Chapter 3 : Lilia's Way
No one knew her.
No one looked at her as she walked by.
Lilia was confused.
She passed through several small villages while she walked towards the castle.
Nobody looked at her, stared at her with that respect she knew from the time before her imprisonment. They did not even notice her. She was just one of many on their way to the castle.
Camelot.
Never before had Lilia heard of this Camelot.
But King Uther, that seemed familiar. She remembered a young man with this name. She remembered the circumstances of his son's birth. She had heard of that. In her dreams, binding her with the magical world. Shortly afterwards they had locked her away.
And now there was this castle, ruled by this king.
Even more strange was the fact, that she did not see a magician of the village. She could feel the presence of magic here and there, but there was no sorcerer. Quite the contrary, in fact those who seemed to have powers hid shy and scared in the corners, at the walls, by the side of the road.
What happened to the world she knew? This world full of magic, full of charm and miracles? The magicians, the warlocks and witches? Mythical creatures and fairy tales? Everything had disappeared. Or was hiding.
"Well, this might not be so bad for some of them", she said to herself, remembering less nice meetings with magicians who thought they were stronger then a young looking witch.
Lilia had to laugh.
And for the first time someone stared at her.
A little girl, about 5 years old.
"Why are you laughing?", asked the little one.
"Why not?", asked Lilia in return, bowing forward. "Tell me, little one, do you know any witches?"
The girl flinched, looking scared at her.
"They are bad. Get killed", she answered finally, nodding and fully convinced.
Her face hard as stone Lilia looked at the child.
With just a movement of her eyes she threw the girl at the next wall.
Immediately a bunch of people surrounded the witch.
"A witch" - "She didn't even touch Rosa" - "Tell the king" - "Kill the witch"
Everyone was talking nervously, looking at each other, at Lilia, the child and at Lilia again.
The men armed themselves with everything they could use as a weapon, stood in a circle surrounding Lilia.
She folded her arms across her chest and took a close look at everyone.
"You had better let me go", she said strong-willed, cold as ice. "Even a stake can not kill me."
The men closed in.
Lilia sighed. Actually she did not want to catch anyone's eye on her first day of freedom. But she could feel the nervousness, the agitation of the people around her. Two days of darkness and now this.
Lilia could understand them. And with a wide gesture she let them fly through the air.
"You should stay on the ground. So far I've been nice to you and will let you live in this world. Although it might be more nice, to think about that again". She mulled it over shortly, looked around, saw the little girl's face covered with tears, detecting the scared, almost panicked respect.
Joy flooded the witch. There it was again. The respect.
She was satisfied, turned her back to the village and continued her way to the castle.
Of course she saw this man getting onto his horse and galloping away in front of her. He would reach the castle a lot sooner. But why not? They would have the time to prepare for her and her questions. To think of a defence.