Everything is silent, and it feels as if everyone, even the people in the circle, are staring at the bird and holding their breaths.

One moment passes.

Then two.

The bird cocks its head and blinks slowly, and something about the motion is so unnatural and wrong that I feel bile rising in my throught.

This isn’t just any form of inuriagi.

This is necromancy.

The bird flutters around for a second, as if it didn’t remember or know how to fly, before one of the members in the circle pounces on it and-

We all flinch back with a gasp as the bird barely chirps as the member breaks its neck in a swift motion.

I jerk my head away, unable to watch any more.

This is bad. Just simple forms of inuriagi such as using it to control the air can take only weeks to devour a person, depending again on the frequency with which it is used, but necromancy can fully consume a person in days.

And it has been over two years since I notice the first change.

We sit for and hour in silence, my hand slowly growng raw as I explore the different textures and directions of the forms below me, trying to take my mind off of these things and trying to stay as still and quet as possible. The people have been gone for half an hour but no one dares test to see if they are still vigalant.

Iren slowly makes her way back up the tree ten minutes after they seem to have left. She says nothing, simply sits down with us, but even in the dark I can see the salt streaks left on her face.

Finally, she speaks.

“They were talking about how it is sad that Ilkan was to tired to come.” She looks sympathetically to me.

My mother is a part of this.

I knew it already but the confirmation brings back the bile.

“I…” she continues. “My father was the main voice, and it sounded like he was stepping in for her.” She takes a breath. “I heard the bones snap when he broke that birds neck.”

They all move to hug her as we hear her start to cry again, and I try to do my part and lay a hand on her back, as I have read in books that is a comfort.

We stay in silence for another short moment, or at least that is how it feels, but the moon is about to set as we climb down from the tree and reluctantly part ways.

Non of us want to be alone right now.

Iren and I have no urge to return to what was our home.

Does her mother know? I think sympathetically.

To have one parent that does such vile things is one thing, I cant imagine how it would be to have two. And at least I didn’t have to hear my mother snap a creatures neck, the very neck that she just resurrected.

We need to get out of here, and get to the Concilium.

I wake up with the sun bright in the midmorning sky. Rubbing my head, for I had another dream such as my last on top of everything, my heart freezes seeing eggs and greens on a plate sitting on my dresser.

As used to the feeling of dread at the thought of my mother as I am, it is different now that I know what her and, presumably, her friends have been doing.

I hurriedly get presentable despite my fatigue, passing over the lovely gesture on the dresser, and rush out the door with my satchel full of writing supplies. I munch on what is most likely the last apple of the season as I head over, almost running, to Irens house. Looking through her window, I see that she is not home, so I go to Masy and Wey’s house, doing the same to find them roughly curled in their blankets.

I bend down and pick up a decent sized pebble and hurl it through the window at Wey, only feeling slightly sorry that he acts as the groups punching bag, but cringe as the rock bounces off of him and clacks loudly three times on the hard floor.

This, though, wakes Wey up.

Wey groans and rolls over to sleepily inspect what the noise was, Masy just turning away and covering her head.

I start to feel embarrassed about doing this, wondering if I am overstepping, but I tell myself that we should reconvene as soon as possible, as the day is slowly slipping away. Its already just about to be noon.

“Hey!” I whisper, and Wey turns his drowsy attention towards me.

It takes him a moment to register who I was, but once he does he hastily sits up and rubs his eyes.

“I am trying to get everyone together so we can… talk about what went on yesterday.” I say, and he nods, fully awake now. He gets up and shakes Masy violently until she shoots up and is about to presumably screech ‘what’ when she sees me, and she settles in understanding, contenting herself to simply shoving him roughly away as she walks to the window.

“When are we meet’n back up?” she asks.

“As soon as possible. I was going to look for Iren and Ebony after waking you two. Sorry about this, by the way.” I say, still feeling like I am crossing a boundary.

“Na, Its fine. This is important.” She assures. She hesitates. “Do we want to go back to the oak?” she asks.

I share her reservations on going back there after…

“W-We should go somewhere else today.” I say, and out of the corner of my eye I see Weys shoulders drop the tension they had built, even if just slightly.

“Right.” She thinks. “Right, See ya where the river forks?” she suggests.

I nod, knowing that it is not a well-traveled place.

“Nice doin’ business whith ya” she says before slamming the wooden shutters in my face, making me wince slightly at the noise.

I move on towards the outside of the village, taking a sharp right after the bridge and not so much as looking at the place that last night had taken place at. As I come into vew of the market, I hope that my mother is not there, but I also scoure all of the visible faces for Irens firm but welcoming one, always seeming to hold an indifferent expression.

Except for last night.

I shake the thought off, saving it for later, and continue on wringing my hands as I walk over to Ebony’s home. Her shutter is already shut, but I take the risk of nocking lightly on it.

What if her mother is in her room for one reason or another? What if her mother hears?

The shutters swing open and there stands a ready-to-go Ebony.

“Where.” Is all she says, and a slight smirk flashes onto my face for a moment.

“Where the river forks. Also, by any chance, would you happen to know where Iren might be?”

She shakes her head and closes the shutter. I am about to walk away, but she comes bounding out to meet me.

“I was just going to get you all, but I see you beat me to it. Two covers more ground than one.” She says, raising her eyebrows.

I laugh beneath my breath and nod.

We split up, Ebony taking the more crowded parts of the coven and telling Masy and Wey what we were doing, and I check around the perimeter in the forest. I know what it is like to feel so estranged from the person whom only shows you kindness, so I have an idea of what she might have done.

I finally find her sitting on a rock outside of her clusters patch of forest.

She looks deep in thought as I approach her, not even hearing me as I move forward.

“Hey,” I start, and she startles as I had hoped she wouldent.

“Um,” I continue, unsure., “we are meeting up at the split in the river.”

“To… to talk about last night?” she says, and I cant tell if she is hoping for or dreading it.

“Yes.” Is all I can answer.

She sighs and curls up more. “Okay.”

“If you don’t want to come, that is alright.” I say, not wanting to force her to face this.

“No, no I should. It just… it’s just kind of a shock, if you know what I mean.” She tries to laugh. but even I can tell it is ingenuine.

“I do.” I sit next to the rock she perches on. “Remember when we first talked about this? I told everyone about the rune my mother had put on me.”

She thinks for a second then nods.

“Well every day since she put that… thing on me I have felt so uncomfortable, and when we found out that it might be inuriagi that people were using, my mother included, the feeling only got worse.”

“Oh, Evika, I didn’t know…” she says sympathetically, and I continue on, trying to bring her back to my point.

“What im trying to say is; I know how you might be feeling, and it may be hard to act normal with the people you love, but…” I try to think of the right words. “But, try to still think of them as they once were. We will get them help soon, and that’s why we are meeting right now.” It sounds silly and unhelpful, but it is the best I can give.

“Yea… I guess I can do that for a few days.” She sniffs.

“Take it one day at a time. You got this.” I stand up and offer my hand to her. She gives a slight smile as she takes it and we walk through the market, find Ebony, and go the long way to the river, avoiding the spot that no one wants to be around.

Wey and Masy greet us with smiles, and jump strait into the conversation.

“So, who is going to go to the Conclium?”

“Me,” Wey buts in before anyone else could get a word in.

“Not alone, you’re not” Ebony says.

“Why don’t we all go?” Masy suggests, but Wey immediately shoots her down.

“No! you, of everyone here, are most definitely not going.”

“Why?!”

“You’re the youngest!”

“So what your saying is everyone but Masy. Cool!” Ebony says.

“No! I’m going, just me!”

“I should go.” Iren steps up once again. “Or, at least go with you. I have the sound to what you saw, and if they can use that to get who was there, it would do more good.”

Wey looks stumped, wanting to continue to be selfless but also seeing Irens logic.

“And besides, I don’t know how long I can stomach to be here knowing what they are doing,” she looks at me, “I don’t want to just pretend that nothing has changed.”

I look down, knowing I should feel the same, but I don’t. I just want everything back to normal.

I want Silver to finally come home.

As the thought pops up in my mind, I realize that I only have a few more days until my eighteenth birthday. A few more days until Silver comes back.

I shake the thought off, needing to focus.

“Uhg! Fine! When will we leave?” Wey finally relents.

“When are you getting your hair died?”

“In a month…” Wey catches on to what Iren is implying. “We should leave in a week.” She nods.

It would makes sense that he would want to travel before getting his hair died. Died hair is more conspicuous. Perhaps that is why he has been spending more time with us. It’s a perfect cover story, except…

“So why is Iren leaving?” I ask.

She thinks for a moment.

“I have an older cousin in another coven, perhaps I am visiting them?” Iren tries.

“Your family would want to come.” Ebony says.

“Oh! You guys are dating and want to make it a date.” Masy smiles as they scoff. “’Makes more sence than ‘I miss my cousin that I haven’t seen in forever that I have never talked about’” she pitches her voice and makes a face as she impersonates Iren.

Wey sighs and says, “It does make more sense.”

Iren looks shocked, but it soon resides and she nods reluctantly. “Guess my family will be shocked to find out I don’t fancy girls” she laughs, and explains, “My parents have always thought I did because of how I act and dress, though they haven’t said it. They aren’t wrong though, they just aren’t fully right.” She snickers, then her face falls, and I can assume that it was the mention of her parents.

“So… does anyone know how to get there?” Wey asks, and he looks as though he is embarrassed to ask the question.

I pull a small map from my satchel and open it, speaking the revealing words to show the witch settlements.

We all huddle around it as I set it on the ground and pull out a small piece of charcoal, handing it to Iren as she settles next to me.

“We go north.” She says, tapping the landmark. Weys face falters as we see that there is little more that three states between us and them.

No small human settlements are marked on the map, just major pathways, so Iren avoids human things as best she can, the line of charcoal curving continuously until it reaches its destination.

“We can forage on the way to each once we run out of provisions from the last.” Iren says, now tapping the four covens that the line swerves to pass through. Wey nods and looks as though he is attempting to calculate how many days are in between each. It quickly adds up.

The reality of how big the trip is starts to settle in on us, and I ask: “Are you prepared to do this?”

They will need to takes many supplies, and walk long distances each day. We simply run around from time to time, so we have no training that could help us with this.

They pause and look at each other.

“Yes.” It is said in tandom.

“If we pace ourselves well, we should be alright.” Wey says.

“Do you have any more paper we can use, Evika?” Iren askes.

I pull out a sheet and hand it to her.

“We will need food, I have stopped along some river so we can refill water more often…” We spend the rest of our time planning out the necessities of the trip, calculating about how many days the rest of us will have to sit tight while they travel, risking their lives to save the coven.

Eventually we head home, Iren and Wey to tell their guardians the ‘wonderful news’.

I get a few things from the market before I make it home, and finally, I am able to stare up at my ceiling from my bed, knowing that we have a plan, that everything can go back to normal soon.

That they are coming home soon.

But I am awakened in the early mourning to the punch of a rock as it hits its target.