Witch of the Gate (Part I): Empyrean Crystal Soul

My arms surround my body. I feel weak and cold. I lost the last person that cared about me. I lost one more hope. I am so much in pain. My heart is hurting this time. My eyes are blinded by tears and the black mist of the dragon is denser.

My agony and despair increased again and now they are immersing my soul to the dark abyss. I am alone. I am scared. I am hurt. It is better if I just disappear. My suffering will stop. I won’t resist anymore.

-“…ne …phne… Daphne!” I think I hear a voice. Is it Leonard again?

He is indeed a strong hero to whom you can depend on. However, there is no point in him rescuing me. There is nothing for me back home.

-“Daphne, do you hear me?” I hear a clear female voice that makes my heart racing.

-“Grandma?” I ask with hesitation. It can’t be grandma. Is it a game of my mind?

-“Daphne, it is me. Look at me!!!” She says. I bite my lips but I try to open my eyes.

She is indeed there. She is in front of me. She is looking at me with warmth and tenderness.

-“Grandma, how are you here? Your Soul was black.”

-“Daphne, my dear. You saved me. You cleared my soul.”

-“Lies! I didn’t do anything. I couldn’t do anything. I am so scared and in pain!!!” I scream.

-“Daphne, look at me. I am here. Come closer, my child.” I really want to go closer. I want to touch her and be sure if she is real.

However, the dragon roars and is ready to breathe fire on grandmother. I freeze. No. I can’t let it hurt her.

-“Don’t touch her! Don’t you dare touch her!!!” I shout at it. The dragon stops its attack and comes back to me surrounding me.

-“Daphne, this dragon listens to you, do you know why?”

I wave my head negatively.

-“It is a part of you. It is your Soul.”

-“My Soul? The so called Empyrean Crystal Soul is a monster?”

-“It is exactly because of this reason that it has the ability to be “alive” and active. It has a lot of potential and it can be whatever you want it to be. You must be strong so it can listen to you.”

-“But I am not strong, grandma. I am weak, really weak.”

-“You are wrong, my dear. You are strong, really strong. You did a long and dangerous journey to an unknown and strange land to save me. You had some painful experiences because of me. In the end, you succeed and you saved me. You must be proud of yourself. You must realize that you are stronger than you think.”

As she is talking to me, I can’t stop my tears from running. I feel my heart jumping in my chest and my body shriveling not from fear but from excitement.

Grandmother believes in me! She thinks that I am strong. She doesn’t think that I am a useless existence.

Grandmother loves me!

She wields her hand toward me. I also wield mine. I make some steps ready to get closer to her. One step at a time and finally I am only a few centimeters away from her.

Then, with anticipation I rush on her. I hug her body and she hugs me back. I can feel and smell her. She is indeed here with me. It is not an illusion. My tears keep running.

-“Let’s go out.” She says. I nod to her.

In that moment, the dragon moves again and approaches me. It is not aggressive. Its yellow eyes turn to green like mine and its skin takes a more vivid red color combined with the black one. It is like the image I had when I developed my powers.

I can’t feel darkness but sadness from it. It is almost like it worries about me.

-“My grandmother is here. I am okay now.” I say hesitantly.

I touch it lightly on its face. It surrounds me again but not with a dark aura but with a dense mist of mana. It is its gift. While I was trapped in darkness, my mind and body were weakening. This mana will help me to recover. That is what I think at least.

-“Thank you!!!” I whisper and holding grandmother’s hand, we turn our backs to leave.

I have just gained consciousness. I feel really weak and dizzy. I am pale and I can’t even stand on my feet. When I open my eyes, Tarragon and Gina are there. They explain to me that we are at the fairies’ land and that I have been sleeping for almost a month.

-“Daphne?” I ask with my hoarse voice. An elemental fairy gives me a cup of water to clear my unused for a month throat.

-“She is still sleeping, Leonard.” Tarragon says.

I furrow my eyebrows. I remember a woman in there. Then, I notice the woman lying next to Daphne. So, they are still fighting.

-“You need to explain to me.” I say to Tarragon and he takes a deep breath.

I am surprised to hear that Daphne’s grandmother was the Witch of the Gate that everybody blames and curses for abandoning Etheria.

I am more surprised to know that Daphne is the next generation of the Witch of the Gate. From the beginning I was suspicious about her identity but I didn’t think that she was such a figure.

-“Unfortunately, Miss Daphne doesn’t want to take over her grandmother’s duty. She has not been trained enough. This journey it was because of saving Mrs. Matilda, otherwise she wouldn’t have come.” Tarragon says.

I look at the girl and my chest is tightening. She is so frail and weak. How is she going to take such a responsibility?

-“To tell you the truth, I indeed had chosen the path of our journey to be safe, but also I had chosen those who can bring her to the reality of our world trying to make her change her mind.” Tarragon says.

-“However, you only gave her bad memories and she would never agree to help us.” Cielo meddles in. Tarragon lowers his face.

-“Matilda!!!”

We suddenly hear Queen Celeste shouting and we turn our gaze on her. The woman is awake and the Queen helps her to stand. We also look at her side.

Daphne opens her emerald-like green eyes, too and with wobbling legs I try to reach her. Cielo also flies to her. Tarragon collapses to his knees from relief and Gina just smiles.

I hold her hands. They are not cold anymore but warm. She looks at me and this look lit a fire on my soul. It is unexpected but my heart is racing when I am next to her. It is melting with this kind of look.

-“Are you okay now?" I just ask. She nods. Suddenly, she hugs me tightly.

-“Thank you for protecting me.” She whispers into my ear. My heart is beating so fast that I can’t control it.

I help her to stand up. She is still weak but she can stand up. She looks at everyone in the room and thanks all of them for their help saving her grandmother. She also apologizes to me and the rest for the trouble she caused.

-“Grandma, I want to go home.” She says in the end and my heart felt like it was stabbed.

I can also see the sadness and disappointment on everyone’s faces. However, nobody dares to talk to her and change her mind. She went through enough. Queen Celeste is willing to give them an escort until they reach the south.

However, it is not necessary. The powerful Witch of the Gate, Matilda can open the Gate wherever she wants, now that she has her powers back. That is more disappointing for me as the time to spend with her is limited to some minutes.

-“Are you really going to leave?” I ask her. She nods. I can see her tired expression on her face.

-“I will miss you.”

-“I thought that you didn’t like me.”

-“You are wrong!” I am shouting in panic. She must not think that I dislike her.

-“I…I lik….” This is so hard to say. This is so irritating but I have no other choice.

I grab her from her arms and I kiss her on the lips. My tongue is testing hers and I feel this sweet and intoxicating feeling in my mouth.

When I free her lips, I can see a surprised expression on her face. My heart is still beating like crazy and my cheeks are on fire so I draw back leaving her dumbfounded.

Matilda opens the Gate. A bright iridescent light is emitted from it and both of them pass through it.

The Gate disappears behind them like it never existed and at the same moment I felt that I lost something important.

To be continued