The entire members of the Daeva household were awake, awake but had looks of those who had been ripped off their sleep. They had bluish-black rings underneath their eyes. The night had been a troubling one for everyone of them as they had nightmares, all at the same time.
"I just couldn't go back to sleep and Evander had woken up with a loud cry from his cot and his sister Linetta came running into our chambers. Each time I jumped from my sleep , I feel this drain" Olette was narrating her night's ordeal to Sereia who was tiredly mixing dough. Sereia and Dorain's night had been an hellish one as they kept jumping from their sleeps every single minute, at about the moment they closed their eyes.
"Something is definitely at play here Olette, there really must be something. Everyone here, down to the children had terrible night's sleep and for me, it was one hellish ride. Each time I wake from the nightmare and I try to go back to sleep, I am taken back to continue from where I stopped and I could hear Cascade screaming every single minute" Sereia spoke with so much tiredness and fear.
"Surely Grandma Daeva would get something, I don't want to close my eyes and see he'll and damnation" That was Olette's voice sounding rather harsh.
The Matriarch of the house , Grandma Daeva called for a meeting that morning, to talk about the happenings of the night. Amora joined the meeting a few seconds late and everyone saw that she didn't have the rings underneath her eyes and she looked like she slept just fine, unlike the rest of them.
"You look quite bright Ulanni, tell me did you not have a terrible night like we all did?" Asked Grandma Daeva, eyes squinting and glaring at Amora.
"Oh I did, it was one terrible night" Amora quickly answered, hoping that the questions would end there but it didn't as the matriarch asked her another question that caught her off guard. "Why don't you have the rings underneath your eyes?"
"That's because when I had my nightmare three times, I went to the bathhouse and stayed in the water to keep myself from falling asleep again" She answered quickly. She knew she had to be smart or she would be discovered in no time and that wouldn't be good.
Grandma Daeva chose to believe what she had just heard and proceeded to address the issue at hand. "I can sense a terrible energy around the house but I can't quite lay my hand on it.
Her rich dark eyes, although tired, began to glow a dim grey light as she opened her palm and tries to call out to her book of shadows.
"Amora" swallowed hard as she heard the matriarch spew out the book's calling spell and for a moment, she thought she would melt under the heat of the tension.
" Aglaia !! Ërian edo grîsgœra" The words came out of Grandma Daeva's mouth again but the book of shadows didn't appear like it used to. Aglaia, the book of shadows, was more than a thousand years old, holding spells almost as old as time and had answers to any kind of magic and was a family heirloom for Grandma Daeva's original family. Aglaia was often passed down to the first daughter every generations and could be conjured with a spell but at the moment, Aglaia was nowhere to be found.
"Amora" could only confirm one thing as the book of shadows didn't appear, the book was safely bound in one powerful night spell to prevent the family from rooting her out when it was just the beginning. Feldar knew that the time to drop his charade of being Amora was close and he needed to have the entire Vadina before the moon's rising. He muttered something under his breath and that drew energy from everyone standing in that vicinity.
Grandma Daeva knew something was wrong somewhere,If only she could find Aglaia before whatever it was swallowed them all.
.....
Bloom had gone to seek for Amora so they could leave for the learning halls as they always did, but she was told that Amora had left an hour before she arrived , saying she was going to Bloom's and now Bloom was here in house Daeva.
"Perhaps you both missed each other" Lady Olette said to the confused Bloom. Bloom noticed the blackish ring under the lady's eyes and also on other people in the house.
"What happened to your eyes?" Bloom asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Everyone had a terrible night and this ugly ring is an evidence of that. Oh! It wouldn't come off even after using cucumber fixes" The lady was beginning to tear up and Bloom didn't want to see any crying so she excused herself. "Uh, I'll just run along to the Halls now Lady Olette, do rest well, perhaps the rings would disappear" she said as she left the house.
Bloom walked all the way to the learning halls and was more confused when she didn't see Amora in the Hall's vicinity. She noticed the same blackish ring underneath the Hall's mistress eyes and also underneath everyone's eyes, everyone except her. She didn't understand what was going on at all.
"Did everyone just have a bad night or is something wrong?" She asked as herself as Solana hurried past her covering her face with a veil.
Meanwhile, Feldar had already dropped the guise of Amora and was in his true form. His long dark hair cascading down to his shoulders and his eyes matched his dark hair. He was sitting in a circle drawn by valerian, Nelix Bloomer and night's dust pounded together. His legs were folded and his eyes closed as he began to mutter his spell, chanting over and over again until the mixture of Valerian, Nelix Bloomer and Night's dust began to float and turn into a large raging tornado.
"Let the nightmares begin" he cackled and sent the tornado out the window. The Vadinian air stiffened as the black magic diffused in it, knocking out every single person,from house to house. The Daeva household was already deep in their tormenting nightmares. Feldar's laughter sounded like thunder claps as he conjured more of his black magic.
Bloom had seen her mates drop down unconscious as they walked home and didn't know what was going on. She noticed the change in Vadina's air, she could feel the energy of an unknown danger. She ran straight home, looking at the darkened sky as she ran. She found her mother, father and siblings unconscious with the same blackish rings underneath their eyes and what baffled her was that it was never there in the morning.
"Amora" she suddenly remembered that her friend had been absent and thought she was in some kind of danger. She raced to the Daeva house and found everyone unconscious and looking as pale as death. She ran up the stairs to Amora's chambers but what she found baffled her. Instead of Amora, she was seeing a man cackling and conjuring black magic into the atmosphere, a man she had heard of in lores and legends, Feldar the Wanderer and that could only mean one thing, "Amora never made it out of her dream walking" she thought to herself. She ran back before Feldar would notice her. She knew she had to get to the three witches who had given Amora the spell, perhaps they might have some kind of explanation. She used one of the portal balls the witches had given her during their last visit.
Bloom noticed that the darkness hadn't gotten close to the witches abode but it was coming ,albeit slowly. She went into their cottage and found them running around, throwing things into their mirror.
"Quick Caissa, get more blankets, we don't have much time, Calluna, get extra nuts and water" One of the witches whom Bloom identified as Callandra was yelling at her sisters.
"Uh, hi, Good day, where are you going? I need your help" Bloom said to the panicking witch.
"We, are going into our mirror for safety. Your friend has loosed Feldar upon us" Caissa said almost close to a shriek.
"Please don't leave, I need you to help me. My friend is missing and the entire Vadina is dying" Bloom was close to tears.
Callandra and her sisters hesitated but they were stopped by Bloom's tears.
"What is going on and why am I not unconscious?" She asked.
"Argh! This is not the time for questions Missy, we are all about to be trapped in a nightmare thanks to your clumsy little friend who couldn't follow simple instructions" Callandra was yelling now.
"I knew the wanderer was no myth" Caissa sobbed.
"Your friend is still in the dream world and Feldar is out here. For the wanderer to be freed, a dream walking soul needs to be in for him to be out and once he has chanted the ultimate dream spell, we all sleep for eternity and your friend,well dies in that dream and as for why you are still awake, he probably didn't have physical contact with you" Calluna explained. It all made sense to Bloom now, she had remembered Amora hugging everyone and constantly playfully touching everyone but she somehow managed to avoid Amora the moment she had started acting strange and was now sure that the fire abilities that fake Amora exhibited was only just Feldar.
"Alright so what do we do?" She asked.
"We????" The three sisters said at once.
"Yes , We. Please Calluna , Caissa, Callandra help me help my friend and the entire Vadina" Bloom pleaded.
"Fine we'll help you but if we don't make it on time, we'll go into our mirror" Callandra said.
Caissa clapped twice and then a big black book came floating towards them. " Spell to trap the wanderer" Caissa said and immediately, the book began to flip through pages and then finally stopped at one.
"What does it say?" Bloom asked with a tone of impatience.
" The spell to swap out your friend and trap Feldar will require Feldar himself, lightening and rain water from a harbinger of storm, Feldar's night dust , a possession of your friend and some mantiera roses" Caissa said.
"Harbinger of storm?" Bloom had never heard of that.
"Yes, one who can control the weather" Callandra said.
"The last one alive is Lilith Daeva and I am so sure she's unconscious with the rest of the family" Bloom said.
"Well, the mirror doesn't say so" Calluna drew their attention to the image projected by the mirror. Bloom could see Lilith Daeva running into some grove. "How is she even awake?" Bloom asked herself.
"You have to get her here or we are all doomed and the darkness is coming closer"Callandra said as she peered outside to see the dark clouds moving closer.
"Feldar would be easy to get once he senses our consciousness and if the spell isn't ready before then, we are doomed. I'll buy you some time by masking our consciousness" Caissa said. Bloom was handed three more portal balls while the witches scurried around for the ingredients for a masking spell.
Bloom knew Lilith Daeva was a hard nut to crack but she had to do this or all of Vadina, her family, and Amora would be all dead and Feldar would probably move to other realms to poison them with his dark, cursed nightmares.
She threw one of the portal balls to the ground and a portal opened. Taking a deep breath, she stepped into the portal and disappeared. In no time, she was standing in front of the grove she had seen Lilith run into. It was really cold and damp around as she walked into the grobe, eyeing the ridiculously tall and odd looking trees.
She soon saw a shadow ahead of her and it was feminine. She was sure that it belonged to Lilith, hence she followed the shadow.
Lilith walked deeper into the grove clutching her bag tightly. She noticed the presence of someone else but couldn't exactly tell so she decided to fish out who was stalking her.
Bloom couldn't see the shadow anymore and wondered where Lilith could have gone to or had she disappeared into thin air?. She saw a small bush move and walked towards it slowly. Lilith on the other hand had seen Bloom now and thought it'd be nice to scare her as punishment for stalking her. Lilith swiftly cornered Bloom and had a jeweled dagger to Bloom's throat.
Bloom swallowed hard as she felt the sharp dagger on her throat.
"What do you want? Why are you following me?" That was Lilith's question as angry lightening flashed in her eyes.