The Duke

3- The true beginning

Witches were killed in mass hundreds of years ago in this world by the church. At that time, the older ones taught the younger generations about their history, how this world was not the only one, and that they could travel to different ones with little power. But with the hunt of their kind, they fell silent.

Many of them escaped to other worlds where they were welcomed. Some others kept traveling and hiding themselves through the years. Fairytales were born from that, although some were very different from reality.

The powers of a witch awakened just when the previous witch of the family passed away. And the one to awaken was always the youngest of the family. Hence, there could be just one witch alive at the time per family, as you can see. And, oddly enough, the first child of a witch was always going to be a girl.

To protect their own, they hid their lineage and powers even within their family members. That's how a pact was made. Witches partnered with others so they could instruct the new ones once they were gone. The partner of my grandma was Margo, her Goddaughter.

A witch could travel between different worlds but there were risks if you didn't know how to control your powers yet because you could end up in any world, and if you were disposed of your robe, you wouldn't be able to get back either. The robe was the key to travel from one world to another, just really powerful and experienced witches could travel without one.

The fact that nothing happened to me this time was a lucky thing, said Aunt Margo.

I asked about my powers but even she didn't know that. She told me that the powers weren't heritable. There were chances that I had the same skills my grandma had but there was no way to know it. I had to discover it by myself. Aunt Margo could just guide me in the process, but there was something she could do: teach me potions.

Some witches specialized in potions because they had the skills, of course, but there were a few ones that were very basic and any witch could make them.

Aunt Margo stayed with me until very late, trying to explain to my shocked self everything she could. There was not enough time, though. And it would be very weird to find Aunt Margo and me chatting at midnight by my parents. So, we decided to meet the following day.

Many questions arose that night in my mind. If it was not because Aunt Margo disappeared in front of me when my parents came back, I would not have believed any of that was happening. I mean... it was still hard to believe. But my clothes were proof I wasn't dreaming; I actually went to another place and ran through the woods.

I could barely bat an eye that night, and the next morning I was wondering if all of this was real. Maybe I was so tired that I was imagining things. But Aunt Margo was waiting for me at the same coffee shop we had agreed to meet at.

I was dumbfounded.

Fairies existed after all, but they were extinct ninety years ago. Gnomes? They were freaking real. Many magic creatures we knew from stories and folklore existed too, although most of them weren't from this world but others.

Aunt Margo handed me a bunch of books to catch up on things. As if I didn't have enough to read because of college.

Everything felt so surreal that had to take a cold shower to get my ideas straight. And it wasn't really pleasant to do it in spring, believe me.

So, rumors about Grandma being a witch were true. I talked a lot about it with Aunt Margo, I regretted not keeping anything else from her.

Aunt Margo got the news of my grandma's deceased too late because she was solving things in another world. That's why even though Mom called her three days in a row, she couldn't reach her. She had just come back and went to visit me right away.