34 – On the Righteous Path

I sat in the witch’s hut, scowling down at the tea she had poured for me, while Smoke glared daggers across the rounded table at the younger witch. I wasn’t sure why I had agreed to come inside, but… I suppose I was still a little dumbstruck by being attacked that her honeyed apologies had worked wonders on me.

She had come at a good time, at least, distracting me before my anger had boiled over.

“I can only apologies for my student’s foolishness, truly. She is perhaps a little… overzealous when it comes to our safety,” Daji said, smiling politely at me.

She didn’t look that old, maybe a woman in her thirties or early forties. But the thing about witches and wizards, the really wise ones, was that even if they made themselves physically young… there was something in the eye that gave them away if you knew what to look for.

“I…” Sakura shifted in her seat, “the negative karma hanging around him-”

“Yes yes, the karma,” Daji said, rolling her eyes. “Honestly. If he had ill intentions he could have carved a bloody track across the entire forest. Would have killed you as soon as he laid eyes on you, before you could pull your stupid stunt.”

I stared at them. “What in damnation is karma?” I asked.

“Your… sins,” Daji said. “All the evil you have ever done.”

“Ah,” I replied, shifting just a little in my chair. Well, my karma must have stood out like a forest fire in that case. Maybe I couldn’t blame the other one for being so wary.

Daji sighed. “All this, and you didn’t even get the damn mushrooms. Really, Sakura. Maybe I can’t trust you outside the hut anymore,” she mused.

Sakura glowered at her. “I’m a grown woman,” she said.

“A foolish one,” Smoke growled.

“Calm yourself, noble spirit beast. I will admit that my student was a touch reckless. Though… I’m nearly 300 years old, and I can’t even recall the last time I saw a man who radiated a presence such as yours.” Daji was watching me, the intensity of her gaze in sharp contrast to her carefree little smile.

“Can you also see my sins, then?” I asked, lifting one brow.

“Indeed. It’s a trait we witches seek out in apprentices. Not a necessity to be a witch, but we like those of our ranks to have that insight.” And Daji focused back on her apprentice, a newfound annoyance in her expression. “It’s not an excuse to try and kill people with wicked karma on sight.”

“So even knowing that this blackness follows me around, you’re not worried?”

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“Should I be?” That irritating smile didn’t falter as she tilted her head. “We’re still alive, are we not? If you meant us harm, you’d have more than enough justification to lash out. And yet you restrain yourself. I’m nearly three hundred years old, I have met many breeds of men in all that time. And you, Amon, strike me as a man who is trying to… better himself. To leave his wicked ways behind.”

“Smart woman,” I eventually admitted.