The Dark Witch Chronicles Book One: The Curse of The Cymmerien Dragon

It had been three days after the night that Lord Mikhail had accidentally found Amara and Azrael in the mountains of Carvelli. He had been resting in a cave when he had heard the sound of someone landing into another. Since he was tired after the journey that he had to take to meet the one that would help him with the prophecy and Lady Calypsa, he had decided to ignore the notice and carry on resting. But his mind told him to find out who it was. So he followed the sound and reached the cave where Amara and Azrael were.

Suddenly, all his restlessness seemed to vanish at the sight of them. Azrael had fainted and Amara was trying to wake him up by using a Healing Potion when Lord Mikhail used a weakening spell that made her pass out instantly. He then approached the pair and crouched before them to find an open bag that had some of the supplies fallen out. He looked through the two weapons and a bottle of potions in the darkness when his hands landed on a book. Since he was unable to read it in the dark, he closed his eyes and tried to decipher what was written inside it when his mind caught on to the fact that there was a protection around the book. Sensing that it was something important that Amara would want to hide, he had started to pick up the book and leave when he heard footsteps approaching the cave.

In an instant, he vanished from there and landed back into the cave that he was in before. He sent a subtle message to his messenger that informed the same about something important being in the book; and that it needed to be found out. His messenger, after receiving it had set to work immediately. And then Lord Mikhail had decided to continue his journey; he was aware of the fact that his work would be done and that he would receive a message soon enough. On his journey, he reached the Dark Falls, wandering around to find a place of meditation when he spotted the figure of a woman lurking around the waterfalls. To get a closer look, he walked further only to find that the woman was no one else but a hungry spirit that had possessed a human body. He wondered who it could be.

Muttering a spell, he put on a shield of protection around himself so as to guard him if the spirit attacked. Then he proceeded in her direction. Sensing the smell of blood, the spirit turned around to find Lord Mikhail standing at a distance. Lilith stared at the ready bait with her eyes wide and head tilted to the side as she smirked menacingly at her prey. She was getting her fill that night. Taking a few steps forward she stood in front of Lord Mikhail, who was trying hard to understand who it was that had possessed the body of the human girl that stood before him. The horrible stench made him want to vomit but he controlled it. Lilith raised her hand, her wrinkled fingers with long nails touched Lord Mikhail’s face. In his years of experience he had learned that when a spirit like hers was about to attack, making any kind of sound or movement could get the victim into trouble.

So he stayed still, even though Lilith’s fingers were cold and piercing and even though he felt like burning himself alive. He kept his position intact as Lilith was getting ready to attack. At that instant, Lord Mikhail shot a spell that stilled the spirit in place. Lilith stood there with her teeth showing, her hand raised and her head tilted to the side. Stepping away from the spirit, Lord Mikhail closed his eyes and connected his mind to hers. In moments, he realized that the spirit had turned malignant instead of keeping its usual nature of being pure. He understood that it was old; one that had started to exist over a few hundred years ago and had been summoned only recently.

Yet he could not figure out whose spirit it was. Since the spirit itself had forgotten its own identity after it turned evil, it was difficult to find out the same. Lord Mikhail knew that his spell would only last for a few moments before she would attack even harder. So with the information that he had in hand, Lord Mikhail teleported himself out of the Dark Falls, leaving the hungry spirit of Lilith more aggravated than it was before. When Lilith regained her position, her eyes turned redder and darker. The thirst for blood had increased, and due to the fact that she could not get her hands on any of the prey that she had found, it made her stronger and more prone to attack.

Now the only blood that she sought was of the one that had summoned her. Had she not been summoned, she would not have been left this thirsty. That was the only thought that crossed her mind and Lilith then ascended to find the one that had summoned her. The senses began to work better and her mind became alert. Unaware of where she was, and unknown to the identity of her caller, she followed the trail of her thirst, which led her ahead. There was only blood and murder that she sought, and it became her path to Nicholas.

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Nicholas was busy talking to the new sorcerer that had joined the coven. Eridanus listened to Nicholas with his gaze stuck on Iris, who stood at a distance with another witch, that he had been told was called Leandra. They were conversing. He noticed that only Leandra was chatting away while Iris stood there staring at nothing in particular. Nicholas and Eridanus stood at the gate of the graveyard outside the castle as the former explained about the shields that Amara had put up to protect them from threats. She wanted to ensure proper protection if any of Lord Mikhail’s servants decided to attack or send another threat to them. The shields were invisible, yet their presence was felt easily.

Iris stood listening to Lea explaining about how spirits were summoned. Her right side rested on the bark of a huge tree while Lea sat on the ground. Iris listened to her attentively, nodding every now and then but her eyes were travelling from one place to another before they landed on Eridanus. He was already looking at her. Noticing her gaze on him, he winked. Iris rolled her eyes and looked away. He was charming, that was for sure. But he also made Iris want to slam his head on a tree for being able to paralyze her without her noticing it. She did not like competition. His abilities were similar to hers and he had the experience of ninety years which gave him an advantage over her.

That fact hurt her ego badly. In the three days that he had been there, Iris had come to understand that he was around ninety-five-years old and had the ability to manipulate minds to an extent that could procure serious harm to the victim. Iris, on the other hand, had only just learnt how to invade a mind without the knowledge of the victim. Eridanus had so much experience in that field that it made Iris want to scream in frustration whenever he showed off his skills. All she could do was roll her eyes and walk away from him.

The most annoying part of it all was that he refused to leave her alone. He was everywhere, and it didn’t help that Nicholas had given her the task of helping him around since he was new. However, Eridanus seemed to have no interest in the castle and its workings. He would only talk endlessly about how he had practiced manipulation when he was a wanderer getting trained by all kinds of Conjurers.

He had highly extensive knowledge about the world of Conjurers and Iris again felt extremely jealous of him. Needless to say, she was not fond of him. She certainly did not appreciate the fact that he had stopped talking to Nicholas and was now approaching to where she was stood. When he reached her, he gave a brilliant smile. Iris returned it with a cynical one of her own. Lea suddenly stopped talking and watched the two of them looking at each other with completely different expressions. Iris had the feeling of kicking him in the gut while Eridanus watched her as calmly as he could. Lea inwardly chuckled and decided to leave them alone. She stood up and walked away noticing that none of them were paying attention to her.

“Nice evening, ain’t it?” said Eridanus.

The smile was still plastered across his face and it didn’t make Iris happy at all.

“It was until you showed up,” she muttered thinking that he had not heard her.

He chuckled in response, proving her wrong.

“Anyway, I was hoping you would show me the potions chamber,” he told her.

Iris frowned. Do I have to? Letting out a sigh, she thought that she might as well get it done and over with. Maybe then he would leave her alone.

“Sure. Follow me,” she replied and turned around to walk back into the castle.

Glancing at Nicholas who was standing next to a grave looking up at the sky, Iris proceeded and entered the castle followed by Eridanus. They walked in the direction of the potions chamber and Iris opened the door to let them in.

Outside in the graveyard, Nicholas stood with his eyes focussed on the sky that had started to turn darker. It looked as though some unknown being was close. The protective shields had the tendency to turn dark in colour whenever a threat was noticed. Frowning, Nicholas walked into the castle and made his way to the library where he knew Amara was present. After she had returned from the journey with Azrael, Amara had kept herself busy in reading books from the library and meditating most of the time. She would rarely speak to anyone and kept to herself. She had also not spoken to Iris properly after returning, which had been bothering the latter yet Iris chose to ignore it thinking it was Amara’s choice.

Amara, on the other hand, had all her concentration on coming up with a reason for her weakness. The long hours that she spent on meditation to gain back her strength seemed to work fine; but there was some kind of invisible glitch that kept her from gaining back her usual self. In a bid to understand the reason behind this, she had started reading books. There was no progress in the matter though. She had not been able to find out what it was that kept making her feel like she was growing weaker by every passing day. She didn’t lose hope. She knew that there was some way to find out the reason behind it all and she was not going to stop searching for the same.

When Nicholas stood in front of her across from the table that she was reading the book on, she looked at him with her eyebrows raised in question. She didn’t want to be disturbed, and she had made that quite clear by staying away from everyone including Azrael. Although he had offered to help, she had declined saying, “I want to battle this on my own. We will talk about this when I have an answer.”

To which Azrael had shrugged and decided to concentrate on his own work of making plans to guard the prophecy and its treasures. That kept him busy.

“You need to come outside,” said Nicholas. He held a look of panic and his instincts told him that there was a dangerous threat that was trying to enter.

Amara immediately stood up at the look on his face. She realized that it was something grave and the two of them rushed out to the graveyard where the sky had now turned completely black. Frowning, Amara turned to Nicholas.

“Get Azrael, now,” she said in urgency.

Nicholas instantly retreated into the castle and found Azrael sitting in the great hall, practicing a few spells. He looked at Nicholas, who gestured to him to go outside with him and Azrael left what he was doing and they reached to where Amara stood in the graveyard. She was staring at the sky, muttering a spell to strengthen the protection because whoever it was, the threat seemed to be a very powerful and dangerous one.

“Can you tell me what this threat could be?” She asked Azrael.

He was staring up at the sky as the shields started to spread around evenly to ensure added protection when a cracking sound was heard; as though the foot of a table had bent or been broken. The sound meant that the threat was trying to break the shield.

“So much strength can mean two things,” Azrael replied, realizing what it was.

“What?” Amara said, frowning.

“It’s either an extremely strong sorcerer like the Lord and Lord Mikhail. Or it is an evil spirit. Either of the two have enough power to create a crack in the shields so strong,” he said.

Chills ran down Nicholas’s spine at Azrael’s words and he stumbled at his feet. His throat suddenly went dry, eyes still, and hands numb. There was a stinging pain that went through his body and his mind felt as though it had stopped. The possibilities of it being the Lord were slim to none, because the shields allowed him to enter the castle whenever he wished to. They would only get in motion if a threat was detected; and Lord Lucifer wasn’t a threat.

“Lord Mikhail is a threat of course, but not so malign that the shields turn completely black. I think it is a spirit,” Azrael said after looking at the sky with increased concentration.

Another crack was heard and a sudden gush of air struck the three of them, making them fall to the ground. Nicholas lay there without moving an inch as realization sank into him. His mind dragged itself to the memory of him summoning the spirit of Lilith and leaving it at a point where the spirit was about to enter. He snapped his head to look at Azrael, who was on the ground beside him.

“What are the results of summoning a spirit and stopping the ritual in process?” He asked.

Frowning, Azrael looked back at Nicholas.

“The spirit turns malignant and enters the body it was to be summoned in,” he replied.

Amara looked at the two of them in perplexity. She wondered why Nicholas was asking such a question.

“It’s the spirit of Lilith,” whispered Nicholas, all to himself as he realized what he had done.

“What?” Amara stood up with her eyes wide in shock.

But Nicholas did not reply. The repercussions of what he had unknowingly done were clear before him. He had left the summoning at the time when he was not sure whether or not the spirit was entering the body. His duty to the castle was more important to him than his task of summoning Lilith’s spirit on Lord Lucifer’s orders. He had failed to realize what it would cost.

Before Azrael or Amara could enquire about what Nicholas meant, the doors of the graveyard creaked open to reveal the dark figure of a woman entering inside. Lilith took slow steps towards the blood that invited her. She understood that it was the blood of her caller that had led her to him. Her strength had been tested due to the shields around the castle but that didn’t stop her from entering. The quest of blood had the power to break any shield, however strong it may be. Nicholas went rigid at the sight of Lilith. She was getting closer, thereby increasing Nicholas’s uneasiness.

“It’s the spirit that attacked us in the Dark Falls,” Amara whispered to Azrael.

He nodded in agreement.

“We have to do something,” he told her and began to walk towards Lilith when Amara grabbed his arm and forcefully tugged him back to where she was standing.

Startled, Azrael stumbled on his feet and frowned at her.

“No. Not you. I’ll do something,” she said to him.

“Don’t be silly.” Azrael scoffed. “You can’t battle an evil spirit as strong as this one. Didn’t you hear what he said? It’s the spirit of Lilith. We all know how strong a witch she was. It’s natural that her spirit would be stronger.” He shook his head.

“I’m capable enough of battling an evil spirit. You were the one that got caught in her grasp and fainted,” she replied, offended.

In their argument, they failed to notice that Lilith had now come to stand right at Nicholas’s feet from where he was awkwardly lying on the ground. It was only when the stench struck their senses that they snapped their heads to look at the scene.

“Oh dear,” muttered Amara and pushed Azrael aside to save Nicholas, who was completely numb by that point.

“Holy goddess of the Earth, I pray to thee. Weaken the evil and triumph the good. Birth of the dead and doom of the soul. I pray to thee, guard the weak and destroy the evil. Holy goddess, I pray to thee. Weaken the evil and triumph the good. Save the soul and end the spirit. I pray to thee. . .” Amara chanted.

It was loud enough for the spirit of Lilith to hear. Lilith craned her neck to the side. Her appearance was more terrifying now that she had heard the spell of weakening her. She widened her eyes that were the darkest shade of red. They pierced into Amara’s soul as she continued to chant the spell. Azrael stood behind her chanting the same spell to increase the effect. Lilith’s insides began to stir as she let out a deafening scream that shook the walls of the entire castle. The scream was violent enough to have Amara and Azrael thrown far away from where Lilith and Nicholas were.

They were slammed onto a grave, their heads hitting the stone hard enough to make them faint but they regained their consciousness in a moment’s time due to the strength of the spell that had been uttered. All of those who were in the castle had either stumbled or fallen to the ground and most of the books in the library had dropped from the highest shelves. The kitchen where a few witches were seated had been shook so badly that the vessels had all clanked and dropped to the floor. The meditation chamber was disturbed. In the chambers of the witches all tables and chairs and fallen. In the potions chamber, where Iris and Eridanus were, a few bottles of potions had cracked and Iris had also stumbled and descended to the floor.

Lilith’s scream continued to vibrate the walls as the spell started to burn her inside. Everyone in the castle shut their ears and cringed at the horrible and frightening sound. Eridanus grabbed Iris by the arm and pulled her up to standing. She struggled to stand straight and held his shoulder to gain her composure. Her eyes were squeezed shut at the sound of the scream that ran shrill into her ears. Eridanus held Iris and the pair walked out of the potions chamber to find out what it was that had such an effect. Along with the two of them, all others including Erasmus and Lea followed outside at the source of the sound.

Lilith was now holding Nicholas by his neck, high in the air just the way she had done with Azrael in the Dark Falls. Her nails pierced his throat and his eyes rolled upwards as pain shot up through his spine. His powers were gone. They had vanished entirely and there was no way he could gain them back since his mind had gone numb. His body was paralyzed as Lilith slammed his back to the bark of a tree forcefully. She then dragged his body down to the ground. The bark scraped Nicholas’s skin and he cringed in pain, ready to scream for help but no sound came out of his mouth. He struggled to breathe but his lungs had constricted.

Lilith grinned maliciously at the one that had called her from her peaceful afterlife, which seemed to have been lost from her mind. Yet she was aware that she did not belong in this world. Her life on earth was over and the Goddess of Earth would never let her stay there for long if the spells were chanted again. She had to finish her task as soon as she could. Once she had the blood of her caller, she would descend back to where she had come from. But if there was no one who could send her spirit back, she would forever wander around in search of blood of all those who were related to the one that summoned her. So Lilith raised her other arm to bury her nails into his flesh when all the members of coven reached the graveyard. Amara and Azrael had joined as well.

“Repeat what I’m saying,” ordered Amara and all of them began to recite the chant that she had uttered before.

The strength of the spell was now high since everyone had gathered for the same. It sent Lilith into frenzy. She now sought blood as well as revenge from all of them. The spell was burning her on the inside as the coven surrounded her and Nicholas. Lilith wanted to scream again but her strength began to subside slowly. She lowered her hand to plunge her sharp nails into Nicholas’s flesh when someone caught her wrist in a tight grip. Azrael stood behind her, chanting the spell while pushing her hand away from Nicholas and Amara tried her best to release Nicholas’s neck from Lilith’s grasp.

By some means, Lilith gathered her strength to scream out loud once again. It shook the ground and everyone dropped down. Even though it was not as powerful, the scream was strong enough to paralyze a few of them. Amara had been pushed away from Nicholas, and Azrael lost his grip on Lilith’s wrist. Immediately she plunged her fingers into Nicholas’s chest. His eyes went still and his breath caught as her nails descended down to his abdomen, tearing into his flesh. Before the others could begin to chant the spell again or save Nicholas, she let go of his neck and tore his body into two parts using all her strength.

There was complete silence. Everyone watched the scene unfold before them without moving an inch. Iris was blank. Amara let out a tired sigh and her shoulders drooped as she witnessed the sight. Azrael squeezed his eyes shut, cringing and Erasmus stared at his best friend’s body with eyes wide, unblinking and void of all senses as realization struck him like a bolt of lightning.

Nicholas was dead.