Whispers of Willow

Chapter 55

Willow and Luke stood in his apartment in front of the guest bedroom door in anticipation. She had performed the spell, however, given her lack of experience, she was nervous to open the door.

"Do you want me to do it?" Luke asked.

"No," she said firmly before twisting the knob.

She pushed it open and they were greeted with the sight of a spare room that had junk stored in it. By the walls, they could tell that it was a wooden house.

"Did you do it right?" he asked. "Maybe you messed up the spell."

"I did not mess up the spell."

She walked inside the room and Luke followed. The room was small with only a window on the left wall that did not have any curtains. There were boxes kept on one side, two tables on top of each other, cloth bags placed in the space between the tables, and a cupboard in another corner. Whoever turned this into a storage room was still organized with it.

Willow closed the door through which they had entered and opened it again only to be met with the same view of Luke's apartment.

"Why didn't you ever go back to the house?" She asked referring to his old house in the woods.

Luke was taken aback by her question. He looked at the back of her head and followed her gaze to his apartment.

"I did, but the house was already taken over by a group of men. I knew I couldn't show them some papers and explain how the house belonged to me because they wouldn't understand so I just left it."

"How do people buy houses in your kingdom them?" she asked before closing the door and turning around to look at him, genuinely curious.

"The king owns everything. The houses are rented or assigned to everyone by one of the officials of the king."

"So you can never own anything?"

"No," he simply said looking out of the window at the night sky and street lights. "How are we getting out of here? We could jump. No...I'll land safely but you might break a leg, so let's not do that."

"Wait a second," she, too, looked out of the window and recognized the area.

The door opened with a thud. Luke and Willow's heads turned at the same time to see a startled Esmeray. She had a hand on her heart.

"I thought I heard voiced but I was like, that's impossible because I'm alone at home," she said looking at Willow. "What are you doing here?"

"We are...we are here...on royal business," Willow replied unsure of how much to reveal. "I was trying to connect to one of the portals and happen to connect to this one."

"Wait...you are a witch? What kind—" She was interrupted.

"But if I could connect to this portal then that means...you're practicing magic?"

Esmeray grinned.

"Yes. I'll tell you all about it. Let's get out of this room first."

She led them to the stairs and walked down to the living room.

"We are freely allowed to practice magic again," she said excitedly. "There are no restrictions anymore and the priest occasionally teaches some of the difficult spells. He talks to us and helps if we have any difficulties."

Willow felt the contagiousness of her happiness and her lip curled slightly upwards although she couldn't bring herself to a full smile. She couldn't stop wondering about the priest's actions and why he would change so drastically.