Each man took a slight step backward, surprised at her outburst.

“I told you,” Hrosh gasped, “the girl is dangerous!”

But Ryieron held a finger to his lips to silence the man. The static in the air grew sharper, more pronounced, until it felt as though a lightning storm were about to erupt around them. Natalia grit her teeth, tears slipping from her eyes.

“I trusted you,” she whispered. 

“You still can,” Ryieron offered. “It’s all been a misunderstanding, my dear. If only you knew what the humans were really like. If only you could see the threat that they pose—”

“No,” she roared, her hair and skin electrified with the force of her magic. 

Clouds overhead began to gather, and lightning lit up the sky. It pierced a stone column of the temple, and shattered it into hundreds of pieces. A few of the other elders ducked and scattered. Ryieron raised a hand to create a mana shield and protected his face from the blast. Hrosh looked pointedly at him, and Ryieron shook his head in defeat.

“I understand now,” Natalia seethed as the first drops of rain began to fall. “I understand everything.”

“Understand what?” Ryieron finally snapped, the harsh wind cutting between them. “That we’ve cared for you? Fostered your powers? Given you silks and tomes and precious gemstones for which to cast spells—the likes of which no other witch ever has? You are all-powerful because we made you that way. And now you want to turn your back on your people? For a bunch of despicable humans?”

Natalia faltered at his words. The clouds stopped swirling. The air stopped crackling. Rain pattered sadly to the earth, and her fox-red hair grew damp with it, falling down around her shoulders, sticking to the tears on her face.

“There, there,” Ryieron said, stepping closer. “Forgive my tone. I know that you are a gentle soul with a kind heart. Of course you would be hesitant to attack our enemies. But you must see that it is for the best. Not just for yourself, but for us all.”

The old fool thought that she was beginning to see reason. But Natalia was seeing red.

“You… made me?” she whispered as he drew close.

“What did you say, child?” the old man asked, his false sympathy still plastered to his face.

She glared up at him, her eyes now completely golden with magic and fiery with rage.

“You didn’t make me. You’ve caged me,” she hissed. “But not anymore.”

“Natalia Ellwise,” Ryieron snapped, as if scolding a child. He finally snatched her arm and held it fast. “Enough of this!”

“Goodbye, Elder,” Natalia growled deep in her throat. Electric energy coursed through her, sending a shockwave into the old man. He bellowed in pain and surprise before he could hold onto her no longer, and was thrown back by the force of her magic. He crashed into the moonflower bushes beyond and lay there, unconcious.

“Get her now!” Hrosh cried, emitting a ball of white-hot energy from his right palm. "Before it's too late!"

He sent the flaming burst of magic her way, but Natalia deflected it just in time. It ricocheted straight back at its caster, and Hrosh had to hit the ground to prevent it from burning his face off. Another elder dove forward to grab Natalia, but she was too fast, too angry, too wired by every emotion roiling inside her at once.

She turned, raised both hands, and forced her elemental magic upon the Vulpus Solarium gates. The wrought iron screamed in protest as it twisted and mangled to her will, creating a bowed arch through which she was able to escape. She raced through the gates, her slippers almost flying off her feet as she went. Then, once she was free, she turned back, and wove the iron back into place, trapping the elders inside.

The elders all shouted in pain and fury, spoke spells, and attempted to break through her curse upon the iron—but they could not. After all, they were right. She was far more powerful than any of them.

With one last heartbroken, furious look, Natalia turned away from them—from her home—and ran off into the alpine forest beyond.

Tears blurred her vision, and Natalia stumbled a few times as she ran toward freedom. But where to? 

Immediately she thought of her parents. Her loving mother and father, who had wept on the day she left, and had only ever seen her in passing ever since her ascension as Witch Queen. Surely they missed her. Surely they would help her…

No. She couldn’t go to the village. The elders would look there first, and no doubt they would punish her parents if they helped her escape Vulpine lands. And besides, would the rest of the clan even believe her? Would they trust her word over the Elders, the ones who kept the lore of their people, who wrote the laws of the land, and spoke for the gods themselves?

She didn’t think they would.

Natalia could barely focus, her mind racing, her emotions and magic still crackling as she ran, and ran, and ran. Then, almost a mile down the mountain path, she stumbled and twisted her ankle upon an upturned tree root, and she fell hard to the earth. She sobbed in pain, saw the blood on her scraped hands, and rolled onto her back. The sky was alive with northern stars, which shone down at her in the hot summer evening air. Natalia would have once marveled at their beauty, and would have prayed to the many gods above.

But now she only cursed them—the gods and the stars—who had put her life in the hands of cruel old men.

After a long while, and a self-pitying sob, Natalia finally attempted to rise to her feet. The pain in her ankle throbbed. It was swollen and hot to the touch, but she limped forward, determined to descend the mountain before daybreak.

Then, she heard a noise.

It was the soft, confident footfalls of a person who was not in any hurry at all. Natalia froze on the path, and then hid behind a large tree trunk to her right. Gentle, familiar laughter echoed toward her, and her insides seized up in fear and rage.

“Don’t be that way,” Darius Blackthorn’s voice purred. “There’s no point in hiding. I already saw you.”