Adeline Duclair, a middle-aged Lady of the Fayetteville Witch Coven, stood beside a large cauldron bubbling with frothy red liquid.
"Oh, the spirit of my ancestor Morgan Le Fay, grant me the power to create a bewitching mind-reader potion."
She chanted as she kept adding ingredients to the mind-control potion she is currently making like thyme, lavender, chives, lemon, amethyst, and sparrow entrails.
In her years of experience as a witch, she knew that making potions requires careful attention, as even a slight variation or measurement of the recipes can ruin the potion, and mess up her plans entirely.
She needed the mind-reader potion, as she is chasing potential leads all over Fayetteville, and out of town, for clues that might lead her to the well-known yet famous Elixir of Life, also known as the Philosopher's Stone.
The much talked about, yet elusive Philosopher's Stone is said to also turn into drinkable liquid gold, and the drinker is lucky enough to get the gift of immortality, something she needed if she is to stand a chance against the werewolves, who live longer than the average human, and the vampires, who are immortal.
There are only two known copies of the recipe for the Philosopher's Stone known to exist.
One of them is in digital form, kept safe and secure from hackers by the descendants of the alchemist and warlock Nicolas Flamel.
The other copy, which is the original manuscript, is kept in a secure place, in pristine condition somewhere secret that only Nicolas Flamel and his descendants have access to.
The elixir of life is said to be the best drunk using the Holy Grail, which appeared to king Arthur and his knights at the round table.
The Holy Grail automatically ignores the sins of anyone lucky enough to drink from the goblet.
And somehow, the descendants of Nicholas Flamel managed to track down the actual location of the Holy Grail and keep the goblet for themselves to use.
The existence of what people thought is a fictional goblet and stone caused the entire higher-ups of the Roman Catholic Church, including the Pope himself, to go into an uproar.
The pope ordered the Cardinals to keep it a secret, and also ordered the U.S. cardinal to search for the goblet all over the country.
The entire higher-ups of the Roman Catholic Church considered the Holy Grail and the Philosopher's Stone as dangerous objects that could cause their religion to unravel and start crashing down.
Why will the people bend to their will when they can be like a god and turn themselves immortal, commit sin whenever and wherever they felt like it, and make it hard for the Church to control them?
That's the sole reason why the Church wants to obtain the Holy Grail and the Philosopher's Stone, and if possible, destroy both.
And that includes Fayetteville and surrounding areas, which made things even more complicated for Adeline.
She knew that those who knew of the existence of the Holy Grail, and the Philosopher's stone won't just open their mouths and blab in public that they know the real identity of Nicolas Flamel and his descendants.
She also knew that they won't give in that easily to questions about where Nicolas Flamel and his descendants lived.
She's taken into consideration the high level of security and secrecy Flamel and his descendants used. And they have every right to be extremely cautious since the entire Catholic Church, aside from her covets the Philosopher's Stone and the Holy Grail they hold in possession.
And that's exactly the reason why she's preparing the mind-reading potion.
She's confident in the concoctions she makes, and the wandless spells she does, knowing that it works and is super-effective most of the time.
She also knows that even with such a high level of secrecy and security involved, there are bound to be cracks that can be exploited.
She's good at spotting and exploiting those cracks.
She figured out that, in the end, the people that Nicolas Flamel and his descendants trust to keep their exact location a secret are still human, and humans make mistakes from time to time.
She is already set to meet up with her target in the next few days: an unsuspecting male warlock who's also an alchemist and is a close friend of Nicolas Flamel.
To lower the warlock's guard, and make him trust her even more, she sent to him in advance the books on witchcraft that he needed.
But she enchanted those books in advance with a mind-manipulation spell that makes him more suggestible to everything she asks of him.
She also sent him an expensive gaming laptop for personal use.
But unbeknown to him, she had the laptop bugged first with the help of the tech guy of the witches, so she can spy on him whenever she wants without his knowledge, and glean info she could use just by spying on him from a safe distance.
After she finished making the mind-reader potion, she let the cauldron cool down first before she starts transferring the potion into a tiny container flask that she always carries around with her.
She stored the remaining potion in the large beakers in her chamber.
The potions she makes are so potent that she only needs one drop for the potion to be effective.
All she needs to do is spike the food or drinks of her target without their knowledge, and wait for the potion to take effect.
After she finished preparing the potion and storing the excess that she didn't need yet, she went out of her private chamber, and went straight to the kitchen to brew herself some coffee, and prepare a quick meal.
She might as well sell the surplus potions she has in her chamber to her fellow witches, to make her cellar far easier to clean.
When she arrived in the kitchen, she brewed herself some coffee. She also placed Nutella on some slices of bread before she toasted them in the microwave oven.
She fried herself some eggs and bacon, then went to the front porch of her house in Lumberton while carrying a food tray filled with hot food and drinks.
She placed the food tray on the table, sat down on the chair, and started eating while appreciating the calm, serene, and silent view of farmland all around her for miles around.
While Adeline ate her meal, the memories of her past washed over her once again.
Her deceased mother is the former Lady of the Coven.
When her mother died, she bested the other contenders for her mother's seat because her powers in witchcraft proved more powerful, and her potions proved more potent than those of the other contenders.
She was born with the powers of a witch, to a family of elite witches and warlocks.
Her family made a fortune out of teaching the occult and publishing occult books.
They also taught witchcraft and the art of magick to those interested in witchcraft.
They also made a fortune selling potions and other items of witchcraft to fellow witches and warlocks.
Aside from practicing witchcraft and turning it into a means of livelihood, the family also owned fertilizer factories all over North Carolina.
Her family lived in Fayetteville for as long as she could remember.
But since they are wealthy and quite influential, she often travels out of town, either alone, with a group of friends, or together with her family.
She enrolled in Pinewoods Montessori School from pre-elementary up to Senior High School.
She studied at Miller-Motte College during her college years.
She graduated with an accountancy course at the top of her class.
After she graduated from college, she helped to manage her family's business, while also attending to her duties as a witch.
She is a popular student way back during her student days, both on and out of campus.
She's outgoing, smart, friendly, and has a witch's natural charms and wiles.
She always topped her class but didn't join any extra-curricular activities.
She practiced her witchcraft and potion-making if she is not busy minding her school stuff, assisting her family with their business, or just chilling, traveling, and hanging out with her friends.
She hid the fact that she is a witch so perfectly from ordinary humans that they didn't suspect anything suspicious about her.
She took a part in the vampire-werewolf war ever since she was 13.
The same war still rages up to the present day.
She knew that the war isn't simple, but has a deep-seated reason that can be traced back to history.
She knows the reason why, but she can't carelessly reveal it to just anyone.
She still thought of the family history in the old books, as well as what her older relatives always talked about.
Her lineage is said to be descended from the famous witch Morgan Le Fay, the love interest of Lancelot, one of King Arthur's knights, and the ruler of Avalon, a bewitched island thought to still exist somewhere in Britain.
After the destruction of King Arthur's kingdom, Morgan Le Fay took Lancelot with her, and together, they fled to the territory of the Franks, in what is now modern-day France.
They got accepted into the court of the king of the Franks.
Both Morgan and Lancelot hid their true identities, knowing full well that Britain is in unrest after the death of King Arthur, now that Gawain rose to power after king Arthur's death, he sent spies to neighboring kingdoms to smoke out his enemies, and if possible, have them eliminated.
News reached them that the wizard Merlin found a way to protect and lock up the magic contained in Avalon, and placed a barrier that prevents Gawain from setting foot on the island after a serious falling out with the deceased king Arthur's nephew.
Merlin made his way to the territory of what is now modern-day Germany and got accepted into the royal court of the king of the Germans through connections.
And that's the last that Morgan heard of news regarding the old wizard.
They had children who also practiced witchcraft.
Some of their French descendants returned to England a few years later.
Those descendants stayed below the radar, as they lived like successful and rich merchants instead.
When the expedition to the New World began, a few Duclair merchants were recorded to be onboard the Mayflower.
The Duclairs found their way to Salem, Massachusetts, but they left town a few days before the Salem Witch Trials began, and resettled in Virginia.
However, a few of Adeline's ancestors, seeking to make a name for themselves somewhere, left town with their werewolf and vampire friends and resettled in the newly merged large town of Cross-Creek and Campbell.
The Duclairs stayed in North Carolina ever since.
Her mind went back to the present.
She felt it hard to accept at first that she had to hide the fact that she is a witch from ordinary humans.
She gradually learned to accept it, as she knew the consequence of exposing her true identity to ordinary humans.
She picked up her smartphone and called Oberon Fletcher, Alastair's uncle and her adviser and close confidante in the Witch Coven.
"Hello, Oberon."
'Hey, Adeline. Let me guess why called. You still can't forget the past, do you? We all made mistakes back then in the 1990s, but we can't necromance those dead witches and warlocks from their graves. We'll need the assistance of the vampire spy, and do you think those vampires are willing to gladly help us after our ancestors made them fight with the werewolves way back in 1810? Past is past. You should move on and focus on the present, lady."
"Hey, wait, I know you're about to hang up, but."
"But you still regret that you sent my brother, Alastair's dad, the guy you once loved, to his grave by leaving him in the hands of a vampire hunter that got tipped off way back in the 90s? And the shitstorm that occurred as we took revenge a few days later?"
"Yes. I was stressed and it was in a careless moment that I got impulsive. I didn't realize the girl I talked to back then is actually a vampire hunter. I'm sorry, man."
"Adeline, look, we were young and impulsive back then, all right? We did things that gave our parents, who were in the Witch Coven back then, a headache in dealing with the aftermath. I also played a hand in this. You know it very well. There's nothing to forgive, as we're technically accomplices in what happened back then. See you when I see you later."
Oberon then hung up on the other end.