Fiona teleported back to her room and began putting her plan in motion. Most of the witches in her division were busy preparing their daughters for the assignment ritual festivals. While other witches were busy preparing the arena for the rituals. Everything had to be perfect because the rituals were regarded as the most important in a witch's life. The girls needed to perfect their magic and spells, and prove to Ezeldah that they were worthy of the divisions they would be assigned to.
The noticeable absentees were Fiona and her daughter. It was not a surprise, it was a well-known fact that Igram was heading to hell. Every witch was looking forward to that. Finally, they were going to get rid of the nuisance of the Coven.
Only Four days were left until the ceremony and Fiona was noticed moving around like a madwoman. She was always seen crying and searching for something but no one bothered to check what she was looking for. Most of them never paid attention and went on with their business. They were not going to allow her to ruin their moods.
The day for the ritual ceremony finally came, the entire coven was full of excitement. Most of them knew their hard work was going to pay off. Early at dawn, they all marched to the coven shrine in the arena excited with their mothers, and waited for Ezeldah and the elders in anticipation.
The arena was a huge tower, with a triangular strip of stairs in the middle that housed Ezeldah's altar. The entire stairs were decorated with skulls and human blood.
After some minutes, the doors opened and Ezeldah walked in with the elders behind her, followed by the high sorceress. Ezeldah had her long usual ritual dark dress with long spikes protruding from her neck. Her presence always commanded evil.
She cleansed the site and welcomed everyone to the ritual ceremony. She emphasized to the girls not to be too expectant and to accept their fate with dignity because it was their given birthright.
She officially opened the ceremony and called for all the girls that were sixteen years old to step into the circles in front of them. There were a total of sixty-six circles, each circle for the sixty-six girls. They all obeyed and each chose a circle. Ahe then called for total silence but the girls kept murmuring and making noise.
"I said quiet!" Ezeldah yelled at the top of her voice.
The arena became quiet, she could not believe the lack of respect. A High Priestess always commanded silence.
One girl raised her hand in the air
"What! How dare you interrupt me!" Ezeldah yelled,
The girl quickly pointed at the empty circle shaking.
Ezeldah noticed the circle, she slowly walked down the stairs "Who is supposed to be there!" She yelled.
All the girls looked away in fear
She quickly counted them and noticed they were only sixty-five. One was missing, she breathed in hard and called for the mother who had her girl missing to walk forward but no one came forward. They all began looking at each other.
"Fiona is not here," one of the mothers noticed and voiced up.
They all nodded after also realizing that Igram was not in sight.
"That stupid witch!" Ezeldah yelled
"Guards go and get her and her daughter," she ordered and walked up the stairs.
The watch guards quickly walked out and headed to Fiona's house. They walked into the house without knocking, to their surprise, they found Fiona kneeling by the door, crying.
"Did you find her… did you finally find her?" She asked with swollen eyes.
The guards looked at each other confused
"Who are you talking about?" One of them asked
"My daughter,"
"Where is your daughter?" They asked
"I do not know, I have…. not seen her...for four days," Fiona replied.
The guards looked at each other more confused. But they had no time to waste, they grabbed her and took her straight to the ritual arena. As they entered, the room became very quiet.
Ezeldah was impatiently waiting at the altar, almost breathing fire.
"Your High priestess, this woman, claims her daughter has been missing for four days," one of the guards yelled for everyone to hear.
Murder wept the entire arena, it all began making sense to most of them. The Coven had been very peaceful for the past days.
Ezeldah on the other hand almost bit her lip in shock but she tried so hard to hide the shock that was evident on her very pale face. She was supposed to know if any of her witches went missing or runaway. All the witches in her coven were connected to her.
She stood up and closed her eyes, searching for Igram spiritually. She was very sure the tomboy was playing in the forest like she usually did or getting in trouble with some ghosts at the graves but she could not locate her. She closed her eyes again and scanned her entire coven.
The entire arena was waiting in anticipation but it was taking longer than expected.
Ezeldah opened her eyes and stared at Fiona furiously, her heart was beating very fast as she recalled the first time she failed to locate one of her witches. It was exactly the same day, sixteen years ago. And it was the same witch kneeling before her.
She walked to where Fiona was kneeling and yanked her by her hair tightly.
"Everyone get out of here, the ritual ceremony has been canceled,'' she announced.
Everyone in the arena looked at each other shocked. One of the elders stood up and said; "Your High priestess, we can't cancel a ritual that has been taking place for centuries on this exact moon."
"Sixty-six, they have always been sixty-six girls per tradition but that reject of a tomboy…. Just get out of here!" Ezeldah echoed, shaking the entire arena.
Fearing to be at the end of her fury, all the witches scampered for their lives. The arena was empty in minutes, leaving Fiona and Ezeldah alone.
Fiona was trembling in fake fear, she wanted to laugh at the old hug's face but she needed to nail her terror.
"Quit the stupid act, where is your stupid daughter!" Ezeldah yelled in her face.
"High Priestess…. I do not know…. I have no idea… I searched everywhere," Fiona cried.
Ezeldah grabbed her by the neck and began squeezing tightly. She was so pisssed and was losing it, she hated being taken for a fool.
"I will kill you right here, you think you can fool me for the second time!" She yelled.
Fiona looked directly into her cold dark eyes, the old hag had not aged a bit. She wondered how many souls were required to hide all the wrinkles. Or if the black hair was hers, or probably dyed with the coal from hell she thought.
Her thoughts were only irritating the life out of Ezeldah. She intended to read Fiona's mind and get answers but there was nothing. This forced her to let go and grab her hand, she quickly sank her rotten teeth in Fiona's arm; "You will show me what you are hiding!"
Fiona let out a sharp scream that was audible through the entire Coven.
Flashes of Fiona searching for her daughter for the past four days began flashing all the way to the last time she saw Igram. But Ezeldah could not see past the last time Fiona saw Igram. She bit again into Fiona's arm but saw nothing, something was blocking her and it was not Fiona, it was the same force that blocked her sixteen years ago.
She let go of Fiona and screamed in agony, "Noooo, nooo," she began tossing everything in the path that was decorated for the rituals in frustration while Fiona lay on the ground crying from the stinging bites she received on her hand.
Ezeldah teleported straight to her shrine angry, she was right all those years ago but they all thought she was overthinking and punishing an innocent baby. If only she had acted on her instincts back then, she would not be going through the humiliation that was hovering above her head ready to pop.
She could only hope she was going to find the brat. She could only wish the brat was playing games and had shapeshifted into something that she could not detect. She began chanting her spells, opening thousands of portals and realms from all the spells she ever taught her Coven. She then began sniffing them one by one, searching for Igram's scent.
Because Igram and Fiona always opened portals created from Fiona's own spells, she could not sniff out Igram. She went through the portals over and over again but got nothing. Frustrated, she broke all the mirrors.
It seemed like the girl had disappeared out of thin air. However she was not giving up yet, she walked to her calabash of hairs. The hairs belonged to every witch that lived or once lived in her coven, both dead or alive. She specifically picked Igrams hair and began chanting to the hair to reveal itself.
"Welodia simai mishishi, welodus, Tampa Tampa Tampa," she kept chanting and taking in hair's scent. But then she realized that It smelt fake, something wasn't right with the hair. She stopped chanting and stared at the hair, it was fake, it didn't belong to someone of the Santris Coven bloodline.
How it got in her calabash she had no idea but it had Igram's tag. She searched the calabash again but the fake hair was the only hair associated with Igram. She always took the hair on the girl's first birthday so the hair being a wig was out of the question.
"Who in hell's name are you, Igrammmm" she yelled and teleported to Fiona's house, searching for Igram's scent. She sniffed everything in the house but only came up with Fiona's scent. There was a scent that was fake but very different from the fake scent from the hair. There was only one explanation; "shapeshifting!" she gasped.
She quickly teleported back to the arena, Fiona was still lying on the floor crying. She grabbed her by the hair again; "At what age did your daughter begin Shapeshifting?"
Fiona looked up at her, "I...I.."
"Speak up!"
"Ten, she started at ten," Fiona replied.
"Liar!"
"Your high priestess, that's when I saw her shapeshift."
"What did she shapeshift into?"
"A boy, she liked teasing the other girls so she shapeshifted into a boy," Fiona replied without lying. She knew if she lied, Ezeldah would tell.
The room became quiet, "I did not report because I was sure you would detect her and bring her back if she was not in the coven," Fiona stated.
"She liked shapeshifting and hiding from me so I thought she was still in the Coven," she added.
"Can you detect your daughter's scent?" Ezeldah asked, surprising her.
"No, she takes on the scent of whoever she shapeshifts in… I thought you knew that, your high priestess?" Fiona asked.
Ezeldah stepped back a bit, shapeshifters never took on the scents of their victims, that would be the most dangerous shapeshifter in the world. She was supposed to know that, but somehow she did not. Now she understood why she had trouble all those sixteen years ago. The baby shapeshifted, a shapeshifting baby that had blinded her to see what it was.
Ezeldah held her mouth in shock