"Have we met before?" Sarra asked as she gently seated herself on the chair opposite to the old woman who was now perched comfortably on the rocking chair. She was rocking back and forth, with her eyes closed like she was taking a sweet afternoon nap, a favorite pastime for individuals of her age.
While Sarra, who was aware that the old woman was awake, waited for her response, for a moment, her eyes fluttered towards the Envy, who was standing a few steps away from the old woman but unlike her she was just standing there doing nothing.
It was hard to ignore someone standing nearby, who was doing literally nothing. Like she wasn't even looking at her or any other thing but her eyes were gazing at nowhere with unfocused pupils. She was just present here physically with an absent minded vacant look on her face, which was practically screaming that she would rather be anywhere else than here but…
*Deep breath*
Sarra took a deep breath as she tried to ignore her while she focused solely on the mysterious old woman who from the start was giving her a familiar vibe, but she was not able to put her finger on it.
The old lady kept rocking her chair, as she answered gently all the while similarly trying hard to ignore the awkward Envy standing besides her,
"My name might be scrubbed clean from your Coven's records but I would be happy to re-introduce myself to one of my junior sisters. "
Maya stopped rocking her chair and strained herself slightly to stop the chair and then meet the eyes of the now completely shocked Sarra. She saw the realization dawning on her face as she smiled kindly,
"My name is Maya, a witch from forgotten history. I have also studied some time in your Coven so this technically makes us sisters in relation, though I am not sure how many generations are there between us.. Hahaha.."
The old witch cackled hoarsely as though realizing that the joke she had just made was somewhat crude for her senior age but ignoring all that, she still relished in it as she laughed heartily. But on the opposite hand, Sarra stood up in mixture of shock and awe as she stammered out,
"You are from our Veridicus Covenant. How could it be?"
"Hehe.. Indeed." Old woman who has just introduced herself as Maya derived great joy from seeing the fluctuating expression on the face of the girl before her. It was great entertainment for her to watch her familiar cloak of indifference shatter into pieces just by her few words.
'Oh Yenan. Your covenant's cloaking theory is still stuck in infancy just as in the past, not an inch improved from all that time. And this girl still has a long way to go. If met in some other circumstances I could have taught this talented young sister of yours to new heights but alas…'
Maya's smile fainted a bit, but still with a lingering smile on her face she snapped her fingers to bring the attention of the elated yet slightly doubtful girl back to her.
"How about this for proof?"
Sarra watched with an expression of deer stuck in headlights as the fingertips of the old witch in front of her became black in real time. The ink like darkness first dipped her fingertips in black, which then continued to her whole fingers painting them black. By now if there was still any remaining doubt about her identity in Sarra's mind, it had completely cleared by now.
Only the witchcraft of the Veridicus Covenant has this effect of staining the fingers black of the practicing witch, as they had to dip them into the invisible the current of primordial black magic with their bare hands to form connection with it. Sarra smiled, fully satisfied and trusting, wanting to greet her more intimately, even dropping her cloak of indifference for a moment when suddenly…
The black current staining the fingertips of the old woman didn't stop by her fingers; rather it continued climbing up, inking the old wrinkly hands of the Old witch black. By each passing second this dark staining invisible current kept climbing higher and higher until it was well on its way to stain the arms of the Maya upto her elbows black and it was still climbing up.
Sarra's eyes turned wide as happiness instantly turned into confusion but seeing the continuous rising current on the body of old woman in front of her, this confusion soon turned into shock and then finally settled into sheer terror as she trembled as the blackness claimed the whole arms of old lady and now was making its way up to her neck. While all the time she sat there with a smile on her face.
'How could it possibly be? No one can take that much of current or primeval current by their body. It is simply not possible for a witch to… '
Suddenly an incomprehensible idea struck in the mind of Sarra. She raised her trembling finger and pointed at the old woman.
"You.. Yo-You.. Are…"
The old lady smiled like she was least bothered by the dark ink climbing up her neck, marking her skin black on its way. She instead looked deep into the eyes of Sarra who was now blanched white with horror as she stopped the dark current finally upto half of her neck.
"So you know… " As the old woman spoke her lips turned black, and taking this chance she smiled teasingly and then flicked her tongue out a little. To the shock of Sarra, her tongue was completely charcoal black… It wasn't stained black like her skin, rather it seemed like her tongue was made of black mass of muscle from the start.
"... So you know the legend. Looks like Veridicus still hasn't removed that old fashioned warning page from all of their books."
Sarra found her mind screaming in horror as her wild guess came true. She knew exactly what this old woman was talking about. In books of their Coven's library, in fact, in all of their books, from beginners to the advanced rituals of witchcraft, the first page of the book was always the same.
It was a warning written to check the greediness of the witches and to discourage them from seeking the black magic without proper restraint so much so that in the process they could cause irreplaceable harm to themselves. It was a tale of caution but also a tale of horror familiar to all witches about the supposed peak of witchcraft.
Even now Sarra could recall the exact words of that warning paragraph without any extra effort as she had read them so many times, but like all others had always thought of them as fabricated legends to make witches cautious. It read.
'A witch, the one who has reached the apex of witchcraft can mold the truth of reality by her speech alone. She has no need of runes, diagrams or script to perform any ritual. She is a conduit of black primeval current into reality by herself.
Her blood is equivalent to the devil's foul blood…
Her hair and nails are synonymous with Hexcess's cursed claws…
Her tongue is as black as doomsday prophet's prophecy of catastrophe…
And her eyes blind as Otherworld demons, who see all but at the same time see nothing.
Beware thou who seek the depth of the black current, for the one who set foot at the end remains neither man nor woman by the time. '
Sarra trembled visibly as her knees gave in, and she collapsed awkwardly on the chair but before she could even straighten her thoughts out, she felt a hand on her head that calmed her down. Looking up she realized it was Maya's hand, who was back to normal looking old woman with the same kind elderly smile. But Sarra's heart trembled at her sudden appearance as her smile now no longer looked that warm to her.
"Relax child. I admit I wanted to make an impression but I never thought I would give you such a scare.
But how can you believe those words of shameless exaggeration, I thought, just like me, when I studied back then we students gave a rat's ass to such words of caution. We never took it at face value and I thought bold youngsters such as yourselves would think of it as the same.
But here....tsk..tsk….i never thought that the young witch of the Coven would be such a scaredy cat. "
Sarra controlled herself as she calmed her still wildly beating heart. Surprisingly even to the Maya, she gathered her wits back too quickly as the young woman smiled shyly and shook her head,
"I also never believed them but just…seeing it so unexpectedly in real life made me a little too scared. I am so sorry for displaying cowardly behavior in front of my Senior Sister."
Sarra looked up and saw a shadow of twinkle in her murky eyes, but it disappeared as quickly it had appeared in those nearly blind eyes. Old Maya grinned happily as she patted Sarra's head a little more affectionately.
"Haha..Sister is good but I am not that shameless. You can call me grandma or Aunt, as your leader Yenan calls me. Now come on, enough introductions. Let's talk about business. "