Illusion and Reality

The mystery

And finally the day I was waiting for came after what felt like years. Valeria was home. I was waiting eagerly to talk to her.

"Hey, Sam you will get bored here by yourself, do you wanna join us?" Lily asked as Astrid stood in the doorway waiting for her. Lily and Astrid were wearing long hooded cloaks, they wore those cloaks whenever they went to the forest. Astrid’s cloak was maroon while Lily had a lavender cloak.

"No, Lily I'll be fine,” I smiled at her and sat there watching them leave.

I waited for a few minutes just to be sure before going to see Valeria. 

With a smile on my face, I was standing in front of her door. The door swung open before I got the chance to knock and I was attacked by Valeria’s famous bone-crushing hug, “And I thought you forgot about me,” I laughed while hugging her back.

She chuckled slightly as we entered, “I was sitting there waiting very patiently I might add for that awful lunch to get over. But my lovely grandma suggested we should spend more time in nature, to connect with it,  to feel it in our bones, connect with our inner self, those were her words, not mine. My cousins and I went on a trip even though I am almost sure she meant doing meditation and that kinda boring stuff.”

I could not help but laugh at her, she reminded me of Lily in some ways. She was wearing a long bright yellow dress, rings covering her fingers and hair in a  half messy bun. 

“You got the time to connect with your family, in the end, it was not that bad.”

She poured some coffee for us, “I guess,” her voice was almost in a whisper, “it is all about being best and maintaining the reputation in my family. Sometimes following the rules get frustrating, that is why I prefer living here alone than with my family.”

“I know sometimes it is difficult, but at the end of the day, you have a family who will love you and support you no matter what,” I replied thinking about my family. Did they have any idea about my disappearance? Were they worried about me? I shook off my thoughts when I saw Val looking at me, but she did not ask anything.

I mentally prepared myself to ask the question I was dying to ask, “Val, I wanted to ask you about your painting, the one with a giant tree in it.”

“What about it?” she asked with curiosity in her eyes.

“Is that place real?” I became slightly nervous when she did not answer right away.

“Yes, it is a real place. Not just any place it is a sacred place for the witches of my coven.”

But why did I see it in my dream? I could not tell Val about us but I could not ask her anything without creating suspicions either, I just sat there wondering quietly.

"Are you alright?" 

I was pulled out of my thoughts by her question, "Yes. I was just curious."

"Okay?" she did not look entirely convinced.

"Anyway I should leave, I forgot to tell anyone that I am coming here and they must be worried,” I said and stood up to leave.

Valeria returned a small smile, "I understand."

She had a smile on her lips but her eyes held suspicions that I did not know how to answer.

I practically ran back but I was too late Lily was already waiting for me inside.

"Where were you, Sam? I was so worried about you,” Lily asked as soon as she saw me. She was no longer wearing her cloak.

“I went to see Valeria, does Astrid know I am not at home?”

“No, she is in her room.”

“Okay,” I started walking towards my room.

I heard Lily's footsteps behind me, "We can't take any risk now, a woman has been asking questions about two strange girls she saw outside the kingdom and she said the girls looked like they were not from here."

I stopped in my tracks and faced her, "It was the woman we asked for help that day,” I said, almost in a whisper, it wasn’t a question it was clear to me who that woman could be.

Lily just nodded.

"Is that why you both came back so early today?" I asked her.

"No, that's the other thing,” Lily dragged me away from the hallway towards her room, "we thought Lucius was going to the palace to do some work for the king but we were wrong he never went to the palace. He hasn't been there at all this week."

"Maybe he is working with someone regarding those murders,” I said as I remembered how sad and guilty he looked that night.

"The king never gave him orders to do any investigation,” -Lily said in a quiet voice.

"Then where does he go every day?"

"I don't know but something is definitely going on with him and we are going to follow him tomorrow,” Lily said in a completely serious voice.

"No. What are you talking about Lily? We can't do that, it's his personal life,” I whisper yelled at her.

"Who helps two unknown people who are from a completely different place and does not inform his king about them even though he is supposed to be someone important. Please don't tell me you haven't noticed that he has been acting weird since the last few days,” her words made me think about the man he was talking to, the box, and how he was almost never here anymore. 

"At the ball, King Ezra asked him to do some work and not mess it up. Do you think this has something to do with it?"

"There is only one way to find out,” Lily said, just then we heard some voice from outside.

We ran towards the window to see but no one was outside, then we saw a man running away from the house.

Lily and I looked at each other with the same question in our mind What is going on here?

The next day arrived faster than we expected, we had our breakfast like any other day, Lily told Astrid she was not in the mood to go out and wanted to sleep.

Astrid was supposed to leave almost at the same time as Lucius, they both went on their ways while we waited and watched through the window hiding behind the curtains.

Once we saw Astrid leaving we quickly went outside and started following Lucius.

We were a few steps behind him, close enough to see him but far enough to hide. 

"Where is he going?" I whispered.

"This path goes to the forest, I went there with Astrid twice when she needed some herbs. That forest is dangerous that's why it also has very rare herbs,” she whispered as we continued following him.

About 5 minutes later we were standing in front of the gigantic trees covering the whole area. The branches of the trees were joined together giving them a look of being connected as one. From the outside, we could see the darkness inside.

"C'mon."-Lily said in a hurry.

The forest from the inside looked beautiful yet deadly, the rays of sun peeked from the spaces between the leaves of those trees, giving some light to the dark forest.

There was a snap when one of us stepped on a dried leaf, in a heartbeat we hid behind the trees. Lily gave me a sign to stay quiet and I nodded.

We stayed there for a few seconds when we looked at the place where Lucius was standing, but no one was there to our surprise.

And then we heard growling.