Witch of Fear [Mild horror, Isekai High Fantasy]

“Here, one shipment of dragon bones as requested. I’ll kindly ask you to not use Liddie’s dragon-cutting-services ever again. Please and thank you!” Liddie said tiredly as she dumped a load of dragon bones before Autumn with a clatter. 

An extensive coating of sweat lay upon the pirate’s brow, plastering her hair to her scalp as she stood before Autumn breathing heavily and smelling of death and rot. Already she’d kicked off her gore-coated boots by the entry. They were likely ruined beyond saving by mundane means, and only magic would have any hope of removing the grim liquid from the leather.

“Thank you! This’ll really help.” Autumn said, handing over a waterskin.

Liddie took a hearty swig, shuddering slightly as the icy water ran down her throat. 

“Yeah, yeah. I’m going to take a shower. Don’t bother me unless we’re being invaded or something.” Liddie waved her off even as she started stripping her sweat-laden clothes off on her way to the bathing area. 

Thankfully, she did leave her cutlass in Autumn’s care, albeit reluctantly. 

Edwyn snorted. “Ignore her. What dae we dae first, then?”

Autumn turned to take them in. 

Behind the bearded Manus sat their rudimentary rune-forge, and while it looked rather ramshackle and strange, she couldn’t deny the massive amount of heat it was pouring out. She’d already had to take off her robes and newly acquired armor just to stand near it without dying. The sweat that constantly rolled down her back caused her loose tunic to cling to her skin.

Nelva had wisely opted to retreat to the first floor in order to escape the pounding heat and also to avoid Autumn finding something for her to do.

“Well, how about you start on melting down the metal while I start on some measurements?” Autumn said, rummaging around in her pack for a length of string and a charcoal stick.

“Sounds lik’ a plan.” Edwyn grunted. “Let me know when ye’ll need help. Juist be canny of sparks or any flame. Even though we are protected by magic in here, we don’t wanna ignite that miasma ootdoors. We’d likely blow a fresh, staotin’ muckle hole in the mire, Haha!”

Autumn blanched. 

She hadn’t thought about that. Maybe it was a good thing that Pyre wasn’t here?

Shaking those dire thoughts free, Autumn focused on the task before her. The first thing on her agenda for today was to make her new fingers. One because it would be easy enough to replace if she made a mistake, and two, she didn’t have Eme’s measurements yet. Autumn hoped she’d come out in her own time, either with a cat’s curiosity driving her or its hunger.

Wielding the Kraken’s Bane carefully, Autumn cut off a few smaller pieces about the length of her finger bones. However, as she was contemplating how to shave them down without cutting any more fingers off, Edwyn snorted in amusement and held out a smaller knife to her. It was about the size of a pen knife and blazed dimly with runes. 

“Here, use this fur the wee bits; it's mah rune knife.”

Autumn blinked at it before shifting her eyes up. “If you had this; why was I using Liddie’s?” 

“’Cause the pirate gets tae precious over her blade ‘n’ it’s fun tae watch her squirm. As fur mah knife; it’s more fur detail work, anyway. You’ll still want her mithril fur the larger pieces.”

“Right.” Autumn gingerly took the rune knife and set aside the cutlass. With it in hand, her work grew smoother, quicker, and, more importantly, safer. And before long, she had a new set of fingers before her. 

However, her new design differed from her old one, and not just in the materials. The originals that she’d made over a month ago sat at where her fingers abruptly ended, attached to a leather glove and controlled by an iron wire that was riveted to an old iron ring on her thumb. 

While it worked for what she needed, it had its flaws.

For one, the way her fingers aligned with the prosthetic wasn’t as secure as she’d liked and constantly rubbed. Another flaw she’d noticed was that the wire wasn’t as responsive as it could be and recently she saw it get clogged up with gunk.

To fix these two issues, she’d made some minor changes. 

Now the stumps of her fingers would sit within a padded hollow in the bones and she’d come up with a more magical solution to the wire problem. It’d still have iron within it, but just to connect the pieces together. While she could do that too with her magic and Edwyn’s runes, if she ever came across some anti-magic zone or something like that, she didn’t want it to fall apart on her.

Autumn finished carving in the fingernails on her new prosthetic.

“Wire!” Autumn called out, looking over her shoulder.

“Here!”

The pair worked together to link the pieces. Once done, Autumn explained her next steps to the patiently waiting Manus. 

“So, I was thinking of creating magical tendons in the fingers. Each section would have multiple cords that’ll connect down towards the hand. Can you add any runes to it to help anchor them?” 

Edwyn rubbed their beard, contemplating the problem as they gazed over the pieces. They nodded confidently to Autumn. “Aye, I can dae something like that. I've git a little gem dust left that we can use.”

“Gem dust?” 

Almost reflexively, Autumn reached into her robe pockets where a collection of small crystals sat; the remainders of those she’d scooped up while fighting the hag. She held them up for Edwyn to see. “Will these do?” she asked.

Edwyn took one in hand and squinted at it. After licking it and savoring the taste, they nodded. “It’s guid. Git a kick o' magic tae it, too. Yers maybe? We can use it, anyways.”

After taking back their rune-carving knife, Edwyn skillfully added a few tiny runes to the underside of the fingertips and the base of the fingers. They then crumbled a crystal in their meaty palm and poured the dust into the groves and, with a mutter of magic; it stuck firm.

“There, juist stick your magic tae the anchor points. I also took the liberty o’ adding a minor essence-gathering rune tae it. Don’t worry, it’ll only draw juist enough from ye tae offset any magical atmospheric dissipation.”

“Right, thank you.” 

Edwyn turned back to the forge with a nod to create the rivets they’d need. 

For her part, Autumn took apart her original prosthetic for the leather glove. As it was easily replaceable, she didn’t mind using the older leather given that she distrusted anything that they’d find in a necromancer’s tower. Knowing her luck, it’d be human skin or something equally nasty.

Speaking off…

“Hey, Edwyn. What exactly is black-iron? Liddie said it only shows up around necromancers and their holds.”

Edwyn grunted from their forge. “It’s called corpse-iron as well. It’s…well, it’s made from the dead, to be blunt. Imagine juist how many folk they’d need tae make this much. Shivers the soul, it does.”

“..oh.”

Just when Autumn thought she was all out of horror, something new appeared. 

“Think of the bigger picture, Autumn. This crime thee didst not commit. Useth what falls ‘efore thee to becometh the slayer of hags. Well, one hag in particular.” The banshee whispered in Autumn’s ear.

‘Thank you. I’ll…I’ll keep it in mind.’

The last of the leather came free from the older prosthetic, and Autumn carefully used Liddie’s mithril blade to cut the wire from the old iron ring. It’d sat around her thumb for so long that it left a slight indent behind. She held it up to the light, looking at the faded inscriptions inside. 

“In loving memory of ___” the rest was far too faded to read. 

“Thank you old man, I won’t forget you.” 

Autumn took the iron ring and threaded it onto the loop of leather that held the cold-iron horseshoe that Orzon had made for her, what felt like so long ago. Whether it’d actually helped her, she didn’t know, but she hoped it had. 

With a few swift taps of a hammer, the rivets bit into the leather and her new prosthetic was near completion. Only magic remained to be added.

Breathing calmly, Autumn closed her eyes and reached for her magic. From within her hat, she drew forth many threads of purple and quickly bound them to the anchors Edwyn had set. One after another, she layered them until they resembled the fingers she sought to replace, burying them deep in the protective dragon bone that greedily accepted the power. 

With a final snap, they all fell into place. 

But she was not done.

Autumn wrapped the glove around her hand, making sure that the new prosthetic sat firmly and comfortably upon her lost fingers. Once she was sure it was set, Autumn dove deep into her magic again, this time to stitch a string into her own body, sewing it into her nerves so that it could commandeer the phantom limb that haunted her.

Opening her eyes, she looked down upon her work and saw all was good. 

She, however, was pale and shivering. But it didn’t diminish her smile as her fingers curled naturally, if a little stiff, as she flexed her hand.

“Mighty fine work. Can’t say I’ve seen its lik’ ‘efore.” Edwyn said as they admired what they’d done. 

Autumn’s smile was genuine and bright. 

“Thank you for your help, but we’re only getting started.” She said as she stood up, brushing the bone dust from her lap. 

When Autumn turned towards Eme’s tent, she found herself face to face with a curious catgirl. A brief scream of fright tore free from her throat as she fell over backwards, crashing back down onto her rear. 

Eme jumped, wincing at the sound. Her ears flattened to her skull as she watched Autumn fall.

From the other side of the hall came a clattering as Liddie tumbled out of the shower, looking about wildly as she used the curtain to cover herself.

“Why are we screaming?!”

“Sorry!” Autumn called out, “Eme gave me a fright is all.” 

The catgirl looked appropriately apologetic. 

Liddie just huffed in annoyance before approaching the blazing rune-forge, content to ignore them as she soaked in its heat. She wore the shower curtain like a toga which did well to hide her lithe body, but a map of scars peeked through in the areas not covered.

Autumn tore her gaze away, clutching at her beating chest as she turned back to Eme. 

“How long have you been there?”

“Not long,” Eme shrugged, in her hand was an empty mess tin, “I got hungry, is all. Are you working on my arm next? Can I watch?” 

“Sure, let me get your measurements first.” 

Using a knotted piece of string, Autumn measured the length, width, circumference, and every other type of measurement she needed from the girl, jotting them all down on the floor in charcoal before marking them out on the pieces of dragon bone Liddie had provided. She double-checked all measurements at least twice before picking up Liddie’s blade to cut.

The pirate looked on with disdain and horror as Autumn used her weapon like a common saw. 

Rather than making an anatomically correct version of Eme’s arm, which, given the material, would’ve lacked the range of movement a flesh and bone one would’ve had, she instead opted to create a more doll-like version. One with ball joints at the elbow and wrist. However, she did make an elbow cap to prevent it from overextending. Not that it’d harm the creation if it did, but she imagined it’d be a rather disconcerting feeling for the catgirl.

As Edwyn engraved runes onto each piece and threaded black-iron wire through them to hold it all together, Autumn set about repurposing an old gambeson for padding the inside of the bone while also fashioning a harness out of a set of belts.

Soon Eme was standing before them awkwardly as the limb hung limp to her side. 

With only minor prompting from a catgirl’s anxious eyes, Autumn set to crafting the magic to make it all work. The task before her was much harder than before. Not only was there more to do, but each section of the chain grew more and more complex as it went. Every pull, twitch, and movement needed to connect back to the source; fingers to a hand, a hand to a wrist, wrist to arm, arm to elbow, etc.

Autumn was never more thankful for her highschool biology. She doubted there were many spellcasters in this world that could do the same as her. Not with the same amount of detail nor the understanding of why those details were important. 

The ending string, the one to stitch into flesh, slipped into place. Idly, Autumn heard a gasp of pain. 

But it was done.

Autumn stepped back from Eme, breathing heavily as sweat ran down her face. It felt like she’d just run a marathon. She took a swig of water offered by Liddie; the icy water soothed her dry throat and dulled the aching of her gums.

“Go on,” she gave Eme an encouraging smile, “give it a try.”

Eme looked at her blankly, lost. The dragon bone arm at her side didn’t move, not so much as a twitch. Tears slowly built up in the corners of the catgirl’s eyes as her ears and tail drooped. 

“I don’t know how.” She whispered weakly. 

A pit of anxiety opened up in Autumn’s gut. Did she make a mistake somewhere? Did she need to redo it? They’d spent many hours on it already, and she didn’t know if she had the energy to build up the threads again.

“Hey Eme, think fast!” Liddie called out as she tossed a waterskin at the girl.

It hit her in the chest.

A furious reprimand died on Autumn’s lips as she looked at Eme. While the catgirl hadn’t miraculously caught the waterskin in flight, her dragon bone prosthetic was halfway through the motion of doing so. 

Eme looked blankly down at the arm she’d moved without thinking. 

Liddie smirked. “Don’t think, just do. That’s my motto!”

Eme burst into tears.

A flying catgirl abruptly knocked Autumn to the ground, enveloping her in a tight hug while bombarding her with kisses and an endless stream of thank you’s. Autumn stretched an arm out weakly towards the others as her oxygen grew faint.

“Help me~” she uttered.

---

 

Autumn knew next to nothing about wands. Not in any practical aspects, that was. She certainly had plenty of pop-culture and gaming references bouncing around in her mind. Not to mention she’d already owned one once before, but that was a far cry from making one.

“So, as far as I know; wands consist mainly of a casing and a magical core. Length and flexibility might be a factor, but I’ve no experience or knowledge about that,” Liddie snorted, to which Autumn blushed and glared before continuing on, “so, I say we just focus on the first two.”

“We?” Eme asked skeptically.

The catgirl hadn’t left Autumn’s side since she’d let her go, effectively saving the witch from suffocation. Even now, as she sat beside the witch, she was idly playing with her new arm, growing used to it.

Her only complaint was the lack of claws, but without a method to retract them, they’d be too much of a hazard. 

“Yes, we. I’ll need help to get it done. Mainly ‘cause I’ve no clue what I’m doing.”

“Wonderful.” Nelva muttered, having returned now that the forge was less swelteringly hot. 

“So,” Autumn clapped, “a core and a casing. Currently, we’ve got only dragon bone or black-iron for the case. I’m not sure about the metal, though; it’d be more of a rod, but I guess that still works. For the core we can try switching; a black-iron case with a dragon bone core, and a dragon bone case and a black-iron core. Other than that, I’ve got a few crystals left we can try as a core in each. Thoughts?”

“So that’s six wands? Are you sure you need that many?” Liddie asked.

Autumn shrugged. “Most likely they’ll just explode or not work. I’d like a spare of each just in case, so eight wands in total. But we don’t have to make it too hard on ourselves. As long as they are vaguely wand shaped, it’ll be fine. For the rods, we can just make a mold of one of our carved ones.”

“Sounds fair, now pass me back my sword! Watching you carve with it is painful.” Liddie groused as she took back her weapon. 

With the combined weight of the group, Autumn soon had before her eight wands of varying quality. Four of bone and four of black-iron. The numbers rubbed Autumn the wrong way; she knew witches loved and feared the rule of threes, but she reasoned that technically two of them were unfinished as they held no cores. 

Autumn picked up the first as her friends hid behind a pillar. 

The dragon bone wand was surprisingly light, but its core of black-iron was weighty. Perhaps too much so. It felt wrong in Autumn’s hands.

“No time like the present. Go on then, give it a wave.” Autumn muttered to herself and she waved the wand. 

And a part of the pillar beside her exploded. 

Autumn yelped and she hastily put the cracked wand down. 

“Are you dead?!” Liddie called out. 

“Not yet! The wand didn’t survive, though!” Autumn called back. 

The next wand Autumn picked up was the opposite of the last; a rod of black iron with a dragon bone core. It felt…evil to Autumn, for a lack of a better word as she held it. She had a sense that it’d work, but it was a wand for a necromancer, not a witch.

Autumn swore that a body in the corner twitched.

“Not you.” 

Black-iron wand with a crystal core simply blew up as soon as she tried to channel through it, sending shards of metal crashing into her quickly summoned shield. 

Autumn glanced at her last option as she picked herself up. When she grabbed the dragon bone wand with a crystal core, it felt fragile in her hands. Disposable even. It was not likely to survive for long, but it would work and not cause an undead outbreak while it was at it.

What more could a girl want?