The Witch and the Watch Pt. 05

I rushed through the doorway, saw that the storage was just as empty, everything cleared out. But there to my left was the staircase! Up the steps I went, to the top where there was a wooden trapdoor on the ceiling. I didn't see any kind of latch, so I pushed on it. It felt locked and barred from the other side, so I brace one arm on the railing of the stairway and pushed harder.

Ever since I'd put on the ring of Herakles, I'd yet to find a limit to my strength. Back at my home, out of idle curiosity, I'd tried to bend a rusty crowbar in the garage. The metal had felt just as sturdy and hard as I'd expect, but when I put in the effort, the metal had warped out of shape. And if I could bend metal bars, I had no doubt that against ordinary wood, I could shatter it like styrofoam.

This wasn't ordinary wood though, it was as magically resilient as I was now magically strong.

"The hell I let that stop me!"

I clenched a fist, then drove it upwards like a hammer. Pain flared in my hand, but I'd heard what I'd hoped, the sound of the wood splintering, starting to give. I attacked the trap door with all of my strength, and a dozen blows later my hand was feeling numb and bleeding at the knuckles, but the door was gone.

I ascended to the next level, expecting to see the private storage room Esmerelda kept, or perhaps her apartment... and instead there were three stone walls and iron bars. As I looked down, the staircase was gone, the hole was gone, just solid stone floor.

"What is going on here?"

I went to the iron bars and grabbed them in my hands. Grunting, I pulled, testing the limits of my strength. I wasn't sure if the bars would bend or if it would come loose from the stone or if the whole thing would just stay rigidly together, I just put my back into it.

Until.

"Ah. There you are, intruder."

Outside the bars, coming in from a around the corner, was a woman. At first I thought it was Esmerelda, but even if I'd only been with her for a day and a night, there was no mistaking her. This woman had the same eastern european accent, maybe a bit thicker. The same raven hair. Wearing a conservative dress with thick fabric, I could only tell that her breasts were large and her body curvy, perhaps a bit more than Esmerelda as well. The face was similar, the cheekbones a little higher. The eyes had none of Esmerelda's warmth, though. They were old, disdainful hazel-colored eyes.

"Who the hell are you?" I was starting to realize that I might be getting in over my head, that I'd dabbled with forces beyond my understanding. I realized that rationally, but emotionally I was feeling a bit annoyed.

She stood across from me, just out of reach should I push my arms through the bars, "My name is not something I give lightly, even to mundanes like yourself."

"Well, where the hell is Esmerelda? Is she in trouble?" I asked.

She raised the back of her hand to her face and gave the laugh of an aristocrat, "Oh my dear. My daughter was in trouble. But now, I've got the source of her ills safely locked away, where he'll stay for all of eternity."

The first thought that went through my mind was: Oh, this was Esmerelda's mother. That made sense.

But coming in a close second was: Damn. I'm screwed.

"Taking the Ring of Herakles, invading her private sanctum, the very act of crossing a witch...the only question I have for you is...how were you able to manage all this? Are you a warlock?"

Oh. She didn't know about the pocket watch. She wasn't at all prepared.

Maybe there was a way out of this after all...

TO BE CONTINUED IN... THE WITCHES AND THE WATCH!