With crossed hands, Elisaria stood in her spot with the same blank unimpressed expression as she smacked her lips together and wrinkled her nose. It was suddenly quite. Not a sound of that clueless keeper who was such a sore in the ass and it felt odd for a second before the feeling disappeared instantly as soon as it came.
The witch remembered when Diana was here for a week or two before she left. It was quite an odd feeling when Elisaria didn't hear the nagging, and the none stop of questions from the ice princess before the feeling disappeared for good. But she kind of missed having Diana's unusual company even if it meant having her being such a tight ass with everything but strangely enough, she was someone who was respectful and would help around whenever she could.
Nothing like the past Diana would have done well the real soul of Diana.
Furthermore, the old hag wasn't someone to dwell in the absent presence of people. She shook the feeling off and began to rummage through her thoughts, searching for any missing information she had forgotten to tell Ciel before he left. She scratched her chin and made faint humming noises as she stared straight at the ground floor.
Elisaria forgot about what she was thinking and weirdly started to analyse the wooden boards. The old floorboards had rose up from their positions just by a tiny inch. It made sense why the floor creaked whenever she walked. "Huh" Elisaria scoffed.
"I should have given Ciel to fix my floors as his last repayment debt before I had handed him the crystal" Elisaria dead panned at her misfortune.
"Oh, whatever" she wailed her hand about, "I'll just give it to the next dying person I pick up from the middle of the forest. Give them a debt to pay for saving their lives" she said, cackling maliciously to herself just be thinking about it.
Just as she was about to waddle her way out, she felt a cold presence past by her. A dark aura that agitated the plants in her cottage, it had stopped the wind in its course and streams had steadied. Not a sound of the creatures stirred nor the chimes of the leaves.
It's as if time had stopped.
Cold and sharp owl-like eyes swiftly darted around, scanning every corner of the room like a bird of prey searching for its enemy amongst its surrounding. The air had become foul in the tip of Elisaria's tongue. She smacked her lips together and tasted the humid air. A bitter feeling stirred inside of Elisaria when she knew who had dared to appear in her cottage.
Elisaria's eyebrows arched down resulting in her wrinkles of her brow to form a pattern of waves. Her lips twisted into a bitter scowl.
"Ya vicious foul of a snake, ya not welcome in my home." she snared under her breath.
A devilish chuckle resonated the room, bouncing off each wall as it twirled all around the old witch like wolves preying it's victim so hungrily. It was the voice of a woman.
Elisaria's shape eyes caught something move in the corner of her eyes. Immediately she turned, and her owl-like eyes snapped to a narrowed glare, watching a dark fog emerge from the unknown and begin to circle the room, masking the walls and ceiling in complete utter darkness.
The black fog was like a hungry creature, snatching away any light that it got it's sharp claws on and devouring it whole without mercy.
Elisaria's eyes had followed suit. Her deathly glare never leaving it once as it left traces of its black looking poisonous smoke behind. The cackles of the woman didn't leave Elisaria's ears making her bare her teeth in disgust. She fisted her hands from inside the cloak. Such desire to burn the cottage down and with that snake with it.
"Ya vile snake leave ya shadows and face me like a real witch" Elisaria hissed. The magic rose within the old witch, and it revealed in her eyes when it changed to look exactly like one of a bird of prey.
"hahaha~" the malicious chuckles continued on as the black fog from every wall and corner of the room burst out from within like a tiger pouncing on its prey. They all merged together as one. "Oh, my dear little sister, aren't you such a spiteful little witch" the fog had dispersed to reveal a tall slender woman in a long white dress that outlined her perfect hips and bosom.
Her shoulders were bare to reveal her fair milky white skin that complemented her dark red eyes that resembled much of a snake. A venomous snake that could poison your soul if you stared into them. Around her neck was a white metal choker shaped as a snake that wrapped it's scaly body around the lady's neck.
Her shiny white hair straightened down, the brink of her strands nearly touching the floor.
A sinister grin perched upon her lushes plump lips as her red eyes gleamed death.
"Ya not welcomed here...." Elisaria hissed, her owl eyes shot dangerous glares at the lady. "Adrastea" the very name of her older sister sickened the witch and she snared hatefully.
"Your hospitality is rather appalling towards me, isn't it little sister?" Adrastea chuckled behind her long slender fingers.
Elisaria scowled, her lips twitching to say every disgusting slur at her older sister but knowing it was only futile and won't get her anywhere, she clicked her tongue in annoyance. "What do ya want?" she snared.
Adrastea's thin silver eyebrow perched up by a slight inch and her smirk lightened. Her body evaporated into black fog, and she disappeared leaving a bundle of floating mist.
She appeared behind Elisaria who was not startled at all by the sudden appearance of Adrastea but glared hatefully at her. Adrastea placed her hands on her little sister's shoulders and peeked her head to look at the old witch.
"I missed you" Adrastea pouted her lips sadly, red reptile eyes glimmering sparkles.
The old witch shrugged her shoulders back, clicking her tongue in disgust, "Ya can kiss my ass then".
Adrastea snickered, "you haven't changed at all since the last time I saw you".
"And ya still a shrewd snake" Elisaria glared coldly at her older sister before whipped her head to the side and set off, waddling away towards the door of her little cottage.
"Little sister where are you headed off to now?" Adrastea crossed her bare hands that had tattooed snakes curling it's scaly body around her wrist to her elbow. Faint yet visible.
"Somewhere where ya I don't have to be in the same presence of a snake."
"Are you still blaming me for what had happened centuries ago?" Adrastea said. "You know that was only to save you from the hands of your cruel demise."
The old witch snorted "Save me?" Elisaria's wistful eyes glanced with sorrow at Adrastea, her words harsh and filled with grief. "Ya may have saved my life, but ya didn't save my soul. It left me to live with such guilt and misery my whole life. I would have preferred ya to have let me be killed instead."
The air had changed and Elisaria met with the older sister an inch away from her face. Adrastea's red eyes emblazed with fury, it changed to a violet hue, her silver hair had begun to float in mid-air and the locks of hair acting like slithering snakes. "Do not tell me sister. I had sacrificed my freedom! My power just for you to cower away in this pitiful state of yours eating mushroom stew until you rot. I would have dearly given your life away, but I could let them take away what was so dear to me" she hissed spitefully.
The old witch stepped closer to Adrastea like a bear challenging another for its territory. "If your love was so deep for me then you would have known that I would have been far happier to be with them in the afterlife, than here in this place. Trapped in this void of misery for all eternity" Elisaria spoke, her glowing eyes returning to its natural look as it was coated with a watery gloss.
Adrastea hair floated back down as it's tips touch the floor again, and her fury purple eyes faded back a red. She calmed down and the atmosphere of the room returned to its natural feel.
"Elisaria do not place your daughter's death on my hands. I had no part in her end." She explained sternly. Her head lifted up and she gazed down at Elisaria, "Ilaria was doomed from the start you had given birth to her. You know far better than any of us do that a witch can never mingle with a man."
Elisaria's gaze shifted away shamefully, and she prevented herself to cry in front of her older sister. She promised herself that there was no more tears left for her to shed.
Adrastea's snake like eyes softened at the site of seeing her little sisters emotions. She brought her slender hands to Elisaria and cupped them. Her thumbs began to caress her sister's wrinkly cheeks. "It had cost you everything, little sister, even your beautiful face that was once envied by Alphyria."
The old witch jerked her face away from the hands of Adrastea, her eyes were not daring look at her older sister. "Leave me alone. I don't need ya rubbing salt on my wound." her voice was sad, and she turned away. "I already lost everything Adrastea. The beauty I once possessed was nothing compared to the love I had lost on that day."
Elisaria wistful eyes gazed down and looked at her half open palm. The once soft and pretty hand of a young woman that was like a golden touch was now old and wrinkly. She didn't have the pretty slender fingers anymore it was bony and would shake whenever she did anything. "I didn't even get to hold her little hand."
A baby's cry echoed in Elisaria's mind, it had made her tremble uncontrollably. Immediately she shut them out. Blocking any memory of her deceased little girl.
"You know far well that we sisters don't have the power to meddle in the past. We can't go back to what was once done. We are intwined with the power of the future, Elisaria don't you forget that" Adrastea said softly. She watched from behind as her sister gazed sorrowfully at her own hand.
Elisaria scoffed at Adrastea. She cocked her head to the side and glared at her older sister coldly "If ya here to lecture me about this then I don't want to hear it. Leave!" she yelled, waving her hand at Adrastea "Ya not welcome here and ya will never be."
The older sister furrowed her thin eyebrows and stared at her little sister coldly. "You are far to cruel, Elisaria. You still hold the past like a dragon hording it's treasure. You chained yourself in that misery not I." Adrastea said angrily.
Elisaria said nothing as her back continued to face Adrastea. The old hag's face darkened with gloom and her lips pursed tightly.
"You're not the little sister I once knew of." Adrastea hissed coldly.
"Like ya said Adrastea, we sisters don't meddle with the past." Elisaria had shot back with a slight scoff to anger her snake like sister who was already fuming with frustration.
The temperature dropped even more creating an icy cave as the darkness consumed the cottage.
Adrastea's red eyes darkened to the shade of the hue of a red wine. Her cold stare made the old hag uncomfortable to the point where she wanted to leave the cottage and never return until every presence of this snake has disappeared for good.
"I see how it is little sister" her s was pronounced like a slithering snake, sharp and venomous. "If you want me out so bad that your willing to risk all of Alphyria for it then so be it."
With a swift turn, Adrastea turned away and her long dress flowed with a whip of a sound. The darkness that overlapped everything began to merge back into Adrastea, slowly creeping back to the snake who was the reason to it's existence.
"I have trust in Artemis more than I have with you" Elisaria said, tone quite yet spiteful.
Adrastea stopped in her step and snapped her head back at Elisaria. Her eyes slit to a crescent when she gazed at Elisaria with a cold and daggering gaze. "Oh, so you do know why I have come?" her tone had become spiteful. The darkness returned again and consumed everything in the cottage.
"It's the only reason to why ya would visit me after all these years." Elisaria smacked her lips.
Adrastea smirked victoriously knowing that this discussion will give her more of a reason to stay a little longer. "The ancient has returned to Alphyria again, and she holds great power than we ever have imagined. Far more powerful than her ancestor, Havardur"
Elisaria rose a questionable brow. Gazing at her older sister with a deadpanned look. "And what do ya imply that I should do?" it was the question that made Adrastea twitch with a sneer. It was like an insult to Adrastea. "Ya know a witch's magic can never compare to that sort of power." Elisaria continued on.
"I'm not implying you to do anything but to avoid giving her anymore reason to continue to seek that power that should have never been brought back" Adrastea snapped back, her hair flowing up like snakes.
Elisaria glared her sharp bird of prey eyes and sneered spitefully "Havardur was the foolish one, but Artemis is not." She explained.
Adrastea kept her silence, analysing her little sister's face for any misleading information. Yet when she found nothing, she furrowed her brows in disbelief. "She will conquer that magic and she will learn to wield it. Artemis won't go down without a fight, unlike Harvardur who was far too weak to even control it and because of it, he lost his humanity." Elisaria explained.
The old hag knew herself the great power was destructive even with in the hands of someone like Artemis, Elisaria too felt a little uneasy. As much as the old witch had trust in Artemis abilities and skills to hone and conquer it, it was the people around the Harvardur descendant that made her uneasy.
People can be the cause of someone else's down fall.
It wasn't her harem boys that would be the problem but someone else. Someone that Artemis will soon grow to cherish deeply.
Adrastea immediately sensed that uneasiness from her little sister and a small grin creeped to her face. She could read her little sister like an open book. "You know of the boy's fate, don't you Elisaria. The one that will bring destruction to the south" Like a cunning snake, Adrastea began to chuckle, fingers coming to her lips as she laughed with a snicker.
It was amusing to watch how the disoriented face of the old hag show. Elisaria knew of what Adrastea was talking about it was what made the older sister laugh.
"You truly have doomed Isvand and its people." The snake witch declared, still laughing at how foolish her sister was once again just like hundreds of years ago.
Elisaria clicked her tongue in frustration. The old hag pursed her trembling lips and lowered her gaze in shame. She didn't dare to look at Adrastea one bit. She only consumed that guilt inside.
"Shut it, ya vile snake." Elisaria hissed hatefully. "Artemis knows how to protect her people. She will not let that boy be killed by Adrastos' blade. I know of it" Elisaria refused to believe in fates anymore. It was the same with that Ventus prince. The one who was destined to die but because of Artemis' appearance to this world, it had changed.
If that boy is fated to die than Artemis is the only one who could break through just like she had with Benjamin. She's got the power to. Yet if Artemis fails to do so than the empire of Isvand is surely doomed for good.
Adrastea sneered spitefully when the expression of Elisaria facial expression changed. Her eyes deepening with that cold gaze of hers. "Your trust on Harvardurs' descendant has really blinded you from what lies in the future for the girl."
Elisaria scoffed. "Artemis presence has already shook Alphyria from its cause, there is nothing else for me to see to know anything else other than the war that will soon begin with all of Alphyria's beings. Even the elves will join in once again."
The old witch didn't turn back to look at her sister and she strolled off. "If there is nothing more to it, then leave my place. Ya not welcome here ever again, no matter the reason" She was done with Adrastea and this talk, all she wanted was for this snake to leave her alone.
All the this witch has ever brought to her was nothing but misery and the past she forced herself to forget. Nothing ever comes out good by meddling with this snake of a witch, Adrastea.
The cold treatment that Adrastea was shown frustrated the snake. She had lashed out on her sister. A dark tentacle of her magic burst out from the walls and whipped towards the old witch. The old witch turned swifty but her reaction to it was slow and she was caught in a tight grip of the tentacle.
The tentacle wrapped it's dark self around Elisaria's stubby body, her hands were tightly closed against her sides and her feet was lifted off the ground as she was pulled up in the air. "Don't push me away Elisaria!" Adrastea hissed like a snake, nearing the locked old witch towards her.
The old hag didn't struggle one bit but her cold and hateful glare pierced into the older witch's gaze.
"There is far more matters that need to be discussed about." the snake witch snarled, her face an inch away from the wrinkled face of the old hag. Both predatorial eyes competing with one another.
A bird of prey and a poisonous snake.
"Important matters." Elisaria spat out, brows furrowed down. "Ya can go tell the other sisters about it. I no longer want to hear this. Nor do I want to be part of it." She explained, not a single fear to be seen in her owl like eyes as she competed with the snake devil. There was no words to express how much the old hag hated Adrastea.
Those dark slits of Adrastea's pupils looked at her sister up and down before spatting out a cry of anger. She swept around, hands fisted beside her, and her shoulder shrugged up in a pit of exasperation.
A small smirk crossed the old hag, watching the frustration of the beautiful witch.
Just like that, Adrastea's fist opened up and her shoulders relaxed. She took a long deep breath. Slowly, the tentacle's grip on the old hag lightened and soon Elisaria found herself being lowered down. The tips of her feet had met the hard wooden surface of the ground and later her whole body was released from the grasp of the tentacle.
She watched as the dark tentacle retreated back into the wall and disappeared out of sight.
This time it was Adrastea's turn to turn her back on her little sister. With a cold and serious tone, the beautiful snake witch began once again. "Artemis isn't the only one that has returned to Alphyria. The demon himself has returned as well. You know of whom I speak of Elisaria. His reign of terror will soon cast upon Alphyria" She said.
Elisaria said nothing and blinked blankly at her the back of her older sister. Such a fair skin and beautiful slender figure she possessed. Although Elisaria was not jealous of her beautiful sister's figure nor beauty.
She had no feelings towards it.
"You have seen it yourself dear little sister. The forests." Adrastea continued on.
This time Elisaria didn't speak and listened closely. Her owl like yes burning whole on the back of Adrastea who seemed to care about this more than she does. "from the south to the north, east to the west. They have retreated back from the light; they have become unsettled. The creatures of the light have begun to hide, fearing in the hideouts, and not daring to come out. Light is disappearing from all corners of Alphyria to be replaced by the creeping of the Demon's power"
The once sly snake had slowly turned vulnerable. Her tone was of worry, and she didn't look one bit powerful when she spoke of the evil that was beginning to plague the world of Alphyria.
"The Dark users have begun to regroup. Each one rising from their hideouts and resurfacing from the darkness. They know of Artemis arrival, and they will stop at nothing to bring her down and soon they will come for us five sisters. With such powerful magic they will tear us apart, one by one."
Elisaria caught her own breath when the sight of Adrastea that she thought she will never see again, appeared in front of her. Like a scared little girl afraid of the dark, the snake witch embraced herself, hugging herself tightly while her body trembled. Her long sharp nails being seen clearly when her hands clutched her tender flesh of her upper arms.
To comfort the terrified master, the darkness had retreated back to her, and all was left was the beautiful witch in white, shaking softly in her own embrace.
Elisaria felt nothing for her sister and stared coldly at her.
"That girl is our only way to our survival and what is left of Alphyria, or she just might be the death of us all" Her voice hoarse and fearful of what the future will bring to her.
Elisaria was the only one of the two to stay calm even under this pressure. With a sigh, Elisaria spoke up. "Fret not Adrastea. Artemis won't be alone on this; she will have many allies on her side to back her up even some who were once nothing but enemies."
Adrastea had went silent and her slender fingers slid down her upper arm and went down before it disappeared out of view and her hands slumped down to her sides. "You do not know do you?"
The aura of the witch changed, and it unsettled the old hag.
"Know what? Please enlighten me" She said sarcastically, smacking her dried lips together.
When Adrastea didn't respond to her, Elisaria had suddenly began to feel this uncomfortable feeling that was beginning to churn in her gut. She didn't like this feeling inside of her.
Slowly, Adrastea turned her head, her gaze low and her eyes weren't clearly seen. Hidden in the darkness. Her tone of voice was a like prickle of a needle. "Artemis isn't the only one of Havardurs descendants to cross worlds to Alphyria."
The unknown feeling that was lingering in her gut made her stomach acid boil and she felt it rise to her throat. "W-what do ya mean?" Elisaria stammered with confusion. The shock of this information making her stumble back.
"Her older brother too has made his way back to Alphyria yet his not among the living. He walks in the spiritual void, searching for his sister who walks among the living in a body that is nothing but a shell" Adrastea explained.
The old hag nearly had a heart attack at the information she just heard from her older sister. If that boy was to succeed on taking Artemis than Alphyria is no more. They are no more. As much as she doesn't care about her life but the beings of Alphyria, they are innocent.
"He has tried a couple of times to take her back but only failed to do so."
"That is impossible. If he cannot find a body to inhabit than he cannot step foot in this world at all. Not even a soul can." Elisaria snapped back, trying to reason this knowledge to backfire and be nothing but false. However, Adrastea's body language said otherwise, and the snake witch looked away.
"It is Harvardur's decendent, Artemis's brother we are talking about. He contains the other half of the power that Harvardur failed to conquer while his sister contains the power Harvardur was able to seize under his grasp. They are connected like a piece of thread, jumbled in a choatic mess. Yet it makes it easier for him to follow this one piece thread and find her in all that mess" Said Adrastea.
Elisaria's hand trembled and she caught herself fearing this power all of a sudden. This other half of power she thought was nothing but a myth and never spoke of it because it was not real.
"Time does not exist in that place. And if he were to succeed in taking his little sister back to their world I'm afraid Alphyria will be consumed in the darkness that is awaiting. We can't let him take Artemis until she has saved all of us from this war between light and dark."
"Then what shall we do?" the old hag asked.
Finally, after all this, the older sister turned around, facing her little sister once more before she began to fade away. Her body beginning to be absorbed by the darkness that had brought her here in the first place. "We do nothing."
Elisaria pulled a baffled expression at the response of her older sister. "Huh?" her mouth opened in the shape of an 'o'.
Adrastea had faded away and the darkness was gone bring back the light of the cottage room yet left nothing but an echo of her voice behind.
"Our hopes lie in the hands of the little girl and her little fox spirit to guide them apart."