of our apartment, Kelli and Ali were at our table arguing about something else.

"I know they're hard to come by and even harder to create, Ali, but a warding focus may be the only solution right now," Kelli whispered with barely contained ferocity, not realizing I could hear every word she spoke. "You don't know how bad this has become. Myka can't even eat and sleep anymore, and don't even get me started on what happened a few days ago! I thought I'd lost her!"

God, I was an emotional wreck, and life sucked more than you could possibly know at that moment, but the pure love I felt pulsing through my bond with Kelli, and her almost rabid concern for my wellbeing, reminded me why I loved her. I knew that with her help we would somehow make it through this. I went over to her at that point, and I collapsed into her lap while I leaned into her chest and cried. I just cried. I let my myriad fears and anxieties flow out through my tears and Kelli held me to her breast, tighter than a magnet holds iron. She was my rock and the only place I felt safe.

"Listen Kelli," Ali said in a soothing voice. "We won't have the ability to raise enough power, even with the entire Circle, to craft a warding focus before the full moon next week. We just don't have the strength."

"Then what are we going to do," Kelli snapped back.

Sighing a little in frustration Ali answered, "Mary and Gina there," she said indicating the two women who were still wandering our living room, "are the best ward crafters in the circle. From what you have described, this woman in Myka's dream seems to have only a small amount of skill, and limited control. In fact, with a few weeks of training, Myka could probably force this woman out of her head on her own, but she would still be there until Myka has developed sufficient mental control."

"So Mary and Gina will craft a basic warding," Kelli asked. "How long will that last?"

"I can't be exact, but they are really good. I'd say two weeks, maybe three. And in that time I will help Myka practice some basic mental techniques for protection so she can defend herself. I know how important this is. To both of you."

I let go of Kelli at that point and grabbed Ali in a fierce hug and whispered, "Thank you. Thank you so much, for anything you can do."

I felt new bonds forming in that moment, between Kelli, me, and Ali. The bonds weren't like the romantic love Kelli and I shared, but were young bonds of friendship and sisterhood. I opened up the feel of these new bonds to both Ali and Kelli, so that they could feel the depth of my gratitude. I knew the moment that realization came to them because both of their eyes widened, and we ended up in a very tight three way hug. Feelings of resolve, and the desire to do anything that could be done to help were almost overpowering. I could also feel much of the fear that had settled in my soul over the last several days give way to an overabundance of friendship.

"Ok girls," Ali said as she turned to the two blind witches. "What do you think? Can we do this here?"

One of the women turned and leveled an almost contemptuous gaze at her before answering Ali's question, "Yes. I believe that we can channel sufficient energy here to craft a suitable ward, but it is a near thing."

The other then turned and spoke, "Yes, a near thing. Definitely. It would help if we were allowed to move some of the furniture around in the room so that the geometry is better, and we will need a large clear space in the middle, yes."

My curiosity got the better of me and I turned to Ali and asked, "Which one is Mary and which is Gina?"

"The younger one is Gina," Ali responded, and then laughed when I gave her a very dirty look because there was no way to tell which was older just by looking at them.

"You're kind of a shit," I huffed, and Ali continued to giggle at my expense so I took things into my own hands. "Hey Gina?"

One of the two turned to me and cocked her head to the side and then answered, "Yes. Do you need something Miss Myka?"

Ali laughed even louder at this before responding, "I don't think she does Gina. She was just trying to tell you two apart, and I was ribbing her."

Gina gave an indifferent shrug and went back to her work as I playfully smacked Ali in retaliation, but I was glad to know who was who and I was grateful for the feelings of warmth and concern that I felt in the room. Everyone but me began moving things around the room at Mary's direction, clearing space and shifting our furniture to optimize the all-important geometry that apparently they alone could perceive, and I moved to one of our bar stools to watch the ladies at work. It took perhaps ten minutes to get everything arranged to Mary's satisfaction and after that was finished both Mary and Gina began to inscribe a strange arcane circle on the floor with some kind of chalk.

They were very painstaking about the process and were adding what appeared to be writings, probably runes or some other arcane symbols, and lines that connected certain points of the circle with the symbols within. It was rather fascinating to watch, and it was another thing to occupy my mind which kept my thoughts from my nightmares. I looked over at Kelli and noticed, however, that with the addition of each line and each symbol, she was beginning to frown more and more until she finally started muttering under her breath.

"What's the matter babe," I asked as I walked over and put my arm around her waist, wondering why she had such a concerned look on her face.

"The circle, it's wrong," Kelli replied, and the two blind witches looked up from their work.

"I can assure you Miss Kelli that the circle we are drawing is impeccable," Mary replied, her voice betraying a hint of irritation.

"Sorry," Kelli argued, conviction filling her voice. "This circle will work, but it is the weakest construct possible to support the type of ward you are crafting."

To say that everyone in the room was stunned to hear this come out of Kelli's mouth was the understatement of the year. Ali stepped in at that point as both Gina and Mary stood, anger and irritation flashing in their sightless eyes, preparing to defend their methods and their skill. Ali looked at the circle and then at Kelli, her face creased in thought, as she gave a subtle gesture to calm the other witches down.

"What do you mean that this is the weakest form for this ward," she asked Kelli intently. "I have personally seen them craft hundreds of wards like this and, I can assure you this is quite possibly their best work."

"I'm not saying its bad work," Kelli countered. "It just needs... I mean, if it's structured differently, the power that could be drawn from the available aetheric energies to empower the construct would be orders of magnitude greater than this one. The best way to describe the improved ward in non-magical terms would be the difference between simple home computer network security versus the type of multi-layer security that governments use."

The dumbfounded look on the three witch's faces was priceless and Kelli seemed to shrink into herself from the scrutiny, clearly embarrassed.

"First, how do you even know about the theory of crafting high level spells like this when you have no access to magic," Ali asked in amazement. "And how do you even recognize what is being drawn into the circle on the floor enough to see energy channeling points, among other things, as clearly you think you can?"

Kelli sheepishly walked over to the dining table and picked up the copied version of Ali's grimoire that she had. It was already dog eared and worn from many readings, and she raised it up for the witches to see.

"I've read through this about eight times now, plus I'm somewhat adept at finding real information over the web and in some out of the way book shops. Magic is not as hidden and secret as you would think, if you know where to look. After all of that research I started to notice some things. Magic, and the crafting of spells, is kind of like applying mathematical constructs to basic concepts in physics. At least that's how I it seems."

I nodded in agreement with Kelli and then said, "Yeah, Kelli is really good at math and seeing how problems and equations interact, and the next steps needed to apply different solutions. She completed her fourth semester calculus final in about twenty minutes, and had to redo a random test in the professor's office to prove she didn't cheat. She's scary good."

"So you are intuitively seeing what this circle does, like it's a math equation," Ali asked, and Kelli gave a shrug.

"Yeah. I don't know why but..." and Kelli held up Ali's book. "This reads and feels just like advanced mathematics to me. Granted, this is really just theoretical knowledge, but changing the equation will open up a vastly better solution in this case. At least I think so."

"Ok, we're going to pause for a little bit so you can show us what you see," Ali said, and indicated that Kelli should let Mary and Gina know what to do.

Kelli got a look of intense concentration on her face, a look I know well, and started to page through her copy of the magic text. Finding what she wanted, Kelli started giving her instructions.

"Ok, we need three concentric circles, not just one big one, though what you've already drawn can be the outer most level in this case. Draw the others such that the runes will just fit between them."

Mary and Gina shook their heads in obvious annoyance, but Ali gave them a withering look and they both sighed and got to work changing the warding circle to Kelli's specifications. Once they had the circles drawn, Kelli directed them to the new locations for each rune, and where the lines and points of the inscribed pentagram needed to be. As the new design started to take shape both witches could see what was coming together, which sparked an almost childlike curiosity rather than irritation. They almost seemed eager for the next instruction.

"Ok, I need four smaller circles at the cardinal points," Kelli directed, and both Mary and Gina jumped to comply. "Place these four runes in this order, each one in the center of the small circles, starting here, and ending here."

Mary and Gina were now whispering excitedly to each other as they continued the modifications that Kelli requested, while Ali and I watched, baffled as to what would happen next. Kelli was concentrating on the new design that had taken shape on the floor, as the two witches finished what had been asked of them and then turned to her in expectation.

"Is there anything else you see is needed," Mary asked.

"Ok, you have some herbs and other items that boost your magic channeling, right," Kelli asked and got two nods in return. "Place those where you will need them, as I am not sure where they fit in. I can see the pattern in the design, but some parts of the magic I just don't have the sense yet as to where they fit."

Mary then began placing several objects around the room, which Ali told me were talismans that helped them guide their magic into the spell that was created, and Gina lit a pair of small brass braziers and began burning some sort of incense. Soon the room was filled with a bitter, spicy scent, and the two witches indicated that it was time to begin. Kelli, however still looked concerned about something.

"Can this type of magic use blood to enhance it, ward magic I mean," Kelli asked of the two.

"Well, yes. In many cases some blood from the person being protected can increase the binding of the protection provided from the ward, but the increase in power is so small that it's almost never used," Gina replied.

"This needs blood though," and Kelli was adamant about the point. "Myka, you need to get undressed and lay in the circle with your wrists in these two smaller circles and your feet in these two."