Her Broken Spell

Chapter 32

Her grandmother, Ylona, brought her to the mountains. Ylona's house was a small cabin surrounded by redwood trees. It was a two-story house made of hardwood and stone.

Inside was complete with furniture and cooking materials. The floorboards did not creak; the stone walls were sturdy, and the roof did not have holes like the shacks that she was used to living in. It was well-lit because of the candles and torches. It had a clean supply of water from the deep well in the backyard.

For a person who lived in shambles, she was thankful to be even sleeping on a cushioned bed.

Ylona taught her how to tidy herself in front of a mirror. Her baths gave her dirty blonde hair a vibrant luster. The soaps and lotion that her grandmother bought cleansed her rosy skin.

Her grandmother gave her a roof over her head. She nurtured her with food. She gave her clothes and other necessities that a woman would need until her blue eyes shone with life again. She gave her an identity.

"I do not want to call you Dionysia Yvonne anymore. I do not like a reminder of your father's name. So, you are just Yvonne from now on. Understood?"

She agreed, even though she wanted to keep both of her names. She knew that her father named her Dionysia after his name, which was Dionysus. And he picked Yvonne in remembrance of his late wife—her mother—who died when she gave birth.

What rights did she have to deny her grandmother of her wishes? She lived in comfort because of Ylona.

Not only did her grandmother give her luxury but also misery in the form of Dark magic. Ylona said that magic truly ran in their veins because they were sorcerers.

"Because I practice Dark magic, the covens shunned me. Who needs a lowly group anyway? When I can be powerful on my own and with my daughter," her grandmother said.

Ylona told her about how she wanted to pass down her legacy on magic to her only daughter, Yvonne. But Yvonne rebelled against Ylona because she did not agree with her wicked ways. Yvonne packed up and left their home in the mountains.

But her grandmother knew that her daughter was whisked away by a man and gave birth to a baby girl.

"Yvonne married your father. He was a poor sorcerer. A nobody! Ironic that she wanted to get away from evil but married a thief and a liar instead," her grandmother mocked.

"Father was not evil. We just need to survive, that is why we had to do it," she wanted to preserve her father's image.

"He is no saint, Yvonne. I guess your mother just chose the lesser evil between the two of us."

As the weeks progressed, her grandmother trained her to be a sorceress like her. "You need to search for your magic source. In your mind, an object will be conjured. I do not know what yours is so you have to find it on your own."

She looked for it and found a wine bottle.

"Huh. I guess that alcoholic scum made an impact in your life. Very well, next..."

Her magic source was a wine bottle. Her grandmother said that the bottle symbolizes something in her life and it could be her bond with her father.

But she knew that the wine bottle connected her not to her father, but to the words that he drilled in her mind when he was drunk—the words that made her hate herself for being alive instead of her mother.

The wine bottle signified her guilt.

She was guilty for being alive.

After unlocking magic within her, Ylona taught her Ilboc language which was the basis of sorcerers' spells. Then, her grandmother taught her simple elemental magic. At first, all the defensive and offensive magic spells that she taught her were pure.