Witch's Bell Book One

this meeting for anything as mundane as serious blood loss.
    'We have taken your situation into account,' the gray-haired woman said, her voice simply trailing off.
    And, Ebony wanted to shout loudly.
    'Your punishment will be submitting to magical restrictions, for the period of one lunar month.'
    Oh no, Ebony almost let her hand fall from her bleeding shoulder. What kind of restrictions, she desperately wanted to ask.
    'All external performances of magic will be restricted.'
    Ebony put a hand up to her lips.
    'For one lunar month, you will live as the non-magical do: you will not be able to summon, cast, curse, hex, or bless,' the crackly-voiced witch rattled off the list quickly.
    'You will live as a normal, in punishment for not being able to keep your magical side hidden,' her mother said, voice now bottoming out from its once high pitch. 'It is hoped that such an experience will give you the understanding to try harder next time.'
    Ebony just rocked on her feet. She couldn't believe this... she just....
    'You will find, I fancy,' the gray-haired witch tipped her head to the side, 'what are the important things in life, when you realize you do not have your magic to protect them.'
    Ebony didn't respond, she couldn't... she was beginning to feel numb anyway – her hands, her fingers, her heart.
    'Once the period of a lunar month is complete, your magic will return, and your lesson will be complete.'
    Ebony opened her mouth, her lips somehow feeling as heavy as anvils. Even though the situation was perilous, and she really shouldn't make it any worse by speaking out of turn. She had to know one thing-
    But before she could push the words out of her sore and tight throat, her mother cut in: 'Your work with the police force will be unaffected. We will send a replacement. It will be up to the police whether they allow you to retain your position for this month, as a normal.'
    The word normal rang in Ebony's ears like, well, a bell. Louder and clearer than anything else that had been said so far.
    'You will go now,' her mother said, 'to begin your punishment.'
    The gray-haired witch suddenly stepped forward, two golden bracelets and a choker appearing in her hands. They were plain, but Ebony knew that the inside edges would be emblazoned with very precise, very powerful symbols. The woman clicked her fingers, and in an instant, the bracelets snapped around Ebony's wrists, and the choker appeared about her neck.
    They weren't tight enough to cut off Ebony's circulation, or feel uncomfortable at all. But Ebony knew they would be impossible to get off, and would be ever present reminders that even if she tried with all her might, she wouldn't be able to do a single magical thing for the next twenty-eight days.
    'We will inform the department as to your punishment,' the crackly-voiced witch said with an easy breath. 'And furnish them with their replacement immediately.'
    'You will go now,' her mother said. And even though it was probably Ebony's imagination, she still fancied her mother's eyes were hooded with something other than shame and anger. 'You will be sure to seek medical attention,' she added forcefully.
    Ebony had just enough humor left somewhere in her to offer a bare snort at that. Even though her mother had just sentenced Ebony to a month of being at the whims of reality – she was still a mother. And Avery Bell wasn't about to let her only daughter bleed to death.
    'Go now,' said the gray-haired witch with finality, 'and experience a month of normal life. Experience the fear, uncertainty and helplessness with which a life can be rewritten - and overcome it. With this new appreciation, you will better fulfill you sacred task as a witch of Vale.'
    With that, the circle of light that had signaled Ebony's landing barely fifteen minutes before opened up again. In seconds the portal appeared above Ebony, and she had a bare glance of her mother's face before Ebony began hurtling away. With the nausea, fear, shame, and horrid realization of a month without magic dawning on Ebony, she still took a brief moment to analyze her mother's final expression. What was it? Fear? Apprehension? Something else?
    But with the earth zooming past her, the thought soon waned, and in another second she could see the final portal opening up before her. With a sound that reminded her of someone plunging a drain, Ebony erupted back onto the floor of the crypt. Her landing was soft, but sudden enough to send her head reeling.
    The