"Let's settle down," Xaxu calls them to order. "Tell us; who deserves death?"
"What sucks us is a mind-set. Whether rich or poor, the destructive ones span across races and nations. Our job, as I see it, is to reduce their numbers; destroy the ones who drain us most. Destroy those humans that serve no real purpose except to do bad."
"My sister, you know as well as I do that there's good in bad and bad in good."
"Of course."
"Then you must also know that there's no way to truly erase negativity."
"Maybe we can keep the ones who are more good than bad."
"What good?" Fantum says. "Not one of those creatures is good. I say kill them all and fast!"
Kat ignores Fantum and continues on.
"What if I found a way to sift them out?"
"You have a plan?" Xaxu asks, seeming hopeful.
"Always." Kat throws a cheeky smile Fantum's way. "It's a bit dangerous but it'll work."
"Okay. Speak up then."
"Let's create a holy place;" she begins, "snatch humans away from earth and test them for twenty-seven mirrored years."
"A sifting ground?" the red witch asks.
"Yes," Kat replies. "Very much like their world but with new rules and races."
"New races too?" Xaxu says, taken aback. "Isn't that a bit much?"
"Experimentation galore! She wants us to die with the humans I tell you."
"I want no such thing," Kat makes clear. "Let's just make sure we don't harvest the good with the bad, that's all I'm saying."
"What's this holy place?" Xaxu says, steering the conversation back on track.
"I call it the Karmic Islands."
"Interesting name," Xaxu says. "Hinduism?"
"Not quite."
"What's the significance?"
"The test. We'll be testing someone – a girl – thirty-three times."
"Reincarnation," the red witch bursts into glee. "I like it."
"If Kat's so smart, how's she going to snatch them without anyone knowing?"
"We're witches," Kat responds flippantly. "We'll cast a spell. Put them in a different coma."
"What's the dangerous part?" the red witch says.
"I must slip into a trance to suspend their clock. I must die, so to speak, for them to live."
"Die!" the eight witches echo.
"Yes," Kat says simply. "I must freeze their clock and shape shift through time."
"I'm all for you playing the martyr to save dead souls," Fantum says, "but in the process, have you forgotten who you are?"
"What's that?"
"You're the ninth witch, the black wand. If you die, we all do."
"Not if I give you a loophole."
"What's that, I hear?" Xaxu says.
"I'll give up my powers to Fantum."
"What?" they all say in unison.
"I forbid it!" Xaxu shouts. "Fantum's unfit."
"Not as unfit as my failure."
"You haven't failed. What are you talking about?"
"I came forth to create harmony."
"True."
"Yet evil doesn't dance well with the good."
"Where are you going with this?"
"Just let me do what I was brought forth to do."
"Kat. I won't let Fantum become the black wand. No matter what you say. Period!"
"Thanks for the vote of confidence. Not like I'm in the room or anything."
"Who says I'll make it easy for her?"
"Tell us," Xaxu says. "Not that it will help any but still, tell us."
"Everything's already set in stone."
YOU ARE READING
THE 33 KEYS: Key 2 - ANSWER THE CALL "Listen for that Perfect Beat"
FantasyIt matters not if you remove your crown and throw off your robes for an impostor to claim your throne. Because something must eventually stir all your children awake. And then they will become as stars across a darkened sky. One by one, they will li...
