New ArShi FF: Wicked Wings| THREAD TWO LINK UPDATED- PAGE 01 | OCT 13 - Page 59

CHAPTER 17

A Mirror

The ones who have red on their ledger,

Are always haunted by the past

The new age can only suppress the marks

But their repercussions shall always last.

The brutal and the beauty,

In tandem, they wreaked havoc

The consequence has to be borne now,

As the ocean hits the rocks.

Can there be an escapade?

Can there be a way?

Can the vicious and vile be exorcised after all?

Can there ever be a real new day?

As she walked through the woods, in search of what she was seeking, in quench of satiating her hunger for knowledge, she knew that her body would give up any minute. She hardly had any stamina left, but she was way too adamant on finding her answers.

After all, for how long could she sustain with all that she had, her prowess, her powers, her knowledge. There was a world that had all of it in abundance, and while she had a great hold on that by now, she was still way, way far from mastering it, like a human body masters breathing.

While she continued walking, using both her hands to draw away the bushes and haze that the dense forests possessed, a peculiar sound stopped her in her tracks and made her alert. She didn't have the power to fight any unceremonious battle right now, because come what may, she had to make it to her destination, to find what she needed, before dawn arrived. But the sound that came out of nowhere made her flinch, and she immediately darted her eyes at all the directions.

Clutching the bracelet on her wrist with her other hand, she exhaled a deep breath, and the fog only intensified as she took another step ahead and the sound only got more prominent.

She wasn't scared, but she definitely was nervous.

The cold winds made her long wavy hair sway, making her scent reverberate in the chilling air all around, while with every cautious step that she took, the uninvited yet inviting sound in that eerie silent night only became clearer.

The spells were embedded in her mind, but sometimes, she might need a lot more than that, and whether she was prepared for it or not, she really didn't have any answer to that.

Biting her lower lip, she tried to muster all her courage to circumvent whatever hindrance she could possibly meet this night, when all of a sudden she was halted at her steps, seeing the sight in front of her.

.

.

The sound got clearer and so did the vision.

A vision that made her rush to the other direction immediately.

As she narrowed her eyes, clenching her fists, seeing the little, frail form in front of her, all she could do was get close to the little soul, who was whimpering in pain.

'Hey, hey, little girl! Look at me, look at me. What happened to you?''

She said urgently, looking at the fragile body of the six-year old girl, who was wincing in pain, and had blood oozing out from a merciless wound on her right hand.

The girl could hardly utter anything as all that came out from her mouth was only sobs and cries for help.

Clutching her bracelet even more tightly, she held the little girl closer and uttered softly but earnestly to her, 'This looks like an animal attack. Don't worry, I am here. I can save you. Hold on. Stay with me.''

As the little girl still cried out, the pace of her heart beats only fastened as her bleeding arm was held on by the humble soul, who came out to save her, and slowly, she felt the pain go away from her body, inch by inch, second by second, as if she was bestowed with some magic potion, some healing spell, that could cure any excruciating pain in the world. Little did she know, she indeed was.

As she felt no traces of any pain, her eyes went wide in shock, and her fingers automatically touched the other arm, where she had suffered a deadly wound, that had left her dying of pain. As her sobs finally subsided, she only stared at the beauty in front of her, who was not just a beautiful face, but more than that a beautiful soul, who cared to tend to a victim of an animal attack, when she had no one here to save her.

As she assessed the soft features of her face, she saw her most divine and selfless hazel eyes, her pale white skin and her long wavy hair looking at her with compassion. The purple dress she was wearing only enhanced her complexion and beauty, and before she could utter something, she heard the hazel-eyed beauty ask, 'What is your name?''

If the child thought that her saviour's face was beautiful, then perhaps she had been too quick to judge, for she had an even soulful voice.

She smiled at the compassion and kindness that was showered on her, and said with gratitude, I am Grace.'

'Oh, that's a lovely name. But how did you end up like this, sweetie? Where is your family? Are you lost?"

The girl nodded at that and added, 'My family lives near the cottage by the Vincent Lake. I had sneaked out of my house in the evening to play, but got lost. And then, then the animal.. it was a -'

She was once again on the verge of breaking into sobs, but that never happened as she was pulled into a warm embrace, by her saviour, who shushed her.

The girl didn't know that her saviour too was lost.

Lost in a chase and arena, where what she needed was far, far away. But she was not going to give up. If this was her destiny, then she was going to ace it. She surely didn't wish to pay any heed to hindrances, but the ailing little girl, and helping her, was definitely something she couldn't avoid. It was not in her nature.

As she caressed the auburn hair of Grace, she slowly pulled apart from the hug, and caressed her hair, her hazel orbs staring into the green ones of Grace, as she averred,

"Don't worry and don't cry, all right? Everything will be fine. There won't be any pain. I have healed you.''

Grace looked at her with astonishment as she heard her say the last part.

And that is when she slowly switched her gaze to see her saviour, the beauty in front of her caressing the shimmering ornament on her wrist, the jewels in the wristlet reflecting like prisms in the pitch dark night.

Confusion still continued to blanket her as she lifted her gaze and with unsure words, asked, 'Do you.. Do you have powers?''

.

.

She didn't know what to reply to that question.

Power?

She couldn't even begin to speak what she had in her. But could she really explain it to a little 6-year old?

Maybe, yes.

Because 6-year olds did believe in fairy tales, witches, monsters, and princesses, didn't they? Just that in reality, all of it was far beyond what people perceived it to be.

And so with a forced but sad smile, she nodded, and said, 'Yes, I have power. A lot of power actually. In abundance. The power to heal, to repair, to restore, to refresh, to damage, and also to kill.''

Grace only felt her heart in her mouth as she heard her utter the last word, and in an instant, the voice which had appeared too soulful to her, now appeared to be vengeful, and the countenance that had appeared divine to her, now appeared to be demonic.

She began palpitating in multitudes, as sweat beads started forming in her forehead, and the pain that was completely gone from her hand, now only came back in humongous magnitude, exceeding to her whole body, than just her hand.

She cried out loud in pain, begging the woman in front of her to show some mercy, while all she saw was the same hazel eyes now display mysterious cruelty, and her voice had started betraying her already.

As the pain only got intensified with each tick of the clock, she felt something consume her from within, eating her inch by inch, flesh by flesh, and it wasn't too late for her to know, that it was killing her, from deep within.

'Le- leave me. Leave me, ple- please!''

She stuttered helplessly, clutching her heart, her head, where the pain hit her too hard, but all she heard in return was a tinkling evil laughter from the woman standing still, watching her dying moment in awe and pleasure as she clutched her bracelet tighter, and remarked with joy, 'Just some minutes more, little girl. Your life was going to be over anyway with that animal attack. At least now, you are going to be of some use to me.''

The six-year-old girl was stunned at the inhumane, merciless tone of the voice from the same woman who she had mistaken to be her saviour, and all she could do was cry out loud, unable to bear the excruciating pain any further.

'MEREDITH! Stop it!''

Her hazel eyes darted at the direction the voice came from, and in a fraction of second, the jolt of shock hit her as she saw Valerie standing there with eyes widened in shock, seeing the sight of the dying little soul.

'WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, MEREDITH?''

She shook Meredith, who had no ounce of repercussion, as the initial shock on her face was replaced by a blank expression now, and she had no remorse, no regret, no guilt to display, not even for show.

As the last chain of sobs from the dying girl subsided, her body remaining as a mere piece of flesh, a faint smile appeared on Meredith's lips, as she closed her eyes, embracing an intangible energy from the atmosphere, as if it gave immense power to her.

'Meredith, what did you do? What did you do? Look at me, Meredith! I said look at me!''

The middle-aged woman clutched her shoulders tightly, shaking her to pull some answers out of her, but all she saw was her open her eyes, her mischievous, evil smirk tugging at her lips, as she grinned like a mad woman, without an iota of humanity.

Valerie stood stupefied as she examined the victorious smile on her face, and darted her eyes towards the dead body of the young girl, and the realization that hit her at that very moment, was enough to pull away the ground beneath her feet.

"No.. No- yo..you can't.. No no!''

She shook her head in disbelief, her palm stopping the vulnerable cries that were on the verge of escaping her mouth, as she stepped away from her, her heart thudding in warning.

'Yes, I did. I did, Valerie. I did take her soul away. She was going to die anyway. I made her die with a purpose at least. I healed her first, and then killed her to take her soul. It will give me enough time to locate Sophronia's grimoire, and then I can have the immortality spell.''

Valeria couldn't believe whatever was coming to her.

Nether the vision nor the words.

She knew Meredith was beyond redemption now. Out of everyone in the coven, it had only been her who still stood by Meredith despite her vicious ventures, only because before even having the inkling of their truest identities, they had been friends. But she could never think there would come a day, when she would regret all of it. Every ounce of it.

'YOU ARE A MONSTER, MEREDITH! THE GIRL COULD LEAVE. YOU COULD HAVE HEALED HER TO GIVE HER A NEW LIFE AND ENDED IT THERE, BUT YOU KILLED HER! HOW COULD YOU BE SO SELFISH? HOW COULD YOU BE SO BLIND, HOW COULD YOU-'

'BECAUSE I WANT IMMORTALITY, VALERIE. I WANT TO LIVE FOREVER, AND STRETCH MY WINGS, HAVE POWER. I WANT TO EXPLORE MY SKILLS, AND THEN I CAN FOR REAL CURE PEOPLE, ALL DISEASES, TURN TIME, DO ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING. AND TILL I FIND SOPHRONIA'S GRIMOIRE, I CAN'T DO IT. I CAN'T, DON'T YOU KNOW? AND TILL THEN, IF HAVING SOULS OF PEOPLE TO STRETCH MY LIFE SPAN IS THE ONLY WAY OF BUYING SOME MORE TIME, I AM NOT GOING TO HESITATE. DO YOU GET ME?''

Meredith spilled out loud, making Valerie delve deeper in despair as she couldn't come to terms with the fact that power had consumed her once upon a time friend so much that she had nothing called pure in her anymore. Neither her spells, nor her intentions.

'Yo- you have the bracelet Meredith. It is one of the most powerful objects in our world, and YOU own it. It's an heirloom of your lineage, making you stronger than a lot of us. And Sophronia's grimoire of the immortality spell can be a myth too, Meredith. None of us have seen it or had evidences of it. For all you care, it could be a fabricated story. You cannot destroy your humanity in the quest of something that doesn't even have a valid proof of existen-'

'It exists! I can feel it does. And I also know that it is calling for me. I have the bracelet, the most powerful ornament with the strength of the celestial objects of the universe, which when combined with that spell, will unequivocally give me the power to live now and forevermore. And I know I am close. And so, I won't stop till I have it all.''

Valerie had the final jolt of shock hit her as Meredith's last words came to her ears, repelling her from even the thought of sharing the same ground with her. Disheartened and devastated, she took her dishevelled form five steps away from where she was previously standing, only to realize that she couldn't move any further.

Terrorized, she turned back in horror to see Meredith standing still at the same spot, her unsettling gaze pointed at her, as she said in a cold voice, 'I told you right, I won't stop till I have it all?''

Valeria shook her head in disbelief as the deadly realization dawned in her, and before she could even say anything or make an effort to run, she heard Meredith shout out loud.

'INCENDO!''

She gasped as in a fraction of second, she was surrounded by tall flames of raging fire that were chasing to consume her, and in no later than 10 seconds, she started feeling the suffocating pain from the merciless flames greet her senses, making it difficult for her to breathe.

But even then she could see the unapologetic face of Meredith, staring at her struggling form with a content smirk on her face, deliberately lifting the shielding spell off her mind, so that she could make Grace read her thoughts, which she intentionally didn't verbalize.

In my quest her find immortality, I can and I will cross every extreme. What did you think? You would give me your moral indignation here after watching me take away one's soul to stretch my life span, and then go back to conventional ways and trace me back to the coven, where you will make them know of my motives and try to stop me, and I would frivolously let that happen?

You were wrong if you thought so, Valerie. But I am sorry, I sincerely apologize for given you this brutal death, which perhaps you didn't even deserve. But I didn't ask of you to come in search of me as to where I disappeared, and then watch my commit this act of killing a young soul. But you left me with no choice than doing what I am doing right now to you. Although I don't like this sight much, in the future to come, starting from this present moment, I would only treat this sight as collateral damage.'

As a lone tear escaped Valerie's eyes and she stopped struggling, letting the fire consume her in its zenith, she closed her eyes, breathing in the last few moments of her life, but not before she undid her own shielding spell too, letting her last thoughts while dying reach the mind of the sinful, silent spectator, mercilessly watching her die.

You have sinned, Meredith. Sinned beyond repair or redemption. And I curse you, your search for immortality, will be the death of you. And not just you, your legacy, your lineage, for the generations to come. Be it your little daughter, your immediate family, you, and the future to come. Everyone will burn in the wrath of your own wrongdoings. And you can never get what you want.'

..

.

.

"NO!!''

Khushi screamed at the top of her lungs as she stared at her own reflection in the mirror, terror-stricken at whatever she saw.

Just two days back she had vowed to herself that she would never use her powers to look into the past, to see what she had known, heard of, regarding her great grandmother, her dead ringer, Meredith. But what was a human mind if not inquisitive?

Never had she thought that her curiosity and thirst for knowing her power would coax her to look into the past, to know more about her ancestry, her lineage, and see the roots from where it all began.

And no, she didn't like any of it.

She gulped her fear and nervousness as she continued staring at her reflection in the mirror, where she had enunciated the spell to dig into the past 20 minutes back, and now when she did see it all, it only left her in fright.

She assessed her own features with hesitance, as she found no demarcation in the physical similarities between her and her ancestor, and all that she felt at that moment was destroying her visage, which constantly made her recollect the deadly sight that she just envisioned moments ago.

The demonic face, the vengeful hazel eyes, the guilt-less expressions, and the evil smirk.

'What if.. what if I-?''

She shook her head earnestly, not even willing to utter the dangerous words, which made her shudder in shock, even at the minute possibility that she could ever turn into someone remotely close to what Meredith was.

No, she would never let that happen.

Never ever.

She vowed, as she put up a determined face, tightening her hold on the bracelet.

For a second, she couldn't imagine that the ornament had been on the wrist of that same evil woman and witnessed some of the deadliest events in history. But she was over that phase of being left in awe now and had already started accepting who she was and why she was who she was.

Timing surely was everything, and if Amelia, her grandmother had trusted only her with the bracelet, then she was sanguine beyond anything that this piece of supreme power was in the right hands.

With one final look in the mirror, she turned away and sat on her bed, browsing through the pages of the book of Spellcraft.

In the last two days, a lot of information had come to fore, the most vital of which was the theory behind Aloysius' return to the picture.

She, along with Arnav and Ezra had put two and two together, going through a plethora of references, theories, alongside excerpts from Amelia's letter, and come up with one equation, which was the only one that seemed to fit the bill and look legit.

Tucking her hair strands behind her ears, she focused more on the important spells in the book, while in the back of her mind, parts and pieces of their established theory from yesterday kept ringing.

From the Vermount family tree, Meredith had become the rightful owner of the royal, gifted bracelet that possessed celestial powers, making it one of the most supreme objects in the world of Witchcraft.

Her quest for immortality drove her insane, bereaving her of her human side, her purity, and she had no qualms shedding the blood of innocents to keep her survival instincts alive as she kept searching for the spell, which would guarantee her an immortal life.

However, the immortality spell from Sophronia's grimoire could only work when it had a binding with a celestial object. To Meredith's credit, she already had the bracelet. However, nobody really knew where the ancient Greek witch Sophronia from the 15^th century, buried her Grimoire before dying. While spells and inferences kept guiding Meredith to different horizons, she was never successful in acquiring the spell, and hence, went on acquiring souls instead, to keep herself alive till she found the spell.

This continued only until she came across The Avizhas, a cult known massively for their vile motives and hunger for power, a cult that was resented by witches of all kinds. In the members of that cult, she found like-minded souls, and started exploring her potential, but even then she kept her real search for the immortality spell on, though keeping it concealed from other members. It was only much later that Aloysius, then a mere warlock with in-depth knowledge over spells and theories, joined the cult, and the viciousness of the Avizhas levelled up exponentially with each passing day.

When civilians came to have an inkling of something supernatural existing in the town of Verman Hills, then known as Vieumanina, they decided for a re-telecast session of the Salem Witch Trials, wherein they would burn the suspects alive.

When the Avizhas came to know of this, they cruelly treated the innocent covens who never committed a sin with spells as baits, and let them be burnt alive during the trials, while they evaded the whole fiasco feigning civilian honour. And during that very scene, the Avizhas were distributed all over the country, however, Meredith and Aloysius managed to stick together, as they came to realize their common goals, their quench for power, and their motives to exercise their powers in the long run.

While it still couldn't be undisputedly determined as to who among them managed to discover Sophronia's spell, it was very well known that Aloysius in their vow to stick together and find the spell had betrayed Meredith, by stealing her bracelet, and attained immortality himself, eradicating Meredith from the picture by killing her brutally. Thus, Valerie's dying curse had come to become a living reality since she couldn't get what she wanted despite being so close, and the consequences of her ill-doings were to be borne by the next generations of her lineage.

While Aloysius got what he wanted, years and years passed, and when Amelia Torre entered the Vermount family tree, she knew that she would get the family heirloom back regardless of what she had to face. It took decades for her to get hold of that bracelet, which practically was of no use to Aloysius now that he had already made complete use of it along with Sophronia's spell, but Amelia still wanted to conquer it.

It was still a puzzle as to how Amelia did manage to get hold of it, after which she had put a concealing spell on it, making it hidden from every supernatural entity, except for the Vermount bloodline, who by birth was a natural successor to the legacy of the world of Witchcraft.

When Aloysius came to know that the ornament was missing from his possession, h retaliated by killing Amelia's only son, Khushi's father, Stephen. Of course, he didn't directly kill him, but would have let a minion of his do the dirty work by hexing the man, who under compulsion suffered the car accident, which turned out fatal.

However, Amelia's letter had proved it thoroughly that she had foreseen Khushi to share the same face as Meredith's and by all theories and logic, it meant only one thing- She left it on to Khushi to finish the unfinished task of taking away immortality from Aloysius, once and for all.'

But why?

Khushi recalled she had asked Arnav this, while he had only looked at her, and let Ezra answer that question. And to that, the jovial guy had thoughtfully replied,

'The bracelet belongs to the Vermount bloodline, and Meredith was its owner. It spent ages with her. Sophronia's spell of immortality was performed with the power of this very bracelet, meaning this bracelet is the object that binds the spell. With Meredith's death, the bracelet was bereft of its owner, and hence, there was no equation of binding or unbinding. To Aloysius, it remained as a mere object with celestial powers of course, but nothing more, nothing less.

However, when Khushi, Meredith's bloodline, her dead ringer, with every inch of her face, her body, just similar to her ancestor came to the picture, equations changed instantly.''

Khushi had stared unblinkingly as she had waited with bated breath for Ezra to continue, and with a deep breath, he had concluded his theory,

'Khushi, YOU are the owner of this bracelet now, with the same face, same bloodline of Meredith's. Which means, YOU can unbind his immortality spell. The only reason he had killed Meredith was because she had privilege of the bracelet, which meant, if she got the spell of Sophronia, and so did Aloysius, she would have always been one step high on the ladder than Aloysius, because the binding object would always belong to her. But with her gone from the picture with Aloysius killing her, he had nothing to worry about. But..''

He had paused deliberately, giving Khushi some seconds to let the feeling sink in. He had opened his mouth to utter his final words on the agenda, when Khushi had intervened, averring with an unblinking gaze,

'But now that I am here, he fears I can take away his immortality, and this means, he's not just after the bracelet, but me too.''

**