The man took the carriage and left as soon as Selene stepped off.
She hobbled a little awkwardly to the house, as there was a snake wrapped around one of her calves underneath her dress. No matter what Selene said, it wouldn't leave her side, so she decided to bring it along and keep it hidden for now.
The house was old, and looked abandoned. It looked like one of those classic haunted houses she would see in horror films. The door creaked as she pushed it open, and as she walked in, she noted that there was dust covering almost everything.
It was clear no one had been in this house for a long time.
She explored for a while, before she got tired and just plopped herself down on the couch in the living room, sneezing when the dust erupted in the air around her.
"You're oddly calm for a hostage." A voice spoke.
Selene turned to the doorway, seeing a shadowed figure standing there.
"Is that what I am? A hostage?"
The shadow person didn't move. "Yes."
"For who?"
There was silence for a moment, before the figure stepped forward and removed the hood over their head. A shiny, white face and startling blonde hair was revealed. Something about how good looking the man was sent off sirens in Selene's head. He was too good looking. That usually meant that he was a main character, but Selene didn't remember any mentions of a guy named Tyberius. Even if it was a fake name, she didn't remember the presence of a man like this from the story.
"Your sister."
Something didn't add up. What did this guy think he would achieve by holding her hostage? What exactly did he want from Sophia that he thought she would give if she knew that Selene was captured?
It couldn't be money. If it was money Sophia wouldn't be the target, it would be their parents, which meant there was something that Sophia specifically had that he wanted, but Selene couldn't think of a single thing that would make sense.
"What is your plan, exactly?" Selene asked.
Tyberius smirked. "Now why would I tell you?"
She rolled her eyes. "Who am I going to tell? Even if I know what exactly can I do about it?"
"Fine then. Let me tell you a story."
Oh boy, another story.
Long ago, when magic was cursed from this land and stripped away from everybody, nobody realised that there was one person who saw it coming the whole time. He was a sorcerer and his name was Leonidas. He was part of the Harrison family, and he grew up with Elena Boyd. They were thick as thieves, practising magic together everyday. He was always worried about her experimentation on dark sorcery, but he didn't say a word about it. He was just glad she was happy and doing what she loved. Then one night he overheard his family discussing their plans to take Elena down, as they saw her as a threat and were worried about her increasing power. Leonidas was helpless to stop it, for he felt he owed his family loyalty and could not betray them, yet at the same time he felt guilty about just letting his best friend die. In the end, he removed himself from the equation, and refused to take part in the fight. He would be a neutral third party. But he had knowledge that the others didn't, he knew that Elena had been working on a curse to strip magic from people, and so he knew if they didn't kill her, she would use the curse on everyone there. He wasn't able to find a way to stop her if she did it, or a way to break the curse, but he also knew that Elena would never take magic away permanently, not from her own family, so he rightly guessed that she would have left her family a way to break the curse.
From there, just before she cursed all of Astrum, Leonidas spent the last remaining hours he still had his sorcery creating something that could recognise when a sorcerer would awaken. The device, he passed down to his children, and made them pass it down to their children, so that they would recognise when they day came that sorcery would return. The device did more than just detect sorcery, however, it was also designed to absorb sorcery from a sorcerer and would be able to be transferred to anybody.
Leonidas knew that Elena would try to limit sorcery to only her family, but he had always believed that everybody should be allowed access to sorcery if they so wished, and so he designed the device with that in mind.
"So, you see, the moment the device lit up I knew another sorcerer had been created." As he said this, he lifted out a small, strange looking knife from his pocket. It was double edged, Selene assumed one end for absorption and the other for distribution. "At that ball, where they announced the engagement between your sister and the second prince, I saw her use her sorcery to enchant him. I knew she was the sorcerer. I knew I had to get her magic somehow, and I knew you two were close, so that is why you're here as my hostage, while I wait for her to show."
Well, that certainly explained things quite nicely.
"Aren't you worried she'll just kill you with her sorcery the moment she steps in here?"
Tyberius laughed, and then moved quickly to stand behind her, his hand enclosing around her throat.
"Would she risk your life like that? I don't think so."
Selene rolled her eyes. Tyberius couldn't see since he was positioned behind her.
Before anything else could be said, the sounds of horses outside could be heard, and then hurried footsteps getting close to the house. The door flung open with a bang, and before long Sophia was making her way into the room.
"If you want your sister to live, stab yourself with this knife." Tyberius gave Sophia no warnings, no explanations, just said that and then tossed her the magic sapping knife. "Use the silver end."
Sophia caught the knife in the air, then looked at it for a moment. There was something magical about this knife, she was sure. One end was gold, and the other was silver, with the middle handle section a pure white. She looked back up at Tyberius.
"No."
Tyberius faltered. "What- what do you mean no?! I'll kill your sister!"
"You can certainly try."
"What- You-"
Selene reached up behind her and twisted his wrist before he could say anything more. He howled in pain and scrambled back, just managing to dodge the fist Selene swung around at him. That, however, didn't save him from the big snake that popped out of nowhere and bit his ankle.
He screamed, kicking at the snake. The snake only casually slid over to Selene, who picked it up and draped it over her neck, like a scarf.
Sophia was surprised at the presence of the snake, but didn't let it deter her from her original plan, which was killing Tyberius. And she did. He stopped breathing as soon as the black smoke engulfed him, and then she finally turned to Selene to ask about the snake.
"His name is Bitey." Was all she said about it.