"Why have you brought me here?" she looked at the strange land. She did not know there was a secret passage in the center of the palace that led them to a dark area. The sand was different here and it was too warm.
"As you know every witch has an element that runs through all the members of their family and it is mostly given by their father!" no, she did not! She thought it was random or come through blood. But she still nodded her head with a grim look on her face.
"It comes from their source. And this is our source. Each family has a source and its size decides the strength of their power. It might be the size of a small box or the size of a whole room." he explained slowly when her eyes widened.
This place must be around half of their palace like an underground cell. That meant they were very strong! But then she sang! Too bad, she was not part of it.
"Can you see the small streams in that source?" he pointed at the small lake which surprisingly had red color water instead of blue or transparent.
She noticed that it was divided into various small streams with one large stream and nodded her head.
"They are us! As you can see it is open to fall in all the streams. But two of them are dried. While one belongs to Jane which dried only today so you can see the wetness in the soul. The other is completely dry since birth." his voice turned low and upset when she walked closer but he held her hands and shook his head warning her to not go too close.
"That dried one is me? But why?" Why was she punished from birth!
"It only happens in two cases! One when the mother chose to give her source to her child, the source of the father dries automatically since a person can not support more than one elemental power or…" he paused when her eyes narrowed. She was already tired but she was not able to perform the elemental magic of earth too.
"Or the person did not have an affinity for magic. I have thought all this time that you belong to the second case since your mother had left us suddenly but now.." he looked at her with hopes, "i want you to try using earth magic, just in case.." he held her hands while looking at her with gaze full of hopes when she sighed and shook her head.
"Have you already tried?" though he was asking, his face was telling that he already knew the answer. The hopes died faster than they had formed.
"Sigh! It is fine. I still have enough money and power to find you a better groom so that you do not need to worry about your future and live a leisurely life." though he assured her, she could see that he looked disappointed but she did not care.
He had never cared for her. And now suddenly he was behaving like he was a more concerned person about her. Too bad! The one who would have cared about it was already gone and she had no affection for this man.
"I did not need a husband. But if you are ready to depend on me, why don't you offer me some cash!" she asked bluntly when he chuckled.
He had recently realized that she had lived a rather poor life in spite of being his eldest daughter. So he readily agreed and took out a bag of gold from his pocket.
"Here! You can ask for more if you need." he said as he patted her back and then they both returned to their rooms.
She closed her eyes and tried her space magic. She was standing on the other corner of the room in the next second. That meant she had an affinity for magic even if they did not know. That only meant that it must be the poison he was talking about.
She took the money and left to find the ingredients she had told her.
It did not take her much time to buy those but alas! She had spent all the money and realized that ingredients were rather expensive.
As she walked to the assigned place where he had asked her to wait, she realized that she was not alone there but a woman was bathing in the lake nearby.
She was so engulfed in swimming that she had not noticed her presence yet. But when the woman turned.. She paused and narrowed her eyes at Thea.
In the flick of a second, her speed increased and she stood in front of Thea wearing a white robe that was sticking to her body.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" she had taken out a dagger and pointed it towards Thea who raised a brow and then smiled.
"Elder sister, i did not mean any harm. I am waiting for a friend here and leave as soon as he would come." she explained with her hands raised signaling peace to her but her eyes were on the movement of the dagger.
"Ha! Do you not know this is the private lake for the family or royals and no one except royals can come here. And you had seen me taking a bath, so you must die!" she forwarded her dagger when Thea held her hands and twisted and the dagger were in her hands in the next second shocking the woman who looked at her hands and then at hers.
Only when the girl pointed did Thea remembered that she had dressed as a man to hide her identity. She chose man because there are many who were still looking for the woman in cloak and even if she change her make up she could not change her height and body structure.
"Elder sister, you are taking me wrong. I do not have any interest in you."
".........."