Chapter 30: Strange Times & A Stranger Girl
Atop a mountain overlooking the wide horizon stood a tall, muscular man. He had a smile on his face as his lion mane of red, wavy hair fluttered due to the wind.
He kept staring at the horizon even when a woman walked up to him and stood by his side.
A sigh of contentment left his lips and he asked the woman beside him, "Beautiful, isn't it?"
"It is, Godric.", replied the woman in a rather emotionless tone.
"The students would have quite a view and the location would ensure that they focus on their studies and work hard. Since that would be expected from them.", the woman said as she gazed at the horizon.
"Ugh!", Godric groaned and said, "Can't you enjoy the moment, Rowena? Just once?"
Rowena looked at Godric through the corner of her eyes and replied, "Enjoy the moment, you say?"
She snickered, her fingers wrapped tightly along the book she held, and said, "What is there to enjoy? The non-magic folk who are chanting 'Death to witches!' or 'Kill the children of the devil!'? Or the fact that dozens of us are being hunted down and killed by the non-magic folk? Or the land that is still plagued with ignorance?"
"These are dark times," Godric admitted and replied, "People do not know Magic and it is still regarded as something that can only be used for evil. They need to know how much good we could do for them. We need to educate the uneducated masses and spread knowledge and wisdom. That's the only way to improve things."
"Indeed, it is.", Rowena nodded and said, "But.."
Seeing that Rowena fell silent, Godric turned toward her and saw that she had a somber expression on her face which was unusual since she never had made such a face. Not once over the years, he had known her.
"What's wrong, Rowena?", Godric asked with a concerned look on his face.
Rowena sighed deeply and replied, "Do you remember about the things I encountered in the cave off far south?"
Godric nodded and replied, "Yes, I do."
Rowena sighed again and said, "Well... I... found something. Something very old. And... it... was very disturbing."
"Oh? What is it?", Godric asked, confused by the strange behavior of Rowena.
"Here, take a look.", Rowena said and handed a small, worn-out page she took out from the book that was in her hand.
Godric took the page from her and read the writing on the paper.
And as he did so, his expression turned from confused to shocked and then grim.
"Is this..?", Godric began.
"Yes.", Rowena said as she nodded her head. She turned her gaze to the horizon and murmured, "The battle between the Guardian of Light and the Harbinger of Darkness!"
"But how can you be sure?", Godric asked with a skeptical look on his face.
"I can't.", Rowena replied sadly, "But the prophecies were never wrong. They never lied. Moreover, both of us know that these battles have been occurring for quite some time.
"So what you are saying is that....", Godric began but trailed off as Rowena gave him a solemn nod.
"If the battle is about to begin... then, the Harbinger... and the Guardian will appear..", Godric murmured, his mind going haywire at the revelation.
"In a thousand years.", Rowena completed Godric's sentence and murmured while clutching the book in her hand tightly, "In a thousand years... the world will witness the battle of the ancients once again."
PRESENT
"Aaah!", Annie screamed out in pain as beads of sweat formed all over her body.
Scratching at her neck desperately, she gritted her teeth and thought, 'What the fuck is this?! My body is burning up! It feels like I am on fire! Why?!'
The pain and heat grew stronger turning her breath to erratic. Her eyes became bloodshot as tears leaked out from the corners of her eyes.
As the heat and the pain kept building up, she couldn't help but fall to her knees and her fingernails dug into her skin, creating small lacerations on her neck.
"Ah! Stop!" Annie cried out in pain but no voice came out. Even though she wanted it to stop, she knew she could do nothing except battle the pain till the wand had finished doing its job.
'What the?!', She exclaimed in shock in her head when her eyes fell onto the small ray of light creeping out through the tip of the wand.
She forced herself to grab the wand and as soon as she did so..
ZZZAAAPP
Annie swung the wand and a bright silver, almost blinding, ray of magic burst forth from the tip of the wand, almost bursting it apart.
BANG
The ray of magic slammed into the cauldron with such power and force that a sonic blast resulted and the ground shook under the sheer magnitude.
BOOM
By now Annie couldn't even stand properly, let alone hold the wand in her hands but she gritted her teeth as she planted the feet firmly on the ground and brought all the energy she could muster together.
However, she didn't remove her eyes from the cauldron and watched as strange orbs burst above the brew in the cauldron.
CRACKLE CRACKLE
Strands of lightning began to burst forth from the strange orbs. There were hundreds and hundreds of them. As they were born from the liquid surface of the brew, the strands of lighting spread across the surface and clustered into large balls of lightning.
'It's working! That means I did it! I conjured a spell!', Annie smiled in relief looking at the brew in the cauldron.
Now there were numerous bubbles in the cauldron filled with tiny bits of lightning and sparks shot out into the air frequently.
The lighting in the bubbles was shifting colors rapidly- blue, purple, red, gold, grey, orange- the list was endless.
Not even a couple of seconds had gone by and there were already over one hundred and twenty balls of lightning in the cauldron and yet the number kept growing.
However, after a moment, a long strand of white lightning formed and everything stilled.
BOOM
All the bubbling, the growth stopped at the moment and a thundering sound rang out along with a bright silver light.
For a moment or two, Annie could not see anything except silver. The light was so bright, that it was hurting her eyes. She winced in pain and quickly covered her eyes with her hands.
A few seconds later, Annie lowered her hands and slowly blinked her eyes open. However, she didn't make any movement as the first thing she noticed was the swarm of tiny silver lightning bolts darting in the air in all directions. They would leave a silvery trail behind them that lasted for a second or two before fading away and they all darted around as fast as bullets and zipped at the speed of light.
"Woah!", Annie was astonished by the effect of the spell she cast.
"You are quite the artist, aren't you?"
Annie heard the wand's voice in her head and a smile formed on her face. She replied, "Indeed, I am. All thanks to you."
"My pleasure.", replied the wand and urged, "Now go and check out your potion."
"Yes, I will.", said Annie who got up to her knees with some difficulty and walked slowly. Once she did so she reached the cauldron and peered inside.
The blue layer at the top of the brew had broken apart like a fragile thin film and a strange glittering yellowish liquid was present under it.
Gazing at the liquid in confusion, Annie said, "What is that? It's not a Wiggenweld potion since one doesn't look like that."
'Oh no!', Annie bit her lip and thought, 'Does this mean that I failed again? Does this mean that..'
Breaking away from her thoughts, she asked the wand, "Do you know what this is since I have no recollection of a potion that had any resemblance to this?"
Sighing, the wand replied, "Unfortunately, I don't. That means, there's only one way to find out."