Chapter 42: Flames of sacrifice

In the middle of the night, Penny threw a hooded cloak over her shoulders and walked out of her house. When she left Dark Knight's Veil, an orb of light brightened her path as she walked on the wet soil in the darkness.

Earlier that day, her talk with Clara had been brief, but she had informed the girl about her mother's true identity. Penny had noticed that Clara didn’t seem particularly sharp.

Now, Penny was heading to where Ericka’s house once stood. She wanted to pay her last respects to Ericka, who had preserved the balance in the supernatural world by keeping the hybrid hidden and protecting her from those with ulterior motives.

It was hard for Penny to believe that Ericka was really dead. The attack must have been sudden and unexpected. Ericka had been spent, having used much of her magical energy at Soren's castle in the Sesame Mountains, and she could barely muster the strength to fend off the intruder.

In her last moments, she managed to set the house ablaze with whatever little energy she had left.

Penny arrived at her destination. The house had burnt to ashes, but the fire was still alive, ready to consume anything that made contact with it. She sat in front of the house, her legs crossed, and hands placed gently on her knees, her fingers connected in a meditative pose. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, feeling the cool night air fill her lungs.

The world around her seemed to fade away as she delved deeper into her trance. Gradually, images began to form in her mind, like scenes from a film playing out before her eyes. She saw Ericka, her dear friend, struggling in her final moments. The exhaustion and desperation on Ericka’s face were palpable as she fought to protect the girls. Penny’s heart ached as she watched her friend use the last of her energy to set the house ablaze, sacrificing herself to keep the hybrid and her daughters safe.

Penny moved through time again, to the moment when her friend left for the meeting at the coven. She could see Ericka in her room, meticulously setting up a spell. The complexity of the ritual was apparent, and Penny could almost feel the power emanating from the setup. She understood now how crucial this spell had been.

The scene played out to the moment one of the twins walked into their mother’s room and began inspecting it. At some point, the girl was terrified and accidentally knocked over the bowl that Ericka had set up. Penny could tell that something delicate had been tampered with. It wouldn’t surprise her if that was the spell meant to lock Sage’s aura. The other twin, who she hadn’t seen, ran upstairs, concerned for her sister who had stopped panicking. The twins both stared at the bowl that had spilled over.

****

“Quick, Jane! Stop staring at the strange liquid. Find a way to pack it up back into the bowl,” Clara said in haste.

With no item around that could help her pack up the dark liquid, Clara proceeded to use her hands. When she was done, the content was below the mark it had left behind before it spilled. Without thinking much, she rushed into the restroom beside the closet, got water, and added it to the bowl. When she was satisfied with the quantity, she placed the bowl back on the table it had fallen from.

****

“I see now,” Penny said, getting off from her yoga pose. “The vampires must have gotten a hint of who the hybrid was when the spell was tampered with.”

Penny stood still, except for her eyes that moved to the left. She had felt something that wasn’t meant to be there. “Kashina,” Penny said, turning her whole body to her left side. “You’re the last person I’d expect to see here.” Her voice was calm but laced with suspicion.

There was no one in her sight except the bushes leading to the dense woods. But Penny knew better.

Behind the woods in the darkness, Kashina stood there. She had just arrived in time to see Penny standing up from the floor. And Penny was right. She wasn’t supposed to be here.

“Neither was I expecting to see you,” Kashina said as she stepped out of the darkness into the light provided by Penny’s orb floating in the sky. There was nothing unusual about Penny being at Ericka’s house, but Kashina needed to know why the house had been burnt to complete ashes.

“Where is Ericka? I feel bad about how yesterday’s meeting went, and I should have tried harder to convince her to join forces with us.”

Penny’s lips pressed into a thin line. “As you can see, I am also here to meet with her. But she doesn’t seem to live here anymore.” Her voice was cold, and she didn’t bother to hide her mistrust. “I’ll be leaving now.”

Kashina worked dangerously close with Soren. If vampires had killed Ericka, then Kashina would know about it. So Penny was careful not to reveal any information she knew to Kashina.

“Penny, if you get any word on her whereabouts, please let me know.” Kashina didn’t get a reply from Penny, who just walked away.

As Penny walked, her mind raced. She didn’t believe Kashina’s explanation for a second. ‘She’s up to something,’ Penny thought. ‘But what?’

Meanwhile, Kashina stayed behind, her eyes scanning the charred remains of the house. The main reason Kashina had come here was to take the antidote to help Soren. She had found out that Ericka was behind Soren's ailment and only Ericka could have the antidote. But it seemed that something tragic might have happened here.

Ericka’s building was no more as it had burnt to the ground. Nothing survived the flames. Of course, it didn't skip Kashina’s attention that the fire that consumed the building had magical properties.

Kashina stepped on the fire, but it didn’t hurt her. She walked around the ash of the burnt house looking for nothing in particular. While walking, she felt a solid object poke the sole of her shoe. She lifted her foot up, and beneath it was a shiny silver object.

She picked it up, and it turned out to be a locket that had survived the flame. When she opened the locket, it contained two small photos. The photo on the right was Ericka and a man Kashina was not familiar with. It was a wedding picture, so she was sure it was Ericka’s husband. The photo on the left contained two young girls smiling, about eight years of age. They looked alike.

“This must be her kids.” ‘If Ericka’s locket is in the ashes, does this mean she also went down in the flame?’ Kashina questioned, looking around.

'There’s no hope for Soren, sadly.’ Kashina smiled as she closed her palms around the locket.

Kashina stood up, the locket clutched tightly in her hand. The realization that Ericka might be dead brought a strange mix of emotions. On one hand, it meant there was little hope for finding the antidote for Soren. On the other hand, it eliminated a powerful adversary.

‘There’s no hope for Soren, sadly,’ Kashina mused, a faint smile playing on her lips as she closed her palm around the locket. She turned and walked away from the ashes, the tension from her encounter with Penny still lingering in the air.