The Quest for Normania #1: The Door of Andrios

6. The Witch of the Lake

Ayesha found herself tiring out after walking for about ten minutes.

It was in such a short time that she and Agatha covered a distance of over ten kilometres, thanks to the latter's speed-walking. Ayesha tried to keep up as best as she could.

After what seemed like an hour (when it was only twenty minutes), they arrived at a lake. The sun had long set and stars had come out to twinkle in the sky. They looked like tiny suns, as bright as they were. And at the top of them all was what Ayesha would call back in Ahala, the Reginum lumen, King of Stars.

"It's called the Pole Star," Agatha explained. They stopped at a tree near the lake and that's when the young princess noticed the hut nearby, smaller than Agatha and Cecil's by about half.

A old woman sat in the front, a fire beside her, away from the hut. The visitors moved closer and suddenly, she looked up.

Ayesha's jaw dropped and she stopped dead in her tracks. Her brain stopped thinking and heart stopped beating. What came out of her mouth sounded garbled.

Agatha was trying to rouse her, but her gaze was fixed on the old woman. At last, the old woman herself rose to her feet easily and stepped towards them slowly.

"Ah yes, I know you," she rasped in her elderly voice. A gnarled finger touched the young girl's cheek, but the latter didn't move. "Well, I know of you, I mean. You're from the same world as I am, aren't you?"

Ayesha nodded, slowly but surely. Her lips felt like they were sewn shut, her mind blank, but her eyes shining.

"Speak, child," the old woman said and suddenly, she looked younger and grander... just like the paintings she'd seen back home, in the royal library.

All at once, Ayesha found herself talking again: "I... Ashisha Rama – the founder of the land of Ashisa?"

The witch chuckled. "Of course I am! I'm surprised it took you this long to remember me!"

"Founder?!" gasped Agatha from Ayesha's right side.

Ayesha came back to herself again and turned to her. "Yes. About three hundred centuries ago, our world, Ahala, was created and Ashisha was one of the founders of one land – an island, really – called Ashisa. Named, as you perhaps guessed, after herself."

Agatha looked like her eyes might pop out any soon. "I cannot comprehend this," she whispered.

The Ahalan princess shook her head. "It's okay. Come now. Ashisha, I come here to seek your help. I understand that you help Agatha and her brother a lot?"

"Aye, aye, that I do," Ashisha patted the Earthling on her head. "Darling young children they are! They help me a lot, too, by scaring the hunters away."

"The witch-hunters?" Ayesha guessed.

"Aye, the witch-hunters. What this obsession is with the king to do away with witches, I do not know. At any rate, I am not a witch from Earth – I'm from Ahala!"

She turned around and guided the visitors back towards her hut. At a distance, they could hear a howl of a wolf and an answer from a totally different direction. Ayesha was no longer scared, after meeting a fellow Ahalan.

"Now, what is this problem you have?" asked Ashisha; she looked like an old woman again. "Come, sit on those stools over there. You can bring them here. Eurin, please close the door. Agatha, bring the stools over to the fireplace, will you?"

Soon, the three sat close to the fire in a triangle.

"Tell me, Yela Ashisha," began Ayesha, "how did you know I was a eurin?"

"What is a eurin?" asked Agatha.

"A eurin in Ahala," explained Ashisha, "is equivalent to a princess of a kingdom here on Earth. Well, my dear, the dress you wear is enough for me to tell you your status! Next time, when you plan to run away from home, make sure to observe the commoners in your kingdom thoroughly." The old woman winked mischievously.

Ayesha went red at this. "Oh, I see." She cleared her throat. "Well, I am Ayesha Sinhala, daughter of Eura Ansari Sinhala. My problem, yela, is –"

"Hark – I get it now!" announced the old woman. "Yes, yes... something about a curse, isn't it? The royal seer, the poor woman, she was killed merely by the vision! And you, Ayesha, you feel responsible for her death and all other miseries that had been befalling Silone. Isn't that right?"

The eurin nodded gloomily. "And now that I'm here, I'm afraid misery will follow me and touch those who become close to my heart."

"Will you tell me the prophecy?"

She recited it like it was a nursery rhyme she learnt by-heart: "Winter is coming and one will die. A royal blood's decision will seal the fate of the world or doom it for eternity. Only the Door of Andrios will save this day, eighteen years hence!" When she realised this, she was stunned.

Ashisha narrowed her eyes as Ayesha spoke, her brain working to piece the prophecy already. "And you say it is as a result of a curse you seem to have been born with?"

"Er – yes."

"Ah, but my dear, there is no curse on you! The vision literally killed the royal seer, an old woman that she was, and at the end of her tether! And your mother... Well, she died of childbirth, really. The child didn't survive and she... your mother didn't survive for long after that."

Ayesha's jaw dropped for the second time that evening. "How – do you know all this?"

Ashisha smiled. "Visions. I started having them as soon as I realised you were from my world. Visions are stronger with people like you. From my world, I mean."

"I see," Ayesha swallowed. "So... what I have... it's no inflection?"

"Well, you do have some strong magic inside you – that's what you were born with. But a curse? Hardly. In fact, from what I gather from my visions, you cannot be cursed—such is the nature of your magic. But as for the prophecy, yes, it is due to come true very soon."

"Oh dear... have I doomed my world just as well by abandoning? What will my father think?"

"Father? Oh yes, you also have a stepmother, don't you? Tell me, Eurin Ayesha, where did you last see her?"

Ayesha blinked, as though suddenly having to recall a long-forgotten memory. "Ah yes. I believe I saw her in her room a week back. Ahalan week. So, seven days from yesterday or something like that. Why?"

"I see her heading towards Sofia."

"Sofia? But that's where I told you she was – in her chamber."

Ashisha waved her hands, "No, no, you don't understand. She's going to Sofia the sacred city of the Sinhala Dynasty!"

Ayesha's eyes widened and her throat constricted. Agatha had been sitting quietly during this exchange, staring from one girl to the other woman.

"Eurin Ayesha, what exactly is she planning?" asked Ashisha, her voice suddenly rose to a dangerous level."

"I..." Her voice failed her, but she trudged on. "I... don't know. But I think it has something to do with the trouble being caused – something I heard on my way to the Door of Andrios."

Ashisha's eyes flashed as they bore into hers. "The Door of Andrios!?"

"Yes! How else do you think I arrived here?!" Ayesha was frustrated.

"Ayesha, you have to leave Earth and go back! Find the Door again and once you see it, you must go back to Ahala IMMEDIATELY!"