A lean woman with green eyes that shone with maliciousness looked around and smiled. And humming a playful tune while playing with her hair, she walked away from the portal slowly heading out of the cave.
Stepping on the shore, she lifted her left hand and stared at the golden bracelet that she was wearing then still holding up her hand, she shifted her gaze further into the houses several meters from the shore.
"Let us find ourselves someone kind enough to host us for the night," she spoke in a playful little voice and cackled heading towards the town. He bracelet glowed with a deam golden light then within a few seconds it turned dull bronze.
The following morning, Lily got up early and had plans of heading out of the town. She was so decided about leaving as soon as possible until she noticed that her grandmother was not acting normal.
She was all of a sudden quiet than usual. She was seated on her rocking chair that always sat next to the fireplace. What was alarming was how zoned out she was and the manner in which she held her knitting yarn in her hand without making any movements.
Lily quickly got alarmed and dashed to her trying to talk and shake her but she wasn't moving at all. Her eyes were fixed staring blankly. Lily walked to the kitchen and immediately panicked and while hesitating, she finally decided to summon Titus.
Titus too could not place the source of Tabitha's sudden condition. "Unless..." Titus hesitated looking at Lily. Lily knew perfectly well what Titus must have been thinking, and there was only one way to be certain.
Lily went back to the living area and moved close to her grandmother who was still not moving at all and neither switching her gaze. She inhaled sofltly lifted both her hands and held her grandmother's ears, covering them on both sides with her hands.
Lily then shut her eyes staying still in front of her still zoned out grandmother. For seconds there was no movement from either of them then suddenly, Lily retrieved both her hands swiftly. She opened her eyes to the sight of her grandmother still zoned out but this time her nose was bleeding.
Lily stood up and took a few steps away from her grandmother while looking back at her in pure disbelief. Her expression was like that of someone who had just seen a ghost. "It is magic, it has darkness in it," Lily spoke in low steady voice.
Titus looked at her for more answers. They both were wondering of the same thing. Who could that be that had such kind of dark magic that would affect Tabitha even when they were under the same roof with Lily, and still get away with it without her sensing the person?
What disturbed Lily the most was the fact that she could not understand who or what might have done this. The only quick and easy way that Lily could save her grandmother from that state was if she took out her pendant.
This however she could not do because she knew very well that she needed a little bit of light to be able to save her grandmother. If she by any chance decided to use her dark power to heal her grandmother, then her grandmother would in one way or another have to experience the side effects of being healed using Lily's darkness.
One had to know that Lily's power was very different any other person who had darkness in them, hers was rather wild and with layers that she was yet to tap into. So if by any chance Lily decided to revive someone using her power, then that person had to have bits of the dark element in them. If not so, then they would not be able to survive the aftermath.
When Lily held her grandmother, she was trying to get in her head and replay her recent memories. And as a result, she was able to see a darkness that loomed in her head. This darkness was slowly trying to shut her brain in all directions.
Lily could also sense the power of the darkness, it did not feel her presence at all nor did it sense her watching it. And so, it continuously circulated within her grandmother's brain trying to slowly shut her down.
Lily questioned why this happened to her grandmother and why it had to happen at that very moment when she had a lot to take care of. This was the worst timing ever. Lily could not think of anything to help her since the only two way she had could not be of use at all.
Other than her trying to save her grandmother with her power, the other option was looking for the sorcerer. This however could not work since she was aware that the sorcerer had to lay low for a period of time before she finally resurfaced herself again.
Amidst countless thoughts of possible solutions, an idea popped up in Lily's mind. "Christopher! Of course! Why did I not think of that soon enough!" Lily exclaimed with a little bit of light in her. Lily remembered that Christopher's mother was a herbalist and not a simple one.
Christopher's mother ventured into the secrecy of magic and dug deep studying it for quite sometime that she could master a few incantations. Now when Lily and Christopher were little, they only had the idea that Christopher's mother was superstitious and dismissed it since they were just kids.
Christopher however grew up to learn that her mother practiced healing with magical herbs. This however was not known to many people as everyone kept anything to do with magical abilities as a secret and only spoke of it behind locked door.
This was because they believed of the existence of predators all over that would hunt for such kinds of abilities and would stop at nothing until they drained the source of it completely dry. These people were known as the 'Collectors'.
The collectors were people that originated from magical backgrounds and believed that anyone who was not part of their tribe and had magic in them was not worthy of that power. And with the realization of that an individual was not one of them, they would forcefully rip them off their magic.
This they were able to do since they had old magic in them which made them slightly stronger than any average person that practiced magic of any kind. The collectors thereby moved all over looking for people to steal magic from.
They would mostly hide their identities and disguise themselves as a member of a community and lay low for sometime, taking their time studying their targets. And once they were certain of the timing and had them cornered, they would ambush them and imprison their victim with magic as they forcefully took all their abilities.
Due to the rumours about the collectors turning out to be amongst people anytime, anyone with magic could not publicly just speak about it or they would end up digging their own grave and perishing in it.
For this reason, Christopher's mother too had to guard her truth with her life. As Lily thought of this, she decided to go look for Christopher and talk to him because she was sure that he would not hesitate in trying to help her.
She knew this looked rather selfish of her since she always thought of seeking Christopher only when she needed help. But this she had to do since Tabitha was the only family she had left. After all, she was still half human and that made her human enough to want to have a normal human-like life while she was still here.
Getting to Christopher's place, Christopher was very excited to see Lily come to their house and specifically looking for him. He was aware that Lily was still trying to adjust to coming back home and being around them, so he did not want to rush her into it.
But still seeing her come all the way to the boathouse by herself really made Christopher happy. However, his excitement did not last long after hearing what Lily had to say. He did not give himself time to think at all and quickly rushed to his mother with Lily.
Explaining what happened, Lily got even more sad as she saw how emotional Christopher's mother got. She vowed to help her in any way she could but she did not make any promises of being the best solution.
This was because she had never been in contact with an illness that originated from the dark element. This would be her first time facing such kind. She told Lily to go ahead and that she would follow behind since they had to be secretive about everything they did and not risk alerting the Collectors or their spies.
Christopher's mother soon caught up to Lily in her grandmother's house. Of course Christopher followed behind her. Christopher's mother was shocked at the condition that Tabitha was in and she could not help but get very emotional.
She however decided to recollect herself and stay calm since she had to be in the best state of mind inorder for her to be able to provide any help to her. She took out her herbs and tools from her bad and arranged them one the kitchen table.
She then realized instructed Leo to help take Tabitha back to her room with the help of Lily. She walked back with them in her room and burned incense, slightly filling the room with smoke that smelled like herbs.
After asking Lily and Chris to step out, Christopher's mother took out a tiny crystal that was the size of a pebble. She then held it to Tabitha's head and Tabitha suddenly gasped sharply for air.
She suddenly coughed out substance that was black in color and gripping Christopher's mother's hand tightly, she uttered with fear clear in her eyes, "you have to warn Lily, she is in grave danger."