Synopsis: After the many letters they have exchanged in the past, written in a coded-language only known to them, Griffin writes a letter to Faragonda about an impending threat lurking in the shadows of Obsidian that will extinguish the light in Domino.
Side note: the italicise 'her' refers to Griffin and the italicise 'they' refers to the Ancestral Witches.
A raven, dark as night, flew into Faragonda’s window bringing forth a sudden change in the atmosphere. Storm clouds and grey shadows remedied the bright blue afternoon skies into a dreg, yet she felt a familiar comfort. Could it be? She looked up to see Artiglio, hovering over her head like a bad omen.
Artiglio swiftly swooped in, dropping a tiny glass vial from its beak that disintegrated in pieces on her desk. Glass shards suddenly metamorphosed into crackling green sparks releasing purple fog that filled the room. As the smoke revealed a mysterious envelope, Artiglio vanished into the perfectly timed lightning, disappearing into the dark just as she once did. With the help of her magic, Faragonda snapped her fingers, purifying the smoke-filled room and clearing the grey skies back to blue.
And there it was. A letter that contained secrets within secrets. It has been a while since her last. Faragonda studied the way she delicately inked the fairy’s name with careful, curved strokes. It was so precise that Faragonda could feel her presence brushing her fingertips on each letter. She ripped the envelope open the way she did with Faragonda’s heart when she left.
Its contents were written in code that no one would ever be able to decipher. No amount of magic could reveal or translate their made up language. A secret code they had converged in ancient magic when they were younger, bound by their unbreakable bond that neither distance nor opposing sides could splinter. The memory sent Faragonda to a place of solace that she absorbed like light, but what she was about to uncover held the fate of millions, weighing heavy.
I know I have much to apologise for, and by no means am I asking for your forgiveness but in writing this letter, I hope you find the answers to your questions and understand the meaning behind my absence, for my distance was the key to the resistance.
I have made decisions I regret and I never meant to hurt you, yet I did. I had to do what I had to for the sake of dark magic users, to prove that we were just as important to the balance of power as light magic users. Too much of either would disrupt the equilibrium of magic. And with everything happening with the Council and how they were treating my kind, I needed the protection of a coven. A powerful one — but I was wrong. About them. In many ways, I was wrong. But I’ve always fought for what’s right, for my goal, for my kind. At least I thought I did.
But I don’t have much time and what I am about to disclose should be considered a warning.
It all started today in the early waking hours, I received an invitation. About a blood ritual. Sealed with the ancestral coven’s crest. Signed with their sigil in red. It was said to happen a few moon phases away from now – a full blood moon. And who I am to be bonded remains a mystery, though I have an inkling. How peculiar that after all the years of my servitude, they chose now as the time to let me in their inner circle.
On the same day, I overheard heated discussions a few doors from my room. Zatura and a few coven members were preparing something threatening in Domino — a mass destruction of innocent lives. The Ancestral Witches are planning to steal the power of the Dragon Flame to wield the ultimate power that will control the whole Magic Dimension in total catastrophe. An endless cycle of suffering for everyone.
But don’t you find this all odd? It was only a matter of time until they found out. And I think they know. They know about my deepest secret. They know about you. The resurgence of your presence when we went head to head in the last mission. For the first time in years. Seeing you on the opposite side. I couldn’t bring myself to face you, let alone fight you. I needed to reason with you that day. I wanted to keep you safe, despite our circumstances. Even after all these years, I still thought about you. And now, they know. They know you mean something to me. That you’re close to me, to Oritel and Marion. And they’ll get to you. I know they will. They’ll weaponise you against me, all for the power of the Great Dragon. They’ll break you. And the thought of…
No. I can’t even write it out.
I never wanted you, or anyone, to be dragged into this. I never wanted this. In all my years trying to reinstate dark magic users as equal to light magic users, this is where I draw the line. I must leave. By dawn, I should be back in Magix and if you have not heard from me, then you know what this means.
So I hope this reaches you before it is too late.
Yours — I am yours, not the Ancestral Witches’, not Valtor’s, not the Company of Light’s, nor the Council’s, but yours, and yours alone. I am yours in other ways I was not. Yours for the times we spent apart. Yours even on opposite sides. Yours forever.
And if this war will be the end, I am yours until then. Yours beyond death. If you’ll still have me… Even then… That is.
Faragonda stood up so hastily, it nearly sent her chair flying off the window but her magic stopped it from causing damage. She curled her fists so tightly, a surge of energy glowed from her orbit. As she grabbed hold of her chair, she fumbled and shattered to her knees, as if already surrendering in defeat. Tears streamed watery tracks on her cheeks, her periwinkle eyes sapped all the colour into grey. She buried her face on her knees as she wrapped her arms around her legs, rocking herself gently. Back and forth as she shivered. Unsteady breathing. Muffled cries. She wanted to scream. To open a portal to Obsidian. And bring Griffin to safety. To bring her home but it was not that easy. Wishful thinking.
Faragonda perused the night sky as she glanced towards the windows, whispering to the stars. Wishing. Hoping. To keep her from harm’s way. Faragonda keeps her in her memory, others in her heart. It was beyond words, yet she held her letter close to the rise and fall of her chest, wishing she could hold her close.
Faragonda did not need to wait until dawn for Griffin’s bittersweet escape because she knew Griffin would not make it out of there alive. Not that Griffin is not capable. If it was as easy as defeating the Black Mud Swamp Monster, then have at it but the Ancestral Witches were a different kind. And Griffin needed her. More than ever. Fuelled by her vengeance on the Ancestral Witches, Faragonda would burn the grounds of Obsidian before they could even step foot in Domino. Before they could even lay a finger on Griffin. And if Faragonda could march into Obsidian Castle and drag Griffin out of their wicked lair, she would have done it by now. But it was foolish to barge into the deepest, darkest depths of the Ancestral Coven. Not without a tactical, precisely, and carefully thought out plan.
If it weren’t for how the Council demonised dark magic, Griffin would not need to help her kind be less ostracised from society. She would not be on the opposing side. She would not need to fight for her life, her fellow dark magic users’ lives. And maybe she would still have Griffin’s warmth in her heart. She would not have left Magix and they would still be friends. A flurry of hypotheticals flooded Faragonda’s mind, playing out different alternate realities of ‘maybes’ and ‘what-ifs’.
But atlas, this was her reality. And it was up to Faragonda to do everything in her power to rescue Griffin, help achieve her goal, retain her freedom and still live to tell the story.
First, she had to relay the information she had read to the King and Queen of Domino. To save Domino and the rest of the Magical Dimension. Hoping she could convince them to help her rescue Griffin. An impossible and difficult task, given the situation. Regardless of Griffin’s affiliation with the Ancestral Coven, Faragonda knows that the Griffin she grew up with, the prideful but kind-hearted witch who always had the best intentions, is still the same Griffin now. She had to try and reason with Marion and Oritel. It was Faragonda’s only fighting chance to save, not only Domino, but Griffin too. And if Faragonda does not receive their support, if she had to do it on her own, so be it.
