As soon as we stepped in its way the spirit stopped its relentless advance. It looked us over, evaluating us, before snarling. This wasn’t some mindless predator, it was a powerful ancient spirit. It knew what it was doing.

  “Can we reason with it?” Clara asked under her breath.

  “I have no idea,” I muttered under my breath as I quickly put Kaylee down, out of the way. “I did a ton of research after my last run in, but almost everything I read was conjecture. Powerful nature spirits typically avoid people, only approaching when something threatens their territory.”

  “We’re not on its territory,” Thyra growled, pulling her pistol out of its holster.

  “I realize that!” I hissed back.

  Once the spirit realized that we weren’t going to move, it slowly started stalking forward. The amount of power rolling off it was enormous, almost suffocating, but we still held our ground.

  When it was only a couple feet away, Thyra released her magic. Vines sprung up around the spirit’s feet, attempting to entangle it, while she pointed her weapon at the wolf’s head.

  “Not one step closer,” she warned. “I’ll protect these people by any means necessary.”

  The spirit didn’t even slow, phasing through the vines like they didn’t even exist. Instead it fixated on the weapon, anger and hate in its eyes.

  “Put your gun down, I think it’s making things worse,” Clara whispered horsely.

  “I can’t do that! If that thing steps into the village a lot of people are going to get hurt,” Thyra replied quietly.

  With the spirit focused on Thyra I stepped to the side, pulling at the power buried deep inside me. Without a focus this was going to be messy, but I didn’t really see another choice. Thrusting my hand forward I released the energy, letting the void energy roll off me. It filled the space between Thyra and the wolf, ripping up the ground.

  The wolf stopped. It turned to look at me, not in hate, but curiosity.

  “Back! Bad dog!” I yelled.

  “I don’t think it’s afraid of you, just confused,” Clara muttered behind me. “And bad dog? Really? You better hope that it doesn't understand what we’re saying. I think a proud wolf would take that as an insult.”

  “I’m doing the best with what I’ve got!” I growled. “Without a pistol to focus my power all I can do is roughly direct it in a direction. It’s far from precise.”

  While we were arguing a ruckus occurred behind us. I didn’t dare turn away from the spirit, but I heard someone running, followed by Clara shout, “No, wait!”

  I turned slightly just as Plays-in-Water sprinted past me, throwing her arms around one of the spirit's massive legs. All the fight immediately went out of the massive wolf, the electricity disappeared, and it sat down on its haunches and listened as the girl talked.

  “What just happened?” Thyra asked, confused. “Why is the girl out here?”

  “She is her tribe's spirit speaker,” Tallulah explained as she emerged from the village. “And that is the tribe’s guardian spirit.”

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  “Guardian spirit? I’ve never even heard of such a thing,” I grumbled.

  “They’re not common, and most tribes will refuse to speak about them to outsiders. Only the tribes that live in harmony with nature will attract them.”

  “Why is it here?” Clara asked. “Attacking us?”

  “Not attacking, protecting,” Tallulah clarified. “It came for the girl.”

  “That’s why she was so hesitant to come with us, isn’t it? She knew this thing was following her, and it would try and follow her into the coven’s grounds,” Thyra said, holstering her pistol.

  Tallulah nodded. “She panicked when it approached, but wouldn’t tell me why until the spirit was right outside the village. I don’t think she intended to tell anyone about it, even her friend Mary.”

  She glanced at the oversized spirit, which was slowly shrinking down, now only six feet tall. “I don’t know why it didn’t intervene earlier, her captors must have had some way to ward it off.”

  “Possible, One of them did have a suppression rig on,” I mumbled thoughtfully. “Although I doubt it would have stopped that thing. Maybe it just hid her so the spirit couldn’t find her.”

  “The question is, what do we do now?” Clara asked. “It’s dangerous. It ripped through our wards, and nearly attacked us, to get to Plays. We can’t keep it around.”

  “I’m not sure that we could even drive it off if we wanted to,” I confessed. “Maybe one of the stronger members of the coven could, but it really didn’t seem like it really considered us that much of a threat.”

  “We need to take Plays to see Lady Adel,” Thyra declared. “I know the girl wants to leave, but this was a serious breach of security. The council will need to be informed.”

  “Plays won’t like that,” Clara muttered, “she was adamant about leaving yesterday and if she’s not happy there’s a chance the spirit may get unhappy.”

  “I will explain the situation to her,” Tallulah declared. “I’ll take her to the shack in the woods, away from the village, and we’ll wait for the council there.”

  It took me a second to absorb what she was suggesting. “Wait… isn’t that where I’m staying?”

  “It is,” Tallulah replied nonchalantly. “We don’t want to be anywhere near the village if the spirit gets aggravated again. The shack is the most isolated structure within the coven.”

  “Somehow, that doesn’t exactly make me feel any better,” I grumbled. “But you’re right, it’s probably the safest place to have this meeting.”

  Tallulah nodded, then turned to the girl. While we’d been talking the spirit had shrunk down to the size of a regular wolf. It sat, leaned up against Plays like an affectionate puppy. Tallulah explained the situation, in whatever native tongue Plays spoke. The girl looked hesitant, but nodded, and followed Tallulah away.

  “Well, that was fun. In a completely horrifying way,” Clara chuckled nervously. “Should I go inform Lady Adel of what happened?”

  “I’ll do it,” Thyra replied. “I’ll need to be present at the meeting, as the head of the guardians. You should gather a few of the others, and check on those wards. With Graves sniffing around, we can’t let our defenses be compromised.”

  Thyra started heading back towards the town gate, where a small crowd had gathered in the wake of the panic, but paused about half way. “Clara, I’m using my authority to allow Zoey to carry one of her pistols around within the coven. Just one. Oliva might not approve, but I don’t care. Her actions over the last few days have proven she can be trusted, to me anyways. I’d like her armed if something happens.”

  “We’ll stop by my place and grab it right away,” Clara promised. “Do you want us to follow you to the cabin afterwards?”

  Thyra hesitated, then shook her head. “Stick around the village. I have had the other guardians checking the wards since yesterday, so I’d like to have someone here at the village if something goes wrong.”

  She adjusted her gun belt, then turned back towards the village, jogging back towards the council hall.

  I headed back towards the entrance of the village, where Kaylee had jumped up on the fence. She looked at me disappointedly. “Mew”

  “I don’t care that you don’t like being left behind,” I told her. “I wasn’t about to drag you into a fight with that thing. Besides, without a gun I can’t focus my powers properly. I wasn’t about to risk hurting you when I used them.”

  The cat stuck her nose up at me, but didn’t complain. Instead she just quickly jumped to my shoulders and relaxed in her regular position.

  Clara strolled up to the gate, then paused waiting for me. “Read to go?”

  “As ready as I’ll ever be,” I replied quietly.

  I followed her past the crowd of people, most of which only gave me the most cursory glance, and back into town. We quickly made our way to the west side, to a small house right at the base of the stairs heading up to the meeting hall. It didn’t have much that differentiated it from the other houses from the outside, a plain stone and log construction without any real decoration. Clara didn’t knock, she just pulled open the door and gestured for me to follow her inside.

  The interior of the small cottage had a lot more character. There were several brightly colored blankets piled up in one corner, and the shelf behind them had a number of dyes and pigments. Next to that was a neatly organized desk, which seemed to have a half finished cloak on it. Above, there was a shelf covered in various needles, and threads.

  “Never pictured you as the embroidery type,” I quipped.

  “Everyone needs a hobby,” Clara replied with a shrug. She went to a cabinet at the back of the room and pulled out my gun case.

  “You heard Thyra, you can carry one pistol around the grounds, so get set up,” she said solemnly. “We’re probably going to have a lot of work to do today and I, for one, would prefer it if you were armed.”

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