Emira had climbed another flight of stairs, heading towards the upper floor; the last floor of the Blight Manor, directly under the roof. That wasn't an area they went to often, as it was her father's private quarters… or rather, his father's quarters and his laboratory. Until fourteen years earlier her mother had also slept in that area, in the same room and in the same bed as her father; but then, something had happened between them and she had moved downstairs, and since then her two parents had crossed paths and spoken as little as possible.

Emira didn't go there often, but she didn't go too little either; after all, there was no real ban, her father simply used to use instruments that were sharp, hot, acidic, viscous or had other characteristics that were not suitable for being touched without proper preparation. Emira and Edric had learned this the hard way when at the age of nine they had snuck in there, ignoring their parents' warnings, and they started touching everything until they stumbled upon some flammable gas and burned their faces. Their screams had attracted their parents who had found them on the floor in pain, and had immediately carried them to their room; their mother then gave them some cream to spread over their faces, which immediately healed all their wounds. According to her, it was a special ointment that she had received as a gift from a merchant, but she had never specified what it was; it certainly had been really good, because in a few moments not even scars remained on their skin. That time Emira remembered that her father had been truly mortified, apologizing to them in at least ten different ways, and her mother had seemed seriously intent on tearing her husband apart and judging by the screams that after a short time had resounded throughout the Blight Manor she had held back until that moment because she didn't want to make a show in front of their children. Strangely, her voice that time had seemed hoarse and deeper than usual, but that was probably because the door was closed and she was furious. After that event Alador had gotten into the habit of locking the top floor when he wasn't there, even though technically there would have been no need since the two twins had for once learned their lesson very well and had abstain from even climbing stairs for the next five years. Only when they were fourteen Alador decided that they were mature enough and remove the lock so that they could visit him at any time, but still Edric and Emira avoided doing so too often... although they still tried to meet their father at least once a week.

Once she entered the laboratory, Emira felt as usual hit by the familiar smells of chemicals, which seemed like a mixture of rotten eggs and water vapor. She couldn't understand how her father managed to work in such conditions, but he was probably so used to it by now that his nose no longer identified such odors as disgusting. The laboratory was so messy that it seemed to have never been cleaned: everywhere there were shelves full of bolts, screws, nails, hammers, wrenches, screwdrivers and every other useful tool, and scattered on the floor there were countless boxes full of metal. Here and there were some strange gadgets, sometimes taller than a person, that were either discarded inventions or simply forgotten after Alador had had a new idea and focused on it without thinking again on what he was working on. In one corner there was a desk that was so full of projects that it seemed to overflow and the fact that no paper had yet fallen to the floor was a miracle. Finally, next to the room's only window, Emira found her father, who was handling what looked like an enormous spyglass. "Hi, dad"

"Oh, Emira, darling!" her father greeted her with a broad smile, taking off his special glasses which were used to prevent sparks from getting into his eyes. "I'm glad you came to visit me, you're coming just at the right time! Come, see what your old man just finished preparing!"

Having received his approval (and therefore the assurance that there was no risk that at any moment something would set her clothes on fire) Emira approached and looked at the contraption her father was tinkering with. "Wow, a spyglass... you invented the spyglass. It's absolutely not an invention that was patented something like five or six centuries ago. If you work a little harder maybe you could even invent the wheel" she teased him.

Alador chuckled. "This is much more than just a simple spyglass. Not only is it bigger, but I modified the lenses using a special glass processing technique and placed several on top of each other. Come on, Emira... look inside it"

Emira rested her eyes on the base of that strange spyglass, and she was surprised when the image of a gray and bare landscape appeared before them, shining with a faint white light. She looked at it carefully and could glimpse mountains, valleys, canyons, and any other type of natural oddity; there was everything except lakes and rivers and vegetation. She took her eyes off the spyglass and looked out the window to see what it was aimed at, and she made a sound of surprise when she realized that the target was the night sky, or rather, a familiar celestial body that illuminated the world with its whitish light. "I can't believe it, that... is that the moon?" she whispered in an excited voice.

Alador nodded with a smile. "Exactly. With this little toy of mine you can observe the moon and the stars as if they were directly in front of your eyes. I called it telescope" he replied. "Could you ever have guessed? There are mountains and valleys on the moon, just like there are down here! Isn't that amazing?"

Emira had already returned with her eyes glued to the telescope, unable to tear herself away from that vision. She had always thought that the moon was perfectly smooth and spherical, without any imperfections, and now she was discovering that it was very similar to the world she lived in. "Can't I move the view a little?" she asked, eager to see more of the celestial body.

Alador shook his head. "Unfortunately, I haven't yet installed any proper joints to make it move. Besides, I don't think you'd get much... there's a crescent moon today" he replied; in fact there was barely a curved segment of the moon in the sky. "But in a few weeks, when there will be a full moon and I will have improved the telescope... imagine what we will be able to see! If the moon is just like this world, then perhaps the dark spots that fill its surface are actually seas, just like our oceans!"

"Do you think there are seas on the moon!?" Emira exclaimed with her eyes shining.

"Well... it's a hypothesis. They could be many things. Maybe they are tar lakes, or maybe they are huge expanses of solidified lava. The possibilities are endless" Alador replied. "But now that we have this little toy, we can discover it together!"

Father and daughter remained next to the telescope for at least another ten minutes, busy observing that singular vision of a celestial object so familiar and at the same time so exotic. Even though the image on the telescope never changed, since it was always pointed in the same direction, each time they noticed new details, discovering new cracks, new canyons, and even strange circular formations that resembled craters. Only after a while Alador asked Emira to move away so that he could go back to working on the telescope, and so, albeit with some displeasure, his daughter stepped aside and left him tinkering with his instruments. "Anyway, I didn't even ask you how your day was," Alador said as he worked. "You and Edric had the match today, right? How did it go?"

"Yes, today me, Edric and Amity had the match" Emira replied. "We won, we really blew them away! And you'll never believe what happened, it was one twist after another!"

"Uh, really? That sounds like fun" Alador said, completely ignoring the fact that his daughter had corrected him by adding Amity to the list. "What happened that was so incredible?"

In her head Emira took a deep breath: the time had come to say what she had come there for. "It was Amity... she finally stood up to mom!" she answered. "I don't know how she did it, although I have half an idea... but Luz convinced her to stop being little miss perfect! Amity threw away her captain's uniform and just thought about having fun, and then she told mom she no longer wanted to be as perfect as she wanted! And now she invited her friends over, and she dyed her hair lavender instead of the usual mint green, and she even had a pillow fight! I've never seen her so happy! Isn't that great?"

There was silence, and it lasted for several seconds. And then Alador shrugged: "Well, I'm glad you had fun and brought some friends home. Where's Edric by the way? He could have at least stopped by to say hello to this old man. Ah, that boy... I bet he's busy courting the girls in your group, right? Ha ha! After all, he's at that age now... you should get busy too, you can't stay young forever!"

Even though her father was clearly trying to change the subject, Emira persisted: "Well... if you really want to say hello, why don't you come in the kitchen with me? Just for a moment. Give Edric a pat on the shoulder, have a word with us... and maybe... while you're there... you could also... how can I say... compliment Amity"

This time her father didn't even try to answer. Emira felt her heart sink; she had had a hope, a measly hope, that now that Amity had faced their mother their father would be at least a little interested in her... but of course it was a ridiculous hope. After all, what could she expect from a man who had ignored her little sister for fourteen years... "You're not going to talk to her, are you?"

Alador let out a grunt. "No" he replied hastily.

Emira clenched her fists. "Seriously, why are you such an asshole to her!?" she exclaimed. "What does it cost you to speak to her? That poor girl has always wanted just a tiny gesture of appreciation from you, why do you keep denying it to her? We're talking about your daughter... right?"

Alador tightened his grip on the screwdriver in his hand slightly. "Unfortunately she is"

"If she's really your daughter, then what's stopping you?" Emira asked. "Why do you treat her like that?"

"I don't treat her in any way. She's your mother's problem, not mine. That's it" Alador replied.

Emira had to summon all her self-control not to scream in frustration. That had been the answer her father had always given every damn time she had asked him about his behavior with Amity. It didn't mean anything, but that was all Alador had explained to her or to Edric. "I love you, dad... but sometimes you're such an idiot" she finally said, her voice breaking.

Alador didn't say a word, but his posture hunched slightly and his face darkened, as it did every time his daughter scolded him. However, he didn't have time to say anything else because a roar rang out throughout the Blight Manor, making both him and Emira jump. "What happens!?" they exclaimed almost in unison, and they both rushed out of the lab and down the stairs, though of course Emira outpaced her father in the space of a few seconds.

When they reached the floor below, they encountered Amity, Luz and their friends who were like them running towards the source of the sound; the puppet still had a slice of buttered bread in her mouth, a sign that they had been taken completely by surprise while they were eating. Alador tensed as soon as he saw his youngest daughter, but Emira ignored him. "Are you okay?" she exclaimed, running towards them.

"Yes... we didn't make that noise" Amity replied. "And I assume neither do you..."

"No, in fact" Emira said, then she turned towards the end of the corridor. "It came from mom's private study. Let's go!"

The group headed there without hesitation, and what they found was something that to define as unexpected would be an understatement: not only had the bookcase moved, revealing a secret passage, making Emira's eyes widen, who until that moment had never imagined a similar thing despite all the times she had snuck into her mother's study, but what caught her and especially Amity's attention were rather Odalia who was kneeling on the floor with ethereal chains imprisoning her and Hunter who pointed his palm at her on which a strange drawing shone, while Edric and Gus were in a corner completely immobilized. "Hunter! What are you doing!?" Willow exclaimed as she jumped on Luz's head.

"Let my mother go right now! Don't..." Amity was already about to lash out at the boy, when her body froze and her eyes widened. Something was different... her mother's eyes were glowing with a faint blue hue, and her pupils had become vertical, like a snake's. "Mom...? What... what happened to your eyes...?"

"I simply forced her to show herself for what she really is" Hunter said in a deeply serious voice. "Amity, Emira, Edric, there's no easy way to tell you so I'll just say it: your mother is a witch. And I'm not talking about the personality, I mean a real witch"

If anyone wanted to have a clear explanation of what a shocked person was, they could have taken any person who was in that room at the time and had the perfect example. "A... a witch?" Amity stammered. "What... what are you saying? It's not possible..."

"I'm afraid it is" Hunter replied. "I spent years hunting magical creatures, my instincts immediately alerted me that something was wrong when I saw your mother. A few questions to your brother and a little testing on my part confirmed what I thought, and this room full of witchcraft books is the definitive confirmation of that. She is a witch, and now thanks to my seal you can see it for yourself. Witches have those reptile-like eyes"

Amity looked at Hunter, then at her mother with wide eyes. Odalia returned a look of fear and concern that she had never seen in her mother. Then, suddenly, Odalia closed her eyes and lowered her head, and she let out a deep sigh. "The time has come" she murmured, then she turned her head slightly and looked at her husband. "Alador... it's time to give the kids the talk"

The man seemed undecided, confused and scared at the same time, but then after meeting his wife's gaze he seemed to understand something, as if the two adults had spoken to each other without moving their lips and without making any sound with their voices, and although he remained tense he seemed calmer; after that quick glance, he nodded and turned away. "Whatever you want. Tell them, it will be easier if they hear it from your mouth"

"Okay. Oh, and by the way, my dear boy who is definitely not normal and who I will definitely have to keep an eye on... you can't imprison me with that" Odalia said looking at Hunter, and a moment later she moved her fingers in a strange combination and two of the symbols on the walls glowed with a blood-like red light and two rays shot out from them and hit Hunter's palm; the boy dodged them, but they still burned the seal and the chains that kept Odalia imprisoned faltered, and that was enough for the woman to raise her hand and utter an incomprehensible word. In a split second the seal shattered and vanished from Hunter's palm, and the chains around Odalia cracked and broke, dissolving into the air.

Hunter jumped back and his gaze became fierce. "Very clever... you placed magical protections in your lair in advance for the eventuality that you would have found yourself in a situation where you would be completely unable to use your own magic. You are a very smart witch... and also quite powerful" he said, and he wasn't joking about the last part: if Odalia had managed to destroy the seal on his palm with a single spell, her magical ability must have been at a very high level; she certainly knew how to master it very well. "But don't think it's over. You're not the first witch I've faced" he warned her, and in his mind he was already considering whether it would be better to fight using Flapjack or buy time for him to go get his staff.

"Be calm, blond boy. I have no intention to harm to anyone, least of all my own children. And I won't harm you, at least until I'll know who you are and whether you pose a danger or no" Odalia told him. "I'm not a dark witch, I'm a white witch"

Hunter's expression became less aggressive, but still he didn't lower his guard and remained in a fighting stance; at least for the moment it didn't really seem like Odalia was willing to confront him, and he knew it with almost absolute certainty given that he didn't recognize any of the signals that a person emitted when they were ready to attack (slightly inclined posture, legs apart, tense muscles, gaze aimed at looking for weak points) in her, so he had time. He nodded to Flapjack, who immediately flew out the window to retrieve his staff: even if Odalia wasn't hostile at the moment he had no guarantee that she would remain so in the future, and if he had to face her he preferred to do it with his most powerful weapon in hand. A witch was certainly not like a greater basilisk, which once deprived of its ability to absorb vital energy could only count on physical strength: witches were masters in the use of dark magic and could fight admirably even with beings that seemed much more powerful than them. Hunter knew that Odalia only needed to hit him with one curse to knock him out, so he had to be very careful.

Amity walked over to her mother. She had the expression of a person who had just received a blow to the head. "Mom… are you really a witch?" she whispered with a lot of fear and confusion in her voice.

Odalia bit her lip, and it seemed that what she was about to say was costing her dearly. "Yes, Mittens, that's right. I'm a witch" she replied, and after a few moments she added: "And so are you"

For those who are not experts in folklore, the so-called white witches (or wizards, because they were there too!) are figures that emerged in the medieval imagination to indicate people who, despite not having made any pact with the devil (which in fact created dark witches and wizards) were endowed with magical powers. They were essentially all the druids, priests or seers belonging to the pagan populations, who did not use their magic for evil but for good and therefore it was connected to nature, which in turn was connected to God. An example of a white magician is the famous Merlin, who, despite using magic (an action which, let's remember, in the Middle Ages sent you to the stake) used it for good and prosperity and not to do harm. The folklore of white magic is very complex, so to simplify a lot it is normally identified as follows: any magic born from a pact with the devil is dark magic, any magic not born from it (regardless of how it was created) is white magic; consequently for obvious reasons white magic is often associated with good actions, given that there is no devil involved, but this does not mean that the person who uses it cannot perform evil ones (indeed it is easy for such people to fall victim of the temptations of their own power, effectively selling themselves to the devil). In this AU obviously there are no figures such as the devil or God, at least not as in the Christian imagination, consequently a dark witch is a witch who uses dark magic (basically 99% of witches), while a white witch is one who instead, despite possessing dark magic, manages not to use it exclusively for evil but is able to decide if act bad or good (I will explain how it works later)