Earth's Grand Healer
Part 12: Ancient Witch
"Are you telling me the sea-witch and the demon may be the same person?"
"I don't know," Eridac stated. "I have told you about the sea-witches and their part with regards to Atlantis.
"If she is a sea-witch, how would she survive all this time?"
"If she is Altan's daughter, she would be able to breathe both air and water. She would have to adapt to whatever surrounding she found herself in."
"That makes a lot of sense," Samantha concurred. "But that would make her thousands of years old."
"She was a witch," Eridac reminded Samantha. "Her powers would be able assist to sustain her."
"Not without food or water or even air."
"Perhaps."
Samantha thought for a moment. "You said she would have to adapt."
"Yes."
"Maybe she did adapt. Maybe she became trapped and had to find a way to survive. Maybe there was very little food to sustain her so she used her magic to get whatever sustenance she could find."
"Your life-mate must be rubbing off on you."
"Why do you say that?" Samantha asked.
"I understand he is a solver of problems," Eridac stated. "I am not familiar with the word."
"You mean detective," Samantha replied. "Yes, he does like to solve problems."
"Perhaps your life-mate may assist in learning about this," Orin suggested.
"It's possible he might, but if this is a banished sea-witch this is an Atlantean problem."
"I agree," Eridac stated.
"I do not understand how a sea-witch ended up in Gotham," Samantha said. "And how could she live for thousands of years. It still seems inconceivable."
"There are other waterways to enter the world of the surface dwellers without being seen," the librarian stated.
"Underground waterways, of course!" Samantha exclaimed.
"Sea life as well as freshwater creatures live in these waterways. The sea-witch isn't going to take any more than what she needs to survive. So long as there is water and she has access to food, the sea-witch can survive for as long as necessary."
"There must have been a cave-in. That's how she became trapped."
"Yes," Eridac agreed. "I doubt she intended to live in a cave forever. The oceans and waterways are vast. She may have underestimated or intended to find a place to live on land, but the waterways she chose led underground. The passageway may have remained open for hundreds of years until something happened to block it. She could no longer escape to the sea to hunt, and she had to adapt."
"You may be right," Samantha conceded. "But how do I stop her?"
"The question first should be how do you find her."
"That's true. I think I might know a way."
"I am glad I can be of service my Princess," Eridac bowed.
"I need to return home. Give my love to my father," Samantha said as she rushed from the library headed back to the Zeta tube to get back to the cave.
'Maybe Bruce knows more about the history of the cave. Then maybe not.'
Samantha needed to look for an area like the sunken garden. That might be where the cave with the sea-witch was located. The bat cave was a huge place. Bruce had outfitted it with all kinds of equipment and various levels that contained labs and storage areas. Even so, it hadn't really been fully explored, at least by her. Samantha was realizing there was more to the bat cave then she thought there was. There could be a whole network of caves and tunnels. And in that instance, how was she going to find one cave in a network of caves?
Continues with part 13