Her Secret

Chapter 1

Cassiopeia ran about her house packing.

The guards would be here soon to burn grandma's things so she was trying to save as much as she could and also make it look as if she never lived with anyone at all.

I guess you are all wondering why she is  making it look as if she has never existed.

It started two days ago.

                                                                  -Flashback-

Grandma was going in town to heal the sickly, a thing she has been doing for hundreds of years.

I always tried to stop her but she always said, " Cassiopeia, I want to help people with my gift."

You've guessed it....... we're witches.

Our whole family are either witches or warlocks.

Only my great-grandfather gave up his magic for love.

He gave it up to be with a human.

Oh, I hated those vile creatures.

How dare they persecute us for being ourselves!

It just wasn't right.

Cassiopeia realised that she had been shouting that aloud.

"Cassi, I want us magic folk and them humankind to live in harmony. Many witches throw up at the sight of a human man flirting with them and many warlocks won't even look a human in the eye but I have a feeling that this will come to be in the future."

Then Grandma marched out of the door.

She didn't come back that night.

Cassiopeia, as worried as she was, went to the castle dungeons to look for her grandmother.

She slipped in unnoticed.

All of the prisoners looked at her piteously.

She ignored them, looking for her grandma.

In the cubicle at the bottom, there was an old woman with what was once glorious silver hair.

Cassiopeia ran as fast as her legs could carry her and begged on her knees for her grandma to wake up.

Her grandma opened her eyes.

Cassiopeia gasped at the sight before her.

Her eyes were red from crying.

Her face was tarnished with whip marks.

It broke Cassiopeia's heart to see her looking like this.

Cassiopeia had spent most of her childhood with her grandma, always wanting to look more like her.

Her grandma told her she loved her and to go.

Cassiopeia ran away, what she had seen, tormenting her; making her a changed girl.

                                                                  -End of Flashback-

All witches and warlocks had a special power, a power that you would encounter on your fifteenth birthday.

Grandma's special power was future sight.

She also had the power to heal, a power that she had inherited from my great-grandfather when he had given his powers up.

Cassiopeia couldn't wait until she gained hers.

You also got a familliar, an animal whom was to be your guidance and helping hand with the training of your powers for years to come.

Grandma's familliar was a snowy owl.

It was called Merryfeather and was her sole companion and best friend.

Once you died, your familliar would be free to leave but they often just followed your family or heir.

Another thing that happened to witches and warlocks was that you would find your 'Alcampatha Ythaiea', your witching mate.

A witching mate was a witch's other half, their soul mate.

You would find your witching mate on your sixteenth birthday, at exactly midnight, the witching hour.

It was said that your witching mate could find you where ever you are and that fate would bind you together with her cord of thread.

Witching mates could only resist each other for so long.

It was only a few weeks until Cassiopeia's fifteenth birthday.

Cassiopeia finished packing her things, snapping herself out of her daydream.

She quickly tied her grandma's turquoise, teardrop healing pendant around her neck for luck and walked briskly out the door, without looking back.

This was the last time she would ever see the house she had lived in since she was three.

"You go and wait for me in the forest." She commanded Merryfeather.

"Yes, Mistress Cassi." Merryfeather cooed.

Cassiopeia was going to her grandma's execution.

Now she definitely hated human kind.