Chapter 48: Secret of Witches!!

**Nora's POV**

"I told you, it was not a good idea. I have known him since childhood; he is my brother. Anger takes over him easily, making him reckless and volatile. It will take him a while to remove this veil of madness to see the truth beyond it," Rorik said, scratching his head.

"Now what? He is not even listening to us. He just left!" I was crying in shame, cursing myself for all this drama. But, it has to come out, sooner or later.

"Don't worry; he will be back. He is just angry, but deep down, he knows it is not your fault." Rorik chose not to fret over it and instead calm me.

"He always loved me, and look what have I done; it's no less than cheat. I was never like this. I need to say one more thing, but Ronin left before I could," I said, wiping off the last remnants of my tears.

"What?" Rorik gave me a questioning look as if embracing himself for another bombardment from me. With all these weird things going on with me, making me crazy and delirious, I hope they didn't put me in mental asylum beyond the walls along with Ghouls.

Poor unlucky Ghouls!!

Fuck! they didn't even know about the ghoul episode, the thing that happened when ghoul touched me. Perhaps that would be for some other day; I don't want to give him more heart attacks than his body can endure.

"Since the last few days, precisely the day I visited the Old Palace for the first time, something has drastically changed in me. I love Ronin, but sometimes I feel like I should rip him apart. This intense urge to harm him is something that I cannot explain. It's just crawling under my skin, finding the way to come out and creep on him. Things are getting beyond control. It's for the best if I stay away from him for a few days till I control my urges and understand what is happening to me," I told Rorik.

He was trying too hard to control his expressions. His face distorted as if I was shitting serpents. His eyes were like, 'Have you lost it all?'

Finally, he sighed like, 'Fuck the shit!' in a defeating manner.

He chose to ignore all of that and just nodded and hugged me tightly, caressing my hair and indicating everything would be fine.

I decided it was best to change the topic, but somehow all my talks took me to Ornith.

"What about the book of Ozarius? Did you find anything worth helpful? portal to Azra, if it actually exists?" I asked Rorik.

"I tried to work on a few pages but need more time and help. I tried to translate a few words and connected them. It's still not very clear, but according to my best guess, it describes Witch's coven," he replied. His expressions confirmed he was far more excited about

"Witches? The one who helped Ornith to become a serpent?" I asked, narrowing my intriguing eyes.

"Yes, they had a dedicated place at the Old Palace where they performed their seances and witch-craft rituals. They had one big sculptor of the Serpent God, who was supernaturally linked to the Serpent God through the evil spirits. These evil spirits acted as a link, medium or bridge between the serpent god and witches. Witches communicated to the serpent god through that sculptor. Honestly, I don't believe this shit though, the Witch's coven is real!" Rorik explained.

"You said this place of witches is in the old palace. Where?" I asked.

"We have already searched each and every corner of Old palace through all these years. Before shifting to the new palace, my father, uncle, and previous generations lived there. Despite many efforts to use technology to detect hollow places and tunnels, they could never find it. Nobody has ever. Ornith and Ozarius was the last generation to know the whereabouts of that place. The future generation didn't know the location of this place. This place was lost and forgotten over time after their deaths through the years. We had heard of many secret tunnels and passages underground the old palace. The mention of secret rooms and dungeons was in some of the old books, but nobody knows about the exact whereabouts of them; they are magically sealed with spells," he replied.

"So, you don't have any more witches here to break the spell and open secret doors," I asked but felt strange as I never believed the witches truly existed in the first place. But seeing Ronin's metamorphism into a serpent and these weird dreams and visions of Ornith, I believe anything is possible. Maybe these kinds of magical things and spells are real. I mumbled to myself.

"People say after Ornith became a three-headed serpent with Rebekah's help. He defeated all the ghouls and killed all the witches and warlocks, almost marking the end of their race," Rorik said.

"Why did he kill the witches? I scrunch my eyebrows before continuing, "They helped him!"

"To make Ornith a serpent, witches' race had to undergo an extreme level of séance and sorcery to connect with the serpent god. It has both good and bad aftereffects. These evil spirits claim sacrifice to do their work as a link. For a few of the weaker witches, their bodies could not endure the cost of séance; it sucked the life from them, leading to their self-destruction. While the strong ones thrived, it was a blessing for them. Their power grew exponentially, and along with it, their ambitions also grew. They started misusing their new profound dark magic, endangering weaker beings. Ornith's serpent instincts sensed their coup. Witches revolted against him as they started to believe that they were invincible. But they didn't realize Ornith had the support of the most powerful Witch. They underestimated the power of Rebekah. With the help of Nhala, Rebekah made a magical and deadly potion, 'Flask of immolation' deadly enough in their proper amount to decompose a witch into a pile of bones. There is some information about this Flask of immolation in Ozarius's book."

"What information?" I asked him.

"It's not mentioned how she made the potion, but one of the main ingredients was some exotic, off-limit herb from the Land of Azra. The potion had some special radioactive properties, which render them effective even after centuries. Strangely, this radioactive potion affects only witches. They can expose the true form of witches in small amounts, but it kills in large quantities. We still have a small amount of this potion, preserved through centuries, guarded by the highest security level. I had never seen it, but Ronin has. This is proof that maybe, Land of Azra is a real place, and Rebekah was actually from there." Rorik mentioned.

"Why do you need that potion now if all the witches and warlocks are dead?" I asked

"Not all witches and warlocks are dead. Dasan, who is a warlock, is still alive. We are not sure if Rebekah and Nhala are alive? And the legends say Rebekah will come again to kill, so they are just preserving it in case," Rorik stated. The mention of the name Nhala gave me goosebumps, but in a few seconds, I composed myself. My granny and Rebekah's apprentice, sharing the common name, is just a coincidence; I should stop overthinking.

I don't know how the time passed talking, and I may not even realize till I walked to the window. It was already night. The Collapsar was nowhere to be seen and its place taken by the Gemini twins, orchestrating their beautiful lumina along the mighty Serous.

"Oh! It's already night. Ronin is still not back. Will he be okay?" I was concerned for him. Rorik gave me a look as if I had asked a dumb question.

"Of course, he will be okay. We all are used to it. We have seen him missing for days. Don't worry; he will be back soon. Aren't you hungry?" he asked.

"I am starving. I didn't eat anything since morning. I am missing Ronin."

"Stop acting like crazy in love! Come with me!" he smirked, extending his hand, taking me to his chamber in the library room with a hot jacuzzi pool while conveying the maid to get something to eat. The book of Ozarius was lying on the table. I asked him to keep it somewhere else. I can't take the risk of touching it again. I don't know what's wrong with that book; it strangely affects me.

He gave me a weird look when I told him to keep away the book. Of course, he didn't know what happened to me when I touched the book. Perhaps for another time, and luckily he also didn't press the matter enough.

"Tell me something about Ronin's childhood", I asked Rorik.