The Cursed Gift | B1 [EDITING]

12 | Learn Your Foes

When Alisa had been rather young, things seemed simplistic and peaceful. War was a word only used in the history books, stories for the purpose of scaring the new witches into being obedient little workers.

But as the young grew, old fables were pushed aside and forgotten about.

However, some tales were harder to forget than others.

Centuries of generations of witch folk spoke of the hatred among the beasts and the chaos they created around them. It stemmed from the imbalance of their nature; the beasts within the men.

Yet not a soul spoke of the cruelty that lay beneath the facade of the elders and their perspective of the old stories.

Stories twisted to benefit the ones who tell them - lies planted perfectly to manipulate every generation that would follow to ensure they would always find a reason to fight.

Each side had their own versions of what really happened in the old Great War yet only one species told it as it really was; the greatest devastation to befall all kinds.

Confusion and deceit hung in the air as memories of a simpler time came rushing back. A time when she didn't know better nor sought to know it.

She had been young and naive, quick to believe the words spoken to her because she never expected lies to be one of their greatest acts.

However, Ryder's ancient pack texts benefited no soul; showing the darker sides of all species, even the naturals. That each species had the potential to be cruel and heartless, yet also the possibility to be better.

"What do these texts have to do with them?"

She carefully probed her friend, trying to understand the truth that lay bare but she dare not speak their names out of fear.

"The witches banned any form of defamation from the moment territory lines became permanent," he began, clicking his tongue across the roof of his mouth.

He had told this story to a fair few that were willing to lend an ear.

For not everybody understood why his family valued these texts so highly.

The terror was clear in his eyes - he feared what this knowledge could do in the wrong hands but he trusted Alisa despite the nagging voices inside of his head. She was one of them now and so she must know too.

If she wanted to prepare for a war, he could smell coming, then she needed all of the information he could give her.

Just like everybody else.

"But we still keep these texts to remind us that looks can be deceiving. Not everybody is a foe of ours, while on the other hand, not everybody is a friend either."

Alisa's fingers brushed lightly over the old book, seeing new truths that she had never noticed before the night she had shifted.

The look inside of a witch's eyes; hollow and cruel.

"We as a species fight for our family, but I am yet to understand what they fight for. These texts are still only told by one of us, and even then, we were still in the dark about what they were fighting us for. There are more questions written than answers, unfortunately."

Ryder explained, unsure of what motivated their species for war.

"I read somewhere," she murmured, closing her eyes as a rock appeared inside of her mind.

A long-forgotten memory that begged itself to the surface.

Her mother, Asha, had showed her this particular rock, the summer before she had turned into the enemy itself, as an introduction to their kind.