I found this prompt of pinterest but couldn’t figure out how to tag it.
“She added a charm to her bracelet for every life that she took.”
Her wrists and ankles jingled as she walked down the street. Her heels clicked in time to her steps. Her beauty drew stares as she passed man and woman alike. She reveled in the attention that came her way. She laughed at how little they knew.
Climbing the stairs to her flat she ran through a mental checklist; candles, new chalk, extra salt, silver, fresh hazel branch, willing volunteer. She had them all. With an almost hidden smile she put her key in the door. The feyling was lounging on her couch where she had left him. Her smile grew wider as she carefully put down her bag, “I’m back. Let me change and I’ll help you get ready.”
The feyling nodded in an almost disorientated way. He closed his eyes as he waited, consolidating his energy for what would come next. When he spoke it was almost inaudible, “I can wait.”
It didn’t take long before she came back and in her working clothes. Her wrists and ankles still jingled as she walked but this time she wore no shoes and her feet padded silently over the floor. She wore her hair unbound as was required by the magics she would soon be invoking, “This is your last chance to change your mind. Once it is done there is no going back.”
“My alternative is much worse… No one wants to just fade away.” The feyling shrugged expressly, “and this way maybe I can do some good.”
“I just had to make sure that this is what you wanted.” She helped him up from the couch and led him to her work room. After helping him to sit in the center of the open floor she retrieved her bags from next to the door. She drew a large casting circle around the feyling with the chalk. Connected to it she drew a smaller circle around a bunsen burner and a crucible that sat in front of the feyling. She drew a larger circle around everything before she trickling salt over it. Placing the candles at five points just inside the outer circle she let them all with the word. Into the crucible she placed the silver, a handful of salt, and the hazel leaves. Lighting the bunsen burner she started to shape the rest of the branch into a blade. Her voice rose and fell in a soft chant.
The Feyling slowly added his own voice to the chant, unsteady at first but more confident as he continued. It took some time for the silver to melt and the impurities to burn out. The salt and Hazel helped to speed up the process but it still took a great amount of time.
By the time the silver had melted the sword was fully formed in her hands. She looked up to meet the feyling’s eyes one last time. Rising she took her sword in one hand and the crucible in the other. It’s heat not blistering her hand through force of will alone. She walked slowly to the feyling, careful to not smudge her chalked lines. With sadness in her eyes she drove the sword through his ribcage and parallel to his spine. Her hands were steady as she poured the silver over the end of the sword and into his wound.
The feyling grinned through gritted teeth as he spoke his name into the final words of the spell. The magic released as the sword caught fire and the feyling faded.
She allowed herself to cry as the wood burned. When the ashes cooled she gently blew on them. A small silver charm lay in the center of the pile in the shape of his name. With tears drying on her face she carefully added it to the bracelet on her left wrist. Power crackled briefly before subduing. Breaking the circle she left her workroom for tomorrow. Her wrists and ankles jingled as she walked.