Shades of Grey

JZASACH— DECEMBER 1843

I awoke in a room of lofty jade walls built around pillars of gold and a metal I recognised instantly: copper. My stomach dropped.

“Yes, it was a Witch that cursed the first Hunter, dear Frederick Shore, with that unfortunate allergy to copper. As you can see, we have made great use of it since and it has thus veiled our palace from roving Hunters and made it an inopportune place to be for foolish ones, such as yourself.”

I tried to turn, but found that my wrists and ankles were fixed firmly to the floor with radiant purple chains interlinked with small copper washers. I gave a hoarse gasp as my skin began to erupt in hives under my coat.

“What have you done to Forma?!” I shouted as the rash crept slowly up my arms.

“She is in a safe place, for the time being.”

The source of the voice glided into my view with the grace of Boadicea and the malice of Jezebel. I gasped, for never had I seen such a fine-looking woman: her long dark hair twisted gracefully into a single braid that fell around her well-defined face. Her eyes were an unusual colour, a sort of light silver that countered the darkness of her hair and sat below a headband of intertwining gold and copper leaflets. Her black burnoose robes hung over her strong body and frayed off into light smoke at the ends.

I then saw a flash of recognition sweep across her flawless face followed by a malicious smile of interest. She recognised me.

“What is it?” I choked, the copper starting to affect my breathing.

“You, young Hunter: you are much younger than I imagined…”

She paused, staring unblinkingly at me as if she were reading all of my memories. I shifted under the weight of my chains.

“What are you talking about?” I asked. “What do you mean ‘imagined’?”

She just laughed and ascended the throne in the centre of the room.

“You are the queen, Natara,” I said in realisation.

“Very good, Hunter. They have certainly taught you well in that asinine school. What has become of it, by the way? Have you stopped by to visit?”

She sat down slowly, keeping her eyes on me.

“What do you want from me?” I asked pointedly.

Natara held up her hand as a long black line of magical energy shot out of her palm and clamped solidly around my neck, choking me.

“First you demean the entire Kuligari camp by claiming you will defeat us in front of those Jzasach dogs before boldly threatening my people and you dare ask what I want from you?!”

As the last three words of her oration left her mouth, she turned her hand and tightened her magical hold on my throat. I groaned as the muscles in my neck clenched under the pressure. After a moment, she finally saw fit to loosen her grip.

“A threat on one Kuligari is a threat on us all,” she said coldly.

“But I did threaten you all…” I reminded her as my breathing evened out; smiling at the fact that such a minute detail had slipped her attention.

A lightning bolt suddenly struck the ground next to my left foot, causing me to jump. I looked up and saw Natara standing firmly in place, glaring at me with vehemence.

“Do not undermine us, Hunter; for here in our own camp, we hold the advantage.”

Natara gave me a demurely wicked smile and I immediately understood to what sort of ‘advantage’ she was referring.

“Where is she?” I asked again quickly. “What have you done with Forma?”

Natara looked to an attending Witch and nodded. A thick drapery then opened and three young Witches glided in, equally as handsome as Natara. They pushed a long elegantly built platform on which sat a glass case. Upon closer scrutiny I recognised the case as ice. Forma was frozen inside.

Intuitively I reached for my Flamesword, but the copper in the chains suddenly became completely potent and I felt my lungs begin to close. I instinctively looked to Natara for help. I knew very well she would most likely not give it, she might even see fit to quicken the process; which made it all the more astonishing when with a wave of her hand, the chains fell from my wrists and melted into the floor, leaving me free to stand and recuperate my strength. Natara smiled at me with Calibanian merriment.

“Your Fairy’s conscious mind has been sent to a sort of prison while her physical body remains here under torture of intense cold. This spell will last twenty-four hours until she becomes part of the ice. If you can complete a simple task I have elected for you within that time period, the curse upon the Jzasach men will be lifted freely and the two of you can be on your way. If you do not, either you or your Fairy must choose to bear the curse of the wolf but I will still rescind the curse from the men. Either way, the citizens of Jzasach are spared.”

“You can’t! That’s against the Hunter Code!” I cried in shock. “I cannot willingly become a Creature and I will not let Forma choose such a fate!”

She smiled.

“Well, you only have one option then: do not fail.”

She waited as I contemplated the offer, but I remembered Lady Zephyra telling us that Witches were crafty: they promised you one thing but found some scrap of ambiguity in their wording that allowed them to convey something else. Magic was always a tricky subject for me...

“What is the task?” I asked softly. Natara inhaled, the smile spreading on her face.

“I will send you to a dark and twisted place where you must unearth the location of your Fairy. I must warn you however; the land is strange and new with many odd and diverse elements. You may find yourself…rather unsettled.”

Natara froze, staring at me with her icy silver eyes. I had the feeling I was walking into a trap.

“What if I decline?”

Natara sighed, as if talking to a seditious child. She then walked over to Forma’s ice coffin and ran her hand smoothly across the front.

“Then I shall have to keep your Fairy in this ice block forever and I will turn you into a werewolf anyway, without sparing the men of Jzasach. And as I recall, the laws of Creature Hunting do not apply when a Hunter has knowingly become a Creature.”

She folded her arms and leaned against the ice block, smiling malevolently. I tore my eyes away from her evil grin to look at the imprisoned Forma: her body halfway into a transformation and her expression full of determined panic, as though the ice was instantly produced around her in a brusque attack. Protective rage flared inside of me.

“Alright.”

Natara’s sharp teeth shone fiercely as she gave a smile of unusually extreme elation.

“Will you swear by it?” She asked, cocking her head challengingly.

“I swear,” I stated assertively.

Natara grinned wider and I cried out as I felt a sharp pain cut through my hand. Looking down, I saw that a large X had crossed my palm, drawing two thin streams of blood. The blood then fell to the luminous jade floor and began smoking, leaving a scar on my skin. I looked to Natara in confusion.

“I had to keep something that would link me to you,” she said in casual justification.

“And put me completely at your mercy!” I exclaimed. “I’m familiar with the basis of Witch Magic! You need the blood of a victim to practice mind control spells!”

“Well, yes, that too.” Natara took a step forward and raised her hand towards me, unblinkingly. “But never mind that, let’s get back to the adventure you are about to embark upon! There are rules for this little excursion: first, you may not have any of your weapons.”

Instantly my Flamesword, my bandoleer and all my weapons flew out of their compartments and onto waiting shelves in the jade walls. I stumbled in shock, looking pleadingly to Natara.

“Please! I’m naked without my weapons!”

Natara let out a short laugh and with another wave of her hand, my green cloak flew off of my body into a compartment in the floor. I stumbled again.

“Funny you should mention that...” she said maniacally as she approached me. “For secondly, you are not to have your hat,” she gently lifted off my hat and tossed it into the same pocket with my cloak, “…or your mask.”

She moved to lift my mask from my eyes, but I fell to the floor before she could: affronted and humiliated.

“Please don’t! Let me at least keep my mask!” I pleaded. She smiled and knelt to my level, speaking unswervingly into my ear as she undid the knot at the back of my mask.

“Where you are going, it will not matter.”

She stepped away, revealing my bare face and weapon-less personage to the attending young Witches. I felt indecently exposed.

“Now we can begin.”

Natara walked behind me and aimed a body-binding spell at my feet, which rapidly travelled up my legs and locked all of my limbs in place. Natara situated herself in front of me and held her open hands close to my ears. She then began speaking Latin in a soft whisper, which grew into a deafening, supernatural roar that sailed throughout the room and made everything inside of my body quiver. Streams of purple and blue fire began pouring from her fingers and surrounded me, encircling every centimetre of my body, until I began to drown in dancing flames.