Chapter 5: A New Recruit

We continued going down the stairs silently, still eavesdropping.

“We wish to know who is the prophesied witch is, Rynoa,” a feminine voice answered.

Prophesied witch? There was a prophecy? Given by who? And Rynoa, I know that name. I’ve read that name in one of the books in our library before. But I just couldn’t remember where.

‘Rynoa was the strongest warlock who mastered demonic magic a few generations ago,’ spoke Royce I my mind. Exactly! The darkest of the dark warlocks.

Demonic magic is practiced by witches or warlocks who either wants to borrow powers from demonic forces, or simply talk to them, or use their spirits to do their bidding. All of the aforementioned can be done by sacrificing living beings and other dark methods of witchcraft. Compared to witches like me who practice traditional and hereditary magic, witches who practice demonic magic has darker motives and is in the dark side of witchcraft.

Witches who practice any of the dark magic such as demonic magic will be arrested by the Council. It is considered a crime, and the Council is our government. But for the past few years, the Council weakened with an unknown reason and since then, dark magic is widely used around the world.

“The prophesied witch is in the Nirvana coven,” Rynoa’s deep voice echoed.

My coven? All of them turned to me. Who could it be? Could it be Krishna? That can't be, Krishna aims for a world ruled by only witches. And it's pretty bad. Definitely not suited for a prophecy that tells salvation.

“Do you happen to know her name, Rynoa?” Asked a warlock.

“No. The prophesied witch is courageous and the most powerful in her coven, kill her and her fellows if you must. You can’t let her rebuild the council.” Rebuild the council?

“We will, Rynoa,” the witches and warlocks answered in unison.

I harshly combed my hair. If they plan to kill my sisters, then I’m going to end them here. But I estimate them to be more than twenty in that basement. We need a plan.

‘We need to kill them, now,’ I declared.

Eve glared. ‘Are you crazy, Maze? There’s too many of them!’

I massaged my temple, trying to rock my brain for a plan. ‘Someone help me trap them in a glamour.’

‘We have no exact number of how many is in there. A few might escape,’ Royce opposed.

‘But I can’t let them kill my sisters! One of them is prophesied!’ I argued.

Before one of them was able to answer, though, we heard footsteps. And then a mocking laugh. At the bottom of the staircase appeared a witch, probably the same age as us. She was grinning like a Cheshire cat, with present wickedness in her eyes.

“Look who I found,” she announced.

‘We can’t teleport!’ I heard Louise’s cry on my mind.

We advanced forward which made the girl take a few steps backward. She stopped when she was beside the lined-up warlocks with big builds. I roamed my eyes around the place. In the middle of the basement was a magic circle, Rynoa’s spirit couldn’t be felt around the place, either. He must have left and went back to hell. I counted them.

‘Headcount’s thirty-four,’ I telepathically mumbled.

“Who are these kids?” Asked an old woman. She was wearing a dirty, loose, moss green dress that reached up to her knees with rubber slippers.

‘The fashion sense of this witch is making me faint.’ I could imagine Macky’s grimace.

I need a plan. Think, brain. Think.

‘Eve, distract them for me and hypnotize them and make them focus only to you. Louise, help me trap them in a glamour with Eve. Boys, gather important things we might need here. We’ll kill them in the glamour,’ I ordered them with my rushed plan.

Eve stepped forward, making the warlocks raise their weapons.

“Can you chill? We’re just here to say sorry for intruding. We’re just tourists from Manila and we were curious with this abandoned church. We didn’t know you guys were playing monopoly in the basement…” Eve continued rambling. I could even feel a slight pull to her voice, probably her using hypnosis. It wasn’t directed to me so it won’t be really strong but the pull is there.

‘I’ll put up a façade first, don’t move,’ I commanded the remaining.

I tried to look nonchalant while focusing on borrowing the environment’s power. It’s a good thing I can glamour small things without closing my eyes. I pictured what they would see on my mind and reflected it to their eyes. Which they wouldn’t notice because they’re too indulged in listening to Eve’s voice.

Then I took Louise hand and we closed our eyes. We were slowly changing their environment and dimension, without them noticing. I knew this would be very exhausting since I was fooling thirty-four witches and warlocks, that’s why I asked for Louise’s help and decided to borrow energy from the environment instead of using my stored energy.

A few minutes later, we successfully trapped them in a glamour. I opened my eyes and signaled the boys that they can roam around and investigate now.

We left a small opening in the glamour for Eve, but we didn’t realize that one of them would be able to realize it’s a glamour and a hypnosis so when the girl who first saw us shouted, we panicked.

“Wake up!”

We were beyond startled, making the small opening bigger.

“And then my mother said, ‘This is a fucking---‘” Eve was interrupted by my shout inside her mind. ‘Leave now, Eve!’

I felt her clinging to my presence and teleporting herself outside the glamour. She successfully did, but the girl held her hand when she transported, resulting to the two of them escaping the glamour. The others have also woken up from the hypnosis and are now trying to break the glamour.

“I’ll fight her, you two go trap the others!” Eve yelled and pulled out her gun.

Me and Louise held hands again, and closed the glamour. Forever trapping the demonic witches. I felt their magic a few moments after closing the glamour. Their magic was pounding on my heart, making my nose bleed.

“Are you okay?” Louise’s brows creased with worry.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Let’s go help Eve.” I quickly wiped the blood on my nose.

We ran to their position and saw Eve’s forehead bleeding while the other girl’s leg is shot. When she saw us, she casted a spell to Eve which stopped her from moving and fell to the ground, shaking. Was it a neutralizing spell? Or a nullifying spell?

“Where are they?” She asked us.

We didn’t answer.

“Where did you put them?” She asked again, this time slower and more menacing.

I sighed. “We trapped them.”

She glowered at me. “Where did you trap them?”

“In a void.” I stepped forward in a terrifying manner and looked down on her. A method I often use to intimidate my sisters when provoked. She blinked and clamped her mouth shut. She stepped backward and rolled her eyes.

I smirked inwardly. Works every time.

“Let them out,” she whispered.

“We’ve gathered enough.” Royce walked over to me as I looked down on a sack made of burlap filled with objects on his right hand. Behind him were Macky and Gabriel each also holding burlap sacks.

I nodded at him and looked back at the girl. She’s breathing heavily and looked dazed.

‘What do we do to her?’ asked Gabriel telepathically.

‘Make her reverse the spell she casted on me, of course,’ Eve spoke. Oh, right.

But she will want something in return.

“Lift the spell you casted on our friend,” I commanded her. She looked back at me and I saw her tear-stained face.

“Then give me my family back,” she sobbed.

“The magic your family practices is illegal in the eyes of our law. We’re surrendering them to the council,” I calmly answered.

She sharply inhaled but didn’t oppose me. I’m sure she knows that what I said is right.

“Then trap me with them. I’d rather accept the penalty with them than live freely alone.” She pursed her lips.

I sighed. I used telepathy to read her mind. She’s unable to guard her mind because she’s having an emotional breakdown. She’s mourning for losing the coven she’s served for years. I’ve discovered that she was only given to this coven by her family as sacrifice. But they didn’t want to sacrifice her because they saw her power’s potential, and made her a part of the coven. She started to see the coven members as her new family and tried to accept their evildoings. And now that they’re being surrendered to the council, she has no home. No more family, again.

I bit my lip. Feeling immense pity for the girl.

I shared her thoughts with them using telepathy and they felt pity towards the girl as well.

‘She can be convinced to come with us.’ I looked at them in the eye. ‘We can show her the light. We can be her new family, her home.’

‘We don’t recruit, Maze. If you can persuade her to help us find the trinket, then it’s your call,’ Gabriel responded.

“You guys can go to the van first. I’ll talk to her.”

‘How about me?!’ Eve shouted telepathically.

‘I’ll convince her first, you can rest for now.’

I used telekinesis to the two nearby chairs and placed them in front of each other.

“Sit down.” I motioned to the chair. She meticulously looked at me before sitting down. I followed and sat at the chair in front of her.

“Do you really want to go to the council and face a penalty you don’t deserve? Do you really want to waste your life like that? How about your gift? You’re going to throw it away like that?”

I sighed.

“I also belonged to a coven before, but our High Priestess was wicked. So, I left,” she looked at me. “Their plan was ridiculous, and unrighteous. And even if I considered them as my sisters, I still wanted to do the right thing.”

I recalled almost tearing up when I hugged my sisters. Which could also be the last time. They were always ready to follow orders; may it be right or wrong. I wasn’t. And that made me different from them.

“Now I’m with them,” I muttered, pertaining to Louise and the others upstairs. “And we’re trying to stop chaos befall to humans.”

I paused. Letting her think.

“Do you want to come with us and start anew?”

‘I think she’s not buying it,’ Eve muttered.

‘She is.’

The girl was looking down at the floor, contemplating.

“But I’m not trained enough,” she mumbled.

“Everyone’s willing to help you.” I smiled a little. I’ve convinced her.

She released a deep sigh and nodded. “Fine, I’ll come with you.”

‘I told you, Eve.’

“What’s your name?”

“Doreen. Yours?”

Doreen is a brunette girl, a few inches shorter than me who is a 5’8. She looked wicked when we first saw her, but now she looks miserable. No doubt about that.

“I’m Mazikeen, call me Maze.” I smiled warmly.

She nodded and went over to Eve. She disintegrated the spell which made Eve spring up from laying down.

“That floor is so cold!” She immediately whined.

I chuckled.

Eve stuck her hand out on Doreen. “I’m Evergreen, call me Eve.”

They shook hands and Doreen introduced herself. Not long after, we ascended the stairs and saw the rest at the van. They introduced themselves as well and we proceeded to drive away from the Church. I took a glimpse at Doreen beside me and saw her looking back at the now disappearing church behind us. I can’t read her mind now because she’s in a stable state and have her guards up but I’m sure she’s still mourning for her coven.

Because the price of performing illegal magic is execution. And she knows it.

I closed my eyes and deeply breathed. I know the others doesn’t trust her yet. I’m not blaming them, though. She came from a coven that practices dark magic, and she was also taught how to use it. But I need her because I’m sure we will encounter witches who master dark magic, and I’m going to need someone who knows it by experience.

‘Don’t worry, if she does something against us, you’re all free to blame me. I’ll take responsibility of her actions,’ I told them telepathically to calm their nerves.

None of them responded, except for one. Who I’m sure only directed the message at me because the others didn’t react on what he said.

‘Stop taking responsibility of what you can’t control.’

What am I going to do to you, Royce? You keep making my heart beat faster.