Luz was looking at the spot where Amity and her mother disappeared into the sky, without saying a word. She was so immersed in her thoughts that she almost didn't notice a hand resting on her shoulder. "Hey, kiddo, is everything okay?" Eda asked her.

Luz bit her lip. "It's just… I can't shake the feeling that something bad is going to happen"

Eda was surprised by such words. "You're worried about your lovely girlfriend, I understand, but you shouldn't be discouraged. You'll see, she's strong..."

"I know, Eda. I have faith in Amity. It's just that... I don't know, it's like I feel like there's something terribly wrong" Luz answered her. "I don't know how to explain it. It's like..."

But she didn't have time to say anything else. Suddenly, all the puppet's hair stood on end more than ever and she got goosebumps; Luz felt her heart speed up as if she had just been scared. Eda also had the same reaction, and even staggered on her legs. She wasn't the only one: everyone else seemed to be struck by fear too, and noises could be heard in the nearby houses as if the rest of Bonesborough had just taken a fright too; even the Palismen began to stir in fear. "What the heck is going on!?" Willow exclaimed trying to calm down. "Was it magic?"

"No... it was something else" Eda whispered; from her look Luz immediately understood that she was very worried. "It was like… a wave of fear"

"A wave of fear?" the puppet repeated. Could fear move like a wave? She didn't think it was possible. "That's not a good thing, is it?"

Eda let out a snort. "I... I honestly don't know, kiddo" she replied, but it was evident that even though she didn't know what was going on, she was inclined to believe it was something bad.

Just then a swirl of purple liquid appeared next to them and solidified to form the figures of Darius and Alador; they too must have been hit by the wave of fear, because they were shaking slightly, and indeed they had probably found themselves very close to the epicenter since they seemed much more shaken than them. Alador even fell to the ground when he finished materializing. "Dad!" Edric exclaimed running to him. "What happened to you?"

"We tried to enter Mirkwood, but that witch put up a magical barrier. I was trying to break it when the wave hit us directly" Darius replied with a slightly trembling voice. "It must have already started"

"What...?" Edric wasn't understanding, and neither were the others. "Hey... what are you talking about? What do you mean it's already started...?"

"It's... your mother... cough..." Alador said as he stood up. "I should have intervened sooner... you have to help Amity..."

"Hey, wait a minute! What's going on? What does Amity have to do with anything?" Luz exclaimed in fear. She didn't like the turn events were taking at all.

Alador didn't respond immediately; he hesitated only for a couple of seconds, but it was enough for Lilith to throw herself at him and grab him by the collar. "Speak, idiot! What..."

"Lilith, leave him alone!" Darius stopped her by moving her away from the man.

Lilith looked at him confused. "Darius...?"

"There is no use using violence or threats" the djinn said. "He already told me everything"

It took Amity a few seconds to understand what her mother had just said. "A witch who has yet to awaken her magic... like me?" she whispered.

Odalia nodded. "Exactly, Mittens. This is my gift to you" she said as she brought Grometheus' soul fragment even closer to her. "A destiny greater than that of anyone else. You, Mittens... you were born to be the new leader of the witches of this world. You were born to create a new order"

Amity's gaze fell on the pulsating soul fragment. It scared her, but she felt terribly attracted to it. Almost without meaning to, she raised her cupped hands, and her mother let the pulsating essence slide into her palms; it hovered about half an inch above her skin, but she could almost feel its texture. It was like a receptacle of negative emotions, which however she wanted to experience at all costs, as if it were a drug she was addicted to. "When... when did you realize you needed... a still immature witch?"

"A long time ago. Twenty years, to be precise" Odalia replied.

Amity's heart trembled a little. "So... is this why you gave birth to me? I was the means to complete this ritual you were missing?" she asked with a trembling voice.

A small dark veil passed over Odalia's face. "Mittens, don't misunderstand my words. It's true, the reason why I wanted a witch daughter so much was this... but don't think that I don't love you. What I'm entrusting to you is not a destiny, it's a gift; as I promised you at your birth, I will allow you to have everything this world has to offer. Everything in sky, earth and sea will belong to you. Isn't this an absolute manifestation of love?"

Amity had mixed emotions. On the one hand she felt offended and hurt, on the other she had to admit that her mother's words made sense... and what's worse, the idea of being able to have everything that existed attracted her. The thought that her destiny, even if already written by her mother, was so incredible flattered her. She couldn't take her eyes off the soul fragment in her hands; the more she looked at it, the more she wanted to possess it... "The story you told me... was it true?"

"It was true. I left out some things, but it was true... except for one detail: your father knew I was a witch" Odalia answered her.

"Odalia was an ambitious girl, and I was foolish and blind" Alador was explaining to them. "I discovered that she was a witch by pure chance, when she cursed an old employer of mine who had tried to defraud me. She was scared that time, she feared that I would report her. But I didn't care"

"You didn't care? Sorry, what about what you said to Amity then?" Luz snapped irritably.

"I was pretending" Alador confessed, and incredibly this seemed to infuriate the puppet even more. "My father was the idiot who was prejudiced against witches, not me. I didn't care that she was a witch. I continued to help her, despite her distrust of me. For years I provided her with all the resources she needed to rediscover the ritual that the Emerald Witches had attempted to perform and find the fragment of Grometheus' soul. And in return, she helped me with my chores. She helped me improve my economic condition and get rid of any opponents. Both we were ambitious... we were kindred spirits. For the first time in her life, she felt she could trust someone... and that's how I deceived her"

His spectators, or at least most of them, seemed to be barely holding back from punching him; probably only the presence of Darius behind him prevented them from acting. "How did you deceive her?" Edric asked her.

Alador sighed. "Your mother was falling in love with me. I was falling in love with her too, but I was greedy. I knew that through her I could get all the power, money and fame I had always aspired to. I could finally get rid of my pathetic old family and become a scientist whose works would be recognized throughout the world. All I had to do... was bind her to me for eternity" he replied in a grave voice, and he clenched his fists tightly. "And when she finally trusted me enough to reveal her sinister agenda… I took the chance. I made her execute her first contract"

"A magical contract?" Eda muttered, raising an eyebrow. "It's powerful and dangerous magic"

"Yeah, and I used it to make sure she was bound to me forever" Alador stated. "Odalia trusted me and was convinced that the love we felt for each other would never fade, and she was young and inexperienced... so she agreed to the terms I had given her, without realizing in time of their meaning". He let out a deep snort and narrowed his eyes: "The contract was as follows: she would give me everything she could... and in exchange, I would give her a daughter who was a witch like her"

"But why?" Amity asked. "If all you wanted was a witch daughter… why not just sleep with my father?"

"To increase the chances" Odalia replied. "As I have already explained to you, when witches and humans mate there is only a thirty percent chance that the unborn child will have witch blood. This alone decreases the chances of having one. But then... there is the problem of fertility"

"Fertility?" Amity asked stunned.

"Magical creatures, or at least pure ones, are not as fertile as humans, Mittens. Why do you think that even those that live for thousands of years have very few offspring?" Odalia answered her. "Witches are not very fertile, because our dark magic prevents the birth of many children. After all, we are creature that are supposed to kill, not give life. If I had tried the natural method, I could have continued all my life and still not be able to conceive a daughter with witch blood. But thanks to the magic of the contract with your father, my fertility has increased drastically. And so in the end I managed to conceive you"

Amity was silent for a moment. There was definitely an emotional storm going on inside her, but at the same time she felt calm... too calm for a situation like this. "And then? What did you do?"

"Exactly what the contract said: I gave your father everything I could. I built him a spectacular fortune, a beautiful home, and freed him from his serpent relatives" Odalia answered her. "Oh, don't look like at me that: I'm sure you already suspected it. If you want to know, your grandparents fully deserved that curse, both for what they did to me and to your father... but personally, I cared very little of them. It was your father who asked me to get rid of them... he was too cowardly to get his hands dirty"

She let out a grunt of disgust. It looked like she was chewing on a lemon. "I should have understood at the time what kind of pathetic man he was. But I was too blinded. I was convinced that the love I had convinced myself we felt for each other would last forever, and that therefore it didn't matter to use a contract without limits, because then we would all govern together... I thought that he and I would be at your side when you sat on the throne of the world. But... I was wrong"

"When your mother got pregnant with Amity, I knew that was my chance" Alador said with a lot of regret in his voice. "I had completed my part of the contract, but she could not complete hers. Now, I was in control. And so I finally put the chain around her neck. I forced her to serve me and work harder than ever, even more than before, and use every means at her disposal, magical or non-magical, to increase my fame. Thanks to her I became known throughout the region. She was furious, and it hurt me to exploit her in that way, but I didn't care; I just wanted more fame. I was convinced that she wasn't really in love with me, and that my feelings for her were irrelevant. After all, what bound us was just a partnership, albeit a very strange one indeed. I thought that through that contract, I could keep her on a leash and prevent her from performing the ritual. I told myself that I was doing the right thing, stopping her from calling Grometheus back to this world. Unfortunately, I was wrong... it didn't take your mother long to find some loopholes. She was obligated to give me everything she could, and she couldn't kill me... but the contract didn't say when she had to give it to me, and there was nothing stopping her from doing anything to me other than killing me. When she realized this, she exploited these loopholes to restore an equal relationship between us; she's still my prisoner, but she's wrapped her own chain around me"

"So that's why she hates you" Emira hissed. She looked like it was about to explode. "You deceived her into thinking you loved her, and as soon as you had the chance you used her"

"I didn't deceive her. I really loved her... I was simply too stupid to realize it. I was convinced that guaranteeing my fame and preventing her from performing that ritual were more than valid reasons to justify my actions" Alador replied, without look up at his two older children. "When she regained control, Odalia almost bit my face off, but what little feeling had survived between us stopped her from doing so. She allowed me to continue living in this house, on the condition that I interacted with her as little as possible to avoid being able to ask her anything else. So I holed up in my lab, only coming out when necessary. I knew I had made a mistake... but I was too much of a coward not to deal with the situation in any other way other than hide. And I did the same with Amity. I understood by now that I couldn't stop Odalia from using her for her own purposes, and that therefore one day she would become the one who would call Grometheus back and unleash the power of that monster on the world. She would become the new incarnation of evil, and I could do nothing to stop it. She was my daughter, and yet I couldn't help her. I could no longer appeal to my wife's heart, not after I had broken it... I couldn't ask anyone for help because no one could help me, and if I had tried to look for a wizard or a magical creature Odalia would surely have discovered me. I was helpless, unable to do anything. I didn't know how to save Amity from her fate. It was a problem I couldn't solve and didn't want to have. It was much easier... to pretend she didn't exist"

If there was a way to define disgust, certainly the looks his viewers were giving him were definitely a perfect example; the only one who was the least bit understanding was Darius. Alador didn't blame them: he knew he didn't deserve any more recognition. He had run away all his life, he had abandoned his youngest daughter as soon as he realized he didn't know how to avoid a nefarious fate for her. He had tried not to become attached to that poor little girl, he had chosen to consider her nothing more than an accessory in the house, so he wouldn't have to suffer when Odalia would make her her instrument. If there was an embodiment of the word pathetic in the world, he was very much like it. "You're a coward" Luz told him, and no one remembered ever hearing such acidity in the puppet's voice.

Alador nodded. "Yes. The definition is correct"

"Only recently that idiot began to develop some feelings of guilt that, as miserable as it was, could have been extremely harmful... like when he tried to steal that djinn's lamp" Odalia concluded. "Luckily he tried to convince me before talking to anyone else, repeating the same bullshit about love and family, so I could remind him of his place. And as expected, after that he never tried again to do anything. He ran away again, instead of trying to fight for his daughter like a real father would. Does that surprise you?"

Amity pursed her lips as if she had just eaten something sour. "No... it doesn't surprise me at all" she admitted. "It's just like him"

"Yeah. But either way, the end result I was hoping to achieve is the same" Odalia told her. "We are here now, and you are ready to fulfill your destiny"

Amity looked up at her mother. Her eyes were glowing with such a sinister light that they made her shiver. "But... but I don't want..."

"Really, Mittens?" Odalia asked her with a widening smile. "Don't you want absolute power? A power with which you can help eliminate Belos, and finally free the world from the danger he represents? A power with which you can give the witches new glory? Didn't you say that the world that I described to you, where witches guaranteed peace and prosperity and sat on thrones more imposing than those of any nation, was beautiful and you liked it?"

Amity bit her lip. It was true: she would have liked all those things. Give glory back to witches? She was a witch, so it didn't make sense that she wouldn't want it. Create the world her mother described to her? It would have been wonderful. Kill Belos? It would mean avenging Luz's family and making sure no one ever had to go through what she did again. However... "Someone's going to get hurt, right?" she asked her mother.

Odalia shrugged. "There is always someone who gets hurt in these cases, even the best strategist couldn't make them disappear. But tell me, how many will get hurt if you don't act now? How many will suffer at the hands of Belos, or from the conflicts between nations, or for thousands of other reasons that would take too long to list now, and which would vanish if you instead decided to fulfill your destiny?". She caressed her face with one hand. "Do you remember what I taught you? We witches must be ready to sacrifice something for the good of many. I know you are afraid... but you have no reason to be. Take charge of your destiny... become what you were born to be be. Morality is only for humans; put aside any scruples... and sit on that throne"

Amity trembled, and she looked again at the soul fragment in her hands. She really wanted to do it... and the more she looked at that essence, the more that desire increased within her. It was as if a serpent had slithered onto her shoulder and was whispering sweet words in her ear, inviting her to absorb that fragment of her soul and become the witch who would mark the beginning of a new era, and the more she listened to it, the more her the will to resist was annihilated.

But after all, why was she trying to resist?

She liked that.

She wanted it.

She wanted it so much...

She brought the soul fragment closer to her chest, and she could feel the temperature around her heart drop, as if it were turning to ice; she had one last act of hesitation, and then, at the precise stroke of midnight, she moved her hands and pushed the essence of Grometheus into her chest.

She felt as if a volcano had just erupted inside her; the pain was indescribable, like billions of hot needles pricking her continuously. And then, another, smaller volcano erupted as her own magic awoke. The two essences began to shake violently, as if they were simultaneously trying to unite and separate; it was like having two hurricanes in my body colliding furiously.

"Focus, Mittens" her mother's authoritative voice penetrated her ears and into her brain. "I've trained you all your life for this. Concentrate. Take control and fuse Grometheus' essence with your magic!"

Amity gritted her teeth and did as she was told; despite the pain, she concentrated as best she could, and violently grabbed the two essences, forcing them to come closer even though they continued to repel each other as if they were two magnets. It was a battle that lasted just a few seconds, but which seemed like centuries to her; she felt like she was trying to hold back an avalanche.

But in the end, she prevailed.

Grometheus' soul fragment touched her own magic; and then, they merged. Mirkwood shook so violently that the trees were nearly uprooted; a column of magical energy appeared in the center of it, illuminating the sky with a purple light. "Yes... Yes! YES!" Odalia screamed, her eyes shining, a look of pure triumph on her face.

As quickly as it had come, the column disappeared and the earthquake stopped; in their place, Amity now stood motionless. Her body had changed: she had become a little taller, and her fingers had lengthened and her nails turned into claws; some purple scales had appeared in several places, although not as numerous as Odalia's. Her beautiful lavender hair now swirled in the air and was illuminated in a deep purple light. Her face had remained the same, but her ears had become long and pointed, her teeth had become sharper (although many of them had retained a more 'human' shape), and some scales had appeared on her forehead, just below the hairline. Her eyelids, previously closed, trembled and opened, revealing two eyes that were no longer golden; on the contrary, they had become something alien, red as blood and with pupils that looked more like dark vortices. They were so scary that even Odalia hesitated for a moment: "Mittens...?"

"Don't worry, mother" Amity replied with a wide evil smile. "I'm in control"

Hearing that, Odalia smiled back again. "You did it... you absorbed Grometheus' essence!"

"Yes, mother... and now... it's as if everything in me vibrates of a madness of such new sensations... I don't even know how to describe them!" Amity exclaimed as she looked at herself and felt the energy inside her pulse continuously. "And now... it's all clear to me. You were right, this is my destiny. I was born to build a new world. Before I was confused... but now I can see it. Methods to rule over empires and nations are already emerging in my mind... and I want more. More and more. Now I'm not a simple mortal anymore... now I am... the Fear Witch? I like this name"

Odalia placed her hands on her cheeks, touching her face lovingly. "You have become an extraordinary witch, Mittens. You are just like I imagined" she said with deep pride, and Amity's smile widened at those words. "Let's not waste any more time, now. Let's build this new world. Bring him here"

"Yes, mother" Amity replied, and she raised her arms; and suddenly, reality seemed to crack, and a vortex of magical energy appeared in the sky above Mirkwood. "Come to me, my lord Grometheus!"

From the rent in the sky came a sound like the fusion of an elephant's trumpeting, a lion's roar, and a crocodile's snort; and then, what looked like a black, shapeless mass began to emerge through the portal. As soon as even a piece of it was out, a new wave of fear, much more intense than the previous one, exploded in all directions; the entire town of Bonesborough was hit like a tsunami, but it didn't stop there; it continued even further, hitting all the countryside and cities and woods nearby and then further and further away, and all the creatures trembled with fear as soon as they were hit.

In the middle of the sea, not too far from Bonesborough (at least compared to the enormous ocean distances), a small island stood placidly in the middle of the water; but as soon as it was hit by the wave of fear, the island trembled and two immense blue eyes opened wide on its top. Belos let out a roar of primal rage and fury; he felt it clearly, a being of extraordinary power had just descended into the world. Someone was daring to challenge him. Prey to a primordial desire to re-establish his dominance, the sea monster moved with unprecedented violence and began to swim as fast as he could towards the coast.

Fortunately there was no one on the island at the moment: the ship normally used for travel was already at sea, and Kikimora was there together with the helmsman. "What... what happened to him?" the latter asked.

Kikimora wasn't sure how to respond. It wasn't the first time Belos had suddenly decided to dive and swim in a causal direction for unknown reasons, but that moment had been decidedly different. It was as if he were moved by an uncontainable anger, the typical anger of those who are at the top of everything and suddenly glimpse what appears to be even just the semblance of a competitor. "I'm not sure that's a good sign" she muttered. "Maybe... it's better to warn the boy"

Author: "And that's where the fun begins"

Basically everyone: "Boss, you are a crazy psychopath"

"Wow, good, why do you take so long to understand it, idiots!?"