Penny who was already used to fighting some of the witches, and who had won a battle by closing the portal of the unknown world, she knew what would work and what didn’t. Penny would have let Caitlin know about her mother’s whereabouts while also letting her aunt know that there was a possibility that her mother was with her ex-fiance who was her uncle but she didn’t relay the message and the three of them- a white witch, a black witch and pureblooded vampire headed in the direction of the map.
They cut a portion of the two maps that led to the hidden mansion that was not in the new map of Bonelake. Halfway, they used the carriage to go in but the other half where the map started to change which Damien wasn’t aware of, they started to travel on foot.
The forest they had stepped on to was somewhat dry which was strange as the land of Bonelake had abundant amounts of rain.
“The forest looks dead,” Penny commented, looking around where there were some trees that had somehow sustained with the leaves but a lot of them were bare without any leaves on them, empty and almost giving out an eerie feeling.
While one side of the forest appeared to be in drought, the further they moved, the trees started to turn full with luscious looking leaves that were green.
“I feel like I have turned deaf,” Piers muttered under his breath when he heard nothing around them except for their footsteps as they made their way in the forest, pushing the branches and stems away from them as the path was thick.
“It is the forest that has turned quiet,” Damien said without pausing his footsteps and continuing to walk to wherever the compass was pointing to, “The crickets have long stopped cricketing and the owls…I don’t think there are any. It is one of the quietest forests I have ever stepped onto,” it had been more than twenty minutes since he had stopped hearing them.
Penny then said, “I read in the books that there were times where black witches derived their power from the living breathing things around them,” she said and then continued to say, “But it also said that the place black witches mostly perched themselves for long years, it often turned the things in and around the dead. Somewhere in the similar lines like the Artemis.”
Piers, who heard this, snapped his head to look at Penny, “You know the Artemis?” he asked, surprise evident in his voice. Penny only gave him a nod of yes, “Wow. I heard so much about them. They were one of the closest to whoever was running the show. Ah! I now remember her name. They mostly referred to her with the word ‘mistress’but I believe the man calling her Sabbi.”
“Sabbi?” Penny uttered the name.
“Yes, that’s her name.”
Damien shook his head, “I am definitely sure this name has never surfaced up any time before. I will have the council dig in more into this name so that they can see if they find her origin. So the Artemis was close to this black witch?”
Piers nodded his head many times, bobbing his head up and down, “Some of the orders came by them while most came from this mistress. I don’t think many of them met them either.”
“They used to live in Valeria,” Damien said and Penny added,
“They are my long lost relatives,” the black witcher gave a look at Penelope.
“Pardon me but you have an interesting set of family,” when Piers said this, Penny’s lips twisted.
“Only the fortunate ones get them.”
When they slowly reached a road which they hadn’t found earlier, they started to take it. It was as if the road existed from the inside where a path ran to go outside and reach outer lands of Bonelake but the way to from outside to inside, one wouldn’t find it.
The more they walked, the more Penny came to feel she had seen these trees the colors of them which were red in color, she had seen them before and when she finally remembered, “I came to this place,” she said, her footsteps gradually stopping as she tried to piece out things in her mind.
Damien, who heard this, turned around to see Penny who stood behind in thoughts.
“I know where these leads too…there haven’t been many red trees I have been able to come across in the land of Bonelake. Robarte Varreran. That’s the person who resides in the path that leads to the mansion unless there’s a diversion.”
Damien had met the man. He had met the man previously and he remembered the time when Penny had been taken to one of his acquaintance’s parties, the man had come to talk to Penny.
When one domino fell on the other with realization settling in with actual facts of what happened until now, Penny could feel her mind running so fast that she had to take a moment to ease it down as everything started to fall in place.
It wasn’t out of mistake and not because he wanted to hit on her but because…the man knew he was related to her. He knew she was his sister’s daughter, a black witch. Dread started to fill her mind. He knew she was a white witch.
“Robarte is my uncle?” Penny herself couldn’t believe it as she said this. No no, thought Penny to herself. She was jumping quickly to conclusions. just because the man’s mansion was here and her mother and the rest of the party were in the same location.
“Are you sure about it?” Damien asked her.
Penny looked away from his gaze to see if she could find anything else in her memory or the short time she had spent in the company of the man. She bit the bottom of her lips, trying to understand until her eyes stopped darting left and right.
