Secrets of Magic (Soul of Magic Book 3)

THREE

No sooner had Lucian mentioned the word Auntie that the vines holding him suddenly snapped him against a tree and tightened themselves around his throat so hard that he began to choke. Looking up, he realized the old woman’s eyes had turned a shade of violent green and they were filled with even more malice for him.

"I warned you never to call me that in your life, Lucian," she said to him, raising her hand and the vines holding his sword turned it towards his heart.

"Griselda, wait!" The blonde-haired warrior managed to shout just before the vine-controlled sword could go in for the kill; that was obviously what the old woman wanted them to do. "What would Ghalador say if you kill me?"

The thing is, the old woman, Griselda, was in actuality a sister to the seer who was Lucian's adopted father and teacher, Ghalador. The seer was born into a family of five siblings of which he was the last born and only son. Griselda was the eldest, making her in essence Lucian's adopted aunt; or would if she actually liked him. For some unfathomable reason, she just never seemed to be able to stand the sight of him, her hatred almost going as deep as Ghalador's love for him.

"You have no right to bring my brother into this!" Griselda shouted at Lucian, her anger almost growing into a fully blown rage. “You killed him!”

“No, Griselda, the Great Conflict did!” he returned, staring the old woman down even as the sword poised against his heart had begun to cut flesh. “He was my father and I loved him. And he gave me a mission that I’ve been trying to uphold for two years. And now, I need your help.” Lucian looked to the direction where the vines had wrapped around Kyra and Griselda finally seemed to notice the bleeding, unconscious form of the Soul of magic.

All the malice in the old woman’s eyes faded off the moment she realized whom she was. "That's..."

"The Soul of magic, yes," Lucian completed for her. "Someone tried to kill her some hours ago and unless you help me heal her, they'll succeed."

Immediately, the vines restricting Lucian released him, slipping back down to the ground and away to wherever they had originated from. The remaining ones wrapped around Kyra and presented her to the blonde-haired warrior who collected her before they too took their leave.

"Come with me," Griselda said to him, turning and walking ahead.

Lucian followed and they walked step in step across the forest for a while. Just then, the old woman suddenly turned and walked straight through a tree.

“By the spirits!” Lucian came to an abrupt stop at what he’d witnessed. But Griselda’s hand came back out through the trees and beckoned him forward; the blonde-haired warrior taking some minutes before finding the courage to follow through.

Immediately Lucian passed through the bark, he emerged into a space that sent a wave of awe coursing through him. Gone was the forest and in its place was a standard-sized living room. He deduced that it was the inside of the tree which Griselda had converted into her home; but even that was enough to stop the amazement that held him at the sort of magic that could hold that transformation.

Truth be told, Griselda wasn't just any regular witch. She was, in fact, what the wizards referred to as a Nymph. The Nymphs were a group of wizards whose source of power was nature itself. They usually manifested as Healers or any other type of green wizards who had an affinity for growing small witch gardens or using plants and herbs in little capacities.

A full-blooded Nymph, however, could harness the power of nature as vast as a forest and they were very rare, almost a legend; that is, until Griselda showed up.

The old woman showed her potential as young as six years of age, growing quickly beyond the abilities of a Healer which her parents thought she was. Her father eventually realized her for what she really was, and knew the danger that came with it too; a Nymph once realized had to be bonded to a forest or the power would overwhelm them and they would die. Even she was just ten years old then, he let Griselda go, bonding her to the very forest she now was and had been living in ever since. It was in that forest that she was during the Great Conflict and it protected her through the seventeen years even as it also kept her in communication with her brother Ghalador until his death two years ago.

"Put her gently on the bed," Griselda said to Lucian, jerking him back to the present as she began to grab herbs from all over her shelf.

Lucian watched the old woman move around for a while before the silence started to become too uncomfortable for him. "I'm so sorry I didn't come to visit you when Ghalador died," he said to her. "It was just that-"

"Lucian, I don't care any more for your excuse as I do for your sorry," Griselda cut in harshly, stopping mid-action to look at him so that he would see just how much she meant every word. "My brother's death is no concern of yours."

"Of course, it’s mine!" Lucian returned with equal vigour, the woman's obvious disdain for him making him want to hit something. "I am his son."

"You're not!" Griselda now faced him squarely. "Ghalador didn’t birth you, another man did. And he must have known what kind of a disgrace you were going to be because he was so easy to pass you off to the world without any thoughts for your future."

As if struck by a lightning, the realization of why Griselda had held so much disdain for him suddenly flashed in Lucian’s mind; he was a Null.

Thing is, it wasn’t that much of an issue anymore but most wizard parents were always ashamed whenever they had a Null child. It was understandable on some level, really. Every parent wanted their children to inherit whatever incredible ability they had; and having a child whom they knew without a doubt would never be able to do that was sure to come with its own kind of shame and sadness.

However, that thought had since been left in the recent years, especially with the coming of the Protectors and the achievements that Lucian himself had proven that Nulls were capable of. People respected Nulls just as they did any wizard.

Unfortunately, Griselda didn’t know that as she had been out of touch with the wizard community for a very long time. She wasn’t caught up with the changes to their philosophies and it was obvious.

Lucian sighed; he really felt sad for the old woman whose great power had also left isolated to the world. He let go of the argument and instead, chose to take a seat and watch in silence as Griselda began to mix her different herbs and apply them to Kyra's wound.

The old woman closed her eyes and breathed in once, then twice. Immediately, a green light appeared on her palms, extending down to cover the Soul of magic from head to toe who quickly began to look much better.

But Griselda suddenly stopped with a gasp. "That's impossible," she whispered, her brows furrowing in confusion.

"What's the matter?" Lucian asked from where he sat, rushing immediately to where the old woman was; fear and worry very evident in his eyes. "Is she okay?"

Griselda repeated the process as she had done before; closing her eyes and breathing in once, then twice. And the result was the same; the green light appearing on her palms, covering Kyra and seeming to make her better. But the old woman still looked worried all the same.

“What is it, Griselda?” Lucian asked, his own worry was now becoming a full-blown panic, especially because he had no idea whatsoever what was going on.

"The spells are effectively healing her wound as we speak, just as they should," she explained to him. "But there’s something in her that my powers can’t seem to set right.

"What are you talking about?" Lucian looked even more confused; he believed Griselda was as powerful as they came in the art of healing. She was a Nymph after all.

"I’m talking about her magic, Lucian," she replied, looking up at him then and the blonde-haired warrior realized that the old woman was even more panicked than he was. "It's gone."