Reincarnation: Origins

Chapter 12: Coven

**Lucien's POV**

Call me stupid but i followed her. I followed a scantily-dressed witch into the forest. I could already see my mother shaking her head disapprovingly before switching between 10 other emotions in the span of 5 seconds.

"My poor idiot of a son." My father would have said, dabbing away nonexistent tears while failing horribly to hide the shit-eating grin he would have had on his face. He had always been a joking person.

"Hello-o?" Needa sing-songed, snapping two fingers in front of my face. The crisp sound managed to snap me out of my thoughts. 

"what."

"You stopped walking a while back." Needa gave a very bored expression as she impatiently tapped a heeled foot against the leafy peat of the forest floor. "I had to walk all the way back."

"Oh, sorry abut that." I gave her my best apologetic smile, which she brushed off fairly easily.

"The next time you stop, i'm leaving you behind." 

With a 'hmph', Needa continued her march, using her magic staff as a makeshift hiking walking stick. Before long, we approached a natural-looking opening to a clearing. 

I opened my mouth to ask if the bugs had bitten away her sanity, Needa stuck her had into...nothingness? The air shimmered and rippled around her wrist. To be honest, I was more spooked than impressed. It was like some platform 9 3/4 illusion going on. 

Where her hand went, the rest of her followed and she was swallowed up by thin air. I stood there, mouth agape. Needa's head popped out once more.

"Coming or what. This portal closes in a couple of minutes."

"got it." I took a leap of faith in after her. Something about her gave me the impression that she would have purposefully closed whatever witchcraft portal she had opened if i had not picked up the pace of my response. 

Nothing.

Not even a 'whuao' portal sound. It was like walking through a literal doorway. I slowly peeled open my eyes to a sight straight up ripped out from a fairy tale. 

Fairies and pompon alike flitted through the air, gnomes and dwarves scurried across the ground with plenty of shoves to give with too little 'excuse me's. Among the hubbub were witches and warlocks, sorceresses and magicians, beastmen and other fae. Even the occasional dragonkin and lizardman stood chatting away a storm at one of the many stands. 

Sensory overload was the perfect word for it. I stood, stock still, just drinking it all in.

"Hot damn." I whispered beneath my breath.

Needa did not even stop for a second, weaving expertly around people. Come to think of it, more people swarmed around her than in any other stand. Looking past her, I saw that she originally was heading in the direction of a large--unnaturally large--tree. 

"Lucien. Strike 2. One more and i really will leave you behind." Needa called after escaping her throng of paparazzi.

As i ran after her, I caught the whispers from people around. Some even went as far as to visibly shrink away into their shops. I brushed it away, i was used to this type of attention each time i went out in my past life. 

On closer inspection of the "tree", I noticed that it was more than just a tree. Needa barged in without a second thought and i followed behind. I stood in awe at what i assumed to be the interior of a palace. Despite the earthy colors, it still managed to keep an air of royalty or nobility. 

Multiple large sun windows framed by earth-brown to leaf-grean velvet curtains hung around the walls, letting in the natural light.

A stairwell opened out, leading up from the atrium to the second floor. At the top stood a breathtakingly beautiful woman. Her dirty-blonde hair hung just past her shoulders, perfectly framing her heart-shaped face. She had a warm smile on her face as her cornflower blue eyes landed on Needa and I.

"Mother." Needa hadn't wasted a second in confrontation as she called up to the figure. "You sent me to that guild to see if we can track the world breakers."

"And you got only one?" Her smile faltered.

"well, after I had lost to that axe-weilding fool" Needa shook with silent rage. "I set out to track the second but I couldn't sense any."

Needa placed a hand on my back and shoved me forward. "He, on the other hand, had a surprisingly strong signal. Almost twice as strong as you described. It was actually distracting come to think of it."

"And where did you find him?" The woman, who i'm assuming to be the so-called Witch of the Mystic Wilds, recalling her brag, asked with a raised eyebrow.

"uhn, lying on the..forest floor." Needa mumbled the last bit.

In the twinkle of an eye, the Witch was right before Needa, gripping her face with blood-red filed talons. 

"Repeat the last part, Needa. Make sure my ears are not failing me at this age." She let go of Needa's face, leaving painful looking prints in place. "Where. Did. You. Find. Him."

Needa visibly swallowed, her dark blue eyes constantly flicked from the Witch to me, as if begging me to help her. 

"Ah, excuse me?" I cleared my throat. The tension in the room would have needed both of Rurik's great-swords to cleave through them. 

"She- I- Your Majesty-" I honestly did not know where to begin

A dramatic gasp ripped through the air, interrupting me. 

"Oh please, call me Ionia. No need for titles."

I was pretty sure that if i was in the presence of royalty, this was common courtsey. Even back in America where there weren't any royalty, i'd seen enough Disney cartoons as a kid. I knew i had a disapproving frown on and it did not seem to ease either of them.

I sighed and rubbed my face.

"You heard her. She found me on the forest floor. I remember being captured by a slime in a dungeon."

I wracked my memory to remember more after the shield had cracked, but came up blank. 

"I'd really appreciate it if you could help me get back to the guild and my friends."

Ionia broke out into high-pitched, obnoxious laughter as if i had just told her the best joke she'd heard in probably centuries. 

"Friends?" She echoed. "You see them as friends?"

She broke out in more echoing laughter as Needa chuckled nervously beside her.  

"Okay, that's enough from you."

Almost instantaneously, the laughter disappeared. She held her hands to her throat and visibly coughed. Audibly? not so much. It was as if she was miming the entire thing out.

"I'm serious. I need to get back to the guild and let them know I'm okay."

"You can't do that." Needa simply stated. "It's for your own good."

I looked to the Queen, motioning for her to say something.

"ah, well." She croaked. "The thing is, they're dangerous. They may have gotten their hands on you first but you're here in the ultimate end."

I refused to believe whatever either of them were saying. I knew better. Either the Guild or this Witches' Coven was bad and the more i stood there, the further away i leaned away from the idea of the Coven being good.

"You're going to have to do better than that to get me to believe what you both are saying."

The queen muttered something beneath her breath before giving in with a great sigh. "Alright follow me. You'd need to see it to believe it."

--

Fear not for constant changes in point of views. It will always be either in third person or Lucien's POV. This was just something I wanted to try and let me know your opinions via comments :P

PS: March break just ended and i'm back to school  (^-^; )