Illusion and Reality

Trusting someone can cost lives

“Where.did.you.find.it?” he asked in a low voice, his eyes turned dark as he took a step closer to Lily.

It was not the Lucius we have ever seen before.

Lily’s confidence also faded as her eyes met his dark glare, but she swiftly hid her fear, “In your hiding spot, which is not so great by the way.”

“How dare you go through my personal belongings?” Lucius growled in a furry, his voice was enough to send shivers down anyone’s spine. I left Lily’s side and stood in front of her protectively.

“It was not her idea.”

His eyes met mine as he moved closer, his face barely inches away from mine.

“Why?” his voice was slow yet threatening. My heart started pounding fast in my chest but I didn’t look away from his eyes, it was my turn to get the answers.

“Who is she, Lucius?”

His jaw clenched.

After what felt like an hour he inhaled a sharp breath, “The queen.”

I stayed quiet until I heard a gasp, which brought me back to the present. It was Astrid standing there with a betrayed look on her face, tears welled up in her eyes but she blinked them away quickly.

“That is why you helped them,” her voice was barely audible.

Lucius stared at her with a blank face, there was no exchange of words but sometimes eyes said more than the words. He turned around suddenly and left.

Astrid didn’t waste another moment and ran to her room, Lily ran behind her while I stayed on my spot.

“She locked herself,” Lily came with a sad face.

“Why would you do that? You were supposed to keep the picture hidden, forget that you were not supposed to take the picture.”

She rolled her eyes, “What else was I supposed to do, hear them talk to us like that? And now we know who the mystery woman is.”

I stared at her in disbelief, “How will we go home now? What if they throw us out, then what? Don’t you remember what could happen to us?”

Her eyes widened as realization hit her, “I didn’t think that. But maybe Valeria can help us.”

“Valeria can’t help us, we don’t know where that witch is exactly.”

“We can’t wander outside what if someone saw you and recognize the queen’s face?” Lily asked.

“I don’t know Lily. I am almost sure Astrid won’t help us anymore.”

We sat silently on the couch thinking about our new problems.

“Don’t you remember Sam, Astrid said witches from two covens made those stones. Valeria only told us about one witch, what if we look for the other witches, I mean two covens are not small and they can do mumbo jumbo to get us back home,” Lily suggested with a grin.

“I forgot about that. We should ask Val to look for those witches and our problem would be solved.”

“You do not even have any idea about the names of those covens besides the trip would be useless, if you still want to waste your time be my guest,” Astrid said, walking towards us elegantly, looking like her old confident self.

I stared at her hesitantly, I didn’t know she would listen to our conversation.

“We know one of them is your coven, the Earthen Circle. If you really wanted to help us you would have done that a long time ago, you know it’s shitty to pretend you want to help someone when you don’t mean it,” Lily folded her arms and raised her eyebrows at Astrid.

Astrid scoffed in return, “I do not pretend to be something else, I have nothing to hide. If Valeria gave you this information then no wonder it is not completely accurate.”

“At least she is helping us,” Lily argued.

“Helping you how exactly? By sending you on a trip to meet your doom.”

“Then what is the truth, Astrid, if what Valeria told us was a lie?” I asked.

After hearing my voice Astrid turned to look at me, her eyes held sadness which she quickly blinked away and walked towards the bookshelf. She removed a bright book with blue and green colored lines all over the cover, “I never said she lied to you, I said it was not completely accurate. You both already know witches from two powerful covens joined together to put a strong spell on rare stones.”

She put the book on the table poured herself some tea, “There whereabouts of those stones were kept hidden by the covens. One was obviously mine. Many enemies were after the stones, they could be used as a powerful weapon against us during the war. But there was another secret, the stones not only opened the portals to the different world they also had some other powers.”

“If they are so dangerous then why did you make them in the first place?” Lily asked as we sat there listening to everything patiently.

“Everything has a good side and a bad side. This is not the only kingdom, there are other kingdoms full of mystical creatures and everyone wants more power. At that time the chances of war were high, so the queen ordered to make those stones for the protection of the kingdom and sealed the borders. Her plan worked. All of this information was kept a secret only her inner circle knew about this, the covens, her protector, and the present king but someone betrayed her and the information reached the wrong ears,” Astrid said with a sour face.

“What happened then?” I asked.

“The queen was murdered.”

“Do you think Itulix Empire has something to do with her death?” 

Astrid looked at me in surprise.

“I read about it in a book,” she nodded quietly.

“No one knows but it is a reason the relations between the kingdoms got worse than before,” Astrid replied.

“I don’t understand one thing,” Lily started, “If the beans were already spilled then why doesn’t Valeria know about this?”

“She belongs to a different coven, we all have our legacies to maintain and protect. You should not have told her about any of this. Just because she said a few sweet things you can not go around spilling the secrets to her,” Astrid said sternly.

“We didn’t tell her anything, she figured it out by herself and she won’t tell anything to anyone,” I tried to reassure her, “she would have said everything already is wanted to do that.”

“Or maybe she is just waiting for the right opportunity,” Astrid replied pouring some more tea in her cup.

"If that happens, you can throw us under the bus and save your ass, which I'm pretty sure you'll do,” -Lily replied with a shrug.

A ghost of smile occurred on Astrid's lips.

"Valeria is not a bad person, she is genuinely trying to help us.”

“I am not saying if she is a bad person, but we live in a world where trusting someone can cost lives,” Astrid replied.

I bit my lip and finally asked the question I was dying to ask, “Why do I look like the queen?”

"I have no idea, maybe it is merely a coincidence. You are definitely not a witch so the chances of something supernatural behind the resemblance are none,” Astrid answered.

I nodded in agreement.

"Okay now let's go back to the original topic, where can we find those witches. There are witches of 2 covens, it won't be that difficult to find one or two of them,” Lily asked loudly.

“It will not be difficult, it will be impossible,” Astrid’s voice changed slightly.

“Why? They won’t help us?” I asked in confusion, as they were our only hope.

“No, because they all are dead.”