A Different Kind of Witch

by Carol A. Robi

  They landed on an open field of the school they were to compete with. One other school team was present, totalling in three different teams in the competition.

  Sophie’s first game was with a girl from the home school, while Klaus' was with a boy from the other visiting school. The games went well for both of them. The girl was really good, and it was a near tie, until the last round when Sophie secured her win.

  Her next game was tougher. It was against a fellow teammate, a junior Witch. Sophie lost and was knocked out of the competition. She tried to hide her disappointment as the Witch commended her for a game well played.

  Klaus proceeded through to the next round, having won against another boy from the home team. He was to play against Lukas, the third year Faery, in the semi finals round after lunch.

  ¨Good luck!¨ Sophie called out to Klaus when they returned to the courts after lunch. He sent her a confident smile before heading out.

  Klaus was a fluid player, light and fast on his feet, as well as a cunning one, often faking the direction he was to deliver his ball. It was an entertaining game, but Lukas turned out to be a better player and knocked Klaus out of the competition.

  The male finals featured Lukas against one of the home team's players. Sophie could swear Lukas let him win, for he didn’t seem to be playing as well as he had against Klaus. The female finals featured the junior Witch against the other visiting team. The Witch won effortlessly, and then certificates of participation and medals were awarded.

  They convened around their patron again after the meet was over.

  ¨I give you two hours to look around the city. I expect all of you back here latest at 5:30pm. Is that understood?¨

  Klaus showed Sophie around. Hamburg was not his hometown, but he'd been to visit many times, and so knew it well. It was the Hanseatic architecture she was most spellbound by, and the waffles.

  Chapter 25

  Another busy week followed, where Boke and Sophie spent as often as they could in the library.

  Nyangwi seemed to be tired of waiting in ‘97, and her attacks became so brazen, that the media houses were forced to report on them.

  In one case, she somehow mind controlled hundreds of humans to stand with placards before a building on Wall Street that the Kronborgs, Markus' family, own.

  The words Give me back my child! were painted in most of the placards, along with words like Murderers! Kidnappers! Liars!

  This apparently led to massive human attention, as the demonstrating people could not remember what they were doing there after the incident. Subsequent weeks of investigation by the New York Police Department followed, before a report was eventually issued declaring it to be a practical joke by the people. The High Council must have covered up the incident somehow, maybe paid off the people involved. Everyone has a price.

  The Supernatural Realm didn't take this recent attack kindly though, some calling it an act of capital offence deserving the capital sentence. Death. Bringing human attention to the Supernatural Realm was an unforgivable offence, especially when done willingly and consciously. A quick trial was held in her absence, where Nyangwi Maiga was convicted to death without trial. Anyone that came across her was advised to overpower her by any means necessary, and call the Law Enforcers.

  Nyangwi proved too hard to catch, though, and so some people asked for Maseke to be punished for her mother's mistakes. It was just a right wing faction that proposed this, but the threat on Maseke was clear.

  The new year began bleakly, with pictures of Boke's mother in school, surrounded by LEs, among them Jan, because her life was in danger from her fellow students. Twice the Law Enforcers had to save her from a near mob lynching.

  Sophie choked on unshed tears as she read on, especially when there was no mention of the perpetrators being caught and punished.

  Maseke headlined the papers mid June that year again, this time the cause was positive. The first Wailer Witch in over half a century was graduating from Drachenburg. It was also the first time Sophie saw her parents in the papers, for they stood on either side of the Wailer graduate. Sophie’s father and Maseke had on graduation gowns, while her mother stood beside them in school uniform.

  Reports of Maseke and Nyangwi were scarce in the rest of the publications for that year.

  Days flew by, as the two of them spent most of their free time in that corner of the library. Sophie was very pale now, as the only sun time she afforded herself was during Tennis practice, P.E. and the rare evenings she and Klaus spent on their garden project. Summer was gone, and long gray rainy days were the norm now, as autumn was ushered in.

  They were midway through '99 when the papers once again came alive with conspiracy theories and reports.

  Virus.

  Sophie’s heart beat faster when she caught that single word. Keira and Aimi had mentioned about the virus, but before her now was more information than even they themselves knew of the virus.

  So far, what they’d told her was consistent with the newspaper reporting, the virus only affected Avalons, and was suspected to have been engineered by a faction of Witches to reduce the Avalon population.

  According to the reporting, Mrs. Sanguine, was one of the first infected, and had succumbed to it. What an uproar it rose, a complete media frenzy. If one of the families of royal status, one of the most important Avalon families, could succumb to death because of the virus, then no one was safe.

  Utter chaos erupted: Witch hunts, inquisitions, reports of surveillance, mass Witch and Faery imprisonment as the number of Avalon deaths escalated.

  Fifty Avalons dead. The Supernatural Realm, if the newspapers were to be believed, was then in a state of pandemonium. Reports of innocent Witches and Faeries being tortured in Apros ensued, society members demonstrated for the apparent disregard for their rights, and masses quit their jobs and homes, and disappeared in the human realm.

  Fears for the breakup of the united Supernatural Realm ushered in the new year.

  More reports of rifts among the Witches followed, along with accusations that the virus could only have been created by a Wailer Witch. The only Wailer Witches known were Maseke and her mother.

  Clamour for Maseke's blood started.

  Pictures of a tall young Jan Sanguine standing to defend his foster sister’s innocence against an angry mob of supernaturals, even as an inset picture in the background revealed his now sick father dying on a bed.

  Rumours then began of a cure about mid that year. The rumours grew, until a middle aged Avalon claimed he was cured after drinking the blood of a Faery. Another frenzy erupted, as Faeries feared for their life. It was a well known fact that Avalons couldn’t control themselves when feeding on a Faery.

  A report issued by an Avalon scientist attempted to explain why Faery blood affected them so much. The jargon used in the report was too hard to fully understand and follow, so Sophie decided against reading it further. Many Avalons in the past binged and drained dry whole Faery communities. That is why until the unification in the 16th century, Faeries had lived in hiding and in constant fear of the Avalons. The Witches had always been the Faeries' allies, reinforcing the Faery magic with their own to cloak them from their insatiable predators.

  The Witches’ society then released an official statement saying there was no way to determine that the said cured Avalon had been ill from the virus. It could very well have been just a common cold.

  2000 ended with reports of dozens of Faery families breaking away from their communities and running off to hide among humans, in fear of being forced to feed Avalons to heal them.

  The new year was ushered in by the death of council member Sanguine, leaving behind his son as an orphan and sole heir. The people were desperately hungry for a culprit to be arrested by now, and even some called for the impeachment of the High Council in failing to effectively handle the matter.

  More rumours and speculations filled the paper about Maseke being the architect of the virus, and that Faery blood was
indeed the cure. The Witch society warned that whoever made the virus was probably the same one spreading the rumor that Faery blood is a cure. As much as they know, it could be a catalyst. Witchcraft is a tricky art, they argued, and though scientific evidence might or might not show Faery blood to be a cure, it could be a trick the sorcerer conjured while making the virus, to deceive further and cause the death of many more.

  More clamour for Wailer blood ensued, with pictures of a plumper looking Maseke surrounded by a protective detail, among them Jan Sanguine who was covering her face from the cameras.

  Gossip articles debated on if Maseke had just gained weight during the troubled times, or if she was pregnant. The tabloids ran wild with this, speculating who the father could be, and why one would want to get pregnant at such troubling times. More wild accusation in the opinion columns claimed she was the devil's spawn.

  ¨..Wailers are an evil race of Witches, whose powers grow from the doom of others..¨

  Surely that can't be true! Sophie couldn’t imagine Boke as the heartless monster they were describing.

  Suddenly, in the middle of all the racket, a headling read - Wailer Witch, daughter of terrorist, is dead.

  Sophie slapped her palm hard over her mouth to stifle her cry of shock when she read this. Boke ran over to her side, and crouched beside her to read on in silence.

  It was true, just like that, Maseke was dead. The next day’s papers covered the story in detail. Maseke was dead, killed by Jan Sanguine.

  Sophie stole a glance at the girl beside her, Boke’s jaw was set as she read on.

  It was declared an act of self defence. Then an Enforcer, Count Jan Sanguine was compliant in his interviews, revealing all that had taken place.

  Yes I had an affair with her. I was in love with her, was his answer to one line of questioning. Boke never blinked or uttered a word as she read on.

  I had no idea at that time that she was capable of such an atrocity.

  But how couldn't you tell, considering you are a well trained Law Enforcer?

  I failed the Realm as an LE. My feelings blinded me from seeing who she truly was. I failed in my duties to protect the realm, and is why I’m resigning.

  Sophie was in a state of shock as she read this. She didn’t want her best friend's mother, her parents' friend, to be a mass murderer, even if it was to save human lives. And she also didn’t want her dead, though she’d expected it all along.

  Boke kept reading, her jaw clenched so tight that a vein popped at her temple.

  Principal Sanguine, then Captain Sanguine of the Law Enforcement Department, went on ahead to say that when she confessed to her crime, he killed her accidentally while trying to capture her.

  The High Council quickly acquitted him of his crime, for she'd committed an offence whose punishment was death without trial. The same sentence her mother, Nyangwi, had received earlier.

  Questions on if she'd been in communication with her mother follow. Captain Sanguine however said not to his, or her protective detail's, knowledge. Unless they'd done it in a witchy way. He actually said that- witchy way!

  There was no mention of a child, however.

  They stopped there for today, and it was about time too. Boke folded back the papers, put them away, and then instead of leaving, went to sit on the floor, leaning her back against a book shelf. Sophie too stood off her stiff chair, and found solace on the cold stone floor beside her best friend. The two held each other as Boke finally gave in to her emotions.

  The dinner warning bell went off in the distance, but they remained on that cold floor. Sophie cried for the child Maseke that never found herself in her mother's arms again after capture, while Boke cried for the mere relief at finally knowing what happened, or some of what happened. As for the loss of her mother, that she’d mourned all her life, as well as the loss of her father, whom she was certain wasn’t, and couldn’t be, Count Jan Sanguine, an Avalon.

  Footsteps sounded, then the familiar scent of tobacco and old books assailed Sophie’s nose as the librarian stopped before them.

  With his sharp eyes, he assessed the situation, and then suprised them by sitting beside them. He took their hands in his and squeezed reassuringly before speaking.

  ¨You have to leave now,¨ he said quietly after a few minutes of silence. ¨You can’t miss supper- you know the rules.¨

  It was Boke that got up first, surprisingly, reaching out her bony hand to pull Sophie up. Sophie took it gratefully.

  ¨Boke,¨ Tom called as they started to leave. They both turned around to face him, the tragedy they'd just read about uniting them more strongly than any bond could. They weren’t only friends, they were sisters.

  ¨She was happy, sometimes.” Tom was standing now. “Especially in here, losing herself to books, and spending hours with her friends, here where no one was watching them. She had some happy moments,¨ he insisted. Boke pursed her lips as she desperately tried to control her emotions.

  ¨I am glad to hear it,¨ Boke finally whispered, so low that Sophie wondered whether the old man heard her. He had.

  ¨They are more free with you. They don't watch you all the time. Get out while you can, little girl. Get out now, for the same fate, that awaited all your ancestors before you, awaits you now.¨

  ¨Not until he pays,¨ Boke ground out, before turning away.

  ¨Be careful then, little girl, for you are the last of your kind.¨

  Chapter 26

  The next week passed by torturously slow.

  Neither of them was ready to get back to researching yet, for Boke kept giving Sophie cancellation notes during the lunch breaks, and Sophie kept confirming with a nod.

  Let's skip today. Sophie had more than two dozen notes reading the same, and each time, she nodded in answer. They needed time after that last shocker.

  The approaching Olympics provided her with enough distraction for the time being. The whole school was looking forward to the event.

  The school Olympics were held every semester in Drachenburg, on the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of the last week before mid-term break, when the four different colour teams compete against each other in regular sports.

  They were allowed to use their powers to aid their performances, but the basic game rules must always remain intact. Among the games were the major five team ball games: basketball, football, handball, volleyball and rugby, and the major five individual - track athletics, swimming, tennis, gymnastics, long and high jump.

  Those in the school team of any sports club had it busiest then, helping staff members with all the arrangements and preparations for the games. The tracks had to be repainted and remarked, balls inspected for defects, an effective time plan for the games outlined, missing or damaged gears listed and replaced, and volunteers from non-athletes had to be recruited to aid with the practicalities of the games.

  This hustle and bustle occupied Sophie’s mind for the next couple of weeks, even as the dreaded mid-term exams drew closer, to be held before the olympics’ week. Sophie hadn’t spent much time studying. Though she was certain she wouldn’t be topping any classes, she wasn’t scared of failing either.

  The exam week came and went, but Boke was still not ready to proceed with their library research. Sophie grew more and more worried for her friend. She was even more invisible than before, hiding deeper into the shell of herself. She barely ate, that was worst of all. She picked a pear fruit for breakfast, a glass of yoghurt for lunch and a small piece of bread, and for most suppers, she was content with a mere fruit again.

  Once Sophie overheard Markus ask her if she was fine. The agility with which Boke cringed from him as he leaned in to speak to her was unmistakable. Of course he didn’t understand that he was a constant reminder of her mother's murderer.

  He appeared confused, and even hurt, at her reaction towards him, for she stood soon after with her half empty yoghurt glass and walked off, setting the glass on the rack for dirty utensils before heading out.

  Klaus
must also have noticed her distanced and more than ordinarily odd behavior, because he questioned Sophie about it as they replaced the broken volley net.

  ¨Boke is not fine,¨ he deduced.

  ¨No she is not.¨

  ¨Will she be, though?¨ He asked, cautious not to push.

  That's what Sophie liked about Klaus, he knew how to keep well within the limit lines of all things, even when showing concern.

  ¨I don’t know,¨ Sophie confessed, angry at herself when her voice cracked. ¨Maybe. Eventually.¨

  ¨Is there anything I can do to help?¨ Sophie shook her head in answer.

  Sophie’s conversation with Klaus gnawed at her mind, and she found herself desperate to talk to her friend again, and so it was Sophie that handed her a note the next day over breakfast.

  We must meet tonight... Midnight... At our favourite statue.

  Sure enough, that midnight, Sophie found Boke behind H.C. Andersen. A sage leaf was already burning in her hand.

  “How are you?”

  “Fine. Why?”

  “You’re not, Boke. Don’t lie to me.”

  “I’ll be.”

  “I think we should go on with the research,” Sophie said quickly. “It’ll be good for you to refocus again on the goal.”

  “Maybe..”

  “Come on, Boke! Do you want to give up already?”

  “No! Of course not.” Boke said passionately, her eyes flashing.

  “Then next week.. over midterm, we continue.”

  “Aren't you going home?” Boke queried.

  “No, it'll be too expensive for nothing, plus my home is very far away, I’ll spend half the time travelling.”

  “Can’t you just port home?”

  “You haven’t taught me that trick yet, remember?”

  “Oh, yeah.” Boke giggled, and Sophie was gratified to hear the sound.

  “My parents will come to visit me instead when I sprout my wings. And you? Are you going home?” It takes her awhile to answer.

  “I thought about it,” she said. “Going away for midterm and never coming back. But- I must avenge my mother's death!” She added more firmly.