Chapter 3

After Gaia invited us into her home, she showed us directly to the rooms we would be sleeping in and she gave us a change of clothes after taking a bath. Since it was late we ate something light and then went to bed. I must testify that that was the most comfortable and refreshing sleep that I have had in a while, I didn't even have the reccuring dream that I have always had.

That morning, I woke up to the heavenly smell of pancakes and I could hear the sizzling sound the bacon gave out from the pan, and I couldn't help but think about the last time I had had a healthy and satisfying breakfast.

I found my way to the kitchen, to see Gaia behind the stove making breakfast..." Good morning Gaia,"... I call out to her "oh .... good morning Phoebe I hope you slept well." she replied with a smile on her face.. " yes I did .. thank you"...I said, while walking over to her to assist her in getting the table ready for breakfast. while we were doing that, my mom walked down the stairs rubbing her temple, with obvious eyebags. Clearly she didn't sleep well like I did. Instead of stressing her further by asking her how her night was, I just say..."good morning Mom, breakfast is served" ....."good morning Phoebe, Gaia.." she replied at the same time walking towards the refrigerator to probably get water and juice.

After breakfast, my mum packed her plates from the table, took it to the sink and said " I think I'm going to go back to my room. The headache I'm feeling is refusing to go away"... and then she walked back up the stairs.

I couldn't help but think if it was the side effects of loosing ones mate that she was feeling, and I got scared for her again, because when one's mate leaves the other is not just complete anymore and might soon follow after, I don't want to loose my mom., I think subconsciously.

Gaia looked at me, and as if she could guess what I was thinking, she held my hand comfortingly and said

"Phoebe, I know what you are going through is unimaginable and painful, but regardless of what you face, I want you to know that you are strong, and you will survive this. "..

"Thanks Gaia, I really appreciate your comfort, I am just worried about my mom, I really don't want to loose her, if even all that she has been through is because of me." I say while sobbing..

"I know Phoebe, but sometimes there are things that we want to change, but we have no power over them...come on, I have something to show you."After clearing the table I followed her up the stairs, all the way up to the attic. We stopped in front of a wooden door , She took out a key from the little pocket on her dress and opened the vintage looking wooden door.

When I stepped into the room, I was hit by the concentrated smell of old books, the room was dark with rows of shelves filled with books on one side of the room; and on the other side were tables with different beakers and glass containers on them, filled with different colours of liquids, and weird looking spices hanging from the only window in the room. Gaia walked straight to the third shelf with so much ease and familiarity and then she took down two books that were placed side by side. She handed them to me saying "I figured you know so little about the feud between werewolves and witches, their strength, weaknesses and their intersecting lineage. These books should help you, and if you have any questions I'm here to help.".

"Thanks so much, I really do appreciate it. You see my mom never really enlightened me about witches, it was as if she didn't want me to know that they even existed, I never even knew that she had you as her friend until we had to run away...", I say while trying hard not to picture those moments, and whatever it is that I was trying to do never worked, because I could still picture my dad lying in his own pool of blood.

She handed the key of the "attic library" to me while saying that I could come up to use it anytime I like and I could read as many books as I want. I never really saw myself as a book person, but right now, I would do anything to take my mind off somethings, and at the same time learn about my lineage.

I took the books to my room and settled with first one with the words "Chronicles Of Witches" written on it. It had a black cover with the letters written in gold, excellent calligraphy and it looked very old. I made sure that I handled it with the utmost care that it deserved.

I opened the book and on getting to the fifth page, I saw lists of names of witches and their family trees beginning from the originator of witches: Daena Nueva-Seth. It was noted in the book that she got her powers from worshiping the moon, and on a blue moon ( also known as the Moon of sempiternity), she was granted a wish by Cerridwen. It was said that she wished for the powers of nature, to control and mold the powers of the elements in earth; which she was granted. According to the book, her powers were given to her for her special purpose of which is yet to be known, and after she left, her powers would appear once in every 10 decades in a girl from her direct lineage, until the time to use her powers came.

As I continued to read the names of the full blooded witches, my eyes could not help but stop at a point on the 8th page of the book, and under the Nueva -Seth family tree, I noticed a patch

of white on the page and then I tried to pull it off. under the white patch, a name was written there Selene Clarie Seth (my mom's name).

I pause with a start. How come my mom's name is written in the Chronicles of Witches?, is there a mistake somewhere?, my mom is a werewolf. I think as I turn the pages frantically to find out what kind of magic was going on. But clearly it was much more than I could ever imagine...