SWNOVELS Chapter Chapter Six: Dawn of The Fight
Moreover, reading minds now felt like the worst thing that could ever happen to her. As much as she wished she could have a normal life and not have powers like reading minds – with the addition of controlling them – she had no choice anymore. She was stuck here, and she had to accept that fact.
“What’s wrong?” Erasmus asked, as he stood in front of Iris. She was sitting next to a grave as the sun shone brilliantly down at her. It was early evening, and the sun was about to set. She realized she had been at this very place for more than three hours. How she had plucked the courage to sit in a graveyard was something she failed to understand. Yet, there she was and she didn’t wish to go anywhere else. Horrid as this place was, she was now starting to get immune to it, even though she had to try hard for that.
“What’s wrong is that I’m a witch and very bad at it,” replied Iris, resting her chin on her knees.
Erasmus sat down beside her.
“It’s only been a week. You have a long way to go. Don’t give up so soon,” he said, gently.
“You’re right, it’s only been a week and I’ve been asked to help a brilliant witch with some task that I nearly have no idea about,” she let out a frustrated sigh.
“Amara asked you for help?” Erasmus raised his eyebrows, clearly shocked.
“Yes and she hasn’t told me what it is. She wants me to prepare myself for it. Apparently it’s a very complicated task,” she responded.
Iris held her breath for a moment, thinking about what it would be that Amara needed help with. Couldn’t a great witch, especially the likes of her, do everything herself? Iris wondered. Why would she need help of a new witch who until a week ago didn’t even know she was one?
“Amara never asks anyone for help, Iris. But if she has asked you for something then it surely is going to be important.”
“That is precisely, what scares me. A witch of her stature asking for me to help her is like a lion asking a mouse to go hunt for food,” Iris said.
Erasmus looked at her for a moment before letting out a slight chuckle. Out of all the witches around, Iris was the only one who could match his humour and he liked helping her out. He had dealt with all kinds of witches but Iris was better than most new witches he had trained. Lending a hand her out was some sort of an entertaining task for him, and he surely didn’t mind that.
“Take this as a challenge, something you have to achieve.” Erasmus gave her a small smile.
“The problem is that I don’t know what I have to achieve. She hasn’t told me what she needs help with.” Iris shrugged.
Her mind wandered everywhere, to the most random possibilities of what Amara wanted but she ended up nowhere. There were so many things she could need help with, but so less an amount of things that Iris could actually do. A witch, who had lived a hundred years, was asking a new witch for help wasn’t only surprising but confusing as well. When she had asked what it was that Amara wanted, she had just shaken her head and said, “I’ll tell you when the time comes. Right now, I just want you to prepare yourself for it. And it’s not an easy task, keep that in mind.”
That was all it took for Iris to be scared out of her wits. What could she possibly want?
A sound of gushing water had her snapping her mind back to reality. In the distance, she could see a huge wave approaching out of nowhere. Erasmus stood up immediately, along with Iris whose jaw dropped in shock. The wave was coming closer and closer, creating an array of sounds, which, in moments became deafening. Wind blew her hair backwards and she struggled to stand in place when Erasmus said something that she could not hear. He shook his head and grabbed Iris’s arm before dragging her away.
They were running back towards the castle at what Iris thought was lightning speed, as the wave started approaching closer and closer. Once they reached the castle, Erasmus pushed the door open and they entered inside. Arriving at the great hall, Erasmus spotted Lord Lucifer seated in the centre with others surrounding them.
“M’Lord , there is something you need to see, now,” he said, still huffing from his escape, pointing somewhere behind him in the distance, to Lord Lucifer who frowned and seeing the urgency on Erasmus’s face, he stood up.
Erasmus opened a window and they could see the wave approaching, which was now almost at the graveyard. Dust flew inside the castle through the window and everyone else that had gathered around to witness what was happening, hastily covered their eyes and faces. Lord Lucifer turned swiftly to find Amara and asked Ambrosius to call her immediately. Ambrosius ran to her chamber and hesitated for a moment thinking that he should not disturb her, but the Lord needed her and he had to obey. Thus, he knocked on the door urgently, and it opened in a few moments. Amara stood there with an angry frown covering her face, not wanting to be disturbed at the time of her reading.
“The Lord needs you. It’s important,” he said and in a moment, Amara’s frown disappeared as she pushed past him, hastily making her way to the hall.
The wave was approaching closer and Lord Lucifer stood outside the castle along with a few other witches who were trying to do something that could push the wave back but their efforts were not enough to stop it. Amara rushed outside the castle and stood before the wave, as it had now reached past the graveyard. Everyone behind struggled to hold themselves in place as the wind grew stronger and stronger along with the water approaching.
Raising both her hands to the sides, Amara shut her eyes tight and hummed numerous chants that made the wave rise up in the air while she wrestled with the amount of wind that was surrounding her to hold the wave above.
Moments later, she disappeared into the air and dust, while everyone watched as the lifted the wave above and kept ascending; until it was high up, that they had to crane their necks to see what was happening. Iris stared in awe and held a tree to stand in place with the wind threatening to knock her off. The wave was now circling above and Iris blinked for the fraction of a second. When she opened her eyes, it was raining. Her mouth opened as she stared upwards, the water falling on her, drenching her completely in moments. Amara slowly but steadily dropped her hands to the sides but her spells continued. The wind calmed after a while and they could all spot Amara standing there in the middle of the graveyard, reciting the chants. She had calmed the angry wave into drizzling rain.
After a while, everyone started walking back into the castle while Iris stood there silently, watching Amara as she proceeded towards Lord Lucifer who offered her a smile and a nod, placing his hand on her shoulder for a second before he left to go back into the castle. For an hour and a half, Amara stood there chanting as it continued to rain. Iris didn’t have the ability to leave. She held her place next to the tree, not moving an inch as she watched this extraordinary witch perform her magic. The rain subsided and Iris observed as it ended a while later. Then, it was completely calm. The wind became normal, and there was no huge wave threatening to kill her. Yet, Iris waited there.
Amara turned to go back into the castle and raised her left hand, pointing to where Iris stood and waved her fingers, muttering a spell and a slight gush of wind dried Iris’s clothes and her hair. Not a drop of water rested on her and she let go of the tree while Amara opened the castle door and walked inside. Iris sighed before following her back into the castle. She wanted to ask her questions but by the time she stepped in through the door, Amara was already gone.
“Bloody brilliant witches,” she muttered to herself and started walking to Erasmus’s chamber.
She raised her hand to knock on the door when it opened and a witch stood there disinterestedly. She gave Iris a dirty look before pushing past her and walking away. Iris stared after her with a frown. Why are all the witches so good looking here? She thought and shook her head before making her way into the chamber. Erasmus was sitting on a chair, flipping through a book when he looked up to find Iris walking towards him. Assuming she was here to ask him more questions, he shut the book and kept it aside as she sat on the chair opposite to him.
“Who was that?” She asked.
Erasmus raised his eyebrows in amusement. He wasn’t expecting that question.
“I thought you wanted to ask about what happened,” he said.
“I do, but that lady looked at me as though I just killed her cat.” Iris said rolling her eyes.
Erasmus chuckled and said, “Her name is Sienna. She came here to ask me about her mate who left her and never came back.”
“Oh,” she said disinterestedly, “Well, it’s none of my business.” She completed apathetically. “What in the devil’s name happened just now?” She asked abruptly coming to the point.
“Lord Mikhail made that happen, a threat to tell us that he is going to destroy the coven soon,” Erasmus replied.
“A threat? But that would have destroyed the castle anyway.”
“Yes but he knew that Amara would definitely stop it from happening. All he wanted to do was give a message.” He explained.
Iris nodded her head in understanding. She didn’t know much about Lord Mikhail but she was now aware of what he could do. If he could send a huge wave to drown them all just to convey a message, he could do anything.
“But why couldn’t anyone else stop that wave? Why Amara?” She asked curiously.
More than twenty of them standing there and none of them had the power to battle the wave but when Amara was called, nothing else was required. Obviously since there were others, they should have some powers, she thought.
As though reading her mind, Erasmus replied, “Amara’s distinct ability when she was a new witch was to tackle two elements: Fire and Water. In all these years, she has developed many powers, but her dominant ones are controlling the two elements. Every witch has to have the power of command over elements, if not all of them then a few, but elements are what make the world, it is what makes the living beings on earth. So being able to influence elements is what a witch is supposed to learn in witchcraft. It is one of the most important things. All us others do know how to control elements, but Amara has the upper hand in Fire and Water, yet she couldn’t gain much control over the Air that was surrounding her, which proves that her control over the element of Air isn’t that good.”
“So I have to learn that too?” Iris raised her eyebrows.
Erasmus nodded in response.
As interesting as this was, it didn’t appear to be easy. She had seen how hard it was for Amara even though she had the power. Being a new witch, Iris wasn’t sure how she was going to master this art. The amount of things that a witch was expected to know kept on increasing day by day and she only felt more pressured. To top that, there was some help Amara needed, which she had no idea how she was supposed to handle on her own.
ӿ ӿ ӿ
Amara sat on the windowsill of her chamber, her head resting behind with her eyes scanning the woods that lay out there. She wasn’t bothered about anything else but the fact that she had asked an inexperienced witch to help her with something so crucial. There were many things that Iris was capable of, if she succeeded in learning the art of controlling minds; but it would be a long way to go until she truly became capable of it. That needed a lot of determination and Iris hardly had any. She was childish and just a week old in this world. For her to help Amara with what she was desperate to know, seemed miles away from where she was standing right now. She could not lose hope, this was the only way she could find out what she wanted to, and there were things that needed to end, if not in reality, then in her head. Iris was the only one that could help her and she had to assist the little girl with it. She would not be able to do it alone.
Amara stood up, deciding to help Iris go through with this as soon as she could, and started walking outside, making her way to find Iris in her chamber. When she opened the door, she found an empty chamber. Frowning, she started looking for Iris when she bumped into Erasmus who was walking along with Iris to the great hall.
“Erasmus, I need Iris for a while,” she said to him.
Erasmus looked back and forth between the two witches and then nodded, giving them way. Amara gestured to Iris to follow her and she glanced at Erasmus once before following behind. Amara walked towards the potions chamber and Iris walked in with her. There were a variety of potions being brewed in the chamber. Cauldrons that contained brewing potions, smoke gently bellowing out of them, freshly brewed potions that had distinct odours, dusty old bottles filled with pint-sized amounts of some potions. The whole chamber had numerous bottles of various shapes and sizes containing different coloured potions. There was a mixed smell, but the stench did not overpower her senses as she thought it would. Surprisingly so, it was tolerable. Iris thought it had something to do with bewitching the chamber.
Amara stopped at a table, where a pot rested upon a flame, a black coloured liquid boiling inside it. Iris cringed at the smell and looked away.
“Do you know what this potion is, Iris?” Amara said, holding a tiny bottle of glass, which had a glittering red and orange-tint liquid inside. For a moment, Iris stared at the potion in awe. It looked beautiful on the outside. Then again, this place had all kinds of things that looked beautiful, but were pure evil inside.
Iris shook her head in denial.
“This is Phoenix Blood. It has the power to grant life to a dead; but the effects of it are so strong that people cannot contain it. Whoever drinks this potion has to be extremely powerful to take it in and hold it for as long as they wish to live. Once it has been consumed, it is so difficult to get rid of, that one has no option but to kill one-self. If this potion grants a life, it has the power to take it away as well. There was a witch who had the power to drink Phoenix Blood and live again for a day before she could not contain it anymore and had to set herself on Fire. It is known to have caused insanity and torture. Yet, if you are strong enough, it gives you what you want, it lets you control it,” said Amara.
Iris listened to her silently. She could not understand why Amara was telling her all this. She’s right, she thought, as beautiful as it looks on the outside, it is worse inside. Amara didn’t wait for Iris to answer and continued,
“The human mind is just the same. If it allows you to invade itself, it will give you the power to control it, it will let you do anything and everything, yet if it is not in your power to endure it, if you do not have enough strength to manipulate it, it can make you go insane. It can make you end your own life. You have the power to read minds, Iris, you also have the power to control them, but if you don’t have enough skill to do the same, it can cause you enough traumas.”
Iris realized just how complex yet important it was to put her powers to good use. Now she understood what could happen if she wasn’t careful and compelling enough in using her powers. It was the most interesting and amazing power any witch could ever have, but it had its share of darkness as well. If she didn’t learn to control her own mind, she could never control the minds of others. It was challenging enough, and it was frightening; but she had to do it, because she was born with it, she was supposed to do this. And at that moment, Iris realized that whatever Amara wanted help with, was going to involve extremities of her power and all the loose ends had to be tied together to get what had to be done. She didn’t know what she was supposed to do, but she had a clue and she had a chance to prepare herself for it.
“I want you to know that your existence now, has to be devoted to what you are meant to do. There are great things you can do, but if you are not capable enough to handle everything, it will not only make you go insane, Iris, but it will also make you do wrong. You have to realize the seriousness of what this is and work accordingly. You have the potential of being a great witch, but you have to strive for it. And one day, you could be the greatest witch the world has ever witnessed.”
Amara set the bottle of Phoenix Blood back on the table, and walked outside the chamber, letting out a deep breath as she did so. Visions of her parents being burnt alive flashed across her eyes once again and she shook her head to get rid of those thoughts. A tear threatened to slip out of her eye when she scraped her nails across the wall behind forcefully, producing a shrill sound that sent chills down her spine. Her toes curled up as she struggled to stand and the pushed the tears back, changing her expression back to how it was supposed to be, blank.
She started walking towards the woods while Iris stood inside, closing her eyes for a while, contemplating everything that Amara had said to her. She opened her eyes and made her way to the meditation room, with a new determination to prevail the challenge that was set forth. Iris shut the door of the chamber she was in and began the quest to achieve what she had to. She concentrated on her mind, everything that flashed and captured one thought, keeping her mind focussed on it, even if it was an unimportant thought like drinking water when she felt thirsty. Those tiny things would make way to the bigger things that she was supposed to confront.
Outside in the woods, flames of Fire danced gracefully upon the water, creating different designs. Amara’s owl settled itself beside her while she waved her fingers in the air, creating different illusions with the Fire. One flame went right up to the highest branch of a tree and came swishing back in, just close to touch the water, yet far. Amara’s eyes swung back and forth from one flame to another as her hands made innumerable patterns in front of her. She gathered all the flames together and created two birds that touched each other and then flew into opposite directions, scattering into tiny pieces before assembling back again into a circle of Fire.
Sceiron hooted from beside Amara when she held one hand in the air, as though holding the flames in position while her other hand, dipped below, raising some water above to the level of the Fire. She crossed her arms in the shape of an X and the flame of Fire danced along with that one wave of the water. It created a beautiful symphony with the sound of the wave and a moment later, the Fire morphed into the image of a flaming fairy, before diving inside the water. It was calm, the wave fell back to where it evolved from and Amara raised herself in the air, flying up to one high branch of a tree and stood upon it, gazing up into the moonlight.