Fiona sat on her bed, pondering her next move. She found her son, but not exactly him, but the person he was pretending to be; "Dovan Hills."
She did not require the use of magic to find him. She learned he could only be found if he wanted to and no amount of magic, especially Santris magic, was enough to penetrate the force that protected him.
All she needed was a phone and technology. The witches at Santris Coven rarely used phones but were allowed to when need required it.
Fiona had spent the past two weeks in her house searching on her phone for any suspicious cases of stolen identities, and it did not take long for her to stumble on a man named Dovan Hills, who was all over the Internet claiming a girl changed into a man and stole his face.
His disfigured face was what gave it away. She recognized the aftermath of the purple powder and quickly switched off her phone, fearing prying eyes. She had been careful for weeks and did not plan to be her son's undoing.
Ezeldah, on the other hand, was yet to find him or anywhere near finding his location... She was old-fashioned and probably had no idea how to use a phone. She was always preaching and condemning her witches to not rely so much on technology and to be faithful servants. Most of the witches were not on social media. Fiona was very thankful for that. Her son had more days, but his greed was his enemy. They were going to catch up with him soon if he kept leaving evidence.
If she could, she would warn him, but Ezeldah would be on her tail. As much as she missed him, she couldn't risk it. He was already dead and, if caught, would be used as an example.
She locked herself in the house, counting the days until she was completely canceled. That was the price she paid for her son betraying the coven. She was lucky that his actions were treated independently of her. Most witches thought it was because she was insane, but Fiona knew it was because Ezeldah blamed herself for Igram's actions.
She failed to detect he was the wrong gender and couldn't even find him. She canceled the assignment rituals until further notice, to everyone's horror. The witches were very pissed. They blamed and hated Fiona. The rituals were always on a special blood moon, which only meant the rituals were moved until a new blood moon occurred which was usually once every four years, sometimes even more.
Fiona could not dare to show her face. They hated her. They even went as far as looking for Igram themselves. They wanted to burn him and skin him alive. Some even attempted their magic on Fiona, but she dealt with them. They were no match for her.
The Coven was transformed into a layer of vengeful witches out on a vengeance to capture the useless tomboy they had spent years reporting for stupidity, but it always fail on the death ears.
Weeks turned into months and the tomboy was nowhere to be seen. Rumors of him being dead began spreading around the coven. rumors that Fiona started in hopes of throwing the witches off. It was very evident how witches loved gossiping and spreading rumors.
The rumor spread around the coven like wildfire. All the witches wanted the rumor to be true, and Igram's dying was the icing on the cake that they all wanted. Because of his stupidity, he had disturbed their way of life and delayed over sixty-five young witches from getting assigned into their divisions. It was the first time in centuries that there were no assignment rituals.
The coven was full of spiteful daughters and mothers. It was not fair that they were forced to pay for one person's stupidity. It was not fair that their destiny was getting delayed by a useless, selfish witch that had never cared about the welfare of the coven.
They all wished Igram was dead and hoped it was a painful death. They were so convinced by the rumors because of the failure to locate the mischief. They believed in their high priestess and a little shape-shifting idiot was no match for her. If she was alive, Ezeldah would have found her already.
However, there was trouble in the high council. The sorcerers spent the entire month fasting and carrying out rituals together with Ezeldah to no avail. There was no trace of Igram; any trace of his existence disappeared together with him.
Everything they confiscated from Fiona that was believed to belong to Igram had no traces of him. His scent and being disappeared with him. His case was the first of its kind, and Ezeldah was embarrassed about it. As much as she wanted to believe the rumors of his death, she could not. Not when there was a force that wiped out his existence and was blocking her from seeing what fate befell the mischievous witch.
The sorceress felt the unexplainable force but failed to see or determine its origin. They took the blame. Ezeldah blamed them for not working with her all those years ago when she sensed something was wrong with the baby. Instead of being on her side, they had all sided with Fiona and guilted her into giving up the baby.
She blamed them for not allowing her to starve the baby to death. Back then, the force was not as strong as it was now.
The sorcerers tried to explain it to her, but she was so pissed off that she decided to look for the little witch herself, to no avail. She believed the answers lied with the mother, and the best way to catch her was to keep her eyes on her.
She did, however, blame herself for one thing, and that was removing her eyes from Fiona all those years ago. She regretted it. She was supposed to have kept her eyes on the woman for life. She believed the woman knew something about the disappearance of her daughter or what external force protected her.
There was a small part of her that was tempting her to kill Fiona, but she was convinced the answers lay in her. She was going to lead her to Igram, so she locked herself in her chambers and opened the mirrors to Fiona's life to watch her every day, every hour, and every night.