Wake up.

The command startled October from her sleep causing her to nearly leap out of bed, prepared to attack whoever was in her home. Confused, she crept around her home, searching for a sign that there had been someone there. An emerald green energy wisped past her and caught her attention instantly. A demon? No, couldn’t be, she had a protection spell on her home to ward against the unwanted. 

“Show yourself!” October demanded, watching the small ball of energy. 

It ignored her and drifted to the back door, phasing through it. A warm red glow flickered outside her window and her anxiety spiked. Swinging the back door open, she was immediately met with smoke. 

Fire.

October ran to her neighbors’ homes and pounded on the doors to wake them and alert the coven. Each person she woke joined her in waking the others or ran to the treeline to control the blaze. 

Was this an attack from another coven? Was it simply a wildfire? She didn’t know and frankly, she didn’t care at the moment. All that mattered to her was waking as many pyranic and avalin users as possible. 

She ran to her parents’ home and ran up the stairs two at a time, “Momma! Momma, I need you!”

“October, it’s two in the morning, go back to sleep,” she groaned.

Running to the opposite side of the bed, she started shaking her other parent, “Saf, saf, come on! There’s a fire!” 

They snapped up and looked out the window, “Holy shit, Norae wake up.” 

As they said that and her mother stirred, a siren began to wail as a fire engine sped toward her home. “Oh my gods, October, what woke you up?”

“I don’t know, but I did and woke my neighbors before coming here. Now come on, let’s go help!” 

Her saf rested a hand on her shoulder, “Your mother and I will go help, you stay here.”

October blinked a few times at them, “What, why?”

“You’re a therranic user, sweetheart. Terrafirma is not going to help against a fire. Your saf is right, stay here and we’ll go and save as much of your stuff as possible.”

Her parents wouldn’t hear any of her protests and got dressed quickly before running to her home. She couldn’t just stay here and watch this happen, she had to try something. Maybe she could suffocate the fire by trapping it in terrafirma? No, that wouldn’t work, the blaze was too big. 

The emerald green energy returned and she tilted her head, “You want me to follow?”

It went down the stairs and out of the home, not waiting for her. She sprinted after it, weaving between homes. The fire raged on dangerously close to her home and the homes of dozens of others. 

Stop.

Not knowing why, she halted and watched the sprite grow in size.

Save your home.

“What? How? I’m a therranic witch, not pyranic!”

Try.

She shook her head and closed her eyes, taking in a deep breath. The ground in front of her raised under her command but didn’t listen to her any further.

What felt like a hand touched her shoulder, No. Use fire.

The green energy twisted around her hand and intertwined with her fingers. She trembled slightly and imagined the fire being under her control. Much to her surprise, a wisp of fire came toward her in a thin line. 

The energy around her hand disappeared but its voice still spoke to her, Put it out.

She closed her fist as she had seen countless pyranics do before and watched as the small flame died out. Her heart pounded loudly in her ears as she separated parts of the fire and killed the flames over and over until she and the other witches had extinguished the blaze. 

Voices around her grew louder and she took that as her signal to run back to her parents’ home to wait for them to return. Adrenaline fueled her movement as she fled from the scene of the fire, racing to beat her parents there. 

What happened back there? She didn’t know how she had managed to control the fire, nor was she completely convinced that she had done so. It was possible that she truly had controlled it, but the implications of that were terrifying to her. 

October anxiously twirled a dread around her finger as she thought about it further. Witches can use more than one type of magic, such as those who are healers but also have an element magic as well. It wasn’t common for witches to have two types of elemental magic and it was especially rare for one to be luxen and the other to be malosic. 

The emerald energy slithered around her and the voice sounded in her head once more. You know the answer to that.

“Who are you?”

You know that too, young witch. 

“Why can’t you just answer my question?”

The voice stayed silent but the energy still twisted around her. It slinked past her ear and shot chills down her spine. Think.

“Magic?”

There was no answer; the presence went just as quickly as it appeared.

Curling up on the bed in what used to be her room, October pretended to sleep as her parents entered the house once more. They cracked open the door to her room to check on her and closed it quietly as they left for their room. What happened?

So much. So much that it overwhelmed her and she struggled to calm her racing mind even for just a moment. Sleep would be impossible tonight.