Witch of Betrayal

She tilted her head to one side, eyes narrowing.

“But your powers are all about mythological heroes and stuff,” she mused. “This is…wizard-y stuff, right? Familiars or something like that. I’m not an expert, but there are a few witches that I can think of from legends —”

How dare you?!

The word stung something inside of me, something that wasn’t exactly me, and I had to grit my teeth against the surge of rage that welled up from inside my soul. My familiar suddenly jerked off of Tattletale’s fingers and took flight, and I didn’t care if it scratched her with its talons in the process. As it left, I barely heard her murmur to herself, “Guess I said something I shouldn’t have…”

When it returned to me, I took a moment to breathe out and focus myself, just so that I wouldn’t obliterate it in my anger, then I gave it one final command — to go home and hide in the gutter or under the porch until I got back. I’d figure out what to do with it then, whether I wanted to improve it to something more permanent or just dismantle it.

After it was gone, I took another couple seconds to calm down, then released my Install and sat there, stunned, as the anger vanished with it. All of that, all of that rage and indignation, it was all from Medea and all over a single, innocent word? Not even something meant as an insult, just a simple, innocuous word that had come to mean “female magic user” in modern culture?

I lifted my hand up to my chest, and I felt the phantom of that anguish and fury still fading. That was…wow. Medea really felt that strongly about it?