"First of all, why didn't you come here right after Clara died?"
Aunt Marie asks after we enter the door in the tree to her house. She grabs another bottle of wine from a cabinet beside her alchemy table and sits on a couch that is opposite her disorganized bed.
"The plan was for us to go to the White Creek," Stella says as we walk behind Aunt Marie "and then perhaps go to Sariora."
Sariora? I ask myself.
The wine bottle opens itself with a flick of Marie's fingers. "Well, good thing you decided to come to me then. You wouldn't be treated very well there."
Since Stella knew what this 'Sariora' is, I didn't expect her to be this confused by Aunt Marie's statement.
Does this have to do with what she was talking about earlier? About our family name?
Marie notices our confusion and, with a grunt, decides to explain.
"The Council of Witches reads the future of all the families that live in Sariora. Back then, Wisteria Karkrow, your grandmother, received a reading saying that a descendant of hers would use fire to bring this conflict to its end."
Marie pauses to take a big sip of wine. Stella takes this opportunity to ask the same question I had.
"Wouldn't that be a good thing?"
"The thing is, we witches are prohibited from using fire. Also, the knowledge of how to do so was lost generations ago. So, everyone thought that this said descendant would betray her kin and use the Inquisitor's fire to end this conflict in their favor."
She takes another big gulp of wine. Considering the state she was already in, I wouldn't be surprised if she passes out while talking.
"She tried to give a solution to avoid this prophecy. She decided to make an oath to never use magic again. What a stupid idea..."
"Why do you say that?" I ask timidly.
Aunt Marie fixes her eyes on me. As if I said something outlandish. Well, considering her attitude, I might have.
Only a few seconds pass, but that's enough to make the silence and her fixated gaze on me unbearable.
"I mean... If our family stopped using magic, then maybe we could eventually be treated as normal people-"
Before I could continue, Aunt Marie stands up. Anger enveloping her face.
"NORMAL PEOPLE?! So you think that WE are the weird ones?! You're saying that we are the ones who need to change to accommodate other people's opinions?!
She takes a step closer as her hands start glowing with a purple aura. I start clinging to Stella in fear.
"That's the same type of reasoning that the people who killed your mother have! They think of us as wretched beings who must be purged from this world!
She takes another step forward. The objects in the room start to tramble. with her voice.
"Marie, calm down. She didn't know what she was saying." Stella says as she holds me tight trying to calm down the woman in front of her but to no avail.
"Do you have any idea how many friends I lost because of that ideal? Do you have any idea of how many daughters, dead and alive, I had to watch being dragged away to be burned in the Inquisitor's fire?"
She takes one more step closer. I'm too scared to look at her directly. However, I catch a glimpse of what looked like tears running down her face.
"Do you know how it felt having to watch my mother be stabbed in the chest by a flaming sword as I run away wondering if I might be next?..."
After those words, I remember the sight of the arrow sticking out of my mother's chest as she falls to her knees. Tears come out of my eyes as I watch the cloaked men rip the arrow out of her chest while staring at me with his dead red eyes.
"We know..."
Aunt Marie's hands stop glowing as she looks at Stella. Her face was dead serious with a single tear running down her cheek.
"We watched our mother be hit by an arrow after she fought a knight with a flaming sword. Her body was covered in scars and burns..."
Marie looks at me. weeping and sobbing in my sister's arms as she tries to comfort me while tears silently drop from her face.
She finally realizes that those who know little, or even nothing at all, about the world, are the most affected by its cruel reality.
Aunt Marie drops back on the couch taking a big gulp from her wine.
"...Even after swearing to never use magic again, the Karkrow name was stained. All witches now knew that someday, our family will give birth to a traitor."
She continues her story as she wipes out the tears from her face. Stella and I do the same.
"So we decided to change our name and leave Sariora. This wouldn't help us much. Everyone still knew our real name. But they hoped that future generations would forget the truth about the Karkrow family. Like many others..."
"But you didn't think like that, right?" Stella asks.
"No... I didn't want to be someone I'm not. So, after our mother died, Clara and I took different paths in life. She decided to continue with the facade of being someone she is not, and I decided to continue my life as what I was born as. A witch. And I think you should do the same, girls."
Aunt Marie looks at us. Her eyes and face a little red thanks to the wine and the crying.
Stella responds with a firm nod. I don't know if she always had this type of mindset, or if she got it from Aunt Marie. But at this point, there is no use to run from what you are.
I let go of Stella and also decide to reluctantly take pride in what I am. A witch.