In the middle of the day, Draven appeared in a certain peaceful grove within the land of the witches. It was a village so small, one would be able to count the number of houses with their fingers, and the people living there did not even exceed thirty.
It was the village that belonged to the Black Witches, an isolated village where not only their fellow White Witches, even the other residents of Agartha turn a blind eye to, pretending as if it does not exist. A village where only Black WItches lived.
After the war a century ago, the number of Black Witches living in Agartha decreased to the point they were threatened to extinction. While most of them died in the war, many followed Zaria Lynx to flee into hiding, and the rest left the kingdom, unable to bear the shame caused by their own people betraying the kingdom to side with the wicked humans.
The pitiful few who chose to remain carried the stigma of the betrayal, and despite their innocence, they were discriminated against by other supernatural beings.
In fact, due to the rage of the people, the council had put forward that all Black Witches were to be banished from the kingdom. It was simply the grace of the King that allowed them to remain living in Agartha, and in the end, the council members chose to accept this decree from the King.
However, their existence was only a little better than the humans living at the border of the kingdom. The only difference between Black Witches and them was that the Black Witches were treated as proper citizens, allowed to roam freely inside any territories within the kingdom while human beings were not allowed to do so.
When one entered their village, one could see they didn't live a luxurious life like the White Witches. Their cottages were rather quaint, poor even, and their streets mostly barren except from the fowls and other small animals raised by the witches themselves. There was not even a single merchant as other races tried to keep distance from them. If a stranger was to see this village, one would think its residents were mere farmers and laborers, living a simple honest lifestyle in the countryside.
Draven appeared in front of a cottage that was bigger than the majority of houses in the villages which looked like small huts. The cottage was not lavish and it had no fencing, but it had a sturdy and well-maintained appearance.
The moment Draven appeared, it caught the attention of the people working nearby, and they immediately dropped whatever they were doing to pay their respects to the King.
One middle-aged witch wearing an ordinary long black dress came to him. "Greetings, Your Majesty."
"I am here to visit Zelda," she heard the King's dignified voice say.
"Please come inside, Your Majesty. I will inform Sister Zelda."
She led Draven's way inside the cottage after instructing others to resume their work. Draven followed her inside towards a small drawing room. Similar to the humble outward appearance of the cottage, the insides were equally simple as well, with nothing more than the most basic things needed for living. There were no lavish decorations or any magical artifacts kept on the shelves, but there were quite a number of woodcarvings on display, as if to show how the house owner passes her idle time.
"Please have a seat, Your Majesty," the woman said as she gestured towards the only armchair meant for the host, as aside from that, there was only a small couch available meant to receive guests. It was the best seat that they could offer for someone of his status.
After welcoming the King, the woman disappeared behind the curtains hanging on the doorway to enter another room.
Draven heard the woman talking to the owner of the house. "Sister Zelda, His Majesty..."
"I'll be out in a while, Ursula," an older woman's voice replied.
The woman named Ursula came back to the drawing room. "Your Majesty, please make yourself comfortable while I make tea for you." Not waiting for Draven's reply, she disappeared to go to another room.
After a while, Ursula brought freshly brewed tea and served the King. The middle-aged witch then hurried to excuse herself, leaving the cottage to give the two privacy, mindful that their topic of conversation would involve important matters an outsider like her should not be privy to.
An old hoarse voice echoed in the room, accompanied by dragging footsteps, a telltale sign that their owner was crippled.
"How come His Majesty found his way to my humble abode?"
An extremely old woman in simple washed out clothes stepped out of her room from behind the curtains. Her face was wrinkly, her thin gray hair tied in a small bun at the back of her head with a wooden hairpin. With her back bent, she moved extremely slowly with the help of a wooden cane towards the couch.
"I have something to ask," Draven replied.
After taking her time sitting down on the couch, she raised her head to meet his gaze. Zelda's gray eyes looked dull and tired, giving off the impression that she had no interest in anything in this world.
"As you are personally here, Your Majesty," she started, her raspy voice low, "it must be something you believe only I can answer."
Draven nodded and directly asked, "Twenty years back, there was a prophecy of the new Queen of Witches being born and she was meant to be a Black Witch."
Zelda peered at him without a change in her expression. "What happened for Your Majesty to gain interest in the secret matters of the witches? Are any of us once again creating troubles for your kingdom?"
"Not yet," he replied. "I am here to ask what you know about it. Being a powerful Black Witch yourself, you must know about her existence better than others. Was she really born twenty years ago?"
"This is something that only us witches should know about, Your Majesty."
"This concerns something important and I will not leave empty-handed."
His words sounded moderate, but the dangerous glint in his red eyes showed he would not take no for an answer.
The two of them stared at each other in tense silence, no one backing out, but in the end, it was the old witch who let out a sigh of defeat.
"Your Majesty, please understand. This secret is something so serious that I vowed to take it with me to my grave. I cannot reveal it even if it means my death right at this moment. Its revelation can bring another disaster like that one a century back. Though I am Black Witch myself, the existence of such a Queen who possesses strong powers of darkness...alas, even up till now, I am scared thinking of her existence."
"There is no secret that can remain hidden forever. The truth of her existence will be known, one way or another."
"The previous Queen hid her existence for a reason," Zelda replied.
"The previous Queen? Evanthe?" Draven asked.
Though his face looked unaffected, inside he was shocked. Once again, Evanthe's involvement was brought up. He could not even begin to fathom for what reason she had been involved in all these issues in the past. It gave him a feel that she was the invisible hand guiding fate.
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