A Discovery of Witches ~ [DISCONTINUED]

2.7

Long story short of what happened last chapter:

Violet went to visit Matthew, and now they're in his lab.

~~~

Violet's Pov

"Please, sit down. Allow me." He said, pulling a chair for me to sit in.

"Thank you." I told him, sitting.

"Now, this graph shows the mitochondrial DNA of a witch named Benvenguda. She lived in Brittany in the 7th century and she was very powerful. A marvel really, in an age that produced, many marvels. Now, Compare that to the graph belonging to Beatrice Good, Benveguda's last known direct descendant. As you can see, Beatrice's DNA shows far fewer markers common amongst witches, indicating that her ancestors, as the centuries passed, relied less and less upon witchcraft to survive. Now, if this pattern of denying power, is the reason why witches will eventually become... extinct."

We left the lab and went in the gardens (A/N I think).

"You think 782 is going to help you with your research, don't you?" I asked Matthew.

"It could explain our origins, yes."

"But we aren't going to go extinct tomrrow. There's still plenty of creatures in the world."

"I have a different sense of time to you. When humans talk about climate change, that's exactly the argument they use. Oh, the polar ice caps will take many years to melt, who cares? I remember when the Thames iced over every winter. I used to skate on it. You're right, though. It's not going to happen immediately tommorow. But it's already begun. One day, there'll only be just one species: humans. At first, they won't notice the difference because they've never noticed us. But, gradually, eventually, they'll come to see all the magic seeped out of the world and they look around them and everyone will be the same."

"You think whatever power I have, I should use."

"I think, at the very least, you should try not to be frightened of it. Although as far as I can tell, there are only two emotions that keep the world turning. One is desire and the other is fear."

"Magis is desire made real. That's what my aunt says."

"Well..." He said, and turned to leave.

"The book's a palimsest." That made him turn back to look at me. "Old words, hidden under new. It was heavy, and it smelt odd. Three pages were cut out. The only page I saw showed a baby floating in an upside down vessel. It was probably the Alchemical child, although I've never seen it represented like that before."

"Thank you."

He grabbed my right hand (the one with the vessel-like burn), and kissed it. Then, he left...