THE FARAWAY LANDS OF OZ - Book One

Part One, Chapter Three: Morgana le Fay

EVANORA

A loud, malevolent laugh woke me from my stupor and made me turn instinctively, though I could not even see my own hands in this swallowing darkness.
I tried to conjure a source of light yet my magic did not work inside the cell. This must be the curse or "the advanced magic" that was keeping Morgana inside. Luckily, I had brought matches and a stack of black candles that burned eternally blue, once they are lit.
Staring towards the space in front of me, not knowing what was there, I felt around the inside of my knapsack in search for both items and found them after my nails scratched the wax and my fingertips felt the carton of the matchbox.
Carefully, I pulled them both out, trying not to drop them because then I would have to search for them forever on the invisible floor. I ignited a match and then the candle and as soon as the orange flame touched the wick, it turned into an ice-blue flicker and illuminated the entirety of the cell.
I was startled by the sudden reappearance of color and shape but moreover startled by the insane face of Morgana that was resting in front of mine with bulging eyes, wrinkled skin, and matted hair. I let out a shout of surprise.
I fell back onto the ground, the candle almost rolling away, but she remained standing on the exact same spot with her hands folded in front of her chest and her back hunched.
"Morgana?" She twisted her head sideways and blinked at me with a mad smile covering her face. The darkness of this room must have made her go insane. Who wouldn't have become? Trapped in a room, absent of light. It was a wonder that she was still alive!
"I came to get you out of here." She kept looking at me and now smiled broader than ever, her lips trembling before she burst out laughing the same way as before.
"I love how they all think they can do that! Countless have tried. How do you figure, I have survived this long?" Her voice was coarse and sounded unused. Luckily, I had a plan or else I would have probably suffered the same fate as the poor souls that have wandered into their demise.
With a quick look at the pile of bones in the far-right corner, I swallowed and pulled a flowery white herb out of my knapsack. The legendary witch immediately knew what this was. The insanity surely had not affected her magical knowledge.
"No one has ever tried that! The prophecy has finally sent me a bright one!" Morgana looked at me again. I could smell her rotting breath and lack of cleaning from five feet away.
"Let's see if it works," I said and handed her the herb, holding my breath as I approached her. The witch took the herb and stuffed it into her mouth and began to chew, grimacing as she did so. After a forced swallow, she looked up again, narrowed her eyes which began to flicker and the witch fell to the ground, seemingly dead.
Because the herb was not a regular white flower. It was the flower of a cicuta plant, commonly known as water hemlock. Ones who have studied herbalism in their life know that this plant is a highly toxic poison that can kill animals and humans, as it directly attacks the nervous system.
Although it is highly lethal against non-magical species, it serves alchemical purposes around the magical world. I, for one, am using it to fool the magic that is keeping Morgana here to believe that she is dead, for me to escape with her. And apparently it was working because the door creaked loudly and fell over, opening the exit again.
I picked her up with my magic, not eager to touch her anytime soon and carried her up the stairs to the main room; the highest tower. It was a circular, empty, and cold space, except for one single shelf and a three-legged table, covered in a cloth and with a crystal ball resting in its center.
I lowered her onto a squeaky bed in the adjacent room to the left and all I could do now was wait until the sedative would exit her system and allow her to wake up again...

During the Dark Witch's little nap – that was what they had called her back in the day – I took my time to explore the castle and the grounds. There was nothing specifically interesting though and everything that might have used to be, was now decayed and broken.
The back yard was messy and covered in thorny vines and multicolored mosses, the remaining rooms were cold and moldy or already falling apart. The only things of interest were in this one shelf that stretched itself across a quarter of the circular wall in the main tower.
Books that were not even in the Grand Library of Oz, rare herbs from different realms and dimensions and trinkets of quite potent though highly dangerous magic.
After about four hours, I heard Morgana from the adjoining room. She was already standing up when I knocked and entered and looked at me with the insane smile that never left her face.
"You clever girl! It worked out!"
I nodded and the witch touched my shoulder and hugged me before I could do anything about it. I fought with myself not to vomit, smelling her, and doing everything in my power to get rid of the layer of filth that had stuck on me after she broke contact. I had to gag multiple times.
"Now we can work on restoring my powers. Say, did you stumble across any jewelry that emitted magic of any sorts?"
"Yes, I happened upon some rings and necklaces-"
"No, dear child. A tiara. A diadem. Anything like this?" I shook my head, and she slumped back onto the bed but jumped up immediately after that.
"I forgot! I hid it away. It is in one of the books. Would you mind fetching it for me, please?"
I nodded shortly and moved back into the circular room. Even though she was emitting authority, I could not forget that I was in charge here. She is only standing before me because of me. And when thinking about it, the madness was like wiped from her voice.
There were maybe fifty books and I had to find out which one a diadem was? Nothing, a little magic would not fix. Not that it would be a hassle to go over all of them but with magic, it will be faster and I was running on a tight schedule.
"Ostende te!" A simple recovery spell. The book that contained the diadem went transparent, allowing me to see Morgana's artifact that contained her source of magic.
I opened my palm and the diadem flew straight through the book and into it. How beautifully it glistened. Beautifully ornate and made of black metal, assumingly black gold with dark red stones embedded into the material. Judging by their cut, this was red morganite. How poetic.
I walked back to Morgana and handed her the trinket. She looked at it with big eyes and sighed, carefully taking it out of my hands and placing it onto her matted scalp.
Immediately, the diadem began to glow and to transform her in every viable way. Her hair disentangled itself and was shining soft and silver, before it did itself into a modern beehive that perfectly integrated the diadem into the hair.
Morgana's skin cleaned itself and she looked stunning now. Her makeup consisted of black and red colors that suited her lime green eyes and her nails painted themselves in a brilliant crimson.
The rags she was wearing bound together and turned into a tight black silk dress, suitable for her age and rose-scented fumes puffed out of it as it was done. The filthy hag was unrecognizable. Instead, a beautiful sorceress stood in front of me, radiating power.
"That's better," Even her voice did not sound like she had been captured for decades anymore. It was calming and quite deep, "Now, child. What is your reason for my rescue? Weren't you afraid of the big bad Morgana? Did no one warn you of my powers!?"
Her eyes glowed red and black smoke twisted around her arms as she said this and put an extra special emphasis on the last word but I only smiled at her. When thinking about it, she does not look that menacing. Yet I remained careful. She must have been locked away for some reason.
"No one knows that I'm here and I require your help..."
"Do you now? What do you need, dear?" She ridiculed me and I could see her relax. I, on the other hand, began to tense up, trying to indicate to her that I was in charge and not her.
"There's something weird going on here and I thought that you'd be able to help me..."