'Til Kingdom Comes - The Banished Prince Vol 2: Here Comes The Witches

Michael - Minerals Manipulator

Michael was one unique guy, he wasn't aware of his special abilities nor was everyone around expected him to be one of the manipulators or conjurers. In fact, he was such a low key person that everyone in the prospecting industry knew.

He was a gold panner, which means he was literally panning for gold deposits along river beds at Nenthead and the River Swale, Camborne and Falmouth. He started his panning career when he was 17 years old, about 12 years ago.

He travelled with his parents back then and he had a younger brother and sister. They followed the gold rush and would pan for gold minerals at those rivers. In fact, Michael and his family used to spend years panning up and down River Swale which was near North Yorkshire as the river is the main tributary that flows into River Ouse.

At first, there was only one family but then it became more and more people panning for mineral deposits there. Michael didn't know when was his Awakening and all he does daily was fishing for barbel, chub, pike and grayling if he was not panning with his family.

Every time he pans for Minerals he would spot not flakes or nuggets but perfectly shaped spheres of gold. It was like a tiny golden pearl, and it weighs about 31/100 ounces. Soon, whenever every time he pans, he would get those small 15/64" inch spheres of gold.

At first, everyone was okay with it and his family brought it to their local designated buyer where it was offered as much as 10% higher than the other buyers due to its purity of the gold.

The buyer was a bit intrigued by the shape of the gold 'nugget' that they followed wherever Michael went to pan every time. Without fail, Michael would without his knowledge conjure up a tiny sphere of gold every time he dug some sand and began to swirl the water inside it.

The prospectus believed in Michael good tidings and never once suspected that he was 'witching' the pan after all. Michael also doesn't think too much about it until he began to accidentally conjure up diamonds inside his pan.

=*=

Author's Note:

It costs £1.49 per ounce in the year 1440 as per records of British Official Price, cited by Lawrence H. Officer and Samuel H. Williamson, at www.measuringworth.com

To convert it, we could use simply 1g 24s per ounce.

Three of those gold spheres would weigh just a little under an ounce as we put it the purity of the gold to be 91.6%. My mother used to term it as 'pound gold' or 22k gold and it comes in medallions with heads of some queens et cetera. She made those into lockets and adorn it along with her chains. Hmm, Old Victorian mothers...

=*=

"Son, how come you got jewels in these parts of the river? Normally there are placer deposits for gold but for diamonds... That's a pretty weird thing happening around here, don't you think?"

"I have never seen someone panning for gold would turn up diamonds instead. Either this is good tidings or is something unfathomable...! Tell me, son, how do you get this diamond piece?"

Michael's father pulled him gently aside and asked where the diamond came from. Frankly, Michael was not sure if he should laugh or cry since he heard from others that diamonds could be found in rivers and streams and there was one that was discovered in County Fermanagh of Northern Ireland and another in Loch Ròg of Scotland but never on English land.

So he was thinking — Scotland was at the end of England while Northern Ireland was across the ocean just opposite England, why shouldn't there be diamonds somewhere in the middle then? He chuckled to himself as he suddenly saw a diamond and showed it to his father then.

Little did he knew it had a backlash on his family and he was labelled as a cheat, somehow or another. The diamond was not a diamond, one of the buyers pointed out. They said it was an intricate piece of crystal. When his family tried to retrieve the diamond back, the buyer simply dodges and swerve to avoid returning it and disappeared from that place the next day.

"Bah... Just for a jiggle of gold coins. Don't be discouraged soon. Evil begets evil and good begets good. Try to pan for gold this time, yeah?" his father consoled Michael when the family finds out that the buyer had made off with their diamond piece.

So, after that spiteful incident, whenever Michael pans, he would hoard all those minerals in a small pouch as they looked like tiny frog eggs and the jewels in another pouch.

He then realised that he could summon these minerals at will as long as he had a pan or a container and used it to sift the earth, sand, clay or even streambed gravel.

It was considered as a special gift and he would not divulge such information to others in case he would be manipulated by them. One night, a robbery ensued, led by One-Eyed Jack, an infamous rebel who worked together with the French to topple some smaller kingdoms.

There were some families travelling up and down the river in search for gold through panning and unfortunately they were 'visited' by these scums. The men were clobbered on their heads and the women were violated not once but up to four times that night to satisfy their beastly lusts.

Michael was on the way returning from a short fishing trip some miles downstream where the waters were deep enough for the fish to swim about when he witnessed the scene from some bushes. He wanted to yell and retaliate against those rebels but he was alone and they were twelve.

He was greatly outnumbered and when the rebels had done their deeds and had satisfied their lusts, they left the men and women where they were. The men, clobbered on their heads had lost their lives due to internal haemorrhage.

The women and girls were knived a few times after the rebels had done with them. What's left was lifeless bodies lying about or huddled in bundles. Michael was literally helpless as he ambled about on his weak knees and watched the lifeless bodies of his family and others.

There was nothing he could do at all since there was simply no-one he could ask help from. He bawled until he passed out from the sheer intense pressure on his mind and heart.

It was then Earl and the rest discovered him and took him in. With Earl's ability, he made graves so that they could lay the deceased to rest. All of the graves were marked with simple stones stacked on top of each other as a headstone.

Michael was too distraught to move from that area and it was not until 5 days later, he began to regain his composure and joined them.

"Don't be too sad, my dear boy. The living will die one day, and the only difference is how. They are now in a better place than what they used to be and they would be your guardian angels where ever you go." Earl walked alongside Michael and hugged his shoulders as they walked alongside one another.

"Yes, Michael. They are now in a better place than now and they don't have to suffer anymore. May God blesses their souls and may they rest in eternal peace." Penelope counselled Michael in which during his distraught times, refused to eat nor drink.

At first, Michael was sceptical to join the group as he distrusts another human being after the incident. When Earl manipulated the earth for the burial of the victims, he discovered that the duo had some kind of special abilities.

"I can sense the aura of someone who has the Awakening and special abilities as a witch or sorcerer. You, my dear brother, are a Sorcerer. I am not sure if your special abilities would benefit anyone of the group, but if you were to disclose to anyone, you would likely be victimised." Penelope put in the picture about Michael's abilities that could conjure up minerals and precious gems on freewill.

"Do you think it would be useful to others? My minerals came out as spheres and my gems came out from the earth et cetera. Prospectus and miners worked hours long inside the mines and all I do was to shake the pan a few times and then the minerals or gems appear."

"It doesn't appear many at one time but one at a time. Once the gems are removed, another one would appear. It is not a random gem but if I were to think about a black diamond, it wouldn't appear at all." Michael accentuated his example and explained that he could define the gems but not the colour or shape.

The size of the diamonds would be either a ⅓-½ carat while the rubies and others would be between ⅓-1 carat each. It depends on the would-be conjured as Michael had no control over the size of the pieces. The smallest would be 15/64" while the biggest he had conjured before was 25/32".

As he was no appraiser, he felt that his special abilities were not special to him. "What's the point of conjuring up these minerals if none of the group had a use for it, am I right?" that what Michael's thought was racing inside his kind ad he reflected in his special abilities. He even considers it as a curse...!

=*=

Andy placed his hand over his eyebrows to shield it from the sun as he peered over the horizon at Burghbrig. He saw smoke rising in the air and that indicated that there's really a settlement over there.

He saw rows and rows of yellow coloured houses (that's what he had in his mind, houses) of the exact same size and shape. He also saw there are quite some farmlands over before the rows of buildings.

However, he finds that there's something odd with that settlement. Instead of low walls, it was protected with some kind of structure. It was pretty hard to identify it over half a mile away but he was sure it was some kind of fence, maybe?

"Guys, look...! I think that's the settlement the old lady at Adewera had mentioned. There's activity there and from what I could see, it's really a laid back settlement and there are some farmlands too...! It looked greenish with yellow tops, I think it would be corn...! "

Andy put across his findings to everyone and the group too watched the thin trail of white smoke coming from the part across the river banks.

"Corn? By Golly... It had been some time since I've tasted corn. Hey... Do you know that there are 4 types of corn here in England? I love the sweet golden ones, the other three would be sort of sticky and glutinous while the remaining would be dent corn or flint corn." Michael voiced his opinions when he heard the mention of corn.

Everyone who listened all nodded their heads. It seems that this settlement is here for good since Andy reported that there was a lot of harvest over yonder.

"What I love most is those baby corn where it was parboiled and soaked in brine. It could be eaten as it is. Hahaha. My father..." Farah articulated about the time her father used to get her baby corns all the time since he knew that it was his precious' favourite.

At the mention of the father, she trailed her voice away and looked abit melancholic about it since she misses her father dearly and wondered how he was fairing all these while.

"Look... They have livestock too...! Wow... They have cows and sheep and pigs too...! Golly...! I'm beginning to like this place and it gives a kind of positive vibes about it despite the weird-looking fences." Penelope mentioned about it as if she could detect some aura of Witches or Sorcerers from within that settlement.

The group walked on and soon reached to the side gate near the enclosure area. This was the first time anyone had tried to gain access from there before. Usually, it was from residential areas.

"Uh...Hello there. We are travellers and we came all the way from... Ahem... Knaresborough Cave. How do we...errr...enter this settlement...?" Andy announced to the guard manning the Northern gates, who was removing the barrier to let the group of traveller through.

"Oh... Welcome to Gracehaven Town. You may state your intentions of your visit to the Domestic Affairs Minister who would join you shortly. Come this way, please. Let me guide you to the courtyard while waiting for His Majesty as well." the young guard smiled broadly at the group as he closes up the 'fence' that was made of some crisscrossed sharpened green bamboo.

"Gracehaven? Town? Domestic Affairs Minister? Courtyard? His Majesty? I'm already liking this place...!" Imelda expressed her delights within the earshot of the guard as she skipped along with the rest of the group as they stepped into Gracehaven's soil.