Ember of Hope

A few days passed in rumination and she felt nowhere near ready for the task at hand. But that feeling of something missing wasn’t relenting either. So she just got up, pulled her wayward hair in a messy bun on top of her head, and decided to bite the bullet. First step was finding Valiance. Usually around noon he could be found in the arena overlooking drills. Apparently Gen. Roth considered him the best instructor for the young trainees; just not for her.

Amongst his students Valiance was considered a god. They revered him and respected his techniques. Even among the trained and battle hardened soldiers; he was respected. Not just for his rank but as a good fellow warrior. She’d heard enough praises in the town from all sorts of people about all sorts of qualities he possessed. It was a miracle all the praise hadn’t gone to his head. A vain man would’ve gotten a god complex by now. She’d seen his sessions from the sidelines many times. And though she wouldn’t probably admit to it in front of him, but she had sort of a massive crush on the instructor.

As expected she found him in the middle of his session and because she didn’t want to interrupt; she slunk into the shadows provided by massive pillars that held the canopy of the arena. She saw him turn his head in the direction of the entrance. He sniffed the air and immediately his eyes found her. A shine entered his eyes as she smiled and waved at him. He started in her direction but she shook her head and told him to carry on with his lesson. No one except her or maybe Gen. Roth could tell that he wasn’t fully into his lesson anymore.

Since they’d completed their bond things had changed… feelings had become more intense… the need to keep each other in sight had intensified. She had been talking to Tamara about such things related to bonding because she herself had no idea about being a mate to another. It was so much more than a marital bond already and it was overwhelming at times. Even though Tamara had ensured her that everything would start feeling more normal after some time but she saw no end to this overwhelming urge to always have her mate by her side.

When Valiance finished his session, he didn’t waste a second in approaching her and planting a hard kiss at her mouth. “I missed you” he grunted.

“I missed you too. But I came here for a reason Val…” she realized she was bunching up her t shirt so she fisted her hands at her back, “Let’s go to her. Now”.

“Sure. Just let me shower quickly and we’ll go”.

She nodded, “Yeah take your time”.

…………………………………………

Valiance as usual knew what she was feeling so he sensed her reluctance and knocked at the door himself. When Katherine called them to enter, he looked at her and smiled in reassurance. She took his hand in hers and nodded at the guards to open the door and let them through.

Katherine was sitting on a chair near the window reading a book. By her reaction it was clear that she hadn’t expected to see her. She stood abruptly and the book slipped from her hands and fell near her feet. “Oh” she bent down and picked it up; flustered. “Raegan. I didn’t expect to see you here. Come sit”, she gestured towards the other chair.

“I’m here to ask you to remove whatever block you put in me to mute my powers”. She said with as much coldness as she could muster for another human being; however wicked.

Katherine’s face fell a little. It’s just an act she thought while looking at the woman who’d given birth to her. “Oh” she said again. “I don’t think that’s a good idea honey”.

She gritted her teeth at the endearment. “Well I decide what I want for myself. And I want to be whole again. So I simply need you to give me back what you took from me”. Now she didn’t have to force the steel in her tone.

“Raegan they’ll be able to track you. You’re my daughter and a part of the coven. They’d do anything to have their hands on you. Please try to understand”.

“As I said lady; I need you to lift the block. I can take care of myself and I have people who’d do anything to make sure I’m always safe. You don’t have to pretend to worry about me”.

“You will listen to me Raegan, I’m your mother and I don’t have to pretend about caring for you”. Katherine was beyond exasperated.

“Don’t you dare play the mother card on me” the calm coldness in Raegan’s voice was vicious, “As far as I’m concerned; my mother is dead”.

“Ray honey...” Katie stopped when Raegan shot her hand in front of her with a finger raised right into her face.

“It’s Raegan to you. You don’t have the privilege to call me Ray or honey”.

“Okay… okay… Raegan... you have to listen to me”.

“Why should I give a fuck about anything you have to say now. Now that you’re forced to accept your crimes and deal with them?”

“I can leave in the blink of an eye and nobody can stop me. I’m here because I choose to be here Raegan. I’m here because I’m tired of running. You have to believe I didn’t have a choice. You think giving up my own child was easy for me? You think I didn’t miss you every hour of every day?”

“You didn’t have a choice? You think I’m that naive to believe you had any other reason than to save your own interests?”

“What interests do you think I had in giving up my only child?”

“That’s for you to tell me”.

“They would’ve taken you away and filled you with their brand of hatred and cruelty. Would you have wanted that fate?”

“Oh spare me the semantics MOTHER”. She spat with such venom that Katherine shrank back on hearing the only word she had ever wanted to hear from her daughter’s mouth. She was once again failing her daughter and would not accept it.

But Raegan wasn’t done yet, “You think I’ll buy this bullshit? You the mighty witch who single handedly cursed a whole kingdom and ruined everything and everyone who dared come in her path; could not protect and hide her own child from others? Well forgive me if I don’t believe you”.

“You don’t know anything about magic yet. The tracking magic works differently. It tethers and binds the witches of a coven to each other. So when a new witch is born, everybody can sense it. They would’ve known the moment you were born and I might have been strong for a lone witch but not enough to handle a whole coven of witches trained in blood magic”.

“Regardless. I’m here for a reason and I know what I want. And that is for you to lift whatever spell you put on me”.

“Okay. I’ll do it”. She resigned. “Come sit”. She gestured to the chair again and this time Raegan took the seat.

When Katherine went to put her hands on Raegan; she recoiled. “I need to touch your core and your head in order to extract the binding. I’m not going to hurt you Raegan”.

“Oh you’ve done enough already. Go ahead, do what you need to”. She closed her eyes and chose to focus on her bond with Valiance through which she could feel him near.

Katherine put her hands on her head and core and began whatever she needed to do. “I’ll teach you all about being a witch”.

“I have a mother to teach me whose version of magic won’t make my skin crawl”. She said without any emotion coating her words. Katherine didn’t say anything after that rebuttal.

Raegan felt a pull in her gut and then a sensation of a weight lifting from her shoulders… A weight she never felt she was carrying. A brightness shone beyond her closed eyelids and she cracked open her eyes. And realized it was coming from her. She looked to Valiance who already had his eyes trained on her and Katherine. She realized that Katherine had started panting. A few more minutes later Raegan could hear Katherine’s breath rattle in her chest and then she collapsed.