Fiona sat on the coven boundary in the Santris Coven, waiting for something she knew would never come. It was a habit she developed in order to divert attention away from herself. She would get up every day, pack a lunch, and walk to the border between the coven and grave forest to wait for her son.
And when it got dark, she'd go back to her house. The process would start all over again the next day. The other witches could only look on in disdain. They despised her very presence. It reminded them of the sixty-five witches who were denied the right to be assigned at the rituals.
They wanted her expelled from the coven and thrown into the pits of hell for raising a degenerate witch. They blamed her for everything that went wrong in the coven, even things that she was not linked with.
After their petition to get her banished fell on deaf ears, they decided to take matters into their own hands. Their high priestess did not seem bothered, and they felt betrayed by her not acting.
But even if Ezeldah wanted to, she couldn't punish Fiona, even though she could break the rules and she needed the woman in the coven in case the degenerate returned. She was obsessed with finding out how a sixteen-year-old managed to trick a century-old wish.
Igram was already sixteen years old and could take his own punishment according to their own rules. So Ezeldah ordered them to stand down and leave the woman alone.
As much as she hated the woman, she did not have to blame anyone but herself. After days of being locked up in her own chambers, she finally took the blame for making a mistake all those years ago. She admitted to herself that she had made a mistake and had assigned Fiona to the wrong division.
However, she could not admit that to her sorcerers and elders, who believed Igram had been posed by unforeseen forces in the grave forest. The girl liked playing with ghosts, so they concluded she had been possessed and taken away to forsaken lands or possibly dead as the rumors went round.
Ezeldah did not waste her time debating the theory; she let them run with what they wanted to believe. She knew the root cause of the problem, and that was her. She made a mistake, a mistake that a sixteen-year-old had seen.
It was embarrassing every time she thought about it, and it was eating her up, making her lose concentration.
It was the main reason she could not resume the assigning rituals. Her mind was not in line for such a huge task, so she kept postponing it, waiting for answers as to why she could make such a mistake after centuries.
Her everyday surveillance of the mother yielded no answers. All she got was a weeping mother who spent her days at the border of the grave forest waiting for her daughter.
Her strategy was not working, so she decided to change it. If she was not going to get the answers from the mother's then she was going to get them from the father's side. She decided to change and try something new from a mother's point of view.
As usual, it was almost midnight, right in time for Fiona to head back to her house after a long day of waiting for nothing.
Ezeldah planned to approach her in a caring way rather than the usual hatred and blaming. However, as she tried to teleport, she sensed danger and paused. It was not an external danger but an internal one.
Fiona had felt it too, and she knew who it was but decided to pretend like she did not know.
Four witches in the sorcerer's division, working together with child givers, decided to do something about her stay in the coven. It was not fair that they were subjected to her face every day, a reminder of why everything was going wrong in their coven.
The first sorcerer chanted a cocoon spell and threw it at Fiona.
Fiona grabbed the spell and threw it back at the sorcerer, a move that a child giver could not make.
Ezeldah froze, only a sorcerer who had been practicing for years and with honors would be able to catch a cocoon spell with one hand, later on without looking behind.
The sorcerers dodged the spell in shock, but before they could react, Ezeldah teleported and broke up the attack.
"What in the Devil's name is going on? Show yourselves before I burn you!" She yelled at the top of her voice.
The four sorceresses quickly showed themselves and bowed while Fiona, still holding her basket, maintained her position.
Ezeldah turned to face her, fury evident from the way she was staring at her.
Fiona quickly dropped her basket and bowed down.
"Do not make me ask again!"
"She does not belong here," one of the sorceresses spoke up.
"And who gave you the right to choose who belongs and does not belong here?" Ezeldah asked.
There was silence. Fiona kept her eyes on the ground. She was surprised that the high priestess intervened in the attack. She wasn't glad. She would have loved to teach the useless sorceresses lessons that they would live to tell others for generations to come.
"High priestess?"
"Shut up, you four went against my word and deserve punishment for this disrespect. Igram is sixteen years old, an adult according to the coven rules. Her crimes should be kept separate from her mother" She yelled at the top of her voice.
"We are so..."
"Get out of here and spread the word. Anyone that harms a fellow witch that has not committed any crimes will be punished by death," Ezeldah yelled, reminding them of the rules.
The witches could not understand why their high priestess was defending the useless mother who could not raise her daughter in a proper manner. She yelled at them to get up and leave her presence.
The four got up, disappointed, as they teleported back to spread the warning. Fiona was untouchable, and that truth pissed them to the core.
"You really have a strong hand for a child giver," Ezeldah mocked and ordered her to stand up.
Fiona arose and faced the witch. There was no sign of gratitude on her face; instead, it was blank, much to Ezeldah's disappointment.
"I can't even get a thank you?"
"Thank you for your help," Fiona said in a low tone. She could feel the woman reading her thoughts. She hated that about Ezeldah, the woman who could not give her a break.
Ezeldah greeted her teeth in irritation.
"Walk with me," she ordered.
Fiona was a bit surprised, she was tempted to know what was going on in the old woman's rusty head. She had no idea if she could read her thoughts. She had never attempted it before, but trying would be her own undoing.
She picked up her basket and followed from behind. It was midnight. All they could hear was the sound of owls owing in the night.
"Where did you learn to catch spells?" Ezeldah inquired.
"You are always in my head, ain't you supposed to know that," she replied.
Ezeldah stopped, turning around. The witch before her was very irritating, but she was on a mission to maintain her cool.
"Answer the questions!"
"Sneaking around near the sorcery school," Fiona replied.
Ezeldah stared at her from head to toe. Catching spells was not an ordinary task that anyone could learn from watching. It needed years of practice.
In split seconds, Ezeldah whirled a fog spell and threw it at her.
Fiona saw it in the same second and grabbed it with the other hand that was not holding the basket.
Again, Ezeldah threw a smoke spell, and to her disappointment, Fiona read the move, dropped the basket, and grabbed it in her other hand. She was now holding two spells in her hands without any sign of discomfort or restraint. She chanted and diminished the spells, picking up the basket that was on the ground and staring at Ezeldah, who was fuming.
She didn't even bother trying to hide the fact that she was a sorcerer. Witches from different divisions were capable of magic, but not on the level of sorcerers and not on the level of being as quick as the high priestess.
"Are we doing some form of training or something?" Fiona asked.
"Why didn't you go after your daughter?"
"Why should I disregard the rules of the coven?" Fiona replied.
"But yet you spend every day waiting for her?"
"Her crime is punishable by death. I should not be the one to bring her to her death. If she chooses to face her punishment, I want to have enough time to say my goodbye," Fiona replied confidently.
She had noticed that Ezeldah had chosen to ignore her sorcery ability. The woman was in denial, but she was curious.
"Are you going to kill me?"
Ezeldah was caught off guard by the question.
"I can catch spells, which only means sixteen years ago..." Fiona tried to remind her, but she sprang in the air and grabbed Fiona by the neck.
"Finish that sentence and I will kill you! Do I make myself clear?" Ezeldah yelled at her.
Fiona quickly nodded.
"Keep what is to be kept to yourself if you want to live, and never again should you use sorcery magic!"
"I never use it unless I am attacked. Keep your witches at bay and I will keep my mouth shut!" Fiona replied, looking straight into Ezeldah's eyes with confidence.
"Finally you cut the acting crap of pretending to be scared of me," Ezeldah chuckled.
Fiona only looked away.
"Now tell me about Igram's father, who the hell did you sleep with?"