Witches (The Order)Revised

Chapter 5

Mirianna

I stared at the floor...

And stared some more...

Nope it still didn't change. I nudged a curious foot onto the spot where the guy had disappeared through. Nope, solid. Solid enough for me to jump on. No trap door or hole.

I lifted an eyebrow and stared up at the man with the long silver hair. "Where'd he go?!" I asked incredulously.

He smiled at me sweetly. "Why, through the floor my dear." He said, pointing to the spot that the man had disappeared through.

My eyes widened. "Yes. I could see that, but HOW?" I asked fluttering my hands at the spot.

The man chuckled at my expression. "Magic my dear child. Magic is the basis of what we are all about here in this castle."

I blinked brilliantly up at him. "Magic...? Castle...?"

He just looked at me indulgingly and waved a hand to one of the curtains against the wall. The curtains ripped apart wide without anyone so much as touching them, revealing long and polished windows, framed and shaped by incredibly dark cherry wood. Windows!!! Something I've only heard of from my mother and father, glass shaped and stuck in the holes in the sides of a house so you can see outside the wall without having to get cold in the winter.

The windows however didn't hold my attention for very long. I gazed at the view that was revealed past their transparent surfaces. Trees, grass, mountains and early morning sky. It all stretched out in front of me endlessly. Even thinking that an end to it all might exist felt like blasphemy.

I hadn't realized that I had walked towards the view until the tip of the scythe clanked lightly on the glass. I pulled the scythe away and tuned back to the man in grey. Heral who was standing next to him had an amused smile on his face.

"My name is Fog." The man in grey said. "Welcome to the world of witches."

Witches... My heart thumped excitedly in my chest at the word. My mother used to tell us scary stories about witches before bed, yet somehow, I never felt like that was how it was supposed to be. I imagined witches weren't the hags with warts on their noses, or the evil beings that cursed lands and kingdoms, or the demonic bloodthirsty crones that snatched children from the woods after sunset.

I looked back at the view from the window, and I felt so alive, so safe, so... at home. This was the world of witches that I should have heard of.

With the light of the morning streaming into the brilliant hall I followed Fog and Heral through a hidden passage to the left which I realized Heral must have come through the first time.

I saw a few people milling about in a library we were passing through, and those that noticed us lifted their heads at the sound of Fog's approach. The moment they caught sight of me they gaped. I suppose it was because of the Rune Reaper I still clutched in my hands. For some reason it just made me feel more stable and grounded, I had no intention of letting go of it yet.

When Fog noticed a stunning woman with long Chestnut hair walking past one of the archways he paused and called out to her. "Arasule!"

The woman stopped dead in her tracks and turned curiously in our direction. "Fog!" She yelled and instantly her face no longer looked sweet and regal, she proceeded in storming our way. "You son of a half-wit donkey's mother! There you are!!! I surely hope that you will teach that Blasted Nochtandriel something important about stumbling into someone else's bedchambers without checking first if it was the right blasted one!!!"

I blinked at her. She was now smack in Fog's space, not caring a drop that he was smiling and making simmer down movements while leaning back from her rage. I looked around Fog at where Heral had been standing a second ago. Apparently something better had pulled his attention away for I just caught sight of his boots swiftly disappearing around a bend.