Lucretia stood in front of her mirror adorned with jewels, trying out the gown her servant girl who was a pale looking girl with slight rot on her skin. She was one of the dead people Lucretia conjured with her forbidden magic to run her dark castle. Her castle located in the darkest boundaries of the realms had a scary look and darkness always looming , hovering and breezing around it. Even when it was day time, there was always darkness within and outside the castle.
"Mi lady, here's the hair pin" The servant girl handed her a hair pin. Lucretia wasn't fair skinned, but she was beautiful in her dark skin shade, thick full hair that could never straighten, it always stood high on her head and of course her alluring brown eyes.
"Thank you Arasha, do get my breakfast set I'll be down in a bit" She ordered the servant girl who curtsied and dragged her dead self out of her sight. Lucretia worried for the demons she had sent outside the realm on a very important mission that was the only sure way for her to finally have her powers. She hadn't heard or seen them since she sent them out.
Lucretia had been born a Vadinian , but without powers. She had always felt less and like an outcast amongst her peers even when she was around her best friends Aslaug and Anaerys , sisters of the house Wixxern. She would sit and watch Aslaug, a witch do spells and Anaerys an air elemental do air tricks. She would laugh and smile with them but deep down she felt the pangs of being powerless. Aslaug got married to the crown prince and Anaerys to another nobleman while she had married an air elemental who had fallen in love with her. She had given birth to a son who had taken most of her looks from skin tone to stubborn fill hair but had taken his father's greyish eyes.
" Oh my dearest son" she sighed as she remembered her son. "he must be so grown now, probably courting a noble lady" she added. Lucretia remembered that faithful night when she abandoned her powerless life and wandered off seeking for her lost magic.
She had just her two-year old son in his cot and was singing a lullaby to put him to sleep. She thought he was asleep as she sneaked a few clothes into a leather bag and made to jump out the window because she knew she would be caught by her husband if she took the main entrance. The poor baby boy sat up and began to cry as he saw her tiptoeing.
"Mama" he cried as he stretched out his small arms for her to pick him up and rock him the way she always did.
"Sshhhhh hush now child, mother needs to leave" she whispered to the boy trying to soothe him. She had tears in her eyes and pain in her heart as she put a few drops of sleep potion into the boy's mouth and watched him doze off immediately. She felt the urge to run back inside the chamber and take her son along but she didn't know where she was going and it was going to be dangerous for the little one.
"He'll be fine here, he belongs here" she said to herself as she took one more look at the house before venturing into the darkness.
The dead servant girl brought Lucretia from her trip down the memory lane with her announcement of breakfast being ready.
Lucretia grabbed her staff and walked down the stairs while the servant girl followed her. Lucretia had already started with her food when a dark smoke formed , revealing the two demons she had been expecting, Xeruel and Azrael.
"Your grace" they both bowed slightly as they talked.
"What took you stupid hounds so long huh? And why are you here without the girl?" She asked them as her eyes flashed angry lights at them. The demons trembled and were stuttering as they spoke.
"She wasn't the description you have mistress, she had red hair and she ran off after we killed her companion" Azrael spoke with a trembling voice.
"What? What do you mean she wasn't the description? I sensed the energy and the orb didn't show the face because of some fog but pointed at that realm and house" Lucretia was yelling and throwing everything on the dining table to the ground , smashing the ceramic plates and wasting the food.
"You incompetent fools" she yelled and a streak of black lightening flashed in the room. Lucretia muttered a few curses and then walked away without tasting food for the rest of the day, ruining her entire dark morning.
..........
Amora grumbled as she met Bloom after their classes. She had been to the Energy Reach class for the fifth week and still couldn't conjure her energy.
"It's been five weeks Bloom, five good weeks and I can't do anything right. Can't do simple spells, can't reach my energy, I can't just do anything Bloom, I don't belong here" she lamented as she tried to straighten her tangled red hair that was caused by Siofra's energy outburst during the Reach.
"You do belong here Mora, you are a Daeva. You are just a late bloomer and your time in the human realm is affecting you. You need to relax and allow magic work itself out"
As they continued talking, Sirena passed them wearing a really small gown that stopped right above her knees and her hood which was just as long as the gown she was wearing. She didn't say a word to Amora and Bloom as she walked past them. They noticed that she never looked back or at her sides while she walked, she just kept her face forward and moved.
"I think we should follow her" Amora whispered to Bloom who strongly shook her head opposing what Amora had just said.
"Come on Bloom, don't be boring, let's uncover her mystery. I'm sure it wouldn't hurt to know what or who she really is" Amora was still trying to convince Bloom. Bloom only sighed and followed whatever it was that she was about to do.
Amora and Bloom followed Sirena closely in the hallway and were very lucky she didn't stop to look back or even her sides as she walked.
"We shouldn't be doing this Mora" Bloom whispered as they followed the girl still.
"Bloomie and Ulanni there you are" Fiammetta and her girls startled the spying duo. Amora and Bloom jumped when they heard their voices from behind them. "Uh, Hi there girls" Amora said nervously.
"Hi yourself there, what are you doing walking like mice about to steal cheese from the larder?" Fiammetta asked with an air of pride and eloquence in her voice. Amora and Bloom exchanged glances now wanting to reply the redhead and her three other friends.
"Have you no mouth to speak?" Solana asked.
"Hey Solana or whatever you are called, you don't talk to us like we are your servant girls because you look all fancy wency" Amora snapped at her and was about to push her but Bloom held her back whispering to her that Fiammetta wasn't worth it.
"Feisty hmmm like every other fire elementals" that was Alena whispering to Neyastra and Solana.
"Sorry if that came out wrong, we just wanted to invite you to our little tea party at my house tomorrow after the learning halls, nothing too much, just small tea and cakes ,our little way of welcoming a long lost Mystian"Fiammetta's voice sounded suspicious to Amora and Bloom who eyed them.
"You can come too Bloomie bear, there would be lots of plants for you to play with ain't so Solana?" Neyastra had mockery all over her voice while the other two snickered and giggled at the indirect insult Fiammetta had dropped on Bloom.
"Cha Cha, see you tomorrow" Fiammetta said and winked mischievously at the two friends and breezed off with her friends cackling with laughter.
Amora and Bloom looked around for Sirena after the troublesome friends had left but there was no sign of her, they had lost her while they were talking to Fiammetta.
"I should have smashed her not-so-pretty face in" said Amora who was red faced from anger. "That's alright now Mora, no need for that, Fiammetta and her friends have a nasty way of getting under people's skin pay no attention to them" Bloom calmed her down and they continued their walk back home.
Soon it was dinner time and the entire Daeva family sat at the table spread with different delicacies that Amora had come to love the last few weeks, every member except one. That seat beside Easton was still empty and no one was talking about who was supposed to be seated there. Olette clapped her hands and the large pot of cheese soup began to move ,serving each person in their respective bowls. The cheese soup was accompanied by some ginger-barley loaf and honey mead.
"So, Quintina would be coming in a few days to help with the preparation of the soiree for my name-day" Grandma Daeva suddenly announced.
"Your name-day as in your birthday?" Amora asked with a stuffed mouth.
"Do not talk with food in your mouth Ulanni,it's so not lady like, tsk tsk etiquette" Grandma Daeva gave her a disapproving nod and that made Amora swallow her food immediately.
"Alas Mother! She's only a child , you should take it easy on her"That was Ruslan trying to chide Grandma Daeva who was still talking to Amora about Etiquette. "Is not Linetta a child too? She knows etiquette Ruslan, Ulanni won't be any different because she was raised in another realm, no! this is house Daeva, a noble home" said the matriarch to further emphasize on the point she had made earlier. Ruslan was about to reply his mother but his elder brother Easton stopped him with a glare.
"I'm sorry mama" Ruslan said apologizing with head bowed.
Grandma Daeva announced that she was going to be a hundred and thirty-one years in the next few moons. Amora couldn't believe that the lady was as old as that but still looked like she was just fifty years old.
Just then, the door flung open and a female figure stepped into the house and made to pass them without reverencing anyone.
"Stop right there Lilith, have you no shame? You never sit at dinner or breakfast and yet to move past us like we are invisible" That was Easton speaking with anger in his voice. The girl took off her hoodie and then Amora could see that it was the girl who had caused rain on just two girls, flooding the learning chambers during her first day at the learning halls. Amora could connect the dots now. The empty seat belonged to Lilith , Lilith Daeva , Easton's daughter.
"Where are you coming from Lilith?" Grandma Daeva asked the girl who had no expression on her face.
"It's about to go downnnnn" Cascade whispered to her brother Jesper who was also watching the argument.
"Oh! Of course you'd forget, you all would forget. Today was supposed to be mother's memorial but you forgot, even you father. I was at the Daeva tomb after the halls and I've had my dinner there I don't need to have dinner with any of you selfish people" Lilith spat still showing no emotions.
"What do you mean by that Lilith? How dare you talk about the family that way?" Her father launched a thundering slap on her face. Lilith only placed her hand on the cheek where she had felt the sting but didn't make a sound.
"Slap me all you want father, and you too grandma,you can do anything to me. You all never understood me, only mother did and all you do is plan silly balls, soirees and tea parties" Lilith was crying now but her eyeballs had turned white and clouds began to gather in the dining room where everyone stood.
"Lilith, I need you to calm down now" That was Uncle Dorian speaking as he noticed the clouds getting thicker and darker.
"You do not know anything about calming down, only my mother. You father, all you do is flirt with every witch at every ball trying to get me a new mother, forgetting about me. I hate being a Daeva , I wish I was never born into this family" with her last sentence, she ran off crying and the clouds burst open, pouring down the rain on them for a couple of minutes. If anyone tried to move away,the cloud followed until Lilith let go of them from her room. They could hear loud crying from her and thunder claps coming from her Chambers.
Amora didn't know what to make of this scenario, now she knows who Jesper and Linetta had been referring to as gloomy Stormie, it was Lilith, Lilith Daeva, her mysterious and angry cousin.
........
IN THE HUMAN REALM;
Lesley laid curled up on the ground bloodied and crying her eyes out. Her monstrous foster father had come to beat and rape her again this time threatening to lay a complaint on her if she ever tried to escape before her eighteenth birthday. Her face was swollen from tears and also slaps and punches she had received from the man.
She sobbed more not just for the physical pain, but for the pain she feels because Amora left her to suffer even when she had been ready to go away with her. She sobbed and called Amora's name till she fell asleep.