“M-Maisha!” Henry called, running over to the witch’s side with bright eyes. Maisha smiled at him as they began walking down the forest trails together. “S-so a-are you c-c-collecting more o-of-”
Maisha shot him a glance, causing the young boy to momentarily pause his sentence.
“M-more of th-those m-mushr-rooms t-today?”
Though he didn’t know exactly what Maisha meant by that look, he was smart enough to keep his words vague and certain thoughts to himself. Maisha wasn’t sure if it was just because he was older than most of the other kids she met, but he seemed to more easily pick up on the subtle queues Maisha gave him. She had grown to appreciate the young boy’s company.
“Only looking for herbs today,” she smiled.
It was hard to say what Yaga could be listening in on. It was a stroke of luck the ancient witch hadn’t overheard their conversation the other day. No doubt the poison Maisha had been steadily feeding the old hag to dull her senses had greatly assisted. But even with her poisoned to such an extent, Yaga’s powers were still fathomless and near unpredictable. It would be devastating if Henry inadvertently mentioned something incriminating. Even just a slight raise of suspicion could be deadly.
Maisha nervously fiddled with the stone in her pocket at the thought, its smooth edges somehow comforting.
“Wh-what s-s-sort of h-herbs?” Henry asked, peering around Maisha’s shoulder and into the basket she carried with one arm.
“Hmmm,” Maisha hummed in response, setting down the basket in front of a patch of dandelions. “Mostly dandelion root and perhaps some nettles. Oh and of course, I need to collect some slugs.”
“S-slugs?” Henry repeated, his head cocking to the side like a curious dog.
“Yes!” Maisha replied, clasping her hands together enthusiastically. “With just a couple of slugs added, the effects of a potion can last nearly twice as long as they otherwise would!”
“Ooooohhhhh,” Henry cried, impressed that such an ingredient existed. “Th-then s-surely every w-w-witch puts them i-i-in all th-their p-pot-tions!”
Maisha sighed ruefully.
“I don’t know why, but no one seems to believe me when I tell them how valuable slugs can be…”
Henry nodded his head in understanding.
“Ooooh! Th-that rem-minds me!” the young teen suddenly exclaimed, his eyes sparkling. “Last n-night I-I had a v-v-very i-interes-sting dream ab-bout a h-huuuuuge sn-snake with h-horns a-and f-feathers a-a-and b-beautiful eyes! L-like a b-bolt of lightn-ning had b-been c-captured in its i-i-irises. A-and i-it’s w-w-wings-!”
Maisha couldn’t help the bark of laughter that escaped her throat.
“Ha! Henry, how does this have anything to do with collecting slugs?!”
“W-well… s-slugs, s-s-snakes… th-they’re v-vaguely the s-same w-wiggly shape I g-guess…”
“Ahahahaha!” Maisha cackled, grabbing a slug off the underside of a leaf and holding it up to Henry. “Does this look like it has horns and feathers to you?”
“W-whatever,” Henry laughed, shooting Maisha a sheepish smile. Maisha stood up with a grin, her basket now containing a handful of uprooted dandelions and her hands smeared with dirt.
“Come on,” Maisha smirked, ushering Henry further along down the trail. “Maybe if we search hard enough, we can find this feathered snake of yours.”
*
“I would have liked to give him more time to enjoy himself here,” Yaga rasped, her eyes shaky and unfocused. “But I need to eat soon. If it was just these symptoms, I could handle it. But I’m worried someone has begun conspiring against us. I must regain my strength quickly. Staying in this weakened state of mine is too risky.”
This… this is dangerous. I don’t want to have to hurt Henry…
Maisha’s impassive expression gave no hint of the thoughts and emotions churning internally within her. She hadn’t expected Yaga to be so impatient nor so paranoid. She had thought she had more time to come up with a more stable plan. Maisha subtly began working a series of divination spells in her mind, a mere hair’s width of mana supporting them. Futures began playing out within her mind’s eye.
“Then… for dinner, I’ll-”
“No,” Yaga interrupted, waving her hand weakly. “Now.”
Maisha clenched her fist, her heart beating nervously in her chest. Could Yaga hear her heart racing? She swallowed hard.
I need to stall for more time. Maybe I can say that Henry got scared and ran off? Or that I need time to collect more ingredients for the meal?
But when had those tactics ever worked before? Maisha glanced at Yaga, her thoughts churning restlessly. Images flooded her mind, revealing to her the outcomes of countless actions she could take right now. But none of them lasted long enough to show her the true ending result. Maisha cast another pensive glance and Yaga.
The old hag looked weaker than Maisha had ever seen her, like nothing more than an elderly woman with one foot in the grave.
Surely I’ve already done enough. Surely if I just carried out my plan right here and now…
Maisha sucked in a sharp breath, her heart stuttering at the thought.
How can I even consider that, when my preparations are not yet complete? When the outcome I desire is not guaranteed? If I strike too soon, I’ll have to give up everything…
Countless children had died under her watch. What was one more? In the end, nothing good would come from rushing into this. Even if she gave it her all right now, she likely wouldn’t be able to save Henry. She would only get herself killed.
“Of course,” Maisha finally acquiesced, her tone quiet and steady despite her aching heart.
I’m sorry, Henry…
“Mmn,” Yaga muttered drowsily. She remained lounged in her armchair, her eyes closed and her body completely relaxed, not seeming to notice her apprentice’s strange behavior.
With great effort, Maisha began dragging her feet towards the door, her steps only slowing the closer she got. She reached out towards the doorknob with shaking fingers.
The smiling face of the young teen surfaced in her mind. And she knew; if she left this room right now, Henry would die.
Maisha’s steps staggered, her legs not seeming to want to move forward any further. She could hear her own rushing blood and pounding heartbeat.
Digging her nails into her palms, she sucked in a deep breath. And made her decision. Her ragged breaths grew steady and deep. Her twisting expression settled.
Without another thought, Maisha grabbed the fire iron leaned up against the nearby fireplace and spun around. In two steps, she was back by Yaga’s side, swinging the sharp metal rod down over the old hag’s head. Yaga’s eyes snapped open. In a flash, Yaga caught the iron, her head whipping around to face Maisha, her expression the epitome of confusion.
Maisha’s expression remained impassive. She had seen this very scene mere seconds ago within one of the countless visions that had swarmed her mind. She only needed to follow the formula to receive the desired result. As soon as Yaga’s hand made contact with the iron, Maisha’s left hand snapped out like a snake striking down its prey, catching the old witch off guard. Her two extended fingers plunged into Yaga’s eye sockets without hesitation, digging into them as deep as they could.
“KEEEEEGH” Yaga’s ear-splitting screech echoed throughout the house as she shoved Maisha away and stumbled back. The air around them became heavy, as if they had suddenly plunged deep underwater. Maisha didn’t let it distract her, focusing solely on preparing a counterspell in her mind, reciting it over and over and over, pouring her mana into it like her life depended on it.
The power emanating from Yaga increased until Maisha felt as if she were carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders, her whole body aching and sluggish from the pressure. She let herself sink to the ground, her expression as emotionless as a doll’s.
“Someone’s cast a spell on you, haven’t they,” Yaga growled, fresh blood pouring from her eye sockets like endless tears. She stepped forward, her hunched figure looming over Maisha. Though her eyes had been utterly mutilated, Maisha still felt as if the old witch could see her. Reaching out a weathered hand to caress Maisha’s cheek, her tone changed to that of a loving mother’s.
“Stay here,” she crooned, hot blood trickling down her pointed chin to drip on Maisha’s face. “I’ll find whatever is forcing you to do this,” she said, flicking her finger towards Maisha as she cast a spell. “And end it.
“возьми про-”
Maisha clapped her hands together and closed her eyes as if in prayer, the reverberations from her contacting hands so loud that Yaga’s voice was cut off.
The young witch didn’t have time to hope that she had chosen the right counterspell. Didn’t have time to pray that her mana was strong enough to combat the first half of Yaga’s incantation. Didn’t have the time to check if her magic had worked. She simply had to operate under the assumption that it did. So without a second thought, Maisha lunged for the iron rod that Yaga had dropped, fighting against the pressure that Yaga exuded with everything she had. With one decisive upswing, she launched the metal rod up through Yaga’s chin and out the side of her skull.
Yaga’s expression slackened in shock as the iron plunged into her head with a sickening crunch. Freshly formed eyes, too small for their sockets yet already sharp with vision, snapped down to stare and Maisha.
In an instant, Yaga snatched up Maisha’s hand, squeezing it so tightly that Maisha could feel a tingling numbness start to spread down her fingers. The flesh around Yaga’s sockets and eyes had already half reformed, the old and damaged skin sloughing away in chunks.
Yaga eased the iron out of her head and tossed it aside, a bloody mess of hair and bone going with it. The ancient witch then thrust her other hand at Maisha, grabbing her by the face and pulling her close. So close that Maisha could see the tiny blue irises slowly reforming on the old hag’s pale sclera.
The ancient witch forcefully turned Maisha’s head this way and that, as if examining her for any sort of anomaly. Her breath reeked of rotting meat and her hand felt as cold as a corpse’s against her skin, but Maisha kept her expression neutral.
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“Wretched girl,” Yaga hissed, her mutilated eyes blazing with fury. An amalgamation of betrayal, confusion, and disbelief all churned within her expression. Maisha’s brows twitched. “After everything I’ve done for-”
Just as Yaga’s hold on her tightened, her sharp nails digging into Maisha’s skin, Maisha let her stoic expression melt. All the fear, the uncertainty, the pain, the hopefulness, every one of the emotions she felt threatening to overwhelm her slowly appeared in her expression.
“Y-Yaga,” she whimpered. “Someone is… controlling…” she choked out, her brows upturning in a pitiful plea, tears welling up in her eyes. “Help… me…”
Yaga’s expression instantly shifted.
And the moment Yaga’s grip on her weakened, Maisha plunged her fist towards the wound in the side of Yaga’s head. She felt the already weakened bone fracture further beneath her fist, blood and brains gushing out and oozing between her clenched fingers.
Yaga screamed, reaching out to grab Maisha’s hand. But Maisha saw it coming long before Yaga even moved. The young witch dodged, Yaga’s claws just barely grazing past her wrist.
“Maisha!” the old hag yelled desperately, her expression taut with confusion and despair. “Wake up! You’re stronger than they are! Don’t let them- Keugh!”
Her stoic expression recomposed, Maisha plunged her fingers into the Yaga’s wound and yanked at the walls of the old hag’s skull, pulling apart as much of the fractured bone as she could. Yaga’s head swayed as she did, her eyes clouded with disbelief.
Maisha retracted her hand and leapt out of the way just as Yaga’s fingers twitched and the air grew laden with mana. A severing spell cut through the air, leaving a deep gash in the floor below where Maisha’s arm had just been.
Maisha's legs trembled as the air grew heavier with each passing second. The young witch let herself sink to the ground, her hanging head obscured by the thick black hair that curled around her shoulders. The spells she recited in her mind over and over filled her every thought, her black eyes glittering like embers in a haze of smoke.
The first spell left her lips like a hissing snake, a spell so potent that the air seemed to warp with mana. Yaga snapped her attention to Maisha, her eyes narrowing.
“Stopping my healing now, are you?” the elder witch growled as she prepared a new spell, her hands twisting rapidly.
“Исцели-”
“Bòd.”
“cтена си-”
“B??èpíc.”
“некончаемое безмол-”
“языку моему защиту соделалъ.”
Each spell Yaga tried to cast, Maisha recited the appropriate counterspell, cancelling out the affects she wanted to cancel. She could sense Yaga’s frustration mounting.
It had been centuries since someone had opposed her like this.
With a cathartic screech, Yaga began a transformation spell. Her teeth began elongating, and her mouth opened so wide it seemed her lower jaw had unhinged itself. Under normal circumstances, this transformation would have been instantaneous. But Maisha had been steadily poisoning her. So it was not.
“Gàd?k.”
“Ugh-” Yaga gasped.
As soon as Maisha spoke the counterspell, Yaga’s transformation paused, leaving her slack jawed and with far too many teeth jutting past her lips. Maisha frowned in her heart- her counterspell had only half worked. She had intended to return Yaga to her usual state, not simply stop the transformation where it was.
The future grows less certain with every passing second. In my visions, I saw that counterspell succeed. But now that time has progressed, reality has subtly deviated. I need to end this as quickly as I can, before-
Yaga pointed a gnarled finger at Maisha, the air around her shimmering with power.
“Sleep.”
Maisha’s hand twisted rapidly into the necessary sigil for her counterspell, but despite her preparations, one word from Yaga was enough to render her nearly incapacitated. She fought the drowsiness threatening to envelop her in darkness, focusing all her attention on keeping her eyes open. Clearly the counterspell had done something. If it hadn’t, she would already be unconscious.
Ugh… no… Maisha blinked slowly, desperately trying to organize her thoughts. I… need to… need… to….
“Hmm. He must be reading my mind to be casting all the right counterspells,” Yaga muttered, staring disdainfully down at her pupil.
He…? Maisha thought sluggishly, clenching her fists weakly.
“Then I suppose there’s nothing else to be done,” Yaga mused, crouching down to gently caress Maisha’s cheek. “It simply won’t do to have someone like him puppeteering my sweet apprentice…”
What… is she… talking… about…
Yaga’s expression softened.
“Don’t blame me, my sweet Maisha,” Yaga whispered, her hand caressing Maisha’s cheek.
Maisha’s blood froze.
She needed to move and she needed to move now.
Because if she didn’t, all would be lost.
“I’ll fix everything when all of this is over,” Yaga promised with a soft smile, “So don’t hold this against me.”
I can’t… I… I can’t move… but I’m so… so… close…
The hand hanging limply by her side slowly inched towards her pocket.
Just… a little… more…
But she didn’t have the time. Her heart thundered loudly in her ears as she watched the spell materializing on Yaga’s lips. Felt the air warping with mana once again. Maisha gritted her teeth. She had come so far. This couldn’t be the end.
At that moment, Maisha felt a movement against her forearm. Her stomach dropped in horror. She desperately tried to grab hold of the snake hidden in her sleeve, but her body refused to listen, her movements too weak and drowsy. And Ua shot through the air like a bolt of green lightning, his fangs bared and his body coiled. Maisha felt all the blood drain from her face. It was a scene she had seen time and time again. Time seemed to slow as she saw countless futures unfold before her eyes.
Ua wouldn’t make it halfway to Yaga. With one snap of the old hag’s fingers, his life would end. The countless deaths Maisha had watched over and over and over again in her visions now flashed before her eyes. She could see his body scorched to a crisp, his skin flipped inside out, his spine inexplicably snapped midair.
“UA!!” Maisha screamed.
As if a bucket of cold water had snapped her awake, Maisha’s body jolted forward, snatching her familiar out of the air and tossing him towards the door. In the same breath, she used her forward momentum to seize Yaga’s hands with her own and rammed her skull up into the witch’s still bloody chin, interrupting her spell.
Without giving the old hag time to act, Maisha grabbed the stone from her pocket and shoved it into the still gaping hole in the side of Yaga’s head. Yaga had already successfully healed part of it, fresh bone growing irregular and jagged like brittle teeth.
“Sepulchrum tuum lapis erit, mens vita erit, vitam da sepulcro, vita mihi. Sepulchrum tuum lapis erit, mens vita erit, vitam da sepulcro, vita mihi. Tuum sepulcrum…”
Maisha pushed the stone deeper into the skull of the Untouchable witch, fervently muttering the ancient spell over and over, pouring every drop of her mana into it. She couldn’t hold back. She couldn’t slip. Any opening and Yaga would slip out of her grasp, cast the appropriate counterspell with a thought and end her life.
She had to give this spell everything she had.
“Maisha,” Yaga rasped, her pupils shaking as they slid to the side to look at her. “How… do you know this spell…”
Maisha’s expression hardened. She pushed the stone in deeper and whispered the spell again, the words leaving her lips like a curse, binding the Untouchable witch in place.
“Don’t… play me for the fool… girl,” she wheezed, her eyes stuck on Maisha like glue.
“I saw it in a vision…” Maisha muttered darkly, “Just as I saw the Lungcap demon.”
“Lung… cap…” Yaga’s eyes widened with realization. She scowled, the anger welling up inside her so palpable that Maisha thought she could taste it. “Stop this… nonsense.”
Maisha remained silent.
“M-Maisha…”
A look of fear passed over Yaga’s face, an expression so foreign to the ones Maisha was used to seeing that a shiver involuntarily crept up her spine.
She had worried that witnessing something like this would weaken her resolve. Would prey on her sympathy. But at the frightened look on the face of the hag that had tormented her for years, had locked her inside this invisible cage and kept her like some pet, a rush of exhilaration coursed through Maisha’s body. Yaga the Untouchable, the all powerful, the infallible. The witch with godlike power. A witch whose life was in her hands now.
A grim smile tugged at the corners of Maisha’s lips.
Yaga’s body jerked and struggled like a mouse caught in the jaws of a snake. Maisha pressed the stone deeper into the ancient witch’s brain, her expression leaking a fervent excitement.
She could feel the raw power being siphoned into the stone from the old hag, some of it leaking into her veins and leaving behind an intoxicating warmth.
“Ha… hahaha.. ahaha ahh Yaga, Yaga, Yaga. You know how long I’ve dreamt of this?” she hissed with a smirk. “Of the very moment when my own life becomes mine?! If only my younger self could see me now! Could see how far I’ve come!! Haha how ecstatic she would be!” Maisha cried with giddy delight, her eyes flashing. “AHA AHAHAHAHAHAHAA YAGA LOOK AT YOU! REDUCED TO NOTHING, AND BY SOMEONE LIKE ME AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!”
“Unfilial… wretch,” Yaga spat out, blood dribbling down her chin as her body weakened further and further, her life force drained into the stone. The old hag sank to her knees.
“You’ll make a mistake,” she snarled. “And when you do-”
“Ha! Enough. Even if your soul escapes now, it was all worth it! Just seeing you in this state, your fate in my hands ahahahahaha! Ah I never knew something could be so exhilarating!! AHAHA!”
“Disgusting filth!” Yaga spat. “Were it not for my love for you, my hesitation in attacking-”
“So what!” Maisha cried, an unrestrained grin spreading across her expression. “I looked into the future and I saw exactly what methods I should use to bring you to your knees. So what if I took advantage of your kindness!? Haha, Yaga! Your love for me, the reason you kept me here and tormented for decades, was the very same love that led to your own downfall. Hahahaa how incredible! How poetic!!”
“I should have known you were no different from the rest of th- keugh!” She coughed, straining just to breathe. “Nothing more than an insect, a swine, a mere human. Prone to betrayal, to violence and hatred, just like the rest of them.”
Maisha’s smile faltered.
“Yaga,” she whispered, that giddy feeling in her heart overflowing into the tone of her voice. “Compare me to whoever, or whatever you want. I couldn’t care less.”
She smirked, slightly adjusting the flow of mana into the stone.
“I don’t care if I’m like all the other humans. I don’t care if I’m a mere insect, a pig or a bird or a fish. Call me whatever you want. I don’t have to be better than anyone or anything else. I just want to be free.”
“We’ll see just how… free you are when… when I get my hands… on you… Maisha!” Yaga snarled between gasping breaths. “Just wait… You will fail. And on the other… side, I’ll… I…”
“HAHA Yaga don’t be ridiculous! As if I would let myself fail now!”
Maisha cackled uncontrollably as the Untouchable witch fell limp in her arms. But Maisha did not stop working her spell, channeling the old witch’s life force into the stone for as long as she could hold on. Until her veins burned and her eyelids grew heavy. When for the first time in her life, Maisha used up almost all of her mana, leaving her body exhausted and weak.
In any other circumstance, mana usage to this degree would be incredibly foolish. But by the end of this, she would have a hagstone. A tool by which she could build back up the mana she had expended.
“That had better be enough,” Maisha murmured, a crazed grin spread across her face as she staggered back. “You had better not come back after this.”
Maisha gently laid Yaga’s lifeless body on the cold wooden floor and began drawing a complicated circle of salt around it. This would tether a fraction of Yaga’s soul to the hagstone, giving it the strength to withstand the abundance of mana Maisha had just funnelled into it. With any luck, the mana would bind to the stone to form a proper hagstone. Otherwise, the stone would reject the mana surging within it and shatter to dust.
Maisha could care less if the hagstone itself shattered. Of course, it was a terribly useful device, but she would be able to live without it, even if it meant she would never quite be as strong as she was before.
She just needed the stone to keep Yaga’s mana and a portion of her soul locked away until her physical body decayed enough and her soul weakened enough that reversing her death became impossible. Many witches, and especially Untouchables, were known for reviving themselves in seemingly impossible situations. Maisha had to make sure that couldn’t happen.
Maisha glanced down at the elder at her feet. She knelt down and gently caressed Yaga’s icy cheek in the same way the old hag had done to her so many times in the past. A complicated look passed across her face.
“Let’s not meet again, until our next lives.”
