Chapter 22

**Noch**

My head felt like it was being squeezed between a pair of Ogre hands by the time I lifted my head up from the scrying bowl in the Atrium.

My heart was fluttering along with all the thoughts that were flitting in and out of my mind.

I tried scrying the nearest nest of Hunters to see what was going on within their walls, but to no avail. Normally it wasn't this hard to spy on the Hunters that milled about on this measly planet. Their best defense against us was mostly Witch Bane that they let grow and flourish around their meeting places in abundance. 

The blasted plant disrupted our scrying magic and brought great harm to witches if used correctly, but I would still have been able to see a few distorted images or to hear a few scattered words through scrying if that were the normal case.

In this case, I hit an invisible granite wall.

And not the kind that you can chisel your way through with time and patience. This was one of those walls that could lay a Troll flat on its back if it tried barging through.

I groaned in absolute misery.

"What has gotten into you?" Asked a lazy voice from behind me. I jumped with an undignified sound flying through my lips.

Whirling around, I saw that the culprit was just Strider. The blasted feline had a satisfied smirk on his fuzzy little face that made his whiskers twitch with glee.

"Oh? Did I startle you? It's not every day that I can surprise you." He smirked and started padding over towards me.

"You are one sadistic bastard you know that?" I said sourly while I eyed his approach.

Stopping close to the scrying bowl's base, he looked up and nimbly jumped up onto its black polished rim that could barely fit both his front paws next to each other.

Sometimes I felt like cursing the cat for his agility...

"I might be sadistic, but you are clearly troubled by something." Strider said squinting his calculating eyes at me.

I gave him a pout and watched his face wrinkle in disgust.

"I might be troubled, but so are you." I said with a chuckle and watched his ears pull back.

"Being your familiar, it cannot be helped that I feel your emotions Noch." He said seriously. "And being your familiar, I want to help where I can."

Trotting along the edge of the bowl he looked down at where he placed his paws as he eyed the still waters that could suck you in to anywhere your heart desired.

"What have you been up to?" I asked with a frown, sensing that he had something important to say.

Giving a grunt he stopped his circular pacing and looked at me in the eyes. "Something drastic is happening to some of the covens around the realm, and I'm not sure what it is."

I frowned back at him. "What do you mean? Have you seen something?"

He nodded solemnly and his demeanor became serious. "Since you all went along your merry way to save that last coven I've been lurking about the Fae trods and peeking in to some of the more active covens."

The ulcer that was starting to bloom in the pit of my stomach told me that I was not going to like what I heard. "What did you see?"

Strider became as still as the pool of water next to his paws. "I've seen hunters lurking close to coven grounds. So far, they have not breached coven wards, but they are indeed doing something. An energy leaks off of the hunters these days, on some of the more powerful ones it's almost strong enough to smell. It's off somehow. It reeks of wrongness." He hissed out the last word, making him look like he would enjoy nothing more than to destroy this energy that made him feel uncomfortable.

His words made me feel like the blooming ulcer just had twins.

I was almost hesitant to ask the next question. "Have you seen anything else?"

Strider nodded his head. Here we go... I thought.

"Just the other night while I was out prowling in England, I came across a Hunter exiting a building swiftly with a bundle in its arms. I thought nothing of it at first, until I walked past the same area on my way back and noticed a coven who had come together and were searching frantically. It appeared that the Hunter, had stolen a witch child that night."

Those ulcers that I had been feeling? They suddenly had more children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

"Berna helan dracht Strider." I said running my hands over my face at the shocking news. "This is worse than I thought it could be. All coven locations are sealed away tightly and only other covens know about each other."

Strider nodded his head seriously. "Some covens, or some witches within covens, seem to be having some sort of twisted revelations of late from their coven elders. And I'm not too sure if these revelations are flasefied or not. When they scry, they seem to be extremely troubled about what they assume comes from the Fates."

"What makes you think that these revelations aren't coming directly from the fates?"

"Because I have been in contact with some... trusted allies, that confirmed that the Fates had no hand in these types of revelations." Strider gave me a pointed stare that told me not to ask. I was sure that these allies of his were probably people I didn't think highly of.

"Alright Strider. I trust your words. You have never failed me before so I will not ask about your 'friends'. But I am sure that I will meet them somewhere along the line anyway."

Strider gave a huff which made his whiskers twitch. I didn't like the news that he had just dumped on me. It made my ulsers look like nothing compared to what they could be.

"We need to let the council know." I said while I turned around and marched straight for the Atrium door so I could reach my office and send out one of the most important fire messages I had ever needed to send to the Witch Council.

Please let someone I actually like be the one to receive the fire message... I pleaded to whoever might be listening to my wishes.