The Ether Witch Volume 2

After the brief distraction of a giant hole blowing through their escape vessel, the witches attacking the ship rounded swiftly back on Kasha.

Behind her, Bes and Hamil ushered the children away as the crew, with cutlasses clutched in hand, started to cautiously approach the intruders while Eli swung her great paws at them. She nearly got the best of the water witch with his flop of black curls as he was forced to throw himself against the railing in an effort to dodge her alarmingly large claws. However, he did not take this barrage of attacks lightly. With a curling lip, he drew up five tendrils out of the water. They whooshed forward, snaking around Eli. The water witch gripped his hand into a fist, and the tendrils tightened, effectively binding Eli down to the deck. She may have even slammed against the planks if she hadn't braced her paws.

"Get the boy!" the water witch barked at his companions.

The fire witch was still struggling against Kraken on the ground, however, and the air witch was doing her best to carefully step around him.

The water witch continued staring down at Kasha, his eyes narrowing as she struggled against her restraints.

"You're nothing but a big cat, Lady Elisara. Do not feel guilty when we take the boy. There is only so much one—"

"BAKAAAA!"

The warrior screech of a chicken broke through the man's monologue, right before in a flurry of wings, beak, and claws descended upon him. Scratching, pecking, and wing beating sent him stumbling backward.

"What… ARGH… the hell…is—" He at last seized the chicken by the neck. "Got you!"

However, this alarming attack had distracted the water witch from the much larger animal, with impressive teeth.

He had no time to react as the large shadow appeared over him.

Kasha's great jaw closed around his head. With a subtle flex of her jaw, the water witch went limp. The chicken fell from his hand right before Eli tossed her head, and subsequently the water witch's body over the edge.

She snarled and huffed at the body as though saying Good riddance.

Rounding over to where the fire witch was in the process of trying to free herself from her own feline assailant, Kasha lifted a paw, intending to toss overboard this witch as well, when a child's yelp sounded behind her.

Swinging her head around, Eli spotted the saw the air witch snatching up Luca as Hamil lay unconscious on the deck. Bes screamed at the witch, her arms still around Penelope.

Eli's legs flexed, she would not let this witch get away with Luca, but before she could move, whirling into view in a rush of black and silver smoke, came Tam.

His knife appeared at the woman's throat, his other arm wrapping around her body, pinning them to her side and forcing her to drop Luca.

The boy scrambled over to Hamil, grabbing his shoulder and shaking him.

But that was all Kasha had time to take note of as she heard the meaningful thud of a heeled boot getting purchase on the deck.

Heat gathered in the air over Kasha's shoulder; her fur rose up, prompting her to instinctively back away. A stream of fire blasted past the front of her face. Several of the Zinferan crew members were sent scattering with shouts of alarm. Tam yelled, and she discovered that he had moved through the void to reach the fire witch with the air witch's wrists firmly in his grasp. He unceremoniously delivered a chest height kick to the fire witch sending her overboard.

Another boom from below, followed by a stinging, smoky scent wafted up to Eli.

The air witch struggled against Tam, fruitlessly, it seemed. That is until Eli noticed that Tam suddenly looked as though he wasn't able to breathe. Tam responded instantly. The void appeared, and in the woman went.

By the time the void closed around her shrieking face, Tam collapsed on the ground, gasping for air.

Kasha shifted back to her human form.

Crouching beside Tam, Eli rested a hand on his back. "Are you alright?"

Coughing, he managed to nod.

"Holy… Gods… You're… How… What…?"

Eli looked over her shoulder at Hamil who was sitting up gaping at her as Bes kneeled beside him. She was staring in awe at Eli as well.

"Are you hurt, Hamil?" Eli called back, ignoring the shock on the Lobahlans' faces.

Neither Hamil nor Bes seemed to be able to answer, so Eli shifted her attention to Luca and Penelope who were still standing back warily near the crew members who had been warded off of the fight by the fire witch. They looked at her uncertainly, then at Tam who was taking ragged breaths on the deck.

Letting out a long sigh, Eli held out her hand to them.

Luca took a nervous step forward…

Then two more witches dropped down on the deck.

A man who had to be another air witch given that they were flying and… Louise Riddel.

The coven leader stared down her nose at Tam and Eli.

The air witch turned toward the children.

"Don't you take another step," Eli snarled.

Tam's head came up, and when he registered what was happening, his eyes filled with blackness.

Louise Riddel frowned, but didn't falter.

She merely raised her hand, halting the air witch in place. She stepped over to Tam and Eli, as the two rose to their feet. Eli's attention homed on the air witch, ensuring he didn't try and sweep away Luca or Penelope in a gust of air, her heart hammering against her chest.

Another resounding bang sounded off, followed by yet another crunching sound that made everyone look to find that the fishing vessel that had supposedly been coming to aid the coven members in their plot, was barely above water, and there were five other heads bobbing just over the waves of the Alcide Sea.

Eli and Tam's eyes swiveled back to the coven leader who did not bother masking her ire.

"Captain! I don't think we need any more help from the cannons!" Tam hollered without taking his eyes off of Louise Riddel.

Captain Sun was oddly quiet, but Eli didn't hear any additional explosions from the new weapon Jiho Ryu had designed. In the back of her mind she had to confess that the cannons seemed to be a rather effective weapon to have aboard a ship.

"Lord Tamlin," Louise regarded Tam who straightened his shoulders, but his eyes did not return to normal as he beheld her.

Eli wondered if he was doing that on purpose…

"You will get off this ship, and if you try to come after my son again, I will not react reasonably," Tam informed her stonily.

The coven leader rolled her eyes. "He is not your son, he is the devil."

"Haven't you heard?" Tam's voice came out a whisper, but there was something strange about it…

Eli tried not to show her surprise when his voice echoed and warbled unnaturally around them all. At times it sounded like he was whispering in her ear, and yet she could hear his words repeating and fluttering around everyone else on the ship.

Louise Riddel stiffened.

Eli guessed she was struggling to appear indifferent.

"I have heard some say that you are the devil, but you will not fool me, Lord Tamlin. I know it is impossible for you to—"

Darkness swallowed the world.

This time Eli was unable to stop herself from jolting as not only had Tam somehow managed to bring just himself into the void, but everyone that had been on the boat that had been nearest them—including some of the crew, Hamil, Bes, Penelope, Luca, and the other air witch.

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How had he done that? He hadn't even been touching any of them! He'd never been able to do anything like this before.

Luca and Penelope took advantage of everyone's moment of confusion and fear, and bolted straight for Tam and Eli.

Grabbing their hands, Eli found that their presence helped steady her once again.

"You can believe what you want," Tam continued to say, the unsettling reverberation in his voice had only become more powerful in the void. "But I can leave you here to decide whatever that may be."

The coven leader's breath hitched, but she held her ground. "You are not the devil."

Tam shrugged. "It doesn't really matter what you think. I hope you enjoy your time here in the void."

Eli glanced nervously at the crew members who were looking more than a little concerned that they, too, might be left in the void. The fact that she couldn't outright ask Tam in that moment what the implications of what he was doing currently was stressing her out more and more.

When the world outside the void snapped back into view, things were more than a little problematic. During the time when the crew had been in the void, the sudden shortage of sailors had made it so that the large vessel could not be properly maneuvered, and the side of the boat had been damaged by the partially sunken fishing vessel.

"Lord Tamlin! Is everything alright?" Captain Sun was descending the steps from the stern of the ship where he had witnessed the entire thing transpire.

Eli glanced over and found that the sailors had indeed returned to the deck, as had Hamil and Bes—though Bes had launched herself toward the railing that was a bit of a tough thing to reach for as the deck had tilted as their own ship began to take on water. When she reached it, Eli could hear her retching.

"Dad?"

Luca's worried tone drew Eli's attention back to Tam, and she realized he was swaying on his feet.

Moving that many people without touching them into the void and out of the void must have taken too high of a toll.

Releasing both Penelope and Luca's hands, Eli slipped her shoulder under Tam's arm right arm in time for his left knee to buckle.

"Captain Sun, can we make it to shore?" Eli asked as the captain reached them.

The Zinferan was eyeing Tam nervously, but after quickly wetting his lips he managed to answer her question. "We might make it to the southern isles, but with the ship as it is, it will be in no shape to maneuver the rocks closer to Rollom."

Eli nodded grimly. "Very well. Is there anything we can do to help repair the boat?"

"No, no. The two of you have already—Oop!" Captain Sun ducked and caught Tam's other arm, holding him upright right as his other knee gave out.

Tam leaned drunkenly to the right.

"Dad? Dad, are you okay?" Luca moved in front of his father, fear bright in his eyes.

"He just needs to rest, Luca, alright?" Eli tried to sound gentle, but Tam was actually quite heavy and her words came out more a grunt. Luckily another sailor moved forward when the captain jerked his chin, breaking his crewman free from his stupor following being brought to and from the void.

The men continued to help Tam down the stairs below deck, and Eli was about to move to follow them, when a rush of water hitting the deck made her slowly turn back around.

The witches that had been in the water…

Five of them appeared.

One lifted a hand, summoning up ten tentacles of water. The fire witch Tam had thrown overboard burst into flames, then, once dry, she maintained two balls of fire in her hands. Two of the other witches threw down fistfuls of dirt, and in the blink of an eye, vines grew up out of them, flailing about in the air, and the final witch had suspicious green smoke starting to pour out of her mouth.

Eli pressed the children down the stairs behind her.

Damnit. I don't know that I can take on five of them… I didn't want to keep turning into Kasha. It was risky enough doing it once without knowing what it would do to the baby.

Regardless of her sinking suspicion that she was not going to win the fight, Eli stalked forward, her hands clenched into fists.

Some of the witches smiled coldly at her, some merely looked serious.

Letting out a long breath, Eli braced herself to shift…

When the witch with green smoke coming from her mouth spun rapidly in the air and vanished.

Instead, where she had been standing, stood a black feathered chicken.

Eli blinked, baffled.

Only the singing waver of steel snapped her attention back up in time to see the fire witch fall to the ground with a knife in her neck, followed shortly thereafter by an arrow launching itself into the water witch. Another knife managed to sail through the vines into one of the earth witch's chests, followed by another arrow to the other one's eye.

All before anyone could catch a proper glimpse of their assailant.

Eli turned, slowly.

She found that standing a little to her right, with a compound crossbow on her shoulder and an almost bored expression, the duchess.

As a human.

With Henrietta the chicken witch at her side.

Annika Ashowan was staring at the witches littering the deck. "I think I'm a bit rusty. One of them is still alive."

"Of course one is still alive! She's a chicken!" Henrietta squeaked while flinching away from the sight of their fallen adversaries.

Annika Ashowan sighed as she looked at the chicken witch. "The earth witch also still breathes. But we can leave her alive if you like? It'll be my thank you for helping."

Henrietta glared.

"Your Grace?" Eli could hear the faintness in her voice.

Annika's attention slid over smoothly to her, and a warm smile touched her face. "Sorry that I was a bit late. Henrietta needed to be persuaded."

A gentle brush of fur around Eli's ankles startled her, only when she looked down she found Kraken staring up at her. She couldn't think of anything to say to him—Everything had happened so quickly!

But then she remembered the children had been right behind her, and they should not have witnessed any of the violence their grandmother had just doled out. Eli sought them out, and instantly she felt a whoosh of breath leave her when she realized Luca and Eli stood farther down the steps behind Annika and Henrietta. From their vantage point they couldn't have seen anything.

"Are you feeling alright?" Annika asked with a note of concern in her voice.

Eli swallowed.

Actually, she felt a little dizzy…

"I'll be fine, I'll just go check on Tam."

Annika's eyebrows twitched. "Tell you what. Take my arm, and how about we both go see him, hm?"

Eli was starting to feel a headache coming on. Which was the only reason she didn't grumble at the duchess's obvious attempt at placating her like a child.

Instead, she accepted the woman's arm, and carefully descended the rest of the steps.

By the time she reached the bottom, Luca was already darting ahead down the passage, and this time it was Penelope who grasped Eli's free hand.

As she walked, her body feeling a troubling mix of too light and too heavy at the same time, Eli did remember to be thankful for the fact that, at the very least, they wouldn't have to worry about Kraken eating the duchess one day should they be a little bit late feeding him his breakfast.