In the small wooden cabin, made mainly from wood and straw, Victoria, the sorcerer's wife lay in the handmade wooden bed.
She looked very pale and sick, the delicate skin beneath her eyes was dark and scaly.
A handsome man in his mid-forties sat beside his once beautiful wife. He is Lucus, a man formerly known for his knowledge of spells
"How are you doing today," Lucus inquired.
"I am doing fine, there is no need to get worried," Victoria replied as a dry cough escaped from her mouth.
She could feel her heart beating hard against her chest as though it was going to burst out.
"You are not fine Victoria," I will tell Anna to get some herbs from the woods immediately."
"Do you think that will be necessary?" Victoria replied, attempting to get up from the bed with a slight groan.
"Don't," Lucus said, laying her head back on the wooden bed. He looked into her eyes deeply and sighed. It was a sigh Victoria was used to and she did not utter a word. Every bit of his silence carried deep meanings beyond the grasp of an ordinary man.
"Anna! Anna!!" Lucus called out to his only child.
From the entrance of the small cabin, a beautiful girl of about twenty-one emerge with a clay jar filled with water balanced on her head. She kept the jar beside the door and went to answer her father's call. "You called me father," she said kneeling.
Lucus caressed the brown hair of his beautiful daughter dressed in brown tatarred clothes that could only be equated with rags. He sighed again.
"Yes, your mom is really ill, I want you to get some herbs from the woods for me."
"Okay father, Anna replied. How are you doing today mother," Anna inquired.
"I am doing great, don't listen to a word your dad says, I will get well soon," Victoria replied but she knew that was only a prayer, she would not be better anytime soon.
"Sighs."
Immediately, Anna got up from her kneeling position and ran out of the small cabin. Lucus had taught her a great deal of the secrets of the woods and herbs. She could identify the herbs for any sickness herself but Lucus did not tell her the sickness this time.
Sending her away was only a deception. He knew Victoria would not outlive that day. Lucus looked deeply into Victoria's eyes and heaved a sigh of sorrow. A sigh deeper than its facial expressions, it was a sigh Victoria was familiar with. It told the story of nineteen years before, when Anna was still in her mother's womb.
A story Lucus tried daily to do away with but it kept coming to him like the magnetic force of a magnet attracting metal. A story that still hurts him like a little child afraid of the realities of s buggy man.
Tears gradually dripped down from his eyes as he remembered the story of his downfall.
Once, he was the greatest sorcerer of the central kingdom of Mogablaka. Until one day, he was accused of a crime he knew nothing about. He was accused of witchcraft and murder.
Fresh tears flowed down freely from his eyes as he remembered how he was stripped of all he had to expect from Victoria and her unborn child.
Victoria was familiar With this. She had always been a source of consolation to Lucus but she was also afraid she was not going to be always there for him and Anna.
Victoria held his hands tightly around hers and looked straight into his eyes. "Sorcerer Lucus," Victoria said calmly. "Did you kill the queen and her unborn child?" Victoria said.
"You know I can never do such a thing," Lucus replied.
"Then you have to be strong and don't let it bother you, Justice will find its way to you. The truth can never be hidden forever." Victoria explained.
"That's is what you have been telling me for nineteen years now. I have been suffering for a crime I know nothing about and practice I condemn. I feel like taking my life, it isn't worth living."
"What do you mean by taking your life," Victoria returned with her shaky voice. "Who will be there for Anna when I am gone? Where is the Lucus I got married to who always saw the bright side of things."
"That Lucus was buried in the palace, the day I was tried by the castle court and found guilty,"
"If you can't do this for me or yourself, stay alive for Anna, my time is short."
"Where are you going to? you will always be here to guide Anna," Lucus said but his eyes betrayed his words.
"You know the truth Lucus, though you have refused to own up to it. I must go now and you know it. But you have to remember one thing, stay alive for Anna. She is the daughter of a sorcerer and has the spirit of a sorcerer," Victoria said.
With his inner eyes, Lucus saw Victoria's spirit-raising. He had to stop this, he could not let this happen even if it meant altering the course of nature. Victoria had always been there for him and Anna. Without her his life was useless. He could not let this happen, he would rather die in her place.
Like a flash of lightening, cold shivers ran down his spine. "Gulp," a large lump went down his spine.
"No, I can't let this happen, not when I am still alive," he screamed.
Quickly, he got four green stones from his sorcerer's bag. He must trap Victoria's spirit in her body and never let it out. He knew this was risky but he had to do it, even if it will make the course of nature go crazy.
He placed the three stones on the floor in a way that they formed a semi-circle. He went into the semi-circle and sat, muttering a silent spell.
The spell of the ancient moon goddess that could trap a soul inside an unwilling body.
As Victoria's soul rose from his body, it was restricted by a green glow emitting from the stones, and Victoria's face tighten as though she was fighting with an invisible being in her dream.
Suddenly, two women clothed in white emerged from Victoria's spirit. "What are you trying to do," they said in a voice that sounded like a mighty rushing water.
"You can't take her. She doesn't belong to you, she belongs to us, her family."
"She is dead, you must free her spirit and let her come with us."
"No," Lucus thundered.
"It is not a request mortal, it is an order. Don't try to alter the existing balance of the earth."
"If you must take her, you will have to pass through me first," Lucus returned.
"Is that a threat," the two ladies fired.
"Consider it one."
"With pleasure," the Angels of death smiled to themselves.
"Gulp," Lucus swallowed hard. He sounded courageous but he wasn't. He just had to do this for Anna.
"I have wrestled with mortals and prevailed. Today, I will wrestle with you immortals and also prevail," Lucus screamed.