Very long time ago

The next day.

Katarina watched Maddie who was busy sparring with Matt as she could sense some bad emotions.

"What is wrong with Maddie? She seems upset" said Katarina as she walked to Annie who looked at her.

"Well Maddie is upset with us because of Ollie, I guess that she's also upset with him as well" said Annie as she replied and she looked at Katarina as she sighed.

"And why is that?" asked Katarina.

"It's actually something very silly, I asked her not to be upset, but she's not listening to me" said Annie as she sighed.

"I noticed that she truly does not like Ollie, why is that?" asked Katarina.

"I don't know why, none of us do" said Annie.

"Hmm" said Katarina as she could sense something that Annie was not telling her, but she would let it go, it wasn't important to know anything that was not really essential, after all, everyone was entitled to have their own secrets.

"Annie, I want to ask you something very important, and I hope that you will reply me honestly" said Katarina.

"Sure…" said Annie with a smile as she was panicking on the inside, she did not know if Katarina knew something about her, or if Griselda told Katarina everything, she could not help but feel panicked since Katarina asked her to reply honestly.

"Do you know Alina?" asked Katarina as Annie was surprised that Katarina asked her about Alina she was taken off guard, here she was thinking that Katarina was going to ask her something about herself.

"Oh… yes I do" said Annie as she sighed in relief.

"Who is she?" asked Katarina.

"Oh she's the baby that Ivor found in the forest one night, and he took her in and raised her, she calls him Master because he taught her everything that she knows" said Annie.

"I see" said Katarina.

"And how old is she?" asked Katarina.

"I think she's about Maddie's age, 17" said Annie as she replied.

"So Ivor has raised her for 17 years?" asked Katarina as Annie nodded.

"Yes he did" said Annie.

"And Alina… how Is she? I mean how does she act?" asked Katarina.

"Well she is very nice… and she's also very sweet and funny, she has a good character, and she is less serious than Ivor is" said Annie.

"Alright, thank you" said Katarina.

"You are welcome Katarina" said Annie as she smiled.

"If you don't mind me asking, you and Ivor were friends right?" asked Annie.

"Well yes, but that was a very long time ago" said Katarina.

"Why did you guys stop being friends?" asked Annie.

"It's not that we truly stopped being friends, but we lost connection over the years" said Katarina.

"And you never went to go and visit him?" asked Annie.

"Well no, I am very busy here, and this is my home, while Ivor, he had no home, he was always travelling from one place to the next, adventuring from one part of Caligo to another, he did not want to stay here, so I thought that he was still an adventurer like he always was" said Katarina.

"I don't know, but I think that he stopped adventuring when he found Alina, they live in one of the colonies as well" said Annie.

"I see…" said Katarina as Annie just looked at her.

"What?" asked Katarina.

"Why don't you go and see Ivor one of these days?" asked Annie.

"It would be good for you both to see each other again" said Annie.

"Did he say that?" asked Katarina.

"No, he didn't tell me about you, but I assume that he told Curtis" said Annie.

"Oh well I am too busy to go anywhere right now" said Katarina.

"Okay" said Annie as she smiled.

"Yes…" said Katarina as she sighed internally.

"Anyway, thank you for answering all my questions" said Katarina as Annie smiled at her.

"You are welcome" said Annie as she smiled and Katarina walked away to where Maddie was.

"Maddie after training you clean the swords" said Katarina as Maddie looked at her.

"Well okay, even though we don't even use the swords, but fine, I got it" said Maddie as Katarina just looked at her.

"You are more annoying when you are upset" said Katarina.

"And you like to make me annoyed" said Maddie as Katarina just smiled.

"Why are you upset?" asked Katarina.

"You don't want to know, let's just say that I hate traitors, and I also hate those who think that they are better than everyone" said Maddie as she looked in Ollie's direction and she looked back at Katarina.

"Well it is better to live in peace with people than to be enemies with them" said Katarina.

"I did not know that you were a philosopher" said Maddie.

"But, there are just some people that you cannot stand, and you don't need to be friendly to everyone, you only get bugs as so called friends" said Maddie.

"Hmm whatever you say, just remember to clean the swords after training" said Katarina.

"You don't have to worry, I won't forget" said Maddie as Katarina walked away.

…

"Annie, I have been thinking about what you told us, and also about what Griselda said" said Ollie as he looked at Annie.

"Yes" said Annie as she and Matt looked at him.

"I think it would be a good idea for you to learn how to do a cleansing" said Ollie.

"Right Curtis?" asked Ollie as he looked at Curtis.

"I agree with Ollie, he is right, cleansing is a skill that is very essential, whether you use it or not" said Curtis as Annie looked at him.

"I mean… I don't know" said Annie.

"Doesn't cleansing require magic?" asked Annie.

"Well not necessarily, magic can enhance the cleansing effects and the time it takes to perform a cleansing" said Ollie.

"That's interesting, so you mean that cleansing isn't necessarily magic dependent?" asked Matt as he looked at Ollie.

"No, not at all, even other beings can learn cleansing, whether they are humans, vampires or werewolves, it's that simple" said Ollie.

"It sounds nice and all, but I don't really know, Curtis what do you think?" asked Annie as she looked at Curtis.

"The fundamentals of being a good witch does not only rely on how many spells you know, or how powerful you are, but other components such as being independent on your magic, I think that the more less magic skills that you learn, the better you will use them when you have your magic back" said Curtis.

"I agree with Curtis" said Ollie.

"Well I still don't know, Ollie you seem like you want to learn how to do a cleansing, how about you do it?" asked Annie.

"I can't witch law prohibits royal family members from getting involved with the old ways of doing magic, an exception only in the old tongue" said Ollie.

"Wait really??" asked Matt in surprise as he looked at Ollie and Ollie nodded.

"But why is that?" asked Annie.

"I don't know, It's an underlying law, I never asked why it was so" said Ollie.

"Weird" said Matt.

"So what do you say Annie?" asked Ollie as he smiled and Annie looked Matt.

"I mean it would be a good idea to acquire more skills like Curtis said" said Matt as he smiled.

"Oh well okay" said Annie as she smiled.

"Awesome, when you ask Griselda to teach you, please tell me how she does it, I've always wanted to analyse the magic behind cleansing" said Ollie.

"Sure" said Annie as she laughed at him and they all laughed.

"Ollie, I forgot something of mine back at the training ground, can you go and get it for me?" asked Katarina as she walked into the room that they were all in as Ollie looked at her.

"Oh sure, what is it?" asked Ollie as he smiled.

"it is a cloth that I use to clean my sword, it is red, I think that I dropped it on the ground somewhere" said Katarina.

"Alright, I will be right back" said Ollie as he smiled.

"Thank you Ollie" said Katarina as Ollie smiled at her and he walked out of the room and out the kitchen door.

"Katarina, you do know that Maddie is still at the training ground?" asked Matt as he looked at Katarina.

"Yes I know" said Katarina as she smiled.

"You did that on purpose didn't you?" asked Curtis as he looked at Katarina and she just smiled.

"I don't like it when people are fighting under my roof, they can do it outside" said Katarina as she smiled.

"Should we be worried?" asked Annie.

"I doubt it, Ollie won't hurt Maddie, and she will have some common sense, they will both be fine" said Katarina as she smiled and Annie was skeptical, she did not want Maddie to end up killing Ollie.

"Relax, they should settle their differences together" said Katarina with a smile.