Food was everywhere. The dining room table was torn to splinters. Holes were still flaming in the walls, though some had since been covered with ice. Every element of magic was flying every which way, and all of the witches were starting to weaken a bit.
Kat was a strong witch, maybe the strongest the family line had ever produced. Janice had been so proud when Margaret had mentioned it upon her birth. But now it felt like a curse. Even the aging matriarch Margaret herself was expending real energy to keep up. She'd fought witches before, and this was far from the easiest fight, even aside from the emotional struggle of battling her own granddaughter. Even so, Kat was still only 18. There was only so much raw power and sheer talent alone could hope to do. Janice and especially Margaret had years of magical experience.
Margaret had subtly but wisely paced herself, waiting for an opening she could use. Then it happened. Kat launched one of the most feared spells known to witchkind, the dreaded Mors Disintegratio. It was a spell she must have read in the book, before she left it in the sanctum. It was not a spell her mother would have dared to teach her. It would disintegrate the target's body and fracture their soul. If the target had not warded herself with spells more secret than those within the family witchcraft text. A perfect time for the target to teleport.
Janice saw her mother disappear and heard Kat laughing like a maniac. "Mother, no!" screamed Janice, recognizing the telltale dark-void aura of the Mors Disintegratio. Kat cackled and said, "One bitch down, one backstabbing DNA donor to go."
Janice growled. How dare Kat talk about her own family like that, the ones that had begun to teach her magic no less! She used the most powerful spell she knew, a huge gamble, one that would deplete her greatly, so she couldn't risk casting any more witch-spells until the end of the battle. But this spell would unlock for Janice the nearly unlimited power of a mighty mythic beast, and it would certainly increase her intimidation factor.
Kat gaped in awe as her mother ballooned in size, vanished underneath a coat of scales, and grew a pair of flapping wings plus a mighty thrashing tail. A huge beam of destruction shot from her mouth through the ceiling, opening the roof in the process. The massive dragon that Janice had become looked down to Kat with a terrifying glare. Kat conjured a flaming sword and an enchanted shield, just in time to deflect the dragon's incinerating breath. She steadied herself ... aimed her sword for the dragon's underbelly .... and failed to notice the elderly sorceress sneaking up behind her with a glowing cord of rope.
Kat screamed when the rope was wrapped around her neck from behind. She struggled greatly, but she could feel both her magical power and her physical mobility draining from within her. She looked down and saw not only the rope, but a medallion tied in the middle of it. Wisps of white were drifting out of her body into the metal disk. A strange dark-green gem was glowing in the middle. A rare, expensive, and tightly regulated gem, even among witches: a binding stone. A dangerous gem that was entrusted only to the highest-ranking magical police and the most prestigious witch-family matriarchs. A gem Kat only recognized because she had already started researching ways to incapacitate witches so she could take over the world.
"Settle down, Kat, it's over," came the voice of Margaret from behind her. But Kat weakly and vainly swung her arms a time or two.
"My ... my ... my powers! I ... can't feel them any more ... they're fading ... they're, they're, they're .... gone..." panted Kat between deep exhausted gasps.
Then came the voice of Janice, slipping out of her dragon form and taking some deep, tired breaths of her own: "You didn't think ... we could ... do what you did and ... get away with it ... did you?"
Margaret tightly tied the magic rope, completing the binding spell. Kat tried to remove the power-draining necklace from herself, but only another witch would be able to undo it. Even if they did, her powers would only come back to her if the medallion holding the gem were broken, and it was made of a magically reinforced metal. And even then, her powers would only come back to her if she were in a suitable body for a witch -- a woman descended from magical women. "Give them back," whispered Janice, "I'm 18, I was going to be a witch. I promise I'll be good, I promise..."
"It's too late for that, honey," said Janice. She and Margaret looked at each other. Janice continued, "We can't take the risk that you'll ever use magic again. So not only are we hiding that medallion far away until you die, but we have decided to transform you into ..."