Power of Death (Agathario)

Chapter Twenty-Two

Agatha shielded her eyes from the sun as they stood at the base of the mountain, looking up.

"So... is there a reason we can't just fly ourselves up there?" Rio asked, glancing at Agatha.

"We can't directly use magic," Agatha explained. She surveyed the wooded area around them and pointed to a few fallen branches. "But I never said we couldn't fly."

Rio grinned as Agatha picked up the wood and handed one to Rio.

They both grabbed vines growing on the surrounding trees, wrapping it around the branches. They chanted in Latin and soon they were handing the hand-made brooms to each other.

"Ready?" Agatha asked.

"Let's do this!" Rio replied, not waiting for Agatha before running and jumping into the air, mounting the broom. "Race you to the top!"

Agatha mounted her own broom and took off, smiling at Rio's playfulness. Rio sped ahead, but Agatha soon caught up. The mountain was so high that by the time they were side-by-side they had only gone up a third of it, not to mention how the brooms flew slower as they reached higher altitudes.

"So, why is it that you're the only one who can easily take the Darkhold?" Rio asked, bringing up what Agatha had said to her.

"Any witch can take the Darkhold," Agatha yelled back over the wind. "But it comes at a cost. The person they love dies as soon as the witch takes the Darkhold. But you're already dead."

"Aw, you love me," Rio grinned teasingly.

"Let's just focus on the prize," Agatha replied, though she couldn't stop her lips from twitching into a smile.

"Do you at least mind telling me where you learned all this stuff about the Darkhold?"

"I talked to the right witches," Agatha replied, deciding mentioning the girl and the sigil was too off-topic to get into. They were already halfway up the mountain anyway.

The temperature dropped as they got farther and Agatha resisted the urge to shiver. The ground below them started to lose vegetation and snow covered the dirt and rock.

"I can see the shrine!" Rio yelled to Agatha, making her look up into the distance. There it was.

Agatha felt her smile growing wider as they neared, finally landing on the stone of the cave.

Everything was made of a dark rock, pillars framing the opening. Etched on the walls, there were runes and symbols. In the center there was an altar standing before a giant carving of a woman. Agatha's eyes ran over the runes. It was a continuation of what she'd found before, the ones that said "red woman." But these runes were clearer, instead shaping the translation into "scarlet witch."

Agatha looked up to the stone woman's face. Who was the scarlet witch? Hopefully that was in the Darkhold.

"Remind me again what we do here?" Rio said, snapping Agatha out of her stare.

Agatha turned around to face Rio, still glancing around. "I say some spells and then hopefully it comes to me."

Rio nodded and Agatha started repeating the phrases of Latin the girl had told her. It was a simple chant, roughly translating to a mixture of conjuring spells.

As she finished, her nerves stood on end. She stared off into the distance.

"You know if this doesn't work, we can always try again," Rio said into the silence.

Agatha smiled, comforted by Rio's words. She was right. They had all the time they needed. Overcome by the feeling, she wrapped her arms around Rio.

"You, overcome with affection?" Rio commented jokingly.

"I'm just lucky to have you," Agatha admitted. "Not just because you won't die if I get the Darkhold. But because I really thought you'd be angrier once you found out about the Darkhold."

"To be fair, I did get angry."

"No, not as much as..." Agatha trailed off. She didn't want to say what she'd been thinking before.

Not as much as her mother.

When her mom got angry Agatha actually felt like her mom was trying to kill her with emotion. Her mind flashed with the many times her mom had yelled or cast some spell to punish Agatha.

But that didn't matter now. Besides, she never physically harmed her.

"It doesn't matter," Agatha finally said.

Rio pulled back from the hug to look into Agatha's eyes. She studied Agatha's face, and pulled her closer just as Agatha felt something coming.

The Darkhold.

—

The Darkhold the Darkhold the Darkhold jeez Agatha get it together. 

Anyway I promise there are good things to come. Not all is lost.

Have a great however long it will be until the next chapter comes out! 

-VictoryGreen8