The moment the barrier between them fell, Nina attacked.

Pure magic in the form of a black and red ball shot toward Avalon at high speed. Avalon had but a moment of time to create a shield in front of her and Neymar. The air flickered before her eyes, the air molecules forming a hardened front that not even a sand corn in the wind could have penetrated.

The impact of the power ball hitting the shield almost threw her off her feet. Not a second later, another followed, and then another. The hits kept on coming, not faltering for even a single moment. All the while, the Völva – in the deceitful shape of a young, redheaded woman – hissed and screamed at her.

Nina was pissed, all right. Whether that had to do because she – an ancient, supernatural being that had been gifted with powers by the Northern Goddess Freya herself – had gotten imprisoned by Avalon, who she perceived as a lowly witch, or because said lowly witch was successfully defending against her assault now, Avalon was neither sure of, nor did she care to find out.

Nina's spells bouncing off of Avalon's protective spell forced her to back off a few steps, giving Avalon and Neymar just the thing they needed: space.

Then, all of a sudden, the attack stopped. Yet Avalon kept hold of the shield, sweat beading down her forehead. The rain had let off, leaving a damp fog in its wake.

Nina stood a few feet away, her chin lowered as she glared daggers at her. Hate and spite had turned her previously beautiful features into a grotesque face, her unnatural sharp teeth glimmering in the moonlight. She shook out her manicured hands, a gesture that Avalon irritatingly reminded her of how Davi had shaken off the sticky sand from his hands when they'd made the sand shark on the beach. It felt like a lifetime ago.

"Your shield won't protect you forever, little witch!" Nina jeered. "You're weak. You're out of power. You're alone. You're nothing. He is mine!"

Then a wave of black and red hues branded against the shield, almost forcing Avalon to her knees.

I can't do this!, Avalon realised, faltering. Dammit, she's too strong! What was I thinking?!

She gritted her teeth, focusing all her thoughts on holding the shield while at the same time expanding her magical resources to a counter spell of her own. Power flashed through her body, as the wooden wind chimes – the sound of her own magic – called for her attention. She felt the wind brush her cheeks, giving her an idea. She focused her mind on the breeze, imagining it strengthening with each rapid heart beat.

But it wasn't enough. It would never be enough!

Suddenly, a new source added power to her spell. Avalon blinked, almost overwhelmed by the familiar feeling. Her father's magic tasted like red wine on her tongue, his persona magicae lending strength. Avalon's heart skipped a beat. Her father, her coven leader, had just accepted her back into the coven. And not only that: he'd initiated an aquellare, lending her the strength of her family, all Vega witches, be they a few hundred metres away or half a country.

The longer she focused on the renewed coven connection, the more personae she recognized from home. There was her mother's soft feathery touch tickling her nose, and Aunt Felicia's blue butterflies fluttering around her inner eye, and the sound of horse hoofs thundering along the stony path surrounding the family vineyard's mountain side that was her cousin Benji's furious magic, the clack of knitting needles coming from Grandmother Eliza.

Then she felt a hand touching her leg, the gesture reassuring and empowering her in a completely different way.

She wasn't weak. She wasn't out of power. She wasn't alone. She certainly wasn't nothing.

And Neymar was free and didn't belong to anyone but himself anymore.

Avalon's resolve grew. She took a deep breath, corrected her stance and glowered at Nina. The softest twirl of her finger, preparing herself and the wind for what was to come. Nina didn't even care to glance at the movement. Instead, all she did was return Avalon's death glare with one of her own.

A soft smirk formed on Avalon's face. That bitch would underestimate her for the very last time.

"Go!" she hissed at Neymar, who'd been crouching beside her and following the exchange with wide eyes. What must a magical fight look like to a person who couldn't feel the magic, hear its tunes and see its colours?

Neymar hesitated for a fraction of a second, but then he shook himself, visibly gathering his wits to take action. He pressed his lips together, met her gaze one last time. At her slightest nod, he jumped up and raced across the garden – toward the living room glass doors.

Before Nina could turn her attention on the football player, Avalon released the spell she'd prepared.

The wind became a storm, turning to throw itself at the Völva with the might of a hurricane. The combined magic of the coven alongside Avalon's own turquoise magic force practically broke Nina's power wave before hitting her with such intensity that she first staggered on her feet, trying to remain upright. But then the force grew too much for her, making her tumble backward, and backward, on and on and on, with Avalon following step by step by step, until the two women found themselves standing opposite one another down by the side of the pool.

From the side of the terrace, someone called her name.

"Zelo!" she called back.

Then there was movement in the corner of her eye, and then she felt the warm body of her teacher rubbing against her leg.

By now, the wind had stopped, leaving Avalon breathless and tired. Nina, too, was catching her breath as she straightened. Avalon swallowed the lump in her throat. The sound, smell, feel of the coven was a conscious, reassuring presence in her mind. Even after the fired-up spell, the aquellare held strong.

It would need to hold strong for a little while longer.

"Is that all the famous Vega family can do? A bit of wind? Pathetic!" Nina's voice was mocking. "Do you know what I am? You don't have the power to defeat me. Not you, and not your sad excuse for a coven."

She did have a point there. Avalon ignored the rising panic inside of her. Knowing what was about to happen, what needed to be done. Never in her life had she been as scared as she was right at this moment. Instead of answering to the other woman's jibe, she asked Zelo, "Are they safe?"

"As safe as can be", he replied. He didn't want to say where they were in front of Nina, but Avalon had told Neymar to get them all out of the building as soon as possible via basement or front door. Thanks to the trapping spell, all magic inside the barrier would have been annulled, so Nina's enchantments wouldn't tell her of any comings and goings anymore. "Better focus on your opponent now."

Indeed. Nina was stretching her neck, seeming like she had all the patience and power in the world on her side. As if Avalon hadn't just broken her magical energy wave and forced her halfway across the garden. As if Avalon wasn't a challenge, or a threat, or anything other than a nuisance.

Out of nowhere, Poker the dog ran at Nina, catching the Völva completely by surprise as he bit into her leg.

"You show her, bitey!" Zelo yelled gleefully.

It was then that Avalon remembered the spell she'd put on the dog – the one that made him unafraid of her. Avalon grit her teeth, holding the fear at bay. It helped to have her magical mentor by her side. A little. Her stomach clenched as she raised her hands toward the dog to protect him from Nina's recuperation. Thankfully, all that Nina did was kick him away from herself, cursing the "stupid mutt". Poker yelped at having gotten her foot in the belly, but when Zelo yelled at him to run, he did, having gotten his revenge.

"What now?" Zelo asked.

Avalon sighed in relief as her eyes followed Poker disappearing into the night. Hopefully on his way to where Gil or Neymar was. She didn't care where, really, so long as it was far away from here. "There's a plan."

Zelo hissed like the cat that he was. "That plan better be good. You know she's no ordinary witch, right?" Then he perked up, finally noticing the other magical presences in the area. His tail twitched. "I see. Finally grew out of your whimsicality, have you?"

"Really not the time for your I told you so, Zelo."

"Whatever you plan to do here, it won't work", Nina said, composed once more as she straightened her dress and shook off grass from her shoes. Her face appeared to be that of the human woman who'd put Neymar da Silva Santos Junior under a love spell: beautiful, pale, with bright blue eyes, lush lips and white – and decidedly human – teeth. "You think you can break my efforts? Get between me and my goal? Think again, Vega witch." She laughed. "I can feel your coven weaken. And all it took was one pathetic spell to run out of energy. How sad for you." She pouted overdramatically. "All I need to do is wait for a moment longer. And then you'll be on your own again, with no coven to cuddle you, with no way to defend against me. And after I get rid of you, I'll redo my spell again."

"And do what, exactly?" Avalon asked. She'd been racking her brain to find an answer to that question for what felt like a lifetime now. "You're a mighty being that's way more powerful than any of us, right? What do you need Neymar for?"

Nina chuckled. "Ah, you're so young. When I was so young, the humans worshipped the ground that my sisters and I walked upon. We were Gods to them! We did what we wanted, and we did it for Freya. But did she appreciate all the things us priestesses did for her? No. She feared our might. She took our wands away, worked with Viking scum to imprison us. But not me! She could never get a hold of me. I survived, I honed my powers even without my wand. Because I'm that good. I'll show you, little witch."

Avalon tilted her head, thinking profusely. "But times have changed, haven't they?" she said, having realised an old truth: Old powerful beings loved to hear themselves talk about their own greatness.

The power of the coven slowly ebbed away. She was running out of time.

Nina cursed in a language Avalon didn't recognise. "Humans are pathetic creatures. They don't know glory when it spits them in the face. They have lost all interest in the mythical, the Greater Ones, the powers that decided their fate." She turned up her nose at the thought. "Sceptics, all of them. Unaccepting of a power far mightier than them, even as it stands right in front of them. Dismissing the Greater Powers of the universe in favour of praying to fake idols that were made up thousands of years ago."

"That's what you want, then? To be idolised by humans?"

Nina glowered. "Völvas were Freya's servants, doing her bidding, seeing the fate of the world run its rightful course. I have the power of a Goddess. I deserve to be adored like one. Killing them doesn't change their ways. Enslaving them all is draining. My power isn't impressing those fools, no matter how many suffer from my wrath. But money and fame? That's a language they understand far better. A language I can rule them with. Be worshipped for myself."

"Of course it is", Avalon muttered. Power hungry beings would always strive for more power. It shouldn't be surprising to finally find out what Nina's goal here had been. And yet it was. Surprising, and shocking because of its cruel simplicity.

"And the footballer is one of the closest things to a God this world can offer at the moment", Nina went on. "Money, fame, glory, worship. It helps that he's a looker. And he's mine. And with him, all that he has is." She smiled devilishly. "It helps that he's a looker and able enough to satisfy me well enough. Quite entertaining, actually. I should've gone for athletes sooner."

The aquellare was about to trickle out any moment now. Already, Avalon felt drained and empty. Alone. All alone. Against a godlike creature. "He won't entertain you any longer, now that he's no longer yours," she spit out, hackles rising at the mere memory of moans in the night.

Nina sneered. "You would think a love spell is difficult. You witches with your manageable skills are no match for me. You broke him once from me. That's fine. But you won't be there to succeed a second time."

It felt like a cold shower when the last remnants of the coven's connection finally fell away. All that Avalon was left with was the melody of the wooden chimes and the golden and turquoise tendrils of her own power.

The Völva cackled, having noticed the lack of power. "Time's up, little witch. Say your prayers to the Mother and hope she will accept you after this failure."

How much more time would Marcel and Lars need now?

Avalon took a deep breath. She felt Zelo's warm cat body press against her leg. Nina raised her hands, gathering raw magical energy in her hands. One thing could be said about her: She certainly had no taste for finesse in her attack repertoire. That, or she still underestimated Avalon. Which suited her just fine – raw balls of energy she could handle, a duel between witches she could not.

Then a steady drum of energy came alive around them, pulsing like a heartbeat. Avalon smiled. Her father was redirecting the aquellare, uniting it with a new source.

Yes! It's working!

Nina's eyes widened, finally realising what was going on herself. "What is this?" she demanded. She looked around. There was a new look on her face. Wariness. Dread. Fear. "What are you doing?"

"Should've focused your attention to your surroundings, bitch", Avalon said, gathering her powers.

At that, Nina's face contorted into the hideous grimace from before, the white of her eyes changing into black, the irises shining in an otherworldly red. Her manicured nails turned into long claws as sharp as her teeth. Her red hair moved unnaturally, forming a crown around her head. Black and red tendrils of power whirled around her.

Avalon gulped. Nina wasn't kidding around anymore.

"Look out!" Zelo shouted, but Avalon had already felt Nina's move, and had prepared herself for it.

Not a second too late did she call up her magic to meet the Völva's force halfway.

And so the power play began. 

- - -

I'm so sorry for the longest wait ever...! Apparently, I've been holding the world's greatest grudge ever since our boy (okay, who am I kidding, he's a man now) left for PSG. Is there still someone out there who cares at least a bit about finding out how this story ends? If not, it's okay, I did keep everyone waiting for... well... years... :/

I hope you guys are all okay! The world's been WILD these past few years! O.o

Anyway, what's done is done, and now I'm off to finish this story – it's just 1 to 2 more chapters, I think. Can't believe I stopped writing this close to the end. Stupid me.

All the best,

shamandra

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Published on: 22 March 2022