Nethlia let out an awkward cough before asking, “Uh, so how does your magic work exactly? I’ve been around a few different casters but never a witch and their magic all works far differently from one another.”

Autumn took to the diversion gladly.

“Witch magic uses emotions to cast.”

“Huh, that’s cool?” Nethlia mussed. “Do any work or it is like specific types and such.” 

“Any, but some work better for some things than others. The book here says it’s best to align oneself with a set emotion.”

“Cool, cool. So what kind of emotion do you use?” 

Autumn chewed on her cheek in thought as she debated replying.

“It’s alright if you don’t answer. Just tell me if I’m overstepping or anything, it’s just kinda boring out here.” Nethlia reassured her. 

“It’s fear; I use fear.” 

Nethlia blinked up at Autumn, from where she had once again reclined. A myriad of emotions flickered behind those bright orange eyes. 

Nethlia chuckled.

“Woah, pretty hardcore. Not gonna lie, I wasn’t expecting that.” 

Autumn smiled as the candle of warmth inside grew ever larger. 

The rest of the day passed her by with a quickness. After reading her old dusty Tome, she spent her evening helping Nethlia out around the inn despite the other’s repeated insistence she didn’t need to. So, with a belly full of good food, her head found the blissful comfort of a pillow and the warmth of furs. 

But all was not well. 

In the dead of the night, with only the two moons above as witness, many red eyes crept and crawled. Shadows slunk amongst tall grasses in a purse of the foulest deeds; into the slumbering homes, they broke secretly in search of an elusive prey. 

Into the inn, these red eyes wandered too.

Silent as a grave, they scurried, barely disturbing the stones and dust. Into locked rooms they drifted. 

Upon her bed, Autumn lay with furs cast aside as she tossed and turned; her mind sundered by nightmare. Sweat pooled along her shuddering spine and her hair stood on end as she felt that something was dreadfully wrong. 

Something foul.

Black eyes opened in the darkness, only the moonlight between cracks in the tightly closed shutters served as her guide. The gloom was oppressive and choking, yet to her eyes nothing was amiss. 

However, the sinking feeling of dread disagreed. 

She had felt this feeling before, that feeling of being watched from sight unseen. Were they back? She mournfully wondered. Had the fae found her brief sanctuary? 

Upon her bedside table rested her freshly made prosthetic and weathered wand. Her paranoia was within arm’s reach as she cast the cold room in a suspicious light. Quietly and carefully, she armed herself. While the inn itself was devoid of life aside from her and Nethlia, it was still far too quiet to be natural. The universe was holding its breath. No night birds called out, nor nocturnal insects chirped. 

There was only the cool dread of the night. 

Something was in the room with her. 

Autumn had the sinking feeling that she knew where it hid. Closing her eyes, she pushed her empathic magic to the forefront. A black canvas unveiled itself, only a faint speck of nightmare purple denoted the slumbering form of Nethlia, caught in the web of dreams. 

With a tightness upon her focus, she turned now below to the bed that she’d slumbered upon. A flicker; something beneath sought to hide, to cast its presence thin and unseen to even an adventurer’s honed instincts. It wasn’t enough to escape Autumn; she was sick of the monsters prowling under her bed. No longer would she fear that which slunk below. 

Evil bloomed upon her page. Art so foul it would captivate and drive the artist who’d dare paint it into the greatest of madness. It was a deep red well of hate, bloodlust, and maliciousness that dripped with the unmistakable sickly sweet scent of the Feywild. 

A perfume that Autumn could never forget.

Now unveiled before her empathically attuned eyes, she could see it wasn’t alone either; another crawled about Nethlia’s vulnerable form. 

It was up to Autumn to warn her and save them from what lurked in the dark. 

Tense fingers of bone white gripped tight around the ivory handle of the gnarled wand. From the deep recesses of her wizened hat, she pulled free a squirming bundle of raw power and fueled her jinx. 

As the tip of her wand glowed an eerie purple, Autumn dragged her feet under herself and was ready to leap clear of the bed. The low creaking of the wooden frame pulsed in time with her erratic heartbeat. 

Below, the lurking creature waited with sharpened claws.

With an almighty bound, Autumn leapt clear from her bed. Midair, she twisted around so that her back would crash into the wall and leave her with a free path to the monster. Without hesitating, she let fly her cascading spell into the blackened gap. The blast of magic rocketed across space to collide with a heaviness upon the creature that crawled into the moonlight. 

The very moment Autumn’s weight had left the bed, it had lunged out, seeking to sunder her ankles. Thanks in kind to her aerial maneuver, it had missed. 

Under the glow of the moonlight, the foul beast was exposed. A short creature stood before her, covered in wiry brown hair. Long arms draped down to its knees and ended in rust-colored nails while clawed stumpy legs parted the wood below with ease. A horrifying face grinned, a twisted grin full of jagged fangs. Two oversized eyes bulged out of their sockets beside bat-like ears that twitched at every sound. 

One final eerie detail adorned that terrible creature. Upon its head sat a cap of deep red-stained cloth that sagged in place like a sack of flesh. The smell that wafted off it was rancid and metallic. Even from across the room, Autumn couldn’t help but gag. 

The redcap goblin could only momentarily snarl in frustration before that bright violet bolt slammed into it. Its cruel eyes bulged even further from its skull as fear paralyzed it in place.

Taking the opportunity, Autumn scrambled for the door, as she had discarded her belt on a hook beside it. From now on, she vowed to sleep with it under her pillow. 

Just as she ripped the knife free of its sheathe the paralysis wore off.

Angrier than ever before, the redcap snarled and spat as it leapt at Autumn’s form. 

A yelp escaped Autumn’s mouth as the pair tumbled to the floor. With a heavy thud, Autumn’s head bounced off the cobbled floor, sending stars through her mind and vision. Thanks in part to her prosthetic, her hand remained gripped fast around her wand while her knife skittered away. 

Sharp teeth once again bit into her, this time sinking into her forearm as it attempted to wrench her wand away, but her grip held firm. With harrowing screams of fright tinged with rage, she drove her fist into the beast’s side over and over. 

Howling in pain as the sound of ribs breaking resounded, the redcap unclenched from her arm. Taking this opportunity, Autumn thrust her wand forth as she gathered up another wave of paralysis, however in the heat of combat she drove the wand deep into the redcap’s wide eyes.

One last scream tore free of the creature before a bolt of magic released directly into its maleficent brain. It seized up instantly as the fear overloaded its mind. Froth and foam poured liberally from its crooked grin as the overwhelming downpour of fear crested. 

Autumn rolled the creature off of herself as it writhed and twitched.

She scrambled across the floor to retrieve her wayward knife, cleaning it tight once more. Turning back, she watched with morbid fascination as it stilled, its corrupted heart unable to withstand the unadulterated pulse of fright. 

Her own heart beat like an abused drum against her ribcage. 

It had only been a few seconds of violence since she awoke and, just as she was calming, the door behind her exploded in a shower of wooden splinters. Through the cloud came the seven-foot-tall mass of enraged demoness. 

Pale moonlight played across the exposed flesh of well-defined muscles and expansive shoulders. A river of nightmare sweat had plastered the woman’s hair to her scalp and across her red skin. Mountainous capped peaks heaved with rage and adrenaline in the open air. 

Autumn’s inquisitive gaze drifted along the rippling abdomen before she ripped her gaze away. 

Foul blood dripped down from heavy knuckles.

Autumn’s screams and fighting had awoken the behemoth of a warrior and she wasn’t pleased in the slightest to find an intruder in her room. As she passed by the stunned witch towards the downed goblin, Autumn got a glimpse of Nethlia’s room through a pair of shattered doors. 

While Autumn had dispatched the redcap rather cleanly, the demoness had simply ripped the goblin into pieces. Like a scene from a horror movie, it lay scattered all over the walls and furniture. 

With her mind shaken still by the suddenness of the violence, she had forgotten to turn off her powers and when she turned back to the warrior; it blasted her with emotion. 

It was like gazing at the sun. 

A burning blaze of unleashed fury roared within the demoness. A beast far greater than what had attacked her, it growled and flared in an almost physical manifestation as Nethlia crushed the dead goblin’s head to paste beneath her mighty heel. 

Soon those bright eyes turned upon her, and for a flash, Autumn was unsure. Yet what she feared never came to pass. The fury didn’t altogether die down or even rest, but it held back from striking out. 

“Are you alright? Shit, your arm. Hold still.” Nethlia spoke in a rush. 

Autumn’s eyes stung within her skull as she gazed upon that rage. Hastily, she killed her power, leaving the night all the darker. 

A spike of pain drew Autumn back from her trance. Glancing down, she saw Nethlia was wrapping her arm in the strips of bandages she had just got clean. Flustered, Autumn’s brain finally registered that the strikingly well-built demoness wasn’t wearing even a scrap of clothing and that she was in her underwear as well.

With a burning face and a heart that thudded for an extra reason, Autumn turned her gaze away. 

“Umm, I’m ok, can…can you put some clothes on, please? I think there might be more out in the village. I think I sensed some earlier.” Autumn forced out with a shaking voice. 

“Right. Just wait a second. Don’t go anywhere alright.” Nethlia replied before rushing off back to her room. 

Autumn turned back to her scattered clothing as strangeness pulsed in her chest and heat bloomed in her cheeks. The shattered doors barely gave either any privacy, but neither was worried about that right now. All that concerned, Autumn was trying to struggle into her worn and weathered clothing with her shaking hands.

However, in almost no time at all, the two met up again, now armed and armored. Nethlia had bound herself in hides and furs. Moving behind the bar, she removed her iron polehammer from its resting place. 

As her hand closed around its haft, she seemed changed; became complete. No longer did she look like the friendly tavern-keeper, instead now she fell into the intimate groove of the warrior. 

“Ready?” Autumn asked the towering demoness.

Nethlia gazed back at Autumn with fury and determination 

“Yes, let’s go.”

Out into the chilly night, the pair charged with eyes alert for more horrid enemies. Nethlia’s loping strides forced Autumn to jog to keep up. Autumn directed her powers to her eyes. As her emotional fibers concentrated, she saw the redcaps unveiled about the settlement, their murderous glee a blot upon her vision.