The Vampire & Her Witch
Chapter 272: A Willow’s Strength

Chapter 272: A Willow’s Strength

Seeing the crestfallen look on Heila’s face when she learned that Ashlynn had chosen a willow as the tree to serve as the source of Heila’s power, Amahle quickly realized that she’d forgotten how little she knew about the forces at play and the many different things a single tree could mean in different circumstances.

"Oh, honey, don’t go getting a look like that on your face," Amahle said. "I told you that it’s a healer’s tree at heart didn’t I? You think a healer don’t have her own ways to protect her patients? Let me show you something, darlin’, just watch."

"Step back, step back," Talauia said quickly. Her wings beat rapidly as she floated across the room to tug on Heila’s sleeve, pulling her to the side to give Amahle room for her demonstration. "Watch close, Mother is going to show you something special."

Before Heila could respond, Amahle held a hand and began to chant, gathering the energy of the vines wrapping around the cypress trees to power her witchcraft.

"From twisted vine and ancient thorn,

Let weapons of my will be born.

Through blood and pain thy hooks shall feed,

Till every foe is made to bleed."

As she spoke in a steady, formal cadence, dark green and lurid energy gathered at her hand, flowing to her as though it were eager to be used by the powerful witch. When the short invocation finished, Amahle held a wicked whip in her hands.

The whip looked like it had been formed by a vine that was a dark enough shade of green to nearly be black and its entire length was covered with wicked hooked thorns that were tipped in a lurid, almost blood-colored crimson. Seeing its coiled lethality and feeling the sense of sharp menace that emanated from the whip, Heila’s heart felt like it had forgotten to beat while her mind struggled to understand if this was a weapon for killing... or a tool for torture.

"You’ll need a different invocation to conjure a Willow’s Whip, but I promise you that you can learn it," Amahle said confidently. If she noticed Heila’s stunned state, she chose to ignore it, offering up a further demonstration instead. With a flick of her wrist, the thorned whip whistled through the air before it snapped with a loud -CRACK- that stunned Heila with the explosive power possessed by such a flimsy-looking weapon.

"Anyone who tries to harm someone sheltering beneath the branches of a willow tree will be whipped by its limbs," Amahle said. "Or, they may be pulled beneath the water’s surface, entangled in its roots to drown. The power of wood and water offer great synergy in healing, but they also offer you the power to lash, to bind, to flood and drown."

Seeing the stunned look on Heila’s face, Amahle held back the last part of the power that came from mastery of wood and water. Everyone knew the Willow for its medicinal properties but the difference between medicine and poison could often come down to simple dosage. In large enough measures, even beneficial medicine could become a deadly toxin.

Besides, just because Heila drew her greatest strength from the willow tree didn’t mean she couldn’t harness the powers of poison from other, more dangerous trees. It would just take more effort on her part if she wanted to embrace the power of deadly poison.

"Remember, little Heila," the crimson-eyed witch said, allowing the whip in her hands to evaporate into a cloud of dark mist before it vanished like it had never been there at all. "Nature’s power ain’t just one thing. It’s all things. Sweet and sour, healing and harming, living and dying, all goes together. You ain’t a simple woman, you want to be useful to Ashlynn in all ways, not just limiting yourself to healing or killing."

"Lady Ashlynn will face danger again and again, for a long time to come," Heila said, her eyes still fixed on the space the whip had occupied. "Being at her side, I have to be able to face all of it with her. At the very least, I can’t be a burden that she has to defend."

"And yet, just six months ago, I’d say you’d never have thought of saying those words," Amahle said, lowering herself down to sit on the ground next to Heila so she could more easily look at the diminutive young woman’s eyes without towering over her. "You’ve changed and your thinking is flexible, capable of bending in new directions without breaking."

"That’s a good thing, darlin’," the witch said. "It means you’re meant for all of nature’s power, not just a little slice. These next few days while Ashlynn forms your seed, we just need to draw those desires out of you and help you understand what you can do with them."

The words Amahle said washed over Heila and she heard them but her heart wasn’t really caught on them. Instead, her eyes were still filled with Amahle’s demonstration. If she could harness power like that... then she wouldn’t have to watch helplessly while Ashlynn was hurt and people like Andrus died.

"And there’s one more thing I can tell you, hun," Amahle said sweetly, pulling Heila’s attention back to her. "My little sister’s talents are strongest in Wood, Earth, and Fire. She’s almost as weak in Water as she is at manipulating the Air," the witch said pointedly. "When Ashlynn chose the Willow for you, she gave you a path to be strong where she is weak. You understand, don’t you?"

Amahle’s final words wiped away the last of Heila’s lingering doubts. Ashlynn wasn’t keeping her away from the battlefield by forcing her to be a healer hiding behind the lines. She was counting on Heila to be strong in ways she couldn’t be.

That small detail made a huge difference in how Heila perceived Ashlynn’s choice. Now that she had understood her lady’s intentions, she knew what she desired. She just had to make sure she was strong enough to grasp it.

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