Enchanted Captivation [InquisitorMaster AU fanfiction]

Chapter 10: Dread

It was the first time Alex, Jade, and Charli ever had a "normal" night. Usually they'd be doing witchcraft with other witches until the sun came up, but not this time.

The others went to sleep and it was just Alex and Miss Mesa. She felt her powers draining just a bit, so she decided to spend the night secretly reviewing her spell book and begin the centering process.

Centering is something Alex's mother taught her at a young age, they'd often do it every night which shortened to once a week, which later happened never. It's a technique to help yourself focus on your energy, bringing it inward towards your center. It helps give a sense of peace and stability. It helped grow Alex's magic, letting it be easier to do spells later on when she began to practice those.

The candles around her on the floor illuminated the room just enough to read the pages, but keeping it fairly dark inside the room. The flames at the tip of the candle danced as the candle wax melted down slowly.

Miss Mesa by her side as Alex sat cris-cross with the book flat on the floor. Her cloak rested on her shoulders as the hood draped mysteriously from her head. She mumbled the spells aloud, reading over the important ones. Her wand rested next to her, opposite of Miss Mesa.

Alex flipped the page, the gust of wind causes the candles to quiver before returning to their melting dance.

Alex brushed her fingers across the spells, skimming over them. She lightly taps the page once she reaches a spell to help her center more, to connect herself more to nature.

Alex took a deep breath, breathing in for 4 seconds, and out for another 4, relaxing as she shut her eyes, her brain repeating the chant as to not forget it.

She focused on her inner energy, bringing it slowly inwards to her center. She felt it tingle as she breathed, then began to utter the chant while visualizing herself breathing good energy and releasing the bad energy.

"By the Elements of Universal Light, I call to thee to give me your might. Open all doors and watch over me. I trust in your aid, so mote it be." She whispered under her breath, she could feel the energy bubble inside her as it was replaced with goodness.

And then the candles burned out, one by one. Alex smiled to herself, closing her book and hiding it along with her wand. She stashed the candles inside a bag that she promptly put on her desk, she stood up and glanced outside at the moon.

"Huh, a full moon is tomorrow..." she mumbled to herself, Miss Mesa meowed in response, causing Alex to snap away from the glimmering stone from high above. She smiled, "Yeah, you're right. I really do need to go to sleep."

She took off her cloak and hung it up on a coat hanger, she crawled into bed, Miss Mesa following her and snuggling up against her. Alex snuggled into the warm bed and yawned, looking over at her loyal familiar. "Good night, Miss Mesa..."

Alex didn't know why, but she felt some extremely bad energy coming from the next day. She didn't want to believe it, but perhaps it's why she felt like centering for the first time in years.

She hoped she was wrong.

But unfortunately to her, the gut feeling was correct as she'd later discover.

The routine started out normally, Alex got up and got dressed, tying her cloak on and heading to the washroom after greeting her best friends. She didn't run into Zach that day, and for some reason she felt a little sad about that.

Alex worked on laundry, stirring, scrubbing, wringing out, grating, just the usual. Today she overheard two girls who worked beside her whispering to each other about gossip, but one specific sentence caught all of Alex's attention once one of the girls questions that other, "Did you hear they're burning some of the witches today?"

Alex froze, she eavesdropped in on the conversation, stopping almost everything she was doing in that very moment to know more.

"Yeah, I mean, they deserve it after all. Who knows what kind of evil they were practicing together," the other utters, filling Alex with rage.

She's had to explain countless times, magic is not good nor evil. There's no such thing as white magic and black magic. Magic is a lot like a knife, actually.

A knife is a thing that's mostly associated with evil, bad things, like stabbing and murder, but a knife on its own is neutral. It depends on it's user's actions to determine it's morality, even then, it's not the knife that's evil, it's the person.

The same thing applies to magic.

Alex wishes that people could just understand that.

"From what I've seen, they aren't like how I was taught witches looked like," another girl joins into the gossiping, "they don't have pointy hats, a pointy nose, warts, or green skin. They look just like us."

"That's the point," the first girl snaps back, "If they looked like a witch everyone would know. Of course they'd disguise themselves to look normal."

The girl shrugs, looking thoughtfully into her wash bin before replying, "If they don't look like stereotypical witches, why do we think they act like a stereotypical witch?"

Alex smiled at those words. She was glad that someone understood and was questioning the morality of this. That didn't last long though.

The second girl walks away from her bin and comes up to the third, "Why are you defending witches? They're evil, I bet that you're a witch yourself!" She accuses, causing the third girl to throw up her arms in defense, "No no! Not at all! I'm just suggesting that they might not be all that bad, I mean, they've never killed a person before!"

"That's what they want you to think! They're evil, every single one of them is evil, don't you get it?!"

"I just want to question what we've been taught since birth!"

"Why?! I bet you're a witch! Liana, get a guard, throw this girl in with the other witches!"

"No I-!"

"Wait!" Alex interrupted their argument, "she's not a witch, it's always good to question things." She defends, sternly. The three look at her with a mix of shock and confusion.

"How do you know?" The first girl asks, crossing her arms. "I was kidnapped by witches, remember?" Alex lies, of course it was the lie that helped her get out of being imprisoned, however it might come to her advantage here. "She was never at the meetings, and she has never been caught with a wand, not even a twig. Just get back to working, or else." Alex explained, while it was all true, it was hard to dance around outing herself.

"Or else what?" One sassed.

Alex smiled a sickeningly sweet smile as she continued to wash the clothes, "I'll tell the princes about your lies and refusal to work." That shut the girls up real quick.

Alex left the room with a basket of wet clothes, taking them downstairs to the garden. She wasn't looking and, once again, bumped into Zach. Neither of them fell, it was more of a light shove on both ends.

"Oh, hello there Alex," Zach greets with a smile, Alex smiles in return, saying a little 'hi' in return. The two talked for a moment, laughing and joking. Alex enjoyed spending time with Zach.

"Oh, by the way," Zach began, "the witches that kidnapped you, we're burning them tonight."

Horror sunk in Alex's core. She kept up a little smilie despite the dread sinking into her. She hoped he wouldn't ask what she was thinking he'd ask.

"I was wondering if you'd like to watch them being burned with me?" He asked it. A chill ran down Alex's spine, her voice stuck in her throat as she forced it out, muttering, "I would love to!"