Chapter 40

**Merianna**


I dashed from the boundary of the surrounding forest to the stone walls that surrounded the lively village. Noch had once again only given me the barest minimum of information before he sent me through the gateway.

Well, since I'm getting a personal scythe out of the story, I suppose that I could ignore his blatant avoidance. He was clearly hiding something big. I just wondered if my curiosity would actually let dying dogs lie, but for some reason, I felt unexpectedly invested in this endeavour.

I peeked my head over the low wall and glanced about. This village looked well established and also thriving. This place could turn into a town before long. They were situated on a well established trading route, as well a route that travellers usually liked to take to avoid the denseness of the forest. I even peeked a small home carved sign on a wood post that indicated the central building as an inn and pub.

I wouldn't mind coming through here as a visitor at some point... I mused as I heard lively laughing coming from its open windows.

Taking a breath, I boldly emerged from my hiding spot and walked through the well worn pathways. As I moved about and made it look like this was my home, no one spared me a second glance. Some villagers bade me a good night as they walked to their homes or to the pub, but after my own greetings they kept on going as if I were a common sight around there.

I was amazed... usually strangers treated Nelia and me like a side road attraction.

Back at the order was pleasantly surprised when Noch and Nana Aara were finally done with my hair and eyebrows. I didn’t think that they would actually succeed in getting it fully black. Yet, I was wrong.

I stared at myself on the slab of reflective quartz that was shoved in my hands once they were done, and tentatively ran a hand through my dry strands. I looked like a completely different person...

I was amazed that even my usually bright eyes had seemed to dull to a normal grey under the change of colour. Even when I stood next to Nelia in a bigger reflective surface, I felt like the floor were being jerked around under my feet. It was quite jarring to look at the two of us together, and not really suspect that we were twins in the slightest.

Although Nelia had retained her honey brown eyes from when we were younger, I on the other hand had lost the honey brown and gotten grey eyes to go with my white blonde hair. Which actually made me look odder.

“I wonder if there is a way to make my hair stay permanently black. I'm liking this.” I mumbled to myself as I twirled a strand between my fingers and played with the skirt of my dress with my other hand.

As I neared the inn I could pick out muttered whispers coming out from one of the windows on the second floor over the din. Sometimes I loved how sound tended to travel at times.

With a smile I glanced around me and quickly ducked into the shadows between the buildings sneaking around to the back. I could see an open window above my head that lead to the rooms on the other floor.

Gathering the air around me, I lifted myself up to the windowsill and pulled myself inside without making a sound.

The door closest to the stairs that led to the pub was emitting candlelight through the bottom. As I drew closer, I noticed that this was indeed the muttering that had captured my attention from outside.

Tapping the succession of runes I had written on my hand, I cancelled out the one for sharp hearing and tapped energy into the one next to it for hearing through objects, and also activated a glamour charm to make it seem like I weren't in the middle of the hallway. Raska had always raved about these charms, so I thought that I might as well give it a try.

If not why not. No better time than a sneaky mission to try and see if it could actually turn you into a ghost or not. I slowly edged closer to the door and lightly laid my ear against it.

“This is getting ridiculous…” I heard a woman uttering from inside.

“Our options are limited in this. Either we comply, or we will be next.” A man’s gruff voice spoke up next.

“Also, it’s not like the Council will jump into action if a small coven like ours gets attacked.” Another female voice uttered.

“The Order is usually good when it comes to responding to requests for help.”

“But by the time they arrive, half of the coven would be gone already!”

This time two males. I didn’t like the sound of this… I thought to myself with a frown etching itself onto my brow.

“Can we truly go through with this? The stakes that Hunter had set were extremely high.”

“True, we can’t condone the action of giving up one of our own with a clear conscience. We will end up in Tartarus for certain once our days are done.”

Well well, wasn't this very interesting…

I heard a hard exhale and a bit of shuffling. “We have been put in a complicated situation. Can we honestly do anything to protect ourselves against a swarm of Hunters when they decide to attack?”

There were some disgruntled mutterings among the group.

“We do have some witches who had gone to the Order for training, but they are not enough to keep them at bay, no.” One of the previous women confessed.

“Precisely, we are basically only left with no choice but to accept their terms in order for them not to come after us as well.”

“The previous coven that was targeted barely escaped with enough members to rebuild, and that was only after the Order showed up to help.”

“This situation is highly unpleasant.” a male bit out.

“The only thing left for us to do now, is choose.”

“All the children in the coven now, are all over the age of 8. We do have a few women that are pregnant…”

I frowned at this.

There was a whole lot of silence that followed that statement. It was worrying me to think that the Hunters were steadily gaining a foothold in our world through threats and bargains with long standing witch covens. Unpleasant indeed…

“Out of all the members, Janima is the closest to giving birth.” a woman said.

There was another heavy sigh. “Yes, we only have 3 members that are pregnant at present, with her being the furthest along. She would be the ideal candidate.”

There were no objections raised at this within the room. My ears felt like they were burning with the strain of listening.

“It is decided then… for the deal to be made with the Hunters, we will take Janima’s child, and give it to them.”

What?! My heart stopped with the shock of what I just heard. The Hunters are now forcing Covens to give up their youngest children in exchange for not being targeted?! I felt sick… I could feel the acid in my stomach trying to push its way up to my throat.

No objections were raised again. My body was twitching with the effort of not barging in there and giving them all a piece of my mind.

“I don’t like this…” A man said quietly.

“I know, I also don’t like this situation one bit. But what else are we left with?”

The meeting seemed to have ended with that statement. The men and women were all moving around now, and seemed to be ready to leave. These people were definitely ones that had their fingers on the pulse of this place.

“Where's my room!” A man suddenly yelled out from behind me.

I covered my surprised squeak and whirled around with my hands over my mouth. I was sure that my eyes were bugging out of my head with the way I was staring at this burley beast of a man that was obviously extremely drunk. He was swaying dangerously from left to right as he lumbered right past me and down the hallway.

“Sir? Let me help you.” One of the female employees from downstairs came rushing up to assist the stumbling man.

I was surprised that she literally flew right past me without noticing anything. I was RIGHT in front of the top of the stairs. The man I could understand because he was clearly drunk off his ass. Anyone sober who came up would get an eyeful of little ol' me before they even cleared the steps.

I really need to thank Raska for the Glamour charm when I finally get back to the Order. She was right after all.

As the poor girl struggled under the weight of the man, I took advantage of their distraction and sneaked my way back to the open window. They both stumbled into the man's room as I dived through the opening and landed nimbly back on the ground.

“Sorry hun, but I'm so glad that I'm not you right now.” I muttered in apology to the girl that had started shrieking at the man. Surely he had tried a grope in his drunkenness. Heaven knows I've knocked around enough of the guys at the Order when they were drunk to know what she was going through.

I wandered back through the town’s paths the way I had come in and was well on my way back to the entrance when something tawny and black caught my attention from the shadows on the opposite side. I narrowed my eyes on the area and noticed that it was a fluffy black cat.

A very, very, recognizable fluffy black cat.

“Strider?” I whispered. When I had asked Noch where Strider was today, he had said that he was off somewhere to heavens know where. He said Strider didn't want to tell him anything about his whereabouts.

Looking around me, I quickly made my way into the shadows, following the trail that Strider took. It was strange to think that the last time I did this, was on that Bounty with Jasnine. I was still dead set in never going on a bounty with her again. Nope, not happening.

I was quickly able to catch Strider in my line of sight and followed him through the back areas of the surrounding buildings. Soon he stopped and jumped onto the top of the broad wall, only to jump off again on the other side.

I frowned and kept following him, scaling buildings and walls were always easier through the shadows.

I silently trailed after him through some underbrush and suddenly stopped when I saw him jumping onto an old rotten log and waiting. I didn’t have to wait long before a figure emerged from behind one of the big trees and approached Strider like an old acquaintance.

Oooooh, someone has been a naughty kitty. I thought to myself as I saw Strider's whiskers moving in conversation. The cloaked figure seemed to be giving Strider some information back as well as he started nodding every now and then.

My hearing wasn’t able to catch a word of what they exchanged. They must have made sure to have charms on them to prevent people like me from overhearing them.

After the man walked back into the darkness, I swiftly slithered up behind Strider and dropped the shadows from around me when I was hunkered down behind him. I wanted to make sure to see him at face level when he noticed me.

“Oooooh... someone has been sneaky.” I said nonchalantly as if this were an everyday occurrence.

 Strider just about jumped out of his fur as all of him puffed up to double his size and he whirled around with an arched back. He quit his hissing and just stared at me once he noticed my face.

“Merianna?!” He looked absolutely shocked.

“The one and only last time I checked.” I retorted.

“What happened to your hair?!” If his eyes got any bigger he would be losing them on the forest floor before long.

“Noch and Nana Ara happened. But, seeing the look on your face makes me want to make this a permanent change.” I grinned.