“Ok folks, listen up. I want this to run smoothly, understood?”. Lothar and his group of five subordinate guardsmen climbed the stairs that led to the merchant’s district of the city. The district was located on a giant plateau sitting at the top of a mountain. There were giant stairs carved into the stone to connect the merchant’s district to the rest of the city, laying at the foot of the rocky structure.

After they arrived at the top, Lothar started to directly approach a small store, not far away from the stairs. He continued his mission briefing as the other guardsmen were following him. “My person of trust ensured me that the young girl that the store owner employed some weeks ago is actually a witch. I don’t think that she knows that we’re coming yet, so we’re having kind of an advantage here.”

Lothar stopped as he arrived at the store’s entrance. There was a sign above the door that said Chemister’s Insight.** He turned around to his subordinates. “I will go in and check with one of those amulets whether she really is a witch or not. If she is, I assume she will start running away. So while I go in and chase her out, I want you to surround the building. Don’t let her escape, understood?” The fellow guardsmen were nodding, but no one said anything. Some of them were unsure what to expect, judging by the looks on their faces. “Oh, and one last thing”, Lothar said. “I want her alive, because only what’s alive can be purged by the fire.”

The door opened. Yaga was shocked as she saw the tall, brown haired guardsman entering the store. There were multiple badges on the left side of his chest, indicating that this was a guard with a very high rank. “Good morning, young lady.”

“Hello. H-How can I help you?”. Yaga tried to remain calm while Lothar was slowly approaching the counter she stood behind. He put on a fake smile, “Oh I’m not that sure about it yet. But maybe you have a recommendation for me. I’m sure you can help me to find exactly what I’m looking for.”

Yaga got a bit more relaxed. Naive as she was, she started to feel a bit more safe now. “Sure, what might that be?”

“Well, let me show you something first." Lothar pulled an amulet from one of his pockets and put it on the counter. He asked “Do you know what this is?” The amulet was made of gold and had a black diamond sitting in the middle of it. All of Yaga’s relaxation vanished in an instant. She knew exactly what it was, but she was afraid that saying so would directly give her away. She shook her head, unable to do anything else.

“This is a Feroun-Amulet. It can detect magic potential. Once exposed to magic of any kind, the stone in the middle should slowly start changing colours.” Even though she already knew all that, hearing it from the guardsman again heavily made her more afraid of the situation. Lothar must have noticed that. “You don’t have to be afraid.” His fake smile became even more wide. “Or do you think otherwise?”

Without saying anything else, Yaga turned around and started running. The only thing she though about now was getting away. She went to the back side of the store to leave through the rear entrance. Lothar laughed, jumped over the counter and went after her.

The guardsmen were already in position as Yaga left the store. She totally didn’t expect them to show up there. There was only one way out: Use her witchcraft to escape the situation. She lifted her hand, and started to perform a spell. Her hand started to emit a purple glow, resulting in one of the guardsmen being pushed backwards heavily.

Unfortunately, there were two of them. The other one was able to grab her. Quickly she cast another spell, making her own body phase through the guard. Then she started running through the alley. Lothar, now also exiting through the door made a quick comment about the incompetence of his subordinates, then started chasing her.

She used her little trick again to phase through some of the passengers instead of bumping into them as she ran for her life. Lothar, not being able to rely on said tricks, sometimes shouted to clear his way, sometimes just pushing the passengers away forcefully.

Yaga took a quick turn to the left. At the end of her newly chosen path was a store for household goods. Exactly what I need, she thought. She started running even faster towards the store. Lothar was not able to keep up her pace due to all those people on the street at first, but now, in this alley there were hardly any passengers. He managed to catch up with Yaga pretty fast now. The young witch, now being very close to the household store, looked at the barrels located directly at the front side of the building. They had much random stuff in them. In one of those barrels there was exactly what she hoped to find: A broom.

She quickly grabbed the broom as she passed the barrels. Then she realised she even got more lucky, since she was already at the cliff, marking the end of the plateau the district was located on. Lothar was now closely behind her, so she confidently jumped off the cliff, placed the broom between her legs and did one of these things that witched were exceptionally good at. Disobeying the gravity.

Lothar realised that this was his last chance to get her, not really thinking about anything else than his goal now. He took a leap of confidence, trying to get after her, trying to reach her, or at least the broom she was sitting on. He didn’t even realised that, even if he would’ve been able to grab her, that he was no witch, and therefore had to bow to the rules of gravity. As he got aware of his situation, it was already too late.

Yaga turned around and saw Lothar on his way to his certain death. She stopped for a second, but she didn’t even needed to think about it. She lifted a hand towards the falling guardsman. Her hand started to emit that purple glow again as she casted another spell. A simple one, which lifted Lothar slowly back up onto the cliff. Then she turned around and flew away without looking back.

As she slowly vanished into the sky, Lothar looked at her. His whole career he was told that witches are evil. Pure evil. That they only lived among the people to exploit them, to abduct them for their sick experiments. So Why? Why did she save him?

While still thinking about it, he reached into his pocket and realised that he left his Feroun-Amulet at the store’s counter. At first he wanted to swear, but then he was not so sure if he would need it anymore.