The Ether Witch

“What… What was…” Tam stammered, the shock flooding his being rooting him to the ground.

“Tam we need to leave. Now. The carriage is about half a day away on foot, but when these men don’t return to report where they are we are in trouble.” Eli rose and clasped her hands in front of her skirts.

“Eli… Are you… Are you aware that you are my-”

Her eyes widened before she stalked forward toward Tam, then continued walking right past him in a hurry.

Tam almost bolted after her to continue his line of questioning, but first he turned to double check that his son, Luca, was safe behind him.

“D-Dad, where did the big cat go?”

“I can’t answer that right now—don’t look at them, look at me,” Tam gently cupped Luca’s cheek and redirected his gaze to him when the seven year old’s eyes started to wander over to the bodies littering the ground. “Come on, I’ll give you a piggyback ride. Climb on.” Crouching down, Tam managed to angle his offered back in the same direction Eli was moving hastily away, which offered a clear sight of the hilly terrain with its sparse vegetation.

Once he felt Luca’s slim arms wrap around his neck, Tam slipped his arms under his son’s knees and stood, then darted after Eli—which had the delightful result of making Luca give a surprised giggle.

Despite the alarming discovery he had just made, Tam spared a smile when he heard his son laugh—it meant he probably hadn’t seen much during the attack. That or he was in shock…

Tam shoved aside that issue to be dealt once they made it back to the carriage.

“Eli… What was that?” the future duke panted upon reaching his assistant’s side.

Eli kept her eyes fixed ahead of herself, her arms barely swinging as she moved through the brush with an impressive amount of grace given that she was in a long gray maid’s skirt. Her hair was also being a bit pesky. While still short, it had grown significantly since they’d come to Zinfera, and she was often trying to sweep what she could of her hair behind her ear out of her eyes, but was often unsuccessfully. She had been given an orange ribbon by Lord Kim, the Zinferan nobleman helping them escape Junya after Tam had been forced to kill a number of people in self defense at the docks, but still the flyaways of her hair persisted.

“That was my magic. Did Luca see anything?” Eli replied shortly.

“A little… Dad told me to look away. So I just saw the big cat…” Luca answered for himself while issuing a yawn.

Daylight had only just begun to lighten the world around them as they moved.

Which was helpful for Tam, but it also created a new question.

“Are you able to see in the dark?” he wondered aloud carefully, while also hoping that the less direct question would warrant a response from her.

“What went wrong with your magic?” Eli countered instead.

Tam slid a firm glance in her direction that was meant to communicate the fact that sooner or later they were going to be having the discussion. Regardless of how uncomfortable it may be. However, not wanting to start a fight when they had to travel expediently, and couldn’t have privacy from Luca, Tam conceded to leave the matter alone for the time being.

“I need more time to rest and recover my magic thanks to the last few days. It takes time to train up magical endurance, and some witches need more time to build their ability and learn about it. How long were we gone for?”

“Only the night. If you weren’t back by mid morning, Lord Kim would’ve had to continue without us and I’d have to wait until Jeong joined me.”

Tam nodded to himself. “At least it wasn’t longer.”

Eli said nothing.

“Were there any other problems with you and Lord Kim leaving the city?”

“No. After they went through his things they let us leave.”

Tam eyed his assistant’s profile.

She wore a stony mask, and her back held itself impeccably straight.

Knowing that there was nothing else to say until they had a chance for more privacy, Tam turned over the discovery that his ornery assistant, also happened to be his familiar.

Had there been signs?

Had he simply been obtuse and missed all of the hints that could’ve revealed this mind blowing truth sooner?

He thought back to when they’d first met, and how instantly, he had felt like he’d met her before. How she was familiar to him… But later, when she had revealed that she was the niece to Lord Oscar Harris, a dear family friend of his parents, he had assumed it was because of that relation.

But then there had been all the times she had been light on her feet. How nimbly she moved. How easy it was between them almost instantly. How she was herself more with him than anyone else, and how she felt better at his side.

Uneasiness brewed in Tam’s gut as he started to suspect what Eli might be thinking in that moment…

Had she begun to like Tam in a more romantic nature of her own free volition…? Or was it because she was his familiar?

Tam swallowed with difficulty.

How in the world was it possible?

Technically, if she was a witch, wouldn’t she be able to have a familiar of her own? Or was it that she wasn’t a witch at all? Was she technically a new kind of familiar or beast? What if she was a variant of an ancient beast?

His thoughts drowned Tam’s sense of presence, and so, they continued to make their way through the brush the rest of the morning. The heat of the day climbed rapidly in the maturing summer, making the shade of the trees a lovely reprieve from the sun, until at last, Eli turned and started moving toward the road.

While Eli’s sense of direction amazed Tam, he also couldn’t help but wonder how she knew exactly where to go. Was it an animalistic instinct?

“Do you have a cat’s sense of smell?” he blurted the question before he could help himself.

Eli’s head snapped around, her eyes wide, and her mouth pursing as though she were almost angry with him.

Luckily, Tam was spared from whatever reaction was on its way out of her when a familiar voice called out.

“Ah! Lord Tam! Thank you kindly for joining us again!” Lord Kim stood beside his carriage that had pulled off to the side of the road, and beside the vehicle the lone footman he had brought with him for his journey was boiling a pot of water over a small flame he had built.

Tam bowed his head in acknowledgment, and lowered himself down to let Luca off his back. The boy’s movements were clumsy and heavy, and Tam could see the exhaustion in his face.

“Luca, I’ll get you set up to sleep in the carriage. I’ll wake you up when we have lunch ready,” he informed his son gently, yet firmly.

Luca couldn’t object or agree as his mouth stretched into another big yawn while he rubbed his eyes. His father’s hand pressed gently into his shoulder and redirected him to the carriage.

Eli wordlessly turned to the vehicle, opened the door, and climbed in to set a pillow down. She then pulled out Luca’s coat that had been stuffed between the bench and the cushion. Once Luca had laid down, his eyes already fluttering, Eli proceeded to tuck his coat over his small body.

Tam watched from the door of the carriage. His right arm braced against the frame, his left resting on the open windowsill of the door as he watched Eli gently brush back a lock of Luca’s hair. When she eventually risked a look back at him, she only did so momentarily before she looked away and exited the other side of the carriage.

Frowning, Tam closed the door quietly then rounded the back of the vehicle. He stared at Eli who stood beside Lord Kim and kept her attention fixed on the pot of boiling water.

“Eli, a word?”

Lord Kim, who was standing to Tam’s left and Eli’s right, regarded first the future duke, then Eli. “Everything alright?”

“I think so, but I’d like to speak to my assistant privately.”

Lord Kim raised a curious eyebrow, then nodded back into the trees away from the dirt road. “Do so over there just in case you need to get out of sight or we need to move.”

Tam nodded his approval, and when he looked at Eli he saw her hands fidgeting with her skirts and her eyes filled with anxiety.

Despite obviously not wanting to have a private conversation, she still made her way over to Tam, and they ventured into the woods until they were out of earshot.

Eli still refused to meet Tam’s gaze, and kept her hands clasped in front of her skirts. She was the epitome of emotionally distant.

“What’s wrong?” Tam asked softly. “Are you alright?”

The gentleness of his tone at the very least succeeded in making Eli’s eyes snap up to him.

At first it looked like she was about to start shouting at him, but after a moment of battling against whatever her instinctive reaction may be, she allowed her shoulders to relax.

“I don’t like it,” she began awkwardly.

“Being my familiar?”

“Yes. It now feels like I’m enslaved to you.”

Tam recoiled. “Gods no. You most definitely are not.”

“I have to come whenever you call, and I will forever be connected to you,” Eli argued, feelings thickening her throat as she once again moved her eyes from him.

Tam saw the terror and agony that shook her to the core before she did though, and his gut dropped upon seeing it.

“Ignore me then. You think Kraken does everything my dad wants him to?”

Eli swallowed and didn’t respond, but he could sense that she wasn’t in any way convinced.

“Did you know before today…?” Tam asked quietly.

Eli shook her head. “When we met I thought you felt… safe. And I found it easy to be around you. Like I’d known you for years already. But I didn’t… I had no idea.”

“Is it only the panther you can transform into, or is it other animals? What did the Giong Coven think of your abilities?”

At first, Eli recoiled from the inquiries, but Tam could see her mind starting to sink a little more easily into the more logical questions as opposed to the emotional ones.

“I have never tried to transform into anything else. Though I did wonder why I was experiencing a growth spurt shortly after we met. I had assumed I was fully grown, but I’m now twice the size I used to be when I transform. As for the coven… They simply dubbed me a mutated witch and said it was straightforward. I could turn into an animal.”

“Are you able to talk to other animals?” Tam wondered next.

“I haven’t really tried before, but I don’t believe so.”

Tam pondered this in silence for a minute before adding. “When my father and his familiar first bonded it wasn’t until their relationship deepened that they could communicate. Given that you are a witch… human… maybe that is something that happens as you and I become closer.”

“Possibly.” Eli gave a subtle shrug.

“What would you like to do about this?” Slipping his hands into his pockets, Tam dipped his knees, lowering his face down closer to Eli’s level, prompting her to once again look at him. He made sure that she could see the sincerity and concern in his expression. He truly did need her to communicate with him in that moment. Otherwise his worries for her would consume him.

“I don’t know!” Eli burst out in frustration. “What if I don’t want it to change anything, can we do that? Can I just not be your familiar?”

Tam nodded instantly. “Okay.”

Eli balked, then continued. “What if I don’t ever want to use my magic again?”

“Do you really think me, of all people, is going to argue with you on that point?” Tam asked wryly.

For a moment it looked like Eli was fighting off a smile at his retort.

“I don’t want you to tell anyone about my magic, or that I… I could possibly be your familiar.”

“You were my familiar,” Tam corrected. “But you quit. Which is fine. Having you as my assistant and significant other sounds like more than enough. And I don’t think other people need to know about it either.”

Tam watched as Eli’s posture started to relax, even if there was still a wary air about her.

“What if I want to stop being anything to you. Assistant or… Or someone you’re in a relationship with, and I want to instead go off on my own?”

This question made Tam hesitate. Fear and sadness started to dig through his chest.

“What right would I have to stop you if it is what you really felt was right?”

A shuddering breath of relief left Eli’s body.

As much as Tam wanted to instantly dive into ensuring that wasn’t what she wanted to do, he forced himself to hold back.

He knew exercising her freedom and choice over her life was of the utmost importance to Eli… Even if it was physically painful for him in the present.

“I’m still angry you went to meet with my brother without telling me,” Eli blurted suddenly.

Tam stood straight once more, making Eli tilt her chin up to stare at him more directly.

“It was from one noble to another. I had no intention of meddling in your business, I just thought he should know about his assistant.”

Eli reached up and touched her forehead wearily. “Just promise me you won’t do something like that without telling me again?”

“Are you asking me as my assistant or my romantic partner?”

Pink flushed into Eli’s cheeks, and she barely resisted fidgeting. “The latter.”

“The latter? Which was the latter?” Tam wondered teasingly, his eyes rolling to the sky as he secretly relished in the fact that Eli didn’t seem to be calling off their relationship.

She scowled up at him. “You know what I mean.”

“I’m afraid I haven’t a clue. I think I need you to put it simply for me.” Tam grinned mischievously and leaned closer.

Eli continued to glare until she shocked Tam by lifting herself up on her toes to press a quick kiss on his mouth.

The rush of tingling and the wonderful warmth that spread through Tam turned him into a dazed fool.

Seeing this effect as a result of her actions Eli turned with a bashful smile, and scurried back toward the carriage, leaving him behind to gather his wits.

Eventually, Tam’s mind whirred back to life.

It had been the first time that Eli had initiated something more with him, and the potent happiness that filled him had him feeling lighter than a cloud as he turned and made his way back to the camp with a little swagger in his step.

So what if she didn’t want to be his familiar?

He already had everything he needed anyway.