28
The Witch

 

 

 

“I’ll attend no more hearings,” I said icily. “As I’ve stated repeatedly, I don’t have a future plan yet. Right now, I only want to live as a private citizen. It’s neither my job nor obligation to obey or cooperate with Governor Tobey Goldwater, the senators, or any government agencies. I, Princess Athena Fiammetta Faya, answer to no one.”

Just like when I’d been on Pandemonium, I obeyed no one’s rules.

Yet, I realized my own realm wasn’t much safer than the City of Nine.

If I stretched my hand, I could touch their tangible fear and hatred of me. They all assumed one day I’d claim the throne. I would want to rule. I would disturb the balance of power they’d established. And I would use my great, terrible magic to rewind the clock and turn time backwards.

They’d for sure spent tons of time studying my type of magic and cross-referenced with Cassandra’s.

Somehow, they’d concluded that the shockwave of my TimeFire could collapse even quantum technology. And why was my magic so powerful? They’d also developed a theory: my magic contained the primary force that resonated with the planet, while the technology greatly exploited nature and alienated it.

“Then take care of nature and respect the planet instead of polluting it,” I offered a solution.

“We’d appreciate it if you’d demonstrate for us, a tiny touch of your magic, Princess Athena,” one of the senators said. She was an older woman with sharp, small eyes, thin lips, and neat-as-a-pin auburn hair.

“You don’t want to see it, believe me,” I said.

“Why is that, Princess Athena?” she asked, as if she was chiding a child.

“When I demonstrate it, none of you will be here anymore,” I said. “And the realm might grieve the loss of such national treasures.” I was returning the favor calling them what they’d called me. “I might shift you right to the dinosaur age. And what’s your name again, Senator? I’m still struggling with my memories. It’s been three centuries, after all.”

Senator Wellstone chuckled.

That woman senator’s lips tightened to a line. “So, you admit your magic is unstable.”

“If you want to assume the state of my magic,” I said, “just as you assumed many other things, then try not to force me to use my magic.” My voice turned inhuman and I saw some of them shudder in their seats. “I’ll just say it this once. I won’t tolerate any harassment and will take any necessary action to protect myself. So, be very careful and warn those who intend to treat me as a public enemy, when I’ve done absolutely nothing to endanger the realm. If I feel threatened, I won’t be any kinder than the High Witch Cassandra.”

“Are you seriously threatening us, Princess Athena Faya?” the thin-lipped senator asked.

“If you have any intelligence left, you should be able to tell the difference between a threat and a promise,” I said.

“There are over a billion people on the planet of Nesnurn and millions in Lithuaria Empire,” the woman senator said. “Don’t you even care?”

“They’re all strangers to me, just like you,” I said. “With all my honesty, I don’t give a fuck about you or them.”

They gasped.

“Don’t forget that I’m the Wickedest Witch. I don’t care much about your rules, laws, or hypocritical standards. I won’t get in your way, if you don’t try to inconvenience me. I don’t even want the crown.” It was but a burden made of gold. I wouldn’t want to put it on my head for a people I knew nothing about and who didn’t need me, either. “The government can have the Royal Palace as well. But the Royal summer mansion is mine. Try not to come near me or my property without my invitation, or I might take it as a hostile act, and my ‘unstable’ magic might just get the wrong idea. This hearing will be my last, and it’s adjourned.”

I stepped down from the high-rise platform.

“You’re not excused, Princess Athena!” the woman senator said.

I trained my eyes on her but held a leash on my fire. “Stop me, darling,” I said, smiling sweetly, “and I’ll be very happy to exhibit my volatile magic for you right here right now. Wouldn’t you want to be a brave example for the realm?”

She flinched, moving her chair a few inches back, as if that would make any difference to me. A fool!

“This farce has gone far and long enough!” Senator Wellstone stood up from his seat and waved his hand vehemently. “Princess Athena Faya isn’t the realm’s enemy. Shame on us that we’ve been treating Her Highness as a criminal and a threat, while all she’s done is to sacrifice herself to protect the empire three centuries ago.”

Governor Tobey Goldwater also rose. He hadn’t talked much in the hearings, but he’d carried himself solemnly and respectfully as he listened to the debates.

He was in his fifties with a high forehead and a pair of light-blue eyes. He was the fourth generation from the prestigious Goldwater House. He’d been groomed to be the governor, as I’d been to the crown, before my exile.

“The senators, the government, and the Royal House have reached a perfect understanding,” Goldwater said. “We’ll respect Princess Athena Faya’s wish to remain a private citizen. The princess has all civil rights, just like any citizen.”

He seized my words that I had no intention to claim the throne and immediately proclaimed me as a private citizen. However, I doubted that he, his administration, and the senators completely trusted my words.

Fear was a monster lurking inside everyone. It was only a matter of time before some radical dissents would eventually do something idiotic to aggravate or try to eliminate me, truly believing they were the patriots.

I was not much safer in my own kingdom than on Pandemonium.

 

~

 

It had been a week since I, relatively quietly, settled down in my Royal summer mansion that wasn’t too far from the Royal Palace. I could see the tip of the high dome that covered the Palace from my outdoor garden.

I didn’t idle. I tried to adapt. I studied this era and its science and technology to equip myself with new knowledge. As I was so busy catching up with the new age, the gnawing hole in my heart only increased.

The mating bond had followed me back with a punishing force, yet the Archangel was missing on the other side. 

I didn’t receive visitors, except for Senator Wellstone.

He’d become like a friend and my connection to the outside world.

He had a new role since I’d returned—keep the realm safe from me, and me safe from the radicals and some members of the current ruling class who still feared I would rise to the throne and take away their privileges. 

I let his people run the security of my mansion and often pretended they didn’t exist, just as I’d done the same in my Witch Tower.

While they ran around, all I cared was to find the one who had hunted me and caused me to flee into the past on Pandemonium—that piece of information still escaped my memory, and the last day they’d rushed me away from the Royal Palace was but blurry images of running figures overlapping with shadows, noises, and sobs.

I’d reviewed the documents and holo-recordings my parents left for me. There was no mention of the hunter. Not even a hint. It was as if all trace of the event had never existed.

Why?

I couldn’t have imagined the whole thing. The Furies had recounted my words when I’d stepped through the portal into Akem’s jungle. “I have to do this, so he won’t find me. I won’t endanger the kingdom.”

When Senator Wellstone came to visit again in the afternoon, I invited him for a tea in my study that blended into an inner garden where a wealth of peonies bloomed.

My darkness formed walls around us to prevent anyone from hearing our conversation.

Senator Wellstone stared at my darkness in amazement. “You show only me your magic. Why is that, Your Highness?”

“Because it won’t attack you,” I said. “It thinks you’re less dangerous than the others.”

“Oh,” he said, not pursuing further.

“How many people know the true reason I ran off the realm, Senator Wellstone?”

“Only your royal house and my great grandparents—Senator Earnest Wellstone and his wife—knew about it. My house was secretly designated as your guardian, should you return.”

Not even the Nightshades house.

“Lady Cortnie Nightshades was Senator Earnest Wellstone’s wife and my great grandmother,” he added.

My breath caught. Cortnie was Kaara’s sister. Eugene Wellstone, the senator who sat across from me, was her family. 

Eugene smiled. “I saw my great aunt standing behind you on the view screen. I didn’t reveal myself to her for a good reason. It’s better no one knows about our connection. I’ve meant to ask you why she didn’t come home with you. She’s your captain.”

“She married a wolf,” I said, tears twirling in my eyes just thinking of her. “She’s the Wolf Queen now.”

“What?” Eugene’s smile froze. “For real? A wolf, like with fur and all?”

“He has shining gray fur, very healthy and thick,” I said. “King Marrok is a shifter.”

Eugene looked like he needed some strong drink, even though it was early on a sunny afternoon.

“I let you in one of my memories,” I said coolly, my tears gone. “You met vampires, cannibals, and mutant dragons in the scene. Wolf shifters are actually the most normal among them.”

“Great Aunt Kaara was the wildest one in the family,” he said. “But she might have gone too far. I’m worried about her future offspring.”  

“They’ll be fine, a little fluffy maybe,” I said. “But you’ll have powerful allies and relatives on another planet.”

He sighed.

“What do you know about my hunter, Eugene? Who was hunting me?”

“The Angels, the most brutal and advanced species,” he whispered. “They’ve conquered two-thirds of the universe. We do not say their names, in case the whispers reach them and bring them to the empire. Your parents erased any record of them after you left.”

“Then how do you know the Angels were hunting me?”

“We heard tales about the formidable race from other colonies, then one day the First Seer of the Death Valley visited. Even my great grandparents didn’t leave any more details about that, prohibited by the Seer.”

“What did the Angels want from me?” I murmured to myself.

“We don’t know. But the crown had to ship you off, so the Angels wouldn’t come looking for you. If they came, they’d enslave the realm. That’s all I know.”

I swallowed. “Did you realize I came back with a powerful Angel?”

Eugene must have seen Gabriel’s magnificent, massive wings, and I’d used to lie naked atop them. Longing and pain filled my head, but I blinked back to reality.

I was here alone without him.

Eugene nodded grimly. “The Seer provided us with a temporary StarGate for the passage. We got to you as fast as we could before the Angels’ ship could trace us. The Seer also promised the Angels we encountered didn’t know who you are. We took the risk.”

He was fulfilling his house’s pledge to the crown.

“Thank you,” I said.

He nodded.

I tried to string the pieces together.

If the Angels had been hunting me, Gabriel would have known. He was an Archangel. He would never allow anyone to lay their hands on me.

When he’d met me, he’d known nothing about me and my race.

But then, he and his High Prince had been at war with the Reaper Angels, and he’d been hunting their leader—the Dark Lord.

Could it be that the Reaper Angels had been hunting me?

It seemed that only the First Seer could answer all the questions, since she appeared to be the focus point. She’d also predicted Gabriel’s fall onto Pandemonium.

Where could I find the First Seer of the Death Valley Galaxy?

“Do you know anything about the Angel race and their civil war?” I asked.

Eugene shook his head. “All I know is that we do not talk about the superior race, we do not whisper their name, and we do not want them to come here. Now that you’re back, we won’t let anyone outside our circle know about you and your magic. You did right refusing to show your magic at the hearings.”

I could still attract the Angel invaders to the realm.

The senators had never intended for me to take the crown. Eugene appeared to be my friend and a guardian, but he was also one of them. And by revealing himself as the great nephew of Kaara Nightshades, he knew I would never harm him.

That was why they’d sent him to me in the first place.

Lucky for them, I hadn’t set my eyes on the throne.

I withdrew the darkness to my feet. The study instantly brightened, and the bitter-sweet scent of the blossoms from the garden wafted toward us.

“How’s the tea, Senator Wellstone?” I asked.