“How did you know I was here? What are you doing here?”
“I came for you, my dear child. I took help and found you here.”
“Why didn’t you come up to meet me then?”
She could see her mother staring at her, her suspicion growing as to what Penny was thinking. Penny herself tried to figure out why her mother didn’t come up to meet her. For someone who had been keeping track of her, she could tell that her mother didn’t know about her frequent visits to the church, nor the relationship she shared with Damien.
But why? She had faked her death and Penny had mourned over it. Wasn’t she supposed to go her way if that was so? She had tracked her here which was possible that it was a coincidence for both of them to be in the same land because surely she had no ability when it came to transporting herself to another place like Damien.
It then dawned on her, without holding back she asked, “Was it the spilled magic?”
Her mother stared at her for a second, “What?”
Penelope gave her mother a smile, “Wovile was once a land which was dominated immensely by the white witches in the past. It was because the witches themselves came from the north and started to settle in. Unfortunately, not everything was well between the sisters,” she looked up at the bird that chirped in the sky as it moved from one side to another side of the forest, “The reason behind the friction and differences between the sisters came when some of the white witches stood against the witches who had turned to black witches and the others who were transforming into the other kind as they couldn’t stop the l.u.s.t which they craved from the forbidden magic which was told never to use.”
“To drive away from the ones who didn’t listen or obey the laws which were set from the start of time from their lands, the pure white witches left magic on the lands which were spilled during the chase out of the black witches. It wasn’t intentional and known but the places where it was split and slowly people who were unaware, the humans started to build their houses and estate on top of it. Those places turned out to be a piece of land where black witches couldn’t step on it. To be specific, a mutated specie of the existing creature. What do you think it is, mama?”
Her mother stayed quiet. Listening to what Penelope just said, things she herself wasn’t completely aware of.
“Is there something you want to tell me, Penny?” her mother gave her a look like the one she had come across in her dream. A look that said she had caught her lie yet her mother was trying to maneuver around what she just said.
“I don’t know. I think you should tell me. Considering the fact that you falsified your death while you were here, keeping an eye on me yet not meeting me,” Penny taunted her, seeing her mother who was only gauging on what to say and how much Penny knew about her, “As you’re not speaking let me help you with that. You are a black witch who couldn’t step close to the inn as it has magic spilled there,” of course that was why Damien had even picked the inn so that she would be safe.
The sweet appearance that her mother had been holding until now dropped, her jaw ticking by the truth which Penny presented it to her.
“It seems like you found out.”
“You weren’t very subtle when it came to wanting to kill me,” Penny could hardly keep the truth in and she wanted answers. She had spent countless nights thinking about why her mother wanted her dead but she could never draw up to anything.
Her mother chuckled, exhaling out loudly and looking at her as she asked, “It seems like you have learned quite some things during my absence. We should fix it, shouldn’t we?” she pulled out something from her dress which Penny couldn’t see what she held in her hand.
“Am I not your daughter?” Penny asked, holding her breath. This was something that had been haunting her since she had found out about her mother who was trying to kill her.
“You very much are. I am not lying,” her mother smiled looking at her affectionately, “I am the one who carried you for seven months in my w.o.m.b. I am the one who fed and brought you up. Have you forgotten all the time we spent?” When her mother took a step forward again, Penny took two steps behind. Her back hitting the bark of the tree she stepped away from it.
“I do,” Penny answered, each step of hers moving back and away from her mother so that she could keep a safe distance, “If you are kind enough, could you return the other ones too so that I could keep them closer and cherish them,” as much as Penelope was hurt right now, her mouth couldn’t stop being sarcastic as she felt bitter for what her mother put her through.
It had been months since she had seen her mother being buried in the village cemetery and now that they did, she wanted all the answers. She knew that the debt collector was a big lie and it was untrue. So many weeks and months had passed and her mother felt nothing. She could see it clearly in the eyes now. Things that she once used to ignore, the subtle indication which she hadn’t realized all those years of living with her mother, she could now see them as if they were transparent to her eyes.
“What are you talking about?” her mother asked, her voice coming out to be ignorant not knowing what Penny was speaking of.
“I am talking about the memories you so conveniently erased from my mind…”
