NINETY SIX

-

"Here you go, child," I looked up to see the old woman holding a cup that was steaming. It had tea in it but I kept it wrapped in my palms, warming my cold hands.

I was too worried to consume or do anything. It had taken an hour to stop my tears and here I was, seated on a mat, weak to my bones and rethinking all that had been revealed to me.

Ace was suffering the effect of a curse placed on his family, and I was a victim of it by fate. It could get worse or I could break it by getting rid of him. It was too much to contain and I had no idea what to do.

Getting rid of Ace was not an option; I had grown to know him as the most important person in my life. No matter what changes, I couldn't see anyone else the way I saw Ace. He was a part of me that I never knew existed until he walked into my life, he was a part of me that made the whole of me want to stay alive. He was the best part of me, the part I never wanted to let go of.

"Worrying doesn't change anything you know," she sat in front of me, and I felt her as I stared into space.

"There must be another way," my voice was low, my emotions making me almost inaudible.

She was quiet for a while, and for a moment I thought she didn't hear me speak until she responded.

"I understand your pain, and I wish I could help you feel better, child, but this is how it is meant to be."

Her gaze was piercing; it was relatable, and I knew she truly wished there was a way she could make things easier for me even though we had only just met.

"How do you know all these? What are you?" I asked.

"My name is Acantha, and I am a sorceress," she revealed. "I have lived here for decades and I can relate a lot to what you feel right now because I once went through the pain of losing someone who was the most important person to me. I watched it happen without being able to do anything and it has haunt me ever since. I did nothing even though I was there, and I feel guilty because of it even to this day."

I faced her, watching the switch in her expression as she spoke, but her voice remained calm.

"What happened?" I couldn't help but ask.

She breathed out, tilting her head upward to face the ceiling. She stared at it for a while, and I concluded that she wasn't going to speak until she eventually did.

"It started hundreds of years ago," she began. "Then, the wolves and witches lived in harmony; even though there was still a bit of discrimination, it was nothing we couldn't overlook.

My clan and I lived on the east side of the forest, serving the wolf pack and doing their bidding. Regardless, everyone was happy.

When she paused, I expected a twist.

"This went on until one day, many years after, some humans found and trespassed into the territory of the wolf's pack that my clan served, creating chaos and violating the law. We fought back in order to protect the wolves, and it resulted in a war. We successfully got rid of the humans, but in the process, I accidentally killed a wolf cub as well."

My jaw dropped, but I said nothing and allowed her to continue. It seemed to be a painful story for her, and even though her tone remained unshaken, her expression constantly took a different structure.

"I had no idea what had happened until after the war and when I found out, I turned myself in. If I hadn't, I knew my clan would have been made to face the consequences, but what I didn't know was that the wolf cub, whom I had ended, was the eldest son of the pack's Alpha- the future Alpha of the pack."

Acantha smiled, but it stopped at her lips and her emerald green eyes, now with a gloss, showed how fake the smile was.

"Of course, he was enraged and I had apologized in every way that I could. I didn't mean to take the life of a wolf, and everyone knew this, but my plea was nothing but words. So I got a punishment, but it was far from my expectation. The Alpha ordered that my family be killed," She took another pause, "My husband was already dead; he was a werewolf and had died in a war; I was left with just my two daughters. I begged and begged the Alpha for their lives to be spared; I was more than willing to go in their stead, but once again, my pleas were mere words in the ears of the Alpha."

Seeing how painful it was for her, I tried to urge her to stop. She didn't have to pass through that torture again just to make me feel less miserable.

"You don't have to continue-

"No, telling you doesn't change anything. The guilt will never go away, and to be honest, I don't think I deserve to feel any better," she lowered her gaze, her silver-white hair falling to her face. Regardless of the hurt, she continued.

"I fought; I tried to stop the guards from carrying out the order, but I was beaten, stomped on, and chained. I was made to watch as my daughter was bound, wrapped in a sack, and helplessly thrown off a cliff. I heard her bones break as she reached the end, I heard her cries and groans until she gave up. I was there, but I could do nothing to help her; no one offered to help either. All they did was watch."

At this point, her emotions had rubbed off on me, and not until I felt a drop of water on my leg did I realize I was crying.

"My grief turned into anger, and it channeled the power of the sky, and in response, the clouds darkened; I vowed servitude for the rest of my life if I could be granted a wish. Immediately, lightning struck the wolf pack and a fire broke out, filling the air with the smell of burning flesh.

The bounds came off, and with my blood and all the rage left in me, I cursed the Alpha. I proclaimed that his child and further generations would suffer for his crime and that his death would be shameful. I declared that his child would never find a mate, and even if he did, he would end up dying because of her and by her hands," she revealed. "I was going on and on, pronouncing death on them and everyone else who contributed to getting rid of my baby, and this continuously angered the Alpha, so he ordered his people to execute me and promised to kill my remaining child in the cruelest way."

She stopped, exhaling.

"Did she survive?" I asked in tears.

She shook her head slowly. "I couldn't watch her being killed so I passed out. When I woke up, I was being taken away to my place of execution but I managed to escape using my powers."

"Did you bother going back to check if she truly died?"

"No, because the Alpha wasn't one to go back on his words; he was that ruthless, and I had gotten him enraged. My only regret was not fighting for my daughter, maybe I could have wished for her life to be spared, but I was too angry to even think straight. If only I had been more thoughtful, maybe we could have gotten out of there together," she broke and the tone of her voice finally changed. It was anticlimactic, her emotions becoming heavier.

"Ever since, I have lived here in seclusion and served the goddess as I vowed. Although they have refused to reveal to me the current state of the pack, I have no doubt that it is in chaos, just as I wished."

She ended and faced me with a sad smile. Her once glossy eyes were now back to normalcy, and she looked confident like she hadn't just revealed to me the part of her past that had broken her.

I knew she was masking the pain; I could recognize and relate to her feelings because I had lived like that, too. Knowing that crying and cussing would do nothing to change the situation, acting strong was the last resort. You just have to keep the emotions locked in even though you are slowly breaking into pieces on the inside.

I had lived most of my life like that.

"What are their names? Your daughters," I asked.

"Camilla and Mabel," she replied with a tight smile. I pushed the warm cup of tea to her side, wiping my tears and smiling back at her.

"That's my mother's name too," I told her. "She was Mabel, and she had died while giving birth to me."

"I'm sorry," Acantha consoled. "What was she like?"

"She worked as a nurse in the pack, and a lot of people, if not everyone, loved her. They nicknamed her Healing Fingers because she was really good at her job; she was a great nurse. They say I look nothing like her and I think they're right. Unlike her, no one loved me because I took her away from them," I kept my smile.

"I don't think I did but sometimes I feel guilty. It is as though their words gained a stand in my life and made me feel like a horrible person."

Talking about my mother, even though I never saw her, was one thing I liked to do with a smile on my face. I wondered if my life would have been a bit better had she been in it and I bet it would have.

She was a mother, and it was only right and natural that she cared for her child even though the world was against her.

Acantha faced me, curiosity in her eyes, "Tell me about her."