Clear-cut
"In two weeks. Or else the Priesthood wouldn't have came to ask for help. They don't like others meddling in their business, especially witches. But since we have a much larger network, they had no choice."
Visha nodded now that she had a full grasp of the situation. No wonder the priesthood was desperate enough to ask the witches for help. They might never find it on time by themselves and with Bhairavis, they atleast had a sliver of hope. Visha sighed and thought for a while before speaking.
"Someone from within the priesthood might be the culprit or an accomplice to the incident." she concluded.
"It's highly possible. But we still have to keep an eye out." Dhira warned and Visha nodded. Now that Dhira had briefed her about the mission, it was time to meet her teammates. She picked up her phone and sent a text. Both of them talked for a while till a knock at the door interrupted them. Dhira answered, "Come in" and four people entered the room, three male and one female. The girl and two other boys seemed to be the same age as Visha. One man was a little older maybe in his mid or late twenties. Was that the team head? Visha thought. The girl had very delicate features but there was a contrasting ferocity in her eyes. One could call her pretty, but not exactly beautiful. The two other boys seemed glad and cheery. Visha could guess they had a lively personality just by looking at them. But the man stood at the back with a cold expressionless face contradicting the youthful and active images others had. Dhira gestured at them and one of the boys came forward with a warm smile to greet Visha. She politely smiled back with a nod to accept his greetings.
"This is Shaurya, the leader to this team."
Visha was slightly taken aback hearing that this young boy was the leader and not the older guy behind him. Her gaze instinctively landed on him and he shook his head after noticing the obvious pity in Visha's eyes. She immediately looked away as she felt guilty for making it awkward for him. Dhira continued, "You will be a part of his team, and I expect you to behave."
Visha nodded. Dhira still had her doubts and asked her to meet up before leaving.
***
Visha rushed to the backyard of the main house. She had informed her mother that she would be leaving town for a college trip. Payal had agreed readily since she thought it would be safer if Visha left the town for a while. She hadn't sensed that powerful presence in a while but she still wanted to be cautious. Visha left with her luggage straight for the Bhairavi's main house. As soon as she reached, the butler had told her that Dhira was waiting for her in the backyard. She came out of the house into the backyard and saw numerous human shaped cutouts placed randomly all over the lawn.
Dhira turned back to face her when she sensed someone behind herself. Visha hurried upto her side and stared at the green and red cutouts in front of her. The land was divided in large square areas with those cutouts in different positions. Some squares had red ones more some had green ones more. Visha couldn't understand what this was.
"Red ones are your targets. Burn them." Dhira said pointing to one of the squares at her right. Visha hesitated for a moment before she nodded and did the flame spell. The entire square burnt to a crisp and the butler behind them felt like crying. He was a low grade witch and it was extremely difficult for him to make grass grow in such large areas. Whenever his Young Miss trained this new one, it meant a quintupled workload for him. He might not be able to mend this huge grassless patch for weeks.
Once the flames died down a bit, Dhira frowned seeing that there was no trace of the cutouts left. Just ashes!
"Fail!" Dhira announced. Visha didn't understand why. She had gotten rid of the targets successfully.
"Only the red ones were targets." Dhira said and headed to the next square. She squinted her eyes and chanted, with her eyes now ablaze she looked fierce. Multiple flames shot out of her extended palm and landed on the red cutouts, specifically. It was so precise and accurate that not even the grass around it was burnt. There was a red one right behind a green one which was burnt from its back! The skill and precision she possessed was one people could only dream of. Even the Masters and Madams of various clans couldn't have pulled off a clear-cut attack like this. She was a legend for her skills in all of the witch world. That was the reason no one could object her as the heir even with her unknown origins. She was just an orphan taken in by Rajesh while the other candidates were from prestigious witch families. Some of them had been witches of more than fifty generations! And it was a proven fact, that the firstborn was always more powerful than the previous generation. But Dhira had surpassed them all by leaps and bounds, making them all feel like children.