I stood at the end of the corridor, shrouded in the roiling black mist, peering towards the witch’s dormitory.

My walk here had made it clear that the events of the past few days had not only taken their toll on my body, but on my domain as well... The superstructure within my shadow, my Tartarus, was cracked and broken.

Several sections housing the less compliant entities had been reduced to rubble, and even now, many were left unaccounted for.

There were limits to how far they’d be able to roam without my permission, but those spaces consecrated by my shadow and brought under my domain would in theory be accessible to these fugitives.

As would the mortal inhabitants of my domain, some of which had made an ill-timed attempt at escape, accidentally venturing deeper into my domain.

By the time they were found, there were little left but blooded limbs and gnawed bones... Luckily, it would seem one had been left behind.

I was considering the best course of action to take regarding the errant witch when one of the witches I had marked stepped out into the open, something which would normally have been met with a swift attack from their keepers, but given my presence, no such attack happened.

Her forced calm and hint of fear was soon replaced with an expression of serenity as she looked towards my location.

I did not know how she had found me out, but I decided that her display of bravery had to be met. Shadows pulled away from me, and I immediately felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

“Greetings O’Titan.” She greeted with a small bow, her words silencing the corridor completely, several heads poking out before hurriedly ducking back in.

There was no malice nor deceit in her words, only a zealous... Reverence.

“Only one remains of the ones I sent you?” I asked, trying to shake the shivers running up my spine and ignore the cultish warning signs.

“Yes, shall I have her brought out?” She replied enthusiastically, all too happy to be of assistance.

“No... That’s okay, I’ll go see her myself.” I said uneasily, trying to decide whether this was a problem worth solving now, or later...

“Seventh room on your right.” She informed me simply, and as I walked past her, she quickly fell into step behind me, following me with her hands crossed at her stomach, like a nun.

The room at the other end of the corridor was devoid of the amenities I’d seen in the ones occupied by marked witches, all of whom eerily mimicking the first one’s pious greeting.

Sure enough, the figure of a disheveled young woman sat clutching her knees to her chest, her demeanor turning from fearful to downright terrified upon seeing me.

“I-I won’t tell you anything... We are bound to secrecy. I couldn’t even if I wanted to!” The girl stuttered out as she crawled backwards towards the corner of the room in an effort to create any amount of distance between us.

“She is correct Sir, the Covens like to bind their acolytes with spells. Even if broken, it would immediately cause said acolytes’ death.” The marked witch behind me explained.

I looked over my shoulder to see the witch beaming with joy at being of use, as if there was no greater purpose in life.

“Yeah... This is definitely gonna be a problem... Later.” I thought to myself with a shudder.

“That’s okay. I don’t need you to say anything. In fact, I’d prefer if you didn’t.” I said, not intending to sound ominous, but judging by the young witch’s expression, I would certainly have succeeded.

“What... What are you gonna do to me?” She whispered as tears started streaming down her face.

My intent had only been to say that I had an interest in keeping the spell intact, but the damage was already done, and I had my doubts as to her believing me even if I were to explain it.

Feeling a headache coming on, I decided it would be simpler to just do what needed to be done.

With a tired sigh, I stepped towards her and she immediately curled up, cowering, trying to shield her head with her arms. It didn’t matter much, as I just needed physical contact.

I grabbed her arm and sent a brief burst of my energy through her system, and like the bastard child of sonar and an x-ray machine, it showed me the location of the foreign elements.

There, wrapped around her brainstem, was a dense web of energy. It was captivatingly complex and terrifyingly impressive, not simply in its placement, which could easily have killed the subject, but more so in its efficiency.

There is no such thing as a lossless system, no matter what. There will always be byproducts and wasted energy, even more so as the spell ages, but here there seemed to be hardly any.

Thankfully, I didn’t need to actually unravel the curse itself, as I was unsure whether I could do so without killing the host... No, all I would need was a small sample of the energy used.

Had I been born with the gifts that these witches possessed, then it would have been a trivial matter drawing out the energy I needed.

As it is, I was stuck having to flood the area with my own energy in the hopes that it would erode some of the wasted energy without diluting it too much.

I placed my hand around the young witch’s neck and readied the energy amounting to roughly that of a tazer, but the sound of someone clearing their throat made me turn around.

“Sir, I hope you don’t mind, but I would be more than happy to be of any assistance.” The witch said, her demeanor still deferent.

“... I need a sample of the energy used for the curse placed on her without harming either.” I replied after a moment of silence.

“Understood.” The marked witch replied with another bow before marching past me, grabbing the other witch by the arm, pulling her to her feet.

It was with a hint of sadistic glee that she placed her hand on the young witch’s throat and chanted in a guttural tongue which felt familiar, but I could not place.

Slowly, the younger witch grew pale and broke into a cold sweat, her eyes becoming dull and distant before she collapsed to the floor beneath her.

The marked witch turned around holding out a hand of glittering energy, more than three-fourths of which were not what I wanted...

“The foreign energy only.” I growled, crossing my arms disapprovingly.

The marked witch sucked in a sharp breath as her eyes widened and she spun around on the spot, separating the two energies before putting back the excess.

I didn’t wait for her to finish undoing what she had done, instead I walked into the hallway, several marked witches standing halfway out of their rooms looking down towards me in what I hoped was simply shock.

“Gere, Freki, your master calls you.” I called softly, but within my domain, my voice boomed like thunder, some witches stumbling back at the sudden wave of force.

In the distance, howls echoed back in reply, two pairs of glowing red eyes closing in from the distance, no doubt coming from Sasha’s residence... The twins had been taking an interest in the Heirs... or rather, anything which sought to harm said Heirs.

Given that few such threats made it into the valley, let alone the central valley where almost all Heirs were kept, the pair of prowling predators had been passing the time by stalking the Sentire caretakers in charge of the Heirs.

Apparently Fenris had to run them off on more than one occasion, yet they always seemed to return...

The marked witch stepped out behind me, now holding only the foreign energy in the palm of her hand. A shiver of fear went through her as she saw the two wolves skulking down the hall towards us.

I reached back and grabbed her wrist, pulling her forward and holding out her hand like an inanimate object. Gere and Freki took a deep breath of the ball of energy, reducing it from the size of an apple to that of a grape.

A rumbling like that of a roaring fire inside a furnace began to build until the two of them opened their eyes blazing with light and howled towards the skies before setting off into the distance.

I let go of the marked witch’s hand and she stumbled forward, catching herself before she fell completely, she stood up and tried to regain her composure, but by the time she did, I had already begun walking back towards the other end of the dormitory.

“Sir, uhm, what are we to do with that one?” She called out to me as she tried to catch up.

“Keep her, for now.” I replied, not slowing my pace.

“Understood. Could we assist you with anything else?” She asked, desperately.

“I’ll think about it.” I replied gruffly as I walked into the black mist at the end of the hall, disappearing as if swallowed by it.

***

Katya sat across from Agda in the back of a clan owned car as they drove towards the lower valley.

It had been little more than a couple of hours since the altercation at the hospital, yet the hand shaped mark on the side of her face was already barely noticeable.

“Thank you.” Agda said in a whisper, causing Katya to look up at her with suspicion.

“Oh, don’t look at me like that. I understand what I did was unacceptable. I could choose to blame it on a reawakened maternal instinct, but in truth, it was more so pride than anything else.” Agda continued with a scowl.

“I appreciate the honesty, but I still fail to see where thanking me comes into the equation.” Katya replied curtly as she put aside the folder which she had been reading.

“Despite the... Unique punishment for my crimes, there were far harsher courses of action that would have been not just justified but expected... Allowing me to stay within your valley and near my granddaughter was... far kinder than I deserved.” Agda replied contemplatively.

“Because of your seniority, I’ll forego the usual prodding and scheming. Instead, I’ll tell you the truth.” Katya said candidly with a deep sigh. “I was against you staying. Had you been under my jurisdiction, you would have been imprisoned or exiled from our lands. As you feared for your heir, so do I fear for mine now.” Katya finished, Agda’s frown deepening with every word.

“But I am neither imprisoned nor exiled. Don’t try to tell me you abide by his decisions and place them at the same level as your own?” Agda asked with a derisive edge creeping into her voice.

“We have our unspoken rules. And can you truly claim to be neither imprisoned nor exiled? I understand the mundanes have something called a tracking anklet and house arrest, both of which seem to fit your current predicament perfectly.” Katya shot back in a haughty tone as she picked the folder back up and continued to study its contents.

“Then pray tell, my junior, why do you grace me with your company? Surely you did not simply long for someone to spar words with?” Agda replied venomously, her soured mood only worsening when Katya replied with a loud, guffawing laugh.

“Well, I guess you’ve got me there. Although I said no prodding or scheming, it would seem I’ve done both. I’m coming along to inform you that you are now a branch clan of the Eve-” Katya barely got the words out before being interrupted.

“We have made no such agreements.” Agda stated adamantly.

“I’m afraid you have,” Katya said, handing over the blue folder she had been perusing.

Inside were several drafts of documents pertaining to assets and declarations of allegiance written out to various factions in their world.

“This... This is-” Agda couldn’t hide her shock at Katya’s audacity.

“-Is already done.” Katya said, finishing her sentence. “Of course, we’ll need a disclosure of all superficial assets. What you’ve hidden away you can keep. I have no interest in archeology after all.” Katya finished with a devilish smile, knowing Agda had no way to dispute their claims while trapped inside the valley, nor would she leave without Sophia.

Given a week or two, the damage would have become irreversible.

***

Walking back through the tunnels, I took a different route, inspecting some of the other sections of my domain I had anchored to the caves. Like little bubbles of domain overlaid reality, they connected to the tunnels already dug.

The damage to the structures was quite widespread, but also mostly superficial.

I stopped and chipped away with my finger at a particularly bad crack in the wall almost twice my height and wide enough to fit most of my arm through, in fact it seemed to snake back creating a loop, almost as if it had been broken loose and...

I locked eyes with the entity on the other side and we both froze for what felt like an eternity; it was the first to look away as it shoved the car sized hunk of quasi rock material out of its place. The momentum carrying it forward threatened to crush me against the opposite wall.

Thinking fast, I manifested a loose aspect of Gungnir, little more than a three foot long spike of black crystal which I proceeded to jab into the floor in front of me, the brittle-looking spike held, but the momentum continued, the stone now tipping towards me.

The rock’s fall was stopped by the wall behind me, but the base of it soon slid backwards while the top of it fell down threatening to squash me like a bug, deciding I wasn’t stubborn enough to play A rock and A hard place, I threw myself to the side.

Getting clear of the rock, I heard another crash on the other side of it and saw a four armed behemoth looking under its massive fists for remnants of what it no doubt hoped was a squashed Titan.

It had likely bet that I would dive out of the way of the rock and simply picked a side at random, hoping to hit me mid leap...

It took the dumb giant more than a few seconds to realize I wasn’t there and turn to face me.

“ORTH’LL MARKETH NEE'ROP!” It roared at me, demanding its freedom.

“You aren’t getting out.” I replied, dusting myself off while ignoring the entities trying to sneak up behind me. “None of you are.”

“GLEIPNIR!” I roared.

Black chains the width of my torso erupted from the walls, floors and ceiling as if their surfaces were made of liquid, the chains pulling out wisps, but as if not abiding by gravity, the droplets fell back towards the surface from which they came.

Roars of defiance hit my back like a gale, but I was unconcerned with the accomplices to this little attempted jailbreak.

No, my focus was entirely on the still struggling mass of muscle ahead of me, a single of its four arms still free as snake-like chains slithered to tie it down.

The beastly creature switched its attention to me with a primal hate in its eyes.

It hammered its fist into the giant boulder which had hid it, breaking off a piece the size of my head before hurling it at me in a last-ditch effort at injuring me.

I didn’t flinch as the hunk of solidified shadow dematerialized an inch from my face, turning into black smoke... I should have been more careful.

The determination of its actions should have tipped me off that the dull one had relinquished control of their body and the devious one had taken over, or maybe it had been in control from the start and its dull attack having all been an act...

Either way, it had gotten one over on me as a piece of debris a tenth the size of the original projectile pierced through the black smoke and struck the top of my skull, ricocheting off bone hard enough to hit the ceiling above.

I tasted copper and my ears rang as I went down.