Traumatized by the terrifying experience of having to think that his mother was actually wrapped up and beaten till she bled, Alexander ran as fast as his legs could carry him, as he headed for home.
He got to the compound of the Blackwood's house, and he didn't stop running, until he got to the backyard, where he finally saw him mother, who was busy putting up already washed clothes to the drying wire.
Alexander visibly calmed down a bit, as he approached her, and without saying a thing he joined her to spread the wet clothes to the drying line.
His mother looked at him, and also didn't say a thing, as they both continued the chore in silence.
The silence stretched for a long time, until Alexander could no longer bottle up his feelings. He turned to face his mother with teary eyes, as he said, "Mother. Let's run away from this place."
….
The next morning, at the house where Alethea lived, Alethea rolled on her bed as she woke up. She sat up on her bed, and looked around her room, until her eyes stopped on the mirror that was on a desk in front of her bed.
She could see her reflection in the mirror, and for the first time since the previous night, she noticed that her beautiful black hair was now ashen.
In horror, she touched her hair, wondering if the strange occurrence of the previous night was responsible for this. She then leaned forward, to try and grab the mirror so as to have a closer look at her reflection.
Before her hand could even get close to the mirror, something unnatural and unexpected happened. The mirror, together with the desk moved backwards, and the mirror suddenly broke into pieces.
Alethea was shocked and appalled by this, but she couldn't even think about it, as she also started to hear devilish whispers in her head. She pressed her hands against her ears as if trying the stop the voices in her head, but it didn't stop, and then out of frustration, she yelled.
As she yelled, her eyes turned to a bright shade of purple, and so many of the items and furnitures in the room scattered about the room, some of them even got destroyed in the process.
"Alethea!" The second in command of the Sacred fire circle who was standing guard outside of the house, had heard Alethea's loud screaming, and had come into the house. He was very shocked at the state Alethea's room was in.
Alethea on the other hand, couldn't process the shocking things that were happening, and she passed out due to the shock.
"Alethea!" The man ran to her, and held her up, trying to wake her up. "Alethea!"
….
The Sacred fire circle later gathered that day, and had a very heated meeting.
"I heard from Sir Cedric, that her powers are unstable. When she releases energy, she becomes unconscious, so we cannot move her to the Oakwood temple yet." One of them said, referring to the message he got from the second in command, Sir Cedric.
"The spell in the Black Forest has faltered. We must move her as soon as possible." Another one argued.
"But what if she becomes noticed by Nimueh while we are doing that? Won't that mean the end for all of this?"
Another person seemed to disagree and said, "But at the same time, if we leave her there at the house, then she, the Crown Prince, and William will all eventually perish due to the curse! Sir Cedric could also fall victim to the curse as well, since he is the only one watching her at the moment."
"What are we supposed to do then? It seems anywhere we turn, there would be some kind of loophole."
The initiates exchanged ideas, and at the end, they all were conflicted, while Ronan just sat there in silence, very much deep in thoughts.
….
Back at the house, Cedric arranged the room that had been scattered, while Alethea sat silently by the corner, with her head resting on her knees.
When Cedric was done with cleaning up the room, he then worriedly knelt beside Alethea. "Are you alright?" He asked, but she didn't lift her head, neither did she say anything.
"Don't worry too much, okay? Your father will take care of everything. We can restore everything back to the way it was if we go to the Oakwood temple."
Alethea finally raised her head, as she looked at him. "Oakwood temple? What kind of place is that?"
"Well that's…" Cedric paused, and then continued, "It's a bit complex, so I'll tell you when we get there, so wait just a bit."
Alethea looked away from him, and said, "I'm sure father hates me now."
"What do you mean?"
"If I had not disobeyed him, then non of these would have happened. So I bet he hates me now." She said as she tried to hold her tears back.
"There's no way that's true. He treasures you so much. So how could you say such a thing?" Cedric said, trying to cheer her up. "I bet he is having quite a hard time, too. Since this didn't just affect you, but young master William as well."
Alethea looked at him in confusion. "What do you mean by that?"
"Huh?" Cedric asked, as he still had not realized that he had spilled something he wasn't supposed to.
"Did something happen to my brother?" Alethea rephrased her question to be more direct.
That was when Cedric realized that he had slipped up, and he could only bite his lips in regret, wishing he could turn back the hands of time.
….
At Ronan's house, William was still unconscious in his room, and was still being attended to by his worried mother.
She was massaging his now very pale skin with warm water, and when she was done, she then spoon fed him some liquid medicine.
It wasn't up to five seconds after the medicine entered his mouth before he then sat up, coughing out the medicine, together with some blood, staining his clothe, and face in the process, as he went back to being unconscious.
"William!" His mother exclaimed in fear and worry for her son's life. "How is it that you can't swallow even a drop of medicine? William! Please, snap out of it!"
William slowly opened his eyes, struggling as he muttered, "M-m-mother."
"William." His mother sighed in relief that he was at least showing some signs of life. "Are you alright now?" She asked.
William slowly turned his head to look at her, but he saw someone else standing behind his mother. The person had ash-colored hair, and a scarred face which was as black as night.
William who had been weak, suddenly had strength from nowhere, as he sat up on his bed, and moved to the far corner of his bed, covering himself with his blanket in fright.
"William!" His mother exclaimed, shocked by his sudden behavior.
"Ghost!" He yelled as he pointed behind her, and when she looked back, she didn't see anything, or anyone.
"What's the matter, William?" She asked, trying to get close.
"Go away!" William shouted, referring to the person he was seeing.
His mother thought he was talking to her, and she was heartbroken by this, but she still went to him, trying to comfort him. "Look at me. It's your mother." But William still continued to yell.
Worried by this, William's mother called for one of the local shamaness in the kingdom to come perform a ritual at the house in order to chase away every unclean spirit or energy.
The shamaness arrived at the house and came with some women who were under her wings, and together, they started the ritual. Kicking off by dancing and clapping round the compound of the house.
But then, as the ritual went on, the shamaness suddenly stopped dancing, as a look of horror was plastered on her face.
The same person that William had been seeing in his room had appeared, and only her could see the person. Out of fright of seeing something so horrifying that she had never seen in her life, she fell unconscious to the ground, causing a commotion as the others ran to help her.
While this was going on, Alethea who was wearing a cloak, with the hood covering her head, and Cedric were peeping from the gate, and had seen all that had happened.
After Alethea got to know what happened to William, she had insisted that she had to come and see William, no matter what, and Cedric had to give in at the end, even though he knew he might regret it later.
"Let's just go back." Cedric said to Alethea, trying to convince her once again.
But Alethea remained adamant. "Please, Sir Cedric! Let me just see his face for a bit." She pleaded.
Cedric shook his head. "We will both be in trouble if your father finds out."
"But if I don't see him today, I don't know when else I would get to see him again."
Cedric sighed in frustration, as he felt for her. "Alright then. We'll just see him for a bit, and then come out, okay?" He said, and then he looked at the purple gemstone amulet that was on her neck. It was supposed to serve as a form of protection from the effect of the curse, but it was slowly turning black. "This gemstone won't be able to protect you for much longer. Do you understand?"
Alethea unhesitatingly nodded her answer.