The Hybrid's Oracle

Heart's blood

A black cloaked figure was sitting in an open cave staring at her palm, where images fitted through with a slight glow to them. “Oh, Double cursed? This is about to get interesting.” She peered at an image more closely and a devilish smile appeared on he face.
“I wonder who must have casted the second spell on him. Oh? Uhh the Bond Split curse? I thought my  Reverse Personality curse was bad enough.”
“ I can’t sense her anymore.” A man walked into the coven bearing a frustrated expression in his face.
“I thought you were stalking her,”  The witch didn’t turn around to see who had intruded her personal space.
“I left yesterday when the wolf showed up, I went back today but she didn’t show up. I feel like there’s a barrier that blocks her connection.”
“It’s the hybrid. He must have hidden her somehow.”
“He didn’t know I was there yesterday.” Zander paced back and forth within the space.
“I casted a reverse personality curse on him, he’s  probably starting to hate her already. I hope he doesn’t  hurt her.”
Her last sentence was a trigger for Zander, he rushed towards the witch, leaving only a blur of his movement, with inhumane strength, he grabbed her by the neck and lifted her to the air. “What did you say? Why would you make him hurt her! I thought we had a deal.”
The witch stood midair, gasping for air and urgently tapping on Zander’s hand but he was still blinded by the momentarily rage to realize that he was hurting her. “Dolor.” She whispered as she flicked her hand lightly towards Zander.
“Ugh!” Zander felt a splitting pain in head, he lets out a groan, dropped the witch and held his head with both hands, as he willed the pain to stop.
The witch coughed lightly, she muttered a healing spell for the bruise on her neck. With another wave of her hand, the pain coursing through his head instantly stopped. A middle aged woman strolled into the cave, her face looked tranquil and soft, she slightly nodded at Zander. “Your Majesty, I had no idea that you were going to show up today, if you permit me to ask, what brings you here to this witch’s territory."
“ Master.” The cloaked figure took off her hood before she bowed towards the woman. A wave of brown tumbled out of the hood, her face was soft and cute like a baby’s ,with a button nose and a small mouth, she looked perfect except that a dark aura was like a mass around her, her eyes was cold and unfeeling with a hint of darkness hidden in them. Her face was captivating, she had a captivating but it didn’t move Zander, he just took one look at her and looked away.
“Kitsune, why didn’t  you inform me that we had a noble guest visiting?” The woman coughed, her face paled and her body shook.
“Master, it was my fault. I was worried when your injury relapsed.”  Kitsune might behave haughtily but it her master, she was very respectful.
“You didn’t  need to show up, your apprentice has been doing a pretty good job helping me with what I require,” Zander took a good look at the woman. Even though she looked calm and fine on the surface, it seemed like it was taking a lot for her to remain upright. Zander could see that her life force was thinning greatly, possible the consequences of a spell that might have gone wrong. “But you don’t  look too good, I suggest you focus on your health.”
“I have a presumptuous request King Zeke.” The woman smiled.
“I’m curious to know what you can offer in return.” Zander didn’t best around the bush.
The woman opened her right hand, in it contained a small obsidian orb, it was dark and attractive, it even let out glow but the energy emanating from it was very profound. Kitsune inadvertently let’s out a loud gasps as she sees this.
“Master..”  She mumbled but one glance from her Master made her swallow any protests.
Zander noticed the small exchange between the pair, Kitsune’s reaction caused him to be curious about what the orb is. “And what is this?”
“Your Majesty, this orb is a relic, it is used to protect the user from any lower level curses and also  cause a backlash for whoever that casts an intermediate level spell in the user.” Kitsune quickly explained.
“In short, it can protect me from some of the curses that you guys cast, Right?”
“Yes.” She nodded.
“Now I’m  curious to know what you need to cause you to make this kind of transaction with me.”
“One drop of your heart’s  blood.”
Zander frowned instantly, the pressure in the air became intense but the woman’s calm expression doesn’t change, her palm was still open, displaying the obsidian orb. After a moment of internal pondering, he finally said. “I’m curious to know why you need my heart’s blood.”
“As you can clearly see, I’m suffering from the backlash of a forbidden spell I casted, as a result, my life force was reduced by three quarters, I’m barely hanging on.”
“So let me get this straight, you performed a forbidden spell, almost lost your life and now you need a drop of my heart’s blood to replenish what was lost.”
“You are correct.”
“But what if I say no?”
“You!-” Kitsune pointed at him with a cold glare on her face.
“Be quiet!”  Her master harshly reprimanded her.
“What I meant is, you are not offering enough. And it’s a drop of my heart’s blood we’re taking about here, you cannot easily take it from me unless I willing give it to you and it’s priceless since I can only condense a drop every century. Do not forget, it is rumored to have the ability to bring one back to life.”
“Then what do you want?”
“Why don’t we talk over this while sitting?” Zander suggested with a false smile on his face, he looked like an harmless young man but the darkness in his heart would cause nightly terror for a lifetime.
Kitsune snapped her finger and two soft plush chairs materialized out of thin air, one of them was regal and domineering, fit for a king while the other was smaller with an aesthetic beauty to it, it was elegant.
“I’m impressed.” Without any gesture, he sat on the domineering chair, his calm and likeable personality retracted, replaced with a bloodlust aura. This aura wasn’t something that could be adopted in a day, one had to walk through a path formed by blood and still remain unmoved.
“Would you like some tea?” The woman asked as she materialized a tea set, her action caused her face to become paler, she coughed into a white silk  handkerchief, specks of blood was visible on it.
The red spots glared at Kitsune, it was then she realized the severity of the situation.
*This isn’t  a tea party, let’s go straight to the point before it is too late,” He shook his head but there was no sympathy in his eyes. “You have to grant three requests of mine without any questions.”
“Three requests?” She raised one of her eyebrows.
“Yes, do not worry. None of my wishes would affect you or your apprentice.”
“I agree to your condition.”
“I guess we have a deal.”
“ Don’t you want to know about the forbidden spell I casted? Your Majesty.”
“No.”
“I wanted a glimpse of the future-” She stopped halfway to see his expression.
“Expect the unexpected and the unexpected becomes expected.”
“You have to prepare for another war, this time it would be worse than the previous dark age.”
Zander smiled but the smile did not reach his eyes, he looked like a devil that had found a new plaything and was going to break it regardless. “I will die when I am to die.” Leaving that sentence, he disappeared from the cave. On the chair remained a crystal with a hint of red in the middle; his heart’s blood and a note ‘Everything has a cause and effect.’
Kitsune brought the items to her master, she was baffled by the last words that had been exchanged. “Master, what request does he have?”
“I don’t know. When he has one, he would return.” The woman clenched the crystal in her hand, she looked relieved.
“Okay.”
“Our way not in order to change the world but in order not to let the world change us,” The woman stared at her apprentice intently, she had given Kitune free reins to do anything with the powers bestowed on her; to create her own path but she was still worried that her apprentice might sink into complete darkness, entirely loosing her humanity. “Bend the rules Kitsune, but do not break them. There are consequences to every action you take.” She then stood up and sauntered the cave without a backward glance.
The last words of her master was in her head, replaying over and over like a reel. “I would heed your words Master.” She bowed her head towards the direction the woman had just left.
**
In a different location, a girl of about eight peered into the full length mirror that was before her. She was checking out how she looked, she pinched her cheeks with a dazzling smile- her beauty was childlike and her smile was enough to entrance anyone that saw her, it was like a spell that made it hard for anyone to look away. Her hair was packed into two perfect buns and lily’s were arranged around them.
“He is back! I can finally meet him again, would he remember me?” She squealed like a little girl before diving into her queen sized bed.
Like her nature, the theme of her room was princess like with nature’s  aesthetics, vases of rare flowers were placed in every corner of her room, lots of them concentrated in one room produced a very unique scent that makes you just want to relax and take a long nap.
But none of this seemed to affect the girl, instead her eyes were bright and filled with unnatural intelligence.
“Zephyr,” A boy entered the room bringing an icy wind along with him. The plants in the room all froze, encased in cubes of ice.
“Nico! Why would you do that?” Zephyr burst into tears.
Seeing this, Nico became agitated, worried that someone might hear her cries, he closed the door behind him and with just a simple thought from him, all the ice melted away. “Don’t cry. Shh don’t  let mum find out what I did or she’ll ground me from using my powers.”
His words only made her cry harder. “What do you want me to do?” He said with utter defeat.
“Oh, are you serious?” The tears on her face vanished, she smiled at Nico.
Nico nodded. “Sure anything you want,” He looked visibly worried about what his sister might choose and started blaming himself for trying to prank her.
Zephyr looked at the flowers and plants that were still dripping water, she stretched out her hand casually and tiny light orbs appeared in the room, they scattered around the plants and within the blink of an eye, the plants were blooming again, filling the air with their rich scent.
“I want to visit Niveria, mother won’t let me go alone. She is worried that I might get taken.” She pouted and folded her arms.
“Is that it?” Nico lets out a sigh of relief. ‘Easy peasy’
“Yes! You have to convince her and the same time, come along with me.”
He scrunched his nose. “I don’t want to go but since you’re asking, I’ll come with you.”
“Yay! You’ll be my protector.” She hugged her brother who looked no other than eight. Who in their right minds would let kids stroll to a demon kingdom without any form of protection?
**
Zephyr.  Renée muttered the name as she opened her eyes, then she almost lets out a scream in shock, seeing all the faces that were peering at her with a high amount of curiosity. Renée slowly sat up, glancing at the seven people that slowly moved backwards as she rose. She looked around, it was a different theme from the one in the castle, the faces were not those of the maids she had seen in the castle “Where am I?”