Magic

Footfalls could be heard from somewhere inside the room. Adelyn, who had just recovered her consciousness, subconsciously listened to the noise as it got nearer to her. Although she wanted to open her eyes and see who was there, her body refused to move, as if heavy metal chains wrapped around her limbs and coiled somewhere securely.

As luck would have it, Adelyn couldn't remain awake as her visions dimmed once again.

When she woke up the second time, the windows across from where she was lying on the bed were wide open; the curtain was drawn to each side of the window frames, and the sunlight beamed through the gaps of it.

Seeing the irritating rays of light first thing when waking up, Adelyn squinted her eyes shut, avoiding being blinded by it. It took her half a minute to finally get used to the lights and open her eyes. That's when she realized that she was inside an unfamiliar room.

'Where am I?' Adelyn wondered inwardly, sweeping her eyes around the room.

The room was small by comparison to the humble home that she's living in after being exiled. The wall was made of mud and the ceiling… there's no ceiling. The only thing that kept her from being completely burned from the sun's harsh temperature was the dried leaves piled up together and tied with a rope.

It was a strange room or house. She had never seen any sort of abode like this before. But aside from the weird-looking way of how the place was constructed, the details weren't any different from her own room. The bed where she was lying was against the wall across the only window inside the room. A table stood by the door, and on top of it was a wooden pitcher filled with water manned by two wooden cups. There was also a chair that was placed a feet away from the bed.

'Someone must have been watching over me…'

Adelyn surmised that while she was unconscious and unaware of the happenings in the world, someone, who could have been the preparator behind her sudden arrival to this place, sat on that chair and looked at her.

With that thought, Adelyn shuddered in fear.

Knowing that someone had been staring at you while you were asleep didn't feel great at all. It brought a lot of anxiety, fear, and repulsion from what could that 'someone' had been doing and thinking about while you were asleep.

Shaking away her fears, Adelyn did not want to keep on entangling herself with the thought of having someone watching her when she's most vulnerable. She didn't even want to know what they could have done to her.

Right now, she needed to find out where she was.

Recalling the last thing she saw before utter darkness swallowed up her consciousness, Adelyn touched her forehead. It quickly drew a sharp hiss from her lips as pain immediately traveled through her senses. The spot which had been struck by that person's weapon was still swelling. Fortunately, she didn't need to see how terrible it looked with how big the swelling was just from the touch of her fingers.

"… told you. It's Stefan who wanted to take her in. I persuaded him not to but he was determined to get her no matter what. You know me, mother."

There was a voice coming outside of the door followed by sounds of footsteps getting closer to the room.

Adelyn quickly laid back on the bed again and closed her eyes. She pretended to be still unconscious to see who could have abducted her.

The voice was not right outside the door.

"How many times did I tell you, Jamie? You're the elder brother, you should keep control of your siblings so they don't get in any trouble."

"But, ma—!"

"Hush, now. With your loud voice, I wouldn't be surprised if Old Vince woke up from his grave."

There should be two people outside of the room she was in. Adelyn deduced that much just from hearing their voices. Of course, she could be wrong and a third person could be with them, staying silent. Still, she didn't risk her safety and continued pretending to be still asleep.

Creak.

The squeaky sound of the door opening rang. Sounds of rustling clothes and footsteps shifting forward were heard. With her eyes tight shut, Adelyn could only depend on her ears to sense danger.

A minute passed and nothing happened. Adelyn could momentarily pat herself in relief that the two people who entered the room did not find out about her tricking them into thinking she's still asleep.

The owner of the young sounding voice, Jamie, opened his lips to ask his mother after he closed the door behind him, "Why is she still not awake, mother? Do you think Stefan hit her too hard?"

His mother shook her head. "How should I know? I still think you should have stopped Stefan from taking action then this wouldn't happen."

Jamie leaned against the wall by the window and crossed his arms in front of his chest. The sun, peeking through the gaps of the window, enameled his blonde hair with golden halo lights. Instead of going over this discussion again with his mother, he returned a question to her, "So, is she a Witch?"

His mother sighed and sat on the chair. "Unless she admits to it, no one can tell if one is a Witch, son."

Adelyn bit the insides of her mouth.

A Witch is born with magic, but they are not any different from ordinary humans who could not wield magic. They still lived amongst humans, who abhorred their existence and just wanted to get rid of them from the surface of the world. Due to this, only a minimal number of people who claimed to be Witch ever revealed they are one. But each one of those who had been exposed were either dead or imprisoned, subjected to countless tortures to find ways on how to draw magic from their bodies.

The entity of magic had been a mystery. It was there even before the world existed.

Many humans, who found that magic can be used and developed into their own advantage against the creatures of the night, rushed to the frontline. Greed pervaded inside them as they wished to rule the world with magic.

Unfortunately, as years, decades, and centuries passed by, the once abundant presence of magic in the world slowly thinned out.

Emperors and Kings, who were obsessed with magic, soon turned to the people who were born with it. But not because they wanted to treat them especially as they are the only last fragment that proves that magic still exists. Rather, they wanted to take them underground, in their dungeons, where they could experiment on them and see how they could absorb the remaining magic in the world inside their bodies.

Why had they resorted to this when there's a less violent way to torment them, you ask? Why didn't the Kings and Emperors of the past try to negotiate with them with a marriage alliance? And why did ordinary humans start to hate Witches?

It's because a Witch cannot give birth. Magic chooses who can be born with it.

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Poisonlily has something to say: Sorry for the lack of chapter updates. My life has been quite depressing and hectic that I couldn't write a word. Don't worry, I will update this book one chapter a day. Once I'm okay, I'll increase the amount of chapters per day.