Enchanted by freckles - Garreth Weasley & Sebastian Sallow x female MC

52nd chapter

"My power. It didn't work," I said in despair. "Then keep fighting normally!" he shouted, pinning me to the ground as the troll's club swung overhead.

We split up again. I tried to stay calm and just as he was fixating on Sebastian, who was excellent at dodging and keeping him in check, I tried again. Suddenly, the troll screamed. I opened my eyes again and looked at Sebastian first.

Sebastian stood there confused, but he was unharmed. I looked at the troll. He was missing both of his hands and the resulting wounds made his blood spill onto the floor. Either way, he would die. Now that he could no longer swing his cudgel, it was easy for Sebastian in particular to bring him down.

When the troll was lying on its back on the ground, Sebastian climbed on top of it, pointed his staff at the troll's throat, and shouted, "Diffindo!". Suddenly, copious amounts of blood began to flow from his neck. Sebastian jumped off the troll's belly and came to me.

"I didn't want to torment him unnecessarily. Even such an inferior creature deserves a quick death as possible. It's not the fault of trolls that they are the way they are.", he said and snorted. "How did you cut off his hands?" I asked confused. Sebastian raised an eyebrow. "It wasn't me, it was you," he said softly.

"Well then I obviously still don't understand this magic. And I thought I made some progress." I huffed in annoyance.

"You did.", Sebastian said while leading me deeper into the cave, "You can use it actively now. That's really worth a lot.", he said with a smile. "And even if you can't help Anne. The relic will be able to. Don't stress, my love. One day you'll master it.", Sebastian said and stopped to kiss me. "We've already achieved so much," he said quietly.

We kept going. There weren't any goblins here anymore. Apparently the troll had killed all the goblins that tried to go deeper into the cave. We came into a torch-lit room. The furniture here was considerably larger than what we saw at the beginning of the castle. Did Isidora used to live here? After all, the triptych brought us here.

We looked around. Sebastian grabbed the books that were lying around again. Unfortunately, we didn't have Garreth's bag with us, so he only managed to pack a few.

In our search for information, we found the last piece of the triptych.

Through a magical passage we landed back in the undercroft. We put in the missing piece of the triptych, and waited for something to happen.

Suddenly a glaring light appeared behind us, which Sebastian also saw. We turned around and suddenly there was a large bird bath behind us. I looked inside. It looked like there was white smoke floating in the water.

"It's a Pensieve. You can use it to look at certain memories of people. We should look at it. Just put your head in it.", Sebastian said and took my hand. I let my face slide into the water and suddenly I saw someone.

A young woman in her early thirties was sitting at a table with a book reading, I greeted her, but she didn't seem to hear me.

"We can only look at the memories. We can't interact with the people inside," Sebastian said, wrapping his arm around my back.

There was a knock. The lady got up and walked to the door. When she opened it, a goblin was standing in front of the door. I could feel Sebastian reaching for his wand again before realizing it was a memory.

The lady let the goblin in. Both of them sat down on the sofa. "Bragbor, what brings you to me? Have you been able to find out anything?" the lady asked. Bragbor smiled widely through his sharp teeth, "Isidora, I have great news regarding your ability."

That was Isidora Morganach. Bragbor continued: "It is possible to bring people back to life with it, you were absolutely right. But the price, Isidora. It's an equivalent exchange. You have to end a life to restore one.

Isidora didn't look happy with Bragbor's message, "But I can't just end a life to save one. It goes against everything I'm trying to achieve. I don't want anyone to have to die. There must be another solution.", she said quietly. 

Bragbor shook his head, "No, there isn't. All your ancient magic is based on this rule. I scoured all of Gnyx for information. We goblins really do have vast stores of knowledge, but nowhere in this gigantic city have I been able to find anything that says otherwise. Please Isidora, trust me. I have really tried everything. I went to the council of elders, I looked through all the relevant books. All state that in this form of magic, the equivalent exchange is always the solution. You have to imagine it, and you have to be willing to pay the cost for it. When you heal someone, you always get exhausted afterwards, don't you?" Bragbor asked. Isidora nodded.

"Because you pay for it with your own energy. If you fought, it would not be you who would pay the cost, but your opponent. But you cannot heal people without giving something in return."

"You have to lie, that can't be.", Isidora said and started to cry, "I just want that no one has to suffer anymore. Why can't anyone help me?", she asked desperately. "Isidora, no one is omnipotent. Even someone with a power like yours isn't," Bragbor said softly.

In the next moment, Sebastian and I were back in the undercroft. I didn't quite understand why Isidora wanted me to see that of all things.

Sebastian and I left the undercroft without a word and flew back to Marlee's house. Sebastian thought. He asked me to give him time to think and do some research before we discussed the memory.

We hung up the pictures and since it was still light we went to look for ingredients for Garreth in the forest. We found many different plants and also some valuable insects that Garreth could use for brewing. We collected everything in the wicker basket that Sebastian was carrying. All of a sudden we heard a noise. We turned around and saw a white rabbit. It stared at us and then ran away again.

"That thing looked weird.", Sebastian interjected, "Did it have purple eyes? I've never seen anything like that. Well, maybe it was just the light and it was an albino. Who knows.". i agreed with him It looked really strange.

We went even deeper into the forest and saw a shy wild dog that ran away from us. Maybe they were the same animals as on New Year's Eve, I thought to myself. I was internally happy that the rabbit had survived.

Hand in hand Sebastian walked through the forest until it was pitch black. Then we returned to the house.

Despite the fact that it was only the beginning of February, we really found a lot. We took cords and hung everything up to dry.

Late in the evening Sebastian began poring over books and retired to the bedroom while I continued to practice playing the lyre. I had improved a lot, although of course I wasn't good after so few weeks, but I was making progress.

And as I pondered the memory after my workout, I slowly drifted off to sleep until I realized I was moving. Sebastian had picked me up and was just putting me to bed. Half asleep, I undressed and snuggled up to his body, which was also naked. He was so soft and warm and smelled a bit like old parchment.

I felt so safe in his strong arms. I gave him a kiss and fell back asleep.