Tempest

18 : Sins of the Past

Complete silence filled the room as everybody present digested what had just been said. 

"We were sisters in the Dark Druids,” Aida said. Her face was drawn into a dark scowl and Samual reached out and held her hand in his. She gave him a small smile before she continued. “We tried to convince Noah to give up on his crusade but it was to no avail. He became obsessed with finding a way to achieve his endgame, wanting a way that would leave all supernatural creatures dead. It took him centuries of trying different ways, all of which seemed to fail. 

“The 904 disappearance of the Mermaids, that was him. He came up with a poison meant to eradicate all aquatic supernatural creatures. We lost a lot of Mermaids at that time but the Nymphs were able to come up with a cure and saved a large number of them. They went into hiding, however, and have rarely been seen since then. The Trolls were next in 1011. He found a supernatural who was a telepath. Noah somehow amplified his powers and caused a civil war by planting false memories in them, causing them to attack each other. Again almost wiping out the entire Troll tribes. 1123 he had an army that attacked the smaller were communities, causing them to scatter and, apparently capturing some for his experiments. And so it went on. 

“By the time Faleya and I left, we had given up on him ever getting him to change his mind. Every council member who ever went against him found ways of disappearing. Faleya and I stayed ahead of him because of her ability to see certain elements of the future. He came after us but we were able to thwart most of his plans. Except the day that he got a powerful witch to block our powers. That was the day the Dark Druids were torn in half. We fought amongst ourselves and those of us who were against him were pushed back, forced to go on the run.”
Aida took a deep breath and her lips quivered a bit before she raised her head and fell silent. Faleya took up the story.

“There were five of us who made it out that day. We swore to never return but we made a pact that should Noah ever be successful in his mad crusade, we would come back to fight him. We all had certain powers, and amongst us was a wizard who could amplify our powers. We cast protection and concealment spells and made a commitment that should one of us ever have evidence that Noah had succeeded, we would come out of hiding to confront him. We scattered to all corners of the world and lived our separate lives. 

“It seems that while we were in hiding, Noah was busy. What Tempest has told us makes it very apparent that he is very close to achieving his goal. And from what she tells us, this will be worse than everything we have seen so far.”
There was silence in the room after the two women finished their narration.

"I don't understand something," Tempest said, breaking the silence. "Are Dark Druids not supernatural beings? And if this Noah's plan is to get rid of all other supers, would that not make them the most powerful creatures left in the world?"

Aida sighed as she nodded slowly. "The Dark Druids are a combination of beings with special powers. As mentioned before, they started off as recorders of events but as decades passed, they found ways to bring gifted beings into the fold. They harnessed magic and used it to enhance the once human Druids, allowing them to live for centuries. In other cases, they recruited supernaturals like Faleya and myself to fortify the existing members, patching up the spaces that they could not fill. Anyone can learn to do magic or cast a spell, but being a full blown witch or otherwise naturally gifted being, that trumps any learnt ability."

"What Aida is saying," Faleya said after taking a deep breath, "Is that Noah and the team he has is as formidable as they sound. And now, with the experiments that he has clearly been undertaking on the weres he has captured,  he may be unstoppable."

“The other three,” Galan asked, “How quickly can we find them? Ask them to help?”

A small smile graced Faleya’s lips. “They can be contacted immediately.”