Thyra leaned back in her chair and began her tail. “I’m originally from a small coven outside Bergen, in Norway. We have a tradition back home that when a witch comes of age, they are encouraged to leave the coven for a couple years and explore the world.”

  “When I came of age, I decided to go much further than the rest of my friends, and peers, and come all the way to america. At first, things were great. I saw many new things, and learned from the local witches, but that all changed when I decided to travel west,” Thyra told us.

  “I made the mistake of choosing to take the Graves line,” she said, shifting uncomfortably in her seat. “I wasn’t hiding my identity or anything, I didn’t think it was necessary, and everything seemed fine at first. That is, until we passed into Idaho. At the second station, I can’t even remember the name of the dirtball of a town, a squad of those ‘Graves Hunters’ stormed into the train car. I tried to fight them off, but their armor protected them from the worst of my spells. In the end, they subdued me with a combination of drugs and restraints, and pulled me back to one of the cargo cars.”

  “I don’t know how long I was kept there, I was pretty heavily sedated, but the next thing I knew I was being dragged off the train and taken to a massive compound outside of the town of Graveburn,” Thyra swallowed, it looked like she was fighting back tears, but she continued. “Half of the compound appeared to be a base to house those ‘Graves Hunters’ and the other half… was full of magicals. Witches, shamans, fortune tellers, the works. We were restrained in manacles that limited our magic and treated like slaves. I don’t know what the others had to do, but I was forced to either stoke the forges in the compound, or help grow esoteric herbs. Troublemakers were taken away and beaten within an inch of their lives, one in three never came back.”

  “Fuck…” I whispered.

  Thyra was really at the edge of tears now, so Clara leaned forward and took her hand. “If it’s too hard you don’t need to tell us any more. We’d understand.”

  “No, I need to say this,” Thyra replied, taking a deep breath in. “I’ve only ever told the elders, when I first arrived, I need to get it out.”

  She sat up straight, steeling herself, and gaining some control of her emotions before continuing. “After being there for a year or so, a couple of the older witches got together and made a plan. They created a ritual circle under one of the bunkhouses, filled it with the limited power they could and conjured a terrible storm. It ripped open the fences, allowing those of us that wanted to escape a chance to run for it. The wind was so strong, and rain so thick, that I have no idea how many of the others managed to escape. I just fled.”

  “Once things cleared up I just wandered randomly for a while. I knew I couldn’t head back to the town, they’d just turn me in to Graves again, but I didn’t have a clue where else to go. I don’t know how I managed to avoid all the patrols sent out to recollect me, but I did. Once they gave up I survived by using the little bit of magic I could conjure through the shackles, and the survival skills I learned back home,” Thyra explained. “I managed to survive for a couple weeks, scavenging what I could, before Tallulah and her tribe found me. I was in bad shape at that time, but they nursed me back to health, then brought me here. The Elders heard my story, and decided to let me stay. I’ve spent every minute since trying to make it up to them.”

  “How long ago was this?” I asked quietly.

  “Five years ago, give or take. I still carry the scars of my time there,” Thyra said, rolling up one of her sleeves. Her arm was covered in dozens of long jagged scars. If she’s been able to access her full magic those wounds would probably have closed cleanly, within minutes. Those manacles must really have disrupted her magic quite badly.

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  “They’ve been doing this for years?” Clara exclaimed. “How can the rest of the coven not know about this? They’re right on our doorstep.”

  “The Elders didn’t want to panic everyone. They warned some of the more influential members of the community, and instituted rules to keep everyone safe. That no one was allowed to go to Gravewater, that it wasn’t safe, and no-one was to leave the coven grounds alone. We figured if people knew the full truth, some of the more hotheaded members of the coven might want to attempt to rescue the people at the camp.”

  Clara eyed up Thyra’s face, then leaned back in her chair. “But you didn’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “No. Those hunters, they’re stronger than they look, and there were dozens of them at that camp. Even if all the prisoners had their powers, there’s still a good chance they still would have been overwhelmed by those assholes,” Thyra said. “That being said, fighting a couple young, and untrained, witches is completely different from fighting an extremely powerful one, like Anabelle or Lady Adel. Either one of those could probably wipe out entire squads with a wave of their hand, armor or not. I didn’t think they’d ever be brazen enough to come all the way here, looking for a fight.”

  “Then why now? They’ve known about the coven for several years now. We’ve had to warn off the citizens of Gravewater a couple times. Why wait?” Clara asked.

  Kaylee leaned forward and hissed into my ear. What she said was crazy, but it also made sense. I bit my lip for a moment, then decided to share it. “Because Anabelle’s sick, and they somehow found out about it. They’d still be crazy to attack a community this size, especially one that’s prepared with various wards and defenses, but they may see this as a moment of weakness.”

  “She’s not even in terrible shape,” Clara huffed. “You talk like they think she’s on death’s door.”

  “They probably know she can’t get all the materials required for her medicine. The kids probably told them that much, so all they have to do is watch and wait,” I grumbled, before looking up at Thyra. “You said there were dozens of these guys at this camp?”

  “Five years ago, yes. Who knows how many they have now,” she replied.

  “And we struggled with just two,” I said, glancing over at Clara. “Not good.”

  “So what do we do about it?” Clara asked.

  I grimaced. “Normally, I’d say head back to civilization, and contact the government. Stealing WitchHunter tech would be one thing, but kidnapping magicals and forcing them into slavery… that’s something else entirely. The problem is the fastest way back east is the railway, and Graves controls it. Graves controls pretty much everything coming into, and out of this part of the west coast, which is probably why they feel confident enough to act openly out here.”

  “Lady Adel doesn’t trust the government, which is the reason she came out this direction, and why we never reported it before. Even if she did allow it, it would take weeks by horse, or broom, to make it to another town, and there’s no guarantee that it would be safe,” Thyra said.

  “We really need to keep an eye out for more of these scouts, and patrols, and we should probably start fortifying the town. Even if they don’t attack, some extra protective magic around the area wouldn’t hurt,” I suggested.

  “Sensible. I’ll ask Tallulah to gather a couple of the others and start…” Thyra was interrupted by a buzzing under her shirt. Eyes wide, she yanked out a medallion and stared at it. “Something just broke the wards. Went through them like they weren’t even there.”

  Clara and I shot to our feet. “What where?” I exclaimed.

  “The east, but it looks like some of the sentry wards have also been tripped. It’s heading to the village,” Thyra yelled as she bolted for the door. Clara and I were only a couple steps behind her.

  By the time we got to the village there was already a commotion. People were running, fleeing from the East side of town. The three of us sprinted in that direction, eager to head off whatever was coming. When we rounded Harmony’s place, we finally saw the problem.

  The spirit, the wolf, was standing there, and it was pissed. Lightning jumped from its fur to the surrounding area, scorching the land as it howled in fury.

  “I thought you said that spirit wasn’t interested in you!” Thyra shouted, skidding to a stop between the spirit and the village.

  “It wasn’t! It could have easily killed us back there if it wanted to!” I yelled back.

  “Well we better figure out what it wants, fast. If it gets into the village people are going to get hurt,” Clara growled.

  “We won’t let that happen,” I muttered back.

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