The marketplace was as busy as ever, despite the stars settling in the sky. Witches and demons shoved their way past me, being in much more of a hurry than I was. Unlike them I didn't fear the thugs starting to gather, waiting for the night market to emerge with the moon. In fact, if I hazard a guess, they were much more frightened of me.
After a very long walk I finally found what I was searching for, a small stand selling baked goods. The seller flicked their ear in welcome, his vivid blue eyes lighting up in excitement. These days, he was the only person who was happy to see me, and that was only because I was willing to pay more for his goods than anyone else. I had no choice after all.
"Odalia" he greeted with a large fanged smile. "You're back".
"I am". I smiled while shoving down my growing annoyance. "Just like every other day".
The freckled dark skin witch ducked down and pulled out a long paper bag. He handed it over to me and patiently waited for me to pay him.
"I added a muffin in there free of charge".
"Is it free if you're overcharging me for everything else?" I wryly asked as I struggled to keep the fake grin on my face.
"Well, you used to be a businesswitch. You know you've gotta seize every opportunity to make as much as you can".
"I suppose" I muttered before begrudgingly thanking him and walking away.
My frustration didn't die with the conversation. It followed me all the way back to the shabby shit-hole I called a home. With an angry gruff, I slammed the door behind me. The floorboards cried, the carpet still spotted with apple blood lights took a while to flicker on, and when they did they weren't nearly as they should've been.
With how renowned of a saleswoman I was before the day of unity, it shouldn't have been hard to find and pay workers to fix everything. Yet my first name had become a pungent plague. Despite how much I offered, witches who'd take me as a customer were few and far between and witches who came to me for financial advice were even less. Titan forbid they support the witch who supplied the emperor with weapons during his mass genocide. How dare she not let her family die along with everyone else.
Well they weren't my family anymore. I no longer bore the Blight name nor associated with any of those ungrateful bastards. I should have never trusted my so-called partner to begin with, let alone have those three brats with him. I can't believe I was foolish enough to believe they gave a damn about me.
A sharp aching pain nestled into the bottom of my back. Each step I took from the kitchen to my bedroom dug into the sole of my feet. It was time to throw this day away. Perhaps tomorrow would be different.
My bedroom was frozen, even though it was still warm outside. How that was even possible, I couldn't tell you. All I could do was curl up under the covers and soak into my own body heat. I was able to fall asleep for a small while, though how many hours I'm not sure.
What I did know was that I was prematurely awoken by an alarmingly loud noise. It was a heavy scraping sound, like something was being dragged across the wooden floor of my home. And that something also rattled as metal clanked against metal. There was nothing in my house that made that sound on its own. Someone else was here. Someone had broken in!
I rose to my bare feet, my fangs gritted together like a snarling manticore. Lifting my hand into the air, I prepared to defend myself by any means necessary. I didn't know who or what was lurking around, but they definitely picked the wrong witch to mess with.
"Come out now" I barked into the hallway. "And I might let you live!".
The sound stopped for a moment before the rattling rushed closer. I took a step backwards, hoping that the intruder would burst into my room. The more space, the larger my attack could be.
A pale white hand emerged from the shadows and grabbed the door frame in front of it. Around it was a thick rusty shackle that was wrapped in a chain with giant links.
"Come into the light" I ordered.
The trespasser did as he was told. With a few steps, the moonlight in my window revealed a pallor and scruffy older man. His rugged brown hair had splashes of abomination matter in it, as did the dark trench coat he was wearing. Just like his arm, chains wrapped around him like a serpent and his usually luster golden eyes were dull and agitated.
"Alador?" I called before anger swept through me. Out of all the people who could've broken into my home, it just had to have been my ex. "What are you doing here?".
"I've come to give you a warning, Odalia" his voice rumbled like thunder.
"You should've just called me or tried knocking on the front door. It is the middle of the night, and you are trespassing!".
"My message can't wait until morning. You need to hear it now!".
"What message?" I spat incredulously. "And why are you wearing those ridiculous shackles?".
"These are the chains I used to lock my family out while I was too focused on my work".
"Really?" I scoffed with a roll of my eyes. Had Alador seriously broken into my home just to lecture me?
"You're doing the same, Odalia. You're pushing your family away".
"I'M pushing my family away?!" I yowled. "You and the children have wanted NOTHING to do with me ever since the day of unity!".
"Because you've turned into a MONSTER! You chose to aid the emperor in killing thousands of witches!".
"What choice did I have?! Should I have just let us and the kids die along with them?!".
"You could've joined us, and helped fight against the emperor! But NO! You wanted to be treated like royalty! You believed the emperor's lie!".
"Those witches were going to die anyway! But the emperor gave our family a chance to live past the day of unity, to THRIVE! I chose to save all of us!".
Alador's anger made him lurch forwards. With slow heavy steps, he closed the space between us. The chains slung around him pressed down on his back, making it look as if he had broken it.
"The only choice that matters anymore is now!", he roared. "Show us you care, or else your anger will crush you, like these chains are crushing me".
"What do you think I'd been doing the entire time we'd lived together?! I worked myself to the bone to keep our company going, to give our children every chance to succeed as possible!".
"All you did was try to impose your hunger for success onto us. You didn't love us for who we really are, only for what we could've been".
"ENOUGH OF THIS!". My temper snapped like a twig, my patience lighting ablaze in rage. "You have FIVE SECONDS to leave my home before I alert the authorities!".
Alador took a moment to breathe before he darkened. His eyes sunk in earnestly as his ears flattened to where they pointed to the ground. While his urgency calmed, it had gone nowhere.
"You will meet three more visitors tonight, Odalia. When the clock strikes one, a familiar witch shall guide you through your past. When the clock strikes two, a familiar witch shall open your eyes to the present. And when the clock strikes three, a familiar witch will give you a glimpse of your future if you do not change your ways".
"What are you going on about?! You mean three more people are going to break into my hou—". Like a cold breeze, Alador was swept away into thin air. Within seconds, it was as if he hadn't been there in the first place. "Alador? Alador!".
Silence fell onto my room like a thick fog. Only echoes of our shouting remained, ringing in my ears like the blood rushing through them. What in the late titan's name was that? And what did Alador mean that three more people would visit me tonight? He didn't mean…He couldn't have meant THEM, could he?
The last time I had seen any of my children, they swore to never speak to me again. Just like the rest of the isles, they partially blamed me for the day of unity. They said that I never should've sold the army of abomi-tons to the emperor's coven, instead teaming up with a band of criminals headed by a few traitorous coven heads.
After all the years that had passed, the very thought that any of my children would break into my home to talk to me, let alone want to be in my presence baffled me. Then again, I didn't expect to find my former husband in my home either, yet there he was.
As my head whirled, I backed into my bed and fell onto the mattress. I had to decide what to do. I was very capable of keeping my three children off of my property. Nothing was stopping me from creating a barrage of spirits to patrol the house. But a feeling buried way deep inside made me pause.
Could it have been curiosity? I must admit that I was at least a little meddlesome. Of course, all this would probably end the same way my talk with Alador did, with an altercation. But I hadn't seen my children since after the collector had left the isles. It was only natural that I wondered how they were doing.
Titan dammit! This weakness was the reason I was here! Had I decided to go on my own and not have a family with a witch I mistakenly thought cared about me, I wouldn't have fallen this low. But I had nothing to lose now. How disastrous could everything really end if I just played along?
An old and tired chime rang from the weathered clock outside my room. There was only one, meaning that the first "familiar witch" I was expecting would arrive at any time. Within a split second, I made my decision. I would entertain this idea, but once I tired of it I would drive them away and end this whole farce.
With a sudden powerful flash, the spot on the floor in front of me lit ablaze. The orange flame spread like water across the floor before climbing up the wall. Its light was nearly blinding, the smoke rising through the air making my eyes burn and water. Yet I kept my brilliant blue eyes open, in search of whichever one of my children wanted to meet with me first. From how flashy their entrance was, I guessed it was one of the twins.
My stinging eyes found something swimming through the blaze…an image…No…A memory! It was me, back when I was a lot younger, sitting next to Alador and Darious. The three of us peacefully sat on the stairs of Hexide. As Darious talked about titan knows what, Alador leaned into me. I melted at his touch, a smile falling on my face as I soaked in his warmth.
Next to it, I saw my mother, scolding me for breaking something. And next to that, my old history teacher was handing a graded test back to me. My graduation, when Alador proposed to me, when we opened Blight industries, it was as if my entire life was floating in the flames that raged all around me.
But for some reason unbeknownst to me, one of the memories stuck out. In my arms, swaddled in a light pink blanket, quietly rested an infant. As I rocked her back and forth, her golden eyes fluttered. Next to her, in their father's arms, rested her brother. He let out small coos as he slept soundly. I couldn't help but smile at the sight. My two eldest were quite the chaotic pair when they were witchlings, but they were also incredibly adorable.
From the memory, someone emerged. She was graceful, her skin as light as both mine and her father's. Like a candle, the small amount of hair on her head was a small flicker of fire. Her eyes were also nothing but a flash of flames. When she stopped in front of me the fire around us faded into smoke that was then carried away by a cold draft.
"Mom" she greeted. "It's been awhile".
"It has" I passively said back with a nod of my head. "How have you and your siblings been?".
"All three of us are fine. Life is treating us well. But I didn't come here tonight to talk about myself".
"According to your father, you've come to walk down memory lane with me".
"Yes. But it's not your past we're going to be visiting".
"It's yours" I hmmed. That made enough sense. Emira knew much more about her own past than she did about mine, though her entrance proved she knew more about my past then I had realized. "But be warned. The first moment this becomes a lecture or an argument, this all stops".
"I'll let the past do most of the talking".
Emira reached out to me, offering me her hand. When I took it, another, much larger, flash of light engulfed the both of us. With my other arm, I shielded my eyes. Titan, if things kept up like this, I would be completely blinded by the end of the night!
When I opened my eyes back up, we were no longer in my bedroom. We were somewhere much nicer, a place I used to call home: Blight early morning sunlight shone through the window, turning everything around us a peaceful light orange. Up above the fireplace, looming over everything sat our old family portrait. Seeing me with the rest of my family made my chest ache. The joy they used to bring me was now tainted with the pain they gave me now.
On the couch in the living room, younger versions of the two twins quietly chatted to one another. By the smiles on both of their faces, it was obvious that they spent the entire night doing things they weren't supposed to. I must admit that I was always envious of the two. I missed the day, Alador and I used to sneak out and spend the entire night together.
My ear flicked at the sound of the front door opening and closing. After a few moments, in walked my third child. In her arms she held one of those garish "Azura" books she used to obsess over. She looked deep in thought, at least until she noticed her two siblings.
"Morning, Mittens" the younger Emira purred slickly. "Did you enjoy your night out with Luz?".
Luz. Despite stopping the day of unity and saving us from Belos, I still couldn't stand the little brat. Her rebellious nature had infected my younger daughter, turning her into a nightmare! That I would never forgive her for.
"You didn't kill her, did you?". If only my child had the guts to.
Amity said nothing. She simply tried to walk past as if she hadn't noticed the two. She only made it halfway across the room before her brother stopped her by grabbing her arm.
"Hey, we're talking to y—". Edric jumped backwards when his sister hollered in pain. She flinched backward and held her shoulder. "You're hurt!".
"Did Luz do this to you?" Emira butt in.
"No" Amity finally answered. "Luz is the one who saved me. Otabin did this".
Otabin? She didn't mean the pink little mouse thing from that one children's book did she? How could that thing hurt anyone, even if it was actually real?
"When was this?" I question while bringing my gaze back to the real Emira.
"This was the morning after something we call "the library incident".