"Coven part i" by Gabrielle ´Ali´ Miles

Snow whirled outside, the mid-December winds kicking up drifts high enough to reach over the girl's head.. And yet she struggled through the snow, already in sight of her destination. Castle Daimaire loomed over her, jutting out of the snowy landscape dramatically.. How much longer? I can't go on much farther... The girl couldn't have been more than ten, and usually pretty. Now though, her blonde hair matted with blood, golden eyes bruised and swollen, pretty face shades of blue, she looked horrible.. Oh Shelly.. Be home.. I need you now, Shelly...
  She fell in a large drift, simply laying there for a moment.. She had stopped feeling the cold almost an hour ago.. Can't be good. She wouldn't have the warmth left to get up soon. Fear no longer plagued her, the cold numbing even her mind. Her hands were blue almost, ice making her eyelashes shimmer. With one last burst of warm strength, she fought her way through the drift, and up onto the walkway.. Light.. She could see the lights in the windows. Candles. Their warmth was inside though. Out.. there was only the cold, and the swirling white snow, and the cold stone under her hands. Cold...? No. She couldn't feel it. But her mind was still working. She knew it was cold. A forgotten piece of rock lay near her hand, and she picked it up, using the last of her fading strength to hurl it at the door. She didn't have the energy to psi right now.. It would kill her quicker. But.. does it matter? Already the dark was closing in...numb ..and a pleasant light..
   Suddenly, she was against something warm.. tickling her nose.. Warm and tickling? A puppy? No.. It was all around her...Carrying her.. An angel? No.. She had stopped believing in the Gods a few years ago.. Couldn't be an angel. They didn't exist.. Arms around her. She could feel them.. Being warm felt so good...She opened her eyes, a wave of pain washing over her...Hurt...Yes. That hurt. She could still feel, at least. Hurt all over.. Red. She could see red. Cloth, material.. a shirt. Raising her eyes slowly, painfully, she could see the boy.. Long, blue hair.. Sapphire.. Like locks of jewels.. He was..... beautiful. There was no other way to say it. Gorgeous. She moved slightly against him, another wave of pain coming crashing down over her.. His lips were moving, eyes turning to her.. She couldn't hear him. There were no words. She tried to open her mouth, couldn't speak..
   The dark was closing in around her again, tickling at her mind. She welcomed the numbness, closing her eyes.. Shaking. He was shaking her..  No.. no.. Hurts.. Stop it! Hurts.. That hurts, damnit!!! Her eyes flew open in the pain....(flex) The air rippled around her, lashing out. He felt it... She felt it... Their eyes went to the vase that shattered an instant later. He looked at her, tilting his head slightly...Saying something that she couldn't hear. The darkness came again, and pulled her down into its depths.
  Hours later, she came awake. Her eyes opened into slits, allowing light to filter in.. Unfamiliar.. Where am I? A soft voice answered, even softer hands smoothing the hair away from her face.. 

A few weeks later, the girl was on her feet again, moving about the castle with the help of the young mage. He was her companion, along with his sister, Thalia. No one else at Daimaire cared for the child that had come so battered to the door, but Thalia and Andrin didn't care. Katherine was a baby. Michelle's baby girl. Only three. And so cute. Alexia, the child's chosen guardian was much older than Coven. Sixteen. Alexia didn't like her. Andrin was 12, though, and thought she was fine. He spent time with her, healing her, talking with her...being her friend. A year passed. Andrin had become her protector, her best friend. He didn't let Alexia frown and wrinkle her nose, but instead took Coven off to show her new things, new adventures that he had found. And she went, seeing more in her friend every day. He kept her safe from her father, threatening him in a raining of lightning. And then he scooped her into his arms, took her away before he could hurt him, had carried her away from the tree that she had set aflame.

And then came the spells. He tested every spell he knew on her, and then started using her as his lab rat. When she was 13, another year later, he tested a seduction spell, something neither thought would work.. Eyes flashing violet, he murmured to her after the spell was cast, and she fell swooning into his arms. Mother was visiting... One of the few times. She wasn't down with her, as she should be, but instead in the tower they used for their testing, so if anything were to backfire, it couldn't harm anyone else. The thought passed easily between them, and they fell into one another's arms, passion and magic weaving around them.

Afterwards, as they lay nude on the tower floor, still locked together in an intimate tangle, footsteps could be heard, rushing up the stairwell.. Five...Ten.. Ten. Ten sets of feet. Coven moved fast enough to pull out of his arms and jerk a blanket over herself and Andrin, just as Mother and Alexia came running in the door.. Mother looked near death, Alexia was seething with rage. She was for Andrin, Coven thought, and listened to the others push their way into the tower.. Michelle, Dareon, Thalia, her mother and father...A few of the other Guards.. The lectures started, then.

Soon after, Coven was taken home, away from Daimaire and Andrin. Yet her father dared not lay a finger on her. The Mage had threatened him once, lightning raining down around him, when he had raised a hand to Coven. He couldn't chance it again. Andrin was gone within a year though, fled with his little Katherine from an attack no the castle. Then, Coven could be punished... And she was. She was bruised and broken until she learned to fight back.

"Father? ..I'm going to find Andrin, Katherine.. We've had no word from the search parties..." She doubted that he had sent them, at all. Her father cared little what happened to any of those who inhabited Daimaire.
"Leave your foolish mage lover be. He left you, Coven. He left you to look like the whore you are."
The words stung a little, but not much.. "I'm not a whore.. And Andrin isn't my lover. He hasn't been since we were young. I miss them. I'm worried... And I'm going to find them."
His hand flew back, raising to strike her across the face. She was already bruised..(flex) His arm snapped backwards, the bone cracking cleanly at the elbow joint, leaving his arm limp and useless at his side, her father whimpering on his knees... Coven left only days later, to search for the survivors herself.