Chapter 1 - Burnt Honour

Celeste loved to live in isolation. The main town of Gelida was very busy. She loved the company of nature and the serenity it provided her. She only went to the town to borrow books from the library.

The town itself was a witch hunting town that she avoided going. The only means of survival was to live at the edge of the forest. She watched as they burned witches everytime from her small cottage and a deep hatred began to grow.

In retaliation, she always stopped rain from reaching their town, causing widespread diseases, natural disasters, yes she was the cause of all that. Their tiny human brains thought the Goddess was angry with them and offered ridiculous sacrifices to their object of worship.

In the long ran, some locals even said they have been cursed. How she smiled in satisfaction whenever they panicked. They killed her fellow sisters and felt no remorse, yet when confronted with a little disasters, they ran like headless chickens.

As usual, the sun was setting and she needed to return back to her cottage before her familiar. She closed the thick leather book she was reading and stood up. Marching to the librarian, she offered two silver coins for the book.

The old man known as, Raymond took it and smiled at her. He had a wrinkled skin with yellow displaced teeth. He wore rings on his wrinkly fingers." What book you got there?" He asked scribbling something on his old book. "The act of Sorcery." She said quietly accessing the library once again. Something she always does.

She didn't know whether to call it a predatory instinct like she's watched.

The library was small with about five huge shelves at the sides of it. It had that smell of old books and was dimly lit with candle holders supporting the melting candles. It had tables with long benches.

"There you go." He handed her the book. She thanked him and walked out. She was met with a huge crowd outside. She squeezed her way through the mass of bodies to have a view of what was going on.

The locals were holding torches and screaming their voices out. Her mind ran to witches ,but when she saw Prince Christian being tied on a pole she didn't understand what was going on.

"Burn!Burn the sorcerer!" A young light skinned man yelled to the crowd and they raised their torches in agreement. "Who would have taught that he was the cause of all the misfortunes happening in out town!" The man said.

She watched as the man spoke ,but her eyes were glued on him. She couldn't make out his features because of the dark. She knew what his family did to hers and she hated them for that, but as she saw his helpless form she felt pity for him.

"Today we burn this curse!Who is with me!" The man yelled and there was an eruption of angry voices. From the corner of her eye she saw his family watch their son being maltreated but did nothing .

She was then reminded of the evil nature of humans .The young man poured kerosene on Prince Christian's body. He looked through the crowd with pain on his eye and his eyes landed on hers. She looked away afterall, she had nothing to do with him.

His family wiped hers in cold blood. It was when the young man brought the torch to his skin she noticed a symbol on his neck. Her eyes widened in shock. In a blink of an eye, she changed her form to a black mist and surrounded the people. They torches went off and there was a huge commotion.

She used the opportunity to save the Prince life by removing the ropes that bond him. The Prince was confused but said nothing. She whispered a spell under her breath and teleported to her cottage.

She laid the Prince on the soft bed while attending to his wounds. "Stupid humans, evil beings!" She cursed. She checked whether her familiar was around. Every witch had a familiar who is like a servant and a friend.

"Luna,are you here?" She yelled. Luna was her cat but of course, she had other familiars. Her black cat came in to room with herbs in her mouth. She spat them on the table containing potions.

Celeste sat behind the table and worked on her new potion. The only sounds made were stones scrapping and her continuous cursing.

Christian woke up to an unfamiliar place. It had a light smell of flowers. He saw a figure sitting behind a table. He took notice of the person's long raven hair and feminine features. If he remembered correctly, he was about to get burnt so how come he was here. He thought.

The woman turned her head to him and nodded her head. He also took notice of her odd pair of violet eyes. She was young and he wondered whether it was a spell that made her young or her natural form.

"You are awake." The woman said quietly mixing something on the table. He choose to ignore her comment. He didn't know her reason of saving him. Celeste shook her head in annoyance. The impudence he showed her was annoying. Not even a thank you for saving him.

"I saved your pathetic life that you should be thankful of."She turned her head to watch the blonde man watching her as if searching for something. " Why am I here?"He narrowed his eyes suspiciously at her.

"You don't need to know why I saved you. For now you stay here." She said curtly saving no room for arguments.

He remained silent and watched her work. One thing he realised was she hardly spoke only nodded her head once in a while. His stomach growled in hunger.

"The mighty Prince is hungry. Luna did you hear that?" She taunted him . Her cat meowed and rubbed her nose with her paw.

"Humans are so pathetic." She muttered under her breath moving to the garden to harvest vegetables.

She entered her room and searched for a man's clothes to no avail. She waved her hand and a set of fresh clothes appeared . "Take this .The bathroom, well I don't have one. You need to take a bath at the spring I found." She said.

"Luna take him there and wait till he is done before you come back.". She moved to her small kitchen.

Christian followed the cat silently with thoughts of running away anytime the cat turned its head. The cat gave him a warning look as if it read his mind. They came to a stop in front of a huge spring. It was hidden between the rocks.

The moon's light reflected on the water. He dipped his naked body into the warm water and scrubbed himself thoroughly of any kerosene. The cat dropped a bar of soap in the water.

He used the soap to cleanse himself once again before coming out of the water wearing the fresh clothes the woman provided him.

They made their way back and he entered the small cottage, it was engulfed in the woman's enchanting tune. The cat walked to the kitchen and hopped on her head while she used her hand to control the instruments in the kitchen.

He had to duck before a knife stabbed his shoulder. Celeste served the Prince porridge with bread. She took her part and sat on the dining table.

She wasn't a social person so she enjoyed the silence and ate quietly while the prince sat watching the food. " If you think I've poisoned it, I haven't. I wouldn't stoop so low to get revenge." She said breaking the bread and chewing it .

He watched her processing her words before eating. She gave some to Luna and Heides her dark raven. After eating she washed her plate. "Your room is the next one .I'll be going to sleep." She said.

"Do witches even need sleep?" He muttered and he earned a snort from him. "You humans are pathetic, we need sleep like you but we can stay without sleeping or eating. We only feed on magic energy." She said moving to her room.

He nodded his head and asked her another question. "What is your name? You didn't tell me yours since you already know mine."

She frowned at him. "You have no right to know that." She said rudely and walked to her room leaving him in silence.