AUTHOR's NOTE: This is the start of the Charmcaster "finding hope" arc, the following chapters will be oriented towards the sorceress. Enjoy:)
Hope didn't know how long she's been walking through this seemingly empty forest. She rode a taxi to a random dirt road and now she's been walking aimlessly, looking for her old cabin home. Her mind was still on the subject of leaving Gwen during a tough moment for the redhead, but Hope knew that if she didn't leave then she'd get sucked into someone else's story. She wanted to respect Hex's final wishes to return home, maybe get some background on her parents in the process. Hope didn't remember much about her parents considering they gave her away at such a young age. Hex would always talk of the great things his brother accomplished, along with the immense amount of strength her mother had. The man refused to tell her anything other than a vague story of how they met. Grace always complained to her husband about neglecting the girl's family history but Hex stayed stubborn with his choice of secrecy.
"Now it's too late to ask you guys anything," Hope mumbled under her breath.
She stuffed her hands in the pockets of her cloak as she moved past the dozens of trees. She glanced down at the ghostly figure of a silver haired little girl staring up at her. Hope gave her younger self a sad smile and the vision pointed towards something in the distance. She peered over at the still-standing brown logs of her old family home and time seemed to slow down as she stepped towards her destination. Hope's former home was completely untouched by time, not even a fallen leaf on the roof. She wondered if it was some type of spell that kept the house in pristine condition. Hope reached for the knob and gave it a slow twist with a gentle push on the door, revealing a dark interior. She stepped inside and scanned the living room for any abnormalities, she kept on guard for any hostile presences that may have jumped on the opportunity of an empty house. Nothing seemed to jump at her from the shadows and she continued her search of the cabin. Charmcaster waved her hand and the candles flickered to life that brung a warm light into the house.
The witch pulled on the handle of the library door and entered what could be considered the most dangerous part of her little home. She was relieved to know nobody had gotten their hands on Grace and Hex's books of knowledge. If she was going to discover her roots then she'd need their valuable resources. Charmcaster's eyes glowed a bright pink and the books lining the bookshelves were shrouded in a pink veil. They were pulled from their spots into the air, then their pages began to flip wildly, before each open book was packed edge to edge on the table. Hope skimmed through the pages in search of any information about her parents, when she came across a letter addressed to Hex.
Hello my dear brother, I hope all is well with you and mom. I am writing to inform you of my delay back from the country. We are currently caught up in the Moon festival and passage by wagon would be impossible until after the festivities. Don't worry it'll only be a couple more days until I am home and please tell mom that I will bring back her favorite jar of honey. Good-bye for now.
Charmcaster glanced down at the signed closing of the letter, she squinted at the small dried cursive and was able to make out the name "Hector". So Hector was the name of my father? Hope changed her objective to searching for more of these letters between brothers, her goal was to unravel the true story behind her parents.
A warm hand cupped the witch's face and she jolted awake with cautious eyes scanning the library. Was that a dream? She thought as she yawned and stretched before looking at the table. It was covered with the letters Hector sent his brother; she spent the last two nights rummaging through old books and files to search for these letters. Hope grabbed the next note in the series, and she thanked Hector for stamping his responses with dates.
I'm telling you that Charm isn't like that, Hex, I don't understand why you think she is a bad person . The article you sent me of her past espionage scandal does raise a couple of red flags but who am I to judge someone's past? I asked her about it and she said she's come a long way from that dark past and frankly I believe her. I don't understand how you can't just support us, even if you don't like her then support me then.
"Are you still working on your letter to Hex?" a quiet voice came from the doorway.
Hector turned around with a smile and put down his pen before standing to greet the love of his life.
"No, I just finished."
"Does he still hate me?"
Hector frowned before giving the taller woman a sad smile, he stepped over and hugged her tightly. He could feel her heartbeat against his and her silent breath against his hair. The man stroked her silver hair slowly with reassuring passion.
"No he doesn't hate you. He just needs time to warm up to you. But that doesn't matter, it doesn't matter who and how many hate you because I still love you and I'll always love you."
Hector planted a small kiss on his girlfriend's lips and Charm smiled warmly at the man's affection.
"I can't believe that he won't listen to me!" Hex complained as he paced around his room.
A brown-haired woman sat on his bed with a worried frown, she had been silently listening to her boyfriend's rant for the past 30 minutes.
"Why does it even matter?" she finally spoke up.
"Why?! Because he's sleeping with a goddamn spy! Not to mention she's from a rival tribe!"
"And what does that have to do with their relationship? If they both love each other then I don't see the problem."
When magic was entering its first year of discovery, the four founding practitioners separated and traveled to the four corners of the world to unearth the secrets of mana. Each user developed their own style of magic: elemental, healing, physical, and special. Those in the West that studied elemental were rumored to have power over the natural elements, making them the strongest of the four categories. The North was specialized in the healing arts and were known to have long lifespans and little to no diseases spreading about; they had a monopoly on medical trade making them financial hunchos of that era. Southerners spent years honing their mana control and training their bodies to be enhanced by magic, a clan of muscle-bound warriors that didn't cast spells, but rather had conditions to their magic that were influenced by tangible objects around them. Masters of the magic weapon and apparatus that relied on their tools to fight their battles, being the world's warmongers throughout history. East was a barren wasteland and not much was known about the inhabitants. Travelers gossiped of terrifying magic and monsters roaming the area; a midnight black castle stood on a terrible hill guarded by demons and surrounded by the bones of unlucky guests. Those same people even speculated that the easterners studied black magic that was sworn to be forbidden by the master that taught them the basics of magic. Soon even the four original types of magic were further split and many derivatives and sorts emerged that brought even more communities and users of magic.
Charmcaster read through the books very carefully. It seems that Hector and Charm's clans were cut from the same cloth in terms of deriving their magical abilities from Zeke, the warlock fabled to stand at the peak of magical strength. She also discovered that the followers of Zeke split into two factions several decades ago, the new head of physical magic was a boy by the name of Zale; he made a name for himself when he bested Zeke in combat. Socerers followed Zale thinking that Zeke had gone "soft" in his old age, and loyalists stayed by the original warlock's side. This soon brought in-fighting to crown the strongest and blood was spilt for each leader's honor. Most people grew tired of constant battle and spread out to make their own tribes in peace, but the two largest clans continued to fight like their lives depended on it.
After endless years of bloodshed, A generation decided to create a treaty for the sake of their children's future. Hector and Charm grew up in that peaceful era where the elites were constantly suspicious of the other breaking the agreement. Talk of betrayal and deceit spread throughout the communities and soon the clans were at each other's throats again. The reasoning behind the sudden uprising was Hector and Charm's relationship, a commoner courting the daughter of an elite was pure blasphemy. The followers of Zeke thought Hector had bewitched the young woman into doing his bidding, while the other side accused Charm of espionage and conspiracy. The fragile treaty fell apart underneath the weight of intense blood-lust and battle broke out on both sides. A letter written by Charm to Hex detailed the results of the intense conflict.
You'll have to forgive me for not keeping in touch the past several weeks. Things have been equally as tough on our side as well. My family officially disowned me as of last week, I've apparently been too "corrupted" by your clan and so they cut all ties. It was easier this way for them with the allegations of espionage during a time of peace. There isn't much left of my village resulting from the events of this week. I have no regrets about my decision to side with Hector and his clan. Zeke's flame of hatred that burned within my people needed to be extinguished and in the end this was the result. Hector told me to tell you that we don't bear any hatred towards you for the leader's choice to exile me. And he said not to worry about him, that this was his choice. We will continue to live in the shadows and raise our daughter without any attachment to any clan. This is goodbye for now.
Hope fingered the old parchment slowly as her eyes glanced over her mother's letter. This piece of paper was the closest thing she had to her mother. She expected to get some type of emotional rise, but there was no tugging on her heart strings, in fact she felt rather bland at the moment. She jumped at the sudden bang and looked over at the book that had fallen from the table, Charmcaster picked up the unfamiliar book and an envelope fell from the pages. Hope recognized the book to be an old spell book that Hex guarded rather closely when they were living in the house. She was never allowed anywhere near it and she noticed that he'd study its contents late at night. Charmcaster felt a strange presence from the book, not quite evil like the previous book she had stolen from Hex, but ancient and powerful. She placed the book down instead and opened the envelope to see a small piece of ripped paper inside.
Charm isn't getting any better, she keeps saying that she's going to die but I won't let that happen. I'm going to use the spell- the one that grandma taught us. And if anything happens to me, please take care of my daughter. I am begging you, brother. Do this one thing for me. Do no-
The letter cuts off there, it's missing the lower half of the paper. Hope decided not to search for the missing piece, she already assumed what the ending said. The silver haired witch had learned all she needed to know about her parents. But was that all she needed to come here for, some letters and books? She questioned Hex's reasoning behind telling her to return to her roots.
"I could've gone my entire life without knowing about my parents and nothing would have changed. Why did Hex want me to come here?"
"Perhaps he wanted you to learn about more than just your parents," a baritone voice answered.
Charmcaster almost blew away the entire room, her glowing wand was pointed directly at a small white bunny sitting in a chair by the wall. She narrowed her eyes at the intruder and slowly approached the possible foe.
"Do not fret, child. I am naught but a little bunny rabbit. I mean you no harm."
"And how do I know that? Last time I checked, rabbits can't talk."
"Hm maybe not to you but I assure you that I am only a talking bunny."
The speaking animal ignored the wand and hopped onto the table and glanced over the books and letters she had been reading.
"It seems that you've figured out a piece of the puzzle. Now we can move onto the next step. Let's start with introductions, I am Mister White and I will be your acting tour guide and guardian."
"I can protect myself and tour guide? For what? And what puzzle are you talking about?"
"Patience, young one. All questions will be answered there."
Mister White turned towards a swirling purple portal in place of the library door. He hopped along the table towards the exit, but Hope stood still as she gazed into the portal.
"You expect me to follow you into some portal after giving me some shady introduction like that?" Hope stated firmly.
"I'm giving you a choice as I do with everything; you can stay here forever trying to figure out Hex's intentions or you can follow me into the spirit realm and gain the strength and knowledge to claim that answer for yourself."
The white rabbit kept hopping towards his destination and when he was one skip away from the door, his ears twitched and he glanced back at Hope with solid red eyes.
"Up to you, Hope."
And with that last comment, the bunny hopped into the mysterious gateway. Charmcaster slowly stepped closer to the door. She was still hesitant about the bunny's motive behind helping her. Was this a trap? She thought to herself, but it didn't seem like a trap to her. She could only take a deep breath and hope for the best before stepping into the portal. The gate closed behind her and now the house was once again empty.
AUTHOR's NOTE: I will be going on vacation for the next two weeks and I wanted to get this chapter out before leaving. No more Charmcaster family backstory and it's time for her adventure into the spirit realm. I most likely won't upload again until the end of month. Sorry for the delay but I needed a vacation, anyway see you guys later.