It took Amity a moment to process what her mother had just said. When she succeeded, she went through several phases in the space of just five seconds: first she convinced herself that she had heard wrong, then that her mother was making fun of her, then she realized that her mother was serious, then she felt panic rising inside her, then confusion, then a thousand questions made their way through her brain. In the end she exclaimed: "Okay, that's enough! I've had way too much emotion for today, and tonight I was finally having a quiet sleepover with my friends, and suddenly the exuberant blond boy over there started acting strange, then I hear a roar, I come here and find you in chains, and then you tell me you're a witch and that I am too!? Now I want a damn explanation!"
Odalia nodded. "I'll tell you everything, don't worry. It'll be a long story..."
"We have timec Edric said, and Emira crossed her arms in complete agreement with her brother.
"Okay, but I advise you to sit down. There will be... a lot to talk about" Odalia replied, and almost mechanically all the kids in the room sat down on the floor in front of her; even though this was technically a family conversation, Luz, Willow, Gus, Boscha, and everyone else were too curious to leave, and after all, none of the Blights had asked them to. The only ones left standing were Odalia, Alador, and Hunter, the boy still standing in his attack position. Just then Flapjack returned, flying so fast that he nearly crashed into the wall, carrying Hunter's staff in his paws; the boy wasted no time and grabbed it, and then he aimed it at Odalia. "Let's set the record straight" he growled. "If you make just one false move, witch, I'll kill you. The only reason I haven't done it yet is because we're in front of your children and apparently I'm developing some moral scruples recently, but if you try to move a single finger on my friends you can consider yourself dead. I have already killed some of your kind; don't make me kill you too"
"I already told you that I am not an evil witch" Odalia repeated to him without showing the slightest fear.
"Tsk! As if it were possible that a creature that possess and use dark magic could be good" Hunter grumbled.
"Says the boy holding a staff overflowing with dark magic" Odalia replied.
Hunter was about to say something else, but a familiar buzz entered his ears, and a moment later Willow settled on his shoulder and motioned for him to be quiet. That was not the moment to be hostile: she understood the boy's reasons, and indeed in a certain sense she agreed with him since lowering their guard in front of a dangerous being like a witch was a truly stupid move, even if she assured to be peaceful, but now it was better to remain calm. Sure, Luz had entered Vee's heart and turned her into her sister precisely because she had believed in her right from the start despite she was a dangerous being like a basilisk... but Luz was Luz.
Seeing that Hunter had calmed down, or at least had no intention of continuing to speak, Odalia looked back at her three children. Emira and Edric were looking at her inquisitively, and they seemed eager to know what she had to say; Amity, on the contrary, was as still as a statue and limited herself to staring at her so intensely that for a moment the woman saw her own gaze capable of penetrating the soul of others, but with reversed roles. "So... to begin with, as I already said I am not a dark witch but a white witch. Which means I am not bound by having to perform only evil deeds even though I possess dark magic. The process by which I am able to do so is very complicated, but I'll explain it in detail later. For now, just know that I'm not one of the evil witches in fairy tales who curse princesses or cause famines"
Emira and Edric seemed a little more relaxed, if only slightly; at least that was a good thing. Amity, on the other hand, didn't move a muscle. "I am descended from a great line of very famous witches. They were known as the Emerald Witches because of their hair. I assume you can understand why" Odalia said pointing to her emerald green hair. "We have a long history behind us... not all of them were white witches, obviously; during the long centuries there were continuous clashes between the clan members who wanted to continue pursuing the pure form of dark magic and those who... modified to live a life that was different from the eternal dark imperative to kill, consume and conquer that all evil creatures follow. However, over time the white witch faction supplanted the dark one, and so the Emerald Witches began to try to use their powers for good... but before they could even do so, a new enemy appeared on the scene... and it wasn't just their enemy, but the enemy of the entire world. A being who still lives today and is feared by everyone... Belos"
At the mere mention of that name Luz shivered, and Amity momentarily abandoned her statuesque position and cast a worried glance at the puppet. Odalia didn't seem to notice, so she continued: "I suppose that I don't need to tell you the story of that monster, I'm sure you all already know it. During the first centuries of his rule, Belos had transformed the oceans into his reign of terror, but they weren't the only ones to suffer... all the towns on the coast had been evacuated, because at any moment they could be destroyed by gigantic tsunamis unleashed by his fury. Millions of refugees had escaped in the hinterland, the homeless had increased dramatically, there wasn't enough food for everyone due to the lack of fish, the economy was collapsing all over the world. And not only that... the cruel power of Belos began to leave residues of dark energy in the ocean, residues that then evaporated along with the water and poured like rain onto the land, poisoning the forests and exterminating the crops, starving more and more people and animals. The entire world was in ruins. The Emerald Witches, along with practically all the other magical creatures and all the human sages, warriors and scientists began to fear that sooner or later Belos would directly break the ocean floor to make the coasts sink and reach the towns inland. It had to be stopped. Unfortunately, the magical creatures have always been loosely united, and have rarely formed an army worthy of this name... and in fact each of them went to face Belos separately, including the Emerald Witches"
The kids bit their lips. They had heard stories before of how terrifying Belos was when he rampaged through the ocean, but they had never truly understood the effects of his fury had on the rest of the world. The only one who wasn't surprised at all was Luz: the mere memory of when she had met that monster and the fear and sense of helplessness he had unleashed in her was enough to make her believe with absolute certainty that this was exactly what would have happened if Belos had gone wild instead of remaining placid in a corner of the ocean. "Needless to say, very few returned. Most of them were devoured and consumed by that horrible monster who used every drop of their magic to grow stronger and stronger. While all the factions and armies of the world failed, Belos grew more and more, fed by all the prey that went alone to throw themselves into his mouth, until he was so large that he could be mistaken for an island. But just when it seemed that Belos had now achieved enough power to sweep everything away... he stopped. No one knows why. He stopped terrorizing the seas and disappeared, spending more and more time immobile in a single corner of the ocean, perhaps sleeping, perhaps in hibernation, moving only every now and then to reach another place to sleep. Slowly the marine ecosystem flourished again, the water became clean again, and humans returned to living on the coasts and traveling across the ocean. But in any case the danger had not ceased... Belos was still alive, and even if now he no longer unleashed his fury, there was no guarantee that he wouldn't do so in the future, and no one know what he was truly planning. As the tragedy of the basilisk people demonstrated, it was enough for him to lash out just once to bring an entire civilization to collapse and a species to near extinction. He had to be stopped permanently... he had to be killed. And the few remaining Emerald Witches spent decades formulating a plan, until they found something. Among those witches there was my mother, your grandmother... the last matriarch of the Emerald Witches"
Not a fly flew in the room. The kids had at least a thousand questions each, but none of them dared to ask even one because they were too busy listening to the story. "Your grandmother and her followers managed to create a special ritual to summon something that over time would accumulate enough power to counter Belos and ultimately kill him. They gathered in Mirkwood just outside of Bonesborough to perform it; as you may know, that was once an area very frequented by witches, to the point that practically every passing witch practiced a ritual there... the reason was that that is an area particularly rich in dark magic and therefore it is easier to recall the dark forces. Your grandmother and her followers prepared to perform the ritual... but unfortunately, just as they were performing it, they were stopped". An angry grimace appeared on Odalia's face. "The people of Bonesborough and all the towns in the surrounding region didn't want the witches to gain enough power to oppose Belos; after all, if they could use it to kill Belos, what would stop them from using it to subjugate them? There was discontent, everyone wanted to prevent it; Belos at least was a known evil, and as they say... you prefer the devil you know than the angel you don't know. The local noble family was tasked with stopping them; they were... well, they were the family of your father, who at the time held the noble title only in name, but it was very decadent since they were incapable of maintaining economic and political power. The father of your father, your grandfather, chose to take advantage of the situation to regain some of prestige, so he led the troops into Mirkwood and when the witches were busy performing the ritual and therefore could not defend themselves, he attacked them by surprise and exterminated them, and then set fire to everything that remained of them and their belongings, also destroying the books that explained how to perform that powerful ritual"
"Did our grandfather do this?" Edric exclaimed in disgust, and Emira and Amity agreed with him. From their point of view, attacking someone from behind and in their moment of greatest weakness was cowardly. Not to mention the witches technically hadn't had bad intentions; while they could understand the reasons of the inhabitants of Bonesborough and the other towns, it was still no justification for killing them all.
Odalia let out a snort. "If it's any consolation, the karma restored his perfidy to him: he lost his noble title shortly after and without it the family fell into poverty, especially as its members continued to maintain a spendthrift lifestyle. The only who remained serious and thrifty... was your father, who at the time was just a very studious, shy and introverted boy, who sold his inventions in order to earn money to pay for his school books. Well... it's precisely school that the two of us met". Suddenly Odalia's tone became slightly softer. "Before they went to perform the ritual, your grandmother had hidden me and left me enough money and magical knowledge to survive without her. I was about Amity's age at the time, but I was able to survive just on my own. And... well, I didn't take well to the fact that your father's family had taken away the last member of my family from me and had exterminated the last remaining Emerald Witches. I wanted revenge. My plan was to go to school, become friends with Alador and then have him take me to his house, and there cast a powerful curse on the whole family. So I created a new identity for myself, I got everything I needed, I spent weeks studying every answer I should have given to every possible question so as not to arouse suspicion. When I started going to school I was ready, and so I met Alador. But the only thing that I hadn't foreseen happened... your father had noticed despite my facade that I needed money, so he gave me one of his inventions to resell. I... well, it didn't take me long to figure out how that invention could be exploited and I sold it to the right people, and made a lot of money from it. But then your father brought me more... he had an innate talent for inventions, and every day he seemed to create a new one. And I was good at reselling them. In the end we mutually decided that he would produce the inventions and I would resell them. I thought about using that partnership as an excuse to get closer to him and therefore to his family and get my revenge... but time passed, and we continued to stay together and work together, and we were a winning couple... and Alador didn't share his earnings with his family, because he believed it was unfair that they took advantage of it without doing anything, and so we got richer while they continued to get poorer. It was quite satisfying to watch those fools drown in despair and alcohol while I, the daughter of the unjustly murdered witch, and him, the introverted son who no one reckoned with, prospered so much, and finally I realized that I no longer need to get revenge so much. And... also, I realized that I was falling in love with your father. Well... I don't need to tell you what happened next: we got married, Alador took my surname, we grew our wealth, and in the end we became the richest merchants in Bonesborough"
"Wow... it almost sounds like a good story, if it weren't for the massacre part" Emira commented. "What happened to the rest of dad's family?"
"Your grandmother died of a fever shortly after my and Alador's wedding. Your grandfather died shortly after as an alcoholic, while Alador's brother, your uncle, got into trouble due to gambling debts and disappeared from circulation" Odalia explained. "It can be fully said that their perfidy had been totally rewarded"
Amity, Edric, and Emira didn't feel sad or happy about that information; after all, they didn't even know the faces of those people. The only feelings were disgust at their actions and satisfaction that fate had finally punished them, but nothing else. Rather, the question that was burning in Amity's mind was another: "Did dad know you were a witch?"
The faint smile that had formed on Odalia's face disappeared. "No" she replied, looking askance at her husband, who looked back with a disdainful look, as if he were almost disapproving of her. "I hadn't told him. I had given up being an evil witch and taken the path of the white witch, but I still didn't want him to know. I felt that if I revealed it I would reopen wounds that must be closed... and unfortunately the facts proved me right. I could hide my magic... but I couldn't hide Amity's when I got pregnant"
Amity was already widening her eyes, but Edric intervened: "Hey, wait a minute! Why Amity? And me and Emira, then?"
"You are not witches" Odalia replied. "When witches and humans mate, there is only a thirty percent chance that the unborn child will have witch blood. Even though you two are my children, you are completely human"
"Seriously!? We can't even do a little magic?" Emira exclaimed. "Couldn't we be... what can I say, late witches?"
"If you had the slightest bit of magical power you would know it by now" Odalia replied. "And if you want my opinion, it's a good thing you didn't get it, or with your attitude you probably would have leveled half of Bonesborough"
Emira and Edric fell flat on their faces on the floor. Their friends were a little sad for them, but there was no one who didn't completely agree with the Blight matriarch. "I totally confirm that" Hunter muttered to himself, having seen the twins' behavior firsthand and knowing with absolute certainty that if those two had even the slightest magic it was very likely that the town of Bonesborough would disappear from the map within a day.
The only one who had ignored that rather ridiculous display of displeasure had been Amity. Her attention was focused on something else. "What do you mean... you couldn't hide my magic?"
Odalia bit her lip. "Amity, I know this is probably a shock to you, and believe me I didn't want you to find out like this... but unlike your siblings, you are a witch. You have magic within you... even if you're still too young to use it"
Amity tightened the edges of her shirt. "I'm a witch...?" she murmured in a trembling voice, and her gaze dropped to the floor. She could feel her heartbeat getting so loud it was ringing in her ears like a drum.
But just as she was about to have a panic attack, two familiar woody arms hugged her from behind. She turned her eyes slightly and met the encouraging gaze of Luz, who had rested her head on her shoulder... and when Amity noticed it, she couldn't repress a cry and stepped aside, falling onto the ground on her back, blushing like a pepper. "Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to intimidate you" Luz told her. "I was… I just wanted to give you some courage… hugs usually work"
"I-It's okay" Amity stammered as she stood up. She wasn't sure why her heart was pounding so hard and her face was on fire, but she was pretty sure it wasn't intimidation. "I... Is that okay with you? I mean... that I'm a witch?" she asked hesitantly, fearing the puppet's reaction.
Luz smiled. "Amity, you are still you. Nothing changes, except that now we know there's magic inside you. I have magic too, otherwise how would I move? Magic doesn't change who we are" she replied with encouraging voice. "And then... you heard your mother, there are also good witches, not just the cruel hags who appear in stories. Maybe they are rare, but they exist, so being a witch doesn't necessarily mean you have to be bad. You don't have to become bad. You are still the only master of your choices"
Amity felt reassured. Of course, what had she thought? Luz wasn't the person who abandoned others for who they were. She was sweet, good, fair; she would never judge someone for how they were born. She looked at her other friends, searching for any hint of fear or hatred in their gaze, but found none, not even in Hunter despite the fact that he continued to point his staff at her mother. Despite all the bad stories they had surely all heard about witches, they were still willing to trust her and be her friends as much as before. Even Emira and Edric, although they were clearly dying of envy, had the same eyes as the two siblings she had had for fourteen years: nothing had changed. All the people in that room didn't seem to give a damn that she was a witch... except for one: her father was in the corner, watching the whole scene with a serious look on his face, and he clearly had a disgusted expression. A horrible doubt crept into her mind: "Mom... how did dad know that you and I were witches... and how did he take it?"
Odalia let out a sigh. She seemed to have almost feared that question. "Well... a witch's pregnancy is not exactly a normal pregnancy. The unborn child absorbs the mother's magic, but since for obvious reasons it cannot control the flow of it, some residues of it are expelled and manifest themselves outside the mother's belly. Flashes, lightning, objects that start floating, cups that melt without reason, your two siblings that suddenly start running and jumping as if they had ingested an abnormal amount of caffeine... a couple of times you have even shone while you were in my womb. You didn't exactly... go unnoticed. Your father noticed from the first moments that yours wasn't a normal pregnancy, so I had to confess the truth to him. He... didn't take it very well, let's say" she replied, and then she tried to change the subject: "But that doesn't matter now. What is important is that..."
Amity didn't even listen to her: she jumped up and walked in front of her father, who as usual was looking in every direction but hers. "It's for this?" she whispered. "Is this why you stopped sleeping with mom and pretended I didn't exist? Because we're witches? Is this the reason you've ignored me since I was born?"
Her father didn't say a word, as always, but Amity could still see a faint light pass through his eyes. Those words had clearly sparked a reaction. At that point she couldn't stop herself anymore and grabbed him by the neck, almost choking him in the process. "ANSWER ME, FOR FUCK'S SAKE!" she screamed. "Stop ignoring me! I'm here, okay? I exist! You can't get rid of me like I'm a stain on a dress! At least have the courage to tell me to my face what you think!"
Alador was silent for a moment, but he lowered his gaze and for the first time he looked at his daughter for more than a couple of seconds. Then he moved suddenly and grabbed her face, so hard he almost hurt her. "Do you want to know what I think? Do you really want it? Well, I'll satisfy you" he hissed in a voice full of disgust. "The thought that half the blood of my noble family is there, imprisoned in those veins of yours where it is constantly soiled by the filthy blood full of dark magic, and the knowledge that one day you will be able to use that blood to use that dark magic in the disgusting streets of your kind... repulses me. The mere sight of you repulses me, just as the sight of that damned seductive witch who carried you in her womb repels me. You are my greatest shame, the greatest mistake of my life; a hideous deformity that should not have existed and must not exist. Do you want me to appreciate you, little witch? Do you want me to be grateful to you for something? Then do me one favor, climb onto the roof of this manor and then throw yourself of... "
He couldn't say anything else: Emira's fist landed squarely on his teeth and was so hard it made him step back; Alador coughed, tasting blood in his mouth. Emira would probably have continued to beat him, but she was stopped by Edric who pointed his head at Amity, who had become so pale that she now resembled a corpse who had been dead for at least a week, and her expression was frozen so much that she didn't move not even his eyelids, as if he were in rigor mortis. All the other kids stood up and hurriedly checked on her condition, and even Hunter lowered his staff for a moment and looked at her worriedly. "How can you say things like that!?" Luz screamed looking at Alador. "She's your daughter! Who cares if she's a witch! What kind of man says things like that to his own daughter!?"
Alador seemed intent on replying, but then Odalia's voice was heard: "ENOUGH!", and when she shouted it the whole room seemed to be hit by a strong wind. When they looked at her, everyone could see that her eyes were glowing again. "Kids, go back to your room. Mittens, I know you have more questions, I'll come right back to answer them as soon as I'm done here. Now I need to talk to your father"
The order was so imperative that the kids didn't even think of opposing it: they all immediately left the study and headed towards Amity's room. Hunter looked back for a moment longer, unsure if it was a good idea to abandon eye contact with a witch, but then Willow yanked him by the hair and looked at him sternly, and he decided to trust her judgment. Amity stopped just at the door, and she turned to her father one last time: "Thank you for finally being honest with me" she whispered, and then she ran away.
As soon as they were outside and the door was closed again, Odalia smirked and turned back to Alador: "Congratulations, you managed to disgust even me. Which says a lot"
"Don't be moralistic. That's exactly what you wanted, right? Otherwise you wouldn't have skipped the most important part of the story" Alador grumbled. "Now your toy is ready to listen to the advice of her lovely mother again, just as you wished. You have always been good at turning disadvantageous situations into advantageous ones. When you confessed so quickly that you were a witch, I knew you had something like that in mind"
"Oh, don't talk like you didn't expect it. And technically I didn't lie once... except when I said you didn't know I was a witch before we got married. I left out some important details, but I didn't lie" Odalia answered him. "I also made you look good, so don't complain. What do you expect your children would think of you if they would know who was the one who asked me to curse their grandparents, or who made their uncle become a gambler?"
"You speak as if it had been a displeasure for you" Alador commented sourly.
"Oh, it wasn't a displeasure, but it wasn't a pleasure either. They were irrelevant to the grand scheme of things, and you know it. I cared about their lives as much as I would about a blade of grass" Odalia told him back. "By the way, now that I think about it... you were inspired by your father for that speech, right? It was just something he would have said"
"I'm not a quick thinker like you. I had to improvise, and using that old idiot's words seemed like the best choice" Alador replied.
Odalia giggled. She seemed quite amused by that situation. "Aren't you afraid that Emira and Edric will hate you from now on?"
Alador's gaze hardened. "Sooner or later they'll understand" he replied, albeit with a bit of hesitation. "Now stop wasting time. Go to your toy and manipulate her now that she's weak, just like you wanted to do. Don't put me in your plans any more than you already have. She's your problem, not mine"
"Okay. Let me just tell you one last thing" Odalia said, and then suddenly she grabbed his shoulder and squeezed so hard she almost broke it, and Alador could clearly feel claws digging into his flesh. His wife's expression became more serious than ever and her hair began to glow with a greenish light and seemed to be agitated. She stared at him like that for a moment, and then she whispered: "Whether you pretend or not, the next time you try to tell MY daughter to jump off the roof, I'll make you pay. Am I clear?"
Alador narrowed his eyes slightly, but he didn't seem the least bit intimidated: "Now do you care about how she might react? Why, are you afraid that your toy will listen to me and break before you can use her?"
Odalia tightened her grip on his shoulder and Alador could clearly feel her nails tearing at his skin; suddenly his wife's teeth seemed to change, becoming sharper like those of a beast, and what looked like green scales appeared around her bright blue eyes. And when she spoke, her voice had become hoarse and deeper: "Don't tease me, Alador. My daughter has a destiny far greater than you could ever dream of. I have done nothing to you all these years although I would very much like to see you disappear from this world, but don't think that if I consider you a problem I won't make you disappear forever"
Alador was gritting his teeth from the pain in his shoulder, but still he didn't show the slightest fear and held his wife's gaze. "You can't. We have a contract, you and I"
"Oh, don't think this will save you. There are many ways to get around a deal, and witches are good at finding them" Odalia replied, and then a forked snake-like tongue emerged from her mouth and grazed her husband's face. "I can't kill you and I can't take anything from you, but don't think there are no other ways to make a man's life impossible. I have no restrictions on the state in which I must keep you, and making your tongue atrophy until it falls off is a magic I can do in ten seconds. The only reason I didn't tear you apart for the last fourteen years is that I didn't want our children to be scared of me, but now I'm pretty sure they think you're enough of an asshole to turn a blind eye if I did it. After all you just insulted me, my daughter and my entire species, who could blame me if I lost control and turned you into a miserable disembodied mass of skin and muscles, nothing more than a human brick unable to move or speak, but with conscience still intact to be able to suffer?". With her free hand she grabbed her husband's face and squeezed his jaw; that hand had become completely covered in green scales and the fingers had lengthened, and the nails had become curved and sharp like those of a lizard. "I will warn you just once, Alador: don't test the patience of a vengeful witch"
Alador finally shivered. "Okay" he said then. "I don't intend to interact with your toy ever again anyway"
"Good. That's how I like you" Odalia said finally letting him go, and within an instant her appearance was back to what it always was. She walked towards the door and started to open it, then she stopped with her hand resting on the handle. "Oh, and Alador... if you ever talk back to me with that attitude again, I'll personally flay off those useless arms of yours, so that you won't be able to devote yourself to your inventions for a long time. You've lost the right to speak to me as an equal fourteen years ago, don't forget it"
She glanced at her husband again, and for a moment she seemed to want to tell him something else, but then she remained silent and left. As soon as the door closed, Alador leaned on the desk and rubbed his shoulder where his wife had grabbed him, where now a few drops of blood was gushing from the wounds opened by her claws, and he let out a long trembling sigh.
In case anyone hadn't figured it out: Alador isn't actually disgusted by witches, he was just pretending to help Odalia. Also because if he had spoken seriously in that way about witches Odalia would have torn his face off with her claws considering that technically he would have insulted her too, and as Odalia herself said, you shouldn't tease a witch's patience.
And yes, I know I'm abusing Belos a bit by using him as part of practically everyone's backstory, but keep in mind that this serves two important reasons, the first narrative and the second worldbuilding. In the case of narrative necessity, Belos' constant presence serves to remind to you readers how dangerous he is and explain why the entire world fears him. In the case of worldbuilding, it is because when you build a world from scratch and insert multiple intelligent species into it (as in this case) you have to find a justification for the fact that humans are the dominant species or that they in any case surpass all other creatures in numbers. This logically shouldn't happen, given that humans since they are not able to use magic (at least not by their nature) should be easily subdued by other races or in any case other races should have no problem multiplying enough to equal or exceed their numbers. Generally, fantasy writers use two ways to overcome this problem: either they make humans a special race protected by the gods (which happens in numerous isekai), or they create an history of that world in which a catastrophic event, natural or otherwise, occurred in the past, which has significantly reduced the number of magical creatures (which is what happens for example in the manga/anime Overlord, where humans have become the dominant species because in the past players from our world have exterminated or subjugated the other stronger races). I chose to take the second path for the worldbuilding of this AU, so as to justify why magical creatures are so "rare" (if you think about it, even if Luz has already met several of them, they are still an insignificant number compared to entire cities composed completely by humans); and the catastrophic event that I chose to use was of course Belos, who pushed practically all magical creatures, including witches and fairies, to the brink of extinction, while he didn't actively hunt humans since they didn't possess magic that he could consume (and therefore from his point of view they were ephemeral prey), and therefore humans, although reduced in number, became the dominant species. Belos is basically this world's equivalent of a dinosaur-killer asteroid