Oblivion

Now that Lucifer was gone, Frank and Julia finally had the time to sort things out between themselves. Frank looked at Julia with eyes that were puffy because he cried earlier. Julia stared right back at him. And being this close, they remembered the accidental kiss a few minutes ago. They both blushed and turned away.

Julia stood up and started collecting the books and papers squared around the room. Frank also got up to help. Looking at the queer books and documents on the floor and the strange ritual-circle like pattern, Frank asked after sometime, "What were you doing, by the way?"

"We were looking for a way to help Sir Nico move to the Southern Principality with his wife," Julia answered while placing all those books carefully into the hole of the floor which Frank had seen during noon. Now that Julia had opened it and he had a better look into it, it was actually a large magical room inside there.

"Why though?" Frank asked with curiosity.

Julia then explained to him what had happened in the afternoon. Listening to her, Frank looked down and asked, "But why are you helping a witch? Don't people hate witches? They are like, really evil."

"Witches aren't evil, Frank. And it's not like people hunt them because they hate them, they do it because our empire rewards witch-hunters generously. But if you ask me, personally, I don't hate witches at all. I would have died before being born if it wasn't for the witch who blessed me in my mother's womb," Julia answered as she put the dog in the secret room of her floor and closed the gate.

"Oh right, you said I was like you, blessed by a witch. Who was the witch who blessed you? And what is being blessed by a witch anyway?" Frank sat down on the white carpet in the middle of the room while waiting for an answer.

Julia sat on her bed and looked up at ceiling and said, "My brother said that the witch who blessed me was a very good friend of his. She was also his childhood friend. We used live in Singrad before it was destroyed. Have you heard of the Great White witch of the Singrad forest?"

"Yes. I heard she is so strong that even other witches are wary of her and nobody dares to enter her territory of the Singrad forest. The one who froze the whole Singrad in black ice. Wait… you're not saying that the one who blessed you was…."

"Right. I was blessed by the great white witch. She blessed me on my brother's request. My brother believes that the massacre of Singrad ten years ago wasn't the white witch's fault. That's why he had been looking for her ever since we left Singrad."

"But is it alright for you to tell me all this?" Frank asked looking at Julia with his jewel like blue eyes.

"It's alright if it's you. Because you're also like me. Though your case is a little peculiar. A witch's blessing gives the one blessed a fraction of abilities of the witch but it also ties the person with an absolute loyalty towards her. One of the reasons why I can't bring myself to hate witches. So, mostly, witches only bless people who they wish to make their subordinates. And that is, if the person blessed is a normal human," Julia said looking back down at Frank from the ceiling.

Frank just stared at her with a questioning face.

"The loyalty condition of the witches' blessings doesn't work if the receiver is a healer. That means even if the healer took a fraction of the witch's power, he still won't be obliged to obey her and can even use those powers against her. And witches and healers don't get along that well. So, there has hardly been any cases where a witch has blessed a healer. Maybe that's why your orphanage didn't know your condition," Julia said.

"Why don't they get along? Witches and healers?" Frank asked.

"Well, it's just a sort of natural repulsion they feel toward each other. They just get annoyed at the sight of each other. It could be related to how healers present God's power and witches don't. Though they don't obey God, but witches don't worship the devil either. That's something Sorcerers do. Witches are more like atheists."

As they were talking, the clock in the hallway struck and they knew it was now midnight. Frank stood up and said, "I think I should leave. Brother will punish if he found out I came here."

Julia stood up and said, "Oh, then let me walk you to the house."

"Huh? It's alright….," before Frank could say what he wanted to, Julia was already climbing down the window stairs.

Frank smiled to himself and followed behind her.

"But Lucifer, why does he go around looking like that? I mean like a girl," Frank asked as they were now walking through the garden to reach Raymond's house behind the mansion.

"Lucifer has his circumstances. He does it to hide his identity. He never told me what these circumstances are. He does his job well so I don't pry any more unnecessarily either."

"What does he do?"

"He's an architect. He makes magical artifacts. You saw the secret room below the floor and the necklace which changed him into a girl, he made them himself. His artifacts are a big help to the Secrets' Bureau and he works hard on making them better."

"So, he wasn't just good at bossing around, huh."

Julia giggled as Frank whined about how scary Lucifer was.

Now that they had reached the house, it was time to separate. Frank was feeling so good that day because of how Julia had accepted him when everybody else called him strange. The fact that his condition wasn't something like a monster was also a great news for him as all his life he had feared that he was the one who was different from people. Well, he was indeed a little different, but it wasn't something that hadn't happened to someone before.

He turned to Julia and smiled.

"Good night," Frank said.

"Good night," Julia smiled back at him and he went inside. Julia stood there for some time as she watched him go inside. Then suddenly, a thought passed through her brain. Frank could see people's emotions as lights. That meant did he knew about how she felt for him. Anxious and flustered, she raced back to her room.

Lloyd was sitting in his large chair behind his large table in his study. That chair was custom made on his order because he wanted it bigger than what it originally was. First, it was to intimidate those who entered his study to meet him. Second reason was somewhat more personal. He didn't want to sit in that chair alone. He was waiting for the one who would share that large seat with him; only to be disappointed.

"To think she went as far as using Oblivion," he mumbled as he fondled with the letter in his drawer.

It wasn't exactly easy to trick Lucas Murray into sending Hannah over to the Shuzar estate. Lloyd went through great pains just to locate Lucas. So far, he had known her, Hannah only trusted one person, Lucas Murray. He had to convince Raymond to widen the area of advertisement for the governess covering even the Southern principality. He had to be careful so that Raymond wouldn't get suspicious. Attracting Lucas' attention after locating him, so that it natural wasn't easy either. Revealing Hannah identity as a witch to that old woman in that village was also a risky move.

Ten years' worth of search and all that careful planning for bringing her to his estate, all for what? Just to find out that she didn't even remember him.

Hannah… No, that wasn't her name. Ilea… Jennifer Ilea was her real name. Jenny.

Lloyd gritted his teeth as he crushed the letter in his hand. How foolishly happy he had been when he received that letter. How stupidly excited he was when Raymond brought her to his study for the first time. How idiotically delighted he was when he wasn't even remembered.

A witch's Oblivion cannot be broken. No one can do that. But Lloyd still clung to the possibility he had. Even if he had to go through the humiliation of asking help from an enemy for that.

Count Karnov Sebastian. Or Nova, as he called him when they were in the academy. They weren't as hostile to each other then as they were now. They were good friends back in the academy. But then Karnov did something. He became a sorcerer.

Lloyd groaned as he looked at the orb on his table. It was a communication orb. It gleamed at the little coming from moon through the window.

Suddenly, the orb glowed up and a voice could be heard. A husky and arrogant voice. Lloyd's brows tightened as he heard that voice.

"Long time no see, Lloyd. Still alive, I see," the husky voice said sarcastically.

"Still as arrogant as ever, Nova," Lloyd said bitterly.

"So, to what do I owe a letter from the great Marquis Shuzar?"

"I need your help with something."

"My, my, the world must be ending for the great Lloyd Shuzar to need my help. Or did that emperor father of yours finally called you to palace, Prince Lloyd Evanlite? Want me to assassinate him for you?"

"I just need to ask you something."

"Finally interested in sorcery, I see."

"No, it isn't that. Tell me how to break a witch's Oblivion."

Karnov didn't answer for some time. The silence made Lloyd anxious. If Karnov didn't know a way, Lloyd had no other means to find out.

"You found her, didn't you? The witch you were looking for."

Lloyd froze as he heard Karnov say those words. He had told Karnov about how he was finding his childhood friend, but never once he mentioned her being a witch.

'Did he just guess from the vague things I told him?' Lloyd pondered. 'Well, this guy always had a monstrous sense. Its no surprise he figured it out.'

"Why do you ask?" Lloyd asked.

"Well, just because. I do know a way to break Oblivion though."

"What is it?!?" Lloyd gasped. He made a mistake. He sounded too desperate.

He heard Karnov chuckle.

"But the condition is that I'll tell you that face to face. I'll pay a visit to you," Karnov said. "And take this chance to introduce me to that witch of yours."

And before Lloyd could say anything in retaliation, Karnov disconnected the orb.

Lloyd pressed his lips and threw the orb at the wall, breaking it into pieces.

'He wants to see Jenny. No, her mana core to be more exact,' Lloyd thought. 'No, those two shall meet by no means. He'll know right away that she's not a normal witch. And with that monstrous sense of his, it won't take him long to realize her real identity.'

Lloyd hurriedly went and gathered the broken pieces of the orb. If Raymond knew he destroyed another communication orb, he wouldn't let him off easily.

Throwing away the pieces safely (translation: secretly), Lloyd went back to his room for some sleep. But it was good past midnight, so he didn't know if he would get any.