• She kept her head bowed, stared at her feet intently. She could hear the angry shouts of the people from the village. The sound seemed so far away, drowned out by the dark of the night. She wriggled her hands, her wrists rubbed raw where the ropes held them together behind a post. Men stacked the wood around her, twigs along with some of the thicker branches from a tree they had felled not one year ago.

    "Isa!" A voice called. She raised her head to search the for the source of the voice. There, fighting towards the stage was Garren.
    "Isa!" He pulled himself onto the stage and stood in front of her. He stood straight, tall, squared his shoulders. He cupped her face in his hands, looked straight into her eyes. She couldn't look away. The screams and angered shouts of the townsfolk faded further into the darkness, he leaned in closer.
    "Isa." He murmured again. "I love you."

    She stared at her feet, tears quickly blurring her vision. There was so much more to lose now. The townsfolk were suddenly loud again.

    "Burn the witch! Get down from there scribe!"
    "Book boy! Scribe! Do you wish to burn too?!"
    "Don't be foolish, Garren, get down!"
    The voices grew louder, blurred into one.

    Isa choked back the tears and summed up all her courage, all her fear and anger and pain.
    "GET AWAY FROM ME!" She screamed, kicking at Garren. "I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU!".
    Garren stumbled backwards, looking hurt and confused. She dragged her eyes up to meet his, anger burning there. The townsfolk had gone quiet. Then with all her anger, pent up frustration and wrath she bowed her head again, just enough that she could still glare at him, and repeated, quietly, "I hate you."

    Garren took two long steps forward and hugged her.
    "None the less." He said. "I will burn with you."
    Tears flooded Isa's veiw again. Why did he choose now to be brave? Why couldn't he crawl back into the safe confines of his library and live there, back hunched the rest of his life? Why did he choose only now to show the village the man he had become?

    "Light it!" Garren shouted, and the torches were put to the dry twigs. Isa wished she could hug him back. A small whirly wind passed over them, the fire spun around them like ribbons and the heat intensified. Her hair whipped around her face, her green eyes reflected the fire. The wind pulled her dress in all directions, thunder from the clouds above boomed with threat.

    "WITCH!" People from the town screamed. Isa took a few deep, hard breaths, a look of utter determination crossing her expression. Her eyes went totally black, like her jaw line length wavy hair.
    "No." She murmured.

    She threw her head backwards, showed the sky her face. Lightning struck the post she was tied too, crawling down it like an overgrown spider to be absorbed by her body. She tingled with life, she passed some of this energy to Garren. He took a deep, sudden breath and straightened to look at her. The flames danced outwards in all directions, flaring and catching to imaginary wood, chasing the villagers from their places.

    She stopped the flames around them, only letting enough fire burn to snap the ropes tying her wrists before extinguishing that, too. She let the fire chase the villagers back to their village and surrounded it with a wall of flame.

    "Don't do it." Garren whispered in her ear. "Please, don't."
    "Can you forgive me?"
    "For what?"
    "I will. I have to. To show them."
    "Don't do it." He whispered again. He was holding her close, the tears evident in his choked voice.
    "I have to." She said again, and with a final sob, the village burst into green flames, all at once.

    Garren caught her as she collapsed.
    "What have you done?" He whispered into her hair. "Isa what have you done?"
    He picked her up gently and carried her away from the village. He hoped to have her far enough away by morning that the village would be all but a pillar of smoke in the distance.

    "Oh Isa…" He murmured again. "What have you done?"


    Authors note: Isa doesn’t actually kill the people of her village, she grew up with them, knew them. She was confused and hurt at how they responded when they found out what she was and in a flash of sorrowful anger she used her power to make them all what she was, give them all magic, so that maybe they’d understand her and accept her.