Seraphina Nightbloom ran away from home.
After almost 21 years of humiliation from her blood-related family, she couldn't handle it anymore. But where could she run from the Rietveld Village, when she couldn't go beyond that into the Spiegel Kingdom as they are against witches and doing so would get her burned in a pyre? Where else could she go but into the forbidden Valg Woods?
The Nightbloom Coven of Dark Witches was originally from the Berghe Village at the southernmost of the Kingdom, on the other extreme side of the territory. But she was never there, she was only born in that village, but grew up and was raised in the north.
Daughter of the Warlock of the Keizer Coven of Green Warlocks, guardians of the Huysmans Kingdom, who came to be after enemies spend a one-night stand together. And that would have remained her mother, Tessa Nightbloom's secret, if Seraphina didn't have identical features to her father, Louis Keizer. Because of that, her mother tried to kill her when she was just a newborn, scared that of her biggest secret leaking out, but something protected Seraphina. Then, her mother sold her to the trafficking market, but her grandmother, Cornelia, the matriarch of the Nightbloom Coven, got a word about it and rescued her granddaughter.
As attacking one another is prohibited in the Coven, as well as attacking a woman given how powerful they are, Tessa had to be cut from the Coven and expelled from the Village. But even if Cornelia did what she had to, she wasn't happy with it, specially not when she realized who was the father of her granddaughter.
With her cascading crimson red hair, amethyst lilac eyes, and tanned skin, there was no mistaking. Those were traits solely seen on the Keizer Coven's ruling family, while the Nightbloom's all had pale skin, black straight hair, and sapphire blue eyes. And the fact that her features resembled Tessa's despite the different colors, made it all more obvious who were the girl's parents.
Where the Keizer had longer noses, she took the small snub nose of her mom. While the women of the Keizer Coven all had a plain slim body and were all tall, Sera took her mom's curves and hourglass shape; as well as her big breasts and shorter height.
Displaying her mother's dimples, long eyelashes, pouty full lips, siren eyes, snatched tiny waist and freckles. She also showed her father's high cheekbones, wide shoulders, sharp collarbones, thick eyebrows, the natural hard and sharp nails that mimick claws, and the strong body that allow her to have a fit and toned figure without even having to lift a weight.
And there was one more point that made it clear who she was, as she not only was able to use dark magic, but also green magic, which had never happened before. The Greens being the ones in between Light and Dark Covens, and heavily allied to the Light Covens instead. That's why they are enemies to Dark Covens. The biggest Covens being Nightbloom of Dark Witches, Keizer of Green Warlocks, and the Koninck Coven of Light Witches & Warlocks.
Which aggravated even more Tessa and Louis having a daughter together after a secret affair. Something that Louis Keizer wasn't aware, and neither Tessa, nor Cornelia made any effort to tell him. After all, had he known, everything would change and chaos would break in the Covens.
After weighting it all, Cornelia ultimately decided to keep it a secret, hence she chose to raise her granddaughter but without giving her freedom. Not to let the rest of the Coven, aside from her family, know about the girl, she pretended that she was dead and kept her in the underground of Nightbloom Castle.
But Seraphina wasn't Tessa first daughter, no, she was the fourth and youngest. Amber, Eline, and Loren as sisters, who were respectively 9, 6, and 4 years older than her. All daughters of Tessa's three consorts from the Coven, thus all half-sisters. Her grandfather, Edgar Aartsen-Nightbloom also hated her for being not only being the cause of his favorite daughter's punishment, but for being Louis Keizer's daughter.
All of her family did, and as they were the only ones who knew her, they made sure to make the Sera's life a living hell.
She was beaten almost everyday since she was old enough to walk, and target of her sisters and grandparents hatred, plus their vocal and psychological daily humiliations. But she still loved them, at least her grandmother and her 2nd and 3rd sister in a extent, because despite knowing that they hated her, she was thankful for their teachings even if it was almost nothing.
Sera stayed strong even if she was breaking inside, doing her best to self-teach herself in everything she could, all to become strong and win her family's recognition. Given that the Nightbloom Coven's sacred library was on the underground of the Castle, she used that as an opportunity and read all the books she could manage to get her hands on.
She was a generational genius with an intelligence almost never seen before, so it didn't took a tool on her, especially because she was clever enough to hide how clever she actually was. Seraphina, despite everything, was awfully aware of her family's prideful nature, and how her older sister Amber was undoubtedly the favorite. Follow by Eline and Loren who were tied together by had a great amount of the Coven's love, attention, and admiration (tho not as much as the oldest).
And she knew that, if she showed them that she was the best and the strongest of the four, they would only hate her more. So, she pretended not to know much, not to know who she was even though she was aware after reading the sacred books of Witchcraft and it's founding families. Sera also had a big mirror, she knew whose Coven she had taken her appearance from, at least most of it.
The witch was quick to catch onto the fact that her parents weren't around, her family was from her maternal side, and that they hated whoever her father was. From that on she was able to put the pieces together. Awakening dark and green magic only proved to her what she already knew, and thus she focused on getting stronger.
The Nightbloom Coven didn't have weak and careless witches, and she was not going to be the first.