Anna Jones sat beside her dying mother, swearing revenge with every breathe she took upon the Bruce family for all the damage they had caused both her and her clan.
Not less than ten years ago, Jeffery Bruce had betrayed her mother, the most powerful nature sorcerer at the time. He had used her as a pawn to recover the most powerful spell book to ever exist, the Maledictio Caelum et Infernium.
She was raised everyday of her life to hate blood sorcerers, ever since her mother returned half dead. Her childhood crush Daniel Bruce had suddenly become her number one enemy.
Anna knew she couldn't possibly go against a man who had bedridden her mother despite all her strength, so she was going for an easy target. Someone who had little knowledge of the sorcery world and Daniel met all her expectations and beyond both romantically, and prey wise. He was the perfect candidate.
Her uncle wouldn't let her hear the last of the havoc that Jeffery Bruce had wrecked upon their household, and not weeks ago he had returned home lucky to still be alive, and cursing the Stigma brothers for butting in on his business.
"It will all be well, I'll get him for what he's done" Anna sang to her mother everyday. If only she could see how determined her daughter was. She had dedicated everyday of her life in training most especially after that Infernal Judgement had bested her. "Richard Hardwood" she muttered under her breath.
His closeness to Daniel set her off everytime, she couldn't tell if it was jealousy, or because he was stronger, and was a hindrance to her mission.
She was a bit relived that Richard had stopped her from killing Daniel, but her uncle had tagged it weakness and incompetency.
If only things could get worse, he appeared in the room where she sat, his face beaming with a smile. She tried to ignore his presence. Anna knew better than to get involved in his shenanigans, they were never reasonable, and he always made a big deal out of them. He was basically a man child.
"Rejoice with me tonight Anna, the cub has left it's mother" He spoke his voice alive with happiness. He was probably talking about Daniel but she chose not to reply.
All he did was charge into battle without tactics. And it had cost him his dignity more than once.
It was his specialty going into fights without proper analysis of his enemy and their capabilities. From the Intel they had gotten so far, they were two Bruce sons and they had no info about the new introduction that had just entered their lives. Since he was the eldest, it was only natural that he's a powerful sorcerer, but her dumb uncle, Thomas Jones, didn't seem to understand the situation.
"Rejoice!" He shouted making effort to get the girls attention but it didn't seem to have any effects, instead she had vanished ridding herself of his annoying presence.
Anna appeared at her normal venue, thr city's river bank. It was where she felt peace and closest to nature. It was night and the serene environment provided comfort. The river was a place to escape from the tragedy she called life. The gentle night breeze swept on her face calming her sorrowed looks while the chirping of the crickets, and scurrying sounds of the nocturnal animals provided a soothing lullaby to calm her mind.
Nature was simply in perfect unison here and she was at peace with herself here, until two daggers flew above her head disturbing her newly acquired peace. She turned immediately shielding herself from another attack with a web of vines.
The runes on the daggers out screamed one thing, Baxist. The daggers exploded but the grasses around had provided her a soft fall from the shockwave that blew her away.
Anna hurried up and scanned her environment for her assaulter, but he was skilled. She was in sync with nature at the moment any slight movement would trigger her senses but her adversary was already aware of the fact.
He was a stealth master, making every movement with calculated steps. He was here to check out the strength of his soon to be comrade, to know how powerful and strong her grudge against the Bruce family was.
One of his sisters was dead and another still recovering and he knew to his bones that the Bruce's were involved with this, and all this started over a quest for some stupid book. His plan was to take the amateur son captive and demand this book in exchange. Blood ties mattered more than a silly book Stephen had concluded.
He finally made his move attacking his open opponent from the air.
The sudden disturbance from the air above made her skin hair rise and she quickly swept out of range, to avoid the slash that came down upon her.
The webbed vines that provided her aegis lashed out at her invader. He sliced through each of the vines carefully making sure he didn't receive even a scratch. These nature sorcerers were often canny and their calm nature was an exploit to get their opponent to loose his guard at how powerful they were. He was well informed. Even a scratch from these vines could dose him with enough poison to kill him in less than an hour.
She watched his steps carefully, slowly and skillfully analyzing where he would make his next landing.
"This is it!' her mind screamed as vines erupted from the floor ready to grab her opponent.
As if reading her mind, he dug his blade into the floor, using the momentum of the thrust, Stephen projected himself up into the air away from the vines range, bed throwing two more daggers towards his open test subject. A smile was on his face as he realized she was ready. Next, he would come to recruit her.
Anna Jones panicked as the two small knives plunged into the soil near her feet. She had left her defenses open while focusing solely on a checkmate. She waited for the daggers to explode as the first one's did, but they never did.
Something about this Baxist felt strange, she thought as she bent down to see a note tied to one of the knives end, and vile of blood which was supposed to indicate that he was an enemy of the blood sorcerers, carefully tied to the other dagger.
A wicked satisfying smile crept unto her face. With someone as skilled as this Baxist, her chances of beating Jeffery Bruce, and getting her hands on the Maledictio Caelum et Infernium were slowly increasing. Her life was getting less miserable.
*****
Alexander closed his eyes waiting for the cold metal to finally end his life but it never did. Instead he heard a loud bang and soon his father was sent flying until he crashed down onto his study's shelves.
His mother stood at the door, her spell hand still outstretched while the second one slowly undid the vines and hands that pinned her son down.
Alexander felt it, the sudden drop in her mana. Could an unbinding spell even take that much mana? His thinking had to stop now. He was free and he had to get out of here as soon as possible.
Mrs Bruce had lined up three bloodstones in front of her, they shielded her from Jeffery's attacks, while she countered those directed towards her son. Alexander limped as fast as he could, with every passing second he could feel his mother's energy drop and that of his father increase and it terrified him.
He had finally made it to his mother's embrace but this was no time for sentimental reunions. They had to leave and fast.
Jeffery's laughter echoed as he watched his wife try her teleportation spells but fail.
"You can't escape, your teleportation magic doesn't work here, the moment you stepped into this study, you were already bound by my curse. Only I have the power to set you free" He revealed.
"You monster!" Helen cried. "We're your family"
"Our family died the moment your son raised his hands to kill me, I am only returning the favour" Jeffery bellowed.
"Those bloodstones won't last much longer" He reminded while releasing his arrays of attack at the two. Helen kept trying her teleportation spells, if they couldn't teleport, then they'll just have to run.
She grabbed her son's arm and pulled him away out of range just before the bloodstones shattered into pieces. They made for the door but it's exit was sealed with a barrier.
"Foolish woman! This is where Daniel gets it. Did you think I'll let you run away so easily?" Jeffery asked taking steps forward as he said each word.
Tears now streamed down Helen's beady eyes as they looked into Alexander's scared one's. His usual emotionless face had melted down into a one of worry and sadness.
"Tell Daniel I love him" Helen spoke holding down her son's hands while he struggled to stop her.
"Tell him yourself!" Alexander screamed a tear drop falling from his eyes as his mother pulled out a dagger from her casual looking heels.
"No!" His scream echoed throughout the study as he watched his mother slit her own throat, she'd given her life to conjure up a teleportation spell just for him.
He felt the cold night breeze on his face, he wasn't in the Bruce mansion anymore, his hot tears bathed his face as his vision slowly drifted away.