Delphine the Witch I

Olivia was currently speechless.

When on earth had her hair suddenly changed colours?!

She looked around the room and managed to find one of Silas' utensils, using its reflective surface to take a proper look at herself. What she saw almost made her faint. Not only had her hair undergone an immense change, her eye colour was not spared either. At the moment, looking back at her were a pair of deep, violet pupils.

Alexander stood at the side observing her, as she flustered about with her new image.

Once Olivia had enough of looking at herself, she turned around and said with worry, "What should I do?"

Alexander looked over to the side, staring at a beige looking rag, hanging off one of the hooks that was nailed on the wall. He then looked back at Olivia.

"You want me to use that?" Olivia pointed towards the direction he had just been looking at.

Alexander did not answer her question, apathetically saying, "Hurry up."

Olivia sighed, quickly tying the rag over her head and using it as a makeshift bonnet. Once she was all done, Alexander took the lead to finally leave the room after having been in there for a good two hours.

When he got to the door, however, he paused before he opened it, "Keep your head down and your eyes looking at the floor. Do not engage in any form of conversation," and then carried on walking through the building with the immensely obedient Olivia trailing behind.

Thankfully for her, Alexander had a presence that caused others to think twice before approaching him so they were unhindered on their way to the carriage.

Driving back towards the De Vere household, Olivia took it upon herself to quickly tell Alexander what she had seen.

"When I woke up again, the body I was occupying was nailed on to the wall," Olivia slightly shivered as her hand gently rubbed her own wrists.

Alexander didn't say anything. He continued to look out the window but Olivia was clear that his full attention was on her speech.

"There were more people other than the first man I saw. They all wore gold masks so I couldn't make out their features. All of them were taking turns… torturing the body," Olivia started to feel slightly uncomfortable as she began to recall the methods they had used.

She felt both her personal experience and what she had witnessed start to merge in her mind leaving her quite queasy.

Nonetheless she continued with her recount, "They kept on complaining about the body not being a pureblood vampire. They said that it was worthless to get a half-baked crystal core."

When she first heard the people in gold masks talk about pureblood vampires or crystal cores, Olivia was utterly confused and ignorant about what they were talking about. Thus once she informed Alexander, she looked up at him to observe his expression.

Sure enough, he turned his head to look at Olivia. Especially at the mention of crystal cores, she felt his entire aura undergo a change. A bone chilling one.

Olivia wanted to ask questions but seeing how he reacted, she felt it was best to keep them to herself.

"Anything else?" He questioned.

"No. Before they could say anything more, I had already returned to myself."

Although this seemed to be valuable information to him, Olivia was thankful that she hadn't stayed in her vision any longer.

During the rest of the journey, Alexander did not ask any further questions and Olivia did not say anything either.

Stepping back into the house, both of them went their separate ways, each going to their own bedrooms.

That night, Olivia had another nightmare. When she woke up from the dream in the early hours of the morning, she figured the vision she saw in Silas' room had triggered her into recalling her time with Glenn and Miran.

It was not the first time she had such a nightmare while staying in the De Vere household but the nightmare that night seemed to be particularly vivid and almost felt too realistic. It seemed the stimulation from her vision had roused the unpleasant memories that Olivia had desperately tried to lock up in her mind.

After calming down and getting her frenzied breathing back into control, she took her usual wash using Alexander's bathroom and followed him down to eat breakfast.

Once they were done eating, Alexander glanced at her and said, "Follow me."

Olivia thought they were going to the bureau as usual but once she saw that the direction he was walking in was not the way to the carriage, she became curious.

As she kept following him, they were soon stopped by someone.

"Brother, where are you going?" Rosina asked Alexander yet her eyes were glued on Olivia.

Alexander did not have time to be playful with her so he simply replied, "Move."

"Let me come along as well," Rosina haughtily ordered.

"If you don't want me to stake you to the wall like I did two years ago, your best decision would be to get out of my way," Alexander did not even wait for her to respond and walked around her.

Olivia looked at Rosina's face turning increasingly ugly before scurrying away and following Alexander. She definitely could not afford to provoke her wrath by standing around.

They soon reached a small inconspicuous door. Alexander stepped inside with Olivia promptly walking in behind. She found that there wasn't much in the room, a few tables and shelves with miscellaneous things placed on them.

She looked up at Alexander, confused as to why he led her here. Before she could quench her thirst for curiosity, he suddenly walked towards one of the shelves and pulled it open, revealing a hidden, dark and narrow passage.

Olivia was surprised at the sudden revelation and carried on tagging behind him. Walking through it, the passage was quite long and very dark. Olivia could hardly see what was in front of her and comforted herself with the noise of Alexander's footsteps.

A few seconds later, the passage started to widen out and the dim light Olivia saw began to become brighter and brighter as she continued to walk on.

Soon, Olivia noticed that they had entered what looked to be a room. She suddenly felt someone else's presence. She looked around before noticing another woman, standing in the corner.

Observing her closely, Olivia guessed that she was in her late 30's. She had small wrinkles starting to form in the corner of her eyes. Her hair was a healthy dark black and looking at her height from afar, she seemed to be slightly shorter than Olivia. She currently wore a plain black dress and was fiddling with some pieces of paper, muttering to herself in the silence.

Olivia had a small sinking feeling but did not dare to divulge deeply into it. She merely stood at a distance from the woman with Alexander standing at her side.

"Delphine," Alexander's deep voice echoed in the chamber, causing the woman to look up from what she was doing.

"I didn't think we'd have visitors," Delphine had an amicable smile on her face as she looked at the pair, her eyes lingering on Olivia for a few more seconds than necessary.

Olivia felt uncomfortable under her stare. In fact she didn't feel all to good when her eyes first landed on the woman. She seemed to of guessed the identity of the woman named Delphine, but at the same time she didn't want to know nor hear of it.

Alas, Alexander broke her expectations, introducing her in a swift and plain manner, "Delphine is the De Vere household's personal witch."

Olivia began to pale. She didn't want to meet another witch let alone be with them in a small confined space. Due to what she had gone through, she had managed to manifest an immense hatred and prejudice against witches.

Her hands formed into tight fists as her breathing soon became slightly laboured and hectic. Alarm bells rang in her mind as her body wanted nothing more but to run out of the vicinity.

Alexander picked up on her changes and understood what she was thinking but he did not allow her to leave.

He hesitated before talking to her in a low and quiet voice, "Do not fret. She is under the De Vere household and… I'm here too."

Olivia looked up at him, her eyes were slightly red as she tried to keep her emotions under a tight lid. Only she knew how repulsed and panic-stricken she felt just standing there as Delphine continued to stare at the pair.

"Nothing will happen to you," Alexander reiterated, staring into Olivia's eyes. Olivia looked back at him before turning away and taking a few deep breaths.

After a while, she followed Alexander in moving closer to the woman, leaving only a table to separate themselves from the witch.

"What can I provide for you?"

"She is a witch," Alexander stated in a certain and confident voice.

Olivia quickly whipped her head to the side, staring at Alexander incredulously. That was the one thing she didn't think Alexander would say. It was also the one thing she didn't want to hear from anyone. Olivia's hands tightened into an even smaller ball as they began to tremble slightly.

She wanted to refute his statement, to say that she definitely didn't have such a disgusting identity but she knew that she didn't know how else to explain everything that had been happening so she stood there silently as she clenched her teeth tightly.

"And what makes you say that?" Delphine continued to watch the pair in amusement, her smile never slipping off her face.

Alexander didn't look like he was going to respond so Olivia knew this was her own task. She took a short pause before mustering the courage to explain what she had experienced over the last few days.

Once she finished, Delphine's face no longer had the same amicable smile but was struck with austere and seriousness.

"What do you think?" Alexander asked once he noticed her change in expression.

Delphine didn't reply, walking off to the corner to fetch something before returning back to them. She placed a dusty parchment on the table and slowly unravelled it. Olivia could not see anything on the parchment. Delphine then placed a crystal ball on top of the parchment.

She looked up at Olivia before stretching out to her, "Hand."

Olivia looked up at Alexander to only see him stare back at her. She truly didn't want to do what the witch said but she felt that Alexander would force her regardless. Another thing was, deep down, she too wanted confirmation on what was happening to her.

Some time after, she came to a decision and slowly placed her hand over. Delphine quickly latched on to her palm. She suddenly picked up a dagger from nearby and cut a slit on the edge of Olivia's hand, allowing for the blood to be absorbed into the crystal. Olivia had already wanted to hurriedly retract her arm by the time she caught sight of the dagger but the deed was already done.

Instead, it was Alexander who swiftly took her hand. He lifted her palm and quickly tied a handkerchief around it before promptly dropping her hand. Olivia knew that this was not a heartfelt gesture but an attempt to hide her already closing wound.

Olivia turned back and paid attention to Delphine, just in time to see the crystal ball glow an eerie blue. Soon, the ball stopped glowing and Delphine took her hand off while opening her eyes. Alexander waited for an explanation while Olivia stood with bated breath.

"You are not a witch," Delphine informed the pair.

Olivia felt as if a huge weight had just been lifted off her shoulders and her face slowly returned to its normal colour. Her hands were slightly sweaty so she started to rub them against her dress. Alexander, on the other hand, was very confused.

"If not, what is she?"

Delphine had a friendly smile on her face once again, except this time, she seemed to be increasingly more enthusiastic towards Olivia, which in turn, made Olivia feel very discomforted and distressed.

"She's a Talented One."