The Devil's Cursed Witch

“No one knows what happened. Even I, who was strong enough to be the Head of a coven, got an incomplete vision. I dare not even guarantee if the next Queen was truly born or not. Though witches are scattered all over the continent, the covens do interact with each other in secret. After all, we are a race who are forced to interact with others because we need to trade for ingredients and spells. If any of the covens had sensed her presence, Honeyharbor would have at least heard some news, but no such incident had occurred so far.”

“Do you mean there is no new Queen?”

“I honestly cannot make a proper conclusion, Your Majesty. As I said, the vision back then was hard to decipher. Either she was not born, that vision was wrong, an unknown factor had interrupted and hid her, or something had gone wrong with her birth.”

Cornelia sighed as she further explained..

“The birth of the Queen of the Witches is a great event where nature itself informs us that our monarch is born. This truth can never–should never be possibly hidden from our people,  but nothing happened on that day when the prophecy of her birth was meant to come true.

“Nature was silent. A silence so loud, it made me question whether there was an unknown factor that changed the vision. It is difficult to explain this to beings not of our race, but back then, it was as if the laws of the world were momentarily disturbed. It was as if every witch and warlock had gone blind, mute and deaf for a few moments.

“It was a puzzle that many senior and high-ranking witches had then obsessed over to solve. After that, many covens spent the past twenty years searching for the new Queen, but there is nothing that can lead us to her. If she was really born, it was impossible for us to not know about her. The existence of our Queen can’t be hidden from our people–or at least that was what the majority of us believe.”

“More than twenty years have passed, you say… If you received the vision of her birth merely twenty years back, then she is but a young witch around the age of twenty or twenty-one. She couldn’t be the previous Queen of Megaris, Esther Ivanov.”

Cornelia was puzzled to hear an unfamiliar name. “What do you mean by this, Your Majesty? Who is this person you speak of?”

“Since we need to search for Evanthe, I asked Aureus for help. He told me he had come across someone addressed by another witch as the Monarch, and he claimed she is the Queen of Witches. Her name is Esther Ivanov, the previous Queen of Megaris, mother of the current King of Megaris.”

Cornelia was so shocked she didn’t realize she had jumped to her feet. This was the first clue the witch race had heard about the new Queen!  “Your Majesty! Is Mister Aureus sure? Did he really know the Queen of Witches?”

“I do not know if she is the new Queen of Witches, but that young eagle confirmed seeing the mark on the back of her neck. Since there is no reason for her to lie, then that confirms her identity as the Queen of Witches. He also said that it was this woman who had given him a map to reach Agartha. Unless some strange factors are in play, the only conclusion is that this ‘Queen of Witches’ was someone who had lived in Agartha before…”

Cornelia’s shock turned into excitement.

“It’s not the new Queen! It must be Her Eminence! We found a clue about Her Eminence’s whereabouts!”

Lost in her emotions, Cornelia had to momentarily excuse herself, and after she regained her composure, she apologized for interrupting Draven. She then returned to sitting on the couch, but it could be seen that she could barely contain her joy.

“I reached the same conclusion,” Draven didn’t deny her claim. “Last night, I paid a visit to the capital of Megaris. Though I could not sense Evanthe’s presence, when I approached their royal palace, I could feel faint but familiar traces of her energy.”

“Energy? You mean, not a spell?

“Something in that place carries an enchantment made either by injecting her pure energy or maybe even a part of her soul. However, that’s all there is to it. It only confirmed Evanthe had once been in the Royal Palace of Megaris. There is a possibility she could have been there to see Esther Ivanove, the new Queen of Witches, and blessed her with a gift.

“However, with you sharing about the strange vision of the supposed new Queen’s birth only happening roughly twenty years back, then she couldn’t be old enough to mother the current King of Megaris. It suggests that Evanthe is Esther Ivanov.”

With each word Draven said, Cornelia felt various emotions rushing through her body, each statement knocking her breathless.

If Evanthe was truly Esther Ivanov, that meant she married a human. The Queen of Witches, promised by fate to another, had a child with this human… and she built a family of her own. It was something Cornelia could not believe but…a smile spread across her lips as the hope of finding the most respected Queen of her people appeared in her mind.

“Your Majesty, I-I wish to leave Agartha and go meet Her Eminence…”

“No one knows where she is. The King of Megaris has also been searching for his mother for the past twenty years.”

“Going by your words, Your Majesty, Her Eminence disappeared at around the same time our people received that strange vision?” Cornelia made sure.

Draven nodded. “I guess it must be related to the birth of the next queen.”

“That makes sense…” Once more, Cornelia showed a complicated expression. “This is not something I should be telling a person who is not of our race, but…The birth of the next queen was a grave and controversial matter for our people.”

Draven’s silence seemed to imply that he was not forcing Cornelia to share a secret guarded by her race. In the end, Cornelia chose to inform the King of Agartha.

“Many believe she should not be born.”

Once more, Draven remained silent, neither urging nor stopping Cornelia, fully leaving the decision to continue to her.

The Head of the Witches sighed. “That child to be born. From what the fragmented visions of many high-ranking witches, the new queen was supposed to be a Black Witch. Even my own visions showed the same.”

As she said that, her face had gone pale in shame.

“A Black Witch…hah…No White Witch would ever accept a  witch who uses black magic as their queen.” Her eyes shook as she met his expressionless red eyes. “Your Majesty, you can understand why no one wants a Black Witch to rule our race.”

Draven lowered his head as he pondered. “As the highest-ranking witch, Evanthe must have gotten a more concrete vision, if not a complete one.”

“Indeed. With her strength, Her Eminence being the queen must have seen more, piercing through the veil of the strange disturbance back then. She might have possibly even traced the location of the next queen as the two would share a faint connection due to the mark on the back of their necks. Her Eminence would have come across that child if she was born… but these are all mere possibilities.”

“The truth would be known once we get Evanthe back,” Draven commented.

Cornelia agreed, “It will be a joyous occasion to witness Her Eminence’s return. Her Eminence, even up till now, the more you think you know her, the more you realize you do not know anything about her. She is shrouded in great mystery, everything we are going through seems connected to Her Eminence in one way or another.”

Draven didn’t deny it. The only things people knew about Evanthe were only what she let people know about her.

“And… I can’t wait to see her son. He must definitely be someone who had inherited her powers.”

“From what Aureus said, he seems to be,” Draven agreed but he didn’t talk much about it.

Concluding things about Evanthe, Draven disappeared from Cornelia’s study.