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I could feel the growing tension in the air for days before they came, the hair on the back of my neck standing straight up as if lightning were to strike. Tensions had been high for months, but this was something we had never expected. We had never expected them to go this far. The previous year, the fields had been salted. Yet the king still demanded grain as payment for the protection that he never provided. He could not see he was what his people needed protecting from.
We never heard them; how could an army be so quiet? They climbed the hills that bordered our small town when the moon was a sliver, everything nearly too dark to see.
I heard the screams as the fires were set, people rushing from their homes to escape the smoke only to be cut down as they tried to run. Some sought shelter in the woods, but few made it far enough for the trees to protect them
My small hut at the town's border did not go unnoticed, but many men fell as they tried to block the way. I watched in silence as the village I swore to protect was razed to ash and the ground below was painted crimson red with fresh blood.
For over a century, I had protected this place as the quiet town witch. I was the one children brought their favorite pets to who had passed before their time. Only I could have given a second chance to the stillborn infants the world had taken too soon. This was my town, to whom I had sworn my protection, and where no one died before they were ready.
I sat on the dusty floor and pressed the palms of my hands straight onto the earth, feeling the grit of dirt and reaching outward. I felt the still-cooling bodies of the men outside my home, and beyond that, others who had their throats slit left bleeding in the grass. I felt them slowly rise at my will and draw their weapons, life breathed into them once again. They faced the army. Within moments, the invaders had been reduced to unrecognizable mounds of flesh and I stepped outside
My people tried to touch me as I stepped passed but I did not react. I lifted them all from the ground, one by one, as their wounds began to mend themselves until not even a scare remained. Slowly, I made my way to the invading general, the last remaining man. I forced his chin upwards, making him to look at me. My voice was gentle and calm.
"Do you know who I am?"
His response was incoherent, a panicked babble that caused me to shake his head sharply
"I am the witch who was able to destroy your army from 20 feet away from the nearest man. I am the one who's land you trespassed on, who's village you attempted to destroy"
I saw the fear growing in his eyes, his pupils dilating until his light brown eyes looked black, but he stayed silent
"You will live to tell your king what has happened here tonight. You will warn him that any more of his company will be used to fertilize our fields, the same as those who fell to me and my own. Your king has no power here, no name or title. I have allowed him to live as king for this long as an act of mercy, something I have none left to give"
He scrambled back as soon as I released my hold, trying to get to his feet and running into the woods.
"My Lady," A young man I recognized came to me, bowing slightly "Surely more men will come, a larger army"
I smiled, gently touching his cheek "Let him. After all, what fool would send a necromancer fresh bodies to play with?"