The Ether Witch

Stretching in a most luxurious fashion, and subsequently groaning with the pleasure of the movement, Eli felt herself smile as she allowed her body to once again become limp against the starched sheets.

Tam was beside her, and as a result, she had once again experienced a good night’s rest after their forced separation while hiding in Lord Kim’s keep back in the city of Junya.

A quiet grumble off on the other side of the room broadened the smile on Eli’s face as she heard Luca struggle to wake.

Somehow, being on the run from the royal concubine, the coven, and even the daughter of the Gods failed to dampen Eli’s mood.

Why was this?

Her eyes cracked open against the pale light of the day.

It was a muted light which meant there was a chance that rain was on its way.

Staring out the window, Eli listened to the rustling leaves in the wind and pondered the shift from her usual tense mood.

The truth was that with her magic revealed, and their successful escape from Junya, Eli felt… free.

At last, completely, and truly free.

Tam had seen her in her magical form, and given her the choice to make her own life. Even when it would have been a large asset and unbearably easy for him to force her into servitude.

As much as she logically knew it was not in Tamlin Ashowan’s nature to take advantage of another person, particularly one close to him, Eli’s past wounds pertaining to betrayal ran incredibly deep. But yet again, as was his way, Tam had responded perfectly.

Besides, wasn’t it a two way relationship being a familiar to a witch? She would have an intimate knowledge of Tam’s true nature. Which explained how she had instantly felt like she’d understood him when they’d first met, and how easily she could focus on him and his life. How when he had used his magic to defeat their assailants the night at the dock, she had felt more alive… Excited, even. At the time Jeong had reasoned it was because they were starting to feel hopeful that the legendary power of the Ashowan family was coming through, but to Eli, she had a deeper sense of how this was only the beginning of his power growth, and she was looking forward to seeing what he could do.

Maybe this was why for the first time in Eli’s life, despite being hunted by every powerful sort one could imagine, she felt safe. Because at last, she had someone behind her that let her be exactly who she was, and make her own choices.

And she chose to be with Tam.

Trying out a relationship with him, and having more power over her own self and life than she’d ever had before…

It was addictive.

Sitting up, Eli found her reflection smiling back at herself thanks to the floor length mirror placed a few feet from the foot of the bed she and Tam slept in.

Only her smile disappeared when she saw the state of her hair.

“Gods… damnit…” With its increasing length, her hair was prone to being more stubborn and fwicking upward and sideways from her scalp in the mornings.

“If I weren’t trying to make it obvious I’m a woman I’d just cut these ruddy hair bits off…” Eli grumbled to herself before slipping out the bed and stepping over to the wash basin to give her face a good scrubbing.

Today was the first day they’d start on the walking portion of their journey to make their way toward Gondol.

Dread simmered in her belly, but Eli pressed it aside the best she could.

She wanted her good mood to last as long as possible when nothing in her present was imminently wrong.

After dabbing her face dry, and a couple half hearted attempts to wet down the hairs that were devoid of gravity, Eli stared at her reflection in the mirror.

She had never given much thought to whether or not she was pretty.

She had always assumed it wasn’t the case given that everyone had been convinced for years that she was a man.

And yet Tam had said she was pretty and identified her as a woman instantly.

She tilted her head.

Her jaw was narrow, and her cheek bones were high giving her a proud look. Her eyes were dark, and her skin was pale thanks to her Daxarian mother…

“I guess I’m not atrocious to look at…” she muttered to herself then pushed back to stare at her body.

“Average.” She shrugged while pretending not to feel uncomfortable. Admittedly, she still wasn’t used to no longer binding her breasts, and what with no longer trying to avoid putting on weight, well… The results spoke for themselves. Her hips were wider and she had finally taken on a distinctly female shape.

Still, she wasn’t any raving beauty, or striking, but she was passable.

Then a new curiosity crept up…

Glancing beside herself at Luca’s sleeping form, and then over her shoulder toward Tam, she turned to grab the folding screen that rested against the wall that they had used the previous night while they all took baths.

Setting it back a safe distance, Eli shook out her arms, cracked her neck and allowed her power to flow.

It was a strange feeling.

Kind of like being turned inside out without any pain.

Also fuzzier.

With more muscles.

Opening her eyes again, Eli peered up, and up some more to see her new reflection.

She had to admit… She was a majestic yet menacing looking beast.

Her fangs were long and sharp, her paws massive, her long ropey tail swished gracefully through the air.

In this form, all her senses were heightened, and she felt powerful. Like she could defeat anyone or anything, though that hubris had been proven wrong before. Despite having learned this hard lesson in the past, with her sudden growth spurt, Eli was starting to feel the old indomitable sense start to return.

As she continued silently appraising her appearance, something else caught her attention that had her massive paws quietly padding forward to get a better look in the mirror.

Squinting her golden eyes, Eli noticed two nubs had appeared on her back.

They looked black and fleshy…

What in the world are those… Tumors?!

Eli wiggled her shoulders a little to try and see them in a better light.

One… unfurled.

A limp, fleshy little bit of skin waved about in the air and it almost looked like–

IS THAT A WING?!

Eli leapt back in shock, only, she was a lot bigger than she usually was and as a result she crashed into the screen, knocking it over, which only made her flail about in a panic.

Then she turned and saw Tam sitting up in bed, staring at her wide eyed.

She froze.

Until a shrill shriek from beside her snapped her head round to see Luca scrambling back against the wall his bed was pressed against in terror.

Eli immediately shifted back to her human form thinking this might calm him down.

It. Did. Not.

“IT’S INSIDE ELI!” the cry rang throughout the inn, and thus, their inconspicuous presence became… Well… conspicuous.

*

“Everything is alright, you know how children are,” Tam explained after his initial exuberant apology to the innkeeper—an older man who had been polite the day before, but who presently revealed that he was not a morning person. “My son just had a nightmare.”

Tam smiled awkwardly, while behind him Eli patted Luca’s head and murmured soothing words.

The innkeeper only grunted about keeping quiet until a reasonable hour, and turned with his lantern in hand to amble back down the hallway of the inn toward the stairs.

One or two other guests had poked their heads outside to see what the commotion was about, but Tam made sure he was still standing farther back in the room during the exchange and was quick about closing the door once the innkeeper left.

Turning back to gaze at Eli and his son, Tam sighed while his hands found his hips.

“Luca, are you alright?”

“I-It’s such a big cat… Eli, you’re not big! H-How can you be so huge?!” Luca mumbled while Eli handed him a handkerchief to blow his nose.

“I don’t know either…” she admitted weakly while shooting Tam a quick look of guilt.

To which he gave her a shrug to say ‘it’s fine, it is what it is’.

“Come on you two, we need to get ready to leave. Jeong will be with us soon!” Tam tried to say brightly in the hopes of improving his son’s shaken state.

“W-Why can’t Bong come with us?” Luca wondered before blowing his nose noisily.

“He has to go give an incredibly important message to his family, but we’ll see him again one day,” Tam assured while tugging off his sleep shirt and moving over to the sack filled with their things to pull out a fresh tunic.

Though he stopped moving when he realized both Eli and Luca had gone very still when he did this.

“What?”

Eli blushed, cleared her throat, and averted her eyes, while Luca continued staring with keen interest.

“Dad… Will I get muscles one day…?”

Tam snorted awkwardly. “Um… Maybe? If you… If you train?”

“I wanna train.”

Tam coughed. “Er. Sure. We can… We can definitely look into that once we are back in Daxaria.”

“Where did you get the scar on your belly?” he asked next.

Tam glanced down. He had forgotten about the pirate wound that was still bright pink as it continued to heal. “I… Uh… Slipped.”

“Daad?”

“Yes?”

“That looks like it hurt.”

“It… It did. Yes.” Tam then looked at Eli and felt his eyebrows rise at the scarlet hue on her face while her eyes were most definitely not staring at his face. “Anything you’d like to comment on?”

Eli’s gaze jumped back up and she pressed her lips into a thin line while shaking her head, the color in her face deepening to a near purple.

“Right… Right. I think I’ll just pop behind this screen to finish getting dressed.”

“Eli?” Tam heard his son address his assistant as he busied himself getting changed as quickly as possible behind the screen, hoping he would feel significantly less embarrassed.

“Hm?”

“Do all men have hair on their chests?”

“Yes. Unless they shave or wax it.”

“Oh… Do they have to brush it?”

Tam heard a garbled noise that was most definitely Eli struggling not to laugh too much at his son’s question.

“No. No, they don’t have to brush it.”

“That’s good. I hate having to brush just the hair on my head.”

“Mm.”

Tam stepped out from behind the screen wearing his usual outfit of a white tunic, a black Zinferan style vest that buttoned on a diagonal, and black pants. Though it was strange wearing clothes that actually fit him correctly… Eli had seen to updating his wardrobe in Zinfera, and she had had the clothes tailored exactly, which was unlike how Tam dressed in Daxaria.

“Luca?” Tam asked while rolling up his sleeves. “What do you think about me growing a beard?”

The boy smiled while Eli leaned back looking dubious.

“That’d be awesome!” Luca cheered excitedly.

“Men and facial hair…” Eli sighed.

Tam grinned at her.

“Eli?” Luca turned to the princess suddenly.

“Yes?”

“Why were you jumping around when you were the big cat? Did something scare you?”

The sudden shift in discussion caught Eli off guard and so it took a breath of time for her to answer.

“Oh, I… In that… form… I’m still growing I guess, and I was… startled.” She fidgeted a little while avoiding eye contact with anyone.

Tam tilted his head curiously. She had mentioned that she seemed to be growing more ever since they had met, which made sense as a familiar’s potential increased once they found their witch, but there was a shiftiness in Eli that told Tam there was another reason she had woken them all up so abruptly that morning.

“Was everything alright…?” Tam looked at Eli carefully.

Her ability to transform into a large cat was still a fresh topic. He was already surprised that she had transformed at all that morning, and that she seemed fine with Luca asking her about her other state. Overall, she seemed a lot more relaxed. Which was both nice, but… odd for Eli.

“Well, I… I think… I…” Eli trailed off; she was visibly struggling to find the words.

However, she was spared from answering when a knock on the door interrupted them.

“Joe! It’s Jeong!”

The familiar voice belonging to Jeong Ryu called out using Tam’s alias name.

Tam turned to the door, stepped over swiftly, and opened it to reveal the beaming Zinferan who wore a plain peasant shirt and brown pants– a sharp contrast to his normally very colorful attire. However, his expression was entirely the norm; his round face was bright with unbridled happiness and goodness.

“Good morning! Are we ready to head out?”

Tam nodded and moved back so that Jeong could enter, then closed the door behind him just in time, as Luca launched himself off the bed and threw his arms around Jeong excitedly.

Jeong chortled and lowered his sack on the ground. “What a fantastic way to start my morning!”

Tam smiled back at the sight of his son’s exuberant greeting of their friend.

“I’ll finish getting dressed myself and then we’ll be ready to go,” Eli announced while pushing herself off the bed.

Tam nodded and gestured politely toward the screen.

“Eli?”

Everyone looked down at Luca.

“When you’re a cat… Do you think… I could… I could try riding on your back?”

Startled, Jeong looked up at Eli—unaware of what the child was talking about—while she became flustered all over again as she looked nervously back at him.

Tam rubbed the back of his neck and casually moved over to tap his son’s shoulder. “Right… So a very important thing—Forgot to tell you earlier. That’s my fault—but… The fact that Eli can turn into a giant cat… is a secret.”

Luca blinked up at his father while Jeong’s jaw dropped.

After several moments of silence had passed, Luca leaned around his father to stare at Eli while slowly shaking his head.

“Eli? I think our family has too many secrets.”

Tam snorted before he could stop himself and even Eli couldn’t help but give a weak smile at the sweet mention that he considered her family.

“I know.”

“Do you have any other secrets?” Luca asked, sounding hilariously exasperated.

“Yes.”

Luca sighed, sounding far too much like an adult at that moment. “I still like you, but you're really confusing. Dad? Even you… It’s getting ridiculous.”

Eli bobbed her head in acknowledgement of Luca’s opinion before ducking behind the screen. Meanwhile, Tam looked at Jeong who met his eyes and in a low voice whispered, “I have to admit. I agree with Luca on this matter.”

Tam clapped a hand on the man’s shoulder at a loss as to how to defend himself and Eli, and so instead said, “How about we go see about finding some coffee?”

And so the two men and Luca left the room without any other mention of how Eli was capable of transforming into a large cat, and instead focused on how this was most likely their last chance to get a good cup of coffee for a very long, long time.