Illusion and Reality

Welcomed the sleep

“Drink this,” Astrid said, passing me a cup filled with blue liquid.

I took the cup but looked at the chocolate bar she was holding in her other hand with confusion. 

I decided not to ask anything about it and looked at the liquid with some orange bubbles floating on it.

I scrunched my nose up as the strong smell entered my nostrils. Closing my eyes I drank the whole thing in just one gulp. It tasted like a weird combination of lemon juice mixed with aloe vera juice. 

I gagged and quickly understood the role of the chocolate bar in Astrid’s hand.

I grabbed it from her and shoved a huge piece in my mouth.

Astrid was looking at me the whole time, she laughed a little but her expression changed back to neutral soon.

“It will not give you one hundred percent protection from the dark magic, but it will make them weak enough not to hurt you,” she said in her smooth tone.

“It means I will still have those nightmares,” I asked in a small voice.

She sighed in response and I understood that was not it.

“There is something else isn’t it?”

“This is not strong enough against the dark magic, it will keep them away but not for long. It is just a matter of time before they figure out a way to make our remedy useless. We have to find a better solution as soon as we can. The person behind this is powerful,” Astrid replied looking at her bracelet.

“Isn’t there a way for us to find them?”

“Right now I am trying to make sure you do not get hurt in your dreams and wake up screaming like a banshee. I do not have time to track them,” she replied in a smooth voice, her face did not have any signs of tiredness or stress, she seemed calm and confident like she always did.

She had been working on preparing the liquid for hours, she went to collect the right ingredients before the sunrise and prepared the drink for the whole day without any sense of time. 

“Astrid, you need to get some rest. Don’t get sick because of me.”

She turned to look at me, “I am fine, Samara. I do not need anyone to take care of me.”

“I know you are a very strong witch Astrid but you can’t fight the enemy if you’re not yourself.”

She poured some of her favorite herbal tea into the cup. 

I continued taking small bites of the chocolate to get rid of the aftertaste.

“We can ask Valeria for her help, I am sure she won’t say no,” I suggested.

She took a sip and looked outside the window thoughtfully, “I do not think if it is a good idea. We do not have any idea about who we are up against.”

“You think Valeria is behind this? She is not working with them. She helped me with so many things. I don’t doubt Valeria in any way,” I replied, to defend Valeria. I did not have any doubt against her, she was the only one who was there for me in the kingdom, she understood me, she helped me whenever she could.

“She tried to help you and people are not always what they seem to be. I am not saying she is behind all of this but I do not trust her as well.”

“What about the place I saw in my dreams? It was the same as her painting. The place is important for them.”

“It might be a sign we should not trust her yet,” she raised her eyebrows.

“I trust her.”

“We are not involving her in any of this,” she replied putting her teacup back on the table and stood up to leave.

“She risked her life to save Lily’s life. Maybe you are saying this because you don’t like her.”

She stopped in her tracks as she heard it, “She told you that? But did she tell you the reason why our families never liked each other?”

“No.”

Astrid came back and stood in front of me, “Her family’s source of magic is dark. The queen wanted two covens to work for her. Of course, every coven wanted to work with the royals. She decided to test the covens by different tests. Valeria’s coven was also one of them. In the end, only three covens were remaining, The Earthen circle, The Illumination circle, and Sisters of Presence. Messing with a member of Sisters of presence meant messing with the whole coven, they were each other’s power. It was a coven of witches that was frowned upon by others.”

I stared at her, “Because Sisters of Presence accepted those witches who were not accepted by any covens, I have read about them. But they were doing a good thing, why were they frowned upon?”

"The other covens took it as their disrespect because Sisters of presence were accepting the witches others threw out of their covens. Some of the women were innocent and were framed for wrong reasons, some of them just needed a second chance. The rules of every coven are different and very strict. Sisters of presence were very careful while accepting a witch in their coven, they needed genuine witches looking for redemption."

"How did they do that?" I asked curiously.

"No one knows," she replied and took a seat, “They were the outcasts but they would die for each other. The next coven was The Earthen Circle, which was my coven and the last one was The Illumination circle, Valeria’s coven. They knew their chances of winning were slim so they did what they were best known for. They tried to win by unfair methods, the leader of my coven got to know about this and exposed them in front of everyone. They got very angry and tried to attack our coven to get their revenge.”

I listened to everything very carefully.

“The people behind everything were punished by the queen but our covens started disliking each other. They are a coven of most egoistic and manipulative witched and wizards, they can not be trusted.”

I remembered Val’s words about her family, they did not like losing no wonder they were affected by the loss. But Val was not like them, her thoughts were different from them. After listening to Astrid a small seed of doubt grew in my heart as well.

Astrid turned towards her room and left.

I started walking towards my room as well, I stood for a while in the hallway looking at Lily’s room, I wanted to talk to her but after what she said it was clear she didn’t want to see my face.

She needed her space and maybe she would be better without me. She got attacked because of me, it should have been me instead of her.

Unconsciously, I touched the bracelet on my wrist, I did not know if Astrid was right or my decision of trusting Valeria was right.

My brain and heart were in a war.

It was so easy for Valeria to kill me, all she had to do was tell the king about me, but she didn’t do any such thing.

I closed the door of my room quietly.

I picked the bowl of slime and walked towards the mirror, lifting my top up I gently traced the scar with my fingers, it was no longer black but it was light grey.

Picking up some of the slimy liquid I put it on the scar.

Something was not making sense, they knew I was not from this kingdom, I was not a witch and yet they were trying to kill me.

A cool breeze coming from the window pulled me out of my thoughts, I went to close the window but froze as my eyes fell on something.

The raven was sitting on the willow tree in the garden, looking at my window.

I slowly moved backward and ran towards Lucius’ room. I knocked frantically on his door, the door swung open with an annoyed Lucius on the other side, “What are you…”

His glare turned soft as he looked at me.

“Bird in the garden,” I managed to say.

A scowl made its way on his features as he walked towards his window in a hurry, he stood there for a few seconds, “There is nothing here.”

“What?” 

I went there to show him the bird, but he was right there was not a tiny sparrow in the garden let alone a raven.

“How is this possible?” I whispered, “I saw it sitting on the willow tree with my eyes,” I pointed towards the tree.

He stared at my face without saying anything.

“I am not lying Lucius.”

“I trust you. But you need some rest. You have not been able to sleep in the last few days.”

I pressed my lips in a thin line, he was saying you are going crazy without sleep in a nice way.

“You are right I guess,” I started walking out of his room.

“You are not going crazy, you are going through so much right now. Remember you are not alone in this,” giving him a smile, I closed the door and started walking back to my room.

I knew what I saw and I was sure there was a bird outside but I could not blame him. I tried to show him the raven twice and both of the times there was not even a feather. He was right in his place.

I could not talk to Astrid about it, she was already doing so much to protect me from getting murdered in the nightmares I could not bother her with my stalker bird issue as well.

I could not talk to Lily as well.

I went towards my window to check if it was locked, giving one last look towards the garden I closed the curtains and jumped on my bed.

A yawn appeared as soon as my body felt the comfortable hug of my bed.

He was not wrong I needed some sleep, I can think about that stupid bird and the worry about my nightmares later, I thought.

My eyes started getting heavier with each passing second and every thought started to disappear from my brain. With a smile, I welcomed the sleep for the first time without the fear of nightmares or the fear of seeing him.