Chapter 26

**Merianna**

Jasnine had made the whole plan sound so simple on our way to this village.

At this particular moment? Nothing seemed simple...

The plan was for me to wander inside, look for the wand and take it while she sits outside ready to jump in whenever I needed her.

Dread pooled in my gut as the tracking charm spurred me on to a small stairwell that most likely lead into an underground cellar. The jewel charm tugged against my fingers, letting me know that, yes, it was in fact down that little stairwell and most likely inside whatever chamber was down there.

Sighing to myself I marched onward with the charm tugging me to what I hoped was not a false trail that the Nirn's might have set up in case of a -someone waltzing in with a tracking charm- situation. No other coven of witches would be brave or stupid enough to attempt what I was doing. None of them would say, "Oh look! A very powerful wand was stolen by a coven of Nirns! Let us go get ourselves killed while getting it back for the very concerned if not completely bonkers client!"

Nope, no coven of witches in their right mind would say something like that, but, of course, the Order wasn't just your normal coven of witches. We weren't fully light witches, and we weren't fully dark witches, in fact we liked to straddle the chasim between the two. Magic is magic and witchcraft is Craft. It all depends on how you see it and use it. So of course, just about anyone in the Order would jump at a chance for something like this because, well, everyone was nuts to some degree. I expected Raska or Ara to be all over this type of Bounty, instead of Jasnine of all people.

It only took me about ten steps to reach the bottom of the small staircase. Frowning, I crouched in front of the big sturdy wooden door that rose up in front of me and stretched my senses through and around the door. I didn't find any barriers or wards concealed on the other side of the musty wood. No spells that would raise an alarm and send the living storming down to my location either.

I was relieved that the tracking charm hadn't led me into a bedroom or something similar. That would have been slightly harder to get around, not to mention awkward if the occupant woke up during my search.

I could imagine that senario going from me slinking, to the occupant suddenly drawing in the collective power from all the Nirn witches in the entire village... to me becoming a stinking pile of compost behind a shed. Lovely visual...

Reaching up a hand, I gently tugged at the door handle and noticed that it was locked. I gave a silent sigh in exasperation, I should have figured as much. I reached out with my energy once more and grabbed a hold of the lock tightly with my astral hand. I twisted my real hand sharply and my astral energy twisted with it.

There was a satisfying internal click as the lock opened up, then the door swung slightly on its hinges. I smiled with a thrill that I couldn't place and slipped past the door while pulling it slightly closed behind me. It would be best for me to be able to get out again quickly without having to bother with shut doors.

It was dark and dank in the small space that greeted me. Squinting in the darkness I sparked the small space in-between my fingers with energy and summoned a small wick of flame into the palm of my hand.

My mouth pulled to the side in distaste when I could finally see what was at the other side of the door. Stone, stone, stone, and more stone...

I didn't know what I expected at first when I started descending the steps, but stone walls and more stone walls was not one of them. I think I was expecting tunnels wrapped in vines? Maybe monster spiders lying in wait as guards? Probably spirits rising up out of the ground to grab my legs and trip me? Maybe even for said vengeful spirits to steal and canabalize my soul? A creature from Tartarus could also have been a very high possibility.

Anything could have been possible. Literally anything.

And yet, here I was. Walking as deep as possible into a small stone cellar that seemed absolutely empty. This, was something I definitely did not expect.

With a grimace I pulled out the tracking charm again in hopes that it would give me a little more information. The charm tugged harder at my fingers. I had to clamp my fingers over it tightly to keep it activated with my magic, and to keep it from jumping right out of my palm and into the darkness without me. It was pulling me towards the very back of the cellar where it seemed even darker and damper than the rest of the small space.

I stretched my senses forward to the darkness and sensed a wall of subtle magic. Of course a cloaking spell of some sort would be used at some point at least. It wasn't a tunnel full of carniverous vines, but it was something.

I smiled to myself in anticipation. Unraveling spells have always been a small hobby of mine, especially since Noch spelled my room to keep me from going anywhere when he was trying to "punish" me after I "accidentally" chopped off half of his beard in a fit of rage.

Needless to say, he never knew that his "punishments" were good training opportunities for me. By now I was a master at escaping his room lockdown spells. Every single one of them. I'm so good by now that he hadn't noticed when I slipped through his spells the last 20 times he tried to lock me in. I had to admit though, the spell that allowed me to walk through my door only to have me emerge straight back into my own room again was a really hard one to get around at first.

Compared to all those spells, this one in front of me was nothing but child's play. Smiling smugly to myself I stretched my hand out to the darkness and felt for the intent and core of the spell.

I could feel a trap lying in wait for whoever dispels the enchantment, and a pretty nasty one at that. Nasty enough to be on par with Nana Ara's potion creations. Good thing I wasn't going to be doing any dispelling then.

With a smirk I felt out the composition of the spell and started to gently weave my own energy into it like a piece of thread into a tapestry. The way I was working the spell was probably not the best way to do it, but it was the only one I knew at that moment that would allow me to slip in and out unnoticed.

Spreading my fingers wide I created a hole through the cloaking spell and as the darkness parted I saw the tip of the elusive wand winking at me through a small hole that was carved into the wall for this purpose. And all within arm's reach.

While keeping the hole through the spell open, I stretched my arm through the pocket I had created and reached into the opening.

My fingers closed around the wand and a thrill of energy jumped through my body at the contact, almost making me drop it to the ground. I clasped it tightly though, I did not want to get ambushed this far into the bounty, and dropping this wand was most definitely going to raise some awareness around the building. It felt so charged, that if I were to drop it, the impackt to the gound was sure to release some of it's energy and wake up every living thing in this village.

Breathing a slow sigh of relief I extracted the wand carefully from its hiding place and let the cloaking spell fall back to where it belonged.

I quickly stuffed it into the dampening bag that was slinged across my torso and sat comfortably around my waist. Jasnine was smart enough to bring it along on our bounty, and I'm glad that she did. The bag hid the wand's powerful aura and made it possible for me to focus on everything else again besides it.

Time to go.

I whirled around and sprinted silently back up the stairs as fast as my feet could take me. I didn't want to spend more time than necessary in a Nirn coven's territory. I didn't want to become one of the legendary idiots that died because of ignorance. Thankfully, I was one of those people that actually listened to the stories that came through via travellers. And knowing the Order and all its individuals, I wasn't willing to brush anything off as impossible. No matter how ridiculous it might sound. I've seen even stranger...

A smile slowly formed on my face as I cleared the door's archway and closed it silently behind myself again. I was starting to feel proud of myself for slinking in and out unnoticed.

That was, until I turned around to head to the open window again...

A string of very colourful curses streaked through my mind faster than I could react. Before I could even open my mouth to utter an incantation I went flying into a stone wall and crashed onto the floor in a heap of limbs.

"Damn that hurt." I wheezed as I struggled onto my elbows.

"I should do more than just hurt you youngling." A deep voice said from the shadows. When I spotted his shape again I felt any hope I had, wither into a dried husk and disintegrate into dust.

I would actually have been happy if a Hunter were standing in front of me. But nope, it had to be a Nirn. And contrary to what I might have hoped for if I were to run into one of them, this Nirn wasn't the White kind. This Nirn bled blackness like it was part of his soul.

I was in soooooo much trouble...