A Time Of Hope And Decievers

Chapter One: Magic?

Fey drugs.

The man lived for it. Though he never disclosed it to the open-air everyone in the mansion knew.

They were all scared that the head of the house would throw them out if they did anything traitorous. And in an influenced haze, even breathing wrong was traitorous for their master.

At that point, it seemed worthwhile to employ the penniless. They will do anything for a job, for the household they had left behind, for the children they feel obliged to look after, grandfather had advised.

It was an expensive habit though. Both the servants and the drugs. The latter is much more so than the formal.

Each month grandfather had a crate of the silver liquid brought in from the foreign and prohibited territories of the Fae at the highest of prices and gave it to his son, Quinton, with high regard.

The one vastly affected by this was not lord Quinton, but his second wife, my stepmother, and the current lady of the house. Whenever a rumour of a new delivery reaches her ear, the woman rushes to the ladies room to vent her anger, or on rare occasions directly to her husband. Her yells do not stop till light.

Kiara and Reyna, my stepsisters, talk amongst themselves that she isn't getting to vent out her emotions... elsewhere, hence the usual outbursts from her.

Kiara herself had become too curious for her nature and made a bet with her sister to check what attracted lord Quinton's attention more than her mother. In my opinion, even the weeds in our garden attract a man's attention more than the woman naming herself a lady because of forced marriage and expecting love.

It didn't go too well.

If Kiara had gotten caught with her hand in the cookie jar then it would have been far better than getting addicted to the stuff.

I still to this day remember much too vividly how Kiara strutted down the marble stairs with a smile on her face.

"I couldn't do it", she said, shrugging as innocently as a priestess. I had seen her dip her finger in the jar, had heard her moan, and a few more as she scooped some in her hand and gulped it.

The girl knew I was there, but all she did was a wink. She was in too much haze I had concluded and came out to be right. To say I was sworn to secrecy in a rather threatful manner would be an understatement.

Back then I thought that my hand in this matter was over and for four years she didn't bother me. She stole the drugs on her own accord, skilfully enough to make one wonder, but on the day of her eighteenth birthday, everything took a turn for the worse.

"I am begging you, Nyx," she said and did act on it. To any onlooker, I might look like the evil queen and Kiara the victim. Oh, how wrong they would be.

"My answer is the same," I spoke with as much indifference I could muster though it did feel great to have the brave and beautiful Kiara grovel. I wish I could capture this moment.

"It will be the last time in my life I ask you anything. I can give you any of the presents I get and even my monthly allowance, just do this favour for me." She wiped her genuine tears. Thank God she was without makeup or else I would have to stare at a sore sight at the start of the day.

"Why?" I pushed the blankets aside and stretched. I never get to sleep in with people like these around.

"Selene and Azure..." she pointed in a direction haphazardly as if it were her friends she was gesturing to, "...they... they are forcing me to meet them in an hour for the preparations of the party and the only time father is out of his room is for breakfast. I don't have the opportunity any other time. Please, sister."

I flinched but regained myself.

"Don't you think it is about time you quit it?" I got up and was about to go to the closet when her hand grabbed mine.

"But there is something else!" she raised her voice, "a file that came in yesterday with a box of belongings, I heard it belonged to Hina!"

As soon as the words left her mouth she slapped a hand onto it, not that she spoke it in the heat of the moment but in fear that someone else might have overheard it. Whereas I stood still as a statue on hearing my mother's name. The only thing I knew about her.

"What?" My voice was not above a whisper and held disbelief. Father would never have anything of mother nevertheless get anything of hers from somewhere.

How far can one go for an addiction?

Without waiting for her reply I spoke again, expressing the rising ire in me, "you lying..." I couldn't help but hold back from speaking profanities.

"No, listen to me, I heard mother talk about it and... Reyna, Reyna even saw the box," she spoke hurriedly, "if you want to see it for yourself you can do so during breakfast, but if you do then I was the one who supplied you with information so..."

"Will you please shut up?" I grunted.

Many things played in my mind, from the times when Kiara used to yell that my mother is here to meet me and I used to stand outside for hours, to the miserable condition where she would pretend to be my mother's ghost when I was a child and tell me that I wasn't good enough.

This could be just a trick of hers. With my experiences in the past, Kiara wasn't above anything.

"You still don't believe me?" She seemed hurt. I wondered where that emotion came from. "Fine then," she got up and brushed off her dress, "I have exhausted every option. What you do from here is your choice, but do not forget," she raised a finger, "one hour, sister."

In the end, she went out of the room victoriously, even if she did not know it yet.

Father's room was in the west wing of the mansion. The place wasn't as big as a castle but grandfather had deemed it necessary that father must be left alone.

Before consciousness, I hadn't seen even a maid go through the double doors carved with the insignia of our frugal kingdom. Stepmother goes in and out once in a Blue Moon but lately, that too has been sparse.

There was a ruckus in the dining hall. I could hear it from where I stood. I could bet that I wasn't even missed but that was partly my fault.

Me being missing from the table wasn't something to bat an eye at. Did Kiara take that into account? The woman was conniving of course she would have.

I pushed the doors. There lined two doors on each wall while a large one occupied the middle wall.

I was too flustered, too much in a panic to think about anything else other than the main door. Father's room.

I didn't know what I was expecting. At least a scene of havoc was on the list but I didn't expect what I saw.

The room was covered in darkness but light fluttering its way in through the cracks in the curtains gave a sense of vision. The bed was like every other but other than that there was no furniture in the room. The floor was cleaner than any in the house and right in front of the window was a round jar filled with a silver honey-like substance and a box. It was a plain black box, even one of the maids had something like this.

On closer inspection, there also seemed to be a file bound with deep red threads placed on the box.

I was a forgetful person to not have any mishaps and mainly because I wanted to get Kiara what she asked. It was a misery of mine though, being good.

I filled the small finger-sized tube with the liquid and closed it shut and right after thoroughly wiped my fingers with a handkerchief.

The file seemed to be bound rightly at first so I decided to not open it to evade suspicion but as soon as I touched it the thread unbound itself and dropped to the floor like it was silk.

"It is fascinating isn't it?" A voice came from behind, and I knew that voice much too well to not feel terrified at the moment, "a pure-blood witch's magic is fascinating."

Father smiled.