Are witches bad?

Jennifer stared down into the abyss before her. It was so wide she couldn't see the other end. The depth was enclosed in pitch blackness. She did not know what was there. She didn't want to know either.

She turned back and decided to leave. What there was had nothing to do with her anymore. The resolution, a blind resolution to be precise, to keep the oblivion intact was deeply engraved in a witch's heart.

That was also why there had never been a case of a witch's oblivion being removed. To the point, it was considered a near-impossible occurrence.

But Jennifer was different. Her magic made it harder to her to establish a proper oblivion.

Black Ice. The magic of the dead's cold. That's what people called it. It had been by far one of the most feared of witchcraft that ever existed in the history of the world.

It wasn't magic that froze people or the things it was applied to. Black Ice was called Dead's Cold because it represented the stillness and coldness of death. Black Ice stopped the time for the thing it was applied to. Whether it was people, objects, or places, Black Ice locked them at the moment they were. Forever.

Nothing could destroy Black Ice. Once stopped, the flow of time never resumed. That was also why Singrad could never be inhabited again after her berserk rampage there ten years ago.

But Black Ice was also the main hindrance for Jennifer. So far, witches born with the magic of Black Ice never crossed the age of five.

There was a good reason why. Fiddling with the flow of time is a very hazardous magic. For every moment that was stopped, something needed to fill in.

The flow of time defined the chaos that the world drew its energy from. If the time for something stopped, something else needed to fill in the void caused in the chaos. That something else was the witch's mind.

They say the human mind is an incredibly chaotic existence. It processes millions of thoughts every day.

Every time a witch used the Black Ice, her mind was thrown into a state of emotional chaos several times stronger than that of a normal human.

It was like a death penalty to a witch.

"Papa, what's a witch?" little Jennifer asked her father. Her father also had white hair and jewel-like blue eyes, just like her.

Agnito smiled and said," They are people born with magic powers."

"I want to be a witch too!" Jennifer shouted, giggling.

For a second there, Agnito looked a little shocked, but then regaining his smile, he told her," You can become a mage when you grow up. Nothing good comes out of being born as a witch."

"But Papa is a mage too!" Jennifer giggled as she ran around the house and finally out of the door that led to the yard. "I wanna be a witch!!!"

Her mother was drying the laundry outside. Her mother could be called a beautiful lady, an ordinarily beautiful woman. But as soon as she heard Jennifer shouting, she ran and dragged her back into the house.

A slap right across the face, it was the first time Jennifer had experienced something like that. Her mother looked at her as if she had seen a ghost. Her father came and took her into his arms immediately.

"Agatha! For god's sake, she's a child!" he yelled at the mother.

"Never again! Hear me, Ito! Never again do I want this child to even think about witches!!!" Agatha said with eyes full of hatred and disgust. "I don't want her to do anything with those wretched beings!!!"

In the silence of the house that followed her words, Agatha could feel and see how much she hurt Agnito.

Jennifer didn't know better as a child she was. But her father's face which she saw as he heard his wife call witches wretches creatures, was nothing but a face that was just heartbroken.

Jennifer closed her eyes and looked back at the abyss. This short incident was one of the memories that she kept out of oblivion. Its sole purpose was to remind her how cruel love could be for a witch.

Sylvia. The name rang through her mind again.

She felt chills and tremors in her body. Her feet moved without her will. And once again, she was at the edge of the abyss. She stared down.

"Are witches bad, Papa?" (Young Jennifer)

"They're neither good nor bad, Jenny. They're just people who can't show that they care." (Agnito)

"What if they show?" (Young Jennifer)

Agnito smiled and said," Why don't you find out?"

And he pushed Jennifer into the abyss.

As she fell, she saw the apparition of her father disappear. With a smile at that.

'Goddammit,' she cursed in her mind once and then closed her eyes as she fell in deeper and deeper.

The oblivion was broken.

Lady Fallon put the cup back on the table. She looked up straight at the man sitting in front of her. He adjusted the gold glasses over his eyes and smiled.

'I love him,' Lady Fallon told herself. 'I love him, dammit! I love him so much. I'm going to go mad!'

"How has it been in the court, Sir Scarlett?" she asked with a much more straight face than to be expected with what was going through her mind.

"The Marquis was supposed to return this morning, but he still hasn't come back yet," Raymond said with somewhat bitterness in his mouth.

Though Raymond thought it was better he didn't come last night. Part of it was because of their fight and the majority was because of the governess.

They found her collapsed on the staircase this morning. She hadn't regained consciousness yet. It didn't seen like she would in any near time.

Having the Marquis there at times like this would only hinder his work and the governess' treatment. He sighed as he thought over it again.

"Have you two fought?" Constance asked with her fan covering her mouth.

"Is it that obvious?" Raymond asked, a little embarrassed.

"You look like you're about to cry," Constance flipped. Well, it wasn't exactly pleasant to see the man she loved crying over his friend.

"Haha, it's not that bad," Raymond said. "It's just that the time we've been together is quite long. So it sometimes hurts when he hides things from me that I should know."

'If the Marquis was a girl, oh god how cruelly I would murder him,' Constance pondered as she picked up the cup again and sipped some tea.

"The Marquis is a cunning and arrogant man. I'm much more surprised how you manage to put up with him without a fight, actually," Constance remarked with a sour face. "I've offered you to work for me so many times with much better terms than the Marquis if only you'd accept."

"I don't wish to leave the Shuzar estate, my lady. So I can only offer my deepest apologies," Raymond said.

Constance pressed her lips in disappointment. What did the godforsaken Marquis have that she didn't? It always was the cause of her constant truffle with the Marquis with how much loyal Raymond was to him. Did he save his life or something?

But this wasn't the time to be sour over the 'already-happened's. She smiled and said," Well, an apology would only do me much benefit. How about you give me your time the day after tomorrow instead of that?"

"I don't see why you feel that would be better. But, whatever you wish, my lady," Raymond replied.

It was the golden moment. Constance had decided to confess and finally steal Raymond away from Lloyd that day. Her happiness could be seen through her bright smile.