It had been a week since the incident at the park. Tabitha had mostly been quiet and subdued. After a magical outburst, it always drained her. She still could not control or focus her power. Well, that was not entirely true, she could concentrate on a target and obtain the results intended from her spells and hexes. The problem was the lost excess energy expelled during the conjuring of her incantations. When Tabitha performed magic outside of her lessons, her emotions took over. She tended to use magic from an emotional state, not one of calculation or restraint. Rather than a measured, controlled release of energy from whatever mystical furnace fuelled her powers, she used the full force of her strength in that single burst. Only a tiny fraction of her energy went to the spell, and everything else was wasted and dissipated out in stray directions. Here was why her magic was so dangerous when used. With a single moment of lost self-control, she could illuminate the heavens with a magnificent glow. However, she left herself depleted and without the endurance to fight off those things drawn to such a light that may come looking for her afterward.
Then there was the guilt. For such a young child, the complexity of her emotions could be staggering. Immense guilt fell over Tabitha whenever she failed to control her magic. Her desires for pleasure and fun overrode any sense of restraint and reasoning leading to disastrous results. Marrissa found this to be the most challenging aspect of Tabitha’s education. The girl must be free to explore her abilities but not to the point where it would give away their position or attract attention not wanted or desired. Marrissa never forgot what hunted them. It was more than just evil that sought them. Both Heaven and Hell have blood on their hands. Both desire power and dominance. Time was growing short, and soon the veil would be torn. Their ability to evade the sight of a god would be no more, and the armies of Heaven and hell would be released.
“Are you sure you don’t want to come with me? It’ll do you some good to get out.” Marrissa said as she grabbed the keys to her car and mentally went over the list of food and other supplies she would need to pick up in town.
‘No, Mom. I want to finish my game with Buddy.” Tabitha said, sitting cross-legged in front of the opening of a dark closet. The inside was pitch black, and Marrissa could just barely make out the beady eyes and wide grin of the girl’s familiar sitting before the child. Tabitha raised her cupped hands, shook them fiercely and tossed a pile of bones onto the large piece of parchment that laid between her and the demon perched within the closet. The two looked at the arrangement of fallen bones and the rogue-demon chittered and giggled. In turn, the girl let out a burst of giggles of her own. Marrissa shivered at the thought of spending time with such a creature, but this was what the fates had decided and who was she to question their divine plans.
