The Witch's Cursed Daughter

108. A Message From The Myrde

Evianna looked out to a speck of light hovering in the distance in the darkness. It shone so brightly that it could be seen from anywhere. Placing one foot in front of the other, Evianna walked and walked, determined to meet the light but never growing closer. A pang of hunger grew inside her, desperate to hold and devour the light. She quickened her pace, breaking into a run, bursting forward, yet her feet sunk into the blackness with marsh-like resistance. Unable to break free of the suction pulling her down, Evianna relaxed into the depths, accustomed to the futility of defiance.

Coolness traced her skin, the hairs down her back static against her nightdress. As she drifted through the nothingness, the brightness blinded her instantly before personifying before her. A large, brilliant white bird, in its true form, stood in front of her, wings spread. The sheer sizes of its feathers were longer than she was tall. Blinking its huge violet eyes at Evianna's, they watched each other, waiting and discerning the next move.

"The one whose power you have stolen has passed," the Myrde hissed angrily.

Evianna shielded her eyes from the bird as it pulsed emotionally, "Who?"

"My power was not meant for you, yet you have fully assimilated with me," it continued with ferocious intensity, "Now, neither one of us may be free from the other."

"What do you mean?" Evianna asked, "Are you the Myrde's true form?"

A sound similar to a laugh trickled out of the Myrde's glowing beak, yet it seemed too eerie to truly represent amusement. "Yes, this is the form I embody when my power is released at its maximum capacity. Few have been able to do so without being devoured," the creature jeered.

Hesitating under the gaze of the Myrde, considering her next words, Evianna questioned, "Why do you dwell within me?"

"Because you are a Witch."

Evianna froze as an image of Coretta Cabot entered her mind. "Like my mother?"

"Stronger, yet undeserving."

"What do I do?"

"You must resist my power; it is now yours and it will fight to consume you every moment, no matter whether you are awake or asleep."

"How do I resist?"

"I cannot say, not a single being with my power has endured the condition," the luminous beast answered nonchalantly.

Frustrated by the Myrde's blatant anger and unwillingness to assist her, Evianna probed, "How will I know if I am being controlled?"

"It is possible you will not realise. You will only evolve and develop into someone or something you never were before," the Myrde retorted.

"Will you help me?"

"I cannot. Look to the others like you, though there is little they can do for you since they are true receivers and you stole what should not belong to you." As the Myrde finished speaking, it closed its eyes and began to glow brighter, blinding Evianna with the sheer power of light emanating from the creature.

"What is a true receiver?" Evianna cried out, but there was no reply, only light, "Myrde!"

Evianna woke with a start. A puddle of tepid sweat outlined the sheets beneath her body, the scent scaring away that of flowers. The sound of the quiet night was a comforting solace, having faced the terror of Myrde's words. Since waking from her four years of anguish, Evianna had the fate of a Witch thrust upon her and the revelation that the Myrde would accompany her as she tried to resist a doom she had no choice in accepting.

Clambering across the vast bed, gripping one of the large wooden pillars to help her descend onto the fur rug on the floor, Evianna's legs shook under a weight they had not carried in a long time. Lowering herself to the ground, she looked out at the moon. Tugging down one on the pillows from above her, she reconstructed the make-shift bed she laid in the first night she spent in Lupine Palace. With the moon's consoling glow soothing her mind and body to rest, Evianna lay down her head, eyes wide, afraid of returning to the presence of the Myrde.