into the woods

[spelleton]

There are stories told about who lives there, in the darkness of the woods that surround Subcon's various kingdoms, where even a brave knight would fear to tread. The desperate, the ghost-touched, the people who live on the edges.

And those who embrace that border between night and day, those who live and breathe magic; the witches. Those who offer strange magic and stranger things, but always for a price.

That's what everyone says, anyway. There must be some truth to it, surely?

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[subconmodo]

It's a question that Avery intends to find out.

It's late at night when he slips out the window of his estate, a hooded figure crawling down on a makeshift rope from the second-story window with the practiced ease of a man who has done so more times than could be counted. Whether or not he'll actually find something out there in the woods he doesn't know, but his days have been filled with lesson after boring lesson and as far as he's concerned it's about time he finally got a little excitement in his life.

The pouch of gold (for what else would the price be?) at his side jingles when he finally hops the rest of the way onto the ground, and he grins, taking one last look around the grounds before stealing away into the forest. He's heard the rumors, knows the approximate path that he's supposed to take. Even he hasn't dared to explore this deep into the forest in all his twenty-some-odd years of life, but that isn't going to stop him now.

He's getting a souvenir from this witch. It's already been decided.

[subconmodo]

In the end, he doesn't even need to pretend to feel sick. The very next day he starts feeling lightheaded a little before lunch, which leads to nausea and awful stomach cramps that left him flushed, sweating, and nearly delirious.

There's something familiar about the symptoms, he can't help but think whenever they start to ease a little, but there's not enough time to dwell on those thoughts. If it's part of the deal he made, then he needs to use these moments of lucidity well, and so he slips away and searches, eventually managing to find his mother's old necklace hidden away somewhere.

The chain is practically glued to his neck up until halfway through the second day, when he finally falls into a deep sleep.

[spelleton]

It's been some time since Avery made a full recovery and formally became Ekkehardt's apprentice. He can't say it's not odd to have someone his own age - and the former prince, no less - as an apprentice, but he supposes he'll always be seeing strange things as a witch.

"Now that you've made that cape," he says, one rainy morning over breakfast, "would you like to learn how to use it?"