Chapter 51: Past revelation!!

**Nora’s POV**

Dream

*I woke up with a jolt. My throat was burning in pain, sweat beads formed on my forehead, and my body was on fire as if acid was running through my system. I pulled away teddy aside and stood up from the bed. The floor was stone cold, and the piercing chilly winds were rushing through the wilderness surrounding our ranch.

“It’s so cold; still, my body feels like hot lava. Why is this so?” Seven-year-old me asked my teddy innocently.

“It is the juice your granny made you drink,” The teddy replied.

Well! Teddy doesn’t speak. It was me pretending to be a teddy.

I peeked through the window; the yellow lights were glowing through a small room in the outhouse.

“Teddy! Is someone in the outhouse?”

“It must be your granny.” The teddy spoke.

“Let’s go!” I said, and the teddy nodded.

We both went over there, taking small steps to creep on granny.

“Teddy, be quiet; granny will get angry if she finds us here!” I shushed my teddy and peeked through the open door, hiding my body behind the wall.

Granny was seated in the middle of a few candles and mumbling something in a different language. She was wearing a white shirt and a long skirt under her bust. Her arms were covered with rusted iron bangles.

“Nora! Come out!” She spoke.

“Oh No! How does she always catch us? I swear she was not even looking at us.” I complained to my teddy, moving out of my hiding place to stand in front of her. Her dark black eyes were piercing in my direction, waiting for an explanation.

“I was burning! The juice you gave me was yuck! I couldn’t sleep, nor could my teddy!” I said in my defence.

She smiled, showing a full set of teeth. Her soft skin glowed under soft yellow hues. She leaned forward to face me, “Show me, please,” She said.

I gave her my palm. She took it in her hands, closed her eyes and started to chant words I didn’t understand. I got scared and started to pull away, but she held on tighter, stopping me from removing my quivering hand. She opened her eyelids, but her eyes were somewhere else, rolling in sockets like a swirling cloud. She shook her head, and her eyes started to turn black before she closed them back. The pain and burn squished through my body like the air from the deflating balloon.

She opened her eyes, and now they were normal.

“How did you do that?” I whispered.

“Magic!” she said as her red lips curled in one direction, “Now! Go to sleep!”

“Story!” I said with a sparkle in my eyes.

“I will tell you a special story today!” My granny took my hand and moved to my room.

“Special story?” I asked, sleeping beside my granny as she covered me with the blanket.

“It’s about a girl who travels on a far-away planet. She gets lost and is crying for help. A lone and sad Prince saves her. They both fall in love, but she learns that the Prince is a flying monster. She tries to run away, but the Prince-”

My eyes were drooping, and I fell into a deep slumber, and once again, I slept before granny completed the story.*

The memory of my granny always soothes me.

I opened my eyes slightly to peek around the room. I was still in Rorik’s room, lying on the bed. The black veins on my hand and neck had almost gone, and the pain subsided. It seems as if my granny had sucked away the pain from me like she used to do when I was young.

I saw Ronin; his mind seemed in constant battle as he kept pacing back and forth. The horizontal lines of frown were evident on his forehead, and his hand buckled on his hips.

“Are you going to say something or just walk around?” Rorik said as he first looked at Ronin and then glanced towards me. I quickly closed my eyes before he knew that I was awake.

“Who can she be? What can be her motive?” Ronin asked Rorik.

“Don’t know. All the details she filled in the form for travelling to Crixus seems genuine. Her family information is also cross-verified, and it’s true. Nothing is suspicious or missing,” he replied.

“No, I don’t think so. We are missing something. How can she be a witch? I think we still need to do a thorough background check on her. If anyone gets wind of her being a witch, she will be killed,” Ronin told Rorik, increasing his pace in worry.

“Yesterday, Nora and I talked about her childhood. She mentioned her granny. Nora herself was suspicious of her secretive granny. I think if we can extract some information about her granny, then it can lead us to somewhere,” Rorik replied, advancing towards me and touching my forehead to check on my temperature. I was almost burning when that liquid fell on me, so my temperature must have increased.

“What’s the name of her granny?” Ronin asked Rorik.

“I asked Meghan as Nora was unconscious. Its Nhala,” Rorik replied.

“What!? Nhala! As in Dasan’s sister? No, no, it’s just a coincidence,” His eyes narrowed, and his mind started pondering towards other thoughts.

“I also think so, but what have you thought about Nora? About her dreams of Ornith?” Rorik asked.

“I am planning to send her back to Earth before anyone gets wind of her being a witch. How long will it take for preparation?” Ronin asked.

“Mostly a week to get UFO ready.”

“Okay, till then, we will make sure that either one of us stays with her at all times and increase the security around the old palace. She should not go there as that place is manipulating her mind,” Ronin warned Rorik. He nodded in unison.

“No! I am not going to Earth,” I almost screamed, trying to get up from bed. I was shocked to hear that they were planning to send me back.

“Nora, Are you okay?” Ronin asked me.

“Yes, I am okay, but why are you sending me back to Earth? I won’t go. I will stay here with you,” I protested.

“I also want to live with you, but for the time being, you will have to go. Once I kill all the ghouls, I will return to you on Earth. You can’t stay here as it can be too risky for you,” Ronin tried convincing me.

“Oh! I got it. You don’t want me in your life now. Are you already bored of me? Yes, of course, you fucked me, and now you have nothing to do with me. You have already used me, and now it’s time to dispose of me off,” I sneered at him.

“Nora! What’s wrong with you? It’s nothing like that. You already know, I can never think like this about you. You are just over-reacting,” Ronin snapped back at me.

“Oh yeah, I remembered, you can only fuck me. If I am not here, then you will have to go to your old ways, and that is to fuck yourself,” I retorted back.

“Enough! You are going to Earth, and that is final. Till then you will live here. Do you know why your veins were turning black? It was due to a potion of Immolation. It acted on you as you were a witch. If anyone knows you are a witch, they will kill you. I am only doing this for your safety,” Ronin shouted at me.

“Stop pretending as if you care. I wish I could die rather than argue with you.”

“Can both of you please stop? What is wrong with both of you? Nowadays, all both of you can do is fight,” Rorik shouted at us.

“Whatever! I will leave now. I have a meeting with the council. Rorik, stay with her and doesn’t let her go out of this room,” He instructed Rorik while leaving the room.

“How dare he? Who gave him the right to control my life? I will do whatever I want to,” I mumbled after Ronin went away.

“It’s for your good, Nora. I will support Ronin on this. Trust me; I wouldn’t have let this happen if I felt something was wrong in this,” Rorik replied.

I rolled my eyes, looking here and there as I tried to get up. My muscles felt sore and devoid of energy. Rorik was busy studying the book of Ozarius with the help of other books. They all were beautifully covered with hand-drawn designs on them.

“Oh wow! Those designs are so beautiful.” I said, looking over them.

“Yes, my mom did it”, Rorik replied.

“Your mom? She was reading these books?” I asked him.

“Yes, she used to research witches. She spent most of her life searching for Ozarius’s book. The goal of her life was to locate the land of Azra,” he said.

“Oh really? To free Ronin of his curse?” I asked.

“Much before that”, he said, letting out a huge sigh.

“I don’t understand?” I asked him in confusion.

“My mom doesn’t belong to the royal family. She was from a tribal clan living on the outskirts of Westfall. But people of her tribes were well-known scholars of history. Their generation passed on the stories of Ornith, Rebekah and the land of Azra, which made her interested in that topic since childhood. She came to Westfall for further research, and here she met our uncle, the sixth-single headed Orynx-my dad’s brother, and they fell in love.”

“What? Your mother loved your uncle? It’s a shock. Then why did she marry your father?” I was pretty surprised.

“Because of his serpent’s curse. Everyone is not as lucky as you and Ronin. They both didn’t have any future together. She did a lot of research and read books day and night for just a little hint about the book of Ozarius, but all was in vain. At last, she married my dad, but she never got over her feelings for my uncle. The same can be said for him. They still love each other,” Rorik replied, and if I am not mistaken, I saw a single tear escaping his eyes.

“Oh! It’s unfortunate. I don’t like when lovers don’t unite. I want to meet your mom,” I asked Rorik.

“Okay, I will ask if she wants? Then you can go and talk to her. I hope she talks to you,” he replied.